Be glad

In the midst of all his sufferings, David cried out, “Let the righteous be glad: let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. Sing unto God, sing praises to his name” (Psalm 68:3-4).
We are told to exceedingly rejoice and be glad in times of suffering and affliction. Peter said to those in the midst of heavy trials, “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1Peter 4:12-13).

Stories

Many people know the stories of the Bible but don’t understand what it is trying to say.

Gratitude

We ask of our family, friends and church that if we commit to them we are guaranteed love and good times. The world doesn’t give Guarantees or even Warrantees why expect more from those you are close to. I can guarantee you only difficult times and trials if you follow Jesus; no one is exempt. However, at the end of all this I can guarantee you a feeling of gratitude and knowing what you have with in you is worth it all.

Distrations

According to a CNN article, Major Regina Winchester, of the U.S. Strategic Command, said: "Space is getting pretty crowded.” She guestimates that there are about 18,000 manmade objects orbiting Earth.
Eighteen thousand seem like an insignificant amount when compared it to trillions of heavenly bodies out there in space. The amount of noise we’re living with is exploding. There’s a rapid increase, but we’re not noticing it because it’s happening a little bit at a time. If it were suddenly turned off and we were transported to a three network universe, a world with three car companies, four radio stations, Supper Suds and lye soap and five newspapers, you would go crazy looking for something to distract you. Just because you are used to the noise, though, doesn’t mean its not there.
Maybe life would be more simply and we would have more time connecting to “Our Father who art in Heaven.”According to a CNN article, Major Regina Winchester, of the U.S. Strategic Command, said: "Space is getting pretty crowded.” She guestimates that there are about 18,000 manmade objects orbiting Earth.
Eighteen thousand seem like an insignificant amount when compared it to trillions of heavenly bodies out there in space. The amount of noise we’re living with is exploding. There’s a rapid increase, but we’re not noticing it because it’s happening a little bit at a time. If it were suddenly turned off and we were transported to a three network universe, a world with three car companies, four radio stations, Supper Suds and lye soap and five newspapers, you would go crazy looking for something to distract you. Just because you are used to the noise, though, doesn’t mean its not there.
Maybe life would be more simply and we would have more time connecting to “Our Father who art in Heaven.”

Transformation

“I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death” (Phil 3:10).
Christians eagerly want to know Christ, His power, His resurrection, but the rest of the verse is the hardest to grasp. “We’ll follow Him, Joni Eareckson Tada says, “to the hillside where He turns a couple of fish and a few loves of bread into a lunch for thousands. We’ll attend a wedding where He turns water into wine. We’ll attend a wedding where He turns water into wine. We’ll follow Him to the beach, hug our knees, sit on the sand and adore His words. But nobody wants to know the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings. Yet that is where the power, the intimacy, the sweetness of knowing Him is. That is where change happens. We shouldn’t view life’s struggles as daunting obstacles to our happiness, true contentment, peace, and godly joy.”
In this time of suffering the grace that Jesus Christ pours out on us not only makes us right with God, it begins a process of transformation that will ultimately result in our saying, “Yes, Lord do the necessary work in me.” We will be shaped to the contours of God’s will.
This is what the reformers of the 16th Century meant when they said that God’s grace given through Jesus Christ both justified and sanctified.

Isn't true

As a dedicated Christian, if it doesn’t make sense it probably isn’t true.

Success

If success is good, more of it is better, then all of it is best.
Where are you going to stop? Because if you stop you’re going to break down your theology therefore you have to go for the whole world, you have to go for the whole ball of wax. That is where you go after it full throttle and success becomes your idol.
If this does not happen in reality and of course it often doesn’t, then much of this becomes a hot air balloon ascending nowhere.

Beware the color green

God wants us to learn to be satisfied with what we have been blessed with, not to desire what others have. If you want to live a happier and more fulfilling life then you must learn not to want what other have, but instead to be thankful for what you’ve got. A heart of thanksgiving leads to a well of satisfaction, but a heart of jealousy and envy leads only to destruction. ~~ Casey McKenna pastor at First Christian Church of Galax, VA

Lessons

...All ye who have anew entered the school of Christ to be taught to pray, take these lessons, practice them, and trust Him to perfect you in them. Dwell much in the inner chamber, with the door shut – shut in from men, shut up with God; it is there the Father waits you, it is there Jesus will teach you to pray. To be alone in secret with THE FATHER: this be your highest joy. To be assured with THE FATHER will openly reward the secret prayer, so that it cannot remain unblessed: this be your strength day by day. And to know that THE FATHER knows that you need what you ask: this be your liberty to bring every need, in the assurance that your God will supply it according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. ~~ Andrew Murray (1828-1917)

Made the man

Circumstance do not make the man, they reveal him ~~ James Allen

God at His Word

When you hear the Word of God, how do you measure it in your heart? There are some who think it is of great literary value, others believe it only in part, mainly the part that can be understood in human terms or make a decision whether some is still for today. And then there are those of you who take God at His word, believing He really means what He says. “Consider carefully what you hear,” He continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him” (Mark 4:24-25). Jesus was not talking here about giving or receiving, but about hearing and believing His Word. For with the measure you accept and believe it by faith, with that same measure it will be fulfilled in your life. But the more you try to intellectualize, understand, dissect or humanize it, the less faith you will have and what little is left will be taken by unbelief and doubt. There are many theologians who have studied the Bible and yet do not have a real relationship with the Lord, because they spent a lifetime trying to figure out God through their human intellect. If anyone was smart enough to do that, faith would be totally unnecessary. “But the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith” (Hebrews 4:2). The reason God insists on faith is that we are incapable of grasping who He is, the enormity of His power or the greatness of the love He has for us. All you can do is come to Him with the simple faith like a child and trust Him as your Heavenly Father, because if you ever saw Him in all His power and glory, you would surely die. ~~ Barbara Martin

Words

In prayer, it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. ~~ John Bunyan (1628-1688), famous for writing “The Pilgrim Progress”

Love for Him

Give yourself completely to God. Abandon yourself to him. Find joy in doing his will, in all circumstances. Suffering and joy are synonymous to someone yielded to God. We must be faithful in times of aridity when God is testing our love for him. ~~ Brother Lawrence 1614-1691

Do not copy a method

We need to be in line with God’s will in doing prayer as well as any other facet of ministry. Find out for yourself what the most comfortable place is for you before the Lord. Go before Him in a prayer life and prayer spirit as saints of old, but not in the same manor. Be consistent, persistent and insistent. It is not how long in prayer and fasting as it is how deep into His presence, that wonderful secret place. Really, it is not a secret place but just a place where a small few opt to go.

Love does it

God’s compelling and uncompromising Love is the supreme force that holds all His work from before Creation, to Calvary, to the present day, to the Second Advent – second coming of Jesus Christ. Logic is silenced in the face of the Love of God in Christ Jesus for all timelessness.

Pleading

Broken people continually sense their need for a heart attitude of repentance so to receive a fresh encounter with the Holy Ghost.

Let us listen

Let us listen carefully to hear what the Lord has to say to us.
‘Pray to thy Father which is in secret.’ God is a God who hides Himself to the carnal eye. As long as in our worship of God we are chiefly occupied with our own thoughts and exercises, we shall not meet Him who is a Spirit, the unseen One. But to the man who withdraws himself from all that is of the world and man, and the life if the world and man, and prepares to wait upon God alone, the Father will reveal Himself. As he forsakes and gives up and shuts out the world, and the life of the world, and surrenders himself to be led of Christ into the secret of God’s presence, the light of the Father’s love with rise upon him. The secrecy of the inner chamber and the closed door, the entire separation from all around us, is an image of, and so a help to that inner spiritual sanctuary, the secret of God’s tabernacle, within the veil, where our spirit truly comes into contact with the Invisible One. ~~ Andrew Murray (1828-1917)

Life

Life is not fair, but God is.

Who's thoughts?

The French mathematician, philosopher and physicist Blaise Pascal considered one of the great minds in Western intellectual history, said that it is presumptuous for an author to call his words “mine,” since there is usually in those words much more of other people’s thoughts than the author’s own.

He bids come

Jesus bids a man to come and follow him then inviting this completely ordinary person to believe beyond his understanding and comprehension of God. The way He does business is foreign to most. This person is asked to believe a God who doesn’t meet his expectations. We tend to move toward our mental image of God finding ourselves in bewilderment. During these struggles, the Holy Spirit come to us and gives us a little ray of new hope and good cheer in the beholding knowledge of our heavenly Father. As you get closer to Him, you will notice the scares in his hands.

God hates sin

My God is the giver of life, giving it in abundance. He has never been in the business of annihilation. He has given us guidelines so to stay on trek. In fact, we set ourselves up for self-destruction by breaking laws of nature and man, which are created by God. God hates sin for what it does in separating him from his people who he loves daily.

Faith

Faith is the ‘yes’ of the heart, a conviction on which one stakes one’s life. ~~ Martin Luther

Love

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love. ~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

Costly

What I have to offer the world is not myself as a gifted or moral example or even my spiritual integrity. There is not health in me. However, what I do have to offer is my broken life, which has improved only slightly through these many years. In reality, I am a real person fully aware of my shortcomings and want to deal with them openly and honestly. I continually call out to my Father to empower me to change me by the Holy Spirit. Through the humbling grace of forgiveness, I can share my life showing grace to others. While doing so I tell other that God forgives and help them to share in this grace as I continue to receive. May I tell other that God forgives and encourage them to go on after messing up.
Make no mistake this is not cheap grace. It is free but certainly not cheap. It is the most precious gift we have to offer the world – Jesus the Christ and him crucified.

Hilda of Whitby

In the early Middle Ages, it was not uncommon for an abbess (the female head of a religious community) to rule "double" communities of both men and women. One who did so was Hilda of Whitby (614-680), whose abbey became famous for its learning and libraries. Five future bishops were trained in her community, and kings and rulers sought her advice. ~~ Jeannette L. Angell

Church power

Scottish writer Andrew Bonar wrote in 1853, “God likes to see His people shut up to this, that there is no hope but in prayer. Herein lies the church power against the world.”

Words to die by!

Don’t preach a sermon as an exhibition of talent, but after thoroughly marinating your heart in the Holy Ghost.