When everything around us comes crashing down our faith becomes our anchor. It is the one thing that can see us through our times of trouble. We do not know what the outcome will be but we have faith in God that he will guide us through it. We believe in the power of prayer and in God's power that he will sustain us and strengthen us with his Holy Spirit. Our faith tells us God will not let us down nor will he forsake us in our time of need.
We do not know everything and we cannot explain away many of the bad things that occur. Some times only God knows why. Our faith tells us that God is in control when all we see is our world out of control. We have faith in God's future promises and that he will make them happen someday. In our faith we sometime have to throw away our whys and just believe in God and his words.
Our faith keeps us strong when we have nothing else. Our faith maybe shaken but it will never be broken. We grew up with it and we will die with it. People may not understand why we believe in things we cannot see but inside us we know our faith is true. Our spirit touches God's spirit in an invisible way confirming to us that God is there. Our faith becomes our life preserver when we have nothing else to hold on to and holding tight to our faith we our carried to a safe shore. God is good and our faith is planted in his truth and righteousness. May our faith in God be forever and we with him. Amen
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Are We Apart of a Continuing Story?
Every story has a beginning and an end. The story of our life has a beginning and an end. We were born(a beginning) and then we die(an end); or does it? In John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live." John 5:28,29 Jesus said, "28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgement." We see that our life's story will not stop at death it will continue on to the resurrection of life or judgement.
Revelations 20:12,15 "12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." The devil was also thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:10 "and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." We see that our life is a continuing event even after we die.
We will continue on either to the lake of fire or to live with Jesus Christ in paradise. Revelation 21:3,4 "3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." We are apart of a continuing story whether we believe it or not. Our place in eternity will be decided by God in our day of judgement.
What we are doing in this life is being recorded. If we think the our government knows to much about us. Think about how much God knows about us. God knows everything we cannot hide anything from him. Our actions will be judged there will be no escape from that. I cannot believe how many people are turning a blind eye to it or refusing to believe in it all together.
I hurt inside seeing so many people lost in darkness and being so thoroughly deceived by Satan. I would like to tell the people of the world to wake up and look what will be coming upon you before it is to late. We may think that this is all there is but according to the scriptures there is a lot more to life than we are seeing. We are apart of a continuing story. Our story does not end when we die. No it continues on until we end up either in the lake of fire or in paradise.
(ESV)
Revelations 20:12,15 "12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." The devil was also thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:10 "and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." We see that our life is a continuing event even after we die.
We will continue on either to the lake of fire or to live with Jesus Christ in paradise. Revelation 21:3,4 "3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." We are apart of a continuing story whether we believe it or not. Our place in eternity will be decided by God in our day of judgement.
What we are doing in this life is being recorded. If we think the our government knows to much about us. Think about how much God knows about us. God knows everything we cannot hide anything from him. Our actions will be judged there will be no escape from that. I cannot believe how many people are turning a blind eye to it or refusing to believe in it all together.
I hurt inside seeing so many people lost in darkness and being so thoroughly deceived by Satan. I would like to tell the people of the world to wake up and look what will be coming upon you before it is to late. We may think that this is all there is but according to the scriptures there is a lot more to life than we are seeing. We are apart of a continuing story. Our story does not end when we die. No it continues on until we end up either in the lake of fire or in paradise.
(ESV)
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Hold Strong Against the Storms in Your Life
Never let the world keep you down. Be strong and always get back up. When the storms of the world blow against you, stand firm. Despair and negativity always seems to knocking at our door. Do not let them in. We are a lot more than a shipwrecked being. On calm and peaceful waters is where we want to be. We can experience hardship for a short time but we do not have to live with it always. There is more to our life than pain and sorrow.
The Bible gives us words of comfort against our hardships. Psalm 34: 17-19 "17When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. 18The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. 19Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." Deuteronomy 31:8 "It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed."
Jesus Christ said that those who hold fast to his word can stand strong against the storms in their lives. Matthew 7:24,25 Jesus said " 24Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock."
God wants us to happy and not walking around in a despair and sorrowful manner. We can ride out the storms in our lives by holding strong to our faith in God. He will deliver us out of our troubles. The evil within the world does not have to win. We can stand rock solid on God's word and win out over the world.
The Bible gives us words of comfort against our hardships. Psalm 34: 17-19 "17When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. 18The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. 19Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." Deuteronomy 31:8 "It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed."
Jesus Christ said that those who hold fast to his word can stand strong against the storms in their lives. Matthew 7:24,25 Jesus said " 24Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock."
God wants us to happy and not walking around in a despair and sorrowful manner. We can ride out the storms in our lives by holding strong to our faith in God. He will deliver us out of our troubles. The evil within the world does not have to win. We can stand rock solid on God's word and win out over the world.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Being Bad is Not an Option
Ecclesiastes 11:9 "Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgement." We see you can do as you please but in the end you will have to account for your actions in the day of your judgement. Being bad is not an option if you want God's favor on judgement day.
Where are you now, in God's favor or disfavor? Something we need to think about because our life could be cut short at anytime and we find ourselves standing before God. Now is the time of our testing as to whether or not we enter into his kingdom. Satan will put us all to the test to see how strong we are in our faith towards God. He wants us all to lose because in his mind our lost is his win.
Why should we care, because God is watching us. He is interested in all of our lives. If he is going to judge all of us then it stands to reason he will have to know all of us. God does not guess, he knows. Right now God is giving us time to choose our own direction just as he did for Adam and Eve. God has given us his word and it is up to each of us whether we keep it or break it. Remember Satan influenced Eve decision with lies. He put Eve to the test whether or not to believe in God's word or disbelieve it, her choice.
Sometimes I think that the devil put us to the test just for his own entertainment and laughs at us every time he wins. Why because that is what a bully does to his victim. He tries to force someone to do what he wants and laugh at him if he does it. The person pain is his enjoyment. He acts just like the devil and enjoys doing evil to others.
We all have to be wiser than a bully if want to make it into God's kingdom. We have to realize our actions will either free us or condemn us. 2 Corinthians 5:10 "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." So if we consider to doing bad as an option in life, how are we going to explain it to Jesus on our day of judgement. As long as we are still living we have time to change our life for the better. But just like the time of Noah our time of choosing will come to an end and we will find ourselves either on the ark or left on the outside.
(ESV)
Where are you now, in God's favor or disfavor? Something we need to think about because our life could be cut short at anytime and we find ourselves standing before God. Now is the time of our testing as to whether or not we enter into his kingdom. Satan will put us all to the test to see how strong we are in our faith towards God. He wants us all to lose because in his mind our lost is his win.
Why should we care, because God is watching us. He is interested in all of our lives. If he is going to judge all of us then it stands to reason he will have to know all of us. God does not guess, he knows. Right now God is giving us time to choose our own direction just as he did for Adam and Eve. God has given us his word and it is up to each of us whether we keep it or break it. Remember Satan influenced Eve decision with lies. He put Eve to the test whether or not to believe in God's word or disbelieve it, her choice.
Sometimes I think that the devil put us to the test just for his own entertainment and laughs at us every time he wins. Why because that is what a bully does to his victim. He tries to force someone to do what he wants and laugh at him if he does it. The person pain is his enjoyment. He acts just like the devil and enjoys doing evil to others.
We all have to be wiser than a bully if want to make it into God's kingdom. We have to realize our actions will either free us or condemn us. 2 Corinthians 5:10 "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." So if we consider to doing bad as an option in life, how are we going to explain it to Jesus on our day of judgement. As long as we are still living we have time to change our life for the better. But just like the time of Noah our time of choosing will come to an end and we will find ourselves either on the ark or left on the outside.
(ESV)
Friday, August 8, 2014
The Pain of Trying to Be Accepted
Don't you ever feel like that you are an outsider to everything around you? You never feel like that you measure up. People will not accept you as you are and you have to pretend to be happy. You feel like you are living in a cage and not free. Not free to be as God made you. Life is made hard by the judgement of others around us. No one can really measure up to their standards and if you do make it; Their expectation will change to something different. You are just chasing an unattainable goal.
The rich and famous that are in the news are always being judge and criticized. Even if you have made it by the world's standards you are never free of others criticisms. It seems that we all are struggling with how to be accepted in our world. People will freely give out their opinions even if hurts others and they do not seem to care. We all have to a find away to cope with this and live our lives how we want to and be happy. Our pain that is cause by others seems to go unnoticed by them and worst, be enjoyed by them. We cannot let them ruin our lives. We have to start by loving ourselves and find that we can live just fine without the world's approval.
The US President has an approval rating and if that approval rating falls to a low percent. The President does not lock himself up in his office and refuse to come out because the majority of the people disapprove. He instead bares up under the pressure and continues on in his life. He deals with the many criticisms in away that they have their opinions and I have mine and that is o.k.
It can be hard to be around the people that matters the most in your life and not having their approval. You love them and you feel you are not getting any love back and that hurts you. You got to realize that love is gigantic. In the Bible in 1 John 4:8 says "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." This means that love is bigger than the stars, moon, sky and yes bigger than the universe itself. It is as big as God. So this means for all of us, that no one can keep us away from having love. We can say to ourselves that no one loves us, that is your opinion not love's opinion. God loves us from now to eternity, we have just become blind to it. We have some how turn our heart off to love but love is always there for the taking. No one but God has authority over love, love will be with us as long as God is alive.
These biblical verses illustrates how no one can separates us from God's love. In Romans 8:38,39 the apostle Paul says, "38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, not things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." So open up your heart and let love in. This means you will let in the holy spirit of God and having God on your side you will always feel approved and loved.
(ESV)
The rich and famous that are in the news are always being judge and criticized. Even if you have made it by the world's standards you are never free of others criticisms. It seems that we all are struggling with how to be accepted in our world. People will freely give out their opinions even if hurts others and they do not seem to care. We all have to a find away to cope with this and live our lives how we want to and be happy. Our pain that is cause by others seems to go unnoticed by them and worst, be enjoyed by them. We cannot let them ruin our lives. We have to start by loving ourselves and find that we can live just fine without the world's approval.
The US President has an approval rating and if that approval rating falls to a low percent. The President does not lock himself up in his office and refuse to come out because the majority of the people disapprove. He instead bares up under the pressure and continues on in his life. He deals with the many criticisms in away that they have their opinions and I have mine and that is o.k.
It can be hard to be around the people that matters the most in your life and not having their approval. You love them and you feel you are not getting any love back and that hurts you. You got to realize that love is gigantic. In the Bible in 1 John 4:8 says "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." This means that love is bigger than the stars, moon, sky and yes bigger than the universe itself. It is as big as God. So this means for all of us, that no one can keep us away from having love. We can say to ourselves that no one loves us, that is your opinion not love's opinion. God loves us from now to eternity, we have just become blind to it. We have some how turn our heart off to love but love is always there for the taking. No one but God has authority over love, love will be with us as long as God is alive.
These biblical verses illustrates how no one can separates us from God's love. In Romans 8:38,39 the apostle Paul says, "38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, not things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." So open up your heart and let love in. This means you will let in the holy spirit of God and having God on your side you will always feel approved and loved.
(ESV)
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
God does not Want Us to Die
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?
Ezekiel 18:31,32 "Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live."
1 Timothy 2:3,4 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
(ESV)
Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?
Ezekiel 18:31,32 "Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live."
1 Timothy 2:3,4 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
(ESV)
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Words of Comfort
Php. 4:19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Jer. 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Ps. 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Pr. 16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord established his steps.
Ps. 37:23,24 The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.
Isa. 39:29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Php. 4:13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Rev. 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be morning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
(ESV)
Jer. 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Ps. 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Pr. 16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord established his steps.
Ps. 37:23,24 The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.
Isa. 39:29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Php. 4:13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Rev. 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be morning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
(ESV)
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