He is...

An Open Doorway

This is an email I got from my grandmother...

 

"I love this, as this is where I am at."

Psalm 65:2 - King James Version (KJV)

² O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.

 

"The doorway of the most high is always open. Our own children by flesh & grands, always see a open door to

our homes or place, when there is a need.. Just watch how

fast a little one runs to mama or daddy, or grandma, or papa

They don't have to wait to be invited in.. They just come on

a fast run to you. Because they know you belong to them.

I was thinking, I seem to run to my heavenly father often many times a day or night.

I had a good daddy, & believe me I never waited for him to tell me I could come to him I just went as fast as I could get there. He was never mean to me.

Your heavenly father will not be mean either, & is glad when you trust Him when you are hurting.

He knows how to fix everything.. He wont mess it up either... It will be done right. Love Beverlyjo or mother"

The God of Peace

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.


Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”


Philippians 4:6-7 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 

"Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful."

 

You will Find me there...

"It is through the most difficult trials that God often brings the sweetest discoveries of Himself. we will be in a place where we do not knw what is happening, where God is cutting the cloth of our lives by a new pattern, and thus where He causes us to look to Him."

God sometimes shuts the door and shuts us in.

That he may speak, perhaps through grief or pain.

And softly, heart to heart, above the din,

May tell some precious thought to us again.

 

 

Jeremiah 29:13

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

 

Let your soul rest in the stillness of His presence.

Free

As Christ followers, we are called to live a life that is different and set apart. No matter how long we have been a christian, God is always showing us something new. Many times he shows me a really basic concept (ex: his love for me or trust) of christian life, magnifies it, and opens my eyes to see it very clearly or in a whole new way. Praise God that his Word is living and active. I was reading 1st Peter and I feel like the Lord showed me the freedom it gives to live an obedient life free from the chains of sin. We give our souls over to God and are saved, yet we still seem to fall into sin whether it brings small or major consequences. So many times we do so, and we feel guilty after. What popped out to me was the fact that God's purpose, Word and realization of our sins is not to make us feel condemned and guilty. His Word is to open our eyes into the reality of him and the full life that holiness brings. As the pastors of a church I help at say, " Sin doesn't make you bad. It makes you dead." God paid for our sins past and future on the cross, offers us grace, and wants to FREE us from the chains that sin binds us in. I think sometimes we stay in sin because we don't come to the reality that it's making us dead and that there is LIFE waiting for us in holiness. We can have love, peace, patience, gentless, kindness, charity and give our weak moments to God daily so we don't fall into the habits of old. The things that our flesh may desire( like gossip, jealousy, impurity, and idols) are things that destroy and don't last, but the things that are imortant to God are eternal and lasting. The things of God are reality. not an opinion not a hobby or a label we give ourselves. They are truth and life and the only things that will bring any of us joy and true freedom. Every day is a new day and with that comes another opportunity to turn from Death and back toward the light.



It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. -Galatians 5:5

"When sin runs deep, your grace is more." -Matt Maher

Let this be our prayer to come back to our loving God.

Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.
² Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.
³ For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.
⁴ Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight.
You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.^[a]
5 For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.
⁶ But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there.

⁷ Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me—
now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not banish me from your presence and don’t take your Holy Spirit^[d] from me.

 ¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.
¹³ Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you.
¹⁴ Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves;
then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness.
¹⁵ Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you.

¹⁶ You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
You do not want a burnt offering. ⁷ The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
¹⁸ Look with favor on Zion and help her; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
¹⁹ Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit—
with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar.

 

AMEN

Read 1 Peter today

Broken things

From Streams.. March 15

"Fear not, thou worm Jacob....I will make thee a threshing instrument with teeth." (Isa. 41:14, 15.)

Could any two things be in greater contrast than a worm and an instrument with teeth? The worm is delicate, bruised by a stone, crushed beneath the passing wheel; an instrument with teeth can break and not be broken; it can grave its mark upon the rock. And the mighty God can convert the one into the other. He can take a man or a nation, who has all the impotence of the worm, and by the invigoration of His own Spirit, He can endow with strength by which a noble mark is left upon the history of the time.

And so the "worm" may take heart. The mighty God can make us stronger than our circumstances. He can bend them all to our good. In God's strengthwe can make them all pay tribute to our souls. We can even take hold of a black disappointment, break it open, and extract some jewel of grace. When God gives us wills like iron, we can drive through difficulties as the iron share cuts through the toughest soil. "I will make thee," and shall He not do it? --- Dr. Jowett.

"Christ is building His kingdom with earth's broken things. Men want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken, in building their kingdoms; but God is the God of the unsuccessful, of those who have failed. Heaven is filling with earth's broken lives, and there is no bruised reed that Christ cannot take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty. He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow and make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise. he can lift earth's saddest failure up to heaven's glory. --- J. R. Miller. "

["Follow Me, and I will make you".... Make you speak My words with power, Make you channels of My mercy, Make you helpful every hour. ]

["Follow Me, and I will make you".... Make you what you cannot be�w Make you loving, trustful, godly, Make you even like to me.
--- L. S. P. ]

Lord, I need you.

Lord I come I confess

Bowing here I find my rest

And without You I fall apart

You're the one that guides my heart

Lord I need You oh I need You

Ev'ry hour I need You

My one defense my righteousness

Oh God how I need You

Where sin runs deep Your grace is more

Where grace is found is where You are

And where You are Lord I am free

Holiness is Christ in me

Where You are Lord I am free

Holiness is Christ in me

So teach my soul to rise to You

When temptation comes my way

And when I cannot stand I'll fall on You

Jesus You're my hope and stay

And when I cannot stand I'll fall on You

Jesus You're my hope and stay

 

 

 

Holy Spirit Pleading

Romans 8:24-28

     We are saved by trusting. And trusting means looking forward to getting something that we don't yet have - for a man who already has something doesn't need to hope and trust that he will get it. But if we must keep trusting God for something that hasn't happened yet, it teaches us to wait patiently and confidently.
     And in the same way - by our faith - the holy spirit helps us with our daily problems and in our praying. For we don't even know what we should pray for, nor how to pray as we should; the holy spirit prays for us with such feeling that it cannot be expressed in words. And the father who knows all hearts knows, of course, what the Spirit says as he pleds for us in harmony with God's own will.
     And we know that all that happends to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans.

The Echoes of Eternity

"Eternity" Bridge at the Sydney Olympics
 
[Ecclesiastes 3:11-14]

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet <sup>no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it..."

Pastor spoke today and told a story about a man named Arthur Stace...

(The following is from Wiki..)

Arthur Malcolm Stace (9 February 1884 – 30 July 1967), otherwise known as Mr Eternity, was an Australian reformed alcoholic who converted to Christianity and spread his form of gospel by writing the word "Eternity'" in chalk on footpaths in Sydney over a period of approximately 35 years.[1] Only four known photographs of Stace exist, all of which were taken by Trevor Dallen for the Sydney Sun.



The child of alcoholics, he was brought up in poverty. In order to survive, he resorted to stealing bread and milk and searching for scraps of food in bins. By the age of 12, Stace, with virtually no formal schooling, had become a ward of the state. As a teenager, he became an alcoholic and was subsequently sent to jail at 15. Afterwards, he worked as a "cockatoo" or a look-out for a Two-up "school". In his twenties, he was a scout for his sisters' brothels. In March 1916, at age 26, he enlisted for World War I. He suffered recurring bouts of bronchitis and pleurisy, which led to his medical discharge on 2 April 1919.

Stace converted to Christianity on the night of 6 August 1930, after hearing an inspirational sermon by the Reverend R. B. S. Hammond at St. Barnabas Church, Broadway. Inspired by the words, he became enamoured of the notion of eternity. Two years later, on 14 November 1932, Arthur was further inspired by the preaching of evangelist John G. Ridley,[2] MC on "The echoes of Eternity" from Isaiah 57:15:
"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."
John Ridley's words,"Eternity, Eternity, I wish that I could sound or shout that word to everyone in the streets of Sydney. You've got to meet it, where will you spend Eternity?" proved crucial in Stace's decision to tell others about his faith. In an interview, Stace said, "Eternity went ringing through my brain and suddenly I began crying and felt a powerful call from the Lord to write Eternity." Even though he was illiterate and could hardly write his own name Arthur, legibly, "the word 'Eternity' came out smoothly, in a beautiful copperplate script. I couldn't understand it, and I still can't."</sup>

After eight or nine years, he tried to write something else, "Obey God" and then five years later, "God or Sin" but he could not bring himself to stop writing "Eternity".

"Eternity, Eternity, I wish that I could sound or shout that word to everyone in the streets of Sydney. You've got to meet it, where will you spend Eternity?"

..I am coming

 

 

I was reading my bible late last night and came across a verse in 2 Corinthians that, whether I've read it before or not, seemed completely new. This version of the verse struck me in a new way and I'm grateful I came across it. I've thought about the times in my life that included sorrow that caused me to turn to Him. Our sorrow comes from all sorts of things, but the "best" and most fruitful kind is the kind that turn our hearts toward God. I look back and think about the times I would say were filled with the most sorrow, and I remember that those are the ones that pushed me to seek God the strongest.

I get the privelege of spending my wednesday nights with a group from 8-12 high school school girls, and last week we spoke on difficult times, their struggles, seeking other things for fulfillment, and intentionally seeking time with the Lord. Just like my girls, many of us have sought things to fulfill us besides the Lord...and time and time again these things do not fulfill. We create idols and have to learn over and over, "There shall be no other God's before me." We were created with an empty space in our hearts that can only be filled by a relationship with Jesus. Our world tells us we will find it through everything BUT Jesus, and so many people fall into that lie. I pray we turn away from the things that can never fulfill and bring eternal joy and turn our hearts to our loving, all powerful God. I have learned that it is in, by, and through Jesus that peace and fullness are found. Praise God for his grace and his open arms. May we take time for Him, because he has all the time time the world for us. I pray that this is what our hearts speak.....

 

[Psalm 27:8] My heart has heard you say, "Come and talk with me." And my heart responds, "LORD, I am coming."

Something Beautiful

"No experience in your life is ever wasted or in vain if you give all your cares to the Lord. Even if your fragmented life looks like an abandoned battlefield, Jesus can reshape all the pieces of your past into something beautiful....We need inner strength to keep from being overwhelmed by outward circumstances. We must allow God to gather up our fragmented dreams and remold us.... To do that, He may have to crush the few pieces we have left into fine clay, water us with His Word, reshape our lumpy mass of leftovers, and put us back on His potter's wheel. But He is more than capable of designing something miraculous from whatever we have left to give Him." -j.m.

Romans 8:28 -  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[a] have been called according to his purpose.

[See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. --Isaiah 43:19]

2 Corinthians 5:17 -Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Romans 10:13    “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

 

Psalm 91:4

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

 

My feather from Canyon Lake

 

In His timing...

But the dove found no rest for or the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him... And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf (Gen. 8:9-11).

"God knows just when to withhold from us any visible sign of encouragement, and when to grant us such a sign. How good it is that we may trust Him anyway! When all visible evidences that He is remembering us are withheld, that is best; He wants us to realize that His Word, His promise of remembrance, is more substantial and dependable than any evidence of our senses. When He sends the visible evidence, that is well also; we appreciate it all the more after we have trusted Him without it. Those who are readiest to trust God without other evidence than His Word always receive the greatest number of visible evidences of His love."
--C. G. Trumbull

"Delays are not refusals; many a prayer is registered, and underneath it the words: "My time is not yet come." God has a set time as well as a set purpose, and He who orders the bounds of our habitation orders also the time of our deliverance."

Our Guidance

From Streams Devo...

"With skillful hands he led them. (Psalm 78:72)"

"When you are unsure which course to take, totally submit your own judgment to that of the Spirit of God, asking Him to shut every door except that right one. But meanwhile keep moving ahead and consider the absence of a direct indication from God to be the evidence of His will that you are on His path. And as you continue down the long road, you will find that He has gone before you, locking doors you otherwise would have been inclined to enter. Yet you can be sure that somewhere beyond the locked doors is one He has left unlocked. And when you open it and walk through, you will find yourself face to face with a turn in the river of opportunity -- one that is broader and deeper than anything you ever dared to imagine, even in your wildest dreams. So set sail on it, because it flows to the open sea.

God often guides us through our circumstances. One moment, our way may seem totally blocked, but then suddenly some seemingly trivial incident occurs, appears as nothing to others but speaking volumes to the keen eye of faith. And sometimes the events are repeated in various ways in response to our prayers. They certainly are not haphazard results of chance but are God opening up the way we should walk, by directing our circumstances. And they begin to multiply as we advance toward our goal, just as the lights of a city seem to increase as we speed toward it while at night. F. B. Meyer

If you go to God for guidance, He will guide you. But do not expect Him to console you by showing you His list of purposes concerning you, when you have displayed distrust or even half-trust in Him. What He will do, if you will trust Him and go cheerfully ahead when He shows you the way, is to guide you still farther. Horace Bushnell "

First.

 

How can we trust God if we do not know him? How can we know him if we do not read his word? How can we read his word if we don't make time for him? and how can we make time for him if we don't do everything we can to put him in the forefront of everything in our lives? We must put God first and let everything else follow.


 

February 20 - Streams in the Desert

“Nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matt. 17:20).

It is possible, for those who really are willing to reckon on the power of the Lord for keeping and victory, to lead a life in which His promises are taken as they stand and are found to be true.
It is possible to cast all our care upon Him daily and to enjoy deep peace in doing it.
It is possible to have the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts purified, in the deepest meaning of the word.
It is possible to see the will of God in everything, and to receive it, not with sighing, but with singing.
It is possible by taking complete refuge in Divine power to become strong through and through; and, where previously our greatest weakness lay, to find that things which formerly upset all our resolves to be patient, or pure, or humble, furnish today an opportunity–through Him who loved us, and works in us an agreement with His will and a blessed sense of His presence and His power–to make sin powerless over us.
These things are DIVINE POSSIBILITIES, and because they are His work, the true experience of them will always cause us to bow lower at His feet and to learn to thirst and long for more.
We cannot possibly be satisfied with anything less–each day, each hour, each moment, in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit–than to WALK WITH GOD.

 

–H. C. G. Moule

We may have as much of God as we will. Christ puts the key of the treasure-chamber into our hand, and bids us take all that we want. If a man is admitted into the bullion vault of a bank, and told to help himself, and comes out with one cent, whose fault is it that he is poor? Whose fault is it that Christian people generally have such scanty portions of the free riches of God? –McLaren.

God our Caretaker

So I've taken up gardening. The kitchen window is cluttered with little anthropologie coffee cups all containing little seedlings. My hope is that these plants that are barely peeking out of the soil will grow and be of use for my family and whoever else I can give these vegetables to. I woke up this morning to get my coffee and do my usual routine of seeing if there is any sign of life besides seeing only dirt every morning for the past week. everyday...no sign. But then today came..LIFE. in just about every cup. finally something. I feel like one of the most gratifying things is to start from sratch, planting seeds, and seeing them grow. Slowly but surely they do grow. Of course, forgetful as I am, I forgot to water a small tomato plant I had outside on the porch, so it shriveled up and I thought it was a gonner. I haven't seen a plant look more dead before. In denial I brought it in, watered it anyway and stuck in it the sun again. I left to go to church and a concert with Colin, and we came back and low and behold my plant wasn't only alive but it grew even taller. I basically know nothing about gardening and am in excitement that there is life happening before my eyes. As I looked at them today, I got an immediate parrallel of how God gets so much pleasure out of giving us life, looking after us, and seeing us grow to be fruitful for His glory. These plants have come to life with my lack of gardening know-how, and I just think of how much better of a gardener God is in our lives. He gives us living water and relationship with his Son brings us into eternity with Him and allows us to live with the blessing of constant communication with Him in every moment of our lives. He doesn't let us go through this life alone, and he has a contant eye on us through our triumphs and our struggles. Even when when we are facing things to where we think we could never get through or rise back up again, He does it and gives us hope. Colin was telling me how he believes God allows trials and suffering to happen for us to learn - that they are actually blessings- to allow us to become stronger and to build our charater. I know that's true. Just like that tomato plant that was nearly dead God not only brings us back to life but makes us grow even more and brings our souls to new heights. The things God allows are not purposless. They are full of purpose and actually life-giving in the end. We have a God who is the most excellent caretaker and we have all the reason to trust in him.

He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

 

I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.
Habakkuk 3:17-9

Restless Hearts

I love the Lord. I pray that I don't just believe in him but BELIEVE him and his truths spoken through his entire word and it's proof of His undeniable love shown through the life of Jesus.

 

 

Dear restless heart, be still; don’t fret and worry so;

God has a thousand ways His love and help to show;

Just trust, and trust, and trust, until His will you know.

Dear restless heart, be still, for peace is God’s own smile,

His love can every wrong and sorrow reconcile;

Just love, and love, and love, and calmly wait awhile.

Dear restless heart, be brave; don’t moan and sorrow so,

He hath a meaning kind in chilly winds that blow;

Just hope, and hope, and hope, until you braver grow.

Dear restless heart, repose upon His breast this hour,

His grace is strength and life, His love is bloom and flower;

Just rest, and rest, and rest, within His tender power.

Dear restless heart, be still! Don’t struggle to be free;

God’s life is in your life, from Him you may not flee;

Just pray, and pray, and pray, till you have faith to see.

by Edith Willis Linn

.

It's all about

Jesus.

The One who Satisfies

Looking for satisfaction/ fulfillment in our soul by seeking it through another person or earthly things rather than God is like being really thirsty and trying to fix it with a bag of popcorn...

"The LORD will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring." -Isaiah 58:11

Light

Written by A.W. Towzer. This is a beautiful Prayer...

"Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but 1 do come. Please root from my heart all those things which 1 have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter avid dwell there without a rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus' Name, Amen."

Revelation 22:1-5
The River of Life

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants^c will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

-Hannah

http://vimeo.com/54620146

"Brightly colored sunsets and starry heavens, majestic mountains and shining seas, and fragrant field and fresh-cut flowers are not even half as beautiful as a soul who is serving Jesus out of love, through the wear and tear of an ordinary, unpoetic life."

-Frederick William Faber

 

 

The Living God

I was thinking about the titles of the people of today and in the bible that people have called the Lord. To name a few, He is called {God of sight, Almighty God, Everlasting God, our Peace, shepherd, our healer, hiding place, shield, Rock of my strength, redeemer, deliverer, the Living God, faithful...}
 
 
In the book of Job, God allows satan to wreak havoc on Job's life to try and prove that Job praised God only because his life was Good and abundant. God allowed satan to take everything of Job's away. God allowed this because he knew Job's heart and he knew that in the end He would be glorified and indeed Job did praise God until the end of his days.
 At the end of Job, it says,

^"12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. ¹³ And he also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. ¹⁵ Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.

¹⁶ After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. ¹⁷ And so Job died, an old man and full of years."
 

All around me are hearts going through things i couldn't even imagine. As human beings and followers of the Lord we will go through trials. There is no doubt that things will happen out of our control in this life. But we are called to trust his path for us, to follow and have faith in Him. Just like God allowing that to happen to Job, I believe everything that happens to us passes through God's loving hands first. I do believe these things happen so He may be glorified in us and in the end everyone can proclaim, "May the name of the Lord be praised." As I was thinking about the names of God...[ Healer. Deliverer. Faithful. Shield. Hiding place. Our peace] ... I thought about what it must have taken first for Him to be called that. To be healed you must first me broken and hurt. To be delivered someone must first be in chains in body or soul. To be shielded, a person must first been put on the enemy lines in need of a protector. A miracle wouldn't exist unless there was a situation so utterly impossible to be solved or fixed that it was something only God could do.  He could not be called the latter without the prior happening. I've realized all of these trails are meant to build us up for him and for us to be able to call him faithful and glorify him. I am learning that trials aren't simply a burden that we have to get through, but hidden blessings that we must TRUST GOD THROUGH (and pray like mad through), that he is working out ALL things, and trust Him until He gets the victory (and he will) and we get to call him HEALER, REDEEMER, and THE GOD OF MIRACLES.

“But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

- Job 23:10

 

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been  called
according to his purpose."   -Romans 8:28

 

 

 “As for me, I know that amy 1Redeemer lives, And 2at the last He will take His stand on the 3earth.

-Job 19:25

 

But I trust in your unfailing love;

my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

for he has been good to me.

 

May the name of the Lord be Praised.

ARE YOU JESUS?

From my Grandmother


A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago . They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly-missed boarding.

ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.

He was glad he did.

The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?"

She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him,
"Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes.

She continued, "Are you Jesus?"

He stopped in mid-stride ... and he wondered.

He gently went back and said, "No, I am nothing like Jesus - He is good, kind, caring, loving, and would never have bumped into your display in the first place."

The girl gently nodded: "I only asked because I prayed for Jesus to help me gather the apples. He sent you to help me, so you are like Him - only He knows who will do His will. Thank you for hearing His call, Mister."

Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul:"Are you Jesus?"

Do people mistake you for Jesus?

That's our destiny, is it not?

To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and actasHe would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting scripture and going to church. It'sactually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.

You are theapple of His eyeeven though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked up you and me on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.

from my Grandmother...

GROCERY LIST

 Louise Redden, a poorly dressed lady with a look of defeat on her face, walked into a grocery store..

She approached the owner of the store in a most humble manner and asked if he would let her charge a few groceries..

She softly explained that her husband was very ill and unable to work, they had seven children and they needed food.

John Longhouse, the grocer, scoffed at her and requested that she leave his store at once.

Visualizing the family needs, she said: 'Please, sir! I will bring you the money just as soon as I can.'

John told her he could not give her credit, since she did not have a charge account at his store.

Standing beside the counter was a customer who overheard the conversation between the two The customer walked forward and told the grocer that he would stand good for whatever she needed for her family. The grocer said in a very reluctant voice, 'Do you have a grocery list?'

Louise replied, 'Yes sir.' 'O..K' he said, 'put your grocery list on the scales and whatever your grocery list weighs, I will give you that amount in groceries.'

Louise hesitated a moment with a bowed head, then she reached into her purse and took out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. She then laid the piece of paper on the scale carefully with her head still bowed.

The eyes of the grocer and the customer showed amazement when the scales went down and stayed down..

The grocer, staring at the scales, turned slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly, 'I can't believe it.'

The customer smiled and the grocer started putting the groceries on the other side of the scales. The scale did not balance so he continued to put more and more groceries on them until the scales would hold no more.

The grocer stood there in utter disgust. Finally, he grabbed the piece of paper from the scales and looked at it with greater amazement.

It was not a grocery list, it was a prayer, which said:

'Dear Lord, you know my needs and I am leaving this in your hands.'

The grocer gave her the groceries that he had
gathered and stood in stunned silence.

Louise thanked him and left the store. The other customer handed a fifty-dollar bill to the grocer and said; 'It was worth every penny of it.

Only God Knows how to

handle your needs but He can. He see's you.. He Loves you

October 5

from Streams......
 
 
Some time later the brook dried up.(1 Kings 17:7)

The education of our faith is incomplete if we have yet to learn that God’s providence works through loss, that there is a ministry to us through failure and the fading of things, and that He gives the gift of emptiness. It is, in fact, the material insecurities of life that cause our lives to be spiritually established.

The dwindling brook at the Kerith Ravine, where Elijah sat deep in thought, is a true picture of each of our lives. “Some time later the brook dried up”—this is the history of our yesterdays, and a prophecy of our tomorrows.

One way or the other, we must all learn the difference between trusting in the gift and trusting in the Giver. The gift may last for a season, but the Giver is the only eternal love.

The Kerith Ravine was a difficult problem for Elijah until he arrived at Zarephath, and suddenly everything became as clear as daylight to him. God’s hard instructions are never His last words to us, for the woe, the waste, and the tears of life belong to its interlude, not its finale.

If the Lord had led Elijah directly to Zarephath, he would have missed something that helped to make him a wiser prophet and a better man—living by faith at Kerith. And whenever our earthly stream or any other outer resource has dried up, it has been allowed so we may learn that our hope and help are in God, who made heaven and earth.

F. B. Meyer

Unwavering Faithfulness

God calls us to live a  life of faith. What is faith? (Hebrews 11:1) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. God calls us to live victoriously through fatih in Him. We go through storms and may lose faith, or wonder where He is. But the storm is where we grow and not an end, but something we go THROUGH. and you will get through.

It's so easy to have faith and trust the Lord when his blessings are right in front of us. Faith is not judged by circumstances, but regardless of them. It's when we feel we are in the dark that our true faith is revealed, grown and developed. We must not waver in our faith or constant thankfuless just because the blessings are unseen by us at that moment. We must thank God for HIS unwavering faithfulness regardless of our own feelings. The truth is that He Remains faithful...There was a woman who prayed 10 years for her wayward son until he was saved. Imagine how she felt on that 9th year. Why not thank Him and praise him NOW no matter what the circumstance, because your light may be right around the corner.

You will never know your level of genuine faith until it is tested in a fierce storm. If you're ever going to "be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power" (eph 6:10), your strength will be born during a storm.

Prayer

No one accomplishes so much in so little time as when he or she is praying.

Had it Coming

So this past year I remember telling my mother that I think God was slowly preparing me to speak - my biggest fear. I started getting that sense back when I kept getting called on stage...one being blue man Group performance for 15 minutes, almost having to go up on stage in front of thousands at a christian concert tour, and then having to visit youth groups in another town to give a testimony in hopes to raise support for a homeless ministry I am involved with. This summer I took a summer internship, and after taking the job was suprised to find out I had to speak for 2 sunday services, something i've never done before (or wanted to do)  but I knew full well that the Lord had been slowly trying to get me to that point. I can't say that He didn't warn me. On Tuesday morning I woke up, and out of nowhere I remembered that there was a big chance I was supposed to be born without vocal chords for some reason or another. I thought about how my physical ability to speak was truely a gift from God and how I wasn't taking advantage of that. Instead, it has been a fear of mine, and I tried to avoid speaking in front of groups of people at all costs. So sure enough, that evening, I get a call from someone asking me to be the guest speaker for a Junior High FCA. Again, I had this coming for me. So of course I said yes and am asking the Lord to give me the words and to give me peace. To others this may be such an easy thing to stand in front of a bunch of people and talk for half an hour about your topic of choice, but for me it's not that case. I have never been one who desires to all eyes on me. For example, I leave town to celebrate my birthday because I don't like the attention. But I do know that this isn't about me. It's about planting a seed in the lives of students, sharing my experiences with God and what I know of Him. I do know that God has given me more than I deserve and has always always always been faithful to me. The least I can do is be obedient to the small task He is asking me to do. I have definitly noticed that as we follow the Lord, he brings us our of our comfort zones and builds our character. I've had to face so many fears, and overcome insecurities as I've walked with him. My friend Brandon told me once that he thinks that sometimes God's gifts and callings He places on our lives are the things we are most afraid of. I think that may be true. I don't know what the Lord has up his sleeve but I do know that I must be obedient in this. God won't fail our obedience.

Coach Val

I absolutely loved this message by Coach Val the other morning and wanted to share


http://vimeo.com/49612967

..Thy Victory Singing..

Had to share what I read today. So Beautiful...from Streams in the Desert.

The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. (Psalm 51:17)

Those people God uses most to bring glory to Himself are those who are completely broken, for the sacrifice He accepts is a "broken and contrite heart." It was not until Jacob's natural strength was broken, when "his hip was wrenched" (Genesis 32:25) at Peniel, that he came to the point where God could clothe him with spiritual power. And it was not until Moses struck the rock at Horeb, breaking its surface, that cool "water [came] out of it for the people to drink" (Exodus 17:6).

It was not until Gideon's three hundred specially chosen soldiers "broke the jars that were in their hands" (Judges 7:19), which symbolized brokenness in their lives, that the hidden light of the torches shone forth, bringing terror to their enemies. It was once the poor widow broke the seal on her only remaining jar of oil and began to pour it that God miraculously multiplied it to pay her debts and thereby supplied her means of support. (See 2 Kings 4:1-7.)

It was not until Esther risked her life and broke through the strict laws of a heathen king's court that she obtained favor to rescue her people from death. (See Esther 4:16.)

It was once Jesus took "the five loaves . . . and broke them" (Luke 9:16) that the bread was multiplied to feed the five thousand. Through the very process of the loaves being broken, the miracle occurred. It was when Mary broke her beautiful "alabaster jar of very expensive perfume" (Matthew 26:7), destoying its future usefulness and value, that the wonderful fragrance filled the house. And it was when Jesus allowed His precious body to be broken by thorns, nails, and a spear that His inner life was poured out like an ocean of crystal-clear water, for thirsty sinners to drink and then live.

It is not until a beautiful kernal of corn is buried and broken in the earth by DEATH that its inner heart sprouts, producing hundreds of other seeds or kernals. And so it has always been, down through the history of plants, people, and all of spiritual life --- God uses BROKEN THINGS.

Those who have been gripped by the power of the Holy Spirit and are used for God's glory are those who have been broken in their finances, broken in their self-will, broken in their ambitions, broken in their lofty ideals, broken in their worldly reputation, broken in their desires, and often broken in their health. Yes, He uses those who are despised by the world and who seem totally hopeless and helpless, just as Isaiah said: "The lame will carry off plunder" (Isaiah 33:23).

 

 

O break my heart; but break it as a field
Is by the plough up-broken for the corn;
O break it as the buds, by green leaf seated,
Are, to unloose the golden blossom, torn;
Love would I offer unto Love's great Master,
Set free the odor, break the alabaster.

O break my heart; break it victorious God,
That life's eternal well may flash abroad;
O let it break as when the captive trees,
Breaking cold bonds, regain their liberties;
And as thought's sacred grove to life is springing,
Be joys, like birds, their hope, Thy victory singing.

--Thomas Toke Bunch

 

Han

You are I am

Jesus is..

My Forever Faithful

 

"Who Jesus Is" by Mother Teresa and Me

 

 

Jesus is the Word made Flesh.

Jesus is the Bread of Life.

Jesus is the Victim offered for our sins on the Cross.

Jesus is the Sacrifice offered

For the sins of the world and mine.

Jesus is the Word – to be spoken.

Jesus is the Truth – to be made know.

Jesus is the Way – to be walked.

Jesus is the Light – to be a guide.

Jesus is the Life – to be fully lived.

Jesus is the Hopeless - to be given a Hope and Future.

Jesus is the Love – to be loved.

Jesus is the Joy – to be shared.

Jesus is the Sacrifice – to be offered.

Jesus is the Peace – to be given.

Jesus is the Bread of Life – to be eaten.

Jesus is the Hungry – to be fed.

Jesus is the Thirsty – to be satisfied.

Jesus is the Naked – to be clothed.

Jesus is the Homeless – to be taken in.

Jesus is the Sick – to be healed.

Jesus is the Lonely – to be embraced.

Jesus is the Unwanted – to be cherished.

Jesus is the Feet – to be washed.

Jesus is the Beggar – to give him a smile.

Jesus is the Drunkard – to listen to him.

Jesus is the Little One – to have child-like faith.

Jesus is the Blind – to lead him.

Jesus is the Dumb – to speak for him.

Jesus is the Crippled – to walk with him.

Jesus is the Drug addict – to befriend him.

Jesus is the Prostitute – to rescued from harm.

Jesus is the Prisoner – to be visited.

Jesus is the Old – to be served.
Jesus is the Broken -- to be Restored.

 

 

To me –

Jesus is my Comfort.

Jesus is my Healer.

Jesus is my Life.

Jesus is my Forever Faithful.

Jesus is my Peace.
Jesus in my Guide.

Jesus is my All in All.
Jesus is my Everything.

Jesus is Where I Belong.

I am His.