PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU

Excerpt from Jesus Calling devotional ~ When you trust Me in a given area, you release that problem or that person into My care.


One of the scriptures from that devotional is from John 14:27 (amp) ~ Jesus is speaking to His disciples, "Peace I leave with you; My own peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled."


This spoke to me perfectly this morning.  I've been struggling for a while with a particular relationship, and that has had an effect on others.  I've also had much anxiety and stress related to my 24 year old son moving back home (which is an answered prayer, and another story), spiritual warfare in my own home, and to top it all off, there's the stress of dealing with the "c" word (I won't say the word. I won't give it legs to stand on) that has effected my mom, my sister-in-law, and numerous friends and acquaintances.


It is a daily struggle to release all of this to Jesus.  I love the amplified's version, "Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed..."  That is exactly how I've felt; agitated and disturbed.  VERY disturbed!


Abba Father, I release all of my worries, my cares, my anxieties, my troubles, and my fears to you, right now!  I release this person to You, Father.  I release my mom, my sister-in-law, and each of my precious friends to You!  I place each of them into Your perfect care!  In Jesus precious name, it is done!

NEVER FORGET

Watch this film, as we approach the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, remember the families, and friends of those who lost their lives on that day.  Pray for God's protection over this land.  Pray for revival.


http://aclj.org/war-on-terror/jay-sekulow-presents-forever-changed-9-11-in-remembrance-full-film

SIGNS OF THE END TIMES

Just a short while ago, along the East Coast, we experienced a substantial tremor from a 6.0 earthquake in Virginia, near Richmond, which is not completely unusual, but does not occur frequently.  And with that, as Christians, we are always keeping our eyes open for the signs of the end times.  It is my belief that we are indeed in the end times.  It is true that natural disasters, famines, disease, pestilence, wars and rumors of wars have always occurred, but these things are as birth pangs, becoming more frequent, and more severe.  Look at cancer, for instance.  With all of modern technology, we are still seeing more and more and more cancer. I have never in my life known personally so many with cancer.  It is my hearts desire to see each an every one of my family and friends surrender their lives to the God of Israel, and accept His gift of sacrifice He himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, has offered freely to us.  I beg each of you to accept this awesome gift of life everlasting, before the day comes when it will be too late.

Matthew 24

The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times

 ¹ Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ² “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” ³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
 ⁴ Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.
   ⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
   ¹⁵ “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’^[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. ¹⁸ Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. ¹⁹ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ²⁰ Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
   ²² “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. ²³ At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. ²⁴ For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ See, I have told you ahead of time.
   ²⁶ “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. ²⁷ For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ²⁸ Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
   ²⁹ “Immediately after the distress of those days
   “‘the sun will be darkened,
   and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
   and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’^[b]
   30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth^[c]will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.^[d] 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
   ³² “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³ Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it^[e] is near, right at the door. ³⁴ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

The Day and Hour Unknown

    ³⁶ “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,^[f] but only the Father. ³⁷ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.   ⁴² “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³ But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
   ⁴⁵ “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? ⁴⁶ It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. ⁴⁷ Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁸ But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ ⁴⁹ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. ⁵⁰The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. ⁵¹ He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE

I wasn't out of bed, this morning, more than 10 minutes when poo hit the fan.  When the enemy realizes he can't get you in one area of your life, he goes for the next one.

I got up to muddy dog prints all over the kitchen floor, so I quickly and quietly started mopping them up...then I just had to open my mouth (my husband was in the kitchen eating his breakfast).  I made a harmless (what I thought was harmless) comment about the dog scratching up the hardwood...well that canon-balled into a full on fight that lasted all of 30 seconds.  Words flew out of both our mouths, the front door slams and tears start rolling.  Wow.  What a way to start the day (I'm not agreeable until I've had my cup of coffee). 

Well let me tell you, it wasn't a minute after he went out the door, I heard the notification signal for my daily Bible verse app, coming from my phone.  I picked it up and looked at it through blurry, soaking wet eyes, and the verse of the day was James 3:7-10.  

⁷For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea animal, can be tamed and has been tamed by human genius (nature).
    ⁸But the human tongue can be tamed by no man. It is a restless (undisciplined, irreconcilable) evil, full of deadly poison.
    ⁹With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who were made in God's likeness!
    ¹⁰Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so.


Though the words I spoke were not necessarily evil, by human standards, they were evil by God's standards.  They were undisciplined and poison.  They were hurtful, and did nothing to build up my husband.  They were an offense against him.  What I understand this scripture to say, is that when say things that are hurtful to people, we are also hurting God.  He is a personal God, and His heart is broken when we behave in ways He never intended for us to behave, just as we as parents are hurt when our children behave badly.  God created us in His likeness, to be in perfect communion with Him, but when we sin, we break that communion (yes, spouting off at the mouth is a sin), and we are then separated from Him.  But the good news is, when we ask forgiveness He is anxious to forgive and bring us back into communion with Him.


Moral of the story...shut your pie hole, 'cause if you can't say nothin' nice, don't say nothin' at all.  Have a super blessed day!

HOW CAN A LOVING GOD SEND ANYONE TO HELL?

How can a loving God send anyone to hell?  Good question.  Here's a good answer.  http://www.christianityexplored.org/tough-questions/alovinggodandhell

If there is a God, then why is there so much suffering?  This is one of the most asked questions about God.  http://www.christianityexplored.org/tough-questions/godandsuffering

PERSECUTION IS EMPOWERMNET

Let me start by saying, in this blog I am talking to my fellow believers, but if you're curious, you're more than welcome to read on.  Read at your own risk.  You've been warned.


I am just home from an awesome, awesome time of worship and fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I serve an awesome God, and I am not ashamed to shout His name from the mountaintops. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel (good news) of Christ, for it is God's power working unto salvation [for deliverance from eternal death] to everyone who believes with a personal trust and a confident surrender and firm reliance... Romans 1:16 (Amp) 


Some would try to stifle me by saying that a social media forum is not the appropriate place to share my faith.  I say it is the perfect place!  Some would say it is force feeding my faith onto unwilling subjects.  I say it is my right to free speech, and that anyone who may be offended has the freedom to choose not to read or view my posts. From the beginning it has been my heart's desire to share the Good News to everyone I have contact with.  I am aware that it is not received well by some, but I will venture to say, only a few, in comparison to the encouragement and positive reinforcement I have received by most.  


I've been told I am crazy, and tagged with a number of labels because of my faith,  People are often fast to put labels on something they don't understand, and brutal with their words because I refuse to sugar coat the truth. Even one Christian acquaintance came against me, saying that my Christianity is not necessarily her Christianity, and my response to that is that my Christianity is the Christianity taught in the Holy Scriptures, and if you don't have that Christianity, then you don't have any Christianity.  Just because you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and you sit in a church pew every Sunday doesn't mean you are a Christian, even Satan knows that Jesus is the Son of God, and I'm positive that Satan is not a Christian, and I've actually seen Satan sitting in some churches.  A head knowledge of this truth is not the same as a relationship.  Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven." Matthew 7:21.  Being a Christian means actually living FOR Jesus Christ instead of living for yourself, having the desire to be pleasing to Him, actually wanting His will for your life. Being a Christian means acknowledging that Jesus is the ONLY way, not one of many ways. There is ONE God, and ONE Savior.  Some say my truth is not their truth.  I say there is but ONE truth, and that is what is written in the Holy Scriptures, spoken by Jesus Himself in John 14:6, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." 


I want to encourage other believers to take a stand for Christ. To be bold for the Kingdom.  Jesus says in Matthew 10:33, "Therefore, everyone who acknowledges Me before men and confesses Me, I will also acknowledge him before My Father Who is in heaven."  I don't know about you, but I look forward to the day that Jesus, Himself, with His arms wrapped around me, says to the Father, "This is my daughter, in whom I am well pleased."  What a glorious day that will be!  


These are the DON'Ts.  Don't sugar coat it, people!  Don't sit on the fence! Don't be lukewarm, 'cause Jesus will spew you out of His mouth (His words, not mine)!


These are the DOs.  Do take scripture seriously!  Do be bold for the kingdom!  Do be on fire for Christ!  Do be proactive in sharing your faith to a lost world!


Lastly, if you don't like what you just read here, and you hate on me, you only empower me to do more of the same, because persecution for Christ's sake is an honor.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it." Isaiah 30:21 NIV 

God was speaking to the obstinate nation of Israel, but this is true for all of us today. The definition for obstinate is to stubbornly refuse to change one's opinion or action, despite attempts to persuade one to do so. Have you been obstinate? Have you heard that voice in your head that says, "Don't do it!", or "This is what you should do!", but refuse to listen to that voice?

The bad new is that here are consequences for taking the wrong path, for making the wrong choices. The good news is that God is always ready and willing to forgive us when we confess to Him that we have made the wrong choices in life, gone our own way...when we have sinned. 

A couple of antonyms for obstinate, are yielding, and submissive. When we yield, or submit to that voice, to God's voice, He will honor our obedience with abundant blessing, and the promise of eternal life.  His ways are far better than our ways.  So when you finally decide that your way isn't really working out for you, surrender to Him, and receive your blessings.

Above All -- Kaitlyn Maher -- 5yo

Live as children of obedience to God; do not conform yourselves to the evil desires that governed you in your former ignorance when you did not know the requirements of the Gospel. But as the One Who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your conduct and manner of living. For it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. 1 Peter 1:14-16 (AMP)

~ This scripture really jumped out at me and got my attention this morning. Bear with me as I share a little about my struggles. In my "former ignorance" I was an alcoholic. I'm not talking about having a drink or two every day, or even having a few too many on the weekends. I'm talking about a full blown, drink a 12 pack (or more) at least five nights a week, kind of alcoholic. The kind that is still standing after that many beers. The joke was that I could drink most men under the table. Not a legacy I care to leave behind when I'm gone from this world.

Eventually, I came to the end of myself, and after many years, and much crying out to God to deliver me from this prison, He did it. I stopped drinking immediately, without so much as a twitch or tremor. I had absolutely no withdraw side effects, as I should have. Now that is divine deliverance. I had absolutely no strength to stop on my own. The only thing I did was have the willingness and desire to quit. He, and only He did the rest. That was January of 2006.

For nearly three years, alcohol never touched my lips. It felt good to be free, and to think clearly for the first time in MANY years. But then came our 25th wedding anniversary. We went to Savannah to celebrate, and our hostess gave us a complimentary bottle of wine. We pondered and debated whether or not to have some. We finally gave in to the temptation and were sorry for it later. It was another long stretch of time before we had a drink with lunch, then another stretch, and so on. We seemed to maintain a certain level of restraint.

And that brings me to today. As I read this scripture, I am wholly convicted. I am absolutely not where I was, but I am absolutely not where I want to be, or should be. As the stresses of life take their toll on me, I find myself wanting that drink more often, and that terrifies me. At the same time, I find myself more drawn to my Savior and all He has to offer. It is a constant battle between my "old man" and my "new man", but with God's strength and power the "new man" will always win. Hallelujah! I will most certainly fall from time to time in many areas of my life, but I know that my Savior, Yeshua, will ALWAYS be there to pick me up and put me back on the path that leads to life everlasting.

Even Paul struggled with obedience. He himself wrote in Romans 7:15-24, For I do not understand my own actions I am baffled, bewildered. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe which my moral instinct condemns. Now if I do habitually what is contrary to my desire, that means that I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it. However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin principle which is at home in me and has possession of me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out. For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am ever doing. Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it it is not myself that acts, but the sin principle which dwells within me fixed and operating in my soul. So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands. For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self with my new nature. But I discern in my bodily members in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh.

This scripture gives me much hope and peace. For I know that I am not alone in the struggle of obedience to my Father.

Lovely Day Bill Withers