Tag: Peace
Is the Kingdom Divided?
Is the Kingdom Divided?
Who does not recognize the extreme division in our country today. It is sad to see the separation causing so much damage to our culture. The land of the free, and the home of the brave, has become a boiling pot of anger and division.
I love this country and pray for it, and it’s leaders.
Still I look for the reasons why, and the path to make things better. Because of who I am I first look to myself, and to the church. Jesus shared the way we can make our world better.
Matthew 5:13-16
13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;
15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
16 Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven
The two operative words in these passages are salt and light.
Jesus used both words metaphorically. The Greek lexicon tells us the message that Jesus was giving His followers.
Salt comes from the Greek word, halas. Metaphorically it means, salt is a symbol of lasting concord. Wisdom and grace exhibited in speech. WOW.
Light comes from the Greek word phos. Used metaphorically to speak of truth and it’s knowledge. That which is exposed to the view of all. The power of understanding moral and spiritual truth.
We are the preservation, and the illumination of the world. So what’s the problem? The problem is that the church is often as divided as the world.
I recently heard a Biblical scholar say that Islam is growing much faster in this country than Christianity. The reason is, people don’t know what we believe. The message has been divided into many different presentations.
By the latest statistics since the Reformation more than 41,000 different Christian denominations and institutions have formed.
The church must return to the unified message of Jesus and the cross.
Those who have never followed Christ don’t know what we believe. Skip the theological principles and share with these people the story of Jesus.
The path to redemption is the story of the cross. The story of Jesus and His love and commitment to restore favor with the Father and forgiveness for our sins.
Maybe we should stop focusing on the sin, and focus on the Savior. Jesus, His birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension is the greatest story ever told.
Remember the old hymn, “Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story of Jesus, sweetest as ever I heard.”
What’s In Your Center?
What’s In Your Center?
The love and grace of God is an eternal flow. God loves unconditionally, and forgives with the same authority.
The last few years of my life have been a period of transformation. Understanding and revelation have been consistently communicated to my spirit.
I believe that should be true at some level, for everyone.
I love the word of God. I believe it is His inspired words. I also believe that it is fully revealed and understood, when read with spiritual revelation, study, and prayer.
It has always been my hope, and my prayer, that I would bring just that kind of revelation to those that hear me share the heart of God.
I come to you, in His name, to share some thoughts titled, “What’s In Your Center?”
The Gospel message, and its presentation, has been my heart, and my concern for many years.
Over time the message has been corrupted with all sorts of add ons. Things are changing. We are entering a new season, but the church will always be tempted to preach a man centered gospel.
A man centered Gospel is all about God meeting our desires, our wants, and our needs. I strongly believe that God does want to do good things in our life. Yet the Gospel is not about getting, it is all about giving.
The message of the Gospel must not be man-centered. It must be Christ centered. Paul said it this way.
Roman 14:7-8
7 For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself;
8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
In 1st Corinthians the second chapter Paul shares His total reliance on the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:11-15
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
Would that we all would have a sincere, faith and confidence in God.
Appraises,appraised means, “To determine the excellence or defects of any person or thing.”
I Corinthians 2:15 AMP
But the spiritual man [the spiritually mature Christian] judges all things [questions, examines and applies what the Holy Spirit reveals], yet is himself judged by no one [the unbeliever cannot judge and understand the believer’s spiritual nature].
TLB
But the spiritual man has insight into everything, and that bothers and baffles the man of the world, who can’t understand him at all.
We should Understand and reveal the heart of God.
Colossians 2:8-15
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.
11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ
12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
Colossians 2:11 AMP
“In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but by the [spiritual] circumcision of Christ in the stripping off of the body of the flesh [the sinful carnal nature.
In Peter’s second letter, while writing to several cities, influenced by his ministry, he said this.
2 Peter 1:3-4
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.
This is not man-centered stuff. This is Christ centered.
Revelation 3:20-22 Amplified
20 Behold, I stand at the door [of the church] and continually knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him (restore him), and he with Me.
21 He who overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God], I will grant to him [the privilege] to sit beside Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down beside My Father on His throne.
22 He who has an ear, let him hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
We have a responsibility to build our life, our hopes, and our dreams around the Gospel message of Jesus. Working from the center out our world will change. Our lives will be enriched, and promises will be fulfilled in our life with Christ.
Would you make Jesus the center of your life today?
#inHisname #hopelives
Do You Not Know?
Do You Not Know?
I love the Lord. Together we love the Lord, as a body united to give Him glory. To praise Him for His greatness. To worship Him for who He is. Unified in our purpose to make a difference in the world we live in.
We walk in faith. Believing that God has called us, and positioned us to fulfill destiny. Our individual destiny, and our corporate destiny will define this body. It will be what people remember long after many of us have gone to our eternal destiny.
I want to share 2 verses before I get into my message. It will kind of set the tone for the rest of the day.
Philippians 4:6-7 Amplified
6 Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your [specific] requests known to God.
7 And the peace of God [that peace which reassures the heart, that peace] which transcends all understanding, [that peace which] stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus [is yours].
“Isn’t that awesome?”
I come in His name to share some thoughts titled, “Do You Not Know?”
My mind has been focused this week on how God thinks. It came to me while remembering something that happened more than 38 years ago. I may not get to that, but when I considered understanding God’s thoughts this came to mind.
Isaiah 55:8-9
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Since I can’t fully understand His thoughts, for just a few minutes I want to talk about what He has said. It is relatively easy to understand what He has thought, by what He says.
Exodus 32:1-3
1 Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
2 Aaron said to them, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”
3 Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.
Moses was gone a relative short time. The people needed a god that they could embrace. One that they could see.
Little has changed even today. “It has always been easier to believe in what you can see, than it is to believe in what you can’t.”
God responded to this lack of faith.
Exodus 32:7-10
7 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
8 They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’”
9 The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people.
10 Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”
Anybody wonder what God was thinking?
The word obstinate interested me. God used it in the same context in Exodus 33:3 and 5, and in Exodus 34:9.
In the KJV the Hebrew word is translated, stiffnecked.
It is used figuratively to mean, “apostasy.”
Today the word apostasy means, “The abandonment or renunciation of a religious belief.”
Here is what it meant in 1446 BC. “Faithless, turning back.”
All the spoil they left with, still they wanted to go back.
Why? Because they understood and accepted where they were at. They did not know what awaited them ahead, and they were afraid.
How many today want to live like they are, and never move forward in the Kingdom promises of God?
Romans 11:1-4
1 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
3 “Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.”
4 But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
“No matter how much division there is. There is always someone held close to God. Someone He has kept close, called to carry on His purpose.”
David said it this way.
Psalms 55:22 Amplified
Cast your burden on the Lord [release it] and He will sustain and uphold you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken (slip, fall, fail).
What’s my title?
Isaiah 40:28-31
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.
29 He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power.
30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly,
31 Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
Moving forward, not looking back!
“inHisname”
I’ve Been Sick
I’ve Been Sick
Well folks, this week has been a mess. Last Saturday night I ran fever all night. Felt good enough to preach so I did my best all the while trying to stay away from folks so I wouldn’t pass it on. Whatever it, is.
Fever continued the next couple of days along with a deep seated cough. Fever has subside but the cough has not. Although it is better.
I want to thank all of my church family, and friends that have been praying for me. I feel the strength of your prayers.
Please pray for Betty. To those who know me the reason is obvious. When I am sick I am a big baby.
This is not meant to be a special report on my illness. I mainly want to let everyone know I appreciate your prayers and comments.
I also want to address a couple of issues before I close this blog.
Yes I know, I am not as young as I used to be. Guess what? Nobody is as young as they used to be. LOL
Secondly, my kids in particular have wanted me to go to the Doctor. Probably should, and would if the over the counter stuff didn’t work.
Doctors are awesome. Their education and experience is a gift from God, and their dedication to help humanity is amazing.
When this stuff has come on in the past few years I have gone to the Doctor to get a shot. They wouldn’t give me a shot because they said my blood pressure was too high.
No kidding, the blood pressure machine was across the hall from the finance office. Just saying!!
I hope to return to my daily prayers and posts. Thanks so much for the prayers and the well wishes.
God is awesome and His comfort and peace has kept me focused.
God bless all of my friends and family with His favor and grace. In Jesus name.
#lovewins #hopelives