Pay Attention! It’s Not About People But The #Principalities ~

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For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12)~~ Things are so tense right now, whether it’s Washington or the West Bank; to shops and schools or any other given place, but in so many places around the world; and worse yet, in our families and even in our own homes! People are at each other’s throats… and the burning question is “Why?”. Why are we in such a war with each other? Every little thing seems to bring up tensions nowadays. What’s so horrible about it is that it’s not just the big things like politics or social injustices and racial tensions, but LITTLE things are setting us off and we’re making them bigger than they really are.

The enemy is planting little seeds of discord among us and sprinkling just enough tension on it all and things are growing up into massive blooms of destruction of marriages, the family, friendships and every sort of relationship in existence. People cite things like race and status and other differences between classes of people. They bring up things like one’s affluence versus another’s struggle; the long-term hatred of a particular race. One says they’re trying to take this away from them or destroy that – that when “their kind” has a problem, they resort to violence so now everyone has to be on guard. Political, social and economic differences are just as tense as a racial divide these days.

Truth is, we’re all still…. people! We make enemies of people because they look different, or have different cultures or beliefs, or because they come from a different place… or simply because they’re a different … race! Sometimes it’s the simple words said by people, through the things that belong to our souls; and they labor to deface the heavenly image in our hearts. Seems like people can be experts at pushing our buttons. And the rapid-fire forums of social media contribute to and vastly accelerate the tension as so many more people and comments are made public within seconds of an activity. They can say or do just the right things to get your mind going and your blood boiling! Again, look back at this – – LITTLE things that are in and of themselves, really points of nothingness that have been transformed into the ticking time bombs of humanity and the acts of a war bigger than any two countries… man against man!

But the combat we often find ourselves in is not against human enemies, nor against our own corrupt nature; we have to do with an enemy who has a thousand ways of beguiling unstable souls. The devil assaults us through random thoughts in our minds. Once evil has gained it’s stronghold, it succeeds in keeping you from God’s purpose in your life. The devil can’t harm us but he is a master at getting us to harm ourselves. So what are we doing????Well, we riot and loot; we fight and lash out at each other as we all are tricked by the enemy’s evil principalities. If you look at the status of affairs in the world, look at the various movements and the overall mindset being developed by man these days – how many things that we were all raised to know as wrong have become acceptable practice? No, the devil can’t take us out but if only he can turn us away from God…and then against each other…gotcha! Again, the devil can’t hurt us but he can get us to hurt ourselves and each other through his twisted plot!

Therefore my friend, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph 6:13-17).

Friend, Don’t let people get to you! Don’t be fooled by the tricks of the enemy; but know who the ‘real’ enemy is and what’s happening around you! We must resolve by God’s grace, not to yield to Satan. Give no place to the devil! Resist him, and he will flee. If we react, we give way, and he will get ground. If we distrust either our cause, or our Leader, or our armour, we give the enemy an advantage. May you pray and receive when antagonized, that fruit of the Spirit… Self Control.

Wake up!

You Do You ~ I’M Serving God! ~

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The fool has said in his heart “There is no God” (Ps 14:1); The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place? (Ps 24:1-3)~~

In the beginning, God began the beginning. He did not begin WITH the beginning, He IS the beginning; He BEGAN the beginning; God existed before the beginning began and when the end is over, He will still be God! He is Alpha and Omega – He exists on both ends of eternity – everything starts with Him and nothing ends without Him; and everything in between, He did. He never had to consult with you or I in His creation or when He put the sun, moon and stars in the sky. He didn’t need our permission to determine where to put grass or water or mountains; yet they are all perfect! He didn’t need our advice on how to create our bodies and make us unique; yet we all function and contain more intelligence, greatness and un-duplicatable specialty than the greatest human mind could possibly imagine or understand. Yet in all these things we as His ‘creation’ have the audacity to question His authenticity as our creator! We look to things that man has ‘crafted’…from the creations of God (by the way)… and with our “God-given” talents we dishonor Him.

We have the unmitigated GALL to question His EXISTENCE because He doesn’t answer the way WE think He should!!! We take a negative situation to use as ammunition to question the very presence of God and we seek answers to our curiosity as if looking to disprove His existence and we play around with intelligence and then credit ourselves with the creation of life itself. Our own efforts become our source and salvation. Ultimately, We as the ‘creation’ put more emphasis on serving the ‘created’ rather than the ‘creator’! We have elevated ourselves to be the gods of our own lives. Some of these ‘unbelievers’ even constantly ponder and challenge ‘us’ with the question: “Who is this God? What if you’re all wrong and after this life on Earth, that’s IT? What if all of this focus and attention on God is part of the longest running scam in history and that all of our focus and guiding our lives with this ‘faith’ and ‘integrity’ and ‘nature of goodness’ does nothing more than rob of us what could be while we have time? Why should I believe in Him?” Okay, so looking at that point, if God doesn’t exist; if living your life under guidelines and decent Godly principles means you’ve wasted your life because when it’s over, it’s over.. then the loss is yours. If that were the case, then your life is what you make it. But here is my question: what if the unbeliever is wrong? What if God’s promises “are” real, what if there “is” a beautiful eternity prepared for us but we decided not to believe? For the unbeliever, nothing changes…when life ends on Earth, it’s over and for eternity there will be nothing for them but separation from God…but for the believer, there is God and all He has promised…forever. Whether it’s true or not, we have not seen and could say we really don’t know, but my faith says yes and that’s what I believe! An unbeliever may think I’m “insane” but I’d rather risk being insane in faith and having my eternity than righteous as a self made god to myself that is counting down to my end.

And if it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve… as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!

Creation or the Creator ~ Where Is Your #Focus Set? ~

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ONLY fear the Lord, and serve HIM in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things He hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king (1 Sam 12:24-25)~

We sin if we restrain prayer, and if we withhold reverence and worship to The Lord. When we serve to give focus to those things of creation rather than the Creator, we make them a god before us. Whatever we make a god of, we shall find it to deceive us. Creatures and creations in their own places are good; but when put in God’s place, they are vain things. We are bound in gratitude to serve God, considering what great things He has done for us; and we are bound in interest to serve Him, considering what He would do against us, if we should still do wickedly.

My friend, Refuse to serve anything aside of God, never allow your prayer and worship life to become dull, but pray that you have the burden of prayer in your hearts rather than become comfortable in the stagnant hopelessness of the ‘world’. Understand many problems of the world can be revealed and resolved in prayer. If we consider what great things the Lord has done for us, especially in the great work of redemption, we can neither want motive, encouragement, nor assistance in serving Him. For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people. (1 Sam 12:22).

Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth (Col 3:2)

You Are On God’s Mind! ~

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I will rejoice in doing them good. (Jeremiah 32: 41)

How heartwarming to the believer is the delight that God takes in His saints! We cannot see any reason in ourselves why the Lord should take pleasure in us; we do not even take delight in ourselves, for we often have to groan, being burdened, conscious of our sinfulness and deploying our unfaithfulness. We are fearful that God’s people cannot take much encouragement from us, for they surely can see our many imperfections and our follies, and so be caused to lament our infirmities rather than admire our graces. But we love to dwell upon this transcendent truth, this glorious mystery: As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so the Lord rejoices over us.

We do not find it written that angels give His soul delight; nor does He say, concerning cherubim and seraphim, “Thou shalt be called Hephziibah…. for the Lord delighted in thee.” But He does say all that to poor fallen creatures like ourselves- debased and depraved by sin, but saved, exalted, and glorified by grace.

“What Is Man That You Are Mindful Of Him?”

Don’t Take My Meekness For #Weakness ~

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Everything around us—the world, the culture, the people—tends to applaud power and strength, independence and intelligence, boldness and superiority. Jesus highlighted something different however, saying:

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭5‬)‬‬‬‬‬‬

Meek: gentle, humble, or submissive; modest, mild, or unpretentious. How many of us see that as a weak, pushover type of person. In today’s society that’s exactly how I’m looked at if I’m this way. But you can be certain that meekness isn’t weakness. Meekness is strength under control. It’s power submitted to God’s authority. Imagine the situations you face on a daily basis. How easily can we “pop off” and speak our mind… reacting to the stimulus of temptation to blow somebody up with a good cussing out; or putting our foot down to establish our identity to someone; just so we seem strong? What if I told you that it took a lot more strength to exercise the fruit of the Spirit of self control?

Now, if “meek” isn’t a word that you’d use to currently describe yourself, that’s okay. Jesus wasn’t speaking to those who had it all together—and He isn’t expecting a perfect version of us, either. Instead, He’s extending a blessing on who His people were (and are) becoming.

God is continually developing these beatitude traits inside of His followers. He’s refining, sanctifying, and transforming us to be more and more like Him. (Think about it, if God wasn’t gentle, humble or mild… we’d be in hell already). Jesus Himself is called “meek.” But as you probably know, He was far from passive, apathetic, or a pushover. Instead of relying on His own power—like summoning legions of angels to avoid hanging on that cross—He leaned into God’s strength and restrained His limitless power.

Jesus’ upside-down kingdom will be packed with those who harness their strength for God’s glory and who humble themselves at His feet. Now that’s strength!

Meakness Isn’t Weakness

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Mean, Nasty, Rude.. Downright Ugly! Stop Drinking #Hatorade ~

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Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers (Eph 4:29)~~ People have always been rude, some will tell you that’s just human nature. But rudeness has gone to a whole new level especially since the advent of social media! What people seemed ashamed to say to someone’s face can now be easily posted on Facebook, or tweeted, or typed anonymously on a blog or web forum.

Why are people so mean today? Maybe we have watched too many reality TV slugfests; listened to too many politically charged sparring sessions on talk radio; found entertainment on all of the gossip shows on television or read too many hateful comments online. It certainly seems that all this toxic dialogue has desensitized us, and we just don’t care about or just don’t know how to bite our lips and say anything kind. And while I’d love to say that Christians are immune to this epidemic of harsh conversation, that’s just not the case. Sometimes God’s children are just as mean as everyone else, even if they don’t drop F-bombs as often.

Many of us used to hear from parents and grandparents the old adage “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all!”. Yes, there used to be rules for arguing, but today— the gloves are off, all verbal, written, texted, tweeted posted, snap-chatted and tik-tok’ed weapons are allowed and there are no referees. It’s an all-out free-for-all!

What we need is a restoration of the qualities of the great commandments of our Savior – “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Matt 22:37,39); What we need is a revival of genuine love.

So many of us need to let go of unforgiveness. The main reason people have anger seething under the surface of their hearts is they have not forgiven people who hurt them. Holding resentment in your heart is not only unhealthy for you (it can cause stress and lead to different forms of disease); it is also toxic for those around you, because they are subjected to your bitter venom when you speak. Forgive people quickly and allow the sweetness of God’s love to neutralize the poison. People today need to get healing from past abuse in order to stop the abuse they dish out. Many people are verbal abusers because they were abused, bullied, rejected or judged in the past. If that was your story, you can break the cycle through the power of Christ. Let Him teach you how to love people, even if you or no one in your past knew how. Also, seek the wise counsel of a mature mentor who can model Christian love to you, and take the risk of building healthy friendships.

My friend, ask God to renew your heart – “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Ps 51:10). God wants to put His very heart inside you, but He can’t until you make room by getting rid of every hateful attitude. Open your heart wide, and let His love invade the places you have closed. His fervent love can change a bitter, angry, cynical critic into a kind, gentle, affectionate lover of people. Finally, go on a fast from negativity!! Be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Rom 12:2); Take every thought captive (2 Cor 10:5) – choose to love. Many Christians fast at the beginning of each year to ask God for personal revival. But you can fast from anything you want and still be spiritually unchanged if you are complaining, grumbling, criticizing or spewing hateful words from your mouth every day. Ask God to set a guard over your mouth to instantly convict you of unkind words and actions that quench the Holy Spirit – Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips (Ps 141:3)!

Heart, Mind, Mouth and Thumbs – Be Happy – Be Blessed – Be a Blessing!

Know Jesus; Know #Peace ~

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For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:38-39)~~

God having manifested His love in giving His own Son for us, can we think that any thing should turn aside or do away that love? Troubles and trials neither cause nor show any reduction or loss of His love. Whatever we may be separated from, God’s love remains. Nothing can take Christ from us; Nothing can take us from Him; and that is enough.

We may surround ourselves with the possessions of this world, but what vain things are they! Can we say of any of them, “Who shall separate us?” We will eventually be removed from possessions, pleasant dwellings, family, friends, and estates. At last we must part, if by no other means, then by death; saying then farewell to all this world accounts as most valuable. And what is left for the poor soul, who has not had Christ? Nothing but that which they would gladly part with, but could not; the condemning guilt of all their sins!

But the soul that is in Christ, when other things are pulled away, even in death, cleaves to Christ, and these separations pain him not. Yes! Even when that horrible death comes, that breaks all other unions, even that of the soul and body, our soul is carried into the nearest union with its beloved Lord Jesus, and the full enjoyment of Him forever.

In this I am forever comforted! I don’t care how much of anything you have… If you don’t have a loving relationship with Jesus now, you will never know Peace!!

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Another year of age and bodily decay; but 365 more Spiritual Rejuvenations! #Life ~

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For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16); For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life (2 Cor 5:1,4)~

We have this body or this tent; the outer shell; a temporary dwelling place, in which we sojourn till the day comes when it is dissolved and we enter into another realm. But there is something inside the tent, the inner man; the “building from God” with which we earnestly desire to be clothed in this other habitation, that our earthly mortality may be swallowed up by eternal life. This body we occupy may be punished by injustice, illness or age – BUT WE ARE MORE THAN THE BODIES WE OCCUPY. The inner man part of us is NOT SUBJECT TO DEATH AND DECAY – this part of us will live on beyond the death of our bodies and will enjoy a more glorious existence when mortality is swallowed up by life, and God has guaranteed this!

We are therefore motivated to faithfulness and endurance, longing to shed the outer tent and enter into another existence to eternally serve and to adore God. What does it matter if our body-tent is destroyed? This body will wear down, be sick, inflicted, corrupted and eventually die, but this light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory! There is more to ‘me’ than just the ‘body’; and while this body is slowing down, the Spirit is gaining more and more life with every day.

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Chase After #GodFirst – You’ll Catch Him; Guaranteed! ~

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But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matt 6:33)~

We spend our lives constantly chasing after things, achievements, status and stature. We demand from the other person things that they are not capable of giving.. and we are so adamant on receiving those things we want for our human comforts that we go to any source to get what we want…except the right one..God! Every anxiety of man is centered around the temporal things that surround our lives. It doesn’t matter who you are or at what point you are in life..we are more concerned about not having our stuff rather than not having our eternal salvation. This trap ensnares the poor as much as the love of wealth does the rich.

Take this as an encouragement to trust in God. God has given us life, and has given us the body. And what can He not do for us…who did that? If we take care about our souls and for eternity, which are more than the body and its life, we may leave it to God to provide for us food and raiment, which are less than life itself. Thoughtfulness for our souls is the best cure of thoughtfulness for the world.

Seek FIRST the kingdom of God, and make His business your business. Contrary to the ‘world view’, this is the not way to starve; no, it is the way to be well provided for, even in this world. The will and command of the Lord Jesus, is that by daily prayers we may get strength to bear us up under our daily troubles, and to arm us against the temptations that bring them, and then let none of these things move us. Happy are those who take the Lord for their God, and make full proof of it by trusting themselves wholly to His wise disposal.

People and the the things of this world will never fulfill us because our flesh is never satisfied, it always wants more. When we get what we want, we seek MORE and will go to any length, especially sin..to have it! We are carnal! Let the Spirit convince us of the sin in the want of this disposition, and take away the worldliness of our hearts. When you chase after God first, you ALWAYS catch Him!

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Will You Be Ready? #StayWoke ~

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For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man (Matt 24:37-39)~~ Concerning Christ’s second coming, it is foretold that there shall be a great change, in order to the making all things new. Then they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds. At His first coming, He was set for a sign that should be spoken against, but at His second coming, a sign that should be admired. Sooner or later, all sinners will be mourners; but repenting sinners look to Christ, and mourn after a godly sort; and those who sow in those tears shall shortly reap in joy. Impenitent sinners shall see Him whom they have pierced, and, though they laugh now, shall mourn and weep in endless horror and despair.

Men of the world scheme and plan for generation upon generation here, but they plan not with reference to the overwhelming, approaching, and most certain event of Christ’s second coming, which shall do away every human scheme, and set aside for ever all that God forbids. That will be as surprising a day, as the deluge to the old world. They were secure and careless; they knew not, until the flood came; and they believed not. Did we know aright that all earthly things must shortly pass away, we should not set our eyes and hearts so much upon them as we do? The evil day is not the further off for our putting it far from us. No, every advance, fashion of technology or realm of ability we have is powerless against that which God has set in His own time!

What words can more strongly describe the suddenness of our Savior’s coming? Men will be at their respective businesses, and suddenly the Lord of glory will appear. Women will be in their house employments, but in that moment every other work will be laid aside, and every heart will turn inward and say, It is the Lord! Yes, EVERY knee shall now end EVERY tongue confess!!!

Am I prepared to meet him? Can I stand before him? And what, in fact, is the day of judgment to the whole world, but the day of death to every one who is not in Him.

Yes, the Lord is coming and every day is one day sooner – no one knows the day or hour –
but Watch and Be Ye Also Ready

Will YOU Be Ready?
STAY WOKE!