Lord's Return

Malachi 4:1 "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch."

Malachi is speaking of what will happen to those who have chosen not to accept Jesus Christ as Savior. There is coming a day when the earth will be judged and all that have chosen to follow their own path will become as stubble in a flame. They will have nothing to save them. ]

Why, because they rejected the one that could have been their root and branch.

God bless you today.

Reward

James 1:12 "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him."

Everyone will have temptations in their life. How they endure them or overcome them shows what kind of person they are. A Christian will have Jesus in their life to give them strength to overcome temptation.

We as Christians love God with all our heart. God loves us without reservation. It is through the love of God we can overcome all temptations. And we want to remember we are not exempt from temptations. It is how we endure them and how we love God that we will receive the crown of life.

Heavenly Father I pray today for the strength to endure temptation when it comes. Thank you for your love that helps us endure. Bless each person who reads this.

Today

Here is a poem I came across, written by Joseph Addison Alexander. I want to share with you.

TODAY
There is a time, we know not when,
A place, we know not where;
Which marks the destiny of men
To glory or despair.

There is a time, by us unseen,
Which crosses every path,
Which marks the boundary between
God's mercy and his wrath.

To pass that limit is to die,
To die as if by stealth;
It does not dim the beaming eye,
Nor pale the glow of health.

The conscience may be still at ease,
The spirit light and gay;
And that which pleases still may please,
And care be thrust away.

But on that forehead God hath set
Indelibly a mark;
Unseen by man, for man as yet,
Is blind and in the dark.

He feels perchance that all is well
And every fear is calmed;
He lives, he dies, he walks in hell,
Not only doomed, but damned!

O, where is that mysterious line
That may by men be crossed,
Beyond which God himself hath sworn,
That he who goes is lost?

An answer from the skies repeats,
"Ye who from God depart."

TODAY, O hear His voice,
TODAY repent and harden not your heart.

Run the Race

Hebrews 12:1 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."

The race of life is so great, we forget that we are not alone. We think we have no one to turn to. Sure we have friends, but are they friends who will stand by us even when we have nothing. We have a friend who is greater than any earthly friend will ever be. We have a friend in our Heavenly Father Jesus Christ who is always waiting for us to call upon him in our good times and in our times of need.

We must lay aside every weight and sin which come upon us. The weight of despair, depression, loneliness. Instead we must praise God in ever adversity that tries to come against us. God can take our adversity and turn it into something great. We can't but God can.

My prayer for you today is ---God bless each person who reads and reaches out to you. Give understanding and wisdom to all your children. Guide us this day Father that we might walk the pathway you have for us. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen

God bless you today.

Praises

Psalm 149:6 "Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand."

We should get out of bed each morning giving praise to God for rest and the recoupative powers we gained during the time we were sleeping. God desires our praises every day. That is one of the ways we have to communicate with Him.

We should take our two-edged sword which is the word of God, the Bible, and study some each day. That is not only our sword but it is our guide to live by each day. If we study the word and pass it alone to those we come in contact with we will be better people.

God bless and have a great day.

Mouthgate

Today, I want to talk about our mouthgate. The power of the tongue is awesome. Once we speak we cannot take it back. It has been spoken and no matter what we said it is etched in stone (so to speak).

James 1:19 "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."

If we follow the advice James gives we will listen to what is being spoken first, and be slow to speak. That means we will be careful of what we say. We do not want to say words that will hurt. Once those hurtful words leave our mouth we cannot retrieve them. They cannot be unsaid. The hurtfull words just like the kind ones are lost in space and implanted in the minds and hearts of those the words are spoken to and about.

One rule to live by, If you can't say something good don't say anything.

God bless and have a great day.

Eargate

Eargate - what a word. We looked at our eyegate last week. We hear with our ears, therefore our ears are the hearing gates to our soul.

Mark 4:24 Jesus is speaking and he tells us to "Take heed what ye hear:"

We as Christians need to be very careful what we listen too. We may think it does not hurt us to hear things as long as we do not repeat them. If we listen to gossip it goes into our soul and even tho we may not repeat it. It is there and it makes us look at the people gossiped about in a different light. Our preception of that person has changed because we listened to gossip. What if the gossip was not true, you know how that little game goes. It may have started out as truth but when everyone gets through with it it usually does not resemble what it started out to be.

What about the music we listen to. Not all music is bad. Not all music is good. But if we listen to music that suggests sexual inuendos it makes us think about those things we probablly sould not be thinking about.

The argument is going to be - everybody does it, how am I going to learn about things, if someone tells we things, its not my fault. As Christians we can cut it off at the pass. Just say, "I don't want to hear about (that persons) problems. I don't want to listen to that kind of music. I don't want to see that type of movie.

Pray about it. My prayer today is we will all be careful about what we listen too.

God bless and have a wonderful day.

Eyegate

Our eyes are our gates to the world. We can see clearly or dimly or not at all.
What we see can be good, bad or we can look with selfish eyes. We can look with pride and be bostfull of those things we do.

Or we can look at the world through eyegates of love, kindness, compassion, and joy.

Jesus said "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

That pretty much sums it up for us. We should never cast a stone toward our brother without first looking to see what we are doing wrong.

Have a blessed day.

Things to Pray for!

Let us look at five things we should pray for in our daily prayer life. As we pray for others we want to seriously look at what God desires for each of us.

1. Pray for increased effectiveness, productivity, and fruitfulness. Pray that the persons will become more fruitful in every good work and deed.

2. Pray for increased devotional growth or spirituality. Pray that they might know him and draw near to him in increased intimacy.

3. Pray for an increase of strength. You could call this "increased durability," where the worker or person will have a thick skin like a rhinoceros, but with a tender heart.

4. Pray for an increase of faith.

5. Pray for an increase of joy. Pray that they will have a increased delight in the work of the Lord. Ask God to bless them and pray for a bucket of joy to be dumped on their heads. The joy of the Lord is our strength. (Neh.8:10)

Little Faith

I have been reflecting on the shield of faith the last few days. What if we have little faith? Peter if you remember had enough faith when Jesus said "come" Peter came and walked on water. However, a seed of doubt came into his mind and his faith became little and he began to sink. Does that happen to us sometime?

Matthew 14:31 Jesus speaking to Peter (and to us) said, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

Are we doubting this morning? We have been promised healing, prosperity, just to name two, but is our faith strong enough to accept these promises? Can we live our lives according to Jesus' teachings so that we may receive all of the promises he has in store for us?

My prayer this morning is for each of us to excercise our faith. The more we excerise our faith the more it will grow.

Have a blessed day.

Shield of Faith (continued)

We will conclude our thoughts on what is the shield of faith and what it does for us.

We are justified by faith and not by works.

Galatians 2:16 "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."

We are to live by faith.

Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

We are made righteous by faith.

Romans 10:1-4 "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."

Christ dwells in our heart by faith.

Ephesians 3:17

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love."

The Holy Spirit is received by faith.

Galatians 3:2 "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?"

Romans 14: 23 "And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin."

Where is you faith today? Are you believing the word? I pray that you are living in faith. By faith we were saved and by faith we live in this world day by day puting our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God bless you.

Shield of Faith (continued)

We are speaking on the Shield of Faith. What it is (May 8). Today we will be continuing to see what we cannot do without the shield of faith.

We cannot live victorious over the world we live in without faith.

I John 5:4 states, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."

We cannot please God without faith.

Hebrews 11:6 "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

We cannot pray without faith.

James 1:6 "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."

We cannot have peace with God without faith.

Romans 5:1 "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

We cannot have joy without faith.

I Peter 1:8 "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:"

Tomorrow we will be looking at what we can do with the shield of faith.

Have a blessed day.

Shield of Faith

Ephesians 6:16
"Above all, taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."

The shield of faith is a vital part of the Christian's armor. We are to put on the "whole armor of God, because as Christians our lives will be a warfare, a spiritual conflict. Paul names the different parts of the Christian's armor, he lists the shield of faith and emphasizes its importance by saying, "Above all, taking the shield of faith..." for with the shield of faith, nothing can hurt us; we are more than conquerors through Him. We can do nothing without the shield of faith.