June 9, 2016

MY FRIENDS, “BUT” AND “NOT” ARE THE KEY TO OUR PERSONAL NARRATIVES

Narrative is defined as “a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or false.” And since it is about you and I it’s personal meaning each circumstances and situation is unique to our character and our own journey as we travel with the assumption from within that we will enter the promise land one day soon.

And my friends as each narrative is played out, we all seek the same ending, to live happily ever after in a place “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Cor. 2:9 (NKJV) The main characters are, You and I, and the Trinity. Those with a supporting roles will be the holy angels of God Satan and his forces of evil. We begin with four of God’s holy angels standing on the four corners of the earth, “holding the four winds of the earth.

And the merciful eye of Jesus gazed on the remnant that had not given there all to God. “Christ pleads with His Father, “that He had spilled His blood for them. Then another angel was commissioned to fly swiftly to the four angels and bid them hold, until the servants of God “were sealed with the seal of the living God in their foreheads.” Rev. 7:2-3 (NKJV) (E. G. White, Early Writings, p. 38) Consistent with this you have the forces of evil causing many of God’s children to fall in combat, right here at the threshold of the promise land. Some narratives end in the arms of Christ, but many die in their own sins.

As the holy angels go back and forth as the process of finishing history in each of our narratives is played out. Our accuser Satan, harasses our protecting angels, tell your Boss He actually died for Betty who abuses her body with unhealthy eating and gossiping John and lying Mary and whore-monger Ben and thieving Kathy. And what will lazy Peter do in heaven surely he will be bored to death without a TV and a XBOX.

Satan knows our over saturation of the things of this world along with our propensity to sin against his enemy and our Lord and Savior. So we must all look into our mind body and soul and see if the accuser of the brethren is correct or have we completely destroyed self and given our all to Christ. Remember my friends, sin “shall not rise up the second time.” Nahum 1:9 (KJV) Calvary, made sure of that.

In addition, “NOT every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; BUT he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Matt 7:21 (KJV) Those two words “NOT” and “BUT” shows “the overwhelming contrast” between those whose narrative is to do the will of God and those who feel because they go to church each week and get entertained by the Holy Spirit that they have a right to “the tree of life.”

Remember we no longer “speak, understand, or think as Children, but we are men and woman who know the difference between right and wrong” So “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. So in the eyes of God we must be “safe to save” so when Satan makes his final accusations against us, God can say “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 1 Cor. 13:11 (KJV paraphrased) 1 John 2:4 (KJV) Rev 7:14 (KJV)

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June 6, 2016

MY FRIENDS, ARE WE HAPPY WITH THE SEASON OF OUR LIFE TODAY?

“We have to understand it will always be darkest just before dawn which at times it seems like it is the Hardest Season of our life.” But we must endure through our faith as we make God the center of our life because “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:17 (NKJV)

My friends, we are closer to victory than we have ever been before.” And closer to a child of God means entering those pearly gates into that place “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man [or woman] The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Cor. 2:9 (NKJV) My friends, its personal today because we all have separate seasons of our life that will change with each situation and circumstances that arises.

And at times, the change from season to season is a very slow process because that insurmountable mountain seems to only get steeper. But Paul tells us to be “stedfast [and] unmoveable [in our season], always abounding in the work of the Lord” 1 Corinthians 15:58 (KJV) Yes my friends, we must serve God continually. And at night we may “cry more then we pray” but our God is still our Savior who gave it all for our salvation. So thank God for where we are on this Journey and this season we are at today.

In addition, every heartaches and pain of our life, like the seasons, is only temporary, like this temporary home we call earth. But we must be strong until we hear “well done, thou good and faithful servant because those two words, “well done” are the only words that matters on this journey to the promise land along with Christ approval of the way we have served him on this short probationary period He has given His Chosen while on this earth.

So our daily prayer should be Lord thank you for my Season because in the depths of my despair your promises tell me to be strong and courageous [in my season and out of my season and] not to fear or be in dread of [anything, for it is the Lord my God who goes with me every step of the way because I know with full assurance that] He will [never] leave [me] or forsake [me].” Deut. 31:6 (ESV)

And so my friends, if our desire is for life eternal in God’s kingdom we must allow God to set limits and established his will in our lives. Yes it is true, we would prefer the perfect season throughout our life, but that would not prepare His children for those “great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.  And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” Matt. 24:21-22 (NKJV)

So as we move closer to Christ second coming, Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 4:2 (ESV) to “be ready in season and out of season;” So friends, as of today, I don’t know how God does it. Can’t explain the where why or how I manage to get through it all day after day, but what I do know is the season that I am in today and I pray you feel the same, it is only that part of our life which will prepare you and I for the next level of our life, which is Life eternal in God’s pure and holy kingdom.

June 5, 2016

MY FRIENDS, ABOVE ALL ELSE GUARD YOUR HEART!!

“Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.” Prov. 4:23 (NASB) My friends, it’s personal today because when we talk about one’s heart or mind, we are talking about one’s anatomy that cannot be exchanged with our neighbor down the street. A transplant is incapable of producing any results of who we are spiritually in the sight of God. In addition, it is the heart that changes the entire trajectory of our life where we begin to call, evil good, and good evil; [and we begin to] put darkness for light, and light for darkness; [and] bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Is. 5:20 (NKJV)

And friends, this change can take place “in a moment in a twinkling of an eye.” How else can we explain the narrative in 2 Sam. 13, where Amnon the son of David loved his sister Tamar. And not as a brother would love another sibling but as one would love their spouse. Consistent with this, he loved her so much that he became distressed and physically ill. And so he plotted, and the plot turned into him physically rapping his sister.

(v,15-17) tells us, as soon as he finished this great sin against God and man, “he hated her exceedingly, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. And Amnon said to her, “Arise, be gone!”………..Then he called his servant who attended him, and said, “Here! Put this woman out, away from me, and bolt the door behind her.” My friends from love to hate “in a moment in a twinkling of an eye.”

This is why it is so personal, because only God’s Spirit can change our life in the “discipline and instruction of the Lord” Eph. 6:4 (ESV) and not in just a “twinkling of an eye” But from the point we begin the process of eliminating self  and establishing a personal relationship with Christ His word and Spirit, all the way throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. But we must have a passion to love God and serve God.

Amnon’s life ended with his brother Killing him. What a tragedy brought on by Satan when we don’t guard our heart. But then you have Moses who was raised from a Child to a man of forty years old in Pharaoh’s court. But it was the early years of Moses life where His parents taught Him to love the Lord with all his heart and soul. And to always guard the heart against enemy infiltration for “this is essential for a life without sin,” “for it is out of the good treasure of [our] heart [that] brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart [will] bring forth evil.” Luke 6:45 (NKJV)

Remember, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it [except the one who made it and who can change it, except the one who made it?] Jer. 17:9 (NKJV) “So Moses left Pharaoh’s court after killing an Egyptian and fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, and for forty years God transformed His heart into one where He had a passion to love, and defend God.

And he lead the children of Israel out of Egypt to the threshold of the promise land, “after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years……. Acts 7:23-36 (NKJV)  And now my friends, He resides in the courts of Heaven. Oh the power of the love of God when “we guard our heart”

June 4, 2016

MY FRIENDS, CAN WE FIGHT SATAN AT UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS?

Today, we are in the trenches of this world. And the enemy has us surrounded on all sides along with many minefields of doubt and complacency. But my friends, we can never let the enemy scare us, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Tim. 1:7 (NKJV) And that sound mind should give us the power of discernment to understand that we “do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age………” Eph. 6:12 (NKJV)

So now we must remember that Satan is a strategist and a master of manipulation and as he “sees the Lord’s servants burdened because of the spiritual darkness that enshrouds His people. He hears their earnest prayers for divine grace and power to break the spell of indifference, carelessness, and inactivity.” (E.G. White Snares of Satan p 519) And as the faith of many begin to waver and the endurance level weakens, Satan gains a renewed zeal.

And as he hears the prayers of the weak, he applies his art of manipulation at unprecedented levels that we are witnessing today in the 21^st century as he begins to scare many into getting off of that narrow road that few will remain on that leads to that beautiful home where he once lived. Onto that wide and easy road that many will travel that leads to perdition as the indulgence of appetite, television, internet and other “forms of self-gratification begin to benumb our senses.

And at that point we fail to hear God’s Spirit and see the very things that a child of God needs to finish this journey Christ has placed us on. But my friends that is when fasting and prayer and a renewed study in the word of God must also be taken to unprecedented levels. remember friends we are children of the Most High God, and Satan has no power over us, “because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” 1 John 4:4 (NKJV)

And because of that power that is attempting to destroy each of us daily we must forever seek that righteous power source of Christ at unprecedented levels as we “lift up [our] eyes [daily] unto the hills, from whence cometh our help, which is from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. In addition, He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth His faithful will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth His children shall neither slumber nor sleep.

So we must remember, the Lord is our keeper, also the Lord is our shade upon thy right hand. And the sun shall not smite His faithful who endure by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve us while we are in the trenches of this world from all evil and He will preserve our soul and the Lord shall preserve our going out and our coming in from this time forward and throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity when we will be living in that place.

Yes my friends, that place “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”  and For them that renewed their faith each day. and For them with a passion and a zeal to serve, and went out and sowed the seeds of God’s message to the world. and for them that endured till the end and were saved.] Ps. 121:1-8 (NKJV paraphrased) 1 Cor. 2:9 (NKJV)

April 20, 2016

MY FRIENDS, AT THE END OF THIS SUNSET, WHAT WILL OUR REWARD BE?

“This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”…… Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck Goliath the Philistine killing him.

Victory with only a sling and a stone. A boy after God’s own heart at the time, not quite a man. My friends, we must have the faith of a mustard seed before we can become a man or woman after Gods own heart and then we will be able to say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you or I. Matthew 17:20 (NKJV) Earlier Goliath the giant stood on top of a mountain and threatened king Saul and the other Israelite’s.

“Oh ye of little faith” should have known nothing is impossible through God. But this uncircumcised Philistine was allowed; to “defy the armies of Israel and their God crying out; who do you have to defeat the great and powerful Goliath, bring them out. When Saul and all Israel heard these words, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.” If only they knew God and what He will do for all those who seeks His presence daily.

My friends, I ‘m not here to talk about how much faith you may or may not have. But what I need all of us to focus on today as we make it personal, are the words and warning from Christ Himself in  Matthew 7:13-14 (NKJV) “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” And now, think about the narrative in 1 Samuel 17 where you have the Philistine army and there Giant Goliath on one side. On the other side you have king Saul and His entire army of veteran soldiers in God’s army. And David who was in the middle of them both. Now its his time to cry out.

“You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” My friends only one out of thousands knew who God was and had  allowed His life to be transformed into His Image becoming the only man in God’s word who is referred to as a man after God’s own heart.

Only one seeked God’s presence daily. Only one stayed on that narrow road and found his way to life eternal. My friends, the bible is given to us as a road-map for our journey here on this earth. I can’t say how many on the battle field that day gave their lives to God. But what I can say, if we placed 1 Samuel 17 into the 21^st century which one of us would be able to separate ourselves from this world.

And who will be able to stand in the middle and represent God in all situations and circumstances of our life and at the end of one sunset and the beginning of an eternal one, when Christ brings “His reward with him, and gives to each person according to what they have done.” where will we stand.

March 7, 2016

MY FRIENDS, IF WE OBEY, WE WILL BELONG TO GOD FROM AMONG ALL NATIONS!!

“When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God,………you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, ….” Joshua 3:1-4 (KJV) This was directions given to the Israelite’s new leader, Joshua who replaced Moses in leading the children of Israel to the promise land.

Joshua was chosen, because he had been this same way forty years earlier as he stood at the threshold of the promise land, only to be denied entrance because the Faithless multitude had refused to focus on where God had brought them from and where He was leading them too. But how does one forget the plagues God places on Egypt in an attempt to show them, there is only one God?

And that one God is the “Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Rev. 22:13 (KJV)  How does one forget the parting of the waters at the red sea? And how does one forget the food of angels from heaven, and water from a mountain for thirst? How could one ever forget the breathtaking power of God at Mt Sinai?

And God’s personal Message, from Moses for God’s chosen people “Say this to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will obey My voice and keep My agreement, you will belong to Me from among all nations. For all the earth is Mine. You will be to Me a nation of religious leaders, a holy nation.

My friends, that message has not changed for His chosen in the twenty-first century for “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” Hebrews 13:8 (NKJV) In addition, He continues to carry us on eagles wings as He brings us to Him and if we will obey His voice and keep His agreement, we will belong to Him from among all nations.” if we believe.

For the blessings of God are “new every morning.” So now it becomes personal; Life, health. Food, clothing, friends, family and the love of companionship are all renewed each day my friends, “for Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes]. James 1:17 (AMP)

But we must understand that our Savior seeks a personal relationship, so He continues to knock at our heart individually even when “we have lost our direction, He becomes the compass for our way back to Him, He is the fire and light when nights are long and cold. In sadness, He is the laughter that shatters all our fears” So we must never become complacent and forget He is the one that gave it all for our salvation.

He is the center of our joy and happiness for all that’s good and perfect in this world and the world to come. And it all comes from Him who made heaven and earth, and all we have to do is believe” that He has established the plans and thoughts for [His children as we continue this Journey He has placed us on to the promise land], “plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, but plans to give us a future and a hope.” Jer. 29:11 (AMP)

Every excuse we may give as the reason we cannot serve Christ, was challenged and answered at Calvary.

MY FRIENDS, GRACE CONTINUES TO ABOUND HOW ARE WE RESPONDING?

In a speech made in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said, “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.” Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-10. (KJV) “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of ourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Friends, are we squandering this precious gift by allowing the god of this world to give us the impression, we can put off any real commitment towards our salvation.

Let’s just see what happens, surely there will be some Hollywood type big bang occurrence, we tell ourselves. God knows our position in the community and how dedicated we are to our civic responsibility. And  everyone at the office knows I go to church.

Some of my co-workers have even attended friends and family day with me. My friends, the world is deteriorating before our eyes, but God still reaches as far as he has too in extending an invitation for us to come.

He knows the battle is still being fought over the mind and body of His Children. But Christ will soon come to take those who have taken advantage of His grace and not squandered His blessings for our on benefits.

Remember, He knows His Children, and His children knows Him, because His faithful studies His word and seeks the outpouring of His Spirit daily. Paul states in Romans 5:17 (KJV), For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

”Grace my friends, simple grace, how sweet the sound!! Christ, came from His beautiful home, to this wicked universe to die on a cruel cross so that His grace and our Faith in His name and Him crucified would be sufficient for our salvation if we would only accept it as Gods favor.

A gift that is infinite and not by anything we have done, but because He loves us so much. But with His abounding grace comes an abounding responsibility that should grow daily.

But our responsibility requires action along with a shared vision to serve. Christ Himself tells us, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23 (NIV)

Deny my friends is where we should be in our relationship with God today because only through the denying of self will we ever be “safe to save” which tells our Savior we are ready to live throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity in His pure and holy kingdom.

My Friends, where there is no vision, the people perish…..Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)