Getting To Contented

(Exodus 5:18-23 ) Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks. And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh: And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us. And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. Are you getting content and settled about the way things are shaping up in this country, in the world? If you are don't be. No jobs, not enough money to pay the bills or by food, more of our freedoms being taking away by the government, Muslim terrorist Trying to insert their religion and ways in our lives and many other things! Could things get worse. Yes things can get worse and they will before the rapture of God's Saints. But let me remind you: "There is a light house". There is deliverance on its way! Remember the narrative of the exodus from Egypt by the Hebrews? It is a story of miracles, yet in the start of this true story when Moses first came before Pharaoh to free the Hebrew Children from slavery, the Israelites were tempted and became mad because of the hardships that were laid upon them. They showed their anger at Moses because suddenly they were told that they would have to gather their own straw for making bricks. Things got really hard for them. They were concerned about offending their slave-masters, fearing that they would slay them. They had no spiritual vision at all. The Hebrews were so accustomed to their slavery that they didn't want their lives and routines interfered with in spite of the fact that freedom was staring them in the face. The Hebrews were Prepared to accept this wretched way of life, they totally failed to take in or realize the freedom that was looking them in the face and soon to be there. They were thinking about the short-term price: the extra suffering and great pressure that would be before their freedom and deliverance. The same can happen to us. It has often been said "The darkest night is just before the dawn". We are children of "The Most High God" and for you that are down hearted and depressed just remember that God will deliver you the same as He did the Hebrews. Satan can see his rapidly coming defeat and he is working overtime to stop it. Don't let yourself accept any kind of burden or bondage that you know is of the Devil, but rather do this: "Seek and believe for the freedom that God has given us through His Son. Stand on the promises of God and believe in them. Have that mustard seed faith and watch it grow to were you will be helping other people and winning lost souls. LOOK UP AND SEE WHAT IS DRAWING NIGH!

Surprise Your Enemies

(Romans 12:20-21) Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

We know and can read that The United States, in its past history, found itself in the midst of a terrible and harsh civil war over the growing problem of slavery, and many other differences. At the end of the war there was over a half million soldiers, from both sides who had died. There were many people in the North who were so resentful and full of hate that the South had pulled them into such a awful war that they wanted the South to pay dearly. When the war was over, a small company of Southerners was granted an audience with President Abraham Lincoln. His gentle, kind and friendly personality quickly softened the hearts of his once-hardened foes and the Southerners left the interview with a deep respect for the man who had been their bitter enemy. Not long afterward, a northern congressman criticized Lincoln for "befriending the enemy!" He suggested that he should have had them shot for being traitors instead of welcoming them! Lincoln's said, "Am I not destroying my enemies by making them my friends?" how true that is and it shows the love that Lincoln had in his heart. As Christians we must do the same thing. When we serve the Lord we can expect our share of enemies. We should never let anger grow up because of our enemies, but rather, seek to win them over with gentleness, kindness, and even love. We should and must show our enemies the Lord's grace and His peace through actions and response. When we do this, we "heap coals" upon their heads! Satan wants to provoke us through our hatred, and their unfriendliness. Don't let the devil do that! Instead, stun your enemies, not with angry vengeance, but with love that comes straight from heaven.

When I was about 14 or 15 years old I was a loner because I never fit into the crowd. I did not march to the beat of the young crowd's drum and for that reason I was disliked by them and hated by many. It become hard for me to walk down a street for of the fear of them beating me {which by the way did happen on several occasions} or chasing me. I began to hate them and thought of ways to seek my revenge on them, But the Lord spoke to my heart and I did not seek revenge. I just let it go. Now later in my life I have become friends with the most of them and have helped many of them in different ways. One of these men had a brother who was dying of cancer. I helped his mother, sister, and his dying brother for months every day until the brother died. The man came to my house and thanked me for my kindness and went away by shaking my hand. I believe that This is the way that Our Lord wants us as Christians to handle our enemies. In this life time a person will never overcome evil with evil, but we sure can overcome it with God's Love and what He said, "Overcome evil with good." When Jesus comes to live in your heart we change the way we want to think and do things. We look at things in a different way. Your enemies will be surprised and taken back. You will find in most cases they are no longer your enemies. In this day and time it makes no difference if we are black or white, from the north or south hate should not be part of our lives. Hate will destroy you.

Not long ago I had the privilege of sitting and talking to a pastor on his church steps. He was black and I was white, but there was no barrier between us because we were caught up in talking about our Jesus. We were and are spiritual brothers. We had a great time that day talking and we will always be friends. There was no hate or dislike between us, only the sweet presents of the Lord, and that, my friend is what heaven will be like!

STOP CROWING - Adorn Yourself in True Treasures!

{Revelation 16:15}
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. Here is a present-day contemporary parable to read, to think about and to apply to our lives..
The king of the birds was looking in the mirror, one day, at himself and was disappointed and dissatisfied to see that his feathers were not as bright and pretty as they once were . "I am getting old," he said, "I think it will soon be time to choose a new king". He decided to make known that on a certain day. When that day comes all the birds will gather and present themselves before him so that he would be able select from among them the most beautiful and charming of them all to be the next king. The crow heard about the king's plans and his approach to pick a new king. The old crow began to worry and become upset. The old crow said: "There are so many beautiful birds in the kingdom and I am only a colorless, dull looking crow. I don't have a chance at becoming king." All of a sudden, he had a great idea. He began to hunt through the woods and fields for colorful feathers fallen from the wings of his companions, and jammed and wedged them in with his own. When the prearranged day, to pick the new king, finally came all the birds had assembled before the king. The crow also made his appearance arriving in his array of fine feathers that he found in the woods and field. When the old king took notice and saw the crow and all the good looks of his plumage, he without more ado chose the crow to be king. As the conceited and self-righteous crow pranced down the aisle with arrogance and conceit to accept his crown, the other birds began angrily plucking out their feathers from between his, leaving the conceited crow nothing but an old black crow. Too often, we try to "improve our worth" by adorning ourselves in " beautiful " possessions. Fine clothes, cosmetics, jewelry, friends, money, power, fame among all the others, tops the list. I was just like that old crow because I guess you could say in my life time I have did all these things. I had money {and wanted more}, nice things, everybody knew me as a town councilman, police chief, business man, owning many houses, etc. All these things, how good they may be and look, has really done nothing for me because I'm still who I am. What is true worth? There is really only one way to improve our appearance and how we are. We must put our faith in the Lord and walking unconditionally and with all our heart with Him. No matter what the world around us thinks, only He can improve our fallen condition and our search for happiness. Those feathers we find in our life and use aren't going to fool anyone, especially our King [Jesus}. Let's come to God as we are today and ask Him to adorn us with the feathers (riches) He desires. They are peace, patience, love, joy and all the fruits of the Spirit. Please do not get me wrong! There is nothing wrong with having nice things or being well known. It is when we use these things to impress people that we go astray. We are who we are and only a relationship with the master will ever change us!
I really started to see the light on this subject when I had a heart attack, business was really bad, {not as bad as it is now}, my wife, at the time, left me for a younger man, I hardly had any money and I was just like that old crow my pretty feathers were coming out. I went to work in a nursing home for only a small amount of money that I was making before. I felt just like that old crow. I was just hurt over all this, but my hurt started to turn to joy. As I worked there I noticed the old people there was so glad to see me every day {for who I really was} and for the very small things that I did for them, like reading a passage from the Bible for them, talking to them about the Lord, filling a bird feeder outside of their window for them. Just going into their room and saying a word to them, giving them a smile was so important to them. As time went by there I noticed that I was the same person but I looked and acted different. I was beginning to get new feathers, my own, because that was and is who I really am. Keep your true garment on and be clothed in what God would have you to be clothed in.

Real Freedom

Have you ever stopped to think that just being there, in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a real, genuine and bona fide liberty, and freedom from the bondages of sin and being controlled by things that are common to this world. It is a liberty and freedom that no one can take away. No matter where you are, in church, at home, or just driving down the road in your car, how great it is to feel the presents of the Lord. People have been released and set free from addictions, set free of horrible illnesses, diseases, infirmities, and even death, just simply and plainly by placing their hope and faith in Jesus Christ, not some great person, or church denomination, nor the government with all its programs. If you are a true born again Christian you have most likely been called a Jesus freak, a Bible toting idiot, crazy, fanatical, and a lot of other things. The most vital and important fact about being a Christian, however, is not only the many blessings we receive while here on this earth, although they are very important, but it is the very freedom and independence from eternal and everlasting darkness, the very sting and hurt of death itself. If you are saved by that precious Blood, that flowed from Calvary then you are free from that everlasting eternal darkness that all the ungodly believers will someday face. That is the darkness that will never end. Jesus overcame death and the grave for us. The cause for which He suffered was not His own, but for our sins, our transgressions, and our infirmities . No matter what comes upon this world in our life time we know that we have liberty through Jesus Christ our Lord, and just think soon and very soon we are going to see Jesus and to be in His presents forever, we will be able to sit at His feet and we will reap the benefit of being a child of God, which is everlasting life. There will be no more heart aches to bare, no more pain, and no more suffering. There just will not be no more. We will only have peace and joy. This is real liberty that you can only receive through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Count It All Joy

{James 1:2-4}My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. When Daniel was in the midst of the lion's den…God was with him. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in the midst of the fiery furnace our God was with them. It would have been just as easy for God to immediately transport these saints out of their difficulties, but no, He chose instead to be with them in the midst of their trials. God chose to reveal His power through the trials instead of exercising His power to remove them. Trials and difficulties are simply a part of life and to be honest with you, the longer I walk with the Lord the bigger these trials become. But how do we react when our faith is challenged by these adversities? James 1:2 says to count it all joy! What could possibly be joyful about difficult situations? Painful, yes, but joy? Yet, somehow, I do find joy in knowing, and even sensing that God is with me in the midst of my problems -- in the midst of my trials. He did promise never to leave or forsake me; and as I look over my life, I find it to be absolutely true...no matter what crazy situation I'm in, God is with me. I can look back on my life and see how The Lord kept me and upheld me as he did the Hebrew Children. We all have this decision to make: either to complain because of the trials we're enduring...or to prayerfully lift our souls before him (Psalm 25:1) ...and rejoice in the midst of our troubles -- knowing, believing, and even feeling, that God is with us, now, always, all the way!

DAVID & GOLIATH - The Five Stones

 And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine. (1 Samuel 17:40)

Did you ever stop and think why David picked up five stones on his way to fight Goliath? Why did the Bible say he picked up five stones, from a brook, instead of just saying that he picked up some stones from the brook? Is there something behind the five stones? According to other Hebrew writings that have been handed down, during that period in time and history, it is said that David picked up the five stones because Goliath had four brothers who were also giants, who also defied the living God. David was going to kill them all. If David did kill these other giants or not the history books do not say. Could this story be so? If it is, it explains the five smooth stones that were picked up by David.

A lot of Christians in today's world have more than one giant that they are facing, so why do we just pick up one stone? We need to do the same thing as David did and pick up some extra stones. Remember David was coming in the name of the Lord so it does not matter if it was one or five, a hundred or a thousand Goliaths. The Bible does not say anything about the other four stones. The Bible does say that Goliath had a brother, who was also a giant whose name was Lahmi. {1 Chronicles 20:5} Goliath other brothers I cannot find anything about in the Bible} so we must really examine the writings in other ancient and reliable history books to see if it is really the truth. I tend to believe that it is. David was on the battlefield for his Lord and he was going to keep on the firing line, just like Christians should do today. In other words, let us not stop until the job is finished.

We must never be disheartened by the power and pride of the church's enemies. We do not need to fear huge men that come against us while we have THE GREAT GOD that is for us. This giant defied God's people and he was made to pay for his disrespect. Nobody is more clearly marked for bringing down than those who censure God and His people. God will do great things rather than put up with the enemy behaving themselves arrogantly.

Lord Lead Me To The Promised Land

{Isaiah 43:19} Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. As a Christian are you walking through the wilderness? Are you having some pretty rough times? Are you asking: "Why is this happening to me?" There is a accepted belief, among many Christians, that an great quantity of wealth and other blessings follow those whose hearts are truly after God and that those who seem to constantly time after time struggle to that end, cannot possibly be in God's perfect will. I believe this is another lie straight from the devil his self! I want to suggest to you a understanding about this very thing. I think Christians who believe this might have it all backwards, so let us turn it around in the right direction. Almost all the great men of faith I've read about in the Bible had to spend some time in the wilderness. We all have read about Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist, just to name a few, but there are many more. Why are we any different? They became as desperate and anxious, just as we do today. What did God do? He caused them to calm down and to be quiet. The Lord wanted them to be undistracted enough, from the daily worldly problems to hear His still, small voice. He had to make them hungry and thirsty enough to cry out for a miracle. I read an article the other day from a Christian Blog about the wilderness and as I studied from God's Word I find that the word for wilderness, in Hebrew, is "meed-bahr". And it comes from the word "leh-da-behr", which means to speak. When these men of faith went through the wilderness It's hot by day, there was only rugged, thorny, sandy ground for miles and miles and there seemed to be no end for them. By night, the wind was unbearably cold and they stumble over things they could barely see. Snakes and scorpions live here. It seems like a lonely place. But it was actually a place of blessing! It was for their growth, and ultimately for their prosperity and success that God took them by that route! Like it or not it is the same today. The wilderness {in other words the rough times in our life} is where The Lord, to all intents and purposes, can speak to us most successfully. It is the place He can most easily get our attention. It is the place we will cry out to God and truly listen for His voice. Please know that God is with you today! He is walking along with us through this wilderness and the bad times that we are seeing. His desire and wish is to comfort and reassure us! If we would only cry out to Him and listen to His voice! The promised land is just ahead! And there's so much work to be done!! The devil will use anything he can to stop us from entering into that rest. Remember the story in the Gospels about Jesus feed the multitudes twice with just a few small fish and the many baskets that were left over. He will do the same for you today. We must remember that the people had their eyes fixed on Jesus and not their circumstances. Even though I'm personally going through some tough times {the wilderness} my eye is fixed on Jesus. Let yours be also.