So Long Self! (Mercy Me)

The Christian life is about the "exchanged life." When we come to Christ, we reckon ourselves to have died with Christ on the cross. We take up our new life that is found in Christ. This is what being 'born again' is all about. It's the exchanged life. We give Him all of our "bad" and He gives us all of His "good"...what a great deal (for us). Yes, Jesus is back in His rightful place, with the Father, but He had to take on an incredible amount of suffering to redeem us back to Him. Praise you Lord Jesus for the marvelous things You have done!

The way to increase faith is to "say."

This is one of Joseph's best teachings on faith. Take the 12 minutes to hear him. It's really good, church, and we all need to learn how to have victory in our lives.

We increase our faith when we "say!"

Speak to your "tree" or your "mountain" today!

Blessings

One Thing Remains -

Jesus Culture (lyric video)

His love for you never fails!

His Faithfulness

We want it to be said of us that we declared God's love and faithfulness. That's what this blog is all about. Our desire is that it would at all times lift up the name of Jesus. Jesus is the central figure in our Christian faith. He is our Redeemer. He is the Lover of our souls.

Psalm 40:10 says, "I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great assembly."

The Lord is our spiritual food supply. We need to feed on His Word. Just as we eat physical food every day, we (our spirits) need the spiritual food that is only found in the Word of God. It is a book like no other. It is "living and active."

Psalm 37:3 tells us, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness."  Blessings to you today!

A Free Conscience

What does it mean to have a "free" conscience? Well, what I believe it means, and what Paul says about it in Gal. 5:1 is that we are free from the condemnation that comes from failing when we try to live up to a set of rules and regulations. (the law) Paul refers to it as a "yoke of slavery."

The Bible says in Rom. 3:23 that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," which we have heard preached a lot from the pulpit, but there is a comma there along with the remainder of the sentence, that many people seem to omit. Verse 24 says, "and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." It means that Jesus fulfilled the law [for us] so that we don't need to be concerned about it any longer.

Sin means falling short of the mark of perfection. Our sin(s) problem has been removed and thrown into the sea of forgetfulness. Jesus tells us that He will remember them no more...(see Jer. 31:34) Jesus was (and is) our perfect sacrifice; the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.

 Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 

Galatians 5:1

Amplified Bible (AMP)

5 In [this] freedom Christ has made us free [and completely liberated us]; stand fast then, and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery [which you have once put off].

Help My Unbelief

Jesus, in the book of Mark, says an incredible thing...

        25 Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible
             to him who believes."  Mark 9:25

The operative word there is "If." Such a tiny word, but what an important word. The sentence Jesus spoke was said in the context of a deliverance miracle and the account of Jesus' transfiguration, in the presence of Peter, James and John.

The disciples had failed to be able to cast out the mute spirit from a boy and Jesus had rebuked them for it. He almost sounds as if He was somewhat weary and maybe a bit annoyed with them as He said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me."

I know Jesus well enough to know that whatever He said to them, He said in love. He is Love, after all. But, I also believe He expects us, at some point, to mature and to exercise our faith, cast out the unbelief as the evil thing that it is, and begin to see those things we pray about and for come to pass. "If you can believe..."

The Lord spoke to my heart in church this past Sunday as the Pastor was preaching on faith. He (the Lord) spoke, "Believing has nothing to do with seeing." It may seem too simple, at first glance, but don't gloss over it.. Read it over several times and then begin to meditate on it throughout the day. It's a word from God.

Lord, we cast out the "unbelief" and choose to "believe!" It doesn't matter

what I see in front of my face. If the word of God has given me a

promise about something, and I believe it, it will be mine.

Scandals

In our day and time we seem to be bombarded each and every day in the news with one scandal after another, concerning our federal government. It's very easy to get "stuck" there... focusing for many hours a day on these issues. I'll confess that at times, I have been guilty of this very thing.

But I know, in my heart of hearts that it's wrong for a Christian to be focused on the "negative." We need to be aware, yes. We need to be involved where possible, yes. But do I let the bad news determine what kind of day I will have? No. I guess you could go back to the "tree of good and evil" in the Garden. God didn't want Adam and Eve to "feed" from that tree. He doesn't want us to "feed" off  of the evil things we see and hear about in our world today. It does not bring us nourishment or health for our bodies or our souls, and in fact, does just the opposite. God tells us exactly what to meditate on in His Word.

Philippians 4:8

New King James Version (NKJV)

Meditate on These Things

8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

Grace Teaches Me

Grace is an amazing thing...

But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions~it is by grace you have been saved. Eph. 2:4-5

There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  Rom. 3:22b-24

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope ~ the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, Titus 2:11-13

Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given to me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,  Eph. 3:8

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Pet. 1:13

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17

But He said to me, "My  grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Cor. 12:9

His grace is sufficient for us!

Meditate

When I think about the Lord, I so often think of all the times He has been there for me, how He saved me, He has kept my body well and healthy (never had a broken bone), He healed my mind and my thoughts in so many ways, He reminds me of His word throughout the day, He has kept my children healthy and so many other things. My soul is happy in the Lord!

Psalm 104:34

King James Version (KJV)

34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.

Was your innocence stolen?

There is healing for every hurt.

If your innocence was stolen from you as a child, I want you to know

that God cares. Whether it be from emotional, sexual or physical abuse, 

your heavenly Father never intended that for you. He hurt with you.

The first requirement for healing to take place is for you to be born again. 

Jesus, in John chapter 3, tells us we "must be born again" in order to see

the kingdom of God. It's really being born of His Spirit, by the Word of God.

We believe what the Word says, concerning Jesus~His life, death, burial and

resurrection, and that He came to give us life. For me, it was coming to the 

end of myself, knowing that "I" couldn't do it. 

[See the Salvation Prayer on this blog]

The next step is to ask Jesus to help you forgive the person or persons 

who hurt you. He will forgive them through you, and begin to release

 you from the pain you have endured. Unforgiveness is poison.

He will set you free from that.

 Then start learning about how much God loves you. Read His word

 and ask Him to show you how much He loves you! He will amaze you. 

God is love...and His love is enough!

Obedience

Do you place more faith in Adam's sin (is it greater?) or in Jesus' death and resurrection? Our only obedience is to the faith. Faith in what Christ has 

done on our behalf! Hallelujah!! When we are obedient to the faith, we will
be obedient to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus has to be Central

Make Jesus the Center of your Life!

In so many or our churches today, we have storytellers,

we sing songs that talk about our desperate conditions and our lack.

In this video, Joseph talks about the book of Revelation and the account

of Jesus standing at the door and knocking. We have used that account to

give an illustration of Jesus knocking at the door of one's heart, for 

salvation. But, in reality, Jesus was knocking at the door of the Laodicean

church. He wanted to be central in their lives, just as He wants to be

central in your life and in your church. I pray that our churches would

begin to lift up Jesus as the central figure and point people to Him! Let's

keep our focus on Him ~ He is altogether lovely!