Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Hey

I know - long time no post - *blech* to you my friend ;)
This is my blog - not yours - you post when you want to on Your blog - I post when I want to on mine, fair enough?
There, that being said, I had a wonderful evening - started innocently enough, was given a PC to troubleshoot by a friend (Win 98 BTW... EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!) OK, anyway, needed to get a PS2 mouse, so I went to work to borrow one. As I went to leave, I got to my car and remembered it was Wednesday night, prayer service night. My good friend and mentor Everett works an odd shift (1 -9:30PM) and so has not been able to attend those meetings at the church. I was moved to go back in and the two of us (with the Lord as well) held our own prayer and remembrance service. What a wonderful opportunity for the two of us to testify and praise the Lord! Amen - Selah! (Pause and reflect...)

One of the tings I testified about was - as Christians we are to bring our sins to the cross, to lay them at the feet of Jesus. Well that - my friends - is a lot easier said than done - I testified that it was like we take our luggage to Him just to show it off. "Look Lord, Louis Vittan - or American Tourister!" And we take it away with us. We don't leave it, we might open it up, rummage through it, but we don't leave it. It's OURS! Darn it, we suffered for it! It's by Gosh ours...
Thing is, is ain't. Thing is He suffered for it. Thing is He died for it. Thing is He was born again to TAKE IT AWAY FROM US!!! Pride... Ignorance... What do we deserve this Grace and Faith for anyway? If we can't trust Him enough to take our sins and make us whole. Short answer, we don't deserve it. We are in no way worthy of it, that's the beauty of it, "For God so loved the world; He sent His only begotten Son, that who ever believes in Him shall not die..."
For God so loved the world, He loves you, He loves me, His Son - through whom all of creation was made and is held together - came here and died for us and then on the third day rose from the dead! That we might receive His gift of Grace and through Grace, Faith, and through that Faith - Salvation.
When I was being baptized - for real - into the body of Christ, I was asked for a testimony of God's love. All I remember saying was; My God, the creator of all things, came to Earth and died for my sins - I cannot picture "I Love You" being said a better way, Amen - Selah!

So there.
I am blogged out.
I do pray that the Lord lifts up His face to you, that you realize He has Never turned His face from you, that His hand is Always on you, His peace is right there with you. Open the door to your heart, invite Him in, accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, confess your sins to Him and be forgiven. I pray that His will be done throughout the world, in all things in His time. I pray that He give us all the wisdom to see it, know it, and act upon it - all to glorify His name.
Suggested reading: Proverbs (The whole book, but chapter 9 really); John 3:16-18; Acts 4:8-15

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Stuff

'Ya know, I was just thinking - I have talked and witnessed to folk who tell me - and I have even said it - "Oh God doesn't exist" or "God hates me" or "I don't believe in God" or words to that effect - well think about this. You are you, human and don't believe in anything but you - someone you do love and care about - could even be a stranger, someone you have never seen before - is getting mugged or raped or whatever - treated badly - do you call 911? Do you care? What do you think God would do? Would He call 911? You bet He did. Meet Jesus, God's answer to 911.
Tell me He don't care, tell me He hates you, tell me He don't exist.

You breathe don't you?, your heart beats doesn't it? The sun rises in the morning.
Look outside yourself for just a second - I know it gets scary out there, but try it - You'll see a big, bright, wonderful God waiting to welcome you home. Wanting to forgive you, willing to wash away all your sins, just to take you home.

Doesn't exist... Yea, right.

If you are one of those who say that - shut up for a minute - turn off your mp3 player, TV, whatever it is that keeps you occupied and listen to your heart. You can be forgiven! YOU can be forgiven. Listen and believe.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Hello

Not really much today, but I did want to post something - just to stay in the habit.
Been talking and learning more and more about the Good News - spending time in His Word, wonderful, truly wonderful.

The lesson Everett and I are working on right now is 1 John - to be honest, I didn't think I'd like John's writings, but now that I am studying them more closely, I think I do. In his gospel, he comes across - to me - kind of dry and a bit heavy handed. But in his epistle - totally different. Very open and descriptive, really brings the love of Christ and the love of The Father home to me. Also he describes the Holy Spirit in a way I can understand - this from a Huge fan of Paul :)

In 1 John - he writes about the fellowship of Christians - fellowship between them and God - as well as the fellowship between Christians and the importance of it. Short version - It's Really Important! But it's easy to do. Reading and talking about the Word are the best ways to fellowship with Him, and when we, as Christians, read and discuss the Word between us, we all grow in His faith, we all learn the many ways to bring Him the glory, we all learn the ways to follow His commandments (and also just exactly what they are - Hint: 1 John 2 -1:29) In other words - we learn how to have an open and honest communication with our God and Saviour, and at the same time we learn how to have a loving and honest communication with each other.
Cool beans :)

Well there 'ya go - just thought I'd drop by and say - what I thought would be nothing - but when I get started talking about the Lord - I just can't say enough :)

Peace and here's Hoping (inside reference - subject for another discussion) for your faith to grow in the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ - and if you don't know Him - Then I really Hope you do soon - John 3-16 - "For God so loved the world, He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not die, but have everlasting life." Just listen to your heart, Listen to the quiet voice "You can be forgiven" Doesn't matter where you are, what you are doing, simply close your eyes and admit you are a sinner and ask Jesus to forgive you - He will. He loves you.

See you again soon ;)

Friday, June 1, 2007

Joy and happiness

A request from one of my support crew - here ya go Jewle.
*But first - I wanted to throw this in - I know - I missed adding the "He made the boxes" reference, and... The other is another lesson ;)*

One day I was having fellowship with my good friend and teacher Everett, and in the scripture we were studying were the words happiness and a short time later the word Joy. Written just like that, happiness then Joy. Everett stopped us for a moment and asked me, "what is the difference between happiness and Joy?" His eyes smiling, because he knew, and knew it would be a good lesson for me, I thought about it and said I didn't know. Everett said "happiness happens by happenstance - Joy is grace from the Father." He went on, "It's easy to be happy with the Lord when everything is going good, but how do you have Joy? By praising Him when things aren't so good, that's when we really NEED to praise Him. That is His glory, that is His sacrifice through praise."

About a week later I got to find out just what he was talking about - trying to replace the brakes on my car - and the pads were the wrong size and I couldn't exchange them, cd-burner on my new laptop going out, the car insurance company taking everything I had in my bank account and leaving me overdrawn. All Joyful events, I was mindful of the Lord and truly praised Him at each turn. Joy.

It's easy to praise when you are getting all you want, but are you a fair weather friend?