Obadiah: God’s Justice

For those who think God is not on His throne and still at work. This is a Powerful message on the book of Obadiah. Obadiah: God’s Justice

Confidence to Face the Unknown

Here Confidence to face the unknown is some very sound wisdom for those of us who need some help when it comes to having confidence to face the unknown. It’s 24 minutes long, but you won’t spend your time any better than by listening to it. Just click on the title, sit back, and listen.

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10 ideas living the fruit of the Spirit

The following link is an excellent article, and one well worth taking some time to meditate on. 10 ideas living the fruit of the Spirit

Can You Find The Source of These Quotations?

If you like a challenge, try this. All these quotations are taken from the same source. Hint: I’ve mentioned before.

“God’s rules of action are immutable and therefore what He did to one company of His people He will do to others of them. God is Sovereign but yet He acts according to His unchanging Nature so that from one of His proceedings we may infer the rest.”

“God gave you all Covenant blessings in Christ Jesus according as He chose you, in Him, from before the foundation of the world. God saw you in Christ as His elect, His Beloved, His redeemed and therefore for you He prepared a kingdom which you inherit through His Grace. If you have now the confidence to believe in Christ Jesus and to say, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His,” then you shall know that in grasping gracious blessings you do but come to your own!”

“Beloved, who among us knows all that is ours in Christ? He is a case which is all ours, but we do not open its doors and take out all its treasures! Our possessions in Christ are very wide but we need to be bid, like Abraham, to lift up our eyes to the north and to the south and to the east and to the west, that we may form a clearer idea of the goodly land which the Lord our God has given us! We see the blessings of the Covenant but do we feed on them as we might! Do we drink deep into them and is our soul satisfied as with marrow and fatness by them? I fear we do not”

” it is your high privilege to have access to the Mercy Seat—but do you use that access and come often and boldly to the Throne of Grace? Do you avail yourselves of your opportunities? Do you make the utmost use of prayer?”

A Thought on “You’ve Got To Stand For Something.”

Maybe you’ve heard the old Arron Tippin song, “You’ve Got To Stand For Something.” If you haven’t you might want to view this before you go any further. I’m still hopeful that most of you might be able to catch a clue from just the title, but it’s better to make certain anymore than to leave any room for doubt.

Now in case you’re thinking I’m going to write about standing up for what you believe in, you can go ahead and give yourself a point, but you might want to hold off on giving yourself any more until you’ve read this thing through because there’s always the chance I might surprise you. I never was much of a baseball player, but I always thought it’d be the neatest thing to be able to throw a curve ball, so just imagine me standing on the pitching mound and winding up.

Over the last year, I’ve heard enough garbage to cover a small country, and that’s being kind if you want to know the truth. And if that’s not bad enough, I’ve heard it coming from every quarter and segment of society. We won’t even mention politics/politicians because to do so would almost be akin to flattering garbage, and yes, I’m being mean, and I know it, but I’ve never been much to hide what I think or feel, and I’m of the opinion it’s better to be honest and less than kind, than it is to be nice and a liar and a hypocrite. Sometimes you just have to call’em like you see’em.

You name it, I’ve heard just about every excuse, justification, rationalization, and every other word one can use to describe someone who stretches something to such extremes that to call it a lie would be like saying that Dolly Parton doesn’t have big boobs. I mean no disrespect to Mrs. Dolly, and I realize that someone reading this might be offended, and the United Nations might send me a letter for hate speech, and Chris Matthews might call me a ‘bumkin,” and our President might have me kicked off the internet, and if any of that should happen . . . Well, all I can say is “Thank God.”

The way I have it figured, somebody ought to at the very least say it because it sure doesn’t look like there’s very many people in this country who show much in the way of appreciation. I’m all for freedom, and I’d stand up for anyone’s right to say what they think, and to believe in whatever or whoever they choose, but when did it become acceptable in this country for everybody else to have their say and express what they think, and yet when it comes to my believing in and living my life for Christ, and wanting to share my love, and what I think and believe in an honest and (mostly) respectful way somebody else can attack me in the most hateful and ugly way.

Now, I want you to understand something; I’m not complaining about being treated by people who are hateful and ugly. I consider that an honor and a privilege, but just in the interest of freedom, respect, and just plain old-fashioned courtesy whatever happened to just listening to someone else’s point of view without trying to shout over them or call them all kinds of vile names. Why is it that every single minority and almost all groups, religions and philosophies are readily accepted, and every kind of filth is shamelessly promoted and encouraged, and yet when it comes to anyone who takes a different view or stands in opposition to anything-especially if they’re a Christian-then they’re labeled as being intolerant, narrow-minded, and bigoted, and those are just the nice words.

The shame of it isn’t that they’re attacking “Christianity,” but that they’re attacking the “U.S. Constitution” that guarantees my right to be one. You want to attack me for loving Jesus Christ, for believing that He’s the Son of God, and that the Bible is the infallible, inerrant Word of God, go ahead, and more power to you. As Clint Eastwood says, “Make my day!”

BUT, just consider this . . . if they’re willing to do away with the “U.S. Constitution” in order to strip me of my rights what’s to stop them from stripping yours?

I’m not asking you to believe the way I do, though I think and believe that my way is the right way, but is it too much to ask that the freedom I’m guaranteed under the “U.S. Constitution” be honored? If not? I’d like to ask you one more question . . . What would you like to say to the parents of all those who have shed blood and died for it?

What goes around comes around

The following post is a great read. Don’t miss it. What goes around comes around

We must take a stand by getting on our knees… Please share this and let your voice be heard if you know this is wrong

The Master's Table

I wish more attention were being drawn to this issue.  Millions of people lined up at Chick-fil-A back in August to support a Christian business owner’s right to free speech, but the plight of Hobby Lobby and other businesses fighting mandated health care – including chemical abortion – have garnered less support.

The new health care mandates that took effect Jan. 1 require employers to provide access to birth control, including emergency contraception.  Plan B is just one such method which causes a medically induced (or chemical) abortion.  Beginning on the first day of January, Hobby Lobby was facing a fine of up to $1.5 million per day – one and a half million dollars per day – for refusing to provide abortion coverage to its employees.  The new new loop hole buys them some time as the court battle continues.

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1000 WAYS TO DIE

1000 WAYS TO DIE.

Don’t let the guilt eat you up, you’re forgiven.

Don't let the guilt eat you up, you're forgiven..

A Thought On Asking “Why”

Unfortunately we live in a world of injustice. We see it all the time, and it’s easy to wonder why there’s such injustice in the world, and why it’s allowed to continue. I don’t know about you, but my thirteen year old girl constantly reminds me that life isn’t fair. She’s right; it isn’t. To be honest, I’ve even echoed that thought in my own mind and heart, and I admit to having asked the question “why” more often than I care to let anyone know. I’d say that if there’s one question that’s universally asked it’s the question of “why.” We ask in a variety of ways. Some of us shout it, some of us cry it, some of us get angry about it, some of us do all three at once, but I’ll bet it’s a rare individual that has never asked the question.

Since I’ve already admitted to having asked it, and more than once, I feel that I’m more than qualified to write about it. As some of you know, I have a debilitating chronic pain condition that affects my ability to walk, and has taken away my ability to work at what I used to do. Now I’m not writing this to garner sympathy. I know there are many people who make what I deal with every day look like a day of just sitting and basking in the light of a warm sunny day, but I do know something about pain, about loss, and about the question of “why.”

Can I ask you a question? When do you most often ask “why?” If I were a betting man, I’d lay odds that your “why” questions are most often asked as a result of something bad that’s either happened to you or someone you love, or that has, in some way, come way too close to where you live. You might think that asking the question of “why” is wired into our DNA, and in a way you’re right . . .

If you think it’s wrong to question the “why’s” of our lives I’d like you to consider (forgive me)-Why-almost all of the greatest literature, the greatest inventions, the greatest works of art, and the greatest of tragedies have all been a result of or come about as a solution to this one question? I know that wasn’t fair, but perhaps you see my point. The question of “why” is a legitimate question, and one that I don’t believe you should feel bad about or guilty over asking.

It’s not asking “why” that causes any damage to us or to God. The damage that so many of us experience isn’t due to our asking, but rather in our failure to receive and accept the answer given. I know that there are many of you reading this who are going to jump all over me and say that there are no answers to some things; that there are no answers to some of the horrific, terrible, tragic things that happen, and you’re welcome to disagree, but I will not back down because I know that just because you can’t see an answer doesn’t mean there isn’t one.

For most of us our dislike of something immediately garners our disapproval, our disrespect, our denial, and our disdain, and thus too often we are blinded to what is right and true regardless of who is saying it, or how it’s said, or as in this case, how it’s written. Sadly, far too often, it’s our own arrogance, our own sense of self-worth that prevents us from seeing answers to our questions that are right in front of us.

I realize that this will be a let down to some, but, in spite of those who know-it-all, the fact is that most of are not and will never be privy to all that is being done in this world nor how it’s being done, but just as we can’t always see someone’s motive nor even understand the ones we do, it doesn’t negate the fact that there is one.

In this life we have to know and understand that sometimes the “why’s” of our lives will be revealed to us not when we want them to be, but when we’re ready to know the answer. When I was a kid I often asked my Dad “why” he did or didn’t do something according to my wishes, and he would say, “because” without any further explanation. I hated it, but it didn’t change the answer-at least not in the short-term-but as I grew older many of those answers came, and with it the knowledge that my father knew better than I did . . . So does your heavenly father.