Tag: #ItIsWellWithMySoul

Revelation!

“Then the LORD replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” – Hab. 2:2‭-‬3 NIV

Heaven and hell; Real, or imagined?

What do you say? I pray, for your sake, you have accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, that you pray and study the Bible, GOD’S Word, and that you believe that is true. I pray that you have said “Yes, I believe there is a heaven and a hell.” I have nothing to gain by asking that question, but you have EVERYTHING to gain by believing and knowing the Truth. Jesus said:

“I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life. NO ONE comes to the FATHER except through Me. If you really know Me, you will know My FATHER as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.” – John 14:6‭-‬7 NIV

How cool that must have been for the disciples, when they begin to understand that they were actually in the presence of GOD! I will eventually get to see JESUS face to Face, by imagine! The crowds of people and the disciples…. they walked with Jesus and they talked with JESUS, in the flesh, where they could look Him in the eyes and receive His Blessings in person. How AWESOME is that! It won’t be long for the rest of us, and we will get to see Him, too. Before that happens, we have to deal with our world as it is: messed up, polluted, filled with corruption and evil. The Ren Collective sings a song that says “I need a miracle.” So do I!

We have something as Christians that is uniquely ours, and that is our salvation. We know where we are going, and we know, or should know, that we can run to JESUS when the world tries to overwhelm us. Is that where you run? Do you ask Him for clarity of thought and protection? If not, …… WHY?

“Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near……. “Look, He is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of Him.” So shall it be! Amen. “I AM the Alpha and the Omega,” says the LORD GOD, “Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come, the Almighty.” ” – Revelation 1:3,7‭-‬8 NIV

AMEN.

Ministry

I am not a great orator, nor have I had the opportunities to speak to groups – although I would like to. I do not have a congregation or a classroom. What I do have is social media, and my prayer is that I may spread the teaching and love of Christ, the Truth of our LORD, through this source to someone who may not otherwise hear it.

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the Light of the Gospel that displays the Glory of CHRIST, Who is the Image of GOD. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as LORD, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For GOD, Who said, “Let Light shine out of darkness,” made His Light shine in our hearts to give us the Light of the Knowledge of GOD’s glory displayed in the Face of Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 4:4‭-‬6 NIV

It breaks my heart on a daily basis to see the misery that we/humans inflict upon ourselves. We have worked ourselves and our world into untenable positions by continually choosing the enemy and his enticements over the God Who created us. It somerimes amazes me that even with history to refer to, and the examples across millennium, we make such bad choices for humanity. Everywhere I look, I see people who are out for themselves, no matter the cost to those around them. We create circumstances for ourselves, and make choices, that make our lives a living hell at worst and just scraping by at best. How can I say that? I can say it because I live it. My choices have put me into a situation where I am so overextended that I cannot meet basic expenses. If not for a very good friend who has been paying the mortgage and car payments, I would be without a home or transportation. If my life choices had been better, my “retirement” would at least be tolerable. So many others are in the place I could so easily be …. I know that there, but for the Grace of God, go I.

We must be so careful of judging others by appearance. The blinders offered the enemy can prevent them, and us, from seeing the Truth of our LORD, JESUS CHRIST. The god of this earth, our enemy Satan, works diligently to hide the Truth, and we as Christians assist him by being fearful to share our faith and the Truth. We fear rejection from our peers. We want to fit in with our friends, and we don’t even try to put Christ first because it is inconvenient. Dare to be different. Stand up for Right, even if it puts us at odds with our friends and family. Jesus said we would be persecuted and ostracized for our faith, just as He was. Do you dare?

Persecution Today

Do you feel like your efforts to live as a follower of Christ are being met by a rock wall? Is it that with every effort, it seems that something bad happens to you, and you are plagued by hard times? Are you going against the flow of what is popular and ‘fun’, and your peers laugh and mock you, or even bully you? Does it feel like you are the single light in the darkness? If all of this is true, then Paul’s words to Timothy will be especially poignant for you:

“In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is GOD-Breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of GOD may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” – 2 Timothy 3:12‭-‬17 NIV

Not all of us are like Timothy, fortunate to grow up in a Bible-believing, Christ-following home, praying and reading scriptures, and learning the ways of a Christian. That is a wonderful blessing, but not required in order to live for Christ and to hold up His Light for the world to see. No matter what age we are when we come to JESUS, we can be hungry for the Word and learn it in order to share it. Persecution comes with Salvation. It comes in different forms. As a child, it can be in mocking and bullying. As a teenager and young adult, peer pressure can be brutal. As an adult going into the work force, bosses and coworkers can discriminate and keep you from advancing. Even as adults, we are subjected to mocking and bullying.

Becoming a Christian, a follower of Christ, guarantees you will be persecuted. It may be subtle and covert, and it may be blatantly overt. The enemy uses every weapon in his arsenol to strike Christians down, and the more we live and represent Christ, the bigger the weapond he employs. As adults, it can be a job loss and being unable to provide for ourselves and our families. Disease and illness and injuries are used by the enemy to make us doubt the Sovereignty of GOD. Families and friends will turn against us – look at Jesus. He was rejected by his neighbors and had to leave His home in order to begin His ministry.

Remember Paul? He lost everything to serve His LORD. Home, possessions, friends, status….

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of CHRIST. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my LORD, for Whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from GOD on the basis of faith.” – Philippians 3:7‭-‬9 NIV

We have to choose for ourselves what is most important, the things of man or the Salvation offered by Christ. By choosing to follow Jesus, we are accepting that we will be targeted by the enemy. HOWEVER, by choosing the Freedom of Christ, we are also ensured of a home with Him FOREVER, with NO pain, NO sorrow, and NO tears. Today is fleeting, and our lives on earth will end (soon!), but the eternity after death lasts forever and ever, Amen.

Photo credit: Mark Campbell, Big Sur, California 2017. Used with permission.

Grace and Peace

Are you searching for a way out of the chaos and messiness and the ugly of your life? I relate to that, because I was stuck in all that for many years. Chaos isn’t easy to walk away from. An acquaintance made a comment once, regarding a woman who was in an abusive situation. Her comment was that the woman was just stupid and weak for not leaving her abuser. It isn’t easy to leave. You may not be physically or verbally abused by a partner, but there are many things that create chaos and ugliness besides that abuse. Your physical state, or a mental disease or syndrome like autism or PTSD, can create plenty of messiness and chaos. We can’t just walk away from those, either. Maybe it’s an extreme example like Stockholm syndrome, or muscular dystrophy. It could be hidden, like a mild form of autism, or fibromyalgia, ….. or the threats you have received that if you should even attempt to leave a situation, you, your children, you family/friends will be hurt or even killed. Extreme? Yes, and no. There are counselors and psycologists, psychiatrists and physicians and other health care practitioners to assist us, but first we have to acknowledge and admit the issue. That can be excruciatingly difficult, especially when we think It’s our fault – for whatever reason. There is also the stigma that is attached to many of our situations. Many times in my life, I’ve wanted to run screaming to get away from something or someone, but i didn’t have the mental or physical strength to do it.

The first step is to admit we cannot ‘fix’ it ourselves. We have to admit we are broken. True healing, after we acknowledge our brokenness, comes only from GOD through His Son Jesus.

“May GOD THE FATHER and our LORD JESUS CHRIST give you Grace and Peace. Jesus gave His Life for our sins, just as GOD our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. ALL GLORY TO GOD FOREVER AND EVER! AMEN.” (Galatians 1:3‭-‬5 NLT)

It is never easy to admit there is something we cannot fix ourselves. We should be SELF sufficient, and not rely on anything or anyone to help us …. Right? No. Wrong. Humans were created to desire fellowship with one another, and especially with our LORD. Without Him, our lives will always have the hole that we try so hard to fill up with relationships or booze or drugs or food, shopping or sports or material things. ONE answer, and ONLY one, will satisfy our souls and give us the Grace and Peace we so desperately are looking for. The Name of JESUS. Can I get an Amen??

I AM

“God replied to Moses, “ I AM Who I AM . Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14 NLT)

and again:

“This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths you should follow.” (Isaiah 48:17 NLT)

No equivocation, no hestitation.

“Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!” …. Then He {Jesus} said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of GOD going up and down on the Son of Man, the One Who is the stairway between heaven and earth. ” ” (John 1:49‭, ‬51 NLT)

“Then the disciples worshiped him. “You really are the Son of God!” they exclaimed.” (Matthew 14:33 NLT)

Why, why, why do we doubt God’s Sovereignty? How can we not see Him in every bit of creation, from the absolute tiniest organism or cell struction, to the immensity of the higest mountains and the deepest canyons in the seas? Researchers are finding more evidence every day that supports the Bible accounts, and yet we still have skeptics and denial from every quarter. Yes, it takes faith to believe in the unseen. Do you believe in the air we breathe? It is unseen…. Do you believe in sound waves, and wireless signals; in electricity and radio and television signals? We can’t see them, either. “But wait,” you say. “We can see the pictures on the television. We can talk on our phones. We hear the radio, so it doesn’t require faith to believe in them. There is evidence to support their existance.”

Then i can only say this: look around yourself, at the grass and dirt and flowers and trees; look at the animals – dogs, cats, birds, horses…. they just evolved from slime?? Picture this: a scientist is arguing with God, trying to prove the theory of evolution. God says, “Okay, let’s each create a living being.” The scientist grabs a handful of dirt to get started, and God says, “Put that down! Create your own dirt!” Simple choice: believe in a THEORY of evolution, or believe in I AM, Creator God….

I have a Friend in Jesus; He is my Hope, my Cleansing, my Protector, and my Salvation. There is no one like Him. He makes me WHOLE. Amen!