FollowinGod - Christian Revelation

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,

which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure…

This week in New Orleans I have had the opportunity to meet some new fellow students in class. We have had many discussions about our worship class, but also about our families and personal lives. Through this, I have been reminded about one of my favorite Scripture verses:

Psalm 127:3 – Behold, children are a gift from the LORD

Many of my classmates also have young children, as do many of you.

I never really understood how parents loved their children so much. But now, as I have a young son about to turn 2 years old, I constantly realize how much I truly love him. His character and actions are so cute and loveable.

But let’s take this a step further:

Ephesians 1:5 – God predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ.

So, If we become sons of God, through Jesus Christ’s actions, then we become children of God. Children are a “gift from God.” How does this work? Well, Jesus’ actions were purely a gift to us. His sacrifice on the cross was for us . . . a gift! When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we become a part of God’s family – His children.

Now let’s apply the love we have for our children, and take this to the ultimate step. How much MORE then, does God love each of us? We are His children. He loves us in a similar fashion to how we love our children, EXCEPT . . . He is divine. His love is PURE. His love is that which we cannot describe.

So the next time you may feel down, or depressed, remember that God is with you, loving you, caring for you, wanting to help you. Open your heart to Him, at ALL times.

God loves you!         Jesus loves you!

Yesterday in Worship class, we were reminded of what “Worship” is. I pause…to ask you:

• What is worship?
• What do you consider worship?
• Do you worship every Sunday?
• Do you worship DAILY?

That was part of the topic of our discussion. Worship: 

Colossians 3:17 - And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 

Luke 4:8 – And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”

I propose that I will post additional comments concerning worship more this week as I learn what the Bible has to say about it.  I have already learned one thing that I will reveal later this week.  Stay tuned to find out, you may be VERY surprised what the Bible says about worship!

Sorry for my brief departure from daily entries.  As many of you know, I have been sick as well as overwhelmed by a tremendous amount of school work. Unfortunately, neither is over, but I’m here today, feeling a little better, and maybe some things will stabilize this week.  I am in New Orleans for a week of school, and we are getting started in a few minutes.  However, I wanted to welcome “all” of my subscribers back to my daily blog with a quick entry from Psalms…

For You are my hope; O Lord God, You are my trust from my youth and the source of my confidence. Psalm 71:5

The Lord is the only source of our truth and we need to remember to reach to Him when in times of great trials, hurt, and ALL other times in our lives. He is and always will be available to us to help us get through. We should thank Him for all things and trust in Him alone.

I look forward to spending more time with each of you and with God this week. Have a blessed day!

Galatians 5:19  The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy.

“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures . . .”  1 Cor. 15:3-4

“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit . . .” 1 Peter 3:18

Why tell others about Jesus?

Simply put, I ask you to watch this video.  If this doesn’t get your attention, I’m not sure anything will.  This video is NOT for children.  Please use discretion.

A man was sleeping one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might…

So, this the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sunup to sundown, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might!

Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Since the man was showing discouragement, the adversary (Satan) decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the weary mind: (He will do it every time)!

‘You have been pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn’t moved.’ Thus, he gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.

Satan said, ‘Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort; and that will be good enough.’   That’s what the weary man planned to do, but decided to make it a matter of Prayer and to take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.

‘Lord,’ he said, ‘I have labored long and hard in Your Service, putting all my strength to do that which You have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?’

The Lord responded compassionately, ‘My friend, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done.

Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed..

But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back shiny and brown; your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard.

Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. True, you haven’t moved the rock. But your calling was to be Obedient and to push and to exercise your Faith and trust in My Wisdom. That you have done. Now I, my friend, will move the rock.’

                                    —————————————————————————————–

At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He Wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him.

By all means, exercise the Faith that moves mountains, but know that it is still God Who moves the Mountains.

When everything seems to go wrong……………………..Just P.U.S.H.

When the job gets you down…………………………….Just P.U.S.H.

When people don’t do as you think they should………….Just P.U.S.H.

When your money is ‘gone’ and the bills are due………..Just P.U.S.H.

When people just don’t understand you …………………Just P.U.S.H.

P = Pray

U = Until

S = Something

H = Happens

Just Hold ON!!! …and –   P.U.S.H!

In Revelation 20:12-15, John wrote:

“I saw the dead, the great, and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened…the book of life….If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.”

Jesus also said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:6

We also know because of Scripture:

Be it known therefore to you, that the salvation of God is sent to the nations. - Acts 28:28

And…

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel. – Mark 1:15

But how can everyone else know unless we tell them and tell them QUICKLY! See facts below:

• American children ages 5 to 13 have a 32% probability of accepting Christ
• Teens and adults aged 14 and over have only a 5% probability of accepting Christ

Ages at which Americans say they accepted Christ

• Ages 0-4            1%
• Ages 4-14       85%
• Ages 15-30    10%
• Ages 30+          4%

If we don’t tell our children, they may never know Christ, because the odd of them believing after they become an adult are VERY SLIM!

Tell our kids, OUR FUTURE, the FUTURE OF THE CHURCH!

This blog includes a documented short interview with Rick Warren, author of  ”Purpose Driven Life” and pastor of the very well known large “Saddleback Church” in California.

People ask me what is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body– but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act – the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys – you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don’t believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it’s kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you’re going into self-centeredness, “which is my problem, my issues, my pain.” But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don’t think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God’s purposes (for my life)? When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don’t get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn’t put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He’s more interested in what I am than what I do. That’s why we’re called human beings, not human doings.

· · Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.

· · Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.

· · Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.

· · Painful moments, TRUST GOD.

· · Every moment, THANK GOD.

Get along with each other, and forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you, forgive that person because the Lord forgave you.

DISCLAIMER: I have not been able to find the original source of this interview to thank them or to acknowledge them. If you know of the source, please notify me so I can properly acknowledge them.

I continue to be amazed by God!  Tonight, the youth lesson was about Jesus’ power of Salvation & how we should tell our lost friends about Him so they can have eternal life. We sang “By His Wounds” THEN…in big church, we sang “Nothing but the blood of Jesus,” & the pastor reminded us to tell our friends about Jesus.  I’m famous for the line: ”If it’s repeated in the Bible, it MUST be really important!” Then I must ask, if TWO sermons, by different people are repeated the SAME night in church, ISN’T THAT MESSAGE REALLY IMPORTANT ALSO?

1) JESUS saves!
2) Tell others!