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Lord I need you

Lord I need you

Matthew 6:6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

It has been a rough couple of days. As many of you know, I openly struggle with anxiety and depression. I borrowed the label from the apostle Paul, and call these struggles my “thorn in the flesh”. It seems as though it is a messenger of Satan that torments me also. He loves to attack when I have my defenses down, when my eyes are on the world and not on God. When I spend little time in the Word, and when I am not prepared for battle. I am not a worthy opponent for my enemy, but I find strength only in Christ to fight this war that is on a plain I cannot comprehend. Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. There is no strength found in medication, there is only strength found in Christ for the spiritual war. It is found in the secret places with only you and God; the time spent alone in His Word and prayer; his strength that is planted in your soul for these battles. You are victorious when you rest in Him; you are fighting a war you alone cannot win, but is only won in the understanding you are fighting a defeated enemy in Christ.

It gave me peace to sit in my secret, quiet, place this morning with God. It gave me peace to know that He allows all the trials of my life to draw me closer to Him. In this I come to deepen my understanding of my daily need for Him. I come to comprehend the depth of my lostness without my strength found in Him. I am nothing without Him. 2 Corinthians 12:9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. In this quiet place I find peace; I find the ability to talk to God, to share my struggles and my need for Him; to share my hope that is found only in Him; to praise him for all that He has given me through Christ’s sacrifice for me. All that I have is found in, and through Christ. Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

My heartfelt plea in this small ministry that God gave me, is for you to come to seek to be a disciple of the One whom died to give you eternal life. To live a life of sacrificial love for the One whom sacrificed His life for you. To seek the life after, with a heart so focused, that this world holds nothing for you. To have a heart for God and the things of God, to the point you realize you cannot live without God. Your life may get harder, for your enemies desire is to take your eyes and heart off God. He knows the power that rests in the heart of a disciple. God uses all these trials that He allows in your life against Satan. He strengthens you when Satan seeks to defeat you. You are nothing without Christ, but you are everything through Him.

Praise Him in this Chris Tomlin video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rR_Rdb1CTE

Preach the Word!

13 Feb

Preach the Word!

Romans 13:11-14 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

Sometimes the wars in my head make me feel as thought I am loosing my mind. The battles of good and evil; the focus of life; the direction of life; the state of life. Big things that war in the spiritual battle of my mind. Fought on a plain that I cannot fight; fought in a means that I cannot understand, yet I understand I play the pawn they are fighting over. Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.These things preoccupy the mind, take me places with both the highs of victory, and the depths of defeat. There has come the feeling of a new urgency that has settled in; a feeling of an elevated war; a battle that is key in the strategies of warfare. It is creating anxieties in underlying tones, for I feel the importance of it. God is at work, in control, and is the victor; Satan is a defeated enemy as I am a child of Christ.

There is an urgency in the air in the world that we live in. This urgency is the signs that God is placing before us in all areas of life. The world as a whole is dark, Satan is peaking before his final fall. Our governments are turning their backs on God, and religions are teaching that all ways lead to God. There are consequences for both upon societies, much more than individuals. Paul spoke into Timothy this urgency in his final words to him in 2 Timothy 4:1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Do you too see and feel this urgency that Paul speaks of?

I hope and pray that you will take some of what I share with you of my personal walk with God, to draw in closer to Him yourself. I pray that Christ is knocking at the door of your soul and that you are answering the call. I pray that you also see and feel the urgency of this I describe. I pray that God is using me to encourage you to begin to deepen your walk with Him; to share your faith with those He places before you. I pray that you are becoming more than a Christian; I pray that you are becoming a disciple. 2 Timothy 4: 2 Preach the word!

Now that He has your attention…..

23 Aug

Now that He has your attention…..

Jonah 1:1-3 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

Many people stop at the book of Jonah and just think of the ‘fish story’. The depth of this small prophetic book in only three chapters is much more. Jonah speaks to me in the sphere of running from God as in these scriptures above. It then speaks of obedience, faith, self-denial, and repentance. Christ quoted Jonah in Matthew 12:39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. Jonah was an example of Christ in the Old Testament, and led Nineveh to repentance of their sin.

God has a way of getting our attention. We may hear from God, but not like what we hear so we deny we ever heard it at all. We may flee like Jonah and run from what we heard, or turn our attentions to other things that make us feel good about ourselves. Do we really think like Jonah we CAN run from God? He is looking upon our actions and thinking we just don’t get it. God may not put a fish in your path, but he may close doors to redirect it. He may put people and events in your life to change its direction. He may press down on your heart and mind in these tests of faith. Moses and Jeremiah questioned God’s call too, but they did not flee. Jonah did, and God’s Will for His life was still accomplished through the fish and Jonah’s ultimate obedience.

What is God telling you? Are you even listening for Him? It does not come in in billboards, emails, or a Facebook status. It comes only through a heart seeking Him in prayer and His Word. The static of this world will dull your senses to God. The static of busyness and technology have created barriers in your mind that your heart can only tear down. God may use a really big event in your life to get your attention, but what do you do with it? Do you see Him in it? These are the game changers that He uses to tear down those barriers instantly to gain our attention. Then we must approach Him Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! When He has your attention don’t flee as Jonah, but be obedient as Moses and follow God’s Will for your life.

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Lord I need you

Preach the Word!

Now that He has your attention…..

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