Thursday, October 19, 2017

#FRIDAY'SALERTS

I feel led to share a portion of some thoughts that I shared with our church family this week. I am thoroughly convinced that far too many believers are "asleep at the wheel of their life." I also believe that the Spirit of God is seeking to awaken the people of God but we have become so captured by the "gods of this world" that we are ignoring the call from Heaven. I do not want to fall prey to these attempts and attacks of satan. The enemy truly desires to interfere with and ultimately disrupt my relationship with Jesus Christ. BUT WE CAN OVERCOME THESE ATTACKS OF SATAN THROUGH THE PRESENCE AND POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!!


The Spirit has been dealing with my heart during prayer time concerning the tactics, devices, and strategies that satan is using today against the family of God. I want to share one of them with you today. I sincerely believe that satan is using the "spirit of idolatry" to attack the present day church. I know that many of us will initially reject this word because we would be the first person to say that I am not worshiping any other god. We would quickly add that we have not built any idols in our house or yard that would represent any "god" other than the True and Living God. We would openly declare that our heart would never take any such action that would be remotely connected with idolatry. But I truly believe that the present day church has to be alert and aware of this attempt of satan to infiltrate our hearts with passions, desires, plans, ideas, opinions, selfish motives, etc. that seek to replace our pure and genuine love for God. Satan wants us to love other "gods" more than we love the True and Living God. I understand that these are challenging words but the powers of darkness are working very hard to destroy the work of the Kingdom of God. We must seek to draw closer to God so that we can "...be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." (Ephesians 6:12) I will openly admit that the Spirit challenged my heart on a personal level before He encouraged me to share these words with you. 

Would you take a moment and read these challenging words that Pastor Adrian Rogers shares concerning the presence of idolatry in the modern day world? “You may say, “Well, I’m not guilty of idolatry.” Let’s just see...is there anything that you love more than God? Anything you fear more than God? Anything you serve more than God? Anything you trust more than God? Am I getting hot? You say, “Well, I give God a place in my life.” God doesn’t want a place in your life. Then, you say, “Well, I give God prominence in my life.” God desires more than prominence in your life. God demands preeminence in your life. He will take nothing less. Is there anyone or anything in your life that takes precedence over God? Confess it and repent of it. Now, put on the throne the rightful Master--the Lord Jesus!”

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Thursday's Inspiration

Joshua 1:8-9,  This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9) Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (NJKV)

This passage takes us into the life of the successor of Moses, a man named Joshua. God is preparing him to lead the people into the Promised Land and He encourages Joshua with the promise of His presence. I truly believe that God has prepared for us some powerful and wonderful promises that He has promised to fulfill. But those promises will be surrounded by the powers of darkness which will do everything in their power to stop the process of us possessing and receiving those promises.  


Have you ever been guilty of forgetting the promise of His presence? I confess that there have been occasions that I have forgotten the promise of God that says “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Let us be reminded that the One who was and is and is to come is our all sufficiency and we must see the need to surrender our lives to Him. I AM has no needs, but He is necessary for our life. Any human being who chooses to dismiss his Creator will miss being cared for by the One who cares the most for us.  There is no comparison between the love of God and the love of your family as well as your friends. The love of God is a very present and very constant source of hope, peace, rest, comfort, encouragement, grace, mercy, etc. Just as Moses was sent by I AM to remind the people of their neediness, so I AM sends us to represent Him as well as present His light in the midst of the darkness in this present day and time! But we MUST REMEMBER THAT WE ARE NEVER ALONE AND WE MUST ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT GOD IS PRESENT WITH US!!!

We must never allow the enemy to remove the "Promise of the Presence of God" from our journey of life. Satan desires for us to feel alone and feel unworthy of the love of God. But both of these tactics of Satan are based on a lie that the enemy seeks to sow into our thought process. But remember that God is as "close as the mention of His name." Don't be afraid to call on God and don't allow the enemy to intimidate you in any manner, shape or form. 

Be encouraged as you take a moment and read the passage at the beginning of this article!! 

Monday, October 9, 2017

Monday's Musings

Psalm 139:13-18, You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! 18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me! (NLT) (Emphasis Added)

You just read the scripture passage that I shared at New River on Sunday. This declaration of Truth as well as these words of inspiration spoke volumes to my heart this past week. As a matter of fact it is still speaking Truth and Revelation to me this morning. Aren't you grateful that the Word of God is not some "out of date" book but that it is "alive" and relevant even in this day and time? It seems that so many of us work so hard to earn God's love while it also appears that far too man of us have trouble believing that God could love me simply because I am just me!! The Love of God is unfathomable yet He chooses to reveal His love, care and concern on a daily basis to any and every one who will choose to accept His love. 

I read these words written by Craig Denison this morning. "When we work tirelessly to build up a false self so that we can receive affirmation from others, we never truly experience love. For our false self to be loved is not truly love at all because we constantly have the thought, 'If they really knew me, they wouldn't love me.'" People cannot truly love us until they know our true selves." We spend so much time trying to prove to God as well as prove to others our "personal worth or value" that we miss many opportunities to love and be loved. 

This attitude can and does hinder the development of our relationship with God. This does not mean that we do not need to depend on God to transform or change us into the best person that we can become. But let us remember that this is His work and not mine. My responsibility is to present myself to God as a "living sacrifice" and allow Him through the Spirit and the Word to complete His process of transformation. There is such a joy and strength to walk in fellowship with God and with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. This type of fellowship with God and with man opens the door that we might come along side of one another during this journey of life. Our life with God becomes one that glorifies God and edifies (builds up) the Body of Christ.

Prayer of the day: Dear God, reveal to me anything that is hindering my relationship with You as well as hindering my relationship with my brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen!!

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Thursday's Thoughts

My contribution to this blog post today will be very limited. I am sharing a passage of scripture that has been marinating in my spirit for the past several months. I along with many others are very much concerned about the "spiritual condition" of our nation. BUT I am also very much concerned about the "unawareness" that many believers at least appear to have concerning their spiritual condition not to mention the condition of the world in which we are living. I truly believe that it is time for each of us to "wake up and be alert" and take the time to seriously examine our walk with Christ. This very morning the enemy of my soul desired to interfere with me during my prayer time. These are truly dangerous times and we need to sincerely respond to the directions that God is sharing with us through His Word. 

Take a moment and read the Word from God through the words shared by the Apostle Paul.

2 Timothy 3:1-9, You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that! They are the kind who work their way into people’s homes and win the confidence of[a] vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by various desires. (Such women are forever following new teachings, but they are never able to understand the truth.) These teachers oppose the truth just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. They have depraved minds and a counterfeit faith. But they won’t get away with this for long. Someday everyone will recognize what fools they are, just as with Jannes and Jambres. (NLT)

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Spiritual Awakening

My writing on this blog has been sporadic at best over the past few weeks. I have been focusing on other social media outlets. I sensed that I needed to share some thoughts with you considering the events of this past week. 

This has been a week in which we have witnessed another horrific mass murder. I want to remind you of the importance of praying for the families of the victims as well as praying for the various individuals who are fighting for their lives and let us not forget those who have begun their road to recovery both physically as well as emotionally. We offer thanks to all of the first responders and the other "heroes" who worked to save the lives of their family, friends as well as complete strangers. The challenges of life does afford us the opportunity to also witness genuine care and concern for others rise to the surface. 

We also need to pray for ourselves!! How should we respond to this event? It normally does not take us long to "move on" with life once the event is replaced by another event in the news or another event in our lives. Many Americans are fixated or captured by numbers and by the breaking of records. The number of sport championships that are won; the record of our favorite sports teams; our score on a golf course; or the distance to our favorite place of recreation is just a few examples of my previous statement. There was another record broken this past Monday. Monday saw the record broken for the number of people killed in a mass murder in our nation. I will be honest when I say that I am saddened by that record. I heard this week that a "mass murder" is defined as a situation where four (4) or more individuals are killed. It was told that 272 of these type of murders have taken place in America this year.  That is almost one a day across our nation!!! These statistics should be very concerning to each of us!!

Proverbs 27:1, Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. (NIV)

Once again I ask, "What am I going to do?" This is certainly not the time to just be going through the "motions" of Christianity. This is not the time to be unsure of our relationship with God. This is not the time to ignore God and it is not the time to stop drawing closer to Him. But drawing closer to God has to be more than just the use of the right words. The atmosphere of this world is demanding that we take the appropriate actions in responding correctly to God. I fully realize that these are "plain" words but they are spoken in genuine love and concern. Nehemiah 1 tells us of a time in his life that his heart was "burdened" by the condition of his homeland. Let us notice what Nehemiah did when he heard this information. "And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven." (Nehemiah 1:4) We can find time to do all types of things that please and satisfy us. I believe that it is time for EACH OF US to examine our lives in times of serious introspection before God. We need to have a "burden" for our soul, the souls of our family, the souls of our friends, the souls of our nation and the souls of each human being on the face of this earth. I truly wish that I could report that ALL IS WELL BUT ALL IS NOT WELL. WE ARE IN DESPERATE NEED OF A MIGHTY AWAKENING IN THE CHURCH ACROSS AMERICA. Once again I offer this question, "What am I going to do?"