Thursday's Thoughts

We are in the final week of countdown as we move toward Christmas. I am listening to Christmas music as I am preparing this note to share.

Ann and I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Each of you are a wonderful blessing to us and we are thankful for your friendship and our common identity as a part of the family of God!! We are also praying that God will bless you and your family as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior!!

Joy to the world

Joy to the world

Joy to the world, the Lord is come

Let earth receive her King

Let every heart prepare Him room

And Heaven and nature sing

And Heaven and nature sing

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing   (G. F. Handel / Isaac Watts) (Emphasis Added)

This verse of from the Christmas carol, Joy to the World, has been on my heart and in my spirit this week. The words “Let earth receive her King and Let every heart prepare Him room” has resonated over and over in my heart this week. I will share with you the questions that the Holy Spirit kept placing in my heart. “Do I truly RECEIVE Him as my King” and “Am I truly making ROOM for Him? The keys words are RECEIVE and ROOM!! I sense that the Spirit is teaching me that both these actions must continue to take place on a daily basis. I must receive His presence and guidance on a daily basis and I must make room for Christ in all of the busyness of life. I truly believe that the enemy seeks to hinder me in each of these steps in my life. I just encourage you to take a long look at this challenge found in the words of the song but also plainly taught in the Word of God!!

This passage of scripture reminds us of the plan of God. 3 John 1:2. “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” (KJV) God truly desires to see us prosper and walk in good health BUT He also desires to see our “soul prosper.” The Spirit placed this passage of scripture in my spirit at the beginning of 2018 and now He is strongly reminding me of its importance as we near the close of 2018.

Is it possible that each of us needs to ask our self this question, “Am I as concerned about the prosperity of my soul as I am my financial status and the status of my health? I believe that our financial status and our health status are important to God. But how long has it been since I prayed about the “status of my soul?” It seems to me that the scripture teaches that God places a high priority on the status of my soul. I feel led to encourage each of us to sincerely and seriously ask God to provide the direction, guidance, and a stronger desire to see the continuing development of our relationship with Him in this coming year. The condition of my soul must also become a greater priority to each of us in 2019!! I truly believe that the times in which we are living as well as the spiritual condition of our society is demanding that we draw closer to God!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I believe that God is calling each of us to identify that it is A RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST THAT IS THE GREATEST GIFT KNOWN TO MANKIND!!!

Thursday's Thoughts

Isaiah 6:3, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

I pray that you are taking some “personal time” to reflect on the meaning of Christmas. I know that my precious sentence has been repeated year after year at Christmas. But I also believe that each of us needs to be reminded of the REASON FOR THE SEASON. Oh, I think that I just used another familiar phrase that we have heard before. I know and fully believe that God has challenged me to focus on Him even more as I pray, worship, preach and witness to others. I believe that the Spirit is calling us to fully REMEMBER as well as IDENTIFY Jesus Christ as the great “I AM” during this season of celebration. Isn’t it time for EACH OF US to remember the greatness of God on a daily basis?

It’s vital to the Christian life that we as sons and daughters of the Most High God allow our affections to be stirred by the loving, powerful nature of our heavenly Father. Too often we feel that God is distant or separated from us. Too often we allow misconceptions or lies to place a rift between us and experiencing God. It’s in reminding ourselves of God’s character that lies are broken and a pathway is laid for us to encounter His tangible love. Open your heart and mind and receive fresh revelation of the goodness of God this week. Allow your affections to be stirred and your heart to be filled with desire to seek the face of your heavenly Father. A song was deposited in my spirit as I was preparing my heart to write this article. A portion of the song makes this declaration; “You are awesome in this place Mighty God…” I am afraid that many believers have lost the “AWE” out of the Awesomeness of God! I do not desire to be captured or influenced by “any spirit” that diminishes the greatness of God!! I also do not want to allow the enemy of my soul steal my desire to praise, worship and honor my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!!

Is it possible that we have turned the Goodness of God and the presence of God into a “spiritual Santa Claus” with whom we share our wish list of desires, needs, wants, etc.? Is it possible that we have turned God into an “AAA service man” whom arrives at times of emergency and provides the services needed and then moves on to the next emergency? Is it possible that we have turned God into simply“a character” in the Bible whom we read about but don’t invite Him to make a daily difference in our lives? It is possible that we have turned the revelation of Jesus Christ into a “story” of a good man who performed many great miracles but we have failed to fully realize that He is the “Way, the Truth and the Life?

I have shared these thoughts with you because I sense the Holy Spirit calling me to draw near to God through sincere and heartfelt worship to God. I also believe that God is leading me to share these words with you. The enemy does not want the present day church to be a WORSHIPING CHURCH!! He wants our personal devotional times as well as our corporate gatherings to be filled with distractions, diversions, hindrances, gossip, wandering minds, selfishness, busyness, as well as the attractions of the world. I am only scratching the surface when it comes to the enemy’s attempts to interfere in our times of worship. BUT THE PEOPLE OF GOD MUST RISE TO THE OCCASION AND RESIST, REJECT AND REBUKE THE TACTICS OF SATAN!! We must ask as well as allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us and draw is into the presence of God as never before. I am encouraging each of us to take a stand against the enemy and once more reach out and embrace the Goodness and Greatness of God!!We need OUR VOICES and OUR HEARTS to CONNECT WITH THE HEART OF OUR HEAVENLY FATHER!! Good things will take place in the presence of God!!

Monday's Musings

Our Adult Bible Study group on Wednesday nights have been focusing on the Armor of God for the past several months. That discussion led us to focus on the need to recognize that Christians are engaged in spiritual warfare even if we do not accept that fact to be true. Some of us are dealing with an all out attack of satan and the powers of darkness. Others of us are facing the subtle, sly attempts of satan to defeat our walk of faith. Let me remind both of these groups the truth of the matter. The powers of darkness are seeking to undermine, overwhelm and ultimately OVERTHROW AND DEFEAT OUR FAITH IN GOD!!

Ephesians 6:10, “A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” This scripture came to the forefront of last Wednesday’s Bible study discussion. Notice this Word from God comes prior to the direction from God about putting on the armor of God. The Spirit and the Word reminds us that EACH OF US will need to be strong in the Lord and we will need to walk in His mighty power.

This brings me to my inspiration for today. Does anyone else notice that the enemy of our soul seeks to “weaken” our faith through all of the “stuff” (Bro. Kenny’s word) that we are encountering? Satan desires for the present day church to be weak in the Lord rather than strong in the Lord. I truly believe that the Holy Spirit has called me to bring these words to our attention today.

The spirit of this culture wants us to be weakened through these attempts of satan. Each of us knows the importance of a strong immunity system from a physical point of view. A strong immunity system provides the strength and stamina we need to fight off various illnesses, diseases, infections, etc. I FIRMLY BELIEVE that a HEALTHY SPIRITUAL IMMUNITY SYSTEM will provide the strength and stamina that we need to fight off the enemy as He seeks to move us away from our relationship with God.

God is calling us to draw a line in the sand and resist these attempts of satan. I am witnessing these attacks of satan in my life as well as in the lives of people that I know on a personal basis. We cannot afford to ignore these attacks of satan. We cannot afford to surrender SO EASILY to these attacks of satan. We cannot afford to accept SPIRITUAL WEAKNESS in our lives WHEN THE WORD OF GOD AND THE SPIRIT OF GOD PROMISES US STRENGTH!!  

God is calling us to be alert and awake to the strategies, attacks, and tactics of satan (The Word in the KJV Bible is “wiles.”). We also cannot afford to RESIST the effort of the Holy Spirit and the Word to draw our attention to a need for each of us to have a closer walk with God. We must stop RESISTING the Spirit and the Word of God that is speaking to us. Rather, we must EMBRACE what the Spirit and the Word of God desires to accomplish in our lives.