Guilt

Greetings, My Friends;

Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

James 4:7, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you."

Guilt is defined, as the fact of having committed a breach of conduct , especially violating the law and involving a penalty.

From the time we were old enough to remember, we have been acquainted with guilt. Even before we knew what guilt was, we unconsciously followed the rules and most of us learned that if we did not listen to our parents, there were consequences. In my day, it was spanking. Spanking, got your attention like nothing else did. The thing that made do what you were told was fear of a spanking .

As we got older we began to form a conscience. Now most of us felt bad when we did something wrong. We also found out that many times the degree or violation usually determined the degree of punishment. School and its discipline was different. The people passing out the punishment didn't love you as your parents did. They followed a set of guidelines for crime and punishment, no excuses, no partiality.

As we became adults, things got even tougher. You could be reminded daily by your boss or coworkers how you didn't measure up. Guilt came into the picture. You could be made to feel inadequate everywhere you went, only this time you punished yourself. Anxiety, stress, depression, all were among the penalties you gave yourself. You could feel so inferior when you thought you did or did not do something, you were supposed to do that it ruined your life, your family, and anything you touched. This of course would be an extreme case.

Unfortunately, some churches were preaching condemnation. You don't pray enough, you don't dress right, your hair is too long, too short, and so on, all man-made rules.You are even guilt ridden at church. You will go to hell if you don't shape up, you rotten sinner.

One day you find Jesus. You learn how much he loves you. You learned that he died on the cross to save all men, even rotten, no good people like us. You accept Him as your Savior and condemnation ceases to exist. You are saved by his grace, and this time, someone else {Jesus} gave ultimate hope for your life of screw ups. You are now a child of God destined to spend eternity with Him.

After all of this, along comes Satan. He is not happy. He hates Jesus and wants you back. He tempts you to sin, he tries to plant doubt of your salvation in your heart. You begin to believe him, maybe go along with the temptations. But now your heart feels guilty, so you repent and your loving father takes you back, and your guilt is put to rest. Now your conscience is your guide. I think probably the best advice I ever heard was follow the peace in your heart and you can't go wrong.

God bless you and remember,

 Jesus loves you,

Prayer of Salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive Your Word, and I  repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the Word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with Your Spirit, in Jesus name. Amen."

The Holy Spirit; A Campanion

Greetings. My Friends,

When I first became a Christian, I understood that you also receive the Holy Spirit. I had always heard that that was a very good thing, but as with many things, it is hard to take advantage of something you know nothing about. As I said in an earlier message, I went to no small effort to learn about what I was entitled to and what I was supposed to do. Of course, I found out early on that it wasn't anything I did or had  to do to be saved, Jesus already took care of that.

For some reason I always knew deep in my heart that the Holy Spirit represented unlimited power. I really put in effort to find out what he was all about. As time went on, I found out two things that really became very important to me.

Paul spoke quite a lot about speaking in other tongues. I also wanted to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.  Both of these desires were fulfilled simultaneously one Sunday afternoon after services. From that point on, I felt like a new person. I felt like I could tap into unbelievable power, not my own, but the Holy Spirit. I started to talk to him as though he were my best friend. My faith was bolstered on many occasions when I needed real faith, no fear or doubt, and it was there.

I have been healed from 3 potentially deadly diseases. Throw in a couple of less serious injuries, and you have to say to yourself, only by the grace of God, Jesus and resurrection, and the power of the Holy Spirit, I am still here. With all of the things I have been through, how can I possibly doubt the Lord about anything. I have come to view the Holy Spirit as my constant companion. I talk to him during the day, and I believe he talks to me. He warns me of danger. Believe me,  I learned the hard way to listen to his voice in my heart. I do woodworking, and still have all of my fingers thanks to Him.

It may be hard for some to believe, but I started writing these messages, because I believe the Holy Spirit told me to. I believe He even tells me what to write about.  If I don't know what to write about, I ask Him and He tells me. Although this might sound crazy to some, but I believe he will cause the people who need it to find it. As I said in the past my job is to plant the seeds.

God bless you and remember,

 Jesus loves you.

Prayer of Salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus had been raised from the dead. I receive your word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with your spirit, in Jesus name. Amen."

Healing

Greetings. My Friends;

The subject today, is one that has drawn countless skeptics. It seems only true believers acknowledge it, but a small percentage actually experience it. I have heard comments about healing in particular, and miracles in general. People get all upset and talk about there being a catch to everything God does. He does have a few conditions, usually but not always. You have to ask for healing, you must believe  for what you ask, and then you have to receive the healing in your heart. I guess according to some people that is totally unreasonable.

I could tell you of at least a dozen miracles of healing that I know of personally, but that would take too long. Instead, I will tell you of two that happened to me. There were a few others, but I will stick to the two. After surgery. 10 years ago, I developed type II diabetes. The doctor suggested all of the regular solutions. Lose weight, exercise, and so on. Finally it got to the point where I had to start taking insulin. The dosage got up to 45 units of insulin once a day. Diabetes was under control.

A couple of years ago, I finally woke up and spoke to the diabetes and claimed healing in Jesus name. I took a step of faith and lowered my insulin by 5 units for a week. I was checking my glucose readings every day, and the numbers stayed the same. I started lowering my insulin 5 units once a week. I reasoned that if I increased in steps, the reverse was reasonable. Finally, I was down to no insulin. I checked 3 times a day expecting good numbers. They were right on target. They have what they call and A1C test. It measures your average glucose for the past 3 months. They had just lowered the range from 7to6. Under 6 is normal. The 1st test with no insulin was 5.5. The 2nd test was 5.6. I have had about 6 of these tests in the last one and half years, and my highest number was 5.8. Sure looks like I was healed to me.

One more quick story. I accidentally ripped out a big part of the nail on a big toe. It was ripped the long way. Plenty of blood. So I just wrapped it and prayed about it. The next day it looked bad. I repeated my belief in my healing. The next day my toe was swollen and infected. At this point, I told my wife, maybe I should go to the doctor. Immediately the thought came to my heart, do you believe or not? I rebuked the infection in Jesus name and claimed my healing. The next day, the infection was gone, and a few days later, the toe was normal. It did however take a few weeks for the mail to grow back.

I am not telling you to do what I did. I know a couple of people who ask the Lord to help the doctor heal them. There is nothing wrong with that. I did what I did because I have a habit of putting the Lord out on a limb. He has never fallen off.

Isaiah 53:5 "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed."

Matthew 12:15 "Jesus aware of this, withdrew from there, and many followed Him , and He healed them all."

Jesus always said yes!

God bless you and remember,

Jesus loves you.

Prayer of salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive Your Word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the Word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with Your Spirit, in Jesus name.  Amen."

Grace

Greetings, My Friends;

We have all heard about God's grace to us. It sounds like something good, but what is it really.  According to the Hebrew word cheu one of the meanings is kindness. The word chinnah means favor. The Greek word Charis means, a divine influence on the heart.

There are a number of Hebrew and Greek words for favor. They can be summed up by kindness, delight, and benefit given. I don't know about anyone else, but now I have a better understanding of the verses I read on grace and favor. To me it really shows God's love to me when I understand what he is giving me.

Proverbs 3:34. "Surely he scores the scornful, but gives grace to the humble."

Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God."

Ephesians 1:7, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace."

Titus 3:7, "That having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

If you start reading any Scripture, and you run across the word grace for favor, reread the verses, keeping in mind what the words grace and favor really mean. To me, when I do that, it makes the verses much more powerful. It can also explain some verses. This, if someone says, for instance," I found a job by the grace of God" you know he is referring to the kindness of God.

I felt moved to write this brief message because I was sure there are people who do not completely understand grace or favor. At one time I was the same way, but now by the grace of God, I have a much better understanding.

God bless you and remember,

 Jesus loves.

Prayer of Salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive Your Word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the Word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with your spirit, in Jesus name. Amen."

Trust and Faith

Greetings, My Friends;

Trust and faith are pretty much interchangeable. You can't have one without the other.

Many people go through life, trusting things instead of God. We trust in our ability to do our job, whether by education, or experience. We trust in money. We feel safe, having money because you can do anything if you have enough money. Right? How about investments that go bad.

Aside from money, we trust in many things that we don't even think about trusting. When you eat, you don't worry about being poisoned. You get in your car and trust it to get you where you want to go, and back again. You trust that your house will be there when you get back. Each of us can probably name dozens of things we didn't realize we trusted. Most of what we trust in will end up in the junk yard, or diminished as in investments.

When you talk to many people, the ones who have a lot, generally trust in themselves alone. Pride comes in and a feeling of superiority over other people usually follows. It seems that the more education, and better the job they have, the more they esteem themselves. They have no need for God in their minds, because they had success from their own efforts. If you mention that they are blessed, most will totally ignore you.

Then we have people that aren't so well off. A great many of these people pray every day. I suspect that most of these people have some sort of faith or trust in the Lord, or they wouldn't be praying. This is not to knock those people, but many times it takes desperation to seek the Lord. Whether these people trust the Lord and have faith or they are just plain desperate and feel they have nothing to lose if only they knew.

Even for a born-again Christian, there are times when it is very difficult to have faith. We must constantly remind ourselves that faith is believing what you cannot see physically. It is that very situation that counts the most.

Proverbs 3:5 "trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding."

The best thing I can say is this. Trust and faith is a choice. Peace in your heart and blessings, you cannot comprehend is the reward. Get in the word. Choose to believe. It may be hard to let go all at once but start with small things. Baby steps will get you there.

Hang in there and have faith. We all have what we think is a setback once in awhile, but stay with it. Those setbacks may in fact be a step forward in God's plan.

Isaiah 26:3, "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts You."

God bless you and remember,

Jesus loves you.

Prayer of Salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive Your Word and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the Word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with Your Spirit, in Jesus name. Amen."

Choose Wisely

Greetings; My Friends;

My wife and I were having coffee this morning, and feeling blessed. Along came a neighbor who also happens to be a long time friend. The conversation from her side was very negative. She has a habit of complaining about just about anything you can name. She came from another country 16 years ago and brought with her an unbelievable number of superstitions.

This woman is a very nice and caring neighbor. Over the years we have tried to inject something positive into every conversation, and it had little or no effect. On a few occasions when she was complaining about something we tried to bring God into the conversation. She quickly changed the subject. She did not want to hear His name. What she cannot accept is the very thing that can change her life and attitude.

After she went home, my wife and I started to discuss people we know. Don't worry, it wasn't juicy gossip. While our neighbor is probably one of the worst, she certainly isn't the only one. As we started to go down the list of friends and acquaintances, we began to realize how many people fit the description of our neighbor, to varying degrees. A lot of people have a life that they are unhappy with, and stay unhappy. They will tell you something that is completely negative. If you tell them that negativity brings more negative, they will invariably deny that they are negative.

Next, we come to a few other people that aren't obviously unhappy, but they are. If they tell you they are worried about something, and you tell them God is the answer, the standard reply is, I know. They may know and think they believe, but they let fear or doubt mess up the answer God wants to give them.

We passed out CDs on appropriate subjects, books we think would be a help, even study Bibles. We have asked these people how they liked the material, and what their thoughts about it were. Most of the time, even 6 months later, the answer was "I don't have time."

The one thing most of these people don't understand is what we have been trying to tell them. They choose how they feel mentally, physically, emotionally. They do not understand the concept of the power of the words that they use. When their spirit or subconscious hears the words they speak, that spirit immediately begins to bring into existence what they have spoken.

The solution my wife and I came up with to help these people is quite simple. We just put all of their names on our prayer list. We mention them by name, and trust in the Lord to bring in the harvest from the seeds we plant. The only sure thing is our Lord Jesus Christ. Choose to believe.

God bless you and remember,

Jesus loves you.

Prayer of Salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive Your Word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the Word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with Your Spirit, in Jesus name. Amen."

Thank You

To My Friends.

I have been posting messages for three months now. I felt led by the Spirit, to tell people of some of my experiences, frustrations, and searching for answers. I thought that there must be people going through the same kinds of things, I went through.

I never have claimed to be an expert of any kind. I only write what I believe I am led to write. I hope it helps someone. I am writing today to thank all of you who take the time to read what I write. I feel blessed to do what I do, and I sincerely hope it is a blessing to someone.

About the beginning of September, I would like to start a discussion group about once a week on the Internet. I feel it will help a lot of us to actually discuss whatever comes up in a live format. About the beginning of October, I plan on being on you tube twice a week.

I would greatly appreciate feedback from any of my readers concerning subjects you would like to hear about or talk about when we start the discussion group. I feel that all of us can help each other in our endeavor to know the Lord.

Again, thank you all so much for reading the messages. If you have any comments whatsoever, I would be happy to see them. God bless you and remember,

JESUS LOVES YOU

Hope

Greetings, My Friends;

Hope comes from a number of Hebrew and Greek words. It means to trust, to expect with confidence.

Psalm 33:18 "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his mercy."

Psalm 146:5 "Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God."

Faith also means trust, confidence and hope.

When you consider that hope and faith are so similar, it gives you a very good picture of what prayer is and how it works.   Faith and hope are a gift to us by the grace of God. When we are children of God, we hope in him for eternal life, to answer our prayers, to keep us from being overcome by the evil one.

When we pray, we are trusting in Jesus faith and the power of the Holy Spirit to answer our prayers. We place our trust in the Lord, because one of the conditions of answered prayer is to believe we have what we pray for. If you look at your prayer in your mind,  substitute hope for trust and faith. We expect our prayers will be answered when we hope for God to continue his blessings on us, and that is faith.

We know that God is faithful, so we hope in all things through him.

As it says in Psalm 39:7, "And now, Lord, what do I wait for?  My hope is in you."

God bless you and remember,  

Jesus loves you

Prayer of Salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive your Word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth,  cleansed and washed in the word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with your spirit, in Jesus name. Amen."

Intercessory Prayer

Greetings. My Friends;

Perhaps the most powerful type of prayer is the one you pray for someone else.

Job 42: 10 "and the Lord restored Jobs losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed  Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before."

Jesus gave us many examples of praying for others. One of the most beautiful in my opinion is written in John. 17:9 – 24. Jesus prayed to the Father about those whom the Father gave to Him. He even prayed for those who crucified Him.

Luke 23:24 "Jesus said father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Abraham prayed for the righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah. Even Abraham's servant prayed to find the right wife for Isaac when Abraham sent him on that mission.

Moses was constantly interceding for the children of Israel. They had a habit of acting in ways that made God angry and ready to destroy them. Moses prayed and the people as a whole were spared.

As mentioned in 2 Chronicles 30:18 when many people from various places ate the Passover without being cleansed, the prayers of Hezekiah to God, spared them.

Paul prayed for all the churches. The list goes on.

Everyone in the Bible that was chosen by God, prayed for everyone else. In Luke 22:32. Jesus said to Peter, "I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren."

Jesus did it, the profits  did it, and all of the righteous in God  did it. God answered all of their prayers, no matter how big the problem that they were praying for.

Pray for as many people as you can everyday, and you will receive an abundance of God's blessings, grace and favor.

Got Bess you and remember,

 Jesus loves you.

Prayer of Salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive your word, and I repent of sin. I renounced the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the words and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with your spirit, in Jesus name. Amen

Compassion

Greetings. My Friends;

Compassion is defined as; sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.

Proverbs 19:17 "He who has pity on the poor, lends to the Lord, and he will pay back what he is given."

Job 6:14 "To him who is afflicted,, kindness  should be shown by his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty."

Compassion covers a lot of territory. We see starving children on television and we feel their hunger and despair. We sometimes feel in our hearts that we should try to help, so we send money. Did we have true compassion, or did we do it out of guilt because we have so much?

True compassion is not just financial charity. True compassion extends to every part of life. It includes friends, strangers, and sometimes someone we may not even like.

Romans 12:13 "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep."

You may know someone who just lost a loved one, or someone in the hospital, or is in financial trouble. Kind words are wonderful, but sometimes it goes further than that. Maybe a couple of hot meals for the bereaved family. Maybe someone could use a ride to see sick family or friend. A caring person during times of stress or grief, is a blessing from God. Do for someone else what you would appreciate someone doing for you.

Remember that true compassion does not involve judging whether someone deserves help. As creator, God is the judge of everyone. It is written, "with what measure you judge, you will be judged." I believe we are confronted with people or situations where are compassion and love for God is tested. I believe God has a sense of humor too. Many times he will bring someone into the picture that we don't particularly like. Do good anyway, it means more to God.

Remember one other thing. Situations that require true compassion are an opportunity for us.

God bless you and remember,

 Jesus loves you.

Prayer of Salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive your Word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the Word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with Your Spirit, in Jesus name. Amen."

Praise

Greetings My Friends;

Praise is defined as soon expressing respect and gratitude, especially in song. We praise God for blessings. We have all heard that we should praise the Lord, but what does that mean? Praise comes from the Hebrew barak, meaning to kneel; by implication, to bless God.

Psalm 50:23. "Whoever offers praise glorifies me; and to him who orders his conduct aright, I will show the salvation of God.

Psalm 105:2 "Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; talk of all His wondrous works."

As you can see praise to the Lord takes many forms. The book of Psalms has been referred to as ancient Israel's hymn book. David wrote about half of the Psalms. Whether you read them, or sing them you are praising God the way the ancient Hebrews did.

As we look at the many verses in the Psalms, we find that there are quite a few verses that refer to using your lips to praise God. This does not necessarily mean singing.

To me, there are many ways to praise the Lord. Prayer from the heart, especially for someone else shows thankfulness to God for what He has given us. A kind act to someone pleases God, the same way. Acknowledge Him as your Creator, and thank Him for everything. What to thank him for? How about your next breath, your sight, and every move you make. Look around you and if you start thanking him for everything you can see, feel, and do, you will be at it a long time.

We must remember; everything we do from the heart because we love Him, praises Him. Even the angels praise Him.

Psalm 96:2 "For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods."

Fear is from the Hebrew word yare meaning to revere. So when you read that you are to fear God, it does not mean to be afraid of Him.

God bless you and remember,

 Jesus loves you.

Prayer of Salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive your word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past, come  into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with your spirit, in Jesus name. Amen.

Forgiveness of sin

Greetings. My Friends;

I was looking over the response to the messages that have been posted. It seems that sin is among the most read. A lot of preachers in the past have been known as fire and brimstone preachers. I guess these preachers felt that if they beat you over the head, long enough and hard enough about your sins they could scare you into salvation. The only thing they accomplished in most cases was to make people feel desperate and hopeless.  A lot of people if they feel hopeless enough, just give up. That is not the way the Lord intended things to be. The Lord and his mercy provide for forgiveness of sins.

Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead to eliminate our sins through a new covenant with man. We obtained forgiveness of sins and salvation through his sacrifice. We serve a God who loves us and wants us to spend eternity with him. I have copied a few verses from the Bible, because they bring hope, instead of despair. The truth is the truth.

1 John 1:9, "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Isaiah 43:25 "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgression for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

Psalms 103:12 "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us".

Matthew 26:28. "For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins".

Acts 3:19 " Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of us refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord".

When you do have sin, re-read these verses and realize that your sins have been paid for on the cross. Repent sincerely, and as our precious Jesus said, "go and sin no more".

God bless you and remember,

 Jesus loves you.

The Prayer of Salvation;

Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive Your Word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the Word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with Your Spirit, in Jesus name. Amen."

Charged Up

Greetings My Friends ;

Hello again. This may sound like a funny title for this message, but it will become clear later.

I can't speak for someone else, only myself. As we go through life, we encounter many things that distract us for one reason or another. The Bible does not promise that everything in your life will be perfect, even though you are Christian. Satan tries to discourage us because he hates Jesus for what He did for us. Whatever stumbling blocks he  can put in our way, he will. He is unrelenting.

Satan has a very large bag of tricks. He will use your children, your spouse, and anything else he can think of. Things like running late in the morning, taking the kids somewhere, and a hundred other errands. As we get caught up in these problems, Satan will even help us rationalize the fact that most or all of our daily time with God is gone. It isn't our fault we say. Satan beats us up and we let him.

Faith is built up by surviving problems and trusting in God. What I do is simple. When I feel like I am drifting a little, I tell Satan, my God is greater than him. I tell him he has no power over me, in Jesus name. I ask the Holy Spirit to help me. The Word rejuvenates me. I compare the surge of power I feel, to the charging of a battery. Maybe what I am saying seems a little strange. Believe me, if you try it, you will experience the same power that I feel whenever I do what I am telling you.

God bless you and remember,

 Jesus loves you.

Prayer of Salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive your word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and wash in the word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with your spirit, in Jesus name. Amen."

Unanswered Prayers

Greetings. My Friends;

Proverbs 21:13 "Whoever shuts his ears to the poor  will also cry himself and not be heard."

Psalms 66:18 "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear."

James 4:3 "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasure's"

In previous messages. I mentioned that one of the conditions for answered prayer is a pure heart. As you can see from the quotes, the Lord makes it pretty plain. He flat out says that under certain conditions, He will not hear, so He will not answer.

Compassion for the needy is something that is required. You are blessed, so the Lord expects you to share what he has given you. Give out of a loving heart and not grudgingly, and you will be heard. Doubt is another big problem. The Lord considers doubt or unbelief as a sin, and will not honor the prayers of someone who does not trust him.

Many times we ask for something that may harm us, someone else, or it does not line up with His Word. Winning the lottery, fancy cars, etc. can lead you on the road to destruction. He will not give you anything that He knows will take you from Him. He does not answer prayers for frivolous things.

When you pray for something totally against his word, he does not hear. Believe it or not, some people have prayed for someone else's spouse, that harm or misfortune would come to someone they disliked, and all sorts of equally destructive things.

One last verse. Isaiah 59:2 "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden his face from you. So that he will not hear".

God bless you and remember,

 Jesus loves you.

Prayer of salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive your word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with your spirit, in Jesus name. Amen."

Let Go and Let God

Greetings. My Friends;

Hello again, my friends. At the risk of boring anyone that is a regular reader, I once again relate things from my past.

My whole working life, from about the age of 23, I have been in charge of something. I was a supervisor in a candy plant. I was promoted into the office where I scheduled all of the manufacturing for our two plants. One was here and the other 180 miles away. We had literally hundreds of products. When our purchasing agent left, I volunteered to take over that job. Since scheduling the work in the plants, involved what purchasing bought, it was a good fit.

Everything was going very well. Of course, I didn't realize that the Lord was guiding me. I never got arrogant, but there were times I thought I was hot stuff. I stayed 10 years and left for bigger challenges.

When I retired from my last job, I was the distribution center manager in a large facility for a very big corporation. No challenge was too big, and a feeling of I can do anything was my way of thinking.

Okay. That's the background. Now along comes meeting Jesus, and he says, trust me. Psalms 37:5 "Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in him, and He shall bring it to pass." Proverbs 3:5 "trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding".

Well, I will tell you what. Let go and let God is a real blow to your pride. Pride has you feeling that there is nothing you cannot do. As I got into the Word, being a somewhat skeptical human, I decided to turn over little things to God, and I would take care of the big things. It is a good thing he loves us, because if he didn't, my arrogant, self would've been treated as I deserved.

Fortunately, over time, I began to look back at my life. It's kind of humbling when you can see that your accomplishments and everything else that was good had the hand of God in it.

I have since been confronted with situations that were impossible. I found the perfect solution to each problem. I am incredibly brilliant. I turned everything over to the Lord. I made up my mind to trust. Let go and let God. He took care of me for years, why not now. If I start to have a little doubt, I ask Him to forgive me, and I read His promises on trust.  No matter how  impossible something looks, His Word tells me to trust. Faith is a gift from God, and the Holy Spirit is my helper. This combination never fails. Let go and let God!

God bless you and remember,

Jesus loves you

The prayer of salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive your word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the Word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with Your Spirit, in Jesus name. Amen."

Guilt

Greetings. My Friends;

Today we will look at something that is a problem for a lot of people. That problem is guilt.

Unless someone is born with no conscience, they will experience very little, if any feeling of guilt. For most of us, a lot of the time we feel guilty about something we said or did. Some people have such an over active sense of guilt, that they worry about practically everything they say or do.

For Christians, the problem can be even worse. Besides the standard reasons for guilt, they sometimes have many more than the average person. You see, Satan tries to work on Christians most of the time. Christians usually have a more acute sense of right and wrong, so Satan has more to work with. I think he targets Christians, because he sees them as a bigger prize.

Many Christians worry If they are praying enough. They compare themselves to others and feel guilty if they don't pray as much. Another big one is time spent reading the Bible. Have they helped a neighbor, are they witnessing about Jesus to others. As you can see guilt comes in many forms, but the wonderful thing about being a Christian is it really doesn't affect you, unless you let it.

You must remember this. You create your own guilt. God looks at your spirit, and does not lay guilt on you. If you truly love God and are saved, you will do what is right. Reading the word and send Satan back where you belong.

God bless you and remember,

 Jesus loves you.

Prayer of salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive Your Word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the Word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with Your Spirit, in Jesus name. Amen."

In His Likeness

Greetings. My Friends;

Dear readers. I once again remind you  that I am just like most of you. I have learned some things the hard way and some by what I consider to be inspiration. Everything I write, I feel was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Several years ago. I happened to think about a phrase we have all heard hundreds of times. We are created in God's image. It is biblical and mentioned in the story of creation. For some reason I thought about it that day to figure out just what it meant. We humans are all different, shapes, sizes, colors, and features. Did that mean that the creator is a composite of all of us? I think not.

The thought came to me that God is a spirit., therefore, if he created us in his image, we must be spirits too. It made a lot of sense to me. If you realize that so much of what we are taught, and what is in the Bible only makes sense if we are indeed spirits.

Why  we accept Jesus as our Savior, we become children of God. Jesus told his disciples that they would do greater works, then the ones he did. It makes sense to me. Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God." Put faith and your spirit to work and believe, and  all things are possible.

You are made up of spirit, soul, and body. A lot of people have a hard time accepting the fact that they are a spirit. You are a spirit, whether you are saved or not. They expect to feel something, and they reject the idea, when they don't.

When you are saved, you and God are one in spirit. He occasionally whispers quietly to your heart, or the Holy Spirit does. Listen and you will hear. Your spirit is perfect in the sight of God. That never goes away.

Andrew Womack has a CD series entitled spirit, soul, and body . You can download this series free, from his website. AWMI.com More on this subject at a future time.

God bless you, and remember,

 Jesus loves you.

Prayer of salvation;

"Oh God in heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive your Word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the Word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with Your Spirit, in Jesus name. Amen."