Perfect Peace

It Is Written, John 14:27, peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
It Is Written, Romans 8:6, for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
It is difficult for most people to even think about giving up their stuff.  They may have collections, special items, even investments of one sort or another.  For quite a few people, stuff and accumulating more stuff, is almost an obsession.
If you take a real good look at these two verses, you'll probably reach the conclusion that God is saying we should put Him first in our lives, and everything else after.
We receive true peace in our hearts when we love and trust God.  We know we have godly peace in our hearts, when we can look at our stuff, and choose God over the stuff.
Godly peace has some really great benefits.  If you have true godly peace in your heart, you will no longer worry about anything.  You will hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and make better decisions.  Your peace will greatly improve your life, and that of your family.  With peace in your heart, you can rest assured that God is taking care of everything in your life.
God is not trying to tell us that we shouldn't have stuff,  He is just trying to tell us to put things in proper perspective.  He knows what's best for us, and will give it to us if we let him.  By the way, if God is taking care of everything, we can sit back and enjoy the things we have.  Have a blessed day.
Praise the Lord!
Remember Jesus Loves You
Prayer Of Salvation
Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me.  Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation.  Please forgive my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.
Thank You Lord
Amen

A Calling

It Is Written, Romans 8:28-30, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29) For whom He forknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30) Moreover whom He predestined , these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
The word predestined refers to the fact that God knew who would accept Jesus, before man was even created.
If you watch preachers on TV, or read books written by preachers, you will hear or read that they were called by God to do what they do. They usually say they heard the call in their heart.
 Because of this calling, many people feel they are less in God's eyes, because God didn't talk to them. Many feel that for some reason they were left out. Not so. Read on.
When you accept Jesus as your Savior, realize that it is by grace you receive Jesus.  God knew it before you were born, so you were predestined, or as some say, one of the elect.  At this point God called you automatically for His service.
Minister, or ministry, basically means to serve.  When you were born again, you received the fruits of the Holy Spirit.  Galatians 5:22-23, lists them as love, joy, peace, long-suffering, (patience) kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
You can make a ministry out of many things, and by doing so, you are fulfilling God's call on your life. One other thing.  When you walk with God, the Holy Spirit may call you in your heart for a specific situation, maybe once in a while, or possibly an ongoing thing.  He directs us as it fits His plan, and provides us what we need to accomplish that plan.  Love and faith work together and one will not work without the other.
As long as we all serve God, in whatever way we are led, we are doing His will, and we will never miss out. If we love our neighbor as ourselves, all we need to do at that point is wait for God to put something on our heart, and then do it.  Remember faith without works is dead.  When you put it all together, the fact is anyone who is born again, is called.  Have a blessed day.
Praise the Lord!
Remember Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation
Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me.  Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation.  Please forgive my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.
Thank You Lord
 Amen

A Heart For God

It Is Written, Psalm 27:14, wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait I say on the Lord.
When most people accept Jesus as their Savior, they really don't realize what happened.  Because of that, they end up feeling empty because try as they might, very little progress is made.
Being born again is a spiritual thing.  God put something in your heart that controlled your brain to say the words and take the steps for salvation.  In many cases the brain took over, and your actions were no longer spiritual. Let's take a look at this.
When we were created, we were made in the image of God.  While many people realize God is a spirit, they don't realize that we are spirits too.  We become one with God.  Jesus received the Holy Spirit to be the power behind what He did.  We received the Holy Spirit, when we accepted Jesus as Savior, and the same power Jesus had when we were baptized in the Holy Spirit.  The only difference is, we do everything in Jesus name.
God sent His son to save man.  Jesus put aside His God status and became flesh, but he still had the same spirit we have.  Jesus fulfilled His mission on earth, but left instructions for us to continue His work in our turn.
There is only one way for us to do that.  Just as Jesus had to use a body, we do to.  We are just like Jesus, because we became righteous because of Jesus death and resurrection and our acceptance of Him.
Just as Jesus talked to His Father all the time, did what His Father showed Him and told Him, we must do the same.  Our Father gave us instructions in the Bible,  gave us Jesus as an example, and talks to us if we listen for His voice.
By reading God's Word, and following Jesus example, we will get closer and closer to God, and our hearts will be full of His presence.  You cannot will your heart (spirit) to do anything spiritual on your own.  It takes the presence of God to fill the empty space in your heart.  Have a blessed day. Praise the Lord!
Remember Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation
Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me.  Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation.  Please forgive my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.
Thank You Lord
Amen

Steps of Faith

It Is Written, James 1:12,  "Blessed is the man who endures temptation;  for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him"
The message today is about something that affects all Christians at one time or another. That something can be called, frustration, doubt, despair, weariness, and so on.  It can build, or hit you all at once.
Whatever you call it,  it all comes from the same sources.  Let's take a look at a typical Christian. For this example, we will call him Tom.
Tom has just been born again.  He starts to read the Bible, and he runs across, "ask anything in my name" and he gets excited.  He starts to watch a couple of preachers.  The preachers are talking about what he is reading. Wow!
Our friend Tom is out in the real world, and things are not quite like he hears from the preachers.  It seems very few people think or act like him. He is surrounded by negativity, and the ways of the world.
Tom tries his best to believe, but because of doubt placed in his mind from friends, he doesn't spend much time in the Word anymore.  He doesn't see his prayers answered, so more doubt, frustration and despair come in.
Jesus said I will never leave you or forsake you.  If a person is truly born again, Jesus will not let him go, but will send someone to that person to get them back on track.
I had a dream that helped me understand, and I hope it helps you too. I pictured a long stairway called faith.  It had about 1000 steps to get to the top.  It seemed impossible to climb that high.  As I looked at it though, I noticed a series of platforms on the steps.  A little voice said to me, those are places to rest and pull yourself together before you continue on.
Faith is that way.  Tom took the steps and got tired.  Just as he felt that he wasn't going to make it, he got to a platform (help sent from God} where he could gather his strength and courage.
No matter how many steps, and no matter how many stops, Jesus will give us the strength to get to the top if we only persevere.  Have a blessed day. Praise the Lord!
Remember Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation
Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me.  Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation.  Please forgive my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.
Thank You Lord
 Amen

Trust In The Lord

It Is Written, Psalm 34:22,  the Lord redeems the lives of His servants, and in none of those who take refuge and trust in Him shall be condemned or held guilty.
Strongs dictionary of biblical words, shows several definitions of the word trust.  The Hebrew and Greek define trust as, confidence, faith, assurance, to hope in advance, to name a few.  These are all faith filled words.
Words are brought to life in the supernatural world, whether they are faith words, or negative, or as I call them, death words.  They are acted on as soon as they are spoken.
When we fill our hearts and minds with the Word Of God,  we develop our faith and love.  As a result, when we read God's promises, we can claim them for our own.  What promises we claim, we trust that He will deliver.
As we trust in God and His promises, we will undoubtedly be attacked by satan.   satan will try to put doubt or fear in us.  Once we accept what satan says, that cancels out what God said.
When satan attacks at any time, read or say out loud Psalm 34:19" many evils confront the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of all of them".
Remember, you are made righteous by what Jesus did on the cross, and your acceptance of Him.  satan has no power over you in Jesus name.
Trusting God to answer prayer usually requires patience as well as trust. God cannot lie, so have faith and trust in Him.  If satan tries to tell you it won't happen, take that as confirmation your prayer will be answered, because as we know, satan is a liar, and cannot speak the truth.  Have a blessed day.
 Praise the Lord!
Remember Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation
Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me.  Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation.  Please forgive my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.
Thank You Lord
 Amen

Spirit Power

It Is Written, 1 John 4:12-13,  no one has seen God at any time.  If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.  By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His spirit.
When Jesus was baptized, and the voice from heaven called Him beloved Son, the Holy Spirit came upon Him.  As you read about Jesus miracles, you probably don't realize at first, that it is the Holy Spirit working through Jesus that performs the miracles.  Jesus Himself said that He by Himself could not perform miracles, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In these times, we see evangelists like Billy Graham, and a number of people who have been anointed by God to lay hands on people to heal them.  Many of us see these people and we are a little envious of them.  No need to be.
When we became believers we all received the fruits of the Holy Spirit and His presence in us.( Galatians 5:23 ).  Then we could choose to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and receive the gifts of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12 ).
Everyone who is a believer was given a measure of faith.  Everyone who is baptized in the Holy Spirit, receives the same Holy Spirit that Jesus received.  At this point we are all equal to the giants of faith, and capable of doing what they do or did.
God being who He is, knew everything since before man was even created. God knew each of us and what we would do.  Even though we all have the same Holy Spirit, I believe we are called and anointed by God for what He knows we will put our whole being into.
Just as many people would like to be a superstar in a sport, there are varying degrees of effort put into it.  You can be very good in a sport, but not be a superstar.  The important thing to remember is, each of us is called by God to do the best He knows we are capable of, and the Holy Spirit helps us to achieve it.  We are just as valuable to God, as any of the great people of the Bible.  Have a blessed day.
Praise the Lord!
Remember Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation
Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me.  Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation.  Please forgive my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.
Thank You Lord
Amen

Unintentional Judging

It Is Written, Romans 14:13, therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brothers way.
Everyone judges someone else.  You may not even realize you are doing it. A prime example of what I'm talking about is driving.  On any day you drive, you are likely to become angry with someone, because you think that they lacked courtesy, or they do something to benefit themselves, even it puts others in danger.
Another example is when shopping.  Parking lots are notorious.  A big reason for judging someone is when you see a perfectly healthy looking person parking in a handicapped spot.  How about someone ahead of you when checking out, like the one who always holds everything up.
Another example is when you think you are helping someone.  You insist your way is right and theirs is wrong.  You try to correct everything, even before they do it.
The hardest thing comes up when you're trying to help loved ones.  When you see them about to make a terrible mistake, you point out, or bring up something about the past,  just to try to get their attention.  You try to do it in a loving sympathetic way, but unfortunately it does not come across that way, it comes across as judging them.  So even if what you trying to do seems good, it can cause more harm.  Unless it is life-threatening, the wiser thing would be to keep quiet.
A lmost everything in life is learned by doing.  Mistakes can be a very good teacher.  People remember mistakes.  Instead of getting angry as in the first example and running the risk of hard feelings as in the second example, the answer is simple.  Instead of getting upset, put all of these things in God's hands.  Since He is the creator, only He can fix any problems with His creation.
I must admit I have been guilty on all counts in the past.  It took quite a while for me to realize I was judging people.  I'm happy to say I have been working on it with the help of the Holy Spirit, and I have improved.  Well let's put it this way, I think I have.  Have a blessed day.  Praise the Lord!
Remember Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation
Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me.  Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation.  Please forgive my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.
Thank You Lord
Amen