TRUTH or CONSEQUENCES

Hearing God must be pretty important! Jesus said seven times in his letters to the churches (Revelation, chapters 2-3), " He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches ."  Jesus addressed our hearing issue in John chapter 10 verses 2-4... " The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gates for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice ."  I want it to be said of me that I KNOW His voice!  I often pray, "Lord, give me ears to hear what Your Spirit is speaking. Why do I pray that prayer?  God is at work all around us and has many things on His heart that He wants to share with us.  We are His legs, His arms, His smile, His voice to the people around us.  So it only makes sense that we know what it is He is interes...

Isaiah, the prophet, prophesied about Jesus in chapter 50 verse 7, "Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced.  Therefore have I set my face like flint , and I know I will not be put to shame." Luke 9:51 says, "As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem."  These two scriptures paint a picture of determined choice! Jesus had made up His mind that He would go to the cross for the good of everyone on the earth, then and now.  He knew He was facing torture and death.  He was born to die.  But He also chose to do it as a man.  He had flesh and blood, as well as feelings and emotions, just like you and I.  He developed very close relationships with people on the earth, shared His life with them.  He was a young man still, only 30 years old.  His whole life was before Him.  However, He did not waver in His choice to restore us to relationship with the Father!...

      I have a staff in my office that I bought several years ago at a Jewish Festival. It has a lion's head on the top and for a long time it just sat in my office.  One Sunday morning, when I was in charge of the service, I was deeply offended by something that happened before service. I had to get up and preach.  I knew that I could not go out and preach if I didn't let this go and have a clear conscience before God.  I had about a half hour before service was to begin to talk to God about what I was feeling.  I saw that staff sitting there and I grabbed it and began to write the names of God on it.  All the names of who God was for me.  It brought me comfort and reminded me of how good He was to me, of how much He loved me.  That staff still sits in my office and reminds me of who God is for me. Recently I heard that a shepherd's staff was indeed a place where a shepherd would record his history with G...

I had a word from the Holy Spirit this past weekend. It was a very simple word, yet impactful for me.  Sometimes we look ahead in our lives and want to make great commitments in our service and love for God.  Sometimes we break these commitments and than feel horrible because we didn't measure up. Sometimes the Holy Spirit draws us to surrender something to God...such as our time, our souls, our worship, our money, etc.  When we consider it in the light of the rest of our lives, it gets scary!  Can I do it or will I fail again? The word is TODAY I can yield myself to you Father.  TODAY I can live for you. TODAY I can worship you with all my heart.  When we think in terms of forever, it can be overwhelming.  But when I get up TODAY I can live for you. Christy Lane sang the song, "One day at a time sweet Jesus" and it has often come to my mind through the years. There is  a lot of truth in what it says. Remember when the Is...

Have you even wondered which verse is the very center of the Bible?  Wouldn't you think that it would be something very important? Wow!  I would say that is a very important scripture for us to apply in our lives. Actually it is a hard principle to walk out every day in our lives. Why do I say that? Because I know in my own life I have often tried to love God while I trusted in the people around me. That was an issue for me over the years.  It was much easier to try to trust the people I could see and be around in their flesh and blood bodies, than to trust God. I had it all backwards for a long time. As a result I was hurt over and over as I put my trust in people, along with expectations of how I wanted them to treat me. I am learning to put my complete trust in God and to love people just as they are. I know I am not perfect.  I must learn to cut others some slack and understand they aren't perfect either. People have always failed me and alwa...

"Jesus loves me, this I know.  For the Bible tells me so.  Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong. Yes Jesus loves me, yes Jesus loves me, yes Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so." Do you remember singing this song in Sunday School? Unfortunately, after giving our lives to Jesus, many of us doubt that God really loves us. This morning, with a group of Pastors, we were to pray about "God chose us because He loves us". The room was fairly silent! Why? Because many, many people follow Jesus but don't actually have a revelation of His love for them.  It is one thing to know that "God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son to die for it" and completely another thing to believe that "if I was the only person in the world, Jesus would still have died for me."  Each of our hearts longs to know that God the Father really loves ME. One pastor shared a story this morning, that during a rough time ...

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend "Cultivate Revival", a conference hosted by Global Awakening.  The leader of that movement is Randy Clark, and he was joined by Heidi Baker, Bill Johnson and others.  The common factor for all the speakers is that they are living out what they shared.  Their ministries are walking in REVIVAL.  Everything that was shared felt like a punch in the gut, simply because I am hungry for more of God, and the challenge was great.  These people have made choices to give themselves completely to the pursuit of God. They are seeing signs and miracles, as the Holy Spirit moves in and directs the activities in their lives.  The Holy Spirit is moving in power and lives are being transformed to walk in boldness and courage. The mantra of the conference was, 'Why not here? Why not now? Why not me?' The bottom line is that each one of us must let a hunger for God and His Kingdom consume us. We have to make pursuing His...