TRUTH or CONSEQUENCES

This morning in our Pastor's Prayer meeting, we were asked to reflect on Exodus 19: 1-9 and see what God would speak to us before we went to prayer.  Verse 4 jumped out at me! The second part of the verse says, ..."how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself."  I love the imagery that the scripture presents with eagles.  Sometimes we feel like God is so far away, but if we simply turn our faces to Him, He will bear us into His presence on wings of eagles! Some of my favorite scriptures have to do with the pictures painted by the eagle analogies.  For instance, we all like to quote the above verse, Isaiah 40:31.  He is my hope, my strength.  As I press into Him I will find the strength to always go on! I can keep in pace with my God, for He will give strength to this mortal body with His Holy Spirit dwelling in me.  Pray this prayer with me right now. "Lord, my hope is in You alone. I depend on every word You speak to me, in the...

Second Corinthians 4: 4 tells us that, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." Sometimes I get frustrated with people who don't want to hear about Jesus.  They seem to have all the answers and don't need any crutch to lean on.  I often forget that the enemy of our souls likes to keep them from "understanding" who Jesus really is.  He actually keeps them in the darkness of their own thinking, so they cannot see the truth about who Jesus really is.  I have to remind myself of this as I pray for the people of my city and nation.  He is a wily old devil, who knows how to work with mankind (he has been doing it for a long time).  So I have to remember to ask the Holy Spirit to remove these blinders from their spiritual eyes, so they can see His glory and be drawn to His love. In worship over the weekend, the Holy Spirit reminded me that we h...

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...