A testimony

Something to think about.

A Testimony

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

This verse has been an expression of hope. It is uplifting, promising and edifying to His people. I am grateful that it provides hope for those who love him. I am thankful that He has turned my sinful life into something of value and joy.

But why did I entitle this "A Testimony?" As I look back at my life, I can clearly see where God has open and closed doors for my benefit. I can see where he has turned situations around for my good dispute my bad decisions.

I've seen His hand in large and small places of my life and find evidence of his resolution. I can see a young man who use to be me who for no more reason than the Grace of God did not end up a drug addict or a criminal. I can look back at the lives of people I grew up with and see them mired in the same sin for forty-fifty years. I see lives that have ended after decades of fruitless living. Who's legacy is; why was I here?

I look back and can attest to the hand of God leading us away from poorly made decisions. I can see when I joined the Air Force God's hand in my decisions. He used a clerical error on my part to bring us, my newlywed wife and I to a place of salvation. I can see how he brought us through one bad decision after another. I now see the footprints in the sand where he walked with me and when he carried me.

I can see how He turned a near catastrophic heart attack to my benefit and for His glory. I can see where he patiently and consistently taught me, healed me and saved me. I can not understand the depth of love he has shown me throughout my life.  I would have quit on me if I had been him. Yet through all of my sin, disobedience and wicked insistence, he has never abandoned me. He's never reached the end of his rope with me. 

That is not to say that he has exempted me from reaping the rewards of my sin, it means despite my self defeating actions he has found a way to redeem my life. He has been my savior throughout my life. I may not see it at the moment but as I look back the evidence of His work is undeniable. He has turned a poor, abandoned, confused, isolated, lost child into a member of his beloved family. I can now say and could have said over thirty years ago I am a child of the most high God. I now know the privileged of having a father who never abandoned me and never will.

I am a testimony of Romans 8:28, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 

I am a testimony of my life being worked out for good by God for his purposes. He called me according to his purposes before I loved Him. This is not an isolated testimony it is a common one. It is the testimony of every one who is called a child of God. The sin and rebellion might be different but it is the same God working things out for your good. It is the same God who saves you from yourself daily.

Leia Mais…

Thankful

Something to think about.

Thankful

A Psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100:1-5 ESV

It is not Thanksgiving it is not Christmas it is not Easter.  Its October 24th. It is not a holiday, a miracle has not occurred. As a matter of fact it is 6: 49 in the morning and the only other thing that has happened today is the dog is whining. 

The word for today is thankful. I am thankful because God is. Just like He said in the old testament "I Am." I am grateful for His plan and the fulfillment of His plan of salvation. I am thankful to Him for allowing me to serve Him. I am thankful I can come into His presence singing. I am thankful that He made me. I am thankful the He is my shepard. I am thankful that I am allowed to praise Him. I am grateful that He allows me into His presence. I am grateful that He is good, that His love endures forever. I am thankful for His forgiveness, redemption, restoration, justification, and sanctification. I am thankful for all He has done. I am thankful that He is all powerful and unassailable.  I am thankful that he is forgiving. I am thankful that He will never change. I am grateful that He loves me forever. I am thankful the He is faithful through all generations. I am thankful that He has given me the capacity to love Him. I am grateful he has prepared a place for me in heaven. Sometimes you just have to say thank you, God just because he is worthy of our gratitude.

Leia Mais…

Completely Whole

Something to think about.

 Completely Whole

Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, Acts 3:19 ESV

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." Mark 11:25 ESV

Repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration, adoption words with such magnificent meaning and power. In an era of rights have we determined that we have a right to these words? That they are a birthright because we are human? Are we taking for granted the mercy, wonder, and grace of God? 

Every one of these words has a cost related to them. 

Repentance means; sincere regret or remorse. Regret or remorse in themselves suggest a substantial personal cost. God does not have to accept or recognize your repentance it adds nothing to Him.  

Forgiveness, Is the act of pardoning someone for something they have done. God does need to forgive you He would be fine condemning you.   

Reconciliation, One of the meanings I found is; the restoration of friendly relations. God does not have to take you back. 

Restoration, to bring back to full usefulness. God does not need to restore you. You are not that important.  

Adoption, to willingly appropriate all rights of the father to an illegitimate child.  God does not have to share His glory with you. 

Are you getting the point? God does not have to do any of these things for you. He does not have to take on the cost of reconciliation, forgiveness, restoration, repentance, and adoption.  The cost of all of these words is borne by God not us. He is perfect as He is. He does not need us to accomplish anything for Him.   

We need to get back to reality and understand that God does this because He loves us. He loves us with a love we have yet to fully understand. God is perfect, it means He is complete, lacking nothing. Which means He has no need of us. But still, he does all of these things because He loves us. It boggles my mind, a love that will bear the cost of our rebellion.  God who is entirely whole without us, is still willing and fully committed to paying for our sin.  

Why do we fight a love like that?

Leia Mais…

Rejected

Something to think about.

 

Rejected

 

66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. 67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!”John 6:66-70

 

Jesus was rejected to His face. In this verse, it says "many of his disciples."  The inference or deduction I get is, much more rejected Him than the twelve that didn't. It is imperative for us to realize that not everyone is going to respond to Jesus. If this verse is a sign of a broader reality, we must come to the understanding that many will reject Christ. There will be those that upon hearing the word and understanding the word will reject it. For those of us who believe that statement is incomprehensible. How could anyone in their right mind deny Christ? Since we know, there is nothing, no one better. We know and believe with total confidence and expectation the promises of salvation and eternal life. We believe in restoration, reconciliation, rebirth and new life. We believe in the grace, redemption, and forgiveness of God.  Furthermore, we accept and expect all Gods promises to be fulfilled. We know that the God of creation through His Son Jesus has provided for our eternal life with Him in heaven. We can't understand how anyone can reject Him. 

 

Jesus does something here we need to become aware of. He does not turn and chase those who reject Him. He turned to the twelve who recognized Him for who He was and changed the world with those twelve. As the family of God and as individuals we need to stop chasing rejects and embrace those who God has chosen.  We need to seek and find the chosen.

 

There are two important gems in this section of Scripture. One is your uniqueness in accepting and understanding the call of God. Many hearing and understanding will never accept the reality of Christ. You are special for you have heard and accepted His sacrifice for your life. Two and most importantly are, God chose you. As He chose the twelve, He chose you. You are the preferred of God. We need to start acting like it. You are exalted above the rest of humanity because He chose you. The rest of mankind will not sit at the wedding feast of the lamb.

Leia Mais…

Repent Revival

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Repent Revival

17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Mathew 4:17

I have repented. Yes, I'm still working on it. I am still in the process of receiving all that is associated with repentance. This commandment of Christ still haunts me. It rattles me to my core because it is still a valid call. There are those around me that have not repented. I am not talking about those in Hollywood or in politics or business. Nor any other category of people, I am talking about my brother, sisters, nieces, nephews in short my family. There is an entire world living all around me that have not repented that have not accepted Christ. I pray for revival in this country, state, and city. I need to start praying for revival in my family.  Is it possible that we have not seen a great revival in this country because we are praying for someone else? The next great revival needs to begin at home. The great field of harvest is not in some far away city or country. It is within our homes. With the people, we break bread with. With those that will no longer listen to our message. If they won't listen how can we reach them? We need to pray for them. We need to stand in the gap for them. What that means is we need to chase after God on their behave. We need to cry out to God for their salvation. We need to get into the battle for their souls. They may not listen to us, but God has the resources to reach them He has the means to touch their hearts. 

Have we given up on our families? Have we written them off as unreachable, unworthy, hopeless unforgivable? Have we become blase about their eternal destination. Have we accepted them as a lost cause? Have we turned them over to eternal death? If we are to see revival it needs to start at home. If we have written off our families do you really think we will care about the lost of the world? This is a call to action to pray for your family to begin a revival in your home.

Leia Mais…

Love Your Enemies

Something to think about.

Love Your Enemies

⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Matthew 5:44

This is one of those really difficult scriptures.  We usually read this type of scripture gloss over it and move on. This is without a doubt contrary to our nature. What we would have preferred Jesus to say was something like hate your enemies. Because that would have been consistent with our nature. Have you ever considered what would happen if God were to bless our enemies? God will not facilitate or be the provider of evil. In other words, the blessing of God must be consistent with His character. Which means one of two things must happen for your enemy to be blessed. Your enemies must repent and turn to God. Or it is you that are in the wrong, and you must repent to receive the blessing of God. God is not going to condone of facilitate the evil of your enemy. His grace would cause your enemy to turn from His wickedness. Loving your enemy exemplifies the love of Christ. Praying for them invokes the righteousness of God on their lives. Praying for your enemy opens the door for repentance and restoration in their lives. Which if they walk through, will inevitably lead to forgiveness and acceptance into Gods family. 

Leia Mais…

Resurrection

Something to think about.

He is Risen

⁶ He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Matthew 28:6
In the book, A case for Christ, the author sets out to prove that the resurrection did not happen. After an exhaustive investigation, the author comes to the conclusion that the resurrection did indeed happen.  He found that the reports in the New Testament were true.

The thing about the truth is, it is indisputable.  What that means is despite your disposition about an event or a report the truth is not affected.  For example, if the resurrection did not happen Christianity is pointless. It would mean that Christ died pretty much the same as any other man. It would dismantle the foundation of every Christian belief. Without the resurrection, Christianity would have fallen off the map as quickly as His death. And that truth would have destroyed Christianity. Your acceptance or rejection of truth does not affect it. In other words, it does not make any difference to the truth if you believe it or not. The truth stands on its own forever, there is nothing that can change or effect the truth.

That is the crux of the issue, is it true? Did the resurrection occur? If it did it, it is truth and just like any other truth, it can not be changed regardless of anyone's support or rejection of it.
He is risen is a statement, the question is it is valid. In the book, the author does an excellent job of answering the questions about the validity of the reports of His resurrection.  As a Christian or a non-Christian, you need to answer this question for yourself.   If He was resurrected your eternity is assured if He wasn't resurrected, you're not bound by any of the claims of Christianity. I believe if you follow the evidence as did the author of the book you will come to the same conclusion. He Is Risen.     

Leia Mais…

Goodness and Mercy

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Goodness and Mercy 

“Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”
Psalms 118:1 NKJV

I don't want to take this for granted. For God is the creator of the universe and if He were to require repayment from me for my sins, I would be sorely inadequate to pay.  If I tried to earn salvation, an eternity of good works would not suffice. It is only through His goodness and His redemptive plan that I can attain forgiveness and restoration.  It is through His mercy that we even have a chance of redemption. Remember He did not have to have mercy on us. However, In His goodness He has.

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Seeing the Same Perceiving It Differently

Something to think about.

Seeing the Same Perceiving It Differently 

¹⁸ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  1 Corinthians  1:18

We can all look at the same picture and perceive it differently. If you believe in Christ, you can look at the cross and see salvation, forgiveness, redemption, restoration, payment, regret, pain, conviction and horror.  If you don't believe in Christ, all you see a crucified man. 

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The Fruit You Deserve

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The Fruit You Deserve

“"I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."”
Jeremiah 17:10 ESV

Is this a verse you claim for your life or is it a verse you fear? Do you look forward to the fulfillment of this verse or hope that it never comes to fruition. Are you living a life that will allow you to receive the best fruits for your life or are you living a life that will only produce sorrowful fruit?

Interesting questions, but the truth is without Christ we will receive the fruit we deserve. With Christ, we will receive the forgiveness and restoration provided by His life, death, and resurrection.

Leia Mais…

Change Your Mind

Something to think about.

Change Your Mind

19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, Acts 3:19

Repent, means to change one's mind. Which in turn changes one’s actions. If you do not repent you cannot have your sins forgiven nor receive times of refreshing from the Lord.

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