Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Great Is His Faithfulness

"I am the (woman) who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.  He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light.  Surely He has turned His hand against me.  Time and time again throughout the day.

He has aged my flesh and my skin and broken my bones.  He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and woe.  He has set me in dark places like the dead of long ago.  He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out.  He has made my chain heavy.  Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.  He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.

He has been to me a bear lying in wait, like a lion in ambush.  He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces.  He has made me desolate. He has bent His bow and set me up as a target for the arrow. He has caused the arrows of His quiver to pierce my loins. I have become the ridicule of all my people-their taunting song all the day.  He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood.

He has also broken my teeth with gravel and covered me with ashes.  You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity, and I said, my strength and my hope have perished from the LORD.

Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall.  My soul still remembers and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the LORD's mercies, we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."



Saturday, April 7, 2018

Everlasting Light

God said, "Let there be light".

 Jesus is the light of the world; without Him, you dwell in eternal darkness, because the light is the most powerful principle in creation.   It is the cause of all the order and beauty, and life of the universe.  It is the most universal of all forces; it paints the flowers and the rainbow; it glimmers in the remotest star in space, it fades away in the dim hue of the smallest organism in the deepest abyss of the ocean.  Beyond its influence, everlasting death and silence reign.  It is the most necessary of all the forces of the universe.  Light is always needed.  Jesus is always needed.

Pray for God to be your light and salvation today!

Saturday, March 3, 2018

Watch What You Feed Your Mind


Thoughts are bold, daring, strong and persistent things that can drop down into your spirit and take root.  A healthy mind is one that is open to the light at all points.  A healthy mind is not scholastic or theological, but broadly human.  Therefore, beware of books that contain no "pure mental milk".  The mind needs to be nourished, and the word of GOD; the Bible,  is intended for that purpose.

                               
                       Emerson said,

                         "The cure for false theology is mother-wit".

The idea that we leave our mind behind when we become Christians is blatantly unbiblical.  There is a tendency among Christians to denigrate the use of the mind.

 But in Romans 12: 1-2;

                     God said, "We should be transformed by the renewing of our minds".

And Peter wrote his first and second letter as reminders and to stimulate his readers to wholesome thinking. 2Peter 3:1 and prepare our minds for action. 1Peter 1-13 NIV.  Peter makes us aware that the spiritual battlefield is our minds.  Ungodly thoughts destroy relationships.  They usher in negative thoughts of doubt, despair, deception, depression which all lead to death.

                                     
            "As you think ;so you are".


Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Five Possible Reasons God Permits Problems

The daily problems we face will either defeat us or develop us into stronger individuals depending on our response to them.  Most people fail to see how God wants to use problems for good in their lives.  They react foolishly and resent their problems rather pausing to consider what benefit they might bring.  Here are five reasons God may have permitted the problems you experience in your life:


1).     God permits problems to DIRECT you.  Sometimes God must light a fire under you to get you moving.  Problems often point us in a new direction and motivate us to change.  Is God allowing this situation to get your attention?  Sometimes it takes a  painful situation to make us change our ways.  Proverbs 20:30.


2).     God permits problems to INSPECT you.  People are like tea bags...if you want to know what is inside them just drop them into hot water!  Has God tested your faith by allowing a problem or two into your life?  What do problems reveal about you?  When you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience.
James 1:2-3  


3).     God uses problems to CORRECT you.  Some lessons we learn only through pain and failure. It's likely that as a child your parents told you not to touch a hot stove.  But you probably learned by being burned.  Sometimes we learn the value of something...health, money, a relationship...by losing it
Psalm 119:71-72

4).     God permits problems to PROTECT you.  A problem can be a blessing in disguise if it prevents you from being harmed by something more serious.
Genesis 50:20

5).      God permits problems to PERFECT you.  Problems, when responded to correctly, are character builders. Your relationship with God and your character are the only two things you're going to take with you into eternity.
Romans 5:3-4

Reprinted by permission from The Blake Company /theblakecomp@vzavenue.net-(2007),

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Monday, January 15, 2018

Do Words Have Power?

Shakespeare masterfully understood how people play a game with words to achieve certain ends; to cajole, to convince, to display their own wisdom, to win honor or esteem, or to wound, belittle and destroy.  Shakespeare was keenly aware of the power of words used by dictators to build their empires.  He artfully displayed that fact in his plays.

Likewise, evolving playwrights and writers of every genre went further to display the dictator tyrant's ability to manipulate the environment through words; by confiscating the press, radio, television and eventually dictating the "right" books to be read.  He burns the "wrong" ones, thus devouring "freedom of speech" and turning the populace into his slaves.


Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity.We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructive using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.”
Yehuda Berg  
IN ADDITION, Gary Chapman in his book, "Love as a Way of Life"' uses the vivid metaphor for words as being either ‘bullets or seeds’. If we use our words as bullets with a feeling of superiority and condemnation, we are not going to be able to restore a relationship to love. If we use our words as seeds with a feeling of supportiveness and sincere goodwill, we can rebuild a relationship in positive and life-affirming ways."

But most importantly GOD said;

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who...and,

"But the things (words) that come out of a man's mouth come from his heart and mind, and it is they that really make a man unclean (defiled).  For it is a man's mind that evil thoughts arise-murders, adulteries, fornications." (Matthew 15:11-20).  

  Also,  "But I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words, you will be condemned."  (Matthew 12:35-37).