 1 Peter 5:6-7 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because He cares about you.” ~CSB
There comes a time in our lives where we have to make the spiritually right decision. Deep down in our hearts we may want to make another decision. Our flesh sends out warnings that we are about to make a mistake. For example, there are many successful people in this world that will tell you that if they did not quit the job they had at first, they would not be as successful as they are now. But they will also tell you that before they quit that job, something inside them said, “You are stupid! Why quit this job for a dream you may never see?” This was their flesh talking. And those Christians will tell you that they gained the strength to move because they saw the spiritual decision alongside the fleshly decision. And because of their trust in God, they chose to move on the spiritual path which resulted in their success. To ignore the flesh comes from the strength found in ‘humility’. We must all exercise our ‘humility muscles’ if we are ever going to walk this journey properly. God has some great things in store for this world through us but we must be humble enough to hear Him and take the directions He gives us. Even though the world has taught us the word, ‘impossible’. God works in the impossible. God’s miracles happen in impossible situations. The world has no way of knowing what God can do. But we, his humble servants, do. The enemy will try us because he wants to stop the actions of God working through us by setting impossible situations around us. But those situations work in God’s favor. We must stay strong in humility, faith and wisdom knowing that God will make the best happen for us, no matter what it looks like in front of us. We just have to believe. And when we cast our cares on Him, because He cares for us, He will, “...exalt us at the proper time…” His time, not ours. And don’t worry if you think you can not go on, or you don’t know what to do in certain situations; because verse 10 in this chapter continues, “...The God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while.” May God bless and keep you under his protection of love, guidance, healing and wisdom in Jesus’ name. Amen
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 Luke 6:37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” ~CSB
A man visits a church for the first time. As he takes his seat he observes a soloist in the choir singing a song. It is the most terrible singing he has ever heard. To add to his annoyance, some of the members of the church were standing, praising and yelling in support of the horrible singing the soloist continued to sing. After service, the man was walking to his car, saying to himself, “l’ll never come to this church again.” But as he is about to get into his car, he can hear members of the church mumbling about the soloist as they too, were getting in their cars. They were saying things like, “They sure have come a long way! You could really tell what God has done in their life by the way they were singing!” Almost immediately the man began to look at the soloist differently. He began to see the situation through God’s eyes. He began to hear the situation through God’s ears. He began to realize that the song he heard and the voice it came from, really wasn’t that bad. We were not created to judge. The world has taught us to judge. And with that action, we have allowed judgment to dictate our lives in negative ways. Judgment that will keep us occupied in other people’s business rather than paying attention to what God is doing for us in ours. Judgment that will make us look so closely at another’s situation that we begin to ‘desire’ their blessings, instead of pressing through our trials and receiving our own blessings from God. The starting line, at the beginning of the walk in Jesus’ name, begins with our relationship with God. When we develop a strong relationship with God; through His Word, prayer and meditation; we begin to realize God wants us to love others as He loves us. We begin to realize that God wants us to see ‘Him’ in situations He brings us to, no matter what is going on. When we do this, judgment will not be a working action in our lives anymore because we leave that act to the Father in heaven. How is your relationship with God? Take some time and pray on that this week. May God continue to bless and keep you in His peace and love as you walk in Jesus’ name. Amen  Psalm 40:1-3 “I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and He turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. 3 He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what He has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord.” ~NLT
This year I will be ten years sober. I have transformed into a very different man than the one I was back then. With that said, (and I know I am not the only one who has experienced this), I have had some conversations with others that have alcohol problems, and we were not always on the same page. We get to a point in the conversation where they sense me ‘attempting’ to relate to them. They begin to step back from me because they feel I have no idea what they are going through. Have you ever had a conversation with someone and they don’t quite believe you are who you say you are? I mean, they seem to come very close to calling you a ‘liar’ attacking your testimony. Avoid getting upset because someone questions your testimony. If you do, your flesh will make you take them into a debate in which one of you suffered more. And this way is not God’s way. I’m here to tell you, don’t get defensive or frustrated with this. The reason we may receive that kind of negativity is because we don’t look like alcoholics, drug addicts or any of those addictions anymore. In other words, your transformation has given you a light that may give someone currently struggling a hard time believing you were in their shoes. That’s okay. Just because someone doesn’t believe your testimony; that disbelief does not ERASE all that you have been through. It is God’s power through your testimony, (not your testimony alone), that will heal the person in front of you. David says in the text that he ‘waited patiently for the Lord’. Through the ‘mud and mire’. One of my ‘mud and mire’ situations was my alcohol abuse. But because I don’t 'look like' what I have been through, doesn’t mean that testimony isn’t powerful. Always remember the times God pulled us through. In a calm, loving, godly way, take those people God has placed in your path back to those days, telling them what God did for you and allow Him to heal them through your story. When given the opportunity, let others know how God ‘set your feet on solid ground’ and ‘steady you as you walk along’! Let them hear that ‘new song’ God has placed in your heart! Then many will see what He has done through you and ‘they will be amazed’! Because of God in your testimony, they too will join you ‘in trusting in the Lord’. May God continue to bless and keep you under His umbrella of healing, strength and power as you walk in Jesus’ name. Amen  Psalm 133:1 “How delightfully good when brothers live together in harmony!”
As far as siblings go, I never had a brother. But being the ‘brother’ of two sisters I can relate to the message the text above is giving. As I have grown as a brother, I feel I am in the position to protect my sisters. I am also the oldest so I have always felt I should set a good example for them as well. In fact there is a lot of responsibility in being a brother and I am honored that God put me in that position. As far as the world is concerned, we have taken the term ‘brother’ even farther. At one time people of a certain ethnicity called each other ‘brother’. That has grown into good friends calling each other ‘brothers’. Certain organizations, like bikers, Jeep owners, police officers, military personnel, call themselves ‘brother’. This is because their relationships have been birthed by what they all have in common. But if we stand back and look at it, we ALL can call each other ‘brother’. We don’t have to be biological brothers. We don’t have to be involved in certain organizations in order to call ourselves ‘brother’. But we can embrace as a family because we all fall under the umbrella of being children of God. When God created us, He did so out of the love He has for all of us. And, as any parent, He wants His children to get along. God has a purpose in His creation of us, and that purpose has a lot to do with the differences He created in us. The devil knows this and this is why he wants us to fight and find fault in our differences. But God created these differences for us to become strong in His will for this world. Because of God, we should not be strangers to each other. Because of God we should always seek His will in how to act, speak and pray for our ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’. To say that we are not brothers and sisters, is to say our God makes mistakes. And I will not say that. Therefore I believe in God’s purpose in all of us as a family; His family. It may take some time before we stop fighting each other in this world. But I can do my part by accepting God’s children as my family. Why don’t you join me? May God bless and keep you under his umbrella of peace and love as you journey in Jesus name. Amen  Genesis 3:5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
And just like that, their lives changed, and ours became a ‘doomed’ blueprint. There are many things we have experienced in our lives that have frightened us, traumatized us and left us wounded and broken. However, we endured and we all thank God for his power that allowed us to endure. In these things we may not have recovered or forgotten, but by the grace of God we have become stronger. Now as parents of very young children and grandparents of young grandbabies, we purposely do not share these stories with them. Why? Because we want them to have some time to grow with innocent minds. We want them to know the good things that can lead to the best opportunities in their lives. And if we have anything to do with it we are going to try our best to help them live their best lives; better than ours. In my heart I believe this was God’s intention when He created Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden. He didn’t want them to know about the heartbreak of Him casting out one of His angels that rebelled against the kingdom. He did not want them to know about the evil that sought to destroy the kingdom. No, He wanted Adam and Eve to have a chance at His original version of everlasting life here on earth. He surrounded them with beauty and nourishment. Every and anything they would need for a fruitful life. And because God ultimately wants us to desire Him and His will, he gave them only one command and that was to leave that ‘one’ tree and its fruit alone. But Adam and Eve fell to the ‘Forbidden Whisper’ of the Devil and because of that the fall of man began. Now through Jesus Christ we have another chance to live in the garden here on earth. But we must not listen to the whisper of the fallen one. Instead we must immerse ourselves in God’s Word so that we may hear the voice of our Lord give us the direction we need to move His way, not ours. We need to heed the Word of God so that we may have the strength to endure when the enemy throws those stones of pain and tragedy at us. God loves us and is always ready to give us what He intentionally created to give us. But we must know Him and know His voice. His voice is our only choice. May God continue to bless and keep you safe, protected and healed as you walk in Jesus’ name. Amen |
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