Lane and I have heard many teachings, messages and sermons. One that God refuted yesterday at church to me was that "Jesus can't return soon because He's coming for a bride without wrinkle or blemish".
During the service we had praise and prayer and many people went forward to lift their praise to God at the alter. Some lifted praise, some surrendered their lives and some were giving thanks. It's really hard to know what all of the people are feeling in their spirits, God deals with each of us so differently. Isn't it amazing that each of us are able to interact with Him from our own beings and it's all custom made for us? God is not a One Size fits All kind of God!
This is a "Rabbit Trail", so please bear with me for a moment, and take time to marvel that God meets each of us in different places, in different ways! He may be more gentle with the person that has a softer more sensitive spirit and sterner with the hardheaded one that won't listen! Isn't He amazing!?
Okay, back to the point of the blog. The idea that Jesus is not able to return until His bride is without blemish.....if He is able to cover us and our gaps in our spirit, is He not also able to cover His bride that He is preparing to return for? This is what He spoke into my spirit yesterday at church, it had nothing to do with the service or the praise, I think He was just showing me that to expect to see a perfect church before His return is delusional! He can and did cover a multitude of sins by His blood.
There is nothing too difficult for Him and He has already paid the ultimate price for His bride and He will return for her, make sure your oil is full!
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ Matthew 25:1-12
Monday, August 22, 2016
Friday, August 19, 2016
Sacrifice~
Something to consider~
I hear prayers telling Jesus "Thank You for dying on the cross", we know He did a great deal when He allowed Himself to be crucified. He paid for our sins through the sacrifice of His blood, He washed us clean of our sins (when we trust and believe in His Crucifixion), through His blood He provided for us all that we needed, through His wounds and beatings (stripes) He provided our healing....and we know that Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, right?
Have you considered that before He even allowed Himself to be accused by the Pharisees and questioned by Pontius Pilate that His whole life was a sacrifice?
Jesus lived in Heaven! He was with God and He was God! He walked streets of gold where there is no suffering, no tears, no illness, no death, no hate, no envy, no rebellion, no strife, no decay....He left that for us! Wasn't that an amazingly large sacrifice? How many of us are willing to step away from our comfortable homes and walk the worst Third World countries among disease, death and decay to try to reach out to those who live there? I can't even imagine the stench that the World must have carried with it when Jesus had to breath in the air of our lives.
The sacrifice started way before the cross! As soon as He was conceived in Mary's womb the sacrifice had started. He was carried in the womb of one of His creations, as a baby He had to cry to be fed! He was dependent for His safety and life on those who had been created in His image! He spent time with other children and you know children are not always kind to each other, there were probably bullies in Jesus' days too. And the growing pains of a teenager? Growing into manhood and never quite fitting in with His friends or brothers. Why were none of His disciples friends from the old days? (Yes, I'm sure angels were always about, but I don't believe that He relied on them for protection or provision, even when He faced the enemy in the desert He did not call on them to step in. It was only after the time of testing was over that the angels ministered to Him!)
You hear stories of people who have died and then come back to life, they say that it is so beautiful that they don't want to come back but they are sent back because it's not yet time for them to pass on, yet Jesus made the choice to come when it was not required of Him! When you take time to consider and be thankful to Jesus for His sacrifice, consider what He set aside to live on Earth, please take time to recognize that all that He did on Earth was a sacrifice!
I hear prayers telling Jesus "Thank You for dying on the cross", we know He did a great deal when He allowed Himself to be crucified. He paid for our sins through the sacrifice of His blood, He washed us clean of our sins (when we trust and believe in His Crucifixion), through His blood He provided for us all that we needed, through His wounds and beatings (stripes) He provided our healing....and we know that Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, right?
Have you considered that before He even allowed Himself to be accused by the Pharisees and questioned by Pontius Pilate that His whole life was a sacrifice?
Jesus lived in Heaven! He was with God and He was God! He walked streets of gold where there is no suffering, no tears, no illness, no death, no hate, no envy, no rebellion, no strife, no decay....He left that for us! Wasn't that an amazingly large sacrifice? How many of us are willing to step away from our comfortable homes and walk the worst Third World countries among disease, death and decay to try to reach out to those who live there? I can't even imagine the stench that the World must have carried with it when Jesus had to breath in the air of our lives.
The sacrifice started way before the cross! As soon as He was conceived in Mary's womb the sacrifice had started. He was carried in the womb of one of His creations, as a baby He had to cry to be fed! He was dependent for His safety and life on those who had been created in His image! He spent time with other children and you know children are not always kind to each other, there were probably bullies in Jesus' days too. And the growing pains of a teenager? Growing into manhood and never quite fitting in with His friends or brothers. Why were none of His disciples friends from the old days? (Yes, I'm sure angels were always about, but I don't believe that He relied on them for protection or provision, even when He faced the enemy in the desert He did not call on them to step in. It was only after the time of testing was over that the angels ministered to Him!)
You hear stories of people who have died and then come back to life, they say that it is so beautiful that they don't want to come back but they are sent back because it's not yet time for them to pass on, yet Jesus made the choice to come when it was not required of Him! When you take time to consider and be thankful to Jesus for His sacrifice, consider what He set aside to live on Earth, please take time to recognize that all that He did on Earth was a sacrifice!
Thursday, August 11, 2016
One Body
God is really wanting me to be transparent here, I am not happy to admit that I was watching several members of a youth group and thinking they should have sat at the back of the event we were attending. ...but...God used it to teach me and maybe can teach you through my transparency...?
We were at a Revival and enjoying great teaching, but we sat close to the youth group, you know that age where the kids are still feeling that they have to be “cool” and not interested in the things that adults value?
We were at a Revival and enjoying great teaching, but we sat close to the youth group, you know that age where the kids are still feeling that they have to be “cool” and not interested in the things that adults value?
Well, the speaker was one of those that wants you to look at your neighbor and share some point, so I looked at this young man/boy next to me wearing a “Chicago Bulls” hat (which I huffed to myself that he should take off in church!) he had a sealed off face with a look that didn’t make me want to share anything with him! But God doesn’t leave me to what I want to do in situations like these, He made me reach over and tap this guy and share with him. Man was that guy surprised! And then I think God had the speaker add a lot more sharing moments and the young guy next to me started “thawing”, the rest of the youth group started watching and giggling every time there was a “share” moment and they were all smiling, I winked at one of the girls and kept sharing with Mr Chicago. By the end of the teaching, God had really put that young man on my heart and he had started smiling too!
Then they called for everyone wanting prayer and Lane and I went forward for prayer, we love to go forward for prayer! You can never have too much prayer! While I was up there I looked around for my young neighbor, Mr Chicago and couldn’t find him, I glanced back at the seats and he was still there! I started waving at him to come up front, he started smiling and shaking his head, I tried several times but he would have none of it!
I knew he was supposed to be prayed for so I talked to his Youth Leader and checked to make sure if it was okay if I took the prayer to him and prayed for him? The Youth Leader said “Yes!” So I went back to the seats and told the young man I was supposed to pray for him, would that be okay? He told me his name was “Gracen”, I’m not sure that is how it’s spelled but what I heard was “Grace On” and I told him that I heard “Grace On”, that God’s grace is on him and I prayed for him as God’s Mighty Man, that he will lead many to Christ through the Grace that God has put on him and that he has courage and joy unlimited, that he will face the enemy and not back down and not be afraid and joy will be with him everywhere he goes! Wow....all of that from thinking he should have sat further back and taken off his hat!?
What if I had kept my fussy attitude about this group of uninterested kids? I am so thankful that God allowed me to see more in these young people than is visible to the human eye. He allowed me to see His future army in the making! He is raising up an army that we may not yet recognize but we need to be there to encourage them! Pray for them, reach out to them and smile at them! Let them know we are for them and not against them! We are all one body! No division by age, sex or color....we are the Body of Christ! We are His Bride! Stand together! Support and Encourage each other!
I knew he was supposed to be prayed for so I talked to his Youth Leader and checked to make sure if it was okay if I took the prayer to him and prayed for him? The Youth Leader said “Yes!” So I went back to the seats and told the young man I was supposed to pray for him, would that be okay? He told me his name was “Gracen”, I’m not sure that is how it’s spelled but what I heard was “Grace On” and I told him that I heard “Grace On”, that God’s grace is on him and I prayed for him as God’s Mighty Man, that he will lead many to Christ through the Grace that God has put on him and that he has courage and joy unlimited, that he will face the enemy and not back down and not be afraid and joy will be with him everywhere he goes! Wow....all of that from thinking he should have sat further back and taken off his hat!?
What if I had kept my fussy attitude about this group of uninterested kids? I am so thankful that God allowed me to see more in these young people than is visible to the human eye. He allowed me to see His future army in the making! He is raising up an army that we may not yet recognize but we need to be there to encourage them! Pray for them, reach out to them and smile at them! Let them know we are for them and not against them! We are all one body! No division by age, sex or color....we are the Body of Christ! We are His Bride! Stand together! Support and Encourage each other!
Hand Up, Not a Push Back!
I'd like to share a lesson and opportunity with you that I have learned! It might save you the trouble and frustration that I went through!
My husband and I went to a conference that we had looked forward to for months! The conference was attended by hundreds of people and had amazing praise, fantastic teaching, and much needed fellowship opportunities.....there was only one little "fly in the ointment".
You know how you can have something that you value greatly but it's obvious that others don't think so highly of it? We went to this conference with great expectations and then had a situation that I had to deal with in my spirit. A young couple sat in front of us and while the woman was really "into" every aspect of the conference the man appeared to only be there with the woman!
I was really caught up in the spirit moving at the time and only slightly aware of this specific couple the first few times, but every session and every day we went into the conference out of hundreds of people the couple kept sitting in front of us, no matter where we sat! We sat to the front, there they were, to the back, yes they were there too! To the left or to the right it didn't matter, there they were!
By the last evening they had finally really registered in my atmosphere! The man was sitting directly in front of me and I had to get around his obvious boredom to get into a praise attitude! He looked around at everything going on, appearing bored and distracted, it was hard to not notice!....I began to pray for the young woman he was with, "If you're not married to him, don't marry him! he's not a Christian like you! Your life will be one long struggle!"...but then God (don't you love those words?!) told me to pray for the man, I wrestled with that a bit. Do you wrestle with it when God tells you to do something you don't want to do? It's better to just go with it, you'll save yourself a lot of trouble!
As the preaching was drawing towards the end I leaned over to Lane and told him I needed to pray for this man before we left. Small, independent groups praying at the conference was not really something they wanted, so I had to move and do it fast. As we all stood up and were dismissed I reached over the chair the young man had been sitting in and touching his arm i told him that I had sat behind him several times now and he really reminded me of my nephew(It was all I had as an ice-breaker!) and "I wondered if I could just pray a word of blessing over him as an aunt"? He was very open for that!
I prayed a word of blessing and I added "a new deeper walk with his Heavenly Father". I had accomplished my assignment that easily! I could feel a satisfaction in my spirit that the seed words were planted! Why didn't I do this the first time I noticed him and was irritated with his boredom? We picked up our bibles, notebooks and things and left the row where we were sitting but the young woman came and caught us and told us "thank you so much" for that word of prayer, it was a small word to us, but in her world it was evident that it was big!
Now the moral, every good story needs a moral, right? Don't be irritated by those less spiritually mature, pray for them, give them a hand up to a higher level, boost them, don't push them back! .....And if you do this earlier in a conference you may remove irritations that will follow you through the weekend!
My husband and I went to a conference that we had looked forward to for months! The conference was attended by hundreds of people and had amazing praise, fantastic teaching, and much needed fellowship opportunities.....there was only one little "fly in the ointment".
You know how you can have something that you value greatly but it's obvious that others don't think so highly of it? We went to this conference with great expectations and then had a situation that I had to deal with in my spirit. A young couple sat in front of us and while the woman was really "into" every aspect of the conference the man appeared to only be there with the woman!
I was really caught up in the spirit moving at the time and only slightly aware of this specific couple the first few times, but every session and every day we went into the conference out of hundreds of people the couple kept sitting in front of us, no matter where we sat! We sat to the front, there they were, to the back, yes they were there too! To the left or to the right it didn't matter, there they were!
By the last evening they had finally really registered in my atmosphere! The man was sitting directly in front of me and I had to get around his obvious boredom to get into a praise attitude! He looked around at everything going on, appearing bored and distracted, it was hard to not notice!....I began to pray for the young woman he was with, "If you're not married to him, don't marry him! he's not a Christian like you! Your life will be one long struggle!"...but then God (don't you love those words?!) told me to pray for the man, I wrestled with that a bit. Do you wrestle with it when God tells you to do something you don't want to do? It's better to just go with it, you'll save yourself a lot of trouble!
As the preaching was drawing towards the end I leaned over to Lane and told him I needed to pray for this man before we left. Small, independent groups praying at the conference was not really something they wanted, so I had to move and do it fast. As we all stood up and were dismissed I reached over the chair the young man had been sitting in and touching his arm i told him that I had sat behind him several times now and he really reminded me of my nephew(It was all I had as an ice-breaker!) and "I wondered if I could just pray a word of blessing over him as an aunt"? He was very open for that!
I prayed a word of blessing and I added "a new deeper walk with his Heavenly Father". I had accomplished my assignment that easily! I could feel a satisfaction in my spirit that the seed words were planted! Why didn't I do this the first time I noticed him and was irritated with his boredom? We picked up our bibles, notebooks and things and left the row where we were sitting but the young woman came and caught us and told us "thank you so much" for that word of prayer, it was a small word to us, but in her world it was evident that it was big!
Now the moral, every good story needs a moral, right? Don't be irritated by those less spiritually mature, pray for them, give them a hand up to a higher level, boost them, don't push them back! .....And if you do this earlier in a conference you may remove irritations that will follow you through the weekend!
Friday, August 5, 2016
Backs to the Wall?
Recently I had Pandora playing and was enjoying some Contemporary Christian music, but some of it I didn't enjoy as much. While I was listening a song came on that talked about "having our backs to the wall" and then "throwing our cares on God".
If you weren't too concerned about words and their meanings then this would sound like a good idea, but as I listened I considered that we shouldn't see ourselves as walking through life and then when we get our backs to the walls we turn to God. If we walk with God consistently then we will most likely walk through problems and never see ourselves with "our backs to the wall".
Do you walk your own way and when you run into problems you turn to God? The better plan might be to walk with God constantly, then we would have put everything into God's hands, not just our "cares". And if we've put everything into God's hands, even where we go and what we do, then it's not as likely that you'll end up with your back to the wall. What do you think?
If you weren't too concerned about words and their meanings then this would sound like a good idea, but as I listened I considered that we shouldn't see ourselves as walking through life and then when we get our backs to the walls we turn to God. If we walk with God consistently then we will most likely walk through problems and never see ourselves with "our backs to the wall".
Do you walk your own way and when you run into problems you turn to God? The better plan might be to walk with God constantly, then we would have put everything into God's hands, not just our "cares". And if we've put everything into God's hands, even where we go and what we do, then it's not as likely that you'll end up with your back to the wall. What do you think?
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:6
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