American Christians

American Christians have done such an excellent job of telling the world that "God loves" them that now the world no longer sees any need for Godliness.
     A parent that raises a child and focuses only on how much they are loved has an end product of a child that makes continual demands on that love. They either whine or throw tantrums until they get what they want.
     We now see a public child that is demanding its own way or whining with offense about how they deserve to be respected for who they are, no matter what they are doing. They do not understand a need for repentance because we have taught them that they are "loved", neglecting to teach about sin.
     As one of those "American Christians", I think it's time we examine our approach. There is now a group claiming to be the true Christians because they promote what they believe is true love, they claim this because they say they love everyone(except the religious) just as they are and they say they are attempting to make everything in the world right so that there is equality in all things for all peoples.
     And now the original American Christians are horrified to see their "spiritual" offspring embracing things that are very unbiblical. While we were telling the world how much God loved them we neglected to explain to the world that they would need to give some things up, that there are some things that are not acceptable to our Holy God.
     Now we have a spoiled child on our hands that does not want to give up anything and demands love for themselves just as they are. We have not taught them about salvation, we have taught them about self-love.
     Yes, God does love His creation, but He does not love sin. We are not teaching truth if we only teach about His love. If we want to save the world, we have to include repentance in the message of God's love! Repentance equals Revival.

Father, We Pursue You

Father, I praise You, You are Holy! A Holiness we cannot fully grasp, but we pursue You. We pursue all of You, Love, Grace, Mercy, Holiness & Justice. You are Perfect, and we strive towards Your perfection, please continue to guide us in our pursuit of Knowing You. We love You, Father

Hidden Sins

     OK, so we're not murderers, not thieves, not adulterers, not drunkards, not gluttons, not slanderers...or are we? We might have a few sins that are not really hidden. We probably recognize them when we look at ourselves and other people probably recognize them in us also. I would love to talk here about people who are Christians that let road rage or their stomachs control there thoughts and actions, but this blog is for a different purpose. 
     There are a second set of sins that we need to be concerned with. 
   The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after. 1 Timothy 5:24
     The first set of sins are quite evident to all and as scripture says, they will go before us into Judgment, but then there are sins that are hidden but will follow us, do you think those might be unforgiveness, bitterness, judgment and some that might be hidden in our deceiving hearts? 
     “The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9     There are teachings to help people be healed and set free from the effects of things that have happened in their past. The healing and being set free can take a while to work through, I have a friend that is a Prophet, and they have shared that the face of a person that had wronged them in a much earlier time in their lives, 40 years to be exact, was brought before them by the Holy Spirit, they were shown that they had unforgiveness for the person and HAD to forgive this person! God takes unforgiveness very seriously, His scriptures talk about it a LOT! 
     For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. Matthew 6:14-15
     We are forgiven for everything we confess....and repent from, but what if we hold unforgiveness in our hearts or spirits, it can be so deep that we can ignore that it's even there!
     Please take time to say a cleansing prayer, ask the Holy Spirit to show you any unforgiveness that you may harbor, and then be still and let Him show you, confess your unforgiveness, choose to forgive those He shows you, ask Him to help you forgive, let yourself be cleansed from the effects of unforgiveness! Release those people to the Holy Spirit to deal with, after you forgive them then you are free to be made whole and holy, free to be healed, free to move on from the past. 
     This will take more than one time, I'm beginning to believe it needs to be done daily! Remember my friend the Prophet, they thought they were walking in forgiveness but yet had someone brought to them from 40 years before! Some things our hearts hide from us, and not for our own good!
     Pray for yourselves, pray that there are no hidden sins in your life, pray that all is revealed to you to deal with.....He won't reveal it all at one time, we probably couldn't bear it, so it needs to be an ongoing prayer. Daily pray to be shown any area that may be holding you back from being made whole and holy. 



The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after. 1 Timothy 5:24

“The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9

For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. Matthew 6:14-15

Shining Light

We who are part of God's creation tend to take things from one extreme to another. 
      In the past, there was a lot of teaching and sermons about the "Fire and Brimstone" side of our relationship with our Heavenly Father, but now we focus only on the love side.
     We really need to remember that God is a very complex Father and Creator, yes, He is Love but He is also Just, Righteous and Holy. (Psalms reveals so much of His heart and nature that if you long to know your Father's heart I would recommend that you read through it, taking note of the verses that list His attributes.)
     The purpose of this writing is to encourage you to not be deceived into the love side of the relationship with a blind eye to the justice that our Father requires.
      I have been trying to walk a holy path with my Saviour and while it is the best path, it is often too easy to slip off of the path with a word or thought that I need to bring back into line and then climb back to the path of holiness again.
     On this path I have had things of the past brought to mind that were "dirt swept under the rug" that were an issue on the holiness path, things that I needed to deal with, confess and be cleansed from. 
     This morning my prayer has been to be a shining light in God's Kingdom(for His pleasure), that is not an easy thing to do if there is anything that you have hidden under the rug! I had attitudes brought to me of when I have been less than respectful to the people the Lord had put over me as a covering in my life.
     Yesterday I read about how leaders are put in place by the Lord for His purpose, we have had leaders of our nation in the past that I did not think or speak properly of, that did not fit in with His purpose for me if I want to be a shining light! (Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Romans 13:1)
     As a teenager, I was not very respectful of my earthly father, and now that I am older I can see how hard he worked to care and provide for me. I have dealt with these issues I am now forgiven for this, but it was something I needed to put under the forgiveness of my Heavenly Father to be qualified to walk as a shining light.
     There are other examples of course, but my point is that if you desire to walk as a shining light in His Kingdom you need to examine yourself. Yes, He is Love and He does give Forgiveness but we need to be aware of our need for forgiveness and ask Him for it!

If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God. 1 John 1:9-10 The Message

Do You Want To Be?

     As a Christian who has worked in an environment hostile to Christians, I know from what the people have told me that they do not like Christians because of the behaviour they see acted out in the lives of people claiming to be Christians. 
     Whether the people claiming to be Christians or not is not mine to say. that is something that God only can know. Only God sees the heart of people, it's probably really a blessing that we're not able to! 
     The challenge here is, are you a person claiming to be a Christian but not living as you are called to? Is it too much for God to ask you to walk a holy path? Everything you do reflects on Him, do you cause His family to be shamed or do you bring honor to the name Christian, not because you deserve honor, but because you are a follower of the One who does deserve honor? 
     I have heard people say that it's not possible to live a holy life as described in the Bible, but that simply is not true! If we believe in Jesus, then we have to believe Scripture, there is no excuse not to, Jesus believed it and we believe in Him....so now we realize we are required to trust that what God has said in scripture is what He means to say. 
     If we believe in Scripture and it tells us that we can do "all things" in Christ, Who strengthens us, then we know we can live as we are called to! We may say but it's so hard! Yes, it is hard, but God's word also tells us that He will complete the "good work" that He has started! So, as we keep turning and submitting to God, saying "Please, change me!", He will and it will become easier!
     Do you want to be an embarrassment to the body? Do you want to be a stumbling block to non-believers? I'm hoping you said no to both of those...so keep pushing in, keep bringing yourself into the changing process that the Holy Spirit will bring about as it brings sanctification into your life.
     But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. 2 Thessalonians 2:13

Our Father is Holy

     A few years ago I heard a message that God is calling His people to holiness, and more recently I've been reading the scripture that talks about Uzzah and his lack of respect for God's holiness. I don't know if you remember him, and I wouldn't have known him by name until now, but now I'm taking note of his story! You know....Uzzah could be a slang term for "you was"!
     Uzzah is the man in 2 Samuel 6:1-7 that reached up, touched the Ark of the Covenant and was struck down by God.
     Now I realize that Uzzah could represent a lot of people in the Christian life today. Uzzah had lived with the Ark in his father's house for a period of time....many of today's Christians have grown up in a Christian home, Uzzah didn't recognize the importance of the holiness of the Ark, many Christians also don't consider the holiness of our Heavenly Father and are very casual about their approach to Him ( I've been guilty of this too!), Uzzah had lived around the Ark and yet knew so little about it! Is that us? We've grown up in a Christian nation and yet know so little about the holiness of our God?
     Do you go to church Sunday morning and figure you've taken care of your relationship with God for the week? Do you reach up and touch the Ark once a week and think you've played your role in the Christian walk of bringing God to the world? Are you in danger of walking casually with your God and treating Him less than holy?
     Remember even the angels who have been with Him for a very long time are only able to sing “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” Isaiah 6:3

     I know we walk in our Father's love and we are given a great access to Him through that venue, but that does not remove His holiness or the respect that we should approach Him with.

     There is so much involved in encountering our Heavenly Father, way more than I can bring in a blog entry without turning it into a book! The main purpose of this article is to encourage each of us to approach our walk with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit with an attitude of stepping into  a Holy realm, a realm we may not fully understand, so let's do it with respect and caution. Let's not be  casual "you was" or a casualty like Uzzah! Our Heavenly Father is a loving Father, but He is still Holy.

     (While writing this I was shown that there are properties that exist in our world that have to be respected....like don't use electricity in a bathtub full of water, and don't touch an open flame...it's  not that the electricity or flames desire to hurt us, it's the nature of their existence that brings the shock or the burn. God does not desire to hurt us but it is the nature of Holiness that it requires we deal with it with caution and respect.)

Are You A Saint?

     Are you a saint? Your automatic response is probably, "NO WAY!". You hear it often as people speak about themselves, they say, I'm no "saint". 
     But shouldn't you see yourself as a saint? In scripture Paul often refers to God's people as "the saints", such as
"To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi Philippians 1:1" NASB. 

     Is it humility to refuse to see yourself as a saint? Or embarrassment in front of the world? We don't want to appear any differently from the world right? They might hold us up for ridicule. Yet we are called to be a holy people.

     We have a holy God and He calls us to be holy. Maybe we better start trying to be what He calls us and not be concerned with what the world holds up for ridicule? If God calls us to be saints, which is actually a person set apart for Him, then hadn't we better start calling ourselves saints?

     When I searched for the definition of "saint" in the dictionary I found several we could accept, but if we put it in perspective with scripture, I don't believe they will all work.

     One definition says it's for "those noted for their holiness and venerated during their lifetimes or after death" but if we go with that definition, it definitely limits those that had been addressed in Paul's writing. He wrote "To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi" and now we read it as part of the scriptures for us, the people he wrote it to weren't dead and neither are we! 

     I have written a lot here just to convince you that you are a saint and should recognize yourself as one and live as one! However, here's one more bit of evidence that you are called as a saint, if we look at other translations of the same verse the word "saint" translates to "All God’s people united with the Messiah Yeshua"(Philippians 1:1 Complete Jewish Bible Translation).

     Don't you want to be one of those people? If you are one of those people then accept it, you are a saint! See yourself as God sees you, a person set apart for His purpose, to live a holy life, to be joined with Jesus. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are a saint.

The All - Sufficient One

     Today's entry, posted by Lane, comes from a devotion book that I try to read an entry from each day. I don't always succeed at this, but I am really glad I did today! What I read was something that really stood out and I wanted to share it here with you.

The All - Sufficient One

"'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God,

'who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.'" - Revelation 1:8

You are Holy Lord, the Only God,

   and Your deeds are wonderful.

You are Strong.

You are Great.

You are the Most High,

You are Almighty.

You, Holy Father, are King of Heaven and Earth.

You are Three and One,

Lord God, all good.

You are Good, all Good, Supreme Good,

Lord God, living and true.

You are Love,

You are Wisdom.

You are Humility,

You are Endurance.

You are Rest,

You are Peace.

You are Joy and Gladness.

You are Justice and Moderation.

You are all our riches and You suffice for us.

You are Beauty.

You are Gentleness.

You are our Protector,

You are our Guardian and Defender.

You are Courage.

You are our Haven and our Hope.

You are our faith, our great consolation.

You are our Eternal Life,

Great and Wonderful Lord,

God Almighty,

Merciful Saviour.

- Saint Francis of Assisi

Thank you Lord for all of these attributes and yet even so many more!

**This is from the book "Promises to keep: Daily devotions for men seeking integrity" by Nick Harrison. This book draws together the words of hundreds of prominent Christian authors and leaders.**

Heart Song (Posted on blog by Lorna)

     I was awakened this morning to a song on the radio, the words were "there can never be a more beautiful you" and my spirit immediately turned it around to singing the words to God!
     I am home alone a lot and have the radio going most of the time (I enjoy hearing other human voices when I move around the apartment). Surprisingly or not, God has many times used a song on the christian radio station to get my attention (example this morning!).
     The main point I'm getting to is the beauty of God! I've read that the angels are always singing in heaven "Holy, Holy, Holy" and in my human way of thinking, I had envisioned God sitting on a throne and the angels were in attendance, singing to Him. I hadn't considered it a lot more than that, except (in my little human brain) to think it would be tedious
     I've recently heard a whole different concept which I'd like to put forward as more likely true! When we see something of great beauty, whether it's a piece of sparkling jewelry or fine crystal, for men it may be a new car or motorbike, we all may be captured by a flower or fall foliage by, a sunset or sunrise, a rainbow, the mountains, the ocean, a lake, a forest? There are so many things of beauty that stop us and take our notice! But when something truly turns our hearts upside down with admiration, we start "oohing and ahhing", we even have a quickening of our pulse! If we find His creation beautiful, how much more so Him?
      God is Beautiful! He is more beauty than anything we can imagine, His very presence would consume our full attention, all of our senses would be focused on Him! That's what makes the angels sing! True admiration and recognition of the wonder of Him! As He moves and the angels are able to see new facets of Him, it causes them to sing out in joy, love, admiration and reverence again and again! Ooooh, Ahhhh, Holy! Holy! Holy! There can never be a more Beautiful or Holy God! That is how my spirit heard the song this morning! "Lord, there can never be a more beautiful You!"
     Lord, there can never be a more beautiful You, but I can learn to see You more clearly and more continually, I can live in Your presence and beauty until my heart song becomes "Holy, Holy, Holy!".