Messages to Encourage

This morning I heard two really great messages I would love for you to check out. The first one was from Dr. Charles Stanley and it is titled Contentment In All Circumstances; the second one was from John MacArthur and is titled The Authenticity of the Risen Savior.

Even if you don't have time to listen to but one now... come back and try to listen to the other one later! They are worth the time!

Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again…
~ Psalm 42:11, NLT

May you be encouraged and blessed!

Standing Firm

A peek inside my "strange" mind... Yesterday, I saw a piece of my hair attached to something...blowing... I saw it, then I didn't... it would at times blend in with the background and then I would see it again... Any way this led me to thinking about something....
About how at times in our lives we can be "blowing in the wind" or "tossed among the waves"... Are we blending in with our culture? Are we being swayed? Do you have times you feel like you are drowning in your circumstances or life? See Eph. 4:14 & James 1:6.

Honestly, if we are not standing firm (Gal. 5:1; 1 Cor. 16:13), putting on the full armor... if we are not abiding in Christ, it can be so easy for us to start to blend in... It wouldn't be all at once but little concessions here and there and all the sudden we are all the way down a road we are not even completely sure how we got on... Am I making sense to anyone? Allowing ourselves to be swayed by persuasive speech or our fleshly desires... To be swallowed up by the cares of this world and drowning in our present circumstances with no thought for our eternal future.

I pray my brothers & sisters you are standing firm and holding fast to what the Word has taught us (2 Thess. 2:15)... Be on guard and put on the full armor of God... that is how we can truly live, live free and experience the abundant life Christ came to give us. Seek Him and hold fast!
(Check out Jesus's comments on John the Baptist and his standing firm in Matt. 11:7-10).

Listen to the Word

First off let me say how incredibly good the Lord is to us... How faithful & loving... He knows what we need and when we need it and He provides! Just walk faithfully with Him, trust Him and lean not onto your own understanding! I pray He will strengthen and support you today and always to walk in His ways and to know Him more. On another note I heard two really good messages today:

Please go and take a listen to Jim Andrews message today on 1 Tim. 6:3-4. Especially take a listen to the end part! You can go to the 15 min. mark ... It is so true!

Also take a listen to Alistair Begg's message from today - Bring Out the Book, Part B - Nehemiah 8:1-12.

Have a blessed day!

A hope and understanding that fails not

Psalm 25 -
2in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame...3No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame...4Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths;
5guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long...
7Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD.
8Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
9He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.
10All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.
11For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great...
15My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare.
16Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.
17The troubles of my heart have multiplied; free me from my anguish.
18Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins...
20Guard my life and rescue me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
21May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you.

Have you come to a point in your life where you felt as David did? Have you ever had a time in your life where you wondered "Why God?"... why me (as maybe Moses wondered), why now, why here, WHY....? David cries out to God... he places his hope and trust in Him and he tells us that no one who does so will ever be put to shame (v. 3). He prays for the LORD to guide him and teach him to walk in His ways and His truth... to teach him. He prays and ask for forgiveness and declares that the LORD is good and upright... that all of the LORD's ways are loving and faithful for those who keep His covenant. ALL of the LORD's ways are loving and faithful for those who are truly seeking Him and endeavoring to walk in His ways! ALL OF THEM... even if we can't see it at the time. Even if we like David feel lonely and afflicted and have great troubles upon our heart... God can and will free us - He is the only one who can, the only one who saves.... He is who we take refuge in and trust in and hope in ... He is all that we need, because our hope is in Him we will not be let down!!! Trust Him!

That is what I keep hearing from the Word and what the Spirit keeps leading me back too... Trust, hope, faith... love. I keep getting another reminder... His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isa. 55:8). He is not a human that He would think like us; that He would become tired or weary in doing good ... we cannot fathom His understanding (Isa. 40:28). He is the LORD, the everlasting God, the Creator... his ways are not ours...

I say all of this to say... we cannot always know or understand why we are going through what we are going through, or where the Lord has us today... but that we can trust Him to do what is best for us, as we are seeking Him and following His ways (Rom. 8:28)... He desires the greatest good for our lives... not the fleeting temporary happiness, but our greatest good - for all eternity and upon this earth.

Do we think that we serve a Lord who does not understand? (Heb. 2:10-18; Heb. 4:15-16). I say to you He not only understands... for us He endured much more! (Isa. 52:13- Isa. 53:1-12). Are you lonely, despised, afflicted, rejected? Are you suffering? Oh beloved He understands!!! Cry out to Him, cry out to Jesus! May He comfort you, free you from your anguish and be gracious to you. May you rest and take shelter in Him who intercedes on your behalf and who has endured and done much for you to live free, to know and to love him! Call out to Him today... He is near!

Oh most gracious and loving Father, come and comfort us now and draw us ever closer to you. Help us to trust in you to guide us and to provide for us and to lead us...even when we cannot see what lies ahead... let your Word be a lamp unto our feet and a light for our path; that with each step we take, we take it in faith and following so closely to you that we cannot stumble. Hold us close and bring us LORD deeper and deeper into a loving, growing relationship with you. For you oh LORD can do anything! Nothing is impossible with you!!! You can even bring life to dried up bones! Breathe a fresh word of hope and life into us today! Amen. (Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 119:105; Luke 1:37).

Healing... and the Word

First let me start off by asking you to pray for me... I am not feeling very well today and so this will be a brief post. Also I would love to encourage you to scroll down on the right side of my page to Things you should check out and take a listen to Walk in the Word (James MacDonald's message) from yesterday and today. Also interestingly enough John MacArthur has a message that ties into it - see the link Grace to You and go to today's message. Or click on the titles I listed and that should take you there too.

Feeling as I do ... how appropriate for God to take this opportunity to point a few things out to me in Scripture... I was reading Matt. 9:1-8 earlier, when it came to me in regards to this passage... What do I desire more of God... to be healed (physically) or spiritually? When I am seeking after God what am I seeking after Him for? Is my prayer time and time in the Word constantly for myself (my current condition, circumstances) or is it for eternal purposes? I know that the Lord cares about me and about my day and the things I am going through... but what do I care more about? Myself or Him? I guess what I am trying to say is that the heart of the issue that is bugging me is am I seeking God out of wrong motives? Am I seeking God for what He can do for me, through me, or in me; more than I am just seeking to know Him and love Him more?

LORD forgive me for those times when I am so self-focused and my motives are wrong as I come to you... I can be so selfish and fleshly at times and it grieves me because I know it grieves you. Lord I stand back and question myself ... what is it that I do for you? Do I love you wholeheartedly? Honor you? Obey you? Serve you? Live for you? LORD I want too do all those things and I pray and ask for you to empower me to do so! Help me to daily die to self and to live for Christ. Gal. 2:20. LORD let it all be for the glory of YOU!!! Amen.