Fatty be gone.

Fatty be gone. When ever I eat more than I need, personally, I am eating for my pleasure. Not for my good, but for my indulgence. If I cater to my flesh, there is never anything good in that, ever. If I feed my flesh, my flesh will grow in ways I've never wanted it to. If I walk by the Spirit however, I will not fulfill the desires of my flesh, yes, flesh be gone! (Galatians 5:16) We all know that if we eat too much we can eventually eat ourselves to death. Obesity kills more Americans than any other single health issue. If you do a quick google search you will find obesity kills more people than cancer, smoking, starvation & hunger, drug use, and a host of others. If we eat too much, we are no longer eating to our health, but to our death, and, it's really selfish of me! Why do I personally eat too much? Because I like food, and I don't discipline my flesh, I go to a buffet for my body instead of buffeting my body, I will never walk in the discipline of the Lord fully! (1 Corinthians 9:27 New King James Version (NKJV) 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.) One of the fruits of the Spirit is self control. (Galatians 5:22) If I am not having self control, I am not walking in the Spirit in that area of my life, and it does and will effect my hearing in most if not all the areas of my life. But if I deny my self, take up my cross and follow Him (Matthew 16:24) then I will not focus on me, I will focus on Him, the author and finisher of my faith, ( Hebrews 12:2) the great and mighty one, the holy King of Kings and Lord of Lords! I want to finish well, I want to walk in faith, but I know that if I walk in me, and not in Him, if I live to please me, and not live completely to please Him, I will find it very hard to walk by faith. He is so good, and it is so good to live the please Him instead of me. If I take the ih from the word faith, I have fat. If I am not In Him, IH, then I am In Me, fat, instead of faith. If I want His kingdom come, His will be done, which I do, then I must follow after Him, and not cater any longer to me, but to Him alone will I serve. My works in the flesh will never profit me anything, but if I sow to the Spirit I will reap life. Matthew 16: 21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. 22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” 23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Take Up the Cross and Follow Him 24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. Peter attempted to correct Jesus in the flesh, wow, do I do that? If I walk in the flesh, I am actually potentially correcting, walking, choosing, all based on my flesh. It taints everything I do. If Peter thought he needed to correct Jesus, do I not do the same thing when I walk in the flesh. "Whatever you do to the least of these you've done to me." (Matthew 25:40) So if I, and I have, correct my kids in the flesh, then I have done what Peter has done. Even if I feel like I haven't been guilty of that, just like with God all things are possible, by the Spirit, in the flesh the end is death, for "There is a way that seems right to a man, but it's end is in death." (Proverbs 14:12) "Help me Lord in the small simple things, to hand it over to You. If YOu are to author me, my faith, then I will let You do the writing on my heart, so instead of adding fat to my heart, You can add faith to my heart. In Jesus Name, amen."

God's saving grace, Job style

Ever have a " Job" experience? This is like a renewed version of that. On my walk this morning, I was feeling like a Job experience was coming on. Pictured here is our grandbaby on the bus, you can see her in the window. Inches below her is where the SUV caved into the bus, just missing her, the paramedic said it was inches. She's OK, wouldn't stop shaking, but is now running around asking for donuts. She said to her mommy, "I didn't die, Mommy!" She was slammed against the window, but no injuries. Victory. Within minutes, a friend called and wanted the car back he was letting us use. We only own a 15 passenger van, and that has approx $1,500 worth of front end repairs that need to be done right now, that literally just got worse, all of a sudden. Then I got a letter from a lawyer that says we owe them a sum of money that they said they were donating to help us form our new non profit. At the same time, I was being attacked by someone we know who stole money from us, and is now being belligerent about it. The world has a phrase that talks about, "When it rains, it pours." The Biblical account about Job had all these terrible things happen to him within minutes, losing almost everything he had. We haven't lost everything, but this all happened, or was going on, within minutes of each other. Some, like my wife having cancer, have been a few weeks, but some of the details we're dealing with are having to happen now. Even though we have not yet seen the victory of all of this, we know in the end we will. With Job, Satan asked God if he could try Job, and God agreed. Please pray with us, as we pray, as Job did, "Even if He slay me, yet I will praise Him." The victory in ours, when the battle is The Lord's. Hosanna, Amen.

The stain of sin removed.

My wife's mom is turning 70 this weekend and we are celebrating, because we know she is 70. We don't doubt that she is, we know she is. Jesus Christ healed everyone who was brought to Him. Everything about the cross says we can receive His salvation and His healing. Most of us believe we can receive salvation, if we believe. But not all of us actually believe that we can be healed. Can Jesus heal us, OH YEAH! But the light switch that goes on inside of us that enables us to receive that healing is missing. We need to receive. Earlier I wrote about our ditches being covered with snow, and that it was hiding what was underneath. Today as I walked that same ditch I saw what the snow was hiding, trash. As I stood before the cross today, I repented of all the passion that I have not been crucifying daily inside of me. I asked God to remove the stain of the sin of compromise from my life, so that I would not be a blockade of my family receiving a blessing from Him, including healing. As I stood before a physical cross that was on top of a beautiful 1800's chapel that is in our town, after I prayed, I looked down and there was a black cat between me and the church! A sign that my stain remained? I started singing as the Lord ave me the song,, "What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood os Jesus..." the cat left and went and stood by the bathrooms! Let us allow the blood of Christ to flush everyone of our sins and the effects of those sins, in Jesus Name. So let us come before the cross today, receive forgiveness of our sins, let Him remove the stain of sin, and let us receive healing and salvation today. Let it be just as believable as Lisa's mom turning 70. Let us believe.Let no remnant of me remain, but just as the sun rises everyday, and we see it's effects, let Christ so shine through me that all people see is Christ. In Jesus Name, amen!