Lord we love You, or do we Love another?

The bible warns us of giving into the desires of our flesh. If our flesh drives us, instead of the Spirit our hearing will become dull. If we become dull of hearing, and we can't hear God's voice and direction in our lives, we become lost sheep seemingly without a shepherd. With no guidance, because we can't hear, then we go astray, and start believing in other things that come our way. If we can't hear the Lord we become susceptible to things that will even pull us away further from our God we once loved more than anything, but now seem to love less and less as other things become more and more important.
"Lord let us see You, hear You, obey You, follow after You, let us Love You with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul and with all our strength. Let us Love you with everything we have. In Jesus Name, amen."

Why have we come?

In Hebrews 10:7 an old testament verse from PSalms 40 is repeated...I have come, in the volume of the book it is written, to do Your will oh God." If Jesus came to only do the will of His father in heaven, which He says in yet another place, why then have we come?
What is our purpose here. If His was to do the will of God, isn't that at least our reason for being here as well? If our whole lives are not made up with the passion of doing His will and His will alone, what are our passions? WHat does drive us? The things of this world which are passing away? i hope not, and that's what I'm tempted with, to be driven with, and if I give into them, that's what then drives me.
So what drives us? A passion for cars, a passion for food, unforgiveness, a root of bitterness, what lusts hang us up, and how is that effecting our relationship with Christ?
"Lord we Love you, take us over, again, make us new, again, bring us closer, let us realize again why we were made, for Your precious purposes, "To do Your will oh God."
In Jesus Name, amen.

Amish forgiveness

We watched a movie called Amish Grace, based on the true story of a man in Oct 2006 who shot 10 Amish girls at an Amish school. I remember the event but especially remember how the Amish support the killers family. I just read today of how the Amish sent a delegation the same day to the killers family to comfort them in their loss of a father and husband. Wow.
What's interesting is that we watched the movie on the weekend of the 4th anniversary of the attack. I had received the movie a week earlier as a birthday present, but to watch it on the anniversary is an amazing thing.
God is an awesome merciful God and showed that through the Amish and their reaction to what many deem as an unforgivable act, yet they forgave.

If we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the desires of our flesh.

Hebrews 12:1b & 2
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
I know I have shared this before, but it hit me new this morning as I allowed my flesh to dictate what Ido instead of the Spirit of the living God. As I see it there are two ways to live. One: by The Spirit. Two: by the flesh. It's one or the other, many times, sadly mixing the two. My flesh wants to dictate the way I live. For example, one of the fruits of The Spirit is self control, do I walk in that, or the fulfillment of my flesh? I have to choose everyday how I will walk, fulfilling my flesh and so not walking in the Spirit and fulfilling the things of the Spirit? (Galatians 5:15, I say to you walk in the Spirit and you WILL NOT fulfill the desires of your flesh!)
God says He is a jealous God (Exodus 20: 4 & 5) desiring our sole attention, allowing us to serve no others. But do we? Do we serve our own flesh and all it's carnality? Sure we praise Him with our lips, MAtt 15:8 "they praise Me with their lips but their hearts are far from Me) but are we guided by His Spirit all the time, everyday?
Some may read something like this, but may not be filled in the Spirit. They may have even committed their lives to Christ, but have not heard that there is any filling of the Spirit as described in Acts Chapter 2 when the Holy Spirit first came to the brand new Church, just as Jesus promised before He left them. "I will send you the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. He will comfort you, and bring to remembrance all that I taught you." (John chapter 16 & 14:26)
Are we being taught by His Spirit, or by our flesh or someone else's?
"Lord let us be taught by Your Spirit alone. let us not allow another to teach us in the flesh, and let not our flesh dictate what we are taught, or even what is brought to us, but let Your Spirit dictate what we do, what we say, and how we are to live. In Jesus Name, amen."

The hem of His garment

The bible talks about a woman who is sick for 12 years, no doctor can heal her, there's no medicine that will cure her, but she hears of Jesus that can heal the sick, raise the dead, and she hears that Jesus is going to be in her town. So she makes it near Him, but it's really crowded. She things if I just tough the hem of His garment I will be healed. So she somehow sneaks through the crowd and is able to touch just the outer edge of Jesus, but not even Him, just His clothes, and not really even His clothes, just the hem.
Don't we have more than the hem with in us? That was the question that the Lord impressed on me when I was praying for my sick daughter.
I believe 1 John 4:4 "You are of God little children...; greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world."
If Christ dwells in us, than He is greater, closer and more relevant that the hem of anything, we've got the Son of the living God in us!

Luke 8:40-48
40 So it was, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed Him, for they were all waiting for Him. 41 And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house, 42 for he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying.
But as He went, the multitudes thronged Him. 43 Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, 44 came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.
45 And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?”
When all denied it, Peter and those with him[a] said, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”[b]
46 But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.” 47 Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.
48 And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer;[c] your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

Each sin when named can have it's own power over a life.

I Love it when the Lord speaks. "Do not negate the power of another sin." When I was thinking about when we're tempted to sin again because we've already given in, what does another sin matter? Each can have it's own consequences.

Nothing is too difficult for Our God!

I woke up this morning thinking about how nothing is too difficult for our Lord! He made the mountains and the prairies, the hills and the oceans. He calmed the sea, raised the dead and opens blind eyes. He is the judge. Nothing is too difficult for thee, oh great and mighty God, great in council and deed, nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing is to difficult for thee.
John 11:38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.[d] And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” 43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

Nothing is too difficult for You oh God!