It is Enough

This morning I was reminded of the tree we just had to take down in our back yard, it was going to fall on our house! Lisa had cancer, it had to be taken out, or it would kill her. The sin in me has to come out, or it will kill me. Visits by the angel of death, warnings from people I don't even know. I need to declare, IT IS ENOUGH. Enough of my flesh, enough of me. He is the potter, I am the clay. He alone is wise in understanding, He alone is good. And yet He saved me,so He alone will I serve. No more GOd's of self, only The One True, Holy God, Jesus Christ, Lord of All! He is now the sole King of my heart, the only occupant. You are Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. In Jesus Name, amen.

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!

Be Like Billy

Billy is an imaginary character. He or she never worries or fears, he's just free to be Billy. He runs in the fields with reckless abandon because he's free too. Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow isn't even being thought about, because it's today, it's right now. He or she doesn't worry, because there's actually nothing to worry about. He doesn't have to go to wrk or school he goes to his calling, his calling to be like a little boy or girl, to be as free as a child is, with no worries. His name is Billy and he knows that. He doesn't worries about who he is, because he's Billy, His dad named him that. He doesn't busy himself with the worries of this world, there's to much fun stuff to do. School and work is actually fun because he enjoys it, he actually makes it fun. There's no such thing as drudgery, unless someone tries to take is joy away, and tell him things like, "Go to your room." "You can't do that." "Stop I'm telling you." "Grow up." Billy doesn't like the idea of growing up, grown ups worry too much. Billy has no agendas. Maybe for a while he'll just lay on the grass and for hours watch the clouds, and maybe pray a little. He likes talking to God, because God is his friend. And when worries even try to come, he just talks to God about them, and they just fly away. Just like that. Oh, and when the stars come out at might, that's when Billy really starts to be amazed. The clouds are coll, and wispy and stuff, but the stars, oh my, those bright, brilliant stars. Look at all of them. They go on forever. And then, every great once in a while, one just shoots across the sky! Billy loves looking at the hand work of God, but he'd never say it like that. He'd say, "Isn't that cool!" As he watches the bee hover over head (He's never been stung by one, so why should he worry) he's amazed that it can just float there. Then when he's at his friends house, the house of wimpy, he stands between the humming bird feeders and stays real still, then they come. He can hear the beating of their wings as they just hover. For a while they just sit there, right in mid air, and just look at you. Is Billy OK, will he hurt us...no, he's just a kid. Then they go for the feeders, licking up the sugary confection. For minutes Billy just sits there and listens and watches, captivated by birds that seem to not have wigs, but rotors like a helicopter, or propellers on a plane you can just see the blur of. His friend Tommy's house is truly a house of wimpy. Tommy has the run of his house and he literally gets to do what he wants, all day long, with no one to tell him what to do. He paints for hours, because he loves too. He plays his drums because he loves playing like all of his favorite great jazz players of old. Then he's just take a bath, right in the middle of the day, just sit in the bubbles and think, sometimes about nothing, just sit there, cause' that's what he wants to do. Billy would never do that, but he thinks it's cool Tommy does, because that's what Tommy wants to do. He'll be out of the tub soon, so then he and Billy can do stuff together. Tommy likes to bake, a and Billy loves to eat, so their a really good match. They spend hours together...and when they get hungry, Tommy will make the most amazing dish Billy has ever tasted. Then they just play again. We need to be like Billy, or Tommy, or Sally...we need to rest a lot more, and when we work, we need to have joy with it. We need that peace of a child on a warms summer day. A place at the fire just watching the flames lap up the kindelin. Sit in a bubbly bath, and sip that frothy confection. These kind of people just wander about the hose singing a sweet song while they do some needed things, but we won't call them chores, because that's no fun. Why don't we trust more, like Billy. Maybe we grew up too much.

Eating in moderation

Romans 1:24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. I am sad to say I have been guilty of this. Whenever I choose to eat like a pig, even in this "small sin" some would call, thou not I, we treat the temple of God, our bodies, as if they were our own. Food was not meant to be worshiped, or lusted after, but was made to nourish us, sustain us, and yes taste good. Because we have so many products, that have now become staples, that are so sugar based, it's no wonder they feed our lusts. Food can be addicting, and it can trap us if we don't eat in moderation. So let us not continue in this way, but let us worship the creator instead of the created.

Sin never has enough, so don't give it any.

Sin is like a snake that wants to creep into our lives, then it always does what it's supposed to, it bites us. Maybe that's why God had sin first appear as a serpent. It weasels it's way into our lives, gets buried in, then never wants to let go, and always wants to take over our lives.
Sin wants to run our lives, and it's always in the wrong direction. Even when it all seems so good and right, if it's sin, it will lead to destruction, and even death. If God be fore us, who can be against us? What separate us from the love of God...nothing can. Nothing has the ability to, even for a moment.