TODAY'S PROMISE

"And we are confident that he hears us

whenever we ask for anything that 

pleases him.  And since we know he 

hears us when we make our requests,

 we also know that he will give us 

what we ask for."

(1 John 5:14,15 NLT)

 

PRIDE GOES BEFORE DESTRUCTION

I do not know who the girl is.  But she

is a whole lot better looking than my

self.  And, she looks like a proud girl.

The Scriptures say;

"Pride goes before destruction,

and haughtiness before a fall."

(Proverbs 16:18 NLT)

I have no idea how many times I have 

seen pride make a person fall.  But I just

wanted to share one with you.

Years ago while working for an auto

dealership it sold out to a new owner

and of course changed names etc.

I was working in the parts dept. at that

time and do not know why but was wanting

to see the new business card of the man in

charge of the parts dept.  [He was a fellow

Christian and a great guy.]

When his new business card came out it

was so overbearing with the name of the

new owner that it was even hard to know

who the card was for.  The pride of the new

owner showed up on the card in an over 

powering manner.

When I was looking at the business card

something went all over me.  It almost

made me nervous.  I was acquainted with

the truth quoted above and knew the 

business could not last.

You know what happened, it was only

four or five years until the business

collapsed.

God's word is still true in every way.

PS.

After writing the above I decided to check

up on the owner mentioned above.

[He was a fine man.  I would work for him

again.]. But when looking at his account on

FaceBook over several years all I could

find was pictures of himself in different

situations.  His pride puts him in a very

small world.

 

TODAY'S QUOTE

“C.S. Lewis once said,

‘God is always saving

people in ways that I

don’t like.’”

- Agnes Sanford in

Sealed Orders. -

 

REMEMBERING "CASEY".

REMEMBERING "CASEY"

"Casey"  Casey Jones was my father-in-law.

No, not the ball player.  "Casey" was the 

nickname of Evan Jones.  I think he had 

picked up the nickname "Casey" because 

he used to play baseball long before I 

ever came along.

"Casey" was a simple hard working carpenter

raising a family of six children.  Not highly

educated but a deacon in the Church and 

well thought of through out the community.

The image above is not "Casey".  But what

the above image has similar to "Casey" is,

the mouth is closed.

"Casey" did not talk a lot.  He was a quite

man.  I can remember when I used to ask him

a question I thought he was never even going

to answer me.  It was frustrating to me.  But,

in time I learned "Casey" was thinking about

what and how to answer me.  And you can be

sure that when "Casey" gave me an answer -

it was correct.  He never had to backtrack and

change his answer like most of us have to do,

sometimes.

What was frustrating to me then is the very

thing I admire in the man now.

You and I both know that most people have

plenty of time to talk, but very little time to

listen.  "Casey" was the other way.

Through the apostle James God said;

"You must all be quick to listen,

slow to speak, and slow to get

angry."

(James 1:19 NLT)

May I be more like "Casey".

 

TODAY'S PROMISE

"Then Jesus said, 'Come to me,

all of you who are weary and carry

heavy burdens, and I will give you

rest.  Take my yoke upon you.   Let

me teach you, because I am humble

and gentle at heart, and you will

find rest for your souls.  For my

yoke is easy to bear, and the burden

I give you is light.'"

(Matthew 11:28 - 30 NLT)

 

LAWS, LAWS AND MORE LAWS.

It seems that our "law makers / politicians" think

that passing a new law is going to fix everything.

I just picked this up off the internet regarding laws

in this country.

"Current estimates on the number

of Federal laws in America range

anywhere between 15,000 and

50,000."

WOW!

If that is the case we ought to be near perfect in

this country by now.  But, instead this country 

has never had so much crime, violence and 

corruption.

Why?

We have tried to push God out of our lives.

We are looking to man's laws instead of 

God's law.

Our need is;

"Then if my people who are called by my

name will humble themselves and pray

and seek my face and turn from their

wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and

will forgive their sins and restore their land."

(2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT)

TODAY'S QUOTE

“We read the New Testament, and we

are so intent on finding the hidden

meanings behind the facts that we

forget to look at the facts themselves.”

- K.P. Yohannan -

 

SERVING

"If I want him to remain alive until

I return, what is that to you?  As

for you, follow me."

(John 21:22 NLT)

This comment Jesus made speaks to me.

It tells me that Christ does not want the

same thing for all of us.  Our tendency is

to bemoan the fact that we do not have some

gift or ability that others have.

We cannot preach, teach, sing or do some

of the other things that tend to stand out.

So we feel inferior and unworthy.

Remember Jesus also said;

"The greatest among you must

be a servant."

(Matthew 23:11 NLT)

The apostle Paul lists some of the gifts

that God gives us in Romans chapter twelve

and also in 1 Corinthians chapter twelve.  There

are about fifteen different gifts listed between

the two chapters.

The list in Romans chapter twelve has a few

gifts listed that especially stand out to me.

Consider:

"If your gift is serving others, serve them well."

&

"If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging."

&

"If it is giving, give generously."

Hey!

Let's quit trying to be something else.

[You know, up front or outstanding.]

Let's just be what God made us and do

it to the best of our ability.

"Work willingly at whatever you do,

as though you were working for the

Lord rather than for people.  Remember

that the Lord will give you an inheritance

as your reward, and that the Master you

are serving is Christ."

(Colossians 3:23 NLT)

 

TODAY'S PROMISE

"Light shines in the darkness for the godly.

They are generous, compassionate and

righteous. 

Good comes to those who lend money

generously and conduct their business

fairly.

Such people will not be overcome by

evil.

Those who are righteous will be long

remembered.

(Psalms 112:4 - 6 NLT)

 

FOREVER, FOREVER & FOREVER

FOREVER, FOREVER & FOREVER.

I have a close family member who had been

living in the ways of the world for many years.

Apparently not worried about the torments of

hell - until recently when God helped her 

realize that once this life was passed and a 

person went out into eternity apart from a close

relationship with Jesus Christ she would be

cast into the Devil's hell without any chance

of ever getting out but would be tormented

forever and forever.

This lady turned to God seeking his forgiveness

and of course God forgave her.  Today she is 

living a happy joyful life with the Spirit of God

in her and a joy to be around.

The image above I made up years ago for another

purpose.  But the truth is still there.  Can you imagine

someone suffering for over one hundred and twenty 

years, and still no chance of ever getting out.  He passed

that chance up while he was still alive.

Thank God for life while we have it, and a chance

to turn it over to him while he is still begging us 

to turn to him for forgiveness.

 

TODAY'S QUOTE

Someone has said;

“Most of us, I fear, have gone too 

far away from the simple faith of 

childhood, and God cannot do 

mighty works in us because of 

our unbelief.”

 

TIME TO REBOOT

You don't have the trouble with computers that I do.

But much more often than I like, I have to reboot

because I messed up.  [Sorry, it is the computer

that messes up.  I would not mess up any more than

you would.]

Life is like that.  We have too many things going on

and then things get out of our control.  Or we get 

confused, tired, forget etc.

Jesus when he was here in the flesh did not mess

up.  But he often grew tired and weary just like

you and I do.  So, how did he reboot?

"But Jesus often withdrew to the 

wilderness for prayer."

(Luke 5:16 NLT)

His purpose of course was to get away from

things and to get alone with God the Father.

He rebooted by spending time with the Father.

That is how Jesus rebooted.

Maybe we cannot go to the wilderness, but

we can go hide in the closet or somewhere

to be alone with God and reboot.

I have to reboot often.

How about you?

 

TODAY'S PROMISE

 

"Now you are no longer a slave but

God's own child.  And since you are

his child, God has made you his heir."

(Galatians 4:7 NLT)

WORSHIP ?

This morning while reading my Bible the verse

in the image was in one of the chapters I was 

reading.  This drew my mind to the current situation

in the churches of today.

Consider this observation.  My parents told me that

they first took me to church when I was one week

old.  [That does not make a Christian of me I know.]

So the reality is that up until this "pandemic" thing

I regularly was in church twice on Sunday and at least

once during the middle of the week for over eighty

years.

Depending on where I lived it would have been in

any of these denominations;

Brethren, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Catholic,

Independent, Non-denominational and more.

When I was possibly around twenty five years

of age I began to get serious with God.  That of

course put me into the Bible in a big way.

One of the first things I noticed was that any of

the churches I went to were not like the Church

Christ established in the New Testament.

Something was different.

Yes, the Scriptures do tell us how to - Conduct a

Church service.  Very clearly and distinctly.  But,

nobody pays any attention to it.

To the best of my knowledge in all of these years

and many different churches, I have only been in

"One", you know "1" church service that was conducted

the way the Scriptures tell us to conduct it.

AND IT WAS NOT EVEN IN A CHURCH.

 

TODAY'S QUOTE

 

“An old man with a withered

arm stretched his arm out and

was healed.  The eighteen-year-old

who prayed for him was so 

surprised she fainted.”

"... FOR JUST SUCH A TIME AS THIS"

No, the image is not a queen.

It is just a pretty little girl.  But,

I suppose that in most of our families

she would be the queen.

I have been going through a time of

testing, concern, discouragement etc.

And when I really contemplate it - it 

has to do with the present world condition.

The potential of another world war, or

at the very least a disruption of our life

even if we do not ourselves see war.

The Scriptures teach us that an extremely

terrible time is coming on this old world.

And my familiarity with the prophecies

of the Bible makes me feel that the current

situation is just the beginning of it.

This morning I felt the Lord put these

words in my mind;

"for such a time as this."

I knew where that came from.

They were from Mordecai's message

to Esther:

"Who knows if perhaps you were made

queen for just such a time as this?"

(Esther 4:14 NLT)

And I knew what the message was to me.

God could have put me anywhere in the 

history of this old world.  But he did not.

He put me here now at a time I do not

appreciate.  But, he put me here

"... for just such a time as this".

I doubt that any of us appreciate the

world situation at this present time.

But, God put us here now for a reason.

Let's hang on tight to Jesus and do

what we can in service to him.

 

TODAY'S PROMISE

"Then when you call, the LORD

will answer.  Yes, I am here; he

will quickly reply."

(Isaiah 58:9 NLT)

 

LEARNING FROM A CAT

My wife has a cat.  No it is not that one.  Her

cat is too old and shaggy to admit it is still here.

But the old cat has some attitudes that I should

adopt.  When I step out of the bedroom door in

the morning the cat will be on the other side of 

the door to trip me - I mean meet me.

Then the cat will get under my feet, that is, lead

me to the coffee pot, if I don't stumble over it.

And from there it will come sit at my feet while

I drink coffee - because it wants in my lap.

Like it wants in my lap when I am reading, or

eating or resting. etc., etc., etc.,

In short, the cat wants to be with me while I am

in the house.

WHY AM I NOT THAT WAY WITH

JESUS?

I should want to be with Jesus more than

anything.  What was it that made king

David a favorite with God?

 "But God removed Saul and replaced him 

with David, a man about whom God said, 

‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man 

after my own heart. He will do everything 

I want him to do.’"

(Acts 13:22 NLT)

And what made David a man after his own heart?

David himself said;

"As the deer longs for streams of water, 

so I long for you, O God."

(Psalms 42:1 NLT)

 

And further:

"I lift my hands to you in prayer. 

I thirst for you as parched land 

thirsts for rain."

(Psalms 143:6 NLT)

 If we longed for God like David did, perhaps

He could use us also.

 

TODAY'S QUOTE

“I’m convinced that the path of every

believer will sooner or later include

suffering.  The Lord give us these

trials to keep us humble and dependent

on him for our sustenance.”

- Brother Yun in 

The Heavenly Man -