It's ok to feel down

The world today is full of "positive thinking". There is of course nothing wrong with that! Scripture says to"think on the good things, the holy things, the things off good report" which is clearly a call to think positively. Yet sometimes, we get down. We feel depressed, beaten, oppressed, and that's ok too.

David had many examples in the palms of feeling less than positive. He had a rough life for much of it, being chased by the king trying to kill him, hiding in caves with criminals, not pleasant! Here is an example:

O Lord , do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Lord , for I am pining away; Heal me, O Lord , for my bones are dismayed. And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O Lord -how long? Return, O Lord , rescue my soul; Save me because of Your lovingkindness. For there is no mention of You in death; In Sheol who will give You thanks? I am weary with my sighing; Every night I make my bed swim, I dissolve my couch with my tears. My eye has wasted away with grief; It has become old because of all my adversaries.

Obviously, David is depressed. Reached the end of his strength. In his moment of crying himself to sleep night after might, he openly and honestly cries out to God for help. THAT is the key. David knew that God alone was the answer. He was honest with the one who could deliver him from bad times.

There is nothing wrong with feeling down, when things are tough. But it is wrong to look anywhere else than God for help. It's what we do when depressed that matters, not the fact that we have valid feelings.

David turned to God, and God heard. He continues:


Depart from me, all you who do iniquity, For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication, The Lord receives my prayer. All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed; They shall turn back, they will suddenly be ashamed.
Psalms 6:1‭-‬10 NASB
http://bible.com/100/psa.6.1-10.NASB

Turn to God when things are bad. That is the lesson here. Don't fake being positive in an attempt to feel better, cry out in anguish to God. He hears and helps his people who turn to him. Trust the the bad times will turn to Joy, if we rely on God to step in.

posted from Bloggeroid

The lighted path

We walk along the path of life, an unknown path full of twists and turns. Danger awaits on each side should we misstep even once. The world around is unforgiving of mistakes, so we must walk carefully.

Worse yet, the world we travel through is dark as a moonless night. Sin is darkness, devoid of the light of God. Our path is bathed in darkness as we sell our way through day by day.

Man lives in fear along the path, fear of falling, fear of a wrong step, fear of going astray and suffering. How can we know this path? Man listens to the sounds, seeks advice from others in the path about where to turn, where is danger, how to survive and prosper. It is a constant diligent job requiring it total attention. Yet, our reality is, we venture through the darkness on an unknown path.

Picture walking along this unknown path is darkness, and a friend shows up with a flashlight. His light shines a spot of clear sight, but only a spot, a circle of understanding. We see clearly within the circle of light that he holds. Yet, only that spot, all else is in darkness. If the friends knows the path, and we stay close to him, he lights the way. We can relax and simply follow the light. How do we know we are going the right direction? The light! Since he knows the way, he holds the light, what we see is the way! We can trust that following the light, stepping where we can see, is the right direction.

Occasionally he shoved the light up ahead and we get a glimpse of the future, but only for a second. Once he turns the light back to our steps around us, the future disappears into the darkness. We can only walk in the light of a few steps forward, but as we take each step, more of the path is revealed. The light goes just in front to guide each step we take, but no more. Step by step we safely traverse our path, staying in the light. If our friend desires to show us the danger to the left or the right, he will do so by clearly announcing his intention, and shining the light on the danger. We see the danger but do not go there due to the warning. Then the light returns to the path before our feet.

One step at a time, following the butterfly lit path, trusting or friends to keep the light shining just ahead of the proper direction.

God is our friend who leads us. His glory is the light that illuminated our path. His light illuminates the path for our feet, and we see it clearly, but only a few steps ahead. If we see the future it is but for a moment. If we see danger it is clearly announced as such. We spend our time simply stepping into the spot of light right before us. He knows the way, he is the light, all we must do is stay close to Him and all is well.

Life isn't about education, doing things just right, learning the way to succeed. No. It is about staying close to the one with the light. Selling the right path day by day on our own is stressful and dangerous. Some make it, most don't. Instead, Jesus promised the comforter to guide us in all truth, guide or steps on the path. We don't need to worry about our steps, so long as we simply step into the light that we see. This is the peace that Jesus promised!

We dont walk close to God for the goal of success, so that we can see the way. No. That is usery. If we do so, he may will turn off the flashlights and leave us to find the path alone. Our reason for being with Him is to honor him as a friend, a father, a savior, the Creator. We want to be with him not to find our way to success, but to be with him. That is enough! That is the greatest blessing, to be allowed to walk along in the presence of our creator, it father. Every moment in his light is precious. The destination fades in the glory of each moment with Him.

This is how we find the destination of our path, this is how we succeed. We seek Him in all things. Not seek the path, but seek to stay closer to the one who knows the path and has the light, because he is our friend and confident. He is the way.

God blesses those who seek him. The blessing are not due to our "doing it right" or "being smart", the blessing is due to our seeking Him. Scripture remind us that seeking God, to be in his presence, is the goal that leads to succeed so long as we don't seek him for the purpose of success. We seek him because we desire to be with Him regardless of where the path leads. He is the prize, the success.

This is the vision of following God, just stay close to him enjoying his presence. His light will show us where to step, one step at a time. Where we see clearly, just step. Of we only see one step ahead, take that step. The light that allows us to see that one step is showing us the way. If we can see a step, and there is no warning of danger, then that is the right step to take! Relax, he is the light, he knows the way, he shows the way.

O fear the Lord , you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.
Psalms 34:9‭-‬10 NASB
http://bible.com/100/psa.34.9-10.NASB

Who is the man who fears the Lord ? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. His soul will abide in prosperity, And his descendants will inherit the land. The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His covenant.
Psalms 25:12‭-‬14 NASB
http://bible.com/100/psa.25.12-14.NASB

posted from Bloggeroid

The battle belongs to the Lord

Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" He said, "No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord ." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, "What has my Lord to say to his servant?"
Joshua 5:13‭-‬14 NASB
http://bible.com/100/jos.5.13-14.NASB

The great truth here is that, the battle belongs to the Lord. He does not fight or battles, we fight his. So often we get this backwards... Thinking in essence that God is working for us, protecting and blessing us. He is... But only as we are in the mind of fighting his battle. We are his servant, doing his will. Our path is not ours, but his party for us. He is not"making things happen for us" but rather we follow him, waking in his success for his battles.

This Captain of the army was not there to aid is in battle, he was there to fight the battle for God himself, to fulfill a promise given to Abraham. The Israelites were there as the recipient of the promise.

Once we give our life to God, through Jesus blood spilled for us, or life is to serve his battles, not him to serve ours. We can truly be still and watch his success, if we take the approach of Joshua. Fall down in submission and ask "what shall I do for you".

posted from Bloggeroid

Take care of what you have while you wait

In the last post, I spoke or being still and waiting on God to bring Deliverance. Not scrambling to do whatever can be done to resolve a situation. There question left open then is... What DO you do while you wait? What does"wait on god" mean?

It's simple really... When you are waiting on God there are only two choices.

1. Do nothing
2. Take care of what you have with what you know

Go back to the vision of enemy soldiers racing down the hill to attack you. The prophet says "be still". If you try to do things to save yourself, you are acting outside God's will. Good must then either block your actions to protect you from your lack of faith or he must let you do things and thereby walk away from his protection. Hopefully he will block your actions!

So you panic and run inside to find your sword... Only to find the door locked, it it has been moved, or it has been dulled in an accident... Things like that make it inside for you to use your sword. God is closing doors, protecting you from yourself.

So what do you do? Take care of anything that you already have to do, and pray. Life goes on. "Peace, be still" can refer to just one aspect of life the rest of life continues on unchanged, or it can refer to all of life and you stop everything to pray and watch. Either way your heart is at peace because you are filling God's will.

Take a real world examples... Your behind on your mortgage and your income can not pay it. God tells you,"peace, be still and know that I am god". But you can't hear that because you see the enemy soldiers racing down the hill. Soon the foreclosure behind and you loose everything. So in"pepper response" you scramble around frantically trying to find more income. But every door you knock on is slammed in your face. After exhausting all the usual avenues you even contemplate some doors outside your life mission, it even outside morality. Even those doors are slammed shut in your face.

The soldiers (foreclosure) get even closer. Panic set in. There panic leads you to try all sorts of ways to about losing your house. Stress builds, adding health problems to the daily burden of a failing life. You begin grabbing at straws, but still everything just fails for some reason.

The answer is to be still. (If god said to be still). When you pray, that may well be the answer he gives! Just be still, go on with life, and trust that something will come through. That is haaaarrrrddd! It takes faith. It takes trust.

So to follow god's will, you prayerfully continue on with life as usual, waiting and watching for how god will bring Deliverance. Will it be an earthquake? A raining of rocks from heaven? How will the event soldiers be stopped? Perhaps a unexpected job offer at the last minute?

If God tells you to wait on him, then he had a plan already in play, you just don't see it. He is working it the details of your Deliverance behind the scenes, ready to pull the trigger at the right moment. Do you trust him? Have you faith to wait with confidence? Perhaps that is the test!

Let your heart be still. Pray, and take care of what you have with what you know. Eat, sleep, play, parent, continue on with life, perhaps with a reversed focus on caring for what you have to care for. Don't "let things go because I will lose it anyway", that is lack of faith. Instead, care for it better than ever! Pour your heart into taking care of your family and possessions for today. And be at rest as you do it.

While we wait, and watch, we busy ourselves with the work at hand. In God's timing, Deliverance, solution, resolution will come through an unexpected means, and everything will suddenly fall into place.

Peace, be still, and know that I am God.

posted from Bloggeroid

Be Still, and know that I am god

I have spent much time trying to find out to be sure that we are following God. I don't mean in a general sense, I mean in day to day, hour to hour everyday life. For months now I have researched, payed, even sought the help of preachers I respected. This all brought good lessons and nuggets of wisdom, but down deep inside I knew something was still missing.

In our life, we face great uncertainty. With each day that goes by, we seem to sink deeper into a hole work no way out. Every inspiration on what to do to get out ended in failure. It seemed that no matter what I did, it just didn't work. Something always went wrong to block success. Always, in everything that mattered.

Yet, in things that didn't"matter", good spoke to us and lead us miraculously. Every month or so a plain miracle of little things would occur "just in time" but in a chain of "can't be a coincidence". Ironically, as our world send to be falling apart in what matters, all the little things "just fell into place". This went on for many months.

I was bewildered. It can't be that we were not following the holy ghost in day to day lives, because of these strings of "everything feel together beautifully" experienced that only God could orchestrate. Yet, in all the big things, nothing worked. Try and try, nothing"feel together", couldn't get traction anywhere even following the same inspirations as in the little things.

Something.... Missing.

Then one morning I say in bed prayerfully contemplating in the quiet and God spoke. My eyes started at the painting we have in the bedroom wall of a lone tree, fence line, snow. The caption is a scripture, "peace, be still and know that I am god'. I had purchased that painting years ago on deep inspiration and hung it there to start my day with. Yet today, in this moment, it some to me.

I have been concentrating on asking God "what do I do to get out of this mess" and then following anything that seemed halfway useful to try. I assumed that I had to do... Something.... Now. The only question I had was" what should I do now".

Peace, be still. That was God's answer. Don't do anything! Stop trying! I was asking the wrong question... It's not about what to do, but when to do.

A vision came pouring in with strength that overshadowed all else. Imagine that you are a Jew in Bible days. You walk outside you home to a fearful sight... Enemy soldiers with swords drawn, running towards you. You know, with no don't, that these enemy have only one goal, to kill you and your family. You must do something quickly or face certain destruction!

Then the prophet stands up and yells"peace, be still, and know that he is God". As enemy soldiers storm the city, you watch them running towards you, the prophet says to stand still and WATCH God deliver. Watch him fight for you. What do you do?

If you do not arm yourself and the soldiers reach you it is certain death. You are trained by God to protect your family, here it will all end if you don't"do"something. Yet the prophet cried out to stand still at peace. You must choose to do something under your own power to try to save your family, or put total nothing held back trust into God for his Deliverance. Time to choose!

It is only possible to be still, be at peace, in such a situation if you totally trust in God. That's faith. To know that God is able, to know that he is willing, to know that he calls you to be still and watch instead of do. To know that you heard right. To stand, and be at peace as the soldiers approach to strike you down. That is faith.

Such stories are in the Bible, stories of armies winning a real battle without lifting a sword, firstly by God's hand and miracle. In those stories is the message "peace, be still, and know that I am god" to the army itself.

My problem is that I assume I must do something or the soldiers will reach us. I see far enough into the future to know that total destruction is coming, unless I do something, anything. I had already decided that something must be done, Deliverance is within action. I was selling which action to take and yet everything I did failed miserably as if god himself was blocking it. THAT was the problem. I was only asking and selling WHAT path to take, not considering was it TIME to take any path.

Our assumptions are often hidden and subtle, yet devestating. My assumption here was that the challenge was to hear from God for WHAT ACTION to take. Goods word to me in this morning starting at the painting was simple "none of the above", it wasn't time yet. The word I could not hear was "wait".

Why is this so important? Because my demanding to know from good what to do, was actually an act of lack of faith. I want truly seeking his perfect plan, I was seeking to save myself according to his plan. I was there one running into the house to grab my series and defend from the charging enemy. I was ignoring the prophet call to be still and wait.

It take great faith to wait. Imagine yourself standing still, at peace, as a armed charging soldier reached directly towards you. How long will you stand still? It's like a game of chicken! A mile? A hundred yards? Ten yards? When will you flinch? It all depends on how much you trust God and your own hearing off God's instruction. Only faith in both will bring peace.

Peace comes when we know we are following God in a particular situation. When we know he is protecting us. Peace is never based on human ability, it come solely from hearing from good and following, even if that following means to do nothing but watch. This is the peace that allowed Jesus to sleep in the bottom of a small boat in a in a huge storm.

Sometimes it is time to fight, to do, to accomplish by God's might. But sometimes it's time to watch good fight out battles for us. Oddly, it takes more faith to be still when facing certain destruction than to do. It natural drive is to do whatever we can in a panic. But when it's time to wait and watch, we must also be willing to do so.

There is much easier if the Bible. Much. Waiting on God. Being still. Trusting. It all over, covert to cover. And the waiting is almost always directed to us as a command. We are to wait. Just do a search for the word", wait" in the Bible and see the hundreds of occurance of God calling on man to wait.

This was an overwhelming morning. After months of stress, worry, frantic seeking, trying everything, I finally got the message "peace, be still and know that I am god". I had been asking the wrong question all along. The answer of"what should I do" was... Nothing. Not yet. Just wait. Learn to trust God to tell you when it's time to do as well as what to do.

posted from Bloggeroid

Unity for the sake of unity... For the sake of power, a voice, a name... But unity for any reason then uniting on principle is evil. Unity itself should never be our goal. Truth should be our goal. God commands is to spread truth and thereby bring people together to share truth. Bringing people together in to one mind without being grounded in a truth, seeking a truth, that is sin. Remember the tower we call babel. It earliest example of unity... Uniting for the sake of worldly power, political profit. The people achieved unity that day... But not on truth. They achieved unity on their own terms, to gain power, to accomplish the desires of their heart. And God declares it evil. He broke their unity purposefully and scattered the people who would be strong in themselves. He broke their unity. Don't get caught up in what Republicans claim, what the Trump populists claim, what the Democrats claim... That we must unite for the good of the party... Unite first, not on any principle. They preach nothing worthwhile except selling their own power. Unite and we will have power! That's the same call as those who built the tower... Unite! No! God's people unite only with the holy ghost, on truth, on principle. If others Jon... Great. If not... Great. On truth we stand united or alone.. it matters not. Truth is the rock we trust in, the principles of God, not a precise of man's unity. Only on God's truth! Speak truth, spread light, stand alone or together, but stand in truth. Jesus sent them out in twos, not in unity on great numbers, but in power of great truth.

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The definition of "fatal mistake" is: "the one you didn't fix".

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There majority is usually wrong and will lead astray. So with the easy path.

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Psalms 125:1-5; Those who trust in the Lord Are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the Lord surrounds His people From this time forth and forever.For the scepter of wickedness shall not...

Doing good in the eyes of God, trusting in Him, not turning to the ways of the world.... In that is our protection. Refusing to compromise, standing firm, rejecting the wisdom of man... That is strength and protection in God. All else is foolishness... In politics, finances, health, life.
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Doing good in the eyes of God, trusting in Him, not turning to the ways of the world.... In that is our protection. Refusing to compromise, standing firm, rejecting the wisdom of man... That is strength and protection in God. All else is foolishness... In politics, finances, health, life.

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