God's Presence...Our Rest

I was sitting in church tonight listening to an inspired speaker and friend of ours.  I say inspired because I believe he is truly inspired by the word of God.  He is a humble man and one with much integrity and passion.  Tonight he was speaking on "Where is the presence of God" and I so wanted to share with you some of the things that really stuck out at me from his message.

The question that really stuck in mine was this...

DO YOU POSES A COMFORTABLE REST?

Signs of a comfortable rest include:

• joy unspeakable independent of circumstances
• peace
• calmness
• knowing God has everything under control

Signs you don't poses a comfortable rest include:

• worrying about the situation
• fretting about needs
• chaos 
• confusion

We poses a comfortable rest when we are in God's presence.  Not all believers are in God's presence.  God promises only His presence to those who SEEK HIM, and to those who forsake Him, He will forsake.  Are there things in your life that causing you to forsake Him?  Does your life reflect one that is in His presence?  Do you seek Him?

Do you reside in a comfortable rest???

Hope is the Anchor of the Soul

On Thursday nights a group of ladies meets at my house for fellowship, the word, and always a rousing discussion of what we have studied.  For the past few weeks, we have been studying from the book Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer.  In each chapter, there are mini-sections pertaining to the main chapter.  This weeks discussion was on the chapter entitled Be Positive.  What really hit home, and resided there, was this concept of Hope being the Anchor of our Soul.  Joyce Meyer's writes, "When we are positive in a negative situation it shows a genuine trust in God and a spiritual maturity that pleases and glorifies God."

Have you ever stopped to think about how your attitude in a given situation reflects your trust level in your Heavenly Father?  It is always easy to be joyful and trusting when our circumstances are good.  The Anchor comes when we are in the midst of a storm, and yet find hope and trust in God DESPITE that which we can see at the time.

Read the story of Abraham. (Romans 4:18-20) Here is a man who is quite old.  His wife is barren.  They have tried for many years, unsuccessfully to have children and have, to this point, not been blessed with any.  The circumstances look bleak in deed.  Many of us may give up at this point in our journey.  And yet Abraham continued to hope in faith.  The verses continue to say his faith was not weakened by the circumstances about him.  

Wow, to have a faith that runs that deep, a trust that runs that wide, an anchor in the midst of the storms in our life.  We do!  It's Hope!  I Cor. 13:13 reminds us that, "Three things will last forever--faith, hope and love--and the greatest of these is love." Is your HOPE the anchor for your soul?  If not, pray that God increases your faith and trust in Him.  As these increase so shall your Hope in Him.  

Acceptance Vs Love

To often we find ourselves in a position of being told that, "we are Christians who are supposed to unconditionally love everyone, therefore we are to accept everyone."  This is totally not biblical. We are told in the bible to have the love of Christ.  His love is so deep for us that He sent His only Son to die in our place.  Nothing we can ever do is good enough to pay the price that He paid for us.  This is God's unconditional love.  A love without any limitations or conditions.  I know many who say they love unconditionally but very few who really model it as Christ modeled it for us.  I strive daily to love more like Christ and to get my self out of the way, and I struggle daily loving like Christ and getting myself out of the way!  

Take for instance a story I heard just last night.  A small three year old boy and his parents were visited by a Muslim extremist.  Upon refusing to relinquish their faith or their child's faith, the extremist slit the throat of the small child in front of the parents.  Now we can all see God's love for that poor little boy.  And we have compassion and love for that little boys parents.  Where we fall short (at least I do) is having that same love and compassion for the extremist who just slit that small boys throat.  Now here is where acceptance versus unconditional love comes in.  God LOVES the extremist, a midst all their hate, lies, and terrible acts.  God does not accept the behavior of the extremist.  In fact, God says very clearly murder is against His laws (10 commandments...Though Shall Not Murder).  God's love is unconditional, unchanging, and all consuming.  He wishes nothing more than to see salvation come to that lost soul.    He wishes that we see the world through His eyes of love.  Always striving to show the lost world the light of His grace and glory.  But He cautions us not to become like the world (not to accept those things that are acceptable to the world).  We are to stand apart! {I John 2:15-17, Romans 12:2, Matt. 6:24...} 

Challenge and prayer focus for this week...Do you have the eyes and heart of Christ?  If not, pray that God breaks you and develops in you an unconditional love for the lost.

Jan. 14th

Hi.  Glad you decided to join along on this journey I am about to embark.  God has been nudging my heart for several weeks to begin writing and sharing the things that I read, hear, see etc.  But, I kept giving excuses why I couldn't.  The thing is, this isn't about ME its about HIM.  And my desire is to hear, say, think, do, move always in HIM.  And that is why I am here writing on this blog, this cold winter day in 2015.  

On Dec. 31st, I was talking with one of my close friends about the year ahead.  We had both had a stirring in our soul that God was ready to break out and do some extraordinary things this year in those who are ready for His move.  I have since talked to many of my close friends who are feeling the same stirring, an expectation of seeing God move!  Now this evening I attended Wednesday night services.  (YES I still go!)  The speaker talked about how God has been stirring in his heart that this was a year of EXPECTATION.  There will be those who "GET IT".  The ones whose heart desire is for everything God, and nothing else. You will see them with a fire that burns so bright and intense that all the worldly things are swept away.  Then there will be those who just don't get it.  The ones who are satisfied with checking off their weekly church appearance, their fifteen minutes in the word, their blessing over their food.  They are more concerned with the next vacation, making more money, buying their next car.

For a long time in our churches, we have preached the importance of being saved....that that is enough to get us in the doors of heaven.  There isn't much preaching about the verses that talk about "Few shall entire the gates of heaven" (Luke 13:23,24)  or about the path to heaven being through a "narrow gate" (Matt. 7:14).  Rather churches seem to be into preaching about tolerance and acceptance.  The fact is God desires us to be like Jesus.  Jesus had the love of God for all, not wishing any should perish.  But Jesus was not accepting or tolerant of those things that went against His Fathers commandments or the Word of God.  There has to come a point in our lives where we stop being afraid of offense, and start living a life where our whole desire is to be filled overflowing with God, to live His commandments, and to show light to a lost world.  The question is, are you going to be one who "gets it" or not.  If you get it, awesome.  If not, its not meant for you.