Love Must be Sincere
December 16, 2022
Romans 12:9-13
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
Love Must be Sincere
If I never get past the walls of your castle, I can never truly know the heart of your kingdom. Perhaps this is why so many live behind high walls and never let anyone into their hearts and lives. We put up walls as our defense and protection system to keep people from getting to close to us. Behind those walls of pretense and the projection of what we want people to believe is the real us, may be someone totally different. Often it is fear of rejection, past hurts, unwillingness to really know others and allow them to know you, that keep us from being sincere in our love. What we discover in this state is that we can never fully be who God has called us to be, because He has told us that love must be sincere. Christianity can have so many pretenses and hypocrisy about it that it looks nothing like Christ. God wants us to be real with each other and truly love one another out of a sincere heart.
How many of us have been around “Christians” that would bless you to your face and curse you to your back. That is not sincere love.
We are to be the dispensers of God’s pure unadulterated love. What does that mean? It means that it is not contaminated with my agendas, my opinions, my selfishness or even my feelings. It is about God’s love flowing through you. It can’t truly be God’s if it is all polluted with fleshly elements can it?
Our walls and our pretense are really all about us and preserving our self-image, whatever we imagine that to be. God is not about our self-image, He is about His image being expressed through us and His image is love. It is not pretentious; it is real and it is sincere. God says, “hate what is evil, cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” That can’t be real if it is only coming through outward words, but no action. We have to keep this truth before us that when you serve and love your brothers and sisters, you are serving and loving the Lord, because He is resident in them. How many of us would miss Jesus today if we met Him on the street because our walls are so high that He couldn’t begin to reach our heart. Save your walls for the enemy and open the gates of your heart to the brethren and to be the expression of God’s love. Trust God to protect your heart, because if you know that you are His son and daughter then your security and identity is complete in Him, not who we might pretend to be. “Love must be sincere, so get real.
Blessings,
#kent
The Wind of the Spirit
October 5, 2022
The Wind of the Spirit
John 3:8
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
There are many things in life that we can’t see or don’t fully understand: the wind, electricity, love, spiritual influences of good and evil. There are many mysteries in life and yet often we accept things by faith that we don’t understand and use them accordingly. We know that they yield expected results when we do. We may not understand heating and air conditioning, but we believe they exist and adjust a thermostat in faith that they will. We flip a light switch and expect electricity to power a light bulb and produce light. We expect that when we turn the key in our car it will start, run and take us where we want to go. How some huge chunk of metal can fly may well be above our understanding of the aerodynamics and yet we buy a ticket, take a seat and expect it to fly us where we have destined to go. The Holy Spirit is no less real, but more so, the difference is we don’t harness and control Him. He is the one that desires to control us. God chose to give man a will to choose and make decisions for himself. Sometimes that is probably more of a curse than a blessing, because we often don’t make wise choices. Nevertheless, God has given us some power over our destiny through the freedom of choice.
Many of us have the illusion that we are fully in control of our lives. The truth is we only have the power to choose whose control and dominion we want to be under. As the Holy Spirit is the one controlling force that leads us in the ways of truth, life and godliness, there is another spirit that blows and an atmosphere we have become so accustomed too that we often take it for granted. It is the spirit of this world, the prince of the air as he is described in Ephesians 2:2, “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Just as we breathe air, spiritual forces influence us, forces that are unseen, yet nevertheless real and influential in our lives. We are born into a world of sin and from the time of our birth are under its influence. While we are free in regards to righteousness, we are under the bondage of sin whose end is death. Romans 6:16-18 reveals our state of being before and then after we come into the saving knowledge and acceptance of Christ: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” We came to the understanding that there are two primary spiritual forces at work in our lives. The spirit of darkness, that operates under the law of sin and death, leaves us free to live according to the dictates of our flesh and in that place many of us have lived for a time. What we came to realize was that in that place of supposed freedom to live as our lust and desires dictated we were missing key elements in life. We were missing peace, true joy, and unconditional love, hope and purpose for living and existing beyond this current life. We were missing comfort, guidance, direction and the help from something or someone greater than ourselves. While we momentarily enjoyed our pleasures, they left us empty, unfulfilled, feeling unclean, lonely and alienated from life and hope and peace. Somewhere along our path we felt the breeze of a different wind blow upon us. It was in total contrast to all we had ever known or embraced in our past. When we breathed it in, somehow, we sensed that this was what had been missing out of our lives. This was the hope, the peace and the destiny to which we were born for. This was the way that would lead us to a life that had meaning and purpose, not just in this life, but in the life to come. The wind of the Holy Spirit had blown upon our spirit and carried us up by faith through His grace into the atmosphere of heaven. In the face of Jesus we saw a Savior and Redeemer who laid down His life that through His death we might have life eternal, not just mortal life, but God life. And while our feet still walk in an atmosphere of sin and death, we have the assurance that this is no longer our home. We are simply travelers in a foreign country, sharing with others in this place the wonderful benefits and the good news of the kingdom and city to which we now belong. As the Holy Spirit blew someone across our path that shared that good news with us, we in turn, are the influences of God. As the Holy Spirit blows through us to touch someone else’s life with the truth of the life and hope that God has for all of us through Christ.
Romans 6:20-23 tells us of the fruit of the decision that we have made to follow Christ and give our lives to Him, through the will and choice that He gave us, “For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things [is] death But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Blessings,
#kent
Religion versus Reality
March 31, 2021
Isaiah 58:2-4
For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
3‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
4Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Religion versus Reality
Through this passage in Isaiah God teaches us something about the difference between being religious and really walking in the nature of God. The Israelites can’t understand why God does not honor their fasting, their sackcloth and ashes and their outward showing of humility and sacrifice. God basically tells them that what you do outwardly is ineffectual if it doesn’t change and truly affect the condition of your heart.
God is after the condition of our hearts and no amount of religious ceremony or outward works means anything to God if your heart isn’t changed. The true fast of God is in walking out in obedience the nature and character of God in every day life. It is not in all of the super spiritual things that we do, but in the every day application of the love of God toward the people in your sphere of influence.
God declares to them the fast that He has chosen: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
8Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.
9Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
11And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.”
It is practical daily living in the nature of Christ that is the true fast and that is what captures the ear and the heart of God. If we want a real fast, not just a religious one, then let’s walk in the love, power and demonstration of the nature of Christ, then God will hear us out of heaven and will answer our prayer. He will honor us as we honor Him. Out of that place we have a spiritual legacy of children that we have built up and restored to the glory of God the Father.
Blessings,
#kent
Living Out of the Unseen
October 29, 2015
2 Corinthians 4:18
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Living Out of the Unseen
Natural eyes, physical sounds, human reasoning, life circumstances, what others tell us, five senses, human conditions, perceptions, surroundings and our understanding all feed into what we perceive as real. In the moment and with all that processes through our being, that may be what seems real and factual. As believers, the word teaches us that there is a realm beyond just human natural perception. This realm is not ruled and governed by the same principles that govern our earthly realm. This realm is not dictated by earthly facts or circumstances. This is a realm that God wants us to more and more operate out of, because it is the realm of the kingdom of God and its principles are truth. Its government and dictates are spelled out in the Word of God. It supercedes that which is natural, for what we currently perceive and understand as reality is passing away. It is temporal, but that which now unseen will take its place for it is the eternal.
Currently, we see in part the invisible realm invading the natural realm, but until it has ran its course in fullness of Father’s time, we will not experience the fullness of the currently unseen realm made manifest. 1 Corinthians 15:50 tells us, “I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” In this present corruptible world we can not inherit the fullness of that kingdom which is incorruptible until death is swallowed up with life. This is currently taking place in measure even now as Christ comes forth in us and we live out of His life. His life is swallowing up the death in us.
Before the apostle Paul says this he gives us understanding of the state that we have been in and that which we are moving into. “If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.” Now while we may see Jesus as the last and only Adam to presently demonstrate the fullness and likeness of the man of heaven, the Word of God and the message of Christ reorients the mind of the believer to not just be operating out of this earthly realm. Ephesians 2:6 says, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” Colossians 3:1-4 declares, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
In light of these scriptures we can see how our spiritual position has changed as we have died to the old Adam and are raised up in the last Adam. In that spiritual identification we see that God has positioned us in heavenly places and in that unseen realm that is eternal. From that position, what does He tell us to do? ” Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” While our physical perspective and position hasn’t changed, our spiritual position has. Now you tell me, which one does God want us to live out of?
Romans 8:5-11 teaches us this, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” You can see where we run into conflict; we find ourselves in two different states, but in Christ we have made a declaration and a statement of faith to disenfranchise and disown our former natural man even while we still abide in this earthen vessel and have put on Christ and identification with His eternal life. That is the position we are to operate our physical lives out of. Even though we don’t see the fullness of that yet manifest we are as Romans 8:22-25 states, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
In that patient hope we aren’t focused on the temporal, corruptible and that which is passing away, but we are embracing the eternal as we declare and decree by faith the Word of God and its promises. It is out of these kingdom principles we now live, move and have our being as we walk by the Spirit and live no longer according to the dictates of the flesh. We are a new creation being made conformable in the likeness of Him who has translated us from darkness into His marvelous light, from death into His incorruptible life.
Blessings,
#kent
The Root
October 27, 2015
The Root
Proverbs 12:3
A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
As it has come to be the season where the leaves have changed their color and are falling to the ground I take stock of my own life and see that age is coming upon me, the hair is receding and the winter is before me. As we grow older we begin to see that it is not always the outward that is permanent and beautiful, for that beauty will fade and pass away. Even in the Christian world we see a lot of outward demonstrations of worship and religious fanfare. All of these outward manifestations have their day and they catch the eye, but most soon fade and pass away. Proverbs 30:31 says, “Favour [is] deceitful, and beauty [is] vain: [but] a woman [that] feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.” This outward life is like the beauty of a woman. It is vain, as is the favor of man, for it is not the outward that is the heart and soul of a substance, it is the root. When all of the outward beauty falls from a plant and outwardly it looks cold and dead, there is still the life that remains, but it is hidden to the outward eye.
So many Christians go through life living by the appearance of what looks good or spiritual, but the true life and tenacity of a thing is in the root. The root is not really concerned for the outward things, the outward beauty that stems from the root comes as a natural manifestation of that which it is by nature and character, but the root is more concerned in the things which are not seen. It is always seeking to go deeper into the ground and extend itself into new places of moisture and nutrition. That is the description of the man and woman of God. They aren’t nearly as concerned for the outward beauty, as they are for going deeper and more intimate in their relationship with Christ, which is their life, their source, supply and water. Judging a person by the outward appearance is a vain and shallow thing. In order to truly judge a thing, you must first truly know its heart and its root. There are those in the kingdom of God today that by their outward appearance and circumstances you might consider them forsaken, barren and cursed of God. That is because you don’t know their root. Their roots have wrapped themselves around the very heart, life and fiber of God. They live, move and have their being out of that life. Outwardly there may not be beauty that one would desire them and others may in fact pity them, but some of these ones have more life and reality of God than all the pretty Christians will ever know. That is because they have come to experience and lay hold of God in the dark places, in the droughts, in the heat of the summer, the freezing of winter and the fires that have burned away the outward beauty. There is no comeliness that you should desire them. They are really quite similar to another root that is spoken about in Isaiah 53:2-7, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ¶ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”
This is a day and an hour when we don’t want to be moved by what we see outwardly. Judge a matter by its root and where its heart is. Situations and circumstances will not move one who is firmly and deeply planted in God. Miracles and outward manifestations and lofty words will not move them. Even the Anti-Christ can manifest these. Look to the heart and the root of a matter, there you will find the true revelation of what it is or what it is not. Out of what many will have judged to be nothing will come the true oaks and trees of righteousness; the planting of the Lord.
Blessings,
#kent
Cistern or Septic
June 10, 2015
Cistern or Septic
James 3:7-12
All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
Jesus makes this statement Luke 6:45, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” The tongue and the speech of a person are the reflection of the aquifer of a man’s soul. Many things touch us as we go through life and how we process and the attitude with which we handle them can make all the difference in the world in how they affect our life and who and what we are. Most of us, at one time or another, will experience hurts, disappointments and offenses at the hands of another individual. It can be someone who might have been a friend or it may be from our closest and most trusted loved one or relative. Offenses, hurts, wounding can come from many directions, but no matter where they come from, it is how we deal with them that becomes important.
When water falls upon the earth it percolates down through the ground into voids, pockets and underground reservoirs. Many of us have had or at least drank from wells supplied by underground water. What is it that makes that water either pure to drink or in some cases septic and contaminated? Usually it is the process of filtration as it goes through the ground and works its way down into the reservoir. We have a filtration process that we have to take the events of our lives through. What we find in the Word is that if we process our lives with an attitude of the world or if we allow offenses or hurts that may be very real, to be processed the wrong way it can allow our inward cistern of life to become polluted and defiled. It will not only defile us, but it will make our speech and attitudes septic, which can, in turn, defile others.
The bait of satan is to get us to take offense, after all we are justified in doing so, we are the ones that were wronged. In Mark 11:25-26 Jesus makes the statement, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” You see our soul and our heart can be a cistern of life giving water or it can become a septic tank of bitterness and unforgiveness. What would have happened if the Lord had taken the offense of our sins, disobedience and rejection into His heart and held unforgiveness? If we still had life at all there would be no hope and there would be no avenue of relationship. If the Lord had only dwelled on our offenses and had not offered forgiveness could we have known anything but misery and death? As the Son of God was hanging on the cross, grossly beaten, abused, tortured and now crucified of men, His words were “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He didn’t hold the offense. He released it and the destructive power it could have contained with unforgiveness.
Maybe some of us today are sensing that our cistern has been polluted and made septic by offenses we have been unwilling to forgive and release. That unforgiveness hinders the forgiveness of our offenses to the Lord. It must be as the Lord’s prayer says,’ forgive us our sins, our debts, our offenses, as we forgive those who have sinned against us, have unpaid debts toward us and who have offended us.’ This process can be a painful one and in a sense it is like turning the other cheek to forgive when everything within us wants to return pain for pain, an eye for eye and a tooth for tooth. We want the offender to hurt and suffer every bit as much, if not more, than we have. We have a mighty God who is our avenger and just judge before which all of us will stand and give account. Allow your heart to be freed of the offenses that you have held so that you may have a clean heart and know God’s wonderful love and forgiveness for you that we could never deserve, yet He freely gives.
Filter out the offenses and the hurts that want to go into your heart and mortally wound your soul. You must filter them with the love and the forgiveness that the Lord has given you. You must extend the grace that He has given at the expense of his mortal life. It is the only way to purify the living waters of your heart so that you might issue forth life and not death.
Blessings,
#kent
More than all Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices
May 12, 2015
More than all Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices
Mark 12:33-34
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
While we no longer literally offer burnt offerings and sacrifices we still do it in type. Many times I might rather love my neighbor, whoever that might be, from a distance rather than up close and personal. Just allow me donate some money for their cause, or pray for them, anything, but don’t make me become personally involved in their lives. Most of us like our own space and some of us like to be around friends and family, but even that has its limitations. How much time do I have for my neighbor, those people that I encounter in my daily life, business or work? Many times we might think to ourselves, “You know, I have enough problems of my own, I don’t need to get involved with someone else’s.” If we love ourselves enough to care about our problems, our needs, our wants, desires and goals in life, then aren’t we mandated to care about the similar needs of others as well?
Most of us would agree that in a world where every time you turn around someone wants to sell you something or ask you to contribute something we begin to become rather cold and callused. We build these walls to try and keep these people out. It is true, we can’t be everything to everybody and we do only have so many resources, still, are we loving our neighbor as ourselves? All of the things that I do for me, am I willing to do them for someone else? Personally, I am not a real people person and the majority of the time I am quite content and comfortable to be by myself, doing my own thing, but can I really love my neighbor as myself from that position. Loving others is always stretching us. It causes us to move out of our comfort zone. It causes us to come out of the place of just making the token efforts of the burnt offerings and sacrifices and requires me to get involved. Jesus was involved with those around him and not just with the upper crust, the easy to get along with, the likeable or the ones that could benefit Him. He was relating to humanity at all levels, classes, sexes and races. He would relate with children and adults alike, to the whole and the broken, rich and the poor and to the sinner and the righteous. Jesus was not a respecter of persons and He was sensitive to the heart cry of people. There are a lot of people out there that just want to take advantage and use others. This tends to make us wary and cynical, but the Lord wants us to tune into the heart cry of others. Listen, by the Spirit to the real need in people. It often isn’t what we see being portrayed on the outside or in their actions. We need a spirit of sensitivity, not to be duped by everyone that comes along, but to see into the heart need of others.
As the ambassadors and representatives of Christ in this earth we are the channels of God’s blessing, healing, restoration and reconciliation. If we don’t take the time and make the time for the needs of others, then who will. If I want someone to love me, be sensitive to my needs and to just care then that is the love I need to be extending to others in whatever capacity I have to give it. It isn’t the religious gestures that I make and the token giving that the Lord is looking for. He is looking for my heart to be one with His heart in me. He desires me to love Him through the way I love others, through a heart that is really caring and concerned for the needs of others. So often we are like the Scribe, the Pharisee, “the Christian”, who walks to the other side of the road when we see our neighbor in need. We don’t want the inconvenience and the investment of our time and resources to get involved. If my neighbor is important to the Lord, then they have to become my priority also. We have to remember that our mission in the earth is not about us, it is about Him through the way that we serve others. Loving God and loving our neighbor are all part of the same pie.
“Lord, give us sensitive hearts and eyes to see into the real needs of others and to make ourselves available and willing to minister to those needs in what ever way we can. Give us your heart to really love others as we would love ourselves, not from a distance, but up close and personal. Help us to truly be the extension of your compassion, love and grace. May the world truly know us by our love and not just by our name and religion. Allow us to be willing to pay the price of the personal sacrifice required in the giving of ourselves and that which cost us personally to love You with all of our hearts; to love our neighbors as ourselves, no matter who they may be.”
Blessings,
#kent
Who is this Looking Back at Me?
November 19, 2014
2 Timothy 1:7-10
God’s Spirit doesn’t make cowards out of us. The Spirit gives us power, love, and self-control. 8Don’t be ashamed to speak for our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, just because I am in jail for serving him. Use the power that comes from God and join with me in suffering for telling the good news. 9God saved us and chose us to be his holy people. We did nothing to deserve this, but God planned it because he is so kind.
Even before time began God planned for Christ Jesus to show kindness to us. 10Now Christ Jesus has come
to show us the kindness of God. Christ our Savior defeated death and brought us the good news. It shines like a light and offers life that never ends.
Who is this Looking Back at Me?
Looking in the mirror,
Who is this looking back at me?
Is it the person of just here and now,
Or is it the person of eternal destiny?
Am I really just this person of faults and blems?
Am I just a person that exists, grows old and dies,
Or am I a being fashioned in the image of Him,
Fulfilling the divine destiny that before me lies?
Condemnation, fear and doubt would cloud that view.
When I survey my land the giants seem quite a few.
But look at that fruit in the land of milk and honey,
My life is so much more than houses, lands and money.
God has deposited a part of heaven in me.
Christ shed His blood, gave me His Spirit to set me free.
I can live out of what I see and touch and feel,
Or I can live out of the Word that I know to be real.
What report will I believe, as I stare, looking back at me?
Will I identify with my Lord and who He says I will be,
Or will weakness, doubt, circumstances and this world,
Shape, order and direct my eternal destiny?
Kent Stuck
Blessings,
#kent
If I have to live this way, just shoot me!
June 23, 2014
If I have to live this way, just shoot me!
1 Kings 19:4
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I [am] not better than my fathers.
Have you ever felt that way? You came to a point in life, maybe more than once, where life was just too painful, too hopeless and a dark cloud of depression and despondency covered your soul. Maybe it was from physical pain, emotional heartbreak or pressures around you that were just too much to bear. Thoughts of suicide were contemplated and maybe even attempted. Voices were in your head telling you, “just to end it, get it over with. Once you’re dead your pain is over. Besides, who really cares? Everybody will probably be better off without you.” Do any of these thoughts sound familiar? If they do then you have wrestled the enemy of depression and despair. If you have been in this place, don’t feel condemned or weak, even the most spiritual of men have had there bouts with these demons. Our scripture today is speaking of Elijah, the mighty prophet of God and it came just after one of the greatest spiritual victories of that time. He should have felt invincible, but here we find him weak, frightened, fearful, despondent and despairing of his own life. Isn’t it wonderful how God shows us the great spiritual men of the Bible in their weakness as well as there strength? That in itself gives us hope. If they are so spiritual and yet they went through these things, then maybe there is hope for me and you.
Beloved, some of you have endured great pain, suffering, persecution and affliction, beyond what one should have to bear. Even if you have tried to fight the good fight and be faithful, you can grow weary in the battle. Mental, physical and spiritual exhaustion can overcome you until thoughts and reasonings can come in that have no place being in your head. These are like the testing experiences of Christ in the wilderness when He was at His weakest point. The enemy tries to come in for the kill. He would tell us, “God is a lie, that He is not faithful, He has forsaken you, He doesn’t care about you, and there probably isn’t even a God.”
His strategy is to disconnect us from our unity, oneness and identification in Christ, who is our strength and our life, because that is our power. If He can rob Christ from us then what do we have? What strength can we stand in?
Some of you are thinking, “yeah, but if God loves me so much, why would He allow me to have to go through so much pain?” Sometimes it is the deep inner working of pain and suffering in our lives that brings us to terms with areas that we would just as soon keep buried forever. There may be root causes for these pains and afflictions in our lives that can’t be healed and delivered until they are brought into the light and dealt with. If Christ learned obedience through the things He suffered as it tells us in Hebrews 5:8, are we then greater than He?
It is not God’s will that we are in continual suffering and pain, but these are often the tools brought to bear upon us by the enemy, but God turns and uses them to do an inner surgery upon our character and our heart. One thing we have to come to terms with is, “God is faithful all the time”, but you won’t always outwardly see that faithfulness. Quite the contrary, everything in the natural can be speaking and demonstrating against the faithfulness of God. 2 Corinthians 4:18 tells us a secret, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen [are] temporal; but the things which are not seen [are] eternal.” What does Hebrews 11:1 tell us about faith? “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” As hard as it is, our trust can not be placed in the outward circumstances that surround us.
God loves you and is with you even in your weakest, darkest moments. He has not abandoned or forsaken you. What you are living with or going through may be the valley of the shadow of death, but David says, “I will not fear, for thou art with me. Thy rod (authority of the Word) and thy staff (salvation) they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” While the enemy is doing everything in its power to defeat and destroy you God is setting the table of blessing and mercy right in the face of the enemy. You are the anointed of God. He is pouring the anointing of His Spirit and power over you that you may be more than a conqueror through Christ who has loved you and gave Himself for you. See with your spiritual eyes, embrace with all the faith of your spiritual man the love and goodness God has for you, even in the midst of such darkness and despair. Don’t give up, keeping on trusting Him. The race isn’t to the swift and strong, but to the faithful.
Blessings,
#kent
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