When the Enemy STRIKES Chapter one review
Know his tactics, he comes ONLY to steal, kill and destroy!!!
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Archive for the category “sin”
LUKEWARM…EWWW NO THANKS!!
We are starting a five week Bible study this evening on the
WAR ROOM movie.
The primary focus is how PRAYER IS A POWERFUL WEAPON!
Jesus invites us into a closer and more intimate fellowship with Him. Prayer is our ultimate conversation with Him, and He wants us to be on fire for Him.
The first lesson addresses LUKEWARMNESS
Revelation 3:14-22
Laodicea was the wealthiest of the seven cities, known for its banking industry, manufacture of wool, and a medical school that produced eye salve. But the city always had a problem with its water supply. At one time an aqueduct was built to bring water to the city from hot springs. But by the time the water reached the city, it was neither hot nor refreshingly cool-only lukewarm. The church had become as bland as the tepid water that came into the city.
Lukewarm water makes a disgusting drink. The church in Laodicea had become lukewarm and thus distasteful and repugnant. The believers didn’t stand for anything; indifference had led them to idleness. By neglecting to do anything for Christ, the church had become hardened and self-satisfied, and it was destroying itself.
FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: God does not want us to be cold, but there is more hope for a rebel to repent than for a halfhearted, in-name-only Christian who is self-sufficient. Don’t settle for following God half way.
Let Christ fire up our faith and get us into the action today and every day! :))
Mesmerized memorizers we MUST BE!!
Some days are better than others aren’t they? It seems that situations can happen and redirect our entire day.
We can depend on on
e sure area that will never redirect us, and that is God’s Word.
God’s Word is real and beautiful. Stay true to God and His Word no matter how bad the world becomes.
Obedience to God’s law is the only way to achieve real happiness.
PSALMS 119
This is the longest psalm and the longest chapter in the Bible. It may have been written by Ezra after the Temple was rebuilt (Ezra 6:14, 15) as a repetitive meditation on the beauty of God’s Word and how it helps us stay pure and grow in faith.
This psalm has 22 carefully constructed sections, each corresponding to a different letter in the Hebrew alphabet and each verse beginning with the letter of its section. Almost every verse mentions God’s Word. Such repetition was common in the Hebrew culture.
People did not have personal copies of the Scriptures to read as we do, so God’s people memorized His Word and passed it along orally. The structure of this psalm allowed for easy memorization. Remember, God’s Word, the Bible, is the only sure guide for living a pure life.
FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: Storing God’s Word in our hearts is a deterrent to sin. This alone should inspire us to memorize Scripture. But memorization alone will not keep us from sin; we must also put God’s Word to work in our lives, making it a vital guide to everything we do.
An EMPTY chair, Bagged garbage, and a Rolled up RUSTY fence:)
I get SO EXCITED when I see something that speaks “OH, THIS IS AN excellent PICTURE FOR A BLOG!”
Today is a BEAUTIFUL DAY to SIT QUIETLY and decide if you have a RUSTY FENCE that needs to be rolled up and some GARBAGE that needs to be BAGGED !
PHILIPPIANS 3:7-9
7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
After Paul considered everything he had accomplished in his life, he said that it was all worthless when compared with knowing Christ. This is a profound statement about values: a person’s relationship with Christ is more important than anything else. To know, Christ should be our ultimate goal.
Sometimes, we can allow worldly things to accumulate in our lives, and that can lead to placing our security and confidence in the wrong areas. After a while, God will remove the rusty fence of protection that we built around what we thought was OUR INDEPENDENCE.
God demands a TOTAL SURRENDER 
of our lives to Him
We need to SIT QUIETLY before him and BAG UP THE GARBAGE that keeps us from being one hundred percent usable and ROLL UP THE RUSTY FENCE that we’ve put up around our OWN INDEPENDENCE.
FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: We need to consider our values and not place anything above or around our relationship with Christ. Our independence should be depended COMPLETLY UPON HIM!
Let’s DEPEND ONLY UPON CHRIST today and every day:))
Washed, Emptied, and NO RECORDS to file:)))
OH MY!!!!!! You all know me by now that I can’t pass a picture like this up without a blog post:)))))
NO RECORDS OF SIN, ONCE WASHED AND CLEANED
PSALMS 51:1-4
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness:
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions:
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,
and done this evil in thy sight:
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,
and be clear when thou judgest.
We see that David was truly sorry for his adultery with Bath-sheba and for murdering her husband to cover it up. He knew his actions had hurt many people. But because David repented of those sins, God mercifully forgave him. No sin is too great to be forgiven!
While God forgives us, however, He does not always erase the natural consequences of our sin-David’s life, and family were never the same as a result of his sin (2 Samuel 12:1-23).
We are also told in Scripture that God does not keep a record of our sins.
HEBREWS 10:17
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
The writer concludes his argument with this powerful statement that God will never remember our sins. Christ forgives completely, so there is no need to confess our past sins repeatedly.
We are told in REVELATION 21:27
27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie:but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: As believers, we can be confident that the sins we confess and renounce are forgiven and forgotten.
Let’s live our life today and every day knowing that God keeps NO RECORDS of our past and forgiven sins! STAY CLEAN IN HIS SIGHT:))
A PRIDEFUL chip on the shoulder causes death!!
The book of Esther is unique-God is not mentioned. The heroine of the story is even cautioned to keep her Jewish heritage a secret!
Nevertheless, God’s work is evident.
I didn’t realize that Haman had a thousand-year-old chip on his shoulder. His ancestors, the Amalekites, had attacked the people of Israel without provocation when Moses was leading them out of Egypt. The Amalekites lost the battle, and this feud was never entirely settled. More than ten centuries later Haman held the political power to destroy all Jews.
ESTHER 3:1, 2
1 After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.
2 And all the king’s servants, that were in the king’s gate bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence.
Haman enjoyed the power and prestige of his position, and he was enraged when Mordecai did not respond with the expected reverential bow. Haman’s anger was not directed just toward Mordecai, but toward what Mordecai stood for- the Jews dedication to God as the only authority worthy of reverence. Haman’s attitude was prejudiced; he hated a group of people because of a difference in belief and culture.
Prejudice grows out of personal pride-considering oneself better than others. In the end, Haman was punished for his arrogant attitude.(7:9 10). God will harshly judge those who are prejudiced or whose pride causes them to look down on others.
FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: It’s better to let go of issues in this life, rather than keep on harboring a time to ‘get even’ through selfish pride. Haman would’ve found himself a lot better off serving our ONE AND ONLY God instead of holding on to a one thousand- year old- grudge… Haman learned the hard way!!!
Let’s give unsettled accounts to God today and every day and let Him settled all debts for us! LET GO AND LET GOD!
