We Should Never Wait

Psalm 32:34; "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring of the day long. v. 4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah".


David was describing the agony and penalty he felt for concealed sin. This is how we feel at times when we don't want to acknowledge our own sin. Trying to hide our sin can bring a loss of health, our peace of mind, happiness, and favor with God. We will experience guilt and inner torment. This is God's punishment for trying to hide our sin.

God already knows about the sin/s but He is waiting for us to confess them to Him. He wants us to take responsibility of what we have done and ask Him for forgiveness.

Psalm 32:5; "I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah".

When David acknowledged and confessed his sin to the Lord with an honest, sincere, and repentant heart God forgave him. When we acknowledge and confess our sins to the Lord with an honest, sincere, and repentant heart the result will be God's gracious forgiveness, and removal of guilt. We will feel His presence with us once again. Even though we are forgiven we must remember there are consequences to our actions.

When we sin we should always acknowledge it and ask the Lord with an honest, sincere, and repentant heart immediately for His forgiveness, we should never wait. Waiting only makes it worse and our hearts can become hardened.

May you always know the love, joy, and peace of the Lord!

Where Are Our Riches

How do we live? Are we living just to be living or are we living because we have a cause?


What do our lives show of the way we live?

Are we joyful? Are we angry? Are we friendly? Are we snobbish?

Do we show our love for others or are they just there?

Do we live just for money?

Do we live for the material things of life?

Is our life full of Jesus? Or is our life full of the things of the world.

Did you ever stop to think our final test of our lives will not be how much we lived but how we lived? It will not be about how tempestuous our lives have been but how much bigger, better, and stronger the trials and tribulations have left us.

It won't be about how much money, fame, or fortune we have laid up here on earth but what we have done to lay up treasures in heaven. Which is the most important to us?

Life is not all about the riches of the world. Share your love, friendship, compassion, and joy with everyone. Share the Lord with everyone; tell the world all about Jesus and who He is and what He does for us. This is where our wealth is. The Lord wants us to share what we know about Him, our love, friendship, compassion, and the list could go on and on.

We need to think about what the most important thing is to us that will bring us the most joy, love, peace, and happiness. We are here on earth for a season but heaven or hell will be eternally.

Matthew 16:26; "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul"?

May you always know the love, joy, and peace of the Lord!

The Great Exchange

The pastor of our church gave a message a couple of weeks ago about "The Great Exchange." Although I have known about each of them I was spellbound just hearing him give the message.


First of all God loved us so much that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, that if we believe in Jesus we would not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16; "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

There is one person that was willing to exchange His wealth so we could have it. The person is Jesus Christ.

Jesus left His home in heaven so we could have a home in heaven. If you had an expensive home would you leave your home so someone could have your home? I am sure I wouldn't, I might share my home but to give it up I just couldn't do that but Jesus did this for you and me.

Jesus gave up His riches for our poverty. Someone had to pay the price/debt and Jesus was willing to do this for us. II Corinthians 8:9; "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." Because Jesus became poor, we now share His eternal riches. We need to have the same feelings as verification of His grace working in us. The gifts of grace, salvation, the kingdom of glory and heaven are the everlasting riches we have received in exchange for the rags of iniquity. Ephesians 1:3; "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ":

Jesus also gives us His joy for our sorrow. John 16:20; "Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy." Sorrow is something none of us want, it can cause us to feel the Lord has forsaken us but He will never do this. We can have godly sorrow which is good for us as it leads us to repentance, changing our heart that will turn us from sin to God.

We are given peace by Jesus for our troubles. John 14:27; "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid". It is a great feeling to have this peace Jesus gives to us but you need to be willing to give your troubles completely to Him. We can't expect to have His peace if we don't give Him our troubles.

Jesus gives His love for our hatred. Colossians 1:21; "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled". We were estranged and hostile in our minds and doing evil things but we have been reconciled to Him now. We have love towards the Lord and others now.

Jesus has even given us His righteousness for our rags. Isaiah 64:6; "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away". It is through Jesus Christ that we are clean and made pure. II Corinthians 5:21; "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him".

II Corinthians 6:10; "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things". Even though our hearts ache we have the joy of the Lord. We may not possess riches on earth but we can help others and we can enjoy everything. Our riches will be received in our heavenly home.

Jesus exchanged everything just for us. This exchange is awesome; to think He loves us so much that He was willing to do this for us. Thank you, Jesus.

May you always know the love, joy, and peace of the Lord!

With God's Strength

We got the biopsy report back that Dave had done a week ago. He does have a cancerous tumor. We will find out Wednesday what type of treatment will be given.


Both Dave and I know the Lord is right at our sides and He will get us through this but I do know Satan is trying to cut-in on the Lord. It is up to us to make sure he doesn't get this done.

I Thessalonians 2:18; "...Satan hindered us". We know Satan is permitted by God to war against and to hinder believers from doing what we want to do for Christ. We also know God can overrule Satan's activities and turn them into good for His kingdom.

We can overcome the hindrance of Satan by praying daily for deliverance and protection from his schemes and power. This is a must for all of us. We must never let Satan get his foot in the door, sort of speaking; we must keep him at bay at all times. There is no one else but the Lord that can and will protect us from Satan. By praying to the Lord we are telling Him we know that He can and will protect us from Satan.

Satan wants us to believe he is no longer a real enemy who takes people captive by sin. We must not let him get away with this. Those little thoughts in your mind that he puts there like telling you God doesn't really care about you or a little lie isn't really a big deal comes from no other than Satan. He wants to build his empire by lying to us.

Yes, this is what Satan has been telling me, God doesn't really care what happens to Dave while in ALL TRUTH God does care. He is there to help me if I just call on Him. Believe me I have been calling on Him a lot lately. I know in my heart and mind God will take care of Dave, it may be through the doctor's hands or by another miracle of healing but Satan sure is trying to get in, I CAN'T LET HIM IN, I JUST CAN'T.

Psalm 18:2; "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower". We have the Lord to help us through this, He is my strength, and He literally gives us His strength because He knows we are weak. What kind of love is this? It is a mighty love only God can give us. I will hold onto this verse as it will keep reminding me of WHO will help me.

We are not the only ones going through a rough time of one sort or another and I pray they ask the Lord for strength to get through whatever it is they are going through.

Thank you, Lord for being with us in this time of need and for your strength you give us. Thank you for your love and mercy. We give you all the praise and glory. In Jesus Name. Amen

May you always know the love, joy, and peace of the Lord!

Colossians 3:23

The following is a story about what can happen when we allow the light of Jesus shine through us. We never know what a person is going through and a smile that you might give them could change their outlook on something, like believing others care.

Whatever we do we should do as we are doing it unto the Lord. Colossians 3:23; "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men";

I believe the Lord would want us to smile and not frown at someone we see on the street, in the store, or wherever. It doesn't take much to smile or say a simple 'hello'. If we see someone that needs help it doesn't take a lot to help them out.

I hope you enjoy the story and understand what kindness can do for someone. It not only helps the other person but it will help you also. The story is a bit long but I believe it is worth the time it takes to read it.

____________________

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books.

I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd."

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him.

He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes

My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye.

As I handed him his glasses, I said, "Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives."

He looked at me and said, "Hey thanks!"

There was a big smile on his face.

It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before.

He said he had gone to private school before now.

I would have never hung out with a private school kid before.

We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid.

I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends.

He said "yes."

We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him.

Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again.

I stopped him and said, "Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!"

He just laughed and handed me half the books.

Over the next four years, Kyle and I be came best friends...

When we were seniors we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown and I was going to NC State.

I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem.

He was going to be a doctor and I was going for business on a football scholarship.

Kyle was valedictorian of our class.

I teased him all the time about being a nerd.

He had to prepare a speech for graduation.

I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak Graduation day. I saw Kyle.
He looked great.

He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school.

He filled out and actually looked good in glasses.

He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him.

Boy, sometimes I was jealous! Today was one of those days.

I could see that he was nervous about his speech.

So, I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be great!"

He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled.

"Thanks," he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began.

"Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years.
Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your friends...
I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them."

"I am going to tell you a story."

I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the
story of the first day we met.

He had planned to kill himself over the weekend.

He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home.

He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile.

"Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable."

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment.

I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile.

Not until that moment did I realize it's depth.

Never underestimate the power of your actions.

With one small gesture you can change a person's life, for better or for worse.

God puts us all in each others lives to impact one another in some way.

Look for God in others.

____________________

May you always know the love, joy, and peace of the Lord and share it with others!