Thank You

Lord, I thank you for your love, mercy, grace and all your other attributes, plus you are totally, totally, awesome.  Personally, I don’t think the word awesome should be used for any other purpose than to describe you Lord!!  You are the awesome, righteous, holy and the almighty, all-powerful God, and I, for one, stand amazed in your presence, knowing that I am no better than a worm without you, I am so unworthy.  You are not only mighty, but you are the almighty God like I said earlier and the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the high and lofty one and under your wings I find shelter.  I thank you for who you are and what you are and what you’ve done and what you are going to do!!  You are the embodiment in holiness and righteousness and your love, mercy and grace are beyond comprehension and because of the attributes you have and your purpose for mankind, it cost you your very life and brought much excruciating pain and agony and you deserved none of it, but you deserved all glory, all honor and all our praise for you are worthy, praise be to your precious, precious name!!

I know that you inhabit all your peoples’ praise, so if your faithful people praise you, you will be in the midst of that praise and in the midst of the struggles we face daily.  I have to admit that there are times when I don’t feel like praising you, but I know that you are so worthy of my praise, so I try to praise you each and every day regardless of the way I feel.  

I am so thankful for the way that you have used me over the years to share your love with so many other people and to win souls and to bless and encourage people.  It is amazing how you choose the nobody’s in the world and make them into somebody’s by helping to transform their lives into instruments of righteousness.  

I also want to thank and praise you for the many blessings that you have blessed me and my family with, also many others that you have blessed that I have heard about.  I believe that there is no one that has ever lived that hasn’t been blessed by you.  You allow the sun and the rain to fall on friend and enemy alike, plus we all have air to breath and water to drink.  No matter what condition we find ourselves in, we can always find something to praise you for.  

Help me Lord to seek your heart and not just your hands.  Help me not to steal any of the glory and praise that belongs to you by drawing any attention to myself, like I seem to be guilty of at times, I am truly sorry, please forgive me.  Help me and all your people to be transparent while conversing with others and never be phony before them, but always be truthful in our manner of speech and our dealings with others and please forgive us for the times that we were afraid or intimidated to act honestly.

Help us to keep our eyes and minds stayed on thee, who is the author and finisher of our faith, and not to be conformed to the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we may prove what your good and perfect and just will is.  I know that you are the giver of the good and perfect gifts and you are a rewarder of those who diligently seek you.  Your Word says this, you will find me when you seek me with all your heart.  Lord help everyone to seek you with all their hearts for, when they find You, that will be the greatest blessing ever, praise the Lord!!

I hope this has been an encouragement and blessing to all that read it!!  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day!!  And don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord!!

Knowing God’s People

What is a good indicator that a person is a true believer?  Today there are so many that have been deceived and are deceiving others through what they are preaching and teaching; like the prosperity gospel, name it and claim it, hyper grace, and sinless perfection.  If they don’t repent they will have to give an account of why when they stand before the Lord someday.

God’s Word says this in 1 Timothy 4:13-16, “Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.”

It also says this in 1 Timothy 6:6-10, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

Now read verse 20 and 21 in that same chapter, “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge— by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.”

Now please read this in Matthew 19:23-24, “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’”

There are many who are counting on their good works to get them into heaven which cannot happen.  Please read Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

After we are born-again we have good works we can be doing, like helping our neighbor, blessing the poor with some of our resources, volunteering in food kitchens, teaching Bible classes, leading small groups in your home, visiting widows and orphans, also visiting inmates in jails or prisons plus there are many other things we can do.  Please read Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Some people teach that when you are born-again all your sins have been forgiven; all your past, present and future sins, so you will never be convicted again, so you never have to repent or confess sins because God’s grace has already been applied to you so anything else is just works.  

Please read what was written to the churches in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Now read James (Jacob) 5:13-20, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”

One more, and these were all written to God’s Communities (Church), please read 2 Corinthians 7:8-16, “For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you. Therefore we have been comforted in your comfort. And we rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. For if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I am not ashamed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, even so our boasting to Titus was found true. And his affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him. Therefore I rejoice that I have confidence in you in everything.”

Now please read Revelations 2, the whole chapter and then please read chapter 3, the whole chapter and I think you will see that God’s Word teaches something much different than many people are teaching and preaching today, so be careful who you listen to!!  There are other people that won’t admit that they’re sick and refuse to tell you what their sickness is because if they ‘name it they claim it’ so they live denying it.  I remember praying about my different sicknesses at one time and I heard a voice in my mind say this, “Jerry if you were to be healed of one of these things what would you want to be healed of,” and I said the asthma  and I have been healed for about nine or ten years now, praise the Lord!!  I never tried to conceal the fact that I had asthma and I was healed of it.     

Now, let’s get back to my original statement; what is a good indicator that a person is a true believer? A true believer has the fruit of the Spirit because the Holy Spirit resides within that person.  Another way is that they are not ashamed of the gospel, plus their actions and their words line up with what they say most of the time, I say that because no one is perfect.  They study God’s Word and spend time in prayer because they know where the power to endure comes from and their purpose is to honor the Lord.  They also praise the Lord and they also strive for perfection.  They are dying to the world daily and not conforming to it, but they are continually trying to transform their minds so that they can live a faithful life and learn what the good and perfect and just will of God is.

I could go on and on, but I think you got the message and I hope this has been an encouragement and a blessing.  May the Lord’s blessings be with you and yours and may you all have a super day!!

Mercy, Love and Grace

Mercy was applied to Paul who said he was the worst of sinners.  If you feel that you are the worst of sinners, this same thing can apply to you.  

What is grace?  I would say it falls under the category of unmerited favor along with everything else the good Lord does for us because we deserve nothing from the Lord, nothing whatsoever and we can do nothing to obtain anything from Him.

Mercy is something else we don’t deserve from the good Lord.  What we deserve is condemnation and punishment, anger and rejection.  We definitely don’t deserve His love either, so why can we receive all these things?  It is because the Lord loved us, because that is His nature.

Read what David said about himself, he said that he was born in iniquity and in sin when his mother conceived him, in Psalms 51:7.  This was said after David committed adultery with Bathsheba and was responsible for having her husband killed.  What you have read is part of David’s repentance and confession statement after the prophet Nathan confronted him about his sins.  Did God chastise David?  Yes, He did.  Did God give up on David?  No, He didn’t.  God was the one who sent Nathan to David extending His mercy and grace to David.  Normally David was quick to repent after he sinned, he seemed to have a humble and repentant heart and he normally tried to please God in all things and I think that, plus other things, is the reason God said of David that he was a man after His own heart.  

When it came to David, and multitudes of others, God truly extended His grace and mercy.  Yet when we were His enemies He sent his beloved Son who was willing to lay down His life and die for all of us.  If we repent by turning from our sins, which the Bible says that we have all sinned and fell short of the glory of God, and confess and forsake our sins and receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we will be forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness, praise the Lord!!  That is called love and grace and mercy which I call unmerited favor, because none of us deserve any of these things from the Lord, but He still lavished them on us; and this includes all of us who believe on Him.

Please read John 3:16-21, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

God’s love, mercy and grace are all over the Word of God to the extent that no one can miss them if they read God’s Word with the purpose and intent of truly seeking the truth, because they are so evident.  I am going to add some other verses that the Psalmist wrote about the love and kindness of God in Psalms 118:1-4 please read, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let Israel now say, ‘His mercy endures forever.’ Let the house of Aaron now say, ‘His mercy endures forever.’ Let those who fear the Lord now say, ‘His mercy endures forever.’”

God’s love and kindness and mercy and grace are beyond our comprehension, but they are there for us if we will be willing to receive them.  If not, we can look forward to an unfulfilled life with only the prospects of torment in a place called Hell, that wasn’t meant for man but for satan and his fallen angels.  If anyone ends up there it is because they chose to go there, it wasn’t the purpose of God for their lives!!  

I believe this was God’s purpose and plan for all His people, something that was written to the Jewish people in Jeremiah 29:11-14, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.”

Because the Israelites sinned they went into captivity, in Babylon, but God was going to extend His grace and mercy once again and free them from their captivity.

Does God chastise us when we are disobedient?  Yes He does, please read Hebrews 12:1-17, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.”

I will end this with this, humble yourself before the Lord and repent from the heart and He will do His part, it is your choice!!  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day!!