Where are the nine?

Last night, I had an amazing thing happen to me. I had a friend of mine give me the secret to being happy. I had never thought about it before, but when I thought about it, it made total sense. Is it possible to praise God in all situations??? I put three question marks next to that one, because it is one of the harder questions to answer, with so much pain in the world. Yet there is a truth that I never thought about before, and that is the "Power of Praise!" I have not really done that in-depth of a Bible study on this, but to me it seems that praise is where it's at. We must praise Jesus for the victory that He "IS" going to win in our lives, not for the one He "might" win. The victory has already been won in our behalf thanks to Jesus Christ, but do we believe in HIS victory? It is just as important to believe in His VICTORY as it was for those who asked for His healing to believe in Him. It is not by OUR might or by OUR power, but through Christ's. Let's not have the attitude that we are working toward perfection, because in Christ, we already are perfect. Let's thank Jesus for the VICTORY He has already won in our lives, and continue to do so each and every day. Praise Jesus for the VICTORY that HE has won. I am His child, and will be His child forever, no thanks to me, but thanks to Jesus. Jesus is the only way to be saved. You MUST BELIEVE in Him to have salvation, and you MUST follow Him. In order to do that, praise Jesus every second of every day. Let the mind be lost in Him. Who cares about all these games and junk! It's all garbage, and it is going to burn up! What matters more than anything is Praising Jesus. In order to truly praise Him, we need to thank Him personally. In order to thank Him you have to have something to thank Him for. Why not ask Him to save you, and then keep on asking Him, not because He isn't powerful enough to save you, but because we are free beings, and must be sure in our own minds, but He is sure that He will save you, if you want to be. To illustrate this point I want to look at a story in Scripture. You can find it in your Bibles in Luke 17, I will post it here so that you and I can read it :) Luk 17:11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.
Luk 17:12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance
Luk 17:13 and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."
Luk 17:14 When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed.
Luk 17:15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice;
Luk 17:16 and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.
Luk 17:17 Then Jesus answered, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?
Luk 17:18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"
Luk 17:19 And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well."

Isn't that amazing... there were ten cleansed, and only one came back and thanked the Lord. I have to be honest I have been like those other nine lepers lately. What about you? Are you one of the nine, or are you praising Jesus because He healed you. Then again you might be like one of the disciples that are standing there wondering what is going on, not realizing that the ONE who is standing with you just happens to be the King of the Universe. Jesus has given the cure to most of our mental ailments and depressions, and that cure is praise. When we praise Jesus He lifts the clouds of darkness. Another question that may be posed is: How do we praise Jesus? We can do it through song, and we can do it through our words, and we can just audibly thank Him. I know sometimes I will be driving home, and I will audibly just thank Jesus outloud for what He has done, and it is amazing what happens in those moments. Also if you can't sing that well, try playing praise music in your home. In the fearful moments, praise is wonderful too! Let's praise Jesus because He is in charge. Maybe you might praise Him by reading His Word, not to fix your life, because Jesus will do that, but because you want to be with Jesus. Also, the Sabbath is coming up, let's praise Him this Sabbath as well:) Let's praise Him when we don't feel it, let's praise Him when we do, let's praise Him, 24 hours a day. Let's never stop Praising Him. Let's praise Him so much, that we start dreaming praise to Jesus. Let's never ever stop praising Him, as long as there is breath in us! If you are looking for things to praise Jesus for, I suggest looking at what you have. Everybody has at least something, and everyone can thank Jesus for His blood for us. Better is one day in His courts than thousands elsewhere. Why is this so? Because of Praise. :)

Psa 22:23 You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
Psa 22:24 For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.

In His Care :)

This morning I started what would be the very beginning of what looks to be a long and exciting career (Lord willing) at a resturaunt. I'm a server and serving customers is what servers do best. I know I'm being a little "Winnie the Pooh" here, but I figure it's a fun blog and I can get away with it. When I first started, it was all about arranging things for the salad bar. First it was the tomatoes, then the cucumbers.... or were the cucumbers first? At any rate I prepared the vegetables, and no I did not do this on my own. I had a trainer named Amanda who helped me learn the ropes. Praise the Lord that she was a very patient teacher, and worked with me and was very nice. It took me a long time to figure out just how things worked, and I made a few mistakes in the process. Probably the one thing that took precidence over everything else, however was the incident of the little boy going up in a weather observing balloon, and then the sadness at discovering that when it landed it was empty. One of the people I was serving asked me if the little boy would be all right. I did not answer right away.... and in the end it turned out that I didn't know. I didn't know what happened to the boy, but I am praying for his family. That would be so awful, but as awful as it is, there are tons of little children just like that little boy that are starving to death. The numbers of people who are dying from hunger are just horendous. After work I walked out to my car, and just sat in it for a second and thought.... The questions that were on my mind were.... Why? How could this happen, how could you let it happen... and then I thought about my own life and the fragileness of life. I had actually been thinking about it ever since I saw the news, which was at 3:30 pm. I quickly opened up my pocket New American Standard Bible, and opened it right to John 11:25-26. It said "Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" The Words in red stared back at me and seemed to speak back to me in an encouraging voice. Yet the question still remained in my mind... "Do I believe?" As the question echoed through my mind, I turned on the radio and began to listen to some Christian music. The words of the next song had to do with the importance of believing in Jesus. As I drove home that night, I decided to leave my doubts behind. Jesus could and would take care of me. So now the question comes to you.. Do you believe Jesus Words... do you believe what He said? If not, you need to pray the prayer of that father whose son was demon possesed when the father cried out to Jesus "I believe, help thou mine unbelief" When we pray this prayer we can never perish. Jesus can and will help us to believe :) Let's keep our eyes on the One who knows us better than anyone will ever know us. Let's leave our lives in His nail scarred hands :)

Running with Jesus :)

This morning I woke up, and then stumbled to the couch to have my devotions. They went very good. I guess it would not hurt for me to give a highlight out of what I read.

"The government of God is not, as Satan would make it appear, founded upon a blind submission, an unreasoning control. It appeals to the intellect and the conscience. "Come now, and let us reason together" is the Creator's invitation to the beings He has made. Isaiah 1:18. God does not force the will of His creatures. He cannot accept an homage that is not willingly and intelligently given. A mere forced submission would prevent all real development of mind
44
or character; it would make man a mere automaton. Such is not the purpose of the Creator. He desires that man, the crowning work of His creative power, shall reach the highest possible development."

This is an absolutely astounding quote, and I believe that it fits in with who God is and what He is all about. As far as the day has gone, it has been very busy. And when I say busy, I mean... busy. After we finally got to moving around, we went to eat, and then we went to the store, and then to my job interview. It turns out that the Lord provided me with an opportunity to have a job. I am greatful for the opportunity. I read my Bible a little bit, but I realize that I need to read it more often. Today I feel like I got so caught up in all the other day to day activities that I was distant from God. All I could think of was earthly things. My mind only dwelled on those things. I pray that tomorrow, Jesus will help me dwell on heavenly things. I guess it is like that quote from Christiana, "Not worth asking, is not worth having" I shall ask this time, and I'm sure I will have help. Because as Christiana says "It is the policy of God to answer according to the prayer of faith what He otherwise would not do." I need to have more faith in my Redeemer. This is not about feeling, but I must say that today my mind was very earthly centered. It was centered on whether or not I got the internet, but now that I have it, I am seeing that I was way too focused on that and not focused enough on Jesus. Unfortunately for me, the day is far spent, and I am sadly realizing that this day is over. May the Lord Jesus help me to spend more time with Him. I would have to say that this is the lesson for the day. Where was my focus? It was with Jesus at first, but then we I "percieved" that things were ok, I took my relationship with Him for granted, and now I need to find Him all over again. I guess this also brings something else to the forefront. I had only wanted to get all the problems solved so that I could kick back and relax, but that is not what the Christian life is all about. The Christian life is a marathan, and we are to run it with God, because when we forget to run the Christian life with Him, we find ourselves focused on ourselves and we don't run well.

1Co 9:23 And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
1Co 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
1Co 9:25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
1Co 9:26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
1Co 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

This needs to be my verse for tomorrow. The race before me is not going to be easy, but I have asked Jesus to be my personal trainer. My prayer for you and everyone else who may read this, is that they will make Jesus their personal trainer as well.

The Silence of God :)

Today I decided to take a walk and to get to know the creator of the universe! I had heard that being quiet would make the voice of Jesus more distinct. Did I not know what I was getting into! I can't believe it! It's so true :) Jesus is there in the silence. As I sat in the car I just decided to “Be Still and Know” There truly is a lot of power in being still. For once in our lives we have to unplug all the stuff, and just go outside to a park or somewhere quiet and just listen. As you listen all you may hear is the noise of silence. Sometimes it seems like that is all God's answer to us is, but let's not forget that Silence is an answer. If we will listen to the silence, we can be taught more precious lessons of the Love of God than ever! Silence!!! It's so quieting and sometimes doesn't seem like anything is going on. Yet in the quiet we are sitting really close to God. Friend, I have a question to ask you. Have you ever gone for a walk, and listened. Maybe you hear nothing, and a lot of times you will, but are you willing to listen to silence as God's answer? Is silence such a bad thing? Is it the end of the world when God is silent. Are you going to melt? Does it mean that you have been forsaken by God? Does God's silence in your life mean that He does not care about you anymore? Don't ever believe such a lie! The TRUTH is that Jesus says to the raging storms in our lives “Peace be still” Can He not say to us when we are stressed out and being tossed back and forth: “Peace be still”? Does He not have the power to do that. The Bible is clear that when our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things. Beloved if our hearts condemn us not then do we have faith in God? Let's have faith in Jesus and God, even when it seems He is silent, because it is in those times that He is the closest. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever had someone give you a big hug when you are feeling terrible and sitting down and crying? Usually when someone gives us a hug in those moments it is done in silence, because they want us to know that they care about us. Sometimes being silent is the best way to say that you care about someone. See through the silence to the Love of Jesus Christ. He is there when we need Him always. Sometimes He does not always have words to say to us, but that does not mean that He is not speaking to us. In my own life I have tried and tried to come up with things God might say in such and such an incident, and I have always tried to jump the gun because I have not been willing to wait until He sees fit to give me an answer. In today's society where it is rush here and rush there, it can be so difficult to give Jesus a little bit of time, and it is also just as difficult to wait through periods of apparent silence. But let's not run from the silence. Let's say that God is choosing to be silent to you. Who is not to say that He through the silence is teaching you to trust in Him? Maybe God will have you wait through many periods of silence, but it is not because He does not love you, because He does, He wants to teach us to quiet ourselves and to trust Him no matter what the situation. All could be falling down around you, but it doesn't matter because when God says it's time to be quiet, then it is time to be quiet and just trust. But YOU HAVE TO BE QUIET! You can't be going on and on in your mind and taking up councils with your doubts and fears, you have to let those go, and continue to listen to what you perceive as absolute silence and don't ever give up, even if you never receive an audible, or thought answer. Listen, listen, listen, listen. Listening is a process, for a guy like me it is very difficult, but I am learning that listening is necessary to our Christian experience. Maybe God's plan for your training is to take you through apparent silence many many times, and that is ok. So you sit there and wait... and.... silence.... ok, so wait a second. Now wait a minute, ok, wait an hour, maybe a day, or a month or a year or 10 years or 30 years or 100 years or a lifetime! Sometimes it is all about waiting. The Psalmist says “Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.”

No other merit but His!

This evening I had an interesting event happen to me. For the longest time I have been holding onto the idea that there is something I have to contribute to Salvation. I guess in the end it comes down to what I have already learned and that is that the only thing that we as human beings contributed was the sin problem. Ours was a contribution of pain, and ever has been because that is all that sin has ever or will ever cause. In Heaven it caused loss, and heartache, and on earth it continues to do the same. The only way that we can truly experience true freedom from the things that we have done is by Christ. Our faithfulness is not meritorious. It is Christ's faithfulness that is meritorious. This leads to a very interesting phenomenon that happens in the Christian life. When we come to the Bible with the attitude that there is some merit in what we do, we will find ourselves befuddled and ruined. In every story in the Bible it is God's merit and not our own. If we are studying the problem and deciding what to do like those in Acts were. They were wondering what their work was and Peter told them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that they would be saved. We must have faith that His merits are transferred into our lives. It is not by our works that these merits are given to us. This is the belief of Catholicism. They believe that there is “merit” in our actions. It is very easy to get the picture skewed and miss the entire point of the Story of Abraham. Abraham's whole attitude when asked to sacrifice his son was that God would provide a lamb. And in the same way our attitude needs to be the same. It is God who provides. No matter what the situation is, it is Jesus Christ who is our provider. The Bible says that “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus” It is not we who supply our needs but God. We need to keep this in mind and trust Him to provide all of our needs :)

Through the Rough Times

"I will go before you and will level the mountains I will break down gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron."

Isaiah 45:2

Have you ever had one of those days where things just did not seem to go right for you, and then when you looked at the future, it looked dark and forboding? I have just gotten out of one of those situations and I can tell you as a personal testimony that Jesus sets us free and has set me free from the worry that I faced. Now, the text to most Bible Scholars might not seem to be saying exactly what it is saying, but I believe that the words are for us today. The actual context is talking about Cyrus, and it is a prophecy concerning how he is going to overthrow Babylon, and it is about how God is going to go before Cyrus. The question comes that if God promises to do this in the overthrow of Babylon, will God do this in our own lives. The Bible is clear. If we were to look at the book of Revelation, Babylon is mentioned time and time again. Babylon stands for a "do it yourself" attitude. Yet God promised deliverance to Israel through Cyrus, and in the same way He promised deliverance from sin through Christ. Now the amazing thing is that last night I was really worried about the future, and so was my wife, but we decided to call on the most powerful name in all the universe: Jesus. When we did, peace flooded our hearts and we felt better about the future. Today I decided that I was going to spend time only reading one verse a day out of Isaiah 45 and let that verse soak in. What happened was amazing. I did not get around to reading the verse until this evening, but as I read it, I was amazed. God promised to go before me and make the rough places smooth. God was not just speaking to Cyrus, I believe that He was speaking individually to us here too! I believe that this is a promise for us as much as it is for Cyrus. We could take this verse and apply it to our lives in many many ways, and the way that this applied to my life today was simply astounding. After reading the verse in the Bible, I looked at my computer screen, and there I saw a picture and the picture was of Jesus. His arms were stretched and bleeding, and there were stripes all over his chest, and as I read that promise it all occured to me that God had kept His word, He had made the rough places smooth, it was now only a matter of me accepting personally again today what He had done for me so long ago. That verse is an allusion to Jesus dying for us on the cross. He paid the ultimate price so that He could make the rough places smooth, and shatter the doors of bronze. His promise is to you friend, you can claim it right now for yourself. Jesus promises to go before you, and He will. Hang on to Him, because He will never leave you or forsake you, you always have a friend in Jesus, and remember that He goes before you:)

An interesting dream I had last night

Last night I had a very interesting dream. Now one would not usually think that dreams have that much important to tell you. Last night, however I learned something very important from my dream. I learned that the kingdom that we are closest to will be the one that influences us the most. There are two kingdoms that we can choose to be closest to, and the first kingdom is the kingdom of darkness. This kingdom is filled with all kinds of selfishness and sin, and all the bad things that we can think of. Then there is the Kingdom of Heaven, which is full of love joy peace, and all the fruits of the Spirit. You see friends, the issue is not so much over what you do, but rather with whom you associate and are closer to. The closer you are to Jesus the more you will become like Him, and the closer you are to the world, the more you will become like the world. It is your choice:) God gave you and I the choice of who we are going to spend our time with. I pray that anyone reading this will choose to spend their time with Jesus. In fact, right now I am going to read a chapter out of the Desire of Ages. This is an excellent book on the life of Christ, and great for getting to know Him better. Always remember it is by beholding that we become changed. If you would like to be more like Jesus, spend time with Him. Don't try and change yourself, that change will come supernaturally and unnoticably as you spend time with Jesus.

My prayer for anyone who is reading this is that they will make the effort to spend time with Jesus, because that is where real transforming power comes from:)

At the Last Trump

There has not been a blog written here in a long time, but that is because I have not really felt the urge to write, that is until now. I really have something I have to share with everyone, especially as this world is falling to pieces all around. Friends I want you to know that you do have hope. This hope cannot be found in anything this world has to offer, but instead in what Jesus has to offer. Right now the swine flu is in full swing, and people are getting sick from it left and right. Now I know I live kind of far away from all of that, but what do I do if it hits me? So many people are afraid, and maybe you are right now yourself. I know at first I was afraid too. It's kind of hard to not be afraid when you hear it being splashed all over the internet and the news. Every time I get onto MSN it is another update on the swine flu, and even some of my friends are worried that they might have it. I know, things look pretty black right now for this world, yet we have a friend who promised us that they would get black, but He promised us this so that we would not be worried. Fear and worry does not help us in this life. Let's take hold of the One who holds this world in place. Let's go to Him with our worries, and friends, I promise you that He will calm your fears and give you the assurance that you are so desperately seeking. Friends, read your Bible! There is no better time to get in touch with the King of the universe than now. Please, please, get to know Jesus, He loves you, and He wants to be with you. Jesus says "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world." Right now we are having trouble. There is the swine flu, economic crisis, families breaking apart, people killing each other, and wars. We have had terrible earth quakes. I believe it is time that we wake up, and come to Jesus, while there is still time! Go to Him friend, there is hope for you, there is hope for me to! Let's hang on to Him, because He promises to bring us through this time of trouble. There is a verse that has really helped me in my fear of death and worry:

Romans 8: 31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."l]" class="footnote">[l] 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,m]" class="footnote">[m] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Take that fear and death! Jesus is king, and nothing can pull us apart from Him or His love for us. Don't be afraid of what's to come, Jesus is already there! He's also in the future too! He's the Alpha and Omega! Don't be afraid. Jesus promised us in Matthew:

Mat 28:19

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20

teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Don't worry friend, Jesus is with you, always, to the end of the age, turn to Him now and ask for His peace that passes all understanding, and ask for His yoke, because it is easy and His burden is light. He will come and rescue us, let's not loose heart:)


Rev 22:20

What a Friend we have in Jesus!

Hi, well I know it has been a very long time since I have last written on the blog. But something has happened to me, that I cannot keep silent about. It happened to me tonight, as I got down on my knees and gave my heart back to Jesus. I had a wonderful conversation with the King of the Universe Himself. There were so many things in my life that had fallen to pieces. The first thing to fall apart, was my prayer life. Friends! I cannot stress this enough. It is so important that we make time for Jesus. He loves us and wants what is best for us, but if we are not willing to spend time talking to Him and surrendering to Him how can He help us. As I prayed tonight about surrendering something that was very difficult a story came to my mind that had been told at an evangelistic series. The story was about a little boy who would not shake a man's hand because he had a marble clenched in his own hand. The hand he would not shake was Dwight Moody's hand. Finally the fingers were opened, and the marble was taken. So many times in life, we have things that we just don't want to give to God. We end up holding onto them like that little marble, and won't let them go. I was no different. So tonight I prayed that if Jesus wanted me to give up the marble, or the thing I was holding onto in my life, that He would take it, because I did not have the strength to give it, and do you know what He told me! He told me that He would take care of it! You see friends, we do not go about our lives looking at all the things we are or are not doing right. No! That is not the right place to start. Instead the right place to start is by coming to Jesus and talking to Him. My life was falling apart, and my actions were following accordingly, and the reason for that was a struggle that I was facing inside, of something I did not have the strength to give up, and I knew it. Yet the amazing thing is that God works in us. Our only duty friends is to spend time with Jesus. We must talk to Him, and share our burdens with Him, and then we must read His Word, and then once again ask Him to do the things that we cannot do. I cannot tell you how many times Jesus has come to my rescue and been there for me. He will do the same for you too! Why don't you ask Him to come into your life. It doesn't matter what you have done, or may be doing. Come to Jesus!. The following verse is a verse we went over in my Revelation class. I found it to be very encouraging, and I just want you to know that Jesus message to me, goes for you too!
17The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.