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:)