SOME THOUGHTS TO CHEW ON
ARE YOU TOO OLD TO BE USED BY GOD?
You are exactly the age God wants and you still have the Holy Spirit within you to empower and the Word to guide and govern!
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You can Still Pray-{1 Thess 5:18; Col 4:2}
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You can Still Trust and Obey Him-{Prov 3:5-6}
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You can Still Share Him with others-{Phil 1:12}
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You can Still Love others-{Phil 2:3-5}
You are exactly the age God wants you to be!
LIVE ON!!!!
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I AM…A PURCHASED POSSESSION
– “…You are not your own.For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”-{1 Cor 6:19-20}
I HAVE A PURPOSE as His Possession
“… so that now as always Christ will be exalted {magnified-made great, get glory, get praise,} in my body, whether by life or by death.”-{Phil 1:20}
When you are willing to surrender your ALL To Christ, you will Find Christ will be All to you!
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You don’t get half a Christ for half a commitment!
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TODAY there will be many calls, remember the main call is a call to be with Him! For all other calls in your life will be temporal, they are tied and die with this world, but His call is eternal, for His all is to Himself, to know Him, enjoy Him and know His love for you. “This is life eternal to know You and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”- {John 17:3}. He sent His Son, that you might be with Him
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IN TIMES OF TESTING OR PROSPERITY;
The Battle – Is To Trust Him
The Temptation – Is To Replace Him!
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Wealth Wealth brings many new friends
Adversity reveals true friends!
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You Never Face The Unknown Alone.
– “I will be with you wherever you go.”- Joshua 1:9
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You were not an afterthought, you were in the mind and heart of God before time began as we know it. In the eternal heart of God.
HE had set His love upon you before He ever spoke the worlds into existence!-{Jer 31:3}
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Moses never would have known God could open the Red Sea, if he had not been in such a place, of the Red Sea before them and Pharaoh’s army behind. The disciples would never have known Jesus could calm the winds and sea if they had not been in a storm. Your testing’s are but opportunities to see God work, in you and at times around you. “Hold that God is faithful,” was the message of Hudson Taylor in his later years. He had suffered much over the years, yet his message to other believers was a message of Hope. “Hope” can be quiet a fragile thing, depending on who or what you chose to place your “hope,” in? Paul wrote to believers in Philippi from a prison. They were poor people. Yet, he writes a word of “hope” to those who themselves had given sacrificially to him, “My God will supply all of your needs according to His glorious riches In Christ.” {Phil 4:19}. Hope in the God of Moses, the disciples, Hudson Taylor, and Paul! “I the LORD do not change.” {Malachi 3:6}
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You can’t have fellowship with failures of the past or fears of the future!
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“Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or discouraged for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”- {Joshua 1:9} Theses were the words spoken to Joshua before he undertook to lead the people into conflict. Several things to note
Conflict is to be expected in the will of God.
Don’t yield to the enemies weapons of “fear and discouraged” {see Nehemiah 6:9}
Choose to be strong be courageous because you can.
The motivation, “the LORD YOUR God is with YOU wherever YOU go.”
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“Beginning with Moses and the prophets he revealed HIMSELF in ALL the Scriptures.” {Luke 24:27}. Two despondent disciples were walking on the road to Emmaus, when the resurrected Jesus walked with them. He “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” Later speaking to each other they said, “did not our hearts burn.” And with that they left their home and went 7 miles back to tell the other disciples Jesus is alive! What causes them to go with such haste, rather than wait till the next day? They had an encounter with Jesus. What causes a burning heart today? To have an encounter with Jesus through His Word! Evangelism is not a class, but an encounter with the Living Christ through His Word.
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“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” –Psalm 23
These were words of David affirming his confidence in the LORD whom he had come to know as his personal Shepherd! While the enemy will keep your sins, failures before you, David teaches us to look to the Lord and his view is one you must adopt. It is as though you look over your right shoulder into what is behind you, your past and see the Shepherd’s goodness for your steps, and His mercy for your sin! Look back only to see His goodness and mercy!
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“I will never leave or forsake you.”{Hebrews 15:5}. There are five negatives in the Greek to make one positive, irrevocable promise. God is with you forever! It has nothing to do with how you “feel,” but faith in Who He is and what He says.
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“We don’t know what to do…but our eyes are on You, Lord {2 Chron 20}. Jehoshaphat was facing grave danger and he gathered the people and he honestly turned to the Lord and told Him that they had no idea what to do, but he goes on to say Who they were looking to, “…our eyes are upon You.” Here was the look of faith amidst danger. Jehoshaphat teaches us a powerful lesson, – end with the LORD and not your problem. By faith give Him you problem and look expectantly to Him to meet you in your mind, emotionally, spiritually in the circumstance. Always remember He cares for YOU!
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“But God…” End your statement with Him. When problems, testing’s anxious thoughts come our way, the tendency can be to say, “Yes God… BUT …my problem.” When we should not ignore the difficulty but say, “Yes, this is the difficulty, BUT GOD!” Get your thoughts on His character, promises, Thank God there is a “But God…” for you this moment!
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“Anxiety in the heart causes depression…” Anxiety and fear travel together and left unchecked in our thought life will spiral down into depression. Depression in this verse is the fruit of anxiety! Anxiety the root, depression the fruit! How terrible if the writer had ended here, “But God…” the writer finishes with hope for the anxious, hope for those weighed down, but how? “…a GOOD word makes the heart GLAD.” A good word regarding the character of God. The faithfulness of God. The ability of God. The grace of God. The cross of Christ. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Forgiveness for sins. Adopted into the family of God. Eternal assurance. A future hope, “Precious and magnificent promises” imparted to you to avail of {2 Peter 1:4}. A word of encouragement from the God who gifts encouragement! {Romans 15:4-5}. How wonderful, you can know, think on and pass on anxiety, despair need not be final “…but a good word makes the heart glad.” {Proverbs 12:25}.
_________________________________Bitter People Use Bitter Speech
“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart”-{Luke 6;45}
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Be Christ conscious not sin conscious!
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FAITH AND LOVE.
What will motivate you to continue to trust the Lord? Consider Paul’s words, “the life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”{Gal 2:20{. The love of Christ is what motivated Paul to trust! Think much of the love of Christ for you. Meditate much on the cross of Christ. Indeed the coming of Christ, the laying down of His life for you. In the Gospel of John 15:10 we read “Abide {settle down} in My Love.” Jesus loves you. Allow His love motivate you to trust Him!
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FAITH.
Walk by faith in such a way that when you see God you will not have to change your focus. {Read 2 Cor 5:7}
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WORSHIP
Like a general addressing his troops the psalmist addresses his soul to “Bless the Lord o my soul and all that is within me.”{Psalm 103:1-5} To “Bless” means to “speak well of, to praise.” Wholehearted devotion that is based on the “blessings” of the LORD. It has nothing to do with how you “feel” or whether others will “bless” the LORD or not. The psalmist gives us several reasons to bless the Lord
1. Bless the LORD… His Holy Name.”
2. Bless the LORD … who pardons all your iniquities
3. Bless the LORD… who heals all the diseases of the soul
4. Bless the LORD… who redeems you from the pit.
5. Bless the LORD… who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies.
6. Bless the LORD… who strengthens you
When you pray, make the above six a part of your deliberate praise, speaking well of “The LORD.”
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Many years ago there is a story told of a village that was infested by rats. The people tried everything they knew to rid themselves of the rats, all to no avail. Someone suggested they place a ton of saw dust at the entrance of the village and the end of the village. At night the rats came and fed on the saw dust, gorging themselves. They grew bigger and bigger. Then one day there were no more rats. They all died. What happened? You see there is NO NUTRITION in sawdust and they all died from MALNUTRITION! Be careful what you “feed” your mind on, don’t feed on what is the “sawdust” of the world’s system, with its vain philosophies, humanism, legalism, mysticism and those who mix Scripture with psychology which can never meet the need of the soul. Be a Berean! When they heard Paul speak they went back to check the Scriptures to see if these things he spoke of were so. Do not take what someone says as “Gospel” without studying the Scriptures! Choose to be a Berean! {Acts 17:10-11} Feed on the truth of God’s Word, read it, Meditate upon it and apply it by faith. Come look for Jesus in His Word. At times you may not “feel” like reading. We all know about this. Ask God to give you a desire for His Word, meditate upon a verse.
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Some people can read through the Bible and it is to them a “duty,” a “have to do” to “check off my list,” and they can miss Him in the process. It is a wonderful thing to read the whole Bible. But it is a sad thing to read it and not to look for Him{Luke 24, 27, }. It is a wonderful thing also to stop, pause and think and meditate upon His Word to see Him and apply what it says.
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Walk by faith in such a way that when you see God you will not have to change your focus.
“For we Walk By Faith Not By Sight.”- 2 Corinthians 5:7
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Out of the house {for now} but never out of my heart!
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“ONE THING.”
Keep this before you, many people are people of many things but not many are people of “One Thing” Himself the goal, desire and pursuit…
“He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and …. beginning with Moses an the prophets he revealed Himself in all the scriptures” {Luke 24:31, 27}. Look for Him in All the Scriptures
Aidan
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“There are only Two things you need to know about me. ‘I love you and I AM FOR YOU!'”- The words I say to one of my children when he was getting ready to leave home to go somewhere.
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“YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE!” {Hebrews 13:5}
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TRAP- We Often Fall Back On The Lie That If We Are “Performing” Well Enough, Then We Are “Worthy” To Come Before Him And Pray! And If We Are Not “Performing ” Well Then We Cannot Pray. We Fall Back Into A “Works Salvation,” Mentality, Trying To “Work” Our Way To Come Before Him, Which Is To substitute The Work Of The Lord Jesus As Insufficient, Irrelevant And Not Sufficient. We Substitute The Work Of The SAVIOR With The Works Of SELF. And Wrongly THINK We Can Come Before God Offering Our “Works” As Sufficient!
WRONG…THINKING…LEADS TO WRONG CONCLUSIONS! So When You “Feel” You Cannot Pray, Ask “Whose Works Am I leaning On And Presenting BEFORE God, Mine Or The LORD JESUS?”
PRAYER; “Father Forgive Me For The Times I have Come Before You Offering My Works As Sufficient, And Substituting The Work Of Your Dear Son As Insufficient!”
* REMEMBER YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOME – TO PRAY– AT HIS THRONE!
PRAY…Keep On Praying. Let Nothing Turn You Aside From Speaking To Him.
“This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testing’s we do, yet He did not sin. SO LET US COME BOLDLY {Confidently} to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”- {Heb 4:15-16}
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God calls you to Himself, not an organization, affiliation, but Himself, “God is faithful who has called you into fellowship with Himself.” that is wonderful, God’s desire delight, DESIGN is intimacy with Himself David in Psalm 27 was a man of “one thing,” -“ONE THING have I asked of the Lord that I may dwell in the house of the Lord and behold His beauty.” It is said of Mary in Luke 10- “Mary sat at the Lord’s feet{picture of submission} and listened to His Word. Mary CHOSE THE ONE THING needful… and will not be taken away from her.”
Thirty years after his conversion, Paul wrote in Philippians 3; ” That I might KNOW HIM.’ Phil 3:8….. David was a leader, king, yet amidst all he had to do his main thing was a man of “one thing” one over riding passion… Paul a leader, church planter yet even in prison his master passion was a man of “one thing” to grow more intimate with the Lord Jesus, better, and better, -” to Know Him.”- Phil 3:8
Keep this before you, many men are men of many things but not many are men of “One Thing” Himself the goal, desire and pursuit… “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and …. beginning with Moses an the prophets he revealed Himself in all the scriptures”{Luke 24:31, 27…. Look for Him in All the Scriptures
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LEGALISM.
Legalism is sin. It displaces the Work of Jesus and the Word of God as the ultimate authority.
Legalism replaces the truth of God with its traditions.
Legalism is taking a people made standard and raising it up as though it is God’s standard, which it most certainly is not. Jesus said,”And He continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!” Mark 7:9. They exalted their “traditions” above the Word of God.
Legalism is concerned with the “outward” appearance.
Legalism is a pride issue. Wanting others to think well of you by keeping “outward” traditions. Beware of legalist’s!
Legalist’s are loveless. They walk with a “standard” and not with the Savior.
Legalist’s measure themselves against others and “grade” each person by their own or someone else’s outward standard.
Legalist’s live by a code of conduct rather than walking with Christ.
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Bitter People Say Bitter Things!
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Bitter People Can Infect, influence Others!
Don’t Be Bitter
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