A Responsibility and A Rap!

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Our pastor was going over 1Tim 3 a few weeks ago and did an extremely good job with it. This is the chapter where Paul lays out the qualifications for church leaders like elders or bishops and deacons. It could have been a very dry, rather dull sermon, but he managed to bring it to life. The main lesson he wanted us to get was that yes our religious or church leaders have certain responsibilities, but we have the same responsibilities. We should all live clean lives before God for we are all a part of a royal priesthood assigned with the task of trying to lead people to Christ before it’s too late for them.

Heaven is real, but so is hell. Christ himself spoke of it as a place where there will be weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth and where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched. Besides, if we love our neighbors then we will feel the responsibility to speak the truth, of course, always with love.

So do not be embarrassed or ashamed to say the name of Jesus of Nazareth in public, at work or at your grocery store. I wrote the following poem with that idea in mind. Love Him enough to be willing to take some persecution for His name’s sake.

Bold enough to Blush (With a Rap Rhythm)

Do not be ashamed
If a man
Said to die
on a cross
Comes to visit
your house.

Be Bold
To let him in
Tell a friend
Who He is.

Do not be Ashamed
Of Him
Before the others
Even if they Jeer
Turn a deaf ear

Throw a stone or two.

Be BOLD enough to BLUSH
If that’s what it takes
To speak His name

And Let Him in.

Jesus Saves.
Jesus Saves

Let Him in!!

Victory

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Did you realize that when you become a follower of Jesus Christ you literally become a new creation. He looks at you as if your old corrupted nature is dead!! Paul said we are buried in baptism and anything that gets buried is dead so we are rebirthed, reborn a new creature. Satan has no power of us anymore. The name of Jesus and the presence in inside of you is who you are now. Sure we may stumble and fall and mess up, sin, again, but that is no longer our identify. We get up and carry forward as our new self, a child of the Living God!! Praise God!!

Christ determines your destiny and that is heaven itself. He died so we can have an eternity of bliss and ecstasy living with Him and His Holy Father and Holy Spirit. It is not I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me. Bible-Verses-On-Love-Galatians-2-20-21-Trees-HD-Wallpaper Choose Life, and it will choose you!!

Don’t take life for granted but ew! I swallowed three bugs!

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Today I got to ride my bike for the second time. I really enjoy the ride along the river bank. It was a warm, pretty day, and I got to say hello to quite a few people walking and biking on the greenway here in our town. It means so much to me to be able to do this simple thing after the five years of cancer treatments. I get to go back to my local church and can drink coffee again!! The cancer chemotherapy was so strong I could not enjoy my favorite drink at all. That first cup in the morning is always the best.

So don’t take the little things in life for granted. When all of a sudden you can’t do them anymore you miss them; a walk through a park, your favorite food or just a bike ride in the park. However, today, it was a little buggy outside so I accidentally inhaled three bugs on the ride. I guess there’s always a little cloud in every silver lining. Oh, well.

I hope God blesses your day. Just keep on riding!

Music and in Living Color

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Sometimes I have very vivid dreams. I was dreaming early this morning about my old job when all of a sudden without warning I was in the middle of a large group of black slaves. It was so vivid. It was like watching a movie. I could see everything so clearly. I don’t know why I was dreaming about this. Maybe from the Lord, maybe not.

Anyway, they had been loaded into the back of an open air wagon pulled by a horse. There was the sense they were in the process of being moved from one place to another, and they were singing this song. I could hear their rich, deep voices singing as they were riding down the road. It was this:

Oh, what do you do when you need Jesus? What do you do when you need Jesus? What do you do when you need Jesus?

Lord, take me home soon. Take me home soon.

The music was beautiful and the sound powerful. Everything was in color. The men were wearing white pants and shirts and the women were in colorful dresses, some in yellows, some in oranges with white kerchiefs around their necks. It was very moving. I could sense their pain.

I woke up and could not get the sound of the music, the words and their voices out of my head. In spite of their pain, they were looking to their Lord for their comfort.

Christ is everything. He is the Lord of this life and Lord of the next. In our pain, He wants to be close and intimate with you and be your comfort and to give you his power, strength and His joy. People talk so much about the gifts of the Spirit such as speaking in tongues, prophesying, teaching, giving generously, healing, but oh, the fruits of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. NIV

These are the core essence of the Living God. He is trying to turn us into Himself. Hallelujah, Praise God!! May He bless your day.

Everywhere but in the Right Place

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America has become such a blessed place. We have an overabundance of physical wealth, but it is becoming almost more of a curse than a blessing. People rushing everywhere after the things in the malls, the big houses, the big cars not realizing these things will never satisfy the deepest longings of their hearts and spirits. There is a website called Disney World Junkies. These are people addicted, very caught up in going to Disney World. Kept in the right perspective, there is nothing wrong with Disney World, but it is an artificial environment and only fantasy. We look in the wrong place when we look for fulfillment in the temporary things of this world.

We are after all spirits only temporarily going through this physical human experience, and I do mean temporarily. As I have said before, I have already had an aggressive form of cancer two times. The destiny for this physical shell we all travel in for now is death, the grave. It is going to rot and still we refuse to listen to the voice of our Creator, the living God and His son Jesus of Nazareth.

God is constantly trying to call us to Himself. The churches make Him too small, and God is not small. He is so beautiful, stupendous, magnificent, magnanimous, glorious and majestic that our small human words do not even begin to come close to describing Him. Everyone needs to read Lee Strobel’s books The Case for Christ and The Case for A Creator. They are wonderful in describing how man can see God just by looking at the beauty and complexity of the world and universe around him.

I pray you can get to know your Creator better for yourself. He loves you completely, totally and perfectly. We’re never out of His thoughts. I pray He will bless your day and life. Praise God!!

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Books, Books, Books to Feed the Soul

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God has blessed man with so many well-educated theologians, pastors and writers. My husband and I this year came across a fantastic group of books written by Timothy Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. He is so deeply spiritual with his writing and takes you beyond the level of the milk of the word and leads you to the meat of the scriptures. I particularly enjoyed his two books Hidden Christmas and The Reason for God – Belief in an Age of Skepticism. The last chapter in each book is so moving, poetic, it almost brought tears to my eyes.

If you get a chance, these two books will enhance your understanding of scriptures and help your ability to speak about the reasons for your faith to other people. I hope God will bless your day. Praise God!!