Searching around for something, anything, all things, even abstaining from things in order to discover happiness.  Nothing, maybe nothing will fill me with a sense of calm, removing this desire for peace from my worried heart.  But in the nothing you meet old powers, fallen spirits and a quest for mastery of science, light, wind, water and fire.  You give up the quest for the material only to become obsessed with the immaterial.  Joy remains elusive and still you scream at the top of your lungs when anyone suggests the hope and joy found in Jesus.  It is as a starving man who refuses porridge because he craves steak and in so doing wastes his last strength seeking what he cannot have.  This of course is insanity because who has known a man dying of hunger or thirst that would not eat anything put before him?  Even worse, Jesus is the full buffet, overflowing, with happiness, joy, peace and strength flowing from endless cornucopia, yet you will not accept His Grace.

The real power behind joy is choice.  I may exercise this Sovereign Power of choice because God first chose me, exercising His own Authority to include me in His Divine Guidance and Opportunity.  God demonstrated the gravity that comes along with self-determination, discernment and decision making.  It is the true power of this life to be fully responsible, prepared and capable of making choices.

I choose to believe in Jesus Christ as the only way, door, avenue and sacrifice, available to save me, cleanse me, deliver me and justify me from the contagion of sin that infected humanity after Adam and Eve’s failure to choose appropriately.  I choose not to be an intimidator, a victim, an avoider or a finger pointer, accepting the full authority, impact and responsibility for the choices I have and will make.  I choose to understand God’s Word to the extent that when someone attempts to twist, adjudicate, manipulate or rewrite that Sovereign Word, I may not follow them down the road into conflict with the Almighty.  I choose to serve His Will for my life, putting aside my own minor perceived and often flawed perspective, relinquishing my own “understanding” when there is question between God’s view and my own.  I choose to accept that He Alone Is Sovereign in the universe and my life, whether or not those who live within His creation accept that Eternal Fact is irrelevant to my thinking.  I choose to accept the JOY available to me via the indwelling of His Spirit within my heart and mind, regardless of the impending pressure, opinion or appearance of circumstance.  I choose to do what God would have me do instead of following or placing any other philosophy, person or spirit in the driver’s seat of my life.  I choose God in the single greatest application of my Divinely Given authority granted by His grace.  I choose abundance and life in Jesus Christ the King.  I choose God and ask His forgiveness for my past and future sin, repenting of the learned or practiced influence of my own sin, knowing fully that He has redeemed from that power and, even now, is cleansing me of all unrighteousness in preparation for spending eternity with a Holy God.  I choose to love, even those who hate me and know that even when I may be incapable of such grace that He will overcome my own shortcomings, giving me the power to overcome even myself in loving kindness.  I choose to believe, come what may, against all odds and influences, knowing that at some point my faith will grow beyond the minor influences of doubt and indecision.  I choose Jesus.  All that comes after that choice is secondary.

How do you view the struggle between God and the fallen?  Isn’t it the same choice that was made when creation first challenged their own Sovereign God?  The power of choice is the truth of this seemingly eternal struggle between Good and evil.  Choose God and victory or choose anything else, whether satan, self or sin and lose, now and forever.  In Jesus Name, Amen.

https://youtu.be/ncNTKr_4J3c  If you hear this speech and turn away then chances are you have never been called of God.

Fear stands as the single largest motivating factor when making eternal decisions.  I either fear the Sovereign Lord, God, Yahweh, Jesus, Spirit, Jehovah leading me to begin my course on wisdom OR I fear my impending mortality and its inherent loss of worldly position/prestige/power/authority and treasure.  What then life becomes is an opportunity to either stand against the inherent fears and concerns of mortality by understanding the nature of eternal existence OR all are relegated in their thinking to the confines/limitations and determinism of what this life may offer.

If I choose to fear God, out of reverence and an albeit, limited understanding, then the effects of mortality lose their impact on my ability to ascertain and achieve peace.  If I choose to dedicate myself to “getting everything I can get out of this short life”, then I must in some manner consciously or unconsciously dedicate myself to the impacts of worldly fears.  For inevitably, the mere shortness of this lifetime will inspire total concentration to achieving the “legacy” that unbelievers desire as their nirvana.

Thus the fear of my non existence after my last breathe will guide my every waking action, fearing that inevitable, indeterminable, unpredictable moment.  We all want to be pure, some purely good and some purely evil, it is the fear, the ravages and controls of “time” that equal the playing field.  On one hand it is an unbeliever’s responsibility to purify themselves.  On the other hand each believer is redeemed, justified and sanctified by a Holy God. Both processes begin the moment after each person perceives and chooses how to deal with fear as our greatest motivating influence.

Now that I fear the Lord, the wisdom of His Sovereign Truth has released me from the ever-present pangs of worldly fright.  My time on Earth is His time to use as He pleases to His good glory.  And, when I go, as we all must, I will be with Him throughout eternity, forgetting my feet of clay.  Love, power and a sound mind are the spirits that indwell the heart of every Christian.  Besides fear is truly a poor motivator, I can think of greater ways to  encourage those I love to reach for the stars.  Praise God in all His Glory.  In Jesus’ Name.

http://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/6.html

He loves you.  Not just when the chips are down, the jig is up, the carpet is pulled from under your feet or you have fallen into miry clay, He is there through it all.  I welcome the tragedies not out of some odd masochistic tendency toward pain and tragedy, but because each time, the LORD shows up in the midst of my chaos, it strengthens my belief and trust in His Word.  However, I pray that I have become strong enough to take it on faith and no longer need to be proven His existence as He periodically saves my keester from the fire.  I do not wish to be one of those who needs miracles to believe.  We must remember that an imposter will come upon the scene who will claim to be Messiah and will use signs and wonders to trick humanity.  Pray for discernment, stay close to home and remain vigilante with oil in your lamp.

Man’s love has grown cold, governments seek to suppress their people because they have no ready solutions for the problems that confront us and people embrace their despair for they don’t know God’s peace.  You tell me your review of today’s circumstance.  Have you subjected yourself to choosing intimidation, victimization or avoidance or have you accepted that there must be a truth that lay outside the current list of options?  I tell you that God is the only way for the salvation of mankind.  Drug dealers will never support wiping out addiction, politicians will never outlaw curbs to contribution and influence pedaling and greedy men will never resolve the plight of the poor nor will bloodthirsty men allow you to take away their power or instruments of destruction.  God alone provides the path to peace and reformation by believe in and reliance upon Jesus Christ our Lord.  

2 Timothy 3:1-9  But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

You want me to pray for you, but are surprised when I offer my hand to lift you out of your trial.  You laugh nervously when you realize I really did mean it when I said that I would come and help you through this time of trial.  It took you two days to decide to accept the kindness we offered because you had become jaded and disillusioned by the world’s conditioning into thinking no one would ever step out of their comfort zone to assist.  We are here, I am here, because you are worth loving.

God promised us so many things.  I will never live up to any of them, but the power of grace allows that I am not supposed to be worthy.  Great Scott, these are gifts and that is what makes them so precious, so glorious, so impossible to achieve by man through effort, thought or ingenuity.  Our job is to believe, that is it.  If you believe then Jesus has done the rest, just keep on believing.  Certainly it is more complex, in that we have to ask the Lord for longevity and fortitude in our faith so that we make it to the end of the race maintaining our focus upon Him.  But it still comes down to believing in what He has done and is still yet to do.  Believing for a lifetime is assured by really believing for a moment, then the Holy Spirit indwells us to make it possible to reside, abide and build upon our limited faith, stretching toward understanding.

This is not a chore, this serving Jesus Christ.  His yoke is light.  Do no fall prey to disinformation, tempting you to accept that it is arduous in any way to be Christian.  The Lord sets us free from the power of sin, death, the flesh and devilish machination.  I am sorry that the marketed story line offers an alternate view of this glorious and grace-filled gift.  It is wonderful to know, standing comfortably without doubt, that we are in one to one relationship with the Creator of the Universe.  There is no other avenue to peace than pursuance and edification of this foundational and pivotal relationship.  Yes, there are temporary pleasures associated with worldly victories.  You may even achieve a modicum of sensory satisfaction from whatever stimulant raises your boat in the surf, but like anything it life it is “always” temporary, remaining subject to the limitations of time, change and death.  The only achievements residing outside of the controls of time and entropy are those issues built upon the Spirit of God through belief in Jesus Christ.  Construct your eternal life through relationship with God, build things that will outlast your limited time on Earth, believe and be set free from the scientific laws and limitations of humanity.

Do not believe the line that you are being fed about your place in a collective valuation.  You were beautifully, uniquely and wonderfully designed, by God to display a panorama or gifts gathered within a single person to point everyone else to God’s Glory.  Our purpose is to show everyone else the possibility, peace and sole-sourced opportunities available through trust, relationship and love with God.  Do not fear man, for God has your back.  They may take this temporal existence, freeing you from this earthly shell only to realize that your life beyond this one is something exponentially greater.  They will never win, even if they are allowed to dispatch you that is the misery of despair which all those in opposition to God must eventually face.  Their gains will be sensory, fleeting and temporary ours are everlasting.

The price of truly knowing.  So many mock Peter, but they forget that he passed the test of true belief and was eventually martyred for his allegiance to Christ.  I can passively stand for Christ, comfortable in my arm chair, passing judgment on the world’s actions, working out my salvation with trembling.  Or I can go out and make a difference for the Kingdom, bearing Spirit filled fruit to the Glory of God, knowing that even if my life be forfeit, I am heaven bound.  Who are your enemies, are they people who simply don’t like you or are they the dark infested and fallen spirits who oppose God Himself?  The price of being Christian is being paid by our Brothers and Sisters, even now in North Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere, yet we remain idle, in fear, capitulation, ignorance or self-interest.  If we will not fight then we must Pray to Almighty God for intervention.  We are now facing Peter’s moment and the price of truly knowing.  What will history document on our behalf?

If I ventured this life without an original thought, memorable achievement or notable statement, but managed to preach the salvation of Christ upon Calvary’s Cross, then I will have overcome with resounding victory.  Lord, if You have chosen not to disclose a thing to my curious heart, should I continue to dredge up solutions, ideas or seemingly plausible explanation?  Or should I content myself in faith, knowing that if You intended such revelation that Your Word, Your messengers and Your promise would eradicate my confusion and question?  Am I Your man or are You a convenient design of my need, imagination and a lucky appendage by which I may leverage luck and effort?

What You have said makes sense and even in the instances where my flesh and the fallen spirits attempt convincing confusion and contradiction, faith rises above inquiry.  The enemy knew that his head would eventually be crushed by the seed of this woman.  Therefore, his only opportunity for destiny avoidance was to taint the pure blood line, cut off the seed or eliminate through genocidal anger the nation into which God would be born into the material world.  Nothing else explains the unjustified anger of so many nations against the Nation of Israel.  They have been pursued, harangued, imprisoned and murdered at each historical opportunity for no other plausible explanation than that they are promised of God, destined to call out again to the Saviour and welcome His coming Kingdom.  God’s enemies only have one option left to prevent His people from crying out to the Saviour for return.

I am no prophet, men wish me no pastor, for I will only speak the truth about the church and those that practice the rituals of the Nicolatians covet religious authority.  We who believe are the temple, the Holy of Holies of the Most High God, no building, business, supper club or membership trumps that truth.  There is no man, or woman between me and God, nor I standing upon an elevated dais between you and He.  We are all the same in our connection to the Father through the Saviour, the Pure and Holy Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world, once and for eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ.  There is no other door, no other Saviour, no other God, no other way to eternity whether through belief and salvation or disbelief and judgment, Christ awaits all men at their passage from this life.  None shall escape, most shall wish they had listened and some shall hear now and become new creatures dedicated to His purpose.  I pray the latter for all, especially those who have been graced to know the truth and respond in faith.

• Those who are called
• Sanctified by God the Father
• Preserved in Jesus Christ

What does it mean to be one of those who are called?  Charles Stanley, a beloved Pastor and speaker, well known for his classic preaching style, gives us a solid description of this topic.  http://www.jesus.org/following-jesus/evangelism-and-missions/what-does-it-mean-to-be-called.html Beyond that wonderful explanation, we all clearly understand what it means for anyone to “call” us, to reach out to a particular person with a specific request, desire, favor or command.  Are you one of “those who are called”?  In many cases this refers to Christians or the Church to those who have been called out of the world for service to God’s Kingdom.  Do you feel the calling?  Can you put it to words and if so have you included it in your discipling or testimony?  What could be a more effective conversation about your salvation than the moment that you felt God’s calling upon your life?

Sanctified, set apart, made Holy for God’s intention.  We who have been called of God, have been set apart from the world, or sanctified for God’s Purpose.  We have been included in a new grouping of humans, made righteous by our belief and subsequent redemption by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the Cross.  Sanctification to some literally means for a thing to be employed toward its intended purpose, as evidenced here by the following; http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/sanctification/  Sanctification is nonetheless a work of the Father, the designer, so it is something that was codified into the original plan for our redemption.  God calls us to be Holy and we are naturally called saints, “the sanctified ones”.

Preserved in Jesus Christ.  Protected, maintained, kept safe for the duration of time deemed necessary by the coming Kingdom of God.  Do you feel preserved, kept, covered, kept alive until the coming of eternity through the Glorious Appearing of Jesus Christ.  What do these first two line of the Epistle of Jude do for your hope?  Does it strengthen you to know that you have been called, sanctified and preserved?  If just two lines of the book edify you so, what then would happen if you were to  read several paragraphs?

Be alive in Christ, be Holy, Righteous and True as you have been called.  Praise God in Jesus’ Holy Name.