And that's the Truth (Or is it?)

A perversion or twisting of the truth is more difficult to spot than an outright lie. That's why satan when he sets out to deceive will even quote you scripture. Take it straight to the Word of God and as the Bible says, try the spirits. We live in a time when many who profess to know Jesus really don't hunger and thirst for sound doctrine. In 2 Corinthians, Paul warns that satan masquerades as an angel of light. He (Paul) invokes a curse on any angel who spreads false teaching, actually on anyone!

1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Matthew 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

How can we tell when people are twisting the truth? Before accepting any teaching, find out what they teach about Jesus. If any teaching does not match up with the Word of God then it's false. InJohn 17:17, Jesus prayed , "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."

When people think of satan, they see the character drawn in story books and depicted in pictures of an evil looking character with horns and a sharp arrow like tail carrying a pitchfork. Because satan is evil this might be a good example of his character but the Bible says he was one of God's most beautiful angels. Those who know God also know satan for what he truly is. However, if we don't put on the whole armor of God daily we are just as susceptible to satan's pillaging as anyone else, maybe more so because when he is trying to turn a child of God away from God, he is much more subtle. He is an eloquent speaker, pleasing to the eye and the senses. He is evil, but he doesn't appear evil, quite the contrary, he tries to make evil look good. The Bible says he can quote scripture. You know why? Because he was an angel, he knows God's plan and he knows he is going to lose, he doesn't care about winning the battle, he cares about taking as many of God's creation with him as he can. Using someone to twist scripture, bringing doubt in your mind about your faith, using your past against you are just some of the tools he will use to bring about his plan. Satan will use scripture to bring doubt into your mind, he will use scripture to destroy your faith, he will use scripture to justify a wrong, again he will use whatever he can to make evil appear good.

He knows our weaknesses. He will bring up the past, not to rebuke you but to cause the flesh to rise up and want to do things of the past that we've already been forgiven for. Remember if you are being tried, rejoice as Paul did. The bible says (paraphrasing) trials and tests of our faith produces patience. If satan isn't tempting you or attacking you, he isn't worried about you. You are no threat to him!!

If you are no threat to satan, you are no good to God! Don't misunderstand what I'm saying,God loves you-you are His most beloved child. However, satan should tremble when your feet hit the floor (not the other way around). Resist the devil and he will flee. If you aren't resisting him you aren't helping/serving God. Choose ye this day......

That's why it is so important to know the truth, to search out the truth on your own as well as being taught. Effective fervent prayer is communication with the Lord. He will show you the truth, all you have to do is ask.

Again, try the spirits, God will show you the truth in His word and the Holy Spirit will reveal it to you in your prayer life. I pray constantly for God to give me knowledge and understanding of His word for myself and to share with you. I know the seriousness of misleading or teaching someone wrong. As this battle rages my favorite verse always comes to mind. Phil. 4:13.

God provided for us in this war. He has given us the whole armor, all we have to do is put it on. What is the first piece of armor mentioned in Eph. 6:10-19? "Having your loins gird about withtruth."

Father, God, I love You and praise You. You are the most High God and the only God in my life. You are the great I Am and I'm so thankful You have made provision for me, for all of us. You are my comforter, my protector, my guide, my ever present strength in the face of danger and trials. Forgive me today for anything I have done or said that was not in line with Your word, or was/is displeasing to You. Help me likewise, to forgive those who have wronged me. Lord I pray today for myself and all those reading, that you help us put on Your whole armor. To choose today to serve You. Help us to be strong in the power of Your might. Help us to stand against the wiles of the devil, whatever he may bring against us. Help us to resist the devil so he will flee from us using the power You have given us through Your Son Jesus Christ. Help us Lord when all else seems to fail to remember Your armor. To stand with truth, righteousness and Your gospel. Above all, to hold up our shield of faith, wear our helmet of salvation and carry our sword of the Spirit so we are covered from the top of our head to the souls of our feet with Your power and might. Though satan rages against us, we are assured victory. Thank You Lord for Your armor, thank You for Your might, thank You for Your power and protection. Most of all thank you Lord for saving us, for adopting us in to Your family. Though the storm rages we are safe in Your care. Open our ears and our hearts to Your truths Father. Be with us and give us boldness in spreading Your gospel. Help us to realize the seriousness of the battle we are facing and give us a true heart for the lost. When Your Son, Jesus cast out demons He did not ask them quietly or timidly to leave the people alone, He used one word, "Go", using that same power and authority that You have given us as Your children. Help us to be able, knowledgeable, wise and available soldiers in this battle and we give You all honor and glory and praise, Heavenly Father, You are worthy. In Your Son Jesus, precious Heavenly name. Amen

God bless

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

His servant

The Bell

I don't know who did this but they spent a lot of time and it has an awesome message so I had to share. If you know who created it, feel free to leave their name in comments so they get credit for it. God bless.

THE BELL
I KNOW WHO I AM
I am God’s child (John 1:12)
I am Christ’s friend (John 15:15 )
I am united with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17)
I am bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20)
I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)
I am a personal witness of Christ. (Acts 1:8)
I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt 5:13-14)
I am a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27)
I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom. 8: 1-2)
I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil 3:20)
I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31 -34)
I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor 5:17-21)
I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18)
I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)
I cannot be separated from the love of God (Rom 8:35-39)
I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor 1:21-22 )
I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8:28 )
I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16 )
I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12 )
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)
I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)
I am God’s temple (1 Cor. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)
I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).. I have been justified (Romans 5:1)
I am God’s co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God’s workmanship (Eph. 2:10)
I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected. (Phil. 1: 5)
I have been redeemed and forgiven (Col 1:14). I have been adopted as God’s child (Eph 1:5)
I belong to God
Do you know
Who you are?

Here I am Lord, use me

They say with age comes wisdom and sometimes that is true. There are a couple of things I have learned for sure. Number one: Never pray for patience unless you are willing to let God teach you. Patience is not given, it is learned-the hard way (but that's a blog for another time, lol). Number two: Don't say, "here I am Lord, use me", unless you really really mean it. Because He will! He will send you places you've never gone before, and have you doing things you've never done before. Not against your will, God would never do that but you gave Him the go ahead when you said, "here I am Lord, use me".

Were you ever somewhere, (school, church, work, etc.), when they asked for volunteers? Maybe it meant extra points on a grade, or a chance to help out at church, or extra money at work, so you volunteer. You get picked, only to find out all they needed was someone to pick up all the smelly gym shoes or clean the bathrooms and no one else volunteered!! Then, later, because you were the only one that volunteered the first time, they didn't ask for volunteers the second time around, they just came right to you and gave you the task. Not only would no one else volunteer, no one else wanted to do those nasty jobs, so the teacher, or your pastor, or your boss picked you because you were so willing the last time. Sometimes it seems that way with God. You say, "here I am Lord, use me", and He has you picking up trash at the church -or- cleaning the bathrooms, or sends you to talk to your worst nemesis. You stop and ask, why me God? Can't you send someone else, I want to do something BIG for You, I want to be a light for you. What can any of us do that is greater than He who gave His very life to save us? The next time you are asked to clean the bathrooms or some other unglorified task remember that Jesus washed the feet of His disciples! Read John 13:14-16, 14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. 16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

What we fail to realize many times is, there are lots of little ways God can and will use us if we just let Him. You can't put a limit on God, you can't put conditions on Him. He asks us to be faithful in the small things. Those supposed menial tasks aren't menial at all when you are promoting God's work and His word. The battle is waged and we each need to do our part to be prepared. We don't know God's plan or intention when He uses us, but He does. He can already see the outcome, He knows He picked just the right person to do the job. Sad to say, many won't do those little tasks that God sets before them and because of their rebelliousness He doesn't use them in the bigger things and they wonder why. Read the parable in Matthew 25 about the Master who gave his servants talents (money) to see what they would do with it. It also says in verse 15 that he gave to each according to the several ability, meaning he gave them what he thought they could handle. That is what the Lord does, he gives to us what He knows we are capable of doing. There is much to do being about God's business, many little things as well as big to be done in God's name. To be an active child of God you must proclaim Jesus as the Son of God, you must be willing to follow as well as lead, be a good "servant". At the end of the day we want to hear God say, Matthew 25: 21 ".........Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord". If God asks, you must be willing to be used of God and willing to say, "here I am Lord, use me", and mean it.
God bless and keep you

Judge not

I actually began this post on Feb. 17 but left it in draft because I wasn't sure where God was taking me with this. Today I read a friend's blog (for the 2nd time), about being judged unfairly by others, and decided to finish this. We can do so much harm to others by our words, I pray this is a timely message.

The Bible says in Luke 6:37-38 37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: 38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

The dictionary defines judge (informal) as: To form an opinion or estimation of after careful consideration; To act as one appointed to decide; To act or decide as a judge.

The Bible says in Romans 14:12-13 12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. 13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.
Does this put judging others in another category for you? It did for me. This means to me that my "opinion" is equivalent to passing judgment!! And if my "opinion" (judgment) should be a stumbling block for others, "I" have sinned!

Going back to the dictionary description, it says to form an opinion or estimation of "after careful consideration", ever thought about "first impressions", ever make a first impression of someone only to find out later how wrong you were? That's judgment and its not even "after" careful consideration, its immediate!

Again, Romans 14:10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. As Christians sometimes we feel it is our right or our duty to point out flaws in others. Now the Bible does tell us if we know someone is committing sin to rebuke that person, (Luke 17:3), however, that isn't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about passing judgment and to go a step farther, even gossip because we are all guilty of it even in the smallest form. How many times have you heard someone say, "just look at him, or just look at her, blah blah blah"? Or, did you see/hear about so and so yesterday?

My main point is that we all judge in some way or another but God is the final judge, He is the one that "all" will answer too. Sometimes it only takes a second to step back, take a deep breath and keep our opinions (judgments) to ourselves. If we slip, which we sometimes do, God is willing to forgive us if we ask. Sometimes it's the smallest of things that hinder our walk with God. "Judge not, lest ye be judged."

If you happen to be sitting in the "judgment seat" of others, remember that although words can hurt, Jesus CAN heal. The only one we can change is ourselves. If you can't get that person to quit judging you or trying to change your mind, then ask God to give you strength and help you during those times to remember what a precious soul you are to Him. Then ask yourself, does it really matter? Just because they say it, doesn't make it true.
Remember that "earthly" judging is just another tool of satan to try and weaken your will and your walk. Remember Matthew 5:10-12, 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. but it also tells us in Phillipians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

May God give you strength for these battles, remember we are engaged in a battle everyday for our walk with the Lord, but we WILL be triumphant :)

I'll leave you with this: Matthew 5: 14-16, 14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Until next time God bless