I experienced being on my first Jury this week. It was quite an experience, at first I tried to convince others that they were wrong in their thinking and I was right. It seems all we did was go around and around. That evening the Lord brought this verse to me.

Psalms 141:3 Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.

The next day, was an entirely different. Of course I needed to apologize to the other 11 jurors for my argumentative spirit and if I offended anyone I was sorry, that was not my intention.  My attitude changed.  Instead of my opinion I went over the judges instructions and what we were to base our decisions on.  Yes, people have different opinions, but we must go on the facts and the law.  It was an experience I will never forget and remember to seek guidance from the Lord and not others.

A Christian Perspective

2 Timothy 17

God did not give us a spirit that makes us afraid but a spirit of power and love and self-control.

John 14:13

If you ask for anything in my name I will do it for you so that the Father’s glory will be shown through the Son.

BUTTERFLY

The walls of the cocoon were all she knew.  For now….hopelessness, no light, no exit, only existence.  Lying dormant, this was to be her destiny.

God had other plans for Her!

She had been chosen to be one of God’s most beautiful creations.  So many miraculous characteristics yet to be revealed to her.  Someday she would confidently display her magnificence for the world to see.

God knew she must first struggle in her cocoon.  Others would question why she struggled to break free, unable to see what was taking place inside.

So many times God wanted to free her, knowing His creation was in pain.  But He knew that time was necessary for her wings to fully develop.

He knew that to release her from her cocoon early would mean fragility and failure to fly.

God could not afford to have His precious messenger crippled.  She needed her strength; she was about to become a witness of God’s magnificence to others.

God made certain she felt every change, every development of her metamorphosis so that when she emerged from her cocoon, she would be fully aware of her wings.  Only then would she use them to soar.

As the metamorphosis neared completion and the pain ceased, she began to understand the process that had been taking place in these times of darkness.  She harbored no resentment for the time spent in the cocoon.

In complete solitude she slowly emerged, her tender wings began to unfold.  Knowing she might be frightened, God made sure that the warmth of the sun was there to greet her.

The breeze eagerly embraced her in support, lifting her beyond all that she had known.

She glided effortlessly into her future as God looked on with pride.

She was indeed God’s most magnificent creature!

Gifts of the Spirit

• message of wisdom
• message of knowledge
• GIFT OF FAITH
• gifts of healing
• miraculous powers
• prophecy
• distinguishing between spirits
• speaking in different kinds of tongues
• the interpretation of tongues

Seven (7) Spirits of God – They are:

• the Spirit of Life (Romans 8:2),
• the Spirit of Truth (John 15:26),
• the Spirit of Wisdom (Ephesians 1:17),
• the Spirit of Holiness (Romans 1:4),
• the Spirit of Faith (2 Corinthians 4:13),
• the Spirit of Love (1 John 4:8),
• the Spirit of Prophecy (Revelations 19:10).

Lord My God, I come before you as a broken vessel.  I have not kept my path straight as I know you desire.  I have stumbled, and yet I continue on the same path.  Please guide me, pick me up, and set me straight.  I want to  follow your perfect will but as you know I am not perfect.  Help me to do what is right, help me to help others, help me to live one-day-at-a-time, help me to not be so self-absorbed.  Lord you are the light of my day, please shine down on me.  I am so weak, I cannot make it through the day without you.  Lord I know you hear my prayer and will answer it.  I want these things I have prayed for and I ask them in the precious name of Jesus.  Amen

What is the difference

I am truly hard pressed to find much difference between how most Christians and worldly people think, act and behave. By and large I see more similarities than I see differences in how people view life, work and raising their families. The unfortunate reality is that what the vast majority of Christians think separates them from their worldly friends is in reality nothing more than religion.

Two people show up at work on a given day at the same time. They both drive the same make and model car, wear pretty much the same clothes and have within their lunch pails the same meal to eat during their lunch break. These two people go to their jobs and do them equally well. At the end of the day they clock out and go home to houses that look the same.

Both of these people sit down to eat dinner with their family and then spend the evening watching television or playing on their computers. Sometime late in the evening they both brush their teeth, set the alarm and go to bed. The next morning their alarms go off at the same time and they rush to get dressed and get to work on time.

These two people do this same routine five days per week. They both receive their paycheck on Friday for equal amounts. On Saturday they both spend time watching their kids play soccer or baseball and on Saturday night they go out with their wives to a movie. The only difference between these two people comes on Sunday when one of them drags the family to church and the other goes to play golf.

The one who goes to church spends most of his time dreaming about the golf course where he would rather be while the one playing golf doesn’t think at all about missing church. By Sunday afternoon both of these people settle down to watch NFL football and pig out on pizza and nachos.

Here are my questions: Is the person in the above example who went to church on Sunday a Christian JUST because he went to church? Is the person who played golf on Sunday automatically a heathen because he didn’t go to church? Is one’s Christianity really determined by how one spends a couple of hours per week? What really is the difference between these two people other than religion?

God did not so love the world that He gave His only Son to promote a new religion. Jesus did not lay down His life so that two thousand years later people would show up at a building once a week and somehow magically be His people by doing so. The Holy Spirit was not given on the Day of Pentecost to be stuffed in a closet and forgotten until one is on their deathbed.

Christianity is a relationship between a person and their Savior and has little, if anything, to do with the carrying out of traditions or the showing up at meetings or the singing of songs or even the praying of certain prayers. All these religious things mean nothing unless there is a real, true and vital spiritual relationship in a person’s heart with their Lord and Savior.

When the time comes when the two people mentioned in the story above stand before God, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see the golfer have a better eternal lot than the other. God doesn’t like hypocrites and He certainly isn’t interested in people just going through motions and assuming they are His own. God looks on and desires our whole heart and it is our heart that He will use to determine our eternal destiny.

I pray we all spend much more time building our relationship with the Lord and much less time washing the outside of our tabernacles to make them look all clean and white. There are 168 hours in a week. Isn’t God worthy of more than just ONE of those hours? Something to think about.

I BELIEVE….

* the Bible is the inspired Word of God

* there is one God, eternally existent in Father, Son and Holy Spirit

* Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and that God raised Him from the dead

* Jesus Christ became man’s substitute for sin and that man is cleansed from sin through the shed blood of Jesus Christ

* in the baptism of the Holy Ghost

* in the gifts of the Spirit and that they are for the operation of the Body of Christ today

* in the manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit and that it gives evidence of the born again experience

* all who accept Jesus Christ should be baptized by immersion

* in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ