s8nfighter

Jesus said, "Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and all your soul." In times of difficulty it is hard to praise God with my heart untill my mind or soul takes over and leads the worship. When things happen that I do not understand it is hard to praise God with my mind untill my heart takes over to lead the worship. I exalt God with my praises because He is everything. In Exodus 15 Moses exalted God, " The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my victory. He is my God, and I will praise him; he is my father's God, and I will exalt him!" Moses praised God because of what was done for him. He exalted God because God is God. Moses praised God because God became his victory (I think God was always Moses' victory and he just forgot it). I do that at times, because there is so much wrong in the world today I forget that Jesus is our victory and that the battle has already been won. Since the battle has already been won how much easier it should be to do what is right in the sight of the LORD. Not for my sake but for God's purpose and the benefit of others. We can act like we are trapped between a rock and a hard place and wait for God to pick us up; But Moses told the people, "Don't be afraid. Just stand where you are and watch the LORD rescue you. The Egyptians that you see today will never be seen again. The LORD himself will fight for you. You won't have to lift a finger in your defense!" or we can go along and live as if the battle has been won, leading the way, and setting a good example. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving! Use your shepherd's staff

When the LORD saw that he had caught Moses' attention, God called to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!""Here I am!" Moses replied. 5 "Do not come any closer," God told him. "Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground." When we come to God in our prayers should we not also take off the covering of our heart and bare before God, in all humility, honesty, and praise, our souls before Him because He is Holy? This is what blesses God more than anything, "Do not measure the appearance of God by the sort of day you are having." To my regret I do at times, but the idea came across that if I can cry out in distress why can I not shout out in praise? So I started to do that. Try it I think it makes God smile and you also get funny looks from people around you. Darrell

When I resist a broken and contrite heart it is simply because I want. And I want because I do not trust. I do not trust because I have taken my eyes off God's promise, that promise is not for the things of the world (because He is not of the world). Some say we are born to live and we live to die. Jesus says, "You are born to die and you die to live." Paul gives a fairly good example of what Jesus Is talking about. 2 Corinthians 6:4 but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7 truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see

If it wasn't possible to have a pure heart then Jesus died for nothing. Throughout the bible God, in His anger, delivered His people into slavery, withheld the rain, sent locust, and flooded the world, only because of the evil that is in mans heart. He did all this not for punishment but to bring us back to a loving relationship with Him. Here is what the LORD said through Jeremiah, "Is not Israel still my son, my darling child?" asks the LORD. "I had to punish him, but I still love him. I long for him and surely will have mercy on him. 21 "Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Mark well the path by which you came. Come back again, my virgin Israel; return to your cities here. 22 How long will you wander, my wayward daughter? For the LORD will cause something new and different to happen

While faith in God's word is taken for granted it is sometimes difficult to apply faith to our own life and remain in God's will. Take David's action before he slew the giant Goliath. He trusted God to be with him simply because God had promised to deliver the Philistines over to them. But before David went out to meet the giant he first asked "What is in it for me if I slay the giant."There was the beginning of seperation from God's will. Though it does require some faith to go from point A to point B it requires great faith to go from point A when point B is not in sight. A pardon from God should also mean a change of lifestyle, not just more of the same selfish sinful life. Our faith should be based on the whole word of God not just bits and peices that we can apply to make us feel confident living a life we have chosen. Faith based living is not a "What's in it for me." way of life, it is a 'What do you want Lord"way of life. Jesus said, "You are permitted to understand the secret about the Kingdom of God. But I am using these stories to conceal everything about it from outsiders, 12 so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: 'They see what I do, but they don't perceive its meaning. They hear my words, but they don't understand. So they will not turn from their sins and be forgiven." I took notice of David's plea to God, "Do not keep your Holy Spirit from me", Jesus said the reason He must return to the Fathers side is for the Holy Spirit to come and dwell within us. He also said the first thing the Holy Spirit will do is convict (point out) us of our sins, then guide us and then protect us. How do we gain the faith that Jesus spoke of when he said by faith you can move mountains? Simple, first we must turn around because it is hard for the Holy Spirit to lead in a direction opposite of God,s path. Darrell

God initiated the conversation between Himself and Abraham, for what purpose? God told Jonah to go to Niniveh and announce his judgement against the city, for what purpose? God told Noah to build an ark and announce to all the people that their days shall be numbered at 120 years, for what purpose? God sent His Son to speak to us, for what reason? God also initiates the conversation with us through the Holy Spirit, for what purpose? John 17: 20 "I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony. 21 My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father

The basis of Abraham's argument that God should spare Sodom is not His judgement but His mercy. Abraham does not say that there are any righteous people in Sodom or Gomorrah, he allows God to be the judge of righteousness, he asks God "if there are fifty righteous people in the city". But God's mercy does not come without test or why would He send the angels to Lot's house? Genesis 19:15 At the crack of dawn the angels urged Lot on: "Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city." 16 But he hesitated, so because of the Lord's compassion for him, the men grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters. And they brought him out and left him outside the city. And at times, "are you certain of your choice test"; 26 But his wife looked back and became a pillar of salt. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. "We have choices presented to us by God, so did Lot and his family. God in a differant way gave Lot a choice between life and death, Lot made the right choice. We too are given the choice between life and death, I pray that all would make the right choice but fear that many will not. Darrell

Immutable means not capable of or susceptible to change. If God were immutable He would not have regretted making the world and all that live in it. If God were immutable He would not have even noticed Noah and decide to spare life two by two. If God were immutable Jacob would not have struggled with Him and won. (Wouldn't have even been a struggle) There are things that God allows Satan to do (for if you belive God is real you must believe that Satan is real) and the things that Satan does is outside the will of God. Confused yet? I was too but I cheated and read the end of the bible, I do that with worthy books at times. Rev. 21:1 "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone." At this time Satan is cast into the lake of fire, (not to live eternaly but to be destroyed) and there will be no will outside that of God. Can we change the desire of God? Matt. 23 :37"How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me." His desire is and always will be the same. Should we pray for something outside the will of God? Matt. 23:38, "And now look, your house is left to you, empty and desolate. 39 For I tell you this, you will never see me again until you say, 'Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!" Darrell

God says that He is the potter and we are but the clay, and the potter has the choice to make out of the clay peices for noble and peices for ignoble use. Predestination? Maybe. We all are destined to meet God twice in our lives; the first at birth, when He put the breath of life in us and again at death when we are judged. These two are predestined but the third is a choice, that is when we decide to follow Jesus and He places the Holy Spirit within us. That is prayer answered. Contemplate Job for a bit. The people around him accused him of sin and of seperation from God, his wife even said, "Curse God and die." Job may have went about it wrong but he knew that there was nothing that could seperate him from God. A few years ago my pastor shared this testimony with me. She was counseling a family whose 8 yr. old son was about to have another surgery. The child had cancer and had several surgerys prior to this one. As the nurses were preparing him for surgery he noticed the fear in his mother's eyes. He reached up and took his mom's hand and told her, 'It is o.k. mom. The doctors will either make me well and I will come home to you or they won't and I will go home with Jesus." He passed away a few days later. After a difficult life of 8 years this child knew something that most of us will never figure out even if we live to be 80. There is a differance between knowing of God and knowing God. This child knew God and knew, like Job, there was nothing that could seperate him from God. This is DETERMINATION at its best and CLAY OF NOBLE USE. Darrell

Well let's cheat a little using knowledge of the blble. God transends time, in such that He is I Am not I was or will be. God's only will is that of Christ's work, that none shall perish. And that all shall know the glory of God. If we can accept that the will of God is for salvation and knowing that Peter, James, and John saw Moses talking to Jesus it puts a different light on the meaning of (John 16:23) At that time you won't need to ask me for anything. The truth is, you can go directly to the Father and ask him, and he will grant your request because you use my name. 24 You haven't done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy. Living life either tears us apart or brings us close to God depending on where we put our faith, but we must live it with all its trials. The same God that spoke the universe and all life into being is the same God that let Israel walk through the desert...Could He not speak and they would be in the promised land? Just a little food for thought. Darrell

What had the people done that was so bad? That is a good question. What had Adam and Eve done that was so bad, or all the people of the earth at the time of Noah? For that matter what has this generation done that is so wicked that we may not have eternal life and live apart from God? Isn't that what we want, to be blessed by God and not be in obediance to Him? People tend to measure God's presence by His presants, I even heard one minister claim that if he showed up to church driving anything less than a Rolls Royce it would embarrass God. (Made me wonder what He thought of His Son riding a donkey.) Acts 3:20 Then wonderful times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will send Jesus your Messiah to you again. 21 For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his prophets. 22 Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up a Prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything he tells you.' 23 Then Moses said, 'Anyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be cut off from God's people and utterly destroyed.' God's word has not changed one bit. The choice is a little differant but His word is not. God is the author and finisher of life. The author of a novel will write many pages of words just to throw them in the waste basket when he realizes that what he created was of no good. Can you imagine what the author of a great book would feel like if after he finished it , (Genesis 1:31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was excellent in every way. ) it turned bad right before his eyes? Darrell

We all should struggle with sin every day because we are not perfect. To claim that we are sinless according to James makes us out a liar and Paul says that all have fallen short of the glory of God. Asking forgiveness is not a means to get blessings from God, simply because He has blessed us with everything. Think about it, the world; He left to our disposal. So if it is not a means to get what we want then what is forgiveness? It is to get what God wants. Sin has separated us from God. He tried everything to get us to come back to Him, He even started over once and will again. Guilt and shame is the mighty tool of the devil but forgiveness through the Son is the ALL MIGHTY tool of God. Forgiveness will never change God's love for us but it should change the love we have for God so much so that we begin to live a better life. Darrell

Q3. Why do we seek to be independent of asking anyone for help? Why do we seek to be independent of God? Why should we ask God to "give" us daily bread so long as we can earn a living for ourselves? I have been a do it myself guy all my life, at times to the point of stupidity and the reason is simple, who cares. Why in this day and age with so many vans, large cars and trucks would there be 1/3 the population in a city that is about to be destroyed by a hurricane left to fend for themselves? The one question that was unasked to those who escaped New Orleans and had "Lost everything" is this, "Did you ask your neighbor if he needed a ride?" Do you think Abraham could find 50, 40, 30, or even 10 who said, "Yes, I was more concerned about my neighbor than my things." This is nothing new, even David asked, "What is in it for me?" before he slew the giant. And Solomon had to get everything before he realized that all is nothing. Faith and caring are not unrelated, God first provided manna in the desert before he told the nation of Israel to step into the raging waters of the Jordan River just as a mother carries her baby for months before encouraging him to take his first step. I don't know maybe it is because of what we see in others that makes us take our first steps away from God instead of toward God. The bread that Jesus is speaking of is not the bread made out of wheat because God said everything has been provided for you for life. But at every banquet their are those who take two peices of pie. The bread Jesus is speaking of is the bread that allows a person to give half his pie to the one who has none. Oh, by the way, do you know who your neighbor is? Darrell

Our primary concern is to be longing for the Kingdom of God and the return of Jesus. Like it or not this world is only temporary. Rev. 21:1 "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone." I have a very hard time living in the world that surrounds me as if it were not here, but that is what God is asking us to do. The difficulty stems from what is all around me, it is preached from the pulpit, advertised from the the church buildings, and lived by the church goers; "the things that are temporary are of all importance." A pastor friend of mine was commenting about the lack of security at the church. I asked him this question, "When has what is inside the building that we need to save t of more value than what we have to give away.?" When has God's will become equal to that of the "American Dream?"Solomon had the American dream and realized that without God it was vanity "ALL IS VANITY". We know what God's will is, Jesus spoke about it, and lived it. God's will and work is that all come to know Him as Lord and Savior. The Savior part is the easy and most acceptable part of His will, it is the lordship part that is hard. To give the rule of life over completely to God in this world is like heading down the freeway at 70 miles per hour and then getting in the back seat and saying "Here God, you drive." It is kind of scary. But then so are some of the rides at the amusement park. Darrell

Our Father who art in heaven; Hallowed be thy name. We too often feel as if keeping God's name hallow and not speaking His name in vain (for nothing) is a law to be upheld. Have we not broken all of God's laws? If we reduce God to a mere law then we have certainly exhaulted ourselves above Him. God posed this question to Job, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" And gave this instruction to Moses, "I AM THE ONE WHO ALWAYS IS. Just tell them, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God is and will always be, we hallow His name by the relationship we have with Him. Not by the law we keep but by the love we keep. Darrell

All Word of God is good for instruction whether it comes from the prophets or the apostles. What a simple and wholesome life we would lead if we only adhered to all the teaching in the bible. There would be no false church growth (only by number) but the numbers would increased purely because of the growth in spirit and truth.

What are we citizens of? We are citizens of a relationship with God. And if we have a relationship with God, how can we not have a relationship with others? I was at a house that was being remodeled yesterday where there was little or no relationship between the work crew, the builder and the owner. Because of this lack of relationship the new floor did not meet the old floor, the building was a bit out of square, doors were not framed to the right size, and because the truss system was not installed properly the rain poured in through the joint between the old and new. Let's put it this way; it was a mess. I was there to give the owner an estimate on doing the dry-wall finish work. Because of the condition the new construction it will either cost him more than he can afford or he will have to settle for less than what he expected. If God is the owner of the church that Christ is building where does that leave us in this picture. That leaves us in the position of the worker. Does that mean we can go off and work without paying attention to detail or without consulting the builder? Jesus tells us that He is in constant touch with the owner and does exactly what the owner wants and therefore we should be in constant contact with Him. When it is all finished, some one will say to God, "Wow! That is a nice house you have. Who built it?" And He will reply, "My Son."

The power we seek is to answered prayers, the power we have is to change ourselves. In today

Paul points out the fact that through faith in the resurected Christ we are now seated with Christ in heaven. Along with this new citizenship comes a new responsibility. That responsibility is to act like citizens of Christ. And the Holy Spirit which dwells within us gives us the power to overcome the desires of this world. Yes it all begins with faith, but if we look at 2 Peter it does not end there. 2 Peter 1:3 "For His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. 4 By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6 knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7 godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted, and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. " For His devine power has given us everything for "life and godliness"

The church at Ephesus had a lot to deal with. For many years the the people worshipped the goddess of fertility or the moon goddess called Artemis. Paul needed to explain the truth of the matter and that truth is that God is the creater of all, heaven and earth and therefore is the ruler over all things of this world and of things not of this world. The miracles, which Christ preformed, confirmed that He also was the ruler over the things of this world and the things not of this world. He calmed nature, healed the sick, raised the dead, and also cast out demons. But the miracle of all miracles was the fact that He was also able to forgive sins in order to give people a new life, and that made Him God.

(Ephesians 1:19) Why does Paul pray that God would open the Ephesians' eyes to discern "his incomparably great power"? What is wrong with their eyes? Where does this power operate according to 1:19? Which miraculous event does Paul use as an example of this level and type of power? The first thing that we, as God's creation, need to understand is that we are just that. We were created by God and for God. We were created perfect in every way. Genesis 1:31, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." But like any masterpiece that is left alone it begins to decay. Not that God abandoned his chosen people; but that they abandoned God through sin that entered their lives. Paul speaks of the great faith, which the church of Ephesus has in our Lord Jesus Christ. Though Paul does not give specifics of why the Ephesians