WHEN THE DARKNESS IS ALL AROUND US

It has been awhile since I have written in my blog, but this morning I thought I would try to get my thoughts organized. We all look around us and see the evil that is being spread throughout the world, wars, beheadings of Christians and even Muslims by ISIS, we see terror all around us and threats of terror. But then here in the United States, we continue to see how the people and government are falling away from the Word of God. This just didn't begin yesterday or even the past few years, it began in the 1960's. First of all came the removal of prayer and then the teaching of the Bible from our public schools, then came the passing of the law that gave women a right to abort their unborn babies. Colleges began to hire liberal professors that would promote the liberal ideology into the minds of our nations youth. Remember the how during the Vietnam war Americans began to burn their draft cards, burn the American flag, fled to Canada to avoid being called to war. A new slogan came in "Make love not war" and women were burning their bras, and love feast were occurring; many times in open places, pot smoking and drug abuse began to spread openly. A deterioration of moral and family values began.  Though I might not have exact dates and time frame I believe that we see the start began when God was removed from our young people through our schools. Everything I mentioned above was a byproduct of the result of removing God and the youth began to act as if there was no God. They had no Standard to judge themselves by; that Standard that we have is the Word of God, therefore they lived life as if there was no tomorrow, no respect for those in authority and no love for our country.

Lets fast forward to 2015, and these same young people are now holding positions of authority, some are even in government positions, some have become lawyers, judges, business owners. Some have not remained with the mindset they had as a youth and some have continued that same path they were on in the 60's and 70's. Homosexuality is not a new thing, why we saw it in the scriptures in Genesis with Sodom and Gomorrah (just a side note history tells us that it was the judges 4 to be exact in the cities of the plain that legalized homosexuality) because it has always been a part of the world's perversion of a man and woman's relationship; God even gives us instructions in His law on sexual morality:

Leviticus 18:22-23 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. Nor shall you mate with any animal, to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is a perversion.

In my lifetime and I am 67 years old, there was never any pride in anyone who practiced homosexuality, they kept it a secret because even to them it was a shame. Years later they began to come our of their closet (as the say) and open declare "I am gay", many in Hollywood revealed their secret and now in this year "Gay Pride" is promoted and encouraged. And now our judges on the Supreme Court of the United States of America have legalized gay marriage, and have attacked our religious freedom by declaring it doesn't matter what we believe; pastors, clergy and court officials must perform these wedding ceremonies.  In many states marijuana is being legalized and I am certain before too much longer it will be legal in all 50 states. 

 

 

We see a falling away from the word of God that our nation was founded on. Lifting up of self, lifting up pride, lifting up pleasure, lifting up sin and tearing down the word of God. So now that I have made all of us depressed, lets look at how we are to behave during this time.

John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in Me you can do nothing.

John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.(He tells us in verse 12 that His commandment is to love one another)

Colossians 3:1-2 If then you were raised with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

Matthew 5:14-16 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

The only way to disperse darkness is to bring in the light. Jesus when He gave us His Holy Spirit gave us His light to be seen in us and through us. He has told us to remain or abide in Him that we can bear His fruit, He has told us that abiding in Him means we keep His commandments which He also tells us is to love one another. He has told us not to be troubled or afraid when we see the darkness that abides in the world, but to keep our focus on Him and not on the world. But for the most part does the church look like the light to those who do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior?( I want to point out right here there are many morally good people who know of Jesus but are not known by Jesus because they have no real relationship with Jesus.) Many times the world sees us as finger pointers and name callers, and sin pronounce-rs. I have been given this a lot of thought, and though we are never to compromise the word of God, we are not the Holy Spirit and we cannot convict a lost person of their sin. What we are to do is just share the good news of Jesus Christ, why He came and what He has accomplished for us, share some testimony of how He came and changed us, we were all lost and dying, we were without hope, we were just as much a sinner as anyone else, but thank God that is in the past, we are found, we are alive, we have hope, we are now His saints. The greatest gift ever given was Jesus Christ, and the greatest act of love was given on a cross as Jesus Christ took the wrath of sin on Himself. So wouldn't showing our love for another be to tell them about just how much Jesus loves them just as they are?

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Now if we through the light of Christ have lead someone to the cross, the Holy Spirit will lay the conviction for repentance on their lives and will lead them through the cross. I have in this blog been speaking of those who are not believers and followers of Jesus Christ I have not addressed the issue of Christians who have falling away from the biblical truth of the word. 

So how do we respond to the darkness we see all around us? By being the true light of Christ and when we walk in the darkness will have to flee.

 

AN APPETITE FOR CHANGE

I haven't written in awhile, but today has been one of those days when the Lord has been speaking to me this whole day, and it helps me to put it in writing.

My heart has been burdened with the need for revival, so let me share with all of you what I have been learning. The word Revive means to bring back to life or consciousness, to restore, or to give new health, strength or spirit to.

Psalm 85:6 Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?

Revival begins with a hunger after God, a hunger for His righteousness, a hunger for His word, a hunger for prayer and His presence. Before we were saved we had an appetite or hunger for the things that would satisfy our bodies and souls. A hunger like Esau had for food to fill his empty belly a hunger he was willing to sell his birthright for. Then in the day of Jesus the rich young ruler, had a hunger for possessions he desired to fill his belly up with the riches of the world, then in the early church we see that Ananias and his wife Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit because they had a hunger for recognition, then we go on to see the sorcerer desired to buy the power of the Holy Spirit because he had a hunger for power. Our flesh is always saying "feed me" with things that satisfy our flesh. But our spirit is saying "feed me" with the things that satisfy my spirit.

As we dig deeper into God's word, as we go deeper in prayer and worship, our spirit man will begin to be filled with the things of God and not the things of self and we will find ourselves growing in the Lord. But the flesh is warring against our spirit because our flesh desires for its appetites to be fed, so we find ourselves surrendering more to the Father's will and resisting the appetites of the flesh. Unfortunately, too often Christians don't resist the appetites of the flesh and will fall into the trap of the enemy, his temptation to rely on the wrong source of food. Then we find ourselves in need of revival.

The Holy Spirit will begin to bring a strong hunger for the things of God, this hunger will cause us to press in and press through in prayer. Yet, along with this hunger will come an all out involvement in spiritual warfare and a burden for prayer.

Psalm 27:8 When You said, Seek My face. My heart said to You, Your face, LORD, I will seek.

The other day someone spoke this word "You have no need to speak to the mountain, because you are going to climb to the top". Many will immediately think of the scripture that says if we have the faith of a mustard seed we can say speak to the mountain and it will be moved into the sea. But that is not what this word is saying, because the Holy Spirit began to bring back scriptures and previous messages from my pastors. One of which was titled "The Climb" in this message it was about Caleb when they entered the promise land, he said "give me the mountain". In this message we were told that God was calling us to higher ground. In another message we were told how hard the climb would be and all the obstacles that would be in our way as we climbed but it would be worth the climb when we reached the top. Too many of us, get weary and give up, we think we will never be able to reach the top and we become to weary to battle the warfare that is attacking us.

Galatians 6:9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

In order to answer the calling of God to move to higher ground, we must change our appetites, here lies the secret of revival. In order to be like Caleb we have to take the mountain by force, and when the lies of the enemy attacks our strength, our tenacity we just keep moving forward and upward one step at a time, because we are growing and maturing in the Lord and His kingdom, His righteousness will be what we hunger for and our fleshly appetites will become less and less.

Praise God!! If all who reads this begins to change their appetites, we will see revival break out everywhere within the body of Christ. Jesus said the world will know we are His disciples by our love for one another. Is the church showing the world love for each other, if we cannot love the brethren how can we love the lost? Change our appetite and hunger and thirst after His righteousness and allow the love of Jesus Christ within us to come through us as we love ALL.

If looking for a bible study check out www.lindagroberts.com

LESSONS FROM A CHILD

On January 4, 2015 I read of a plane crash in Kentucky with one survivor, a young girl of only 7 years of age. It is reading of this child's survival, that the Lord began to teach and review lessons I had learned over the past year. This is why I am writing this because this little girl was an example for every church and every Christian, she both encouraged me and she inspired me. So here is her story and my lessons.

Her father's private plane left Florida to head back home to Indiana, on board was her father, her mother, her 10 year old sister, and her 14 year old cousin. Then tragedy struck the plane went down in a wooded secluded area in Kentucky. The young girl was clothed only in shorts and t-shirt, was barefoot when she climbed out of an upside down plane to find her whole family had died from the crash. Many 7 year olds would have caved in and later died of exposure to the cold Kentucky air. Yet, not this one, suffering with broken bones and cuts and bruises, she made a make shift torch from the fire to the planes wing, as set out in the cold and dark to find a house with a light on, and find the help she needed. When I read her story, I saw such a determination in this child, that she did not let grief stop her, she did not let pain stop her, she did not let cold stop her, she did not let the darkness stop her, nor did she let the unknown stop her. She walked barefoot through a rough wooded terrine did not know where she was nor did she know where she was going, one thing she knew she had the hope of finding a light on, she walked 3/4 of a mile emerged from the woods to find a light on at a house. So what did this teach us?

This little girl had more determination to continue steadfast, moving forward than most Christians do today. Her goal was to find help, and she would not allow herself to be moved by what was happening around her, she pressed forward to find the light which would be her help. It is said that if she had walked in any other direction she would have walked farther to find a house. I do not know why tragedy struck this family, but I do know this God said "This child will not die today" and Jesus led her in the right direction to find help. That leads me to the next lesson she taught me:

I truly believe that God's grace alone spared her life and I believe He has great plans for this little girl, I believe He led her all the way through the woods in the direction she needed to go to find help. I also believe that God is a miracle working God and could have picked her up and placed her at the door of the house, yet He didn't. He was with her yet she still had to walk the path, and though she walked it suffering, He never left her. As Christians sometimes we think that just because we are walking the path God has placed us on, the path should be free of suffering, and yet, it isn't. Lesson for me is this: Just because I am in the will of God does not mean I am free of storms and life events that will bring suffering my way. That brings me to the next lesson this child taught me:

When her father taught her survival training, he never said to himself, "On January 3,2015 we are going to be in a plane crash and die, and she will have to know how to survive." Yet, the reality is that is actually what he prepared her for. Every test we take as a Christian God has already prepared us to take, His tests are not to bring us harm, they are to help us to walk and grow closer to Jesus, His desire is for us to pass the test. So embrace the test it is for our good. Next lesson for the body of Christ to learn:

The scriptures tell us we are the light set on a hill, that when the light of Christ is in us, His light will draw men to Him. The little girl was looking for a light because it was dark, can you imagine her sigh of relief when she came through the woods and saw a light at the house in front of her. She followed the light to the door where she knocked and help waited on the other side. Church we are to be the light that when the hurt, the lost, the desperate, the forgotten see us they know they have found a safe haven. The church is about healing, fellowship, loving, restoring one another and lifting up our Savior Jesus Christ, through worship of Him and Him alone.

What I learned and wrote above was not anything new, I have been learning these things for more than a year, but what she did for me was set an example that says "Remain steadfast, keep moving forward, hold on to the hope of the gospel." She encouraged me with her determination and caused me to examine my heart and my life. I hope this too will encourage all who read it.

Colossians 1:23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.