What is it?

Maybe you don’t think there’s much of a future. But there’s a bigger story. It’s a story of a GOD who made you on purpose and for a purpose (Ephesians 2:10), who takes pleasure in you (Romans 8:31-32). It’s a story of GOD who came to rescue you (Matthew 26:28) and set you free (Matthew 1:21); a GOD who when you believed put HIS SPIRIT in you and is transforming you little by little into the likeness of JESUS (Romans 8:29). It’s a story of a GOD who sings over you (Zephaniah 3:17) and wants to bless you (John 10:10, Isaiah 30:18).

We have no right to decide where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what GOD is fitting us for. GOD engineers everything; wherever HE puts us, (teaching a class or doing dishes) our one great aim needs to be to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to HIM and give HIM credit in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might…” (Ecclesiastics 9:13).

I can tell you one thing, doing what is closest at hand, it to draw near to GOD.  You won’t miss what HE has for you, for HE declares that HE will fulfill HIS purpose for you (Psalm 57:2).

What is the one thing you know you should do?

Hugs

Sharon

Do you trust GOD?

“You can’t truly rest until every area in your life rests in GOD.” AW Tozer

During this time many are enslaved by fear. All they see is the virus, what it is causing, and what the media is saying. GOD is somehow lost in the shuffle and not part of the equation.

The one without JESUS as their Savior has every reason to fear but we who know JESUS should not be in slavery to fear of death for by HIS death JESUS broke the power of the devil and Satan no longer can kill anyone.  (Hebrews 2:14-15).  JESUS now holds the keys to death (Revelation 1:18).

Why should a believer in JESUS trust GOD during this time of crisis?

1. HE knows each of us by name and loves us (Isaiah 43:1, John 3:16).
2. HE will fight for you (Exodus 14:14).
3. HE thinks about you (Psalm 139:17).
4. HE has plans for you (Jeremiah 29:11).
5. HE will fulfill HIS purpose for you (Psalm 57:2).
6. HE is our refuge (place of safety) (Psalm 62:6-8).
7. HE is always with you (Matthew 28:20).

If you have never called out to JESUS to save you, you couldn’t pick a better time.  All who call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved (Romans 10:13).

Hugs

Sharon

Are you ready?

So always be READY…   LUKE 12:40           

A Christian’s greatest need is a READINESS to face JESUS CHRIST at any and every turn.  Whether it is a READINESS to hear and quickly obey HIS promptings when HE works in us to will and do what HE wants done (Philippians 2:13)

I know when the instructions have come from GOD because of their quiet persistence. /Oswald Chambers

or READINESS to go HOME with HIM when HE calls us (Hebrews 9:27, 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17).

Are you ready?

Hugs

Sharon

The choice is yours

In these troublesome times are you stressed out, anxious about what lies ahead?

Anxiety isn’t a condition – it is a choice. When we choose not to pray and trust GOD with our lives, we have chosen to be anxious. The formula is very simple, you are either going to pray or you are going to worry. /Jimmy Evans

The Word of GOD substantiates that statement for it says that if we make our requests known to GOD with THANKSGIVING (that HE is listening, really cares and is actually at work through our situation and HE has a plan that will bless you if you belong to JESUS) the LORD will give us HIS peace that will throw us beyond  having to understand and will shield our minds and emotions against stress, worry and demonic spirits of fear and anxiety attacks. (Philippians 4:6-7).

Do you know JESUS? 

Do you believe that

1. You have sinned?  (Romans 3:23)
2. The wages of sin is death? (Romans 6:23)
3. But the gift of GOD is eternal life through believing in JESUS CHRIST? (Romans 6:23, John 3:16)
4. GOD sent JESUS to die for your sin because HE loves you? (John 3:16)
5. If you confess with your mouth JESUS is LORD (Master) and believe in your heart that GOD raised HIM from the dead that you will be saved? (Romans 10:9)
6. With your heart you believe and thus justified (just as if I’d never sinned), and with your mouth you confess and are saved? (Romans 10:10
7. All who call on the name of the LORD shall be saved? (Romans 10:13).

The choice is yours.

Hugs

Sharon

Do you qualify?

 Are you scared or in need of encouragement? Let me share something from the Word of GOD.

“The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and HE knows them that trust in HIM” (Nahum 2:7).

The LORD is good

“The Lord is Good” – period. Everything about GOD is good from HIS divine nature and power to everything that is related to me – HIS thoughts about me, HIS plans for me, HIS actions toward me, HIS guidance in me, HIS blessings to me, HIS protection of me, HIS purposes fulfilled through me and HIS ordained circumstances (Acts 17:26) that surround me at this very moment in my life. They may not look good, seem good, sound good or feel good – but because they are ordained of GOD, they ARE good.

The LORD is a strong hold in the day of trouble

a ‘strong hold’ is a fortified place, a defense, a refuge, a place to hide

HE knows them that trust in HIM

to “know” here, means to understand as a familiar friend.

Hebrews 4:15 assures us that, “we have not a high priest (JESUS) who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” JESUS not only knows about and understands your situation, but HE even FEELS right along with you.

to “trust” is to confide in, have hope in and to take refuge in.

GOD knows them as a close friend who confide in HIM, who hope in HIM, and who run to HIM to find a place of safety.

Do you qualify?  Do you trust HIM, confide in, hope and run to GOD?  I hope so.

Hugs

Sharon

GOD meant it for good

GOD has led me to pray a certain way concerning the Coronavirus, I even asked many of you to join me in that prayer in one of my posts. So, I am thrilled to see GOD’s leading confirmed.

In Malachi 3:6 we are told, “For I am the LORD, I change not;” Therefore, we can learn about HIM by looking at how HE has acted in the past.

One of GOD’s ways is to work all things together for good to those who love HIM (Romans 8:28). We see that vividly in the life of Joseph, a Jewish teen sold by his brothers as a slave but through many troubles at 30 became 2^nd in command to Pharaoh. Listen to Joseph’s description of GOD.

“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but GOD meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Genesis 50:20).

In a coronavirus update, J D Farag spoke of GOD using the evil of the coronavirus to cause many across the globe to reach out to the LORD of heaven and earth to obtain eternal life.  In other words, to save much people alive.

Yes, reports tell that many who would have nothing to do with GOD before are now coming to JESUS.

Let’s praise HIS holy name for the harvest is getting ripe! But don’t stop praying yet for as long as we are here the last one to accept JESUS has not yet done so (2 Peter 3:9).

Hugs

Sharon

Cure for fear

2,000 years ago, there were reasons to fear just as there are today.  The Coronavirus has many gripped with fear as things are being shut down and numbers are rising.  Those who first knew the LORD have something to tell us about our situation.

For we would not have you ignorant of trouble… insomuch that we despaired even of life.  But we had this sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in GOD who raises the dead.  Who delivered us from so great a death (past), and does deliver (present), in Whom we trust that HE will deliver us (future) 2 Corinthians 1:8-9.

These verses speak 2 marvelous truths for us today. 

1) Troubles have a purpose=they teach us we cannot trust in ourselves and show us we need to trust GOD in everything.

2)GOD is for us and will continually deliver us as we reach out to HIM.

We who know JESUS need to keep these things in mind to escape the fear that holds unbelievers in its grip.

The ones without a Savior need to hear this truth so that they might reach out and be saved by believing GOD sent JESUS who died for our sins and then raised JESUS who is coming back one day to take us to heaven.  All they need to do is believe this and call on the name of the LORD and they will be saved (John 3:16, Romans 10:9,10,13).

If we go to the LORD and trusting HIM and tell HIM our situation GOD ALMIGHTY promises to give  us peace that will throw us beyond having to understand why and it will guard our hearts and our minds through CHRIST JESUS    (Philippians 4:7)

What a wonderful and mighty GOD we serve!

Hugs

Sharon

What is on GOD’s mind?

GOD’s way of doing things shows wisdom, power and foreknowledge but to us in the middle of a situation things can be baffling. Though we wonder- “Why does GOD allow the bad?” , we know from seeing the change of seasons, the stars and the flowers that GOD knows what HE is doing.

The Almighty prepared in advance a large fish to go to just the right spot to swallow HIS rebellious prophet Jonah when the sailors threw him overboard. 3 days later the fish listened and obeyed when GOD told it to spit Jonah out on dry land. After Jonah did what GOD asked, he went to sit and see the results. GOD had (prepared in advance) a vine miraculously to grow up over Jonah to give him shade and comfort him. But in the morning GOD had prepared a worm to kill the plant that gave Jonah shade, and did it ever make Jonah mad. Yet, since we have the book of Jonah, I am pretty sure Jonah learned what GOD was teaching him for who but someone humble would tell such things about himself? (Jonah 1:17, 2:10, 4:5-11).

Then Elijah had just done a difficult task and gave warning to a people and had to be hidden or would be killed. So, the Prophet (who obeyed GOD implicitly and would never eat anything unclean), was told to go to a stream and have a raven (an unclean bird) deliver his meals and although delivered by an unclean bird Elijah ate them. Now the raven faithfully did what GOD told him and brought Elijah bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening (1 Kings 17:2-4).

Crazy as they sound these stories are true and one thing they show us is GOD knows what is coming and plans in advance for all the details to fall into place..

It also shows us that animals and birds listen to and obey GOD. Would that we would be as quick to listen to, trust and serve our King who died for us.

Another thing it shows is GOD protects and provides for HIS people.

During this present Coronavirus crisis, have we put GOD into the equation? Are you, am I as quick as that fish and bird to listen to and trust our LORD the Creator of Heaven and Earth to direct, protect and provide for us?

Hugs

Sharon

Faith vs Fear

*Feed Your FAITH in GOD, Not FEAR*

We have all heard the story of two dogs inside us fighting. The one who we feed is the one who will win.

“YOU will keep in perfect peace the mind that’s stayed on THEE, because he TRUSTS in YOU, because HE TRUSTS in YOU. TRUST ye in the LORD for ever and ever for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength (Isaiah 26:3-4).

There is a study that states the average person thinks around 10,000 separate thoughts every day – that equates to more than 3.5 million thoughts a year.

Sadly, statistics show that FEAR dominates the majority of these thoughts for the average person.  That is even more true now with the Coronavirus. Consider this then: every single day, you sow 10,000 seeds and every seed you sow will produce after its kind. Are you sowing seeds of FAITH and TRUST in GOD or seeds of FEAR? 

If you tolerate FEAR, your FAITH is contaminated, for FAITH and FEAR are unable to coexist. Where one thrives, the other is blocked. When we entertain thoughts inspired by FEAR, we crush our FAITH. However, when we choose to take those FEARFILLED thoughts captive, bring them to JESUS CHRIST (2 Corinthians 10:5) and speak out GOD’s Word – FEAR is expelled and our FAITH is strengthened! 

FAITH in GOD causes us to walk in the reality of GOD’s promises.

What are you thinking about?

Hugs

Sharon

Be still

Have you ever heard someone say, or said yourself, “GOD would never do that!”?

Through study of GOD’s word and seeing how the ALMIGHTY has acted in the past, I have learned I cannot say that for the LORD doesn’t think like you and me.  Just one example is GOD uses the weak things to show up the strong (1 Corinthians 1:25-29).

Isaiah 55:8-9 states that GOD’s ways and thoughts are as far above ours as the heavens are above the earth. Although I love to look at the stars, I have no real concept of how high the heavens are above me.

But to give us an inkling of how unfathomably higher GOD’s thoughts are than ours, here are a few basic facts. If you drew 2 circles, one large and one small with their centers exactly 9 inches apart and each inch represented 10 million miles (10,000,000) that picture would show the distance between our earth and our sun.

Now if you want to draw another circle to show how far the nearest star would be, the star would be 40 miles from the sun you drew on your paper.  The nearest star is Alpha Centauri & is 24 thousand million miles away (24,000,000,000,000).

That distance is hard to imagine so, suppose you started out the moment you were born and ran a mile every 4 minutes without stopping.  You would be 700 years old when you reached our sun and 182 million years old before you reached the nearest star.  And that is just the beginning… it is the closest star in our universe of millions of stars and beyond are universes, upon universes, upon universes all filled with stars and quasars.

Those numbers blow me away. I have no concept of such distance and therefore no insight into how GOD thinks unless the HOLY SPIRIT within me shows me (1 Corinthians 2:10-12). 

“My thoughts are completely different from yours, says the LORD.  And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are MY ways higher than your ways and MY thoughts higher than your thoughts. The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth.  They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry.  It is the same with MY word.  I send it out, and it always produces fruit.  It will accomplish what I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it (Isaiah 55:8-11 NLT).

Among other things that says what GOD does works.  It will do what HE wants done.

We see that clearly in JESUS, who flung the stars into space and made everything that was made (Hebrews 1:2).  HE did not grasp HIS equality in the GODHEAD but took on the form of a servant/ the body of a man and become obedient to the plan (Philippians 2:6-8). JESUS carried the all sins of the world (mankind), past present and future on HIMSELF on the cross disarming the enemy against any and all who would believe in HIM.  Then HE rose from the dead guaranteeing that all who believed in HIM would also be resurrected from the dead and live eternally with HIM. Now is that how you and I would act?

No one could imagine that HE had a path through the sea for the Jews to cross to the other side, or that HE would get a large fish in place to swallow HIS prophet Jonah, or sending out a former demonic to evangelize just a day or so after casting out his demons.

As you read the Bible you get to see GOD do things quite differently that one would imagine.

So when bad situations hit, I claim GOD’s word that what HE allows/ brings is ultimately for our good and will achieve for us benefits that far surpass the pain of today (2 Corinthians 4:15-18).

I smile when thinking of some ways GOD’s selected for us to be taught Delighting much in opposites for us to obtain what is sought sought.         To climb high, we must bend low, to learn we need first to forget,              To obtain joy, we must know tears, filling comes when emptiness hits These things appear to contradict, but this is wisdom for our GOD                Rejects what men esteem as good bringing to naught what the world applauds. (I Cor 1:27-28).

I am guilty of at times trying to tell GOD how to handle situations and even have gotten mad when HE didn’t do something my way (like take away my pain, now), on my time schedule.

I am so glad that GOD is patient with me, for learning GOD’s ways is a process.  But I am learning to: “Trust in the LORD with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding.  In all my ways to acknowledge HIM and let HIM direct my path (and prayers) as HE promises.  I am learning not to think to highly of my own opinion so as not be wise in my own eyes (Proverbs 3:5-7).

These truths keep me from fear for my GOD is in control even during this coronavirus.

Hugs

Sharon