What is the difference?

There are different kinds of joys on earth and different kinds of joys in heaven. But to be IN heaven is far better (Philippians 1:23).

We are in the faith chapter, Hebrews 11 and in class we discussed the vast difference between the faith GOD requires (Hebrews 11:6) and the believing of the demons (James 2:19).

Hebrews 11:⁶ But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he, that cometh to GOD must believe that HE is, and that HE is a rewarder of them that diligently seek HIM.

That one verse shows us 3 things GOD equates as FAITH that allows us to go to HIM.

1-We must believe that HE is

2-We must diligently seek HIM

3-We must believe that GOD rewards those who diligently (continually, earnestly) seek HIM

James 2:¹⁹ You believe that there is one GOD; you do well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

The vast difference between the devil’s BELIEF (mental acknowledgement) that GOD is, and FAITH (trust in JESUS saving work on the cross) is that they do not diligently seek HIM (they oppose HIM), and they do not believe that GOD will reward their seeking.

That discussion lead to another issue we find in Genesis 6:1-5, Jude 1:6, 2 Peter 2:4-5. Remember in the bible, context is a big factor.

Notice that the Genesis account and the 2 Peter account both connect angels with the wickedness of mankind and the birth of giants.

The big question comes from something JESUS said. Mark 12:²⁵ For when they (you and me) shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given IN marriage; but are as the angels which are IN heaven.

People have taken that to mean that angels are sexless. But that is not what it says.

I want to share something that came to mind as I talked with the LORD that may help us understand how angels could become sexually active on earth and how it applies to you and me.

IN heaven angels are IN the Presence of GOD and fully satisfied. It is when they crossed over GOD’s boundaries for them (Jude 1:6) and left their place with GOD to follow Lucifer (Satan) to take over earth that earthly desires invaded them. Then when they saw beautiful human girls they chose and married them and from their unions there were giants in the world, men of great wisdom and skill and many had extra toes and fingers (2 Samuel 21:20). This crossover of two kinds of beings not just created super humans, it resulted it horrible wickedness to the extent that the thoughts of the imagination of their hearts were only evil continually and GOD had to destroy all who refused to look to HIM.

That relates to us because when we are IN the Presence of GOD (when seeking HIM) earthly lusts fade but when surrounded in the world with temptations, lusts escalate unless we run to GOD for help (Hebrews 4:16). If we allow ourselves to give in to the temptations, sin escalates in our lives until do not see sin as sin anymore. Actually, that is what has happened here in America as we have shoved GOD out of our schools and lives.

Back to JESUS’ statement, IN heaven there will be no marriage because like the angels IN heaven (focused on GOD) we will be totally satisfied being with JESUS and have other things to think about.

Hugs

Sharon

A tree or an angel?

Living with my grandma I accepted JESUS as my LORD and Savior in Junior High. But after moving 600 miles away from my godly grandmother and church, as a teenager without supervision, I drifted away from the LORD and church and was doing my own thing.  Perhaps due to the prayers of my godly grandmother and her praying friends, and the faithful goodness of GOD to discipline HIS child (Hebrews 12:11) to turn me back around and lead me to repentance (Romans 2:4) GOD definitely protected me and my children on a snowy day.  

It is written: “For HE will command HIS angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”

(Psalm 91:11) and, “Are the angels not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14). I believe they are and that is what happened that day.

Living in a tiny rural community 8 miles from Quincy, a small town in northeastern California. I was 22, had 3 small children, 5, 2 and 5 months plus a big fluffy, blind dog with a huge black fluffy mane.

My husband had left with his older brother, looking for work and had ended up back in Colorado.  The propane ran out in the cabin we were in, and I had no money for more.  It was snowing and it was getting colder and colder.  So, I called around but couldn’t get a hold of mom (this was in the days before cell phones). But I managed to get a hold of a friend.  She couldn’t come because she had to get to work but said she would try to reach her husband.

I waited and waited, and it got colder and colder, so I bundled up the 3 little ones and loaded them and our blind dog into the car and took off.  I was terrified since I had never driven in snow before.  Never had needed to with Mac around and when he gone there was no vehicle to drive being we were a one car family.  I drove slowly, very slowly and there was no traffic on the twisting narrow mountain road with the blinding snow.  I went to turn on a curve the car didn’t turn.  We went straight off the road heading over a cliff and would have plunged down the mountain side and into the creek far below had not a tiny pine tree stopped us. 

The front wheels were off the road and the car teetered back and forth.  Talk about being petrified.  Being in the days before seat belts or air bags the kids often rode in the front seat.  As calmly as I could I told the girls to get in the back seat, then handed the baby back to my 5-year-old.  As carefully as I could I maneuvered over the seat myself, grabbed my baby then cautiously opened the back door, the dog bounded out and I gently shoved the girls out 1^st, following quickly behind them clutching the baby to my side.

What a relief it was to get on solid ground!  We were safe!  But what now?

I wasn’t sure just how far I had come so began walking with the girls back toward Meadow Valley.  It was cold, the snow was hitting us in our faces and the girls started crying and I didn’t know what to do. Then a jeep approached.  After a few questions his wife helped the kids crawl in and went to where my car was teetering.  Praise the LORD the man had a wench, hooked it to my car and easily pulled the car back onto the road. 

I thanked him, but sure didn’t want to get back into that car and drive with the kids in it.  Amazingly just then Butch, Mona’s husband, got there.  He loaded the kids into his car and had me drive my car slowly ahead of him the rest of the way to town.

After the storm, I headed back out to Meadow Valley to get some clothes and stuff.   On my way out to Meadow Valley I looked for the tree that had kept the car from dropping off the mountain side and plunging down, down into the little creek below. But there were no trees around that curve, not one.  I wonder to this day if it was not an angel sent from my heavenly father to protect and woo back his rebellious daughter to HIMSELF.

Without a doubt, I knew we had been protected but I was still too stubborn to look to GOD.  As a good FATHER, GOD was faithful and what HE allowed next turned me back around just a few months later. But oh, what the cost!

GOD says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will counsel you and watch over you (Psalm 32:8 NIV).

Don’t be like I was,

“Don’t be like the horse and the mule (stubborn) which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.”  (Psalm 32:9). 

Hugs

Sharon

I was distracted, but GOD wasn’t

A dear friend-Barb Heist- gifted me with an angel at our Christmas life group get together.  It was made from wood of a tree with the bark still on the front side. Looking at it takes me back to when my older children were quite small (5, 2 and a few months old) and GOD intervened to keep us from certain death. But I am getting ahead of myself.

As a young mother with 3 little ones I was easily distracted from seeking intimacy with Immanuel, “God with us.”  Without putting the LORD 1^st in my day, HE was sort of shoved to the side as the necessities of life took over.

When my brother-in-law Sonny came through on a quick trip from Colorado, my husband Mac who had been laid off, decided to go back to Colorado with him to hunt for work.  The plan was that the three babies and I stay in Meadow Valley, in the little log cabin of my Dad’s, until Mac could find work and send for us.  

I had no money, but there was food.

it began to snow and then the propane ran out.  I tried to call Mom and then my step dad but both were at work and I couldn’t reach them.  I tried a friend who said she was leaving for work so couldn’t help me. It started getting really cold and I knew I had to do something. I had never driven in snow, but I knew I had to get into town, about 8 miles away, to my mom’s.  I bundled the three children up in the warmest clothes they had and grabbed some extra clothing and blankets.  Then I managed to get them up the 30 some stairs (we lived in a valley down a slope and below the road), and into the station wagon with our blind dog close by my heels. 

Now, this was in the day before even seat belts let alone child restraint seats. We held our arms out to keep the little ones from falling if we had to stop suddenly.  So, there we were all in the front seat.  The car started right up, and I headed from Meadow Valley toward Quincy on the old narrow windy road with its sharp curves and deep drop offs.  As I drove, just inching ahead in the snow, the wheels locked and I tried to remember what I’d been told to do when that happened but no matter what I tried we kept sliding straight toward the edge of a cliff where we would plunge down into the canyon below, where a little creek flowed.  When the front wheels went off the edge of the embankment, a tree stopped us. The back wheels were still on solid ground and the car teetered.

Shaking with fear, as calmly as I could, I told five-year-old Jeri to carefully crawl into the back seat, then had Jeri take hold of her little sister Kari’s hands, and I pushed two-year-old Kari gently from her backside over the front seat into the back of the car. Then handed the baby to my Jeri, the quick as I could, I scrambled over into the back myself and felt the car teeter as I did.

I was so scared. You can’t believe how scared I felt. I grabbed the baby from Jeri, opened the back door and pushed my bawling girls out into the snow.  I bolted out after them with Little Mac in my arms. Tuffy followed.

It was snowing hard, and I had no idea how far we had come.  I started walking back the way we’d come carrying the baby with my two crying girls slipping and sliding as they walked beside me with our blind dog tagging along. We must have been quite a sight. 

A jeep appeared and stopped, the man hurriedly got the kids inside the jeep to where his wife sat, while listening to my story.  He slowly drove, with me walking beside the jeep, to where my car was.  As the jeep was pulling my car back onto the road with a tow line, a friend of ours from town drove up.  He’d come to get us.  His wife, who I had called before leaving the cabin, told him of our pre-accident predicament. 

At my insistence, he took the kids in his car. I wasn’t going to endanger my babies again with my driving in snow on that road.  He followed me as I drove our station wagon into town with my blind dog keeping me company.

Days later after the snow had melted, I was going back out to Meadow Valley to get some our stuff and tried to locate the tree that had saved us. It wasn’t there!  There were no trees at that section of the road at all. 

I am thoroughly convinced that even though I had been ignoring HIM, GOD who loved me (Romans 8:38-39) and had a plan for our lives (Ephesians 2:10) sent a ministering angel to protect us that snowy day.  (Psalms 91:11)

“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14 NIV).

So, if you have believed that JESUS is LORD and that GOD the FATHER sent HIM to earth and raised JESUS from the dead after JESUS died for your sins (John 3:16, Romans 10:9-10, Hebrews 1:3, 2:17, 7:27) and if you have called on the name of the LORD (Romans 10:13) you are eternally saved and in HIS constant care (John 10:28-29).

This all set the stage for what was coming next… GOD synchronizes / weaves all things, all event and realities together for an end result of good for us who love HIM and have called on the name of the LORD (Romans 8:28-29).

Hugs

Sharon

Why did HE pick Mary?

Why Did GOD Pick Mary?

Ever wonder why GOD chose the teenage girl named Mary to be the mother of JESUS? GOD’s ways and thoughts are not our thoughts and ways but are higher than the heavens above our thoughts and ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). Yet at times The MOST HIGH gives clues that are pieces of the puzzle of why HE does what HE chooses to do. Though there are a lot of unknowns, I think there are a few Biblical clues that point to why Mary was given the assignment and honor of being JESUS’s mother.

The first is a basic reason of why GOD choose Mary, “GOD deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And HE chose those who are powerless to shame those who are powerful. GOD chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important, so that no one can ever boast in the presence of GOD” (! Corinthians 1:27-29 NLT).

Mary unquestionably fits the bill: she was poor, young,uneducated, powerless and like most women of that day she was considered nothing.

The next reason I think GOD chose Mary applies to every one of us. GOD never changes (Malachi 3:6), and it is written that one of HIS eternal ways is that HE selects and plans according to HIS foreknowledge- things HE knew before they happen (I Peter 1:2). An example of this is seen in Psalm 139:4- our omnipotent (all-knowing) GOD knows what we are going to say before we say it. HIS absolute knowledge is why HE can accurately tell the future without manipulating us like puppets.

What HE looks at is- not so much what we do but- our heart’s attitude. Even though David was far from perfect, he was a man after GOD’s own heart (I Samuel 13:14). That is David sought GOD and what GOD desired.

We must remember that “ GOD sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (I Samuel 16:7 NASB). That heart attitude desiring to know and worship GOD is very precious in HIS sight. GOD sent the angel Gabriel to Mary with the words that she was highly favored (Luke 1:28) during her conversation with the angel she declares she is the willing obedient servant of the LORD, which clearly indicates she had a heart that sought after GOD.

What is in our hearts- what we think about and desire- will overflow into actions. That is why we are told ”Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do” (Proverbs 4:23 NLT).

Now that brings us to the last reason I am going to mention on why I think GOD chose Mary. When the Angel came to Mary and told her she was to have a son, she didn’t argue or refuse or say, “it is my body”- Mary simply asked, “How can this be?” That is- she wanted to know how it would take place.Then- understanding that it didn’t require any wrong action on her part and fully realizing that she could be stoned to death for getting pregnant without being married, Mary submitted herself fully as a living sacrifice to GOD to use her according to HIS great plan. “I am the LORD’s servant.” Mary answered, “May it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38 NIV).

“GOD resists the proud but gives grace to the humble”(James 4:6). Mary humbly submitted herself to GOD. In other words she was willing to trust GOD and do what HE asked her to do.

A heart willing to trust GOD and do what HE wants is precious to GOD. Are you, am I, willing to trust HIM and obey when we don’t understand and regardless of the consequences?

Consider these things and may the good LORD give you wisdom and understanding (James 1:5, 1 Corinthians 2:10) as HE guides you with HIS peace (Colossians 3:15), strengthens you with HIS joy (Nehemiah 8:10), and enables you with HIS grace (Hebrews 4:16). Keep looking unto JESUS(Hebrews 12:2) and talk over your thoughts with HIM (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Hugs

Sharon