Does HE or doesn’t HE?

GOD says, “Call unto ME and I will answer and show you great and mighty things you know not” (Jeremiah 33:3).

GOD will answer our questions, in HIS time, IF we are seeking and listening.

“Through desire (wanting to learn) a man separates himself (gets alone with GOD) seeking (in the Word and prayer) he inter-mingles all wisdom (connects the dots of what he hears to grasp the truth)” (Proverbs 18:1)

“The heart of the prudent (one who considers what is said) gets knowledge, the ear of the wise (one who carefully listens) seeks knowledge” (Proverbs 18:15)

A friend thought I was a bit touched in the head (delusional) since I sometimes say GOD told me. She knows JESUS as her Savior and said she believed the Bible and though Philippians says: “For GOD is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him, yet she doubted that GOD speaks into the hearts of people anymore.  She’d asked to hear HIM, but HE never responded.

This gal had been struggling with different members of her family.  I had previously urged her to forgive the one who had hurt her so deeply, sharing the Bible truth that unless she forgave that one, the others in her family wouldn’t forgive her of things they perceived wrong (Luke 6:37-38).  I was trying to warn her.  For one of the GOD’s ways is ‘what you sow you will reap’ If you do not forgive others neither will others forgive you.

Galatians 4:^7 “Be not deceived; GOD is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

That principle is seen in the Old Testament as well as the New.  The Message bible translates Psalm 57:⁶ “They booby-trapped my path; I thought I was dead and done for. They dug a mantrap to catch me and fell in headlong themselves.” 

She rejected my counsel.

Then one day, as I sat on my porch swing, she joined me and was glowing. Then she related some recent events.  My friend said one day she went out walking and her depression hit such a low level that she felt there was nothing left in life for her but rejection and pain. So she cried out in desperation for GOD to take her home to heaven. 

Immediately she heard, “No!  It’s not time, you have things to do.” 

That really shook her up.  She ran into the nearest store, went into the bathroom and fell on her knees before GOD.  Just then her phone rang. It was the one she needed to forgive.  That one asked for forgiveness, and my friend freely gave it. 

Since she forgave the one who had hurt her, she has begun recognizing the LORD’s leading of holding her back or nudging her ahead and has seen encouraging results from obeying the HOLY SPIRIT’s leading.

My friend has learned that GOD will not tell us anything more until we do what HE has already urged us to do.  We initially know the next step of what HE wants us to do, for HE places it in our hearts and minds (Philippians 2:13, Hebrews 10:16).

She laughed and said, “I thought you were crazy Sharon, but now I understand.  I believed, but I held on to my own understanding and wouldn’t blindly do what GOD’s word said.”

Jeremiah 29:¹³ “And you shall seek ME, and find ME, when you shall search for ME with all your heart” 

Then she said, “Nothing has changed, but everything is new, because my perspective is different and I have peace, I have hope and I can hear from GOD!” (Romans 12:1-2).

1 Timothy 4:¹⁵ “Meditate on these things; give yourself wholly to them; that your profiting may appear to all.

Hugs

Sharon

What can I do?

How can we help people open their hearts to GOD?

Just looking around we know the time is getting close for the 7 years of Tribulation to begin since the criteria mentioned as precursors spoken of in Matthew 24 are everywhere.  To name a few, the world in many places seems to have lost their minds.  Mass rioting and looting in Europe,  wars and rumors of wars, famines, A1 to rewrite Genesis using man’s concepts and rejecting GOD’s, identity confusion being encouraged in schools.  Many see all this and just blend in, others are naturally thoroughly confused and want answers but don’t know where to turn.

We Christians have the answer.  “Come to GOD through JESUS” (Hebrews 7:25) and JESUS will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) and is coming to get us out of here before all hell breaks loose (2 Thessalonians 2:4-8a). We are called to witness of CHRIST JESUS and restrain wrong by our presence.  But often our attitudes, words and even actions turn people away from JESUS not to HIM.

JESUS asks of GOD the FATHER, “That all of them (that believe in ME) may be one, FATHER, just as YOU are in ME and I am in YOU  (John 17:21). 

1-JESUS is speaking of many individuals so, what does HE mean that we may be ONE?  One in what way?

Peter shows that we are to be one in nature with GOD the FATHER and JESUS, united in purpose and attitude (2 Peter 1:4).

JESUS continues, “May they also be in US so that the world may believe that YOU have sent ME (John 17:21).   

”I in them and YOU in ME—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that YOU sent ME and have loved them even as YOU have loved ME” (John 17: 23).

2-What will play a big part in leading people to be open to listening to and believing GOD the FATHER sent JESUS to save sinners?

Unity can only come as we act like JESUS and consider others before ourselves for how we treat others is a good indicator of what fills our heart.  

We are told to, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others ABOVE yourselves,not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.  In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as CHRIST JESUS” Philippians 2:3-5

Look up the verses on this subject below to find the missing words for the crossword puzzle.  (all verses from the NIV)

Across

1-Search me. O GOD, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious ______________ Psalm 139:23

2-Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as _______________for the LORD, not for men. Colossians 3:23

3-You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the _________________ of the heart the mouth speaks. Matthew 12:34

4-A________________ look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones. Proverbs 15:30

5-Create in me a pure heart, O GOD, and renew a right spirit _____________ me. Psalm 51:10

Down

1-You will seek ME and find ME when you _______________ ME with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13

2-Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were ______________the LORD, not men. Ephesians 6:7

3-I will give you a_______________ heart and put a new spirit in you. Ezekiel 36:26

4-the secrets of his heart will be laid bare.  So, he will fall down and _________________ GOD 1 Corinthians 14:25

5-Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the _______________so that you have a sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply from the heart. 1 Peter 1:22

hugs

Sharon

Seek and you shall find

Being 5 years older, my husband retired 5 years before me so I gave him the job to do the grocery shopping.  Although I have been retired for years, Mac will NOT relinquish the job. But at times he gets irritated when the store changes where they put things.  This week he could not find an item he thought should be in a certain place but wasn’t.  He hunted and hunted but couldn’t find it so finally asked a clerk who was stocking where the item might be.  The clerk told him, and Mac went right to it but later he related to me that he had passed that spot several times as he had looked for it, but never saw it there on a lower shelf by the rice because it had never been by the rice before.

In the same way we miss a lot in the Bible when we speed read or rush through our quiet times with GOD.

If I lost a diamond ring, I wouldn’t casually glance around, but I would search for it high and low until I found it.  As a young teen bride cleaning a company house before moving in, I found an expensive wedding ring. It was good for the owners that we knew who had just moved out so we could return the ring.  But it always baffled me why they hadn’t searched for it.

Treasures are waiting to be found in GOD’s Word if we look for the clues.  Much can be learned if we simply pay special attention to the details and ask questions as we read the Bible. Things like the context or the setting in which things are done and notice the specific words.  Words can have various meanings. If we notice the setting they are used in, often our questions will be answered.

For instance, this week as we were talking about suffering for JESUS, one of my students asked concerning a verse she had heard: “So then what does it mean to suffer little children to come to ME (JESUS)?”

When I explained the setting of that verse was when some were bringing children to JESUS to touch and bless them. JESUS disciples had rebuked them and said not to bother the Master with children.  But JESUS said, “Suffer (let/ allow) little children to come unto ME, and forbid them not, for such is the Kingdom of GOD” (Mark 10:13-14). Seeing the setting where those words were said, my student immediately understood what was meant.

In a program to show parents what the children had learned, the teacher spontaneously asked the children about JESUS’ miracles. One little boy said, “JESUS raised Lazarus from the dead!” When the teacher urged him to tell more about what happened. The boy responded, “Well, JESUS told them to open the tomb, and then HE said, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ And it’s a good thing HE didn’t just say ‘Come out!’ because there would have been a stampede of dead guys.”

Besides being funny, that little guy has the right idea.  HE noticed the details.  Do you?

Hugs

Sharon

Popcorn balls

Some check their phones, some ask their friends but where do you go to find the answers to your questions?

My grandchildren love to come to my house and make popcorn balls that old-time favorite holiday treat! The popcorn balls shown here were made by the one shown.

Now if you wanted to make popcorn balls but didn’t know how, which book would you take off the shelf?Would you take a book of history? or a dictionary? Of course not, you would choose a cook book.

We need to use that same kind of reasoning to find the wisdom we need to get answers for life’s challenges.  Answers we can also share with others struggling. We need to go to the ONE who has that wisdom and go to the book HE has given us.

“In whom (JESUS) are hid all the treasures of wisdom & knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words(deceive you with well-crafted arguments” (Colossians 2:3-4). “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men,after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8).

‘Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human reasoning and from the spiritual powers of this world under the instructions of the evil prince of the power of the air that works in the children of disobedience”(Ephesians 2:2).

Instead seek wisdom from Christ and when seeking wisdom remember that one of JESUS CHRIST’s names is the WORD (John 1:1-3, I John 1:1-3).  Don’t look in the world to find GOD’s answers. Go to HIS WORD (Hebrews 4:14-16, James 1:5-6, Proverbs 3:5-7).

Now, may the LORD guide you with HIS peace (Colossians 3:15), strengthen you with HIS joy (Nehemiah 8:10) and enable 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