Cling

With the evil escalating these days we don’t know what might happen or when.  But it sure seems like we are in the last of the last days before that ominous 7-year Tribulation begins.  Yet some are like the little guy in the picture.

This little guy is holding on for dear life, are you, am I clinging to anything on this earth like that?

“Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs” Jonah 2:8

KJV reads “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy”

Another translation, “They who keep their focus on empty delights turn their backs on all the mercies waiting for them from the LORD”

What are you, what am I clinging to today? If our desires and delight is in the things of this world that is what we will think about. But if our desire and delight is in GOD, we will think of things GOD wants us to think about and we yield to those nudges and insight flowing from the HOLY SPIRIT.  Yes, we will be quick to obey the promptings HE gives. (Romans 8:5 and Philippians 3:13)

I’m not talking about being holier than thou but being practically led in even the little things like making a phone call, praying when someone comes to mind, or bringing JESUS into the conversation.

As that day approaches, I sure am glad I belong to JESUS, and wish everyone did.   JESUS promises to gather HIS own to HIMSELF and take us to where HE is in heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17) before that great and terrible time begins.  JESUS has promised to deliver us from the wrath to come for GOD has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our LORD JESUS CHRIST (1 Thessalonians 5:9). 

GOD wrath, the means of pure justice, must fall since the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY is the upholder of righteousness.  Unless recompense comes and sin is dealt will completely, sin will reign and continue to destroy.  It must be stopped.  GOD in HIS longsuffering has waited in order to give men more time to turn to HIM.  HE will not always strive with men.

GOD has made a way of escape. JESUS came from heaven to die to save us from our sins.  Not just to forgive and cleanse us, but also to change our hearts so we want what is right and good. 

Therefore, in these last days I am more than ever focused on telling others of JESUS so they too may escape the wrath of GOD on evil.  If it does come on them, it will because they chose it by refusing GOD and the deliverance HE offers.

Hugs

Sharon

HE was made like us

I’ve been thinking of our great GOD and Savior JESUS CHRIST, Who gave HIMSELF for us… (Titus 2:13-14) the ONE who made all things (Hebrews 1:2).  I’ve been looking back at some of what HE endured for me and you before HE even went to the cross to bear our sin (Isaiah 53:4-6).

Let’s start with Hebrews 2:17: “Wherefore in ALL things it behoved (it was necessary for) HIM (JESUS) to be made like unto HIS brethren (those who would be born into the family of GOD through faith in JESUS John 1:9, Romans 8:29), that HE (JESUS) might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to GOD, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.”

JESUS was made like us so that we could be made like HIM (Romans 8:29).

I started a list of ways JESUS was made like us (it is not complete by a long shot) and want to share a few of those things.

We will notice in this list JESUS submits to GOD the FATHER and GOD the HOLY SPIRIT instead of doing HIS own thing (Isaiah 58:13-14) as we ought to submit to the eternal triune GODHEAD’s instructions and will for us.

1-JESUS, though equal with GOD the FATHER and being a SPIRIT by nature (John 4:24), didn’t grasp at HIS rights but took on a human body, a body like we have so HE could die for us since GOD cannot die (Hebrews 2:9, Philippians 2:7-8). It was a second birth: HE was a SPIRIT then born (took on a human body) by the working of the HOLY SPIRIT (Luke 1:35) as we are born again (2^nd birth) into GOD’s family and our spirit comes alive (we who were dead in spirit by our trespasses and sin are made alive through the work of the HOLY SPIRIT Ephesians 2:1, John 3:3, 5-6).

2-JESUS was led by the HOLY SPIRIT (Matthew 4:1, Luke 4:1) as we ought to allow the HOLY SPIRIT to lead us (Romans 8:1, Galatians 5:16-18).

3-JESUS was filled with and empowered to serve by the HOLY SPIRIT (John 3:34, Luke 4:1, 14) as we also are told to pray and ask to be filled with and empowered by the HOLY SPIRIT to serve GOD (Luke 11:13, Acts 1:8, 4:31, Ephesians 5:18).

4-GOD anointed JESUS of Nazareth with the HOLY SPIRIT and power (Acts 10:38), just as we the believers also are anointed with the HOLY SPIRIT (John 14:26, 1 John 2:20, 27).

5-JESUS was tempted in ALL ways just as we are, but HE was without sin (Hebrews 2:18, 4:15).

6-In order to bring us to glory (HIS assignment), JESUS was prepared through the things that HE suffered (Hebrews 2:10, 5:9).  We believers of JESUS are prepared for service (our assignments) through suffering (2 Corinthians 1:3-4, 7).

7-JESUS, the eternal Word (John 1:1-3, 14), could only teach HIS disciples through the work of the HOLY SPIRIT (Acts 1:2).  The inner witness of the HOLY SPIRIT was necessary for the disciples to understand even though it was JESUS do the teaching (1 Corinthians 2:10-12, Luke 4:18).  How much more do we need the power and witness of the HOLY SPIRIT when we teach and preach the Word of GOD? (Acts 1:8).

As it is written, “that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” (Deuteronomy 19:15, Matthew 18:16).

Amazing, isn’t it that our Creator (Hebrews 1:2) would choose to be made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death… that HE by the grace of GOD should taste death for every man (Hebrews 2:9)?

Hugs

Sharon

The wonder

Jeremiah 9:24 EXB  But if people want to ·brag [boast], let them brag [boast] that they understand and KNOW ME. Let them brag [boast] that I am the Lord, and that I am ·kind [loyal] and fair [just], and that I do things that are right [righteous] on earth. ·This kind of bragging pleases ME [In this I am pleased],” says the Lord [1 Corinthians 1:31; 2 Corinthians 10:17; James 1:9–10].

How could the SON of GOD dying on the cross be good?

HE (JESUS) said, It is finished, and HE bowed HIS head and give up HIS SPIRIT John 19:30

JESUS, eternally in the form of GOD, took on the form of man and became “GOD with us” (Matthew 1:23) and then on the cross became “GOD for us” by giving up HIS life to rescue us so that we could be forgiven and KNOW HIM personally and even become HIS children if we only believe (John 1:12-13, John 3:16).

And then JESUS rose from the dead, proving HE was the SON of GOD with power (Romans 1:4) and guaranteeing that we who believe in HIM will rise again and live forever with HIM.  

hugs

Sharon

Are you ever surprised?

Do things ever surprise you? They do me, but GOD is never surprised for HE knows all things before they even occur, from the before time began.

GOD’s ways are not our ways, HE doesn’t think like we do (Isaiah 55:8-9). I know that, yet I still find the evidence of it amazing.  GOD truth never changes (Psalm 100:5) and a recent event most are aware of reveals that fact.

“GOD that made the world and all things therein, seeing that HE is LORD of heaven and earth… (Acts 17:24)… HE gives to all life, and breath, and all things…(Acts 17:25)… HE made of one blood (Adam) all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has PRESET the EXACT TIMES and PLACES…” (Acts 17:26)

WHY?

“That they should seek the LORD (their choice), that they might feel after HIM, and find HIM, though HE be not far from every one of us:  For in HIM we live, and move, and have our being…” (Acts 17:27-28).

The world we live in is facing many problems and because of them many are seeking GOD and finding HIM.  But as a whole people are trying to find answers on their own and ignore and even deny GOD’s existence.

Most of us are aware that one man (a football player) had a heart attack after a play on the football field. Millions upon millions who previously mocked GOD began to pray, even over the media which is strictly taboo in our secular world.

GOD knows what HE is doing.  HE set the time and the place according to HIS love and burning desire to save people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).  GOD gives opportunities so that people can turn from their own ways to HIM and be saved (Ezekiel 18:23, 32 33:11).  Sometimes it takes a lot for us to see our need of HIM. 

I praise the LORD the prayers for that football player are being answered.  I pray that many will find the ONE to whom they reached out to on behalf of that football player! (Romans 6:23, 3:23, 10:9-10, 13).

Hugs

Sharon

Help from the heat

With this heat wave, no matter how one tries it is hard to get relief.  Yesterday, one of my girls traveling home in a jeep with no air conditioner stopped at a gas station.  Seeing stars before her eyes, she felt as though she would pass out so her daughter handed her a bottle of water that she had just purchased and Jeri opened it and poured over her head standing right there with people all around.  As the water ran down over her, drenching her from head to foot, she revived!  Praise the LORD Who always prepares in advance and provides what is needed!  All we need to do is look to HIM.

“I would seek GOD…WHO gives rain upon the earth and sends waters upon the fields” (Job 10:8, 10). And seek the LORD JESUS CHRIST who saved me by washing me from my sin with HIS very own blood (Revelation 1:5) and changes and purifies me with the washing of the water of the WORD of GOD (Ephesians 5:26).

Now this boldly beaked Toucan is the toco toucan, is a great example of GOD preparing HIS creatures for where HE places them.  This bird lives in world’s largest area of tropical wetlands, the Pantanal, which stretches across a large swath of Brazil along with parts of Paraguay and Bolivia. The weather is warm and humid, and GOD, in HIS interesting and creative way enabled the Pantanal’s wildlife to handle the sultry conditions.

The toco Toucan species has the largest beak, relative to its body, of any bird. While his big bright bill is terrific at plucking and peeling fruit, and defending against predators, its greatest use may be in regulating temperature.  The toco toucan’s lightweight keratin beak is underlain with blood vessels which help dissipate body heat. The jumbo beak serves as a kind of thermostat, cooling the toucan off in much the same way those oversize ears do for elephants.

Aren’t GOD’s colorful designs enthrallingly amazing in wise practicality as well as beauty?

Hugs

Sharon

How did you?

How did you come to JESUS?

We each come to the LORD JESUS CHRIST when we see our personal need of a Savior.  Different things speak to each of us.  I called on the name of the LORD JESUS (Romans 10:13, Acts 4:12), when the HOLY SPIRIT took the pastor’s words, “JESUS took your guilt on HIMSELF on the cross” and spoke to me (convicted me John 16:8) of the guilt I felt.  I felt guilty over the divorce of my parents for when I heard them often argue it was about us kids.  I hated that feeling of guilt so when I heard JESUS took my guilt and all I had to do was RECIEVE the gift of forgiveness, I ran down the stairs and up to the front of the tiny church to ask JESUS to take my sin away.

GOD has a way to place within every culture something that tells them specifically about HIM.  In one culture it was a dream of a man with a banana leaf, with another it was a weird drum but whatever it is it speaks to that culture as nothing else can just as HE speaks to each person individually.

Since it is GOD’s way, Wycliffe translator Lee Bramlett was confident that GOD had left his mark on the Hdi culture somewhere; but though he searched, he could not find it. Where was the footprint of GOD in the history or daily life of these Cameroonian people? What clue had he planted to let the Hdi know who HE is and how HE wants to relate to them?

Then one night in a dream, God prompted Lee to look again at the Hdi word for love. Lee and his wife, Tammi, had learned that verbs in Hdi consistently end in one of three vowels. For almost every verb, they could find forms ending in -i, -a, and -u. But when it came to the word for love, they could only find -i and -a. Why no -u?

Lee asked the translation committee, including the most influential leaders in the community, “Could you ‘dvi’ your wife?

“Yes,” they said. That would mean that the wife had been loved but the love was gone.

“Could you ‘dva’ your wife?” Lee asked.

“Yes,” they said. That kind of love depended on the wife’s actions. She would be loved as long as she remained faithful and cared for her husband well.

“Could you ‘dvu’ your wife?” Lee asked. Everyone laughed.

“Of course not!” they said. “If you said that, you would have to keep loving your wife no matter what she did, even if she never got you water, never made you meals. Even if she committed adultery, you would be compelled to just keep on loving her. No, we would never say ‘dvu.’ It just doesn’t exist.

Lee sat quietly for a while, thinking about John 3:16, and then he asked, “Could GOD ‘dvu’ people?”

There was complete silence for three or four minutes; then tears started to trickle down the weathered faces of these elderly men. Finally they responded.

“Do you know what this would mean?” they asked. “This would mean that GOD kept loving us over and over, millennia after millennia, while all that time we rejected HIS great love. HE is compelled to love us, even though we have sinned more than any people.”

One simple vowel, and the meaning was changed from, “I love you based on what you do and who you are” to, “I love you based on who I am. I love you because of ME and not because of you.”

Yes, according to GOD’s way, GOD had encoded the story of HIS unconditional love right into their language.

What an amazing GOD we serve.

Hugs

Sharon

On a hill

Last night I joined many others as we gathered at a cross on the hill that can be seen from Highway 25 between Pueblo and Colorado Springs, CO. The other years I walked the long way up but this time this old lady caught a ride on an ATV. 

We came to remember and celebrate our LORD JESUS CHRIST’s work for us on the cross.  (the picture was taken as we were beginning to gather there at the cross.

Outwardly I was a very obedient child (goody two-shoes you could say) but the day I heard the preacher say JESUS died for your guilt, I was convicted and knew without question that I too was a sinner and needed a Savior. I ran down the stairs and up to the altar to accept JESUS as my Savior.  (Though I know now I could have been saved right there in my seat by simply calling on the name of the LORD JESUS to save me Romans 10:13).

I was delighted when the 1^st song we sang was “The Old Rugged Cross” for it was my favorite as a new baby Christian.

Now not all are outwardly obedient children.  Many, especially in the wicked times we live in, are openly deviant rebels.  One of my siblings and some of my offspring could easily fall into that category.

“the sons of rebellion shall all be as thorns thrust away, Because, they cannot be taken into hands.  But the one that touches them must be armed…” (2 Samuel 23:6-7 NKJV).

But GOD has made a way, just as HE did through the Red Sea.   Praise the LORD there is hope for us and our rebellious children! 

It was for us JESUS was, “oppressed, and HE was afflicted… (Isaiah 53:7).  And because of HIS suffering all have an opportunity to be saved and cleansed from sin and bondage.

“They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine” (Isaiah 29:24).

Yet as King David learned we come to our senses often through troubles. “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept YOUR (GOD’s) word” (Psalm 119:67).

(Take warning we who would spare others from seemingly hard things… pray for sure but remember GOD uses hard things to wake us up to reality).

A person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in JESUS CHRIST” (Galatians 2:16). “If righteousness could be gained through the law, CHRIST died for nothing!” (Galatians 2: 21).  

All mankind was dead in sin and trespasses (Ephesians 2:1-5) but when one believes in JESUS he is cleansed by the blood of JESUS CHRIST (Revelation1:5), the HOLY SPIRIT comes into that one (Ephesians 1:13), and the HOLY SPIRIT baptizes him into CHRIST JESUS (I Corinthians 12:13,27) and he is made alive (Ephesians 2:1-5) given the right to be a true son of GOD (John 1:12-13, 1 John 3:1-2).   

“as though GOD were pleading through me: I implore you on CHRIST’s behalf, be reconciled to GOD (2 Corinthians 5:20).”

“That if thou shalt confess with your mouth the LORD JESUS, and shalt believe in your heart that GOD has raised HIM from the dead, you shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation… For whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved (Romans 10:9-10, 13).

Looking with wonder at the old rugged cross and what my LORD JESUS did there for me.

Hugs

Sharon