2nd Timothy 3:2-4 Lovers of self; Evil in society

Hello all. God is good all the time, all the time God is good.  TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED!  Jesu Jevu!
   Okay, a little soap box time here.  We think of religions that sacrifice people, children to their gods. How barbaric that does seem, however, this is done is America daily.  First, let me say, because of The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (16 U.S.C. 668-668c) of 1940, then modified in later years, if you disturb an eagles nest or eagle in any way shape or form you have violate the above law.  This holds a fine of up to $100,000 and up to 1 year imprisonment.
   Now, we are protecting the American symbol, the Eagle, with this law and unlawful to kill the eagle, its nest, or destroy an egg.  However, for only about $1,500 at Planned Parenthood (you pay) you can kill a baby.  How much sense does this make.  We sacrifice babies for someones selfish motives; oh, yes, sometimes it is necessary to save the mothers life, usually it is for selfish reasons.  Too young, it will affect ones career, don't want a family but enjoy sex (possibly with multiple partners), don't think it is affordable, want to enjoy young life and party.  All kinds of reasons to have an abortion, aka, sacrifice babies to personal gods (as mentioned above).
   Check out the planned parenthood web site. Check the sex and relationship section and see if you notice anything.  Here is the web address: Planned parenthood
   As Christians we should stand together against the evil in the world.  Pray together in earnest, honest, and sincere prayer; not just a drive by prayer.
   Some of you will have different views concerning this stand and that is okay.  You just have to ask yourself are you taking a Biblical stance or personal agenda stance.  Here are some verses to ponder:

Leviticus 24:17 “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death.”

 “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5).
                “because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold” (Matt 24:12),

“For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2nd Tim 3:2-4).  This scripture really nails society today.
   This idea of abortion being okay, the idea of planned parenthood "counseling" women, the greed and selfishness of the world-- it is the elephant in the room and no one wishes to address it.  I do not encourage protesting, holding signs, getting crazy to get publicity; I do encourage fellowship and prayer, bonded prayer with fellow Christians to help America become great again and return to its roots of One Nation Under God.  If I offended you, feel free to send a rebuttal, or, preferably a face to face conversation.
  I do love each one of you and care about you.  This burden lit upon me and I felt I needed to share. Have a wonderful and blessed day.
Soli Deo Gloria
Johnny

Listening to God, knowing and keeping the faith 1 Kings 18:41-46

Good morning all. God is good all the time, all the time God is good.  TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED!  Jesu Jevu!

    1 Kings 18:41-46  Ahab, who is king and is Jezebel's husband is with Elijah. Obviously he saw all that went on and was on good terms with the prophet.

   Verse 41 Elijah tells Ahab to go up to eat and drink - "for there is a sound of the rushing of rain."  Obviously, the area must have been in a drought.

   Now Elijah heard the sound of the rushing of rain, but not a single rain cloud was in sight, anywhere.  So, was he guessing?  Was he just hoping?  No, I do believe that God, in a small still voice, gave him the message of rain.  Now this is what is interesting. 

   Now  Elijah "bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees" which was his particular prayer position.  So what is happening here?  Elijah maintains the faith.  He is not wavering! He is talking AND listening to God!
          Elijah sent his servant out to look for a cloud, yet he saw none.  He did this 5 more times and saw nothing.  On the 7th time (note the number 7) the servant said a little cloud like a man's hand is rising from the sea.  Do you see anything special about his report and description?  The cloud looked like a man's hand - hmm- could this have been the hand of God?

    Now, Elijah tells Ahab to get his chariot and go down to Jezreel before the rain.  Then the heaven grew black with clouds and wind and a great rain came.  Ahab rode his chariot and went to Jezreel.
      But notice verse 46- "And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance to Jezreel."

 Then a sudden miraculous endowment of Elijah with the physical ability to run ahead of Ahab's chariot all the way to Jezreel.  Notice, the hand of the LORD was on Elijah.  When God's hand is upon you, you can do many miraculous things; he did, he ran ahead of a chariot pulled by a horse. Wow!

   Now what do you see in these verses?  Faith & belief!  First, Elijah heard the rushing of rain (no one else did and not a cloud in the sky).
     Second, Elijah bowed humbly before God and prayed!

     Third, belief in hearing the rushing of rain and sending servant to look for a cloud - aka FAITH!

     Fourth, with God's ability he ran ahead of the chariot.

All of this was through his total faith in God.  Wow!  For us to have this much faith and pray as he did would be amazing and we would see amazing things happen in this fallen world we live in.

    My brothers and sisters in Christ.  Keep God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit  1st in your life.  Believe and go forth sharing the gospel with many.  LORD, let us be as Elijah and have an unwavering faith.  Love you all.

 Soli Deo Gloria

Johnny

How fickle we Christians are! Forgetting God! 1 Kings 18 & 19

Good morning all. God is good all the time, all the time God is good.  TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED!  Jesu Jevu!

   How fickle are we?  We are in a generation of all about me and I want it now. Get outta my way, I'm in a hurry.  No, I didn't listen to the preacher, I had other things on my mind.  How fickle are we?

    We spend 60 seconds reading our daily devotional, then on to life.  Huh?  What is life without Jesus Christ?  Without God?  How often we forget how great and powerful, let alone wonderful God is!!

  A prophet named Elijah went to the people, with full confidence of God and challenged 450 prophets of Baal.  You can read about this in 1 Kings 18 verse 20-40.

  Elijah speaks as we should speak:  He asked, and we should ask ourselves, then others: "How long are you going to waver between two opinions?” “If the Lord is God,follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!”

   The Elijah stands on his faith and you need to read the scriptures to see what happens.  In the end he proves God is God and Baal is phony. But then........and then......and then........

   Have you ever heard the expression, "she is a real Jezebel"?  Here is why.  Ahab, who witnessed the defeat of the Baal prophets by Elijah tells Jezebel what Elijah had done. (Jezebel is a Queen and is the wife of Ahab )  Jezebel says she wants the life of Elijah by tomorrow.  Now here is a man of God who challenged 450 prophets of Baal, defeated them, then killed them, and this one woman threatens his life - so what does Elijah do---yep ----

  RUN ELIJAH RUN!!!   He forgot the power of One God and fled.  Now, who is Elijah's god -  it is fear.  He runs.  The LORD comes to him in a cave and asks: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"  God knows, but Elijah needs to speak his fear.

   Then God told him to go stand by the mount before him.  He did, a great wind come but God was not in the wind; an earthquake came, but God was not in the earthquake, then came a fire,  but God was not in the fire.  After the fire came a low whisper.  This was God speaking to Elijah. 
          We need to listen.   God speaks to Elijah, tells him what to do; how often do you just stop and listen to what God wants you to do.  Now Elijah tried to justify his being in a cave; God knows already and we cannot talk our way out of a situation or justify the situation.

   Stop, kneel, and listen to the LORD.  So here you have a man who is strong and forthright in the LORD, then, this same man is afraid of a single woman, forgetting his strength in the LORD.  How often are you this way?  Me?  Frequently, unfortunately; however, the good news is I, and you, am a work in progress.  We need to stay in the word, fellowship, and remain in prayer to become stronger in the LORD.  Love you all.

Soli Deo Gloria

Johnny

Angry? Do it help, really?

Good morning all. God is good all the time, all the time God is good.  TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED!  Jesu Jevu!

   I say too blessed to be stressed, but, do I really believe it; do you really believe it? Hmm!  I see us (human race) traveling in all directions; hurrying here, hurrying there, it has got to be done NOW!  And I ask you, does it really matter.  If a large boulder is falling and I am positioned where it will land, then by all means, yes, hurry and move.

   People have red nose drives to raise money to help people in under privileged countries.  People go into the woods, tent cities, to give the homeless supplies. People rush home to work; work to ballgame; home to church; church to park; and on and on.  Then my question is:  "FOR WHAT?"  Why do we put ourselves in these stressful situations, then say 'too blessed to be stressed'?  Does it make sense to you?

   In all we do, are we really helping ourselves?  Others?  Needy?  People lash out at others for what good and logical reason?  Yesterday, at a gas station, a very wild looking lady, who has a cleaning service, came in to the store yelling that the clerk had cheated her out of her gas.  Nothing like that happened, however, this lady went on to berate the clerk, using exceedingly vulgar language, and using the N-word at the young man (she was black), creating a disturbance and uneasiness for the other clerk and the customers.  And for what?

    She paid for her gas with pennies and she appeared to have mental issues or was on a mind altering drug.  It was horrendous.  Did it help anyone for this situation to have occurred?  NO!
    Matthew 5:22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.   I am ashamed to say I stood there dumb founded and at a loss for words.  A quick prayer and asking for guidance from the Holy Spirit would have been helpful. But, no, again, I stood there dumbfounded, mystified that a person, a human, could be this belligerent, abusive, and degrading to another person. Did I help? NO!
  1 John 4:8  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

   Was love shown here?  No, only anger, frustration and hate.  But, did I help? No, the positive element that arose here was that God has given me an insight as how to respond if a situation such as this arises again.

    What are you doing?  Are you really helping?  If so, helping .........?????  Please pray for Marquis, the young man who was berated and cursed so vehemently.  May your Memorial Weekend be safe and enjoyable. Please remember the fallen who helped may AMERICA GREAT!  Love you all.

Soli Deo Gloria

Johnny

Mark 12: 30-31 Love thy Neighbor

Good morning all. God is good all the time, all the time God is good.  TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED!  Jesu Jevu!

    Evil is moving - and moving quickly into places it has not yet broached.  What can we do?  Pray, and pray earnestly.  There seems to be tragedy where there was not before, unrest where there was not before - political, spiritual, and secular.  When it all comes right down to it we should all spend time in prayer daily, communicating with the LORD and pray about all the unrest.

   Trump is president, get behind him united as an American.  The Pope leads the Catholics and a big influence in Europe - get behind him unite as a Christian.  ISIS is dealing out terrorism all over the world - get behind all the armed forces here and abroad to crush the terrorism.

  Do we?  NO!  Everyone is too busy fighting for their OWN PERSONAL AGENDA! It is important that we stay in tune with God; listen (be still and know that I AM), and work together as Christians for the greater good and glory of GOD!

  From my minutiae, a small insignificant place, I see the outside that looks good but the inside not so good.  The old adage of you can't judge a book by the cover is so true in the world today.  It may have an appealing title, attractive cover, but when opened it is a horror story.

   You may have a beautiful "church"   (your body is a temple of the LORD) But when you open the doors, there is nothing but ugliness, arguing, backbiting, gossiping, fighting, etc.  When you come to where 2 roads fork then the choice is to go right or go left. What will your decision be?

  So, in all that I am saying let us show beauty on the outside AND on the inside.  The disagreeing, fighting, ways of the world should not be allowed or rewarded in a Christians life.  We have to stand for the greatness of God, the salvation of Jesus Christ, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

   So, it is time, do you have forgiveness in your heart or hatred; do you carry a yoke of evil or let Jesus lighten your load?  The choice is yours - which fork will you take.  
^{Mark 12: 30} And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
³¹ And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

 Love you all.

Soli Deo Gloria

Johnny

Attitude vs Altitude

Good morning all. God is good all the time, all the time God is good.  TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED!  Jesu Jevu!

   Today is another great day to be alive in the LORD.  Attitude vs altitude!  Hmmm, have you thought of this.  I am sure you have, specially if you were in the world of education - it was a sign many teachers/coaches had in their classrooms.

    Sometimes we forget to do a self check.  Altitude - if you are flying in a plane your desire is to fly at the optimal altitude where you will get the best flight, least head wind, and best fuel useage.  You definitely do not wish to be flying low in cross winds as this will definitely be a rough and bumpy flight using more fuel.

   Well, sometimes we need to have an attitude check.  I know this from personal experience as my wife and I had a discussion last night about my attitude.  My attitude was not bad, just not good.  My attitude was flying into a head wind with some cross winds and causing my passengers to have a bumpy and less enjoyable ride.  Ever been there?  I need to be reminded:

Luke 10:27  And he answered, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND (love) YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."

Matthew 22:39  "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'

  

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

  I have to be reminded, unfortunately frequently, about my attitude.   However, fortunately, I have a wonderful, God fearing wife that keeps me in check.  For that I am grateful to God and to my wonderful wife.

   If I have offended anyone please let me know so that I may make amends.  Also, if you have offended anyone, make amends, ask forgiveness, and let the burden arise from your shoulders and your load be lighter and bearable.  Christ tells us to take up His yoke in Matthew: 

Come to Me,

all of you who are weary

and find life burdensome;

I will refresh you.

Take My yoke on your shoulders

and learn from Me,

for I am gentle and humble of Heart.

You shall find rest

because My yoke is easy

and My burden light.

-- Matthew 11:28-30

  Thank you for reading. Love you all.

Soli Deo Gloria

Johnny

Examine ourselves - 2 Corinthians 13:5

Good morning all. God is good all the time, all the time God is good.  TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED!  Jesu Jevu!

   Please pray for the Teresa & Donnie Jones family as they lost a son to a car wreck on May 18 (yesterday). 

   Examine ourselves----why?  If we don't do a spiritual self examination, then our ways may wander.  A  cabinet maker examines his work for flaws.    An account examines his work for accuracy.  A mechanic examines his work for errors.  And we could go on and on.  BUT, do we examine our ways and check our spiritual accuracy?  Probably not.

   When Christ had the last supper he said eat of his body, drink of his blood.  Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians if we don't examine ourselves and partake of the last supper (communion) unworthily we eateth and drinketh damnation to ourselves.

   So, is self examination necessary?  Yes!  However, we must not hang our heads but go forth in the word, in the spirit, knowing we are God's children.  2 Corinthians 13 Paul is telling the Corinthians, basically, to get right with God.  This is his third time to come to them and he says if he has to come (v2) "I will not spare" - meaning he will chastise them for their wrong doings in Christ.

   2 Corinthians 13:5 "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.  Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"

  Wow!  Is this straight forward or what?  Obviously Paul is not a politician but speaks the truth.  The purpose of self examination is not to see if you have salvation; but to ensure you are following God's word.  That our actions, thoughts, and words are of acceptable standards to God.  Works are not assurances of salvation.  Works alone will gain you nothing; so, we need to be certain we are in the Spirit and totally acceptable to God.  How are we totally acceptable to God?  Through Jesus Christ, whom we accept as our saviour.  So, now the question is are you a reprobate or acceptable?  Then, with either answer, what are you going to do now, today?

    As I sit on the back porch I hear the wind whistle by, know God sent it; I look at the nature before me and know God created it.  I look at life itself and know that God created it from dirt and  breathed life into the nostrils of man.  Do I know God exists? YES, definitely.  Will I follow Him, yes, to the best of my ability; yet know I am forgiven of all my sins - past, present, and future.  Pray for many, pray for all, pray for Clayton Johnson. Love you all.

Soli Deo Gloria

Johnny

p.s. pray for me as I pray for you!