Category: BLOG

NO ONE COMPARES

I Cor 12:14-18 For the body is not one member, but many.  15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is therefore not of the body.  16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body?  17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?  Where were the smelling? 18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him. 

Notice verse 18 God hath set the members in the body the way he wishes.  We have to accept the perfect will of God. Sometimes we look at other people’s callings and they look more glamorous than our own. But when God was creating each of us, he made us with the talent and temperament to walk in our calling.

If you compare yourself to others, it is easy to get down on yourself. Sure, everyone would like to have the perceived glamour jobs in the body.  What people don’t often understand is the day-to-day, behind-the-scenes things people do. Every function in the body is important. We all needed to see this lost world saved. The harvest is ready; what if everyone wanted to drive the truck to the storage barn. No one wanted to pick the fruit of the harvest. Nothing would get accomplished. 

Life is better if we just do what God has asked of us and allow everyone else to do the same. The plan will all come together because God is a master at planning. We all have a task to do for the end-time harvest. What is yours? If you know, go and do it with all your heart; souls are depending on it. If you don’t know yet, that is ok too.  Seek His face and all will be revealed to you at the right time.

Comparing ourselves to others can cause harm in two different ways. One, if you feel like others are better than you, you are in danger of the enemy causing you to give up.  You may feel like you will never measure up.

Two, if you feel like you are above others, you are in danger of developing a superior attitude. You may feel like you have arrived and will quit trying. This could also make you judgmental. Life is best when we are just simply who we were created to be by God.

Remember, you are fearfully and wonderfully made; there is no one like you.  So don’t waste your time trying to be someone else.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

Acceptable In Thy Sight

Psalm 19:14  Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

We have all said something unkind that we would like to take back.  The Bible says the tongue is hard to tame.  We have, at times, allowed our minds to get fixed on a goal or material thing.  But only in Jesus can we have true peace.

Only when we focus completely on him will all of our words and our actions be acceptable in his sight? He is so faithful to be there, to help us up when we fall.  Our strength comes from the Lord.  He is our Lord, Savior, Father and Friend.  He is the one who saw something special in each of us, enough to die to save us.

We were created to worship the Lord.  The word tells us to have a pure heart that worships the Lord in Spirit and truth. We need to worship Him with our whole hearts. If our words are acceptable in His sight, we will be speaking God’s love and truth.

If the meditation of our hearts is acceptable in His sight, we will have our hearts fixed on the things of God. We will be thankful and grateful for all He has done for us. Our hearts will be for the things of God. Our desire will be to see souls saved.

Every day we should wake with a grateful heart and ask for God to guide our day. If we put him first and focus on his direction, we will accomplish what is necessary for the day. This is a verse that we should pray every day.

Psalm 19:14  Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

GET UP

You know, sometimes we feel like that; we are one mistake away from God doing a facepalm and saying, “Uh, I’m so done with them. They just make too many mistakes. They fall down too many times. They’re just not what I thought.” Because that’s how we get with people sometimes.

People often test our limits, and we’re like, “I just can’t deal with them anymore. Not one more thing can I deal with when it comes to them.” Then, we tend to walk away from people, which gets us to the point of being so exasperated that we just can’t take one more thing.

But God never feels that way about us. He sees the potential of what we can be. He sees our worth as far greater than we can see in ourselves. He never shakes his head and goes, “I just don’t know what I’m gonna do with them. I just can’t believe they have done that.” Again, He’s not surprised by anything. He knows everything. He knows why we make the choices we make. It’s because of some trauma or experience in our past. Most of the time, we have a tendency to react instead of stopping and thinking about what we should do? It is easy to just react. But sometimes, we lack self-control when those situations arise.

 But God has never been surprised. Nothing we do shocks him. And you know He says, if we are His child, “I will never leave you, forsake you, or fail you.”

 Deut 31:6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Heb 13:5 6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

I am so grateful that God shows us grace when we fail. I am so glad he doesn’t give up on me. Over the years, many people have disappointed us, hurt us, taken advantage of us, and lied to us. It is a great comfort to know that we are in good hands with Jesus. We can trust his hands because they are nail-scarred for us.

James 4:10 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

There is not anywhere we can end up that God is to able to save us.  We cannot fall too far for him to pick us up. We often talk about how we are not supposed to judge God’s children. Have you ever stopped to think about how that includes yourself?

I have, at times, been very hard on myself. This is a trick of the enemy.  If he can keep us distracted by being hard on ourselves, then we will not be doing what we need to do.

Gal 6:1-2 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

If we do what God wants us to do when others fail or fall down, we pick them back up. Then we also ought to pick ourselves back up, when we fall.  God is not ready to give up on us.  We should not give up either.

Zeph 3:17- 17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

He rejoices over us. He is not ready to throw in the towel and walk away as long as we try. He knows our hearts. I love this verse; it makes me think about how a parent rocks a baby to sleep. Holding them close and quietly singing over them. That singing brings peace to the child.

We have peace through Jesus Christ because He loves us. We can depend on him to be with us.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

LITTLE FOXES

Song Of Solomon 2:5 15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

It is often preached how we must bear fruit.  The fruit is what attracts people to the gospel of Christ. But our fruit also attracts the enemy.  Just like in the natural when we grow a garden. We are growing it to sustain us and share with neighbors. But often we have critters that come along and destroy our garden by eating the buds before they can become fruit, or they eat the beginnings of the fruit.

The enemy wants to devour our fruit and to destroy our character. If he can get us to sin, it will hurt our witness.  Often it is not things that are considered the big sins. You don’t have to murder someone, get caught up in a lie or commit adultery for example. Maybe it is something small, the little things can destroy the entire vine.

A little fox will pull down the entire vine, breaking it and damaging the vine. A grown fox can reach the fruit and will not damage the vine. This is why we need to take this verse as a warning to watch the little things. They are capable of destroying the whole vine.

Take some time to check to see if there are any little things you can get rid of before they damage your life. Have a good weekend!

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

TAKE IT BACK

My friend Bonnie and I recently took a drive looking at fall leaves and ended up in a beautiful town in West Virginia.  I was surprised at all the witchcraft and demonic stuff that was in that town.  I am not talking about Halloween decorations. (Although, that is another topic. God doesn’t want us to celebrate evil or put horror movies before our eyes to get into our spirits) I am talking about the items for sale in the bookstore, for example. We asked if they sold bibles, and the clerk informed us there may be one in the religious section. In that entire section of 4 racks of books, there were 3 small shelves about 3 feet long with Christian literature.  These books were placed with the back to the back of the shelves so that the front of the books was facing outward. And there was one watered-down version of the bible.

The rest of the religious section was all about the occult and witchcraft. These books were on the shelves with only the spines exposed because they had so many different ones. They had tarot cards and all sorts of demonic things. We cannot fully blame the bookstore because stores just stock what sells. They are all about profit. But I blame the church. We have let down and allowed the enemy to get strongholds in places.  People turn to witchcraft because they want power to not feel helpless.  They want the power to not feel worthless. In the absence of truth, they turn to the lies of the enemy. He tells them that they can control their lives and have power if they do this spell or that incantation.  He tells them that there is a difference between a white witch and the dark ones who do evil. I tell you, it is all evil.

Gal 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, (20) Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,  (21) Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

The enemy will always try to copy what God is doing. But God has power he will pour out on his children to equip us to feel strong in our weakness. We are strong in him. Power to walk out a life of victory and not defeat.  They need someone to show them that the only real power is the power of God, that lives in us. Then show them that they can have that same power too. But they are going to have to see us walking in victory.

It is possible for the church to turn this around, but we have to walk in the authority and power that God has given us. We have to be the church God created us to be for this time period. God knew how evil would abound. He is not shocked. He has a plan; we just have to trust in him.

We can take back our towns, city, state, country, and even the world through intercessory prayer. Our weapons are mighty through God. He empowers us to pull down the strongholds.

2 Cor 10:4-5 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

GOOD BONES

I enjoy watching home improvement shows. I love to watch them take something that looks like it needs to be lit on fire and in the magic of television, within an hour, it is beautiful again. These old houses that need to be reclaimed and refurbished are often said to have good bones. As long as they have a solid foundation, there is nothing that cannot be fixed.

The church has been in a state of disarray. It looked like it was all over and sin was going to abound until it was destroyed.  But a fire is coming, not to burn the church to the ground but to get rid of all that is not of God.  It is time for “THE CHURCH” to be on fire for God. 

I often think about the valley of dry bones and how Ezekiel was told to prophesy to the dry bones. He prophesied to the bones and they lived again.  God is gathering the winds of change and will raise up his bride to be glorious, it is time for her to become without spot and wrinkle. We have to start speaking not about how bad things appear but about how God wants them to be in this time in which we live.

Do not believe everything you see; the enemy is out to deceive us into believing his agenda.  But I have read the back of the book and satan loses.  Tim Sheets calls him the “forever loser.” I often smile when I think about that phrase. It doesn’t matter what the enemy tries; he loses.  How frustrating it must be for him when one that he thinks would never turn to God suddenly breaks down in tears, under the presence of God and they cry out to Jesus. “Jesus save me from myself, save me from my sin, save me from the powers of evil.”

The defeated one, the forever loser, I am sure, gets angry every time he loses another one.  It is up to each of us to reach out and pull people out of his hand through intercessory prayer. We are called to reach the lost. The harvest is ready, it is time to go to battle.  Is your whole armor on? Are you asking the commander-in-chief about the battle plan? Are you ready to fight for the souls that are hanging in the balance?

II Cor 10:4-5  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Where do we stand on a personal level? Each of us has to talk to the master builder and make sure we have good bones. When we ask him to refurbish our lives, he will take out everything that needs to be replaced and will make us new again.

Until next time, BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

WHAT IS INSIDE?

If I have a pitcher full of tea, it is impossible to pour out fruit juice. Just like our spiritual life. If our heart is full of good, then we can only pour out good to others. The opposite is true also; if our heart is full of evil, we will be able to pour out evil on others.

A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit; you don’t go to an apple grove and get oranges. The type of fruit is determined by the type of tree. What kind of tree do you want to be?

Mat 12:33  Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. 

We are judged by our fruit, our kindness, our love, and our compassion. We are also judged very harshly when we fall down. It may not be fair, but it is how the world sees us.

Mat 12:34  O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.  Mat 12:35  A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 

This says once again what I said before: It has to be in our hearts before it can come out. I want you to notice out of the abundance or fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks.  If our heart is full of evil. We will speak evil.  If our heart is full of love, we will speak with love.

Psalm 119:10  With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. 

Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. 

Hiding the word in our hearts will always give us a stored-up treasure to draw from when needed.  Like a savings account. I cannot tell you the times I came up against a situation, and God would bring just the right scripture to mind.  If it had not been in my heart already, I could not have drawn from it.

If we take a coffee cup and fill it as full as it can get, what happens when we add a drop. At least a drop of water will splash out because it is to capacity. If our heart is full, we will only have love to give. 

Every treasure needs a treasure map. In the old cliché pirate movies, X marks the spot. The pirate even hides his map to keep someone from searching for his treasure. This is where we differ from pirates. We want to share our treasure map (our bible). There is plenty of treasure for everyone. Our treasure map is the bible. It is God’s word that will lead us to the ultimate destination where there are treasures beyond our imagination.

1Cor 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 

The word talks about heaven having a street paved with gold.  Walls of jasper and gates of pearl. There is plenty of treasure for everyone.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

CHURCH COME FORTH

Lazarus had died, and the mourners were with the family. In a normal situation, this would be the end.  He had been buried.  But Jesus came on the scene. He didn’t make a big production.  Jesus asked that they roll away the stone that sealed the cave where Lazarus was placed. He simply said a prayer for the sake of the crowd that had gathered, then said, “Lazarus, come forth.” Soon, Lazarus came walking out of the tomb.  He was still bound in his grave clothes and had his face covered with a napkin.  It took others to set him free of his grave clothes.

To look at the modern church, one might say we were all but buried. We were in a coma, allowing sin to enter the church and lull us into a deep sleep.  Jesus is calling us to come forth. He is calling for the warriors to arise and be the army we are supposed to be in this day. Every day, we need to put on our armor and go to battle.  Satan is after the body of Christ.  If he can keep us depressed and stressed, we will not be able to focus on our tasks. He is trying to cause us to not stand for the truth of God’s word.

We can be the church that the world needs by each being fully focused on God and what he asks us to do. We all have a job to do in the body of Christ. The task of seeing that the harvest is gathered before the night comes when no one will be able to work it is up to each of us. We need to do all we can to bring in the harvest before the rapture takes place on the earth.

We are at the stage where we need someone to help remove the napkin from our faces and set us free of our grave clothes. We can be the ones that help the body of Christ to arise and go forth in power. It is time for us to unite against our adversary, the devil.  People’s lives and souls depend on our ability to learn to get along and bind together in prayer and power. There is no greater purpose than to walk in our purpose and see souls saved.

Many souls are hanging in the balance; will they be saved? Will someone go out of their way to reach them? Will someone pray for them to be saved? Will that someone be you?

Until next time,

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

LESSONS FROM DAVID

Part of our daily walk is to make sure we keep our focus fully on God.  In a world that is fighting every second for our attention, it is harder than ever to stay focused. David is one of my favorite people in the bible.  His heart that is revealed in the Psalms is inspiring. He understood most of the time how to keep his focus.  

He talks to God about his worries and the fears of his enemy’s coming against him.  Like we often tell God when we have troubles and feel like everyone is against us. Life can press in causing tremendous pressure.

David also understood the difference between thanksgiving and praise. Thanksgiving is thanking God for what he has done. We praise Him simply because He is God.

Psalm 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

David’s life as a shepherd prepared him to be king. The shepherd provides for the sheep in many ways. They make sure they are on land that has food and water. Shepherds protect them from predators. They anoint them with oil to keep away harmful flies that can lay eggs in their noses.

God is our protector. He protects us from the smallest microscopic thing to something huge that could destroy us. He is our provider; our source for all we need. Because He is our shepherd and He loves us.

God gives us times that he isolates us and gives us peaceful time to reflect. In the isolated times he is helping us to grow and prepare us for a new level. We don’t always understand the isolation, but God doesn’t do anything without a reason. We have to trust His plan.

Isaiah 55:8-9     8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Other times, He gently nudges us to the outside world where we are supposed to make a difference. We are supposed to all be a light to those who are in darkness. It doesn’t matter what we are dealing with or what phase of life we are in we need to look to Him.

I Chr. 16:11 Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually.

Notice this says continually, not when things are bad. Not when we slow down or our lives are falling apart.  It says continually. We need him at all times, not just when things look bad. It doesn’t matter the phase of life we find ourselves in, as His sheep, we know he will take care of it all. We just have to be strong and follow where He leads. He gives us light to shine into the darkness of this world.

Psalm 18:28 For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.

As we start a new work week, take your light and go light your part of the world.  It is needed now more than ever before in history.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

YouTube Channel Announcement

Good Evening, my friends. I am excited to share news of my new adventure with you. For the longest time, I talked about doing a podcast. I may still do that sometime in the future. But for now, God has led me in the direction of a YouTube Channel.

My plan is to start posting short devotional videos, Mon to Fri. I should be able to start posting them in early November 2023. I feel God has given me a ministry to enlighten and encourage the body of Christ to fully focus on him. My blog is called God Focus. The YouTube devotionals will be called God Focus This Morning. I will be sharing longer videos containing bible studies, testimonies and encouraging words as God leads.

You can watch my first video by clicking on the picture above. Like, Share and Subscribe to my channel so you do not miss what the Lord is doing in and through my life. I will keep you updated. Until next time, BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS.