Adultery is More than an Action

For those who think there is an innocent party in a marriage where there has been the acting out of adultery!

No one has been perfectly faithful to God. We have all been unfaithful many times in our lives, when we opted to do things our own way rather than seeking God for the answer.

Romans 3:10
"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:"

When we realize that not one of us has been perfectly pure in our hearts, we know that anything that is not of God is sin and anything that is not of God is adultery. To make ourselves the authority in our own lives, even sometimes, pushes God out, making ourselves above Him.

Adultery is loving another, whether it be self or another idol, is unfaithfulness against God.

Matthew 16:4
"A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed."

Those who place their trust in their comfort, their pleasure or their personal gain, anything other than Christ, are adutlerous.

Romans 8:6-11 "Matthew 5:27-28
King James Version (KJV)
27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:

28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."

God sees our heart before we ever do the actions, if we never do the actions, but have adultery in our hearts we have sinned against God and are adulterers. The actions are merely evidence of what has already been in the heart.

Those who will not forgive their adulterous spouses, have unforgiveness in their hearts, are in sin, and those who will not wait on their spouses for their repentance, are harboring self righteousness and bitterness in their hearts.

Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, can we not also be willing to suffer, waiting for our spouses to repent, willing to get on with our lives in the Lord apart from sin to relieve our own discomfort.

A Man Abandons His Wife

This morning my husband and I were having coffee in front of the living room window, enjoying the sun peaking through the fog on this cold winter day.

The discussion was on the marriage vows and the state of the world we live in. We are of the old school, that marriage is for life and that we are to take care of one another no matter what the hardship.

We remembered the foolishness of Pat Robertson when he took a question to answer on his show and advised a man to leave his wife.

The man who wrote the letter was asking Robertson if it was alright to leave his wife who had alzheimers to marry his girlfriend. Robertson answer that the wife was not really there anyway, she was like a dead person, therefore it was alright to divorce his wife, as long as he took care of her hospital needs, and marry his girl friend.

Never at any time did Robertson call what the man was doing "adultery." I was so agitated at his answer that I wanted to go to the back yard and scream out to the trees, the hateful injustice of this answer from a man who is revered by thousands of people all over the world. It was a travesty at best.

I would have asked the man with the inquiry, a number of important questions, the first one being, "what does God say." Then I would have answered with the words "in sickness and in health til death do us part." The answer would include all the scriptures about adultery and other scriptures having to do with self sacrifice.

The incredible wickedness of a man who would abandon his wife during her hardship, is despicable. More questions I would have asked would have been to the other woman, "what makes you think this man would stand by you in hardship when he cannot remain faithful with his first wife." Another question would have been to the man, "what kind of woman would want a man to abandon his ailing wife in favor of his fling in the sheets with her, while his wife is dying.

Can either of these selfish individuals make a good "new" marriage? First we have to understand that when this man divorces his wife, it does not sever the oneness that God created in them at marriage and even though he marries another by the law of the land, he remains in adultery with the other woman.

Robertson gave evil advice based on physical desire rather than on God's Word and His standard and principles.

Robertson removed the necessary guilt that leads one to repentance. He also endorsed fleshly selfishness while taking from the real wife, her need for companionship.

Here is what I would have told the man with the question:

"God made you one in marriage, what you are doing now is called adultery. Rather than stepping up to the plate to do the noble and sacrificial thing, in caring for your wife, you are indulging in fleshly lust. Your attitude toward you wife is hateful and mean." Then I would give him all the scriptures that pertain to self-sacrifice and God's view of marriage.

Robertson was basing his opinion, using no Scripture at all, on personal comfort and fleshly fulfillment.

This is one example of what happens when we are hiding the real us all our lives and one day without realizing it, God allows the real us to come forth in a big way.

Robertson was able to fool a lot of people for many years in his ministry, we could not see what was really inside of him. As he got older, God allowed his real self to emerge, exposing what he had been all his life. We do not all of a sudden change in our old age, all that happens is that God removes our ability to hide and exposes what our heart had been all along.

A clue that Robertson was a liar, was the prayer time when he would look into the audience of thousands of people and declare that someone "out there has cancer and is being healed right now." This was a huge violation of Scripture, divination is forbidden by God. He was using the standard technique of declaring a vague and general proclamation hoping that there would be someone who would match his prophesy, and it is lying.

This happened to Billy Graham, as well as Robertson. They were hiding inside who they really were until their old age exposed their real heart intent. They no longer had the ability to mask or hide what was in their heart, and their theology on the inside began to be exposed on the outside.

Both men were focused on fame and wealth, when they became very well known and popular, they began to let down their guard and the real self emerged. Graham spent a lifetime of compromise behind the scenes as did Robertson, until they were convinced they could say and do anything and still keep their following. They "went with the flow" of the culture.

It is best to ask the Lord to keep us in His will no matter the hardship, that our real selves are the same on the inside as they are on the outside. Eventually our old age will give us away, even if we don't know it or want it.

When we become too old and feeble to keep up pretense, then we will be exposed. People do not change as they get older, they merely are too tired to pretend anymore.

What we are in our old age is what we were inside all of our lives.

Do we become sweeter and kinder, or do we become angrier and more selfish when we are too weary to keep up the deceit?

I have given no scripture here because the post is long, but it is easy enough for each person to do their own research on these points. Please do not look at commentaries, read God's Word and pray as you read.

One might want to look up words like; marriage, selflessness, servant, put asunder, love, remain single, divorce, Love your wife as Christ loved the church, lay down life for wife and other scriptures pertaining to the attitude of the end times as written in Timothy.

In my answer to the man who was committing adultery, I would have included this; "instead of going off with that other woman, you should be spending every minute of every day with your wife until she dies, stroking her hair feeding her, dressing her and talking to her. It doesn't matter if she knows you or not, this is your duty and reasonable service to a life long companion."

The Lord's Supper or Christ-mass

Do we neglect what is commanded and do what is not commanded?

When has anyone seen the people of God spend as much time, energy and resources on the Lord's supper, as they do on Christ-mass.

Christ commanded us to remember Him in the Lord's supper every time we come together, but there are no instructions from Him to celebrate His birth.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26
"23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come."

If we took away all the gifts, the pomp and the decorations, would believers still want to celebrate His birth? I suspect that most of the goings on around Christ-mass, are based on personal enjoyment, more than on what Christ did on that cross.

The diversion from the important things, has been masterfully cloaked by the devil, to deter many from our salvation through the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.

How many of the people who are attending these Christ-mass day gatherings spend time in prayer and worship? How many have not celebrated the Lord's supper in a very long time?

Shooters!

I am so weary of hearing about all these shootings in our public places, especially schools where there are groups of children.

If every teacher were armed with gun in holster, in plain view, we could save many lives. When a shooter comes into a school with a gun, he automatically loses his right to be safe.

When we commit crimes we do the time and experience the consequences.

Don't want to get shot, then don't commit the crime.

The reason the powers that be do not think this way is because they are steeped in psychology. Psychology says we must be careful to protect the hurting emotionally disturbed shooter and forgets about all the children he will murder in his quest for importance.

Emotional trauma is not an excuse to harm or for killing others. These shooting rampages did not exist when I was growing up, we were taught to control our emotions and think of others first. And, there were serious consequences for crime, especially murder, ones life was required in justice to the hurting families of the victims.

Perhaps the modern day rampage in public places has something to do with the video games the young people are using daily, even in addictive ways. Sin indulged must find more exciting ways of expressing itself, it is never stagnant.

I have no doubt that those who do these crimes are hurting, but if we would stop teaching the children that they come first and that everything they do can be blamed on others, then we would see fewer of these incidences of mass murder.

Notice that we teach children these days that nothing bad they do is their fault but the good they do is to their own credit, we send a lying message of "claim the glory and blame others for the evil we do."

With the shooters, we can blame the drugs they are on, their family lives, their experience with bullying and many other excuses, but in reality, every shooter is thinking only of himself, even when he kills himself, it is all about him. His motivation is to harm others and make them sorry for him when he kills them and then kills himself.

Do we understand that "suicide" is as much a sin as murder? It is refusal to admit that we have no right to decide our own death date or in the case of murder, the death date of anyone else. Both acts are rebellion against and anger toward God.

Yes, our broken families have contributed to this sense of lack of self control. Since the parents refused to control their emotions to keep a family in tact, the child learns he does not have to control his emotions to do the right things.

The drugs, sex and alcohol are, I am convinced, response to the broken families. Anger has risen in young people exponentially with the onset of rampant divorce and remarriage.

If we could only admit that we have failed the children in our selfish pursuit of pleasure and flirting to fulfill our lusts in dissolved marriages and new spouses, then and only then could we begin to rebuild the culture. The children coming up would have a chance at a different life.

However, I don't think this can happen as long as those who are divorced and remarried continue to fight against the admonition to repent and become born again.

Teaching children that life is not all about them and that marriages are sacred and must be protected, would go a long way to removing the loneliness and desperation so many children feel.

I know there are many Scripture that could be quoted here, how about you, my facebook friends, adding them for me.

Let Go and Let God

This article is right on!! Amen, Amen!!

I have felt this for some time now, that too many people are remaining silent about their children's sin to keep them in the family, knowing that they will run away if they speak truth.

So many prodigals never learn anything, feeling comfortable in their sin because they never lose anything in their families.

This article hits the nail on the head.

The Lord has made me happy and comfortable without my children until they repent. For years I agonized over their disobedience and rebellion, trying to reason with them, but getting no where, when God made it clear that I was to let them go and just pray.

How many marriages are harmed because one spouse is putting too much into rebellious children and neglecting their spouse in the process. I say to married couples, let the prodigals go and put everything into your spouse who is on your side.

I think sometimes we fear being alone in our old age so we hang onto rebellious children too long. God can be all we need in our old age and He can be our protector. We must trust Him for our children and for our own protection too.

http://rr-bb.com/showthread.php?172548-How-God-Deals-with-Prodigals-Pastor-Ray-Pritchard

Two Most Neglected Commandments

The Two Greatest Commandments on which all the others hang, are the most neglected today in Christendom.

The absence of this Christ-like love is overwhelming to many believers who do demonstrate these Greatest Commandments of the Lord.

We cannot love our brethren, if we do not first love Christ. How can we love Christ or claim to, when His Word and His principles are not important to us.

Many will claim they Love God and then fight and argue when they are corrected according to the Word. Many claim to love God, but compromise many things in their lives in favor of sin.

A humble and contrite heart will hear a correction or rebuke and feel ashamed rather than defensive. If one is defensive then they are prideful and unteachable.

Matthew 22:37-40, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

hu·mil·i·ty

"1. A modest or low view of one's own importance."

James 4:6

"But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Is it any wonder so many people who attend church have little spiritual maturity. They remain babies because they refuse to be taught, they refuse to obey the Word, that tells them they need to ask the Lord to humble them. God will not teach a prideful person.

1 Peter 5:6

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,"

Colossians 3:12

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,"

Romans 12:3

"For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned."

What is Strength?

Those who think that "strength" is maintaining control over others no matter what, are walking in darkness and deception.

Strength is not forcing others to serve us.

Strength is not speaking more than we listen to maintain control.

Strength is not obsessing over who was right to win arguments.

Strength is not hiding who we really are to impress other.

Strength is not lying to get our way.

Strength is not fighting for our rights.

Strength is leadership submitting to others as servants.

Strength is listening more than we speak, and hearing others out before

judging them.

Strength is being willing to lose to honor God.

Strength is truth telling no matter the consequences.

Strength is integrity when it hurts to maintain it.

Strength is being willing to give up our rights for the sake of another.

Christ was the strongest man that ever lived and He is God! He was humble and submissive to His Father and to those on earth. Never did He fight back when there was injustice against Him.

He endured reviling without a word, told the truth no matter what the results, went to a terrible cross, enduing it without answering those who murdered Him, while praying for them.

James 1:12

"Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him."

1 Peter 2:23

"Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:"

He whipped the money changers in the temple, defending His Father's house.

He Explained to Nicodemus the way of salvation through being born again.

No Christ was not the gooy, frightened and politically correct "man", our culture would like us to believe. He was and is not our perspective of a man, He was and is God, Who created everything, and controls everything.

When we are tempted to think of Christ the way we think of men in our culture, repent, and see from His Word what He really was and is.

Christ Who loved so much that He was willing to give up all His comfort in heaven, while coming to earth to save us from our sin.

No man could ever do what He did for mankind. However, He is our example of a real man who cared deeply for people, more than His own life.

Mark 10:45

"45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."

Matthew 21:12

"And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves,"

Notice that the only time the Lord became violent was when His Father's house was being blasphemed. His defense was not for Himself, but for His Father.

1 Peter 4:10-11

"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

1 Corinthians 6:7

"Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?"

When we are held up to the standard of Christ, we are not very strong as a Christian culture. Perhaps we should pray for humility to become more Christ-like, that He would make us strong.

Arrogance Prevents Spiritual Growth

My husband and I were discussing the world today and the attitudes of yesteryear, while we were young.

My husband relayed to me an account when he had borrowed a rototiller from his father. After using it he returned it to his father in a timely manner but did not clean it up, except to knock off the large pieces of mud that clung to it during use.

A few weeks later we went to visit his parents and his mother told him that his father was angry that my husband had returned the rototiller with out properly cleaning it.

My husband's response to his mother was one of shame and sorrow that he had displeased his father, and had been inconsiderate to him by not taking care to diligently return the tiller in as good, if not better, condition than he had received it.

My husband never forgot that because the thought of displeasing his father was disheartening. He apologized to his parents, when he borrowed the machine again, this time it came back in pristine condition.

Now days when our children are confronted with wrong attitudes or actions, they fight back, justify and level revenge against the one who corrected them. Is is possible that our attitude toward our earthly father and mother is a reflection of our attitude toward God?

We are just old enough to remember the days when children wanted to please their parents, both of them.

Now there is evil favoritism toward one or the other parent, there is disrespect when corrected and subtle forms of manipulation and vengeance leveled against the one who will attempt to impart wisdom. The parent that tolerates and praises children without correction, is the one is the hero.

God said it would be this way, but we thought it would be in the distant future, not during our lifetime. Now we can see all that the scripture says coming true before our very eyes.

The longing to go home to our Lord, is increasing with great intensity. The sorrow we feel at this lack of love and respect for everyone and especially parents of adult children, is shocking and grievous.

From conversations with other older folks I am realizing how widespread this evil is, and there does not seem to be any sign of slowing.

When someone becomes angry at a correction rather than ashamed, we know we have encountered an arrogant and unteachable spirit. This seems to be the norm now.

Those who are much younger think they "know it all", when in fact there is so much more they need to learn, but remain stubborn.

They have been raised in a culture that has indulged their pride and ego continually, rather than teaching humility by learning to fail gracefully and wanting to be taught, so that they can grow in wisdom and knowledge.

My husband learned from the reaction of his father, even though the message came through his mother. He cared more about his relationship with his father than he did about his own ego.

We are living in difficult times, the times of rebellion and self indulgence.

We must continually pray that the Lord help us to not react to the hostility, but to endure as good soldiers, telling the truth as we are commanded and refusing to respond when reviled.

2 Timothy 3:1-9

"1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:"

"2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,"

"3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,"

"4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,"

"5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!"

"6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,"

"7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

"8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith;"

"9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was."

1 Peter 2:23

"Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:"

When I become aware that someone is a fighter, arrogant and unteachable, I must not respond, that the sinner may only see themselves and that Christ would be the only one to speak to them.

When I see that the person is a trouble maker bent on covert forms of manipulation, then I keep away from them as much as possible.

Proverbs 22:24

"Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:"

When we are constant companions with an angry person, we are in danger of responding in kind.

1 Corinthians 15:33

"Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners."

When we cannot avoid an angry man, then God has addressed that with great clarity;

Luke 6:28

"Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you."

I never ask the Lord to bless an evil man, except with the blessing of repentance, that the Lord would do whatever is necessary to bring him to Christ, and usually that is hardship.

However, that is God's Work, I have been commanded to bless when I cannot avoid an evil man and I have been commanded to avoid them, not becoming a companion of to them, so that I will not also be corrupted.

God has the right to hate the evil doer, He has a right to punish them, but we have our marching orders and what we are to do what He commanded us to do and leave His Work to Him.

Ritual Kills

In a post that was tagged to me, there was a picture of a man that was suppose to represent Christ, and the caption read, "if you love this man, thumbs up and share."

My comment was that I did not love the man in the picture because it was not Christ. 

These people wanted me to indulge in venerating a picture of a man depicted as Jesus. The typical artists rendition of a man with long hair.

God expressly commanded us not to make images of God, and when I said I did not love the man in the picture, because it was not Christ, they became even more staunch in defending it.

I was amazed that people who wanted Jesus were satisfied with this picture of a man who was not Christ, to represent Him. Who gave them the authority to appoint a picture of a man and call it Christ?

Religion desires to look good from the outside, but neglects the inner spiritual man.  Why would anyone be angry that I refused to bow to a picture of a man who is not God?  And not even a real man a picture of a non-existent artist depiction.

The anger at my refusing to become indulgent in this idol worship was a strong clue that the people involved were not looking for holiness, but for objects to make them "feel" spiritual.

When someone camps regularly on ritual it is a clue they are neglecting the inner man, after all, no ritual is necessary to bless the true believer who seeks to be changed by God in the depth of his soul.

We need no holidays, no rituals and no outward displays of spirituality to convince other.  What others think about us is of little consequence, it is what God thinks of us that matters. And He looks upon the heart.

Proverbs 20:27 "The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, Searching all the INNERMOST parts of his being."

Ephesians 3:16 "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the INNER man"

Matthew 23:27-28 ""Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but INSIDE they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. "So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but INWARDLY you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

2 Corinthians 4:16 "Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our INNER man is being renewed day by day."

1 Samuel 16:7 "But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the HEART."

The only observance outwardly that the Lord gave us was the Lord's supper.  And, churches now days are neglecting that. The first century church mentioned in the Bible observed that every time they came together.  It is the essence of Who Christ is and what He did.

Those who think they are spiritual by virtue of the rituals they observe are missing the greatest mystery and blessing of all, and that is Christ working in our INNER MOST being to make us more like Him.

Ephesians 3:16 "that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,"

Colossians 3:10 "and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him--"

Do we want to be more holy?  If we do we will throw away all ritual except that which Christ gave us.  

Emotionalism at the Ball Games

I was sent a video of a sailor in uniform singing some of our favorite songs, at a recent ball game.  The songs we grew up on that gave us good feelings, often to tears. 

I wonder if the singer understands that we are under judgment?

That no matter how much we ask God to bless our country, it will fall on deaf ears because we are not repenting from our sins as a country.

Psalm 66:16-20

"16 Come and hear, all you who fear God, And I will declare what He has done for my soul. 17 I cried to Him with my mouth, And He was extolled with my tongue. 18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.

19 But certainly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer. 20 Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, Nor His mercy from me!"

Our prayer ought not that "God bless us", but that we learn to bless God.

I used to love to hear these things, but I realize that all this wonderful emotionalism, isn't going to cause people to repent, they need the gospel and a spirit of brokenness over their sin.

Emotionalism only causes pride and solidifies our elevated opinion of ourselves.

Christianity in our country is not dedication to Christ but an emotional high that we look for, we like to feel good about ourselves.

2 Peter 2:18-22

"18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error."

19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."

If those people in the stands would take their focus off of their pleasurable ball games and begin to pray for forgiveness, we might have a chance at further blessing but of  righteousness, not freedom and material prosperity, but the blessing of a changed heart.

Psalm 51:17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

I wonder how many in the stands at those ball games, are on second and third marriages, how many have had abortions, how many are dressed in immoral clothing and will hit the bars after the game?

You see, that song was beautiful and the soldier’s decorum was commendable, but we have to look beyond the emotion to the reality, otherwise we may become prideful that we have changed our hearts by merely listening to a song that made us "feel good."

When our Christianity, in many Pentecostal and Charismatic churches is based on how emotional we can appear to others, then we have a fallacious, misleading and deceptive Christianity based on personal gratification.

This is not the Christianity of the Bible, nor does God desire it. He wants our hearts, quiet and gentle devotion to Him planted firmly in the foundations of the Word of God, motivated by love and desire to obey Him. Growing in grace daily as we seek His will not our own.

Emotionalism leads us astray, it causes us to think things are wonderful when they are not, it causes us to think things are bad when they are not.  We must ignore them, enjoy the song, but do not let it override our good sense based on Scripture.  

Political Swaggering

Swaggering and boasting about "lifting our voices" to change the political climate in our country has little or no effect. Our vote has no power, if you know how this system works, it is controlled by those of an elite group, that make sure that no one Christian or conservative makes it in power without lots of compromise.

The conservatives at the top, have little influence and power, we see that right now. When the powers that be, can shut down all our parks, not pay military and other forms of extortion, and end up getting their way, then we know that the conservatives are figure heads and no more.

The animal that runs our government is not just those we see on the evening news, there is a huge world wide machine that orchestrates things that never come to the surface.

All things are on schedule for the culmination of the one world government and the one world religion. You, can stand all you want and work real hard, but it will all come to naught because prophesy is in motion, there is no stopping it.

I say all this show that our efforts to "save our country", ought to be better spent praying for individuals, persecuted Christians around the world and witnessing Christ.

Our freedom in not very important in the vast configuration of things, but obedience to the Great Commission is.

Satan said "Self Esteem" but God said "Others Esteem"

2 Timothy 3:1-5 "3 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,"

Abortion rights, did not cause women to get abortions. When the Roe v Wade decision came down in 1973, as soon as the restraints were removed for abortion, the industry exploded with business.

The decision to allow it did not cause people to rush out and get abortion, they did rush out to do it, but it was their evil hearts that wanted the freedom, in the first place.

Had the women been moral and loving godly women the new law would not have been an issue, they would not have gotten abortions. The law would have been irrelevant.

When we give people freedom to sin, their hearts will reveal them by what they decide to do with that freedom.

We see now just how wicked the women were in our country by their response to the freedom to kill their own babies.

I can't think of anything more heinous, than murdering by torture innocent helpless babies for the sake of personal gain, the gain on the part of the doctors and the gain on the part of the mothers who want the freedom to be immoral without the responsibility that comes with it.

This mentality of freedom to kill for personal gain is no different from that of Hitler and many other wicked leaders down through history.

I didn't know what abortion was when the decision was made to allow it. I was innocent in these things. When the news caster came on the televsion to announce this new law, I turned to my husband and asked him, "what is abortion."

My husband told me that is was the killing of the baby in the womb, if the mother didn't want it. I was horrified and told my husband, "that law won't go anywhere because no woman would do that to her own child." I was 19 at the time and knew that a baby was a human being , no one had to tell me that.

How innocent and wrong I was. I had no idea that there were women in the world who didn't want their baby. I wasn't yet born again when I knew the principle of women naturally loving their babies. It was a God given inner instinct almost, to protect your baby.

55 million murdered people now, from this "freedom." And we think that God should bless us?

We have lost all natural affection for children, parents, elderly and the infirmed.

Parents are splitting their families because they cannot get along with one another any better than spoiled children get along with other children.

Watch how many people will fight and argue with you over divorce and remarriage and that alone will prove my point. Too many people are living a completely self absorbed condition to be able to submit. They are fighting for all the wrong things, their rights, not righteousness toward God but for their personal rights.

Ephesians 5:21 "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."

When we are clamoring for our personal rights, we have no time to think of others. When we are thinking of only self, then we will not humble ourselves before a holy God and even less with another person.

In our culture manipulation is the norm, to get what we want and we will stop at nothing including murdering tiny helpless babies.

We no longer have self control in anything.

God says in 2 Peter 1:6 "and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,"

Without self control there can be no deference to others or to God. Self control means ignoring our own feelings and desires to do what is right for others.

We need to change our mantra from "self esteem" to "others esteem." The devil was very cleaver in using self esteem to manipulate an entire generation into loving themselves above others.

Luke 10:27 "And he answering said, 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 your neighbor as yourself."

Where in this verse does it say to love your self first? It does not, the devil lied to us for the last 40 years when he said to love yourself first.

Many people who claim to be Christians would say the don't believe in "self esteem", but at closer inspection, we see by the way they indulge their children, lacking Biblical ways of discipline, that they infact, have bought into the self esteem teaching hook, line and sinker.

Manna or Quail?

God gave us our freedom and that very freedom that we wanted is destroying us.

Do you want quail like the Isralites demanded? Or do you want the manna that God provided?

We are so busy worrying about what might not be on the grocery shelves in the future, that we have little time to praise Him for what is there now, with all the fear mongering that is plaguing the internet.

Our grocery shelves are full, with every kind of food possible, and what do we focus on?  What might be,  some time later?  How completely ridiculous is that, and such lack of faith that God will continue to provide. If He took away half of our plenty, we would still be swimming in blessings!!!

Recently I have been grieved a so many believer focusing on the things of this world, especially politics.  So many things have occurred in our country that are unjust, that we think we can change or effect it by our complaining about it. Some will accuse others of not doing enough to “bring our country back.” 

I would like to address this in a different way, other than speaking only about the paranoia that comes with continual overdose of politics and end times fear.  Let’s look at how God views us and our concerns and perhaps our perspective will take a turn.

1 Corinthians 10:11 “Now these things happened to them (Israel) as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

All that the nation of Israel went through was for our learning.

“Not all Scripture was written to us, but all Scripture was written for us.” Randy Amos

The Instructions to the Israelites were those of warning, that God’s anger not be kindled against them.

Israel displayed 2 rebellions against God, the first was their complaining, and the second was the place they complained, in the presence of God.

Numbers 11:10 “Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused ; Moses also was displeased.

You see, among the Israelites were the mixed-multitude Numbers 11:4, who were the non-Israelites, who were there by marriage or were just tagging along.  They were not of the house of Israel. These were the ones complaining about the manna, wanting meat and because they complained the people of God began to complain too.

God said to the people of Israel, fine, you want meat, I will give you meat.  That pile of meat, quail,  that God gave them, that they so desperately wanted,  was three and a half feet high for twelve miles.  They were excited and began to gather their cherished quail.  There was so much for an entire month that the people couldn’t stand it anymore.

Numbers 11:20

“but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the Lord who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, ‘Why did we ever come up out of Egypt.”

Numbers 11:32-34

32 “And the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers); and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. 34 So he called the name of that place Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had yielded to craving.”

Quail is not bad, it was that it was not what God wanted them to have and He was angry that they were not grateful for His provision!

The things we crave that we think we want, God may give to us, and, it will not only become loathsome to us but may be of great harm.

I think of the mentality of “freedom” in our country. We holler continually about our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion and our freedom of the press.  We worship our freedom as if it is the beginning and end of all things. At close inspection,  what we have fought and died for all these years is the very thing that will ruin us.

The mentality of freedom has pushed out God’s principles from our hearts.  We think continually more about our freedom and taxes than we seek God. Our clamoring after our material wealth and our freedom to do as we please, is destroying us from within.  We need no other country to destroy us we are doing it to ourselves.

We as a country have worshiped freedom instead of God, we have elevated our rights and our desires above the principles of Christ so much so, that we can no longer distinguish between right and wrong.

Churches today are shouting “we want flesh”, just like the Israelites did.  The churches have allowed the “mixed multitude”, in other words, those who come to our gatherings but are not born again, to influence us with their whining and complaining about music and delivery of the messages, their desire for ungodly and fleshly programs that only drive us from the worship of God.

Israel wanted a political leader like all the heathen nations, they wanted to be like the world, and we can see in God’s Word, how that brought them grave troubles. Had they been satisfied with God as their leader, then they would have enjoyed the peace that comes with honoring Him. 

Israel thought that they would be stronger with a political leader than with God as their head.  They became obsessed with politics as our nation has today.  Every believer should desire God to be their head and God to do their fighting for them. But today’s modern believer thinks we must fight in the flesh to protect ourselves and that politics can protect us better than God can. 

We have spurned the Holy Spirit by our desire to rule ourselves.  When God rules in our lives, the culture and the politics have no power over us.  Those who trust the politics are in bondage to their fears and ultimately will reap the consequences of their fleshly thinking.

The Lord wants us to speak of His righteousness, and sometimes that will include in voicing our beliefs that others will become born again, through the realization that we are deeply in sin and headed for hell without Christ.

God never told believers to take over any governments, nor did He tell us to force non-believers to do what we do.  Our mission was given to us by God and that was to spread the gospel and obey God ourselves. 

Luke 10:27 “So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the  Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”

Proverbs 3:5-8

 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. 8 It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.

Do we have enough faith to trust God in all that we have to encounter here on earth, or are we looking for an earthly savior through politics?  An important question to ask God in our prayers.

Please beloved, stop praying for political victories and begin to pray that God will work mightily in the hearts of every believer that we may be that light that God told us to be, the light that testifies of the Lord. 

The Times They Are a Changing

I walked into a Starbucks shop a few months ago. I ordered my drink and moved toward a chair that was available, all the other chairs were taken, and in the other chairs were some men, seemingly associated with one another, I didn't think anything of it and sat in the chair to drink my coffee.

After a couple of minutes in the chair, a young man in his thirties asked me to get out of the chair because he had planned on sitting there near his friends.

Keep in mind that I am a gray-haired 60 year old woman and there were no other chairs available in the shop.

I was astounded, and said, "Oh, alright." I got up and had to leave because there was no place to sit. The man who had asked me to get out of his chair, sat down while I walked out the door to my car.

Is it any wonder why I have such a low opinion of the town I live in. This sort of disrespect happens frequently here.

When I was a young woman, men were still giving up their chairs for the sake of a woman no matter what her age, but especially an older woman.

Not one of those men in that shop gave up their chair for me, nor did they even look to see if they could find one.

I experience this kind of disrespect constantly on the part of those who were raised in this area of the country.

When I was living in South Carolina and Kentucky, a woman was treated with a great deal of respect, never would a man have sat down while a woman was standing. The men even rose from their chairs when a woman entered the room, out of respect.

Thank you women's libbers, you have destroyed all vestige of honor toward women. The men in this are have never been taught basic respect and honor to anyone,let alone for the gentile gender.

I don't know what it feels like anymore to be treated with respect or honor. I have little desire to be around young people anymore. I ask God to help me be individually discerning, so that I do not return evil for evil.

One thing for sure, I desire to be released from this area of the country, please, someone tell me there are other places not so hateful and mean.

2 Timothy 3
King James Version (KJV)
3 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their's also was.

Lord come soon!!!

Noah Account: a Picture of the Rapture

It was brought to my attention yesterday, that 70% of the babies in our county are born out of wedlock.

There are churches everywhere in this town, what is wrong with this picture?

My guess is that there are many if not all the grandparents involved are "not judging" and not passing on the seriousness of immorality. If they even believe it is immoral.

Too many people have shouted "don't judge" so long that they have forgotten, if they ever knew, that God hates sin and commands us to "abhor evil."

Abhor: to regard with horror, loathing, detesting.

There was a foolish saying when I was a young girl, that the older folks were saying to me and others, for awhile I believed it; referring to out of wedlock pregnancy; "only the good girls get caught, because they are not prepared to be immoral, they just fall into it out of passion on the spur of the moment."

After I grew up I realized how wrong this thinking was. I had several questions that I pondered that brought me to the conclusion that the statement was an unthinking one, coming from a worldly vantage point. And, Christians were saying this.

Notice that the thinking was not based on godliness but the character of the girl without God, based on the social mores at the time.

"Godly girls", do not find themselves alone with a man long enough for intimacy to occur. They guard their hearts and their morals. Our culture fostered this flippant attitude about morals by not teaching the standards of God at home and in our churches.

"What parents do in moderation, children do in excess" Bill Gothard

I would change this phrase a little to say "What parents accept in moderation children embrace in excess."

We were taught that dating was natural and normal, going off with a boy alone was acceptable, but that we had to control ourselves, but if we didn't there was compassion shown and no judgments made.

When I was young, the children of unwed mothers were adopted out often and the young lady was whisked away to another town to have her baby, so as to hide the shame of immorality. In some cases the mother would marry the father to give the child a family.

We see how far this has come, because we have focused on feelings and bailing sinful people out of their sense of shame, we have created a culture that has no shame. There are now baby showers for out of wedlock babies, there is smiling, laughing and revelry associated with the birth of an out of wedlock baby.

Jeremiah 6:15 "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; Nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time I punish them, They shall be cast down,” says the Lord."

I have a deep compassion for the babies in these situations, because they are being raised to think that anything they want to do is alright. They are being raised in one parent families, often on welfare, with many different men waltzing in and out of the child's life at the mercy of immoral mothers.

Child abuse has risen dramatically since these loose morals have taken root. There is a natural aversion to harming our own children in this way, it is the boyfriends of the mothers that are abusing their live in lovers children.

Then of course there is the problem of abortion, murdering a child because the child happens to be inconvenient, the ultimate child abuse...murder.

I become angry every time I hear a commercial on the radio that says "it is for the children." It it a lie, an advertising ploy to get people to support particular projects and programs. If in fact, "it were for the children", then we would not have so many children who have only one parent, they would have two parents and born within marriage. If we loved the children they would not be shuffled off to day cares and government schools. If we loved the children we would not kill them to spare ourselves a little hardship.

There are more children in foster care than ever before, because these parents who were irresponsible in their behavior are also on drugs and alcohol. They are living lives that are devastating to the children.

What is the solution?

More believers presenting the gospel to these lost people, letting them see that they have sinful hearts and need to be saved from their sin and hell, then showing them that Christ paid that debt of sin that we owed by His shed blood on the cross.

Once a person realizes they are sinful and need to trust Christ, then their way of dealing with life will reflect one of holiness.

I have to admit that I have little hope for this culture, because they have heard the gospel, or a perverted form of it. When a person has heard the perverted gospel first it is very hard to get them to believe a better one, the true gospel. They have become inoculated to the truth through a counterfeit.

We know that God must open their eyes, however we are living in the last days of the gleaning, there will be very few who will listen.

Luke 17:26-27 "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all."

We are there now friends, we are in these last days, everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes and no one will listen.

For 120 years Noah preached to the people, they would not listen and even laughed at him, but when the rain began and Noah and his family went into the ark, the world knocked at the door to be saved, but it was too late. The world perished without God.

Christ refers to Himself as the "Door." John 10:9 "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture."

The evil is all around us now, we are hanging on by the power of the Holy Spirit, however we hate all that we see us and desire to go home soon, in the mean time we must tell the truth to those God shows us to speak to, and continue growing in holiness ourselves, that the world not have an influence on us and that the world does not be led to think evil of Christ.

The account of Noah and his family is a picture of Christ and the rapture of His church, figuratively speaking the ark is leaving soon, Christ is returning to snatch away His church will you be going too?

Want to learn how to become born again, saved from your sin and hell, send you a private message and I will give you my phone number or you can give me yours and I would love to have a conversation with you.

May all those hearing this message seek the Lord!!!!