Miracles Happen Every Day

Miracles Happen Every Day

Many people are looking for signs to prove that God is working. When we trust Christ we see His work in all that is happening to us. Difficult or easy, we see the hand of God in our circumstances. What peace there is in knowing that God knows all about it and even has a purpose for us.

2 Corinthians 5:7 "for we walk by faith, not by sight--"

Matthew 16:1-4

"1 The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.

2 But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’

3 And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?

4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away."

The Simple Can Be Wise Too!

The Simple Can Be Wise Too!

I am not really interested in all the high minded terminology that tends to elevate self rather than bring clarity to any matter.

The Bible is simple, it is only difficult for those who want to make it so to be able to sin.

I hope that those who indulge in high minded vocabulary, will dump all their seminary training and esoteric (meanings meant to be understood by only a few) minded falderal (trivial or nonsensical fuss.).

The Bible is simple to understand under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, no need appear special or highly educated to bring Holy Spirit sense to any discussion.

Those who walk in pride must always elevate themselves to appear special. Unfortunately these kind of people tend to confuse things more time than they clear them up.

The Gospel is simple, the principles of God are simple and even the deep things, when the Holy Spirit enlightens us, are simple too.

Psalm 119:130 "The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple."

Man Cannot Dissolve the Spiritual Glue

Man Cannot Dissolve the Spiritual Glue

Just a window in to the matter of divorce and remarriage.  When two people are made one by God through a spiritual glue administered by the Lord, any attempt to remove the glue, does not dissolve it but only rips and tears at the fibers of our being as a piece of us is being torn and damaged, much the same way as an arm being severed.

I have heard it said that when a limb of our body is removed, we have the sensation that it is still there because the nerves are hard wired to operate that limb, even when it is missing.

If my husband divorced me and remarried I would be in continual agony every day that he remained with the other woman, because in my heart he would still belong to me.

Our culture has become so callous that we exchange people as often as we change houses or cars.

When a spouse leaves us a piece of us walks out that door, and we remain handicapped and emotionally drained. Until that relationship is restored there will always be that part of us that is not all there, not complete, our other half must return for us to be whole again.

There is an old saying that goes like this: when two divorced people remarry, four people get in bed together." It is a little crass, but if we are to be honest, there is an emotional bond to the first spouse that will never go away, it is because the glue that made us one by the Lord, was never dissolved.

Confessing and Turning

Confessing and Turning is the Only Solution to the Problem of Divorce and Remarriage

Yes. There are those that use the "exception clause" in Matthew to justify an attempt to dissolve a marriage, but that passage is not giving an out for adultery as some think.

Matthew 19:9 “And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication (sexual relationships before marriage), and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”

Remember when Joseph was going to divorce his Mary, (referring to her as his wife) quietly when she was found to be with child? She and Joseph had not lived together as man and wife, they were just betrothed (engaged). In the days of the Law, Jews had the custom of the engagement as binding the same as marriage, even calling the couple husband and wife, before they were formally joined or had any marital relations.

It was the Jewish custom in those days to require a certificate of divorcement from an engagement or betrothal. This is what Christ was referring to, that's why the word fornication is used in the King James Bible, fornication being before marriage.

This was not the custom of the gentiles which is why you see no "exception clause" in the other gospels. Because Matthew was written to the Jews and the other gospels were written to the Gentiles.

Mark 10:11-12 and Luke 16:18 both these passages leave out the "exception clause" as you will see.

Mark 10:11-12
“And He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces another man, she is committing adultery.”

Notice that the words are “committing adultery” when a woman remarries. This is the meaning in the original language. It is an ongoing state of adultery while in the new marriage. There is no provision in the Word for anyone to remarry after a divorce.

Luke 16:18
“18 “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.”

This is hard for most people in our culture to wrap their minds around, since nearly everyone now, having been raised with the idea that divorce and remarriage are completely acceptable, cannot and will not consider it sin. The apostate churches have been accepting this for so many years that those who challenge it are labeled mean and without compassion.

Those who have been remarried refuse to search the Word of God and pray, asking God to show them truth about this matter. They want their way no matter what the Christ says about it.

Many in the apostate church believe that not only is it a legitimate marriage when God calls it adultery, but that if one is convicted by God and leaves that adulterous situation, it is broken family.

The sad fact is that adulterous marriages are not legitimate ones and have produced a mentality of laxity on sin, not only pertaining to marriage but in every other area of life.

If we have no commitment to marriage, why would we have a commitment to any other principle of Christ? Our attitude in one of the most important areas of life is an indicator of our level of dedication to all of God’s principles.

Yes, we fail often in our walk, we take our eyes off of Christ, while focusing on our physical condition of life, and just like Peter, we begin to sink. When we maintain a steadfast gaze on our Savior we have strength to do what seems impossible to us. We really can get through the difficulties of life, even with joy as long as our focus is on the Savior.

When ever we see ourselves giving the details of a circumstance, fixated on all the problems of a situation, we have a clue that we have neglected our first love to become obsessed with this life more than with our spiritual condition and the lesson God has for us.

I know these things because I have struggled often with gazing at the temporal, as God would speak to me through the trials, reminding me of His purposes and direction for me. There is such peace and great joy in knowing that God knows all about everything and has the answer for us.

When we choose to bail out of our trials rather than going through with God, we bring considerably more trouble on ourselves than is necessary.

Divorce and remarriage, if the truth is told, has brought great heartache to many people, not only those who divorce and remarry but to the children and extended family members involved. Many families who have done these deeds often have intense financial struggles that they would not have had, if the people involved had chosen to trust and obey Christ.

Children are devastated by the “throw away” mentality that comes with divorce. In remarriage the spouse is showing the child that people are of little value in life, that pleasure and personal freedom trumps all principles of God.

The statistics show that in nearly all remarriages, with little exception, the children are angry, rebellious and become immoral themselves. After all, why would they believe a parent who says, “don’t live with anyone outside marriage”, when they themselves are on their second and third adulterous marriages.

More babies are born out of wedlock than in marriage these days because most children have been exposed to regularly, if not involved some way, in a divorce and remarriage situation. These very children have no reason to believe their parents when they make moral rules.

When the restraints on divorce and remarriage were removed in this country there was an unleashing of Pandora’s box in terms of sexual immorality in our country. We are now facing homosexual marriage because we have thrown all mores out to embrace all forms of deviant pleasure.

Most families have children living together outside of marriage, often one partner after another, because they see no value, nobility or sanctity in the marriage commitment.

Before we could ever see a change in this “user friendly” mentality of shack up relationships, we would have to have the masses of divorced and remarried couples openly and with tears, confessing and turning from their sin. Until that happens we give our children no reason to believe us about right and wrong.

Hypocrisy has little power to open the eyes of another person. As long as we live sinfully, we cannot expect our children to believe our words.

An old fashioned saying I have heard over the years sums it up: “Your actions speak so loud I can’t hear a word you are saying.” Another saying akin to it is; “Actions speak louder than words.” Let’s add one more; “More is caught than taught.”

No matter what we say to our children, it will have no effect as long as we have bitterness and rebellion in our own hearts, they will see it and resent what we are saying because they know it is a lie.

The solution: Repent from our sin of divorce and remarriage individually and as a nation. Only then will we see God work in many others ways.

Feel the Chill?

Jeremiah 8:12 ""Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done? They certainly were not ashamed, And they did not know how to blush; Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time of their punishment they shall be brought down," Says the LORD."

Until the formal church gatherings learn to preach the truth, seeking God to be able to do it with boldness, we will remain in the condition that we see in Jeremiah 8.

Because of this terrible state that we are in, sin will continue to escalate, as the Word shows us.

2 Timothy 3:13 "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived."

Matthew 24:12 "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."

Don't Wait Too Long

Don't Wait Too Long

When the public schools in our area some 30 years ago, were allowing us to go in and speak about pro-life issues, we had one hour on Friday afternoon, while Planned Parenthood had all week with the students. 

While telling the students  about the protection of the eagle egg verses the lack of protection for the unborn child,  the students response was "but there aren't enough eagles and there are too m any people." 

At that point I felt a chill go through me every time I heard it, I realized that only giving them the science to prove the children were human beings wasn't enough because they had been taught most of their lives that people are nothing more than elevated apes, another animal that needed to be regulated.

We don't hear about animals being aborted, those who would do it might be arrested for animal abuse,  the child of a human being is less valuable than the animals. 

Those who have passed legislation supporting "assisted suicide", are also those who have supported abortion from the beginning of the Row V Wade decision in 1973. 

The killing mentality does not stop at a tiny unseen baby, it is an overall sense that when people become bothersome, we can easily eliminate them through euthanasia in one form or another, either by lethal injection or withholding basic food and hydration.

All legalization of sin, leads to more legalization of sin.

The only cure for this mentality of selfishness and murder is to bring the gospel to those who are not yet saved.  When someone becomes saved, their eyes are opened to expose the error of their old thinking.

2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Those who have been raised on evolution, abortion and self esteem, cannot think beyond the parameters that have been spoon fed them by the government institutions.  These young people have been force fed ideas for so long that until Christ gets a hold of their mind, they cannot think beyond what they have been programmed to think.

Believers are thinkers because when the Holy Spirit spoke to them they counted the cost and made the choice. God changed their heart because they wanted Him to do so.

Those who will not trust Christ have chosen to remain with the ideas that were programmed into them, because it is easier to remain weak, blending in with the crowd around them, as robots, than it is to swim upstream with those who have opted to use the brain God gave them, while He gives them the ability  to discern right from wrong. 

We either choose to hear God and submit to Him or we choose to hear the secular world and submit to the crowd. Either way we are submitting to someone.

The path that the seculars have determined for the robotic masses to follow leads to a firey eternity, while the path that God has for us, if we will choose Him, leads to an eternity filled with the love of Christ in a paradise that promises blessing and joy that can not be measured. 

Will you choose to be a robot controlled by the hate and foolishness of the world that is manipulated by the devil?

Or, will you choose to trust Christ, believe Him and inherit something far more amazing than what this world has to offer?

Don't wait too long to decide, the time is short, the Savior is coming soon, and then it will be too late.

The Morass Increases

The person who accuses others of racism are the most racist of all because that is what their first thought is when they are attempting to intimidate other to get their own way.

When we are arguing character and policy, those who are not racists don't think of color.

The "racism" card is pulled when spoiled brats are having their tantrum. Manipulation is a favored tactic of those who care more about themselves than they do righteousness.

We don't only see this in politics but in interpersonal relationships too. Someone who is undisciplined and narcissistic, employ tactics to unnerve others rather than rationally work through a problem. Everything is about getting their own way, rather than seeking the proper solution.

Accusations fly while voices are elevated to control those who will not bow to the narcissists demands. We are living under the cloud of narcissistic rule right now, not only in politics but in nearly all family relationships.

God said this would happen! I write about this probably more than I should because I see it far too often. We are living the 2 Timothy 3 condition, with little hope of reversing the effects of the self esteem teaching that has destroyed many people, a nation and inter personal relationships.

2 Timothy 3
“Difficult Times Will Come”

"1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,
7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.
9 But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.

10 Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, 11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me!
12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,
15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."

The solution for us is to ask the Lord to make us what He would want us to be, read His Word, obey what we read and pray for others in our sphere of influence, then leave all the rest to Him.

I am thankful that the Lord told us what it would be like, or we might wonder if we were being too critical and therefore be caught up ourselves in the morass.

Even though we see these things as believers, they do not devastate us, because Christ Who lives in us can give us all we need to be able to endure this very trying time.