Depending on God Alone!

This virus has managed to divide the church causing people to snark at one another over something that is questionable. No one can know for sure about this virus or the vaccine. Most opinions have been formed based on internet hype on both sides.

Each person must seek God for their own decision. Fighting over this matter, accusing, mocking, pressuring others, is not acceptable no matter which side one takes. I am perfectly alright with attempting to influence someone if we are convinced but not rudeness ever. Any arguing or fighting over it is not displaying the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, self-control.

It is also arrogance to think we can know about this virus or the vaccine when all we have is the testimonies of people we don't know and have never met.

Since we have no clear mandate from God about this vaccine, each one is free to decide for themselves.

Since no one can know for sure let's be kind to one another allowing each to seek God on His own.

It's time we set aside our pride, demonstrate faith that God knows what He is doing, trust in Him and stop judging the decisions of others over this matter that God never mandated one way or another in His Word.

No one can find any scripture that handles this matter of diseases and their cures specifically, except to say that there will be pestilences in the last days. There is no clear direction what to do about them, except to trust Christ.

God can tell one person to do one thing and another person to do the opposite for His own purposes and to glorify Him. We need not pressure or demean anyone else over this matter.

Anyone who claims to know exactly what everyone should do is full of pride depending on the internet hype more than they are on God.

Galatians 5:22-23

"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Seeking God to Learn Our Own Heart

Authentically born-again believers can love the way Christ loves because He has replaced their own spirit with the Spirit of God.

John 13:34-35 "…34 A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another. 35 1

John 3:14

"We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death."

1 John 4:20

"If anyone says, "I love God," but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples if you love one another.”

Love is the first and main gift given to all born-again believers. None of the other fruit of the Spirit can operate without this very first fruit in the list. We all have this fruit of love if we are born again, then all the other fruit are present because of this first fruit.

Galatians 5:22-23

"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Without love, none of the other fruit can be present.

Matthew 22:34-40

"34 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him:

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

38 This is the great and foremost commandment.

39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

40 Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”

When we encounter someone who, as a lifestyle, shows lack of love we have met someone who is not born again.

1 John 3:10

"10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother and sister."

Self-reflecting in prayer is the best way to find out if we are demonstrating our heart having been changed by Christ through a lifestyle of Spiritual fruit.

We need to keep seeking God to learn our own heart.

The Scandal of Cheap Grace

Facing the Truth While Focused on Christ

So many people are steeped in psychology based on feelings in our day. Because of this, they cannot allow anything to make them feel bad by facing the truth.

Those who face the truth with confidence do not fear death or anything that is coming in this world. We know Christ is with us in all things and we will see Him when we leave this earth. We ignore feelings and follow facts when we love Christ.

Some people do not realize that complaining about our life and the things going on in the world is a form of ungratefulness.

The following passages apply to born-again believers. Those who do not have Christ living in them will not be comforted, they have no hope, but we have great hope no matter what is happening to us. Because as God said; "all things work together for good for those who love Christ."

1 Thessalonians 5:18

"18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus."

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 "5 Now as to the periods and times, brothers and sisters, you have no need of anything to be written to you.

2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord is coming just like a thief in the night.

3 While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction will come upon them like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, so that the day would overtake you like a thief;

5 for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness;

6 so then, let’s not sleep as others do, but let’s be alert and sober.

7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk, get drunk at night.

8 But since we are of the day, let’s be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.

9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.

11 Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you also are doing."

Those who are focused on this world, walking in fear and anger at all that is going on are demonstrating ungratefulness. Ungratefulness for their salvation, if they are truly born again as well as ungratefulness for everything God has already done for them in this world, the provision of the Lord continually.

When we are grateful we are so focused on His love for us the trials that come are seen as important lessons, not devastating things to aggravate us, but rather training for His good purposes.

Romans 8:28

"28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

For those who are angry at the evil in the world, walking in fear and combativeness, remember what is going on now is nothing compared to what is coming. Will we be able to walk through the hardship with love and joy in our heart, focused on Christ? This is the question we must all ask ourselves.

Where my focus depends on my attitude, do I love Him more than I care about what is going on in the world that I cannot change and is prophesy fulfilling?

I see what is going on, I do not want to focus on the details of evil, I want to keep my eyes on Christ.

Peter was walking on water until he took His eyes off of Christ, then he began to sink. Matthew 14:22-23

Keep looking up brothers and sisters, watch for His coming in the clouds, and count everything else as lessons and training for when we will rule with Christ in the Millennium. It all has value even if it hurts.

Remember the three young Hebrew men who were thrown into the furnace. They said, "our God will protect us, but if not we will still follow Him." They were thrown into the furnace and Christ was in there with them. They came out without singed clothing and not even the smell of smoke on them.

Daniel 3:16-28

Our level of faith is seen the best during hardship!!!

Hallelujah, that God shows us our own heart so that we will confess our lack of faith and begin to trust Him again.

How The Megachurch Destroyed Christianity

What if all the mega-churches dissolved and all believers went into homes for worship with about 20-30 people in them. Every neighborhood would have many small buildings with on-fire believers in them impacting the neighborhoods. 

Instead, we have large churches that entertain their attendees who have little desire to be anything more than bodies in a pew nodding their head in bobble-head fashion in agreement with everything the appointed seminary-educated pastors say without question. 

Most of the pew people do not bother to read their Bibles at home because they have been indoctrinated to believe that only the man in the pulpit can know the truth. I was actually told this one time by a friend many years ago. I disagreed with what a pastor was saying, only to be confronted with; "you can't know, you didn't go to seminary." I asked my friend a question, "Oh, you mean the Holy Spirit only goes to seminary?" 

When the pew people sit bobble-headedly in the pew without response or interaction we end up with sleeping minds who are satisfied with having been in the pew, even if nothing of value happened there. 

Is it any wonder God shut down the churches during this pandemic? He was trying to send a message that most of what passes for Christianity in our day is man-made and disgusting to God. 

If anyone would take the time to evaluate everything that happens in these churchy-buildings up against the scriptures they would find out that not very much going on in them resembles the first century church. This is why God said we are in the days of apostasy, "everyone did what was right in their own eyes and no one would listen", was the comparison to the days of Noah. 

We are there folks, blind, deaf, mute, and disinterested in truth, the churches meet every week getting their ritualistic high, having met their obligation to appear for appearance's sake, but dead as doornails. I pray for those in the church as much as I pray for lost souls to be saved since most who attend these gatherings are the lost. 

 2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…"

Learning from the Animals

Have you ever wondered how much animals understand or what they can perceive about human beings?

I wrote this to a dear friend this morning who put up a funny poster about a dog. My response was as follows:

LOL, we have two Pom mixes. They can read our minds. My husband was just walking to the kitchen, nothing in his hand no words spoken to prepare a bath in the sink for the dogs. Sparky the male came running, he likes his bath, and Lady the female hightailed it under the bed to escape what she apparently knew was coming. She doesn't like her bath.

On many days I would hear rustling behind me while I was at the computer. The two dogs were talking to one another in looks and gestures and then they both began to bark very loudly at my back. It was clear that they had communicated with one another without making any sounds, that they would bark in unison to go outside.

I am always amazed at how the dogs seem to know what we are thinking. I am convinced they have a level of telepathic ability that we do not have. They do understand some English but often we aren't saying anything and they seem to know what we are going to do.

Because of my many years living with dogs and cats I have formed an opinion about their ability to communicate with one another and with humans.

Our dogs bark or run to the door, bring us their toys to throw for them, and other expressions of communication.

The cats have two ways of expressing their desires, they meow, and if we ignore them they get up on our tables and desks and knock things off. I saw a poster on Facebook once that said this: "we know the world isn't flat because the cats would have knocked everything off by now."

It is really true that dogs have a six-year-old mentality which is why they are so cute and enjoyable. They work to please us, when they are chastised they love up even more to gain our approval.

However, the cats are a two-year-old mentality, they are vengeful when they don't get their way. They meow until we do what they want. If we ignore them they sit on top of whatever we are doing to get our attention, if that doesn't work they push our things off of our tables and desks in a demanding expression.

Dogs are loyal companions, cats are independent and willful. Have you ever tried to train a cat? I have heard of some people being able to do so but I have not seen it for myself and have had no success in it.

Narcissists are like cats, they demand things and exact revenge if they do not get what they want.

Everyone should take a lesson from the dogs on loyalty and kind ways of resolving conflicts. The dogs will try to win us back again with love if they offend us or are in need of correction.

I love animals and believe it or not they can teach us a lot about life.

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These Are the Days of Noah