WEDDING BAND SHOWS GOD'S ETERNAL LOVE

You might ask how God’s love can possibly be like a ring? The Gold in a ring represents God’s purity. A ring is unlike other objects, in that it doesn't have a starting point or an ending point. This reminds me of God’s eternal nature.

John 1:1-3 

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him;

and without him was not any thing made

that was made.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth

  God ‘s love is everlasting. His love will never end. He knew us before we were born and he loved us.  He knew us after we were born and he loved us.  He knows every single bad thing we will do during our lifetime and his love still didn't change.  He loves us no matter what.  You can place your finger on a ring and go around it 1000 times and never find a stopping place. This is how much that God loves us. This ring shows who he is.  He had no beginning and no end. 

For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting;

and his truth endureth to all generations.

PSALMS 100:5



GOD'S TELEPHONE NUMBER

 

As parents and grandparents we teach our children the importance of knowing their home phone number or cell phone number. We also teach them how to dial 911 in case of an emergency. It's important for them to know how to find their house and how to tell the police their address in case they get lost. There are many things children need to learn about safety.

When I was a very young child my mother taught me how to find my way home and what my address was but she didn’t stop there. My mother knew the importance of my knowing how to call and find my way to the Lord Jesus Christ during a crisis. She continually would ask me what the Lord’s telephone number was. I think it is important that we instill this into our children’s lives.

To this very day if I find myself in a crisis I am reminded to call on the Lord. This is the precious verse my mother repeatedly taught me so I would have access to my Father, God, at all times.

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. (Jeremiah 33:3)

 

 

LIFE IS LIKE A PIANO

 

Our lives are like a piano. As a pianist I have learned the value of the things I do in my life. The choices I make the places I go, and the things I do, are important.

In order for me to play the piano correctly it takes a lot of practice. I wasn't given a natural talent for music and there have been times the Lord and I have had deep discussions about this topic. My heart longs to be able to sit down and play any music put before me, but I'm afraid that just isn't going to happen in my lifetime.

I did learn through some very rough years in my life that whatever I put into that piano is what I would get out of it. If I never practiced, I couldn't play. If I practiced a lot, I could play well.

I remember praying and asking the Lord to continually soften my heart. Not make me a doormat for others to walk on but to take the bitterness out of my soul. Each day I would sit and play the piano for hours. I soon found if I was angry I might start out playing angry notes but as long as it took to soften my heart is how long I stayed at that piano.

My heart was pretty hard and angry so therefore I had to spend hours upon hours each week playing that piano.

After many years of playing the piano for hours every day and talking to the Lord about my deep sorrow and deep anger, I realized slowly but surely my heart was being healed from all the sorrow and anger.

One day I was sitting at the piano, and a God thing happened. You can ask anyone who knows a lot about my piano playing I do not play by ear. Those who hear me play in public believe I could sit and play just about anything. What they don't know is it takes hours upon hours of practice for me to play one little song. Now once I play that song, I have it down for the rest of my life.

 As I was sitting at the piano one day, the Lord gave me a song. If you were to listen to this piano piece of this song you probably would say it was written from a person that has extreme peace in their heart.

This would be true but the story and words behind the song is that of great grief, anger, sorrow, suffering and despair. It took me two years to work the bad stuff out of my heart for my fingers to be able to play the song I wrote.

The words began to flow from my mouth and my fingers began to play a soothing piece of music "Lord I'll Follow You"

We are all going to play a song with our lives whether we want to or not. It can be one of destruction, anger, and despair or one of peace, contentment and joy.

 Some of the trials I experienced in 2002 - 2004 were horrible. Never wanting to recall that experience, but knowing now had I not gone through this time, I wouldn't have seen the importance of continually digging a well.

There are conflicts we face daily that we have to stop and ask ourselves, "What tune do I want the ending note of my piece of music to be?"

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (I Corinthians 9:24-27)

IF YOU RUN WITH A SKUNK YOU WILL SMELL LIKE ONE

Do you ever feel like you should be the one in control of your life? Do you feel that others try to keep you from having fun? Do you feel you are man/woman enough to do things that some people warn you about? This is something I have heard many people say.

We have often heard how that other people influence our lives and we might agree with that with our whole heart. We might even go so far in this belief that we would never hang out with those the drink alcohol, do drugs or sleep around with other people. We consider them to be living immorally. Yet at the same time we may be pulling away from others and isolating ourselves in a room with a computer, tv or magazine looking at sexually explicit information. Others are not seeing what you are doing. You truly think you are getting away with this but I speak with woman on a regular basis that say,”I have felt so dirty for so long and couldn’t put my finger on it”. Others say, “I have no self-esteem left and really don’t know why.” We don’t fully know why woman feel the way they do except for the fact if you run with a skunk you are going to smell like him. He may be disguising himself to look like a businessman, city leader, youth director or pastor but if he is looking at sexually explicit information he is eventually going to start smelling like a skunk. If you are hanging with him, you also will be sprayed with the horrible fragrance.

You might say, “I didn’t ask for this”, or “I didn’t know he was doing this”. It doesn’t matter satan doesn’t care if you innocently walk upon the skunk or if you lay in the bed with this bad boy. The bottom line is, satan loves for Christians to smell like a skunk. He loves for that smell to bleed over onto other peoples lives even if they are innocent. Have you ever walked up to a skunk and heard him say, “hey there young lady/man how would you like to smell just like me”? No, it isn’t going to happen. You aren’t even going to realize many times that the skunk is hiding in the bush. Once you have been sprayed by the skunk, it isn’t easy to get rid of the disgusting smell. If it’s on your shoes, you must get rid of the shoes. If the smell is on your shirt, then you must get rid of the shirt. The problem with sexually explicit pictures is the smell is left on your heart and your mind. You might even say, “I did that weeks ago, why are you upset with me now”. The answer is, you still have the smell on you and I can’t stand it.” Ask these ladies going through this and I promise they will agree.

The next question is, how do I get rid of my heart and my mind? How do I get the smell off of my children? How do I get the smell off of my wife? Lord knows we can’t destroy those items. Does this mean that we are stuck with this ungodly smell the rest of our lives? First of all, for those of you who haven’t been sprayed by this disgusting creature, run as fast as you can in the other direction. The smell is so disgusting that it even irrates people that you try to hang out with. You might get accustomed to the smell but I promise you those that love you will never get accustomed to it.

I receive phone call, letters and text of woman that are sick and tired of having to live with the smell day in and day out. It has destroyed their marriages and relationship with their children. Many times the person that is hanging out with the skunk will blame somebody else for them not having a relationship with their own children. They feel others placed a wall up when in reality the children can smell the sinch of the skunk. They may not know what’s wrong, but they know something doesn’t smell quite right. This pushes the person further back to themselves because nobody wants to smell like them and they feel more and more rejected.

Romans 13: 1-13

1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God:

the powers that be are ordained of God.

2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they t

hat resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?

do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid;

 for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God,

a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers,

 attending continually upon this very thing.

7 ¶ Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due;

custom to whom custom; fear towhom fear; honour to whom honour.

8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another:

 for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal,

 Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet;

and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely,

 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

11 ¶ And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep:

for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness,

and let us put on the armour of light.

13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness,

not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

PINATA REVEALS THE TRUTH

   This week we spent several days making piñata.  Therefore it doesn't surprise me that it was one of the choices for doing a devotion.

   The first step to building a piñata is to blow a balloon up.  This balloon represents our heart.  It is soft and pliable.  The balloon will blow in the direction you blow it and when our heart is soft the same is true.  When the Holy Spirit moves in our lives then we are willing to go where he tells us. 

   Each day we would mix flour and water to make a paste.  We would soak a piece of newspaper in the flour and water until it was gummy.  One piece at a time we would place the newspaper strips onto the balloon.  The newspaper tells of all the things in this world and how we allow others to influence us to do some of the things that are written on the pages. 

   At first the balloon was still soft and pliable.  The next day we would go through the same process of dipping the newspaper into the gummy flour and adding it to the balloon. 

   The second day the balloon was still soft and pliable. 

   The third day we added another layer of wet gummy newspapers to the balloon and set it outside to dry. 

   The fourth day, we walked outside and suddenly we could see a change in our pliable balloon.  It was no longer soft.  The balloon was now hard.  It was amazing at how hard it had become.  When we hit it with our hands it actually hurt our hand. 

   The balloon that once was easily directed with just our breath had now become impossible to move when we blew air onto it. 

   As we are going through life we need to make sure that we do not allow people to put all the filth from the world into our hearts.

   We may not even realize that our hearts are getting harder and harder every time we allow the worldly things to enter in. 

   One day we will wake up and realize that we have allow ourselves to be hardened.  When the Lord tries to speak to us, we can't even hear him.  There is only one way to get our hearts back to where it needs to be. 

    A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God .I will also save you from all your uncleanness: (Ezekiel 36:26-29)

 

ONE DOOR BUT YET IT'S TWO

One door and only one and yet it's sides are two.  Inside and outside and which side are you?  God is standing on the outside of the door and he is knocking.  The door is your heart.  He will not force you to open the door, but he does ask that you do.  Has there been times in your life that you just wanted the Lord in someone's life so badly.  We all want our freedom for ourselves and don't want anyone bardging in but there are times that we see the Lord is letting others live their lives in such an aweful way that we almost want to say, "Lord, why don't you just walk into their lives and take over?  Make them turn around from what they are doing.  Make them serve you.  Do you know of any instance where the Lord demanded that you serve him?  No, it just doesn't happen.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:

if any man hear my voice,

and open the door,

I will come in to him,

and will sup with him,

and he with me.

Revelation 3:20

 

 

You may have done some really bad things in your life and think that the Lord will not want to enter in.  Jesus said, "My grace is suffienct for thee".  Grace is receiving something that I don't deserve.  In the story of the prodigal son, we see that the son was mean to his father.  We see the prodigal son took his inheritance and spent it on parties and woman and all sorts of ungodly things.  When the prodical son came home his father ran out to the road and gave him a big hug.  It seemed as if the father was watching down the road for his son.  When Jesus knocked on the door, the only thing the prodical son had to do was open the door.  The father welcomed him back and so did the Lord.  

All you need to do is to open the door and let the saviour in. 

SOUL OF MAN IS LIKE A SHIP

Iridian's choice of objects for our devotion today was a ship that I have in my livingroom.  The ship is brown and has lots of sails on the top of it.  You might ask, "How can my soul be like a ship"?

A ship sets sail out on the ocean.  This great ship may travels weeks and the waves are perfect.  The water is great and the fishing is even better. The sails on this great ship have been raised and set in the direction the ship plans on going.   All of a sudden the sky starts to darken, the captain orders his men to drop the sails.  If the men on the ship refuse to do so, the sails will be ripped apart by the winds.  The captain knows exactly what this ship needs to do in order to survive this great storm.  The captain once again calls out the orders to lower the sails.  The men follow the orders of the captain because they know this captain has seen many storms in his life and he can look at the clouds and know what his crew is facing. 

The ship is our lives, Jesus is the captain of our ship, and the Holy Spirit is the sails.  The Holy Spirit directs our path and helps us to keep on course.  Once the sails have been lowered because of the strong winds, the captain calls out, "lower the anchor".  The captain is aware that the storm is getting stronger and stronger by the minute and if the anchor isn't dropped then the waves will toss the ship in directions that  will cause our ship to hit up against rocks and reefs that will cause damage to the ships hull.  If the anchors are dropped the ship will be able to stay in that one location until the storm passes over.

God is our anchor.  He is unmoveable, unchangeable, undefeatable, and no matter how bad the storms get he can keep us stable and keep us from getting destroyed by the trials and tribulations in our lives.    If people come along and ask us to set our sails in the wrong direction, we need to remind them that we are anchored in the Lord and that is where we plan to stay.  We never need to raise the sails back up on our ship until the storms are over.  When the storms pass we can slowly lift our sails which is the Holy Spirit and once again we can ask him to guide us in the right direction.

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.

For he that wavereth is like a wave

of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

James 1:6