CAN GOD SEE YOU?

Isa 59:1-2
Behold, the LORD'S hand is not so short
That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull
That it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. NASU
** It’s very clear that nothing is impossible for God… however, God is limited to what He can do for us because of our sins that separate us from Him. If we don’t stay pure then our sins turns His face and His ear from seeing or hearing us! So it is that God always wants to hear us and see us and answer our prayers but He cannot because we continue to walk in sin. I would say this is a good time to examine our lives and see what kind of people we are. Is our lives full or sin? Is there some lingering sin in our lives? Or are we righteous before Him night and day? Examine our lives and see if we are still seeing movements of God in our lives. If not then check your heart and see if there is any wicked or sinful way in it and repent and get rid of it so God’s ears and eyes will be turned to us again.

DON'T RELAX

Ps 92:12-14
12 The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree,
He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Planted in the house of the LORD,
They will flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They will still yield fruit in old age; NASU
** Yay! Not only will I yield fruit meaning I’m going to be productive my whole life but that I will live to be old aged! I don’t believe anybody becomes too old to produce great fruit in their lives. As I grow older I can see how easy it would be to just have the attitude of “I’ve worked very hard my whole life, now let me take it easy while the next generation takes over and does the work.” I believe if I take that attitude then I am robbing God for all the SEASONED gifts that He has bestowed upon me and I am robbing the people around me both young and old of some amazing talents and gifts that I have to help them become more like Jesus!

HE CALLS US

1 Peter 2:9
9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION,A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; NASU
** Here it is….. We are set a part. We are called out and are separated as a Chosen race, Royal Priesthood, Holy nation and a people belonging to God! He sets a new direction to our path and our feet. He then says “ you are called OUT OF DARKNESS into His marvelous light! Why then do we continue to walk toward the darkness? Why then do we who are called light, hang around with the dark things of this world? We cry and moan because we don’t see God’s blessings and God’s deliverance in our troubled situations and yet we continue to walk away from our calling to something less and something that is against God’s will and plan for our life. Our best bet is to TURN from our lukewarm state our double mindedness and walk back to the light! His benefits far out weigh His punishment….. what will you choose?

DOUBTING GOD

Isa 36:14-17
14 "Thus says the king, 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you; 15 nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us, this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria." 16'Do not listen to Hezekiah,' for thus says the king of Assyria, ' Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. NASU
** Oh how our enemies love to doubt our God! Foolish people speaking foolish things because they have not taken the time to read the Word of God nor time to have a relationship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Most of our enemies are not speaking from experience but hearsay. They hear what others say about Jesus Christ and His followers and then rise up against them. Spreading rumors and lies that don’t even exist. The sad thing is, one day they will stand before the creator of the universe and we see Him face to face and they will shake in their shoes when they find out all the things they said against Him were wrong….. One day…..

ARE YOU PREPARED?

2 Chron 29:34
34 But the priests were too few, so that they were unable to skin all the burnt offerings; therefore their brothers the Levites helped them until the work was completed and until the other priests had consecrated themselves. For the Levites were more conscientious to consecrate themselves than the priests. NASU
** So….. if the priest would have been doing their job and keeping themselves consecrated, then the Levites wouldn’t have had to step in and help with the sacrifices….. so this puts 2 things to my mind. 1, Even if it doesn’t look like you need to consecrate yourself, do it anyway because God can cause growth at any moment. If you are a leader in a church, it is your responsibility to be prepared for the ministry God has called you to do. Never slack off to the point that others have to come in and take over your ministry just because you were not ready or not prepared to see it thru. 2. Fill gaps… Always look for ways to please the Lord even if it is not your delegated task. Here the Levites were able to step in and help because they kept themselves prepared at all times to do whatever needed to be done.

I KNOW

Isa 25:9
9 In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation." NIV
** Yay God! He is the God that saves. I do not know of anyone that I can trust in this world today. Everyone seems to change and you never know when someone whom you trusted and love will turn their back on you. BUT there is a God who loves me and I KNOW that I can trust in Him! He has never left me alone, He has never let me down. I KNOW that I can trust Him for He gave His very life for me. LET US REJOICE AND BE GLAD for He has saved us from our sins and He is able to deliver you from all harm…… put your trust in HIM!

WHY POVERTY?

Isa 24:4-6
4 The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish. 5 The earth is defiled by its people;
they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. NIV
** Why does a curse consume the earth? Two reasons…. 1 because the people disobeyed the law and 2 because it is a sign that the people must bear their guilt. How often I’ve looked at poverty stricken countries and wondered why? Why are they so poor? Maybe these verses show some light on why some people and or countries are so poverty sticken…. Maybe long long ago, there were people who decided to disobey God’s laws and chose to walk in the way of sin and then God just took His hand off of that people or country and it went down far away from prosperity…. Maybe….

STRIKE AND HEAL

Isa 19:22
22 The LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the LORD, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them. NIV
** Strike them and then heal them???? Does this go along with your doctrine? I’m sure this scripture bothers a lot of people when they read it. God will strike them and then….. heal them? This is not God’s fault…. Often times we get focused on the one who punishes rather than the ones being punished. It is easy here to focus on God striking them than the reason for the striking…. It was because Israel ONCE AGAIN had wandered away from God and was serving other gods and idols and doing all kinds of things horrible in the Lords sight. So, God, like a loving father, takes His children and disciplines them and when they turn to the right way, He heals them. If God just gave us everything we wanted and never disciplined us when we went astray, then He truly wouldn’t love us.

JUST A WORD

Well, it’s been a while since I last posted. Been reading but not posting. Life has been a huge whirlwind and I’m wondering when all will settle down. God is amazing to me and I find that it’s good that He doesn’t look at the outward but the heart and knows where I am. I often feel like Paul when he wrote…..”the things I want to do I don’t, and the things that I don’t want to do, I end up doing…. What a wretched man I am!” No, I’m not going off the deep end but I do feel like I need to step it up another notch and press myself to be more like Jesus in every way. It’s always good to feel His presence, but it is very important that when you don’t feel like He is around or that you don’t feel His presence, you should continue walk in the ways you were taught weather you feel like it or not. Oh well, that’s my two cents worth for today….Blessings!