a blast from the past thoughts from years ago to grow me-----The Goodness of God leads to repentance

Years, I spent in vanity and pride,
Caring not, my Lord was crucified,
Knowing not, it was for me He died,
At Calvary!

I am grateful for the ignorance that was my soul's condition, before salvation. I should have lived in fear and so often, I was smug. I neglected, so great a salvation, and never thought twice, in my prayers to consider the condition of my sinful soul. God's goodness lent me wings to see above the human state. Now, reconciled to God, I have peace with God. Whatever the state of my emotions, my soul's condition is in Christ, who, by His blood, reconciled my soul to God. Now, sometimes, I am fraught with fears of the reality of this great salvation. Can God, who is holy, accept me, who am unholy, into His presence? I did nothing to accomplish this for myself? I have nothing that can pay for this advantage? It is truly the most precious gift.
I could take time to question and examine the wisdom of such a gift on my behalf, I would never find the end of the folly of it. It cannot make sense, that the perfect God of the Universe would sacrifice to reconcile my soul to God. OR, I could praise and thank the mystery that found me dead in my sins and redeemed me.
I am thankful that those who question the importance of the baptism of the Spirit of God or who question the Word of God's relevance for today, still seek His activity and filling for seasons of life. It is a serious blindness that teaches us not to expect God to baptize us anew and afresh, for seasons of service and activity, when it is clearly noted for us everywhere in scripture. It is a deception of the devil that we should never seek God for the Holy Spirit, when we pray to the Father in the Lord's Prayer- "give us, this day, our daily bread" and we ask Jesus to be our Saviour and Lord. Should we not also as for the special annointing of the Holy Spirit, whether or not we can ascertain the real reason that we need Him? We need the Holy Spirit. We want the Holy Spirit, not just to enliven our corporate worship, but to enliven our hearts to the reality of our pride and envy.
We see the poor, who are rich in faith, basking in that richness and we despise the joy that God has given them, in their circumstances. We are like the filthy temple {2 Chronicles 29:15-30:27} and at a loss to cleanse ourselves. God, give us eyes to see our need of the Holy Spirit. God, cleanse our hearts so that we will not be envious of the poverty of our souls.

So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem 2 Chron 30:26

Thank you God for everything and all your providences.

Thank you God for Pastors, Good friends,  kind neighbors, past and present,  Numerous family members of every distance and conviction, memories and the great provisions of God.  Thank you God for biblical resources on the internet.   Halleluia!
Thank you God for walking me through dark and starless valleys and happy moonlit mountains.  Thank you God for everything.

Who is worthy to receive honor and glory and blessing and praise? We are not worthy in the smallest part.

Matthew 8:9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

We do cheer for those who accomplish great feats, in our eyes. We know that there is no equal to God's great feats, but we give human champions their due, so to speak.
God doesn't need our encouragement to be as excellent as He is. God is God.

Psalm 117:1 O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.

Oh that God's praise were exuberant as that football stand that I saw yesterday. Multiplied praise and worship belongs to God. Are they stealing it or just borrowing it? We steal it, when we think that it is really all about us. We borrow it when we give as much worship to God as is poured upon us. It All Belongs to You Lord, i.e. The praise in the stands, the praise in silent private admirations. God deserves it all. It is Satan who attempts to take the glory of God and pour it on somebody else to draw her aside unto his end. When we are privy to Satans devices, it should make us worship more heartily, the God, who has paid the price for our salvation and gone the full distance with our sins in his hands to pay their steep price for access to the presence of God! Halleluia, what a Savior!

Thankful for the heritage of African Women.

I am so many generations from my African Motherland. I love her. I am grateful for her. Motherhood has never been about every man for himself, but the picture of the interlocking commitment of motherhood is so beautifully pictured with mother and baby swaddled and entangled in each other's care. Little one keeps a watchful eye and mother goes about her day in the knowledge that baby is safe and sound as she is.

My children try to still hop on board and cling that closely like Koalas and we wrestled to become untangled from each other and grow up. Hang onto Jesus, like that, I say, only partially pejoratively.

One Day! Let's gird up our minds and hold onto Jesus, for one more day!

don't forget to check out the links to great material attached to the pictures on the sidebar!

What people group or individual could refuse to praise and glorify God, in His holiness and perfections?

Revelation 15:4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

When Moses declared God's truth and judgment to a wicked and exalted Pharaoh and those who followed him, it was a duel, not between Moses and Pharaoh, but between God and Pharaoh. Pharaoh is not the only one who exalts himself against God's omnipotence. God intends to take every idol off of the shelves. God will show Himself the only Holy and Omnipotent One in the Universe. The judgments are manifest over all ages that God is showing that His Will and His Way is the only secure will and way. One day, they will all fall and be subdued under the manifest expression of God's superiority to every other way and tradition. Will we be following our way or His Way? God give us grace to see and follow You alone. Amen.

Would it Kill you to Study? {And they loved not their lives unto death...}

They overcame him(the devil) by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimonies...

Could it be that it is our part in history to untangle the entanglements bequeathed us?

1942?

The Fine Flower of unholiness can grow only in the close neighborhood of the Holy. Nowhere do we tempt so successfully as on the very steps of the altar. Your Imminence, your Disgraces, my Thorns, Shadies, and Gentledevils: I give you the toast of---Principal, Slubgob and the College! CS. Lewis --the Screwtape Letters

Revelation 8:10

Revelation 8:10  And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;

Revelation 8:11  And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

Revelation 8:12  And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

Revelation 8:13  And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

Could it be that our illustrious CS.Lewis was privy to the darkening of the waters of "education", before the rest of us? Might we still engage our young people to flee to the "hills" of true holiness? Is that the quest of the new millennium?

God give us grace to unmuddy the waters, in Jesus' Name, Amen

Not Just What You Say...

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:19

Bold confessions of intention are not binding. Binding and loosing are action words; verbs of the most active sort. Jesus gave this as a promise to His Church, that their actions of allowance and forbiddance are part of a fierce spiritual battle, between Satan and Himself.

We are taught to pray the binding and loosing of principalities and powers, especially when we feel subdued by that power. We pray prayers of confession, requests for deliverance. But, especially in the activity of corporate prayer requests for divine intervention and wisdom in binding and loosing are in order. It is our privilege and our inheritance as the Church. We must pray for wisdom and grace not to descend into the abyss of idolatry that was our previous inheritance as the heathen. We must pray to use all of the means that our elders have employed and passed down to hammer out the activities that will bind evil and loose good.

I see my mothering activity as a major role in the earliest stages of importance of such manners. When we are not taking the little souls in our care and needlepointing care and wholesomeness into their characters, we are loosing what was bound on our behalf. This leads to a slippery slope of heathenism and snatches some of the common graces from our culture.

I call it "Pray-doing". Binding and loosing real kindness is not an act of play, from playmates of different ages. It is learning early that Honor Your Father and Mother is the most important commandment to children. That is the tiny thread that weaves a knot of huge proportions, if skillfully embraced.

We hit the ball that the thread is attached to back and forth as families and we either keep the authority in the adult's hands or we become trained by our children to give the thread to the children and let them make the knot for themselves. An afghan is not crocheted by untaught hands. I don't believe that their hearts should be self-taught on any of the issues.

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him.

God will come as near to us in His parenting presence, as we come to embrace His tools for binding and loosing. Truly, God has a spanking machine and it works out in the activity of our culture and government. He waits and is patient and merciful. Still, we have tools to work with that no other generations have had.

God give us grace to emphasize and embrace the action of binding and loosing for our benefits upon the earth, in Jesus' strong name, Amen.