Pressing In...

The Bible says, "Come near to God and He will come near to you." (James 4:8)
Everybody wants saved from Hell, everybody wants eternal life, everybody wants freedom, everybody wants what Christ so freely offers yet so little really want to live life "Pressing In" as close to the Savior as possible! It's interesting to me how people come up with all different ways of being saved from sin, being a Christian, being set free, yet there is only one way to have life abundantly and eternally. We don't receive life by being a good person, we aren't welcomed into the gates of Heaven because we came up with our own plan of having freedom without following Gods agenda! LIFE, Salvation, Freedom, Heaven, only belong to those who confess with their mouth and believe in their heart that Jesus Christ is Lord! Only Jesus saves, only Jesus sets us free, only Jesus can redeem us, only Jesus can give us the victory every single day to live life to the full with Christ as our master instead of sin! The Bible tells us, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that who ever believes in Him will not perish but will have everlasting life." (John 3:16) Jesus loved us so much, the world, that we died on a cross, a brutal death, in order to set us free from sins grip on our lives! Why then would we not want to PRESS IN as close as possible to the one who gave His life, so that we might live? Jesus loves you right now, where you, with what you have! Press in as close to Jesus and watch your life become daily transformed! PRESSING IN!

Cut it out...

The other day in the Christian book store here in Sedalia, MO, I came across a little sign that read Simplify. To cut out time and to truly Simplify life one must really begin to realize that less is more! I believe sometimes we make life so difficult and frustrating along with confusing just because we choose to. With all the schedules of life and the GO, GO, GO, and where exactly do you ever Cut it out and STOP. As I am working on building Gods church, His Kingdom, to make it Simple means so much, because without simple we completely make difficult the situation making the church more frustrating than really should be! Living daily for Jesus in a very cold/difficult world is very challenging when one is trying to Simplify life. I am more and more understanding that Jesus is longing for Simple obedience, just for His people to respond to Him with a YES! I believe we even complicate our walk with God, but IF we would just simply walk with Jesus daily in surrender to Him, I believe we would find life less complicated! Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track." This is truly making life more simple when indeed all we need is to Simply trust the Lord from the bottom of our heart! I want to cut out the things that I have placed in my life that make it more difficult than simple. Cut it out!
Simplify...

Plug it in - Plug it in...

WHAT? Plug it in, Plug what in? I am not talking about another fragrance room filling plug in by Glade, although they are very fragrant filling! I am talking about plugging in to Jesus Christ! God has so many plans for our lives IF we would just simply follow his leading! I believe that more times than not we are flooded with all kinds of thoughts, and feelings just based off of life! Nothing wrong perhaps with some thoughts, but here is food for thought! What would happen in our schools, our churches, our government, our country, the state you live, the city you live in, our families, our friends, even our own lives IF we GOT Plugged into Jesus Christ! Jesus simply says, "apart from me you can do nothing." We in America don't really understand that or we choose not to because our success has to be because of my hard work, or my this or that! The truth is friends that without the help of the Lord, our work would amount to NOTHING! This week I have been thinking about How I can get even more plugged in to Jesus! I really need even more so the great aroma of Almighty God can feel my life to overflowing! What about you? Are you allowing God to overflow your life with His joy, peace, comfort, strength, and love? If your not, he wants to and if you are, He wants to even more! Plug Him in, Plug Him in!!!

Getting up and Moving on...

Psalm 71:1-4 says, "In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame. Rescue me and deliver me in your righteousness; turn your ear to me and save me. Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of evil and cruel men."
Jesus is there in lives trouble in lives ruggedness, Jesus is there in times of difficult situations, Jesus is there in the good and in the bad. WHY? Listen, Because He cares! Jesus Loves you, more than you and I can even imagine! When you think of having a refuge it is an awesome thing to think that Almighty God longs to be your personal refuge. God longs to keep you and hold you out of shames reach. God longs to deliver us His children the sheep of His pasture. God turns His ear to us and listens to what we have to say! The Psalmist says, GOD be my rock of refuge that I can always go to. Are you running to God or are you running away from God? Are you longing for the things of God or are you longing for the things of this world? Get up and move on in Jesus! You can't do it by yourself and you won't do it with out the empowering love of the Holy Spirit! Remember Jesus prayed saying, "Father take this cup from me, yet not what I will but what you will." Jesus did not take the easy way out, he took the difficult road, the road of danger, of risk, and even death! Friends today, may the hand of God reach out to you, and be the refuge that today you are so needing! May you today be encouraged, empowered and moved to live for Jesus, not self! Be my refuge!

Living in the Comfort of the King...

Isaiah 54:10 says, "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on YOU."

To live life in the shadow and care of the King is the best place in all the world to live! Just to know that even though life is tough and very hard at times in fact I would go as far as to say life is even heavy, YET no matter what life may be like God remains steady, strong, and unshakable! Today I am moved after reading a blog that was written by a very good friend of my family! In this blog she talks about how life is extremely hard and tough and the mountains around her seem to be falling and crumbling around her. Instead of soaring on wings like eagles she is wondering around with the wild turkeys! This makes me wonder as a pastor how many people are trying to live life and the mountains are crumbling right before their very eyes. She goes on to say that she is having some time just to cry, and I mean wail before God, just falling down on her knees before a Holy God who she knows loves her and is trying to surrender her all to Jesus Christ! The first step I believe in getting past the very difficult areas of life is to fall down before God in total submission!

The bible says, "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed. STOP! EVEN when not if but when the mountains and the hills of your life and my life are shaken, friends hold tight to Jesus! For he goes on and says, YET, my unfailing love for you will NOT BE SHAKEN! No matter how hard life shakes us and even hurts us, Gods love for us remains steady, alive and real! God says that he will keep his covenant of PEACE! God continues to amaze me, because he is always keeping his end of the bargain and more!

Today friends wherever we find ourselves on this journey called life, let us find ourselves approaching life with our chin up, and our knees down! Living life fully with the grace of Almighty God, and knowing that He who knows all, and sees all, loves us unfailingly! For the WORD says, that God is for us not against us. Jesus said, I am putting you out like sheep among wolves! Life is going to be tough, hard, and painful, but Jesus is going to remain FAITHFUL! Be strong, Be very Strong, and don't allow the winds of Life to knock you over and keep you down! GET up, and fight the good fight, and run the race that is marked out for us to run! Be encouraged and take a leap of faith and believe! Living today, moving beyond yesterday, and fully relying upon Jesus! The good life!

Living out the Desires of the Heart

Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." The longer I live for Jesus the longer I become aware of the fact that He is longing to bless me with the very desires of my heart! God is so loving and so compassionate and sometimes we only can see God who is Holy, who hates sin and who is longing for people to love him with our everything! Yet so quickly we forget that our God, God Almighty, The Alpha and Omega loves us and is longing to pour out into our lives blessing after blessing that flows from the desires of our heart! Some people believe that when God says that He will give us our hearts desire this really means spiritual issues! Friends today I believe that to believe this is to keep God in a little box and underestimate the God we serve who is Holy, who hates sin and loves the sinner, and who is longing for us to love him with our all daily! We underestimate the God who created the heavens and earth in 6 days! Delight yourself in Jesus, and your hearts desire will be given to you! Trust the Lord! Hears a story a little food for thought. My best friend from back home, years ago was praying for a 1969 SS Chevy Camaro, with blue racing stripes, owned by old people who had it in the barn. Guess what after praying for 10 years about a heart desire he had, God blessed him with a 1969 SS Chevy Camaro, with blue racing stripes, owned by old people, and they had it in the barn! Some people thought this is crazy to even pray, Lord bless me, But friends understand God is just longing to bless those who daily delight themselves in Jesus Christ! Jesus Bless me with a 4 door, 4x4 short bed pick up truck, as I delight myself in You! Jesus is able and today I trust and believe in the Holy Word of God!!! Delighting in Jesus.

Behold the New...

Isaiah 43:18 - 19 (message) says, "Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands." Almighty God who is the creator and sustainer of all life, the one who knows and all and sees all and yet loves me unfailingly is doing a new thing in the life of his people! In the midst of an economy that is struggling to keep a float and moving upward, we have God who loves us so much that not only did he put flesh and die, and then rise again victoriously, but friends we have a God who knows you and who me by name, and get this, HE CARES! I believe its really time for the church of Jesus Christ throughout the world to forget about what's happened, to stop looking over the old history. It's time to be alert, be present. Jesus is doing new, in fact a brand new thing, it's bursting out! DO we not see it, are we not watching? There it is! God who makes no mistakes, who never fails is making a road in the desert, rivers are coming alive in the badlands! Let's get excited, let's start dancing, and start lifting our hands in worship and surrender to the one who has called us, who knows us, and who cares!