Our Independence

Today America celebrates her Independence! The struggles, sacrifice, and strength of those who came before us, and those who serve to this day, made and continue to make this country great! We share a commonality and sense of pride, knowing we can do whatever it takes to stand on our own two feet.

Joined with independence comes a lessening of dependence. The stronger one becomes, the less one feel a need for anything else. However the strength of America was formed with the Hand of God. Our Founding Fathers were quite clear: "One Nation under God, indivisible..."  They surrendered unto His leadership, guidance, and know how. They called upon His power, "wondrus" working power, and set upon their backs to do the will of the Father in establishing a Free Union, where a man, any man, could serve our Heavenly Father completely, without worry nor fear.

Through independence, we've grown away from the very thing which made us great in the first place: Our Dependence upon God. Today it's my prayer, as we enjoy our various festivities, celebrate, and sit in awe at the many displays of fireworks lighting up the nights sky, we pause and remember the One who gave us our great strength. Let us learn from those who traveled before us, and see, only in our weakness is His strength made perfect. To the One who makes the thunder roll, made the mountains high, and paints the skies, let Freedom in Him ring once again throughout this land, Let Freedom Ring!!!

Overlooked Furniture!

There were different pieces of furniture in the Tent of the Tabernacle of Moses.  We are familiar with most: The Ark of the Covenant is the one most people know, The Table of Shewbread, mostly known because of David, The Golden Candlestick, speaking to us that God is our supplier in all, however we tend to overlook one: The Golden Altar of Incense.

Looking at this piece of furniture in relation to the others located inside the tent, we see it was the highest piece in the actual tent.  This points us towards Christ’s ministry of Intercession as His highest ministry now in behalf of the Church in the 2000 years of the Church Age or Dispensation of the Spirit.   We know from reading the Scriptures the Golden Altar of Incense had four horns upon the four corners which spoke to the power, authority and kingship of God. 

But I want to focus on the burning of incense upon the Golden Altar.  This represents the prayers of the Saints ascending up to God, through our Savior Jesus, who offers them as a sweet savor unto our LORD.

However that is often where we leave it.  If we fast forward to Luke 1:1-23 for we know the Old Testament is only a foreshadowing of Christ in reality or our New Testament, we see Zacharias ministering at the Golden Altar of Incense.  Why is this important?  Zacharias received the revelation of the forerunner of the Messiah while he ministered here.  In the same way, the Church will be made ready for the Messiah’s second coming as it enters into full ministry at this piece of furniture, the Golden Altar of Incense or Prayer.  We need to recognize just how important this piece of furniture is in God’s mind.

Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of Prayer” (Matthew 21:13) and the Bible teaches us we are to pray in the Spirit (Jude 20) and to pray by the Spirit (Romans 8:26).  The true incense will arise from the heart of the believer, ascending into the Heavenly Sanctuary.  What makes it a sweet savor unto God is Christ our intercessor whom our prayers pass through.

When we send up Incense to the LORD, our entire nature and being must be involved.  We must be saturated with the fragrance of a Prayer Life, and the fire of the Spirit will cause our Incense to ascend.  God does place a high premium on prayer.  Have you been to The Altar of Incense lately?

Are You Starving God?

If God got hungry what would He eat?  Could the infinite one be satisfied with a mere steak and potatoes?  Would a glass of water quench the thirst of the One who made heaven and earth?  How could something so small fill and satisfy the One who is bigger than we can even imagine?

He is very hungry and desires to eat hardy!  Just think again if the One who made the heavens and earth were to eat how much would it take to feed Him?  What would God eat?  Searching scripture, I found God’s food!  In Psalm 50:13-15, He clearly says “Do I eat the meat of bulls? Do I drink the blood of goats?  Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God and keep the vows you made to the Most High.  Then call on me when you are I trouble and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”  (NLT) 

What a God we serve!  All He desires to feast upon is our thankfulness to Him for all the many blessings He gives us!  We must move from casually saying thanks or ignoring the blessings all together, to openly and reverently thanking God for His providing, sustaining, and maintaining us in all things that allow us to go about our day and most of the time never even give thought towards.  And the best part He ends it with a promise for if we continue to give Him thanks, He promises that when we are in trouble, He will rescue us, so that we may give Him more glory!

The God who created you, loves you beyond measure and would do anything for you, is waiting.  Will you feed Him, as He has provided food for you also?  Even Jesus, as He hung on the cross, one of the last things He said was, “I thirst!”  God desires to feed on your praise.  Are you starving Him or feeding Him?

Facing it with Him!

When you have really started to face life, and begin to set your face like flint against the onslaught of constant fear of being hurt, making a misstep, letting those you love down, or just to face life in general, it is easy to become discourage, to retreat into a dismal cave filled with alcohol, drugs, and sex, or even to go as far as committing suicide, because we will do anything to escape having to face our fears.

I too have faced and am facing many decisions in my life that could cause me to retreat in various ways for various reasons.  As a matter of fact, I used to retreat into my cave filled with alcohol, (that was my drug) and sex.  Life had a dismal and bleak outlook, and even though I thought I was happy and I even portrayed a “happy me” the reality is I didn’t know what true happiness was.  I had a false sense of security, a hidden denial in myself, and lack the confidence that only could come from one person.

As my life began to change, and I was born (see “It’s my birthday”), I began to spend more time reading my bible.  The time grew and grew until it almost totally consumed my day.  I learned scripture, some for the first time, and others I gained a deeper knowledge, and a development of humbleness for what the LORD was actually doing in my life.  How He had always been there, even though I didn’t acknowledge it, nor see it, and He was truly the only reason I was even still alive.

Well as you know my “birthday” just recently passed, and as tradition has it, you receive gifts on your birthday.  This one was no exception in the fact that I received a gift, but it was immensely different in what the gift was and whom it came from. 

I have spent so much time with God that I truly looked for something from Him.  You see I am doing well at facing life and I am proud to say the cave has been blocked from entry.  But I still have challenges every day.  That is called LIFE.  Even if everything in your life is perfect, like you eat chocolate and never gain weight, or every day someone gives you a million dollars, life alone will tear at you and break you down to the point you will want to run into a cave. 

This year I asked God for a gift from Him.  And He gave me one.  He directed me right to His Word, and this He embedded into my Spirit: “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. “Behold, all those who were incensed against you Shall be ashamed and disgraced; They shall be as nothing, And those who strive with you shall perish. You shall seek them and not find them—

Those who contended with you.  Those who war against you Shall be as nothing, As a nonexistent thing.  For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.” –Isaiah 41:10-13

When you look at life and it starts to stare you down and proclaim its intimidating words to you such as, “you can’t make it”, “I will beat you”, and “No one is going to like you” or any other words that makes you no longer be more than a conqueror, get back up and speak aloud these words of God in the face of your situation.  The LORD promises He will make it work out for you and that you shall be an overcomer, and all you have to do is STAND! 

Hallelujah!

A New Look at Our Shepherd

The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want.  Psalm 23:1

We are all familiar with this scripture and some even quote it most often when we are faced with an impending situation for which we are not sure the direction we should go.  In this we are, at the very least, verbally acknowledging we need Christ to lead and guide us.

While studying the Old Testament Shepherd, I discovered many remarkable things about this very common, but often lonely and despised craft.  The Shepard was usually alone, and was left with the sole responsibility of protecting the entire flock from wolves, bears, lions, and a host of pitfalls, traps and situations, all while many different sheep would often stray, as if they knew better the way to go than the Shepherd.

What was the Shepherd’s recourse?  How did he maintain His flock and teach them to stay close to Him?  We know about the rod and the staff the Shepherd carried.  One was used to ward of predators, and the other was used to pull back a sheep from and impending dangerous cliff or pitfall, or simply to bring the sheep closer to the Shepherd when the sheep strayed too far.

Every so often, the Shepherd would have a sheep, which despite repeated warnings and continued being reined in, the Shepherd would take the sheep and break its leg.  Sound harsh?  No doubt it was painful for the sheep.  But then the Shepherd did something amazing.  He would place the sheep over His shoulder and carry the sheep.  The sheep, which no doubt felt every step and jolt the Shepherd made as He walked the rugged hillside, would learn to sync up with the Shepherd, to minimize his pain.  He would even become so in sync with the Shepherd; his heartbeat would beat in rhythmic cadence with the Shepard.  Once the sheep healed, he was let down to romp and play again, but he never strayed to far from the Shepherd, who demonstrated He how much He truly loved the sheep.

Does this reflect events in your life?  Have you strayed a few times?  Has our Shepherd broken your leg and placed you over His shoulder, placing His heart next to yours? 

The sooner you sync up with His will, the sooner you will be whole and well.

The Relationship

What state are your relationships in?  Do you have a bunch of “friends” whom you rarely check on, speak to, or listen to what they have to say?  Does that mirror your relationship with Jesus Christ?  He desires to check on you (be with you always), speak to you and to listen to you, but we rarely take the time to hear Him.  We become too busy with work, home, activities, and so many of the worlds distractions that we neglect the one thing that holds all that we need, a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ!

A friend of mine asked me “So why have you been talking to me lately?”  I declared part of my conviction from God that through my relationship with Him, I am now free to have a relationship with others!  He removed the distractions that I had and enabled me to focus on what is really important, but I first had to focus solely on Him. 

What are you focused on and how are your relationships?  Maybe we need to rediscover THE RELATIONSHIP, so we can grow our relationships with others.

Scripture references Jeremiah 33:3, Matthew 28:20, Mark 4:9, Exodus 20:3, 1 John 1:7

Are You Becoming Bitter, or Better?

In Genesis 37, 38, 39, 40-47, we find the story of Joseph who as we know was sold into slavery and left for dead by his very own brothers.  It is an amazing story of one man’s determination to take whatever came his way and still look to serve and to honor God in all he did.

Let’s face it.  He had sufficient enough reasons, enough to become bitter: to give up, to become mad, hateful, and resentful: to start to question the who(s) in his life, the what(s), in his life and definitely the why(s).  He could have started to doubt God’s providential care, provision, and ultimately, when the opportunity came for God’s power and purpose to be shown forth in his life, Joseph could have been so bitter that God would not have gotten the glory from the situations and circumstances that GOD had led Joseph through.  And we would not have this incredible story of overcoming.

Thank God, for us, that Joseph did not become bitter, but rather he became BETTER!  He used his circumstances and situations and trusted in God, fully.  No matter what came his way, betrayal of his brothers, enslavement, rise to authority, fall from position because of a lie, being forgotten by those he helped, and then ultimately the rise to power and the opportunity to do good to his brothers, who had done so much wrong to him in his life. 

You see the circumstances and situations that happened in his life were ultimately NOT about him.  They were about the saving of nations, and lands, and family.  If Joseph would have become bitter, Egypt may well have perished, the land would have stayed barren under famine, and his family would have surely died. 

What has happened in your life that you don’t feel is fair?  Do you feel betrayed by the very ones closest to you?  Are you wondering, “why God, why?”  Well maybe it’s not about you, but rather those around you, your land, and most importantly your family that may or may not have hurt you. 

It’s ok to forgive.  It’s ok to move forward.  Become BETTER not bitter, and look for the opportunities that God is trying to bring to you, to show forth His power and glory in your life.  And maybe, there is another BETTER “Joseph” in the making.