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Greetings:

Does standing on The Word of God in The Bible immediately and always make a bad situation better?

Sometimes 'yes', but other times it does not.

Standing on The Word is the beginning point - our Alpha spot. It is the safe highway in life’s journey to the Omega - the end.

The devil cringes and flees at the thought of God's Word. He can't stand it.

That's when our faith is bolstered and we are able to rest in The Lord when those life storms hit us.

Again, that is where we have to trust God and believe that God is God. He has every situation under control as he sees it, in his perfect timing.

We might not always agree with or understand why God allows bad things to happen, like sickness and death to children and teens, who have so many opportunities and life dreams taken away. I often ask God in my prayer time, “Why do bad things happen to good people, while evil people seem to prosper?”

I am reminded of several scriptures, which speak to the enormity of God and his ability guide us and protect us, if we surrender all and agree to follow him.

Psalm 89:8, reads, "O Lord God Almighty, who is like you? You are mighty, O Lord, and your faithfulness surrounds us."

Hebrews 10:23 adds, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful."

In 2 Thessalonians 3:3 we read, "But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one."

So on those days when you think your world is sitting on sinking sand, God is the solid rock on which we can all stand.

God turns light into darkness and we can stand on his faithful and unchanging grace.

God gives us that foundation that runs deep and strong. Foundations are not built over night. It takes some digging, carving, and chipping away to get everything just right. Our lives are the same.

Forming a deep foundation in God takes some time, some study, prayer and plenty of work on our part..

We can rely on and trust in and stand firm on The Word in our battle against the devil. The Word is our strongest weapon in that fight.

Rocks through our natural eyes are hard to break and difficult to move. They stand firm in the same place for years, generations and centuries. God gives each of us that same kind of foundation that runs deep and stands strong.

Nobody has said the Christian walk was easy and free from bumps in the road. Christianity is not for the weak or meek at heart. It is a daily battle.

If you remember nothing else I have written today - know that God is God, God loves us all, a way to our forgiveness is always present through his grace.

Let God’s Word be our rock hard foundation of faith.

Be blessed

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Greetings:

We must never forget when life gets tough, God is always there for us. My faith is my rock. It's my strength and gives me that inner peace that is beyond carnal understanding.

Because of our faith we are not fearful when we are faced with a walk through the pathway of the unknowns, uncertainty and doubt. Our faith paves it with joy and confidence in what is true. Faith has several elements – being convinced of the truth, being certain of reality, having evidence of unseen things, and believing, hoping in, embracing, seizing the truth.

I like what Hebrews 11:1 has to say about faith in the New Living Translation. It reads: "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."

Though we don't see faith, we can feel faith and understand faith by reading God's Word. We can learn about faith by recalling the walk of others who faced tall mountains, but turned to prayer and called on their faith to get them through their hopeless situations.

We are no different.

Faith is a decision.

Be blessed.

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Greetings:

Suffering is a reality of life.

Only heaven is really free of suffering.

In the meantime, we will suffer, loved ones will suffer, friends will hurt, and those in our community will experience pain, some more severely than others.

There is a time when it is our turn to be comforted, and there are times when it will be our role to do the comforting. Those who have experienced comfort know how valuable a ministry this is. Those who have not experienced it in their time of need know how badly it is needed.

The best comforters are those who genuinely care and are able to express their care. It is not necessarily comforting when someone tells us in our time of need, “Well, things could always be worse. After all, there’s got to be somebody who has it worse off than you.”

Christ provides the ultimate example of what it means to comfort.

It is good enough just to know that He loves us and cares for us. It is sufficient to know that He is in complete control even when we hurt. It is enough to know that we have Him.

This morning I will admit, I am disappointed and discouraged with our governmental leaders, who witnessed widespread voter fraud and lawless irregularities in our recent presidential election. Yet, they choose to ignore pleas to at least take a closer look at the election results. They voted in the early morning hours today to certify the election of Joe Biden as president.

I am among those who needs comforted today.

Being comforted is a state of knowing that someone is there to watch over us and take care of us out of real and genuine love for us.

Psalm 69:20 says, “Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick, and I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.”

God is a our God of comfort. God still loves us no matter who is living in the White House.

God knows our nation needs prayer at this time. We are threatened with a nation on the brink of change. It is a change we pray does not bring our free nation down.

Be blessed.

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Greetings:

A new year is nearly dawned and thank goodness we can soon say goodbye to the year 2024.

I am resolved not to fear the future , but instead continue to walk in faith and trust God.

God has given us faith and it is time we use it. We each must pray and seek wisdom on how to operate in our daily lives.

We pray this is the year for The Church to emerge as bold, vocal leaders - continuing to speak the Word of God in non-compromising fashion.

We must pray that new doors will open for new experiences to come into our lives to improve our walk with God.

We look forward to changing circumstances and bettering economic conditions.

What greater blessing can there be than being more sensitive or more understanding or kinder or more generous or more

Let’s take to heart to what God's Word is saying ––“I am making all things new.”

Look at Isaiah 43:18-19 AMP, it reads,

“Do not remember the former things, Or ponder the things of the past. Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, Now it will spring forth…”

‭it’s almost time to turn the page on a new year.

It’s hard, sometimes, to turn the page away from the chapter in life called 'Regret'. So many of us have regrets.

We can say 'if only I had done this instead of that. If only I hadn’t done that! If only I’d worked harder. If only I’d done more. If only I’d said this. If only I hadn’t said that. If only I had loved more’.

It's a new year.

We can't go back and do over what happened last year, last month, last week, or even yesterday.

We can only move forward.

Jesus is making all things new. Feel his hand on each of us and turn the page. Turn the page away from regret. Keep the lessons learned, but turn the page away from regret.

Forgive yourself. Forgive others.

Turn the life page with a fresh touch of God's loving grace and mercy. The slate is clean. Move forward and turn the page.

Happy New Year 2025.

Be blessed.

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Greetings:

We all get tired.

Our physical bodies do get tired.

Our minds get emotionally tired.

Our spiritual self also gets tired.

We do at times need spiritually refreshed and revived - even minsters or pastors get tired and they need an oasis where they can be revived and lifted up.

We need to let God be the joy of our strength when we are spiritually tired, drained and needing a new anointing.

Let the joy of the Lord lift us up and guide us on those long days and short sleepless night.

Let the joy of the Lord pick us up and direct our paths when we are lost and searching aimlessly for direction in our lives, our careers, our future.

Get alone in your quiet b place and get honest with yourself. We need God . We need fresh eyes to see His Word. We need revived ears to hear His Word. We need an enlightened heart and soul to receive His Word.

Popular contemporary Christian singer

Michael W. Smith has a powerful worship song titled, “Open Up The Eyes of My Heart “, which repeats the lyrics several times, “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord

Open the eyes of my heart

I want to see You

I want to see You.’l

This should be our daily cry to heaven.

Nehemiah 8:10 says, “This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Read Nehemiah 8:1-12 and you will get a better feel for what is happening, and why the joy of the Lord is our strength, and what brings about real joy for us.

In the passage, the people of Israel are encouraged to eat, drink and be joyful after they have heard the law of the Lord. It has been thoroughly explained by their teachers and they have wept in repentance.

This joy and gladness, is not happiness that depends on our circumstances or our moods.

This joy of the Lord is something that is constant. It is from within us because He lives within us. One can have the same joy in terrible circumstance that they would have when all is well. That is the same spiritual attitude of being on the mountain top as when we are in the valley.

Be blessed.

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Greetings:

The timing of God can be the source of joy, hope and a basis for our faith. Depending where we are in our Christians walk it can also generate anxiety, confusion and test our faith, if we allow it.

We come from the ‘I want it now’ generation that thrives on hurry up and instant gratification.

Fortunately, God generally doesn’t move in that fashion. God has his own timing that is not necessarily on our calendar or our clock.

We learn about the way God’s plan or God’s timing works by reading in the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Regardless of what time it is, Ecclesiastes Chapter 3:1-8 is still one of my favorite passages to read. Check it out often.

However, keep reading and look at Ecclesiastes 9-15 (NLT) to bring a better perspective to God’s big plan.

It reads:

“What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him. What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.”

‭‭I find this very pertinent during this holiday season of hustle and bustle. There seems to never be enough time to get done all of the pre-Christmas tasks that we have in our minds and written on our lists to be completed before Christmas morning. We work and work as the anxiety builds to a point that the reason for the season gets lost.

This is when we just need to trust God and trust his timing. God loves us and wants us to enjoy each day by trusting him, thanking him and praising him no matter what. Enjoy the holiday season and remember the birth of the Christ child is what we are celebrating - not the wrapped gifts and decorations.

Be blessed.

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Greetings: As we open the new book on a new year when we pass the midnight hour tonight, it's pages are all blank. We are going to write words on the pages ourselves each day on each hour. The book is called "Opportunity" and its first chapter is called New Year's Day. Let's do our part to make the new year a wonderful year of opportunity and blessings. Strive to make our words full of compassion and love everyone we come in contact with. Seek to put a smile on somebody's face each day. Have a goal to be a better person today than we were yesterday. May the Lord open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that we will not able to contain. May the Lord bless us xceedingly and abundantly, above all we could ever hope for or deserve. May the Lord bless us si that we may walk in a financial overflow. May we fall in love with Him for the rest of our days. Appreciate each day like it is our last on this planet Earth. Remember the words in Job 8:21, which read: "He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy." Happy New Year and be blessed. https://www.instagram.com/p/B6u8Ekunp9i/?igshid=9neeyh99zds6

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Greetings: As we move forward toward the end of this calendar year, let us remember that prayer is simply our personal conversation with God. In prayer, we offer praise, worship and thanksgiving. Sounds pretty easy to understand, doesn't it? I imagine prayer to many of us is simply putting our petitions, needs, wants, desires , and all of our 'need this and need thats' before God. We cry out in prayer when we hit bottom and there nowhere else to go, but up. Do we pray, I mean really pray, when we appear to be blessed, content and things are going well? It's a question of what value do we place in prayer. Look at Colossian 4:2, it reads, “Devout yourself to prayer being watchful and thankful”. I guess it's a matter of do we regard prayer as a gift of grace or an unbearable burden. Prayer is a privilege that takes discipline and practice. Prayer is a personal invitation from God to enter into his holy sanctuary to talk with him and listen to him. Prayer is also a time to get still and quiet before God offering praise and worship in a manner in which you feel comfortable and speak sincere words of thanksgiving. Prayer will prepare us for the unknowns, the disappointments, the challenges, the troubles. Prayer provides us with strength in moments of weakness and is a caring arm wrapped around us in times of sorrow. Prayers is not done only when we feel like it or when we feel worthy. If we are making excuses for not praying, we should be honest with ourselves and ask why. Throughout the Bible we read of God's mercy and grace that reaches out to all people – the good and the bad, the worthy and the unworthy. God’s will is to keep His promises to us. In our prayers we should use the Word of God. This builds our faith and it also pleases God because it is an expression of our confidence in His Word and His integrity. Be blessed. https://www.instagram.com/p/B6iQ8I6HVwq/?igshid=1ducqj4dk25ec

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Greetings: Merry Christmas to all. Let us remember today the words written in Isaiah 9:6-7 (Amplified Bible) "For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father [of Eternity], Prince of Peace. "Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from the [latter] time forth, even forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." That is the message of Christmas. The reason for the season should be cherished and shared with our children, our children's children and the children of our children's children and every generation to come. Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ just over three decades later, this would be just another birthday. But, God had a plan to save all sinners. It began on this day. That is the important message we need to remember. That is the real Christmas miracle. Let this be a day to be thankful, to share, to fellowship and to cherish with our families and friends. Let the love of God be evident and never forgotten. Be blessed. https://www.instagram.com/p/B6fa5M1HTkZ/?igshid=b3o6vwi41lx0

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Greetings: Are you hungry this morning? I'm not talking about a hunger for physical food that satisfies that gnawing in our stomach when we wake up in the morning. I am talking about being spiritually hungry for God, His Word, prayer and service to His people. There has to be a desire for more. We can't be easily satisfied. We have to have the fire of personal revival burning in our souls in order to really have that hunger satisfied. In the spiritual realm, we need to develop a hunger for God that is often not recognized for what it is. It may be a simple empty feeling, a sense of longing, and loneliness even when we are around a lot of people. We start looking for ways to make that hunger feeling go away - to fill up all the emptiness. We begin to look for the spiritual junk food that will mask the real gnawings of hunger within us. Sometimes we 'play church' and become very busy within the church walls, but within our souls we remain hungry. There is more than mere numbers, buildings and the things we do in the name of church or missions. There is nothing wrong with these things, but there has to be more in us individually. We have to have a relationship with God. A relationship where we communicate and listen to His voice. A relationship where we trust The Holy Spirit to lead us and direct us. The challenge then is, how can we begin to develop that real hunger for God? When we lack in desire, can it be rekindled within us? What do we do when we are feel physically hunger? Hunger always prompts us to seek something to fill us up, even if it is something that is really not good or healthy for us. Spiritual hunger is not much different. Many times we look for something that is a 'quick fix' to satisfy the lack we have for a good relationship with God. We might read a few verses of scripture or say a quick prayer, but soon we are empty again and wanting more. In Romans 15:13 we read, "May the God of hope, fill you with all the joy and peace as you trust him, so that we may overflow with hope in the power of The Holy Spirit." God is showing me more and more that to really satisfy that hunger we have to invest the time and energy to get filled up. Be blessed. https://www.instagram.com/p/B6DBTcYHWE_/?igshid=1w3f9wiqp9yx7

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Greetings: Hope is one of our weapons of the Armor of God. It protects the Christian in his battle for salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:8 says, "Let us put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation." During hardships, we maintains hope. "Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer,” as it says in Romans 12:12. As long as we have hope, there is life. Hope gives us strength so we will not become discouraged. It supports us when we feel deserted. Hope makes our heart shine in anticipation of eternal supreme blessedness. Encouraged by the virtue of hope, we are preserved from self-concern, leading us to greater happiness that comes from charity. So we really can and do crave for hope. God's Word is our blessed hope. Know that God is our refuge and our help and our hope. Hope is the virtue that makes the us crave for the Kingdom of God. Having heard of the Kingdom of God, we want to go there. The virtue of hope stirs us to desire eternal life as our final happiness. It draws us to place ourf trust in the promises of Jesus Christ, relying on the grace and help of the Holy Spirit to achieve this final goal. Hebrews 10:23 says, "Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He Who promised is faithful." There is a song by 'For King and Country' called “Hope is What We Crave” that speaks volumes. The song, which was used in the companion album for the television mini-series, "The Bible", is a beautiful tribute based on Psalm 121. It is a testament to the hope we receive as a virtue from God. The closing lyrics of the song are inspiring: “Hope is what we crave And that will never change So I stand and wait I need a drop of grace To carry me today A simple song to sing It's written on my soul Hope's what I crave.” Hope answers the Christian's burning desires for happiness, a desire that God has been implanted in every heart. Watch a live video of King and Country performing “Hope is What We Crave” at the following link: http://youtu.be/GrXLXVL_0AE Be blessed. https://www.instagram.com/p/B6An748HSDw/?igshid=1ejjt23tojitd

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Greetings: Life is a strange mix of good and bad, of heartache and joy, that we often times find very hard to understand. One of the glories of Christianity is that, whether our hearts are aching or rejoicing, there is no incident or circumstance – no matter how trivial – that is without purpose or meaning. God has declared in Romans 8:28 that "all things work together for good to those who love him, who are the called according to his purpose.” God has a purpose. There is purpose in life. What seems to be a meaningless jumble of events is not meaningless at all. There is a purpose to every event. Everything is moving to accomplish a desired end, and that end is the subject of this whole letter to the Romans. Some of the paths are winding and we are unsure sometimes which route to take. That's the times when we can get on our knees and pray for direction, pray for wisdom, pray for peace. We can be sure that God wants us to be sure, to be absolutely certain – that no one or no thing will ever be able to separate us from his love. Romans 8:35 says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” You know the answer – no one, no thing, no circumstance. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For we are sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing can match His glory, strength, power, might, knowledge, forgiveness, blessings, riches, love, mercy, grace, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, skill, handiwork, greatness, holiness, righteousness, availability, sensitivity, patience, tenderness, peace, graciousness, gentleness, self-control, joy, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, strategic ways, agape love, bravery, consistency, intentionality, humbleness, willingness, sympathy, empathy, beauty, authority, and anything else you can possibly think of. The glorious knowledge that God is “for us” is comforting. Be blessed. https://www.instagram.com/p/B57eTADnwmv/?igshid=1vs2t62vbolxr

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Greetings: We all know that God can show us new things, new tasks that need done, new ministries that need explored. It is important to be a comforter and encourager to others - a beacon of hope in a dark world. Suffering is a reality of life, and it is not going to go away any time soon. Only heaven is free of suffering. In the meantime, we will suffer, loved ones will suffer, friends will hurt, and those in our community will experience pain, some more severely than others. There will be times when it will be our turn to be comforted, and there will be times when it will be our role to do the comforting. Those who have experienced comfort know how valuable a ministry this is. Those who have not experienced it in their time of need know how badly it is needed. The ability to appropriately and genuinely comfort is a powerful ministry. The best comforters are those who genuinely care and are able to express their care. It is not necessarily comforting when someone tells us in our time of need, “Well, things could always be worse. After all, there’s got to be somebody who has it worse off than you.” Suffering is often very unique to the person. It brings little to no comfort at all to know that things could be worse when things are as utterly bad as they are. Christ provides the ultimate example of what it means to comfort. Psalm 23:4 says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” The key phrase is that Jesus is with us. He is not absent in our suffering, for He is suffering alongside of us. It is good enough just to know that He loves us and cares for us. It is sufficient to know that He is in complete control even when we hurt. It is enough to know that we have Him with us every minute, hour and day. Be blessed. https://www.instagram.com/p/B54z912HteL/?igshid=1ckmbsireb3le

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Greetings: You know God has a way of making something like being scared and very fearful seem much better when you look at His Word. I am facing a major back surgery tomorrow morning. The procedure is complex and involves putting rods and screws in several places along my lower spine. If successful, this will alleviate the extreme pain and inmobility that I have been experiencing. I know and trust God to be in control of all of this. I know God will be guiding the hands of each member of the surgical team so they do this surgery to the best of their professional abilities. I have been encouraged by several in the days leading up to this and I know what they are saying is true. But in my weakness I have had and still do have some fears. This fear caused me to seriously seek God’s guiding voice. I know God is the great “I AM”, which means that when we come to him, he is everything we need at exactly that right moment. God is saying to me and each of us, “I am whatever you need, whenever you need it." He is the all-sufficient God for every crisis More than 360 times it says in The Bible ‘fear not”. So why don’t we do that? I know he cares for us and has everything under control. The Bible has clear direction for us, even when we are scared. The Bible says in Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”. In Matthew 11:28-30, it reads: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." I am going to be trusting in God’s Word when my surgeon skillfully repairs my ailing back. This is just a valley and I know the peaks are just ahead. I am human and do have some anxiety and fears, but God is bigger than my fears. His Word says it and I believe it. Be blessed. https://www.instagram.com/p/B4cD-BunXlG/?igshid=1kdihnoprruso

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Greetings: There are moments in our lives where darkness prevails, if we allow it. This can be caused by great life tragedies such as the loss of a job, the loss a worldly riches, the death of loved ones, as well as brutal painful attacks on our health. I've experienced all in past days and some physical attacks on my body continue today. However, my personal darkness is made light because I have felt the love of God. I know his grace and the assurance of His hope for better days. We must realize there is hope for all of us, no matter what. There is light which has been provided by Jesus Christ, the son of God. He provides us hope and light on those dark days and those dark seasons that we sometimes have to walk through. During the dark days, I am reminded of the words in Isaiah 50:10 (NIV), which reads: "Who among you fears The Lord and obeys the world of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of The Lord and rely on his God." Ephesians 5:8-10 tells us, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in The Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth and find out what pleases The Lord." I am encouraged by the words in Micah 7:8-9, which say, "Do not gloat over me my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, The Lord will be my light." I look to the Psalms and find more hope and encouragement in Psalm 34:17-20, which says, "The righteous cry out, and The Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. A righteous man may have many troubles, but The Lord delivers him from them all; he protects all of his bones, not one of them will be broken." So this day is really not that dark. By faith, I see the sun rising on the horizon and brighter days are not far away. Be blessed. https://www.instagram.com/p/B4UTLHQHcDk/?igshid=ow2ayvyssa40