Hello All, Grace and Peace be to you!
I love this one! We all need love and forgiveness! Remember, when we are patient, loving and forgiving with one another, it gives us permission to be human. Boy, do I need it!! Whew!! (As I wipe the sweat from my brow) Ultimately, I am in awe of the love and forgiveness GOD gives to each and everyone, through HIS death upon the cross for our sins, giving us eternal life to all who will confess sin, and turn from sin and begin a relationship with HIM.
What happened on the cross two-thousand years ago was a legal transaction. We sinned, (broke GOD's law) and JESUS stepped into the courtroom of forever and paid our fine in HIS life's blood, now the law has no more hold on us. (For those who trust and believe) Now GOD ( the JUDGE can legally set you you free!) Now that is TRUE LOVE, and TRUE FORGIVENESS!!! Amen!!! Praise GOD!!!
GOD Bless You!
Hello All, Grace and Peace be to you!
Thank you Mike Waters for allowing me to post your cartoon! Your cartoons have truth that speaks volumes.
GOD Bless You!
Hello All, Grace and Peace be to you!
Today, I need to share with you what happened to me yesterday. I am not proud of myself at all. I am sharing this in case some of you may hear from the LORD through my experience.
A friend of mine is going through a really tough time and asked me If I could go get some sandwiches from the deli. He was packing out his house and he could not leave the movers.
I am at the deli, and ordered four large sandwiches (each sandwich was six inches long) with three kinds of meat on each, and with all the veggies on them. The sandwiches were all the same. The lady told me (very loudly in front of a huge line of people) "If you are going to have a big order like that, can you call ahead and give us a heads up?" She was curt about it when she said it.
I felt embarrassed! I thought to myself, "Why is she talking to me like that?" My face reddened like the fresh tomato behind the glass in front of me. When she spoke to me again, again she addressed me snipety! I could not understand why making four sandwiches was a big deal. It was sandwich shop, that is what they do! I began to address her in like manner!
I am a Christian and I always want to behave in a CHRIST-LIKE manner, but for some reason, I reacted like her! When I realized my tone and facial expression was anything, but CHRIST-LIKE, I really tried to change it, but it was too late, the whole line saw my behavior. I repented to her, then later to GOD!
Friends, I really feel horrible! What if someone in the line needed to see JESUS, or maybe the lady behind the counter needed JESUS! What if that was my only time to reach one them?
Every morning I spend time with GOD in prayer, and read HIS HOLY WORD, this what HE talked to me about yesterday BEFORE my unpleasant encounter...
James 3:6-12...
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tames, and hath been tamed of mankind:
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 Therewith bless we GOD, even the FATHER; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of GOD
10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? Either a vine, figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
GOD was trying to tell me ahead of time to watch out, but I did not heed HIS WORD! I know I was not completely horrible, but it was evident I was a bit perturbed!
In the morning as I prayed, I asked GOD to pour out HIS wisdom unto me. Here is more of HIS WORD that HE spoke to me.
James 3:17...
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
I asked for wisdom, I read about wisdom, HE tried to give me wisdom, but I did not obey. What was wrong with me? This experience has totally gave me strength out of my weakness. I will be ready to battle my flesh next time. I know there will be a next time, because there are different personality types everywhere.
I feel led to go back and talk to her and try to really show her who JESUS is. I covet your prayers please!
GOD Bless You!!
Hello All, Grace and Peace be to you!
GOD Bless You!
Hello All, Grace and Peace be to you!
DO YOU KNOW MY KING?
Hello All, Grace and Peace be to you!
Malachi 3:3 says; 'HE will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.'
This verse puzzled some women in a bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of GOD. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.
That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about GOD holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: 'HE sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.' She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, 'How do you know when the silver is fully refined?'He smiled at her and answered, 'Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it.'
Author Unknown
Hello All, Grace and Peace be to you!
HAIRBRUSH EXPERIENCE OF BETH MOORE AT THE AIRPORT
For those of you who do not know Beth Moore, she is an outstanding Bible teacher, writer of Bible studies, and is a married mother of two daughters. This is one of her experiences:
April 20, 2005, at the Airport in Knoxville, waiting to board the plane, I had the BIBLE on my lap and was very intent upon what I was doing. I'd had a marvelous morning with the LORD. I say this because I want to tell you it is a scary thing to have the SPIRIT of GOD really working in you. You could end up doing some things you never would have done otherwise. Life in the SPIRIT can be dangerous for a thousand reasons not the least of which is your ego.
I tried to keep from staring, but he was such a strange sight. Humped over in a wheelchair, he was skin and bones, dressed in clothes that obviously fit when he was at least twenty pounds heavier. His knees protruded from his trousers, and his shoulders looked like the coat hanger was still in his shirt. His hands looked like tangled masses of veins and bones. The strangest part of him was his hair and nails. Stringy, gray hair hung well over his shoulders and down part of his back. His fingernails were long, clean but strangely out of place on an old man. I looked down at my Bible as fast as I could, discomfort burning my face. As I tried to imagine what his story might have been, I found myself wondering if I'd just had a Howard Hughes sighting. Then, I remembered that he was dead. So this man in the airport... an impersonator maybe? Was a camera on us somewhere? There I sat; trying to concentrate on the WORD to keep from being concerned about a thin slice of humanity served up on a wheelchair only a few seats from me.
All the while, my heart was growing more and more overwhelmed with a feeling for him. Let's admit it. Curiosity is a heap more comfortable than true concern, and suddenly I was awash with aching emotion for this bizarre-looking old man.
I had walked with GOD long enough to see the handwriting on the wall. I've learned that when I begin to feel what GOD feels, something so contrary to my natural feelings, something dramatic is bound to happen. And it may be embarrassing. I immediately began to resist because I could feel GOD working on my spirit and I started arguing with GOD in my mind. 'Oh, no, GOD, please, no..' I looked up at the ceiling as if I could stare straight through it into HEAVEN and said, 'Don't make me witness to this man. Not right here and now. Please. I'll do anything. Put me on the same plane, but don't make me get up here and witness to this man in front of this gawking audience. Please, LORD!' There I sat in the blue vinyl chair begging HIS HIGHNESS, 'Please don't make me witness to this man. Not now. I'll do it on the plane.' Then I heard it....'I don't want you to witness to him. I want you to brush his hair.' The words were so clear, my heart leap into my throat, and my thoughts spun like a top. Do I witness to the man or brush his hair? No-brainer. I looked straight back up at the ceiling and said, 'GOD, as I live and breathe, I want you to know I am ready to witness to this man. I'm on this LORD. I'm your girl! You've never seen a woman witness to a man faster in your life. What difference does it make if his hair is a mess if he is not redeemed? I am going to witness to this man.' Again as clearly as I've ever heard an audible word, GOD seemed to write this statement across the wall of my mind. 'That is not what I said, Beth. I don't want you to witness to him. I want you to go brush his hair.' I looked up at GOD and quipped, 'I don't have a hairbrush. It's in my suitcase on the plane. How am I supposed to brush his hair without a hairbrush?' GOD was so insistent that I almost involuntarily began to walk toward him as these thoughts came to me from GOD's word: 'I will thoroughly furnish you unto all good works.' (2 Timothy 3:17)
I stumbled over to the wheelchair thinking I could use one myself. Even as I retell this story, my pulse quickens and I feel those same butterflies. I knelt down in front of the man and asked as demurely as possible, 'Sir, may I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?' He looked back at me and said, 'What did you say?' 'May I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?' To which he responded in volume ten, 'Little lady, if you expect me to hear you, you're going to have to talk louder than that.' At this point, I took a deep breath and blurted out, 'SIR, MAY I HAVE THE PLEASURE OF BRUSHING YOUR HAIR?' At which point every eye in the place darted right at me. I was the only thing in the room looking more peculiar than old Mr. Long Locks. Face crimson and forehead breaking out in a sweat, I watched him look up at me with absolute shock on his face, and say, 'If you really want to.' Are you kidding? Of course I didn't want to. But GOD didn't seem interested in my personal preference right about then. He pressed on my heart until I could utter the words, 'Yes, sir, I would be pleased. But I have one little problem. I don't have a hairbrush...' 'I have one in my bag,' he responded. I went around to the back of that wheelchair, and I got on my hands and knees and unzipped the stranger's old carry-on, hardly believing what I was doing. I stood up and started brushing the old man's hair. It was perfectly clean, but it was tangled and matted. I don't do many things well, but must admit I've had notable experience untangling knotted hair mothering two little girls. Like I'd done with either Amanda or Melissa in such a condition, I began brushing at the very bottom of the strands, remembering to take my time not to pull. A miraculous thing happened to me as I started brushing that old man's hair. Everybody else in the room disappeared. There was no one alive for those moments except that old man and me. I brushed and I brushed and I brushed until every tangle was out of that hair. I know this sounds so strange, but I've never felt that kind of love for another soul in my entire life. I believe with all my heart, I, for that few minutes, felt a portion of the very love of GOD. That HE had overtaken my heart for a little while like someone renting a room and making Himself at home for a short while. The emotions were so strong and so pure that I knew they had to be GOD'S. His hair was finally as soft and smooth as an infant's. I slipped the brush back in the bag and went around the chair to face him. I got back down on my knees, put my hands on his knee and said, 'Sir, do you know my JESUS?' He said, 'Yes, I do' Well, that figures, I thought. He explained, 'I've known HIM since I married my bride. She wouldn't marry me until I got to know the SAVIOR.' He said, 'You see, the problem is, I haven't seen my bride in months.. I've had open-heart surgery, and she's been too ill to come see me. I was sitting here thinking to myself, what a mess I must be for my bride.'
Only GOD knows how often HE allows us to be part of a divine moment when we're completely unaware of the significance. This, on the other hand, was one of those rare encounters when I knew GOD had intervened in details only HE could have known. It was a GOD moment, and I'll never forget it. Our time came to board, and we were not on the same plane. I was deeply ashamed of how I'd acted earlier and would have been so proud to have accompanied him on that aircraft. I still had a few minutes, and as I gathered my things to board, the airline hostess returned from the corridor, tears streaming down her cheeks. She said, 'That old man's sitting on the plane, sobbing. Why did you do that? What made you do that?' I said, 'Do you know JESUS? He can be the bossiest thing!' And we got to share.
I learned something about GOD that day. HE knows if you're exhausted, you're hungry, you're serving in the wrong place or it is time to move on but you feel too responsible to budge. HE knows if you're hurting or feeling rejected. HE knows if you're sick or drowning under a wave of temptation. Or HE knows if you just need your hair brushed. HE sees you as an individual. Tell HIM your need! I got on my own flight, sobs choking my throat, wondering how many opportunities just like that one had I missed along the way ... all because I didn't want people to think I was strange.
GOD didn't send me to that old man. HE sent that old man to me. John 1:14 'The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth'
Life shouldn't be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather, to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly shouting, 'Wow! What a ride! Thank You, LORD!'
~Beth Moore
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