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8月2日 It's All about LOVEAnd we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1. John. 4:16.
"Love is not a feeling, it's an of act of your will" - Don Francisco.
I don't suppose I'll truly get across whats on my heart to write in this blog as it is deep personal revelation to me. I know I have least written about "Love" a couple of times but it always comes back to "Love" when you write about God.
The one thing that really strikes me as I grow in the Lord is the awesome simplicity that it's ALL about LOVE. It astounds me in it's Simplicity & yet at the same the more I grow in revelation and as a son of God, I find the depth of it unfathomable. Here is where it gets hard for me to put across whats in my heart.... The Word says God is Love & as a christian I accept that simple truth in my heart. I love The Lord for what He did for me on the cross. To show my love to Him I keep His commandments. I love my neighbours & pray for them. I don't really have any enemies that hate me etc for me to love. These are simple Truths that when I meditate on Love it just astounds me & the more I meditate on them they get bigger & then I need to get on my knees to pray for more revelation to keep up with where my thoughts take me.
Paul beautifully writes about Love in 1. Corinthians 13, A well known chapter of the bible. To basically sum up what Paul so eloquently wrote.. Whatever we do or say.. Without Love it is All a waste of time & effort.
When The Lord used Paul (who is the angel of the church of Ephesus) to write to the backslidden Ephesian church, Paul, writes.... Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Rev. 2:4-5. As a christian I recognise when I backslide, which to my shame I do all to often, The first thing thats happens is to me is that I lose that Love I originally have for the Lord to things my flesh loves. Then to start to get back on the narrow way of my walk, I first have to repent & go back to my first works.. Love the Lord & put Him first in my life again & regain that Faith which turned to unbelief.
I Believe The Word tells me as a son of God & as I live in the Spirit.. I will go through many trials & tribulations for the development of my character to become more Christ like & ultimately as Christ was on earth with the Spoken Word, so Will I be. If I then am to become as Christ was, I will become Love. As Jesus was God and God IS LOVE. That may sound like a grand boasting but thats what the Word declares.
There are some many Scriptures I could use in writing this blog entry about love. I really wouldn't know to start or to end & it probably be the worlds longest blog if I put them all down. Once again I don't really feel I have truly put across that was on my heart to write but if you read this blog I pray somehow it will inspire you & make you think about how truly amazing the Love of God is.
To end this blog I just want to finish up with this thought that often shames me when I think about it... When we met that someone special in our lives & fall in love with them. We want to spend all our time with that person & find ourselves pining for that person if they are away for even the shortest of time & longing for thier return. If that is the case for loved ones we have. What should we be like with The Lord? I know myself I don't spend as much time with Him as I should, I say that very shamefully. I should be wanting to spending every minute I'm awake with Him but instead I find myself wanting to other things, which are not always profitable. The Word says to Pray without ceasing. 1. Thessalonians 5:17. I try to think of this scripture not just to remember to ask God for something etc but to talk to my Heavenly Father constantly. For when I Pray I am talking intimately not only with My Heavenly Father but with My God, My Lord, My Saviour & The Love of my Life. Amen.
7月5日 Speed LimitsPut them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, Titus 3:1
That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Philippians 2:15
As a christian I have many daily struggles with my fleshly old nature that constantly tries to resurrect & cause me to backslide. One of the greatest struggles I have with my flesh is to keep the speed limit while I am driving. This is a real battle for me & I wonder how many other christians have the same battle. I'm not saying that I am a speed freak that goes way over the speed limits every oppotunity but just to drive at 30mph in a 30mph zone etc. I really struggle with this. I find myself driving at 35mph -40mph in 30mph Zones, on the motorway I'm supposed to drive at 70mph but my speedometer often reads 75mph & sometimes 80mph. Even though I'm not vastly breaking the speed limit I know I am in the wrong. It seems a large part of my driving is to keep my eye on the speedometer & keep within the limit. I have what I call LFS - Lead Foot Syndrome at times or another way to think of it is what an sister once said that she has an uncircumsised right foot. I try to be a careful conscientious driver not as just a christain but to be safe as I can beacause some people are just bad drivers and we have to think for them. This all might seem kinda trivial on 1st reading but if your a christian reading this it is not trivial at all but very important. Christians have to live by the laws of the lands and be good law abiding people. Lord forbid, but what if a christian was speeding just a little over the limit & was involved in an accident? It would be an awful witness, wouldn't it? how could they testify or witness being in the wrong, even if the accident wasn't thier fault but they was still over the limit when it happened. Also getting a speeding ticket & points on a licence is such a bad witness. But most important of all is how can God protect us on the roads if we live outside of His Word, He cannot honour our prayers for travelling Grace & Mercy when we drive like the people in the world do. So, if your my brother or sister reading this please pray that I keep to the speed limit & not tempted to do that extra 5mph over the speed limit, thinking to myself I can do 5miles over because 5 is the number of grace & the police allow 5% over the limit speeding (which in fact is if your driving over the speed limit & your speedometers says 70mph say, the police allow that 5% error because of the accuracy of the speedometer).
5月27日 Go West, young man? Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6.
When I came back from my holiday in Arizona last October I came back very blessed indeed as the Lord had richly Blessed my holiday over there. I decided upon my return home I would very much like to return to Arizona. I kinda decided to return autumn 2007. But when I thought I had to wait that long I felt sick inside & had a strong yearning to get back there sooner. The thought of waiting another 2 years was almost too much for me to bear it seemed. I thought within myself I have a "pull", never before have I felt a 'pull' or yearning. OK, I had had a blessed holiday with my friend Dave, I saw a beautiful part of the americas, meet some wonderful brothers & sisters who had become good friends to me. But inside me I knew this 'pull' or whatever you'd call it was more than a desire to to return to have another good trip.
When, Samuel, my pastor, said he was feeling very led by the Holy Spirit to go & preach over there at the invite of a pastor in Poenix, I became very excited indeed. I thought of a chance to return to phoenix was almost to much to think about for me. I wanted God's Perfect Will first of all but inside I hoped with all my heart Samuel's leading was of the Holy Spirit, which it turned about to be. You can read about the trip to Arizona in my previous blog entry.
Anyways, While I was over there in phoenix, I confessed to a few people about my experience when I had returned home the previous october. I shared this with Samuel & said something like " I have a pull for this place" and at the time I was not really meaning phoenix but yet at the same time thinking it was for phoenix as I was enjoying the fellowship there. Samuel being in the spirit made a comment something like this " I think that's just your flesh talking & if you moved here you'd probaly leave the Lord" at hereing this I was very despondent & didn't take to well at hearing this. Deep down I kinda knew he was right as big cities are a pull for my flesh sometimes. I Just left it at that & tried not to dwell on it. As soon as we had left Phoenix, The pull returned. I had put phoenix behind me & was just looking forward to seeing my friends in Flagstaff & seeing places like Sedona etc again. So, I saw my friends there & had some wonderful fellowship with the saints there. Was soo good to see my friends again. The church in Flagstaff has such a nice spirit on it. I made a comment to Samuel about the church there feeling like the one at home & Samuel agreed & that it felt the same. I went on to comment to several people that this church is like being at home away from home & even went on to say I truly felt if I was to leave my church in southampton for some reason I'd only want to to come to the church here. Also we spent some good quality time fellowshipping with bro Jim Daulton, the pastor in Flagstaff. I came to have a great respect for bro Jim as an elder in the church. I greatly respect his wisdom, his thoughts & of course His Love for the Lord & the Word. I said to also said to Samuel, If you wasn't my pastor I'd like bro Jim to my pastor. Let me just add in here I've travelled quite a bit around the USA & been to several churches but had never felt such as I had in Flagstaff. I left Flagstaff & felt if I was leaving my 2nd home or something.
So, back here in England I've been pondering on alll this and of course praying about all this & commiting it all to the Lord. I've kinda been imagining what it would be like to leave England behind & move over to Flagstaff. Today I phoned some friends in Flagstaff & got talking to a dear sister who mentioned her son in law is looking for someone to help in his painting busines & her & her daughter or daughter in law both thought of me for some reason. Not only that she mentioned her husband always need help in his business too. So, you can imagine this got me all thinking again!
Who can say what the future holds but the Lord. I don't know the Lord's Perfect Will for me in all of this but I just felt I should get this written down as I believe it to be the start of a testimony one way or another. I dare not say any more than that & dare not even to mention what my desire is. 5月20日 Arizona -26th April -11th May.Goodness! don't time fly when life stuff gets in the way! I have been so caught up in stuff that I haven't blogged since easter. I had intended to try n keep up with this blog but kept putting it off for other things.
One of the reasons I haven't blogged recently is that I've been away. My pastor, bro Samuel, for whom I care for as he has parkinsons disease was led by The Holy Spirit to go & preach in Arizona. So, Samuel, Peter & I all headed off to Phoenix & Flagstaff, Az for 2 weeks. Bro Ron Peterson, a close friend of Samuel's & pastor of a church in Phoenix had invited Samuel to preach over there. Also bro Jim Daulton, the pastor of a church in Flagstaff, who had meet Samuel about 12yrs ago in germany also invited him to preach there. We left off for Arizona on the 26th April. Samuel thought he'd be preaching at least 4 times in phoenix but ended up only preaching twice. He was led to make a 4 part series on being born again into 2 messages. On the sun eve of the 30th Samuel preached on justification & sanctification. Then on the 3rd May, a wed eve, Sameul preached part 2 on baptism of the Holy spirit & new life. I believe God was really in those messages as I believe that's why Samuel was there to preach those messages. God also blessed with some wonderful fellowship with the saints there. I'd made some good friends there from my last visit in Oct. '05 It was good to see them again & I also made some new friends this time around. We didn't really get out n about in phoenix other than to fellowship. I really don't like phoenix. it is just a big sprawling souless city. If it was not for some dear friends there I'd not go back there. BTW hello & God Bless to bro. Terry n sis. Tina + family, bro Neil & wife, bro John & family.
 Now, Flagstaff on the other hand is totally different to me. I think Flagstaff is a large town but has some character. We arrived in Flagstaff on thurs 4th May. I drove up to Flagstaff via Sedona, so Samuel & Peter could see how pretty that place is. Sedona is one of the prettiest places I've ever visited. We arrived in Flag in the eve & meet up with bro Jim & couple of other bros for dinner & fellowship at a resturant called Cracker Barrel, which is my fave place to eat in the US. I'd been wanting to get Samuel & Peter to check it out since we arrived in Az. They also really liked the old home style american food that Cracker Barrel does. The following day I took Samuel & Peter up to the Grand Canyon so they could behold the breathtaking sight that is the GC. Having seen it all last Oct it was kinda old hat to me but I still got some pleasure in seeing it's spectacular beauty. On sat we just kinda chilled out & had some fellowship & lunch with a bro & good friend of mine called bro Reg. another friend from my last visit, who was good to see again. Samuel was asked to preach twice also in Flagstaff. Peter & I was also asked to give our testimonies. Samuel 1st preached on sun morning of the 6th May. He preached about the former and latter rain. On the same sun eve. I gave my testimony. I talked for about 20mins on God's Amazing Grace in my life. I was very blessed by the feed back from the people & some brothers said they felt it was very annointed. So, Praise God that He could use me in some way to bless His children. The next day.. Bro Jim and some other brothers took the 3 of us up to Lake Powell for a few days rest & fishing. Lake Powell is very beautiful. I think I'm right in saying it's at the start of the Grand Canyon or something. On the mon the weather wasn't to good for fishing so the 3 of us just fellowshipped with bro Jim & bro Matt, whos boat we was on. Bro Matt n I become very good pals on this trip. Was a really blessed day of fellowship & I felt in my spirit a really nice spirit on the days fellowship. The next day, tues. We went out fishing with 2 other brothers. bro Ray & Steve Robson, they took us to this natural wonder called rainbow bridge. It is the world's largest natural arch. it is very impressive to see actually. After that the bros. was keen to fish so we headed back out somewhere in lake powell to fish. Peter caught a fish that keeps getting better the more he tells about it. I, personally wasn't into fishing all that much. It was more for sport than eatin'. If we was planning to fish for supper I'd shown more interest and fished a lot more., i kinda fished half hearted jsut to join in. I didn't really wanna catch some poor fish & hook it out of the water & let is suffercate for a few mins before I let him go. I decided to chill more & let the fishes do the same. Anyways a blessed 2 days of fellowship & rest. Wed, the next day was to be our last in Az. We rested up, had some fellowship at lunch with a group of bros. Samuel was preaching that night so he stayed at the hotel & got prayed up. I was blessed to be able to visit bro Reg at his home & fellowship with his wife, dear sis charline, who had been restin' up after some surgery. At church later in the eve, Peter gave his testimony, which was a blessing to hear of God's Grace. Samuel was told by The Lord to change what he was originally going to preach on to a message on marrage relationships. Which The Lord truly was in because of the response of the saints in the church afterwards. The saints laid on a nice supper for us in thier fellowship hall to spend one last time of fellowship with us & to give us a blessed sending off. The next day was a loong tiring journey home but we & our luggage all arrived safely back in gatwick airport on the fri morning GMT.
Well, thats basically our 2 week trip summed up! It was a very tiring but very Blessed 2 weeks. Lord Willing, I'm planning to go back & to do some photography in Sedona & Flagstaff this fall. I've had so many invites & offers of places to stay by my dear friends over there I think I'd be bed hopping not wanting to offend anyone on my next vist.
I'd just like to end this blog by Thanking You ALL the beloved saints in Phoenix & Flaggstaff for blessing us so richly with kindness & awesome fellowship. Some I have named but there is a whole bunch that arn't. Thank You & God Bless You richly to each one of you. Amen. 4月16日 The Third Day!Happy Easter Everyone!
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: Luke 24:44-46
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
We all know that the term 'Easter' (easter translated in the greek is pascha which means passover according to Strong's concordence) is actually a pagan festival & all that the world uses as easter symbols come from pagan rites etc. My friend Roni, did a good blog entry on that on her space... http://spaces.msn.com/lovingtenderly/Blog We also know that for Christians just like christmas, easter is celebrated every day in the believers heart for that is where Christ is Alive. But I just wanted to say how so very Glad I am that Lord Jesus Christ is Alive today, not just in my heart but that He Lives Forever more.
"I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. " Revelation 1:18.
Praise The Lord! How wonderful to know that I have Life Eternal In Christ Jesus because He Arose and Lives Forever more! Thank you my Heavenly Father for calling me and for giving me the revelation of this. Amen
4月14日 ........and they crucified Him. Mark 15:25bChrist hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: Galatians 3:13
And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. Mark 15:25
Today Christians around the world call this friday "Good Friday" because as christians we remember that our Lord Jesus Christ made the ultimate sacrifice of Love for us and willingly gave His Life for us. He became our sacrifical lamb for our sins. His blood was shed so that He might redeem back ALL that was His that had been seperated by sin. He paid the ultimate price for the sins of the world. Oh, How can I ever Thank my Lord Enough & show my gratitude for His Love towards me? That although I didn't deserve it, He died for me, a wretched misrable sinner.
One of the many things I didn't like about the film 'The Passion of the Christ' was the over the top use of extreme violence, blood & gore. In the Gospels the writers never went into graphic details of the violence that Jesus Christ suffered at the hands of men. I don't believe God wanted to go into all the gore or it would have been recorded in the gospels. However the prophet Isaish gives a idea how horrific & brutal the death of Christ was when he writes...
I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Isaiah 50:6.
As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: Isaiah 52:14.
Jesus Christ had his beard pulled from His face. He was beaten so badly that people was appalled by His appearance. He face and body was hardly recognizable as a man. And thats before they crucified Him.
The scriptures give an insight to the brutality & pain suffered by Our Lord. The Passion.. movie seemed to go into it with relish. Ok, I'm going off on a tengent here. What I'm trying to put across very badly it seems is just what Our Lord suffured for US without seeming to be too gorey & glorifying the violence that the movie 'The Passion...." did.
I also looked up what crucify actually means in my Strong's Concordence/lexicon...
GREEK LEXICON -- STRONG'S NUMBER 4717
stauroo {stow-ro'-o}
1) to stake, drive down stakes
2) to fortify with driven stakes, to palisade: a place 3) to crucify 3b) metaph. to crucify the flesh, destroy its power utterly (the nature of the figure implying that the destruction is attended with intense pain) crucifixion was in use among the Egyptians, Gen. 40:19, the Carthaginians, the Persians, Est. 7:10, the Assyrians, Scythians, Indians, Germans, and from the earliest times among the Greeks and Romans. Whether this mode of execution was known among the ancient Jews is a matter of dispute. Probably the Jews borrowed it from the Romans. It was unanimously considered the most horrible form of death. Among the Romans the degradation was also a part of the infliction, and the punishment if applied to freemen was used only in the case of the vilest criminals. The one being crucified was stripped naked of all his clothes, and then followed the most awful moment of all. He was laid down upon the implement of torture. His arms were stretched along the cross beams, and at the centre of the open palms the point of a huge iron nail was placed, which, by the blow of a mallet, was driven home into the wood. Then through either foot separately, or possibly through both together, as they were placed one over the other, another huge nail tore its way through the quivering flesh. Whether the sufferer was also bound to the cross we do not know, but to prevent the hands and feet being torn away by the weight of the body, which could not rest upon anything but four great wounds", there was, about the centre of the cross, a wooden projection strong enough to support at least in part, a human body, which soon became a weight of human agony. Then the "accursed tree" with its living human burden was slowly heaved up and the end firmly fixed in a hole in the ground. The feet were but a little raised above the earth. The victim was in full reach of every hand that might choose to strike. A death by crucifixion seems to have included all that pain and death can have of the horrible and ghastly, -- dizziness, cramp, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, publicity of shame, long continuance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of untended wounds, all intensified just up to the point which they can be endured at all, but stopping just short of the point which would give the sufferer the relief of unconsciousness. The unnatural position made every movement painful; the lacerated veins and crushed tendons throbbed with incessant anguish; the wounds, inflamed by exposure, gradually gangrened; the arteries, especially of the head and the stomach, became swollen and oppressed with surcharged blood; and, while each variety of misery went on gradually increasing, there was added to them the intolerable pang of a burning raging thirst. Such was the death to which Christ was doomed. The crucified was watched, according to custom, by a party of four soldiers, John 19:23, with their centurion, Mat. 27:66, whose express office was to prevent the stealing of the body. This was necessary from the lingering character of the death, which sometimes did not occur even for three days, and was at last the result of gradual benumbing and starvation. But for this guard, the persons might have been taken down and recovered, as was actually done in the case of three friends of Josephus. Only one survived, in spite of the care. Fracture of the legs was especially adopted by the Jews to hasten death. John. 19:31. In most cases the body was suffered to rot on the cross by the action of the sun and rain, or to be devoured by birds and beasts. Burial was generally therefore forbidden; but in consequence of Dt. 21:22,23, an express natural exception was made in favour of the Jews. Mat. 27:58. This form of punishment was abolished by Constantine.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:3-6
The Old Rugged Cross. On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, Refrain So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world, Refrain In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, Refrain To the old rugged cross I will ever be true; Refrain Words & Music:
George Bennard, 1913
4月10日 The Old Fashioned Way.while I was trying to find to find the song lyrics for a song called 'Old fashioned meeting' for yesterdays blog I came across this song that I've never heard or heard of before. I loved the message of the song and I feel it captures a major aspect I was trying to put across in yesterdays blog entry.
The Old Fashioned Way.
They call me old-fashioned because I believe Refrain My sin was old-fashioned, Old-fashioned, because I believe and accept Refrain Old-fashioned, because I am bound to do right, Refrain Old-fashioned, because I am looking above Refrain Words by Cevilla D. Martin. Music by W. Stillman. Martin. 4月8日 Glad to be an old fashioned peculiar believer.This blog was inspired as I was listening to a song called 'I'd rather be an old time Christian' sung by Carroll Roberson. One of the verses goes like this...
In this world, I've tried almost everything;
And I'm happy now to say;
There is nothing like religion in the old fashioned way;
I'm walking in the old fashioned way;
I want to the world to know that...
I'd rather be an old time christian than anything I know!
This got me thinking & I started to sing to the Lord some other songs that I love to sing like 'Old Fashioned Meeting' & 'Old Time Religion'. As I sung those songs I felt in my heart that I'm so glad to be old fashioned in this so called modern world that I live in.
When I started to think of a scripture for this blog. I believe the Holy Spirit led me to this one.. Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Titus 2:13-14.
As soon as I read it I caught the inspiration God had given me for this blog. The word Peculiar in a modern meaning or translation means.. Unusual or eccentric; odd. But in the original greek the word means.. that which is one's own, belonging to one's possessions: a people selected by God from the other nations for his own possession. Which from a certain point of view can both mean the same thing. Being a Holy Spirit filled Christian in the world today does indeed seem to make us unusual or odd. In fact christians stick out like a sore thumb. So, how does this tie in with being old fashioned? Well, the answer is simple... Christians living by The Word of God are considered old fashioned in this modern world. In fact in a old work place I was called that several times as I was mocked & teased about my beliefs on certain issues like courtship, marrage etc, which I'll go into in a lil while.
I believe God has called me out of the world like the scripture says & that I'm to be His & not of the world. That means I uphold & believe everything in the Bible is Right and Absolute. Todays modern so called standards are totally against The Word of God. In my own opinion the modern world has only one standard which is You can do what you like as long as it don't hurt or harm another person. The morals and standards that once christian nations like England & America once upheld have now become old fashioned & obsolete. They just don't fit in with this age of peoples rights. True, people do need some rights to stop total exploitation & corruption but the world has gone silly with people's rights. Now at this point I'm not gonna pussyfoot about in case I offend someone but rather stand firm on what I believe. We now live in a society where now homosexuals & lesbians can legally marry, contraception pills etc are freely handed out & therefore promote sexual immorality & promiscuity. We all know this leads to sexually transmitted diseases & unwanted pregnancys which can lead to abortion. Women now have rights to act & be like men etc etc etc. All these things are against the Word of God. The Bible talks clearly on morality, sex is permitted only within marrage, family values, the value of human life and that God made men & women to be different.
Sin had always been with us ever since Adam & Eve fell in the garden of Edan & satan took control of the world. But once there was some moral values in society. Nations like England & America as so called modern civilisations was founded on godly biblical principles. As mankind has progressed these principals have eroded by the continual desire in mankind to do as he wants no matter what. What a vile and wicked world we now live in. It is also another sad fact that what we consider godless and heathen nations have more morals than we do. Here is a good example. In the early 60s when there was a miss world or universe event going on all the world picked thier most beautiful women to put on show except Russia. When Khrushchev, the leader of Russia at the time, was asked why Russia never entered he replied "Russia don't strip their women down to walk before men." A godless nation like Russia puts so called christian nations to shame. While I'm on the subject of women... Women now dress like men! act like men & yet at the same time women want to strip of for men, wear sexy clothing to make men attracted to them. Woman have became famous for just being seen naked! How mixed up is that? First of all God made women to be different from men. God sees men and women as equals but they are different. It is only in recent times that women began to dress like men by the modern thinking of women like Mrs. Ameilia Bloomer, a woman rights activist & inventer of 'bloomers' She is basically noted for saying something like this " If women want to have equal rights as men they will have to dress like men" Now I'm not sure thats a 100% accurately stated quote but she said something to the same effect. Woman are equal to men in God's way. It is only man's ways of treating women less than equally. Men and women do have thier different places in society and it wrong for women to take the place of a man. Now, this Mrs Bloomer is noted for inventing 'bloomers' which are basically eastern trousers/pants originally worn by women in pagen & heathen civilizations. What does God say about this?.. The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God. Deuteronomy 22:5. Yet how many women wear long modest skirts or dresses like they used to in old fashioned days? Notice I said modest in there. Yes, women are supposed to dress modestly & not all sexy like they do today with revealing tight fitting clothes. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; 1 Tim. 2:9 Jesus said " But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." Matt 5:28. So, if a woman dresses sexy she is judged by God as a harlot just by the way she dresses evan though she might be faithful to her husband. It is no wonder so many women are raped by sexual deviants by the way they present themselves. I am in no way saying women deserve to be raped but women know when they dress all sexy it causes men to be sexually aroused. To me it's all madness. And to top it all off women today don't even know they are half naked in thier dress. I've seen young women wearing basically just underwear going out in town at night during winter! Tell me thats not madness. Christian sisters wear long modest dresses or skirts & look very old fashioned to the world. Watch any old fashioned tv show & see how ladies of that day dressed. OK, as not to be seen to be just pickin' on women. Men today as just as bad in thier behaviour & how they conduct themselves. with women it is very much an outward expression but with men it is inward. Men have no respect for women or in fact anything it seems. What does the Word of God say about men in this age? This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 2 Tim 3:1-4. Men are not gentlemen anymore really. I was always brought up to be a gentleman by my mum & even when I was in the world. I'd open a door for a woman or give up my seat on a train or bus. Admittedly with my long hair & all black clothing, women was surprised when I did these things but even when I'd cut my hair & lost the all black clothing I'd get surprised looks on faces as I held a door open for them. It seems to be old fashioned to be a gentleman & chivalry is certainly deemed old fashioned now. Men are also becoming more sissified in the way they dress & act. Also there's never been a time when there are more homosexuals about than there is now. Homosexuals want thier rights to flaunt thier sexuality. They go on parades & openly flaunt thier sexual ways. I'm a hetrosexual man & don't have to march for my rights to be openly hetrosexual. In the old fashioned days. what went on sexually was private & not openly talked about or displayed. What gives homosexuals the right to do thier disgusting perversion acts in public places? O, I know I'm gonna get it for that as well but if they wanna do that stuff I don't wanna know about it or see them kiss etc in public. Let them do in thier own privacy. not that hetrosexual couples in the world contain thier sexual acts in privacy anymore than homosexuals. Homosexuality is an abomination in the sight of God. If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. Levitcus 20:13. Under the Law men practicing homosexuality was put to death. Thats how much God hates it. Today We are under Grace & Jesus died for all mankind so we all can be saved. Again, Thats gonna ruffle feathers but. Hey, God made a law for a reason & it is to judge sin. People are gonna come against that and say Thats not a God of Love to want people dead but they look at it with human reasoning & intellect. Sin is sin but by the Grace of God we all deserve to die by our wicked sinful nature thats in us. I'm just a sinner Saved by Grace. I'm no better than any man but my Faith I believe God has saved me & cleansed me from my old sinful nature. If it wasn't for God's Grace I could of ended up a homosexual or anything. I'm not judging any person but as a christian I am judging sinful acts that mankind does. God calls christians to love everyone. I sure don't hate anyone but hate all that man does against the word of God.
Family values... Are there any today? Men let thier wifes go out to work & leave thier duty as homemakers. Now this is another controversal one sure to ruffle some feathers. A wifes/mothers place in in the home. Her duty is a homemaker. A mother at looking after her children. Today women have kids & as soon as the kid is old enough is placed in a creche so thier mums can get back to work. I believe in today's society it's hard for a man to be the sole money earner. There is nothing wrong with the wife taking up some part time job that fits around the family to bring in some extra income. But not to go out full time working in a man's workplace neglecting her duty as a homemaker etc. In the old fashioned days the wife/mother kept the home. Worked at making the home a nice place for her family. The husband/father is the head of a family but the mother is the heart of the family. Take away that & the family unity will die. Kids look to thier perents as role models & if all they see is thier perents fighting for thier corners & rights the children will follow suit exactly & where does that leave any future families? The result of 'teenage delinquency' is actually from perent or adult delinquency. There is no cencorship in the home anymore. When I was a kid i wasn't allowed to watch a lot of stuff until I was a lot older but now it seems that perents don't censor what thier kids listen to, watch or computer games they play on. Kids grow up on gratuitous violence, sexual imagery that degrades women, filthy langauge & no respect to others by almost every form of entertainment. Modern laws that forbid perents to correct thier chidren scriptually. There is a proverb that is often misquoted that says..He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. Proverbs 13:24. Now that is not at all promoting child abuse but merely saying that a child needs to be properly corrected. Modern laws prevent perents, teachers, police etc exercising any proper correction to kids. Even in my generation as a kid a smack across the back of the legs never hurt me or caused me long term mental issues. What it taught me was that if I was naughty It would hurt me. As I grew into a young man I understood it was for my good that I smacked & learned not to do things that would/could harm me. Again this brings me back to "The Good Old Book" as it sometimes called. For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Proverbs 3:12. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Hebrews 12:6-11.
The old ways in life weren't certainly the best of times but at least they had some moral values that this modern world has seemed to have lost. I believe even if we applied some of these old fashioned ways society would be a little better to live in. There I've said it. I never intended to write such a long blog entry but once I got started it was hard to know where to stop. I am glad to be old fashioned, a peculiar person & stand true to God's Word. I don't care what the world says. I'll always stand firm on my beliefs & old fashioned principals. I could of simple stated that by not regarding old fashioned godly morals & values we wouldn't live in such a wicked & corrupt world that even non christians can't deny the the society we live in is sick & evil. But I choose to go into details. To bring out how modern thinking isn't better than old fashioned way as the world likes to believe it is. Modern psychologys & ideology's will not cure todays social ills. Modern society has gotten to be so soft in fear of upsetting people. Sociry needs to toughen up & get out of it's sissified state.Go back to God's Word. There is your cure. Go back to old fashioned values our grandperents had. I do wonder if anyone will actually read this blog & wonder what thier reaction to be. 3月18日 Reply to Roni's comment." But Paul, there is also love among couples that is not " lust" and people of the world are not all into their flesh. I love my husband very much but of course God is the greater love but to say we lust lust each other I do not agree with you. "
"Maybe I misunderstood you but I wanted to assure you that there is Love and not love with most couples. One day when you meet the partner God has chosen for you I believe you will understand what I mean God bless"
Yes, Roni, your right in what you say. I have a tendency to be very black and white in my thinking & I believe I was in my valentines day blog entry. Also I can only talk from my experiences. Being in the world I never knew real love & even as a christian I don't believe I have been completely in love with a someone. I therefore forgot about the love that a husband & wife have. I also had misunderstanding phileo love as a purely fleshy lust & not a real love.
Thank you, roni, for bringing out these things. It made me realise a few things & that even feeling inspired to write a blog I should research a few things 1st. I guess the mood I was kinda took over my writing more than anything.
" Now love has two different meanings, with two different words to describe it. In the Greek one love is called "phileo" --that is the natural love that you would have for your wife; but "agapao" love means divine love--and these two loves are very contrary to each other. For example, with the love that you have for your wife, if a man would insult her you would kill him on the spot--that would be phileo love; but with agapao love, or divine love, you would pray for the man's lost soul. That is the difference. I'm almost sure many of us have been deceived with having phileo love, and thinking it was agapao love. Phileo love is intellectual, whereas agapao love comes from the heart. Human love, or affectionate love, is from the mind--the love of God is from the heart. Now phileo love will always doubt and question, but agapao love will always rest and be at peace. Human love is always reasoning--Godly love never does. Godly love is perhaps in its trust, and it produces faith when you really love with God's love."
The 11th Commandment - Bro. William Branham
2月14日 Happy 'True Love ' Day!
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth
not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward
us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we
might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that
he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man
hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us,
and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 7:12
O love of God, how rich and pure! Could we with ink the ocean fill, Today
the world celebrates one of the most crassly over commercialised
celebrations that is called valentines day. A day in which the world
celebrates it's version of love i.e lust. Tonight all over the world
couples will celebrate thier own fleshly lust for each other &
indulge in all sorts of carnal desires to satisfy thier lust. That is
just a wordly corrupt version of the real thing.
So,
I thought I'd just write a lil blog entry about God's Love &
Christian Brotherly Love. First of all I wanna define what I believe
'Real Love' is.. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity
envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not
behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,
thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the
truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things. Charity never faileth: 1 corinthians 4:8a. I
believe that is pretty big contrast to whats celebrated by the world
today. God's Love is all about giving & not selfish. To prove His
Love to us. God gave us a sign that is known all over the world and
that evan non believers know.. For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16. That
scripture is probably the best known verse in the whole Bible. When we
embrace & believe that sign of God's Love for us we then want to
reflect that Love in our own lifes to others. But how to get into that
Love? Jesus tells us how... "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love". John 15:10. Jesus then goes on to say... "This
is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends." John 15:12-13. Now, When I fell in Love with my Lord and Savior, I wanted with all my heart to please Him. And Jesus said to me..."if ye love me, keep my commandments." John 14:15. I find it interesting that John writes in 1 John 3:16 a reflection of God's Love in John 3:16. Where we are to take that Love and reflect that original Love in our own lifes... Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and
shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of
God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in
tongue; but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:16-18. Christians are not only called to Love thier brothers & sisters but also people that come against them... But
I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which
hate you, Luke 6:27. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend,
hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall
be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and
to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Luke 6:35-36.
Now, having written all that I am not saying that I'm perfect in that Love, I wish that I was but I am constantly striving to achieve to be perfected in that Love. I also still recognise that I still have a long way to go but with God's Help & His Spirit dwelling in me I know that one day that I will have that Love in Full & that it shall be manifested in me also. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: 1 John 3:1-2a For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. Romans 8:19
2月8日 I am weak but thou art strong...I don't really have much to say other than I am feeling a lil down at the moment... I feel like a failure but I am putting my Faith in God's Word to take comfort & to lift me outta the blues. I can totally understand where st. Paul was coming from when he wrote "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. " Romans 7:24 But then immediately after he cries out that he takes comfort and confesses There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Romans 8:1-7 That is also where I take my comfort when I so often fail misrably & backslide. I can take comfort that I am not or will be condemned for failing but rather know that because in my heart I strive to live in The Spirit & because that in my mind I serve The Lord I can find a peace. Even when I fail Him. O, How I Thank My God For His Mercy and Grace.
There is this one Hymn that my heart continually sings to My Lord that truly sums up my hearts desire.
Just a Closer Walk.. I am weak, but Thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong; I’ll be satisfied as long As I walk, let me walk close to Thee. Chorus Just a closer walk with Thee, Through this world of toil and snares, Just a closer walk with Thee, When my feeble life is o’er, Just a closer walk with Thee, 1月31日 Some Hard lessons in life & love.Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
1 Peter 5:5b-6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Philippians 1:6 This blog is just over a year old now & still just about continuing. As the writer I fee my blog has changed a lot since my 1st blog entry entitled.. 'In the begining' till this very entry. It is interesting from a personal point of view because when I first started this blog my motive was just to do something creative in my free time at work during the night to what it is now.. a open record of a christian man living in the 21st century. My one main objective that I always wanted to keep in my blog I've kept & that was to keep it Christ centered. One of the main things I've noticed in my writing is that I've cut out all the trivia stuff. I orignally put that in there to just reflect a part of me & my character. Although I've cut it now just shows how my character has changed as God has moved on me.
I feel this is gonna be another long blog entry as I've got a lot of stuff on my mind right now & I kinda feel to get it out. But.. Hey, this for my own amusment & I doubt apart from one or two friends of mine really read this anyways.
So.. I'm over my chicken pox now. I still have a few remaining spots on me but my face has cleared up of spots & I pray that the marks/scars on my face left by the spots completely go. Vanity I know but my face is pockmarked enough from acne scars from my teens. I still have a little complex about that. Anyways, I was off work for 2 weeks & during that time the Lord dealt with me in many ways evan though I backslid & got into watching some trashy hollywood movies to kill time. I'm not gonna focus on the negative stuff though. One of the things that happened to me was I got talking to this sister in America. We'd chatted on MSN messanger but after one particular chat we seemed to click & get talking on a deeper level & we talked more about what we believe & The Word. This is where I came undone & had some lessons to learn. I have always been a black or white person & never allowing for gray areas. Well, God has been showing me that it's not just black & white but there are gray areas too. This came out in my conversations with this sister. Another thing that God brought to my attention is how very immature & stubborn I am. I ended up arguing with this sister in a wrong spirit & geting into the flesh. All for which I had to repent for. I am no stranger to having to saying sorry & apologising. No matter how many times I have to do it & believe me it gets harder every time as I feel more lil humiliated because I know I should of been mature enough not to allow myself to get myself into that situation. I never seem to learn. Well, I hope I finally have now. Anyways... Some other stuff that is too personal to mention came out anyways by talking to this sister. It has ended with her emailing me & asking me to respect her wishes & never to contact her etc, which I don't blame her for saying. The thing of it is I clicked with her after I wrote in a previous blog about gettin on with my life & having to deal with not having someone special in my life. I actually really liked this sister & was attracted to her personality & spirit. I believe nothing happens to a christian by chance & our conversations was for a reason. If this sister ever decides to talk to me again is in the Lord's hands. The hard part of me now about this is that I have so much on my heart to say to her now & I can't. Oh well, but thats just how it is for me. I always seem to blow it. I'm not feeling sorry for myself here but just statin' a fact.
Another interesting thing for me to see about me personally in all that has happened is why I am still immature in many ways at 37yrs old. Before I became a christian & leaving home at 18. I became my own person I did exactly what I wanted when I wanted, Well, as much as I could. I had no one to tell me "No" or to stop me. In my own way I was living out my own Jim Morrison rock n roll fantasy. I had years of this lifestyle & all the drugs I took had completely warped my mind. Everything I did, felt, thought, saw etc under the influence of pyschedelic drugs became the normal to me. Just to add something in here from my testemony. After I had gotten a job after not having worked for years. I realised I couldn't evan speak to people who was 'straight' & not a 'spiritual enlightened drug user' as I thought I was. I learned about football so I could learn to talk on a normal level with people again. So, when I got saved at 29 and The Lord started to really change me & take out all the dross in my life. That is when I had to really start living right. Talking right & putting others 1st & not being completely selfish & just doin' what I want. It's kinda humilliting to hear that evan as a 37yr old man to be told my friends I have a very immature attitude to somethings. I can now understand why I am & can now do something about it at last.
The Lord had also been opening my eyes about the Godhead & pillar of fire doctrines. I came to realise that I didn't really have the revelation I thought I had on these things and now has corrected me where I was wrong & off the Word on these things There is some other stuff I could say about how the Lord used my 2 weeks of chicken pox to talk to me but then this blog entry would be really longwinded. 1月24日 A Poxy start to the year.
Warning! Positive confessions of Faith & blogs saying the same can result in chicken pox! This is what has seemed to be the case as I'm now just getting over the pox. boy! have I been rough with it as well... fevers, light headedness, dizziness & of course the dreaded spots. I first thought I had some virus in my inner ears 'cos of the dizziness & lightheaded & when the headache came & never left I realised some virus was really attacking my head from all directions from my painful neck up. I went to the docs & he jsut said I have a virus.. drink lots, take some Ibuprofen & rest up. The next morning I woke up... I saw i was covered in spots. I know how I came into getting the pox but I won't go into that 'cos that makes me a lil cross. The timing of it coming out though & certain situations & events all happening at the time is a sure sign of it being no coincidence. The devil really set out to attack me. But I believe God has been in the center of if. Not quite sure for all the whys etc but I know it's been for a reason. God don't just let things happen for no reason to His children. 1月16日 Desires for 2006
O give thanks unto the Lord call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore. Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the Lord our God: Psalm 105:1-7a
I haven't been keeping up with this blog for a while now due to various reasons & things that have been going on in my life. Many a time I have intended to blog but just lacked that inspiration or motivation to do so. It made me wonder if I should continue to blog or not but I didn't have a real desire to stop, so I just put it down to what I've jsut said. OK, I'm waffling again... So, what has been going on in the life of Paul? Not a lot actually. I had a very nice christmas time with my mother, got to spend some time with my grandperents as well, which was very nice, Spent New Years Eve at my apartment with some friends from church, We had a chinese meal feast, played some games, sang some hymns & prayed out the old year & prayed for the new year ahead. It was a very blessed evening actually I think. I have a head full of decisions to make about my life & where It's heading. Some important things that I have asked the Lord to show me His Perfect Will & other trivia stuff like should I go to Tuscany for my holiday this year. It is makin me a lil dizzy actually. It seems I have so much to think about & try to sort out. I'm having trouble settling my mind & just trusting in The Lord to lead me into right decisions and just trying to take one step at a time. I decided not to really make any new years resolutions this year as such. but having reflected on 2005 with my own personal thoughts from my heart and some questions I've been asked by both christian & non christian people about my life like.. do you want to get married? what are your ambitions? Do you think you'll do after you stop caring for bro Samuel, my pastor? what do you see yourself doing in 10yrs time, why don't you buy your own place instead of renting? and so forth. My answers are always the same ... Yes, I'd like to get married to a godly sister & have a familly only if its according to God's Perfect Will for me to marry ( I struggled many years to accapt if i wansn't to marry I'd be happily single if it was God's Will for me), My ambition or goal is to make the adoption to become a manifested son of God and to be caught up in the air to meet my Lord at the end of the rapture, I know I am in God's Perfect Will for now as Samuel's carer & if hes healed or I am called not to care for him anymore. I know because I have been faithful in my duty doing God's Will. God will provide for me some other work to do, I don't think I will be here in 10yrs time. I'd like to believe the rapture would of happened by then. I do personally see the point of having the headache of getting a morgage & having to spend out so much money on a house when I don't believe I'll be there to see the house paid off & truly mine. It is much easier to rent for now & have minimum payments to make on my wages. I truly believe from my heart that my answers are the true right answers. Yet also at the same time I struggle not to yearn for a godly sister to fall in love with and to marry. Its been told me that the greatest gift outside salvations is a godly wife. I am Thankful for my salvation but I can't help wanting that other gift as well. I struggle within myself at times not to look to material things & possessions. I have evan had to repent of envying others as they seem to prosper in material wealth etc. I sometimes find myself to be content working long nights caring for Samuel. I know a lot of these struggles come not from my spiritual inner man but from my old fleshly wordly nature that hankers after such things. So.. having said all that I have purposed in my heart with a fervent resolve to strengthen what I have confesssed, believe & try to live according to my profession of Faith. When Jesus was preaching the Beatitudes on the sermon on the mount, as it's commonly called. Jesus also teaches us But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:33-34. I really have purposed in my heart to seek my Gods kingdom & His righteousnes first. I do truly believe His Word & do believe all that I have need of God will supply me throughout the coming year. A litt,e earlier when Jesus is preaches He also teaches me to Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:19-21. Paul also writes something similar.. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Colossians 3:1-3. This is what I truly want. My home here on earth is temporal & everything that I have is. I truly desire to have my treasures in heaven where my Eternal home is. I am now disciplining my thoughts not torwards earthly things but now towards things above. I might not fully understand what those treasures are but I'm promised them & they are mine my Faith. another thing I have purposed in my heart to fulfull in 2006 is to get myself ready for the rapture & the Lambs marrage supper. I believe I am part of the Bride of Christ and I believe I am to prepare myself for the marrage of the Lamb. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. Rev 19:7. It is my responsability alone to see that I am ready for that great and wonderful marrage day. Paul writes in the book of Ephesisans of the great mystery concerning Christ and His Church. Paul uses the illustration of a godly marrage & how the Husband & wife should treat and respect each other. Paul writes this.. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:25-27. To me that means by the Word of God I am to purge and clense my life till so that I am without "spot or wrinkle" Now, I know I cannot do this on my own or in my own strength so I must do as Paul writes in in the book of Romans. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. Romans 13:11-14. God is not only showing me the only way to be without "spot or wrinke" is to dress my myself in The Word & put on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was Perfect before man & God. God is also warning & telling me in Love to put away from me things that I struggle with & that feed my fleshly old nature. I could add in a whole more scriptures to show how God is telling me to be prepared and ready. I could of basically just said my desires for 2006 was that I could totally Live in The Spirit, Walk in The Spirit, Be led of The Spirit into God's Perfect Will for me, So, I could walk totally by faith know I was in His Will for me, For that is my True heart's desire but I felt I needed to express what I did. This has a been a long blog and could be seen as a bit preachy my some. But this blog was for my own personal benefit more than anything to reinforce what I have set out to achieve, with God's Help, during the coming year. So, if your a christian who happens to read this or one of my few christian friends that I know read my blogs occasionaly. Please pray for me. That as I endeavour to fulfill the desires of my heart no matter what the devil puts in my way this year to try and hinder me. I Will be Victorious & the Overcomer I desire to be by Faith in Christ Jesus that strengthens me. Amen. 12月24日 Happy Christmas!Haven't blogged for a while now for various reasons but I'd make the effort to do a Christmas blog on what is the meaning of christmas?
Before I start my blog though I'd like to wish anyone who happens to read this blog a Very Happy and Blessed Christmas time full of good cheer & health.
This blog is actually inspired by watching a Peanuts cartoon called a Charlie Brown Christmas, in which my hapless hero, Charlie Brown, soul searches why he is so depressed over the christmas season among all the crass comercialism of Christmas. He finds out the real reason for christmas when Linus, so eliquently tells him of the Heavenly Angels proclaiming to the birth our our Savior Lord Jesus Christ in the City of David to shepards watching over thier sheep. Luke 2:8-14 After he hears this his depression lifts & declares to the cynical world that despite it's commercialism hes gonna have a good christmas anyhow his own way.
So... being all inspired I thought I'd blog my thoughts on Christmas... Christmas means 2 things to 2 types of people. Christians & non Christians.
A wordly christmas consists of partys, drunkeness & revelry, total gluttony (which I have to admit I am a lil guilty of at christmas eatin my mums lovely cooked food), hang overs & indegestion, draggin' out that fat fella with a white beard & red n white suit with a silly red hat once again for the season, over spending on presents which make Mr Visa & Mr A. Express rub thier greedy lil hands in glee as they get a nice christmas bonus again this year, the dour look of shoppers faces has they have to join the endless queues in shops, putting up pagan symbols like christmas trees, mistletoe, holly & stuff like that & completly missing the whole point of of christmas is actually is supposed to be about. True they say about peace & good will to all men etc but only for a day? what about the other 364 days, eh?
Christmas to a christian is although recognising that dec. 25th is the birthday of the pagan sun god & knowing that The Lamb of God was actually born in spring in the lambing season.
Christians rejoice & give Thanks to God for giving mankind the best present he could ever wish for. A savior & redeemer. Christians give modest presents as a symbol of that best present ever given to us, christians enjoy fellowship around a nice christmas meal and a time of being with family & friends.
Hard to believe that the 2 kinds of people are actually celebrating the same event, eh!?
Also in closing this blog i'd like to point out that I wasn't actually saying christians shouldn't put up christmas trees & putting christmas presents under them for the kids etc. I was just pointing out that it was actually a pagan thing and nothing to do with the birth of Christ. I'm sure mature christians have a right attitude so such things. I write this because I had written a similar thing on a yahoo group thingy about how much of christmas is actually pagan & that the world replaces Jesus with that santa cluase fella. And that was it right to lie to kids about him being real. Anyways, I got a lil negative feed back to this. So, I wanted to make myself clear on these things 'cos I don't want irrate christians saying there is nothing wrong with sticking up a christmas tree etc!
 "And when along came the virgin born, Divine Son of God, and He was God's provided lamb, provided Sacrifice, Jehovah-jireh, the provided One... And as He was born and the people of that day, of His day, especially the religious people, did not believe Him, because He never come in a classical way that they expected Him. But He came humble, born in a manger, wrapped in swaddling's cloth. There was no singing at His birth, as there is a king's birth. Mortals, when a king is born, the people sing and have jubilee. But there was no king, no people to sing at this King's birth. But the Angels came down and sang to the shepherds, "in the city of David is born Christ the Saviour." " Taken from the message The church of The Living God preached by Bro. William Branham in 1951
"Why was Jesus born in a stable or a manger? Did you ever think of that? He had to be. He was a Lamb. Lambs are not born in houses. Lambs are born in the barns and fields. Abel led his lamb away by a grapevine. Sacrificed him on the altar, and Abel died on the same altar his sacrificed lamb died. And every believer, that comes to Christ, must die on the same altar with his dying Lamb, Christ, and die in Christ to be a new creature: die out to the things of the world and become borned again, a new creature in Christ Jesus. Die on the same altar of self sacrifice. All right." Taken from the message entitled The Resurrection of Lazarus preached by Bro.William Branham. in 1951 "Now, to continue on, I was speaking of when the first noel was sang, was sang by Angels at little Bethlehem. There's where all these great men were born. There's where the promise of the King was born. The promised King came to that. Now, the word... to get quickly now, so I won't hold you too long. The--the promise, the word was this, the word "Bethlehem." Let's break it down. I skipped over a few notes here in order to take up the time. Now, Bethlehem. The word B-e-t-h means "house." E-l means "God," in Hebrew. E-l-h-e-m is "Bread." Bethlehem, "the house of God's Bread." That's what the word means. Words, names, they have meanings. Many people don't believe that, but that's true. If names don't have some meaning, why did Abram's name have to be changed to Abraham? Why did Sarai have to be changed to Sarah? Why did Saul have to be changed to Paul? Why did Simon have to be changed to Peter? See, all these has meanings, everything has meanings. And the name Bethlehem means "the house of God's Bread." Now, how fitting that is to Jesus, the Bread of Eternal Life. Christ is the Bread of Life. We all believe that, don't we? How fitting Bethlehem there, the bread center of the world, was the bread center of Eternal Life. That's why the King had to be born there. He said, in Saint John 6:35, "I am the Bread of Life that come from God out of Heaven. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and all dead. But this Bread, if a man eats this Bread, he shall live forever." Then, Jesus is the Bread of Life, so the Bread of Life had to come at Bethlehem. He is our Bread of Life for the journey, like Israel. God gave Israel bread out of the skies, for their journey, as they journeyed from where they left Egypt unto the promised land. Bread, nightly, rained down from the skies. And God gave us the Bread of Life for our journey, come at Bethlehem, God's house of Bread. See how it had to be? It must be where that name is called, Bethlehem, "the house of God's Bread." Then how could He be born in Jerusalem? How could He be born in Ramoth-Gilead? See, He come to where His Name was, "house of God's Bread." Taken from the message entitled Why Little Bethleham? preached by Bro.William Branham in 1963
11月30日 sun 27th - A Blessed dayI'm
really struggling with this servere bout of laziness & it doen't
help when you have a thought in your mind to do something and to
act upon it is like trying to swim in a lake of peanut butter. Enough of my excuses.... So, last sunday was a really blessed day for me. firstly... bro Plaudious, the pastor of the church in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe (where we was in June), was in the country & come down to fellowship & minister the Word at our church. He preached a really good message about christians getting thier life/house in order so they can come before God as sons/daughters of God and demand that our prayers be heard & moved on as His children, knowing we've done all we can according to His Word to have our lifes right before God. God is not bound by our actual demands that He answers our prayer or by anything other than His Word when we've done all we can. Scriptually he used Noah, Abraham, Moses, & Elijah as examples to illistrate this as they had to build an ark and wait on the Lord to close the door, climb a certain mountain, build an alter,provide wood and to sacrifice his son to God, build an tabernacle for the Lord according to the pattern he'd seen in heaven & rebuild an alter & set is all the stones & wood order before they they placed a sacrifice on that alter. Once those old testement saints had done all they could they could expect God to move on thier prayers. Also I forget to mention that he started to say at the beginning of his message that we sometimes don't hear from God about some of our prayers because our lifes are not right before Him. I don't think I've put the thrust of the message across well but I hope you've caught the gist of it. I was certainly blessed by the ministry & it surely gave me something to meditate on & inspire me to get my act together, which I really need to do of late. OK, secoundly it was also my dear Mums birthday on sunday & I'd being praying that my mum would be well enough to enjoy her birthday- She suffers badly with M.E or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/ Encephalopathy to use it's proper long medical name. I went to my mums straight after church & took her out for a speacial birthday meal, which was very nice. The whole day my mum was well & enjoyed the nice meal & felt rested for the whole day. So, Thank God for answering that prayer for me & truly blessing my mum & I. Apart from that blessed sunday the rest of the week has been the same ole same ole really & nothing to write about. So, I guess I could write about my trip to Az now but my laziness is kicking in again & I think I'll write my next blog all about the trip 11月24日 Happy Thanks Giving.Happy Thanks Giving to my precious american brothers & sisters across the pond. I pray that The Lord Richly Blesses your Thanks Giving & I Thank The Lord for my precious friends across the pond. I was once Blessed to be in the states for Thanks Giving one year. I was with my dear friends in West Virginia & it was a special for me to be with some very dear saints Thanking The Lord for ALL He'd done for us & most of all for saving us with Amazing Grace. Lord Willing I'll be able to be in the USA for another Thanks Giving one day.
As it's Thanks Giving I'd like to Thank the Lord for ALL His Love, Grace, Mercy,Goodness, Revelation that Hes Blessed me with over the years. Thank you Lord once again for Everything.
11月22日 back to the blog.Wow! It's been a long time since I've blogged. I've totally gotten out of the habit & forgot all about my blog actually. Since I last blogged about my holiday to Arizona, I've had a awesome Blessed holiday, got a nasty cold bug arriving back in England, struggled with jet lag, dealing with a cold bug & having to deal with gettin back into work routine. I've totally lazy ever since we got back to England after my 1st week back home having to deal with all that. I'm actually forcing myself to write this blog trying to get back into the habit of doing it.
It's hard to know to begin writing about Daves & I holiday to Arizona. We had a Blessed fun hectic two weeks of travelling up & down the state. Seeing the spectacular & breaktaking Grand Canyon & ending up in boot hill, Tombstone. So much happened inbetween those two places it's hard to collect my thoughts & get down all the adventures that happened in between.. Also trying to remember all the names of the bros & sis we fellowshipped with in Pheonix & Flagstaff. All I say at this point is that it was a really blessed awesome trip.
Right now I'm at work & am pretty tired so I'm gonna wind up this blog knowing I've started again & hope to write up all about our trip. I hope I get further with this than I did about my Zimbabwe trip blog which died before I started it & will be no more when I get around deleting it.
10月7日 Whats been going on...I haven't really updated my blog with whats going on with other than the testimony of my deliverence, which I'm still rejoicing over. As a continuation of my testimony when the devil has tried to tempt me with things I've struggled with in the past & when the flesh tries to resurrect it self to do some of the things it used to delight it in, It has no power behind it. My Lord Jesus has done a complete work in me & as much as I'm tempted there is no desire or power behind the temptations of the flesh to fulfill it. Praise God. I'll be rejoicing untill the next major thing the Lord has to work on in me & no doubt I'll be rejoicing evan more because I know when the The Lord starts a work it is for my Good & is to devolop my character to more like Christs.
This last week I've been sortin' out the final arrangements for bro Daves & I holiday in Arizona. The Lord has been blessing & things have been falling into place perfectly. Praise God. I've contacted several pastors of churches in the areas we'll be visiting for church & fellowship ( my 1st priority is always to seek out a church I can fellowship at when travelling). I've arranged the accommodation for each of the places we'll be staying at. sorted out our helicopter ride through the Grand Canyon, hot air ballon ride over sedona & the painted desert. We're pretty much all set. I'm now getting a lil excited now theres only a few days till we leave for our trip. All that is left to do is pack etc. I am a lil nervous about driving on the wrong side of the road for the 1st time actually but I'm sure once I get on the road I'll be fine. I wonder what is going through Daves mind as he has never left the UK before & never been on a plane before either. Hes gonna be flying, helicopter riding, hot air balloning & driving on the wrong side of the road & seeing a different country for the 1st time in his life! Thats quite a lot in one hit, eh. At leat we're going to a place where they almost speak the same as us & the food is good. The real test for Dave will be will be able to cope without a decent cuppa tea in the morning for just over 2 weeks! I can see him bringin' a box of teabags with him actually. As for me this will be my 6th trip over the pond to the states & my 9th state to visit. Lord Willing, I'll be going to back to the states next summer to visit some friends I have over in Missouri & maybe in Florida as well. If that happens I'll have visited the east & west coasts, some north & southern states & mid america. Which is what I've always wanted to do to get a feel for America.
And now on to something completely different....
Recently as I was browsing a christian book website, which I highy recommend to any christian to get some cheap Bibles, christian books,CDs, gifts etc. I couldn't help but notice how phenomenal popular the 'Left Behind' series is. Not only is there all the books for adults but there is DVDs/video, music CDs, games & then the whole lot again as kids versions! It baffles me why/how so many christians would want to be so interesting in 'Left Behind'. Surely as christians we all should be looking to the rapture, the millenium & eternity with Our Lord. Not being so interested in the Great Tribulation that follows the end of the rapture. I've come to believe that the reason 'Left behind' is so popular is to prepare the 5 foolish virgins of what is to come! |
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