It's a new day - Let us rejoice!

(Matthew 24:26) presents what Jesus told His disciples concerning his return , “But of the day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” Many have speculated about when Christ will return, no one knows when but it will happen. Long ago, the early church preached to unbelievers His returning would be as; “a thief in the night.” Paul, the apostle, assured believers: “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.” In (1 Thessalonians 5:2-6) “For you, yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say; ‘Peace and safety!’ then suddenly destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape.” We cannot say we were not warned ! We are to be prepared, Jesus said. It would be nice if we knew when He was coming, but then if we knew, most of us would live our lives as we wanted and then a day or two before that last day we would

In (Matthew 14:25) Jesus had told the disciples to get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side of the lake. The Bible says; He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. The wind was strong that night and the waves buffeted the small boat, tossing it to and fro. It would have been a frightening time to be out on the water; especially that late at night. The men in the boat trembled with fear, and when they saw Jesus walking out to them on the water they thought He was a ghost. Jesus assured them it was He and they should not be afraid. Peter, one of the disciples, said, “Lord, if it’s You, tell me to come to You on the water!” Jesus told him, “Come.” Peter stepped out of the boat, walked toward Jesus, but when he saw the wind; the Bible says, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Peter’s faith was strong, at first. He was walking on the top of the waves just as Jesus was, but the moment he allowed himself to think rationally instead of t

All our talk in church of the blood of Christ may disturb many. It used to bother me. However, I realize now without the sacrificed blood of Christ on the cross there would be no Christianity. In (Hebrews 9:22) the Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.” According to God’s law our redemption was possible only by transferring our sin to a perfect substitute. In those early days of the Bible, an Israelite would select an unblemished lamb; he would then place his hand upon the head of the lamb, confess his sin, and then pass the animal over to a priest for sacrifice. In today’s world, as believers in Christ Jesus, we are redeemed by His forgiveness. Our sacrifice is Jesus, a divine, sinless Savior who was sent by God to take our guilt and penalty upon Himself, so we could be forgiven, and once again be worthy of a personal relationship with our Almighty God. Are you forgiven? You are if you accepted Jesus’ death as your substitutionary perfect sacrifice, a

Paul, an apostle – sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father – “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-10). Matthew; the first book of the Gospels warns in (Chapter 7:1-5) “Watch out for false prophets.” Accurately, these are those who in our present time, like in the time of th

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1 NIV). Our faith can be tried in many ways, but God will never call us to do anything without offering us His promise of His presence. When these barriers to our faith arise we are not without hope. We can take action to defend our faith with these four effective weapons for faith. First, we must listen . God’s Word allows us to understand what God is speaking to us concerning who He is, and how He works. Trusting what He says instills faith. It is not enough though, that we read and learn from His Word. We must follow His instructions. We must obey what He tells us to do. Take a leap of faith . When God speaks to you, be ready to jump. Do not wait until all your conditions are met, or all has been answered for you. Allow God to drive . Do you want to get where you’re going? God assumes full responsibility for your life when you surrender to His service. Sit down, be quiet and leave the dri

We are not able to save ourselves, no matter how many good works we have done, or the sins we have committed. Eternal life is God’s special gift to us. Scripture tells us our only way of salvation is through Jesus Christ, our Lord. What is the prerequisite of our gift? Agreeing with the testimony of Scripture: (Romans 6:22-23) “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus has paid our sin debt in full. Our sin with all our guilt has been removed by the supreme sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. There is no sin so bad that our redemption will be denied – the only exception is the rejection of Jesus. God’s special gift to us covers every sin from our past, present, and future. So what is our obligation to God? Nothing; except to believe in and accept His precious Son Jesus. There are no ot

The popular cry of the people here in America today is for “change.” Yet in some parts of the world there are those who use all means, including terrorism to resist it. There are some people who are determined to leave ancient traditions, and often times, corruptible governments just as they are, and have been for hundreds of thousands of years. Many of these nations do not recognize God. God is always the same; today, tomorrow, and forever. He never changes; this knowledge about Him enables us to have total reliability in Him. His character is as follows: God is omnipotent . All power is His, and nothing is beyond His control. He enforces His perfect will. He is unstoppable by any force in heaven or on earth! God is omnipresent. He is everywhere imaginable and unimaginable all at the same time! No person or place is beyond His presence. Space and time are before Him always. He determines everything for all places and all persons. God is omniscient. All that is happening to all

There is nothing, nothing imagined, or real God does not determine to be or not. Who do we think we are to consider ourselves originators of creation and law? All that is, or was, or will ever be is first considered, and then established by God. Are we fit and capable of establishing and governing a nation without first seeking the will and power of God? Hardly! Do we think for even a moment that we can decide who will be our (king) without considering God’s chosen? We can, God has allowed us free will, but it is possible we will regret our candidate if we insist on that one who is not God’s choice. History proves this to be true; consider how the Israelites denied God as their true king, preferring Samuel to select another for them. Enter King Saul, and the historical events that destroyed that nation. What matters is important! Not only is what we do, or do not do important with regards to including God in our plans, our most personal future depends on how we use our free will. To

As only a servant of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Nehemiah was in no position to ask the King for time off to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, or to ask him for the building materials, or his protection while he was doing it. However, Nehemiah understood how to pray to his almighty God for help, and so he went to source of all he needed. Nehemiah began his prayer with; “I beseech you, O LORD God of heaven.” LORD being spelled with all capital letters, which indicates reference to Jehovah (a Hebrew name and a form of Yahweh, meaning; God who is eternal in His being. This recognition declares God is; everything, everywhere, and all within His presence. The promises of God are such that He already knows exactly how He will keep His promises to you. Nehemiah knew God as; the awesome God who preserves the covenant . We have this same assurance of who God is to us. Another Hebrew word for God is; Elohim , translated to mean, He who is absolutely sovereign. Nehemiah understood that this same G

God is calling all who will listen Have you heard from God lately? No? When was the last time you called upon Him? God says in (Jeremiah 33:3) “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Unlike the way we may treat family or friends; “I’m not calling him or her until they call me first!” WE DON’T TREAT GOD THIS WAY! We don’t wait for God, creator of heaven and earth to get in touch with us before we call on Him. Not if we expect to get the best results for our lives. We are to call upon Him for everything, to include Him in all; I said ALL, our decisions! From the very beginning we were not created for our pleasure but His. He does want us to be in constant communication with Him – including Him in everything we do. God has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus, before time began. In (Genesis 1:26) God said to the other two person

God has given His authority. God’s plan for authority has been given to His people: authority in the church (1 Peter 5:1-2) which says, “shepherd the flock of God which is among you;” authority in the home (Colossians 3:18-25,) “Wives submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord, as is fitting in the Lord;” authority in your workplace (Ephesians 6:5-9) “Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters…; and authority in civil government (Romans    13:1-7) “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God….” Authority as planned by God seems awkward and unfitting in today’s societies – not that His plan is inappropriate, certainly this is not true. It is more that people have deviated from God’s plan to what seems more suited to their personal lives for whatever reasons they justify. It is it any wonder we have dysfunctional families, government and nations? God all

Our hearts, like cluttered closets, are an ugly mess until God transforms us. In (Mark 7:21-23) Jesus said, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile man.” We can get dressed up, put on our best public face and go out into the world looking completely innocent and righteous, but in our hearts sin is hiding. (Jeremiah 17:9-10) says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind.” (Also see Ephesians 4:17-18.) There was a group of religious leaders to whom Jesus spoke   directly because they regularly behaved as though they never sinned. He asked them, “How can you being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart man speaks.”   The attitudes and actions of this group caused them to

No longer in the tomb, Jesus is alive. The Sabbath had passed, and now it was the first day of the week. The two Mary’s and other women came to the tomb where Jesus had been laid to anoint His dead body with the fragrant oils and spices they had prepared for His burial. They found the large stone in front of the entrance of the tomb had been rolled away. The Roman guards were nowhere around…something was strange about that! Cautiously, the women approached the tomb. Once inside they could see the body of Jesus was gone! They looked at each other in horror. “Where is He?” they asked each other. One of the women cried out, “Someone has stolen His body!” Suddenly, as they were perplexed, two men appeared by the head and foot of the rock slab where Jesus’ body had been stretched out before. The two men wore garments that shone brightly and they appeared as angels. The women were frightened and bowed their heads to the earth. The angels then asked, “Why do you seek the living among the

Advertising slogans of the past, like; “Just Do It,” and “Your worth it,”  and “Have it your way” are all strong marketing suggestions for us to be more personally demanding. As we adopt this kind of thinking I am afraid we may also allow this “attitude” of more self-centeredness to affect other critical areas of our lives. Most importantly, God wants us to be more committed to doing things His way! In (Psalm 37:4,5) His Word says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” As I read this wonderful Scripture I consider its tone to be likened to that of well-meaning advice, but non-threatening. It’s true God allows us freedom of choice but His intent in His words is not without strong conviction and definite purpose for our lives! He knows what is best for us in all situations. If we choose not to listen we may have it our way , but later wish we hadn’t. It’s all

“Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24). When I was a young man of about fifteen my family and I lived in a rural area of New Iberia, Louisiana. Our home was on about eight acres out in the country. U.S. hwy. ninety went right in front of our house. We had several wooden beehives and one of my chores was to gather the honey when it was ready to harvest. My younger brother and I sold the most fabulous, sweetest tasting honey to motorist who would stop of the highway in front of our home. I remember we sold our honey with and without the honeycomb in our jars. Some customers wanted to have that interesting honeycomb oozing with all its honey in their jars. We sold a lot of honey back in those days! As the Scripture says, our words can be pleasant or they can be offensive. When we speak words of hate, discouragement, anger and accusation we surely offend others, but we also offend ourselves. Furthermore, unpleasant words can

In addition to my daily message today, this is something very special I believe the Lord wants me to post right now! Help Me Overcome My Unbelief! As a Christian, I believe God loves me and wants the best for me. Certainly, in His Word (Psalm 103:3 NIV) the Psalmist wrote; Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits – who forgives all your (my) sins and heals all your (my) diseases, who redeems your (my) life from the pit…. I know this, really I do! Still, there are times when I don’t see God actually doing what I expect Him to do; to save me from my trouble; to provide me with what I want; and to provide the healing release I expect. Before I became a Christian I really had a problem with faith, much less be able to cling to any promises God made to me; regardless of whether I was a Christian or not! Therefore, I understand how we can have moments of unbelief, or we can just flat out not trust what God has promised us. This is Satan at work, big time !  “Get beh

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves, treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). So, are we all nothing more than pleasure-pirates looking for our next great treasure? Some of us certainly spend a large part of our time, energy and money on what we think matters to us most. If we are a young person maybe it’s the latest video game or cell phone. If we just got engaged maybe our treasure is a 2 karat, emerald-cut diamond, engagement ring. Maybe our treasure is our job (if you have a great job in today’s job market it is a treasure). Our treasure could be something more tangible like a new ski boat, a beautiful home, an expensive automobile, or an 80-inch plasma, flat-screen TV to watch our favorite sports event on. What we call our treasures here

“…it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11). This verse from the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans is where he was instructing them to put on Christ. He was illustrating that during the time of sleep we are in darkness, our works may be darkness as well. He went on to say, the night is already gone , in other words, before Christ we were in darkness hopelessly lost. Now that He is come and we know the truth of our salvation Paul is saying it is time for us to wake up! Come out of our darkness, and put on the armor of light, Jesus Christ. We are to make no provision for the flesh, for the flesh will only try to fulfill its lusts. This morning unless we open our ears to teachings of the Holy Spirit the world will start telling us what it expects us to be doing this day. Our night is over, we now have Jesus, He is our Morning Star, our hope and He alone is the way. “The night is far spent, the day is at hand

"See to it no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ" (Colossians 2:8). Who will we listen to concerning our future, our welfare? A person who claims to have the answers to our problems or to Christ? I choose Jesus because Scripture; (Colossians 2:9 tells us all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form (Christ Jesus), and we have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority! Not some... but every power and authority! God has disarmed those powers and authorities that desire to bring us ruin, making them a public spectacle, triumphing over them by nailing the object of their humiliation to a cross. He has given us life-instructions (His Word) to discern that which is, and which is not, intended by Him for our life in Christ. His Holy Spirit is our advocate. His Word says, "Since you died with Christ to the basic

“The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them” (Psalm 34:7). There are angels here among us in our world. They serve God, and they are not without His special purpose. We may call them “guardian angels” or we acknowledge their presence by calling these powerful, messengers of God “our special angels.” Sometimes, we rightly credit them with saving our lives, keeping us from doing something foolish as we likely may do from time to time. Several years ago, I was approaching a very dangerous railroad crossing. There had been many fatal accidents at this crossing over the years because of the large trees and underbrush that blocked the view of any approaching train from either direction. There were no warning lights or crossing bars, only a wooden sign indicating a railroad crossing. On this near fatal day for me several railroad men were working on the tracks at this crossing.  I saw their orange cones they had placed on either side of the tracks and I s

“None of My words will be postponed any more, but the word which I speak will be done, says the Lord God” (Ezekiel 12:28). Ezekiel heard God say, “Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and anxiety. And say to the people of the land, ‘Thus says the Lord God to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the land Israel: “They shall eat their bread with anxiety, and drink their water with dread, so that her land may be emptied of all who dwell in it. Then the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall become desolate; and you shall know that I am the LORD.” ’ ” God’s judgment will not be postponed. He is already casting His judgment upon our land. Do you see how we have been and are still ignoring God? How we have not kept His laws? Do you see how we have despised His intervention in our lives, our schools, and our government? We are surely due our judgment. As a nation and as a people we are even already receiving God’s final judgm

“And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 23:44). That night, the infamous day He was arrested in the garden, atop the Mount of Olives, Jesus prayed more earnestly to His Father. He was accustomed to praying there in Gethsemane often. As He prayed His beloved disciples stood nearby. Now, the moment of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest was close at hand; He was aware His accusers were on their way, they were coming for Him! The intended tragedy of this night was all about our Savior. Jesus was already experiencing tremendous agony as He considered all the pain He was going to be going through in the next few hours. We can never fully understand the extent of agony Jesus went through that night in the garden; the fear, the terror, the extreme feelings of rejection He must have felt; and by those whom He loved so much! We can never begin to imagine the emotional agony He went through, yet He willingly went w

“How long, O Lord will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed against him’; lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in Your mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13:1-6). Before I found Jesus and gave my life to Him, I trusted my own knowledge, my own judgment, and I leaned only on my own understanding. I also made many, many mistakes! Most of the time, I felt alone in my decisions, because without God I was alone. Except during all that time God was looking out for me. His saving grace was always there with me protecting me and allowing me time to come around to Him! I am so glad He was so patient with me dur

"You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea"(Micah 7:19). Here we are on this tiny little planet in a relatively small solar system situated toward the outer rim of a vast galaxy known as; The Milky Way being only one galaxy among millions of other galaxies in an unimaginable universe that continues to expand every minute and this God who is continuing to create all things considers you and me to be so immensely important to Him that He forgives us every time we fail Him! Do you ever ask yourself why? I do often. Wouldn't you agree we are so small, so totally insignificant considering the vastness of God's expanding creation that we shouldn't even rate a millisecond of His unimaginable, so busy mind, but we do! To Him we are so important to Him he knows the number of hairs on our heads...He even knows our names! How wonderful is this; our God, that He, who is so big, so huge th

“Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the LORD” (Psalm 98:4, 5). Here is one dictionary’s definition of the jubilant: uttering songs of triumph; shouting with joy; triumphant; exulting. Loving the LORD as we do, don’t we just want to sing out our praises to Him? Joyful music lifts our spirits. It did for King Saul for the Bible says in (1 Samuel 16:23) “Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.” The king’s attendants advised Saul to send for a musician to play joyful music. They told him of a shepherd boy named David who was a talented boy musician, and he did and whenever David played his harp Saul would feel better! Music is tonic for the soul. Joyful music played and sung to the LORD please the LORD. I live with a personal testimony of one woman who loves to sing praises to the LORD. Sally, my wif

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). There is a half-acre pond on our Sanctuary at Camilla property which I had dug several years ago. Depending only on rain water to fill it, it took six months to fill it; I stocked it with hundreds of small fingerlings of Red Ear Perch and Florida Large Mouth Bass fish. Over a few years, I routinely fed these little fish every afternoon as the sun’s shadows crept across the pond’s surface. My fish came to know this was their feeding time. They came to depend on me being there faithfully each day to throw out their 7-8 hands full of dry dog food pellets. I made a commitment to do this for them. And so, every afternoon, as I approached the water’s edge, my little fish were there swimming back and forth anticipating the scrumptious meal they eagerly waited for. The food would barely hit the water’s surface and there was tumultuous splashing and thrashing of hundreds of hungry fish eager to

“With the LORD a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8). So, what’s our big hurry? We’ve all seen the morning news on TV when they show the traffic report for commuters – all the cars speeding along, diverting off on feeders, exiting going north, south, east and west doing 75-80 mph – looking like millions of busy little ants. Busy, busy, busy chattering away on their cell phones, doing what they believe is vitally important – making the most of their day. Wait a second, what’s wrong with this picture? Are we truly making the most of our day(s)? Hopefully, we are. We are if start our day with a prayer acknowledging God’s plan for our day, and during our day, we stop every once in a while to thank Him for all He has done for us – if at the end of our day we thank Him for our jobs, our spouses, our children, our friends, the homes we live in, our financial resources, our health, our nation and our leaders we are. If every chance we get during

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty" (Psalm 91). Many years ago, my family and I rented several cabins on Lake Texoma; a very large lake on the Texas and Oklahoma border. We also rented a small boat and motor to get us out to a little island where we could swim and fish. This lake is so big it can generate its own weather! In the hottest part of the summer large thunderstorms develop almost every afternoon. One of afternoon, while we were out on our little island we watched a huge storm develop in the distance and we decided to leave the exposed island and make a mad dash back to the mainland, and to the safety of our cabins. It took us two complete trips to get everyone and all our gear back ashore. The last trip was real scary as the storm was already upon us, but we made it just before hard rain and hail started to pound us. We gathered what we could from the little aluminum boat and what we could carry as we ran at to

“Do not call anything impure that God has made clean” (Acts 10:15). Was it a coincidence that God spoke to Cornelius, an Italian centurion, who was also known to be a God-fearing man and devout worshipper of God and to a man named Simon, who is called Peter at the same time? No, for God had determined Peter would introduce Christianity to the Gentiles at the home of Cornelius in Caesarea. Cornelius was given a vision by God to send for Peter. Peter while praying was given a vision of a large sheet let down from heaven by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. God told Peter to “Kill and eat.” Peter said to God, “Surely not, Lord.” God then told Peter not to call anything He created impure or unclean. In his same vision, God told Peter there were three men who had come for him and he was to go with them to Caesarea. Peter did as God instructed. When Peter got to Caesarea and the home of Cornelius he found that Corne

“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8). The news reports of a person who is stabbed in a carjacking, a child is abducted while walking home from school, a drunk driver crosses a highway median crashing head-on into a family on vacation, a soldier taking water to a thirsty, old man in a village is killed by a roadside bomb. It’s real hard to love the perpetrators of all these acts of violence yet the Bible teaches us we must. The ones who commit these tragic events remain God’s children; lost, possessed by the evil will of Satan, but still they belong to God, and He continues to love them.   (Romans 12:9-12) says; “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, fai

“How did the fig tree wither so quickly” (Matthew 21:20)? Jesus was hungry one morning, as He was on His way back to the city. He saw a fig tree and went up to it but saw it had borne no fruit. He said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” The Bible says the fig tree immediately withered. Jesus’ disciples were utterly amazed as they watched the tree wither away right before their eyes. They asked Jesus how this could be. Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask in prayer (v. 21).” What I understand from this Scripture is that Jesus was unhappy with that which the Father, God, created to bear fruit but doesn’t! And, that because we allow ourselves to lack proper faith we are willing to accept much less than what God intends for us. Some will say, “It’s impos

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” (1 Peter 2:9). Like new born babies, craving pure spiritual milk, we hunger to grow more in our salvation, especially now that we have tasted that the Lord is good. Wouldn’t you agree? Once you have discovered that the Lord is good, and that you belong to Him, you want more, a lot more of Him! He who has chosen us has unleashed our desire to know more about Him and we develop this insatiable appetite to learn more about our King. So, as we come to Him, entering His gates, He who is the living stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him – we also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house. We are His royal priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices to Him through His blessed Son, Jesus Christ. This spiritual house with its chief cornerstone, who is our precious Jesus, will never be put to shame. As a chosen generation, we are to live our lives before the world

“But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind” (James 1:6). God is faithful. Faithful to provide all we need, in fact, He knows our needs even before we realize we have them! Why then, should we ever doubt Him? His will for our welfare supersedes all we believe we know we need. Yet, we often, maybe too often, try to anticipate what we think will be the outcome of what happens in our lives. I think the truth is; we want Him to cause the best for us, that which we want to see happen, but because we allow the thinking of the world to influence our beliefs, we start doubting His participation. If I prejudge you, believing you aren’t going to act in a certain way, the way I want you to respond, and you know about it, what will you think? If I anticipate your lack of involvement in your response and go on with my own way of dealing with the situation; the way I wish you would respond, how will this make you feel? I ca