Friday, May 15, 2009

"You've got a Friend."

Luke 11:5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
11:6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
11:7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
11:8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.


I remember the song by James Taylor, You've got a friend, where he sings about, that no matter what time of the year, the person he was singing to had a friend.

For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.

"What a terrible place to be in! Someone has come to me at midnight in his journey and I have nothing to give!"

God will allow people in their journey to come to you!

A friend on a journey that may have made a lot of wrong choices or turns in their life.

But in their midnight hour, they're knocking on your door!

Not only is it late! Not only does it seem like a bad time!

But you have nothing to give to your friend!

We have a Friend that we can go to at midnight__the most darkest and desperate hour that we find ourselves in! When many peoples lives are in ruin because of their journey! When everyone is trying to work things out themselves.

In all of this that's going on__"you've got a Friend!"

When that friend comes to you in the most unlikely time___"you've got a Friend!"

When you don't have it in you to supply your friends need___"you've got a Friend!"



In this midnight hour___God is beginning to awaken His' servants by allowing people at the time of His choosing to show up!

You have nothing within yourself! "But, you've got a Friend!"

He will rise and give him as many as he needeth!

Ain't it good to know..........."You've got a Friend!"

Sunday, May 10, 2009

"A Greater than Momma has Come."

I want to share some of my thoughts and recollections of someone that hopefully all who may read this today may identify with my account of a mother. It's "Mother's Day" and as I was thinking about my mother, who is still living and is eighty-three years old. First of all, I've always called her "Momma",pronouced the way it looks, that name to me has always seemed what a little kid would call his mother. I can assure you that I called the name "Momma" alot through the years and still do! Momma!

I was thinking if you've ever thought of this person called "Momma" as I have, she was the one that at the very beginning of life was the closest. In fact, for nine months "Momma" held you inside her body. She was your protection, she was your supply of food, she heard your every heart beat because you were near to her. It was her comfort she gave up to comfort you. And finally, after those hours of labor, when you came out from her into this world, it was only the beginning of "Momma's Work"!

From the very start, once you were out of the secluded place of only her presence,you wanted to be close to her. Protection, food, and closeness took on a whole new meaning for you! You were under Momma's watchful eye and care and that was a good feeling to know. Let's think back just a moment about Momma's watchful eye. I am the third child born out of seven children, three boys and four girls. Some of you kids born today according to statistics on the family, where I believe I read that has 2.4 children in the family,I don't don't know how they come up with that number, you don't know what you're missing! Momma's eye didn't miss a thing, she always knew what was going on, what needed to be done, and she was always our protection, supply, and the one we came running to be near!

I remember this about "Momma", her attitude was that we are in this thing together! She always wanted to keep us together! We went every where that Momma and Daddy went! If she couldn't take her kids, she didn't go! Oh, I remember visiting kinfolk but she always made sure that she knew that we were safe.

I remember one night when I was eight and my brother Randy was four I think, we had to sleep in the same bed back then, and it was past time to be asleep. Everyone is in their beds, all nine of our family members, (seven of us and Momma and Daddy)and Randy and I had the giggles and our bedroom had a door going to our parents room and another door to our sisters bedroom, there was no such thing as a hall in that house, every room had two doors which went to two other rooms. It's a week night, my Dad is a brickmason, which he has been working all day and is tired and has got to get up in the morning to go to work. We've already been given the last warning to be quiet and go to sleep! We just can't stop talking our giggling. So, in one last effort to stop this laughing matter, you know who comes up with a plan. Only "Momma" can come up with a plan that will turn our laughter into mourning! Daddy told Momma not to do her plan because it would scare us to death! She slips out of her bed, and she crawls in the darkness of that summer night, back then we slept with the windows raised, no air-conditioner in the house. She eases to the foot of our bed and we are talking and giggling to each other and all of a sudden there is a tug on our bed sheet. Randy didn't feel the first tug because of our laughing and moving so much, but I did and my laughter was about to turn to mourning. "Randy did you pull that cover?" I said. "No," he said. About that time "Momma' pulled the cover again! I said: "Was that you that pulled that sheet?" Randy said: "It was you!" I said: " No it wasn't! Somebody in this room!" When I said that, Randy let out a scream, he was on his back and he bounced straight up grabbing the sheet with both hands and as he came back on the bed, he covered up with all of the sheet! I have no cover and no protection from the burgular! My next words were loud, real loud! "Daddy! There's somebody in our room! By this time, "Momma" can't stop sniggering at the foot of the bed! Daddy knows... and says you boys better go to sleep, it's just your "Momma"! Never in our lives were Randy and I so glad it was "Momma"! Our mourning was turned to laughter, although it took the next day for the sound to come out! I could probably write a book on growing up with "Momma"!

I love my "Momma" and she's the greatest, but I'm sure that your's is the greatest to you. I hope that she is. Maybe, you don't have the memories of your "Momma" like I have but there is one that wants to be your protection, your supply, and He wants to be near you so much! The Heavenly Father who knows...., who gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have Everlasting Life! He's more than "Momma" can be! Believe Him this day! You need Him! He loves you! Call on Jesus Christ, He will save you from all your fears! A greater than "Momma" has come! "Jesus Christ!" May God bless you and all the "Mommas" today!

Friday, May 8, 2009

God is a Perfectionist

I remember when I was just five or six years old, when I would play with my cousins outside. We most of the time had to play "Make Believe", such as cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, fox and the hounds, or in a front porch swing, I can still see my two cousins, Bill and Richard Bass as they called me "Uncle Magic". Think of this, they were at least four years older than me, and they called me Uncle Magic! While Uncle Magic had control of that swing on their porch, while I was visiting them for the week-end, there was no limit to the feats I could do! I stopped great calamities, rescued out of control cars, and with a wave of my hand and a command I could do mind-blogging sights. But later on that day, I might of stepped on a nail, or got a splinter in my hand, or fell some way, only to realize the reality of life. No matter what my cousins called me and we believed, it was all our imagination. Uncle Magic faded away when the real trouble came! When he faded out the tears came when I stepped on the nail. I forgot all about being that super- person when that splinter went in real deep! In other words I made it all up and it was fun while I was in the swing but when I really got into the "swing of things" I was learning the way to grow up was that it meant that I would suffer some things as I would live in this world.

I want to talk to you Brother or Sister in Christ. You have genuinely been saved and washed in the Blood of Jesus, yet when God has allowed trouble to come your way, you have decided it's easier to walk away from that husband or wife than to come before God with a repentant heart so God can fix it! The world system has made it easy for you today to divorce and give up! If we are willing to grow up in Christ, He still can work a miracle in your marriage today!

Or maybe two Believers have sinned against the other and you've bought into the worlds' way of solving the problem, "Get you another friend!" No! Grow up and make it right through God's grace and forgiveness!

Christians, you that aren't in fellowship with Gods' people, you've allowed compromise in your walk with God and you've decided that you'll serve God without the Body at home. You are walking in disobedience to God and that sin has kept you away for the Body, your local church family, and it has kept you away from God and you need to repent, and grow up in the Lord!

I say this in the love of Christ because I have had to repent and grow up in Christ myself. And I must continue to grow in Christ and in the knowledge of Him!

God is our Great and Powerful Creator who watches us and helps us learn and grow up to His pleasing.

It pleased God to allow suffering to come our way sometimes that we may learn obedience. For in everything He desires to hear our cry unto Him, His ear is opened and He will always do what's needed to make us more like His Son, Jesus!

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: 1 Corinthians 13:11.

You see, when just a little boy, when I got shot playing cops and robbers, we could count to ten and we would be a new man!

Folks, it's not that way in real life! There is a real robber that's not afraid to steal, kill, and destroy! We can't count to ten and then start over! We must grow up in Christ! He is come that they might have Life! and they might have it more abundantly!
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? John 11:25-26

If we will grow up and learn this, "I must decrease and He must increase!"
If we will grow up and learn this, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain!"
If I will only grow up to the resolve in my heart that the only way for me to save my life, is to lose it!

By His' grace I say in faith:"I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live!"




God is a Perfectionist!

He will bring the Church into that which He has ordained!
Let us grow up in Christ!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Who is in front of you?

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; Ephesians 5:1
The word be means to cause to be, to become, or to come into being!

And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Matthew 4:19
Jesus said: "Follow me, and I will make you the fishers of men."
The word make has the same meaning as Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created which means to cut down, select, feed(as formative processes):- choose, create= do, make.

And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

When Jesus saw Peter and Andrew fishing at the sea of Galilee, an act of creation was about to begin in their lives!

Before the "I will make you fishers of men" could come into being they had to follow!

And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. Matthew 4:20

Their will to follow the words of Jesus allowed God's will to begin in their lives.

Are you ready to follow Jesus? What does this mean?

Peter and Andrew didn't hesitate, they immediately left their nets and followed Jesus! They had just been cut down and selected! The process of "I will make you fishers of men" had begun in their lives, they were followers of Jesus!

Now they would go through the process of being made! Christ beginning in their lives would only become greater and glorious! Every test, mountain, failure, and triumph would be working in them the fulness of Christ as long as they knew who was in front on them.

They were being changed from glory to glory! But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18

Who is in front of you?
• Is it the person that you think may help your career climb?
• Is it a sucessful place in the world where you will receive recognition?
• Is it a person that you have set out to win them to fullfill your life?
• Is it some kind of sport or acheivement that feeds you own self?

Who is in front of you?

Jesus said :"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

As dear children are to the heart of God, we are to follow God. Knowing that all we do for Christ as we follow as dear children, God is creating in us that full stature of Christ! What the Church could be in this hour if we followed Him as dear children.

When we follow Christ, we will begin to do the things that Christ is in this world!

When my wife,Charlene and I were rearing our children while they were little, we would pray for each other when sickness or time of need would be upon us. Our children could see what we were doing! They were following us! I remember one day when I was sick in bed, and our daughter, Danielle, then was three or four years old. She saw that I was sick and it came automatic to her to cry out: "Get the oil!" Why did it come automatic to this little girl! Because she was following as a dear child! A child that knew she was loved of her father and desired to follow in his ways! I still can still feel that little hand with oil all over it, standing on her tip-toes along the side of my sick-bed.

There was more than just oil on her fingers! There was a love and great concern for her father! She was going to touch God for me! Praise God! She did! I came up off of that bed that day knowing the power that belongs to a dear child that will follow God!

"I ask you today, who is in front of you?"

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; Ephesians 5:1

Friday, May 1, 2009

The Church that lives the Truth will know their God does not fail!

Isaiah 40:25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.


How do you see God? Is He just a figment of your imagination? So many today aren't living the Truth so therefore they look to men today. Religion today mirrors the time when Christ came as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.They had reduced God down to man's rule and authority. Whatever they thought was right was what it did. The religious heads today are so much as when Jesus came , when the Christ begins to ask it, "How do you see God?" They look among themselves for their answer. Man has no solution! In vain we look to the flesh and we are pulled from God's purpose.


How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. Acts 10:38

This verse gives us the picture of Christ and what He was doing when He came the first time.

It also shows us what we are to be as we are living the Truth daily. The times are perilous we know but God said through Isaiah, "To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. " Isaiah 40:25

Let the Church living the Truth__ boldly say that Christ can't be substituted by man's schemes and dreams!
To see God we must lift up our eyes on high!
Our focus must be higher than any person, place, or things!
When we look to God right, we will see that He has created all things and by number He brings them forth! He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His power!
He is strong in power! His power to work in His creation never fails to maintain His cause!

Why then, if we see this powerful God that we serve and know that He brings into creation and sustains this creation, why then do we say that God has passed us by?

The Bible tells us not to become weary in well-doing, for we shall reap__if we faint not!

Living the Truth our eyes are steadfast upon the Lord! We will always find a hope in Christ to hold us steady!

Isaiah 40:28 But the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary! There is no end to His strength! There is no end to the supply of His power that is available to those that trust in Him!

He gives power to the faint! He increases the strength of those with no might!

Our strength will come at the precise time as we wait upon the Lord!

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

May God help us to see Him as we live the Truth! We will wait upon thee, O God