PRAYERS

Welcome to this site. My prayer is that you take a look at the site and as you do, let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart and reveal what God wants you to discover. (in Jesus' name)

God tells us that if we see a brother (or sister) in need we should do that which is within our means to help. Prayer is always within our means but we never know what doors Father may open through them. Should you desire prayer for anything (healing, direction, etc.) or if you want supportive prayer along with your own please feel free to e-mail that request to sharbu3@gmail.com and be assured that there are others who will be praying with or for you.


In this blog, I share what the Lord shares with me. I reference scripture a lot in support of what is being said. I realize that what is in each entry is NOT a complete 'word' on what is being said, but is rather enough information to stimulate our spirits to dig deeper (remember the Bereans Acts 17:10-11) thereby gaining a fuller understanding for ourselves.

At the end of each post are the options to share, forward or make a comment. Click 'comment' to respond. Let us know if you like, don't like or are helped by what you read. Comments can be made or read by anyone. All you have to do is select the "comment" at he end of the entry.

Thursday, August 31, 2017

In case you might be wondering, this is not this week's post.  That will come in two more days.
I keep a journal and Father prompted me to make this entry today & to pass it on


8/31/2017

 Read Doug Addison’s weekly addition where he talks about a tornado dream he had several years ago is now indicating a change in “leadership”.  Leaders have to let go of the past and be bold to reach out for the future and get on the gospel train.  Father is in the process of reviving the original church.  a church that will think, speak and act as the apostles and early disciples did.  It will occur because we are coming into a deeper relationship with the Father through Jesus, because we are realizing that He is truly our God and He IS raising us up out of our stagnant, doldrum graves into a newness of life.  Life that is not “just” salvation but vibrant and alive because we are learning to walk with Him, in Him. 
Jesus is our vine and our life is in Him and we are coming to know this, not just intellectually, but in our hearts, so we live for Him in reality. 

Leadership will be shaken to its corps and the scribes and the Pharisees, who are stuck in the past, will fall off the gospel train and a new vibrant leadership will rise up bringing His church to where the bride will always be ready for their Groom.  PTL

Saturday, August 19, 2017

8-19-2017        Lean on Me

          


Matthew 11:28-30
Come to Me, you who are heavily burdened by your labors and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn about Me for I am meek and humble and you shall find rest for your souls.

My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

As you read these lyrics, think on our relationship with Jesus.

Lean on Me

Written by Bill Withers • Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group

Sometimes in our lives we all have pain                                                                                              
We all have sorrow                                                                                                                             
But if we are wise                                                                                                                                
We know that there's always tomorrow (1 Corinth. 10:13)

Lean on me, when you're not strong                                                                                                  
And I'll be your friend                                                                                                                               I'll help you carry on                                                                                                                            
For it won't be long                                                                                                                              
'Til I'm gonna need                                                                                                                  
Somebody to lean on (Matt. 11:28-30)

Please swallow your pride                                                                                                                    
If I have faith you need to borrow                                                                                                          
 For no one can fill those of your needs                                                                                                
That you won't let show (James 4:10, Mark 11:24)

You just call on me brother, when you need a hand                                                                            
We all need somebody to lean on                                                                                                            
I just might have a problem that you'll understand                                                                             
We all need somebody to lean on (Matt. 7:7-8)

Lean on me, when you're not strong                                                                                                  
And I'll be your friend                                                                                                                               I'll help you carry on                                                                                                                         
For it won't be long                                                                                                                              
'Til I'm gonna need                                                                                                                   
Somebody to lean on (2 Corinth. 12:9-10)

You just call on me brother, when you need a hand                                                                           
We all need somebody to lean on                                                                                                            
I just might have a problem that you'll understand                                                                              
We all need somebody to lean on (Matt. 28:20)

If there is a load you have to bear                                                                                                      
That you can't carry                                                                                                                                   I'm right up the road                                                                                                                                  I'll share your load (Matt. 11:28-30)

If you just call me (call me)                                                                                                                     
If you need a friend (call me) call me uh huh(call me) if you need a friend (call me) ...                       

Matthew 11:28-30                  Our base verse today.  Take Jesus’ yoke upon us and He will help us carry our burdens. 

If we remember the poem “Footprints in the sand” we learn that we aren’t out there alone but when we are weak, Jesus carries us.  That’s why our burden becomes so light.  It isn’t ours to carry - alone.

1 Corinth. 10:13                      We aren’t tempted today by anything that hasn’t been true since the beginning of time.  There is nothing man has not faced before. 

So instead of crying like Israel in Ezekiel 37:11, we should focus on Jesus because we are more than conquerors in Him (Phil. 4:13). 

James 4:10, Mark 11:24         When we humble ourselves before God, He will lift us up and when we pray, we believe that we receive them and we shall have them. 

Where there is no faith, even Jesus has a hard time doing things in Nzareth (Matt.14:58).  So as we believe, receive.

Matt. 7:7-8                              When we ask of God, He will give it to us.  When we look for answers from God, He will show them to us.  When we need doors to be opened, God will say “Here, this one.”. 

When God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom. 8:31)
2 Corinth. 12:9-10                   When I am weak, Jesus becomes my strength. 

Check out “Footprints” again (if we need a reminder).  Remember, Paul cherished his weaknesses for then he was strong, in Christ Jesus (2 Corinth. 12:10)

Matt. 27:31-33                        And after they had scourged and mocked Jesus, they took Him out to go to the cross and they compelled a man from Cyrene, Simon, to help Jesus with that cross. 

Remember, Jesus had been in prayer much of the night after the “Last Supper” with His disciples.  He was arrested, beaten and taunted through much of the early hours of the morning.  The bible doesn’t say how many lashes Jesus received in the scourging, but thirty-nine was considered the death penalty so up to and including thirty-eight would have ‘been in order’.  Those whips usually had three leads on them (sometimes up to nine) with bone or metal chips tied into the leads.  Adding in the fact that Jesus carried the burden that He knew what was going to happen even before they arrested Him, he was drained, physically and emotionally (in the natural) by the time they took him to Calvary.  And our Lord and Savior relied on a ‘mere’ man to help Him in His burden (the cross) in the natural.  SO, why should we refuse help from our brothers and sisters in Christ? 

Matt. 28:20                             and I know that my Lord Jesus is with me, until the end of the world. 
No matter what I go through, Jesus is with me.  No matter what I feel, He comforts me because through Christ He has been there (2 Corinth. 1:3-5).  And don’t forget, Jesus was also tempted after John baptized Him.  His natural needs, His spiritual needs and His relationship with the Father (Luke 4:1-13) were all challenged by the enemy.

Psalms 91:15                           God is with me when I call upon Him and He delivers me out of my troubles. 

‘Nuff said?  All I have to do is believe that it is true.

So why have we mentioned this song, “Lean ON Me”?  

God is preparing His children and He is encouraging us to be steadfast and true. Jesus is preparing his bride.  He wants us to be like the five wise virgins, continually ready for His return (Matt. 25:1-13).  So when the call does come, we don’t find ourselves saying somethings like “Oh!  (expletive), Here comes the Lord!”  But rather we might say “Come, Lord Jesus.  Take me, I’m ready.”  We know our eternal destination because we live for Him.

Look at what is happening with the New Testament church today.  Pastors are failing because they have been caught in their sin.  They have refused to acknowledge it and repent.  Things which are abominable to the Lord are now being ordained to run His church.  The church has become comfortable desiring not to ‘rock the boat’ rather than to preach and practice what the bible says.  We need to stand firm in our faith and not be shaken or discouraged by what we see going on around us for before the ‘son of perdition’ is revealed, even the church will slip away from its roots (2 Thess. 2:1-3).  We are founded in the truth so let’s not forget that and abide in Jesus to retain that truth in our hearts to attain the promise of eternal life (1 John 2:21-26).

God tells Jeremiah “I will utter My judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, those who have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, who have worshipped the works of their own hands”  (Jeremiah 1:16).  In the passage, God is speaking of Israel, but it applies to today, just as well.

The wrath of God is upon the world for its refusal to believe that He is.  And in denying His existence, how could they possibly accept Him.  As a whole,  Israel still refuses to acknowledge Jesus as Messiah.  And His anger is upon the New Testament church (too big a chunk) because we continue to quench and thereby grieve the Holy Ghost because we deny that He can and will operate like He says.  In short, God’s wrath is upon planet earth because of disobedience.  Varying forms, varying degrees with varying manifestations, but nonetheless, disobedience.  And, Hey, what got Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden (Gen 3:17, 24).

BUT, take heart, for God has been working with those dry, bleached bones of today’s church.  He has been reassembling, realigning those disarrayed, dried bones and placing them in their proper places, proper alignment.  Leg bone to leg bone, arm bone to arm bone and so forth.

He has been reconnecting those bones together with sinew and tendons so they don’t scatter again, but remain in proper alignment.

He has covered those bones and sinews with muscle so they can once again function as He intended His church to function.  Go back and read the gospels again.  What authority did Jesus give His disciples?  Heal the sick and cast out devils (Matt. 10:1-8, Luke 10:1-9).

And He has covered it all with skin so the church can look like what it is supposed to look like.
And the church cries “Our bones are dried and disjointed.  Our hope is lost” (Ezek. 37:11).  Largely because we have failed to follow our Lord’s lead.

But God has opened and brought the church up out of its grave and is breathing His Holy Spirit afresh, anew, into His church so we can live and know, beyond any shadow of doubt that God is the ONLYI TRUE and LIVING God and we ae His people.  And we recognize the work God has done in our lives. (Ezekiel 37:1-14).  We are desiring to serve God because we are coming to know God.  Not just in concept.  Not just in word.  But because Father is building a relationship with His us.
So, when adversity strikes, when we have failed to do our part, how do we overcome and allow our Heavenly Father to stand us back up on our own two feet?

We take upon us the yoke of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and wear it for He can sustain us.  It is Father who empowers us through Jesus Christ, our Lord because the His Holy Ghost resides within us.  so as we rely on the Holy Ghost to lead us, we are allowing Jesus to carry us through the sands of life. 

Taking up the yoke of Jesus and as soon as we slip it upon our neck and shoulders, we yield ourselves to Him.  We start giving every aspect of our lives over to Him as we continually grow closer and closer to the Father through Him.  And we translate, more and more, into the image of our Lord, Jesus Christ (2 Corinth. 3:18).

We confess and repent any failures and/or iniquities in our lives, then setting them behind us (as God does, Isaiah 38:17)), we forget them and press forward towards the mark, our salvation and our heavenly calling (Phil. 3:14).

We learn God’s statutes and ways (God is love, 1 John 4:8) so we can know as to what we are being obedient and then do our best to not stray or wander again (1 Corinth. 16:13).  Remember, we have the Holy Ghost in us, helping us (John 14:16-18).

Overcoming our faults, adversity, is once we recognize them by acknowledging that we have failed; repenting and renouncing our willful part in the sin; giving them to Jesus and leaving them at the foot of the cross allowing His precious blood to cover all our iniquities, forever; determining not to fall into that trap again by continuing on that straight and narrow path to eternal redemption (Matt. 7:14) and then continuing to fellowship with the Father through His Son because He has given us His Holy Spirit to guide us (John 16:13, 1 John 3:24).

To lean on Jesus is not just to trust in Him, but to yield ourselves to Him completely.  We need to understand who we are.  We need to understand that we ae unclean in speech and thought when we stand before the Lord and need purging of those impure things from our lives. The angel touched Isaiah’s lips with the live coal from the altar and purged away his sin (Isaiah 6:5-7).  However, even though we have confessed and received forgiveness for our sins, we may still need total purging for remnants may still reside deep down inside our hearts or perhaps we reopened doors because our flesh has yet sinned (Romans 7:1-25) to revive, those demons in our lives.  We may need, again, that complete purging by the coals from the altar of God brought by His Angel, purifying us so we can serve our heavenly Father with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul and all our strength (Mark 12:30). 

To the glory of God, our Father, through His Son, Jesus Christ because the Holy Ghost dwells AND is alive and well within us.  Therefore we praise Father with all that we are and all that we have (Psalms150:1-6) and magnify and glorify Him for His sovereign majesty (Psalms 69:30).

As Christians, we have someone whom we can trust, explicitly. Who will always be there for us and will not waiver.  He said that He would never leave us nor forsake us, even unto the end of the world (Heb. 13:5 & Matt. 28:20).  Jesus is upon whom we can lean and be safe and secure.  When we fail, He is there to guide us in making things right, once again.


Amen

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

8-5-2017    Vision, Testimony, Legacy
        Vision                         Testimony                   Legacy


My daily reading of “Men of Integrity” (MOI) produced today’s topic.  MOI publishes a small booklet that covers a two month stretch.  They pull from a different author each week bringing forth encouragement for men (that’s M-E-N) to follow Jesus a little bit closer than what they may have been.  Hopefully into a closer relationship.  Each author covers the week beginning with Monday going thru Sunday briefly setting forth excerpts from books they have published.  The authors include men I’ve never even heard of before but traverses a spectrum which includes the likes of Dr. Billy Graham.

Terrence Chatmon has the current week’s reading and is president and CEO of “Fellowship of Companies for Christ Int’n’l”.  He has published a book (2017) titled “Do Your Children Believe?”. 
On Aug. 2, 2017, the entry was titled ‘Set Your Priorities’ in which he cites three questions he asked himself.  Mr. Chatmon asks these questions concerning his family but I want to expand them to a broader spectrum maintaining our personal interaction with anything and everything around us.  1) What is your vision?, 2) What legacy do you want to leave?, & 3) if you died tomorrow, what is the one thing you would want to make sure you’ve accomplished?

Father said for me to boil to this down to “Vision”, “Testimony” and “Legacy”.  These three concepts impact our personal life, our family and what ministry to which Father may call us.

Vision

The people perish where there is no vision but he who keeps the law is happy (Prov. 29:18).
Do we have a vision for our lives or are we just floundering around hoping to get things done?  Where I have no vision for my personal life, like a fish washed up on the shore, I flop around in the sand.  If I have no vision in which to guide my family, I cannot lead them in the way they should go and they shall be like a ship on which I am but not at the helm.  If I cannot see God’s calling upon my life, it would be most difficult to help others in the way which they should go.

I can relate very well to this.  About the fourth or fifth grade, I thought dinosaurs were the coolest thing around.  Mom had bought me a couple at a local “five and dime” (do any of you remember what that is?).  Each dinosaur had its name and length printed on its body or tail and I started collecting them every chance I could.  By Jr. High School (a rough equivalent to Middle School for you younger generations) mom had started bringing me books on dinosaurs, paleontology and geology.  Not a lot, but enough to keep my interest peaked.  By the end of Jr Hi, I KNEW what I wanted to be – a paleontologist!  No doubt, no questions asked I had my dream, my vision for the rest of my life.  Move over Roy Chapman Andrews (noted paleontologist of the early 20th century,  and as some say, was the man Indiana Jones was patterned after).  However by the time I entered 12th grade, I had taken chemistry twice was only able to muster a “C”.  I also knew that to follow a path in the sciences, I had to be strong in math, but I had not done even as well with math as I did with chemistry.  I concluded that higher math and higher science in college was not going to be my bag.  

My dream ended.  My vision vanished.

And from then on, and for a very long time, I really didn’t have a vision for my life anymore.  And I mean a very long time.

I’m basically a lifetime federal government employee.  Nothing wrong with that, it just wasn’t very fulfilling.  It wasn’t what I had really wanted to do.  My dream had been shattered and I had no other vision for my life, but it earned me a living.  I worked in the General Services Administration (GSA) motor pool for a while, but mostly in clerical and white color positions with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and then Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from which I retired.  I worked briefly as a mechanic ( 1 ½ years) and in building maintenance (@ 6 months) and in a lithographic print shop (@ 6 years) all with the government.  I started off a file clerk ( @2 years), but I got my greatest growth experiences with the FDA, as I said from which I retired.    

While working at FDA in a clerical position in a document room, I had to code documents for a preliminary designation.  I had definitions by which I could accurately code a document routing to appropriate government reviewers.  After several years, I found myself becoming disgruntled as I distinguished which documents I preferred to ‘process’ and as I was grumbling I felt a suggestion come into my spirit.  “Give Me the job.”  I knew who it was, after all I had been a Christian for nearly ten years AND had received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.  Back in those days, I did more talking ‘at’ God, then with Him.  And even though I wasn’t talking (2-way conversation) on a regular basis with Him, a thought would pop into my head or sometimes it was just a ‘feeling’, but was different, and I knew it was Him.  So I sat back in my chair and said “OK.  It’s yours.”  And I did give it to Him.  First thing He changed was my attitude and that began an upward spiral leading to job promotions and salary increases.  This was the beginning of my preparation for the vision Father had set before me, which I wasn’t even yet aware at that time.  Father prepared me to interface and train , confidently ranging from document clerks (which I had been) to office directors as well as interagency and international communications. 

Father spent my whole life preparing me for the vision He had designed for me and He clued me as to what that vision is back in September 2014.  At first I was skeptical and doubted my ability but by January 2015 Father had erased all doubt as to what He had called me to do.  For He had been teaching me to know His voice and is still teaching me to observe things around me.

Father has shown me my vision, now my dilemma was how to get there.  I had no bible schooling, to speak of other than Sunday School and personal reading, under my belt.  Yet, I thought I knew the bible pretty good, but every time I would go through a passage, Father would show me how little I really knew.  AND He still tweaks shows me greater depth to what He has already show me.  But with no degrees or creditations I’m essentially a nobody.  In the church, I had always been set aside, shut down or ignored – except for the jobs no one else wanted (learning humility?).

After two and a half years, today I have said to Father “I have no connections no ‘inroads’ to open doors, yet You tell me I am to go out and speak your word.”  Father responded to me “I have given you the blog.  Write what I tell you and I will open the doors.”  So, as I write this, this is where I am at today.  And oh yes, I am still growing.  Father said I had some things I still needed to learn before He could set me out there and He will let me know when the time is right.  And I’m doing what I can, sharing what He has given me to share.

So, now Father has given me a vision.  And it isn’t paleontology.   

Testimony

No man lights a candle then hides it but puts it out where it can be plainly seen.  The eye is the body’s light and when the eye is single, the whole body is filled with light (Luke 11:33-34).

How do others really see us?  My testimony is how I apply my God-given vision into my life or should I say “How well do I apply what Father is teaching me?”  Should I not be ‘living’ for Jesus, people might rightfully challenge “Are you ‘really’ saved?”  When I am not following Jesus, I’m not the guiding force my family needs.  I am not giving them the direction they require to be stable, abiding in peace.  And those around me won’t pay much attention to what I say or do because my actions won’t back up my words.  What IS my testimony to those around me?

So one important thing Father has been doing with me is solidifying my relationship with Him.  Learning to apply more and more of what He shows me into my life.  Teaching me how to trust Him more and more.  He has me spending more time, not just in prayer, but in communion with me.  For too many years, when I prayed, I told God what I wanted, what I needed and how ‘I’ felt.  Then I said “Thank you very much, in the name of Jesus, Amen”.  Samuel had to learn to know God’s voice (1 Sam. 3:1-10) and though I’ve heard God’s voice many times over the years of my life, it’s only been since Sept. 2014 Father has been teaching me to be more and more focused on what is Him and what is not.  Early on I was very confused.  Not so much anymore. 

Jesus tells us that Father is the husbandman and He (Jesus) is the vine and we are the branches.  We should abide in the vine and live for He sustains us (John 15:1-10) and as He does, we keep His commandment, reflecting Jesus’ love in our own lives (Rom. 8:29).  We know that when we follow Jesus, the fruit of the Spirit is evident in our lives (Gal. 5:22-26) and we walk in the Spirit desiring the things of God.  The gifts of the Spirit also become evident, gaining more power and strength, as we draw closer to Him.

We are a continuing work in Jesus Christ and as we grow closer and closer to our Lord, our likeness to Him should become more and more evident to those around us.

Where am I at?  That is not mine to say, but if you ever get the chance to meet me, you be the judge.  I will only share something my daughter told me within the past year.  We had been talking about how the ‘church ain’t actin’ like the church no mo’’.  And my daughter was saying that is why most of her friends aren’t in a church anymore.  But she made a statement that I shall always cherish.  She told me that her friends say that I am the ‘real deal’.  That affirmation is worth all the ‘tea in China’ or all the ‘gold in the Klondike’.  The real deal means that they think I’m genuine, not a hypocrite.  I am doing something right for my God and it is showing. 

Our testimony is how others see us.

So, what is our testimony?

Legacy

Are we building a foundation from which others can build?  The house of a man who builds it upon a rock, when adversity comes, will stand for it has a solid foundation, but the house of he who builds it on sand has no foundation and the fall of that house will be great (Luke 6:48-49).

Many men endeavor to ‘leave a legacy’.  Something which others may remember them ‘by’ or ‘for’, over generations to come.  What they did.  What they said.  Most of us know who Mark Twain is, Alexander Graham Bell, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy.  And these, along with others, we know their accomplishments, their legacy.  But who remembers Mr. Joe Averageman (fictitious name)?  Friends and family may remember Joe, but the world remembers Mark Twain and the others.  But Joe?  Joe who?

Our legacy?  Where I’ve had no vision, my testimony will most likely have been weak and my life will impact only a few.  But, such as it is, will it be good or will it be negative?  Would I be known for something like Mark Twain?  Or might I be remembered because my actions were like Al Capone?  Will the ages know my name or will just family, friends and a couple of generations remember who I was?  Will I be remembered at all?  Somebody will remember me, at least for a while – but who and for what?  

Any impact I may have on the world around me will most likely be minimal and likely soon forgotten.  But nonetheless, I will leave a legacy, of some kind and the stronger the legacy the greater the memory, whether to many or just a few.  By the grace of God I would that I be remembered as a “Man who loved Jesus” and touched the lives of others for His glory.  Paul said it is better for me to be with the Lord than to be here on earth, however, it is more necessary for me to be here on earth than with the Lord (Phil. 1:20-26).  Paul felt it more necessary to make sure followers had a legacy of love to follow than for him to go to the Lord.  So he stayed and did what he could to help them.

I mentioned my daughter’s friends said I was the real deal.  That is a legacy.  Billy Graham’s legacy would be all the souls won for Christ.  Kathryn Kuhlman’s would be all those Jesus healed through her ministry. 

Our legacy could be for a single life whom the Lord used us to bring into His kingdom or helped along their journey.   Our legacy could be bringing joy into people’s hearts.  Our legacy could be the wisdom God imparts upon others through our ministry.  We are a body and we each have our own unique gift or talent and Father will use that to touch the lives of others, no matter how few or how many.  That is our legacy.  Some of us may realize the reality of our legacy while we yet walk this earth or our legacy may not be realized until we have long been with the Lord.

Yet, as we said, we all will leave a legacy, good or bad so what is our legacy?  How will we be remembered?  For how we are remembered is our legacy.

It starts with a vision.  With no vision we have no goals and that vision will die.  With no vision we have no testimony for we aren’t working towards anything, but the goals within our vision become our good works and those works become our testimony.  Our testimony becomes the memories which become our legacy.  And our legacy is for whatever we are remembered.  How we impacted the lives of others.

What legacy do we leave behind?

Amen?