Should I?

I challenge every married couple to put your spouse on your back and carry them around all day everywhere you go. I already know the responses I am receiving right now from anyone reading this. The most popular one will be, “There is no way I can carry my spouse around on my back for a second, less known all day”!

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation]. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me [following Me as My disciple], for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest (renewal, blessed quiet) for your souls. For My yoke is easy [to bear] and My burden is light.”  Mathew 11:28-30 AMP

Exactly my point! If your wife or husband is a manager or holds an executive position, it is taxing to them to have a wife or husband calling with decisions he/she is capable of making. Such as, “Do you want me to wash the clothes”; or "Green Grass Lawn Service is here to cut grass today, is that alright”? If you know your grass has not been cut for a week and the mowing company comes on a Monday instead of a Tuesday, it’s not a deal breaker. The contract is once a week or as needed. 

Wash the clothes, take the chicken out for dinner if your spouse forgot, or buy the milk if you are out. Make a decision without doubt or worry it is the wrong thing to do!

There will be many times it will require the two of you to be involved in the decision making, but menial things around the house will just take your initiative to do it. After a while, the one carrying the weight of the marriage will soon fall beneath it if you are not willing to share the load he/she is bearing!

Leaving there, He went into their synagogue. A man was there whose hand was withered. And they asked Jesus, “Is it lawful and permissible to heal on the Sabbath?”—they asked this so that they might accuse Him and bring charges into court. But He said to them, “What man is there among you who, if he has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?  Matthew 12:9-11 AMP

Detour Up Ahead!

Currently I am babysitting my youngest grandchild three days a week. On my daughter’s days off, I made a statement, “When you're off, I’m off too”! After I said it, I had a revelation that although I am 55 years old, God has blessed me with good health physically and mentally. He is telling me I am more than capable of taking care of my 6 month old grandson with no determent. He put it in my heart the journey to the "Promised Land" will have obstacles that slow us down to our divine destiny – but we will arrive. It could take 18 years or 3 months, but you will get there!

Recall in the bible, Sarah had a baby at the age of 90. “The Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for her as He had promised. For Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time God had told him. Abraham named his son whom Sarah bore to him Isaac [laughter]. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born. And Sarah said, God has made me to laugh; all who hear will laugh with me. And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children at the breast? For I have borne him a son in his old age! (Genesis 21:1-7 AMP)

You have been in a position for over 30 years and have been considering early retirement. A promotion is offered to you that you applied for four years ago. It’s no coincidence, it’s God’s timing! Or, you want to go to college; however, you will need an additional $80k to complete your Bachelor’s degree. You have no choice but to stay at home and find a job. While you are at home, a parent becomes ill and you are the only one there to care for them; although the parent fully recovers, you would have had to take a year or two off from college; if God would not have blocked it. Whereas; now you are able to attend college with no interruptions – paid in full! His way is always the best way! Yes it’s frustrating when we do not understand or see what’s waiting for us over that mountain!

Modern day Mount Sinai 

The Israelites had an eleven day’s journey from Horeb (Mount Sinai) by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea [on Canaan’s border; yet Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years before crossing the border and entering Canaan, the promised land]. Deuteronomy 1:2 AMP 

When they arrived scripture says, “And you shall remember [always] all the ways which the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart (mind), whether you would keep His commandments or not. He humbled you and allowed you to be hungry and fed you with manna, [a substance] which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, so that He might make you understand [by personal experience] that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your feet swell these forty years. Therefore, know in your heart (be fully cognizant) that the Lord your God disciplines and instructs you just as a man disciplines and instructs his son”. Deuteronomy 8:2-5 AMP

Enough said! So wake up every day with expectancy and joy in what God’s day will bring! Don’t get cynical when your way led you to a "dead end". Detours eventually get you to your destiny!

God Will Catch You!

I am sitting here at Burger King and over heard an elderly man talk to a friend about a bad fall he had a couple of days ago. He described it in detail and obviously fell hard enough to fall on his face, cut his nose, and give him a black eye. He laughed a bit as he said, “I had someone come up to help me up and I said first say a prayer for me”! He knows who is able to help and heal; however, he counteracted with, “Boy, God must be mad at me to allow a fall like that”!

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I wanted to turn around and say, “Sir, God does not inflict pain on us, nor is He mad at you”! (In a loving way though) I know he is a Christian because he asked for prayer, however, I also know he is not reading the Word. God does not harm us! He will allow suffering to build character in us, but to inflict pain is not who God is!

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It is imperative to our spiritual growth to read the Word and know who God is! How will you know when the truth is being taught or not?So many trust our pastor's preaching and teaching; and we should, if he/she is preaching the Word. However, if you are ignorant to it, you will receive false teaching. The bible is God-breathed so pick it up and read it. If you don’t know where to begin, ask God, He will tell you! Once you do, you will begin to see and feel a change in you that will surpass your understanding ~ and know the "Truth"!

Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. (Nehemiah 9:31 ESV)

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7 ESV)

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. (Psalm 86:15 ESV)

Return to the LORD“Yet even now,” declares the LORD,

“return to me with all your heart,with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. (Joel 2:12-13 ESV)

Heir ~ Born!

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”. John 8:36 KJV

I know that I have heard that scripture many times and did not understand what it meant. In my mind I would say things like, “I’m already free”, or “I’m not held down from doing anything I want to do”. That’s not what this scripture means. Until I got in the Word and established a close relationship with Jesus, I did not realize “one thing” out of balance in my life does hold me down from receiving God's best!

Anger is bondage, comparing yourself to others is bondage, gossip is bondage, holding a grudge is bondage, sickness in your body is bondage, jealousy is bondage, an inferiority complex is bondage, lack of anything (wisdom, clothing, car, house, etc.); and of course we are all familiar with addictions of any kind, worry, and fear.

Let me give you an example: Women are constantly comparing and competing amongst ourselves. We purchase clothes we think no other woman has, to stand out. Or we long for what another woman/man has and develop the spirit of covetousness! You want what you don’t have. Some women/men stoop as low as murder to get something that is only temporary satisfaction, that when the damage is done, the punishment is eternal!

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. Mark 7:21-23 KJV

To be able to compliment another woman of her clothing, nice hair cut, new car, etc. with sincerity in your heart~ is freeing! God has given all Christians the spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (The Fruit of the Spirit [Galatians 5:22]) within so you are able to shine externally!

You can only extend so far when you are shackled or in bondage. Why? Because bondage has limits, freedom in Jesus does not!

“Tell us who you are,” they demanded.

He replied, “I am the one I have always claimed to be. I could condemn you for much and teach you much, but I won’t, for I say only what I am told to by the one who sent me; and he is Truth.” But they still didn’t understand that he was talking to them about God.

So Jesus said, “When you have killed the Messiah, then you will realize that I am he and that I have not been telling you my own ideas, but have spoken what the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me—he has not deserted me—for I always do those things that are pleasing to him.”

Then many of the Jewish leaders who heard him say these things began believing him to be the Messiah.

Jesus said to them, “You are truly my disciples if you live as I tell you to, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

“But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said, “and have never been slaves to any man on earth! What do you mean, ‘set free’?”

Jesus replied, “You are slaves of sin, every one of you. And slaves don’t have rights, but the Son has every right there is! So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free— John 8:25-36 TLB

The Only Way to Prevent Quarrels!

Abiding in the Vine!

I am the vine you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5 NIV). 

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In the natural you are not able to change anyone who has an addiction. The worst thing we can do is to constantly talk about it to others. Satan

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has a stronghold on their thinking. Give it to God and let Him, in His power, restore your loved ones; and do not talk about it again. Once you pray, you are saying, God I am giving you permission to take care of my loved one~ and you are putting your Trust in God to do what only He can do anyway!  So get on your knees and pray and do not speak of what your loved one is going through anymore, but speak of what God is doing in their lives and how He is changing them from Glory to Glory!  

And Don’t forget to “Thank Him”!

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered.  “Truly^, I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Mark 11:20-25 NIV