Sheep Food

  We sure can get sidetracked with different words and phrases we use when it comes to our spiritual journeys. One of those terms has to do with getting ‘saved’. I have sensed the Holy Spirit steer me away from getting entangled with those useless debates on who is saved and who is not and can we be ‘unsaved’ or ‘saved’ one day and not the next. Hence, the focus of many of these postings have to do with ‘abiding’.   Abiding in Him...Jesus taught on this in John 15:1-8. It’s worth revisiting regularly. Abiding means to ‘continue on’ or ‘to remain’. IF...we are abiding in Him, the implication is rather clear...we are following Him. So if/when He says ‘let’s go this way’, we follow. IF/when He says: “lay that one aside”, we lay it aside. I used the illustration recently that abiding in Him is similar to following someone in a downpour who is holding the big umbrella. If you want to stay dry, it would serve you well to stay close to the one carrying the protective...

  I have no doubt these daily postings can be troublesome for many and for multiple reasons. I won’t apologize for the length of them so there’s that. We spend a lot of time daily taking in frivolous words and distractions and such that dull our senses. Believe me, I’m ashamed of the wasted hours, days, and years I’ve spent in front of a TV feeding on nothingness that had no eternal value.   I’m also aware that for those who start plowing through these postings, it can pose some serious road blocks of sorts and troublesome questions. If any of these have prompted you to go dig through your bible, I have no doubt your brain wants to go in to ‘melt mode’ and something will quickly whisper in your year: “Don’t worry...you (did such and such) at some point in your church life and you are just fine...God is a Good God and would not let you be led astray.”   So you stop examining truth when it is presented to see if these things are true or not. Besides, who got ...

  I’m assuming here we all know how securing a home mortgage works. You want to purchase a home and need to borrow money from a lending institution. An amount is settled on and then there are ‘terms’ laid out on how this loan will be repaid. The bank establishes these terms to which you may or may not agree upon. But if you want the loan, you agree and sign on the dotted line.   Let’s say the amount being borrowed to pay for the home is X-amount. For years, traditional loans were spread out over 30 years at a fixed interest rate and you knew on day one how much that monthly payment would be. More and more people nowadays opt to cut that payback time in half securing perhaps a 15 year note which can save a lot of money in interest if you are able to swing that.   Imagine now, if you will, you are sitting across the desk from your loan officer who has told you that your monthly payment will be say $1750 to be paid out over 20 years. You look up at them and b...

  Do you remember after Adam and Eve sinned by eating off that tree, they heard the voice of God calling them; and in their fear and shame, they ran and hid...or tried to hide. When confronted by God who saw their flimsy attempt to ‘cover their nakedness’, he asked them this question: “Who told you that you were naked?” (Gen 3:11)   I have a question for many of you today. Or better yet, maybe God has a question for all of us who claim and teach and admit that, as a professing believer, we will “continue to sin and will always be a sinner and will never overcome sin until you get to heaven...”   “Who told you that?”   I’m waiting...?  ...   Do you know what a ‘stronghold’ is? I made reference to it the other day in my post talking about the spiritual weapons that God provides for us. Paul wrote about it in 2 Cor 10:4 and talked about these ‘mighty weapons used for pulling down strongholds’.   It might help to understand jus...

  Abiding in Him. There really is something to this.   I don’t know about you, but if I’m a six-year-old lad and my dad is leading me through a forest in the dark of night and he tells me to stick close behind because there are lions, and tigers, and bears (O My) lurking in the shadows and they are hungry...I will not need to be told twice to follow closely in his steps.   (mic drop)   (The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Pr. 1:7)   Yesterday, I mentioned how the OT story of God delivering the Israelite out of Egypt and bringing them in to the Promised Land was a blueprint of sorts that foretold what God’s plan was for us...spiritually. There are so many remarkable truths woven through this story that very much have relevant application for us today...if you will allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate them to you.   God had quite the ‘test review’ for them in Deuteronomy prepa...

  I’ve heard it said before that Satan has a counterfeit for many of the things that God has. I can see where that is a viable possibility.   Take for example the parable of the sower. It is recorded in three of the four gospels where a sower went out to sow some seed. (God’s word). (Matt 13 Mark 4; Luke 8). In the first example we see where the seed falls on the trodden down ground and immediately the birds of the air swoop down and eat it up. Jesus would later explain to His disciples that the birds represented the devil who ‘comes immediately to snatch the word from the hearts lest they believe and are saved.” (Luke 8:12)   Paul would write to the Corinthians and share how one man plants, another waters, but God gives increase. I think you can see the application here...where you share the word with someone...later another person comes and ‘waters’ that seed...but it is the Holy Spirit that brings growth and increase in revelation and understanding with th...

  Was it YOU laying there in bed this morning...contemplating the day that awaits you...and then out of nowhere came some subtle thought of why your day was going to be bad...then escalated quickly concluding how your life sucked...and you were a failure as a mother or father...and your life did not count for much of anything? Before your feet even hit the ground, you just wanted to curl up under the covers and die. Or, maybe just go back to sleep.   So maybe it wasn’t that dramatic. But you made your way into the kitchen to put some coffee on and you had it on your mind to get your bible out to read some chapters this morning...maybe the thought even occurred to you to come read my posting here (if maybe you have been doing that from time to time). Then, ‘something’ suggested you really needed to get about other things of ‘importance’ this morning and you could always go read that spiritual stuff later. Besides, you read yesterday. (And NO MORE PICTURES OF SPIDERS, ...