-- ______________________________________________ Jean Hainley 22Wednesday, July 13, 2016 MATTHEW S:16. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.” (Matthew 5:13-14). Hey Gang: In Gramps last Morning Message you were ‘salt that reflects your relationship with Father God’; today you are that light that reflects your love for Abba Father. The two are essential ingredients in your “Go into all the world and preach or witness the gospel.” Having driven home the point that we are to be salt, Jesus now turns His attention to our need to also be Christ-filled witnesses. It may well be said that the greatest compliment that was ever paid to a Christian is to be called “the light of the world”. Jesus said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5). In other words, when He taught that His followers should be the “light of the world”, He was teaching them to be “Like Him!” When Jesus used this phrase, it was familiar to the Jews. They often referred to Jerusalem as “a light to the Gentiles,” and a famous Rabbi was often called “a lamp of Israel”. But they were also adamant that no man kindles his own light! Without our being connected to God’s power supply, our light will be like a hot ember that is taken from the fire, laid aside and soon loses is power. The radiance that shines from a Christian comes from the presence of Christ within the Christian’s heart, and that requires ongoing maintenance under God in His tutoring program. Jesus completed his teaching on “Letting your light shine” with another challenge “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (V.16). The Greek word used here for ‘good’ not only means that our works should not only be seen, but also should be beautiful, attractive and filled with God’s love and compassion. These are very dark days when one has to search to find folks who are filled with God’s salt, and God’s light. In this day, when we see man’s cruelty to man all around us, we need take heed of John’s words: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His So cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 6-7). So, my friends who are in Christ, is your light as one that is on a hilltop? One that can be seen by the world? Or is it hidden under bucket? As you progress through your day, are you a light that radiates God’s love? In other words, are you a seed planter of hope to a lost and dying world? Have you prepared for this day by plugging into God’s battery charger, which is the word of God? Blessings, Gramps

A Time For Joy!

 

Monday, July 4, 2016

 

A Promise:  For I am confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” ((Phil. 1:6).  And that my friends you can take to the bank!

Hey Gang:  “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).  And then He turned man loose and man turned it into a superficial world.  We now live in a world where we often miss the wonderful hidden pearls that God so bountifully placed all around us.  This morning I watched the sun come up, as it has every day since He created it.  Is that not awesome?  Did you ever stop to say, “Thank you Father God for gravity”? 

Do we not take things for granted in this affluent world?  With the rising of the sun came the sounds of birds, and the blowing of the wind through the trees.  Our resident rabbit is pigging out in the back yard, as he does many days.  I think it is one of God’s very special blessings for us as we start our day. A bird just flew by the window.  I wonder if he knows where he is going.

 I think perhaps he does for he does not seem to be weaving from place to place.  It is one of God’s other creations – man, who contains the ability to reason and think about what seem to be going in circles for much of his life. 

This time in the morning has become very special to me. Getting alone with the Master Designer of all that we survey is a good way to start the day.  I have come to the place where, when I cannot spend this hour or so with the Lord to begin my day, my day does not go so well.  Perhaps that is because I have joined the “older than dirt” crowd and my mind is no longer interested in what I can get out of life to what I can give.

So, I pray this morning that I will be able to share Paul’s antidote to the grubby times and darts of the enemy that tend to defeat us.  The antidote? JOY!  How we get it – ‘an act of our will’.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:16 Paul gives us the formula to being an overcomer, ‘Rejoice always’.  Hard, yes, at times nearly impossible.  If that does not work, Paul tells us in Philippians 4:4 to turn up the heat and “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say rejoice” for the Lord is ever near to us. 

The key to rejoicing? “Pray without ceasing”,( I Thessalonians 517). Know what your weapons are and use them freely.  James  tells us “Submit therefore to God, Resist the devil and he will flee from you draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:7-8).

Paul’s third key to victory “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  I find the next instruction by Paul to be lacking in much of the generations that occupy planet earth at this time, Do not quench the spirit or despise prophetic utterances” ((vs 1)Read vs 2021.) If you were to examine the recent studies pertaining the spiritual life of a growing number of persons in America, you find there is a steady diet of quenching the spirit in every facet of life. 

Rejoice, pray, give thanks in all things, don’t despise prophetic utterances, and abstain from doing evil equals “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (verse 22-23).

Bottom line: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”   Is that not what we await for in this day when all things that can be shaken are being shaken?  

Blessings, Gramps Pray that God will Bless America. Seek God Will as you vote.

What Happens When the Rubber Hits-the-Road

 

June 15,2016

“For what credit is there if, when you sin (hit your thumb with a hammer) and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience?  But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God” (I Peter 2:20).  “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.” (Eph. 2:26-27).

 Hey gang, I have learned, in the past two months, that these two verses go together.  I have also learned what the person who coined the saying, “if it works, do not fix it”, meant.   I have also learned that I do not have the slightest clue what to do, when one of the weird screens that I have never seen before, comes up on the computer; one that has no connection with what I am trying to do! 

 If it does not disappear when I reboot, I am dead in the water until I can call my friendly computer guru or find a six or seven year old lad or lassie who knows far more about such things than I will ever know.

 When our computer internet and phone provider, who we loved dearly and never had a lick of problems, well maybe a teeny weeny one, recently merged with another company, we were advised that we must upgrade our equipment to gain all the wondrous advantages the new company was offering and the carrot was it would cost less money per month and make it sooooooo much more convenient. 

 My question to the upgrade advocate – how much pain and agony is attached to getting all the bugs worked out and until my level of understanding is acclimated to using the new system?  Oh, no worry!  This is a tested and proven, bug- free mechanism that even an older than dirt duffer, that does not understand the “For Dummy’s books’, can become proficient within minutes.

 After several weeks and more than twenty hours of listening to a multitude of so called technicians, my bride packed up the entire system and went back to place it was purchased and announced I do not leave here until this thing is doing what you said it would do or we go back to the old system. 

 Okay, what does that have to do with the Scripture of the day?  First, I thought I had my anger totally under control and could handle about any circumstance.  Wrong!  I wanted to throw the computer down the basement stairs.  I also learned that my patience was not as secure as I thought it was.  Perhaps that is what this whole trip through the wilderness was all about.  I must confess, I did indeed go to bed very angry some nights and I must admit that my patience was at best – tarnished!

 Soooo, my young friends, keep in mind that the devil waits for his chance to set your  control mechanism on tilt and to really tick you off – if you are willing to let him.  But I also learned that, if I take a moment or two and say, “Okay God, If you can’t handle this we are both in trouble”, and admit that it helps.  He has never failed. 

 The computer is working fine at the moment and my anger has gone underground again waiting for another opportunity to destroy my patience.  But, keep in mind, when Jesus was going through His indoctrination period in the desert, Satan tested Him until he got the message;  he was waiting his time and threw in the towel.  Right!  Wrong!  It tells me Satan left but only to await a more opportune time to return and continue his devious methods. 

 That, my friends, is the reason we should make sure our armor is in place and our lamp is full of oil and we have sword (the Word of God) engrained in our heart and head- for today, in his sight is “an opportune time”.   (Luke 4:13 Read it and heed it!)

 Blessings, Gramps

Your Way or God's Way, That IS the Question!

 

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

 

 Do you know what God’s desire is for you today? “That the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what the hope of His calling is, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” (Ephesians 1:18-19a). 

And how do we make this happen?  We don’t.; “It comes through the working of the strength of His (God’s) might.”  (vs. 19b).  Did you know that God is a compulsive decorator?  He is not satisfied to ut a coat of paint over the dingy house, He would far rather replace the rotten parts and do a major overhaul.   You know, like the television program ‘Home Make Over’; they completely destroy the old, decrepit house and begin with a new foundation.

I believe many folks, who hear the word and respond to the Pastor’s call to give their heart and soul to the Lord, become a casualty of the Seed Parable that tells me the many fell by the wayside. I believe they are lost because they have no ‘knobs on the head’ to hang the things of God on.   In simple language, they have no foundation or hooks in their brains to hang this new information on, so it withers on the vine.

Let me put some meat on that statement.  My niece purchased a newly built house several years ago. Suddenly it began to sink on one corner.   She called the contractor and he immediately repaired the outward appearance of the problem, but did not address the real problem, a sink hole under the foundation.  Within weeks the problem worsened due to the added weight. 

I believe that is a good analogy of what happens to many folks who respond to the word for the right reason, but try to build a house on the rock without understanding the dynamics or mechanics of what that means.  They hear a salvation message that sears their heart and they respond and, the next Sunday the Pastor presents a message that they have no foundation on which to hang his unrelated message. 

I believe I was saved in my adolescent years but, confess I was one disappointed cookie when none of the so called ‘pillars of the church’ took me under their wing and taught me what it means to be a follower of Jesus.  When I received the letter telling me I had been accepted as a future air traffic controller, they didn’t give me a date when I was to report to the Pittsburgh Air Traffic Control Center and be ready to handle a full shift of control duties. - even though I had been a radar controller in the USAF.

I did receive a letter that gave me the date I was to report to the Air Traffic Control Training Center in Norman, Oklahoma, for ten weeks of intense training. And if, at the end of that time, I was not proficient at handling minimum traffic, note minimum, I would become a member of the unemployed. 

When I went to Pittsburgh and worked my first shift, it was not as a fully checked-out radar controller handling a hundred or more aircraft every hour, but rather I worked for several months under the direct eye-ball supervision of an old salt that had many years of scar tissue on the scopes and boards.   Note: he was responsible for everything I did and said.  I was a trainee that had no status. 

Now, my friends, there are some similarities in this process that I feel are very lacking in most churches. I probably have no business giving you my opinion of these shortcomings,but I will share them anyway.  Shortcoming number one, a major related to the seed planting parable – no one took me under their wing.

Why? When I began my tenure as an active controller, they gave me a manual and said memorize every jot and title of it.  Kind of like when Isaiah was told to literally eat the Word.  I had to memorize every airway, every distance, air speeds and climbing capacities of every type of aircraft, every radio aid frequency, and minimum altitudes for five states

What does that have to do with becoming and becoming an effective Christian?  In other words the salvation message gives an instant high and a feeling of utopia, but as Jesus warned, some seeds fell beside the road beside the road and the birds ate them up.  Others fell on rocky places and the hot sun scorched them to death, while others feel among thorns, and the thorns squeezed the life out of them.  (Matthew 13:3-7). 

Well, this has exceeded my expectations for today so will close it for now, but I believe there is more the Lord would have me share, so please turn in and, as Paul Harvey would say, tomorrow, the rest of the story

Blessings, Gramps

 

FLAG DAY JUNE 14

 Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Hey Gang:  I had a wonderful friend whom I respected for many years with all my heart.  I was honored when the family asked if I would do his eulogy.  When asked, who were the people in my life that impacted on my life, Bill Porteous was always among the top of my list. 

Bill was drafted into the Army during the Second World War and spent his time preparing in boot camp and when the day arrived for him to debark, as he was waiting for his turn to go up the gang plank, he became seriously ill.  After a series of tests in the hospital, it was determined that he had polio and spent the next year or more in an iron lung fighting his own personal war. 

He eventually won the battle, but it left its scars on his body.  As I sit here at this moment, I can still see Captain William Porteous at dusk lowering the flag that he faithfully raised in the morning before going to work.   I always thought he never stood taller than when he religiously, and with great loyalty, to his country lowered the colors.

My bride found the following story in a 2005 Guidepost of another person who loved the stars and stripes and originated a day that our nations should honor our flag.  I do not believe all honor or love our flag or nation as the warriors who laid down their lives to protect this once great nation. 

That saddens my heart.  I am proud to have served the United States of America.

Take a moment and put all things out of your mind and honor stars and stripes that represent the multitudes of men and women that have laid down their lives to protect its shores even though it is the day after designated Flag Day.

Tuesday, June 14,  Daily Guidepost

Scripture: And, behold, God Himself is with us…. ---II Chronicles 13:12

I doubt the Wisconsin school teacher who originated the idea of Flag Day in 1885 could have ever imagined the places he could see the Flag displayed today. (2005).  Today I saw a flag flying on a car antenna, stuck on a store window, pinned to a man’s lapel and even painted on a rock.  No doubt, early Flag Day supporters would never have imagined the flag on the surface of the moon, or held aloft by six proud men, 5 Marines and a Navy corpsman, on the Pacific Island of Iwo Jima during a world war, or raised by three New York City firefighters amid the rubble of a place of unspeakable tragedy know as Ground Zero.

Such images remind me of the song “Ragged old Flag” by the late country-music legend Johnny Cash.  A visitor to a small town notices the disheveled courthouse flag, and he is told that the wear and tear has come from a lifetime of experience – from the hole he got when George Washington crossing the Delaware River to the beating taken through several wars.  Yet it still flies, and folks remain proud and thankful for all it represents.

When I look at the flag, I see threads --- freedom, tragedy, joy, triumph, sorrow, independence, faith--- an intricate history woven together over the course of years since Old Glory’s birth.  Today, as that flag flies outside my own front door.  I pray that God will bless our Nation with strength and endurance.

Lord, on this Flag Day, wherever in the world our flag is flying, please bless that place----Gina Bridgman.

Blessings, Gramps

PS Gramps and I were blessed to be ones who sewed stitches as part of repairing this flag from Ground Zero.

Breaking the spin cycle

 

June 6, 2016

God’s Power Principle For Today: “(Satan) was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him…He is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:44).

 

Hey Gang:    It is important for God’s people to be aware of the practices of the evil one and keep their armor oiled and polished & on! It is also important for each of us to remember that Satan does not have the power to read our minds, but he is a real pro at reading our actions.  It is also important to remember that he is a “never giver upper”.  Satan saw he was not making progress in gaining control of Jesus in the wilderness, so he departed until a more opportune time. He will surely use the same tactic on each of us. 

 

But: What a wondrous promise we have from the very mouth of Jesus in John 10:27: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one”.  

 

God’s word is filled with power verses of protection for His children.  In this day of growing evilness, when Satan has unleashed all his powers for he knows his time is short, it is so very important that we keep our heart and mind filled with those promises and use them as weapons against the evil one and his minions.

 

Is it not fabulous that we can say as the Psalmist, “I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!”  For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence.  He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark”? (Psalm 91:2-4).

 

Do you have a hard time understanding that the God of all creation literally holds all of His sheep, all those whose name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life in His hands?  When I think about His words and compare them to my past life, I wonder why He was not only willing to come to earth and walk in my shoes, but also to lay down His life on a hideous cross so that I can gain the wonders of eternal life with Him.

 

So my young chicks, if the way seems a little rocky, and I can guarantee you there will be times when the road will be very rocky, keep in mind that your refuge and strength never slumbers or sleeps, that our security rests only in the Lord.  He is truly your “way, truth and life” and His joy can be yours this day.  So, pray the prayer of Eliezer: “Lord Give Me Success” (Genesis 24:12) and get about being a sower of God’s seeds

 

 

Blessings, Gramps

Monday, May 23, 2016

 

A Hedge Against Temptation

 

“I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper that He may be with you forever” (John 14:16) 

 

 Hey Gang:  I don’t know about you but in this day when everything that can be shaken is being shaken, I take great joy and confidence that God has made a way through the wilderness for me through the power of the Holy Spirit.

 Bruce Wilkerson included the following comment in his book Spiritual Breakthrough that rang my bell: “I made a dramatic breakthrough when I discovered that right before every temptation, my emotions were distressed (inwardly agitated) and that I was actually seeking for comfort.  That’s when I remembered the promise, ‘I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever’” (John 14:14-17).

Wow, is that not neat.

 Is it not incredible that Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to be our ever-present source of comfort? Have you ever really checked Him out? I mean put Him to the test?  I decided to try. I prayed, “Holy Spirit, I am in desperate need of you, I don’t want to sin, please comfort me now”.  Now, I must admit that in the initial stage I felt nothing.  I really felt bummed out! 

 But then I slowly became aware that the anxiety level had subsided, and I felt a degree of comfort.  I also learned that this, like all learning experiences, had to be honed on the wheel of experience.  The more I made my mind aware of putting trust in the Holy Spirit the more I felt the comfort that is provided only by the Holy Spirit. 

 The neat part of this experience is that God has made me more aware of those times when temptation is knocking at my door; as I put my trust in the Holy Spirit to protect me from that temptation, I find that it slithers back into the pit from which it came. 

 Keep in mind we have an irrevocable promise that protects us from falling off the wagon: “No temptation is overtaken you, but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” (I Corinthians 10:13).

 Bruce Wilkerson said, “I’ve prayed to my Comforter many times since, and I’ve discovered two immutable truth: first, The Holy Spirit always completes His responsibility in my heart, and second, He does it without delay.”

 Soooo, buckaroos, Tuck that away in your heart and mind for you can count on Satan and his minions testing to see if you are able! 

 Blessings, 

Gramps

 

Overwhelming, Just Plain Over Whelming!

 Monday, May 9, 2016

 

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made know to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

 Hey Gang  My dad was a coal miner. We lived in the back country of Pennsylvania.  Some say we lived so far back in the sticks that even the hoot-owls carried knapsacks and they had to pump sunshine to us.  We were as poor as church mice so a trip to store to purchase new threads was an annual event.   But this year’s trip was to result in nearly tragic overtones.

 The mine owner had recently installed a large auger machine that took the pick and shovels out of the hands of the miners and placed it in this wonderful new device.   A brand spanking new machine that made life oh-so-much easier for the miners. Add to this our yearly trip to town-store for a new pair of overalls in the same week.  Wow, life seemed so much brighter! 

 And then it happened.  As Dad was standing near the machine, the machine hit a rock that kicked the machine back several feet and Dad’s brand new coveralls got caught in the cogs of the machine - which began to pull him towards the digger part of the machine.  If the machine would have continued unabated, he would have been crushed.

 A t that moment a God-thing happened! One of the supervisors, who wanted to see the machine in operation, decided that was the moment he would visit the work-site.  When he saw what was happening, he immediately recognized that within minutes Dad would have been crushed. There happened to be an iron bar leaning on the cave wall. He picked up and shoved it into the cogs, immediately shutting the machine down.

 Shutting the engine down would not have saved my dad’s life; it took several minutes after cutting power for the machine to totally shut down.  The iron pick stopped the cogs immediately!  I remember them bringing Dad into the house on a litter and then the months of rehab that followed.  I also remember that my life changed, for even though my Dad recovered physically, he never recovered mentally from that terrifying experience, and we soon left the mountains and moved into the city.  ( The material of the old coveralls would have torn away.)

 Mining has always been a very dangerous occupation and there was always a constant element of fear in the air.  Mining accidents are not rare and, in most cases, there are injuries and death.  For several years after Dad’s accident, I would have dreams that a gigantic ball was always rolling after me and trying to crush me.

  I never told anyone about these nightmares because I did not want to add additional burdens to my Mom and Dad, who were in the recovery mode from dad’s accident.

 So why am I telling you all of this?  Because fear is like a cancer and eats the very heart out of your soul.   In my growing up years, fear was a driving force in my life.  And it remained that way until one day when I read these words from Mark 4:40: “Why are you so fearful?  How is it that you have no faith?”    For the first time in my life I realized that I was the cause of my fear, and that fear was a faith issue.

 Now hear this old duffer:  I have received literally hundreds of messages over the airways and not a single one is telling e we are going to have a wonderful year filed with victories over the evil one.  I have also received many messages that the anxiety level of many folks is very close to the red zone.   Jesus said, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32).  God gave us this piece of assurance through His prophet Isaiah when He said, “For I Am the Lord your God, who holds your right hand.  Who says to you, “DO NOT FEAR, I WILL HELP YOU.”  

  Keep in mind my young friends, the victory is already ours because of the cross of Calvary!  On the cross, Jesus cried out, “It is finished”.     Sooooo. Put your hands in the hands of the One who stilled the waters.  

 

Blessings,   Gramps

Did You Know Satan Is Out to Destroy Your Faith?

Thursday, May 5, 2016

 

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail:” 

Hey Gang, do you think Satan would like to sift you like wheat?  Do we sometimes, or even often, place a bull’s eye on our back as a target for Satan’s fiery darts? “But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 31-32).

If there was ever a time when we need to heed the writer of Hebrews words it is now: “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward” (Hebrews 10:35).  If you are a child of God, you are in a fierce war.  In fact, you might even go so far as to say you are in a life-and-death war.  Satan has but one goal, to destroy the faith of all of God’s elect. And the stronger your faith, the more determined he is to sic his alligators on you.  

If there is anything that gets his dander up it is unshakable faith.  I wish I could attest to the fact that when you kick his can and stay firm on the Rock that is Jesus Christ, Satan sees he has wasted his time and moves on – but he just turns up the heat.

Why? Because he knows when God’s people, who are called by His name unite their hearts and humble themselves before Him, pray from the depth of their hearts, seek a every growing deeper relationship with Him and put away all of the bangles and beads that become idols that separate us from Jesus, he(Satan) is in big trouble. ” Throughout the Word we find that when we stand on the promises of God we gain strength.  We learn what Jesus truly meant when He said, ”Greater is He who is in you than he who is the world” (I John 4:4.

Hey Gang, yes, the times are tough.  Everything that can be shaken is being shaken so that only those things that cannot be shaken will remain (Hebrews 12:27-29), but we are also challenged by Paul in his letter to Timothy, his adopted spiritual son, “Fight a determined warfare, holding faith, and a good conscience”(1 Timothy 1:19).

The apostle Peter came under a ferocious attack against his faith.  His trust in Jesus so enraged hell that Satan asked permission to ‘sift him’ to see if he would stand.  Is not Jesus’ words of tremendous encouragement in this day of woe? “But I have prayed for you”.  I have prayed that your faith will stand the test and when you are converted, my mission for you is to strengthen your brethren.”

Maybe right at this moment you are going through a terrible storm in your life.  And the harder you try the deeper the woe in your life.  I can say, ‘been there and done that’ many times throughout my lifetime.  There have been many times when that storm has raged within my heart and soul and many times when I have cried out, “Why? Lord”?

In closing this Epistle I want to share that God has given us a powerful weapon to use against Satan’s attacks on our faith.  The weapon?  We are not to try and figure everything out.  We are to set our eyes on “the great cloud of witnesses” already in glory who have made it through with their faith intact”.  “Wherefore seeing we also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight. And the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” ((Hebrews 12:1).  What joy filled my heart when this verse finally sank into my understanding.

It is these times when we need to have Luke’s words tucked away in our computer hard drive: “Now will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?  I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly.  However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth” (Luke 18:7-8). We need to we make sure our armor is in place, our lamps are filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit and we have the Sword, the word of God in sharpened and secure in our hands.

Notice Jesus’ question here:  Will he find faith in his people as they endure days of darkness and oppression?   I wonder how many would endure, if He would ask such a question today- in our nation that has chosen to ‘go its own way’.  I believe Jesus is asking, “Will the faith of the elect hold fast when the shaking storms come?”  The question each believer needs to ask, in this day of shaking is “Will my anchor hold fast?”  Or better, “Will I hold fast to My anchor Jesus?”

 I pray Father, in Jesus name, all who receive these morning gramps’ messages are solid on the Rock who is Jesus.

Blessings,   Gramps

Seed Planting Principle

 

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

“The King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me” (Matt. 25:40).

 Hey Gang:    As exulted leader of the Village, I was invited to speak many times and share the successes we were seeing at the Village.  Each time that I was in route to where I would speak I prayed, “Lord, give me something fresh that I can share to this group that will hit their hot button.”

  On one such trip I stopped at a Burger King to get my usual burger and fries and noticed a poster on the wall.  It was in the early days of the Star Wars craze and the poster announced in very bold print “Your choices determine your destiny.”  I said, “Thank you Lord” and dug into the burger and fries.

 But, shortly after hitting the road, I received a tap on the shoulder from the Throne Room saying that there was a prerequisite to that saying.  It should read, “Your values, determine your choices which in turn determine your destiny.” 

 Getting back to the Scripture of the morning, the question arises, “Did What?  When hungry you fed me, thirsty, you gave me water, a stranger you befriended me, naked you clothed me, when sick you came to me and in prison you visited.  But Lord when Did I do those things to you?  What a fabulous answer He gave, “When you did it to the least…” – you did it to the Most -the Lord of Glory!”

 I was forced to go to Walmart the other day and, as per usual, I was thirty fifth (just joking) in line and it seemed every person in front of me had some sort of problem.  One had to be blind to not realize the cashier, probably a grandmother, was feeling very defeated and down. 

 When my turn finally came I smiled and said, ”Good morning.  How are you this morning?”  And then a saw a miracle – she looked up and began to smile.  Now, if I were to guess, I believe that dear lady had a much better morning after that.   

 I love the little words of the Bible, the ifs, ands, thens, the therefores, and most of all the “I will’s.  They tend to be the trigger words of the Bible that precede a truth that God wants His kids to pay special attention to.  Now, you take the challenge to invest the time to look at every one of these words in the Bible and you will be into every book and nearly every chapter and verse.

 The Book of Revelation has become a much taught, discussed and read book, especially as the alligators continue to rise in our culture and all that can be shaken is being shaken. Jesus began His dictation of the Book of Revelation with a fabulous promise: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near” (Rev. 1:3).   Does that light a fire in the depths of your heart to dig into the meat and potatoes of Revelation?

 I believe there are many special and very wonderful blessings hidden in the Book of Revelation.  For me, personally, I believe one of the blessings is, if you study each verse and follow the road maps that lead to other verses that add to and clarify what Jesus is saying, you will find at the end of the story you have been in every book in the Bible.

 I want to share one other word in the Scriptures that has become very special to me.  That word is “measure”.   Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, taught this: “Do not judge,…for in the way you judge, you will be judged, and by your standard of MEASURE, it will be MESASURED to You” (Matthew 7 :1-2).

 Now turn with me to Luke 6:38 and notice the good doctors challenge: “Give, and it will be given to you.  They will pour into your lap a good measure – pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of MEASURE it will be MEASURED to you in return”.

 Now I ask you, when Jesus said, “You did it to the least of these my brethren” does that connect with Paul’s words in his second letter to the Corinthians when he said, “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully, each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver”.  (2 Corinthians 9:6-11).

 If God judges you on “What you have done with Jesus in your life” using the “MEASURE” criteria, will you pass muster on the “You did it to the least of these” MEASURE? 

 Blessings,

Gramps