It’s Time to Declare Our Love

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At this time of the year lovers are selecting gifts to please their sweethearts and children are busy cutting out paper hearts to send to their friends.

In the midst of all the activity do not let us neglect to declare our love for the Lord by offering Him a spiritual Valentine. Beyond all our gifts or service there is one Valentine that would please Him more than anything else we might offer and that is our hearts. No, not paper ones but the real thing. For when we offer Him our hearts we give Him our all. Thats what Isaac Watts meant when he wrote this line to his hymn “When I survey the Wondrous Cross”.

“Were the whole realm of nature mine

That were a present far too small

Love so amazing, so divine

Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

1 John 4:10 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins.”

How could we help but love Him? Yet there are many who do not return His love. This brought anguish to Francis of Assisi, when he thought of Calvary and realized so many refuse the Savior’s love. He was moved to travel the streets exclaiming “Love is not loved ! Love is not loved !” This is also the tragedy of 2013, for Love is still being despised and rejected by many. But millions do love and cherish Him. Our hearts are His. At a time when the world is searching for love in all the wrong places, let us declare His Love to the world by loving one another as He first loved us.

Challenge: 1 John 4:11 “Beloved if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

HAPPY ST. VALENTINE’S DAY

 

All We Like Sheep Have…..

It is a known fact that sheep are dumb creatures. Perhaps the reason why God uses sheep as a window to our souls of our lost condition in Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
This side of Calvary we have an opportunity to follow after the Lamb Of God. Matthew 4:19 “And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” If we follow Him we will be on the narrow way to life as Matthew 7:14 warns us “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Have you found it?

Keeping Christmas Alive

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As I prepare to pack away “Christmas” for another year, I just wanted to share a few thoughts with you to carry into this New Year.

Now that the hustle and bustle of the season wanes and we can invest in time for just a breather to stop and contemplate. Before we dismantle the tree and the decor, and throw out the empty boxes, the torn up wrapping paper, and quickly glance once more at the soon to be discarded greeting cards, carefully pack away our nativity creches with the Babe in the manger; let’s  be careful that we don’t  also pack away the spiritual sentiments of the season, the reason for His advent!

What was the reason for His birth? None other than to restore our broken fellowship with God that we may once again have the fellowship with God just as Adam and Eve did back in the Garden before the fall. A precious time of intimacy and devotion that may continue throughout the year to come, that the spiritual sentiments of Christmas may stay alive in our hearts.

As the clock ticked away the countdown to the New year may this now be the top of your New Year’s resolutions to go deeper with God as you “Develop a Secret History with God” that will stand the test of time no matter what the New Year may hold, committing it to His sovereignty and trusting His heart and love towards you. I believe my book “Developing a Secret History with God” will not only inspire and encourage you in this resolution but will also give you simple steps on your journey. It will revolutionize your quiet time with God.

He is still calling you as He did back in the Garden of Eden “Child, where are you?” He already knows where you are at BUT He wants you to be seeking Him. He already knows your heart BUT He wants you to know His heart! God not only wants to hear from you He wants you to hear His voice. God bless you as you determine in your heart to press on into His presence.

What better time than today, the beginning of a brand New Year, to make a resolution that will impact not only this coming year but your whole life, more than any other resolutions you could make. Truly it will not only change 2018, it will change the rest of your life. I am not saying it will be a year without trials but it will be a year of your faith growing and still standing strong deeply rooted regardless of the winds that may blow over your life.

Have a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! Walk with the King and be a blessing  as you determine this year to go deeper and press on into His presence.

 

The book “Developing a Secret History with God” is available from

Amazon/ Barnes & Noble/ Kindle/ Nook/ ITunes, Lulu and a bookstore near you.

Available in English or French

 

Never Judge a Gift By It’s Wrapping

It has been said that we should never judge a book by its cover. During this gift giving season I want to remind us that we should never judge a gift by its wrappings! The most expensive, the most planned and thoughtful gift ever offered to this world was placed in an old manger for a box and wrapped in lowly swaddling clothes but as we start to unwrap this precious gift we find it is tied with red ribbons dipped in the blood of the greatest love mankind has ever known.

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John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life

As Isaac Newton writes

“Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

“The Seed of The Woman” 

Sharing this Christmas message at Hilton Baptist Church Virginia.

The protoevangelium, the plan of redemption, is first mentioned, in Genesis 3:15 and talks of the seed of the woman bruising the serpent’s head. But how can this be since a woman doesn’t have seed? Over the years as I read this it confused me since a woman doesn’t have seed in her womb. God led me to the story of the annunciation of Mary when the angel gave her the word that she would conceive of the Holy Ghost. Suddenly as the Lord opened my spiritual eyes, I saw that ‘the seed of the woman’ talked about back in the Garden was the Word, the Rhema, that was given to her. 1Peter 1:23 writes of the Word being the seed of God that He plants in our hearts. According to the parable of the sower in Luke 18:11 the seed is the Word of God

Luke 1:38 uncovers the mystery to us! “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord! Be it unto me according to thy Word”. Note she didn’t say “Be it according to my seed.”

At the time of the miraculous conception what was the seed of the Father that Mary received?

It was the Word that was conceived in her womb. The gospel of John tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.That’s the real meaning of the Christmas story, Emmanuel, God with us. Mary was obedient although she could not fathom how this could be but in faith she declared, “Be it unto to me according to thy Word”. Although the seed is full of life it is powerless until believed and obeyed. Then the seed mixed with faith becomes a Rhema word. Faith gives the Rhema substance. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen” Hebrews 11.1 The Rhema will become incarnate just like the seed of Mary’s womb, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”.

Have you ever become pregnant with a Rhema and thought but how could this happen? Have you believed and cherished it until it would become flesh? Or have you neglected the fetus in your spiritual womb? Or maybe through discouragement or doubt you have tried to abort it? Maybe right now you are having labor pains, that’s a sure sign that birth is on its way! Although that seed is of the spirit it needs the physical part of you to become incarnate and be a witness to the world.

When we receive a Rhema word into our hearts, we become pregnant with a vision or a purpose and as we are faithful to feed, guard and protect that seed, one day it will give birth, it will be brought to fruition. Feed it with stubborn, ever increasing faith regardless of fear of rejection or unbelief from others for if this seed is of God the Father, the day will come when He will claim what you are giving birth to as His own! Others will see that this was the Lord’s miraculous doing.

God’s part is to give life and breathe to the seed which He planted within us.

Our part is to nourish it through faith during the long months or maybe even years of pregnancy and then when labor pains begin, hang in there and deliver it to the world.

CHALLENGE: Surrender your whole being, body, soul and spirit and in faith declare as Mary did “ Behold the servant of the Lord! Be it unto me according to thy Word”.