Before you open your Bible: PRAY!

5 Prayers befofre you open your Bible:

1. Ps 119:130 Break open your word within me until revelation-light shines out! Those with open hearts are given insight into your plans.

2. Ps 119:105 Truth’s shining light guides me in my choices and decisions; the revelation of your rd makes my pathway clear.

3. James 1:22 Don’t just listen to the Word of Truth and not respond to it, for that is the essence of self-deception. So always let his Word become like poetry written and fulfilled by your life!

4. I Cor. 2:10-12 But God now unveils these profound realities to us by the Spirit. Yes, he has revealed to us his inmost heart and deepest mysteries through the Holy Spirit, who constantly explores all things.  After all, who can really see into a person’s heart and know his hidden impulses except for that person’s spirit? So it is with God. His thoughts and secrets are only fully understood by his Spirit, the Spirit of God.  For we did not receive the spirit of this world system but the Spirit of God, so that we might come to understand and experience all that grace has lavished upon us.

5. Proverbs3:5-6 Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions. With all your heart rely on him to guide you, and he will lead you in every decision you make. Become intimate with him in whatever you do, and he will lead you wherever you go.

May I Pray for You?

Will you pray for me? This individual had jusr stopped me and asked if I would pray with them about a specific need. So I did. Right then and there. But that was not the end of it. For you see I keep a little prayer book where I list all the names and situations that I come across thru the day. It's important when you agree to pray for an individual or a situation that YOU DO IT. Do not just say you will and then forget about it. DO IT!!! Here's a few thoughs about prayer and praying. 1. Have a specific place. A quiet place. The evil one specializes in distractions. So find that quiet place to really talk to God. 2. I have found digging into God's Word especially the Psalms to be helpful for me to quiet my soul and clear my mind. Remember the devil specializes in division and distractions. 3. Go thru your prayer book. Name after name lifting up your requests and supplications before the Lord. According to Donald S. Whitney, prayer is simply talking with God. It is an opportunity to share our thoughts, feelings, and desires with the divine. Prayer is acceptable to God only in Jesus’s name. All access to God, including prayer, is possible only through the merits of who Jesus is and what he has done Prayer is a lifelong desire in all those indwelled by the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit indwells a person, he gives him or her the voice of a child. The Holy Spirit not only prompts prayer in all believers but also helps us pray rightly. 4. Time. Find a time to adequately give your list the time those requests deserve. Take your time. Slowing go over every name and situation. 5. Remember to whom you are talking. The creator of the universe is in your audience. You are not talking to yourself not to anyone else but to almightly Jehovah God. Remeember, you are in HIS PRESENCE. YOU ARE CONNECTING WITH THE DIVINE! 6. To help center our thoughts on Biblical prayer, here are some scriptures on prayer: Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Mark 9:29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” James 5:14-16 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another,that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Matthew 21:21-22 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” I am praying for you and your families, Leonard

YOU ARE SEEN!

You are seen!! Feeling like an outcast? Depressed? No one cares? Lonely? Disrespected? Remember: “Beer Lahai Roi”. It’s a well named by an Egyptian slave woman. You may remember the story in the Old Testament where Abraham’s wife, Sarah, gave her slave girl, Hagar, to her husband for her to bear children as Sarah was barren. However, after Hagar gave birth, the wife, Sarah, mistreated Hagar and despised her. So, Hagar fled from the house and into the desert. She sat down at a spring in the desert and an angel of the Lord appeared and told her to return and submit to her mistress. The angel promised Hagar that she would give birth to a son and name him, Ishmael, and his descendants would be too numerous to count. So at the well Hagar named it, Beer Lahai Roi - “the living one that sees me”! Read her story in Genesis 16. So friends, take the cue from Hagar; no matter what you are going thru, no matter what desert you are in, remember there is ONE, the God of all creation, who SEES YOU!

After Easter now what?

AFTER EASTER NOW WHAT?? The Easter clothes, baskets and colored eggs have been put away for now. Easter Sunday is over and most of us are back to the routine. Some to work, some to school and some to another day or two of relaxation. But, what really has Resurrection Day i.e., Easter, done to us or more specifically IN us? After Jesus rose from the dead He told his disciples to meet Him in Galilee. In Galilee Jesus gave them His last discourse of instructions. These instructions took several years to play out but eventually these disciples took the directive to heart and moved out from Jerusalem to Samaria to the utter most part of the world. However, the campaign wasn’t mass revival meetings in large arena’s nor super crowds in large convention centers. It was a simple instruction…”as you go, make disciples”. It was mainly a one on one, house to house campaign to touch others with the message of hope…the gospel. The message that the Messiah had come, lived, died and rose again. It was the message of hope…because of the resurrection we could have life after death thru this same Messiah, Jesus the Christ. So, has Easter made a difference in our lives? Has the celebration of Resurrection Sunday awakened us to the message of the resurrection Lord Jesus Christ? Or as Paul says, “arise O sleeper”. Has the excitement of Easter and the message of the resurrection turned into a massive surge of God’s children hitting the streets, taking to our neighborhoods to do exactly what the Messiah, said…GO!!!!!!!! Strike up a conversation at work, at school, in the marketplace, in our circle of influence about the meaning of Resurrection Sunday. It is the meaning of heaven or hell. It is the meaning of life or death. One to one. Person to person. Going forth to tell others what Jesus the Christ has done for us. Has He made a transformation in our lives and if so, what? It will probably take more than a few meetings with deep conversation for us to covey what this Jesus, this Resurrection Day, this Easter has done for us. If the meaning of Easter has touched US and transformed us…then the message is very clear…”as you go, make disciples”! So, who will be the first person you touch? Come on! You can do it. As you go, who will be the first person you need to tell them this Resurrection story. One on one. Person to person. Who needs to hear; Jesus loves them, came for them, died for them, wants to give them resurrection life and will one day come for them? The one person is _______________! You fill in the blank…then GO!!!!! I am praying for you and for your family

WHY of Holy Week

WOW! HOLY WEEK and what a week it was. From the excited adulations of the the multitudes when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on a donkey to the crowd shouting ‘crucify him, crucify him’. Gethsemane to the cross to the empty tomb…wow what a week. However, this was a week planned and scripted before the foundations of the world were ever laid. (Isaiah 40:21) also see I Peter 1:20)This was God’s plan; “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.” John 3:16 When Jesus stated in Matthew 20:18, “behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death”, He knew what was coming. A week of final instructions, ridicule, scorn, beatings, trials, then death on a cruel cross – a crucifixion. All this planned, prepared and purposed from the foundation of the world. WHY?? All we like sheep have gone astray and sinned. There is none righteous NO NOT ONE. So we are covered, saved “not by something that ruins like gold or silver, but by the precious blood of Christ, who was like a pure and perfect lamb selected to redeem us by His precious blood. HOLY! “Set apart”. That’s what makes this week “holy”. A week “set apart” from the beginning time for God but back our freedom from the slavery of sin and wickedness. So, do rejoice in this Holy Week BUT don’t ever forget the WHY of this Holy Week. JESUS THE LAMB OF GOD THAT TAKES AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD. YOURS AND MINE! Praise to the one who redeems. I John 2:12, “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name sake.”

Each one reach one!

Each on reach one! GO! Matthew 28:18-20 teaches us that for evangelism to take place we Christians must go and BE WITH PEOPLE!. Throughout the New Testament we learn that there is only ONE way for the gospel to touch and change lives. That’s for those who have been changed to associate with those who need to know our Jesus. Touching lives for Jesus ALWAYS means association. YES EVEN RELATIONSHIPS. Reaching people for Jesus takes association. Jesus hung out with fishermen, prostitutes, tax collectors, the sick, yes even, “women”. Jesus ate with them, walked among them, touched them in their market places. Association. For Peter, it was to the Jews. For Paul he hung out with the Gentiles. For most of the apostles “they went out” touched the lives – association. For us to impact and touch the world for Jesus, we must not think that our “holy huddles” on Sunday is the only way to impact others for Jesus. We must leave the cozy confines of the “sanctuary”, our houses and venture out into our world: our neighborhood, out places of gatherings, golf trips, fishing trips, etc and touch others with our Jesus. Reaching people with the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ takes ASSOCIATIONS. Let us be about our Father’s business.

Have you been with Jesus?

HAVE YOU BEEN HANGING OUT WITH JESUS? Full of knowledge but no wisdom. Never in the history of our world has there been so many avenues by which one can read, understand, interpret and study the Word of God. NEVER. In fact, via the internet, just on my computer I have over 25 translations and over 40 commentaries, dictionaries and study helps. The quote ‘your learning has made you mad’ comes to my mind. It seems that the more we know the more we are still prone not to apply to our daily lives. The key to the Bible is not information but transformation. Knowing, learning and studying should lead us to becoming more and more like Jesus. However, it seems that the more we know the less we learn. Most every household in US of A has some sort of Bible in there home. However, the question remains how much of God’s Word is IN our minds and lives. Transformation of our lives only comes thru APPLICATION of what we have learned and studied. I heard of preacher that rose to preach a sermon and simply said, “love one another”. The next week he rose to speak and said, “love one another”. The third week he rose to preach and said, “love one another”. By the fourth week when he spoke the leaders approached him and said, “what are you doing?”. I that the only sermon you know? The preacher responded, “when we start living these words, I will move on”. We pride ourselves on Bible knowledge, Bible reading even Thru the Year entire Bible plans YET, where hence is the transformation? So, maybe we should be asking ourselves on a daily basis, “HOW AM I BECOMING MORE LIKE JESUS?” Has the Word of God gone from our eyes to our minds to our feet. Is there a visual transformation or better: do does those around me especially in my family; with my spouse, with my children see a different me. Can they see JESUS in me? In Acts this verse: 4:13, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them; that they had been with Jesus.” Do you see it? Is wasn’t the learning, the studying but the PRESENCE OF JESUS in their lives. Again, the question to us: can those around me say, “wow! He/she has been with Jesus! I can see it in their TRANSFORMATION…their behavior.” Have you been with Jesus?