Stones

Are we storing up stumbling blocks or stepping stones?

I have been reading Hosea. Interesting story here. Hosea is a prophet of the Lord. The Lord tells Hosea to take a Harlot for a wife, one that would not be faithful to him. God wants to use Hosea's life as an example to Israel of how they have been like the Harlot to God. (Okay, not the point I am going for) So, as I was thinking about Hosea's life, I began thinking about how I am sure that was not the ideal that Hosea had planned for his life...to take a wife that he would love, but one that would not be faithful to him, one that would go searching for others.

So, then I began thinking about Jacob. Now Jacob had 12 sons. Joseph was the youngest of these twelve and very beloved of Jacob. The 11 older brothers became jealous of Joseph and sold him into slavery. Then returned to their father, with animal blood on Joseph's coat telling Jacob that Joseph had been killed. Not until many years later did Jacob find Joseph alive and in Egypt second to Pharaoh.

Now, these are just two men of faith that I am going to mention, there were many that lived a not so "ideal" life. It dawned on me that these men of faith truly knew what it meant to give your full life for God. To be used ultimately for the Will of God. To set aside their own desires and wishes to fulfill the mighty will of God.

As, I begin to look at these situations, I see men who took these "stones" in their lives and turned them to Stepping Stones, bringing them closer to God...
I think how easy would it have been to take these "stones" and make them stumbling blocks in their lives. That is the key. We have the choice to use the circumstances as a stepping stones or to root them into bitterness and become stumbling blocks.
I think Hosea could have gotten a little bitter that he loved a woman that wouldn't be faithful to him. And as for Jacob, it seems that loosing a son, mourning his loss only to find that your other children SOLD him and he was living the entire time in another country (orphaned) would be enough reason to get a little put out!
BUT these men knew that their lives were but a vapor...They knew their true purpose....

Do we know?


Isaiah 46:9 Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. 10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. 11 From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do

Gold Nuggets

Panning Gold was a huge craze in 1849. The process basically consists of placing the material that you want to process into your pan and shaking it in a left to right motion underwater to cause the gold, which is heavy, to work its way down toward the bottom of your pan. At the same time, the lighter materials, which are worthless, are worked up to the surface of the gold pan where they can be swept away. The process of shaking and sweeping is repeated until only the heaviest of materials are left-namely the gold and heaviest black sand.
Sounds like life, doesn't it?
I believe this is the perfect analogy of what life is...panning for gold. Life happens, we all know that...the Bible says it will rain on the just and the unjust. Just because you decide to become a Christian doesn't make you exempt from life...

There is a song that goes, "I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden" Well God never said our lives would be a bed of roses.

But I have learned that in every situation in life we are to act as the gold panners. Take the situations, shake them down....let the nasty pass away and hold on the the nugget...plant it and learn from it.

There is a gold nugget in every life experience, we just have to look for it!!!


Zechariah 13:9
I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.' "

Prison Gates

Acts 5:19,20But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said,Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.

While I was doing my morning study, I read this passage. The verses before this one tell how the Apostles were taken by the High Priest and those with him and put the Apostles in prison. That got me to thinking about how the "high priests" in our lives what ever they may be for you, imprison us. Sometimes it can be a gripping fear...fear of the unknown, fear to be who you are, fear to speak out for what you believe in, fear of not making your financial ends meet, just fear...
For whatever reason, we have these fears, and they are not limited to what I listed, those are just examples that come to my mind. I find that most of the things that we are bound to, we are bound stemming from some sort of fear.

Fear:Strong's Concordance #1272 says the origin is from a primary phebomai (to be put in fear). The definition being: fear, dread, terror (that which strikes terror)
The enemy of our souls wants to keeps us "imprisoned" to our fears. To have us believe that we don't deserve the goodness of God. That we don't deserve to live as "others" might deserve to. But these are all lies from the enemy, these are just "scare" tactics, pardon the pun, to keep us from reaching our full potential in Christ. If he can keep us imprisoned in FEAR, then the Lord cannot perform the miracles in our lives. The Bible speaks of this fear as being the first thing that can send a soul to hell.
Revelations 21: 8But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
BUT
The good news is is that God sent the Angel to open the prison gates, so the Apostles can go on with their calling from the Lord. So, today, know that God sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins, to open the prison gates in our lives and deliver us from fear, sin and condemnation.
Romans 8:15 for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

So...Let's have a Prison Breaking experience, so that we can tell the people all the words of this life

Potential

How many times have you heard the phrase..."But they have so much Potential".... We all have potential, but some of us choose to carry it in a little napsack and others choose to actually use it!
Abraham was considered the Father of Faith. God came to Abraham and told him he would make a covenant with him. (Genesis 17) Abraham was 99 years old when the Lord told him he would bring him Isaac...

Genesis 17:
16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!
19And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
20And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
21But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

I believe in verse 18, Abraham said...Lord look we already have Ishmael, can't you just use him. Can't we just take all the "potential" that he has and make HIM the promised one of you. It seems so logical...I mean here is a man and woman that are 100 years old...But God says in verse 21, No, I have ONE that I have chosen and with HIM I will deliver you your promise.
I think just like Abraham we try to work things out for God. We get weary in our travels. The Lord has given each of us promises in our lives. Sometimes in our "waiting" we, like Abraham, try to fulfill the promises for God.

I personally, have been believing the Lord to send me a God fearing mate. The one the Lord has picked out for me. During this 8 years of waiting, I have tried to give God a hand. Just like Abraham..."Look Lord here he stands and he carries so much Potential....can't we just use him to fulfill your promise...The Lord just reminds me..."HE may carry the potential BUT he is not the ONE I have chosen for you...he is NOT the promise I have given you"

So, in your waiting keep your FAITH...because it is FAITH that is counted towards Righteousness...

Romans 4:13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: 15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. 16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, 17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

Splinter

Sometimes, no most of the time, we fight our flesh to keep God's will in our lives. I am pleased to say, I just nailed the last nail in the coffin, so to speak, in a 6-month fight with my flesh! Although this last nail was a hurtful one, I know with out a shadow of doubt the Lord was trying to move certain things from my heart.

The lord gave me the following metaphor for me to see what he was doing with me.

Sometimes our flesh can get into our hearts like a splinter. A splinter often times is ½ in the flesh and ½ out. My mother used to tell me, let me get that out of you now, if not your skin will grow over it and it will have to surface out on its own. So, spiritually speaking what I did was allowing this splinter to stay in my heart. I allowed the flesh to grow over it. The Lord had to show me that in order for him to remove this from me, He would have to work this splinter out of my heart. He also showed me that since I allowed my FLESH to grow over it and remain, he would have to cut my flesh…and this would hurt. But My God loves me enough to circumcise the flesh in my heart so that he can move me onward in HIS plans for my life. So, that I might be a useable vessel for His Will, not mine.

So, when you find yourselves in places where you have allowed a splinter to enter your heart, I encourage you to resist your flesh and pluck it, BEFORE the flesh takes over…

Galatians 5:16-17
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Refined

Recently, I have felt like anything that could pierce my heart, has. Anything that could make me uncomfortable in my personal life, in my financial life as well has my professional life, has. Then today...the pennacle of that hurt, I READ this email. Funny thing about this email, it sat in my in box since December 14, 2006...That was 5 days ago. The Lord's timing is perfect. I was settleing down to write a blog on a broken vessel, which I still endeavor to do, but I felt this word was better fitting. I hope it touches some of you the way it did me.


Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."
This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.
One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.
That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.
The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it."

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

PUSH

PUSH an acrynom used for Pray Until Something Happens...
For me, it is Praise Until Something Happens.

Sometimes in our walk of faith we encounter trials that leave us broken...broken hearted, broken spirited and with broken dreams.

I recently went through a trial like this. I was left holding pieces of my heart & dreams in my hand. I would enter my prayer closet and let the Lord know just how hurt I was...then I would pick up my hurt and go on. How can the Lord mend your brokenness if you don't leave it for him?

About a month later after many many attempts to put the pieces back together myself, i determined I would go into my prayer closet and I would Praise the Lord. I would praise Him until I was restored...and I did. When I left that room, I left my brokenness at the Altar of Exchange so that he could restore my heart, dreams and my spirit.

David says in Psalms..
Ps 34:1
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth...
He doesn't say...I will bless the LORD when things are good...BUT it says at all times!
Even when it is not easy to Praise...We must praise through our circumstances....The Bible says he takes the foolish things of this world...

So, I encourage you to ~PUSH~