BATTLE OF THE MIND

We are in a spiritual battle of the mind on a daily basis. Satan tries to trick, demean, confuse, fill us with doubt and fear. He antagonizes us with lies as often as we allow, in order to gain power over us. The way he does this is through our minds. We must be prayerful and obedient to the Lord. Keeping our eyes and minds on Him and things that pertain to His will. Staying busy with the work of the Lord. We gain power and strength through the Spirit of the Lord, we are able to resist the devil and he will flee from us. We have power over satan because of who lives within us is Jesus Christ. Before we can have victory and peace in our lives we must solely depend on God. We need to allow Him to take control of our lives and our minds. Then our outlook will become more positive and we will have hope for our future and peace knowing God is in control. When we try to control our lives without the help of God, we are under great pressure, stress and confusion. When we depend on God, He lifts our burdens from us and we gain a spirit of freedom. The Word tells us "the truth will set us free". We are free from mental strongholds, are minds are at rest with things that would ordinarily hinder us. "The Lord will never leave us nor forsake us" Hebrews 13:5. I am thankful for a God that controls not only my present but my future! Through Him all things are possible,and we can do all things through Him! As children of God we do NOT have to be controlled by the lies of satan. We are conquers, and redeemed through Him! I am so thankful for the God we serve, the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ!

FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

Children are called the "fruit of the womb." A man's words are "the fruit of his mouth."
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven"(Matthew 7:21). To produce the best fruit requires work, time, patience and perseverance (James 5:7-11).
There are nine character building attributes that create in us a right spirit and godly attitude. If applied, these characteristics will make changes within us and transform us into true godly examples for Jesus Christ. We will find that we'll become better mothers, friends, sisters, daughters, wives, Christians and all around better people. We will make others around us desire the spirit we carry. All we must do is love the Lord with all our hearts, mind and spirit. God will bless our efforts and help us to successfully create renewed spirits and bodies for Him!
Love - "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16). Through Jesus Christ, our greatest goal is to do all things in love. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails" (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

Joy - "The joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).

Peace - "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13).

Longsuffering (patience) -- We are "strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness" (Colossians 1:11). "With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love" (Ephesians 4:2).

Gentleness (kindness) -- We should live "in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left" (2 Corinthians 6:6-7).

Goodness - "Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power" (2 Thessalonians 1:11). "For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth" (Ephesians 5:9).

Faith (faithfulness) - "O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth" (Isaiah 25:1). "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (Ephesians 3:16-17).

Meekness - "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted" (Galatians 6:1). "With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love" (Ephesians 4:2).

Temperance (self-control) - "But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love" (2 Peter 1:5-7).

Let's obey the Lord by keeping His commandments and taking on a new identy through the Lord Jesus Christ! "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last" (John 15:16, NIV).

DO YOU BELIEVE?

Do you believe the Bible is true? We will be judged by His word. Jesus Christ is the only one true living God. He is our Lord and Savior. Through repentance and baptism all sins will be washed away. We are no longer bound by feelings of guilt and shame from a sinful past, we are set free from those aweful feelings and made a new creature in the eyes of the Lord! The Lord told Nicodemus that anyone who wanted to enter the kingdom of God must be born again of water and of the spirit. The Bible tells us in John 17:17 "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." This confirms that the Bible is the living WORD of God and is the absolute TRUTH! In Luke 24:45 we read "Then opened he their understanding , that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name, among all nations, beginning in Jerusalem." God desires for us to understand the scriptures we read and apply them to our lives so that we will be saved and spend an eternity with Him. Faith without works is dead, right! Once a person has confessed their sins to the Lord and asked forgiveness with a sincere heart, they are then forgiven. The word goes on to tell us that once we have repented for our sins the Lord wipes them away and no longer remembers them. How awesome it is to have complete assurance in knowing we can and will be forgiven for our sins if we ask Him. In Acts 2:38 "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Acts chapter two tells us when the apostles were at Jerusalem, they along with many others were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues. At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. Acts 2:5-12; "When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. 7 They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, 8 and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! 9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” 12 They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other. Peter, an apostle explained that the Holy Ghost was promised to everyone who was baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. Speaking in tongues is the evidence of baptism of the Holy Spirit. Luke 11:13 "So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” What great joy, peace, love and understanding we can all obtain through obeying the word. Remember John 3:1-8, "we must be born again of water and of spirit to enter unto the kingdom of God." Our God is so powerful and we need His Spirit living within us. Seek Him, "he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6).

A TIME FOR EVERYTHING

Ecclesiastes 3
1 For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
2 A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6 A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.

9 What do people really get for all their hard work? 10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. 12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. 13 And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

14 And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him. 15 What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.

BURDENED?

Feeling burdened? Hearing the word "burden" makes me think of something very heavy and hard to carry. Burdens can slow down our lives because they make us feel overwhelmed and weighed down with the heaviness of the load we are trying to carry. Thankfully, the God we serve never expected us to carry any load alone. In fact if we come to Him asking for help with our burdens He will carry them for us; "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest"(Matt 11:28). When we get too caught up in the heaviness of our burdens we loose sight on the things that are most important in our spiritual walk. We find ourselves doubting instead of believing. We look at how hopeless the situation may be instead of how hopeful the outcome could be if we allow God to handle it for us. We worry with great anxiety over situations that we can not control. God is in control of all, He loves us and understands us. He knows what we need when we need it and He wants us to experience joy and peace while living for Him. We can't experience those blessings if we are filled with anxiety and worry, bad memories, bitterness, fear, uncertainty, stress, overwhelmed, tired, unappreciated, feeling's of worthlessness, and a heart and mind filled with doubt. God knows we need Him and He wants us to surrender our burdens unto Him. Realizing that the heaviness of the problem's we face our bigger than we are and only He can control what that outcome will be. We must put our COMPLETE trust in Him, and have confidence in His word. The Lord will carry our load for us and deliver us from it as well. Sure it may not be on your time, or mine, but it will be on God's time and He is always ON TIME! We tend to keep up our guard and maintain control over a given situation as long as we possibly can before we hand it over to the Lord. Well this contradicts with what the word of God advises us to do. He tells us to come to Him and He will carry our loads for us and He WILL give us rest! What makes us think we don't need God in even the least of our problems. Many times we make a small problem much bigger by choosing to handle it on our own instead of going to God in prayer and willfully giving it to Him. WE NEED GOD IN EVERY SITUATION! Leaving Him out will destroy our walk with Him. Our only hope is through Jesus Christ. We must let nothing stand in the way of our walk with Him. He loves us and we must trust that when we give it to Jesus, there will be: memories of grace and mercy, love, forgiveness, security, certainty, peace, contentment, and a lightened spirit, body and mind. Above all we will find rest and be burden free! Let go and watch what the Lord will do, this is what is required from us. We are to go to Him in prayer and expect result's because we know He will never fail us! We can't allow satan to keep us bound. Through Jesus Christ, we can move mountains in His name, we can conquer all and be over comers, we can do all things through Him which gives us strength!

HYPROCRISY OR HONESTY!

WHEN WE ARE TRUE WITH OURSELVES WE EXCEPT THE HUMILITY OF OUR OWN SINS, NOT LAYING BLAME ON OTHERS, BUT RIGHTFULLY OWNING UP AND TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT WE HAVE DONE WRONG. ONLY THEN WILL REPENTANCE BE TRULY SINCERE. ALONG WITH TRUE REPENTANCE COMES A LIFE FILLED WITH GREAT JOY, PEACE, LOVE AND HAPPINESS. ONE IS NO LONGER ABLE TO BE BOUND BY SPIRITS OF ANGER, JEALOUSY, MANIPULATION, OPPRESSION, HATRED AND SELF DESTRUCTION. THROUGH JESUS CHRIST YOU CAN BE SET FREE!

Truthfulness; sincerity: in all honesty!

How often does a non-believer lash out at a believer by calling them a hypocrite? The real answer behind the insult, is a feeling of less self worth, and a feeling of being exposed! Because this person may feel that they are not measuring up to God's standards their automatic response is to criticize and judge others who are making the effort. Christians are not perfected mortal beings who never sin or make mistakes. The reality is....we all fall short of the glory of God. My Pastor tells us as Christians we should fess up when we mess up! We first need to take responsibility for the sin we committed, not excusing our actions and denying what wrong we've done but completely owning up to our mistakes. Going to God sincerely in prayer, not only to ask for His forgiveness but for His loving help. If we ask Him and trust in Him, He will help us to not continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. The gift He so graciously gave by giving His life on the cross at Calvary was done so that we would all be given the wonderful privilege of forgiveness for our sins. He gave it all, but the choice is ours! He will not make you serve Him or acknowledge Him. Our relationship with Him is based on the absolute necessity of earnestly seeking Him and His guidance. The Bible tells us in John 14:14"And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us". We have blessed with the assurance of knowing that God will never leave us nor forsake His children. He is eager to help us, just as we are eager to be there for our own children when they need our help or guidance. As a Mom I know I have a God given gift to love, nurture, protect, teach, encourage, and defend my children with every ounce of my being. How must God almighty feel towards me and His other children? Scripture tells us His love is incomprehensible to man. God desires for all mankind to be saved and reap an eternity with Him. Truth is, more will not benefit than that will. We are living in a spiritually dying world that is filled with the wickedness of people who have turned away from God in order to live a life pleasing to themselves. We must live according to scripture, according to how God desires for us to live. We should "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Corinthians 13:5. We must not be like the carnal reprobate! Being men of corrupt minds concerning the faith of God; "They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate"(Titus 1:16). We need to be careful with our approach with others even if we do not agree with them. Reaching out through love and compassion will go miles further than reaching out through a judgemental and haughty spirit. The Bible tells us that if we offend a child of His we have made offense unto Him as well. Mark 9:42 tells us "And whosoever shall offend one of these that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.
God is love and we are to always remember that love and compassion that he so graciously shows us all on a daily basis. We are to show love and compassion even to our enemies. God never states we only have to show love to the people we like. Yes it's hard and sometimes it may feel impossible, but remember through Him all things are possible. We are to try to live our lives in the way the Lord would see fit. We should never deny the truth, or the truth that dwells within another, regardless of how we feel about that person. If we are able to deny the truth then the truth is not in us!

ALL IN THE NAME

What a blessed people we are to be able to call upon His name. What ever our need may be, we have assurance that once we've called upon His name God WILL make a way!There is so much power in the wonderful name of Jesus! He is the Almighty, Blessed Redeemer, Christ, Precious Corner Stone, Counselor, My Deliverer, Everlasting Father, My Fortress, My Rock, The Good Shepard, The Annointed One, He is....

God - Jesus is called God in several passages in the Bible. Along with His sinless life, miracles, and resurrection from the dead, His claims to be God stand firm (John 20:28).

Lord - In the New Testament, this term is used as a salutation to honor a man of distinction. The disciples used this term to salute Jesus as their teacher and master (Matthew 22:43-44).

Word - This title was used by the apostle John to describe the mission of Jesus. The title states Jesus' Godhead and eternal and absolute deity (John 1:1, 14).

Messiah - The long awaited "anointed one" who would deliver Israel. Jesus came to deliver mankind from sin and death (John 4:25-26).

Alpha and Omega - These two characters were the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. This descriptive title expresses the eternal nature of God - the beginning and the end (Revelation 1:8; 22:13).

Savior - Jesus is the person who rescues mankind from an eternity in hell.

Redeemer - "One who frees or delivers another from difficulty, danger, or bondage, usually by the payment of a ransom price."1 In the New Testament, Jesus is viewed as the ultimate Redeemer who gave His life as a ransom (Mark 10:45, Titus 2:14).

Light of the World - Jesus is the Person who brings true knowledge of God. Those who reject this light bring judgment upon themselves (John 8:12; 3:19-21).

Lamb of God - This title refers to the Old Testament sacrificial system where God accepted the blood of animals as atonement for sin (John 1:29, 36). Jesus' blood made atonement for sin!

Ruler of Creation - Christ existed before the creation of the world and He is sovereign over it (Revelation 3:14).

Mediator - Because Jesus is fully God, He can represent God to man. Because He is fully man, Jesus can represent man to God. Reconciliation is possible (1 Timothy 2:5).

Bread of Life - Jesus is the one and only supplier of true spiritual nourishment (John 6:35). Way, Truth, and Life - Jesus is the only way to heaven, the only source of truth, and the foundation of all life (John 14:6)!

John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

As Colossians 1:15 says, "He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." Jesus provides eternal hope, through God's grace, for everyone who believes He is Lord.

WHAT SIGNIFICANCE IS HIS NAME TO YOU? HOW AWESOME IT IS TO KNOW HIM! HE IS EVERYTHING THAT WE NEED, AND HE IS ANXIOUSLY WAITING TO HEAR OUR PRAYERS AND BLESS OUR LIVES! IF WE CALL UPON HIS NAME THROUGHOUT OUR DAYS, HE WILL PROTECT US THROUGH THE COVERING OF HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD. HE WILL UPLIFT US WHEN WE ARE DISCOURAGED AND HE WILL GIVE US UNSPEAKABLE JOY AND THAT PASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING! HE LOVES US MORE THAN WE COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE AND I AM SO THANKFUL FOR HIM!