Pool Party

Today's scripture was Acts chapter 2. On the day of Pentecost... most preachers and teachers use this particular passage of scripture to teach on the in filling of the Holy Spirit.  This scripture tells of when the initial outpouring took place however there is more to chapter 2...            

I bet by now you are wondering how pool party comes into it aren't you? Let me digress for a bit if you will...Many years ago and yet it still goes on quite a few 'full gospel' churches, Pentecostal  and Charismatic became insular and withdrawn. They came for the spiritual 'drunk'. They hung around the alter getting staggeringly drunk on the presence of the Lord. Now don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with worship, getting happy, full of the Spirit or what ever Christianese term you want to use to describe being full of the Holy Spirit. However they stopped up the flow and turned it into a pool party mentality and because there was no flow from the pool it became stagnant and died out. Once again this did not happen everywhere but it did happen. This is what I refer to a pool party.

 Now, Acts chapter 2.  My study today showed me how to differentiate between a healthy flow and a dangerous one. This study took me beyond the initial outpouring and to the results we should see if we are being truly healthy in  our spiritual growth and life. When we turn our worship into a bar like mentality we end up worshiping the the results and not the result giver. What is healthy.. In Acts chapter 2 v 1-13 was the initial out pouring.. then....

v14-36 the Word was preached- Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, why He came, how God honored Him, the showing that they(the listeners) were guilty but there was salvation through Jesus Christ.
 v40- Repentance happened, 3000 were added to the church.
v 41-47 Holds these truths.. they were baptized, continued in sound teaching, prayed, signs and wonders through the apostles happened, took care of one another, were in one accord, went to temple' church', fellowship-ed,  praised God and ADDED TO THE CHURCH.

 This is the sign of a healthy growing body of Christ.  We need to guard against worshiping the Feelings, the emotions. These are wonderful but they are not God. They are manifestations from our being that we have been in His presence. When we become more interested in splashing around and less in the lost outside we have become a church of Pool Party mentality. So break up your dam and let the RIVER of LIFE flow from you. Life was never meant to hoarded but shared.

A new look

Any one who knows me at all knows that I get frustrated with what I call spiritual cliches. I realize that we all fall into that trap once in a while and cliches become cliches because they are so true, sound good, and sometimes sound more spiritual. It isn't sin but it is a pet peeve. lol. So I ran across a portion of scripture that is usually not taught in a total and never really gone into in depth. Well I can't get to deep here on a blog but I for my own want to know look a  little deeper. The scripture I am referring to is the Beatitudes. Mathew 5:3-10. When I got to the first one it captured me. If you will I will break what little I have learned down.
3) Blessed are the poor in spirit..Poor in spirit =someone who realize their abject poverty and inability to save themselves. They realize without Jesus there is no hope. Because of this realization they cling to Jesus and in doing so inherit the Kingdom of God.
4)Blessed are they that mourn- It does not really refer to those who are mourning the dead. It does refer to those who mourn their sinfulness and in doing so turn to Jesus. One reference I ran into says it can also refer to those who are oppressed...The word says those shall be comforted. How? Because Jesus came and He is our comfort.
5) Blessed are the meek...powerless. Because in and of ourselves we are powerless to effect change. Only through Christ can we be made new and in His doing so the powerless will be given power to inherit the earth. Now one way to look at this is terra firma but what if we look at it this way.. Bless are the spiritually powerless because Jesus becomes your power when you make him Lord and He gives you power over your earth(body, mind, and  spirit) restoring you to right standing with the Father.
6)Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.. I ran into one explanation that says this could be a metaphor for Jesus coming and being our spiritual feast. Without Jesus as Lord we are hungry and thirsty and He comes and breaks our 'fast' and fill us...thus They shall be filled.
7)Blessed are the merciful..To be honest I am still chewing on this one and will need to get back to it later.But in obvious choice. Give mercy -receive mercy.
8)Blessed are pure in heart-'spiritually cleansed'. How do we get that way..Through Jesus and His blood. Because Jesus came and paid the price we can be clean' pure of heart.' We through Jesus have been restored to relationship with God the Father.
9)Blessed are the peacemakers--does not refer to pacifism. It more closely refers being at Peace with God and man.  When we are at peace with God our lives will exemplify God's attributes. We reflect more and more of Him as we open our hearts to the Peace giving power of the Holy Spirit with in us. Someone who walks in peace with the Father stands out and they will say..they must be a Christian(there goes a son of God).
10) Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake- the word here more closely means hounded. Have your ever had to stand and say I can't do that it isn't right and been made fun of?  It is a mild form of what this means and the word says yours is the kingdom of heaven.

This has been what I have been looking at this week. It all comes down to this- Jesus came to achieve all of this in our lives. We were poor in spirit, mourning, powerless, hungry, thirsty, without mercy,unclean of heart, at war within and without and separated from God. We had no hope within ourselves and because Jesus paid the price we now Spiritually rich, comforted, given power to overcome, filled, given mercy, cleansed, at peace with God . Blessed are we.. Happy, Joyful and Blessed. Thank you Jesus you have made life Beautiful..(Beatitudes/beautifier).. Jesus our Beautifier.

Where's the fire

I have seen on other social media lately allot of excitement, angst, and drama. I have even been caught up in some of the political debate. While not deeply invested and I haven't lost any sleep over it, it did get me to wondering.. Where's the fire? Fire takes 3 elemental things to burn... fuel, oxygen and a heat source.  If any of the 3 are missing the fire goes out. Now I am sure by this point you are wondering why I am going on about fire, let me explain.   Proverbs 25v20a states...'Where there is no wood, the fire goes out;'
    Many an argument will die away if we just let it be. Yes it was wrong what they did or said. Yes, it was hurtful how they treated you. Yes, you have the right to stand up for yourself. But friends you can not change people, you can only have control over your part in any situation. Now they may be blowing a bunch of hot air(talking about or spitting hate-oxygen) they may be tossing verbal daggers( heat) but you don't have to add the wood. My dad constantly reminds me not to stir the pot. He says if you stir it it is going to stink. Like most people I have some old, new and very present hurts. I have discovered that if I don't constantly go over my 'they did this, I felt that list' that my hurt heals faster. I guess its like pulling off the scab on a wound. If you keep pulling off the scab it takes longer to heal. Does it make it right that someone yelled or called you a name? No however you got to let go and get to healing. Remove your wood from the fire. Don't feed it, don't stroke it, don't let it have reign over your life, for as long as you do they have reign over you. Turn to the Lord Jesus and ask for his peace and let it reign.
      Now please, don't misunderstand me. There are some people who constantly trample over the line and must be dealt with. However dealing with them may mean not acknowledging  them and letting them stew in their own juices. It may be you have to tell them that they are acting in an inappropriate manner you will no longer deal with them..have a good life! But above all you need to release(forgive) them. Forgiveness isn't for their benefit but your. I guess all this is a little rambling but in the common language--take your dog out of the fight. Because without wood the fire goes out, without your eyes or ears seeking out what or who said what, your pain will ease. Anyone who knows you will know if someone is lying on you.
    If the offender is someone you must deal with, limit the access they have to you. By pursuing a less dramatic existence you will have a more pleasant one.

Counting

Time is short, that is the long and the short of the matter. Weather life was minutes or 100 years in the space of eternity we are come and gone. We put off doing things until later. We will serve Jesus later. We will quit doing this or that later.
    Let us take a look at Psalms 90. It was a prayer of Moses to Father God. V1 acknowledge God as our refuge. Verse 2 acknowledges His eternalness. From everlasting to everlasting.The chapter also acknowledged the sins of  his, Moses, nation. But the verse that spoke the most to me is verse 12- Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
     How many times have we just drifted along doing the same old thing and expecting different results? Weather it be in the natural realm or the spiritual realm we drift. When I started contemplating this blog I was thinking of people who I know are not serving God or just plain old straddling the fence. I was thinking of ones who show up to church occasionally as fire insurance but, I have began to see that Christians have not been numbering their days well. And by Christians I mean me.
      How many times have I woke up and realized that it had been 2, 3, 5 days since I picked up a bible or took time away from the runaround world and prayed? How many times have I thought to myself I need to spend more time with God? There are many who read this who will recognize themselves here I am sure. We lack power in the house of God because we do not spend time with the creator of the house. We have same old church as usual because ritual is what is left when we lose relationship or it has grown lukewarm. The word tells us that Christ will spew the lukewarm from out of his mouth.
     This blog today is an accounting. This blog is a numbering of my days. I am contemplating, laying it out and being accountable before God. In doing so I will gain a heart of wisdom.  I want my relationship with the Father to be one of closeness not just a fond remembrance of the past. I want to a be what He wants me to be-being able to hear Him when He says go this way or go that way. I want to be able to pray for someone when He says pray and not have to think that He will be shocked to hear from me..ahem.. I want my relationship to surpass everything else in this world. So here on January 2, 2012--I begin anew considering my ways and counting my days.. How about you?

He is a light unto my path

I just wanted to pop in and give a praise report. The Lord is my light and my very present help. I want to thank Him for all that He is. This month is Thanksgiving  and in the spirit of said Holiday.. I thank you for the morning, I thank you for the sun, I thank you for your love and all that you have done. I thank you when I am steady, I thank you when I am weak, I thank you Lord for,  you are all I need. May all of my praise be lifted to you, May all of my praise arise anew, each day that I wake is a day to give praise, so today Lord, at this moment I offer up my praise to you. Blessings!

When the word becomes life

Have you ever been reading the Bible and all of a sudden the words seemed to leap off the page..they have just become life to you. The word is always true, however, when you spirit man latches onto it and it becomes real then it has truly become life. This life giving flood of light has happened to me more than once but I do recall one time in particular. The thing is it is still working in my life. I have not always handled this enlightenment well, I have to be honest with you about it. There are times this life giving word has spurred me to achievement but even when I was being less than stellar it is there in the background blinking away like a warning light or a reminder if you will. It happened in this manner( sorry I couldn't resist the phrasing of this,grin)- there was a young mother who wanted time to read the Word and the only time she was able to do this was when her little daughter laid down for her afternoon nap. Now this young mom, who was for lack of better words, in her own spiritual diapers, a toddler in the ways of God, had heard that EVERY thing you need can be found in the Bible. Now this young mom was a bit overweight and wanted to find what the word says was the solution to it.(Remember she was a baby in God herself), She searched and could find nothing. Knowing that nap time was quickly coming to the end  and if she didn't read something somewhere she was not going to have time to read anything. In frustration she said to herself," I am just going to throw the Bible open and where ever if falls is where I am going to read today. This is ridiculous." So throw open she did and this is the scripture it landed on...remember what she was originally looking for--Isaiah 55:1-3 'Ho everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters: and you who have no money, Come, buy and EAT. Yes come, buy wine and milk without price. WHY DO YOU SPEND MONEY FOR THAT WHICH IS NOT BREAD,AND YOUR WAGES FOR WHAT DOES NOT SATISFY? LISTEN CAREFULLY TO ME AND{EAT WHAT IS GOOD}, AND YOUR SOUL SHALL DELIGHT ITSELF IN ABUNDANCE( OR AS THE KJV SAYS-FATNESS)INCLINE YOUR EAR, AND COME TO ME. HEAR AND YOU SOUL SHALL LIVE;AND I WILL MAKE AN EVERLASTING COVENAT WITH YOU- THE SURE MERCIES OF DAVID.'
Now here I had spent time looking for the answer to my weight, for yes I was that young mom. These scriptures grabbed hold of my heart. Here is what The Lord was telling me. Come and eat from the Word and the Lord Jesus, He and His promise are sure, true and free. Why are you spending your money of junk food and your wages on things of life trying to fill what can only be filled by me. Listen, Pay attention-eat healthy food, live in me and your soul shall live. Get fat in the Spirit and you will live and be in covenant with me. I will give you the sure mercies of David... There I was with my jaw hanging...for God had found in the word what I was unable to find on my own. He hears ALL of our cares and Yes I will say every answer is in HIM.

been busy?

Been busy lately? I know I have and half the month has gone by and I had yet to post. My apologies for the lapse in time. God has been faithful and true during this last couple of weeks. I have been to see my weight doctor and got a good report. While I was there I saw the PT and nutritionist and all is well. Why the post about the mundane of my life? Well you see God cares about the small things as well as the big things that go on in our life. The word says He numbers the hairs on our heads. How interested is that? So many times we wait until we have a crisis to call out and talk( pray) to God. It is good to be able to do this but how much better if we realize He is there for us in the small things too and talk to Him everyday.(Casting our cares on Him for He cares for us!) As the weeks go onward toward the holidays and life ramps up to a frenzied pace...take time to talk to God. He cares that you are strung two ways to Sunday. He cares that the stuff is stacking up and if you will let Him He will walk you from the craziness to the other side, calm and peace. Now on a lighter note.... Saw on a church sign-
'There is something missing here, can us see it? C H - - CH!   Blessings!