Sunday Music Time

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me


No matter how many troubles one may have, no matter the troublesome times, no matter what kind of fear tries to over take  us we can withstand it all  Because He Lives.

Lent. Do We Really Understand It ?

Lent:  The traditional purpose of Lent is the penitential preparation of the believer—through prayer, penance, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial.

That of course is the traditional definition of Lent, the period leading up to Easter, the celebration of Christ's Resurrection from the grave.  It is suppose to be a time of fasting and of giving up of "luxuries" .  

Has it  become more about "talking" about what one gives up and becoming similar to New Years resolution, often made but seldom kept?  Certainly there are those who are faithful and do set aside certain things during this time but is that really what Lent is about?

In the definition of Lent it speaks of self-denial but what is and where is the real self-denial of those who claim to be Christians?

In Matthew 16:24 Jesus speaks of what denial is:

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

Some say, What a harsh thing it is of Jesus to command us to take up our cross for does not a cross mean death?  
Indeed it does and we need to remember that it was Christ who took up HIS Cross and DIED for US with no complaint. He DENIED Himself to become sacrifice for all. Without such denial and His taking up of the Cross we would be without hope.
 
Did Jesus mean that we were to die on the cross in a literal scene of the word?  No, but we are to die to ourselves, in the manner of how Paul spoke of putting away the old man and putting on the new.

Romans 6: 5-6 --  For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶ knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

How can one be crucified without a cross?  Unless we take up our cross we can not die to self  as Paul was speaking of in his use of "putting away of the old man".   If there is no death how can there be a resurrection and thus follows the question--  How can we be resurrected into a new life with him?
      

  Romans 6: 7-11-- For he who has died has been freed from sin. ⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹ knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. ¹⁰ For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 Romans 6: 3-4-- Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Ask yourself ; Is true denial of self our goal not only in Lent but through the rest of the year as well?
 
If the answer is yes then we can truly celebrate Lent as well as Easter.

If the answer is no or there is a sudden silence within, perhaps we need to stop and consider what Christ did for us.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.   Romans 5: 8

 


 A clearer definition of Lent could be since this sums up the entire definition given above. 

John 3:30  He must increase, but I must decrease.

Let us find the true meaning of Lent rather than just making platitudes and a show of piety to satisfy our own needs and that of the world. May we take up our cross, deny ourselves and follow Him so that indeed we will decrease so that He can increase. 

Problems?

 There have been some who have written lately with situations in their lives that they just can't seem to get a handle on.  They have spoken of others treating them unkindly, speaking falsely about them, attacking them for no real known reason.  They say their lives are in turmoil because of these situations.   This came in one of the devotional e-mails received at AF Ticker. We pray this will be of comfort and offer the solution to your situation or at least some insight into how to confront what you are facing.

"He who comes from above is above all;
he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth.
He who comes from heaven is above all."
JOHN 3:31

If people come against you in the flesh, let them come against you.

If they wish to rail and argue with you according to the flesh, do
not respond in kind.

If they attack you without cause, let them attack, because the fleshly, the carnal, the natural cannot defeat the spiritual.

The one who is submitted to the Lord has authority over those who
remain unsubmitted to Him.

Flesh is overruled by Spirit.

Hate is overruled by Love.

Darkness is overruled by Light.

Death is overruled by Life.

Earth is overruled by Heaven.





Hattip: Chip Brogden  The School of Christ

Sunday Music Time

l

 Friday's Post was about Prayer.  We  thought this appropriate as a follow-up. 

Maranatha Singers - Psalm 5. Words by : God. Scribed by: King David. Music by: Billy Sprouse, Jr.

This is how God wants us to talk to Him. Do we?

Faith, Trust and Prayer

 The past couple of weeks we have posted articles on Faith.  When one prays it certainly helps if they have faith that it will be heard and trust that it will be answered.  How often have we prayed for something and seemingly never received an answer?  Could it have been that the answer was NO or NOT YET?  Have we questioned our faith when our prayers were seemingly not answered?   Have we said, well, they have more faith so their prayers got answered and mine didn't and then ceased to pray and soon found our faith, our trust in shambles. 

The story of two men, shipwrecked on a lonely island, is offered today with the question;
who's prayers were heard and who had the most faith?  Read before answering.

Two men survived a shipwreck and were cast onto a small island. The two men, not knowing what else to do, agreed they had no other choice but to pray to God.  They agreed to divide the island into two territories and each would pray and somehow determine who's prayers and who's faith was stronger.

The first thing they prayed for was food. The next morning the first man saw a tree bearing tropical fruit on his side of the island and he began to eat, the other man's side remained barren.

After a week or so, the first man was lonely and decided to pray for a wife. The next morning a woman appeared on his side of the island.  On the other side, was nothing.  Soon the first man prayed for more food, a house and clothes. The next day, as if by magic all these things appeared on his side of the island.   The second man still had nothing on his side of the island.

Finally the first man prayed for a ship to come to his rescue so he and the woman could leave the island. In the morning a ship lay at anchor just off shore on his side of the island..  The first man and the woman decided to leave the island and leave the other man stranded.  He considered the other man unworthy of God's abundance and blessing since it appeared as though none of his prayers were answered.

As the first man was boarding the ship  a booming voice from heaven was heard asking, "Why are you leaving your companion on the island?"

"Why not, since my blessings are mine and mine alone, since I am the one who prayed for them." boasted the first man.

"You are WRONG!" boomed the voice from heaven in rebuke. " He had only one prayer, which I answered.  If not for him you would not have received any of my blessings."

"Well, tell me, " the man asked in an arrogant voice, "what did he pray for that I should owe him anything?"

Quietly the voice from heaven answered, " He prayed that all your prayers be answered."

Now tell me, who's prayers were stronger and who's faith was strongest? 

How are we to know that the blessings we receive are the results of our prayers and our faith alone and not those of someone else praying and standing in faith for us, unselfishly that our prayers be answered?  Remember, "What you do for others is more important that what you do for yourself."

I shared this story with you, just as it was shared with me.  I hope that you will share it with someone else and I pray that all your prayers are answered.

Hattip:  Dr. Charles Edwards Jr., National Chaplain, Disabled Veterans of America. 

Sunday Music Time

l


Gospel - Jim Reeves - Precious Memories



We  are posting this Sunday Music Time early and in tribute to Nan's uncle who passed this week. We will be attending the Memorial Service for him on Saturday.  He was 87.

Faith, It's About Trust--Where do you place your trust?

Faith, It's About Trust.

Last Saturday the topic of Faith was introduced with the question  Faith or Hope?  This week topic of Faith is continued with the introduction of Trust and what it means to have Trust.

Here is a little story that explains this simple statement so much better than I can do and certainly in a lot less words.

                =======================================================
Me (Upset): God, can I ask you something?

GOD: Sure.

Me: Promise you won't get mad?

GOD: I promise.

Me (frustrated): Why did you let so much stuff happen to me today?

GOD: What do you mean?

Me: Well I woke up late,

GOD: Yes

Me: My car took forever to start,

GOD: Okay....

Me (growling): At lunch, they made my sandwich wrong and I had to wait

GOD: Hmmmm..

Me: On the way home, my phone went dead, just as I picked up a call

GOD: All right

Me (loudly): And to top it all off, when I got home, I just wanted to
soak my feet in my foot massager and relax, but it wouldn't work.
Nothing went right today! Why did you do that?

GOD: Well let me see..... the death angel was at your bed this morning
and I had to send one of the other angels to battle him for your life.
I let you sleep through that.

Me (humbled): Oh...

GOD: I didn't let your car start because there was a drunk driver on
your route that might have hit you if you were on the road

Me (ashamed): ............

GOD: The first person who made your sandwich today was sick and I
didn't want you to catch what they have, I knew you couldn't afford to
miss work

Me (embarrassed): Oh.....

GOD: Your phone went dead because the person that was calling was
going to give a false witness about what you said on that call, I
didn't even let you talk to them so you would be covered

Me (softly): I see God

GOD: Oh and that foot massager, it had a short that was going to throw
out all of the power in your house tonight. I didn't think you wanted
to be in the dark.

Me: I'm sorry God.

GOD: Don't be sorry, just learn to trust me.........in all things, the
good and the bad

Me: I WILL trust you God

GOD: And don't doubt that my plan for your day is always better than your
plan

Me: I won't God. And let me just tell you God, thank you for everything
today.

GOD: You're welcome child. It was just another day being your Father
and I love looking after my children.


Scriptural References: II Samuel 22:31, Proverbs 3:5, Hebrews 2:13

2 Samuel 22:31

As for God, His way is perfect.
The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust Him.
 
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding.

Hebrews 2:13
And again:

“I will put My trust in Him.”

And again:

“Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.

HATTIP for the story from a dear friend, Janet Davis.

Sunday Music Time

Charley Pride - Let Me Live In The Light Of His Love  

 A little late in getting this post up but enjoy just the same. 


Charlie combines the country sound and the Black Gospel beat to this great gospel song.  

Faith or Hope?

What is faith? Is it merely hoping for something, or is it something bigger and stronger.

The Collins English Dictionary defines “faith” as “strong or unshakable belief in something, especially without proof or evidence.” In Christianity, faith is trust in God.

Hebrews 11:1 says: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” If faith is substance, should there be tangible evidence we can lay hold of?

In hope, we are waiting to see something with our own eyes. But if it needs to be proven before it is believed, that is not faith. It is not faith if we are trusting our five senses to “prove” it. It is still hope.

It is so easy to express our hope for something we want or need, either for ourselves or someone else. We express our hope with great conviction and sincerity. Hope, however, is for something that “will” happen.

Hope is necessary. We all need hope to survive in this world. But hope is almost always future tense. If we stay in the hope realm, we may never realize what we are “hoping” for. Faith “real-izes” our hope and turns it to substance. Faith completes our hope and makes it real. Faith believes it has already happened, no matter how things may appear. Faith is for NOW!

Welcome Home

;

 Johnny Cash - Drive On


Dedicated to those were so forgotten for far too long.  Welcome Home, my Brothers and Sisters.

Truth

The truth will stand up to scrutiny!