Jesus died over 2000 years ago.

Nobody has ever referred to him as the late Jesus,

Not even the heathens.

Nowhere in history.

Nowhere has He EVER been referred to in the past tense!

He is the Living God!

When Jesus died on the cross He was thinking of you!

Let the Living God have control over your life to use you in a mighty way. Even if you don’t know exactly where you are going, He always does and will never lead you astray.

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27. For God selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is foolish to put the wise to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame.

28. And God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is lowborn and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are,

29. So that no mortal man should [have pretense for glorying and] boast in the presence of God.

OH if we could only see things from God’s perspective. We certainly would trust Him much more than we do when He tells us to do something that seems hard.

He can see everything about your life – the most strength you are capable of having, the most endurance you can stand under pressure, how far your limits will reach in any given situation, and how much stamina you can have before you can’t take it anymore.

A good word picture would be a “stress test” (a medical test) that tells you the condition of your heart. You basically walk on an electronic treadmill exercise machine. The whole point is to try to keep up with the machine as it makes you walk faster and faster, walk uphill, then walk fast and uphill at the same time; you are hooked up to heart monitors the whole time to see how your heart is responding. If you can endure to the end, you definitely have a healthy heart.

God wants you to use His strength, ability and power to do what He has called you to do. In fact, He does not want you to be able to accomplish it on your own. He will tell you to do things you are not capable of doing so He can receive all the glory in what you are able to accomplish.

In the Bible, God consistently told people to do things they were totally incapable of doing on their own. They felt overwhelmed even thinking about how they would accomplish such huge undertakings. But God knew exactly what they could be capable of doing with HIS power and HIS strength added to their own.

He chose ordinary people like you and me who didn’t think of themselves as special in any way. They just had a heart that wanted to know and obey God, and He chose to use them in great and marvelous ways.

Vs. 25 says “…the foolish thing [that has its source in] God is wiser than men, and the weak thing [that springs] from God is stronger than men.

So how many times do we miss out on God’s way because we try to put Him in a box and expect Him to act in a way that is already familiar? What if He wants to do things in a new way? Will you be open to listen and obey?

Many of the Israelites missed Jesus because they were expecting a Savior in the form of a leader who would go to battle against their surrounding enemies and defeat them. God had worked in that way numerous times before, but this time He had in mind a much better and different plan.

Will you open your mind and heart to hearing and obeying God even if He chooses to do things in a way that you have never imagined? Your life will definitely not be boring.

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All they had to do to obtain the victory was follow God’s instructions exactly. If they had only walked around 6 times or put the soldiers first instead of the singers, they would have been defeated.

God had specifically told them not to take anything personal from Jericho. This first city was to be His and He gave them exact instructions as to what to do with the bounty. It didn’t matter if His instructions made sense to them; they were just expected to obey.

Achan saw all the rich bounty and thought maybe he could get away with a few things and hide them in his tent. After all, who would notice when there was so much bounty. It was probably pretty easy to stuff them under his shirt or hide them easily with all the people concentrated on getting everything out.

Nobody obviously noticed that he took anything for himself, but the most important person – GOD – saw him. Then the whole tribe had to suffer a terrible and humiliating defeat at a small place called Ai. I’m sure that was an awful thing to endure after their glowing victory only a few days earlier. This small place should have been very easy to conquer after the hugely fortified walled city of Jericho.

As Joshua sought God about their miserable defeat, the truth began to come to light and desperate measures had to be taken to get the Israelites back into fellowship with God. He had told them specifically before they went into battle that the city of Jericho was “accursed” (doomed or dedicated for destruction) and that if they did not keep themselves from the “accursed” thing they would become “accursed” themselves.

Achan had already been told there would be consequences for his actions, but undoubtedly he thought he would be exempt from them or would never get caught.

The Israelite troubles actually began before they went into battle the next time, but it didn’t show up until they had resoundingly lost what should have been an extremely easy battle.

Joshua 7: 1 says “But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan… took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.”

God would no longer be with them until they got rid of the accursed things, so they had to take drastic measures to be right with Him again.

Achan and his family paid the ultimate price for disobeying God. He took a beautiful garment, 200 shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight. Those are small things compared to the extreme price he had to pay in the end. PLUS his sin not only affected him, but every member of his family had to pay the ultimate price.

All Satan wants is for you to give him a very small opening and he will keep poking and prodding until he has enlarged it enough to form a huge stronghold to hide behind. He wants to make it as large and strong as possible so that it will take much time and effort for you to get rid of. He knows that if he can do this many people will just give up and accept the consequences, thinking it is much too hard to tear down the stronghold.

We now look at Joshua 8: 1-8 and see that God truly does give second chances when we get rid of our pride and do whatever it takes to get rid of our sin. The Israelites were able to take the city of Ai easily with God working supernaturally on their behalf.

Have you thought you could handle things on your own and messed everything up terribly?

Israel messed up and lost the battle with the little city of Ai. They thought they could do it on their own and found out the hard way they couldn’t.

God never wants any man to take the glory that is His, but He wants you to live your life in such a way that you are willing to walk in obedience to whatever it is He wants you to do.

He wants to work in a supernatural way in your everyday life to do things that only He can ever get the credit for. You may have done some bad things, but His mercy and grace are so astounding that He truly wants to take your messes and turn them into awesome victories for His Kingdom.

You are greatly loved and uniquely special to the LIVING GOD and He truly does have BIG plans for your life.
NEVER give Satan even the slightest opening to cause havoc and destruction in your life or the life of your family. As soon as you realize you have gotten off track, immediately swallow your pride and repent before God.

Satan will put every excuse in your mind as to why you should not repent. Some of the ones I have faced are:

Wait until a better time
Everyone will think you are weak
People will make fun of you or talk behind your back
…And the list goes on and on

Satan will do anything to keep you from having a close relationship with God. He doesn’t mind if you believe in God – even if you radically believe in God. He just doesn’t want you to live your life in a way that you can be USED by God.

If you already have a huge stronghold, it is not too late to start tearing it down. The Holy Spirit can give you direction and guidance as to how to get started and keep at it until you have the victory.

Don’t let Satan win even one more day. If there is anything standing between you and God get on your face, get forgiveness, and start in a new direction.

I can tell you with certainty that Satan won’t like it a bit, but you don’t have to let him win any longer. Choose obedience to God over everything else and let Him give you victory over any area where Satan has gained control.

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What a powerful statement. Most of us will go to almost any lengths to avoid being a failure because it will make us look really bad in the eyes of other people and we might be the topic of their conversation. I know that for much of my life I have been more concerned about what others thought of me than what God thought of me.

I wanted others to look at me as a successful person, especially from a spiritual standpoint. When you are careful to always do and say the right things in public, only people who have a great deal of discernment can see through the charade and know there is something wrong even if they might not be able to tell exactly what it is.

When we have our own plans and try to carry them out, we usually try to do something that will make us look good or put us in a leadership position in some area. Sometimes we even want to do things that will make us look as if we are very humanitarian or mission-minded.

I can say from experience (from one who used to do everything just because it was good or spiritual) that there is a major difference in my life now. I have found that when you are completely in the center of God’s will, you don’t have to fight to keep your head above water; you also don’t have to fight battle after battle trying to make something happen.

I am definitely not saying that you won’t encounter obstacles and problems, but they will be much easier to handle because you know that you truly can place your life in God’s hands.

He has an awesome plan for your life, but you only get to partake of His Best if you do things on His terms.

Satan wants to keep you BUSY, BUSY, BUSY doing a bunch of “stuff” that will never make a difference at all where eternity is concerned. Make the choice to be BUSY doing work that will truly last for all eternity.

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But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name [in my place, to represent Me and act on my behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you.

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Growing up in church and becoming a Christian at an early age, I had read this verse many times. In all those times of reading it, though, I never really understood it until one day it seemed my mind and understanding were wide open to grasp its meaning.

From that moment on, I never thought of the Holy Spirit in the same way. I knew that He became a part of my life from the moment I became a Christian, but for years I never gave Him a prominent place or even thought very much about Him being there.

WOW! what an awesome thing the Holy Spirit is to every Christian. Look at the above verse again. His help and wisdom cover every single area of our lives. We don’t have to make a big decision or stand on our own strength at any time.  We may choose to do so, but we don’t have to.

God knew that there would be times in our lives when we needed a Comforter who could really comfort us in a way that would make a huge difference in our lives. No other person is capable of doing that like the Holy Spirit.

I encourage you to read this verse several times and meditate on what it says. If you have asked Jesus into your heart, then you have this same Holy Spirit so ask Him to help you understand what this verse truly means.

He wants to open your eyes, heart, and mind to truths you have never understood before. It will be an awesome journey!

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-H. Blankenship-

I came across this quote and I have to admit that it made me think about this Bible verse in a whole new way.

The actual verses are written in Matthew 22: 37-40

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect.) This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment. And a second  is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. These two commandments sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets.   AMP

Jesus summed up in two verses what had been the whole Ten Commandments that had been given to the Israelites in the wilderness.

The word “shall” gives a command to do it – not just if you feel like it or agree with it.

Also we don’t get to choose one of the three ways to love God. He said with ALL our heart AND all our soul AND all our mind.

God wants every part of you to be able to produce the kind of fruit that can do some great damage to the kingdom of Satan here on earth.

I know it seems to be the popular thing to live life in a way that pleases you, but there is no greater feeling than knowing that God is in control. What an awesome thing that the Most High and Holy God would choose any human to do work on His behalf. He has not chosen just any human – he has chosen YOU.

Give your heart, soul, and mind to Him and let Him accomplish what He desires through your life.

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I have never done any really bad things such as breaking the law and getting caught, or things that others would look upon as being really bad. I know I wasn’t the perfect child, but I never lived in open rebellion against my parents and caused them much distress like some children have. In school, my classmates used to laughingly call me a “goody two shoes” because I was too scared to do many rebellious things. My parents have always supported me in everything I have done, and I didn’t want them to be disappointed in me.

I think if you have lived your life being a “good person” it can be very easy to not see yourself as you really are. After all, you haven’t done really bad things so you don’t think of yourself as grieving God or the Holy Spirit with the ordinary things you do each day.

I have already admitted to being a people-pleaser in my younger years, so I was devastated when I realized how much I had taken the Holy Spirit for granted in my everyday life.

I found I had started to take for granted that He would always be there and I could just ask for wisdom and direction when I needed it. How could I take God so for granted when He has and continues to do so much for me? The last thing I ever wanted to do was grieve Him in any way.

Realizing this has changed my life. I don’t ever want to forget these particular words of Charles Spurgeon, so I have copied them off and put them in a place where I will see them on a regular basis. You might want to do the same thing, especially if you see yourself and your own life in these words.

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Oh, my friends, when I think how often you and I have let the devil in, I wonder the Spirit has not withdrawn from us. The perseverance of a saint for a single day is a multitude of miracles of mercy. When you consider that the Spirit is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and yet he dwells in the heart where sin often intrudes, a heart out of which come blasphemies, and murders, and all manner of evil thoughts, what if sometimes he is grieved, and retires and leaves us to ourselves for a season?

It is a marvel that he is there at all, for he must be daily grieved with these evil guests, these false traitors, these base intruders who thrust themselves into that little temple which he had honored with his presence, the temple of the heart of man.

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I fear I have taken much too lightly what Jesus did for me when He died on the cross and rose again. By going back to heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father, He made it possible for the Holy Spirit to come and reside in the heart of every person who believes in Him as their Lord and Savior.

If you have asked Jesus into your heart, you have the awesome gift of the Holy Spirit who lives inside you and wants to lead you in the right direction, but He is so much more than that. He is your comforter in time of trouble, the provider of your every need, and He always has your best interest at heart.

First thing each morning, thank the Holy Spirit for who He is and what He has done in your life. Also thank Him that you don’t have to make decisions on your own any more. It is a sad thing to live your life without His leadership and guidance because He is an awesome gift that has been given to every believer in Christ.

Please ask Him to reveal areas in your life where you need to change or grow and be obedient to His direction. Your life will truly take on new meaning.

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You only have to listen to the first sentence of the news each morning or night to hear bad news, at least most of the time. As a Christian, instead of concentrating on everything wrong around you, concentrate on what God wants you to do to change it. Then let Him work through you to accomplish the impossible.

It is easy to look back in history and think of great Christian reformers such as Martin Luther, John Wesley, Dwight L Moody and Charles Spurgeon as being unique people who did not have everyday lives as we do. We think of them as being larger than life, and never having a bad thought or never doing anything that would be considered as being wrong.

I have even thought of them as sitting in their study all day either reading their Bible or on their knees in prayer. I never thought of them as having a “real life” being the head of a family with all the responsibilities that came with it. Many of them were also pastors, so they definitely had to deal with people in all sorts of situations. I know they gave great importance to prayer and Bible study, but being locked up in their office all day praying or reading the Bible was out of the question.

When you read the story of their lives, you also find that they had faults and flaws just like everyone else on the planet. They were definitely not perfect or worthy of being put up on a pedestal as a person who never messed up, because many of them made huge mistakes.

If you feel God leading you to do something you feel is impossible or larger than life, don’t say NO just because you look at yourself and see all your imperfections and flaws.

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Isn’t God big enough to use you in spite of flaws and imperfections?

And will you trust Him to lead you in the right direction even if you don’t have a clue where you are headed, at least at the start of the journey?

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Every Christian must live in the world but should never conform to the values of it. If we conform, God can’t use us to change what is around us.

Romans 12: 2

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

God works through us supernaturally when we are determined to walk in obedience to Him, and will we always be astounded to see what He does and the way He does it.

If Luther, Wesley, Moody, and Spurgeon had conformed to people around them instead of walking in obedience to God, He could never have used them to impact the world the way He was able to do.

Make the decision to submit your life to God and let Him use you to do whatever He chooses. There is no greater feeling when you wake up each morning than knowing ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY FOR SURE that you are in the center of His Will. It might seem that things are falling apart around you, but in the center of His Will is where you will find a peace and joy that you cannot understand any way other than knowing it is a supernatural thing from God Himself.

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A young lady named Sally, relates an experience she had in a

seminary class, given by her teacher. She says that

Dr. Smith was known for his elaborate object lessons.

One particular day, Sally walked into the seminary and knew they

were in for a fun day. On the wall was a big target and on a nearby table were

many darts. Dr. Smith told the students to draw a picture of someone that

they disliked or someone who had made them angry, and he would allow

them to throw darts at the person’s picture.

Sally’s friend drew a picture of who had stolen her boyfriend.

Another friend drew a picture of his little brother. Sally drew a

picture of a former friend, putting a great deal of detail into her

drawing, even drawing pimples on the face. Sally was pleased with the

overall effect she had achieved.

The class lined up and began throwing darts. Some of the

students threw their darts with such force that their targets were

ripping apart. Sally looked forward to her turn, and was filled with

disappointment when Dr. Smith, because of time limits, asked the

students to return to their seats. As Sally sat thinking about how angry

she was because she didn’t have a chance to throw any darts at her

target. Dr. Smith began removing the target from the wall.

Underneath the target was a picture of Jesus. A hush fell over

the room as each student viewed the mangled picture of Jesus; holes and

jagged marks covered His face and His eyes were pierced.

Dr. Smith said only these words…. ‘In as much as ye have done

it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.’

Matthew 25:40.

No other words were necessary; the tear filled eyes of the

students focused only on the picture of Christ.

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It is very easy to let your entire focus be consumed by how someone else has wronged you, or maybe even what they haven’t done that might have been the right thing to do in a situation that concerned you.

Satan knows that if he can make you dwell on the shortcomings of others, you won’t have much time to allow God to use you for furthering His Kingdom Work.

At some point, other people may disappoint you in some way that you might never understand their motive. It is certainly not in our fleshly nature to naturally forgive someone who has wronged us, especially when it was not something we feel we deserved.

Our natural fleshly self wants to dwell on it for hours or even days or months. We don’t want to rest until we have had retribution in some form, but God has a completely different way of doing things.

You must look at things from His perspective. He only desires the very best for your life, and wants to use you in an awesome way to further His Kingdom work. It is for this reason that God gave the Bible to every Christian as an instruction book on how to be able to live the best life possible.

Each Christian is responsible for making sure they follow the guidelines set forth in the Bible. For example, God tells us very clearly that we have no choice but to forgive others if we intend to stay in fellowship with Him. Our flesh speaks very loudly that this could never be the right thing to do because then the other person will never have to pay for what they have done if we don’t make them.

But God comes back and tells us in His Word that a person will always reap what they have sown. They will always pay in some way for what they have done so God wants you to leave all that to Him and concentrate on what He wants you to do.

Living in the flesh makes you a miserable person, but following God’s plan will bring peace, joy, and fulfillment. I know it is hard to believe that the act of forgiveness could cause such a drastic change in your life, but you just have to try it to see the dramatic results.

If you are concentrated on God, you will start to see Him work in ways that will astound you. It will be hard to believe what He can accomplish through your life if you will let Him.

You can’t forgive on your own, but all you have to do is ask Him to help you and truly mean what you say. God will take it from that point on and you can truly be on the road to living a life of peace, joy, and fulfillment no matter where you have been in the past.

Don’t throw darts any longer at the person who hurt you. Make the choice to forgive and let God handle the rest of the story…

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We use the excuse that we don’t have a degree in theology or Bible, or the Pastor is the one who is supposed to make sure we know these things. There is no possible way he can do that in a couple of hours a week. You must read and study the Word for yourself – then if you have any questions you should ask your pastor or another mature Christian to explain what you don’t understand.

If you don’t really know the truth, it will be easy for Satan to make you believe a lie. Usually he will give you just enough truth to make you think that everything he says is the truth.

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If we sometimes looked a little more to the connection of sentences, we should be kept from very dangerous errors. The Bible ought to be treated in conformity with common sense, as you would use any other book. If you took the writings of any author, however carefully he might express himself, if you picked out a sentence here and a sentence there, [you] might make the man to say what he never believed; nay, even make him to be the supporter of opinions which he abhors. So it is with the Bible: if you pay no regard to the connection and general run of the passage, you miss the mind of the Spirit of God, and rather thrust your own mind into God’s words than bring out God’s mind from the words of the Holy Ghost.

From a sermon entitled “Working Out What Is Worked In,” delivered July 12, 1868.

The Daily Spurgeon

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No matter what version of the Bible you read, you will never truly be able to understand it without the Holy Spirit opening your mind, comprehension, and ears to hear the real truth – not just the truth as you have always perceived it to be.

If you don’t read the Bible with the determination that you want to know the truth, your mind will filter the parts that make you uncomfortable, telling you that the changes you need to make are far beyond your grasp or helping you justify why you don’t need to change.

*  If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, make it a point to read the Bible for a few minutes each morning. You can start out with 5 or 10 minutes, asking the Holy Spirit to show you truths that you have never seen before. It won’t take long for you to look at the Bible differently. It will change your life to the point that you will never want to go back to where you were before.

Don’t let Satan make you believe the lie that the Bible is boring or just an old fashioned irrelevant book that is out of date for today’s times. Its Words are life, health, and well-being for the one who reads it and applies its words to their life.

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living – practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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