What’s In A Word?
This morning I’m back on this subject of words. I ask you this question: what is in a word? Without much hesitation you probably thought a word denotes a meaning. If that was one of your answers, you would be right. Words by and large project a certain meaning. It’s also interesting to note that words take on different meanings based on if the word is written or spoken. Here a quick example: deer or did I mean dear? I think you see my point.
Recently, Pastor Terry gave us five meanings of the word “blessing.” If you didn’t get a chance to hear that message go read Psalms 128. You can also get a copy of his notes by calling the church office, and asking Cindy for them.(Sermon titled, “What Does Blessed Mean?”)
What really fired me up was Pastor Terry not only gave us five meanings he gave us five examples. How great is it when our pastors help us understand the truth by using not only scripture but revelations that enhance the words? Pastor Duane used to preach a sermon on “eating the word.” Actually, I always wondered where he learned that kingdom walk tool. Today I found my answer. Go read Psalms 1:2.
Psalms 1:2, “Instead you thrill to GOD’s Word, you chew on Scripture day and night.” ~Message Bible
As an author I have great respect for words. I not only love to use them; I see their inherit power. Next time you are thanking the Father for all you have (your blessings), why not pick up your Bible and read His Word? Better yet; stay awhile and chew on it.
May God’s blessings always be apart of your daily thanks.
Jay Harnish
Altars
In the house of God, the people come to worship the Father. They are desirous to hear what God has for their heart, to know that there is someone that is concerned about them, and how the burdens of their heart and mind will be taken away. We also have altars where we can kneel and pray.
In the Old Testament you read how that Noah had built an altar. Genesis 8:20
Abram – Genesis 12:7; Abraham – Genesis 22:9; Isaac – Genesis 26:25; Joshua – Joshua 8:30; Samuel – 1 Samuel 7:17; and in 2 Chronicles 31 and 32 an altar was built in the temple of God. Also, in Ezra 3:2, Ezra built and altar to God. They were all trying to please God by offering sacrifices to Him, and atoning for their sins.
In the New Testament – Jesus became that sacrifice on that altar. Jesus died for our sins so that we no longer had to offer up sacrifices to God on an altar. Jesus became the reason that we can come to the altar and pray, and not have to have someone offer a sacrifice on our behalf.
We can bring our needs and our petitions before him, asking Him for the needs in our life and to heal the wounds that we have in our life and our heart. The altar is a place we can meet with the Father and communicate one on one and talk to the Father. They can go and be able to communicate with God by themselves and can leave their hurts and their innermost feelings at the altar of sanctified grace and mercy. Take time each day to kneel at the altar and meet Jesus at the altar of prayer.
I John 5:14-15: 14And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Darrell and Dixie Brubaker
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Take The Healing God Has Provided You
Lately, I’ve been working on understanding healing in LTCI individuals. (LTCI ~ Long Term Chronic Illness)
If I took a survey of everyone in the Body of Christ right now at Victory Life Sherman and ask this question, “do you know someone with a disease that classifies them as LTCI,” how many would response, “yes, I do know someone that is LTCI.” Of course, without the research I can only project the outcome. My guesstamation would be 40% could name someone in that state of physical illness.
It is quite obvious that the number is much lower than folks with normal illness or health issues. I personally know more than most folks, because I’ve been conducting some research both from the Word, and from the individuals with the label and their caregivers.
Most share a common thread: “we await our shall have.” The vast majority believe that when they requested prayer for healing they believed, they received, and they were immediately seeking their “shall have.” The majority also attest to the proof of God’s healing power as seen by themselves in others. When you ask the question they readily tell you about Uncle Joe who was cured of gout, or Aunt Sara who received healing from cancer. Many times healing has occurred right in their very own home. Children and spouses all come with a wide variety of healing stories.
The issue at hand for the LTCI is their “mean time.” They often deal with elongated periods of waiting for their “shall have.” This often leads to a roller coaster faith that runs from high to very, very low.
I believe satan always plays a part in that diminished power by bringing about doubt as part of man’s wisdom (Philosophy). It’s hard to stand firm when the doctor looks you in the eye and declares that COPD is a life time disease, and you’re going to die from it. I know, I’m one that the doctor told that to.
How do I account for my continued label of COPD yet my health is much improved, almost normal at times. The answer is simple, I praise the Father for every improvement, every part of my “shall have.”
I love my brother Bill Whitson’s statement in his last blog and I quote, “The heights that we reach are only limited by our physical abilities and desires to achieve. I believe that our physical disabilities can be overcome by our desires to accomplish the purpose HE has for us all.” Quoted from Bill Whitson’s blog.
I have a desire to serve God. He has given me His plan and His purpose for my life. I may never loose the label COPD, but I’ll always have parts of my “shall have” while I await my complete “manifested” healing. I’ll always be able to thank my Father for my healing, which He paid for 2,000 years ago on the Cross.
Here’s what my heart is saying; what I believe the Father has showed me: “ receive the parts of your “shall have,” and live a victorious life in Christ Jesus. This is the verse that I carry in my heart everywhere I go: Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”
Jay/Rhonda Harnish
In HIS grip ………………
Psalms 91 1-16
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Hold Fast Your Confession
Your confession is what you say. The Bible tells you to hang on
tight to saying God’s Word.
HEBREWS 10:23 NKJ
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without
wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
God has no reason to tell us to hold fast, or hang on tight, to
our confession, unless someone, or something, will be trying to
get us to turn loose of it — and say something else.
HEBREWS 3:1 NKJ
1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ
Jesus,
HEBREWS 4:14 NKJ
14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed
through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our
confession.
Jesus is the High Priest of our confession — what we say. He
represents us before God with the words we speak.
The Bible says:
- You are righteous in Christ. Romans 3:22
- You are forgiven. Colossians 2:13
- You are healed. 1 Peter 2:24
- You are delivered from the devil. Colossians 1:13
- You can do all things through Christ.Philippians 4:13
- You are strong in the Lord. Ephesians 6:10
- The Greater One is in you. 1 John 4:4
- The Lord is guiding you. John 16:13
- God is working in you. Philippians 2:13
- The Lord is your helper. Hebrews 13:6
- Jesus became poor to make you rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9
You may wonder why you should say what God says in the Bible
about you. First, God is looking for faith. Second, it is
the Word planted in your life that will make you free. Speaking
God’s Word is a way of planting it in you.
Yes, it takes faith to say what the Bible says about you.
Especially, when you don’t feel like it and the circumstances
don’t agree either. We have to choose: will we rely on our
feelings or God’s Word? Do we trust the circumstances more
than God’s Word?
You may say, “What the Word says is just not true in my
life.” You are the establishing witness. God has said something
about you. When you come into agreement with Him, it will manifest in your life.
MARK 11:23 NKJ
23 “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain,
`Be removed and be cast into the sea’,and does not doubt in
his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to
pass, he will have whatever he says.
Jesus told us that we will have whatever we say; if we believe
it, it will come to pass. You see why the devil tries to get
us to quit saying God’s Word, because it will set us free.
Thanks,
James and Rose Penton
Read MoreDear Beloved Of God
I want to communicate to you what I am receiving from our Heavenly Father: He desires us to fellowship with Him in worship. In the epistle of John 4:23-24, Jesus teaches us that the hour has come for all true worshipers to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. He actually says that the Father seeks those to worship Him in this manner.
Interestingly, Jesus does not relate worship to a place, as the woman to which He was directly speaking did. She said she was taught that the Samaritans worshiped in this mountain and the Jews spoke of worshiping in Jerusalem. Our Lord teaches that genuine worshipers humble and prostrate themselves from a heart of thanksgiving and gratitude. This worship takes its form of words spoken to our Heavenly Father or our Mediator, Jesus Christ.
King David, in Psalm 8:1-2, states, “O Lord, our Lord how excellent is Your Name in all the earth… and that He has set His glory above all the earth”. David didn’t just think only these thoughts of God, but verbalizes them in songs. Verse 2 states, God has established strength to flow from the mouths of youths (babes and unweaned infants) to silence the enemy and the avenger. What this meant is clarified by Jesus Christ Himself in Matthew 21:15-16. Young boys and girls were crying out Hosanna to the Son of David (Jesus Christ) and the chief priests were indignant.
Jesus refers to Psalm 8:2 when David speaks prophetically, “Out of the mouths of babes and unweaned infants You have made (provided) perfect praise”. I don’t understand completely how this all works, but God gives understanding to those that ask. Praising God is a strength that is able to silence the enemy and stop him in his tracks. This strength is available to all Christians. It doesn’t matter the maturity level of the believer. Jesus said baby, and even those that are still on milk, new babies.
Today let the strength of God flow from your heart in the form of praising Him for all His works and benefits. (Psalm 103) In doing so we magnify our Heavenly Father and silence the enemy; give weight to what God has said; glorify what He has done; and shut-up the enemies of God at the same time! Satan can not stand before us when we praise our Father God.
Jesse Kelly
Read MoreLearning To Bloom Where You Are Planted
Plants can grow in very strange places. The Lord gave me a ‘teaching moment’ about ten years ago on a trip to the mountains. I was admiring the wonderful scenery, when I heard a word from the Lord. He said, look at the trees growing out of the side of the mountain. I said, that’s a hard place for them to grow, but yet they found a way. Then He said, this is what I want my people to do; “Bloom where they are planted”.
Just imagine, the blades it took to cut through the mountain to make the highways. The trees and plants just grow with ease though that’s the hardest ground. The trees and plants not only grow from the hardest ground, but they point themselves toward the SUN. It’s amazing how God has created them to reach upward to the sun for nourishment. In our lives, we find someone to look up to. That’s how we grow. We look up to the SON of God. He gives us strength in the hardest of places.
The places we are planted in our lifetime sometimes are very hard places. The word says in Is. 43:2 -When you pass through the water, I will be with you, and through the rivers they shall not overflow you when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
We must believe and have confidence in God and His Word, which is Jesus, in order to bloom where we are planted. II Timothy 1:12 says, – For the which cause I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. Romans 4:21 – And being fully persuaded that, what He has promised, He was able also to perform.
God has given us promises in the Word of God to stand on. We must find those promises and put them in our heart so that we won’t forget them in time of trouble.
What’s down in the well, will come up in the bucket! Be a doer of the word (James 1:22; John 3:21).
I believe that God wants us to bloom, because He has a plan for our lives. That’s why we should remember: Hebrews 12:2 – Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus will finish what He has started in us. Never, never, give up!
God values us so much that He calls us salt: Matt. 5:13 – Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thence forth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden under foot of men. He wants us to bring flavor to the world around us.
God also calls us light: Matt. 5 :14 -Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15- Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16- Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. That is our goal; to glorify our Heavenly Father!
If God values us so much He numbers the hair on our head, then as in- Luke 12 :7 says – How much more should we value Him, to honor and obey His Word. This is how to bloom: to honor and obey my Abba Father; to be salt so others will thirst for the Christ in us; and to be a light for the world to see.
Jackie Kelly
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