Tohearfrometernity's Blog

Someone said to me, ‘prayer does not work’!   I myself have been a ‘doubter’.   However, to doubt is to lose hope.  Hope is everything.   It is evil that squashes hope.   For if there is no hope, there is no heaven.   There is most certainly a heaven!   As sure as you and I live and breathe, there is a heaven and Our God watches over us.   We however,  do not return the favor.   So important is prayer that it is found in the book of James.  In the Epistle of James, Chapter 1  verses 16-22 He talks of, ‘Response to God’s Gift’.

16) Make no mistake about this, my dear brothers. 17) Every worthwhile gift, every genuine  benefit comes from above, descending from the Father of the heavenly luminaries, who cannot change and who is never shadowed over. 18) He wills to bring us to birth with a word spoken in truth so that we may be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. 19)  Keep this in mind, dear brothers.   Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20) for a man’s anger does not fulfill God’s justice.  21) Strip away all that is filthy, every vicious excess.   Humbly welcome the word that has taken root in you, with its power to save you.   22) Act on this word.   If all you do is listen to it, you are decieving yourselves.

For the Love of God, we all children of God must prepare ourselves before Him.  
God is a Father.  He is our Father; and when Father’s love they administer discipline.  When children are disobedient the love of the parent is apparant.   In the book of Sirach Chapter 2 verses 1-6 God prepares us for our journey:

1) My son, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials.

2) Be sincere of heart and steadfast, undisturbed in time of adversity.

3) Cling to Him, forsake Him not; thus will your future be great.

4) Accept whatever befalls you, in crushing misfortune be patient;

5) For in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation.

6)  Trust God and He will help you; make straight you ways and hope in Him.

In the Book of Mark Chapter 16 

The question is addressed to Jesus regarding the “Lawless Age”

THE FREER LOGION:

They offored this excuse: “This lawless and faithless age is under Satan, who does not allow what is unclean and dominated by spirits to grasp the true power of God.   Therefore, they said to Christ, “reveal your just authority now.”  Christ replied: “The measure of  the years of Satan’s power has been fulfilled, but other terrible things are imminent. Yet it was for the sake of sinners that I was handed over to death, that they might return to the truth and sin no more, and inherit the spiritual and immortal glory of justification in heaven.”

In the book of Luke Chapter 9 verses 23-27  Jesus said to all:  23) “Whoever, wishes to be my follower must deny his very self, take up his cross each day, and follow in my steps. 24) Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25) What profit does he show who gains the whole world and destroys himself in the process? 26) If a man is ashamed of me and my doctrine, the SON OF MAN will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and that of his Father and his holy angels. 27)  I assure you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the reign of God.” 

SOMETIMES WE HAVE TO BELIEVE IN WHAT WE CAN NOT SEE!!

Oxygen is unseen.   We know it exists.   Yet, we can not see it we believe it.   Why?

  Sin is to the soul, as pollution is to oxygen.  It does indeed exist.      It is ugly, it hurts, and is harmful!   Yet, it is a pollutant to our spirits as the pollution is to the air we breathe.   You know you do not see either one immediatly.   They (pollution and sin) reveal themselves in a subtle way.   One day you look out and see an ugly cloud hanging in the air. Another day you will not recognize the change in someone you know.  It may even be yourself.   Why ?    Sin opposes good!   You may say, that is stating the obvious.  If Evil is, it is the Devil that is its keeper.  If there is good, then God is its keeper.   Keeping in mind the obvious, we can only be one or the other.   The Prince of Peace, JESUS CHRIST, IS THE  REFEREE!   We can not judge ourselves.  We are not the judges of this life.  We may like to think we are.   Yet, Jesus is truth.  He is the deciding factor.  Without Him as the ‘common denominator’ of your life, you will Not get the answer.  He and Only He is the answer.  Anyone maintaining otherwise is a liar and from the evil one, the prince of darkness-SATAN!   If you already know all this, then why have you not asked Jesus into your heart?   Jesus is of God, and with God,  He is,  “Emmanuel” !

Many are walking around with the idea, they know Jesus, because they know his Name and He is the Christ.   This is not enough!!   To know the person of Christ is to take him into your heart.   What relationship do you know that lives without comittment?   Don’t  kid Yourself! He waits, and he wants to hear from us.  We are the reason for His crucifixion, denying that;  is to deny Christ, and to deny Christ is to refuse His love for you.

In the book Of Wisdom Chapter 3 verses 1-5

1) But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.

2) they seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought affliction

3) and their going forth from us, utter destruction, But they are in peace.

4) For if before men,  indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality;

5) Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.

WITHIN THE SAME BOOK EVIL IS ADDRESSED: VERSES 10-12

10) But the wicked shall recieve a punishment to match their thoughts, since they neglected justice and forsook the LORD.

11) For he who despises wisdom and instruction is doomed.   Vain is their hope, fruitless are their works.

12) Their wives are foolish and their children wicked; accursed is their brood.

Years ago someone wrote, ‘It’s you and me against the world’.  We can take this to heart when we read once again in the First Epistle of John, Chapter 2 verses 15-17 how God views the world and our place in it.

15) Have no love for the world, nor the things that the world affords.   If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love has no place in him,

16) for nothing that the world affords comes from the Father.   Carnal allurements, enticements for the eye, the life of empty show-all these are of the world.

17) And the world with its seductions is passing away but the man who does God’s will endures forever.

In the book of the First Epistle of John Chapter 2 verses 18-23

18) Children, it is the final hour; just as you heard that the Antichrist was coming, so now many such Antichrists have appeared. This makes us certain that it is the final hour.

19) It was from our ranks that they took their leave-not that they really belonged to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have stayed with us. It only served to show that none of them was ours.

20) But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, so that all knowledge is yours.

21) My reason for having written you is not that you do not know the truth but that you do, and that no lie has anything in common with the truth.

22) Who is the liar? He who denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is the antichrist, denying the Father and the Son.

23) Anyone who denies the Son has no claim on the Father, but he who acknowledges the Son can claim the Father as well.

Grace is a blessing imposed upon the faithful of God.   When we choose to follow Christ with steadfastness, we become favored by God.  As a child wins favor from his Father through obediance, so do we win favor from our heaveny Father.

In Luke chapter 7 verse 23

Jesus says,”Blest is that man that finds no stumbling  block in me.”

As life presents tests daily, we as followers of Christ are to believe and trust.

In Romans chapter 5 verses 15-21

Duing period of unrest in England between 1558 until 1829 a code was devised to protect Roman Catholics.    The result was The Twelve Days of Christmas:

The Partidge in a Pear Tree: Jesus Christ

Two Turtle doves: The Old and New testaments

Three French Hens: Faith, Hope, and Love

Four calling birds were: the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

The Five golden rings: recalled the torah or Law, first five books of the Old Testament.

The Six geese a-laying stood for: the six days of creation.

The Seven Swans a-swimming: represents the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit

The eight maids a-milking: were the eight beatitudes.

The nine ladies dancing: were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.

The Ten Lords  a-leaping were: The Ten Commandments

The Eleven Pipers Piping: stood for the eleven faithful disciples.

The twelve drummers drumming: symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles Creed.