Found

Jesus sees me.
He sees me sinking, and He sticks out His hand. He tells me that the only way to walk this walk of faith is to focus on Him. He died and overcame what I'm going through. The answer is not going gung-ho and trying to fix everything myself. The answer doesn't lie in how I feel.
Satan temps to sin, then he temp me to try and correct it by myself, he temps me to focus on how I feel about my sin so I can constantly try to purge it by asking for forgiveness repeatedly from God to make me feel better (vain repetition). He temps me to enthrone myself as god in my life and he tempts me to use God to make myself feel better. He says the truth won't work. He says I'll be back.

"I will send you a comforter."
I believe it. Peace, joy, long-suffering, goodness, patience, meekness, and Love are all mine. Holiness is mine. Holiness is mine. God has imparted His spirit and has forgiven me of my sin, and He has made me HOLY! Amazing!
I lay down my efforts.
I abandon my attempts.
I keep my eye single and full of light, focused on you.
I worship you.
You are powerful.
You are Holy.
You are great!
You are my champion!
You are my Lord!
You are my KING above all other kings!
You are worthy you are holy, you are wonderful, you are amazing you are the great "I AM" you are my all in all, you are ... I worship you

You live in me! All you are, you are within me, I die daily for the realization of all You are.

Lost

Sometimes I feel like I am lost.
I find my way in Him, in Christ, but then I lose it. Its hard to get back afterward. Temptation abounds and I do something that I know is a sin again.
I slipped.
I fell.
I messed up.
I lost the battle, but it's not about me.

I try to get back on track.
I tell myself that I have to make things right with God. Is it actually me telling myself that? It sounds right, doesn't it? I pray and I promise never to do it again.
I get up.
I clean myself off.
I stand.
I repent, but for how long?

There is no way back.
I've been here before, and I know that this place is sealed off. Its dark, and the only light I see are reflections that lead me in a circle, back to where I started: feeling lost.
I have to break the habit.
I have to overcome.
I have to see the big picture.
Where is the light source? Why can't I overcome this?

Sometimes I feel like I've lost.

Stir Up the Vision

I have a vision of my future with God.

I see myself dwelling in His presence, basking in His glory, experiencing love, peace, patience, joy, pleasures (whatever He decides that is), and other things that I can't yet fathom. They're all there, in that vision. I try to envision heaven with see-through streets of gold (gold is not the best description, mainly because gold is not see through, however gold is the best description we can conjure). His glory permeates through out all of heaven. He is the only source of light, but there are no shadows. Imagine that, awesomeness to the nth degree, multiplied by infinity can not compare to Him. If I continue I will start praising and crying in this school computer lab.

I'm here on earth. Jesus didn't come preaching that we are going to go to heaven one day, He said the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When He prayed, He said let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. His perfect will is perfected in heaven, and can also be done on earth.

Imagine heaven on earth. It can at least exist among believers. Where two or three are gathered in His name He's there along with His presence and His glory with the experience of love, peace, patience, joy, pleasures, ...

A vision is the first step. Next is the path to that vision.

Fellowship

I just want to speak plainly right now. Lately there have been a few people who have really ministered into my life. Normally I don't give others any credit at all for my spiritual growth, because they may not... well .... really it is because of my pride. I used to not allow other people to teach me anything; I would hold fast to my reservations; I thought I already knew a thing or two. For me to be delivered from this mentality it took a certain pastor staying at my house for an extended period of time to give me a glimpse of what I have never seen in God's word to show me that I knew next to nothing. I had to change my approach. I no longer sit at a position of one who knows everything. Now I know that I know nothing and I am hungry for His word. Fellowship requires humility, an openness to God where He can use any channel to feed your faith to help it grow. It also requires a respect and desire for the word of God, no matter where it is coming from. (1Corinthians 2:1-5) I thank God for those he has sent who have changed my life in a big way.

Love Sermon

This is the third part of a sermon on YouTube.
Based on Romans 8:39. God loves us to a fault, and there's nothing that we can do to ever separate ourselves from His love.
Before this video he told the story of the prodigal son. The father is impulsive. Josh used his father's money. Chris tried to validate himself. The story of the prodigal son has problems.
God's Love is different from the love we've experienced from anyone.
Why doesn't this love drive us? Christ's love compels us. 2Cor 5:14. To do what? God's love compelled Jesus to take on our sin so that we can have righteousness (2Cor 5:21). He endured the shame and pain and death of the cross for us. Like the impulsive father in the story of the prodigal son. Who ran out of his house to meed his son in the street even before he got back to the house.
He was up late because of the sin that He was taking upon himself. The cup was full of all our sins, past present and future. The cross and the nails were not the worst things he had to bear. He loved us so much.

I'm compelled to say thank you. I'm compelled to come to Him. I need His love. I will not take it for granted, nor will I try to deserve it.

SPEAK LIFE!

Christians are walking in a valley of dry bones. Ye, thou I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. This comfort is in place so that Christians can act! Prophesy to these bones...

and say to them, O you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
5Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath and spirit to enter you, and you shall live;
 6And I will lay sinews upon you and bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin, and I will put breath and spirit in you, and you [dry bones] shall live; and you shall know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].
7So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a [thundering] noise and behold, a shaking and trembling and a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
8And I looked and behold, there were sinews upon [the bones] and flesh came upon them and skin covered them over, but there was no breath or spirit in them.9Then said He to me, Prophesy to the breath and spirit, son of man, and say to the breath and spirit, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath and spirit, and breathe upon these slain that they may live.
10So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath and spirit came into [the bones], and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great host.

For every post on facebook, in every tweet, for every blog post, every time you open your mouth, Push Christ, Peddle Love, Encourage someone, Share your faith, Speak Life!

Seeing Christ in me is the outcome, but not the focus. My focus is on these dry bones.

Cords of Love

He breaks the bars of iron asunder.

One horrible thing about sin is that it traps you. We as human being have been designed to do what we have done over and over again, so the notion of "I will do and then ask for forgiveness later", affects us more than we know. Simply doing anything once makes us more prone do to do again, especially if we enjoyed it. The more we do it, the better, and more proficient we become at it, the harder it is for us to simply stop. Spiritually, we are trapped, or place in a prison, where temptation constantly arises and we fall consistently. These are the bars of iron and the gates of brass.

He has given us tool, not carnal but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.

It isn't easy to overcome these strongholds. Imagine breaking out of prison; one must fight! Here's our redemption, here's our way out: Jesus Christ. At the name of Jesus every knee must bow and every tongue must confess that He is Lord. Now, we don't see this physically. If you go to certain places people don't even know who He is. However, spiritually that rule absolutely applies. Peter and John used that name to cause a crippled man at the gate called beautiful to stand up on his feet. I don't want to sound cliché but there is power in that name.

One of the things I realized is, if the devil can bind us with bars of iron, could God bind us as well? He can pull us toward him with cords of Love. He covers us with a banner ... of Love. He hides us in the cleft of the rock and under his wing. He wants us to use things like, reading the bible and praying and meditating on His word and fellowshipping with one another to keep us focused and keep us drawing closer to Him. Unlike the devil and other evil spirits, he doesn't use crafty words and mental images that play on our feelings to swipe at the feet of our intentions. He loves us and He wants what's best for us. Jer. 29:11.