We Pray Wednesday: Week 15

Teen Tuesday: Week 15

Monday's Message: Keep Good Company

Keep Good Company: 

The expectation of the righteous is righteousness just as the expectation of the wicked is wickedness.  A conflict will often occur when those who claim to be Christians decide to live a life that in no way supports their claim.  There are all kinds of people in the church just as there are all kinds of people at the department store, the doctor’s office, and the bank.  The best churches are filled weekly by the best and worst of men.  We have some instruction given to us in this passage of Scripture that can help us deal with keeping the right company in church family.  This can be a difficult issue to handle; after all, we, as believers, should desire to be kind to everyone. 

There is no place in the life of a Christian for pride. We are not being instructed to self-righteously look down on anyone in this passage, but rather we learn that exercising God-given discernment in choosing our company is not only wise but expected of us.  We all have areas of weakness in our lives, but there is a difference between not being perfect and promoting sin.  We have to be selective in the company we keep because they will either bring us closer to Christ or pull us away from Him. I realize that for many of you this will be extremely difficult because you are attempting to live Godly in an ungodly household, and you cannot leave your family.  You will have to carefully exempt yourself from certain activities and allow your actions to speak for themselves!  This is a very difficult line to walk because while you want to be gracious and Christ-like in explaining why you are living differently; you must also avoid constantly preaching to those who have not yet yielded to Christ!

Let’s not forget that even though we cannot enjoy an abundance of everyone’s company, we can share an abundance of our prayers on their behalf.  Every time a flaw in another is exposed to us, Jesus has given us a prayer request while Satan has offered a criticism; whose wishes will we follow?

I Corinthians 5:9-13
9  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 
10  Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 
11  But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 
12  For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 13  But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

Sunday Says: Week 15

Family Friday: The Tree

Thoughtful Thursday: Balloons

I heard a story the other day about a group of people at a business conference.  Balloons were passed out to each attendee and they were asked to write their name on their balloon, then the balloons were collected.  The conference directors then inflated the balloons and placed them all in an empty room.  When the conference was concluded for the day, the attendees were taken to the balloon-filled room and asked to find their balloon with their name on it.  After searching for what seemed like hours, no one was able to locate their balloon.  The director then instructs them to picked up the balloon nearest them and find that person whose name is on it.  Within a few minutes, all 500 attendees had their original balloon.  The director then tells them how this is an analogy for happiness and life.  We all search for our individual happiness, when the key is to help someone else find theirs, which in turn provides you with happiness.

1Corinthians 10:24 says “Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth.”

We Pray Wednesday: The Beauty and Blessedness of Prayer (Part 2)

The Beauty and Blessedness of prayer.

(Part 2)

What love, what graciousness, what mercy, what understanding, what compassion and what comfort we get from our marvelous magnificent God. That indescribable benefit that we receive PERSONALLY from our God. You might ask what I mean by personally.  God is so very personal.  He tells us and shows us things that are so personal that if you tell others, they may not believe you. They may say you are crazy or maybe you are a radical fake. That is one of the ways that God reveals Himself to us, is through answered prayer. As far as I am concerned, it is those true manifestations of God that encourage and strengthen my faith. Every time God answers one of my personal prayers, I get the giggles and I weep because I am so privileged to have a mighty God reach down out of a majestic throne to speak to a lowly person like me. I am so proud and so honored to testify that my God has taken time and answered many of my prayers in my 35 years of being a Christian. Amen!!
I am just a simple Cajun that is basically confined to one tiny area of this universe, geographically located in southwest Louisiana, better known as God’s country. Amen!  However, I am also very rich and powerful.  I am rich because I am a joint heir with Jesus Christ who owns everything that we can see and comprehend, and everything that we cannot see and comprehend. He is the creator and owner of everything inside, outside and beyond all that we know about and ALL that we don’t know about. He is THE MOST POWERFUL OF ALL AND EVERYTHING and I am His and He is mine, which makes me very powerful. I AM A CHILD OF THE KING. Amen!!

Due to the fact that I am but a lowly Cajun and not a great writer or philosopher or theologian, the only thing that I can do to help others understand about The Beauty And Blessedness of Prayer is to share with you a few of my life’s experiences that I KNOW God was in the midst of. The first prayer that ever hit Heaven for me was between 11:30 and 12:00 that glorious morning on September 17, 1979 at a little Baptist Church in Carlyss, Louisiana where I called out to God and He answered.  Hallelujah! Some may not think of that as a big deal, but I promise it was a big deal then and it is a big deal today. Pay close attention now, especially you that doubt that God can hear. On that morning, the most powerful force in all the universe and beyond entered into my being in the form of THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD. I have never been the same since. It was SUPERNATURAL!  I got gloriously saved that day! That was a product of my first PRAYER. There have been many thousands of prayers that have gone up to God since then and I have seen proof of God many times. Proof that neither you nor any other creature could persuade me otherwise. I love what Paul wrote in; Romans 8:38-39“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That confidence came from prayer. Amen!