Posts tagged "God"

The Christian Recliner

Is there such a thing as putting too much trust in God? This is something I experienced and just woke up from the Christian Recliner. I pray this blesses you and wakes anyone else up from being asleep as a Christian..

I’ve put things that are my responsibility on His plate to handle.. i.e. “Whew.. there ya go God.. I can’t do this. I have faith in you to do this work in me! Praise the Lord!” – and what I’ve done is went overboard. I put things that were my responsibility on His plate. What happened? There was a misunderstanding of some recent studies on absolute surrender to God.

Read more…

Praying for an answer

Here are some additional thoughts pertaining to prayer..

“For Your kingdom come, Your will be done…” It’s not: “For my kingdom come, my will be done…” Our will is easily recognized – It’s self-centered and usually focused on selfish desires/selfish gain..

Here’s some personal experiences with prayer –

Read more…

Who are the Children of God

1 John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew Him not.

Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

“Not everyone is a child of God .. Freewill gives you the ability to choose or not to choose. God has chosen everyone to be His, but not all choose God. Some choose Him and some don’t. Those that choose Him are His. Those who reject Him are not His.” – Pastor Geiger

Read more…

God’s Bicycle Testimony

All that can be said is that “God is Good, Good, Good..”  Amen. Here is something I titled God’s Bicycle Testimony. A testimony of God’s work.. I pray this encourages any readers to seek to hear His voice and most importantly, to be a doer of the word that we hear. In Jesus name, amen.

For many months I have been praying and waiting for whey protein powder to go on sale. Since it is a staple food item for me, it’s bought in bulk. It was realized last week that I’m getting down to my last couple of pounds (again), so I reminded the Lord. :)

A few days ago while riding my (His) bicycle to Church, the Lord guided me to a man standing on the opposite side of the road with a bicycle. “Go talk to that man.” I rode over and asked what he was up to. He said he was traveling north to find work (homeless). After a short discussion about his confusion of which direction to go, I invited him to come along for a ride to Church. He accepted. While we were on the way, I noticed that the man had a 1/2 flat rear tire. I decided to help him by using an air compressor at a gas station after Church.

Before and after Church, the man was talking a lot about his 2 ex-wives, the last being 14yrs ago. He was very bitter. He revealed that they both committed adultery. Outside of his travel plans, it was pretty much the only thing he discussed. His heart was obviously scarred.

After Church, we rode to the gas station. I asked, “What are your other needs besides air?” He said he was good on everything. (He had water, 2 bags of food, and received another bag of food at the Church). He said all he really needed was his bicycle tire fixed. We looked at it and the tube was blowing out. He said that it’s holding air for around a day of riding and that he would be ok with just getting some air. As I grabbed the quarters out of my pocket to place them in the air machine, the Lord pressed in, “Is that all you can do? The need won’t be met tomorrow.” I decided to run home and get a wrench to swap a tire off of my bike. All during this event, in the back of my mind was that still small voice, “Give him the bicycle.” I quenched Him with my own reasoning.. “Replacing the tire will meet his need.” bla bla bla *sigh*

Upon returning with the wrench, we realized a swap wouldn’t work because it was the back tire. Oops! Imagine that! My own understandings fail, once again. There was a difference in the sprocket/gears.. they were not interchangeable. Then again, “Give him the bicycle that I have blessed you with. Don’t worry, have I not been faithful in taking care of your needs?” Ugh.. I bow, “Yes Lord.” So I gave him God’s bicycle. The man was obviously thankful.

As I was taking personal items off of the bike, he continued to talk about his ex’s. The Lord laid the word ‘unforgiveness’ on my heart and ‘7×70’. When we were ready to depart, I asked, “Do you recall a verse that mentions 7×70 in the bible?” He did not. I explained that it’s about forgiveness. We discussed how unforgiveness ushers in bitterness, stress, depression, anger, and other things of this world and compared it to God’s way of forgiveness, which ushers in peace, contentment, love, kindness, etc. He had that look.. praise God, seed dropped. After we were finished discussing this, we prayed. During the discussion about 7 times 70, there was a song in my head..

At the moment I began to depart on his bicycle, I was singing: ~7 times 70 times, there’s healing in the air tonight~ Just as I pressed down on the pedal for the first crank, I look down:

My eyes immediately fixate on a 7 at the same time the word seven was rolling off my lips.. confirmation.

As always, God doesn’t stop there. Later in the day, I receive notice of a sale for protein powder. I’ve been ordering protein powder for around 5yrs, always keeping eyes out for sales. This was 20% lower than the lowest sale price that I have come across in 5yrs. Thank you Lord..

This evening, I learned of another branching out from this event (the homeless man’s bicycle that I had). God is Good! Good! Good! When this originally happened, the bicycle was offered to a neighbor. He was very thankful because he was needing new pedals for another bike. As I was talking to him tonight – “I hope you don’t mind.. but I gave that bicycle to my neighbor. For a long time, he has been talking about how he would love to have 2 bicycles so him and the wife could go for rides together. I gave him that bike and his wife is using mine. You should have seen them leave together for a ride the other day, they had smiles stretched from ear to ear.”

Lord, I’m sorry that I almost grudgingly and selfishly held onto that bicycle. Thanks for keeping on me.. and thanks for the lesson..

1 Peter 4:9-10 Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man has received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Forever Thankful

Thank you to brother Marlin for sharing his heart with this writing. I pray that the manifold grace of God is also received by you –

Do you remember the moment that God first spoke to your heart and convicted you of your sin? Well, I will never forget the night the Lord opened my eyes to who and what I really was. For twenty-one years I had convinced myself that I was a sure enough decent fellow, “a good ole boy,” you know. My parents had raised me with manners and respect for others and I figured that was good enough.

Read more…

Top 10 ways to Christian Love

Here is a great blog post by a sister in-Christ that gives great guidance to the abused. In my opinion, it has a great top 10 list for real Christian love. Also, the 4 points she makes on finding real love as a Christian is just as good as the top 10. Great wisdom. I love the title of her post too – To get the right one, ya gotta be the right one. Too often we look externally/selfishly at what we want instead of focusing on what God says we need.

Top 10 ways to Christian Love

1. Listen without interrupting. (Proverbs 18)
2. Speak without accusing. (James 1:19)
3. Give without sparing. (Proverbs 21:26)
4. Pray without ceasing. (Colossians 1:9)
5. Answer without arguing. (Proverbs 17:1)
6. Share without pretending. (Ephesians 4:15)
7. Enjoy without complaint. (Philippians 2:14)
8. Trust without wavering. (Corinthians 13:7)
9. Forgive without punishing. (Colossians 3:13)
10. Promise without forgetting. (Proverbs 13:12)

God using the Enemy

Patterns. I love patterns of life because they speak. Many of these patterns, if not all?, are lessons from God for our teaching and molding. I once heard Nate Elarton say, Learn the lesson or retake the course, it’s that simple. Here is a lesson that I have learned through repeated patterns. I have to wonder, is it God using the enemy for our purification? I pray it blesses you –

Read more…