“THE PEOPLE REPLIED!”

 Joshua 24:16                 (HCSB)

“THE PEOPLE REPLIED”, “We will certainly NOT abandon the LORD to worship other gods!”

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“JESUS SAID TO HIM!”

 John 13:27                 (ESV)

“[27] Then after he (Judas) had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. “JESUS SAID TO HIM”, “What you are going to do, do quickly.””

With JESUS being GOD IN THE FLESH, HE possessed not only the knowledge of what Judas was preparing to do, but JESUS selected him knowing that he would be used to have JESUS arrested, and ultimately CRUCIFIED!  

Without getting into a theological quagmire, MY SALVATION was paid for by MY SAVIOR, but JESUS actually had to direct Judas “What you are going to do, do quickly.”!!  It wasn’t as if JESUS had a weak moment, Judas was selected BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD (Ephesians 1:4) to do what he did!!!

JESUS CHOSE we who BELIEVE on HIM BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, and Judas was selected to be the betrayer of JESUS and turn him over to the Chief Priests!  

ALL of this was apart of THE PLAN to save my soul from the sinful lifestyle that I live.  JESUS CHRIST not only KNEW that Judas was going to sell HIM out, but “JESUS SAID TO HIM” to do it!!!  HE DID IT ALL FOR ME!!!

“HEALING POWER!”

 This was initially written August 23, 2012.  I share it today in humility, because I remember what happened in July/August 2007.  I am SO grateful for the HEALING POWER of GOD in my life!!!

I get ridiculed from time to time for relating seemingly everything to the brain hemorrhage I experienced in July 2007.   When something "life changing" occurs in your life, it is a BIG deal and HAS to be shared.  

Yesterday, my wife and I were reminiscing, and I remembered being in Rehab five years ago.  I remember trusting her for EVERYTHING in my life. She would go home at night and I would wait until she got back….. to do anything.  It was as if she WAS my life!  I could hear her voice in the hall and a sense of relief would come over me because the one I trusted was there for me.  

The joy and peace that JESUS brings is just like that.  HE brings a calmness over me when I hear HIS voice that is INDESCRIBABLE!  

In John 10:1-6 JESUS speaks a parable that explains what I felt.  HE says  "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

But HE who enters by the door is the SHEPHERD of the sheep.  To HIM the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear HIS VOICE, and HE calls HIS own sheep BY NAME and leads them out.  When HE has brought out all HIS own, HE goes before them, and the sheep follow HIM, for they know HIS VOICE.  A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."

This figure of speech JESUS used with them, but they did NOT UNDERSTAND what HE was saying to them.

Even when the CREATOR of the universe was speaking to the Pharisees, they apparently could not understand HIM.  They were not HIS sheep!  They heard HIM talking, but they didn't HEAR what HE was saying!! 

I still rely on my wife for a lot of things.  She is still my best friend!  But the voice that I listen for now is a different voice!  

Romans 2:22-24

 Romans 4:20-22                 (ESV)

“[20] No unbelief made him (Abraham) waver concerning the promise of GOD, but he grew STRONG IN HIS FAITH as he gave GLORY TO GOD, [21] fully convinced that GOD was able to do what HE had promised. [22] That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”

“BE STILL!”

 Psalms 46:10                 (KJV)

“”BE STILL”, and know that I AM GOD: I WILL BE EXALTED among the heathen, I WILL BE EXALTED in the earth.”

We like to “think” that we are in “control”, at least of our own lives.  But there are many examples of humans NOT having control, and having NO CHOICE in the outcome of their own decisions or actions, whether good decisions or bad actions.

July 09, 2007 “my plan” was to start fundraising for the FOUNDATION for RESPONSIBLE YOUTH, Inc., calling the participants FRY KIDS.  The paperwork was filed with the Secretary of State and that Monday morning I was going to get checking accounts and other things needed to run the operations for the new program.  

ON THAT PRECISE MORNING, at 5:30AM, I awoke to go to the restroom, but VERY QUICKLY discovered that I was NOT IN CONTROL…… of anything!!!  ALMIGHTY GOD was DEFINITELY the ONE IN CONTROL and for the next 52 days I HAD TO YEILD to HIM!!  NO EXCEPTIONS or EXCUSES!!!

It is MIND-BOGGLING (extremely surprising and difficult to understand or imagine) to discover that we are simply tools to be USED by THE CREATOR to accomplish HIS PLAN for our lives.  Over the past nineteen plus years, this humble servant HAD to “BE STILL” and admit that I am only a tool, USED BY THE MASTER, to enunciate that HE IS LORD!!!  

We are ALL only tools used by THE CREATOR!  Some of us are CHOSEN (John 15:16; Ephesians 1:3-4) to serve HIM….. and the others are not!!!

USE me, O LORD, to let ALL PEOPLES know that YOU ARE KING and we must “BE STILL” and worship YOUR MAJESTY!!!

“ALL THE PEOPLE!”

Acts 3:11-16                 (ESV)

Peter Speaks in Solomon’s Portico

“[11] While he (the lame man just healed) clung to Peter and John, “ALL THE PEOPLE”, UTTERLY ASTOUNDED, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s. [12] And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? [13] The GOD of Abraham, the GOD of Isaac, and the GOD of Jacob, the GOD of our fathers, glorified HIS servant JESUS, WHO you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. [14] But you denied the HOLY and RIGHTEOUS ONE, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, [15] and you killed the AUTHOR of life, whom GOD raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. [16] And HIS NAME—by FAITH in HIS NAME—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the FAITH that is through JESUS has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.”

“ALL THE PEOPLE” love to see miraculous things occur in their presence.  “ALL THE PEOPLE” apparently don’t have a clue where the MIRACLE comes from, only that they were CHOSEN to be a witness to it’s happening?

Peter and John had just been used by GOD to heal a man who had been laid “at the gate of the temple” (Acts 3:2) for years, and “ALL THE PEOPLE” witnessed it!  This man had been “lame” for 40+ years (Acts 4:22), so one would suspect that he might need to be taught how to walk and navigate on his own?  But Acts 3:8 says he went into the temple walking and leaping and PRAISING GOD!!!  

Memories of August 29, 2007 jump into my mind, as that is the day I was released from the rehabilitation hospital following the “massive brain hemorrhage”!  “ALL THE PEOPLE” gathered at the front door and celebrated my recovery.  My hospitalization was only 52 days, yet I needed “assistance” in getting back to where I was able to function on my own.   Most people who were surrounding my “story” admitted that DIVINITY had to be involved.  

The term “ALL THE PEOPLE” should not be misunderstood to mean that EVERYONE acknowledged that the man “at the gate of the temple” was DIVINE.  BUT “ALL THE PEOPLE” who were present could not deny that something MIRACULOUS had happened!  

You CANNOT DENY a MIRACLE when you SEE it!  I pray that “ALL THE PEOPLE” who are CHOSEN will have their EYES OPENED and SEE what GOD has done for them!!!

“O LORD, YOU!”

 

Psalm 139:1-2                 (ESV)

Search Me, O GOD, and Know My Heart

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

    “[1] “O LORD, YOU” have searched me and known me! 

    [2] YOU know when I sit down and when I rise up;

        YOU discern my thoughts from afar.”

David is the author of this Psalm.  He also was the man that Samuel says was “a man after GODS OWN HEART”!  David was CHOSEN by GOD ALMIGHTY through HIS prophet Samuel to be King when Saul turned away from THE LORD.  But David was FAR FROM perfect!!!

King David was home when his troops were in battle with the Ammonites, and the turmoil that ensued was something that caused him GREAT GRIEF!!  Yet he writes in this Psalm that “O LORD, YOU” have searched me and known me!” 

If GOD has a record of all of David’s life, HE must have one of my life???  On one hand, that is quite alarming!  But on the other hand, GOD REMOVES our sins “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalms 103:12)!!  HE CHOOSES to not REMEMBER our sins any longer BECAUSE OF the sacrifice that JESUS made on Calvary!!!

The account of David and Bathsheba serves as a profound lesson on the nature of sin, the importance of repentance, and the enduring mercy of GOD.  I’m so thankful that HE CHOOSES to do the same for me!!  

“O LORD, YOU” are WORTHY of ALL OF our PRAISE!!!