From Bishop Robert E. Smith Sr.!
“The Spirit of life is life (Rom. 8:2,10), if dispensed to our flesh by the Word (Prov.4:20-22) of righteousness skillfully (Heb. 5:13,14) in prayer (I John 5:14,15).”
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Monday, January 27, 2025
“WATCH YOURSELVES!”
Luke 21:34-38 (ESV)
“WATCH YOURSELVES!”
“[34] “But “WATCH YOURSELVES” lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and CARES OF THIS LIFE, and THAT DAY come upon you suddenly LIKE A TRAP. [35] FOR IT WILL COME UPON ALL WHO DWELL ON THE FACE OF THE WHOLE EARTH. [36] But STAY AWAKE AT ALL TIMES, praying that YOU MAY HAVE THE STRENGTH TO ESCAPE ALL THESE THINGS that are going to take place, and to stand before the SON OF MAN.”
[37] And every day HE was teaching in the temple, but at night HE went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet. [38] And early in the morning all the people came to HIM in the temple to hear HIM.”
Growing up as a kid, I was forewarned many times to “WATCH YOURSELF” in an effort to prevent me from getting into trouble! Unfortunately, many times I was too stubborn to heed the warnings from my elders and I suffered the consequences for my actions.
In the passage of Scripture above, JESUS is telling whoever was listening that our actions WILL HAVE consequences! The ONE WHO CREATED everything (Colossians 1:16) sometimes permits us to “discover” some things seemingly “on our own”? But sometimes HE “intervenes”, such as HE did in my life in July 2007!!!
GOD works in every life in different ways (1 Corinthians 12:6), but H made us all and HE has the wherewithal to do whatever HE elects to accomplish HIS PLAN (John 1:4-9)! Whenever HE gives us the ALERT to “WATCH YOURSELVES”, we need to make sure we are LISTENING and alter our actions to conform to HIS IMAGE!!!
Friday, January 24, 2025
“I WILL VISIT YOU!”
Jeremiah 29:10-14 (ESV)
“[10] “For thus says the LORD: WHEN SEVENTY YEARS ARE COMPLETED for Babylon, “I WILL VISIT YOU”, and I WILL fulfill to you MY PROMISE and bring you back to this place. [11] For I KNOW the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. [12] Then you will call upon ME and come and pray to me, and I WILL HEAR YOU. [13] You will seek ME and find ME, when you SEEK ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART. [14] I WILL be found by you, declares the LORD, and I WILL restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I WILL bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”
GOD doesn’t need me being a highly educated, world-renowned man who has unimaginable wealth to do HIS WORK for HIM! ALMIGHTY GOD walked with me “through the valley of the shadow of death” in 2007 and brought me through what some people thought was an IMPOSSIBLE experience! Figuring out WHY has baffled me since.
In the passage of SCRIPTURE above, Jeremiah was told that SEVENTY YEARS would have to be completed for Babylon, THEN “I WILL VISIT YOU”! GOD HAS A PLAN, and I am CONFIDENT that HIS PLAN WILL BE FULFILLED!!!
Thursday, January 23, 2025
“From Bishop Robert E. Smith, Sr.”
From Bishop Robert E. Smith Sr.!
“Can it be said of me, "your faith groweth exceedingly" (2 Thess. 1:3); and the Lord's grace is "exceeding abundant" (1 Tim. 1:14), and you are "throughly furnished" (2 Tim. 3:17).”
“THE TRUTH!”
John 8:43-47 (ESV)
“[43] Why do you not understand what I (GOD IN THE FLESH) say? It is because you cannot bear to hear MY word. [44] You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and DOES NOT STAND IN “THE TRUTH”, because there is no TRUTH in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is A LIAR and the FATHER OF LIES. [45] But because I tell “THE TRUTH”, you do not believe ME. [46] Which one of you convicts ME of sin? If I tell “THE TRUTH”, why do you not believe ME? [47] Whoever is of GOD hears THE WORDS of GOD The reason why you do not hear them is that YOU ARE NOT OF GOD.”
A lot of people actually believe that they are doing “the right thing”, when in reality they have never been exposed to “THE TRUTH”!!! And when they see “THE TRUTH” they run from it because it is offensive to them?!?
Humanity doesn’t have the capability to SEE “THE TRUTH” because HE CHOSE US (John 15:16; Ephesians 1:4; etc…), not the other way around! We don’t have the capability of enlightening others, that is a GIFT FROM GOD (Ephesians 2:8-9). Only GOD can OPEN THE EYES of the blind! As much as we love them, we are NOT Divinity and we cannot impose what only GOD is capable of doing.
“THE TRUTH” is there for anyone who IS CHOSEN to SEE! We are not able to make their EYES be OPENED, for we are not the CREATOR. The only way that “THE TRUTH” can be revealed to the “lost” is through DIVINE INTERVENTION, and that isn’t from humanity. JESUS says in John 8:47 “Whoever is of GOD hears the WORDS OF GOD. THE REASON WHY YOU DO NOT HEAR THEM IS THAT YOU ARE NOT OF GOD.”
The ONLY reason why some people have yet to SEE or HEAR “THE TRUTH” is because their EYES and EARS haven’t been opened by the CREATOR!!!
Thursday, January 16, 2025
“HE WAS STILL SHUT UP!”
Jeremiah 33:1-3 (ESV)
The LORD Promises Peace
“[1] The WORD OF THE LORD came to Jeremiah A SECOND TIME, while “HE WAS STILL SHUT UP” in the court of the guard: [2] “Thus says THE LORD WHO MADE THE EARTH, the LORD WHO formed it to establish it—the LORD is HIS NAME: [3] CALL TO ME and I WILL ANSWER YOU, and will tell you GREAT AND HIDDEN THINGS that YOU HAVE NOT KNOWN.”
Once again I find myself staring at Jeremiah 33:1-3! GOD is STILL speaking to me and will not let me move on! This morning the WORDS “HE WAS STILL SHUT UP” are ringing loudly in my head!!!
Jeremiah was in a position where he was confined or detained (according to different translations) “in the court of the guard”. But the Webster’s Bible Translation says “while he was yet confined in the court of the prison”, which places his status in a totally different light! Jeremiah was confined in prison, and GOD was speaking to him??? Could we who have always lived in FREEDOM ever imagine being imprisoned, especially if we were a prophet of GOD? Yet Jeremiah was a Hebrew Prophet and he found himself in prison….with GOD THE CREATOR speaking to him!
Do I find it difficult to listen for ALMIGHTY GOD when everything is not precisely how I feel it needs to be? Yet Jeremiah was imprisoned and GOD told him “THE LORD WHO MADE THE EARTH, the LORD WHO formed it to establish it—the LORD is HIS NAME: CALL TO ME and I WILL ANSWER YOU, and will tell you GREAT AND HIDDEN THINGS that YOU HAVE NOT KNOWN.” I AM is instructing you while you are in a position of solitude and peace, instead of hearing in the midst of the noise of “this world”!!!
Sometimes we might need to understand that “HE WAS STILL SHUT UP” might be because we are in PEACE and TRANQUILITY, with no interruptions from the enemy??? We all prefer to live in FREEDOM, but GOD can SEE EVERYTHING, and HE could orchestrate “HE WAS STILL SHUT UP” in order for us to BE STILL???
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
“GREAT AND HIDDEN THINGS!”
Jeremiah 33:1-3 (ESV)
The LORD Promises Peace
“[1] The WORD OF THE LORD came to Jeremiah A SECOND TIME, while he was STILL SHUT UP in the court of the guard: [2] “Thus says THE LORD WHO MADE THE EARTH, the LORD WHO formed it to establish it—the LORD is HIS NAME: [3] CALL TO ME and I WILL ANSWER YOU, and will tell you “GREAT AND HIDDEN THINGS” that YOU HAVE NOT KNOWN.”
Yes, this is the same text that I wrote about recently! It might be that GOD KNOWS that in my humanity I can only grasp a limited amount of HIS REVELATION at one time and so HE had to “spoon feed” me HIS WORD in a measured way?? For the most part, I have always been operating “in high gear”, that is until HE “took” control of my life in July 2007!!! It wasn’t as if I didn’t “try” to be the “same” person that I used to be? Believe me, I did everything I could to bring back the “old” man, but GOD HAS A PLAN, and I didn’t have multiple options! I HAD to WAIT ON THE LORD!!!! (Psalm 27:14)
GOD plainly says in Isaiah 55:8-9 “For MY THOUGHTS are not your thoughts, neither are your ways MY WAYS, declares THE LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are MY WAYS higher than your ways and MY THOUGHTS than your thoughts.” GOD, in HIS INFINITE wisdom and mercy, graciously bestows (To present as a gift or an honor), nuggets of HIS WISDOM to those HE CHOOSES….WHENEVER HE CHOOSES!! And HE does this on HIS TIMING, NOT ON MINE!!!
THE TIMING that the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSES ORDAINS (To order or decree by virtue of SUPERIOR AUTHORITY!) events to occur are TOTALLY and COMPLETELY in HIS CONTROL!!! Having our EYES OPENED to SEE this TRUTH is something that might come BRUTALLY SLOW in our humanity?? But WHEN HE REVEALS HIMSELF to us, we, HIS CREATION, will SEE them as “GREAT AND HIDDEN THINGS” that YOU HAVE NOT KNOWN!!! We are HIS CREATION, and we must remember that!!!
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
“CALL TO ME!”
Jeremiah 33:1-3 (ESV)
The LORD Promises Peace
“[1] The WORD OF THE LORD came to Jeremiah A SECOND TIME, while he was STILL SHUT UP in the court of the guard: [2] “Thus says THE LORD WHO MADE THE EARTH, the LORD WHO formed it to establish it—the LORD is HIS NAME: [3] “CALL TO ME” and I WILL ANSWER YOU, and will tell you great and hidden things that YOU HAVE NOT KNOWN.”
The MESSAGE contained in the Scripture above could be very easily read over without SEEING what THE LORD is attempting to get me to understand! Sometimes ALMIGHTY GOD has to get my attention by using a WORD that has been hidden in my heart (Psalm 119:11) to trigger my heart to search for the TRUTH HE is wanting me to SEE!!
To begin with, verse one of the focal passage says that The WORD OF THE LORD “came to Jeremiah”! Scripture doesn’t record that Jeremiah came begging for the MESSAGE, instead our CREATOR came to Jeremiah speaking, “Thus says THE LORD WHO MADE THE EARTH, the LORD WHO formed it to establish it—the LORD is HIS NAME:”! THE LORD WHO MADE THE EARTH was requesting a “sit down” with HIS servant!!! So Jeremiah was “shut up” in the court of the guard, possibly to get his attention without the cares of “this world” interfering with HIM??
THE LORD STILL USES events in our lives to get us to where we will “CALL TO ME” and get our attention!! GOD wants us to “Seek the LORD while HE may be found; call upon HIM while HE is near;” (Isaiah 55:6). And HE can use whatever HE CHOOSES to bring us to the point where HE needs us to be!!
“CALL TO ME” isn’t a suggestion, but rather it is followed by a PROMISE!! “I WILL ANSWER YOU, and will tell you great and hidden things that YOU HAVE NOT KNOWN.” is the PROMISE!! When GOD has us where HE can be heard, HE might be saying for us to “CALL TO ME” and use us for HIS GLORY!!!
Monday, January 6, 2025
“Ecclesiastes 7:13”
Ecclesiastes 7:13 (ESV)
“[13] Consider the work of GOD:
who can make straight what HE has made crooked?”
Sunday, January 5, 2025
Thursday, January 2, 2025
“FATHER WHO SEES”!!!
Matthew 6:5-6 (ESV)
“[5] “And WHEN YOU PRAY, YOU MUST NOT BE LIKE THE HYPOCRITES. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, THAT THEY MAY BE SEEN BY OTHERS. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. [6] But when you pray, GO INTO YOUR ROOM and SHUT THE DOOR and pray to your FATHER WHO IS IN SECRET. And your “FATHER WHO SEES” in secret WILL REWARD YOU.”
In the RED LETTER EDITION of the HOLY BIBLE the WORDS spoken by JESUS are written in RED! The ENTIRE sixth chapter of Matthew is written in RED, meaning that our CREATION must have had an INVALUABLE MESSAGE HE was trying to relate to hard heads, such as this one??? JESUS, GOD IN THE FLESH (John 10:30!), is enunciating precisely how to CONNECT to the FATHER in the focal passage of Scripture above.
Now JESUS says that we need to “GO INTO YOUR ROOM and SHUT THE DOOR and pray to your FATHER WHO IS IN SECRET”! But when HE was on the cross HE was obviously NOT ALONE WITH GOD! So GOD can hear us, even when we are busy and predisposed. But in my experience, for me to HEAR FROM GOD I need to remove ALL DISTRACTIONS and INTERRUPTIONS!! Personally, I am not built to listen to our CREATOR while my mind is sidetracked by “the cares of this world”!! JESUS tells me to “GO INTO YOUR ROOM and SHUT THE DOOR and pray to your FATHER WHO IS IN SECRET” and SEE if that helps!!!
The “FATHER WHO SEES” absolutely KNOWS when we are BEING STILL before HIM!! HE had me placed into a seventeen day coma to get my attention a few years ago! A few verses later in Matthew 6:8 JESUS says “Do not be like them, for your FATHER knows what you need before you ask HIM.” Then why does HE want us bringing our needs to HIM? It might be because HE wants us to admit that we are helpless without HIM and we REQUIRE a “FATHER WHO SEES”???
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)