Comfortable with the evil around us

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Comfortable with the evil around us. Guest Writer today! So thankful God speaks to others to bless us here at Hope in the Healing. I am praying 2017 is a better year for me in this role but I decided a long time ago that I would only share it if I felt God had given it. It doesn’t matter if three read it or 1,000, He knows who it is for and I am so content with that. You will be blessed today by my friend and SIL, Sue Elkins. She writes from the heart!

Having trouble fighting evil thoughts? Is evil abounding everywhere? Has the evilness of people become worse?

In prayer, I was talking to the Lord about the evil that seems to be everywhere today. Two scriptures came to mind:

“Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse…” 2 Timothy 3:13.

“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Romans 5:20.

I don’t know if evil is worse or if the number of people committing those evils has become worse. Of course, the speed at which we can now know about those evils is much quicker! The age of technology is good and bad. It has made our lives easier but the bad news gets to us much faster. And it seems that bad news is all there is these days. We seem to be loaded daily with evil, so much so that I fear our minds have become used to evil.

It is all around us!

  • Another police office killed in the line of duty
  • Another school shooting
  • Another terrorist attack

These are all things that just 20 years ago were not common, every day occurrences. Has evil become common? Have we accepted evil as just another news event? And if so, perhaps this everyday bombardment of bad has made us lax in concern for the world around us.

corrie-ten-boom

Whoa!

In a world where Christians are trying to decide which evil will be worse in the White House, have we become accustomed to evil as a normal way of life? Everyone does it, so it’s not a big deal.

I am reminded of the water dripping on the rock…if it drips long enough it will make a crevice and change the rock! Seems unbelievable but it is true.

We have been pounded so long with evil that we need to be careful that we don’t accept it as just the norm. We need to check our thinking patterns and see if we view some evils differently than we did years ago. If so, why?

Have we been forced by the pounding of outside influences to decide that some evil is just normal or acceptable?

Wouldn’t the adversary be happy with that….God forbid!

I know one Rock that will not change, no matter how much evil is pounded against it! Jesus Christ, thou art my Rock. He alone is my Rock, the Rock of my salvation, blessed be my Rock!

Yes, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I because I am changeable, but Lord, You are not. I must be established in You so that no matter what force of evil comes against me I do not change in my determination to stand for You!

In Paul’s letter to Timothy, he was warning of things to come and yet I don’t want to leave my opening scripture at verse 13 of 2 Timothy 3. That could seem like a defeated, depressing place to be left, so let’s read on…

“Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:14-17.

Thank you, Paul! You gave Timothy and all of us hope! If we continue in the faith which we know is TRUE, the faith that was taught to us by our spiritual leaders and elders; if we allow the scriptures to make us wise against the evil and bring us salvation; if we remember that GOD GAVE US the scriptures for our good, to guide us, correct us, bring us instruction…then we can be perfect in Christ Jesus. Not in ourselves, but in Him!

Oh Lord, let me read more of Your Word, let me study it and hide it in my heart, let me not take the evil of this world into my world, but fight harder to overcome it and therefore be able to help others to overcome it too.

Let me end with this thought and one of my favorite passages of scripture. NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING can separate us from God unless we allow it to.

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 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.” Romans 8:37-39.

sueSue is a mother of four, a grandmother of three, a long time Broker/Associate with Re/Max Realty Professionals, and was a pastor’s wife for many years. She and her husband, Dexter, are still very active in their church, aptly teaching, ministering and being helpers as the Bible calls us to be. She keeps the highways busy traveling to see her grandbabies as often as she can.

 

 

 

 

 

Sharing with Living Proverbs 31, Moments of Hope, Modest Mondays

If the Blind Lead the Blind…

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If the Blind Lead the Blind… Who will you follow?

There was an article in the Washington Post that told the story of some shepherds in the village of Gevas in eastern Turkey having their breakfast early one morning.  Their sheep are all grazing nearby when one lone sheep wanders off,and before they can do anything about it, that sheep jumps off a 45 ft. cliff to its death.

Then, if that isn’t bad enough, as the shepherds watch in horror, the rest of the flock follows…1500 sheep carelessly stagger off the edge of the cliff!

The small ray of good news was that because of their heavy wool, the lives of 1,000 of them were spared that day because as they fell, their fall was cushioned by the comfy, cottony wool of their brothers and sisters in the pile underneath them.

Follow the leader…a fun game as a little kid but not so smart as an adult unless you know who is leading the way.

The Pharisees were blind guides according to Jesus. They appeared to have all the answers, they walked around with the look and presented themselves as the authority but Jesus said they were just the opposite. “They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.” Matthew 15:14 NKJV.

They were clearly spiritually blind but were trying to teach and preach to others. In Matthew 23:16-24, Jesus continues to list all the different ways in which they MIS-represented themselves. The problem was that they were highly thought of and, strangely enough, well respected.

In other words…they were smooth-talkers. They fooled the people.

It is no different today. Our culture and religious world is full of spiritual teachers who misrepresent the Word of God. They are blind guides leading and teaching those that are spiritually blind themselves! They claim to follow scripture and teach God’s Word but yet, in reality, they pick and choose what they want to use for their benefit and leave the other untouched.

Or worse, they change the Word to fit their lifestyle or their need for the moment.

From such turn away! “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Matthew 7:15.

We have everything we need right in The Book. We must be careful about who and what we listen to. If it doesn’t line up with the Word of God we must separate ourselves!

follow me

When Jesus came on the scene over 2,000 years ago, one of the first things He said to His disciples was, “Follow Me…”.

Those two simple words from the Master were so powerful that twelve men dropped everything they were doing. They quit their jobs, left their families and walked away from their lives to follow this leader that they had never even met! He had power, authority, wisdom and influence. They knew there was something different about this man called “Jesus”.

Who are you following today? Whose voice are you listening to?

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Make sure you take off your spiritual blinders so you can see the Word of God clearly. This is the most important game of Follow the Leader you will ever play.

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When the Cross was the Attraction

When the Cross was the attraction

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sue“God Hold us to that which drew us first, when the Cross was the attraction, and we wanted nothing else.” ~ Amy Carmichael

When the Cross was the attraction….Today I am happy to have my sister-in-law, Sue Elkins, sharing with us!  Sue is a mother of four, a grandmother of three, a long time Broker/Associate with Re/Max Realty Professionals, and was a pastor’s wife for many years. She and her husband, Dexter, are still very active in their church, aptly teaching, ministering and being helpers as the Bible calls us to be. She keeps the highways busy traveling to see her grandbabies as often as she can. God gave this to her this week and I know it will bless you as it has me. You can read her other guest posts, Still I Will Trust You, Go, Surprise Jesus and Who was Hur, by clicking on the titles!

My God Is Awesome, Every Praise, I Won’t Go Back, Break Every Chain….the list of new songs is unending and inspiring. But an old one from the past really touched my heart during altar call a few nights ago.

Move me with Your message once again

It’s been so long since I have broke within

Take me back once more to Calvary 

Where one more time, Your message moves me. 

I have heard this song many times, but not for years, and this night it was speaking to me in a different way.

So often, when a song like this is sung, we tend to be moved by shortcomings, problems, failures or needs within our lives.  There is nothing wrong with that and Jesus understands those times, but this time my spirit was broken for a different reason.

Luke 23:33.  “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him.”  

The phrase “take me back once more to Calvary”  just kept flowing over and over in my mind.

Back to Calvary….

Where I first met You, Jesus, where I first realized what You had done for me.  I still remember those first feelings of sadness when I realized that Jesus had given His life for me!   The complete THANKFULNESS I felt that Jesus loved me so much that He would die for me.  The humbleness that overwhelmed my soul that He loved me even before I knew and loved Him.

With Calvary as a vision before me, as the song says, I should be broken for Your sacrifice. Lord.  I should be broken because of how much I love You, Lord.  I should be broken because You gave me newness of life here and life eternal over there.  My problems, my shortcomings, my failures or needs will be met if I keep going back to Calvary and the message it brings to all of us….

Christ is our Redeemer.   

When the Cross was the Attraction

How long has it been since I bowed more than just my knees, but really bowed my spirit to remember Calvary and what it brought to me?   As the words came flooding back into my mind, I was reminded that the message of Jesus and the cost of that message still needs to break us from time to time.  It is so easy with all the things that are going on around us to become overwhelmed and broken by the problems that face us.   But the message….the message that Jesus loves us, that He is the Provider, the Healer, the Counselor, the Deliverer, the Savior, the One True God, that came, died and was resurrected for us….that message can never be forgotten!  Because, if we forget that message, then we may forget to pass it on to others who need to hear it.   It needs to still move us, move us to be broken and thankful that we know Him and have the privilege of walking with Him.

Oh, Lord, let me not forget to let your message move me once again!

 

Sharing with Making your home sing, Modest Mondays