Our God Reigns…no matter who wins!

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After months and months of rumors, speculations, name-calling, backstabbing, party-jumping, finger-pointing, and more opinions than a barbershop on a Saturday morning…it’s Election Day in the United States of America.

As a Christian, with grown children and now grandchildren, I grieve to think of what the future holds. I know they will never know America as I have known this country. And yet we realize that this undercurrent of evil that my sister-in-law wrote about so ably here on the blog four years ago, has been around since the beginning of time. There are some things that must come to pass. This world is not going to be around forever. If you know your Bible then you understand we are living in the last days. If we could roll back the curtain and see what our God sees we would comprehend much better the things that are happening so quickly around us. And they must happen to fulfill His Word and His will.

Is that depressing? No, not really. If you have hope. See, no matter who wins control of the presidency today, God is ultimately in charge. If your candidate loses, it doesn’t mean that God didn’t hear your prayer! If your candidate loses, it doesn’t mean that America won’t have revival. It doesn’t mean that we, as The Church, have to stop being The Church!

If America doesn’t turn around, if things begin to get worse, dark or even dangerous, The Church must step up and fulfill its role as a light in the darkness.

It’s what The Church, the Body of Christ has always done and will continue to do.

I believe it is the enemy’s greatest victory when he sees us distracted, wringing our hands and seemingly out of control of our situation. He wins then, not us. But if we recognize what we have WITHIN US, the gift of the Holy Spirit (You realize that GOD IS IN YOU, right?) then we are unstoppable no matter our circumstance. We have God on our side and if He is for us then who can be against us?

Does that mean everything will go our way? No. And it didn’t for the early church either. They faced persecution and even death but they didn’t stop spreading the Good News of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. They preached the Gospel everywhere they went and made disciples of their new converts so those new converts would go and reach more new converts and…well, you get the picture. They fulfilled Jesus’ commandment when He said, “Go!”

The world will watch the Christian today for their reaction to the election. Even if your candidate wins it most certainly doesn’t mean happy days are here again. These are difficult times around the globe and unfortunately they are dangerous times. We have to be a light. We have to bring hope to a hopeless world. We have to pray together, come together and BE THE CHURCH together so that no matter what comes our way we have the strength to stand and the wisdom to know that it isn’t all about us. It’s about Him and He is all about reaching others.

He wants us to do the same.

November 3, 2020 will definitely be a day we will never forget. And whether we go to bed tonight happy or disappointed, Jesus Christ will still be God. My pastor said last night at prayer meeting that regardless, OUR GOD REIGNS!

He will still be with us and He will still be FOR us. He has already given us the power to reach this world and He will still be rooting us on to go out and make a difference. Tell them that He still saves, He still delivers, He still heals and He still LOVES unconditionally.

I care about who will be the next president of this great country but this is just my temporary home. My hope is in Jesus Christ and my desire is to share that with as many as I can before He returns. Maybe now we can put some of our voices together on social media and share the Good News. Let’s use this technology that we have to reach as many with the love of God as we can! Let’s make a difference in our world by reflecting HIM and sharing our own stories of what He has done for us, our own UNMISTAKABLE Christianity. We might not turn an entire nation back to God but we can certainly make an impact on our own families, friends and co-workers.

Go on, put a smile on your face and be glad that you live in a country where you can vote. Be even more glad you live in a country where you can worship.

Share your testimony.

Share hope.

Share Jesus.

OUR GOD REIGNS!

For the Kingdom

So, what did you expect?

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Back in the day, my inlaws had a great place in the Ocala, Florida area. The entire family loved it there, right on a canal for boating and fishing, plus it was not too far from Disney World. There was great shopping and restaurants nearby, not to mention The Mighty Ocean.

But the best part?

It was FREE.

One summer, my mother, grandmother, younger brother and the only one of My Three Sons to grace the planet at the time, Kyle, decided to take advantage of the free vacation spot. The Sweetheart couldn’t get off work (or could he???) but graciously said we could go without him. Hmmm…little did I know that we would look back later and wonder who really had a vacation.

Heading  south, we made pretty good time considering our diverse party. It was a great week, the weather was fantastic and we just relaxed.

The decision was made to spend one full day at the ocean. So, this group of Indiana rednecks piled in the car and in no time we were claiming our spot on the beach. Kyle had a great time building sand castles and the rest of us enjoyed the sunshine.

Until the tide came in.

Being the newcomers we had no clue about tides and oceans or the rules of the beach. We had pulled our car up to our spot just like everyone else had done. This was the 80’s; obviously things have changed!

What we didn’t notice was that the other sun worshippers had MOVED their vehicles an hour or two earlier in anticipation of the changing tide. But the Hoosiers had not gotten the memo. Suddenly, a man came running over with excitement in his voice and yelling, “Why haven’t you moved that *&^%$#@! car?”

Blond and totally oblivious at the time, I didn’t realize that the wheels of our car were half-buried in the sand. Panic set in as we all jumped to our feet but that Buick was going nowhere, no way, and no how.

Our knight-in-shining-armor, who I assumed was there to save us, just kept shaking his head as if we were idiots. Okay, okay, we weren’t the smartest sand lovers on the beach. Finally, he hollered to a few guys around us for help and just like a scene from Beach Blanket Bingo, we were surrounded by muscle in no time. They heaved and pushed and rocked the car back and forth as it spun in the sand but she wasn’t budging!

Exasperated, our hero looked at me and said, “So, what did you expect?”

A valuable lesson was learned that day and even a beloved  Sunday School story came to mind that went along with our scenario. You can’t build anything on a sandy foundation. It sinks. Period. You will always need someone to come bail you out. Maybe it’s because the tide is coming in or because your sand castle is collapsing, but that house will just not withstand the storms of life.

Because you need a sure thing. You need a solid foundation.

In this world of uncertainty we must be established in what we believe! It is imperative that we KNOW Jesus Christ, not just know about Him. All of the Sunday School stories in the world will not do us any good if we have not been filled with His spirit. They are just stories until you know Him.

Look at what Jesus said here in the book of Matthew. I don’t normally use The Message version but this is so good, (don’t skip it! It really is good!)

“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.

But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.” Matthew 7:24-27

Stupid carpenter on the sandy beach. That was me that day because there was no plan, no thought that if you park next to the ocean you are going to have problems!

Today, at 99% of the beaches in the Sunshine State, you must park in the PARKING LOT; surely that rule/law came about the day after we left the ocean behind. I am a trendsetter like that! Mercifully, Frankie Avalon and his beach buddies saved the day and rocked the car right out of the sand…eventually.

Thankfully, I do not have to worry about that happening to me again. Nor do I worry about the spiritual house I am building. It is fixed on the Rock, Christ Jesus, and nothing can sink it or tear it down. These are homeowner improvements to my life! My house will not get washed away when troubles come.

so what did you expect

What do you expect when storms come your way? They will come, friend, they will come for sure. But we do not have to be afraid when we are built on the solid foundation, Jesus Christ.

What are you building on?

For the kingdom

Does fear threaten your faith?

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Does fear threaten your faith?

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV.

It seems we cannot get away from it. The television newscasts are overrun with it, Facebook screams about it all day long, the images and headlines play over and over in our heads until we cannot possibly erase them. So much fear.

Wildfires.

COVID-19.

Hurricanes.

Coronavirus.

Floods.

SARS-CoV-2.

Earthquakes. 

Covid pneumonia.

Threats of nuclear war.

And the list goes on…

Fear and Faith.

Can we have both at the same time? King David did. He tells us in Psalm 56: 3, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”

David was hunted down, literally, by King Saul who was so jealous of David that he thought the only way to get rid of this nemesis was to kill him.

We can assume David was afraid most every day while he was on the run and that is the cool thing about this verse. He is admitting he is afraid but when he is, when he is overcome with that emotion that we are born with, he knows what to do.  Even though he might be scared, he doesn’t let it paralyze him and turn him into a shivering coward. When he is afraid? He trusts in the One who does away with fear.

In the last few months, fear has taken hold of many people, those that know God and those that do not. But our God doesn’t want us to be consumed with fear and trembling. If you are filled with His spirit, you have the power to overcome that fear!

If we let that anxiety consume us, then we would never overcome. This is not the will of God. We must TRUST in the One who orchestrates our lives and give Him these fears every single day.

  • Purpose in your heart when you get out of bed in the morning to tell the Lord that you will not give in to fear today or give place to the enemy!
  • Don’t even let him have a foothold into your mind but fight that fear and anxiety by putting your trust in God.
  • Speak His Word out loud and claim His promises as your own.
  • Bind the spirit of fear in Jesus’ name and loose the peace of God in its place. It works!
  • Put on the whole armor of God!

Now, what about those that trusted in God but have perished in the storms, fires, earthquakes, wars, etc.? They may have gotten up one morning and placed their trust in God for the day and before it was over they had not survived. Did He not hear their prayer that morning? Why did He not protect them from evil or disaster?

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:18 ESV.

What the enemy meant for evil…God will use for His glory!

Jesus was there, He was with them, He did not leave them! You can’t have a testimony without a test; use it for His glory!

Even though we live in the HERE and NOW it really isn’t all about that, is it? It is about our future, our eternity, where our soul will reside when all is said and done. The Bible says we WILL be persecuted for His namesake. It also says He will never leave us or forsake us but that doesn’t mean we won’t face trials, temptations or even have our very lives threatened…or taken.

We are not exempt from suffering; we live in a fallen world. But our hope is not in this life or in this world! It is in what is to come, HE is our hope!

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” 2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV.

One day, His Word promises that Jesus will come back and take His people out of here. And we are promised 1,000 years of peace! We lean on that promise as we see the days grow darker and darker.

Until then? We go on sharing the Gospel, living each day to the fullest and being Salt and Light in a dark and evil world.

No matter what comes upon us, we do not have to let FEAR overtake us. We have hope beyond this life and a promise that He is with us to the very end, whenever that might be.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:10.

What are you afraid of today? Would you take a moment to ask God to deliver you from fear and replace it with His peace that passes all understanding? Then, believe what you have asked Him for and walk as a child of the King and don’t let fear threaten your faith!

“Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name…” 1 Peter 4:19 ESV.

For the kingdom