I am really enjoying my Doctrine and Practice of Prayer class with Mr. Cravens. I have been able to learn so much and to draw so much closer to God. Whenever I am going through a really tough time in my life, God always brings a song, Scripture verse or some type of encouragement to my mind.

Psalm 18 tells us that God is our fortress and our deliverer. As long as we have Jesus on our side, we will always win! When everything else seems to be so unstable and life seems to be crashing down around us, we can always trust that God will never leave us nor forsake us and He is our safe hiding place! There are so many things on this world that people put their trust in to help them through the tough times and so often times, those things are going to fail them and just bring dissapointment. God is the ONLY thing that will never fail us!

A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper he amid the flood
of mortal ills prevaling. 
For still our ancient foe
doth seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing,
were not the right man on our side,
the man of God’s own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be? 
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabbaoth, his name,
from age to age the same,
and he must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed
his truth to triumph through us. 
The Prince of Darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo, his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them, abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours,
thru him who with us sideth. 
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill;
God’s truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever.

Today in church, the sermon was about playing “favorites” in the church world. Pastor Joe was talking about someone that would come into church that was all dressed nicely and had a nice new car vs. the homeless person that would just walk in off the street. Often times, we tend to warmly welcome those that are dressed nicely or are more popular and we “put down” those people that we don’t think are as “important”! In God’s eyes, the homeless are just as important and precious in His sight than the President and CEO of a major company!

Then, he gave the illustration about a “life saving station” on the coast. He told about how there was a group of people that would go out and rescue those that were shipwrecked and bring them in and help them “get back on their feet”. Over the course of time, these stations became more of a social club, even to the point where they no longer helped the shipwrecked people. God help our churches not to become a social club, to the point where we are no longer a “life saving station”! God has called us to a light to those around us! My personal desire is to be a life saving station to those around me! Even at GBS, God help us never to get so caught up in the social aspect of campus life so that we forget what we are here for….to prepare for the ministry that God has called us to!

I want to live my life in such a way that God can use me to minister to the people around me!

God is looking for those fully surrendered to Him to use to help further His work and build up His Kingdom!

Okay….so maybe it’s not quite the end of the world! 

Ballots in the U.S. have been tallied and Barack Obama has been named President Elect.

There has been quite a stir over whether Obama is the Anti-Christ. I’m not really saying that he is or he isn’t…I wouldn’t really be surprised either way! The main thing is that we don’t lose focus through this! If anything, this should be a time of Spiritual revival in our church’s nationwide! May God help us to WAKE UP and realize that the only thing keeping this country going is the “faithful few” who remain faithful to pray and seek God no matter how the world is turning!

Just remember, No matter what happens, God is STILL in control! It’s so wonderful to know that God is more powerful than any political canidate! God knows what He is doing!

It’s just all Biblical prophesy coming to pass…..just make sure that you are READY!

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”

We have all heard it at one point in our lives! But the fact is, it’s just not true! Words always affect our lives in one form or another. And, another thing that you have probably heard is, “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all!” We as Christians always need to be careful that what we say is building people up and not breaking them down!

Gossip actually serves to break the trust of those the people around you. We also need to observe the Golden Rule here…..”Would I like people to say this about me?”

If we are striving to be like Jesus, we should most certainly be careful about the words that come out of our mouths! If we want to be fully surrendered to God, He should have full control of our mouths and what we say!

OH BE CAREFUL LITTLE MOUTH WHAT YOU SAY!

 

 

Proverbs 18:8 – “The words of gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts.”

A while back, I heard about a show on TV called, “The Next Best Thing”. The object of this reality show is to be the best impersonator of a celebrity, all to win the grand prize of $100,000! It got me to thinking about how people these days study celebrities by learning to walk, talk, dress and sing like them. The list could go on and on. A lot of the contestants on this show actually make a living by imitating these famous celebrities. But, they are not imitating the right person!

I want to make it my goal in life to be an imitator of Jesus Christ. I want to walk, talk, dress, sing, and do everything that I can to be like Jesus. I want to win the grand prize of life eternal with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The best part about it is there is more than one grand prize winner! No matter where you come from or what you have done, Jesus is ready and waiting with open arms for each one that will believe on Him.

 

I have one deep, supreme desire,
that I may be like Jesus.
To this I fervently aspire,
that I may be like Jesus.
I want my heart His throne to be,
so that a watching world may see
His likeness shining forth in me.
I want to be like Jesus

 

I encourage you to make that your goal in life too! All you need to do is ask for forgiveness of your sins and learn to be an imitator of Christ! It’s not always the easiest thing to do but, in the end, it will all be worth it!

Over the past year, it seems like I have had just one thing come up right after another. There were so many difficult situations and I didn’t really know which way was the right way, or what I should do. But, God always has a way of sending the right people along or allowing me to hear or read something at just the right time as an encouragement and an affirmation that I’m doing the right thing!

I was listening to a podcast tonight and the speaker was talking about when hard times come our way, we are very close to a breakthrough!

“It’s easy to be tempted to give up on a goal, prayer or desire when it seems as if the answer isn’t coming as quickly as you would like. Yet, at these times, dare to learn how to hope even more in God. Usually, our battles seem the darkest just before the dawn. Just like a woman experiences birth pains right before the birth of her child, we too experience intense moments before breakthrough. Yet, we must not give up prematurely during these heated times. In Hebrews 10:35 it says, “Do not cast away your confidence for it will be richly rewarded.”

As faith-filled believers, we must keep hoping, keep believing and staying faithful. Many times, we are closer than we think to victory. God is faithful to His promises.  When God says we will be richly rewarded for keeping our confidence in Him, that should give us a second wind, giving us fuel to keep up the faith. Don’t give up today on your dreams and your hope in God. By developing the attitude, “I’ve come too far to stop now” and learning how to be full of hope, expecting God’s favor daily, you’ll see God begin to do amazing things, even in the midst of trying times! You are closer than you think to victory. Dare to hope in God and His promises. You will not be disappointed!”
 -Joel Osteen

When hard times come our way, we can either choose to be the victor or be the victim. God is able to help us overcome those things that the devil puts in our way!

I choose to be victorious! How about you?

Don’t give up, YOU ARE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK!

I am so glad that when all of our so called friends will turn their backs on us, we can still depend on God to be there for us! I have a tendancy to do and say some pretty stupid things (it runs in the family by the way! ha!) but, I’m so glad that in spite of whatever we do, God is still right there with us!

In the past few days and weeks, it seems like the devil has really been fighting me and telling me that I’m no good and that God can’t love me because I’ve made too many mistakes. I just have ONE thing to say to him….YOU ARE DEAD WRONG! I have a friend that sticks closer than a brother and His name is Jesus Christ!

 

I have really been encouraged by the words to a song called “I Am A Friend Of God”.                                  

Who am I that You are mindful of me
That You hear me when I call
Is it true that You are thinking of me
How You love me it’s amazing

(Chorus)
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
He calls me friend

If you don’t know this friend of mine, I encourage you to come talk to me, let me introduce you to Him.    You will never be the same!

I, like a lot of other Freshmen here at GBS, came to school not knowing how things were going to work out and how I was going to be able to pay for my bill. The day of registration, I felt like God wanted me to go up to the prayer room on the fourth floor and pray about it. I went down and had a wonderful time with God. When it came time to pray, I felt impressed to go get my school bill out of my room. I took it down there and presented it to God. The thing that I was so troubled about, I surrendered to Him. When I did, I felt the load just lifted off of me! God has certainly supplied my needs this far and I am looking forward to seeing what He is going to do the rest of the time I am here at God’s Bible School. God is SO good!

God wants us to come to him with every area of our life, no matter what the size! I encourage you, if you have anything that is bothering you (whether it is a financial need, family issue, ect.) take it to God and LEAVE IT THERE! You will not be sorry that you did!

In our world today, everything revolves around schedule. We have time set aside for school, eating, sleeping, cleaning, working, ect. We even seem to have the time to spend with our friends but, we often tend to forget to spend time with someone even more significant….Our Heavenly Father!

Here is something written by Greg Hinnant that I thought was really good:

“Truly, there would have been no going forth to work the works of Jesus if the apostles had refused to spend time with Him. Though Jesus called them “that He might send them forth to preach, and to have authority to heal sicknesses, and to cast out demons” (3:14,15), they neither received power nor began preaching on the day Jesus appointed them. In fact, instead of going out, they went in. That is, they “went into an house” (3:19), where they began discharging their sacred duty to spend quality time with Jesus–pondering His Word, asking Him questions, soaking in His Spirit, observing His utter dependence on His Father, learning His ways, wondering at His power, and marveling at His compassion.”

 

In order for us as Christians to minister to others, we must first spend the time getting to know the One that we are going to be sharing with others!

I highly encourage you step back and look at your priorities and see where spending time with God fits in there and then MAKE the time every day to spend time with God and to get to know Him better!