As Christians, we are entirely too spread out or divided.  we concentrate too much on passages of the bible taken out of context that, in the end, seem to prove us to be superior to others, including other Christians.  Such a waste.  Catholic, protestant, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Mormon, etc...  We are all Christians first and foremost.  We have faith in the resurrection of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, as the one true son of God.  We need to stop the infighting and get together to accomplish the goals presented to us by our Lord, to spread the GOOD NEWS.  We need to come together and develop ways to do this as a powerful whole.  I have been thinking about this for a long, long time.  I have some ideas, but need to discuss these with other people, and hear their ideas.  Nothing good is impossible with our Father.  He moves me to do some seemingly crazy things at times, but, man a live, he makes it exciting.  How can God be anything but exciting?  We should follow his lead more often, if not always.  We walk off to strange-person-land on the TV and internet daily.  Why, would we not go with God? 

     I am being tested, and, now, it is time to rely on my faith and put it in God's hands...as I tell others, I must also do.  It's as simple as that for a Christian.  Do we have faith or not? 

He is the Rock

He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
    and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
    upright and just is he.

Deuteronomy 32:4 

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10 

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

John 14:23

[ Faith in the Incarnate Son of God ] Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.

1 John 5:1

     How powerful, how loving, how reassuring our Father, our God.  Why would you have any other gods before him?  Why would you want to believe in any other way than that of our loving God that gave his loving son to teach and die so we may be redeemed in the eyes of our Father and have life everlasting.  This almighty, all powerful God that could crush us in an instance for his pleasure...yet, all he does is love us and serve us.  Can we not serve him with a smile and love in return?  

     Though it seems difficult and even dangerous some of the things our Lord asks of us, he assures us he is always with us and always offering to guide us and strengthen us for the deed.  He is always teaching, just as he did in his time in human form upon this earth.  We need merely to listen and have faith.  Our Father does not tell us these things and walk away laughing at unfounded faith.  When he reveals himself, he is absolute truth and faith in action.  Millions at this very moment are praising him and being blessed by and serving him for his glory..  So we have been given this opportunity.

     It truly is the first day of the rest of our lives.  What a beautiful day.  Glory by to you our Father.  Amen

When you feel like you can do nothing of importance to serve our Lord

Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people,

Ephesians 6:7

     I have this problem that when I am not doing something earth shaking for our Lord, that I am doing nothing of importance.  You and I need to remember this, anytime we serve another person in any way as a Christian, we serve him that loves us unconditionally and a warm smile comes upon his features.  Anytime we bow down as servants to one another, we serve him, our Lord Jesus.  When you serve him in any way, you become as a king or queen upon this earth and forever more...did he not promise this, and all of his words are Truth and all with love.  

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Matthew 5:13-17

 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:14-16

     You must pray to be a good servant, you must pray to know your Lord and God, you must pray for a relationship with him that is God of all.  He never hides himself.  Why would the God of all hide as a thief would hide?  It is we that attempt to hide from him who sees all.  Get to know him by reading his word, the Bible, by finding a quiet place and talking with him...and, definitely, listen.  When you begin to feel and hear him, it will change your life.  And, it will happen.

Everything you ask for in prayer will be yours, if you only have faith.

Mark 11:24 

     And...when you think or say, who am I that God almighty himself should be interested in or want a lowly person as myself to be his instrument, remember, this:

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Exodus 3:11  

     How do you tell someone who this God is that has sent you to them...he will give you the words.

God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

Exodus 3:14 

     Believe.  Have faith and the Lord shall make believers of those to whom he has sent you.

Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

Exodus 4:1  

     The Lord gave Moses signs to give the Israelites, so that they may believe. 

and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Exodus 4:31

     Put your burdens on the Lord and each other.  He does not expect you to do anything alone.  He is always there for you and we should always be there for each other...always.

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2

     Father, you who gave us love that is mightier than any sword of man, you who sits quietly guarding us through our sleep, you who are a river of life to us who love you and have faith in you, give us the wisdom, the strength, the power, the love to gather in those you desire to have in your flock.  Amen

     

LOVE

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 CORINTHIANS 13

     And, so it is...and, so love is the foundation of the Bible, of our holy Father's reason for creating mankind, of his decision to come to live upon this earth in human form and go through an agonizing death upon that cross, of all our blessed Father's actions now and forever.  Keep this in your heart, but share it every minute of every hour of every day.  Is not love the reason, the power, the gift of our almighty and most loving Father.  There has never been created before, now, nor in the future a person he has not loved.  Yes, he loves Hitler...yes, he loves Judas...yes, he loves us all without condition.  It is where we direct our love, the importance we put on worldly riches, and the hate of others and self pride we exhibit that he does not love, saddening him deeply.  

     Yes,  my brothers and sisters, you can make a difference simply and powerfully by your love of our Father and his son, our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, also, each and every person he has so lovingly created.  Love, unconditionally, just as you are loved unconditionally.  Show that love, compassion, forgiveness that his holy spirit fills you with.

Faith in Action

11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ² This is what the ancients were commended for.

³ By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

⁴ By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

⁵ By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”^[a] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

⁷ By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ¹¹ And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she^[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. ¹⁴ People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, ¹⁸ even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^{[c] 19} Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

²⁰ By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

²¹ By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

²² By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.

²³ By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. ²⁵ He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶ He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. ²⁷ By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

²⁹ By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.

³¹ By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.^[d]

³² And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. ³⁵ Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. ³⁶ Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were put to death by stoning;^[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— ³⁸ the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

³⁹ These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised,⁴⁰ since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Hebrews 11:1-40

     This is such a beautiful passage on faith that brings so many of the different acts of faith together from the Bible; faith; what it does, what it means, and why.  Though we may not totally understand nor reap the fruit, in this life, of our actions in doing our Lord's will, it is the overall plan made before the beginning by our loving Father, God, that is important.  Do you think we shall not be rewarded for such actions?  Did he not send his only son, our Lord Jesus, to tell us in his name and to die on the cross so that we may have eternal life?  Have faith.  You see the results of men who had faith over the centuries.  Let us do likewise...love, trust in God, bear all that comes before you for, when you do the work of our Father, he is strongly about and within you.  His will shall be done.  Pray that he use us as his divine instrument to attain that end.  

     Walk before mankind with humility, love, compassion, all for our Father's glory for he has already promised us glory for such and who can stand against our mighty Father's will and love.  Love when none is due.  Show compassion when none is due.  Show forgiveness when none is due.  Stand for our Father when all around threaten death for such; for in death is our reward of eternal life with him our loving God.  Is that not what our Lord Jesus himself did.

     You and I, in this world, are not kings and queens.  Yet, when we have faith and work for our Lord to spread the Good News of his Kingdom, we are worthy and we shall act as kings and queens, in reality, should.  Stand up, have faith, love, show compassion, forgive...for what greater power in creation is there than love of, by, and for our Father. 

     There are times within each person's times when one must stop and simply laugh at the events worrying us.  What power do we have to control these?  None, by ourselves, but, with faith in God,  we know that he is in control and will never leave us to face this alone.  Put it in his hands...that is what he desires of us.  Put your faith and reliance on him.  As I say and remind myself many times, he is God, and who can stand against him and who can he not protect and love.  Time and again, he comes galloping in, seemingly, at the last minute and rescues me.  Never does our Father scold nor berate us, only a smile and a wink.  As our Lord intimates, would you let one of your children go unprotected?  How much more will our divine Father protect us if we but have faith.  How weak I am...how strong he is.  

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6 

 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Matthew 6:26