“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. “

God and I have been having many conversations about peace, rejoicing, and dealing with disappointment lately. I’ve been receiving small nuggets of understanding each day about walking in continual peace, and experiencing rejoicing within my spirit. My desire is to walk in hope, and let it saturate my lifestyle so that my children are strengthened and seasoned in grace as they grow.

Building character is something that happens progressively.
From day one, to our final day, we experience things intended by God to grow/shape us as Jesus in this world. We know we are in a good place when we find ourselves experiencing suffering on any level. It is the foundation building block of God’s intended outcome, which is hope. We can receive his plan by making a choice to perservere with a good attitude, allowing our character to be molded and hope to appear. We have the ability to do this through the love of the Holy Spirit which always loves on Jesus. What do we do when we find ourselves disappointed?

Disappointments are the root of so many behaviors that cause conflicts within our selves and others. We all know it is linked to desires in us at war with the desires of God or others. As most of you know, I am a parent of three young children and I find that their conflicts often arise around someone being disappointed or expecting/fearing disappointment.

Have you ever talked to someone that expects to be disappointed? It is very hard to get thru to them because their focus is on the pre-conceived expectation that they have, and not on what you are saying. It is as if the ears of the individual close, and they can no longer receive from us. The door to hope is closed almost before there is a chance to be encouraged.

Awhile back, I was talking to another friend, and found myself reminding them to Hope because God will not disappoint. They were fearing disappointment in their circumstance and needed re-assurance of the truth. Hope does not disappoint.

God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Each moment, we have to decide to choose hope or disappointment in how we approach things. This really is faith in action. This is loving one another out loud. Faith gives us access to God’s grace. When it comes time to speak, we have an opportunity to step into God’s grace and experiencing rejoicing, which changes our perspective and likely the outcome of our conversations.

When we face what appears to be a roadblock in our circumstances, do we dare to hope? It’s vital to our development. It is vital to our future.

The word says “hope does not disappoint.”

It is so exciting; we have an opportunity to live without disappointment daily. –We can do it by living in the Spirit in our talk, which begins in the mind. Take a minute and talk, bring hope to someone’s situation today. If you aren’t sure, test it. Try it out on yourself, and on those closest to you. See what God will do for you.

Christianity was made for extreme times. Of all people Christians should be the least shaken in stressful times. We have so much going for us that non-Christians do not have. We have the Lord. We have the Body of Christ. We have a brilliant Holy Spirit who loves to teach what to do.

Christians should be able to use stressful times as seasons of opportunity to upgrade their relationship with the Lord. Jesus prophesied that in the end times there would be distress of nations. Hopefully this will be an opportunity to preach the Gospel and receive new strategies and revelation from the Lord. As believers we want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.
An important key to prospering in times of crisis is maintaining right focus. There are things on which we are not to focus. We are not to focus on the winds and the waves (circumstances). We are not to focus on the size of the giants. We are not to focus on our own smallness or weakness. We are not to focus on the lies of the enemy.

There are things on which we are to focus. We are to focus on the strength and the greatness of God. Seeking His solutions and answers to our crisis .
Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power
and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You. Jeremiah 32:17
God is the one who can be our peace through the storms. He just waiting for you to ask for the upgrades waiting for you in heaven so you can bring them to earth.

Blessings,
Gerard

“God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them. 17 This is how love has been perfected in us, so that we can have confidence on the Judgment Day, because we are exactly the same as God is in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love because God first loved us”.

This morning was the first day of Spring Break and all three of our children slept in at least an hour. We have been rushing around, catching up from last weekends conference and making preparation for the upcoming week of renovations on our house. I wanted to start out our morning right, so I thought about how the day was going to go last night. I talked to my kids to create the expectation and to help me remember when I woke up tired that we were going to have a great day anyway. Preparation is a big part of life when you have kids. I tend to be the one who likes to prepare for my day regardless of if it affects the kids or not, just because it helps me keep myself in check and on task. So, when the kids came running into my room, giggling quietly, I didn’t remind them of the weekday rule in our house, which is stay in bed until the alarm goes off and stay quiet in your room until mom comes to get you. I knew it was past the time they usually get up. They were quite excited to find me happy and crawled up into my bed with me to get warm. They errupted into laughter and stories which turned into silly movie line recollections and thus, the morning began with love.

After breakfast and some play time, we reassembled for a quick devotional. Our verse for the day together was John 4:16. “God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them.” It’s a simple verse but it always re-adjusts sleepy perspectives. What do I mean by that? I am the one in my house who has a very hard time waking up happy. That’s why preparation and making plans help me. I am the one who is woken up any time the kids need something in the middle of the night and I am the one who takes a long time to fall asleep when I lay down. So, this week through a discussion with my husband I heard myself say “I think the reason sleep is so valuable to me, is it is the only time in my day that I can just do nothing, someone doesn’t need me etc.” The demands on me personally are quite extensive sometimes; as I am sure is the case with most other parents or responsible adults too. In light of that, when my sleep is interrupted, as it is the only time that I do not have people vying for my attention or physically needing me to do something for them, I get a little bit miffed. Or very miffed for that matter.

If I constantly renew my mind, and prepare my body by feeding my spirit with truth, my sleepy perspective is able to line up with the word of God and overcome my natural reactions. God is love and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them. When I remain in love I am assured that he has already accounted for my feeling of crowdedness and overwhelming need. When I remain in love, I am remaining in God and that is my ultimate desire. I have a promise that God remains in me too.

So many other verses in the Bible re-assure us of the truth that God will never leave us or forsake us, but this verse is not talking about God leaving us, but abiding in us and us finding our home in him. It also talks about Him being able to express himself as the home owner in our hearts. Does that make any sense? When he is the home owner, what is he allowed to do? – Make renovations right! Change things! Homeowners make changes and renew their properties to better them overall, one step at a time. Sometimes it is a quick change, whereby it all happens at once, and sometimes the changes happen over time room by room. Whatever the case may be, it is straight forward and well worth it.

1 Jn 4:13 “We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him”.
My children were able to explain the meaning of verse 16 after reading it to them just once and asking, what does this mean? It greatly encouraged me that if they could accept it and decide to follow it as a literal plan for today so easily, then I certainly can lay down my own desires and accept it too.
This Easter, lets drink in the love shown us by Jesus who gave himself for us, and conquered the grave to give us love. Love is life- giving. We were given the Spirit. By the Spirit we can extend love and we gain life.
May God Bless you with a double portion of his spirit today, that love may increase a full measure and renovate your house, affecting all those properties or persons around you.

As we come into alignment in the Kingdom of God we are reminded of His excellent greatness.
He urges us to go beyond our normal limits in righteousness, love, edification and work, so that our entire lifestyle reflects His excellence. As we look to Him, He helps us organize our lives and manage ones time according to His divine will. While organizing, we keep important things in prominent places, mark things according to priority, set deadlines, approximate time requirements and review our progress daily.

As we do these things we count it all joy when we encounter various trials because the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Lord, we say: Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Blessings,
Maureen

I’m just one of the people that enjoys chewing on a passage of scripture for weeks, months, and even years. There is so much teaching in the Body of Christ and it’s so easy to learn facts about the Word without it taking root deep down inside of us. Sometimes we just spit out information without revelation. One of the former Youth Pastor’s I served under through the years always said, “We can teach what we know, but we reproduce who we are”. That is so true. Isn’t the purpose of studying and meditating on scripture, 2 Cor. 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” I want the character of Christ so formed in me that it becomes so natural, like breathing. I don’t think about breathing, I just do it because that’s how I’ve been created – I’ve been created to reflect Jesus.

With that being said, I’ve been meditating on this portion of Scripture, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” for a long time now. If you understand what biblical hope is, it’s not a wishy-washy question like hope so, or just maybe it’s true and might possibly happen. But hope in this context means an expected end. My expected end is that the glory of the Lord will be revealed through Christ in me. There is much teaching about who I am in Christ – it’s good and necessary teaching, but sometimes I find it still too much “me centered” and not enough Christ centered.

When I read the apostolic prayers in Ephesians and Colossians I’m always challenged by the Holy Spirit with the words “to know the hope of His calling”. What is the expectancy of His calling in me or in you? Quite frankly, it’s all about Him and He is the most incredible, glorious person you could know. Remember Jesus question to Peter in the Gospel of Matthew 16:13-17 – “Who do you say that I am?” That is a very important question to settle in our hearts and it’s one that I find myself challenged by all the time as I grow from glory to glory! He’s never ending and there’s always more. THERE’S ALWAYS MORE!!!

So let me end with asking you the following questions:
• Who is Christ is you?
• What is your expected end?
• Who do you say that I am?

Are you a follower of Christ, representing Him everywhere you go? Or are you sometimes a follower of Christ, representing Him some places you go? Is He your life? Or is He a part of your life?

The disciples lived a life in God. Everywhere they went they blatantly shared about Jesus. And what happened? Many were saved! We have the opportunity to impact thousands of people without ever setting foot in a pulpit. How many people do you interact with each day? Think about that for a minute. Coffee shop, gas station, work, grocery store, etc. How many of them have head about God’s love for them? Have you asked God for the opportunity to share His love with them?

God has been constantly challenging me about my in-the-moment choices throughout each day, especially at work. Am I choosing to represent Him, or am I choosing to represent myself? Those two things cannot be the same. The Holy Spirit reminds me to respond in love and righteousness instead of harshness or foul language. I have a choice whether to share God’s love, and what He means to me. I have a choice whether to participate in unclean conversation, or take that as an opportunity to share why I don’t take part in those conversations! Who am I? Am I someone who laughs just enough at the coarse joke that no one suspects I don’t really approve? Am I someone who speaks badly about my boss because he isn’t around? Am I someone who spreads gossip? Am I someone who does just enough work to get by, or do I glorify God through my work ethic? Do my coworkers become curious about why I won’t participate in wrong conversation? Do I choose to respect my boss in how I speak, even if he may be wrong? Do I speak well about others, and find the good in them instead of speaking gossip?

We each have a choice to make in each moment of every day. God, I long to make the choices that show Your love to the world! Will anyone join me?

The truth of my present reality does not cancel out the truth of God’s promises. In fact, the truth of God’s word is a higher truth than the reality of your present situation. When the truth that God has spoken is in conflict with what appears to be true, you have a choice about what truth to believe. I am reminded of an interaction recorded in 2 Kings 6 between the prophet Elisha and his servant. While his servant became afraid seeing that they were surrounded by an army, Elisha, who saw with spiritual eyes confidently declared”Those who are with us are more than those who are with them”. Elisha prayed that God would open his servant’s eyes, allowing his servant to see the angelic army that stood between them and their enemy.

So often our spiritual eyes are blinded by what our physical eyes see. The good news is that God will reveal to us what He sees by His Spirit (Read 1 Cor. 2). It is so important to hear God’s voice, see from God’s perspective, and stand on what He reveals to you. His word is truth and that truth should be our reality. The next time you are struggling to believe God’s promises, ask God to open your eyes so that you may see as He sees.

In closing, I want to leave you with two scriptures. Hebrews 10:23 – Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Romans 15:13 – I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I grew up in a certain religious tradition, going through their education system for 12 years. I was grateful for that education, by today’s standards, it was certainly better than most. When I became born-again in 1976, it really rocked that tradition for me. I was so angry with that tradition because I felt that I had been lied to, manipulated and not told the truth according to Biblical standards. Boy was I bitter, and as you may know, Father doesn’t like bitter. So Father challenged me in that area of forgiveness of that tradition, because whether I agree with everything they believe or not, He loves them.

About a month ago, I purchased a book by John Crowder entitled, Miracle Workers, Reformers and The New Mystics. It was so refreshing, page after page I read about missionaries, seers and prophets that crossed every traditional line – the persecution of rejection that they suffered within their own denominations, their triumphs and tragedies. This rendition covered those from the time shortly after Christ until today. For me, this book was a gift because it has begun bringing down the walls around my heart against other denominations, other traditions that may seem different that mine. Why would that be important, after all, I’m comfortable in my group, in my tradition, no matter how out of the box I think I am.

Well, let me tell you. During the outpouring in Toronto, there was an evangelist from the UK by the name of Sue Mitchell – she was one of those amazing women that no matter where she went, she led people to Christ; she was especially gifted working on the streets. As she spoke she issued a challenge, “What are you going to bring with you before Christ – just yourself? What has God asked you to do, bring a family, neighborhood, a town, a city, a region or nation?” It was then that I knew that the Lord had imparted to me faith to bring a region before His throne of grace. I accepted the challenge of bringing the WNY region to Him – I would pray, war, decree, declare and do whatever He asks, but He needs to work out the judgments and prejudices that I have held against their traditions and look for the treasure in them. I am grateful for The New Mystics because I learned, we all get it wrong at some point, but we all can make a contribution to bringing the Bride of Christ closer to her Bridegroom. Anyone want to join me in crossing our man made boundaries and hunting for the gold?

The intended purpose of this poll was to find out if anyone was more favorable in the eyes of the public than a quarterback, whose name I’ve heard mentioned but don’t know anything about. -Now, now…if you knew his name, you’d be wondering yourself just how I could miss a name like that. But the truth is I don’t watch sports or pay any attention because I don’t enjoy sports. I am simply into other things.

To get back to the answer to my question..who is the most popular person in America today? The answer was Abraham Lincoln. After all this time, President Lincoln is still viewed favorably by the eyes of the public for holding this country together in the most devastating war in U.S. history, and altering our nations course forever. He called for fasting and prayer- a day to ask God for forgiveness of the pride of a nation. Lincoln was a lot of things, but even he pointed us to Jesus. It was not Lincoln who held us together, it was the hand of God upon the man, who carried out the will of Jesus towards us- unity, compassion, mercy, and love.

Today the earth is hungry. God’s people cry out for the rain of his presence like never before. Global awareness through technology spotlights the condition of our neighbors and has enabled us to both help and hurt those around us. Could it be, that when looking at the mess we are in here in American we see that God is raising up hope and creating opportunities for his mercies to shine newer this morning than ever before? Could it be that as hard as some fight against the name of Jesus it is intended to spread his name further around the world? His victories are being seen in increasing measure,and that cannot happen without resistance? It’s the simple supply and demand principle here I am thinking of. Could it be that on the earth today we are on the verge of an outpouring of his presence in a way that we have not yet seen that will change the course of World history today?

The poll taken noted that all Republicans polled had a favorable view of Jesus. Men of God, Women of the word, businessmen and young adults, in this coming election, weather you are a republican or not, is it not time to stand up and ask God for even greater favor upon the name of Jesus in our day? The Bible spoke of Jesus growing in wisdom and stature and favor with God and men. And Jesus, is not dead. He is alive, therefore I am led to make the conclusion that as he grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man in the days he walked this earth as one of us, so does he continue even now.

If I am made in the image of Christ Jesus, I too am supposed to follow his way. Our big questions as Americans and Christians today is, are we growing? Are we creating an opportunity for God’s fame to astound the earth in ways we’ve not yet seen? Are we growing in wisdom, and in stature, and in favor with God first, and the men and women around us that we see each day?

Take another poll. Poll yourself on how you are doing. Who is the most famous person in your life? In the poll mentioned above, higher than both Lincoln and Jesus, we the people stood in favor of ourselves than either of these two men. Since we are all individuals, that did not create a majority. “Each one to his own…” If we each seek ourselves in the way we voiced our favors in this poll, we need a perspective adjustment. At the end of it all, we are simply dust, and God stands alone. He wins every time. -Yet he is so kind, as to desire our unity. He cares for us with jealous love. I say, it’s about time, we respond in his image. -With a jealous love of the name of Jesus.

All in favor say “I”. -or… should that be “Jesus.”

As believers, we know His word to be true in our lives. We sense an increase in the inner man as we wait for the increase to become evident in the outward circumstances. His increase is certainly different than our perspective of the word. His definition means more of Him in us. It means more of His nature, His character, His virtue, His spirit, His continual Presence and faithful love. It means more awareness on our part of His on-going activity in building His Kingdom on earth, both in us and through us everyday.

Pondering upon all that this word means, we become so aware of His grace and power to make it happen. INCREASE! Are we desperate for increase: more of Him and less of us? In order to walk fully in the destiny He has prepared for us, we must give way to His thoughts of us, as well as His plans for our lives. Do we long for the inner expansion that comes with increased waiting on God, increased time in His word, increased worship and intimacy. Increase: Are we making ready?