The Eyes of Death

Today I had lunch with a young woman who is dying. No, she does not have cancer or some other typical disease that most would immediately think of. No, the fact is this young woman is an addict and an alcoholic... and it is killing her. I started to say that it was "slowly but surely" killing her, but the fact is, it is taking her down rapidly and with a vengeance. I had last seen this woman about 7 weeks ago, and I was absolutely stunned at the change in her physical appearance from then to now. In fact, I told her so. I was not trying to be mean or harsh at all, but I was trying to slap her into reality. This is a woman in her early twenties and unless something drastic happens in her life and soon, she will die before her 25th birthday. I know this woman well and I love her dearly and I spoke very frankly with her. I said to her, "you do know you are on a path to self destruction" with the list of things that she is doing and the chemicals she is putting into her body. She nodded and acknowledge, "Yeah, I know, Pastor D." She admits she needs to go to rehab or she is going to die. The alcohol is causing her body and face to swell and the heroine is causing her skin and hair to age, and the color in her eyes is faded and the whites of her eyes are grey. I said to her, "Hon, I don't want to offend you, but you are looking terrible." I did not even have to go further. She told me what I was seeing. She said that a loved one had recently said to her that her eyes were "dead".  That is a good way to describe it.

I'm so tired of drugs taking the lives of so many young people. I cannot even begin to count how many funerals we've had in our community over the past 2 years due to drugs and alcohol. I'm praying... I really praying... but the bottom line is that each of these people who are trapped by the demon of addiction must come to a decision themselves that they are done. I wish I could fix them all. I wish I could destroy all the drugs. But it just does not work that way... and I know that if things don't change... and soon... there will be more funerals. The one I sat with today... and the once beautiful young woman I know who has wasted away to barely more than skin stretched on a skeleton because of her use of meth. The promising athlete who lost it all because he could not stop hitting the crack pipe. I could go on and on... but this demonic force of drug addiction is running rampant in Galesburg... and I hate it! I'm tired of staring into the eyes of death that sit in the sunken faces of 20 something year old kids!

Lord... we need an earth shaking revival in Galesburg.

(The Picture above is NOT someone I know, but is from www.thegooddrugsguide.com for the purpose of illustrating what drugs do very rapidly. )

The Parable of the Soil

In Mark the 4th chapter, Jesus told a parable in which he spoke about four types of soil that represent the condition of the human heart. Notice, the seed is the same.

³ “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. ⁴ And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. ⁵ Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. ⁶ But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. ⁷ And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. ⁸ But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

⁹ And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Some fell along the wayside and was immediately devoured. But the second type of soil... this is interesting. Jesus calls it stony ground. It receives that seed... but it has a shallow heart. Here Jesus is referencing someone who will not allow the Word of God into his or her heart with any depth. They joyfully receive the promises of God... and they sure do look pretty as they spring up quick and draw attention to themselves... but they have not developed roots. This type person has no real personal confidence in his relationship with the Lord. There is an outer layer of spiritual assent but no real depth because beneath the façade of spirituality he remains self-centered, untrusting, and unchanged. I looked up that word "facade" and this is what the dictionary said:

"The front of a building, especially an imposing or decorative one that covers or hides the existing building.  Any side of a building facing a public way or space and finished accordingly. A superficial appearance or illusion of something that is not there."  A facade may give the appearance of something new... but behind the facade it is the same old structure.

This is the type person who really wants and desires the fruit of a life that is totally turned over to God... and yet, they refuse to let go of their carnal state of mind. They are never consistent. They are the "up and down, in and out" variety of Christian. They are on top of the world spiritually, for a season... then they are cutting themselves off from everyone, isolating from church and fellow believers and the world. They will tell everyone that "the Lord is leading them" to do this, but the reality is, they are in the midst of their own spiritual meltdown or crisis because they have no depth to their relationship with Christ. They will often find themselves running from teacher to teacher, revival to revival or spiritual fad to fad. They set down no roots. And you will often find this type person blaming God, the pastor and  the church for the mess they are in... so they change churches every couple of years. Because their heart is so hardened that they fail to recognize that it is themselves who have kept the Word out of those inward places of their life. Consequently, they exercise little spiritual power and can do nothing to help their fellowman for any prolonged period of time. They spring up quickly in this shallow soil, but because they have no root, they quickly wither and die. They mean well... but their shallowness prevents the Word from ever truly taking root, so when Satan brings trouble into their life they begin to distrust and abandon the promises of God...as well as the people around them and they fail to complete the tasks they started.

There is a  third kind of soil in this parable... and it represents the condition of the heart Jesus called thorny soil. This is an overcrowded heart. The seed of God’s Word planted in ground cluttered with cares and anxieties will yield no fruit. Within the soil of the overcrowded heart are the weeds of doing-too-much and misplaced priorities. As a result, there remains little room for the newly planted seed of God’s Word to grow. We need to understand that it is  so easy to innocently become over-involved with harmless activities of life, and the danger is that we can become so busy that we are distracted so that God’s Word has very little priority, therefore the Word has no real effect in our lives. The cares of life rob us of the time of fellowship and closeness with God. When we are constantly busy and distracted by projects, events and duties, there simply is no time to spend alone in fellowship with God... because we are too busy! When we seldom find that "intimate time" with the Lord, the cares of this life "choke out" the seed of the Word and we fail to bloom in the way we ought.

First Peter 5:7 says, “…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” Cares, anxieties, worries, and concerns fill our minds, distracting us from intimacy with God. They become seed thoughts that will begin to choke out the Word.  

Make no mistake about it... our inner man will receive whatever seed we plant. 

The seed of God's Word is always the same... but the question is, what is the soil like? This is why the Word itself tells us to "break up the fallow ground."  We have to dig up the hardened places in our heart... remove all the stones and "junk" that is in that soil that is cluttering our life and hindering the growth from that seed. That's our job. We must break up the ground and rid ourselves of those things that choke out the Word.

Proverbs 4:23 warns about the importance of guarding our hearts. It says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” We are responsible for diligently guarding our hearts against becoming shallow or overcrowded. When we do this, then the life of God will flow freely from our inner man and our outward lives will begin to reflect the blessing of God.

Spiritual Mayhem

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out…”  Acts 3:19 

Repent! The idea of repentance seems to be quite the controversial subject within the Body of Christ right now. Bring up the subject and some simply shy away from it, as if they are afraid of the word. Rather, I happen to think they are afraid of confronting and dealing with the controversy swirling around certain preachers and teachers who are now claiming in their preaching and writing that repentance is not necessary for salvation. I'll admit, it is not an easy thing to confront false teachers, especially when they pastor mega churches and have television programs that are seen around the world. Confront their error and it is going to get messy. It is inevitable, you will be the one attacked and accused of judging. (Those same people making such accusations would be pointing fingers at Jesus for driving the money changers out of the temple, so you are in good company.) You can count on it, you will be seen by many as the one trying to cause division because you are picking on their favorite preacher/teacher. Just earlier this week on a messaging board where I talk with other ministers, one of them made the observation, "The problem is that in our society today, if someone is on TV that automatically gives them credibility in some people's eyes, or at least more credibility that you or me if we're NOT on TV. The attitude is they must be right because they are on TV, and if you aren't on TV, then the attitude is, "Who are you?" if you dare to criticize them."  My friend is absolutely right with this statement. Therefore, many have chosen to remain silent rather than be turned on themselves. I happen to believe that if I know the truth and I see someone being sucked in by false doctrine, I must speak out.  Think about it in these terms. You've probably seen those "Mayhem" advertisements put out by All State. In one of them, "Mayhem" is a GPS in a car and gives faulty directions which leads to a crash. Now, if you were in that car and the GPS gave out information that you knew was going to lead to disaster and possibly death, would you sit there quietly thinking that the driver would rather listen to the GPS than you, someone who knew the truth? I think most of us would speak up. It is still the drivers decision as to who he will follow, but you have to speak the truth in attempt to save someone from tragedy; right?  Well, we are dealing with something of FAR greater significance here. We are talking about eternal souls. I cannot speak for anyone else, but I'd rather speak up and run the risk of ridicule and making some folks mad, than sit quietly by and watch people head down a road that will damn their souls. (Yes, I hear you screaming at me that I'm being harsh and judgmental right now... but if you will read on, I will back my statements up with scripture. It really is that serious.)

Is repentance necessary for salvation? Some of the biggest preachers on television say it is not. But before I take their word for it, I think I'll examine this a bit further. Let's be clear that it is true that numerous Bible verses speak of the promise of salvation with no mention of repentance. In most of these verses we find that they say to “believe” on Jesus Christ and you shall be saved (Acts 16:31, Romans 10:9 et al.). Many preachers and Christians use these verses to justify their lack of speaking about repentance contending that it is not necessary for someone to be saved. One popular preacher is constantly mockingly saying to the church at large that if repentance was necessary, Paul would have spoken more about it. I say he did, even though he did not actually use the word "repentance" in most cases. He did however give instruction to the church to deal with unrepentant individual. The Bible tells us that we must "rightly divide the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15) and I contend that these teachers who hand select certain verses without "rightly dividing" the whole truth of the Bible. Their actions and teaching is absolute foolishness (although it sells to an unrepentant world!) because they are using just a few select verses to substantiate their teaching without even acknowledging the many other clear commands in Bible that speak clearly to salvation. The irresponsible use of God's Word in the teaching of these preachers could be likened to someone trying to put together something they took out of the package, but rather than following the detailed instructions, they instead choose to only do some of the instructions and ignore the rest. We all know that if someone did this, the finished product is most likely going to be somewhat different that what it was supposed to be. When they finished, they'd probably have some extra parts and be scratching their head and wondering where they were supposed to go. And something would no doubt be out of kilter.  Again, let's be totally clear, the Bible does state that someone must have faith and believe on Jesus in order to saved... but that is only part of the instructions given.  You see, the Bible is absolutely clear that God is holy and that man is sinful and because of sin there is a division or separation from man and God. (Read Isaiah 59:1-2) The Bible tells us that without repentance, sinful man cannot have fellowship with a holy God. These teachers will argue that we are preaching salvation by works, and rail against the Law. I think part of the problem is that they don't understand repentance. The word from which we get our word repentance comes from a military term that was used in marching the troops. To "repent" simply means to turn around and go the opposite direction. Today, we'd say, "about face!"  When we are commanded to "repent" it is more than a "changing of the mind" as on TV preacher is so fond of teaching. It has to go beyond an intellectual changing of the mind, and become a literal change of the way in which we live! Turn and go the other way! To repent means to "stop sinning." Yes, there is a changing of the mind, but that mind change also changes our behavior. Again, using our driving analogy, it is not enough to THINK a turn, I must actually turn the wheel in order to change directions. That same TV preacher and mega church pastor is often quoted as saying there is no need to confess our sins. But the Bible says in Proverbs 28:13, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses them and renounces them (repentance) finds mercy.” I think I'll stick with the Bible here. These teachers will tell you that to "repent" means simply to change your mind about Christ... which again is true... but it also means to change your mind about sin! Now that you have changed your mind about Christ and hooked up with his team, it means you do a spiritual about-face, which in turn changes everything in your life as you discover what it really means to honor God with your life! You realize that it’s no longer about performance. It’s about a heart attitude that confesses Christ and seeks to honor Him in every aspect of life! If your mind has been change, it should naturally follow that the actions should change.

Last thing... I said earlier that I'd give Scripture to prove just how serious this really is. 1 John 1:5 - 10 says:  ⁵This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

 ⁶If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

 ⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

 ⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

 ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 ¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

First, God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Dark and light cannot co-exist in the same place at the same time. If there is light, there will be no darkness. If there is darkness, there cannot be light. Pure and simple. John says, (my paraphrase) "You can say you are in Christ all you want, but the way you live proves the truth.  Words and 'confession' mean nothing without repentance."

Can I Really Be 53?

Today is my birthday, and I turned 53 years old today. It is really hard for me to imagine. I was talking to my brother earlier and he was talking about the same thing, as he turned 69 two weeks ago.  Just doesn't seem possible. I was shaving this morning and as I looked in the mirror I was looking at the greying, thinning hair, the wrinkles around the eyes and I said to myself, (literally) "Dude, I remember the day you turned 13 like it was yesterday!" 
Then in my mind, I thought and I can recall specific details of each day... the day I turned 13 and that certain girl that I'd been crushing on kissed me in the hallway after school and melted my heart. At 23, on my birthday I was in prison in Vienna and I received a package from my sister Jo. When I opened it, there was several smaller packages, all wrapped in Christmas wrapping. The package had been lost in the mail for 2 months and happened to arrive on my birthday. We all laughed all day about that one.  On my 33rd birthday, my wife threw a birthday dinner for me at our house and some of the kids from our church in Bridgeport came over for the evening. My wife bought me a Pomeranian... our first one. The dog hated me and constantly bit Daniel and we had to get rid of it.
On my 43rd birthday, my church in Lincoln threw a birthday celebration at the church and had some of my family came in. They put on an entire show in my honor that day, complete with an Elvis impersonator. (Sure is hard to believe that was 10 years ago!) That brings me to today... 53 years in the blink of an eye.
Time goes by so swiftly.  It's like the Bible says in Job 7:6, "my days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle..."   Each day is just like that weaver's shuttle passing by on the loom... leaving threads behind each and every day, every year, weaving the tapestry of our lives.

While I may be a bit nostalgic today... I'm not sorrowful at all... I've lived a very blessed life. There have been plenty of bad times along the way, mixed in with the good... but they all work together weaving the fabric of my life... and as I look at my life, I love what I see. I'm so glad that the me of 23 and in prison has been transformed into the me of 53 years of age... and I can see God's goodness and grace in action.

Those of you who know me well know that I've said for the past 30 years that I'm going to live until I'm 103... so the way I figure it, I'm barely half way through this life... so there is much more to go in my tapestry!  

More ACLU Quackery

Below is another email received from the ACLU today. Notice their subtle twist of facts to make the Catholic church the villains in this thing. It is a FACT that the new Obama healthcare plan forces ALL  insurance policies including the Catholic church to include contraceptives. The ACLU is nothing but a pawn of the left wing.

Anti-choice forces around the country are yelling from the rooftops about religious freedom. But what they actually mean is the use of religion to discriminate and deny millions of women access to birth control.

Now anti-family planning politicians in Congress are getting in on the action and trying to reverse the President's critical decision, which would ensure access to birth control for millions of women.

We must stand with President Obama — believe me, he's hearing from the other side, starting with Speaker Boehner who has pledged to reverse this rule.

Tell your members of Congress: Stand up to right-wing efforts to use religion to discriminate and deny millions of women urgently needed access to birth control. (Do not forward: This link will open a page with your information already filled in.)

Let's be clear. The current law does not require religious institutions like churches or synagogues to include birth control in their employee's health insurance.

But, when lobbying groups — led by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — insisted that the exemption be expanded to include religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and other institutions, jeopardizing coverage for millions of women, the Obama administration drew a line in the sand.

If the lobbying groups get their way, a woman teaching at a Catholic university could not get coverage. Or, a nurse working at an evangelical Christian hospital could be denied access to basic health care.

Tell Congress to stand with the President and American women.

Anti-choice forces are screaming that the Obama administration's efforts to protect women's access to birth control are part of a "war on religion." This explosive accusation is untrue but their hope is that if they repeat it often enough, they can get Congress to roll back our rights. We can't let that happen.

Religious freedom is about protecting people of all faiths, not imposing the values of some on the rest of us.

Why Is Bad Idea to Require An ID?

I received an email today from the ACLU which is asking for my support to stop the suppression of voter rights in Springfield. Illinois is looking at requiring an ID before you can vote, and the ACLU calls this an attempt to disenfranchise minority voters. Maybe I am just dense, but can some explain to me how and why it is unfair to minorities to require an ID? Last time I checked, you must have an ID to cash a check, yet I don't hear anyone screaming about this? Before you can get hired on to a job, you must produce an ID... again, no one is questioning this. But somehow, when it comes time to vote, it is unfair and disenfranchising to require an ID? To quote one of my favorite lines from "O Brother Where Art Thou?" ... "I don't get it Big Dan."

OK... first, here is their actual email (bold print is theirs as well):


Dear Darrell,
The right to vote is central to our democracy. Rather than working to protect and expand the right to vote, politicians in Springfield are considering legislation that suppresses the right to vote, and hurts low-income individuals, racial and ethnic minorities, senior citizens and voters with disabilities.
Take action: Tell your legislators to oppose repressive Voter ID requirements.


Voter ID laws, like House Bill 3903 and Senate Bill 2496 deny the right to vote to registered voters who do not have, and in many instances cannot obtain, photo identification required for voting. You may think that everyone owns a photo ID, but the reality is that millions of Americans — through no fault of their own — lack the narrow category of permissible IDs under the proposed legislation. These disfranchised voters include people who happened to move, were born at home and veterans who served this country.
The proposed legislation also disproportionately affects African-American citizens. More than 25% of voting age African-Americans do not have a government-issued photo-ID, compared with only 8% of whites. Elected officials should be seeking ways to encourage more Americans to vote, not inventing discriminatory pretexts to deny eligible voters a chance to cast their ballots.
(end)

So, I am at a bit of a loss. First, WHY would someone "through no fault of their own" not be able to obtain an ID? Are you telling me that it is possible to go down to the welfare office and sign up without an ID? Seriously? And I'd really like to know, just where did the ACLU come up with this statistic that 25% of  African American voters do not have an ID? Same with the whites?  Come on... did they pull these figures out of their backsides or what? Just how do you come up with these numbers?

So, why do we need to require an ID? Well, perhaps some have forgotten, but if you search the net you can find the story still, just before the 2008 election, ABC News (yes, the left wing slanted ABC network news) broke a news story on ACORN where in one district in Indiana, 5000 voter registrations were turned in to one office and literally, ALL 5000 of the registrations were proven to be causes of fraud where a worker fabricated every single registration. Many were dead. Many were infants. One that stands out in my mind was a voter sign up as Jimmy John. When they went to the address to verify the voter registration, it was Jimmy Johns restaurant. In this case, in one district, they were set up for 5000 fraudulent votes! Now you tell me... why is an ID necessary? Here in Illinois, voter fraud is a way of life... or at least it has been. I agree with the legislators in Springfield... it is high time for an ID requirement.

A Realistic Look At the Body (Revisited)

I was sitting here thinking tonight, and the following post that I wrote, (ironically, 2 years ago this week) and I felt it needed to be shared again.

A Realistic Look At The Body

The Lord showed me something this morning that is rather disturbing, but it has to be shared. I know there will be those who will be upset, even angry with me, but it has to be shared. I'm hesitant to write this one, because I know the arguments and attack I will face over this, but it has to be said.
Not because I want to, but because God says I must.

I came in this morning and was fighting a headache and was trying to deal with it while simultaneously get my head together for the day ahead and for church service tonight. I was feeling uneasy and troubled in my spirit and I asked the Lord to show me what he wanted to, and I laid my head back on the couch and waited. In just a few minutes I saw several image similar to those which I have put in the picture I created that you see here on this blog.

As I saw these images, the Holy Spirit spoke to me saying, this is the condition of the Body of Christ. The first image I saw was like that of the old Charles Atlas advertisements of the 90 pound weakling. The Lord spoke to me and said, "My church should be full of power, but it is weak and anemic, having not received the meat of the Word nor having exercised and prepared herself for battle. I then saw the image of the very out of shape man looking into a mirror but seeing an image of a fit, muscular body. The impression or perception was that of one who is fit, but the reality was vastly different. The Lord spoke to me and said that many have a self-perception that they are strong and fit, but they are deceived. They are ill-prepared, not fit for battle but they cannot be convinced how out of shape they are because they see themselves as being leaders when in fact they are spiritually flabby, weak and out of shape.

The next image I saw was that of a muscular body builder posing as one would in a competition. The Holy Spirit spoke clearly to me, saying that many have "built themselves up" but it is "for themselves." They are great posers, put on a good show, but they do only for themselves. He spoke clearly that there are those who appear to be strong leaders, but they do so only for what they can get. They consider themselves to be a backbone, strong spiritual leaders, but they are full of selfishness, doing what they do for what they get out of it and the attention they receive, not for what they can do for the body. The Holy Spirit spoke so clearly saying that their prayers fall unanswered and they are powerless because their reward is their attention which they seek. I then saw an image of one sitting at a feast and getting fat while there were others sitting around them starving. And the Lord said, "they are not concerned with the body, only for themselves. They take, but never give. They neglect the time of corporate worship thinking that they are above that and have no need. They feed themselves while others are dying." I immediately thought of Hebrews 10:24-25 "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
I thought about the countless times people have told me that they "get more out of prayer meeting than they do worship service." I thought about those who only come for the singing and worship, but leave before the preaching of the Word. I believe God is speaking a strong word to His church!

The Lord showed me an image of someone sitting at a table filled with pies and cakes. And the Holy Spirit said to me "there are many who seek the sweet things, but are not willing to eat the meat. They want the shout, they want the dance, they want the so called worship, but they will not submit themselves to the teaching of the Word. He then said a Word that was very disturbing to me. He said, "My church is full of revelers without discipline."
I had to think on that one and even looked up the definition of the word "revel." The dictionary says: " to make merry, enjoy pleasure often with music, song and dance." I believe what God is saying is that people are reveling in the music, dance and so on, but it is not about worship, it is about self enjoyment. When the music and dance is gone, so are they. Many come to church and enjoy the music and dance, but their life is not changed. If the life is not changed, then it cannot be worship, it is a party. There must be discipline... for that's what discipleship is all about!

No wonder prayers are ineffectual because people are full of self, and they walk in disobedience. Families are being ravaged because they love the worship music, but they are not in the Word. Reveling is where self is gratified. Our needs, our desires, we feel good.
The Body has misunderstood worship. It is not about what you "get", it is what you give! It is not about being blessed, it is about blessing God. Worship is giving to God!
People like to shout. They like to dance. They like to be loud, but they have not disciplined themselves to receive the meat... they want the sweet things! They have been seduced.

God is calling His church to a time of discipline. A time of denying self and what we want, and to receiving what God has to give us, for He knows what we have need of!

Posted by Darrell at Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Can No One Take a Joke Anymore?

Earlier tonight I made an update on my Facebook page that said: "I have often wondered why it is that Conservatives are called the "right" and Liberals are called the "left." By chance I stumbled upon this verse in the Bible:"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, But the heart of the fool to the left." ~ Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)"
Since then, I've had 4 people send me private messages telling me (very sharply) that I needed to remove it and that I should not make such statements and that I was twisting the Bible... and so on. 
Good grief people... it's a JOKE!  Some of you need to buy yourself some new panties and underwear that are not so tight or don't ride up on you, because you have a real problem. And if you want to "unfriend" me... please be my guest. I'm really quite tired of sanctimonious people. Adios.

Giver of Life

This song (actually, a lot of Darrell Mansfield's music) was a huge source of help, comfort and strength to me as a baby Christian. I'd not heard this song in years until I found it last night on Spotify. I'd just come home from talking with a young lady who is searching and struggling at times in her walk, and our talk left me pretty emotional as was drawn back to the early days in my walk with Christ and I was reminded so acutely and powerfully of just where the Lord had brought me from. I found this video of the song and wanted to share it. For some young Christians, I hope this helps you to know that the grace of God goes so much deeper than you could ever imagine and that you KNOW that God will never give up on you, if you just trust in His son, Jesus.  For you old timers like me... I hope this helps remind you of two things: 1) Never forget where God has brought you from, and 2) Don't place demands and limitations on babes in Christ that God Himself does not impose on them! Grace! Grace! Grace!

Can a man go so far in this world that the love of God cannot reach him?

Can man say anything deep in his heart he can't really mean?

If a man goes on falling, yes day and night

And the Giver of Life, can't lead him to light

Then I don't understand, and I don't know God's grace, at all.

Can a man go so far in this world that the love of God cannot find him?

Can a man do anything that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse?

If a man goes on sinning day and night

And the Giver of Life, can't lead him to light

Then I don't understand and I don't know God's plan, at all.

But I know who I have believed in.

I'm persuaded He is able to keep me

Cause I was that man, who believed His plan

And the Giver of Life, well He led me to light.

You were so understanding, and so undemanding on me

Thank you Lord

It was so kind of You, to help pull me through

When I could barely see

Though I keep on falling, yes day and night

You show me the way, and You give me Your light

Cause Your the Giver of Life,

You lead me to light

Yes, I know who I have believed in.

I'm persuaded He is able to keep me

Cause I was that man, who believed His plan

And the Giver of Life, well He led me to light.

Exposing the Jezebel Spirit

Jonas Clark teaching on the Jezebel spirit. Do you REALLY want to know the truth? Will you deal with the truth once it has been revealed to you? Jonas lays out the truth of how Jezebel operates.

Yes, It's Gossip

I was chatting with someone online tonight and they began telling me some things that I quickly realized I not only did not want to hear, but I should not hear (or in this case, read.)

When I told this person that their conversation was turning to gossip and that I really did not want to go there, they then started arguing with me about what gossip was. I told them what I felt about it, and that they could do what they wanted, but I was not going to be a participant in it. After all this, I made the decision to post the following. This is something that I found awhile back on a website called Crosswalk. I hope it helps someone today.

What Is Gossip?

Gossip is sharing private information with those who are not part of the problem or part of the solution. When you speak things about others that you would be ashamed to say in their presence, you are not only disobeying God's Word (Leviticus 19:16), you are also destroying that person's reputation in the mind of your listener.

Scripture states that the sin of gossip is not limited to the spreading of lies alone, but also includes the improper involvement of yourself in another person's personal business (1 Timothy 5:13).

 

Even to participate in the act of gossip as a listener is sin (Proverbs 20:19). By willfully listening to the one who gossips, you sanction the destruction of the other person's reputation.
 

What Scripture Says

"For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish; lest there be contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults"
(2 Corinthians 12:20).

 

"You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people; nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:16).

"And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not" 
(1 Timothy 5:13).

 

"For I heard many mocking:  'Fear on every side!'  'Report,'  they say, 'and we will report it.'  All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying, '...we will take our revenge on him'" (Jeremiah 20:10).

 

"Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying,  'And what shall we do?'  So he said to them,  'Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages'" 
(Luke 3:14).

 

"Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and destroy. Who are you to judge another?" (James 4:11,12).

 

"Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone..." (Matthew 18:15).

And The Winner Is...

I just could not resist passing this along.

FIRST PLACE WINNER: BESSEMER, MICHIGAN’S FOURTH OF JULY PARADE FLOAT

Bessemer, Michigan is a small community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Bessemer is located near Ironwood and Wakefield, Michigan and Hurley, Wisconsin. For those who don't recognize it, the trailer behind the tractor is a manure spreader…