Prayer

Today's Prayer
Dear God, People have written books on how to be highly effective and successful leaders, churches, parents...and so on. I want to become a more effective Christian. Please help me improve my walk and focus on you first in life. I'm giving my thoughts and actions to you. In my own human capacity, without your guidance, it is impossible for me to be an effective Christian. May your Spirit flow through me and use me to minister to others, to reach out to the lost, and to love those around me with a godly love. May you be glorified. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Today's Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, my God and Creator, my source of strength and provision, lover of man’s soul…I come to you today to pray on behalf of my country, my home, and the people who make up this nation. Oh how we need your help! Please have mercy upon us. I’m sorry for my failures and ashamed of the sins of this nation. May all that is good and every person who is called by your name bow before you in repentance and rise up to follow you as shining lights and examples of your love. May we live godly lives and be pleasing to you. May we look to you for our answers, for our help, for guidance. May we lift up the name of Jesus and proclaim his saving grace. I pray for our nation’s leaders, that they will seek your face and make their decisions based on biblical values and that you will protect them in their daily lives and often overwhelming duties. I pray for our Christian leaders, that they will receive wisdom and anointing for the day as you give them power and protection from harm and evil. I pray for families, that they would pull together and support one another—with Christ at the center. I pray for individuals, that we each will take responsibility for our thoughts and actions, that we may allow you to minister to others through us and do great and mighty things according to your will. “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12). May we stand together as your children. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Thes Second Step

Second Step to Holiness


In the first step I saw that repentance, brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit, made me aware of the magnitude, wickedness and folly of my ways. Then I gladly turned to Christ for forgiveness and He graciously responded with love and irrevocable forgiveness. This is redemption, for He paid the price of my sin by shedding His blood on the cross for me. I am then saved. Hallelujah!


The second step is the submission of my will to God’s will. Paul talks about this in Romans 7

: 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.

Paul realizes something is wrong, he cannot do what he knows he ought to do and he does what he knows he shouldn’t do, and he cries our as many of us have:24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

His own will is dominant so he does what he wants instead of what he knows he should do. But he knows who has the answer: I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,[a] who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

So if our will is not surrendered to the will of God we are walking in the flesh and not in the Spirit!

Jesus not only died on the cross to forgive our sins, but, sent the Holy Spirit as my counselor and guide with power to tame my will and let me submit (surrender) to the will of God.


We see this also in chapter 6: 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We know Sin is death to the sinner, but here he is talking about the Christian who still sins because he has not surrendered his will to God’s will. But we can be made free in Christ. Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,[a] who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Hallelujah!

Don’t be deceived, there are those who think this verse means God won’t condemn us if we do sin. They don’t read the rest of the verse. It says “who do not walk according to the flesh!

We were Bought With a Price

WE were bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus; therefore I will glorify God in my body and spirit, which are God’s.
I will not use any part of me to do my own will but allow God to have his will in all my life.
I not let Satan or sin to possess, barrow or pollute my body, mind or heart, for I am God’s.
Jesus is mine; the Holy Spirit is in control of every thought, act and relationship.
God is love. I Know God, He knows me; therefore agape love will be my aim and attitude.
Christ accepted me, and I accepted Him. I’ll not allow any division or separation from Him.
This is my commitment to Him, for he gave his life for me, and His Spirit to me. Amen.

ARE YOU TAKING A RISK?

IS IT A RISK TO HAVE FAITH IN GOD?

How firm a foundation!

On Christ the solid rock I stand!

Either I believe Jesus is the way the truth and the life, or I don’t!

Either I trust (have faith in) Jesus, God’s Son, or I don’t!

Either I choose Him and His way or I don’t!

Either I am on the way to Heaven, or I’m not!

Either I live what I say I believe or, I don’t believe!

Either I walk in the Spirit, or I don’t!

Either He lives in me, or He doesn’t!

How is it with you?

You Can Get Rich Quick!

You can Get Rich Quick


You will find the secret in the Epistle Paul wrote to the Ephesians he told them of the great privileges we have as those predestined in God's grace' In Chapter one beginning at verse three he says: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love
5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-
6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace
8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,
12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory.
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength."

In Chapter two he goes on:
4 "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,
15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,
16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."

He goes on in chapter three, to pray for us. Paul's prayer is not for things he knows nothing about but for the same things that he has experienced in his own life and therefore knows that the are not only available for us but they are what the Father desperately wants us to have. This is that wonderful prayer! Beginning in verse fourteen:
"For this reason I kneel before the Father,
15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen".

We have not begun to realize the wonderful blessings God has prepared for us here. We have misunderstood and far under estimated the magnitude of His glorious grace that, as Peter said, allows us to partake of the Divine nature. And all of this says nothing about the Glory that will be revealed to us in the day when we shall see Jesus Christ face to face. In 1 John 3:2 it says: "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."

Have you begun to tap these riches? They are for you too. I confess I have only begun, but like Paul says in Philippians 3:14:"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus".

Love,
Howard

Supreme Revelation Of Eternal Life

Hebrews 1(New King James Version)

God’s Supreme Revelation

1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, (The Old Testament men who wrote of the coming Messiah)

2 has in these last days (Since the time of Christ’s first coming) spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;(John 1: 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.) 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person,(Just like His Father) and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, (Matt 26: 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” 39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” By His own decision in Gethsemane surrendered himself to His Fathers will and went to the cross for our salvation) sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

The Son Exalted Above Angels

5 For to which of the angels did He ever say:
“ You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You”? And again:
“ I will be to Him a Father,
And He shall be to Me a Son”?

6 But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says:

“ Let all the angels of God worship Him.”

7 And of the angels He says:

“ Who makes His angels spirits
And His ministers a flame of fire.”

8 But to the Son He says: “ Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
But You are the same,
And Your years will not fail.

Let us soak in the tremendous truth of the exaltation of the Incarnate Son of God,

The Supremacy of Christ!