Are you Satisifed?

Matthew 15:36–37

36 he took the seven loaves and the fish, and chaving given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37 And dthey all ate and were satisfied. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 

I want to do a little more teaching than preaching today so after reading these verses this morning in bible study, I thought I would talk about them.

Far too often we christians, get caught up in the stresses of life.  I know I do.  I have enough going on right now to put most folks in the mental ward, but everyday I make it through just makes my faith stronger.  Now in these verses we are talking about Jesus feeding the 4000.  So these people hadn't eaten in like 3 days....they had been following Jesus around.  I think it is actually in verse 35 that Jesus talks about knowing they must be hungry because they had followed him for so long without eating.

The short and sweet of it today is this.....In verse 37 it says what?  Does it say they all had enough to eat at least enough to keep them from passing out from hunger?  Does it say Most of them ate and could at least make it back home before the hunger over took them?  NO...It says they ALL ate and were SATISFIED!  They even had left overs when they were finished.....Can you say ABUNDANCE?  That is what Jesus is trying to explain to Christians here....If we will just believe in Him and focus on His will not ours, then we will have More than what we need in life.  

Now, I'm not saying we will not have stresses and bills, I'm just saying that Jesus knows what our needs really are, on the eternal level....and He will give us the things we need, to the point there will be some left over to spread to others....That is ABUNDANCE!  I pray for God to give me more of a burden for the lost, and if He does give me more of a burden, then I know He will fill me up with the drive and "know how" to reach them.  

Right now I have alot of stresses in my life and they are extremely draining emotionally, but as usual, when I am at my weakest then God is able to do His best works in me..So bottom line is...I am satisfied in my soul right now with the path God is leading me in..I am satisfied with the spiritual support He freely gives me...My question to you is...Are you satisfied?  Do you feel God leading you in some way?  Trust in this...wherever He leads you, your needs won't be" barely met"...they will be met in ABUNDANCE!

God Bless!

Pray for my Christian Radio Station book tour....We are lining up stations from here to Orlando who will interview me on the air about " 30 Days of Conviction". 

Tell Them the Truth!

Tell Them The Truth!


Ephesians 4: 17-19

17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

 Think about your friends, family, and co-workers for a moment.....How many of them fit today's verses?  I know plenty of people who do, and it is extremely upsetting.  In verse 17 we see a command....once we are saved, we are to no longer live like everyone else.  We are not to live like unbelievers.  Anyway, verse 18 is what scares me to death about people I know.  I sit back and wonder sometimes about how these people can think the way they do.....I think about how they can do some of the things they do with little remorse...When I read verse 18 though, it makes perfect sense.  Their hearts have been hardened.  I can tell you that I have been dealing alot lately with someone who has a hardened heart.  These people will tell you things like " I don't believe in God the way you do", or " me and God have our own relationship".  Any of ya'll ever heard anything like that?

When you hear these things, you should start telling them the truth about Jesus and what He did for them....and start telling them the truth about life before it's too late.  It says in verse 19 that they have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality and greed to practice every kind of impurity.  

Now remember, we were once like these unbelievers....and we got saved.  So please don't quit witnessing to them or praying for their salvation.  Tell them the truth about what being saved has meant for you.  Don't fill them up with a bunch of unreal expectations.  In my case, I can tell them that from the moment I got saved, satan was trying to destroy my family.  I won't go into detail, but he definitely caused me alot of heartache.....That being said though...I'm SAVED by the blood of Jesus!  I have a personal relationship with the creator of the universe.  I physically feel it when I am talking to him and studying His word, and this fulfills my needs somehow.  Actually, this fulfills my soul.  I can't explain it, but it's true.  

Anyway, I got off subject again, but the point to all of this is 3 fold:

1.  Don't make up stories about your salvation in order to "help" someone make a decision for God.

2.  Tell them the truth.  Who Jesus is and What He did.

3.  In a non-judgemental way, ask them about their life and if it is fulfilling to them.  Then tell them that Jesus can reach a place in your soul and nourish you in a way that you could never explain....THIS IS THE TRUTH!

SENSE OF IT ALL

Hebrews 12 :7-9

It is for discipline that you have to endure.  God is treating you as sons.  For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  9..Besides this, we have earthlt fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.  Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

 

                                         “ SENSE OF IT ALL”

It really “sux” sometimes when you know you have made a mess of what God had in store for you.  I am like a child who has been caught red handed doing something wrong.  As many of you know, I had been having marital problems for a number of years.  Like any good Christian I wanted to keep my family together, even at the risk of putting an idol in front of God.

I always talked a big game about “ doing God’s will, not yours”, but when it came to giving up the woman I loved in my life, I was unable to turn it over to God.  I just kept telling myself, “God would want me to work on my marriage!”,  and I feel like he did want me to.  However, he never would want me or anyone else to put anyone or anything between us and Him.  For the past year or so, I have made my marriage my idol instead of God.  I have let my Blog and my Book fall aside in the shadow of my marriage, and for that my life has turned into a big mess.  Things have happened, that wouldn’t be so bad if I had just given in to the divorce a couple of years ago.  I had been reading 1 Cor 7:12-14, which basically says not to divorce your partner even if they are an unbeliever, however;  I would always skip 1 Cor 7:15 which basically says if your unbelieving partner separates from you, then you are released from your marital contract.  You see I was soo blinded by my wife and our marriage, that I was picking and choosing the verses in God’s word that fit my human desires…..and I now know that God will not stand for it.

 

As you know, I write for a lot of reasons: for peace of mind, for teaching God’s word, and for others reasons that leave me right now;  but the calling I have is real and I know that as I put God first, he will bless the work he has for me to do.

One last thing,  I whole heartedly believe that marriage is for life, and I whole heartedly believe that if my wife and I were both looking UP for guidance, none of this would be happening……meaning….Come together as couples and focus on God…..Make Him the focus on your marriage, and hopefully you will never have to go through what I am. 

 

God Bless!

I will be talking to my Publisher Monday afternoon about going on a little book tour to Christian Radio Stations to help market it, so keep it in your prayers…..It will be a good thing for me to do to take my mind off of my current situation.