Each days a new day and with the new day comes new or continuing decisions. So what's it going to be? Continue on in the direction of the mind or follow the heart that's led by Gods Word (Jesus Christ)?
If you follow the mind (head knowledge) you will elevate "why" to the pride level then fall, (for pride goes before a fall.) The mind can be manipulated by our carnal desires and excuses made to "back our play." But the heart, led by the Spirit of God through His Word, will direct us to "do His will" and thus glorify His name in all the earth.
This has benefit in all areas of life. Marriage, work, service, parenting, actions, attitudes, and motive. Not to mention thought, words and deeds. In every area mentioned proof is shown as to where you are making you decisions out of. The heart will abide with the Word of God and all His precepts regardless of how we feel about them or what we want to do. You will only make this journey (life) once and we have been given a map and a Guide, use them.
Excuses belong to those who "want excuse" to go their own way, do their own thing. You can tell that you strayed from the Map O'God when everything starts to fall apart and crumble. If you claim His name then you must claim His Word that it alone is right and we must submit to His Loving guidance. Here in is where many "Believer's" fail. They want the "Streets of Gold" on the other side, but not the path of peculiarity (obedience) on this side.
If our "claim to Salvation" was done in our heads by the cunning devises of man's words, and not in the heart by preparation of the Holy Spirit, then we will not "follow the Spirit" in obedience to His Word and "grow destruction" in our fields instead of precious Fruit of the Spirit.
FOLLOWING THE HOLY SPIRIT AS HE PRESENTS THE WORD OF GOD IS NOT OPTIONAL!
Having God's Word written on our hearts is not optional.
Scripture describes two types of hearts: one of stone and one of flesh. We all start out with a heart of stone that God promises to take from us and replace it with a heart of flesh "wherein He will write His Word with His finger.
A stony heart is the starting block for all men and woman so that God might have the "preeminence" on all to change it. But even that has to be "desired" of that stony heart to have done. Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you.
Is your life important enough to "follow the Guide and the Map"? Or are we just strong enough to constantly pick up the pieces cast down from our carnal decisions and call it a life?
Here is a question that you could ask yourself: Is the joy of the Lord my strength? If so then why the failing when there is nothing impossible for Him? Who gave up? You? or Him? He didn't as He cannot fail. So maybe we missed something in our daily communication with Him that caused us to "wander afar off." Maybe we are just happy to worship Him with our mouths but our hearts are far from Him, just maybe we "decide" that all that "is written" doesn't apply to us, our hearing or our applying? Maybe we "dispensate" His Word so as to allow ourselves to resist being "conformed to His image and likeness" or down right deny that change.
Consider your life,
Consider your walk.
Consider now your future in Him who "fills all His creation" in which you live.
Just consider.
Love
J&E
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Choices
It's just after midnight and I sit here with a greatfull heart listening to worship music and thinking about how different life would be without my wife. The beauty of our life together cannot be measure in the 9 children and 12 grandchildren that we rejoice in. It cannot be measured in all the sacrifice we made to get from 1972 till today. It cannot be measured in tears or trials that have passed under the bridge, nor could it be measured in the early loss of 4 who await us in heaven.
Life has (and will have) its burdens to bear, and calamities, those things give us passion. Struggles exercises the sinews of life and strengthens the bones of bearing. We all need that regardless of the comfort we seek.
It's just after midnight and I sit here with a greatfull heart listening to worship music and thinking about how different life would be without my wife. The beauty of our life together cannot be measure in the 9 children and 12 grandchildren that we rejoice in. It cannot be measured in all the sacrifice we made to get from 1972 till today. It cannot be measured in tears or trials that have passed under the bridge, nor could it be measured in the early loss of 4 who await us in heaven.
Life has (and will have) its burdens to bear, and calamities, those things give us passion. Struggles exercises the sinews of life and strengthens the bones of bearing. We all need that regardless of the comfort we seek.
It's just after midnight and I sit here with a greatfull heart listening to worship music and thinking about how different life would be without my wife. The beauty of our life together cannot be measure in the 9 children and 12 grandchildren that we rejoice in. It cannot be measured in all the sacrifice we made to get from 1972 till today. It cannot be measured in tears or trials that have passed under the bridge, nor could it be measured in the early loss of 4 who await us in heaven.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
You or God?
A note to those who visit my page and postings:
Some may seem like I do this far too often, (posting explanations of why I am the way I am and what I believe), but that is my prerogative so as to make all matters clear.
Today's note is about faith!
Not faith in, (as some ignorantly acclaim), a higher power which can have any application or form, but faith in Jesus Christ; and the Scriptures, which is the written Word, that became flesh, and dwelt amongst us for a while, again Jesus Christ.
Many attest that the Scriptures need to be studied with an effort of mental acuity. That by some form of physical effort they can have a relationship with Jesus Christ and claim the promise of salvation. With this attitude in mind the rest of Scripture is embraced the same way, including doctrine and practices. Sad to say that this practice of mental observance and effort has taken over the everyday applications in all manner of disbursement for knowledge or wisdom. It shows in the practices of those who call upon the "name of the Lord", many times having no real Scriptural basis to claim but "expectation" for the asking.
Our God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is a mover of hearts. We come to salvation, (not by mental decree or agreement), when the soil of our hearts are made fertile to receive the Word. Our ears don't connect directly to the brain in this matter but to our hearts as for the fitting of soil so that "His Word shall not come back void." Salvation is not based on the mental understanding of spiritual things but on the hearts spiritual revelation of spiritual things made known by the Holy Spirit (in His due time.) Then that revelation brings forth the speaking of the words that has been planted in the heart on prepared ground. Romans 10:9-10 says: 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
All matters of faith are matters of the heart then the mouth speaks what the heart has received from the Holy Spirit.
If your practice is to understand with your head the things of Christ (the Word) then you will only have the carnal interpretation and that will not bring you into the spiritual experience that the Scriptures promise us.
That is how so many believers can claim salvation but dispel any other promise or command of God as to being valid. Because they "think with their heads" not their hearts, then healing is a hit and miss prayer "hoping" instead of "believing", offering a prayer that is faithless, a "shot at the moon" instead of seeking the will of God according to His written/spoken promises then claiming them. If prayer for healing could be so faithless or not put into practice by churches in faith then what about the other promises of casting out demons, raising the dead, speaking in tongues, prophesy, interpretations, dreams, visions, and signs and wonders? These are the "babies thrown out with the bath water."
So many "believers" have this application: "Because I have not seen it certainly it has been discontinued by God for His Bride or Church.
Excuse me! If God has changed even one of His promises then none of His promises (including salvation) are good for today or anymore.
Romans 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. He never changes. He is from everlasting to everlasting, He changeth not.
So who in this line of study is right? God or man?
The truth sets free, from sin and fear, evil and affliction, death and hopelessness, if it doesn't set free then it is not truth and it is a lie. I am often amazed that people of "faith" in Christ have so many excuses as to why they have to lie about scripture because "they" haven't experienced this or that promise. "You have not because you ask not", is this asking with just the mouth or should it come from the heart? But wait, how can it be in the heart if it was never preached to them or even dispelled in the preaching as being true?
Romans 10:4 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Thus the need for Spirit filled teachers who believe the scriptures and speak out of the fullness of the revelation that God's Spirit has put in their hearts. One of the gifts is a "spirit of discernment" one that is sorely lacking in the Church today but most needed with all the false teaching that is going on, weakening the Scriptures instead of bolstering them up with truth from a pure heart that is connected to God and longs for His glory upon the earth.
Here's a thought:
We are approaching the end times at "light year speed" right now. Right now. Right now. Anyone who has even read scripture with a carnal mind would say "disasters are increasing", wars and tumults are crowding the earth, taking over cities and nations.
Did anyone ever realize that the very promises and commands that God gave "His people" in His Word, by Jesus Christ (the Word made flesh) would be the very "life" of His people that should go through this ramping up to the "judging of the sin of man"?
Lets just look at a few of those promises in Scripture:
Jesus fed the crowd with loaves and fishes. In the end times there will be famines in diverse areas then globally. Have you ever seen food multiplied? Have you ever experienced this miracle? Didn't Jesus say: "these things I do you shall do also and greater things?"
What about healing? In a time when only a small percentage can truly afford health care, regardless of what the govt does to sponsor such a plan, who do you turn to? Who do you turn to as a believer when even the hands of man fail? "And she spent all her money on doctors and was worse off" (paraphrased). Broke with no hope and not healed. If you ever been to the hospitals and gotten the bills you know that this is not a historical problem. But Jesus both commands (heal the sick) and promises that He is the Great Physician.
Hear is one close to my heart:
Raising the dead. How many children, His heritage, do we lay in the ground every year throughout all the Christian Church's without even one attempt to ask God to intervene? We throw our hands up in hopelessness and grief. Yet even in our darkest hours of pain and grief we dare not "gather believers" around us and petition our God for life.
Let me let you in on a secret concerning these promises of God:
For the sick to be healed someone has to be sick.
For the dead to be raised someone has to be dead.
For the blind to see someone has to be blind.
For the lame to walk someone has to be lame.
For the deaf to hear someone has to be deaf.
Do you get the drift? All promises and more than I can list tonight. All promises that are becoming more necessary in the church each day. If you dispute them as promises then I guess what Jesus said about "doing these things that I do and greater because I go unto the Father" is wrong and of course YOU are right? Correct?
Ask, Seek, Knock..........right? Wasn't this a command?
Nothing comes from God without "believing prayer". Know the Word, know God's will. Know not the Word, wrestle with your thoughts on why this is happening and I seem helpless.
Prayer is a communication of the heart that petitions through our mouth those promises and praises that God already knows and wants to intervene with. Of course there could be tongues or just regular speech, but also in low times "groanings s that cannot be uttered."
This little "preaching" is coming full circle back to "what do you believe the Scriptures say? What does your church teach? What does your heart desire from your faith?
"All things are possible to those that believe".
Remember this: Your practice of your faith either proves to others that your God is just a "soothing balm", powerless, a social necessity, or He is mighty to deliver, high and lifted up, the True God of Glory.
If you only believe in the Scriptures for salvation in Christ then your enthusiasm for growth in it will grow weary and your testimony will be weak if not futile as a witness. But............if your faith is daily challenged by Scripture, and you ask, seek and knock to experience the Truth and promises of scripture then you will live an active, participating, exciting, and fruitful life in Christ, doing those things He has done and greater things in His name for the Glory of our Father in Heaven.
Which do you choose?
It's all in your heart.
My suggestion is simple:
Ask Him to remove the heart of stone, (disbelief, hardness, rebellion), and replace it with a heart of flesh, wherein He will write His Word on it with His finger.
Right now His church is plagued with weakness, unbelief and false doctrine. Revival is needed. It has to start with us. Scripture has always been a dividing line. Truth vs Falsehoods. God's Word vs the mind of man.
I have seen all of Scripture come to life except the changing of water into wine. That has been a good thing for me to miss.
Because of God's Spirit, the Mind of Christ, preparing my heart for this faith, and the passion that He would be Glorified, I have lived and will continue to live an exciting life in Him and continue to "experience" all He has to offer according to His will, convenient for each day, till death do us part.
If your life is buried with Him then rise with Him and glorify His name.
It's your choice.............to believe or not believe. Not just in Him but in His Word and all the commands and promises.
Some say that aside from salvation there is nothing important. Jesus is enough. If that Jesus is the same Jesus that I know then when you got Him; you got Him all. He doesn't divide Himself based on your desires. If just salvation was His only job all the Gospels would be a lot shorter. He would of been born and ended up at the cross doing nothing in between. But it didn't happen that way. His life was a promise of His living in us and meeting the needs of others through us till the end of time. Being a witness of God's Love and power to a needy and ailing world.
There you have it.
Love
J&E in Tn
Some may seem like I do this far too often, (posting explanations of why I am the way I am and what I believe), but that is my prerogative so as to make all matters clear.
Today's note is about faith!
Not faith in, (as some ignorantly acclaim), a higher power which can have any application or form, but faith in Jesus Christ; and the Scriptures, which is the written Word, that became flesh, and dwelt amongst us for a while, again Jesus Christ.
Many attest that the Scriptures need to be studied with an effort of mental acuity. That by some form of physical effort they can have a relationship with Jesus Christ and claim the promise of salvation. With this attitude in mind the rest of Scripture is embraced the same way, including doctrine and practices. Sad to say that this practice of mental observance and effort has taken over the everyday applications in all manner of disbursement for knowledge or wisdom. It shows in the practices of those who call upon the "name of the Lord", many times having no real Scriptural basis to claim but "expectation" for the asking.
Our God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is a mover of hearts. We come to salvation, (not by mental decree or agreement), when the soil of our hearts are made fertile to receive the Word. Our ears don't connect directly to the brain in this matter but to our hearts as for the fitting of soil so that "His Word shall not come back void." Salvation is not based on the mental understanding of spiritual things but on the hearts spiritual revelation of spiritual things made known by the Holy Spirit (in His due time.) Then that revelation brings forth the speaking of the words that has been planted in the heart on prepared ground. Romans 10:9-10 says: 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
All matters of faith are matters of the heart then the mouth speaks what the heart has received from the Holy Spirit.
If your practice is to understand with your head the things of Christ (the Word) then you will only have the carnal interpretation and that will not bring you into the spiritual experience that the Scriptures promise us.
That is how so many believers can claim salvation but dispel any other promise or command of God as to being valid. Because they "think with their heads" not their hearts, then healing is a hit and miss prayer "hoping" instead of "believing", offering a prayer that is faithless, a "shot at the moon" instead of seeking the will of God according to His written/spoken promises then claiming them. If prayer for healing could be so faithless or not put into practice by churches in faith then what about the other promises of casting out demons, raising the dead, speaking in tongues, prophesy, interpretations, dreams, visions, and signs and wonders? These are the "babies thrown out with the bath water."
So many "believers" have this application: "Because I have not seen it certainly it has been discontinued by God for His Bride or Church.
Excuse me! If God has changed even one of His promises then none of His promises (including salvation) are good for today or anymore.
Romans 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. He never changes. He is from everlasting to everlasting, He changeth not.
So who in this line of study is right? God or man?
The truth sets free, from sin and fear, evil and affliction, death and hopelessness, if it doesn't set free then it is not truth and it is a lie. I am often amazed that people of "faith" in Christ have so many excuses as to why they have to lie about scripture because "they" haven't experienced this or that promise. "You have not because you ask not", is this asking with just the mouth or should it come from the heart? But wait, how can it be in the heart if it was never preached to them or even dispelled in the preaching as being true?
Romans 10:4 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Thus the need for Spirit filled teachers who believe the scriptures and speak out of the fullness of the revelation that God's Spirit has put in their hearts. One of the gifts is a "spirit of discernment" one that is sorely lacking in the Church today but most needed with all the false teaching that is going on, weakening the Scriptures instead of bolstering them up with truth from a pure heart that is connected to God and longs for His glory upon the earth.
Here's a thought:
We are approaching the end times at "light year speed" right now. Right now. Right now. Anyone who has even read scripture with a carnal mind would say "disasters are increasing", wars and tumults are crowding the earth, taking over cities and nations.
Did anyone ever realize that the very promises and commands that God gave "His people" in His Word, by Jesus Christ (the Word made flesh) would be the very "life" of His people that should go through this ramping up to the "judging of the sin of man"?
Lets just look at a few of those promises in Scripture:
Jesus fed the crowd with loaves and fishes. In the end times there will be famines in diverse areas then globally. Have you ever seen food multiplied? Have you ever experienced this miracle? Didn't Jesus say: "these things I do you shall do also and greater things?"
What about healing? In a time when only a small percentage can truly afford health care, regardless of what the govt does to sponsor such a plan, who do you turn to? Who do you turn to as a believer when even the hands of man fail? "And she spent all her money on doctors and was worse off" (paraphrased). Broke with no hope and not healed. If you ever been to the hospitals and gotten the bills you know that this is not a historical problem. But Jesus both commands (heal the sick) and promises that He is the Great Physician.
Hear is one close to my heart:
Raising the dead. How many children, His heritage, do we lay in the ground every year throughout all the Christian Church's without even one attempt to ask God to intervene? We throw our hands up in hopelessness and grief. Yet even in our darkest hours of pain and grief we dare not "gather believers" around us and petition our God for life.
Let me let you in on a secret concerning these promises of God:
For the sick to be healed someone has to be sick.
For the dead to be raised someone has to be dead.
For the blind to see someone has to be blind.
For the lame to walk someone has to be lame.
For the deaf to hear someone has to be deaf.
Do you get the drift? All promises and more than I can list tonight. All promises that are becoming more necessary in the church each day. If you dispute them as promises then I guess what Jesus said about "doing these things that I do and greater because I go unto the Father" is wrong and of course YOU are right? Correct?
Ask, Seek, Knock..........right? Wasn't this a command?
Nothing comes from God without "believing prayer". Know the Word, know God's will. Know not the Word, wrestle with your thoughts on why this is happening and I seem helpless.
Prayer is a communication of the heart that petitions through our mouth those promises and praises that God already knows and wants to intervene with. Of course there could be tongues or just regular speech, but also in low times "groanings s that cannot be uttered."
This little "preaching" is coming full circle back to "what do you believe the Scriptures say? What does your church teach? What does your heart desire from your faith?
"All things are possible to those that believe".
Remember this: Your practice of your faith either proves to others that your God is just a "soothing balm", powerless, a social necessity, or He is mighty to deliver, high and lifted up, the True God of Glory.
If you only believe in the Scriptures for salvation in Christ then your enthusiasm for growth in it will grow weary and your testimony will be weak if not futile as a witness. But............if your faith is daily challenged by Scripture, and you ask, seek and knock to experience the Truth and promises of scripture then you will live an active, participating, exciting, and fruitful life in Christ, doing those things He has done and greater things in His name for the Glory of our Father in Heaven.
Which do you choose?
It's all in your heart.
My suggestion is simple:
Ask Him to remove the heart of stone, (disbelief, hardness, rebellion), and replace it with a heart of flesh, wherein He will write His Word on it with His finger.
Right now His church is plagued with weakness, unbelief and false doctrine. Revival is needed. It has to start with us. Scripture has always been a dividing line. Truth vs Falsehoods. God's Word vs the mind of man.
I have seen all of Scripture come to life except the changing of water into wine. That has been a good thing for me to miss.
Because of God's Spirit, the Mind of Christ, preparing my heart for this faith, and the passion that He would be Glorified, I have lived and will continue to live an exciting life in Him and continue to "experience" all He has to offer according to His will, convenient for each day, till death do us part.
If your life is buried with Him then rise with Him and glorify His name.
It's your choice.............to believe or not believe. Not just in Him but in His Word and all the commands and promises.
Some say that aside from salvation there is nothing important. Jesus is enough. If that Jesus is the same Jesus that I know then when you got Him; you got Him all. He doesn't divide Himself based on your desires. If just salvation was His only job all the Gospels would be a lot shorter. He would of been born and ended up at the cross doing nothing in between. But it didn't happen that way. His life was a promise of His living in us and meeting the needs of others through us till the end of time. Being a witness of God's Love and power to a needy and ailing world.
There you have it.
Love
J&E in Tn
Monday, April 27, 2015
Love, marriage, revelation
There is nothing about this woman that I am not completely in love with. All efforts of life seam as a drop in comparison to her companionship. Life is good because God chose her for me, my Eve, my beginning. She will be the completing factor of my life as long as we shall both live and then on into eternity with Christ. The bitterest of life's trials were sweetened by her presence, and the best that life has to offer pales in the shadow of her. I have no thought, nor is it any effort that I should expose this admiration for her as it is as natural as breathing to me, it is as vital as my heart beating. Love is life and I have received of it's immeasurable abundance through her and I am "full."
Full of life, full of love, full of joy. Full forever.
She is my "help meet" in every sense of the word.
She is my life's companion, my adviser, my joy when I am down, my aid when I am burdened, the one who shares in my joy. We are inseparable in the flesh and when we are physically apart she is with me in heart. "Oneness" is the garment we wear, and we change it not. In the beginning it was a simple cloak, but over the years Love has bejeweled it to a rob of elegance. It fits us well, keeping us together by it's singularity but with enough room for us to grow within it's fabric. We live as one!
One purpose, one life, one God, one hope, one prayer, one person. Two body's united by God's design in marriage and one expression of Christ and His church. There is great freedom in this oneness as each plays a turn in the advancement of the other. Undying support, loving help, sincere heart for the betterment of the other. We are two oxen yoked together fitting the same field for harvest. A harvest to be seen by all of Love, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit. Fruits acceptable to God and promising to this creation as needed nourishment, ripened in "it's time."
I could of hoped to learn all this for myself but God seen fit to give it to me as a revelation so that I wouldn't slow down the process of it's reception and placement. "In Him we live and move and have our being." In Him: His love, mercy, joy, peace, forgiveness, grace and long suffering, which is toward us the very example that He shows for us to "follow after." A marriage made in heaven by design of the Father of all creation. A marriage made heaven before the words "in the beginning" were ever spoke by the foreknowledge of Our Father, set by His aforethought that we might Magnify His name and glorify His purpose in Christ.
Love never fails..............and this is what marriage is all about. He first Loved us and commands us to Love one another with the same passion. Marriage is the "proof" of that Love, both the Love of God and the showing it forth in the Love of man toward his wife. We are only made complete by Love. Love of God, Love by God, and Love for one another. This is true for Elise A. Cavasin and I. Of all the many things that marriage is supposed to reconcile the greatest of them is Love.
Love is proof that God exists because He first Loved. There is no "true" Love without God because Love as God (for God is Love) is eternal. It's practice transcends time and failure. If we love not then we know not God for God is Love. Our marriage has been nurtured on His Love by revelation in the heart (not head knowledge) so it's endurance is sure, timeless.
As the Lord lives, He will be the Love that binds this cord both now and in eternity.
I thank God for His most perfect Gift of Love and the command to "Follow Me."
Life is good because Love is real through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thank you Elise for "entering in" by saying yes all those years ago, and growing in grace and Love with me ever since.
Love
Moi
Full of life, full of love, full of joy. Full forever.
She is my "help meet" in every sense of the word.
She is my life's companion, my adviser, my joy when I am down, my aid when I am burdened, the one who shares in my joy. We are inseparable in the flesh and when we are physically apart she is with me in heart. "Oneness" is the garment we wear, and we change it not. In the beginning it was a simple cloak, but over the years Love has bejeweled it to a rob of elegance. It fits us well, keeping us together by it's singularity but with enough room for us to grow within it's fabric. We live as one!
One purpose, one life, one God, one hope, one prayer, one person. Two body's united by God's design in marriage and one expression of Christ and His church. There is great freedom in this oneness as each plays a turn in the advancement of the other. Undying support, loving help, sincere heart for the betterment of the other. We are two oxen yoked together fitting the same field for harvest. A harvest to be seen by all of Love, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit. Fruits acceptable to God and promising to this creation as needed nourishment, ripened in "it's time."
I could of hoped to learn all this for myself but God seen fit to give it to me as a revelation so that I wouldn't slow down the process of it's reception and placement. "In Him we live and move and have our being." In Him: His love, mercy, joy, peace, forgiveness, grace and long suffering, which is toward us the very example that He shows for us to "follow after." A marriage made in heaven by design of the Father of all creation. A marriage made heaven before the words "in the beginning" were ever spoke by the foreknowledge of Our Father, set by His aforethought that we might Magnify His name and glorify His purpose in Christ.
Love never fails..............and this is what marriage is all about. He first Loved us and commands us to Love one another with the same passion. Marriage is the "proof" of that Love, both the Love of God and the showing it forth in the Love of man toward his wife. We are only made complete by Love. Love of God, Love by God, and Love for one another. This is true for Elise A. Cavasin and I. Of all the many things that marriage is supposed to reconcile the greatest of them is Love.
Love is proof that God exists because He first Loved. There is no "true" Love without God because Love as God (for God is Love) is eternal. It's practice transcends time and failure. If we love not then we know not God for God is Love. Our marriage has been nurtured on His Love by revelation in the heart (not head knowledge) so it's endurance is sure, timeless.
As the Lord lives, He will be the Love that binds this cord both now and in eternity.
I thank God for His most perfect Gift of Love and the command to "Follow Me."
Life is good because Love is real through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thank you Elise for "entering in" by saying yes all those years ago, and growing in grace and Love with me ever since.
Love
Moi
Sunday, February 1, 2015
The gratefulness of Love and Longevity
We are thankful to have lived long enough, to not only realize, but to actually experience, (in my daily life), the true value of "Unconditional Love." How once it wraps it's arms around you you are bound by that Love to pass it on. "For the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" is not just a verse to preach off of, but a promise to engage then promote. It has taught us that we are all on the path to "be conformed to His image and likeness" if we allow it, and seek it as if it's the desire of our hearts.
We know that many a reader of this page may not agree or have any inclination to follow this biblical practice. That's ok. Before 1981 we would not have thought that this is worth the effort it took to read. But, "I once was blind and now I see." By the grace, Love, and mercy of God His great love won us over, washed us of our sins and gave us hope of a new and better life. His promises has not failed us "ever" though we have failed Him and His promises many times.
Just know this.............no matter how you feel about all the subjects covered on this page, agree or disagree, we love you and will be there as much as God gives ability for you.
God is our "reality" and in Him "I live and move and have my being." Without Him we are and have nothing! Our lives have been a miracle since our first meeting (with Jesus) and Elise A. Cavasin, family, friends have all been part of that miracle. Those who will not embrace us because of differences ought to know that only your half of the hug is missing.
"Love never fails!"
Love
J&E in Tn
We know that many a reader of this page may not agree or have any inclination to follow this biblical practice. That's ok. Before 1981 we would not have thought that this is worth the effort it took to read. But, "I once was blind and now I see." By the grace, Love, and mercy of God His great love won us over, washed us of our sins and gave us hope of a new and better life. His promises has not failed us "ever" though we have failed Him and His promises many times.
Just know this.............no matter how you feel about all the subjects covered on this page, agree or disagree, we love you and will be there as much as God gives ability for you.
God is our "reality" and in Him "I live and move and have my being." Without Him we are and have nothing! Our lives have been a miracle since our first meeting (with Jesus) and Elise A. Cavasin, family, friends have all been part of that miracle. Those who will not embrace us because of differences ought to know that only your half of the hug is missing.
"Love never fails!"
Love
J&E in Tn
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
An act of faith = miracle.
I know that I write a lot on faith and miracles for today. God loves to "manifest" His glory to anyone who will ask according to His will. So here is the story of a miracle that happened in our family on Monday night 1/5/15.
One of our daughters is pregnant and near full term. She was told that she had a "heart shaped" uterus which makes the baby lay horizontal as there is more room side to side for the baby to stretch out. The baby was breach when it should of been "head down" for birthing by this time. Over the course of the conversations I mentioned to her husband that he, being the father, should lay hands on her belly taking authority over him commanding him to turn the way he is supposed to be. This conversation was had on a couple of occasions so on Monday night he took the advise and laid hands on his wife and prayed that the baby should be obedient and turn. (If the baby didn't turn soon they would schedule a C-section, something that they would want to avoid.)
That mere act of faith was honored by God and the baby turned. On Tues when our daughter went to the doctor he confirmed the change and the C-section was not necessary to be scheduled.
Elise and I have experienced the same thing during our "childbearing" years. (Not that they ever end, looking at Abraham as an example.) We had several home births and one of them was in the breach position. Again, "pray without ceasing making your requests before God," I laid hands on Elise and took authority over the baby and commanded he change positions for a proper birth. Withing hours he did and we then could participate in a natural home birth.
Knowing God's outline for authority and implementing it through prayer should be a "basic instinct" for every believer concerning every situation. "We have not because we ask not." "Pray without ceasing", know Gods will by His word and ask in Jesus name and you will have what you ask for in accordance with His will.
The ramifications of what we reap when we don't do this are just unacceptable.
No matter what:
Pray first.
If that's not enough then fast and pray.
You can add to that weeping.
God will see your need and meet it.
He will glorify His name and manifest His glory.
You will be blessed.
Experience the power of your faith through prayer.
Encourage others to do so also.
Love
J&E
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Being a child............
1 Corinthians 13:11-12
"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now I see as through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even also as I am known."
The carnal view of this:
The ageless progression of the human application has always been slowed by the lack of desire to "grow up."
In times past the "need" to be committed and thought out about the very immediate future was non ignore-able. You either put your back to the plow for food or heat or any other "life necessity" or you suffered the consequences, you and your family. This has a great maturing effect on men and women who lived during those days. Life was short and hard but the general society was a more mature early on, again because life was short due to hardness.
There wasn't much time to "stay a child."
Today with all our so called "advancements" that have made life easier (I am not against those advancements) as a society, with more time on our hands for relaxation, we have been allowed to "stay as children" as long as we want only as long as it doesn't crowd our need for "continuance."
The lack of the need for "growing up" has had a profound effect on our society especially in the area's of morals and roll models. It is a fact that when "moral values" start heading south so does commitment and ethics.
This is clearly shown in the number of divorces, diverse sexual freedoms, crime, and a higher expectation for our employers to put up with our immaturity in general. There are other areas but these are the ones that cover the most ground when expanded.
Is all of society like this? No "or we would of become as Sodom and Gomorrah." But enough of society has grasped this excuse to continue in "child likeness" to effect every facet of our lives. Just consider the effect of this "thinking as a child" has had on the performance of our gov't, public education, marriage, work ethics, and general moral practices we enforce by law today.
We have become so lopsided as a society that whoever disagrees with our ever increasing moral collapse we deem a "hate crime."
I am sure there will be a lot of argument here and different opinions on this topic but just remember this: most all our arguments against a moral background comes from the need to defend or own positions or practices. No one wants to really wants to hold the candle of Truth in our own closet of allowances.
I used to tell our children this: "The worst lie you can tell is the one that you tell yourself ............then believe." Most all our calamity comes from just that. Convincing ourselves, against our good conscience, to do that which we know is wrong defiantly.
If this is the roll model we are offering our children then we are reinforcing our rebellion to good moral character in them, and our reaping down the road will be 30, 60, or 100 fold.
Again not all people are like this, but the numbers are increasing in this practice daily. Again: look at our leaders, look at the condition for more and more allowances around us.
I could go on and on but that gets the picture across of "maturing out of childhood" and becoming a man of responsibility and commitment, to wife, children, work, governance, ect.
Now for the spiritual application of 1 Cor 13:11-12
The whole chapter is talking about True Love, Unconditional Love and certain gifts of the Holy Spirit given to believers. These verses come after a long litany of what Love is and how that Love needs to mature in us out of the "child" state into the Unconditional state. This is done when the "Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" and we see "face to face" instead as "through a glass darkly" the redeeming Love of Christ.
We make the decision to mature in Christ and in His Love that we have received and pass it on to others. We will no longer "know in part" the Love of God but we will "know it even as we are known" in the reception of it. Love will become automatic to others even as it was thus given to us. It will mature pass the child stage from being a decision to an instant reality.
Lets face it our spiritual maturity produces our carnal actions. Becoming spiritually mature will influence our family's, our gov't, our marriages, in fact all of society. It will bring moral cognizance to a higher level and in time alleviate much of the moral dissidence we have as a society today. The more people who "grow up" and "become a man", putting childish things away, the more our society will rise up and bless all of its participants.
Remember that whatever you see going on around you is a direct representation of the moral condition of man that makes up that society.
True morality is only found in the One that never changes: Jesus Christ. When more Christians start maturing in the faith and leaving childhood there will be a greater influence for good on our society and the maturing thereof.
For every question Christ is the answer.
For every problem Christ is the solution.
Christ is God and God is Love.
Love is the answer.
Let us put aside childish things and Love one another "face to face."
love
J&E in Tn
"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now I see as through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even also as I am known."
The carnal view of this:
The ageless progression of the human application has always been slowed by the lack of desire to "grow up."
In times past the "need" to be committed and thought out about the very immediate future was non ignore-able. You either put your back to the plow for food or heat or any other "life necessity" or you suffered the consequences, you and your family. This has a great maturing effect on men and women who lived during those days. Life was short and hard but the general society was a more mature early on, again because life was short due to hardness.
There wasn't much time to "stay a child."
Today with all our so called "advancements" that have made life easier (I am not against those advancements) as a society, with more time on our hands for relaxation, we have been allowed to "stay as children" as long as we want only as long as it doesn't crowd our need for "continuance."
The lack of the need for "growing up" has had a profound effect on our society especially in the area's of morals and roll models. It is a fact that when "moral values" start heading south so does commitment and ethics.
This is clearly shown in the number of divorces, diverse sexual freedoms, crime, and a higher expectation for our employers to put up with our immaturity in general. There are other areas but these are the ones that cover the most ground when expanded.
Is all of society like this? No "or we would of become as Sodom and Gomorrah." But enough of society has grasped this excuse to continue in "child likeness" to effect every facet of our lives. Just consider the effect of this "thinking as a child" has had on the performance of our gov't, public education, marriage, work ethics, and general moral practices we enforce by law today.
We have become so lopsided as a society that whoever disagrees with our ever increasing moral collapse we deem a "hate crime."
I am sure there will be a lot of argument here and different opinions on this topic but just remember this: most all our arguments against a moral background comes from the need to defend or own positions or practices. No one wants to really wants to hold the candle of Truth in our own closet of allowances.
I used to tell our children this: "The worst lie you can tell is the one that you tell yourself ............then believe." Most all our calamity comes from just that. Convincing ourselves, against our good conscience, to do that which we know is wrong defiantly.
If this is the roll model we are offering our children then we are reinforcing our rebellion to good moral character in them, and our reaping down the road will be 30, 60, or 100 fold.
Again not all people are like this, but the numbers are increasing in this practice daily. Again: look at our leaders, look at the condition for more and more allowances around us.
I could go on and on but that gets the picture across of "maturing out of childhood" and becoming a man of responsibility and commitment, to wife, children, work, governance, ect.
Now for the spiritual application of 1 Cor 13:11-12
The whole chapter is talking about True Love, Unconditional Love and certain gifts of the Holy Spirit given to believers. These verses come after a long litany of what Love is and how that Love needs to mature in us out of the "child" state into the Unconditional state. This is done when the "Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" and we see "face to face" instead as "through a glass darkly" the redeeming Love of Christ.
We make the decision to mature in Christ and in His Love that we have received and pass it on to others. We will no longer "know in part" the Love of God but we will "know it even as we are known" in the reception of it. Love will become automatic to others even as it was thus given to us. It will mature pass the child stage from being a decision to an instant reality.
Lets face it our spiritual maturity produces our carnal actions. Becoming spiritually mature will influence our family's, our gov't, our marriages, in fact all of society. It will bring moral cognizance to a higher level and in time alleviate much of the moral dissidence we have as a society today. The more people who "grow up" and "become a man", putting childish things away, the more our society will rise up and bless all of its participants.
Remember that whatever you see going on around you is a direct representation of the moral condition of man that makes up that society.
True morality is only found in the One that never changes: Jesus Christ. When more Christians start maturing in the faith and leaving childhood there will be a greater influence for good on our society and the maturing thereof.
For every question Christ is the answer.
For every problem Christ is the solution.
Christ is God and God is Love.
Love is the answer.
Let us put aside childish things and Love one another "face to face."
love
J&E in Tn
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)