At A Gate Called Beautiful!

Good morning to all on this beautiful Sunday morning. The cold weather has finally hit Georgia. It's in the low 50's this morning but Waine and I have been able to have a relaxing  morning at home. No planes to catch. No "rounds" to make. Just chillin' at home. I am coming to look forward to and appreciate these quiet days at home. Had a nice dinner with Aleron last night before he started his night shift at the hospital. Its good to be friends with your children.

 

I am continuing my journey in Acts 3 verses 1-26 " One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon.  Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.  When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.  Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!”  So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.  Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.  He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.  While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade.  When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?  The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned Him before Pilate, though he had decided to let Him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the Author of life, but God raised Him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through Him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

 

Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what He had foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Messiah would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,  and that He may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.  Heaven must receive Him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as He promised long ago through His holy prophets. For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything He tells you. Anyone who does not listen to Him will be completely cut off from their people.Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days. And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’When God raised up His servant, He sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways. Amen and may the Lord add a blessing to the hearing and reading of His Word.

 

At a gate called Beautiful is where the beggar sat. He was not able to go inside of the court because he was not able to walk. He had to rely on the kindness of others at the gate called Beautiful. The beggar could see all the marvelous things going on inside the gate; he could smell all the wonder aromas of the foods being offered for sale; he could hear the laughter of the people who were enjoying themselves--if only he could walk into the court yard, beyond the gate called Beautiful.

 

This is how I see the people in the world. They are sitting at the gate to eternity because they are weak and begging. They were born to be sons and daughters of the King but sit at the gate because they do not accept the free gift that if offered to them which is the salvation which comes through Jesus the Christ, the Messiah who has been sent so that we don't have to sit at the gate. Unlike the beggar in the 3rd chapter of Acts, they don't take the right hand of fellowship that is offered to them through Christ; they sit and beg. Oh how much more abundance is in store for them if they would just take what Christ offers which is unconditional love. There is no need for any man or woman to sit at the gate of eternity and beg. Begging will not help them or any of us. Once we cross the River Jordan the gate will be closed. Our lives are to be a witness just as the beggar's life was. He was so excited about his healing he had to tell everyone. No pretense; he just had to tell everyone he was healed. How many lives would be won to Christ today if Christians showed that type of joy.  How many others will be left at the Gate called Beautiful because we are hiding our light.  Let your light and joy shine today so others may come to know and love the God that never holds anything against us. He offers passage through the Gate.

To know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to serve Him. To serve Him is to love you. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May he Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Stephanie

What's in Your Spiritual Wallet?

Good morning to all on this beautiful Sunday  morning in November. My beloved is in Jamaica until tomorrow and I am in Hawkinsville today. So pray for our traveling mercies. We had a great time in Jamaica. I mostly slept which was much needed. Burning the candles on both ends never works for me. My immunity goes down and my body gets sick which is always unusual for me. But all is well. I am so looking forward to having part of our family for Thanksgiving. Also looking forward to Mackenzie's 16th birthday on November 30th. Can't believe that 16 years have flown by since the birth of this exceptional human being.

 

I am continuing my journey in Acts 2 verses 42-47 " They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Amen and may the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing of His Word.

 

I could have finished these last 6 verses last week however I thought they were so powerful that they deserved a blog entry all to themselves. This first "Church" at Pentecost is what I think God had in mind for all Christians. Not what we see today where religion has become more important that the Gospel. I pity all the "new day" Sadducee's who put the rituals of religion before the pure Gospel of Christ. As a fellowship of believers we are to come together in a common bond of absolute thankfulness that God saved us while WE WERE YET SINNERS! We are to share our resources with one another for the good of believers and unbelievers; always in the vain of spreading the Gospel to the dying world. I see so many churches promoting their version of the Gospel. There is only one version and that is the Gospel of Christ. I once went to a church who said I had to be baptized into their denomination to be saved. Last time I went to that church and that's when I declared myself to be a non-denominational Bible believing Christian. I am sure there are Catholic Christians, but I don't say prayers to anyone except through Jesus the Christ.  The Pope holds no power and he is a man that will die and be judged just like you and me. So goes Billy Graham and other famous preachers and evangelist. I don't speak in tongues other than some medical Spanish and neither do I believe that all these tongue speaking folk are Christians or spiritually led. The  only speaking of tongues that the Bible teaches happened in the upper room where actual foreign languages were spoken and at the Tower of Babel where God purposefully created a language to confuse everyone and prevent communication from happening. So anyone telling you that you have to "speak" in tongues to be saved probably is not saved themselves.

 

I have found in my 50 years of being a Christian that the only thing you need is God through Christ and the good old BIBLE. If you have Christ in you and do not love or forgive your brother or sister then the truth is not in you. To know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to serve Him. To serve Him is to love You.  Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. Now may the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

 

Stephanie

 

 

 

The Great Communicator

Good morning to all from Kingston Jamaica. The fact that I can send this out means that our FLOW internet service is working and Waine and I have the ability to get on the World Wide Web! We have been on the island since yesterday--had a lovely dinner with friends and family. Our electricity was on and the water was on despite us not being here since July. The only mishap was that a tire was flat on our car that has been sitting since July and my beloved was able to fix that and keep on moving. Life is good and so is God! When you are on the island, little things like electricity and water are BIG DEALS! To have cable and internet means we are cooking with GAS!!

 

I am continuing my journey in Acts 2 verses 1-41 " When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome  (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.” Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.  But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him. David said about Him: “‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; You will fill me with joy in your presence." Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.  But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that He would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that He was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did His body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.  For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies  a footstool for your feet." Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call. With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day." Amen! May the Lord add a blessing to the hearing and reading of His Word.

 

Hallelujah! Our God is A PRACTICAL GOD! This is the first mass meeting of Christians and non-Christians without Jesus. Jesus had just rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven. As promised the Holy Spirit now came and filled the 11 remaining apostles with the confidence they needed to preach the gospel. The eleven no longer had their leader--they could have become rudderless. God and Christ in their wisdom understood that this could happen and foretold the arrival of the Holy Spirit that filled them and now indwells in all Christians. There were many gathered there. Remember Christ had been preaching  about His Death and Resurrection so I am sure many gathered; the curious, the nosey, the true converts and those who felt convicted to come. There were tens of thousands of folk gathered! The numbers probably beat a Joyce Meyers conference or a Billy Graham revival. Peter got up to witness to the crowd but how do you communicate with so many people. The Holy Spirit which allowed every one to hear the Good News in their own tongue! What a blessing. There was no jibberish, no tongue clacking just good old foreign languages being heard by everyone that had ears to hear. God is the same way today! The Holy Spirit allows our hearts to HEAR HIS VOICE when our hearts are ready and receptive and He speaks to us in a language only our hearts can understand. His communication style is so very specific to you and to me. How He communicates with me will be different that how he communicates with other. His Love Language is something I can hear, understand and accept. You can count on it. He loves us enough to ensure we get the point about His support and His awesome power.

 

If you are struggling as a Christian take this message to heart. He is communicating with you even as you read this. You only need to open up your heart and mind and hear Him. To know Him is to Love Him. To Love Him is to Serve Him. To Serve Him is to love You.

 

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

 

Stephanie

 

 



You Will be My Witness!

Good Sunday to everyone on the 1st Sunday in November. There are only 49 weeks left in 2013. I hope everyone remembered that today was the day to set your clocks back 1 hour. Day light savings time officially ended on the East coast today at 2 AM. Waine and I are in Thomaston today; a rare Sunday just to kick back. My honey has a lot of honey-do's to do today and so far no complaints. We worshipped today with the AME Methodist church in Thomaston and took communion. What a blessing to be able to take communion and to celebrate the sacrifice of the ONE that loves us best!

 

We finished Malachi and I am led to start Acts. The book of Acts provides a bridge for the writings of the New Testament. As a second volume to Luke's Gospel, it joins what Jesus "began to do and to teach" as told in the Gospels with what he continued to do and teach through the apostles' preaching and the establishment of the church. Acts  verses 1 -26, "In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day He was taken up to Heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had chosen. After His suffering, He presented Himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the Kingdom of God. On one occasion, while He was eating with them, He gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”3  Then they gathered around Him and asked Him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”  He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight.  They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” 

 

Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) and said, “Brothers and sisters,the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.” (With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) “For,” said Peter, “it is written in the Book of Psalms: "May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’and, “‘May another take his place of leadership. Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”  So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles." May the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing of His Word.

 

Here it is! Jesus the Christ has commanded us to be His witness. Not just that He was  born, He lived and that He died for our sins AND that He rose again! Our lives are to be a WITNESS for this glorious event . We never have to die when we live in faith. He will never have the grave as a resting place. When we cross the River, it is into a new consciousness with God. What a thought. On that GREAT GETTIN' UP MORNIN', we will experience the true nature of why we were created. We will be one with the God of the Universe. So why is it that Christians are not living abundantly. Why is it that Christians walk around defeated, anxious, sad and angry. What kind of witness is that! When Christ ascended He sent the Holy Spirit that has empowered each of us with the same Spirit that exists in God and in Jesus. So why do we live in fear? A lot of Christians live a defeated life; they have allowed circumstances to overpower them. Remember that there is NO FEAR IN LOVE. As GOD is LOVE, as Christians there should be no fear in us. The Devil is a liar. He lives in fear and when we turn away from the CROSS the devil is able to convince us that we have been abandoned. That is when you need to step out in FAITH and PROCLAIM the good news for yourself and other. Speak TRUTH to POWER! The TRUTH is that Jesus the Christ is alive and well and dwells within us to protect us and to have us experience the beauty of our inner nature. Hallelujah! Claim it today and rejoice for He IS RISEN!!

 

To know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to serve Him. To serve Him is to love you! Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

 

 

Stephanie