NCarolinian

                    Peter, John and Paul team-up to teach believers about the unfriendly life we enter from day one. John mentions the world (1 Jn. 2:16) , Paul documents the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21) , while Peter and John call-out the devil (1 Peter 5:8; Jn. 10:10). These are not only stumbling blocks in our lives but enemies of our souls.         According to 1 John 2:16 , The World consists of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life. Notice that John stresses "the lust of..." in the first two worldly enemies. This is the spirit of lust in the kingdom of darkness. It has responsibility over influencing our flesh - sinful desires that do not line-up with God's will for our lives and our  eyes that deal with covetousness - something or someone we see and desire but should not seek for whatever reason. The pride of life will always maintain you can do whatever without any assistanc...

                   Many people in Scripture had a tough life. Two people, in particular, Job and Paul could testify to a seemingly unyielding slew of life-challenges.                    Job had it rough. His life, health, family and possessions were all taken away or damaged in some form or fashion. Job was humbled until he was at the bottom of the barrel and there was no where to look but up.            However, when all was lost, Job enters a frame of mind and spirit that I feel many, if not most, would not find themselves and all of us could learn from. Job mourns, worships God and surrenders to the Lord. "At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: 'Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the n...

  “Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”  If success is not the end result of a goal obtained, either more could have been done to better the situation or more can be done now at the end to enhance it. Either way, in success there is always Room For Improvement. When there is failure, the end of the world has not arrived. Fatality means the end of life, the end of one’s journey. Failure means the chance to continue on life’s path and capitalize on all corrections. Within failure, there is always Room For Improvement.           The key to reviewing one’s goal or project, the key to adding onto one’s finished mission, the key to persevering through failure is courage. Having the mindset and/or spirit to move forward, whether in success or failure, in the face of danger, difficulty or pain is courage. This admonishment would have us to continue in this vein if we are to make a difference, for th...

                    Just because you accept Christ as your Savior does not mean you receive an exemption from the trials, challenges, hardships and heartaches of life. There are a plethora of influences that can distract the believer's mind from God. However, the challenge(s) of negative mental health issues like our rebellious nature, our own imaginations, our environment and our enemy - Satan, must be dealt with promptly. The Bible says much about the mind. The topic was important in the Old and New Testament days and remains important today. Some would say this subject has reached critical status. I believe we all have battled our own mental challenges within the grand scope of the mental health spectrum. I have had mental struggles and am a true believer that many of the issues today begin in our mind. The wonderful benefit believers receive is the Holy Spirit, to encourage, support, lead and instruct us when times get toug...

  As a Christian, sometimes I wonder with the world that we live in if it's hard to believe in an invisible God. With so much emphasis placed on proof of our senses, faith in God takes a beating. Even if believers are confident in what they hope for and assured about what they do not see, the spirit of doubt is always there to say, But you can always trust your eyes . How untrue this is now-a-days with the video editing power and other visual manipulative tools humans have at their disposal. But scripture makes it plain that if we just look around at the world we live in, we will find the invisible qualities of God. Paul says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20) To me, this means when we look at nature that has countless cases of design upon it, then there must be a Designer. There are too many cycles...

          Psalm 51:10 says, "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew and steadfast spirit within me."              Take notice of some things in this very humble and important prayer of David's. First, David requested of the Lord two things, "a pure heart" and "steadfast spirit" . The first appeal David did not have at all so he asked God to "create" in him this characteristic of "a pure heart" . The second attribute, a "steadfast spirit" , David had at one time for he asked God to "renew" it "within" him. The point is David was willing to humble himself and request of God that which he was in deficit on both accounts.           What does purity mean or look like? When I researched the word pure in  Psalm 51:10 , the definition supplied was clean and fair in a chemical, physical, ceremonial and moral sense . That word was  Tahor (tawhor)  in the original Hebrew. T...

                    Who is the target audience of your life? The answers to select from are yourself, others and God. In this life, we can either be a me-pleaser, crowd-pleaser or God-pleaser.           The me-pleasers take self-preservation and everything self way too far. These individuals have no bone of consideration in their body and live as though the universe revolves around them.           The crowd-pleasers, even though they are service oriented people, spend way too much time focused on the desires of others and neglect their needs and those closest around them. They have no time for their own maturity and depend heavily on the immediate gratification of the crowd as reward.           The God-pleasers have all their interests, ambitions, plans and desires centered on God and His will for their life. While taking care of yourself ...