NCarolinian

Simple Faith or Belief in God is a requirement for a lifestyle of trusting in Him through Christ and His Holy Spirit, not a leap of faith. Scripture supports this by saying,  " without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Heb. 11:6) The amount of faith controls one's mountains or activity within the issues of life but honesty about everything, especially your faith-level, before God seems to go a long way also.  In Mark 9 we read of an encounter where a father brings his son, first to The Disciples for healing, then to Jesus because the Disciples could not impart the healing required. The son had an impure spirit within him that made him deaf and mute since childhood and would often toss him to the ground in seizures. Interestingly, Matthew 17:14-20 records this same event but with different highlights. Matthew observed this story with the lesson being mainl...

Matthew 18:1-5  in the New International Version says, At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. Notice the disciples seem to have a heavy subject weighing on their minds for first they "came to Jesus" and then they asked Him this question - "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" after God, of course. The Lord's answer seems to picture the Disciples having their priorities a little out of alignment. Jesus saying, "unless you change" was a huge indicator that there was a change needed. The word "change" in other ...

*Inspired by my Pastor's recent series. I have decisions to make. I need healings in my life. I could use stress released. I have goals unachieved. I am more observant and concerned about world, national, state and local affairs now-a-days. The list continues. However, in the past I have witnessed and experienced making the right decision, healings come to fruition, stress disappear, goals be met and so forth. So, I know the mountaintops with their Glory are there and I know my God is faithful. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (King James Version) The New International Version reads, "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." The point to grasp is one mountaintop in life is ...

Humanity was never meant to do life alone. The Christian God is even observed as being three in one, perfect unity of God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Alone is hard. We were never meant to be alone, that is a fabrication of The Father of Lies. Alone? Who is truly alone? Nobody.  Ever heard the saying, "One is the loneliest number?"  A person might experience loneliness - isolation through something like rejection, but nobody is ever alone.   All of creation can be sure of one thing, there is No Privacy. God is everywhere, sees everything and knows all.  However, God is more than a perceiver, He is a participator. God blessed us with a relationship with Him and each other.  God is the one who has been with humanity from the beginning and stated that of all things that He created that was good, what was not good was that the man, Adam, was one of a kind. God made Adam, walked with him and charged him with certain responsibilities. So, God and...

God has a plan for my life, your life and everyone's lives. I believe, I will always be in His family, since I accepted Christ as my personal Savior. My prayer is that I remain in His favor. I tend to be like Paul and muck things up from time to time, doing what I know I should not being doing. Thank the Lord for His mercy, forgiveness and grace! There are times in every believer's life that hardships arrive. Jesus promises just the opposite from a bed-of-roses for those who sign-on to be disciples. It's bad enough that the believer deals with questioning his/her own faith at times. There are some instances where people will hate you to the point of desiring and possibly pursuing your death because of your faith.  Fear not. Jesus experienced this questioning of the plan of God in the Garden of Gethsemane and before that night experienced many attempts on His life before His sacrificial mission could be completed by fearful, angry leaders of His own people that should have ...

What is God? According to Scripture, God is... spirit (Jn. 4:24) love (1 Jn. 4:8) light (1 Jn. 1:5) The Rock (2 Sam. 22:32; Daniel 2:34-35) consuming fire (Dt. 4:24) Those are some inanimate descriptions. Some depictions of God by a title or idea or characteristic are -  sustainer (Heb. 1:3; Job 12:10) The Way, The Truth, The Life (Jn. 14:6) Grace and Truth (Jn. 1:14) Sovereign Lord (2 Sam. 7:22) Justice (Ps. 50:6) Comforter; Advocate; Helper (Jn. 14:16) Everlasting to Everlasting (Ps. 90:2) forgiving and good (Ps. 86:5) In Zephaniah 3:17 , the verse contains six depictions of God in the believer's relationship with Him - Lord, Mighty Warrior, Savior, Lover, Rejoicer and Singer.  God as an all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere being doesn't need anything.  The point to creation and the history of creation is for God to share His wonderfulness with His creation and His creation to respect and glorify Him in return.  First there was God. Then He created the angels beca...

Can you imagine America seeing miracle after miracle, day after day, year after year and having a spokesman for God to declare God’s thoughts and heart? Then could you imagine the citizens of America asking the well known and well respected Christians of the country to appoint The President? Can you imagine one of the most prominent men of God in our generation like the late Dr. Billy Graham anointing and declaring who is President of the United States of America? All this is what occurred with Samuel and the nation of Israel. God heard the request of the nation of Israel to appoint a king over them and used the prophet Samuel to anoint and declare Saul king. Saul’s track record as King of Israel had mixed results. However, the majority of events linked with his tenure of kingship was negative, crazy at best. What is the lesson to be learned? Be careful what you request of God. The Lord warned them this was not the best petition, but the people were persistent and God granted their req...