NCarolinian

The main thrust of this lesson is to be extremely careful what you entertain or consider in life. This is a huge reason Christ prompted believers to pray – “and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” ( Matthew 6:13 ). The Greek word used here and in many instances is peirasmos , meaning placing under scrutiny, testing or proving. Christ desired for us not even to arrive at the point of temptation. This desire by the Lord is a life-long development process by His believers. I like to call the actual development a Moment of Pause . This temporary halt in action and words when tempted or tested mentally, physically or spiritually should immediately be followed by inquiry of The Lord and/or the Holy Spirit. Temptation is the invitation to sin or rebel against God, not the act itself, so call upon The Lord first. Believers in Christ do have a few things in our favor. First, our bodies are vessels of the Holy Spirit ( 1 Corinthians 6:19 ) who will be advocating on our be...

In the movie Patton , General Patton comes to a point where he charges his chaplain to write a prayer, within the hour, for Patton to pray to God for favorable weather so that their mission would be successful. The chaplain complied and God agreed with the request - the next day the weather was perfectly clear. Patton is then quoted in the movie as saying, "He (the chaplain) stands in good with the Lord and I want to decorate him." Immediately, when I heard this line, my heart, mind and spirit ached for the desire to always be in good standing with the Lord. I do not refer to my justification through faith in Christ, taken care of at the Cross.  However, I refer to the victorious resurrection from death, Hell and the grave that He grants believers daily over other life-challenges as well as backslidings to our old behavior. This is the favor I want to be constantly connected to, saturated with and deserving of - if possible. Examples of people who have "stood in good wit...

Jesus demands Himself as priority in the lives of those who deem themselves His disciples. Grant you, the Holy Sprit instructs through Paul to take care of blood family and your spiritual family, but not at the expense of Christ being everything in your life, especially first in everything.  Paul says in Galatians 6:10 about our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ - " Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." Then again, in his first letter to his protege - Timothy - Paul also stresses the importance of taking care of blood family - " Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." (1 Timothy 5:8) The words of Jesus, recorded in Luke 14:26 use a strong word to convey priority or loving less than Himself - the word "hate". "'If anyone comes to me and does not hate fath...

The fact of the matter is not that our past influences us today, but what part of it and in what manner do we allow it to impact our now. That statement is deep for me, I know, but it follows along with what we choose to set-up and what we do not choose to establish as memories that effect our present day. Back in Biblical days there were ways of remembering more positive life events - the building of stone altars and the naming of them. Men like Noah (Genesis 8:20) , Abram (Genesis 12:7) , Isaac (Genesis 26:25) , Jacob (Genesis 35:1-3) , and Moses (Exodus 17:15) all used the altar as memorials to God’s great work(s) in their lives at that time. They would experience the intervention of God in their lives in some way and then to remember it they would construct an altar and worship The Lord. They typically named or titled the altar to signify the miracle or provision God had granted (i.e. “The LORD is My Banner” – Exodus 17:15 ). And the altar was made from stone not earth. Earth-made ...

There are prayers within all faiths of the world, especially Christianity, that were written and taught to be repeated word for word, syllable for syllable. I believe many of these same prayers can be and are used as a template for how to pray for the experiences the believer is currently navigating. Then there is prayer to God that is not written, but is straight, raw communication from the heart, mind and circumstances in order to receive direction or clarity. I think many times believers and seekers of any faith get entangled in chanting the words of a prayer for divine involvement in their situation. For Christians, what is commonly known as The Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:1; Matthew 6:9-13) , could easily be spoken like a mantra. Spoken like this the words hold the power and not the Messiah who taught them the prayer. From all the astonishment, from all the amazement, from all the difficulty the Disciples encountered with the teachings of Jesus - there was one thing they asked to b...

During His ministry on earth, Jesus had a variety of challenging personalities on His team. From John calling himself "the beloved" disciple, to Peter riding the roller coaster of emotions on everything to who we call Doubting Thomas - Jesus had a lot to deal with besides the general populace. However, one "disciple" that was in the tight circle from the beginning was an individual that Jesus knew, in the end, would betray Him - Judas Iscariot. Why ask him to join knowing this?  Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus experienced all our temptations, including the wrong way to respond to betrayal, but did not sin or rebel against God's Way. Jesus could have been betrayed a number of different ways throughout His life and ministry without it leading to His death. This was not the plan, this was  the fulfillment of prophecy  in Zechariah 11:12-13 and Psalm 41:9 . The amazing observation about Jesus is that Jesus could have passed Judas off as just the fulfillment of the...