NCarolinian

One can deduce a lot from someone's handwriting. Society has specialists that study people's handwriting to inform authorities of that person's personality and possible tendencies to help with investigations. Graphology is the term pertaining to this  analysis of the physical characteristics and patterns of handwriting claiming to be able to identify the writer, indicating psychological state at the time of writing, or evaluating personality characteristics. In a sense, Graphology can be used upon God's Handwriting. God wrote in the sky for Noah, a bow of many colors, to communicate He would never flood the whole earth again.  In front of King Belshazzar and his guests, at a party in the palace of Babylon, a heavenly hand appeared and wrote a prophetic warning on the wall (Daniel 5) .   In the time of Christ, Jesus was asked about the judgment for a woman who was caught in the act of adultry. Before He answered, Jesus bent down and wrote or drew in the sand. T...

Have you ever stood on the edge of a very large and deep body of water at night with perhaps a mist or fog hovering just above the surface? These bodies of water,  like one of the lakes in Michigan or at the end of a pier in the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, have a certain atmosphere about them.  These places at night produce an eerie, haunting, mysterious, sometimes creepy environment. During visits at this time, there seems to be a presence that makes itself known to every sense except our Five Senses. The hairs on the back of our neck stand up and we get the sense we are being watched. The general consensus is we are not alone. The Scriptures talk about a ridiculously huge and deep expanse in the beginning of it all. I would venture to guess that many read the opening remarks of Genesis 1:1-5 and say, "Oh, the creation of the first day." - while not taking in the marvelous details of The Deep, Dark Expanse. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the eart...

When you assume something, you take the risk of making an "butt" of "u" or "me". Expectations are a synonym. You can expect a certain result or outcome and be vocal about it and in the end be anywhere from spot on to just off target (a few details missing) to dead wrong (missed the whole picture). Through hundreds and hundreds of years, the Jewish people had prophetic inspired writings from God informing them of their coming Messiah or Savior. Many descriptions in the Old Testament depict The Christ as a victorious, militant - Prophet, Priest and King - Savior. Other prophecies pictured the Messiah as a Suffering Servant. What was overlooked, as we peer through our 20/20 hindsight vision, is the order in which Christ would manifest Himself in these depictions. Why would anyone, especially the Savior of Israel and the world, come first as a conquering hero, then proceed to come back and suffer later on for His victory. No, the payment is up front. There ...

There is a poster on Facebook that reads: "I believe in God not because my parents told me, not because my church told me, but because I have experienced His goodness and mercy myself." The person in this quote admits his/her parents told them about God ( "I believe in God not because my parents told me" ). Also, the person admits the church told them about God ( "not because my church told me," ). So, they had a verbal exposure at the least about God.  There was a seed planted, and/or a  foundation laid . So, for this person NOT to include his parents and church in the equation for his belief in God ( but because I have experienced His goodness and mercy myself. )  is not reasonable because of his admission. I am not knocking his experience of God's goodness and mercy, but he flat out denied the things that he admitted were in his life as building blocks toward his spiritual awakening. I believe in God because my parents told me about Chris...

I wish all of us could peel our skin off and know each other, at least for a while, as the same blood-red, bundle of nerves, organs, muscles and bones we are. Sure we all have personalities to accompany those features, but that is what would make the difference NOT the color of our skin. After The Flood, I imagine if Noah and his family stayed in the area and their generations after them, the color of their skin would not change due to the climate of their region. However, they did split up. " The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth." (Genesis 9:18-19) Therefore, since they split up and settled in other parts of the world with different environments, their skin pigmentation was different from each other. How humanity made "The Switch" of associating skin color FROM environmental factors TO inf...

My definition of Hope is as follows - Hope is a feeling and/or expectation that is based on past and present observations which point to a favorable outcome in one's life or current situation. Among the many instances of Hope in Scripture, one that stands out to me is a hopeful man named Simeon. "Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: 'Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, an...

God likes relationship, no make that Loves relationship. He gave His only Son Christ Jesus for the redemption of all humanity's relationship with Him. In addition, He plans to manifest a marriage for all the people who decided to believe in Him one day with His Son. God loves a huge house where everybody can call Home. Ever since Jesus ascended to the right hand of Father God, He has been preparing a place that has many rooms like mansions, so that He will come back and take us to our dwellings to live with Him forever. God loves to fellowship. I like to say that I serve a Party God! The first place we see Christ Jesus performing a miracle is at a celebration or party. He continued that pattern by visiting people's houses and eating with them. One day, believers will feast with The Lord at The Wedding Supper of The Lamb and the eating and camaraderie will last forever. God likes creating beautiful things. In the beginning He created, well, everything. Afterward, He c...

There is a way of living, a lifestyle, worthy of everyone's life. In fact, all other lifestyle options have been proven to be inferior. The key is recognizing this before one's life is too far gone and capitalizing on it. Whatever we might have thought the world could provide as a way of life or our own creative powers - neither the world's plan or our plan is more fulfilling or enduring than a life with and for Christ Jesus. Matthew records Jesus saying, " Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it." (Matt. 10:39)  What must be noticed here is the phrase "for my sake". This phrase is not in the first situation mentioned (before the comma) - "Whoever finds their life will lose it," . This is important because in this first scenario whatever anybody finds as their lifestyle is devoid of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. Consequently their life is forfeited or lost. However, if one lays ...

Fellow Christians, I hope you know your Salvation is Paid for in Full by Christ Jesus. If you do not not know that (1) I just told you and (2) if you don't believe me, read the book of Hebrews. Jesus died once for everybody. If you have accepted and declared that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior and believe in your heart that Father God raised Him from the dead, then your eternity with God is secure ( Romans 10:9 ) - do not doubt it . Once we are in Christ's Family, sharing His Love, in all its many forms, is a joy. Some may call it Working for The Kingdom. Others may identify their action toward God as their Ministry or Calling. Whatever the service to God, the joy of His Salvation is what sets a believer in motion. As David prayed in Psalm 51:12 , so my prayer is for us that God will  Restore to us the joy of His salvation and grant us a willing spirit, to sustain us. In the meantime, know that The Bride of Christ, The Church, has been made holy, cleaned by the ...

The act of watching is plentiful in Scripture. The women that followed Jesus watched The Lord for opportunities to minister to His needs ( Matt. 27:55 ). Judas looked for his opportunity to betray Jesus ( Matt. 26:16 ). Jesus warned about watching for false prophets ( Matt. 7:15 ) and deceivers ( Matt. 24:4 ). Plus, He admonished believers to always be on watch for His return, because His return would be imminent. The Power of Observation is important in Scripture. Paul was under house arrest in Rome when he wrote the letter to the believers in Ephesus - better known as the book of Ephesians. It is commonly accepted that while Paul wrote this letter he had a Roman soldier as a house guest/guard. By being observant to his surroundings and under the influence of the Holy Spirit, Paul was able to receive divine wisdom concerning the  Spiritual Armor of God   ( Eph. 6:10-20 ). However, I could easily imagine Paul peering from the window of his house arrest in Rome and obse...

Dear Fellow Brothers and Sisters in Christ, It matters, the company you keep, while you are in this world and not of this world. In John 17:13-19 , Jesus prays a prayer of Sanctification (set apart-ness) for His Disciples. I believe this prayer stretches down through the ages to all who would call themselves disciples of Christ. The Lord prayed, I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. Jesus is our Great Example in that He was in the wor...

First of all, don't be surprised if all the sudden in a conversation with me I start singing. This is probably due to the fact a word or phrase you just said triggered a song with the same word, phrase or sing-song voice you used - in it. Secondly, don't be surprised if I sing a song for you or over your life - in front of you.  Thirdly, don't be surprised if I try to get you to join me in singing or playing one of many "air instruments" available to us. Scripture says in Ephesians 5:18-19 - " be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord" However, be sure that I will not be choosing repetitive songs that go on forever. True, t here are certain things, like God's love enduring forever, that are emphasized by repetition in Scripture. There are ideas or even words that are said twice or three times to get a point across. But the whole Bible is not li...

Ever have a highly respected individual in which you desired to emulate? I know we are not all perfect, but there are some great men and women out there with traits and characteristics worth adding to our own repertoire. In fact, I believe we each should be a conglomerate of all the positive attributes that we experience and leave the negative ones behind - a challenge, I know. However, according to Marc Antony in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, it is unfortunately our bad deeds which live on in the minds of the living and our good deeds are forgotten with us in the grave. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.  The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones ; So let it be with Caesar. This is the world perspective. But, for those desiring to bless others, just as Christ had compassion on the many He encountered, God has Anointed Influence in abundance to delegate ...

Today, I encourage my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to always be ready to bless somebody - whether they be a believer in Christ or non-believer. We help move someone toward a decision for a life with Christ when we bless the non-believer. We strengthen the Body of Christ when we bless other Christians. We show the love of God in both cases as we do not neglect either. In order to be prepared for these kind of opportunities at any moment, God instructs us to just use what we have on hand to minister one-to-another - be real, be genuine. In the miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand it is stated, "As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, 'This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.' Jesus replied, 'They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.' 'We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,' they answered....

Hindsight is always 20/20 vision. However, that does not stop me from asking God - why now? Or why then? I think it is an understatement to call God's Timing interesting at what seems to be pivotal times in our lives. But we have to trust in God's plan and control for our lives, otherwise we might go crazy sounding like a 4 year old saying "Why" all the time. Jesus has timed His answer to issues at different points along several struggles. Take for example - The Feeding of the Five Thousand ( Matt. 14:13-21 ), Christ Asleep in the Boat ( Mark 4:35-41 ), and the Raising of Lazarus ( John 11, esp. 11:17 ).  ______________________ There was a crowd of five thousand, just counting the men, following Jesus one particular day. He was healing their sick and having compassion on them when evening time was upon everyone. The disciples, knowing that the masses probably knew the lay-of-the-land and where to get a bite to eat, said to Jesus,  “This is a remote place, ...