NCarolinian

Have you ever worked on a project for an extremely long time? Perhaps you feel you have crossed every "T" and dotted every "i". You feel like every base is covered and the job was a thorough one that should stand the onslaught of scrutiny. Then the project is shot holes in so quick that you wonder how the project got off the ground to begin with and your spirit deflates at double the speed. God knows how you feel. He would not be God if He did not know. God established a major project as done - in the beginning. Then He had prophets prophesy about the full manifestation of this project in the future. Then the project was initiated, ran its course and was finished. During this whole process there were always some naysayers trying to poke holes in God's Project - but they were always unsuccessful. It is one thing to break down yours or my project, but a totally other endeavor to challenge The Lord's Project. In Hebrews 4, the main thought is trusting in...

A friend and co-worker of mine died yesterday. She worked at my establishment for some 30 years and I have worked alongside her 22 of those 30. Cancer finally wore her body down. She is a Christian and that is the sustaining comfort, strength and hope I have for myself and others even though I will still miss her in the meantime.  There is a saying, Two things are for certain - death and taxes . For the Christian there is also Hope. Hope that Faith in Love personified, Christ Jesus, accomplished our secured position at The Table in His House in Heaven. By Faith in Christ's words "It is finished" and His manifested proof of victory over death, hell and the grave - an empty tomb - Christians have the best foundation for Hope. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to encourage the believers in Thessolonica and down through the ages of this Hope when he said, " But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others...

I asked the Lord recently, "Lord, how come you said you prefer obedience over sacrifice, yet you laid down your own life as a sacrifice for the sacrificial system you set up for your people?" As I talked this question out with my earthly Father, the Holy Spirit enlightened me. He lifted certain words or phrases for me off the page in the 1 Samuel 15:22 passage and made sense of them for me. The verse reads -  “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams." Samuel hints at the answer in the question itself. He uses the phrase "as much as" to lead our thinking that the second thing mentioned - "obeying the Lord" - is the preferred action.  I thought this interesting because the Holy Spirit impressed the idea upon Samuel during the initiation of The Old Testament Sacrificial System.  The verse's next phrase, "b...

I have had quite a number of people honk their horn at me because they think I can go on, BUT I cannot because of the slower traffic in front of me. Perhaps they are honking at them, but it comes across as a message to me - to pick up the pace - when I can't due to traffic conditions. Some individuals cannot or choose not to recognize what is further down the road and only focus on what is in front of them. Many call this nearsightedness. God helps with this. There are people who are in the other category too. These individuals are great planners and thrive on looking ahead either as part of their job or just the way they feel they are wired. This exclusive view of - just the future - does not appreciate the now and in between time. Many-a-relationship has suffered because of this perspective. I have heard this called farsightedness. God helps with this also. Both visions in balance are what God calls for in our lives. However, in order to have this balance, we must accept a...

Many Christians have a list of people in their lives that they would love to see have a personal relationship with Christ and get plugged in to a well-grounded body of believers. A lot of these individuals are prayed for every day. Jude 1:22 encourages us to have that go get'em, don't give up, passionate attitude about their eternal souls, especially the backslidden . The verse reads - "And of some have compassion, making a difference."   That phrase "and of some" identifies a specific group of targeted people that should be receiving your direct attention. The phrase "have compassion" covers the gambit of loving a person all the way back through the restoration process - until they are spiritually and mentally stable once again. The phrase "making a difference" tells us what we have accomplished. We have accomplished... for Christ - because He instructed us to love like Him,  for the individual - because they needed help/restor...

The first part of Psalm 34:8 is what I want to focus on today - "Taste and see that the Lord is good;" . There are foods out there such as some herbs and spices and mushrooms that are not good for the human body. Plus, with all food you need to know how to prepare and cook properly for healthy consumption. David says in this verse, in my words - "Taste", actually consider and take action on The Lord and His promises in your life and observe or "see" the abundant, healthy results. The human tongue has four zones to our taste palette - sweet, salty, sour and bitter. But our tongue can't sample any food for one of these four determinations if we don't first consider the food we desire to consume and then act on getting it into our mouths. In the same way we must recognize our want and need for a better food, a daily spiritual food and purposefully go after it or in this case Him. No we are not talking about cannibalism here by tasting some...