NCarolinian

  After a non-believer accepts Christ Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, the rest of the faith journey is spent being formed daily into the image and character of Christ until He returns to take believers home to Heaven. My hope, prayer and practice is that the way I carry myself would exude a strong example of Christ's Presence in my life, but even more-so on my personage. I yearn to emanate God's presence, nature and aura whenever I enter a room or take a walk so that people are drawn to the Holy Spirit radiating from me. Daniel, Peter and Paul. Daniel was noted by the angel Gabriel as being "esteemed" . Daniel was regarded this way not only on earth, but Gabriel tells him three times - 9:23; 10:11, 19 - that Heaven deems him esteemed. I believe this notoriety was due to his time abiding with God in prayer and having a policy of no compromise. Peter was seen as "highly regarded by people" in Acts 5:13-15 . God's healing power was displayed eve...

                      "Come out with your hands up, you are completely surrounded!" I never thought I would spiritualize that phrase, but that is how the Christian is to approach the beginning of each new day - hands up in surrender and praise, acknowledging God's presence all around us.           In Isaiah 52:12 God's presence is positioned before and behind the believer. "for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard."   He prepares the way and protects the Christian's blindside. Therefore, the Lord takes care of a lot of unseen needs in the believer's life. Hindsight has revealed in my life that many times I was the one that got in the way of God's plan and/or protection.           In Psalm 91:7 , David speaks about a thousand falling at the believer's left hand and ten thousand at the believer's right hand. God's protective p...

          1 Chronicles 16:11 says, "Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always." (NIV) In one verse, Christians have a directive and reminder to engage our personal God.            Before you arrive at the "and" in this verse, the strong encouragement is to "Look to the Lord" . Notice above and in front of all other meetings with anybody else about any situation, God desires you to seek Him out. This is echoed in the New Testament as well. In Matthew 6:33 , Jesus is recorded as saying, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." So, look or seek out The Lord, the person first, as your source for anything and everything and you will have started out on the right foot.           Directly after the "and" word in this 1 Chronicles 16:11 verse is an example of God our Provider. However, here Scripture is specific as to wha...