NCarolinian

"My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One." (1 John 2:1 NIV) Does this mean I have permission to go on sinning? Absolutely Not! If you do continue in a lifestyle of disobedience or sin against God, then you trample the very sacrifice of redemption He offers. We cannot live a perfect life, Christ Jesus has done that for us. We are called to live a Sin-Less life.  Furthermore, we should not be on eggshells about our behavior, feeling as though God has a large bolder hanging over our head ready to drop at the first sign of a mistake. If you do not know Christ as your Savior you are condemned already. " Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son." (John 3:18)  Christ Jesus was the one who said,  “I am the way and the truth ...

The Lord has stirred my heart, mind and spirit to write to you about the following subject once again. Please soak it in and I hope it blesses you. Proverbs 18:24 "One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." This verse speaks to reliability, dependability, steadiness, stability and faithfulness. It is what I call a Battery Verse - it has a Negative part to it and a Positive part to it. The Negative is the unreliable friend(s). The Positive is a particular friend that is more reliable than family. The first part of this verse talks about the importance of the company you keep. The section states,  "One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin," .   Not only will bad company hurt you, but if you have people you call "friends"  which are unreliable - the unreliability places you back by yourself when you need help and even ruins you. I encourage us to be very selective in cho...

Did God miraculously heal you? Did God save you from a perilous or dangerous situation? Did God rescue you out of a lifestyle that was destructive? These are reasonable beginnings to a life of faith in Christ Jesus. However, my effort is for us to revisit the "altars", the trophies or memorials of God in our lives. Altars in and of themselves are structures that were built to certain specifications and placed in a specific place for many different uses. Multiple cultures have integrated the use of altars in their society. The Mayans, Incas and Jews are just a select few that we know used altars. For the Jewish usage of the altar the usual observation is that they dealt with all the many sacrifices brought before the LORD. However, not only was it a place of daily sacrifice, but much more. Consider the following about the Jewish Altar... It was portable (Ex. 27:7) A place of offering (Ex. 29:18)   A place of consecration (Ex. 29:21)   A place of seeking holin...

Dear Lord,  Thank you. You have been the anchor for my soul. You have been the wind in my sails. You have been my help when I knew I needed it and when I did not know.  Lord, I apologize for dragging your Holy Spirit through my sinful mess. Savior, I request you forgive me and immerse me in a baptism of your Holy Spirit Fire-River . Empower me again, oh Lord, to be a mighty, positive influence for you. Help me to know The Shepherd's Voice more clearly and be able to carry out His Words. I pray, there is no compromise in trusting you King Jesus. You have been so good, you have been so faithful to me and my family. Even when the answers have varied from yes, to maybe, to yes, to wait for it - I have always benefited from trusting you first. Help me to continue to live like this - always consulting you first in everything. You know my first day from my last. You know every hair on my head or lack thereof. You know my thoughts before I perceive them. Your ways and though...

The Kingdom of Heaven is not just a supernaturally built structure, people or your true home. It is where creativity is nourished and grown. It is a limitless supply of potential, making you forever a work-in-progress. It is a fostering of leaders of Righteousness for His name's sake. The Kingdom of Heaven isn't just a place of citizenship - it is an atmosphere, attitude and person of Christ Jesus you always carry with you by the grace and power of The Holy Spirit.

"Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High, will rest in the shadow of The Almighty." (Psalm 91:1) Turn Psalm 91:1 backwards and paraphrase it and it states - anybody resting in the shadow of The Almighty has chosen to dwell under the shelter of the Most High. It is a choice to know "The Secret Place" as the King James Version refers to "the Shelter" of God. For the Christian, the practice of a quiet time or personal time with The Lord is an awesome avenue to tap into the benefits of resting in God's shadow . The shadow of an object or person can only cast so far. To be in the shadow of something or someone is to be in very close proximity. Applying this to our walk with God speaks of intimacy and communion with Him. God's Shadow does not refer to darkness, doom or gloom but of shade, comfort and refreshing. In Psalm 91:1 we read that "The Shelter" is His and "The Shadow" is His. Those who journey to this...

Doesn't it mean the world to you when you have shared personal information with someone you trust and they check up on that subject with you later on, especially when you least expect it? This remembering shows they have paid attention to you and cared enough to commit it to memory for regurgitation later on. In Scripture, the word  remember  is found throughout the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament Israel had a cyclic issue of forgetting God and His blessings on the country. "No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the Lord their God , who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side." (Judges 8:34-35) "Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power — the day he redeemed them from the oppressor, the day he displayed his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region...