What we may never know

[tommy2]

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus; My angel-wife Wanda Jean and I had a very wonderful vacation back in Iowa these last 10 ten days. Our son Harold (Buddy) got married, we enjoyed a warm party of Christian friends who wanted to see us, we ate too much food and saw our adopted grand-daughter Joselyn, age 16. The weather was superb and all went well, especially our fights to and fro. While we flew, I thought more than once about what might happen on that particular plane flight. Would it crash? I think everyone thinks these kinds of thoughts at times, right? Well, let me share with you what I sense that God thinks about all that, OK? I read once that man’s greatest fear, other than fear itself, is “the unknown”. We just don’t know what will happen in our future and the future of our loved ones, do we? We don’t know if we will suffer or not, or how we end up dying. We don’t know who of our loved ones will one day receive Jesus and who will not. We don’t know how our ministries will end up, let alone our own Christian progress. Don’t we ALL often find ourselves back-sliding more often than we really want? We don’t pray or study Scripture much at times. We find ourselves haunted by old desires, thoughts and temptations. And most often don’t even begin to understand our own errors and weaknesses. We have our giant “up’s” and then we have our tremendous “down’s”, one right after the other, don’t we? The sheer vastness of ourselves and our minds, the vastness of Truth and the many, many things that we just don’t know, all overcome us so much more often than we really want. It can ALL be SO overwhelming and often distressing at times. Yes, how do we navigate through all of this in our lives? In Deuteronomy we are told of Moses’ final sermons to his people before he dies and just before their entry into the Promised Land. If you all have not yet studied this wonderful Book, I urge you to one day get into it and it’s many lessons and truths of today and the ways of the Humankind. Read, when you choose to make the time, v.29:29 and let it sink into your minds and hearts. My Brothers and Sisters, let us cherish what our Lord has revealed and be dismayed not on what He has not revealed. LET YOURSELVES TRUST GOD. I just have no other way to put it. In true reality, our lives are basically out of our control, whether we choose to accept it or not. Please take the time very soon, within your Bible-study times, to read out loud Psalm 29. LET this invigorating Psalm revive your energies for the Lord and His Word. When times fall hard on you, as they always will, lean not on whatever emotion is engulfing you at the time, or even in the good times of your mind and heart. Both good and bad thoughts, feelings and emotions will carry you away, IF you let them. I guess what I am saying is, I so very strongly sense that we need to very often step back and look at the larger picture of our lives, don’t you think? Look at yourself as the ignorant, plagued and weak human being that you are. Then look at what you know of God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. THAT is what Bible study is ALL about, isn't it?? Remember to remember as often as you can that “faith bows down to what God has kept hidden, yet stands on what God has revealed to us”. I pray you ponder these words, as you do the Mighty Words of God, as they have been told to us so lovingly. Our faith is what helps us stand firm, EVEN in the most-tough of circumstances.


Let us pray: Dear FatherGod, we need You more than we will EVER know. We struggle and fight, we stumble and fall, we worry and fret over so MANY things in this life which You have afforded us. Often we don’t even know where we stand with You. We forget our status inYou, and what You sent Jesus to do for us. We ARE so weak when we think that we must stand alone on this earth, in the prison we have created for ourselves. Thank You, Lord, for loving us, wanting us to be with You in Heaven. Thank You for caring for and protecting our loved ones and family. Thank You for keeping us alive and healthy, and NOT in an even worse situation than we now find ourselves in. Please continue to wrap Your Loving arms around my brothers and sisters, which you have just recently saved from satan’s clutches. Help these children of Yours whom I now write to, stand strong and bold in their faith-practice, nurturing each other in their united faith and trust in YOU, God. Thank You for waiting for me and my son Daniel, and the other men there with him in the prison, to come to his senses, to THEIR senses, about You. Keep them safe, Father, and steadfast in their desire to always seek to know You better and better. In the Name of my Sweet, Sweet Savior I pray.
Amen.

I pray that we all will continue encouraging each other to memorize various Scripture. Find the ones that open as a picture for you, ones that actually touch your hearts. Please learn the 23rd Psalm, if you have not already. Our time on this earth was picked by God, whether we realize it or not. Divine Appointments are the clockwork of relationship with our Creator God. EACH moment is vital in our quest to seek our Lord’s Shining Face. Please tell yourself that this is true, my fellow Believers. You each have been given the divine opportunity to enjoy your role in God’s Family. Do not miss it. What you concrete into your minds and hearts and energy NOW will surely be the very things which sustain you when you again find yourself in peril or the down times which always lie ahead of us all. And remember to remember what I have posted here before, please: there are more people in prison on the Outside than there are on the Inside. Tell satan to get behind you. Talk to him of your faith in your Lord Jesus Christ. Even verbally chastise him whenever he tempts you. And HE WILL again and again. THIS be confident of, OK? But the Lord is your Shepard and in Him you do not need to want ANY thing, whatever it may be. This IS His Promise, don’t you know? (Romans 8:11) “If the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He Who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.” ………. (Hosea 6:3) “Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as is the morning. He will come to us like the rain, like the rain that will fall and rain that has already fell.”
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May the Peace of God, which passes ALL understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
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Often I speak of things which are hard to think about. Our weaknesses, our family and “the Unknown” of life. I talk about 2 ways to live. We can look at our failures and successes or we can look at Jesus’ and HIS Success in obeying the Father. WE have to make the choice and it’s a hard choice to follow up on, right? Try to live like Jesus showed us to, or take our own path. But we have to KNOW that God is and will be faithful to us. Look up Acts 2:38-39, and then Romans 8:18-21, please. Are the Apostle Paul’s words about “bucking it up”, or “quit being a big baby about your problems”?? Of course not. Our suffering cannot BEGIN to compare to Jesus’ last days on earth, or even the disciples and martyrs of Christ. WE CANNOT COMPARE OUR LIFE TO GOD’S GLORY IN US. And even unto death, when we are away from the body, is to be WITH the Lord in our physical death. Please, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus, our Father in Heaven looks to save those who are not looking to be saved. I once lived a life of blasphemy and stealing and lying and cheating and drugs and alcohol. I mentally cheated on the most wonderful person in my life once. Through my actions, I led my sons into a life of drugs and alcohol abuse, let alone leading them down a hocus-pocus path of eastern thought and mysticism. And the Lord plucked me out of those flames, just as He did with my son Daniel and surely you guys, also. Do you see my words? Cruise through the first Chapter of Philippians and then the beginning chapter of Isaiah 65. The Lord searches for us. My friends, God doesn’t need our permission for Him to intercept our lives. We don’t know what tomorrow holds but we CAN know Who holds tomorrow in His Hands, right? HAVE this confidence. TELL yourself DAILY of this wonder. Imbed it into your thinkings and words. Seek first HIS Kingdom. And what about your ministry? Know that your work in the Lord, how small you may think it is, is not in vain. KNOW that you have prayers answered that you haven’t even prayed. With God, YOU matter, I matter, ALL of His children matter. What do you think His Son Jesus was all about? Be confident that He has and IS using you in ways you aren’t even aware of. Remember to remember, please, that many, MANY of the people you pass by EACH day may not see any other Bible but you. And as to your back-sliding of faith-practice, KNOW this, please; you are not what you used to be, right? And you are not yet what you will be in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit is woven now into all of our battles, and with HIS strength we stand in what He has revealed to us. Don’t just believe this; KNOW this. When Jesus said, “Father into YOUR hands I commend my Spirit.”, He was trusting in what God revealed to Him. Yes, when God seems distant at times, read Matthew chapter 11, OK? Maybe you guys need to read it often out loud, in turns, during your Bible study time. Think about it. Great is the Word of the Lord. When you get down on your knees in prayer, try ending each prayer time with the words, “Lord, I KNOW that You WILL answer my prayers according to YOUR Will, and not mine.” Be confident in this. Please, for the very sake of your soul.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, we need Your help, BIG time. You know this but we need to tell you anyway. We WANT to be strong and confident in You but we have such a hard time remembering it all. But we DO know how much Jesus loves us. We DO know that. Help us to remember, THROUGH the Holy Spirit, to acknowledge You EACH day in as many ways as we can think of. Please lay your Mighty Hands upon everyone we know to recognize Your Presence in ALL of the things around you. I know that you CAN do all things. In Jesus Sweet Name we pray. Amen.

(2 Chronicles 7:14) “If My people who are called by my Name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My Face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
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(Jonah 2:8) “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the Grace that could be theirs.”
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(Matthew 6:33) “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all things shall be added to you.”
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(John 11:25) Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whosoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies, and whosoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
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(John 15:7 – 14)
And Jesus said, “If you abide in Me and My Words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Herein is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be my disciples. As the Father loved Me, so have I loved you; continue you in My Love. If you keep My Commandments, you shall abide in My Love; even as I have kept my Father’s Commandments, and abide in His Love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My Joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. And this is My Commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you.”
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May the Holy Spirit lead you, my fellow Brothers and Sisters in Christ, to always new and more startling discoveries of how the Lord is in you EACH day. Love, Tommy.