Category: Addictions and addicts

Being an Overcomer

While the Israelites were en route to the Red Sea, they spoke against God and against Moses. Numbers 21:4-5

God sent snakes and some died. Others went to Moses and rebuked and asked that the snakes would be taken away. Numbers 21:6-7

Moses prayed and God gave instructions to overcome the snakes bites. He did not take the snakes away. Numbers 21:8-9

In Revelation 3:7-13, the message to the Church in Philadelphia and Revelation 3:14-22, the message to the Church in Laodicea are powerful stories of being an over comer and the benefits that are in store for those that endure.

May 2014 be a year of overcoming.

Two great videos for a positive outlook and encouragement. Both are worth watching.


Are You Refusing To Accept Any Free Gifts?

Christmas is a time of gift giving. We buy gifts for those we love whether they deserve them or not. They don’t do specific things to earn them. We just want to make them feel good and want them to know we love them. God offered Christ as a gift to everyone that would believe. He offered His Son freely that we could feel good about who we are and to know that we are loved. It is a gift we don’t deserve. We can do nothing to make ourselves worthy of God’s gift. He wants to give us His Son so that we can benefit from all that He has to offer.

We cannot benefit from the gift’s rewards unless we accept it, open it, and use it as it is intended. We can only feel the love when we have a relationship with the giver and can accept the gift honestly and resolve the things that have kept us at a distance. Christ wants to keep giving and giving. Once Christ is a part of our life and we continue to give Him all our broken pieces, He continues to give to us like we could never have imagined.

Hinder or Help

As everyone is looking to remember the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, they can read about his legacy and his presidency. Let’s look at what he challenges the Americans with. He said,

“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

We could sure get somewhere with that if we could get people to adopt that philosophy. Just think if we could plug some other words into that quote and change America and the world. We have been raising generations of people to feel entitled, looking for a hand out. We are in a lose/lose situation. If we could get people to change their view of life, we could be in a win/win situation. They say change comes from the top but I believe if this attitude would impact a few people, we could be on the road to recovery. What word would make an impact in your life and the people around you.

Ask not what your neighbor can do for you. Ask what you can do for your neighbor.

Ask not what your friend can do for you. Ask what you can do for your friend.

Ask not what your spouse can do for you. Ask what you can do for your spouse.

Ask not what your child can do for you. Ask what you can do for your child.

Ask not what your parent can do for you. Ask what you can do for your parent.

Ask not what your church can do for you. Ask what you can do for your church.

Ask not what God can do for you. Ask what you can do for God.

Let us know what you choose to do and the impact you plan to have.

Read John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961 and you can just feel how far we have fallen. America needs a change. They need to “humble themselves and pray”. It can start with a few.

Some notes from listening to Dr. James Diehl

His Sermon was from Revelation 1, John being put on the island of Patmos. He compared it to Alcatraz. We all have our Alcatraz, our tough times we have to go through. He told us the story of losing his son to cancer. Nearly all of us will face an Alcatraz of some type. We were never promised to not have an Alcatraz, but we are promised that Jesus would go through it with us and we will survive. We do win. We do come out on the other side victorious. We may not get the answers to our why’s. We have to give it to God over and over if necessary. satan (no that is not a typo, satan is little and I have come to a conclusion that I am no longer going to consider his name proper even if it is the start of a sentence) uses our Alcatraz to try to steal our joy and we can’t let him do that. We have to keep asking God to fill us. John was in the Spirit on that island with no choir to sing to him, no music to listen to and no one to talk to but God. God came and spoke to him. If we seek God in our car, our work place, our school, etc., we can also hear from God. The Holy Spirit will talk to us in our Alcatraz. We do not have to allow satan to use our Alcatraz to steal our joy. We can’t give up even if we feel like it at times. We can have joy through Jesus Christ no matter what we go through. John didn’t die there. God will be exalted. We should exalt Him and He will work. We can be on the winning side. God is bigger than all our problems and any Alcatraz that we must face. God is good.

Good Decisions Or Bad Decisions

Much of our life is determined by the decisions we make.

The type of decisions we make are often based on the ones we have made in the past. If we make good decisions, it is easier to continue down that path of making good decisions. The same goes for bad ones.

If we are going down a path of making bad decisions, it seems to escalate and the results continue to get worse. With bad decisions, it is hard to change directions. If we want to reverse directions, we must be intentional. We need to start doing positive things on purpose. As we choose to make good decisions, it is also true that it will escalate but it will be in a positive directions. The results will continue to get better.

Once we get switched in the right direction, we must continue to train ourselves to choose correctly. If we have made bad decisions in the past and have chosen to get on the correct path, we still need to be on guard that we are not deceived into taking a wrong turn. If not recognized quickly, we can be headed in the wrong direction long enough that it will take more effort to get back. This can happen to any of us no matter what path we have been on in the past so we all need to stay aware of where our decisions are leading.

Our brain needs to be trained and it will usually follow the same path whether good or bad. It is our choice which direction we want our life to be heading. The longer we are on a certain path, the harder it is to change. If we follow a bad decision path, it will take great effort to get switched to the good path. That switch can be painful at times depending on where our bad decisions have taken us. If we follow a good decision path, it will get easier the longer we are on it but we have to continue to be watchful. Most importantly to be aware that we have the ability to fail at any moment. We will never be above making a wrong choice. Keeping God at the center of our life will increase our chances of making good decisions.

God gives us the choice. We will benefit by asking for His help in making our choices.