Excuses, Excuses, Excuses!

Excuse: An expression of regret for failure to do something.

Have you ever considered how excuses really only satisfy the people who make them? Seriously - take a minute to think about that. Do you REALLY think the person you're making those excuses to is pleased or happy with them? Not likely. However, luckily for you, we as people didn't just start making excuses, no - this all started with Adam and Eve in the garden! Back in Genesis 3:11, God asked Adam and Eve, " Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?" Next thing you know - the excuse was born - "And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat" (Genesis 3:12-13). If you know that story, you know that God wasn't pleased with Adam and Eve's excuses then and He's not pleased today with our excuses.

More often than not, when God calls people into His service, they resisted by coming up with a lot of excuses. Moses, for instance, was a perfect example. God told Moses, "Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt" (Exodus 3:10). God even went so far as to say, "...certainly I will be with thee" (Exodus 3:12). What more could a person ask for?? You would have thought that would have been good enough for Moses, but NOOOO! In Exodus 4:10, Moses starts in with his excuses - "And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue;" and the Lord shuts those excuses down in the next verse: "And the Lord said unto him, who hath made man’s mouth? Or who maketh the dump, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord?" Moses' words were truly an expression of regret for failure to do something (aka - an excuse!)

We so often fail to realize that whenever the Lord tells us to do something, He has already equipped us with exactly what we need in order to get that job done. It's time we stand strong in faith! Stop trying to pass the buck. You know, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are really better off than we think; we just need to look through the lens of gratitude and be very thankful that the Lord chose to use us in natural things as well as spiritual things.

Let's remember to give the responses of Mary and Isaiah. When the Lord said, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Isaiah answered, "Here am I; send me" (Isaiah 6:8). When the Angel said to Mary, "And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS;" Mary replied, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word" (Luke 1:31 and 38). Friends, let's leave our excuses by the wayside and walk in faith!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen... and AMEN!

Jesus Is Our Everything!

Everything: All things, whatever exists, whatever is needed, the only thing that really matter

Jesus is truly our everything - He’s our water when we are thirsty, He’s our friend when we are friendless, He’s our comforter when we have no peace, He’s our healer when we are on our sick bed. He’s our source of power; our source of strength. He’s the source of what we are; the source of what we are not. He’s our King of Kings, our Lord of Lords. He’s the only one that really matters.

If we were to ask Daniel who was his everything - even when he was in the lions den - he would surely tell us that Jesus was his everything. If we were to ask Jonah who was his everything - even when he was in the belly of the fish - he would undoubtedly tell us that Jesus was his everything. If we were to ask Paul and Silas, after they had been beaten, feet in the stocks, and in the inner courts of the prison or David, when he was hiding in the caves from Saul, all three would agree Jesus was their everything.

In our life today, He’s should / must be our everything. He’s our JEHOVAH-SHALOM - the Lord, our Peace! Just as He comforted Gideon and gave him peace in his situation (Judges 6:23-24); He will be our peace right in the midst of our storm. He’s our JEHOVAH-RA-AH - the Lord, My Shepherd (Psalms 23:1). A Shepherd leads and feeds. He also prepares a table for us in the midst of our enemies. He is absolutely our everything and the only thing that really matters.

He is before all things; He is above all things. He orchestrates everything and He determines everything that goes on in our life. He is Alpha and Omega. To sum it all up in a nut shell, He is Sovereign, He is whatever exists, whatever is needed, and He is the only thing that really matters. However, we must allow Him to come into our life, so that He can be those things for us. He’s everything including a perfect gentleman, He won’t force Himself on us, we must invite Him into our lives!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen... and AMEN!                  

Remove Not the Ancient Landmark!

Remove: To move, eliminate, extract

Landmark: A fixed object that serves as a boundary marker

Have you ever thought about how COMMON we have made God? Some of us use His name randomly (when we are definitely not referring to Him). Others of us may have replaced His name with an "X" instead taking the time to spell out "CHRISTmas." At some point or another, we're probably all guilty of placing our Savior on the back burner as we do other things that are not nearly as important to us... in other words, it's like we have lost respect for Him.

God is sovereign and by no means common. He is more than worthy to be respected, honored and praised. As Proverbs 22:28 tells us; "Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set." My friends, I'm afraid that we have lost sight of that scripture.

Back in a day, after the word of God had been taught or preached, people would stand in line to shake the Pastor's hand and let him know how much they appreciated the word he had delivered. Now when the last amen is said, we almost trample each other, trying to get out of the door first! We have forgotten the scripture that says, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigned" (Isaiah 52:7). Let’s not remove the boundary markers.

I remember when we would have all night shut-ins at church. We would lay out before the Lord in prayer, interceding for ourselves, as well as for others. These days, it seems like we need a life-saver just to keep us from fidgeting in our seat after an hour! Oh, how we need to go back to the ancient landmarks.

We used to do a much better job of keeping the Sabbath day (Sunday) holy - the old saints would cook on Saturday, so there would be no cooking on Sunday. They did not shop, and neither did we, on Sunday. We only went to the house of God, where we respected God's house and reverenced the word of God. We remembered that the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and we hallowed it.

Things have really changed. And while I might agree that some changes are necessary, I am grateful that when it comes to the word of God - there are no changes. God’s word is the same today, yesterday, and will be tomorrow. Those things our parents did that (or we have done), got us to where we are today - it's going to take those same holy things to get us back to the Lord!

With all that said, let the church say Amen...and AMEN!

I've Seen Too Many Victories to let Defeat have the Last Word!

Victory: Winning the mastery in battle over difficulties

Defeat: to destroy, nullify

I've seen too many victories to let defeat have the last word! So many times it feels like it would be so much easier to give up; to just throw in the towel and take the easy way out - even after we have had victory after victory in our life! Why is it so easy to forget those victories when we are in the midst of the storm??

I talked with a lady this past weekend who had lost her home and was selling off her many belongings. Before I had spoken with her, I imagined that she was likely feeling sad and possibly  defeated - but let me tell you that was not at all the case! Friends, that woman had victory written all over her!! Instead of whining, she was giving God the Glory; believing that He had something better in store for her. Trust me when I tell you that this woman has been through a lot PRIOR to when I saw her - a stroke, a heart attack and now the house. Despite those things, she was still giving thanks to our Savior for her victories over the illnesses and now over the house she was losing. Needless to say, she truly blessed me as she went on to say that those items and that house weren't hers to start with - instead she knew and said that everything she had belong to the Lord.

She reminded me of Job and how he lost everything he had, but in the end, he ended up with twice as much as he had before. It was such a blessing to see her winning the battle over her difficulties, when she could have so easily felt destroyed. It was a lesson to me and to the others who were around, to refuse to be discouraged or sad, and to refuse to be defeated when things seem bad.

I have seen too many victories, to let defeat have the last word! For example, I have a good friend who has had doctors tell her on four different occasions that she was going to die in less than six months. Would you believe that was at least four years ago and she’s still doing quite well today! Yours truly had three different kinds of cancer and I'm still alive, well, and able to give God the Glory! I had another friend who had a seizure while she was driving AND towing another vehicle,. When her husband woke up, she had gone across the median and had the car facing an oncoming 18 wheeler. The man who was driving the truck said that he had never seen any thing like it before - it was as if "something" had picked up the two cars and had moved them to the side of the road. My friend and her husband should have been dead, but God gave them the victory! I'm sure if you think through your life, you can think of and name a few victories yourself!

We must keep our eyes on the Lord and give thanks for everything. The battles we face are His and the victories are ours. When circumstances come to rob us of our peace - draw close to God; He knows exactly what’s happening - beginning to end!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen... and AMEN!