December 2016 – Jessee Carter

God is Love

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:8

God is the very definition of love. He loves us so much that he died for me and you; he died for the whole world that we may go to hevean IF we accept him as our lord and savior. He took the punishment of our sins. The cross he died on; was supposed to be our punishment. Hungry souls receive grace; the fatherless find their rest and the sick are healed and the hell bound sinners are saved by the grace of God if they call out to Jesus! All because God Is Love. Would you die for the sins of strangers?

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians describes love perfectly. If God is Love then you can safely say

God is patient and kind; God does not envy; God is not arrogant or rude. God is not irritable or resentful. God does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but he rejoices with the truth.God bears all thing, hopes all things and endures all things; because God is love.

Changing seasons

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven
Ecclesiastes 3:1

Seasons in life are constantly changing; one day you can be on top of the world praising Jesus while the next you are cursing the day you were born. Just remember God is always in control; everything is only for a short season. I don’t know about you, but I despise winter. Winter is to cold; too snowy and you can never go outside to do anything. The winters where I am can be brutal. As terrible as winter is, it is only for a short time; a season then it is finally spring and the flowers bloom.

Our life is the same way; we will always go through a dry cold season where we are desperately longing for the flowers to bloom and for our life to get better. What are we to do in the times of our seasons where we are struggling in our life? We are to praise God, we are to praise him in every season of ours. In the book of James, it speaks that we are to be joyful in our trials and that trials are good for us. James 1; Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. When we are down in our seasons, how are we supposed to find joy? We find joy by being in the presence of God and right standing with God which is done by prayer. Galatians 5: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy… In your seasons of drought pray for the spirit to bring you joy! Spend time with God and remember all the time God is good.

Seasons change! When you are low, it will not last for long. Imagine a bow and arrow; you have to pull the arrow back in order to launch it forward. God is about ready to launch you into a new season of joy. God uses your low seasons to teach you and prepare you for the future; you will be able to look on your past and be truly thankful for where you are at in life now. Seasons change, as Christians we will go through trials and hardships but it never lasts forever; only a season. Keep the faith.

Praise and Worship

Psalm 150:1-6 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! …

John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

Psalm 100:2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing.

When trouble and trials come what shall we do? When temptation comes what shall we do? When we have great joy and happiness what shall we do? When we come to church what shall we do? When we wake up what shall we do? We shall praise and worship God! Serve God with a joyful heart and when your in his presence sing to him and worship him. God is deserving of all our praise and worship; he is love; he is our savior.

There is this beautiful serenity in being in the presence of God and singing his praises. In that moment of time everything around us seems to not matter. Time disappears; troubles disappears and the business of life disappears. The only thing in that moment that seems to matter is the Glory of God. Have you ever been lost for hours in dedicated worship to God? It’s like being in love and sitting in the presence of the lover of your soul and the savior of your soul. As the holy spirit flows through you when you worship God all seems well and in those moments your heart becomes soft and it makes it much easier to hear the gentle whisper of Gods voice in you ear. For me I hear most from God when I’m in the spirit worshiping him because my focus is on him and not myself and my state of life.

There is this verse in the bible that says draw close to God and he will draw close to you. When we’re in a true dedicated worship to God, we are drawing closer to our savior and at the same time he is drawing closer to us. Jesus carried that old rugged cross to the hill where he bled and died for us; he tore the veil and now we can come into the presence of God. Sitting in the presence of God through praise and worship is a beautiful conversation with you and God; a peaceful serene, tranquil moment with your savior.

Be still

“Be still, and know that I am God….” Psalm 46:10

What is better then sitting still in the presence of God? Absolutely nothing; without a doubt nothing is better. So many of us are living in a fast pace life. We have 24 hours in 1 day; how many of those hours do you slow down and just be still? Something special happens when we slow down and spend 5 minutes with God, being still in his presence.

When we are still and surrendered to God, we find peace even when the earth gives way, when our life is falling apart and we think we can not go any further. Just be still and surrendered to God and in his presence you’ll find a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Don’t be a Martha; living so busy in your life and not slowing down; when we’re so busy we miss out on countless hours of learning at the feet of Jesus (Luke 10:38) Slow down in your life and sit at the feet of Jesus. More time we meditate on Gods word; when we choose to be still and surrendered to God, the only thing we can expect is to see our spiritual life soar through the clouds.

Loyal

Proverbs 21:21 He who pursues righteousness and loyalty Finds life, righteousness and honor.

God is loyal to us; you may think he has abandoned us to die in this world; physically and spiritually. That is not the case; Gods love is so loyal that it led him to the cross for him to be nailed to it for our sins so we can stand and sing I am a child of God. Out of Gods loyalty he will never let us go! how great is that? If we choose to leave him he will chase after us again giving us yet another chance to follow him. See, God is always there and he listens every time you speak and he looks into our eyes and sees the things we hide but, he hasn’t left us. His love is more faithful then the rising sun and since his love is faithful and we are called to be like Christ that means we must be loyal to God.

If were being loyal to God that means we are to repent from our sins; to live for him and give him all of our heart. Not some; not part; but all of our heart. I belong to Jesus; you belong to Jesus so we are to be loyal to him. We can not serve two masters! We can not serve God and sin; we have to give all of our heart to God.

Romans 8:35-39 Who will separate us from the Messiah’s love? Can trouble, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or a violent death do this? … In all these things we are triumphantly victorious due to the one who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor anything above, nor anything below, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is ours in union with the Messiah Jesus, our Lord.

Pray with me: Lord Jesus I give you all of me. To you alone God I am faithful and loyal. God hear me tonight; hear my prayer of gratitude that your love is loyal. Jesus your love is faithful and because of who you are I place my life in your hands and your loyal love.

Broken Vessels

2 Timothy 2:21

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

Are you a broken vessel? useful to the master and ready for every good work and set apart as holy? If most of us answer that honestly we would say no. Can you imagine looking at yourself in the mirror and being able to confidentially say “I am holy and useful, ready for every good work.?” That is not something easy to say about yourself “holy”. The truth is God calls us to be holy; he calls us to such high standards. If your a broken vessel; if you can not say you are ready for every good work that God has planned for you then I challenge you to take it into prayer with God right now. “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable…” God is calling us to cleanse ourselves from sin BUT we can not do it without Jesus because he is the only one who can cleanse our slate and make us clean.

If we want to be a light onto this world to perform good deeds for Jesus then we need to cleanse ourselves through Jesus Christ so we can be set apart as holy and useful. God will give us his light to take into this dark dark world and everyone will see the light that God has given us; if we are in right standing with him. We need to be in right standing with God if we want to be effective in anything we do and if you are not; then pray and talk to God…yes, he is that approachable.

Luke 8:16

No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.

The beauty of our God

Psalm 27:4

One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.

Can you just imagine the day that we get to praise God when were face to face with him? When I think about the day I see his glory face to face; I swell up with great joy in my heart. We will not even be able to stand in his presence; our knees will be hitting the ground in constant praise of who he is.

Take a look at the mountains, the seas and the night sky and the birds in the sky; the very creation of God just screams his beauty and his majesty. If God feeds the birds of the air; how much more valuable are you then the birds?

Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Gods beauty screams out from his creation whom he takes care of; so do not be afraid because God will take care of you. All in all God is beautiful, he takes care of the birds, he takes care of us and it all gives glory to the Great I Am.