When are you going to stop seeking pleasures of the flesh and start seeking God?
Why do you pursue things that bring you only temporary happiness that fades away?
Instead pursue joy which truly is only found in God.
God’s love is never ending.
The joy that comes from God’s love is never ending.
Even the darkest moments in your life you can still know joy if you know God.
Know God and know joy.
Have a Blessed Week,
Chris
Happy Father’s Day’s to all the fathers out there who are reading this.
My wife and I’s fathers passed away a few years ago so this day can be a somber day for us. I know this is true for many people as their fathers have also passed away and sadly for some they may never have truly know their father or any father.
If any of that describes how you feel I want to tell you, today can still be joyous.
Because while our earthly fathers might not still be in our life or ever were in our life we have THE Father who is there and who wants to have a personal relationship with us.
If you’re missing your dad or never felt fatherly love from someone know that God made you, God loves you and God is your Father.
I thank God for everything He is done for me, I thank God for creating me and I thank God for creating my earthly father Richard and my wife’s earthly father Ralph. Both who brought blessings and wonderful moments in my life.
Thank you God, Thank you Father, I love you. Happy Father’s Day.
Have a Blessed Week,
Chris
Here is two great links to look at today…
https://www.openbible.info/topics/god_the_father
https://www.christiantoday.com/article/5-prayers-for-fathers-day/88623.htm
My wife and I are were watching our church’s online service and in the opening portion the Pastor, the associate Pastor and Minster of Music were discussing how God speaks to them personally. They then asked the church to write down how we believe God speaks to them and share it.
The message inspired me to write this blog.
For those out there reading this I want you to know God wants to have a personal relationship with you.
He wants to talk to you and He wants us to listen.
God can speak to you in many forms. God knows us best and I believe God will speak to someone in the best way they will hear Him.
I know the Music Minister Willie said he hears God through music.
Me personally I have always been someone who thinks and thinks and thinks. My mind is always on and I can never shut it off. So God speaks to me through my thoughts. Sometimes a little thing here and there other times I get some very deep messages I truly feel are from the Lord.
I realize there is a negative connotation to someone who says, “God told me” or “God spoke to me”. I think a lot of that has to do with people’s own skepticism. The truth is even though we have faith we also struggle with skepticism.
Now I am not saying that you should believe every word someone says or just go along with what someone is saying but we should listen to our brothers and sisters.
You may ask but how do we know if what someone is saying is the truth?
Well since we don’t actually know if God has talked to that person we can’t write them off but there is ways to use discernment. This works both for the listener and the one who believes God is speaking to them.
First you can always ask the Holy Spirit, ask God if He is the one speaking to you or if the person speaking to you is telling the truth. Remember the Holy Spirit dwells within us as Christians.
If you’re still unsure see if what is being said matches with scripture. God is not going to tell anyone something that goes against His Word.
Know scripture and know God.
Know God and know truth.
Have a Blessed Week,
Chris
Links to this week’s church video and the church’s website…
The World will tell you put yourself first and, “Do you.” But God says put other’s first.
The World says you are the provider for yourself or family but God says He is the provider.
The World says to make sure you make strong financial investments and get yours but God says one can only worship Him or money.
The World tells us that law documents written by men are sacred but God tells us the Bible is sacred and to trust in His Word over all others.
God tells us you are not of the World. So we must go by His will not the world’s.
Put other’s before ourselves, trust God to provide, worship Him and His Word alone not man or its money.
Put God first in your life.
God cares about how you feel and your thoughts, He is willing to listen and hear your side but in the end it is about His will being done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
The truth is your likes and dislikes, your feelings, your thoughts and yes your political opinions mean nothing if they don’t align with the Word of God and His Will.
Get off the websites, put down the books and the newspapers and pick up your Bible.
Read what the Word of God says and base your views on the Bible, don’t use the Bible to select verses that match the views you already have.
Toss everything aside and follow Him, follow your King, follow the Most High God.
Have a Blessed Week,
Chris
Information from the Bible regarding this week’s entry…
https://www.openbible.info/topics/putting_others_first
https://www.openbible.info/topics/god_provides
https://biblehub.com/matthew/6-24.htm
https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/bible-verses-about-the-word-of-god/
You can’t battle violence with more violence.
This just doubles the violence.
You can’t bring more injustice to the innocent to undue the injustice that fell on you.
This just multiplies the injustice to new heights.
You can’t battle hate with more hate.
That will lead to more violence and injustice.
You can’t battle darkness with more darkness.
What you do will be swallowed up and seen just the same as the violence, injustice and hate that you battle against.
You must counter with peace, justice and love.
You must battle the darkness with the light.
Have a Blessed Week,
Chris
Biblical verses to read…
Matthew 5:9 English Standard Version (ESV)
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A9&version=ESV
Proverbs 21:15 English Standard Version (ESV)
15 When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous
but terror to evildoers.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+21%3A15&version=ESV
1 Corinthians 13 English Standard Version (ESV)
The Way of Love
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+13&version=ESV
Matthew 5:14-16 English Standard Version (ESV)
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that[a] they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A14-16&version=ESV
The Good Word 