Tag: #jesuschristislord

God of Calamity

Isaiah 45:7 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

I recently heard a sermon and in this sermon the preacher claimed this verse yet contradicted it by saying that God is not a God of calamity. I must beg to differ on this subject. So if you would amuse me because the loving merciful God that grabbed each one of us out of the pit, is also the God that cleansed the earth with flood. In that flood He killed everything except for one family. Yes, we serve a God of calamity a God that forms light and creates darkness. When you create darkness calamity is soon to follow.

We can see in our lives that very moment when God touched the deepest parts of our soul and the calamity it caused in our lives. You see when you have a true holiness that touches true wickedness and rebellion what do you think happens? The chaos in our souls that ensued as the holiness of God overtook our hearts. It was a daily fight and still is at times.

Let us look at Job and his life and we see the very thing that we are speaking of. Was God the very one to attack Job and destroy everything he had? No that was the devil but God allowed it to happen. We see this also in the prophecy of Ezekiel with the Gog and Magod war. The Father says And I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great host, all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords.
Ezekiel 38:4 ESV

So yes we see and know that God causes the calamity around us but why? I go back to Job to answer part if this question. One thing we must point out is that calamity deals with physical objects around us. With Job he lost all of his kids all of his wealth. God allow the devil to get to Job with the physical, but he never gave the devil permission to get into his head. Jobs friends did that for him, the devil never had to nor did he ask. 2. God restores and is the ultimate redeemer. Job got back twofold what he lost. God restored the world after the flood. God will use the Gog and Magog war to help grow Israel and fuel the country.

We see so much chaos and calamity in our world. I ask you this after something horrible happens what does the community or people around it do? Yes, there are a few bad, but people still are there to help and show the love of Christ. Through calamity the love and mercy of God is always on display. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 ESV

So let us do what we are called to do and rejoice in all moments of life. The chaotic, the cataclysmic, and the calamity. It is through those hard moments that God is training us for the hard times ahead. We cannot ask God to take us out of the fight because we don’t agree with him. We must start praying for God to give us the faith to overcome the battle He has us in. And know that no matter how chaotic things seem God has everything right where he wants it.

Blessing to you all

Grace of the King

Unstable as Water

Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence.
Genesis 49:4 ESV

At this point Jacob is dying and telling his sons what their future will hold.  So as Rueben his first born defiled his fathers bed. Jacob calls him unstable as water. Because of his unstability he will not move forward. Even though he is strong. Even though he is his fathers air. Even though he is the oldest and most powerful. Ruben will forever be stuck where he is.

When I was in high-school I got a tattoo of a gecko. This tattoo signified for me my stature in high-school so to say. I was able to hangout with everyone. But it wasn’t just hangout it was that I could mold into the fabric of every group. The nerds, the jocks, the cowboys, the druggie’s. Was this a good thing? No not really because yes I got along with pretty much everyone, but I couldn’t find myself. I am sure you are saying that is not unstable. But in actuality it was the beginning  of the unstability that would stagnate my life.

We see every day how unstable the world around us is. The political climate is so volatile the very mention of certain names could cause a riot. The CDC doesn’t know which direction to go now days, and the administration is tumbling down a hill with no one stopping it. The mention of race or masks causes an uproar. The very climate we are in cries out unstable. Yes, it has calmed down from the riots. But just because you can hide the unstable state you are in doesn’t mean your not unstable.

There is no fixing the world around you if you yourself are unstable. The story of Rueben is dominated by his lusts for women. He was powerful in battle stronger than the other brothers. The moment he stepped by a beautiful women he could not control his lusts. So many men and women show their power by day with strong work ethic great jobs beautiful strong families yet at night on their phone or computer they are controlled by the lusts of their flesh. If over 80% of the men in church are addicted to porn no wonder the most visited website in the last 3 years is a pornsite.

For you are unstable as water.

This boils down to what God has called me out on. That I am at times unstable as water. Man when the vid first hit I was livid and adamant about not having to wear a mask. THATS MY FREEDOM YOUR TAKING AWAY! You put me in a political conversation and eww boy my blood would rise. Then put me in a conversation on abortion and it would boil. Place me in a sexual temptation and I would lose my mind. This has completely stopped my walk with Christ. I have been stagnate.

You see I am unstable because the situation dictates how I will react. How can I or any of us move into what God has paid for us to move into when we are as unstable as water. We let our emotions dictate our reaction. We allow the moment to control our lusts and greed and passions. We are the tempature instead of the thermostat.

Are we going to allow the tipping point of the climate around us to dictate our reactions? As long as we are unstable the world around us will be unstable. We must depend on Christ and Christ alone in every situation. He and He alone is in control and the political outcome is in His control. Your lusts and greed need to die at the cross. You are not a slave to sin but FREE IN CHRIST!

Become solid in your foundation and it will stop the water from overflowing. The living water is a steady stream of life, not a chaotic flood overwhelming you. When you control the things in you, your steps will be many.

Many blessings to all. Grace of the King

Light from Darkness

4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. Genesis 1:4 ESV

In the beginning a new creation was formed. The very earth we step on was formed so we had a surface to walk. The oceans were formed and the air was clean and fresh. God himself walked with Adam and Eve. Why was is so perfect? Yes, God is perfect but we see in verse 4 that God separated the light out of the darkness. Can you image the chaos of the darkness as this world was forming. How ugly and violent the forming of something so beautiful was?

We must realize that before the chaos overtook our world God already removed the light out of the darkness. But we view this scripture completely backwards. We believe that God removes the darkness from the light. We see that Christ comes in our lives and and removes the stains of our sins. We believe that Christ comes into are lives and slowly washes us.

WE HAVE THIS BACKWARDS

Christ comes into our lives and pulls us from the darkness of the world. 2nd Corinthian 5:7 says that those who are in Christ are a new creation, the old is passed away: Look see the new has come. We say these scriptures but do we really grab ahold of what God is saying to us? Through Christ God removed us from darkness and separated us from the world.

We see this with Adam and Eve how they walked with God and talked with Him. Yet they allowed sin into our world which separated us from God. That sin is the darkness of the world which we gravitate to. Even as someone who is saved I still gravitate towards sin. I allow the darkness of this world to pull me into the cave where the loudness of the devil overwhelms the calm quiet voice of God. Why? Because I have this thought stuck in my head saying that Christ only cleans what he wants to help me grow. That becoming a Christian is a slow process. Yes, Justification is by faith and sanctification is over time. But thanks be to God who gives us victory through Christ Jesus (2nd Cor. 15:57)

My bible tells me that before the beginning of time God wrote my name and placed me in His mercy. That I was separated from the darkness before I was formed in my mothers womb. My bible tells me that I have victory of sin and darkness through Christ Jesus. My bible also tells me that God Himself has given me dominion over every thing both spiritual and physical through Christ Jesus. We know the promises of God we know what he says about us.

We allow the darkness to dwell in us when God already separated us from that darkness. The problem is when will we start believing it? When will we stop fighting for victory and start fighting from Victory.

A flickering light

1 John 1:6,7 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:6‭-‬7 ESV

My amazing pastor spoke this scripture during our candle light service Sunday. We lit our candles, and the Holy Spirit started showing me some moments in my life. The light of the candle danced in the wind as I walked back to my seat.

Just over a year and a half ago, I relapsed after a long stint of sobriety. During that stint, I was a soldier for the Kingdom of God. I fought. I prayed I had a hunger for God’s word. Even God’s hardest most embattled soldiers flicker at times. We allow the darkness in this world to overshadow our love for God.

As our pastor lit his candle, then his wife’s and daughters, I walked over to have him light mine. This young preacher has lit my wood on fire so many times. He has kicked me in the but a few times as well. He is not only my pastor but my friend. He always has an ear for me, so the symbolism of him lighting my candle is all too accurate.

What I was not prepared for was the 4 steps back to my family. I turned and took that first step as the candle was big and bright. It was hot because I could see a hint of blue at the base. So true for all of us when we first get saved. We come out of that baptism on fire with our hearts being held by the very hand of the Holy Spirit. Nothing can quench us; nothing can knock us from the grace and will of God.

Then, I took the 2nd step, and then it began to flicker. The ac vent blew right at me like the devil himself blowing out my candle. After I relapsed, I had a friend tell me that if I was a true follower of Christ, I would never have done that. Another one told me he had a dream that I had died a spiritual death. The second one has haunted me for the past year, and a half. So, in our walk, we will fall into darkness at some point. Not everyone’s fall will be for all to see. Most will hide it. No one sees my candle about to burn out, not even my soul mate. In the brief moment in our lives, we begin to believe the lies of the devil rather than the promises of God. So, we fall out of the will of God, so our light fades. As in my case, it almost blows out.

3rd step is the hard part. In any walk of a Christian blocking the lies is the toughest battle we have. I took my had and covered the flame, blocking the wind from touching it. At that moment, I about turned around to relight the candle, but the fire grew, and the candle light was strong again. As we should protect the light inside of us. We have to place barriers and blockades in some cases to stop hearing the lies coming from the devil and his dominions. He will have people believe that what they are saying is helpful but will only drag us down. It is up to us to trust the hand of God in our lives is the one blocking the devil and removing things in our lives to help.

The final step is how often we get to see the last step play out. Being the spiritual leader of my house, have the ability to extinguish or infuse the lights burning in my house. I lit my wife’s first because she is my first responseiblity. She is the first gift from God I had received just at the time I had not realized it. Then, I lit my moms candle. Since my father passed, she is my responsibility, and I have been lacking in that realm. Then, I lit my future son-in-laws who lit my oldest daughter’s. I then lit both my my middle daughters.

The symbolism might not mean much to most. It shows everything that God has blessed me with and the future that my daughters hold. Before I relapsed, my focus was on outward ministry. Video podcast weekly that was growing rapidly. I was a coordinator to help men get back on their feet after recovery from addiction. My biggest focus was as a campus pastor for an adolescent rehab center.

Yes, those ministries I miss and would go back to them in a heartbeat. But, what God is showing me is that he wants me to focus on my family. Preparing them for the world that is coming. More importantly, though, is what is the legacy and the light that I will leave my grandkids and my great grandkids?

Our lights will flicker and seem as they will burn out. What I have realized is that no matter how dem our candles might be when we place it in complete darkness, it’s still lit. To make our lights grow brighter, we must place them next to others to light theirs. Combined, it’s a miracle flame that all can see. By ourselves, we are a flickering candle. When we surround ourselves with other candles, we are a city on a hill. That generation after generation will know and see.

Do we need a Doctor?

Luke 5:31 and Jesus answering said to them. They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

We have such a problem when we are sick. We are the biggest babies, but yet we do whatever we can to stay away from the doctor. We could be laid up for days with a horrible migraine over and over again. Time and time again and what do we do? We take pill after pill lay isolated from our family is a dark room prisoned by the migraine. We play a sport and hurt our ankle. For weeks we will limp around on a hurt ankle crying about it. And yet what do we do? We do nothing this pain traps us from doing what we want or what we could be doing. Because we haven’t gone to the doctor in the first place we are trapped in this spot till we do. So we finally get convinced by our own pain and torture that something is really wrong and well maybe just maybe we need some help. We are so blind.

Is this not our walk with Jesus Christ the great Physician? He is the Jehova Rapha the Healer. But we are so quick to decide that we don’t need a doctor yet. Now if something bad goes wrong and I mean real bad we are quick to hit our knees. We fall off the train and relapse we hit our knees and bow to the Great Doctor to heal us once again. We cheat on our spouse, steel money from our family just to buy what we feel we need, or drop divorce papers cause we are to broken ourselves to fix it. Yes we hit out knees in repentance quick. Why because we know we are broken and need a healer.

What about that allergy problem you have? How long will fight that battle with over the counter medicine? To me that is the same as you chasing the legs of yoga pants on every women that wears them. Or the little white lies that we tell over and over. Or that story that we keep saying over and over just to one up our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We still need the healer, we still need to hit our knees. We still need the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. But if there is a constant sickness that is being buried with home remedies like pride, shame, and guilt the Holy Spirit can’t dwell there. When the Holy Spirit is sickness can’t be is the same spot for He is Holy and righteous. And we need him within us every moment of every day. And in that moment He is not that is when we need the great physician to heal us and clean us and make us whole again. You see it’s not just the big illnesses that hit us, but the everyday sweep it under the rug sin that needs to be healed as well.

GOD BLESS 🙌