My sweet wife had a small plaque which sat on her piano many years ago in our first home. It read,

 “Just one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” 

Enough said.

Those who practice sin, evil worship of false gods, meetings and murder in dark secret places, know this… God sees. If you have a shred of decency, or fear of the consequences of falling into the hands of an angry God, then now is the time to cease and desist from your evil ways. Repent! Repent now! Your time is short. Search your heart. For Jesus is coming! He is coming for His own. Do you belong to Jesus Christ?

Prayer…” Oh Lord, please protect our children. Bless the mothers who prepare their little ones for kindergarten and school. Answer their Mother’s prayers and keep them safe. We have protected the children of Afghanistan and around the world, so protect ours. Mothers hand their children over the wall to soldiers for protection, maybe to never see them again. We will care for them, so please care for ours in this day of ever increasing danger. Keep them safe and help us raise them in the fear and admonition of your great glory, oh God. Amen.

Put your brain in neutral, trust in the Lord, and let Him finish His job. You won’t be in the chair forever, but if you squirm, you make His job harder, and it could hurt you worse. Don’t forget that God is your Father. He loves you and will do what is best for you. You might not see it at the time, especially if the circumstances seem impossible, but hold on to His word. He who cannot lie says, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10 KJV). Don’t squirm! Gene Markland

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one [j]cubit to his [k]stature?

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6:25-34

Do Christians Have a Split Personality?

What a difference a day makes! Sunday you’re in church where people love you, where you’re at peace with God and filled with love, basking in His presence. Then Monday comes. Home is hectic and disorganized. Every single driver on the road has it in for you, the boss snaps you up for no good reason and your co-workers hate you.

The world has hammered you hard, so when you get back home, everybody had better watch out for your patience is long gone. Sound familiar? We can be one person at church and totally different during the rest of the week if we’re not careful. It’s hard to recognize it in ourselves because we see ourselves as that same good church person all the time, not as a hypocrite. Why do we fail to be the people we think we are? Why do we fail to sustain the personalities we think we have? 

The Apostle Paul wrote, “… I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.” (Romans 7:18-19 NLT)

We tell ourselves that it’s the circumstances that make the difference. Well, it’s more than the circumstances; it’s our split personality! 

The Bible says, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? …” (1 Corinthians 6:19 NLT)

The temple of God, as described in the Bible, was divided into three distinct areas. The outer court where anyone could enter, the holy place where the priests enter, and the holy of holies where only the high priest was permitted to enter once a year in order to make a sacrifice for all the people. It is the holiest part of the temple, the place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, and the presence of God met and communicated with man. There is a trinity to the temple’s design.

Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and there is a trinity to our design as well. We are a spirit, we possess a soul, and live in a body. Our body is like the outer court of the temple. It is there for the entire world to see. It is our connection to the world through our five senses, without which, we could not communicate with the world.

Our soul is like the holy place in the temple. It’s between our spirit and body.  It is where our mind, will, and emotions rest. It’s our connection between the spiritual and the physical, heaven and earth.

Our spirit is like the holy of holies, the innermost sacred part of the temple. It’s the place where God dwells, heaven is approached, and where we fellowship with the Lord.

Our spirit, soul, and body are in constant rivalry. We determine in our soul if we are going to be more body-oriented or spirit-oriented. This is the struggle we endure. This is where the split happens. The pull and tug between our fleshly body, which craves the things of the world, and our spirit, which craves the things of God, can become fierce unless we keep our body under control and seek God through our spirit. Our body will rule us unless we die to self and embrace the presence of God through our spirit.

We become born again by asking Jesus Christ to forgive our sins and come into our heart. Our spirit becomes alive to God when this happens and we have a new relationship with Him through our spirit. The split personality we were born with becomes one in Christ, and God accepts us as a temple in which He can dwell, through the Holy Spirit.

The split between the things of heaven and the cares of life will always challenge us, but when we submit to God and keep our flesh, that worldly connection, under subjection, we bring the peace from Sunday into the chaos of Monday and all is right with the world.

Copyright © 2009 Gene Markland, used with permission.

 “Precious memories, how they linger, how they ever flood my soul….” A beautiful song that makes some sad and some blessed. The old folks are at home with the Lord, but their memories linger and that is a precious part of life. Embrace it and never forget. Never forget. 

The watchman on the wall faces the inhabitants moving around in the city, going about their lives, living accordingly to their own standards, not God’s. Comfortable in their own self righteousness, not God’s. They’re thinking about their own pleasures, not pleasing God. They listen to the sound of their own lusts, not the still small voice of God. Yet God in His love sends the watchman, to warn of their impending doom, although no one listens, the watchman shouts to the crowd, “Repent! Repent! 

If this were a movie, the camera would start with the crowd scene, with the voice of the watchman shouting in the background. Then slowly pan, (that is move) above the  heads in the crowd to the wall, then up the wall to the face of the watchman shouting “repent” for a tight shot on his face…His face full of fear and desperation as he warns to no effect. Then the camera slowly widens to show that behind the watchman is a hundred foot tsunami wave about to crush and destroy the city and all of its inhabitants. 

REPENT!!!

I have learned from reading and studying the Bible that when a nation, particularly God’s chosen people, people whom are called by His name, turn from Him, and the true love, worship, and respect of Him, they become weak. Yes God does bring judgement, but most of the ills that befall such a nation are self inflicted wounds. Such people worship their bellies more than they worship God. They lose their morals, their dignity, and believe in their own self righteousness. Poor people…given everything and wasting it on sinful pleasures. Poor people…who blind themselves with the very treasures that they hold so dear, like taking diamonds and gouging their eyes out. Oh, they have their treasures but because they have blinded themselves, they fail to see what lies just beyond… But we’re too big,  too strong to fail they say…just before the devourer attacks. Oh yes! The attack is coming and such a nation always…always…brings it on themselves. 

America, if there was ever a time to pray, to repent, to revisit our core beliefs it is now. We have been lulled into complacency and believed a lie. Has evil overtaken us? Look around. Another thing I have learned from the Bible is that God is a God of second chances. He forgives, restores, and heals. If we turn to Him with a humble heart, He will do just that. America, we will either learn from the past or be doomed to repeat it. Shake yourself, think! What has brought us here? What is causing  us to reap the judgement which is befalling us? Oh… we need God! And we need Him now!

The lord is from everlasting to everlasting…

He has always been and will always be…

 He currently exists in the past, present, and future all at the same time…

 Who can comprehend the Lord? 

Who can comprehend the power of His might? 

Only He. 

God is love. All the attributes of His existence are embodied in His love. So when the God of forever casts His love on mankind, on you, by giving us His Son Jesus Christ, we are the recipients of the greatest love that has ever existed in the past, present, and future! With this understanding who could not worship God the Father, His Son Jesus, and the precious Holy Spirit whom they have given us. Who could not love Them? (John 3:16)