Do You Know Me?

In our children’s church, Kingdom Kids, we’re learning how to use faith in our everyday lives – at home with family, at school with friends, at church. Last week, we learned about having faith despite the things that we can see and touch. We began this journey by jumping into our time-machines and flying back in time to get to know the man that we, as Christians, have put our entire faith in: Jesus.

We posed this simple question to the kids: What did Jesus look like when he was on earth?

In preparation for this class, I went home and asked myself the same question. I knew He had to be different from all the movies that I’ve seen, but was I prepared for the “real thing”? I went on the Internet and found a research paper written by forensic anthropologists (scientists who work with human remains to determine ethnicity and uncover information about how the person lived and died based on their bones). These forensic anthropologists gathered data from skeletal remains from Jesus’ time frame and the place where He was raised and used computer graphics to build a face that would more accurately resemble Jesus and the people of His time. My reaction? WHAT??? THAT IS NOT JESUS! THEY ARE LYING! WHAT DO THOSE SCIENTISTS KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING? I bucked up pretty hard against…a picture? What if they were right and Jesus really did look like this picture? Did it change what He did for me? Does it change the truth about God’s Word? I felt so embarrassed! Oh, this was going to be a great class!

Throughout the morning, the kids made Jesus-Heads that all pretty much looked the same. Pale, translucent white-skin. Blue-eyes that would make your heart flutter. Long, flowing blond hair, just like the hair in the Herbal Essence commercials. The kids took a vote and decided which of their Jesus pictures was the closest resemblance to the “real” Jesus.

We sat them all down and held up a traditional picture of Jesus. YEP, THAT’S HIM RIGHT THERE! It looked just like all of their Jesus-heads. Then, we showed them the picture the scientists drew based on the evidence they have found. Mouths dragged the floor! They jumped up out of their chairs! They yelled at us! They argued! They might even have been foaming at the mouth! They all but cussed us out! THAT’S NOT JESUS…HE’S GOT DARK SKIN! HE DIDN’T LOOK LIKE THAT! THAT’S NOT HOW HE LOOKS IN THE JESUS VIDEOS THAT I HAVE AT MY HOUSE! JESUS HAS WHITE SKIN AND BLUE EYES AND BLOND HAIR AND….

Immediately, the kids’ reactions reminded me of myself. Last year during Seeking Time, I asked God to help me strengthen my faith. And you know what? He did! Before I knew it, my sisters and I were certified foster parents in the state of Georgia. We were “Mamas” to FOUR of our little cousins. My responsibilities at church changed and expanded. I started a second job and barely had enough time to watch CSI on T.V.! WHAT??? Was God serious? I didn’t ask Him for that! I asked Him to strengthen my faith, not give me gray hairs before I turned 30! It was suppose to be easy! I argued! I yelled! I foamed at the mouth! I called Him a Liar because my picture of Him helping me strengthen my faith didn’t line up with HIS picture. After the resistance, I’ve learned how to trust God in ways that I never knew that I could. My life has changed FOREVER for the better because I accepted His picture for my life instead of the one I thought I should have!

Those kids in Kingdom Kids left our class expressing a wide range of emotions. Some held fast to their traditional view of Jesus. Some left accepting that He probably did look differently than what they thought. When the picture of what you think and know about yourself and your life is challenged by God’s picture, plan and truth, what is your reaction? Do you quit and give up? Do you yell at God? Do you argue with Presbytery? Do you foam at the mouth? Or do you accept the new image and try to be conformed to it? Think about that the next time you pass that picture of Jesus hanging on your wall!

Training Grounds of our Trials

Know this, the trying of your faith worketh patience and let patience have her perfect work, that you may be matured and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:4

Your faith will be tried. It’s as sure as the sunrise. We can refuse to endure the trial, but in doing so we are refusing God. These trials we face are the testing ground for our faith and a determining factor in fulfilling our destiny. God isn’t setting us up to lose this race; He is trying to prepare us for the parts of the race that are yet to come. He is revealing weaknesses and allowing an adjustment period. He is correcting errors and flaws in our lifestyles.

So, will we allow God the Father to coach us into a lifestyle of success? Or will we continue to run from the training grounds of our trials? God has opened a door  that no man can shut! We must decide if we are going to boldly walk through this door or stand outside, fearful and unable to cross the threshold into this new season.

Mull over this short prayer. See if it helps you endure with patience and let her have her complete work in your life.

Lord, let my eyes be opened so that I can see You in everything I encounter. Let my ears hear what You are saying. Father, I submit myself to Your training and trust Your wisdom and leading. Amen.

Be Not Afraid; Only Believe!

“Her pulse Oxygen Level is 2.”  At the time I really didn’t know what I was hearing.  My wife had never been sick.  I had raised five children without doctors or medicine.  Call me crazy if you want, but God was faithful.  I saw everything from deep cuts instantly healed to fevers that dissipated in minutes.  So, I had no idea what was going on when my wife continued to get more and more sick and ended up in the emergency room that February night in 1994

The EMS workers were scared to move her, and when they finally did, they drove at breakneck speeds to transport her to Athens where she was sent directly to ICU.  We didn’t know that would be her home for the next 40 days.

I was in that place where your faith is being tried and it seems like everything you believe has been violated.  How could this happen?  I had started praying and fasting a year earlier (TO THE DAY from when she got sick), and I heard Satan tell me, “See, I’m going to kill your wife because you did all of that.”  Fear gripped my heart.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been in that place where it seems like your entire world is falling apart and nothing that you’ve thought was stable is still standing.  It’s a painful place.  It’s a scary place.  You may be there now.

As I sat in the lobby of that ICU hour after hour, I did the only thing I knew to do; I confessed the Word over and over and over again.  I said, “My wife will live and not die and declare the glorious works of the Lord.”

In those moments of literally living off of His Word, I heard Him answer the voice of Satan saying, “No son, Satan can’t kill your wife. I started you praying and fasting a year ahead to prepare you for this, so you would be ready and able to stand.” My faith received the CPR it needed to survive, but was still barely hanging on.

By this time my wife was on dialysis and a ventilator and was mentally incapacitated.  She had been diagnosed with Wegner’s Granulomatosis, a disease that causes massive lesions and hemorrhaging throughout the body.  The doctors sat me down and told me, “Few people survive this disease. Even if she does, she will be so altered – so radically changed- until she won’t be the woman you know and may even be a vegetable. NO ONE has ever recovered from this disease.”   Talk about being crushed.  I felt every ounce of faith drain from my body.  But I kept confessing the Word anyway.

And then it happened: I awoke one morning and simply heard these word’s float through my mind:  “Be not afraid only believe.”  When those words drifted through my mind, Faith came with them.  I knew the verse from Mark 5 where Jesus told Jairus, “Be not afraid only believe,” after the crowd told him that his daughter was already dead. But in my heart, Jesus wasn’t talking to Jairus; He was talking to me.

I drove to the hospital that day where I received the worst report ever from the doctors.  She was allergic to her dialysis medicine; during the night she had pulled out all her tubes and the end was probably very near.  They offered me a handful of pills and said that if I could get her to take them, they might not have to put the tubes back in.

Be not afraid; only believe.  To make a long, grueling day short, I got the pills and 8 oz. of juice in her.  Suddenly, God showed up.  Within a matter of hours, EVERYTHING CHANGED.  Her blindness almost instantly began to recede, her mental state returned, and within one week we went home from the hospital.  To this day, she is the ONLY person to ever receive a completely clean bill of health and be declared in 100% remission from the disease.  Be not afraid; only believe.

I don’t know what you’re going through.  It may be cancer, it may be grief, it may be debt, it may be divorce, it may be anything… but this one thing I know… MY GOD IS MORE THAN ENOUGH.  If He can heal my wife, then He can heal you, too.  BE NOT AFRAID; ONLY BELIEVE!

~Apostle David Coker

Life Lessons from The Three Little Pigs

There once was an old sow who sent her three piglets out into the world.  Each piglet wanted to build a house.  The first pig built his from straw.  It looked like a sturdy enough house, but when the wind blew it scattered and flew away.  The second pig built his house from sticks.  It looked like a pretty solid house with its thick sticks thatched together, but when the storm came and the rain beat down, the house groaned, moaned, and collapsed.  The third little pig loved to work.  He bought bricks and mortar and began to build a beautiful brick home.  It wasn’t much different in shape and size than the first two pigs’ houses, but it took longer to build and was much stronger.  When the storm came to the third pig’s house, the sturdy bricks held together, and the little pig was warm and cozy inside.

Just like these pigs, we are constantly building “houses” in our lives: financial houses, relationship houses, houses for our health.  The question is, “How are we building? Out of straw, sticks, or bricks?” Let’s look at three “house-building” lessons we can learn from these little pigs.

Our first house-building lesson involves the “blueprint” of hope. A blueprint is merely a picture of what you want your house to look like.  If you want a house made of bricks, you don’t create a blueprint for a house made of straw. So, the question is, “How do we create a picture of what we really want?” The picture – the hope – comes from the promises we have in the Word of God. Once we see the glorious promise for our lives, we begin to say that these promises belong to us. Mark 11:22-26 explains how powerful our words of faith are. Proverbs 18:21 tells us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” It’s the words we speak that frame the world we live in. In other words, our words are the blueprint of the house we are building. If we speak fear, failure, worry, and negativity, then we are building out of straw. If we choose to say what the Word says and speak life, hope, and blessing, then we are building out of bricks.

The next lesson we can learn from the pigs is this: if you have a great blueprint but you use the wrong materials, then your house is still going to fall down.  The first two pigs had a rough image of what their houses could look like, but they chose building materials that were weak and had no substance.  You choose the right materials by looking at the right thing. Like the twelve spies who went to search out the Promised Land, you have to decide whose report you’re going to believe. Yes, the current economy is scary.  If you watch the news, it can be so depressing that you can see no way out. In fact, watching too much negative talk on television can cause you to start to say negative things and forget that God is still in control. You’re trading your bricks for straw by feeding on the negative report.

The final lesson to building successful houses is patience. The last pig wasn’t afraid of working on something over time. So many want a quick fix, something easy that looks good but with no substance. The Bible says, “faith without works is dead.” It’s not enough to say what the Word says if we don’t want to work on building our house. It takes work and patience to build something permanent.

So, which pig are you?  Do you have a blueprint of “hope” in your life, speaking what the Word says about your situation? Are you using wimpy sticks or straw for your building materials, looking to the fear and negativity in the world, or are you choosing to feed on the report of the Lord, making your materials strong and enduring? Are you in a rush, looking for a quick fix, or are you taking the time to make the house you build a permanent and lasting structure?

And we didn’t even get to the big bad wolf…

~Apostle David Coker

Has God Done Anything Good for You?

Has God ever done anything good for you? I mean really…has GOD ever done ANYTHING good for YOU?

Now, I know you want to say, “Well yes, He gave me a born again spirit and made me His child,” or some rehearsed answer like that. C’mon…dig down past the answer you think others want to hear and think about the miracles, big and small, that He has done in your life.

One night not long ago, I forgot my checkbook when I went to church, only to find when I got there that it was the last night to purchase tickets for a special dinner I wanted to attend. Not only that, but I had it in my heart to give a certain amount to the visiting ministers for their work in Honduras. At first, I was frustrated with myself for having forgotten to bring my money. As I walked through the sanctuary before church, I put my hands in my back pockets and there…you guessed it…was the exact amount I needed (in cash!) to buy my dinner tickets and give the man of God what I had wanted to give. I do not remember putting that money in my pocket and don’t know when I did it!

Now you can look at that two ways. You could say, “Well, that’s just a coincidence. Things like that are not really God, that’s just part of life.” Or you could rejoice and say, “God knew my heart and my need and He met it. Praise God for His provision!” Honestly, I almost missed it. I nearly passed it off as just a happy coincidence and went on my way. But my spirit spoke up loud and clear and said, “Rejoice! Your God loves you enough to prepare for your own forgetfulness!” So, I did just that: I rejoiced in my God and thanked Him for the little things He is so faithful to do for me.

We begin to be discouraged when things don’t seem to be going right for us, and it appears that Murphy’s Law is in full operation in our lives. When we get down, we overlook small blessings. Instead, we wait around for the big miracles and become cynical when they do not appear. That big miracle you’re waiting around for will not manifest in your life until you learn to rejoice in the small things – until you learn to rejoice even in adversity. We must do as James commands: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” In other words, we must learn to say, “Hallelujah, anyhow!”

In Matthew 25, the master rewards the servant who is faithful in the little things and makes him ruler over much. Rejoicing over small miracles in our lives readies us to be able to see and experience the greater miracles. So, stir yourselves up today! Call to your remembrance the goodness of your God. Think about every small way He has proven Himself faithful, loving, and merciful to you. Praise Him for all the miracles He has performed in your life, big and small. He has delivered you from the bear and the lion, and He will give this present enemy into your hands!

So, I ask you again: Has GOD ever done ANYTHING good for YOU?

Then REJOICE!

~Linda Frederick

A Day in the Life

A Seeker’s Life…

HOME-4:30-5:30A.M. – I have to get up. Oh, how I hate that alarm clock sound. Which demon came up with the grating, digital madness I hear this morning? Good morning, Lord. I love you, but I don’t feel like getting up. I think I’ll just sit here for a bit, and quiet my mind…

I remember the time I was lying in the barracks in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. I was so scared, Lord. I had spent years playing games with you. I really was about to fly out with my unit to an unknown danger half a world away from my wife, my home. You intervened, though. I asked you to save me that day. I believed you gave your life for me, and I was too scared of the unknown ahead of me not to live the rest of mine for you. I thank you, Father. You are the lover of my soul. All glory, all honor, all power to you.

I have to get going.

TRIP TO WORK-5:30-6:15 A.M. — My windshield is frosted, and I don’t want to be late for work. It’s so co-co-cold.

I praise you Lo-Lo-Lord of Lords and King of Ki-Kings.  In the midst of this day, be glorified in all I do. Prepare the way.

What’s that squeaking noise from under the hood?

God, I thank you that my car runs perfectly, and will continue to. You are such an awesome provider. Thank you for this car!

AT WORK-6:15 A.M.-3:00 P.M.–There he is. God help me. I don’t like that guy. I’ve written him up once, and if he steps out of line again, I’m gonna have to let him go. I’m sorry, Lord. I know you love him. I want to have a different view of him-to see him the way you do. I say he is a blessing to me, and everyone on the job. Whatever he touches prospers, and he walks in health all the days of his life. That’s enough of that. I’m going to get some work done. I worship you.  I step into my role as a king and a priest in this part of your territory.

GOING HOME-3:00-4:00 P.M.—I am sapped. It was a crazy day. I thank you, God, for great success at work. My boss is blessed and he sees as you see. All the men are safe and full of God ideas that will help us remain on top in this industry. You stayed in the middle of everything I did today.

AT HOME, THEN DINNER-4:00- 6:40 P.M.—Hot Pockets. I remember Hot Pockets, and Reese’s Cups. “Supper was delicious. I didn’t know cabbage could taste like that.” God, you are an abundant provider. We worship you and are thankful for a full pantry.

TRIP TO CHURCH-6:40-9:30 P.M.—“Let’s go, Boys! We need to be out the door. The bus leaves at 5:50 just like last week and the week before that. Would any one of you prove to me that you can tell time?”

Father God, you are so merciful and filled with all grace. You are my peace, and my song. In You, there is no lack. Weariness is a lie for me, because You fill me with the grace to accomplish the things I can’t on my own. Thank you.

AT HOME FOR THE EVENING-9:30-10:00 P.M.—“Goodnight, Son. You did a good job making that new boy feel comfortable tonight. Thanks. You’re the best. Say your prayers.”

A FEW WORDS AND TO BED-10:00-10:30 P.M.—“Honey, we have to talk about the taxman. But, I just don’t have it in me tonight. I want to go to bed. I Love you. We can talk tomorrow. Let’s schedule it, shall we?”

Father, I wanted to spend some time apart from the routine today, just worshipping you. I took a few minutes here and there, but…

I hear you, Lord. I hadn’t really thought of it that way.  I spent my day with You instead of just a little time… or rather, You spent Your day with me. Thank You, Lord. I love You.

Goodnight.

~Guy Parker

Excerpts from Paul’s Letter to American Christians by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

As we pause today to celebrate the life and legacy of a great man, let’s not forget the crux of his message: that Christians in America still have a long way to go in order to look and act like the Church in the New Testament. Read this excerpt and let it challenge you to your core… then shake yourself and purpose to be a transformer in this present generation of Christianity. ~The Celebration

“Paul’s Letter to American Christians”

Delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, on 4 November 1956.

I can imagine the Apostle Paul writing a letter to American Christians in 1956 A.D. And here is the letter as it stands before me:

I, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to you who are in America, Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

For many years I have longed to be able to come to see you. I have heard so much of you and of what you are doing. I have heard of the fascinating and astounding advances that you have made in the scientific realm…I have heard of your great medical advances, which have resulted in the curing of many dread plagues and diseases, and thereby prolonged your lives and made for greater security and physical well-being. All of that is marvelous.

But America, as I look at you from afar, I wonder whether your moral and spiritual progress has been commensurate with your scientific progress. It seems to me that your moral progress lags behind your scientific progress. You have allowed the material means by which you live to outdistance the spiritual ends for which you live. You have allowed your mentality to outrun your morality. You have allowed your civilization to outdistance your culture. Through your scientific genius you have made of the world a neighborhood, but through your moral and spiritual genius you have failed to make of it a brotherhood. So America, I would urge you to keep your moral advances abreast with your scientific advances.

Let me rush on to say something about the church. Americans, I must remind you, as I have said to so many others, that the church is the Body of Christ. So when the church is true to its nature it knows neither division nor disunity. But I am disturbed about what you are doing to the Body of Christ. They tell me that in America you have within Protestantism more than two hundred and fifty six denominations. The tragedy is not so much that you have such a multiplicity of denominations, but that most of them are warring against each other with a claim to absolute truth. You must come to see that God is neither a Baptist nor a Methodist; He is neither a Presbyterian nor a Episcopalian. God is bigger than all of our denominations. If you are to be true witnesses for Christ, you must come to see that America.

There is another thing that disturbs me to no end about the American church. You have a white church and you have a Negro church. You have allowed segregation to creep into the doors of the church. How can such a division exist in the true Body of Christ? You must face the tragic fact that when you stand at 11:00 on Sunday morning to sing praises, you stand in the most segregated hour of Christian America. They tell me that there is more integration in the entertaining world and other secular agencies than there is in the Christian church. How appalling that is.

So Americans I must urge you to get rid of every aspect of segregation. The broad universalism standing at the center of the gospel makes both the theory and practice of segregation morally unjustifiable. Segregation is a blatant denial of the unity which we all have in Christ. The underlying philosophy of Christianity is diametrically opposed to the underlying philosophy of segregation.

I must bring my writing to a close now. Timothy is waiting to deliver this letter, and I must take leave for another church. But just before leaving, I must say to you, as I said to the church at Corinth, that I still believe that love is the most durable power in the world.

So American Christians, you may have the gift of prophecy and understanding all mysteries. You may be able to break into the storehouse of nature and bring out many insights that men never dreamed were there. You may ascend to the heights of academic achievement, so that you will have all knowledge. You may give great gifts to charity. You may tower high in philanthropy. But if you have not love, it means nothing.

I must say goodbye now. I hope this letter will find you strong in the faith. It is probable that I will not get to see you in America, but I will meet you in God’s eternity. And now unto him who is able to keep us from falling, and lift us from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, from the midnight of desperation to the daybreak of joy, to him be power and authority, forever and ever. Amen.

Retrieved from:

http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/sermons/561104.000_Paul’s_letter_to_American_Christians.html

Hold Fast

Let us hold fast the profession of [our] faith without wavering; (for he [is] faithful that promised;) – Hebrews 10:23

God’s Word will not return to Him void. He has honored his Word above His own name. Use these scripture-based confessions to edify yourself and to resist the devil. When the enemy shouts at you from every side…HOLD FAST!
•    I am complete in Him Who is the Head of all principality and power (Colossians 2:10)
•    I am far from oppression, and fear does not come near me (Isaiah 54:14).
•    I am born of God, and the evil one does not touch me (I John 5:18).
•    I have the peace of God that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7).
•    I have the Greater One living in me; greater is He Who is in me than he who is in the world (I John 4:4).
•    I have received the gift of righteousness and reign as a king in life by Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17).
•    I have received the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus, the eyes of my understanding being enlightened (Ephesians 1:17,18).
•    I have given, and it is given to me; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, men give into my bosom (Luke 6:38).
•    I have no lack for my God supplies all of my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
•    I can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one with my shield of faith (Ephesians 6:16).
•    I can do all things through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:13).
•    I show forth the praises of God Who has called me out of darkness into His marvelous light (I Peter 2:9).
•    I am God’s child⎯for I am born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, which lives and abides forever (I Peter 1:23).
•    I am God’s workmanship, created in Christ unto good works (Ephesians 2:10).
•    I am a doer of the Word and blessed in my actions (James 1:22,25).
•    I am a joint-heir with Christ (Romans 8:17).
•    I am more than a conqueror through Him Who loves me (Romans 8:37).
•    I am an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony (Revelation 12:11).
•    I am an ambassador for Christ (II Corinthians 5:20).
•    I am part of a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people (I Peter 2:9).
•    I am the head and not the tail; I am above only and not beneath (Deuteronomy 28:13).
•    I am delivered from the power of darkness and translated into God’s kingdom (Colossians 1:13).
•    I am redeemed from the curse of sin, sickness, and poverty (Galatians 3:13; Deuteronomy 28:15-68).
•    I am firmly rooted, built up, established in my faith and overflowing with gratitude (Colossians 2:7).
•    I am raised up with Christ and seated in heavenly places (Colossians 2:12; Ephesians 2:6).
•    I am greatly loved by God (Colossians 3:12; Romans 1:7; I Thessalonians 1:4; Ephesians 2:4).
•    I am strengthened with all might according to His glorious power (Colossians 1:11).
•    I am submitted to God, and the devil flees from me because I resist him in the Name of Jesus (James 4:7).
•    I press on toward the goal to win the prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward         (Philippians 3:14).
•    For God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, love, and a sound mind (II Timothy 1:7).

~Linda Frederick

Seeking God

We know that God is not lost. Neither is He playing a game of Hide-n-Seek with us, cleverly ducking out of view as soon as we come around the corner. So when we talk about “seeking the Lord”, we are certainly not talking about it in our traditional sense. Both the Hebrew and the Greek words translated “seek” have the meaning of seeking after someone with purpose for something that is deeply desired. We’re not just seeking for God so we can say, “Tag! You’re it!” We’re not seeking Him to prove that He exists. Rather, we purpose in our heart to seek His face, so that we might be conformed to His image. It is true that we become what we behold… if we seek things of the world, we will become like the world. If we seek God, we will become more like Him. Meditate on these scriptures and allow them to compel you to SEEK GOD!

But if from thence thou shalt SEEK the LORD thy God, thou shalt find [him], if thou SEEK him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. – Deu 4:29

The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that SEEK the LORD shall not want any good [thing]. – Psa 34:10

Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that SEEK the LORD. – Psa 105:3

SEEK the LORD, and his strength: SEEK his face evermore. – Psa 105:4

SEEK ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: – Isa 55:6

And ye shall SEEK me, and find [me], when ye shall search for me with all your heart. – Jer 29:13

And I set my face unto the Lord God, to SEEK by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: – Dan 9:3

But SEEK ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. – Mat 6:33

Ask, and it shall be given you; SEEK, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: – Mat 7:7

That they should SEEK the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: – Acts 17:27

~Linda Frederick

What are you waiting for? (Pt.2)

“But, I know Jesus has come. I am not like those Jews who are still waiting for Him,” you may say.

We all know Jesus has come. We sing songs about His birth and place tiny Baby Jesus images all around our houses and churches at Christmas. We know Jesus came to this earth, that He lived and died…But, we’re still waiting on the promise of The Christ.

If we really, truly believed that Christ has come, we would understand the scripture that says, “He HAS blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” (Eph 1:3)

God has already healed you: “With His stripes, we ARE healed.” (1 Pet 2:24)

God has already given you peace: “ Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto
you.” (John 14:27)

God has already blessed your finances: “The LORD shall open unto thee his
good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to
bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou
shalt not borrow.” – Deut 28:12

God has already restored your relationships: “As the Father hath loved me, so
have I loved you: continue ye in my love…This is my commandment, That ye
love one another, as I have loved you.” – John 15: 9/12

God has already supplied all your need: “But my God shall supply all your need
according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” – Phil 4:19

Paul, the apostle, was a good Jew who waited for the Messiah to come. Even after his conversion to Christ, he found himself waiting, waiting, waiting on God. When he asked God three times to take care of his problem, God said to him, “My grace is sufficient.” God had already done what Paul asked Him to do. He had already given him the grace to rule and reign in life through Christ (Rom 5:17). God had already given Paul the victory (1 Cor 15:57). Paul needed to remind himself that he wasn’t waiting on God… God had already provided.

As you are packing up all your tiny Jesus figures from the Christmas season, keep in mind that He is more than the baby in the manger. He is the Head of Christ, and we are His Body. As such, we are joint heirs with Him to all the promises of God that have already been delivered. We are not waiting on Him anymore! Now, we are to take what He has given and use our authority to restore His Kingdom in this earth.

NO MORE WAITING!!!

~Linda Frederick