After eating a delicious Thanksgiving meal, did you need to relax in the comfort of your easy chair? Webster’s dictionary defines comfort as a state of having relief, cheer, consolation, freedom from pain and suffering. Now that sounds like a state in which we all would like to find ourselves. You may enjoy good music, a great ball game, beautiful sunset, or an intriguing novel to find your comfort zone, but how long does it last? How long does a comforting good hug last? My grandson gives great big memorable hugs, but he is many miles away now and those hugs are few and far between. What a comfort to me that God said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Heb.13:5 Has anyone ever comforted you during a stressful time in your life? May I share my COMFORTER with YOU… during your time of fear…despair…pain…anguish….disappointment….tragedy….Is.40:1 “COMFORT YOU. COMFORT YOU my people, said your GOD” ..Ps.23 “The LORD IS MY SHEPHERD: I SHALL NOT WANT….though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for LORD IS WITH ME, thy rod and thy staff they COMFORT ME.“….Is.49:13″Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD HAS COMFORTED HIS PEOPLE, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.” … The LIVING GOD’S COMFORT IS EVERLASTING .…Is.38:19,20 “The living, the living, he shall praise the Lord, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. The LORD IS READY TO SAVE ME”
from Barbara’s Bible
THE LIVING GOD #SATISFIES
This time of the year, our thoughts turn to a delicious meal that satisfies our taste palette. What is your favorite dish during the holidays? Is it sweet or savory? Do you get a sugar rush or prefer the meat and potatoes? How long does that satisfaction last for you? I can remember my mother cooking weeks ahead for all the family gatherings at our home. She would always ask me what was my favorite and I had the same answer year after year…”I love the fresh fruit salad” Now she spent hours cooking the casseroles, turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, hot yeast rolls, pies and cakes which were all deliciously satisfying to the adults, but I just wanted to rush outside to play ball with my cousins. The most gratifying part of the holiday experience for me was fellowship with my family. Do you have an eternal family? Are you satisfied this season? “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: He forgives all your iniquities;….. redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies; LORD SATISFIES your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The LORD executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.” Ps.102, 103 During my formative years, our church family would sing, “I am satisfied, I am satisfied, I am satisfied with Jesus; but the question comes to me, ‘Is my SAVIOR SATISFIED WITH ME?” PS.91:14-16 “Because you set your love upon Me, I will deliver you: I will set you on high because you have known my name. Call on Me, and I will answer: I will be with you in trouble; I will deliver and honor you with long life I WILL SATISFY YOU and show you My SALVATION” ...Jeremiah31:14 “My people shall be SATISFIED with My goodness, declares the LORD”
THE LIVING GOD #BREAD
Thanksgiving conjures up many thoughts of food such as turkey, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Each year there seems to be new food recipes with various spices, herbs, and alternate preparations for tasty meals. While watching the food channels, I have observed many new ways to prepare delicious dishes; however, my family likes the same bread stuffing year after year. Bread is the staff of life and I am especially thankful this year to have been enlightened by Jonathan Cahn to Hebrew words and their meanings. The word for house is beit and bread is lechem. The place of Jesus, Messiah’s birth is Bethlehem (Beit lechem – the House of Bread) Jesus says in John 6? “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven…I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE; the one that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on Me shall never thirst…….he that believes on Me has everlasting life. I AM THAT BREAD OF LIFE. ” Matt.6:11 “Give us this day our DAILY BREAD”
THE LIVING GOD #LEADS
Have you ever tried to lead a horse? When I was eleven years old, I was living in Denver where my Uncle Roy owned a Race and Rodeo business. His store had a huge neon sign on top of the store with a cowboy riding a quarter horse while lassoing a running calf. I loved seeing the fancy handmade leather saddles being made on site and checking out the luxury horse trailers he sold in the parking lot, but my favorite pass time was observing the beautiful horses stabled on the acreage behind the store. One day, my uncle saw me watching the horses that had just come in from their workout and he said, “Barbara Ruth (I was named after his wife, Aunt Ruth) come lead those horses around the corral for a cool down” I was thrilled! I was walking three thorough bred magnificent horses when my father seemingly came from nowhere jumping over the fence to grab the horses’ reins saying “Get out quickly – duck under the gate!” After returning the horses to the stables, I heard him tell his brother, “Do not ever put my daughter in harms way again!” That day, I learned a life lesson about leading. I was thrilled and excited to be trusted with precious very expensive beautiful horses, but my father knew I was not prepared to handle those high spirited animals. My father was watching after me that day even when I was oblivious to him..”Even there shall GOD’S HAND LEAD ME, and His right hand shall hold me.” Ps.139:10 From that day to this one, I have seen, felt, and heard my heavenly Father leading. “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then GOD knew my path” Ps.142:3 ” I have handed the reins of my life over to God, the Father..”So the LORD DID LEAD HIM, and there was no strange god with him”Deut.32:12 “Search me, O GOD, know my heart, test me, and know my thoughts: see if there is any painful way in me, and LEAD ME IN THE EVERLASTING WAY.” Ps.139:23,24
THE LIVING GOD #DELIVERS
Don’t you love it when someone delivers what they promised you! Seems that promotion wins over delivery today. You start out with a promise that your internet or tv provider charges will be a certain amount then months later you receive a bill which is three times what the introductory promo was. Does that sound familiar? What about the political promises on healthcare? Has it delivered? That turns my thoughts to political elections on Tuesday, I pray daily that America will turn to GOD to ask for His DELIVERANCE. While reading the Bible today, His Words comforted me, and I want to share them with you. “LORD says, ‘If you return, then I will restore you – before Me you will stand; and if you extract the precious from the worthless, You will become My spokesman. They may turn to you, but you must not turn to them. Then I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; and though they fight against you, they will not prevail over you; for I AM with you to save you and DELIVER YOU,’ declares the LORD. So I WILL DELIVER YOU FROM THE HAND OF THE WICKED, and I will redeem you from the grasp of the violent.” “Behold I AM going to make them know –This time I will make them know My power and My might: they shall know that My name is the LORD.” Jeremiah 15:19-21; 16:21 GOD DELIVERS
THE LIVING GOD #SPIRIT
This time of year, we hear about and see all manner of #evil #spirit aberrations in #movies, #TV, and yes-even on neighborhood doorsteps! Today our society seems to embrace the spirit of evil with glee, but refute the HOLY SPIRIT. The Bible clearly proclaims God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Do You? These are just a few Bible verses I would like to share with you Not as a TRICK, but a TREAT…. “The hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in SPIRIT and TRUTH; for the Father seeks such to worship Him. GOD IS SPIRIT.” John 4:23 “We have not received the SPIRIT OF BONDAGE TO FEAR but received the SPIRIT of ADOPTION so we can call , Abba Father. The SPIRIT bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Rom.8:15,16 “GOD REVEALS to us by HIS SPIRIT, for the SPIRIT SEARCHES all things, yes the deep things of GOD. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the SPIRIT which is of GOD; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of GOD. So things which we speak are not words teaching man’s wisdom, but the HOLY GHOST TEACHINGS comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 1Corth.2:10-13 “Now the LORD IS THAT SPIRIT: and where the SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS LIBERTY.” 11Corth.3:17 “Rejoice.. pray…be thankful..QUENCH NOT THE SPIRIT...” 1Thess.5:16-19 ” Avoid even the appearance of evil. ” On this Halloween, are you promoting the spirit of fear and evil or do you show the Spirit of the Lord in a loving, caring, giving demeanor? Let God’s Spirit shine through the darkness.
THE LIVING GOD #VISIT
When was the last time you had a #visit from anyone? Years ago, #family and #friends or #acquaintances would actually come to one’s home, sit down, and share a conversation with one another. You always knew the boisterous one with a lively tale to be told. Another one was more reserved, but shared something good that took place recently. Certain traits of the individuals would manifest through their words shared during chats at our visit. As I matured, I realized patterns that had developed in the lives of those with whom I had shared visits. Some told whoppers – very embellished events while others very carefully twisted the truth to make themselves look good. Telling our life adventures and interactions through a one on one visit does not occur often, but the pattern of interaction seems to be repeating through Facebook and the internet today. My childhood story of playing with an elephant in the backyard was immediately identified as untruth; however, today we have Donkeys and Elephants in our dens on TV spouting untruths and we say, “It’s O.K. everyone lies” What does GOD SAY as HE VISITS WITH US? Jeremiah 9: “Their house is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, said the LORD. They bend their tongues lie a bow for lies; but they are not brave for the truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not ME, said the LORD. They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies. Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit; one speaks peaceably to the neighbor with the mouth, but in the heart lays wait for him. SHALL I NOT VISIT THEM FOR THESE THINGS, SAID THE LORD: SHALL NOT MY SOUL BE AVENGED ON SUCH A NATION AS THIS? They have forsaken my law which I set before them and have not obeyed my voice, but walked after the willfulness of their own hearts…HEAR the WORD OF THE LORD let your ear receive the WORD OF HIS MOUTH.”
THE LIVING GOD #CORRECTS
Last week while I was driving home, a woman turned in front of me (of yes, she had a red light) while holding her phone up in her right hand trying to follow the GPS…Her car was filled with passengers who had no idea where they were and all were depending upon her and instructions from a satellite! Ever been there? Just heard a news alert on hurricane Matthew that one man drowned when he drove into a flooded river following his GPS. We all need directions to get on the correct path in our lives. WHO CORRECTS YOUR DIRECTION? If man can build technology to instruct, direct, and correct our earthly movements from outer space. why do we doubt the Spirit of God when He corrects our direction in order to reach His Eternal Destination. Pro.20:24 “Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man understand his own way:” Proverbs 3 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean of your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not despise the chastening of the LORD; or be weary of HIS CORRECTION: for whom the LORD LOVES HE CORRECTS; even as a father the son in whom he delights. Happy is the man that finds wisdom and gets understanding. Prov. 4 Hear instruction from the Father…I have led you in the right paths..Enter not into the path of the wicked and do not go in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it turn from it…let your eyes look straight ahead. Watch the path of your feet and do not turn to the right or to the left: remove your foot from evil.” Jeremiah 10:23,24 “O LORD, I know ..it is not in man that walks to direct his steps. LORD CORRECT ME” Do you get frantic when you are lost? Isaiah 26:3 “God will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on the LORD: because he trusts in the LORD forever for in the LORD JEHOVAH IS EVERLASTING STRENGTH…7.O LORD, make the way of the righteous smooth and the path level while following thy way.”