A Do-Gooder

Salt & Light

Acts 10:36-41 NKJV 36 The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ-----He is Lord of all----- 37 that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. 39 And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. 40 Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, 41 not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.

Ever hear of someone speaking of maybe a friend, family member or themselves as being "a do-gooder".
But scripture tells us that the person who does good is one who is baptized, anointed by the Holy Spirit and who goes about like Jesus did, healing all who were oppressed by the devil.
Simple, right?
God is with us when we receive Jesus as Lord of our lives. Confessing Him with our mouths, that is by repenting of sins, repenting of the past life and by faith receive the new life or the new man in Him!

Still though, I hear from new broadcasts to the on-line sector video news to heralding a " do-gooder" dying suddenly, or in regard to some freakish event.
Jesus was the Word of God! John 1:14-18 NKJV And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John bore witness of Him and cried out saying, "This was He of whom I said, He who comes after is preferred before m,e for He was before me." 16 and of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Jesus came to bring the love of the Father. He declared Him. Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God which had come. It was seen as preaching peace. Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with Him.

So it would be easy to see when God is not with someone, right? God is love, but Jesus told us in John 14:6 ...."no one comes to the Father except through Him.
Jesus told us this in John 15:15-17 .....No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

This is what the "do-gooder" looks like: they sound like Jesus, their lives imitate His life and they declare the Father. Our lives should have fruit that is to have more life, more fruit produced living our life that points to the Father, the Creator of the Heavens and Earth!

Heard on a teaching today by Kenneth Copeland. He was speaking of the time when the Queen Mary was to be raised out of the ocean water in Long Beach, California and place on land where it was going to be built into a hotel. He spoke they had a Believer's Convention about the time it started some years ago and he said, "the men meticulously removed the first smoke stack from its position, and placed it on the deck with no one touching it.

He said it was suddenly that the enormous smoke stack that looked so beautiful with the fine paint instantly crumbled to the floor of the dock. In awe, people ran to look at "what just happened in an instant"! He said that what was revealed was nothing but layers of paint for the salt air had corroded the very metal of the smoke stack. It was only the the outside the facade!

Yes, that salt water air had corroded the metal on that smoke stack! It was the metal that held the shape, but paint remained only when the metal was gone. So too, we must remember that being saved, we are moved into that which should have no pathways for sin to run rampant. The Father loves us and staying close to Him through Jesus connects us to truth and to light. Outside of that it is just a facade.

People who remain in Jesus should do what Jesus did without going to the Cross, but nailing the flesh creature must be applied. Our emotions should not lead us into sin. Scripture tells us the if our eye or hand offends remove it.
Matthew 5:27-30 NKJV You have heard that is was said to those of old, "You shall not commit adultery. " 28 But I say to you, that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut if off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than your whole body to be cast into hell.

We cannot just appear good like the smoke stack, we are to have hearts connected to the Him who has key of life in Him. Just quoting some scripture does not make us a "do-gooder" in God. It is not enough to just walk through life without making the commitment to Him.
When a man and woman get married, it is to be for life through the continual communication and covenant between them. So many lose that connection and divorce usually finding out too late that freedom truly was in the connection they had at the first in their relationship!
Those who truly understand that the "salt" maintains the effectiveness in adhering to the kingdom that had come. The norm is for us to be salt and light. In that regard as the disciple of Jesus we are to act as the preservative in a world by conforming to kingdom reality or truths. Adhering to His words of truth we remain the strong strengthened in Him. Without Him, then we would appear as the smokestack from the ship Queen Mary cruise-liner!
Surely salt will stall the decay of the meat....and for us it will do the same. Oh, it so vital to stay connected to the Lord, and to know we have the Holy Spirit, we have the open communication to continue in the life-giving grace that has come from the Father of lights and in whom there is no changing ....He never changes His mind toward us.
We must not change our minds either, for to do so well, we would end up looking that beautiful smoke stack for awhile to only end up a heap on the dock of some port. No! We should want to remain in Him for life. Amen!

New teaching at: Voice of Prayer  

Danger at the Doorstep

https://youtu.be/2Zysf4ZQ3Ko

You can also visit my You Tube channel Voice of Prayer 

for more teaching at:  http://bit.ly/1tNyBhV

New teaching at: Life Giving Wells

Speech

https://youtu.be/XciJDWFSr3Y

Also visit Life Giving Wells You Tube Channel for more teaching:

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Talking Too Much

I have a list of verses next to my work area when studying God's word. I have several pages typed on such verses of "talking too" much! We live in a world today that people every where think they have a voice and a platform to speak! In most cases, they spend much time talking, not much time listening and end up on the " poor, poor pitiful me" pile because no one listened to them.
Was going over these verses this morning like:
Proverbs 10:19 ESV 19 When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.
Proverbs 17:28 ESV 28 Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.
Proverbs 29:20 ESV 20 Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Yikes!
That is dangerous when speaking many and especially hasty words and this tells us there is more hope for a fool than for him.

David was one who regarded help in this area. He asked the Lord: Psalms 141:3 Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!
There is great benefit to speaking wisely! For when we speak many words, then sin is close by. We are told in Proverbs 10:19 that transgression is not lacking. Yes, that is sin! James 1:19 tells us to be "swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath."

Our lives must represent the character to which we speak about to others. Do our lives appear as the "disciplined" or one of chaos? Do we make those rash decisions speaking rash words because we are bound and determined that we are "right". We must check our hearts and check within God's word where our though process is headed. Everyone wants to stand out, to be the different, but being different must mean that which stands against killing babies, against lies and hypocrisy and to stand with truth within God's standard which is His word. When we align there then our way is made level.
Jesus spoke this: Matthew 12:36 ESV 36 "I tell you on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.
Amplified Bible reads this way: 36 But I tell you, on the day of judgment men will have to give account for every idle (inoperative, nonworking) word they speak.

Hebrews 4:12 Amp. Bible 12 For the word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing and effective], it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of and joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing  and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.

It is only God's Word that will work! Man's words are many, full of boasting and pride. But God in His Word gets down to innermost of our being to brings us into the revelation of His truth and deliver us from the miry past into a life of peace, joy and love in the Holy Spirit.

Proverbs 18:21 reminds us that 'death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit." Yes, one pathway is unto death and the fruit it produces. The other is the pathway of life leading to more life.
That same power works in everyone's tongues, not just for those who are saved, but those who are lost: those who sing songs about death and dying, who speak of killing and posting it, of speak of defilement and proceed into it, for we truly must guard our eyes and our ears.
There have been Christians songs that tend toward rendering death to the listening ear. No, truly we must know and understand........regard that our heavenly Father knows best and that we must watch what we put into our hearts. We must ask for the "discerning" heart to know truth and reside in it.

May we become content in God's word for when we do we will not go out to harass others with quarrels and fretfulness. When the peace of God resides in you and in me, we make for the peaceful home, the peaceful community and nation. May we be used to encourage others with truth, and reflect God's extravagant love and not be given to speaking too many words!

New teaching at: Voice of Prayer  

Living by the Testimony of Christ

https://youtu.be/X8KHLzFhVa4

You can also visit my You Tube channel Voice of Prayer 

for more teaching at:  http://bit.ly/1tNyBhV

New teaching at: Life Giving Wells

Salvation is a Place

https://youtu.be/WbBaih_UUcs

Also visit Life Giving Wells You Tube Channel for more teaching:

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Seasons

Voice of Prayer

1 Thessalonians 5:1-6  BUT concerning the times and the seasons brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us no sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

Seasons come and go. We watch with anticipation for the flowers first bloom, even when the temps are barely able to climb into the fifties. Then we watch for the rays to cast longer shadows for the lengthening days and by the fourth of July we expect to see the days grow shorter and the warmth to turn to a shiver that travels from the face and down our spine. It is most certainly the right time to reach for that jacket or even a hooded jacket to keep the moist off the glasses to see clearly while taking that "short" walk around the yard or the neighborhood!

In 1 Thessalonians 5, we are reminded to keep watch as the one who believes the Gospel, the one who belongs to Christ Jesus and not to give way to a careless attitude where one is unconcerned about the seasons. Keeping in mind to keep God's word and foremost for that instruction leads us through God's grace and to the light and truth.  Our security is to be in the Lord and not in money or things or even in other people! It is not be centered in what we do but that the Lord is in what we do!
Was thinking about people who prepared for their children to go back to school. For in this new year, the parent or parents make certain the child or children have new clothes that fit, new shoes to start the year off right and to have a good outlook on their school learning. Had seen these teenagers interviewed this morning on their way back to school within the Portland, Oregon school district today and one teen said he thought he should be back at school for he was bored at home!

A friend we have known only a few years has a little one going to kindergarten, and we do not see them really anymore for they live in another community some miles away. BUT she had posted the child's look for school and her smile on Facebook and the little one's face spoke volumes about her starting school. Am thinking that the child will do well in her new surroundings indeed!

Preparation is always important. The Lord will come as we see in verse 3. There will be people who will be destroyed. Now no one likes that talk, right? Yet the Bible is firm on it. For we are told those who put their trust into things will not have opportunity to repent. For truly today is the day of salvation, to repent and turn toward the Lord God. If we keep putting off God, then why should we expect Him to answer when the "destruction" comes?


The Lord will come and many will see His coming manifested. He will come when they are not expecting Him to appear.
In the flood, Noah spent some hundred years to build and then the drops fell from the sky. Rain came down of which no one had seen before ever. And people did not repent! They did not stop what they were doing to heed God and the warning!

Jesus will return. And the warning is given to us that we make the changes needed to heed His plan and not ours.
Suddenly, yes destruction is suddenly, and will happen.  As a pregnant woman, that woman in travail (those labor pains) will grown consistently till the child appears. So too, the Lord Jesus has spoken of His coming.  And for any event, large or small people like to prepare. As for going back to school, preparation is key to having order and provide the needed supplies your child may need to be instructed in that which will aid them as adults.
For the Christian, the believer, we too must be equipped and watchful.
To be sober-minded, we keep awake and alert to the devices of the enemy. There was an event of a hurricane that was forecasted to hit the Texas coast last week and people were gathering their plywood on Friday and the storm hit Saturday. (seriously if you can trust the news on TV anymore) I wondered why many took it so lightly and not get out while the getting out would have been good to do! We should maintain vigilance to watch and understand what the Lord would speak to us for safety and keeping close to His heart when alarms are being sounded!

I know not how people live on the coastlines like they do. And many certainly continue to build in the pathways of destructive storms. If you look at the maps of all the former hurricanes they surely made their marks to be read about decades later. Still people will build in that same pathway!
If I am the Christian, and am told to live in that expectancy, am I doing that?

As the parent prepared for the child or children to return to school, should not we hold that place of action and be active in character to keep the Lord our priority? Do we leave church, and go somewhere to indulge in a meal? Do we leave a prayer service and go indulge in something hidden with the dark of night?  (Well, I took care of God's thing, now I am doing my thing?)

Seasons most certainly appear. They come and they go. And being ready should be important to each of us. Observation to keep watch, is the action in full view of others, that Jesus is our Lord. He is Lord, morning, noon and night. He is Lord when we eat at a restaurant. He is Lord when we buy groceries or when we drop by to get those special cinnamon rolls our kids like to eat. Jesus is Lord when we retire at night.  The seasons, well they last some three months....and with that we experience the height and depth of a cold and icy season, the extreme of a hot dog day summer or the extreme of a wind of 75 miles an hour in the dark of night.
Whatever our lives, they should reflect the life which when looked upon could be seen in a 24-hour period in the full blaze of a well-lighted day!

Just like knowing preparation is important for your children to return to school in good form, so too, we should be well prepared with an expectancy that the Lord is coming for His church, the believer's. What we do in any 24 -hour period should be for full display that we belong to Christ Jesus, with no if's, and's or but's about it. Belonging to the Lord is speaking His language, knowing His heart always and being prepared when He says "move"!
And then do it!

I pray today for those living in Texas and the children going back to school. I pray people would know in Jesus' name that power of destruction and that we should know God who keeps us in safety when we chase after Him, seeking Him while He may found and knowing there is a day coming when the Lord will come suddenly. Will people be prepared to know His coming? Today Lord is the day of salvation and may people heed the call to repentance. We pray today for children returning to school and may they be in safety and protection. May they be far from gun violence and far from the angry man. May people come to know the Lord Jesus and move in the places He has purpose for them. May they truly know His love and be bound to His plan of good. Lord we are thankful for those who are the lines in Texas in search, in rescue, in clean-up and and restoration. We pray today for hearts to be encouraged and show us who we might help and send money that would be the most useful. WE BELIEVE FOR THE GOOD TO COME TO TEXAS AND MAY THEY RISE OUT OF THE DESTRUCTION WATERS KNOWING BETTER IS AHEAD! LORD THANK YOU FOR LOVE AND SAFETY IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING. AMEN!

Notice: 

New teaching at: Voice of Prayer  

Anxious Thoughts or Offensive Ways: Swearing By God's Authority

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnhWXUACel4

New teaching at: Life Giving Wells

Behold the Beauty of The Lord : Psalm 27 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH-2RpzYReg

You can also visit my You Tube channel Voice of Prayer 

for more teaching at:  http://bit.ly/1tNyBhV

Also visit Life Giving Wells You Tube Channel for more teaching:

http://bit.ly/2wgu1kw

Now How Many Lightbulbs Do I Need?

Voice of Prayer

Ever walk into a room, turn on the lights, and the light bulb burns out in the corner lamp or overhead?
Or have you ever turned on the lights in say the living room or dining room, walk to the back of the house to do something and return to the living room to find the "room seems somehow darker than when you left it just a few minutes earlier"?
 I can work in the office, and spend time reading, turn off the light when leaving the room and return an hour later, by flipping the wall switch on, the room does not appear as brightly clothed in light as it once did an hour earlier. Looking up to the ceiling, I find a bulb has gone dark and with only one bulb remaining, filling the room with some light appears less effective in producing that light. With the one darkened bulb, only one is left to do the job of two. (yeah, the room still appears dark, right?)

Turning on lights in a room during the day is really no big deal and to find the lights burn out simultaneously still is not a big deal unless you live in the northwest, and a marine push is blocking out the sunlight in the early part of the day!
I do not change those light bulbs out. I leave it for my husband to do. The covers on those light bulbs seem contrary in trying to release them from their ceiling mount. Yes, I leave that job for the engineer! It is not a pretty sight when I wrestle one of those down from it's high ceiling mount!
But seriously as the believer in Jesus, we are to be " a light" and to continue to burn for Him!
John 1: 6 -13  NKJV  6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness to bear witness of the Light, that all through Him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name; 13 who were born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God.

Verses 6-8 speaks of John the Baptist.
John was bearing the light that Jesus was coming. And as the witness John the Baptist spoke of the true "LIGHT"! And the true Light is in Jesus!
I had written in recent days of KISSED HEAVEN and WENT TO HELL! In writing that, Judas was the one who kissed Jesus, had all the teachings that Jesus gave to the "disciples", still Judas went to hell. By betraying Jesus, he showed his true colors! He loved serving himself and getting his own gain but cost him "big" in his end. He might have been the accountant, but he took no thought on how much betraying Jesus would cost him!

I always think about people this time of year. Kids are out of school, summer has begun, and there is just so much activity outside to do. The "fun run" marathons, the three day vacation's to grandma's house (where you can eat anything you want), the splash in the pool is a great adventure especially for the young ones still learning to swim. But I also think about my husband and his hours busily preparing for the coming weather this winter. He is stocking up for sure,checking everything he might need in moment's notice of time, and writes down any items he should pick up at the hardware store.
Yesterday, he was out making room in the storage unit and giving it some new paint on those cabinets. He has been looking at prices on portable heaters and their cost, and what size room the heater will heat when sun shines somewhere else, the temperature readings have plunged to 20 degrees and Jack Frost came overnight to leave ice on the big pine tree.

Yes, I thought a lot about those who took to highways and by-ways, to take that special trip the last couple of days. Summer vacation has begun. But they will return, tired from their trip, a little less money in their pockets, and their focus turns to looking at school supplies, clothes and more money needed to supply for that all new adventures back to school;

Jesus brought light to a darkened world. Jesus brought His kingdom that the Father desired to bring to have His family with Him. But some will find other ventures, some time consuming, and will avoid possibly all teachings of the Lord. Each of us as the believer is to tell someone about Jesus. You could tell them by buying their next bags of groceries, you could shovel their driveway when the snow is too deep for them and their age limits their actions for doing pushing a snow shovel in 3 feet of snow.

It is not about "being God" to them, but showing them the love of God in you!
We had read on Judas and of his betrayal toward Jesus, the true LIGHT, we actually saw Judas had no light or life in himself.  His life was ruled by him for himself!

But we still have opportunity to spend time with the Lord, learn of His ways and prosper in that which He purposed for us to do. Ask yourself, "are you bringing light to the place you influence others"? "Do they see Jesus in you and experience God when you speak?" "Are you their only 'encourager'?"
We all will play a part in the last days mentioned in the Word of God!
What part will you play in these last days? For whatever time remains, we each have light if we have Jesus in our hearts. It will either be the bright light of day or the darkness of night, and I would rather choose to see. I would choose to see Jesus, experience His love for me and know my Father in heaven is looking down on me and God the Holy Spirit living within me gives us power to walk and do for God everyday..
As the believer, we were those released from that appointment of death. We have Jesus, and may His praise be on our lips. This is a new day, with the LIGHT of the LORD to direct our pathway. Will we not go with Him and find the really true adventure of a lifetime that will never end?
Summer will end and fall will begin....after that possible snow will come to cover highways and back roads and maybe your yard. Darkness will begin to come earlier, may your light shine for others to see. And may you know the way in which you are to walk!
For the ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. (Hosea 14:9)

Notice: 

The Voice of Prayer  has a new teaching:
Quality of Holiness: Our Steps Guided into Purpose  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFO0UeFrN7o

You can also visit my You Tube channel The Voice of Prayer for more teaching at:  http://bit.ly/1tNyBhV