Nuggets

Sunday’s Monday

I can’t begin to express my joy in the participation of your liking my page, sharing my writings and those wonderful comments. I pray for God to penetrate your heart to a depth that has been reached before, to open your eyes wide for receiving His vision and to purify your mind that it might fully understand His royal sovereignty. May His spirit comfort you, His word ground you and His love strengthen you in whatever (good or bad) is to come. Pat and I have had a whirlwind week and God has set the stage for all of it! We would like to ask you to remember a home bound senior citizen this week with prayer or a phone call or send a note or card or best of all a visit with prayer. God will bless you! Thank you!

Pat and I attended a breakfast gathering yesterday at the request of a brother, mentor and friend. It was great to see people that I hadn’t seen in a while as well as meet people that I had never met. I thought it was an exciting social event, filled with praise and thanksgiving to God. However, God told me, I missed the message that He was teaching through this experience. God had several hidden examples within that group of people which gathered together, all under the guise of breakfast. God revealed “Confusion” as the number one weapon of His enemy, as it has been since the start of Satan’s days. This is why, God has to continually show me how to defeat doubt. The first and foremost thing that I have succumb to is, who is God? What do I really, honestly believe, when it comes to God? Do I believe Revelation 1:8 (NLT), “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come, the Almighty One?” Or am I guilty of simply adorning my King James garb and spouting scriptures from the rooftop? Note to self, appearances mean nothing if God doesn’t recognize me! A little test that we can use to find the answer to this question is found in 1 John 4:16 (NLT), We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. This should speak volumes as to how much we love like Jesus! Second, I must know who Jesus says I am, if I am to serve Him correctly. A lot of study material on this subject uses the term slave to describe servanthood, which can carry a negative connotation unless one has a wholesome understanding of love. Maybe this will help; I try my best to serve my wife out of love, not because she demands it but because she enjoys being served. I serve out of love, not fear, guilt nor any other reason. I love 1 Peter 2:9 (NLT), But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. We are chosen by God Himself! John 1:12 (NLT), But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. I (we) am a child of God! I plead with you to discover who God says you are. The third thing that God showed me is vine and branches, in John 15:5 (NLT), “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. It came to me some time back that God had a message for me inside this verse that I had not identified yet. I received it at a time when I was just fledging out, into the world and I was experiencing doubt and fear. But God opened my eyes to better understand of why He authored this verse. For me “I know” I can do nothing without God (I tried for 40+ years), ergo I believe the need (importance) for me to stay connected to the vine. Without the life-giving sustenance of Jesus, my life swivels and is soon destroyed. For you believers you know this, but do you really believe it? For you non-believers or doubters pay attention! I’m using a Clematis vine for my example as one grows outside my kitchen window and I see it daily. God showed me, “He said branches for a reason”. I am a branch and must to stay connected to the vine, but I also need other connected branches to accomplish God bidding. I watch the vine outside my window and see how the branches strengthen and protect each other. Especially during those hot summer days and those freezing winter nights, as each limb seems to move ever so slowly to bring comfort to those exposed branches. Christians! Please understand! We need each other’s loving kindness, spiritual wisdom, divine encouragement and sacred prayer. Let us gather in the name of Jesus at every opportunity!

HAVE A BLESSED WEEK BY BEING A BLESSING TO OTHERS!

COMMENTS WELCOME…pal249@hotmail.com…01/20/2019