I'm Adopted

There are times that those words seem to have a negative connotation, but the reality is there are few things that could be sweeter than to find out you've been adopted....I am!  You mean Don and Rose Hubbard are not your real parents?  Don't jump to any rash conclusions.  Yes biologically my parents are my parents.  Lets suppose they weren't for a moment.  What could that possibly mean? My parents abandoned me, maybe they died thus I became an orphan, a cast-a-way.  But that also means that my adoptive parents, out of all the children in the world, chose me. 
You see I was a spiritual cast-a-way, left on the curb side of a dark alley to die (dead in tresspasses and sin, Ephesians 2:1) without hope.  But then my Daddy (spiritual Father) came along and chose me to be His very own son.  Now I can cry "Abba (daddy)" and He is right there everytime.  My daddy adopted me and chose me out of all the people in the world and made me His very own.  And my inheritance...WOW, you wouldn't believe what my Daddy has for me!

Romans 8:14-17 ESV
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

I Handcuffed Myself!

And I threw away the key. Me...that's right me. Why would I  be so foolish as to handcuff myself? Paul said the things I shouldn't do I do and the things I should do I don't.(Rom. 7) That would be spiritual suicide. Can you relate to this?  And as James reminds us, sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.  So the Apostle Paul concludes Romans 7 with a question....

Romans 7:24 ESV
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Is there any help or hope for the mess we make?  Handcuffed with no key.

Romans 7:25
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

There is hope for deliverance!

Sin So We Can Get Grace?

We may not consciously practice it but by default we certainly do.  Everytime we fall prey to our flesh and our own desires it demands the grace of God be applied. How many times each day does the  grace of God have to be appropriated on my behalf?  Make no mistake I am glad it is appropriated and it can't run out....but why would I continue in sin for such a cause? Why not just bask in the grace already given and be free from another load of personal guilt because I wanted to sin again?

Romans 6:1-2 ESV
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Our God is too glorious for us to treat His grace with such disrespect!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE2PSIkAtPg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Don't Fear The Battle

Its tough sometimes and quite honestly it is frightening when life and the enemy comes rushing at you at the same time.  If you can muster the strength to read, remember these words. 

Deuteronomy 20:3-4 ESV
...and shall say to them, "Hear, O,_________________(put your name in) today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory."

Sin Stinks!

I was eating lunch with my wife yesterday at the table and I let our little Yorkie out to do what dogs do when you let them out.  He returned after a whistle or two and we continued eating and playing a card game (which is our lunch tradition) when my wife suddenly exclaimed "something smells like poop".  Well, our cute little Yorkie had not only done his "business" but had proceeded to roll in somebody else's "business".  Can you smell it?  It stinks!  Then you pick him up and it gets on you and then you stink.  Then you wash him and you can seeemingly still smell the stink.  Poop is like sin in so many ways...it certainly stinks and when you get it on you it can effect others and even when it is washed away there is often lasting residual effects. When will we learn to quit rolling in poop(sin).

Psalms 38:1-5 ESV

O Lord , rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness,

Is the Occult Alive and Well?

I encourage you to read the following verses and the watch the attached YouTube video.  The influence of wickedness in our culture is certainly alive and well and has no intension of shrinking.  I encourage you to be discerning and always watch, listen and read with this in mind....the word of God is our only infallible source of truth everything else should be filtered by eating the meat and spitting out the bones.  So read and watch and "be sober because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion" (I Peter 5:8) but..."Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" (I John 4:4).

Deuteronomy 18:9-14 ESV

"When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord . And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9w9K2AiMTI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The Sky Is Falling

You will remember this famous line from the movie Chicken Little. Well, the sky isn't falling but I will challenge you to be prepared for the coming days. 

Matthew 24:37 ESV
For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

If you want to know what those days were like read and study Genesis 6.  NOT a pretty picture.