I think it is extremely important for us to remember that ANYTHING or ANYONE that we put first in our lives…becomes an idol. So, if it isn’t God that is first…then we have to re-adjust..re-order the things in our lives. With that being said….

Do you have too much on your plate? Are you loaded down with “things” that get in the way of what should really be your top priorities ? You know…Too many activities, things that take away from God and family, too much social media, too many clubs, too much volunteering. That is just to name a few.

We shouldn’t let our lives speed out of control. We should live intentionally. Keeping our priorities in order helps make this intentional living possible.

Psalm 39:6 has this to say about living lives that are too busy and filled with too many distractions: “We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it.”

I am working on simplifying my life. Eliminating certain things from my life…one of those things being my personal Twitter account. I LOVE Twitter..I love Social Media. It just distracts me. So..I am changing it to my “blog Twitter” and no longer a personal Twitter account. I have removed a few more social media distractions as well. I am also being more intentional about the quality in the time that we spend with our little family…Making sure that my family is first after God. Another thing that I have been doing is reading a book called The Excellent Wife. It is written by Martha Peace. I highly recommend it. This book has really made me look at my role as wife in the way that God wants me to view it. Convicted to say the least.

Is there SOMETHING or are there some things that YOU may need to cut loose of for a time?

Here are a few signs that you may have too many distractions or things out of order:

~ Stress (no brainer)

~ Irritability.. because you feel rushed all of the time.

~ Never seem to be able to finish a task.

~ Complaints from husband/wife/children that you never have time for them..or if you are with them they say you are distracted.

~ No time for bible study or quiet time.

~ No time for quality family time.

~ Exhaustion (mental and physical)

~ Feeling the “need”  to check your multiple social media sites throughout the day ..but never feeling the need to open your bible app or open your bible .

There’s got to be balance. If you give a majority of your time to volunteering, social media sites, friends, etc.. and find that your time with Jesus and your husband/wife/kids is less than the others, it’s time to refocus and get things (people) back in the correct order.

In “THE EXCELLENT WIFE”, Martha Peace writes: Wives are also to love their husbands as their closest neighbor. The Lord Jesus made it clear, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). Compare how hard you work at showing love to your girl friends with how hard you work at showing your love to your husband. He is your closest neighbor. He should come first.

(This goes for husbands as well…)

So, I invite you to join me in taking a look at your life and praying about what God wants you to do so that you will glorify HIM. There is freedom in surrender. True peace and joy comes when we have our lives in the right order. The alternative is stress and feeling all out of whack. I hope you’ll join me in looking deep within and seeing what you need to change..who knows, you may not need to change a thing. Chances are, somebody that you know may need to. So, share this post if you think it could help someone.. There are also several links to other posts that I placed in this one. (Hoping that one will help even just one person.)

             Until Next Time,

]]> http://stdominicpilgrimage.com/2013/05/20/citizens-of-heaven/ Mon, 20 May 2013 00:59:52 +0000 Sean http://stdominicpilgrimage.com/2013/05/20/citizens-of-heaven/

And yet there is something extraordinary about [the lives of Christians]. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country…They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven.

– From a letter to Diognetus

Our uncorrected thinking, influenced by the blindness of our natural hearts and the intrusive ubiquity of visible things, tends to draw a contrast between the spiritual and the real; but actually no such contrast exists. The antithesis lies elsewhere: between the real and the imaginary, between the spiritual and the material, between the temporal and the eternal; but between the spiritual and the real, never. The spiritual is real.

If we would rise into that region of light and power plainly beckoning us through the Scriptures of truth we must break the evil habit of ignoring the spiritual. We must shift our interest from the seen to the unseen. For the great unseen Reality is God. “He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” This is basic in the life of faith. From there we can rise to unlimited heights. “Ye believe in God,” said our Lord Jesus Christ, “believe also in me.” Without the first there can be no second.

~ Aiden Wilson Tozer; The Pursuit of God ~

We recently read about the stories of risk in the Old Testament. Piper reminds us of Joab, commander of Israel’s forces, finding himself surrounded with Amalekites on one side and Syrians on the other. In 2 Samuel 10:12 Joab says, “Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to Him.” Piper reiterates that last phrase. “…may the Lord do what seems good to Him.”

Joab didn’t know how things would turn out. He had no special revelation from God on the issue. He just had to make a decision on the the basis of sanctified wisdom. He made the decision and handed the results over to God.

This really has me thinking. We have been praying continually for God to “drop a banner” in front of our faces because, honestly, we feel like that’s what it’s going to take for us. We’re too literal to feel like we’d get it any other way. Maybe this is God pulling on our heartstrings telling me that, “Child, you don’t need to know right now. Just go. I will show up in mighty ways.”

This would be hard to do, except as I’ve told Lindsay in the recent weeks, maybe God gave Lindsay the two jobs at the last minute like He did so He could prove to us, so He could give us the understanding in our hearts that He will provide. He is capable. And now, here we are, reading about how some of the greatest examples of God-intervention and God’s will being laid out among His children happened when they didn’t even know what to expect.

Then, the next morning, it was ridiculous. I was reading through Genesis 12 where God calls Abram to leave his two homes and follow Him. Verse 1 really stuck out to me in that it says, “Go…and I will show you.”

Wha?!

God didn’t give Abram an answer at first. God just simply told him to go. Even after God’s instruction to go, God says on three different occasions that “He will” whether it was making Abram a great nation, making his name great, or blessing those that bless Abram. God had a plan. Abram didn’t know how it was going to go down, yet God said go, and he did, and that was all that was needed. Wow.

I’m not saying we’re packing up our things, but it was a true answer to prayer to have this convergence of divine interventions work so meticulously in such an uncertain time for Lindsay and I. Sanctified wisdom. God is good.

What was the one experience that completely changed your life? What happened? How did it change your life?

Okay.. so WordPress has given me magical inspiration to write about one crazy experience that changed my life. So here’s what happened.

One fine spring day, I was jogging along the quiet sidewalks of New Jersey.

Just Kidding.

The decision that changed my life most was probably the decision to get baptized. I’m a Christian, and in 2008, I decided to get baptized. This changed my life forever. Being baptized (if you don’t know) is when your sins are washed away. Jesus died on the cross for our sins 2,000 years ago. He told us to be baptized to redeem our sins. So, once you make the decision to be baptized, you must repeat the Great Confession, which is, “I believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, my Lord and my savior.” Once you say this, in front of your Church congregation, you are symbolically dipped into the water of the baptistry in your Church. This shows how your sins are washed away.

This is the best decision I’ve ever made. This is also the best experience of my life; accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I love Jesus, and I hope that everyone who reads this is encouraged to make a decision.

I love you all!

-Seth…

The heading for this passage is The Living Stone and a Chosen People.  While Jesus may have been rejected by many during the time He walked upon the earth, He is the precious cornerstone of the spiritual house being built by God.  To those of us who believe in the sacrifice by Jesus Christ, on our behalf, we have become the chose people of God.  We have been grafted into the family and have become a part of a holy nation.  Thank you Lord Jesus!  Praise your holy name!  May we help others to come out of the darkness and into the light.  May we extend mercy to those who have yet to choose to walk in the light of Christ. (inspired by Reflecting God – Devotions for Holy Living, WordAction Publishing Company)

It was a remarkable thing that the man who was never to die, for whom God had ordained an infinitely better lot, the man who should be carried to heaven in a chariot of fire, and be translated, that he should not see death-should thus pray, “Let me die, I am no better than my fathers.” We have here a memorable proof that God does not always answer prayer in kind, though he always does in effect. He gave Elias something better than that which he asked for, and thus really heard and answered him. Strange was it that the lion-hearted Elijah should be so depressed by Jezebel's threat as to ask to die, and blessedly kind was it on the part of our heavenly Father that he did not take his desponding servant at his word. There is a limit to the doctrine of the prayer of faith. We are not to expect that God will give us everything we choose to ask for. We know that we sometimes ask, and do not receive, because we ask amiss. If we ask for that which is not promised-if we run counter to the spirit which the Lord would have us cultivate-if we ask contrary to his will, or to the decrees of his providence-if we ask merely for the gratification of our own ease, and without an eye to his glory, we must not expect that we shall receive. Yet, when we ask in faith, nothing doubting, if we receive not the precise thing asked for, we shall receive an equivalent, and more than an equivalent, for it. As one remarks, “If the Lord does not pay in silver, he will in gold; and if he does not pay in gold, he will in diamonds.” If he does not give you precisely what you ask for, he will give you that which is tantamount to it, and that which you will greatly rejoice to receive in lieu thereof. Be then, dear reader, much in prayer, and make this evening a season of earnest intercession, but take heed what you ask.

~ Charles H. Spurgeon ~

A Poem For The Sabbath Day

The Seventh Day of every week,
Is God’s great Gift for us to seek.
The Sabbath is for us to rest,
When Friday’s sun sets in the west. We keep Shabbat of every week.
We find God’s Best is very sweet.

He gave the Sabbath from the start.
He liked Creation, every part.
The Seventh Day – a Gift for us,
We gladly rest, and stop each fuss!
God set apart this Holy Day,
For us to learn to keep His Way.
The Sabbath is a sign for Him,
That all His kids are home, within.
We’re safe inside His garden, sweet.
The Sabbath Day, we love to keep.
The Fourth Command tells us what’s true.
Shabbat is like God’s weekly glue.
We learn His ways each Sabbath Day,
  We cling to Him, and never stray.
The joy we find when we obey
  Is greater than the world’s heyday.
The Sabbath is a Gift for man.
  Enjoy this Rest from Father’s Hand.
—

Susan Boyle is one of the most Beautiful singers in the entire World. She is so talented and the voice is that of an Angel.

Susan Boyle came on the world stage with a humility the “stage,” seldom sees. It should be a lesson to us all, myself included, if not especially, that true greatness is only found through the eyes of the humble, humiliation is found through the eyes seeking only the greatness.

The question is not simply, “Who can be against us?” You could answer that one. Who is against you? Disease, inflation, corruption, exhaustion. Calamities confront, and fears imprison. Were Paul’s question, “Who can be against us?” we could list our foes much easier than we could fight them. But that is not the question. The question is, If GOD IS FOR US, who can be against us?

God is for you. Your parents may have forgotten you, your teachers may have neglected you, your siblings may be ashamed of you; but within reach of your prayers is the maker of the oceans. God!

In the Grip of Grace

by Jonathan Parnell | February 28, 2013

Achilles was a vicious warrior with a complicated history. In Homer’s Iliad we see him rise to the top as the preeminent player at the end of the Trojan War. His full backstory is melodramatic enough to make Downton Abbey blush, but suffice it to say that no one was quite like him. Achilles was simultaneously drunk in rage and meticulous in skill as he led the Greeks in battle. But most of us probably only know him because of his heel.

Achilles doesn’t die in Homer’s story but Greek legend says that he later suffered a mortal wound to the back of his foot. The “Achilles’ heel,” as it’s called today, has become one of the most popular idioms in Western culture. It refers to a person’s point of weakness leading to their downfall.

But that idea comes from Greek mythology, not Christian reality.

God’s wisdom gives us another picture. Believers in Jesus don’t have an Achilles’ heel — we are an Achilles’ heel.

Here’s what I mean: Greek mythology shows us an invincible warrior with one weakness that when exploited leads to defeat; Christian reality shows us a dependent servant with thorough weakness that when exploited leads to triumph.

That’s our story. That’s the trail that Jesus blazes (1 Peter 2:21). A hero died for villains. Victory came through loss. Life was born out of death. Conquest was accomplished by suffering. The darkest night in history gave way to the brightest morning. In God’s economy, our weakness is one of our greatest assets.

Defining Weakness

Now what do we mean by weakness? The word has such a general meaning that we must sketch some type of definition before we go any further. First, let’s be clear about what weakness is not. The biblical concept of weakness does not mean the things we’re not good at. We’re tempted to think this way. It would be easier if weakness were contained to the things we stink at doing. But it’s much more pervasive than that. We can’t simply tip-toe around it.

Weakness is everywhere in the New Testament. Jesus told his disciples that, in contrast to the spirit, the flesh is weak (Mark 14:38). Luke, in Paul’s voice, refers to the weak as those who are economically disadvantaged (Acts 20:35). The Corinthian believers were weak in the social sense (1 Corinthians 1:26–27). The Book of Romans tells us that Jesus died for us while we were still weak, that is, while we were ungodly and lacked any possibility of deserving the slightest good (Romans 5:8). But we are also weak when we pray, when we lack the words or know-how (Romans 8:26). And then there are fellow Christians who are weak if they can’t get past judging others on matters of conscience (Romans 14:1–4). Also throw in this pile the physical infirmities that Paul seems to cite in 2 Corinthians 10:10, the thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12:7, and the litany of unpleasantness in 2 Corinthians 12:10. One way or another, we have felt the way the Bible speaks about weakness.

The context, of course, determines the specific meaning of weakness, but every use is connected back to the general idea of deficiency. If there were one broad explanation for weakness, it would be to lack. Weakness means we don’t have what it takes. It means we are neither sovereign nor omniscient, nor invincible. We are not in control, we don’t know everything, and we can be stopped. Weakness means that we desperately need God. And the plea for my own soul, and for yours, is that we would embrace weakness, not despise it.

The Impact of Embracing Weakness

When we embrace weakness, it means we’ve looked at ourselves long enough to know we can’t make it without looking to Another. Embracing weakness means we know we need God very badly. This discovery, as unenthusiastic as we may be about it, refuses to leave us alone until we’ve been changed, affecting our church, our communion, and our commission. Getting more specific, here are three ways that embracing our weakness impacts our lives.

1. Embracing weakness means that spiritual gifts are a big deal.

The church is a supernatural community, and we don’t do supernatural — God does. We’re too weak to fabricate the faith-building work we’re called to, no matter how unique our particular personalities may be. It comes from somewhere else, namely, as Ephesians 4:7–13 tells, the resurrected Christ.

In that passage, Paul quotes from Psalm 68 and pictures Jesus as a victorious king dispensing the spoils of his triumph. The ascension of Christ was his monarchial procession to the throne of Zion after defeating sin and death. This procession was more than bright lights and a hallelujah chorus. This king is a conqueror. He has scars. And one fruit of those scars is your pastor’s teaching gift. Or your small group leader’s relational wisdom. Or Mrs. Betty’s encouraging words.

When we see the victory of Christ in the gifts of others, our eyes become more grateful than critical. We celebrate instead of nit-pick. We are more moved by God’s awesome power than off-put by our arbitrary preferences. Jesus died for that gift. He died for your brother or sister to have that gift and for you to be built up by it. It’s a big deal.

2. Embracing weakness gives more vigor and peace in our relationship with God.

Vigor and peace is what John Owen says is at stake if we don’t mortify our sin. Vigor is the idea of our outward-facing activity. It is our labor in the Lord. Peace is the thing in the deep recesses of our souls. It’s the character of our silent prayers.

Embracing weakness brings a surge of vigor because we realize that our work must be in God’s power, not ours. It’s like trading in a bicycle for a Ferrari — there’s more horsepower.

Embracing weakness brings more peace because we realize afresh that God loves us by his grace, not because we’re strong. Our joy doesn’t rest in our ability, but in the approval God gives us in Christ, the one in whom he chose us before the ages began according to his own purpose and grace (2 Timothy 1:9).

3. Embracing weakness maximizes our fruitfulness.

When we are stuck on ourselves, we create a ceiling for God’s potential. We define possibilities by our capabilities, not his. And if you stare at yourself long enough, your capacity to dream will dwindle down to nothing. That is a safe and sad way to live, refusing to let your dreams extend beyond what you know for certain you can do on your own. It’s also a sign that you mistake yourself to be stronger than you are.

Knowing we are weak ruins self-sufficiency. We confess that we are severely flawed individuals who have no hope of doing any lasting good in this world unless a God who can raise the dead works through us. And that’s just it — a God who raises the dead does work through us. In fact, the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us is according to the power he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:19–20).

When we embrace our weakness, we know that God’s work must be done in God’s power. And if it’s on God, we can dream big. He is strong enough to do whatever he wants (Psalm 135:6). He is good enough to not spare his own Son but give him up for us all (Romans 8:32). And with a God that strong and that good, the question we must ask ourselves is what we are asking him. In the new heavens and new earth, when our faith becomes sight and we behold the glory of Christ, we will not think back to our time now and say, “You know, my dreams for God’s glory were way too big.”

We won’t ever say that. Because this is Christian reality, not Greek mythology.

Jonathan Parnell (@jonathanparnell) is a content strategist at Desiring God. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife, Melissa, and their three children: Elizabeth, Hannah, and Micah.

Malachi 3:6

Change is inevitable. Throw crisis in and you got upheaval. Upheaval adds the blow to change’s slap. Dictionary.com goes so far as to define upheaval as a strong or violent change or disturbance. I look at it this way: crisis takes the choppy waters of change and transforms them into a tsunami.

And what is the natural response to a tsunami—fleeing!

Fleeing, of course, is a healthy response to a life-threatening condition, such as a tsunami, but is it an appropriate reaction to a crisis in life?

When it comes to living through crisis, I find very few cut and dry solutions. Sometimes a knee-jerk reaction to a catastrophe is escape. In terms of emotional detachment, even denial, this could be very necessary and healthy. When my world first began to unravel, more like disintegrate, denial was the first step in the ladder to reach the platform of acceptance. In a tsunami, individuals are advised to flee and find safe shelter.

Is that not what the human condition aches for? Safe shelter, whether physical, mental or emotional?  Thirteen years ago, when my dad was dying, I broke from the hospital’s ICU unit and fled out of town to a spa for a weekend. When I came back home, I was able to approach the crisis with a renewed spirit and accept the passing of my father.

This go-around, I could not physically leave. My children needed me. Whether a crisis or tsunami, are not children a mama bear’s priority? So, in the denial stage, I broke off from reality and landed in a Twilight Zone of thinking that separated me from the pain of betrayal and loss. This is what I term the sitting-in-front-of-the-TV-watching-reruns-of-Green-Acres-and-eating-Twizzlers stage.

Denial was a lifesaver and softened the blow; after a couple of weeks, the only way for me to move on and forward was to accept that nearly everything that I had found familiar, constant and stable had vanished. So why was it so hard to stop wanting to turn the clock back?

Let me again refer to Russell Bishop, an educational psychologist, author, executive coach and management consultant based in Santa Barbara, California, and his excellent blog that Huffington posted.

“When your life circumstances change, as they inevitably will, you get a choice — your self-talk and physical eyes will want to cling to what was, which can lead to a form of decay, while your Soul-Talk and Soul-Centered eyes will tend to embrace the change and look for ways to move into another period of growth.”

I like what Mr. Bishop says about how clinging to the past can lead to its own form of decay. Irony is, we creatures of habit are threatened by change. We view it as decay…but, in essence, by not accepting what is, we invite double decay into our worlds—the change itself and our resistance to the actual change.

I’ve always told my writing workshop students, “What you resist persists,” and this is the gist of what my point. Once we “embrace” the change, which means accepting it, we can move into another realm of growth. Perhaps, not better; perhaps, not worst; but certainly different.

Our first mistake is when we think stability is synonymous with safety. Safety, of course, is good. Safety, on the other hand, can be plain stupid. There is safety and then there is the dead mode. It can place blinders on us that make us see only the black and white world in front of us and never allow us to see the entire panoramic scene. Today, after letting go, I have redefined my entire life. I have a new confidence. A sense of freedom that I never knew existed.  In my fifth decade of life, I feel the most carefree and the youngest I’ve ever felt. A couple of friends are still hanging in with me; a lot more have fell off the radar. I have new friends. Most of all, I have unwavering hope.

For me, it is going from the “why?” to the “why not?” stage—from total unacceptance to total surrender.

Mr. Bishop talks about how stability is a myth; how everything is ever changing. To me this means that even my redefined world will change yet again at some future point.

He says, “…if you are busy trying to hold on to what was, you are playing a losing game. In my own experience over the past six months, an entire universe of blessings has opened to me, hidden within the guise of rapidly changing or even deteriorating circumstances.”

“Change is the order of the day.”

That is what Mr. Bishop says and that is my new mantra that I say without resistance and with total bliss and a sense of carefree wonder.

The process of acceptance and letting go is a leap of faith. It’s not for the meek. It’s not for the frightened it’s not for the woman or man who wakes up every morning looking behind their shoulder, worried about when the next shoe will drop. It’s for the man or women who awakens, sees his or her scaredy-cat reflection in the mirror for what it is, flexes his or her perceived muscles and whispers, “I’m vulnerable. I’m afraid,” only to roar, “Bring it on!”

Faith without courage is dead. Courageous people, who meet great adversity in the ring eye-to-eye, are strong in their faith.  They embrace the challenges with strong arms that muscle everything because they have their own personal trainer, their own personal God; an anchor that extends beyond the flesh to the soul.

Until next time, faith forward!

M.C. Hammer

He is best known for his hit rap songs “U Can’t Touch This” and “2 Legit 2 Quit”. He is the first artist to gain diamond status for an album and has sold 50 million records throughout his lifetime. He is remembered for a rapid rise to fame, flashy dance moves, choreography, and his trademark parachute pants. His superstar status and entertaining showmanship made him a household name and hip-hop icon in the 1980s and 1990s. He was also a TV producer, television show co-host, and is the head of his own music management firm. A self-described “super-geek”, he is currently either investing in or consulting for eight technology companies. He was one of the first celebrities to embrace social media and spends 10-12 hours daily working on his technology projects.

He grew up in a Pentecostal church, however, he admits that he strayed from the faith during the years of his success. Even during this period of backsliding though, he promised to dedicate one song to God on each of his albums, and one of his most popular singles was the song “Pray.” However, it took a bankruptcy, a fall from favor in the music industry, and what he calls a bout of “official backsliding” to turn him back to the church, Jesus Christ, and a commitment to preach. He has since been ordained in the Church of God in Christ, preferring smaller pulpits “where they don’t expect to see someone famous.”

He says, “I am honored that Jesus has taken a wretch like me and said I got some work for you to do.” Today, he devotes his time to prison and youth ministries. His name is Stanley Kirk Burrell, but he is better known as M.C. Hammer, and he now says that “M.C.” stands for “Man of Christ.”

In order to mark and avoid those professing Christian teachers and leaders who are promoting doctrinal heresy (thus causing divisions among Christian believers), it is obvious that we must exercise sound biblical discernment and judgment. This judgment must be based on “the doctrine which ye have learned” from God’s word. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).

Such decisions are not to be based on supposed scholarship, tolerance, or eloquence, for such teachers “by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.” Instead, we must know and apply God’s word, the Holy Scriptures. We must be like the Bereans, who, when they heard new teachings, “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).

It is sadly true today that many who call themselves Christians have compromised with the pseudo-scientific worldview of evolutionary humanism that controls all secular schools and colleges, hoping thereby to avoid the “offence of the cross” (Galatians 5:11), and to remain on good terms with “the princes of this world” and “the wisdom of this world” (1 Corinthians 2:6).

They do this for their own personal gain or prestige, however, not serving Christ, “but their own belly” (Romans 16:18). Those who are simple Bible-believing Christians are, therefore, not to be deceived by their “good words,” but to “mark” and avoid them. HMM

There are so many consequences we each face when we lack trust in God and become disobedient.  There are clearly many reasons that we become afraid and would be willing to disobey. When we disobey we take the risk of missing great opportunities and even answers to what we have been asking the Lord about. It is of the utmost to take heed to what He is leading of you and make sure that you do so quickly. Many become very saddened when things have been delayed in their lives but do not recognize that holding back in obedience to God is holding back what He is waiting and wanting to do for each of us.

Be willing… take steps of faith, trust that as you do so He will grant you to EAT the GOOD of the land! Remember there could be great consequences in not doing what He is asking of you. Listen to what 1 Samuel 15:23 says, “Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.” Although, you may not think you are being rebellious… you are when you do not obey a clear word from God. Yes, we miss the mark at times and we serve a God of mercy but we must remember that God is very aware of our hearts and knows when we are clearly disobeying Him.

May you allow God by His Spirit to lead you and guide you! May you obey His voice and learn from Him by being deep in His Word. He longs for each of us to experience BLESSINGS from above. So be encouraged and remain in faith.. obey Him and eat the good of the land!

#standoutandshine!

Daughter of the Most High God,

Pastor Natalie Young

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Gad told David to build an altar to the Lord and David obeyed. When he approaches Araunah to ask for the site needed to build the altar, he insists on paying the full price for the area even though he was told to simply take it. David’s reason was that if he simply took the land without a cost, then it really was not a sacrifice.

A sacrifice should cost something or it does not mean much. If David took the area without sacrificing anything of his own, what would it mean to him? It would mean nothing. It would not have been his sacrifice, but Araunah’s sacrifice.

Today look at what sacrifices you make for the Lord. Are you actually making a sacrifice that means something to you? Remember the widow who gave all she had—that small amount was a big sacrifice in her situation. We should feel the sacrifice—do you? Remember that God paid the full price for you. No sacrifice was too much for Him to give.

EVERY right prayer is answered before the prayer itself is finished—before we have “done speaking.” This is because God has pledged His Word to us that whatsoever we ask in Christ’s name (that is, in oneness with Christ and His will) and in faith, shall be done. As God’s Word cannot fail, whenever we meet those simple conditions in prayer, the answer to our prayer has been granted and completed in Heaven as we pray, even though its showing forth on earth may not occur until long afterward.

So it is well to close every prayer with praise to God for the answer that He has already granted; He who never forsakes His lovingkindness and His truth. (See Daniel 9:20-27 and 10:12.)— Messages for the Morning Watch.

When we believe for a blessing, we must take the attitude of faith; and begin to act and pray as if we had the blessing. We must treat God as if He had given us our request. We must lean our weight over upon Him for the thing that we have claimed, and just take it for granted that He gives it, and is going to continue to give it. This is the attitude of trust.

When the wife is married, she at once falls into a new attitude, and acts in accordance with the fact; and so when we take Christ as our Savior, as our Sanctifier, as our Healer, or as our Deliverer, He expects us to fall into the attitude of recognizing Him in the capacity that we have claimed, and expect Him to be to us all that we have trusted Him for.—Selected.

“The thing I ask when God doth bid me pray,
Begins in that same act to come my way.”

Gospel reading of the day:

John 20:19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Reflection on the gospel reading: Today we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit as our Advocate whom Jesus promised. Jesus has left us with an Advocate who is good, loving, powerful, and loyal on the one hand, but wild, dangerous, unpredictable, fierce, demanding, and unyielding on the other. Because the Spirit loves us (indeed, is the very love of God for us), the Spirit comes to shatter our idols and asks from us the gift of nothing less than our total selves.

Each year, Pentecost invites us to wonder at the Spirit’s outpouring on the Blessed Mother and the apostles. The feast remind us that the Spirit comes to give us peace and strength, light and joy, wisdom and discernment. The Holy Spirit, in other words, comes to make us like Jesus.

But there is more to Jesus than his peace, strength, light, joy, wisdom, and discernment. There is also his suffering. The Spirit comes to annihilate all the evil spirits that afflict us, and the cost to us may not be a small one. If the Spirit molds us into Jesus, the Spirit must lead us in one way or the other to the cross.

The cross may be personally destructive. It may humiliate us and prove scandalous to those who see what happens to us. The Spirit vanquishes evil, but the only truly efficacious banishment of evil we have as an exemplar is the example of our crucified Lord. To follow Jesus may require us to go to the very depths of hell to battle the demons that afflict us and our worlds.

Pentecost reminds us that the Spirit comes to speak to us truths we may not want to know and invite us to walk along paths we may not wish to walk. In our most conscious and attentive moments, perhaps we ought to be afraid to ask for the Holy Spirit because the redemption we receive may not be the redemption we want. The Spirit may ask of us to live the scandal of the cross in a way neither we nor those around us may understand. Yet, as Christians, we ultimately share the hope of the resurrection, and whatever abyss the Spirit may invite us to traverse, we also know that God in the end shall right all things and that all shall be well.

Spiritual reading: Prayer, fasting, vigil and all other Christian activities, however good they may be in themselves, do not constitute the aim of our Christian life, although they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end. The true aim of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ’s sake, they are only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. (Saint Seraphim of Sarov)

WASHINGTON – A top White House adviser staked out a defiant defense Sunday on a series of scandals that have hit the Obama administration, going so far as to say it was an “irrelevant fact” where the president was the night of the Benghazi terror attacks and saying the Obama administration wouldn’t cooperate in “partisan fishing expeditions” over IRS officials targeting Tea Party groups.

Dan Pfeiffer went on five Sunday talk shows where he tried to reverse the damage done to the Obama administration this week by a series of scandals. On “Fox News Sunday” he tried to hammer home that the president only heard that the IRS unfairly targeted Tea Party groups “when it came out in the news.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who also appeared on “Fox News Sunday,” suggested there was a written policy to target political groups opposing the president but when pressed for proof by Wallace, he was unable to provide details.

On ABC, Pfeiffer said the law governing the targeting of conservative groups was “irrelevant.”

“You don’t really mean the law is irrelevant do you?” host George Stephanopoulos asked.

Pfeiffer clarified his statement, “What I mean is that whether it’s legal, or illegal is — is not important to the fact that it — that, the conduct as a matter. The Department of Justice said they’re looking into the legality of this. The president is not going to wait for that. We have to make sure it doesn’t happen again regardless of how that turns out.”

Earlier this week, a Treasury Department report revealed that Tea Party and other groups that had been critical of Obama received extra scrutiny when applying for a tax-exempt status from the government. According to the report, IRS agents had not flagged similar liberal or progressive groups.

The incident was traced back to an Ohio IRS office that had singled out conservative groups and held up their applications or demanded information from them like donor information, which is illegal. Many groups would not or could not provide the confidential information and as a result had to suspend their applications.

Pfeiffer also took the bold step of demanding Republicans owe Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, an apology for alleging she played a part in formulating the White House’s response to the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, last year that killed four Americans.
Pfeiffer said that the release of more than 100 pages of Benghazi emails and notes show “beyond a shadow of the doubt” that accusations she tried to change the narrative of what happened in the attacks was false.

“And, frankly, I think that many of the Republicans who have been talking about this, now that they have seen the emails, owe Ambassador Rice an apology for the things they said about her in the wake of the attack,” he said.

Another scandal hitting the White House this week involved the seizure of two months worth of telephone records of journalists at four Associated Press bureaus including Washington and New York.

AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt criticized the move Sunday, saying the Justice Department’s secret subpoenas sent a strong and negative message to sources and made them less willing to talk to AP journalists.

Pruitt said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” was not only unconstitutional but that it also damaged the ideal of a free press in the country.

“It will hurt,” he said. “We’re already seeing some impact. Officials are saying they’re reluctant to talk.”

The Justice Department disclosed the seizure of two months of phone records in a letter the AP received May 10. The letter didn’t say why the organization was targeted. Last week, Pruitt had said in a statement on the AP website that it was difficult to defend its actions since it was not told by the government what it did or what prompted the subpoenas.

Prosecutors later said they were looking into government leaks on a foiled Al Qaeda plot in Yemen before it was made public last year. Justice officials also alleged the AP’s story would have put Americans at risk, a claim the AP strongly refuted.

COMMENT:
Nixon showed similar defiance in cooperating with people or groups seeking the truth about Watergate – no one died in Watergate. Obama has three scandals at this time – IRS, Benghazi, AP scandal and four Americans were left to die in Benghazi.

In some circles defiance appears to be the hiding of guilt.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Watch the Video at the link below:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/19/top-obama-adviser-stakes-out-defiant-defense-on-irs-benghazi-ap-scandals/

The House voted to repeal Obamacare on Thursday for the third time since Republicans took over the chamber in 2011 and the 37th time the House GOP has voted to repeal or defund a part of the bill.

The 229-195 vote included two Democrats who sided with Republicans — Jim Matheson of Utah and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina. All Republicans voted in favor.

In a Congress where spin often trumps legislation, Republicans see a political advantage to keeping the pressure up as the administration tries to get all the moving parts of the law finally working.

Starting this fall, uninsured people who can’t get coverage through their jobs will be able to sign up for government-subsidized insurance that takes effect Jan. 1. The rollout promises to be bumpy because about half the states are still resisting the law, and Republicans in Congress won’t provide the administration with funds it says are needed for a smooth implementation.

Democrats said the House vote was a pointless exercise. They noted that the ACA — as the law is known — has been upheld by the Supreme Court, and millions are already receiving some benefits, from young adults able to stay on a parent’s insurance until age 26, to seniors on Medicare whose high prescription drug bills have been reduced.

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said repeal vote is “clear waste of time and of taxpayer dollars.”

“Unfortunately, House Republicans seem to think that their main responsibility is to do nothing,” Pelosi said.

But Republicans see a soft target in a costly program that continues to divide the country.

They’re hoping that implementation problems next year will help the GOP take control of the Senate in the midterm congressional elections and build on its House majority. Part of the political strategy behind Thursday’s vote was to give freshmen Republicans a chance to vote on full repeal of what they dismiss as “Obamacare.”

“Republicans will continue to work to scrap the law in its entirety so we can focus on patient-centered reforms that lower costs and protect jobs,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

What that alternative would look like, no one really knows, because Republicans have not presented a plan of their own since Obama’s law was debated in Congress more than three years ago.

Boehner said a GOP approach would include medical malpractice reforms, risk pools for people with pre-existing medical problems, and allowing individuals to buy coverage from out-of-state insurers to spur competition. But nothing has been finalized.

Boehner also pointed out that not even Obama believes the healthcare law is perfect. On seven previous occasions GOP efforts to scale back parts of the law were eventually accepted by the president and signed into law. They included a Medicaid formula allowing thousands of middle-class people to qualify for nearly free coverage, a long-term care insurance plan likely to go belly-up, and paperwork requirements protested by small businesses. The administration sees those as relatively minor changes.

The House debate got creative. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., compared the health care law both to a looming iceberg and an impending train wreck. “The more we learn about Obamacare, the more unpopular it becomes,” she said.

“In light of the recent revelations that have just come out within this last week regarding the outrageous activities of the Internal Revenue Service pointed against the people of the United States, every American should be concerned about the negative consequences of this bill, Obamacare,” Bachmann said.

“The Supreme Court has ruled that Obamacare is in fact a tax. Knowing that it’s a tax, the logical conclusion is that the entity in the United States tasked with enforcing tax policy is the IRS.”

Majority Leader Eric Cantor said that more government is not the answer, reports The Hill.

“Sweeping mandates on individuals and businesses will not improve our healthcare.”

Rep. Mark Sanford echoed Cantor’s sentiments, saying Obamacare uproots the American tradition of “not having the government force on the consumers the notion of the purchase of a product.”

Three years after its passage, Americans remain divided over Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement. Even the uninsured are confused about whether they will be helped. Many people who have coverage worry it will raise their costs and make it harder for them to see their doctors. Some of the law’s underlying goals, such as a ban on insurers turning away people with pre-existing conditions, remain popular. However, the requirement that virtually all Americans carry coverage or face fines is still widely disliked.

COMMENT:
Looking at this picture it is easy to understand why it was not read before passage and is not completely understood.

© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Health-Overhaul-House-GOP/2013/05/16/id/504945?

——
Pelosi: Obamacare Reducing Deficit….she must be drinking the same Kool-aide they drink at the White House.

http://nation.foxnews.com/nancy-pelosi/2013/05/14/pelosi-tells-whopper

It was a remarkable thing that the man who was never to die, for whom God had ordained an infinitely better lot, the man who should be carried to heaven in a chariot of fire, and be translated, that he should not see death—should thus pray, “Let me die, I am no better than my fathers.” We have here a memorable proof that God does not always answer prayer in kind, though He always does in effect.

He gave Elias something better than that which he asked for, and thus really heard and answered him. Strange was it that the lion-hearted Elijah should be so depressed by Jezebel’s threat as to ask to die, and blessedly kind was it on the part of our heavenly Father that He did not take His desponding servant at his word. There is a limit to the doctrine of the prayer of faith. We are not to expect that God will give us everything we choose to ask for. We know that we sometimes ask, and do not receive, because we ask amiss. If we ask for that which is not promised—if we run counter to the spirit which the Lord would have us cultivate—if we ask contrary to His will, or to the decrees of His providence—if we ask merely for the gratification of our own ease, and without an eye to His glory, we must not expect that we shall receive.

Yet, when we ask in faith, nothing doubting, if we receive not the precise thing asked for, we shall receive an equivalent, and more than an equivalent, for it. As one remarks, “If the Lord does not pay in silver, He will in gold; and if He does not pay in gold, He will in diamonds.” If He does not give you precisely what you ask for, He will give you that which is tantamount to it, and that which you will greatly rejoice to receive in lieu thereof. Be then, dear reader, much in prayer, and make this evening a season of earnest intercession, but take heed what you ask.