Hope in front of me..... Danny Gokey

Subject: Hope in front of me.... Danny Gokey

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KIhYZQ_ovw

 

"Even after all I've seen there's hope in front of me. There's a light I still see it."

 

There is one very important thing I've learned in hard times. Never give up hope. God doesn't want you to. He will send you just what you need, right when you need it.

 

At a convention I worked this week, I met some great people who worked it. Little did I know that they were Christians until....

 

My husband was having a bad couple of days. Really struggling to breath with the lung cancer. I called the hospital from work and they told me to bring him to the emergency to check him in. Before I left work I went to say goodbye to them for the day. They asked where I was going, and I told them what was going on, (and I wasn’t crying this time). They asked if they could lay hands on me and pray. Well you know me, I said absolutely. I couldn't believe God's hands and feet were right there, right on time again for me.

 

The next day I saw them I told them he was checked in and comfortable. Then we got into a conversation about the comfort of knowing the Lord and the hope that we have for the future. One of the girls said a quote from her mom, Mary Reilly... "No one gets out of this life alive." I just love that!! My husband who has terminal cancer says, "we are all terminal, we just don't know when we are going to die." That is so true. Any day, any minute, our lives can be over. Are you ready?

 

How can anyone ignore the fact that so much of the bible talks about the second coming of Jesus Christ. Why would you think there is so much said about the second coming?

To me, there is so much said about the future, because the longer we live in the present you see how unfulfilling it is. If we have no sense of the future, then when we struggle in those dark and broken places in the present, they become unbearable. 

 

God has given us all hope in His word about the future. I cling to that hope. I know there is something worth waiting for and that's what makes living worthwhile. Sharing that hope with others brings incredible joy to my spirit. Jesus coming again is the hope we are waiting for.

 

There are 100s of scriptures in the bible on Jesus coming again in the old and new testament. Here are a few:

Revelations 1: 7...Revelations 19: 11-21.... Hebrews 9: 28....Matthew 25: 31-46.... 2 Peter 3: 10....Isaiah 25: 9....Psalm 50:3....

 

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Kim

He Knows...... Jeremy Camp

He Knows..... Jeremy Camp

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsccUg4TDd8

 

I had an experience recently that made Psalm 23 come so alive!

 

I know many of us have experienced pain so deep that you barely have the strength to pray in the valley so low.

I tell you, without any shadow of a doubt, "He knows!" And He also hears our cry out to Him.

 

I was sitting at lakefront, a place I love to go and talk to God. I use to go when marital problems were unbearable. Now I was there for a desperate need of comfort because I felt so crushed in my Spirit watching my husband battle terminal lung cancer. Full of anxiety and fear, I cried out to God. I said, "You would always meet me in this place. I don't want to feel this way God, and I know You don't want me to. I need Your comfort." I continued to just sit and listen to my Christian music. Within about 15 to 20 minutes, I was looking down the sidewalk at a group of about 6 people walking in my direction. I noticed from a distance this one guy had a shirt that looked familiar to one that I have. As he came closer, it was the same. It said in big letters, "NO OTHER NAME." I asked him where he got it? I told him, "I have the same shirt. It was given out at a convention I work at when Night of Joy is coming around. This one was from Hillsong United." He said that's where he got it.

Long story short, he asked me, "what's wrong?" Forgetting all about asking God for comfort, I said, "I'm just really hurting. My husband is terminally ill and I am so scared. As much faith and love that I have for God I can't seem to shake the anxiety. Would you all mind praying?" Without hesitation, we all joined hands as if no one else was around. Even the 2 little boys. I heard their little voices saying, "please Jesus," over and over. Then I felt someone touch my head and continue in a very powerful prayer. I felt the fear and pain I was feeling go away. I know God sent them. He heard my cry.

Psalm 34:17, "The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, He delivers them from all their troubles."

 

But the Psalm that really says it all for me is Psalm 23. Let me break it apart for you how it personally spoke to me after this encounter.

I may be walking through a valley of the shadow of death, but His rod and staff comfort me. He prepares a table for me, and He is upholding me because of my ongoing relationship and trust in His will. God met me right where I was at. He sat me down in the presence of my enemy, which is the anxiety and fear of the unknown ending of my husband's cancer and had me face it. He covered me in the prayers of these people, "anoints my head with oil," and peace came to me.

 

Most of us want God to fix things. The things that are breaking us down. He does, He fixes you. Prayers aren't always answered the way we want them to be. But God will make you VERY AWARE of His presence when He comes and meets you at your lowest point. In the valley of the shadow of death. He will meet you there, and your cup will still overflow.

I will dwell with Him forever.

 

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Kim

 

Glorious Unfolding..... Steven Curtis Chapman

Subject: Glorious Unfolding.... Steven Curtis Chapman

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKMjEvF2Fkw

 

BRILLIANT, brilliant, MOVING, moving,!!!!! You miss this video it's your loss....

 

Sometimes the story of our life is never anything we thought it would be, and if anyone could right a song, and put a beautiful video to it, it would be this man. His little girl was accidently killed by his son.

 

"So let us remember this life we're living is just the beginning of the beginning." Our lives are truly a "glorious unfolding." We have the here and now, all that will happen in-between, and then the end to eternal life IN THE PRESENCE of our God. We must learn to "dwell" with God in the in-between to understand that He is protecting us for eternity. So hold onto your faith, because the now of life is a ride with a glorious unfolding.

 

Can you imagine your older child running to you telling you he just hit his little sister with the car? Or getting a phone call telling you the test results are in and you have terminal cancer. How about getting a phone call that your daughter was in a serious car wreck and didn't make it. How would you handle news like this? None of us are ever ready for devastating news, and just because we are Christians doesn't mean we will have a trouble free life.

I know that God is an "ever present help in times of trouble" because Psalm 46: 1 tells me that. But why would I even have trouble if Psalm 91 says the total opposite?  It seems to tell me that I am protected from all the bad stuff in life. But yet things seem to be getting worse. Health failing of a loved one, cancer getting worse, family issues, nothing is going as this Psalm promising. When I look at verse 11, I feel like saying, and I know God's shoulders are big enough, "God , Your angels aren't doing such a good job at guarding me or my family." But when I read the Psalm over and over, I realize, If I "dwell" in the shelter of the Most High," I will rest in His "shadow" in the in-between of this life He's chosen for me. I just have to keep the faith.

I am going to try and share just how this Psalm 91 speaks to me now. Look at the definition of "dwell"--To live or STAY as a permanent resident. WOW number 1. Look at the definition of "shadow"--A shape produced by a body. Wow number 2. I must dwell with Him now in the present because when trouble comes I can rest in His shadow. He is the BODY. WOW number 3!!I may not see God, but I know He's there!! Hebrews 11: 1. I think that's what God meant when in many scriptures He uses the word shadow. It takes faith to believe He is present in the in-between of this life the way things are going sometimes. 

 

Then there will be the glorious eternal ending. Where it's not just God's presence. He will DWELL WITH US. Look at Revelations 21: 3-5 and get excited for what is to come, praise God! "Look! God's dwelling place is AMONG THE PEOPLE.... God Himself will be WITH THEM and be their God."

I will one day be removed from the pains of this life. So for now, I will "dwell" with Him in the "shadow" of His presence. I will touch His face, and kiss His feet one day. I rest in knowing this truth.

Thank you God for Your Living Word.

 

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Kim

 

The Stand.... Hillsong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV5iZBTNYrk

 

Meditate on these words as you look at the blood stained cross. I pray it breaks our hearts to see things from God’s standard.

 

The opposite of a surrendered life, is a self-centered life. Your right, instead of Gods right. There is no gray area with God. That gray area is where Satan camps out to take you out. Yes, if you choose to continue to live life before a Holy God your way, get ready to reap the consequences that come along with it. And don’t blame God, He gave you basic instructions before leaving earth..  The B.I.B.L.E—

 

Thank our loving God that we are not judged by the Law. I’m sure every one of us have lied, or stolen, used the Lord’s name in vain, not always honoring our mother and father, committed adultery, even if it’s in our mind we did it. If I only even did one of these, I am guilty of them all. I deserve punishment. Jesus came, and is the only One to fulfill the law for us. The only spotless One Who never sinned, and took the punishment for us.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him (and in Him only) we might become the righteousness of God.” What an AMAZING truth! “So what should I say, what should I do, but offer this heart oh God, completely to you.” We should “Stand” with arms high and heart abandoned, In awe of the One Who gave it all!

 

Jesus exchanged our sin for His perfect righteousness, so that we can one day stand before God. We are only accepted as righteous, and treated as righteous by God because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. He credits our imperfectness, for His perfectness. You may be a really good person, believe all you read in the bible. You may go to church every Sunday, listen to Christian radio, and read devotionals. Unless you become a changed person, born again,  you are just going through the motions. Motions don’t get us to heaven. Jesus didn’t suffer and die a horrible death for us to just go through motions of what we think might be pleasing to Him. It’s evidence of a changed life, yes and even your thoughts on things you see nothing wrong with. The only way to do that, is to invite Jesus into our life to turn it in the direction He wants us to go. That is God’s standard. This is what He wants us to realize. That we needed a Savior, because only Jesus could meet His Father’s standard for us. We would never be able to do it.

 

So we could either get right with God by His standard, which is totally surrendering our old life for the truth of Jesus Christ, accepting Him as our Savior, and to live a life that will bring His Father glory. Or we can choose to stay in that gray area where Satan is destroying you, maybe even kill you. He will take your life if you let him.

 

The only way to heaven is by God’s standard… Only through Jesus Christ His Son, we are made righteous…….  2 Corinthians 5: 17. The old you is gone, the new you has come…….. You choose.

 

 

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Kim