Thursday, August 27, 2015

Holy Spirit..... Jesus Culture

Subject: Holy Spirit....Jesus Culture
 
 
Ephesians 5: 18... "be filled with the Holy Spirit"...
Acts 4: 31 "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit"...
 
There is no way that I could live this life in my own strength. I can only press on because of the gift of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised us. My flesh fails everyday in so many ways.
 
I am here to tell you that I have tasted the sweetest of loves. God's presence around me, and in me. I would not be able to handle each day knowing my husband has been labeled with terminal lung cancer if God’s Spirit wasn’t alive in me. Even still, there are days I just want to crawl up in a big ball. God shows me how much I need to drown myself in Him daily!
God's promise was to raise His Son from the dead and He did. He will also, daily, raise me from the death I feel in this storm with my husband. I am learning how to draw strength from God, and the power switch is faith. Hebrews 11: 1, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for".... verse 6 "and without faith it is impossible to please God"
 
I sing this verse over and over throughout my day. I sometimes wake up with it on my mind..."Holy Spirit You are welcome here. Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Your glory God is what our hearts long for. To be overcome by Your presence Lord."
This may be a long song if you take the time to listen to it. But it is so powerful, and I sure need it!!!
 
If we as followers of Christ are not filled up with the Holy Spirit, than what are we partly filled with? Spell flesh backwards and leave off the h. Yup that's it, "self." I want to be overcome by His presence. Not overwhelmed by my flesh in the circumstance. In self, statements rise up in you like.. "I can't it's too hard.. This just seems impossible... there is no more hope in this... and any other negative statement Satan wants to rip you apart with.
 
Are you full of the Spirit of God? That is what gives us real life, strength, and everything else we need from Him that the flesh can't give. Galatians 2: 20, You see, it's not I who lives, "but Christ Who lives in me." But here's something very important from Hebrews 11: 6.... "anyone who comes to Him MUST BELIEVE that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."
 
Do you believe that He exist? Are you seeking Him daily? Everyone of us, at one time or another in our lives, will find ourselves in a desperate, maybe devastating situation. Who are you going to call on when no one else seems to have an answer, SELF? Good luck.
 
…..mvdevotional.blogspot.com
Kim
 

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Sovereign .. ... Chris Thomlin

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=092EJCNU


I have been spending a lot of time in the hospital as my husband fights stage 4 lung cancer. This song is absolutely awesome!!! When you can't find the words to pray, you can't seem to read His word, listen to this, it will bring you peace.....


Also Some scripture that is carrying me through. I pray it encourages you, or someone else you can share this with..
1 Peter 5: 6-10 //// James 1: 6-8  //// John14: 27  ///// Isaiah 26: 3-4 //// Psalm 46:10


When all is said and done, we really have no other choice than to trust the God of the universe!!!!


In the strength of Christ
Kim .....

Monday, August 10, 2015

When the tears fall....Newsboys

Subject: When the tears fall.....Newsboys
 
 
Isaiah 58:11, "The Lord will guide you always: He will satisfy your needs...and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."
 
This scripture is a desire of my heart, but how do I get it? I spend time with my best Friend. I want be well watered with Godly wisdom so I can overflow and encourage others who are loosing hope, or hurting and searching for answers. There are things that God has brought me through, and things I know are coming that He will bring me through. He is the same God in every storm I go through.
 
Matthew 22: 37 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind." This scripture has more and more deep meaning to me the more I read and meditate on it. Don't wait to spend time with God just "when the tears fall." The soul demands fellowship with God at all times, good and bad. Unless you feed the soul, and exercise it daily in quietness with God, it becomes depressed, confused and restless. Many people turn to alcohol to try and calm down and drown out the reality of life. Some turn to new sex experiences, drugs, anything that satisfies their deep longings of their soul. Nothing but God can completely satisfy, because the soul is made for God. It will always be restless and in some kind of torment without Him.
 
Lessons during loss, trauma, and disappointments, are never easy. They are uncomfortable, and they can be very devastating. This is when the reality of what we are really made of comes out. Especially your relationship with God. Do we love and worship Him only when times are good?
We need to face the reality that life is going to throw us many curve balls. Loving and going deeper with God is a choice. I choose to continue to go deeper with Him. To allow these curves to become a testimony for Him, and to help others who are going through heart crushing times. He will take my life and make it a masterpiece for His glory,
Ephesians 5: 19-20.
 
…..mvdevotional.blogspot.com
Kim
 

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Touch the sky...... Hillsong

Subject: Hillsong... Touch the Sky
 
I am in love with this song!!!!
 
Do you find yourself at His feet again? Then reach up and surrender it all, all that He asks. You truly do find heaven when your knees hit the ground.
God has showed me so much in my walk with Him. I believe everything I read in the bible because He is what Revelations 1: 8 says. Not to mention God said it. "I am Who is, Who was, and Who is to come."
 
He's healed the sick, caused the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the crippled to walk, brought the dead to life again. All of this is a piece of cake for God.... What God has no control over is, free will. Free to do drugs, be an alcoholic, get an abortion, sex addiction, murder, same sex relationships, and the list goes on. How you choose to live, or abuse your body and the gift of life is a choice.
 
Take a look at this world, and I don't know how people can say that the bible is just a story book. It's a book of life. The living word of God. Ask me how I know? I've seen what God can do in my own life, and my loved ones. He's healed sickness,  healed marriages, brought my aunt back when the doctors said "call the family, she's going." He's proved to me that He is the God of the impossible. So "Woe to me"... if I have seen, and confess Jesus as my Savior, and still look like the world, Isaiah 6: 5.
 
God is a good and loving God, but we have to choose for ourselves how we are going to serve a Holy God. He gives us many chances to get it right. That's grace. But just like a loving parent, there comes a time when you tell your child, "enough is enough!" Then there comes the punishment for their choices. Think about that. We don't want to punish our children, but it teaches them, and protects them from harm. God teaches us too. Sometimes the hard way because we just don't listen or submit to authority. God will never insist that we obey anything He's told us in His word. But if we don't, than we have made a decision that we are Lord of our own lives. Again, He gave us free will. We are free to, to it bluntly, spit in His face and trample on grace, and yet He will never say a word. But once that ray of light shines into your heart, and penetrates deep into your soul, this is when you realize that He has the right to have complete authority in your life.
I guess that's why so many people today disobey authority, because they don't recognize it. So to them, they are doing nothing wrong. How could they be doing wrong if they don't recognize higher authority, and have no conscience.
 
God didn't create any of us with a list of, "you must do this and not that." The will of God is to be one with Jesus Christ. He said for us to learn from Him, and that's what I live for. He created me to recognize  His Son Jesus Christ. When I see how Jesus loved and obeyed His Father, I want, and choose to do the same. I am not forced to, and no, I am not brain washed. I choose to!!
 
Revelations 4: 11, He captured my heart and is so worthy of all my praise, for ALL MY LIFE! I found my life when I laid it down.....
 
 

Monday, July 27, 2015

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

Subject: Hope in front of me.... Danny Gokey
 
 
"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....
 
…..mvdevotional.blogspot.com
Kim

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

He Knows...... Jeremy Camp

He Knows..... Jeremy Camp
 
 
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.
 
…..mvdevotional.blogspot.com
Kim
 

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Glorious Unfolding..... Steven Curtis Chapman

Subject: Glorious Unfolding.... Steven Curtis Chapman
 
 
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.
 
…..mvdevotional.blogspot.com
Kim