Where does the time go?

I'm here....  I really am.  So much going on in my life, so many thoughts in my head.
I really didn't think anyone ever read my blog, untilllllllllllllllll today.

Just another day or two and I'll be back to posting.  I've got much to share that has been on my heart and that God has been revealing to me about me.  Oh and some fun stuff will be coming over the weekend as well.

I do miss blogging, seriously I do.  This is like my therapy and I need it!!!! LOL

See ya soon!

Happy Father's Day...

To the Lord above who is my EVERYTHING!!!  He never fails to show me just how special I am and how much He loves me.  He reminds me daily that I am His princess and priceless royalty.  There is none like my Daddy, He's the best there is.  I love Him more than life!!!  God you're awesome and amazing and I am blessed beyond measure to call you my Dad!

Notes from Sunday Service: 6/6/10 The Breastplate of Righteousness

THIS IS LONG BUT GOOD!!!

Wear the truth belt.  Truth is an absolute standard by which reality is measured.  Truth is absolute it never changes whether you like it or not, want it or not.  The enemy is able to get in because we have truth fluctuation.  Once he can detour you from truth he can detour you from what God has for you in life.  Truth is God based knowledge.

In order to win in the spiritual arena of life you’ve got to start in the physical arena of life.  You’ve got to see things from Gods perspective on the matter.  

Breastplate of Righteousness. Righteousness is that standard that God uses to measure what is acceptable to him.  The opposite of rightness is wrongness.  The truth tells me what right is.  My applying the truth is righteousness.  

God’s righteous standard is not negotiable nor adjustable.  In basketball the hoop is 10 ft high.  You can lower that, but then you’ve not met the standard.

Many people don’t like God’s standard so they lower HIS standard and think that because they were able to do something at the lower standard then they’ve accomplished something.  The reality is all have fallen short of the standard (Rom. 3:23) that God has set.  

What does righteousness have to do with a spiritual battle?  Simply unrighteousness attracts demons.  Unrighteousness is attracting the demonic realm to you.  Example:  You leave garbage out in the house too long and roaches feel invited.  You didn’t say roaches come, you just kept garbage available. When garbage was available then the roaches, ants, maggots called others and said we’ve been invited.  

You’re not only fighting the garbage (sin) but now you’re fighting the demons that were attracted to it.  They will go where ever the garbage is.  

So in Eph. 6:14 he says put on the breastplate of righteousness as part of the armor of God because the demons and demonic realm have a legal right to you when unrighteousness is operating in your life.  A problem over time becomes an addiction because the garbage attracted the demons, the demons exacerbated and infected the garbage so that now the garbage has become worse than when you started with.  Now you are dealing with spiritual warfare.  

It gets worse:  because God doesn’t just judge the action of unrighteousness, he also judges the motivation. (See Matthew 5: 27-28)

Even if you outwardly look ok, God is looking at your heart.  If your outward action was good and decent, but your motivation or heart condition was wrong, you are judged according to your heart condition. 

Then we try to work this thing out ourselves.  We end up doing behavior modification and righteousness management.  We know we aren’t supposed to do certaing things even though we really want to.  Sometimes we don’t do things out of fear of the consequences yet in our heart we really want to do it.  So we go into managing our righteousness...it’s called religion.  If we do all that seems to be right then we are living righteously.  The only problem is God is looking at our hearts.  We are settling for paper armor (positive thinking, new years resolutions, trying harder, etc.).  This armor doesn’t work.  The requirement for keeping away the wicked one though is that I must have on the breastplate of righteousness.  So how do I get this armor and it not be fake?

Most of us are seeking righteousness in the wrong direction.  We are trying to change our outside and hope that our inside gets better.  This is called backward Christian soldier.  The breastplate of righteousness is a chest protector.  It protects the heart.  Your heart pumps life throughout your body.  God wants us to put on the breastplate and protect our hearts so that it can pump real life throughout our bodies. 

Alot of stuff we are doing it, we are only doing it because we were told as Christians this is what we are supposed to be doing, but we actually hate doing it.  To be able to do what we are supposed to do and we are actually loving doing it, this is a sign of true Christianity.  

You have three parts to you...Body, Soul, Spirit.  Your body only does what your soul tells it to do.  Your soul is your personality.  It’s made up of your mind, will, emotions, and consciouns.  When you die, your body does nothing, your soul is what goes to heaven if you are a Christian because that is the real you.  

The problem is that your soul has been distorted by sin.  You can’t trust you.  Your soul has been distorted by how you were raised, television, friends, society, radio, things you’ve read, etc.  All of it wasn’t wrong, but enough of it was to mess you up.  So we have messed up bodies doing messed up things because we have messed up souls telling it to.  Your body will only do what your soul tells it.  

So we have to understand that our soul is not saved.  When you get saved, God immediately saves your spirit.  2 Cor. 5:17 says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  However, we still think the same thoughts and do the same things.....that’s because this scripture is talking about your spirit.  It immediately becomes saved and new.  The spirit within you is now perfect.  It is placed within your soul which is in your body.  The person you are supposed to be is in your spirit.  The person you were born is your soul.  The house  they both live in is your body.  Your goal is to change your body, but NOT by changing your body.  Your goal is to change your body by changing your soul.  You can only change your soul by listening to the spirit within you.  Your spirit will only speak to your soul as your soul agrees with your spirit.  Your spirit is getting information and life changing instructions through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.  

Religion will make you tired.... You’ll want to give up or just go through the motions. 

Transformation takes place when your soul listens to the spirit that has listened to God.  

Many of us are just managing our lives instead of getting to the spiritual infection that’s causing the problem.  Heart transformation!!!

Eph. 4:20-24 tells you how to have this heart transformation.  Your spirit is perfect and it dwells within your soul.  The spirit feeds the soul and the soul feeds the body.  Your soul is being transformed, your body will be transformed when you get to heaven.  God will not allow the unrighteousness of your soul to invade your spirit.  You’ve got to keep righteousness tethered to the truth...the truth is the Word of God.  The Word of God tells you the truth about yourself.  It describes those things in your life according to the Word of God.  We want God to say we are ok when we aren’t.  We want God to make us feel good.  2 Tim. 4:3-4.  We are to dwell within the Word as a woman does in front of a mirror.  Men just glance, but a woman gaze in the mirror at themselves.   

When your soul begins to agree with what God has to say about things, your spirit will see this and will grab hold of that truth.  Your spirit will then begin to release life throughout your body and your body will begin to act upon that.

Future Posts

I've got a few blog posts floating through my head at the moment.  I'll be posting my notes from church the last 2 Sundays...I wish I could put the entire CD on my blog, because what was said what just that good and important.  Then there is a bit of sewing I want to mention, and I'll also be blogging about courtship.  Stay tuned!!!

I'm still in worship mode...

The song in my heart right now...

Still Thirsty? Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

My Oh My!!!  Last night was the final night of VBS 2010!  It was still totally amazing and then some.  There were times when there were no words to describe what I witnessed.  It was refreshing to be away from the adults and see the fire of the youth for the Lord!  I think as we get older we get stiff necked and our vision becomes tunneled and we begin to stifle the fire in our youth.  

Ah, but I saw young people dancing for the Lord, shouting for the Lord, praising Him and worshiping Him.  It was so electrifying it made me think of the story in the Bible of David dancing when the Ark was returned to it's rightful place. (Read 2 Sam. 6 special attention to verses 1, 14-15, 21-22)

Now these young folks jumped, they shouted, and yes they even did some up to date dances.  Nothing was vulgar or shameful...it's just not how we do it at OCBF.  However, I looked and the first thought was you know there would be some adults shaking their head in disgust and admonishing them for what they were doing.  (sounds like David's wife)

Seriously though, it was all clean, in order, and it truly was a beautiful sight.  

And then....it happened!!!  Can't say exactly when, the moment just happened.  There was a shifting in the atmosphere.  The presence of the Lord was there.  One by one these young people began to cry out  unto the Lord with humble hearts and outstretched hands.  

My prayer, as was many other parents prayers, that the revival would begin in the hearts of our youth.  That it would flow from them to the families, the schools, the communities, the cities, and yes even flood the state of Texas!!!  

I applaud and praise our youth ministry for all they do for our children.  The time they invest into their lives and to see that they really do love these children...it is amazing.  This is the village which I don't mind helping me to guide my children in the right direction.  

So last night the former youth pastor came to speak.  He spoke from Matthew 5:6, John 7:37-38, 1 Corinthians 1:30, and Zechariah 14:8.  Remember the theme was Obey Your Thirst!  Monday, the question was What are you thirsty for?  I told you we are to seek after right things.  Things that are godly, holy, and good...righteous.  Last night Pastor Von told them that the righteousness they are to be seeking is JESUS!!!  

Our bodies are made up of 70% water.  It is the most necessary thing to sustain life.  Our bodies can go for days without food, but not without water.  Many times we are so thirsty and yet we try to quench that thirst with overly sweetened kool-aid, soda, tea, etc. and yet our bodies still crave water.  We overeat a lot of times mistaking that pain for hunger, when in reality our bodies are crying out for water.   We try to give our bodies substitutes, but to no avail.  The moment we drink water, our bodies are satisfied and the thirst is quenched.  It's one of those after you take that loooong drink of water you say Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! because that's what your body wanted all along.

Well, our spirits are no different.  Our spirits are filled with the Holy Spirit when we accept Christ.  He longs for Jesus.  We try to quench our spirits with things, people, relationships, activities, and such, but our spirit man within is never satisfied.  We keep trying to give him something he was not equipped to want or need in order to survive.  He is begging for the Lord to infiltrate our lives, hearts, and minds, but we keep picking up iphones, ipads, tv shows, movies, ungodly music, and relationships that mean us no good.  Yet the moment we open our hearts to Jesus and cry out for Him, our spirits are no longer dry.  When we are craving more of God's Word and Striving for His Ways, our spirit man becomes quenched and you can almost here Him say Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!  

You want peace, joy, love, happiness, satisfaction?  Obey Your Thirst!

Now that above was what the Lord spoke to me this morning as I was driving to work.  Pastor Von used the analogy of being hungry and stopping at the store for a snickers.  He said he got home and his wife had prepared a home cooked meal for him.  It was hot and laid out, ready for him to partake of it.  However, when she asked him if he was hungry, he said no.  The 2 snickers he had gotten and eaten had eased his hunger pains, but he knew he would be hungry again because in reality he had not addressed the hunger, just the pains!!!

Satan knows that we are hungry.  He knows that our spirit man cannot be satisfied with anything else but Jesus, but he throws in all these candy bars to "ease the hunger pains" (money, sex, power, material things, popularity, acceptance, relationships, etc.) and yet he knows they will never address the real hunger.  

We've got to get so far beyond satisfying the condition and feed our spirit man what it's really seeking.

So I ask you....Still Thirsty?  Let me introduce you to a Man that knows all about you and still loves you and wants you.  He knows your heart and thoughts.  He knows what you've been through and what you'll go through in all your tomorrows.  He knew you before you were born and had your story written out before time began.  He's been calling you by name since the beginning of time.  He died so you wouldn't have to.  He conquered the grave and hell so you could be free.  He did this for you before you even knew Him.  There is no one or no thing on earth that will die for you or your freedom.  

His name is Jesus!!!  He's the Father & the Son, the Holy Spirit within you...yeah, that's Him too!!!  Everything you can ever want, everything you will every need....that's Him, He's got it!

He'll never leave you!  He not only wants to call you friend....He actually calls you child & heir!  

This Jesus, died for you, so that when it's all said and done, you can spend eternity with Him!  Who on earth can love you this much?  No man can do for you what this ONE Man has already done!  

I dare you to hear Him calling you and run to Him!!!!

What are you thirsty for?

During our family VBS at church, our youth usually have a theme for their sessions.  This years theme is OBEY YOUR THIRST.

Last night I stayed with the adults for praise and worship and the comedy session, but went across the street to check out what MY youth were learning.  I try to go over for at least one of their sessions and just hear for myself what they are learning.

I got over in time to witness some of the praise and worship by Eddie James and his crew of young people .  It was awesome and the Holy Spirit was not only present, but moving upon the hearts of the youth.  Some of his young people began to give their testimonies about what God has delivered them from and then they began to pray over the youth of OCBF.  It was an awesome time of worship and you could literally see the chains of bondage being broken over these young lives.  Things they've been holding onto in secret thinking no one would know and not realizing that God knew and knows!!!  But to see the lightness in their walk and attitude as the shackles were loosed and they were set free.  Man, I feel the Spirit moving within my heart even NOW!!!

The night was not over as this man from Arizona began to teach.  I've never heard of him before, but oh my goodness what he began to speak to the young people was breath taking and freeing as well.  Chad Johnson spoke truth to these lives and hearts.

Now of course there were some youth there that were strictly there for the ability to visit with others but for those couple hundred that were serious about getting the Word in their hearts...that was an awesome thing to see.

So what are you thirsty for?  (now that I've given you a brief synopsis of night 2 of Family VBS at OCBF )

Matthew 5:6 (NASB)

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Of course Pastor Johnson broke it down to their level, but never lost the integrity of the Word.  

Do you hunger and thirst for what is right?  And what is right anyway?  In the world in which we live in, society would have us to think AND believe that what is right is what feels good to you.  You've heard it before... if it feels good do it!  Society would have us to believe that each person has a view of what is right and what is not, hence the rapid acceleration of divorce, homosexuality, premarital sex, addictions of all kinds, etc. 

Ahhhhh, but that is not what measures our integrity and it's even more than just following and obeying the 10 Commandments.  It is the Truth, the Word of God, the Living Word by which our rightness is measured.  

But it goes on to say that those who hunger and thirst for doing what is right....they shall be (will be) satisfied (content, pleased, happy).  

We try so hard in this thing called life to fill a void in our hearts, to find something to quench our thirst and longing, but NOTHING ever does; well, for a short moment it does and then we are off looking to and for something else.  Gadgets, money, material things will give us satisfaction for just a moment, but NOTHING was or is ever intended to fill the God sized hole in our hearts.  But when we open the Word of God and begin to see what He has to say about a matter and then meditate on that and do what it says, then the satisfaction from that will overflow.  

Can you imagine a life here on earth that is fully satisfied and content?  It is possible!  

So the question remains, what are you thirsty for? Oh but I have another question, How bad do you want it?  

Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church - Family VBS

You know before attending OCBF, I had never heard of such a thing as Family VBS.  I've been to many VBS's, but never one for the entire family.

We kick ours off with the church anniversary celebration.  June 6, 1976 was the beginning for our church.  The celebration starts on the Saturday before with a picnic and carnival rides.  Loads of fun, food and fellowship.  There is laughter in the air and the worship is the best.  Then that Sunday we get into the ceremonial part of it, looking back at the church history, giving honor to the pastor/wife and his staff.  It really is something special to partake in.  That night we dive into Family VBS.

The young children have a theme, the youth have a theme, the adults as well.

All I can tell you is I wish, I wish, I wish you could be here!!!!!  ;-)