The bottom line...

I will continue to make the choice not to stay where God is not invited. To demonstrate my faith and let the truth be known. Whether or not that truth is accepted or if it is rejected. I continue to make the choice to not submit to the power of rejection but to conquer it. Making this choice may cost me popularity, it may cost me money and most times it will bring to me rejection and pain. I have learned that true worship will cost me something and it is risky. This is a risk and a cost that I am willing to take to continue to plant the seeds of truth and to continue to trust God to produce the fruit....

In God We Trust

As many of you are aware the TV and Radio has been filled with the voices of politician's and Americans as the new health care bill is being discussed. I am not big into politics and have many thoughts on this subject- this post is not the place for them. The other night Dustin had the debate on. As I watched each person come to the podium and reveal what they thought about the health care bill my eye was fixed on what was written on the wood above them in the courtroom. It said - IN GOD WE TRUST. Do they? Do these people trust in God to provide for them? I felt confused and bothered by what I saw. I prayed about it. Dustin has become very involved in the politics of all of this and I see such a fire in him for the first time. This is something we do not share ( up until now). I have wondered - am I wrong for not caring? For not wanting to get involved? Does my opinion really count? I also say though that keeping quiet and not standing up for what you believe is wrong so why do I do it with this? I have been praying about this and I feel like God has put in my heart that I do need to be more educated, more involved and stand up for what I believe but know that no matter what happens he is always good. No matter the outcome. I am not going to go on and on about my thoughts but I am not for this health care bill. Dustin and I have many reasons why and some would disagree. In life we have to really believe in what we are fighting for. We also have to know that no matter what happens good or bad, wrong or right - that will not stop our faith in God and knowing the truth that he brings to our lives. I will get involved and exercise my freedom to speech but I will always choose to exercise my right to Freedom from fear, anxiety,and loss of hope for Gods people. Things in this world are a mess- they are ugly- and I feel like more people need to live by the words - IN GOD WE TRUST just a little bit more. Read below ....

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No matter how unsettled the world becomes, God's people can relax and keep their joy flowing, because our Lord has promised special protection when it is most needed.

Didn't God have an emergency plan for the children of Israel during the worldwide famine? He sent Joseph ahead to Egypt, promoted him to prime minister and filled the warehouses with enough grain to last out the famine. He then transported his people within walking distance of those storehouses and fed them to the full all through the raging famine.

Didn't God have emergency plans for Elijah? While his nation reeled under the impact of an economic collapse and food was scare because of severe famine—and a wicked king had a ransom on his head—God put his emergency plan for Elijah into effect. He hid him by a quiet brook and fed him by having a bird deliver his food. The survival plan also included a mysterious barrel of grain that never ran out.

What about Noah? What a detailed survival plan God had for him and his family! An ark—floating him and his family safely above all the death and destruction of a worldwide flood.

And Lot? God actually sent angels to personally pull him and his children out of the doomed city of Sodom. God's hands were tied until Lot was safely out of the suburbs. It was more than a loss of his job, more than a collapse of the economy, more than a downfall of the government—it was total annihilation of his society. But Lot was delivered safely.

Paul proved God's emergency contingencies over and over! This apostle was shipwrecked, chased by thieves, imprisoned, accused of treason and plotted against by assassins yet, in every crisis, God had a contingency plan for deliverance. Only when God determined his race was over did he call in his last contingency plan. He called him to his resurrection.

We, too, have an emergency plan for survival—designed specifically for each believer.

Let there be no question about it—God will see us through every crisis!

David Wilkerson.

ACT NOW!

Below is something that David Wilkerson wrote which really hit home for me. Faith is an action and we need to act on our faith and living out our freedom. It does not just happen. Someone once told me that being a christian is the easy way out - a crutch. Well, that could not be farther from the truth. Being a christian is hard- it takes work each day to die of your flesh and live and walk out your life the way that the bible show us to. As this world becomes more and more ran by the devil- feeding our heads with lies we have to work even harder to stay focused on the truth. We are all free but we all need to act that way in order to live the life the is meant for us. I find it troubling how you can see people who from the outside look so pulled together, they live in their big fancy house, run a "successful business" , go to church every Sunday, put the christian bumper sticker ( so to speak) on everyday but yet I see how each day they add chains of bondage to them by their fear of ACTING out their faith. They can speak of god and his word but they can not DO his word. I hear from this very person how it is everyone else that is holding them captive but in actuality it is only them who adds the chains to their lives. They do not see the accountability part in being a christian and see it as everyone else's problem when they are called out on choices they are making. Jesus would say reach out to them but I would say remember that they have choices just like everyone else- free will to either listen to you or to continue to be held captive. We are all held captive and each day need to work towards breaking those chains. We are all the same- all going through life fighting the same battle. We may all look different but we are not so different after all. The only main difference that I see is that there are those who take responsibility for their actions and realize it is them who can make the difference and then there are those who look at everyone else for the reason they are held captive. You are either a survivor or a victim. I am starting to realize that not many victim thinking people can change. Be careful how long you invest in them because before you know it they are adding chains to you and dragging you along with them . Do not allow yourself to fall into the trap of being the one to assume the role they want for you to play. The role that only takes the accountablity off of them. By doing this you are only adding to the problem. The problem of what this shows to other's who are watching. The reason that so many people are not walking with us is from these very people and people like you and me that assume it for them to make them and ourselves feel better. Face it- it is easier to not say anything and just ignore. Well that is a lie. Who said we are to always do the easy thing? Act now and be free yourself and do your part in bringing others to freedom. Saving lives may not make you most popular in this life but it will in another....

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Abraham Lincoln is said to have "freed the slaves" with the Emancipation Proclamation. This legal document declared that slavery was dead and all the slaves were set free.

When this news first spread through southern plantations, many of the slaves would not believe it. They continued slaving for their masters, convinced their promise of freedom was a hoax. Numbers of unscrupulous landowners told their slaves it was just a rumor and kept them under bondage. But little by little, the truth dawned on them as they saw former slaves walking about, happy in their newfound freedom. One by one, they threw down their loads, turned their backs on slavery, and walked away to begin a new life.

Maybe you haven't heard yet, or maybe it sounds too good to be true, but Christ emancipated all the slaves to sin at Calvary. You can now "walk out" on the devil! You can throw down your load of sin, walk away from Satan's dominion, and enter into a new life of freedom.

Let me show you what the Bible means when it talks about dying to sin. When Lincoln emancipated the slaves, the "issue" of slavery died. Not the slave master—not the slave. The slave could walk away free, saying to himself, “Slavery is a dead issue.”

Now the slave could slip back into the field and pick a few more rows of cotton—perhaps through fear or instinct—but that in no way made him a slave again. He was free, but he had to exercise his freedom. The proclamation couldn't force compliance, and neither could the slave master force him to return. It was a matter of the will of the slave.

The Bible says, "...he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him" (Romans 6:7-8).

What that means is simply this: Since the matter of your slavery to sin is a dead issue, seeing that Christ has already declared you emancipated, you are now free to live as a new person in Christ by thinking of yourself as unchained.

Christ can't make you do right, and Satan can't make you do wrong. Christ declares you are free by faith, but you must act as a free person.