Friend, Jesus asks us to align our thoughts with His.

As we journey through our day we are pushed and pulled this way and that by the tides of the world and we can become unstable in our thinking when we allow our own righteousness to be the foundation that we build our faith on.

Our foundation of belief must be centered firmly on the Son of God, Jesus.

Allow Him to be the One we go to immediately we see that dead end we have stumbled upon; or the fork in the road - which way to go?

Listen to the Holy Spirit; be open to His guiding hand and the rod and staff of the Lord.

Go to your Bible and read what He has to say.

Speak to Him at any time. He is listening and will set in motion those things that need to be when you give Him the reins. Allow Him to lead.

To be in His Will is to be in the center of all things Good.

Choose only His Will for you. Rebuff the evil one. 

In this way you will be reining your thoughts into alignment with the Son's and you willl be in the Will of God - where he wants you to be. Where your soul will be safe and will grow and find peace and solace and Truth. 

Friend, the Lord Jesus asks that we have a glad heart.

We can be glad (grateful and joyful) because He loves us, and He forgives us.

Once we accept this fact our heart can let go of all the anger, revenge and hate. It has no need for those things anymore.

You are loved by the One who died for you to have an eternal life filled with His Presence which is Love and Light and Truth.

He also owns all the Power - All Powerful.

He decides what evil is allowed and what the final punishment is for evil, and when it will receive said punishment.

Now is the time to think about these things if you friend, have not yet given your allegiance to the King of Kings.

Now is the acceptable time the Bible says. Right now as you read these words.

Are you on board the great train that is leaving the station right now?

Run, get on board!  Tell Him, "Yes, I believe. Help me, Jesus!"

Rejoice in His Mercy. He died for you to have it. New every morning and all through the day, it's yours.

He knows you will stumble, but just keep your eyes fixed on Him in all you do and think and say and you will be forever in His hands, under His Lordship and care.

Have a glad heart, friend and know you are loved!

Friend, faith is so easy when we remember that Jesus is Lord. The Word of God says that He is the Word and that He is Jesus.

The Scriptures tell us Who our Lord is.

Who gave us the Word of God, the Scriptures? It was Jesus from the beginning. He is God.

He says Who He Is in the Holy Bible and friend, when you read and study His Word, you will get to know who Jesus is, and over time you will find that He is Who He says He is.

People will talk and say what they want when you begin to believe and have faith, but pay it no heed because the knowledge you gain is a Gift from God.

Grow in Him each day. Find out about the Promises for believers. They are scattered like pebbles throughout the Bible. Your eyes will open to the Truth of them. Know they are for you!

Allow yourself this great comfort and be quieted in your mind and spirit. Absorb all He has for you as a thirsty drinker.

The Lord is Who He says He is and He will do all He says He will do! Another great mantra!

The Lord bless you!

Meditation                                                                                     

Scripture.  I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see.  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.  Revelation 3:18-19

These words were spoken to the disciple John directly by Jesus.  They travel from that time to our present as wise counsel to all people.

When we present our soul as a living sacrifice to God for renewal, it is likened to gold being tried in the fire.  As it liquefies, anything that is not gold rises to the surface for removal so that the gold will be pure when it is poured  into molds for cooling.

Surrendering to Christ and repenting of our sins is a form of melting the soul and making it pliable in the hands of our Creator.

He sees the believer's soul as "gold".  To Him, we are worth spending the time with to rebuke and chasten in order for us to become more pure.

He wants to burn the dross off our lives and give us back a pure gold heart and mind.

If we are willing, He is willing.

Prayer

Dear Lord, thank You that You have created me and given me life.  I surrender all to You and repent of all sin and ask You to renew my mind and spirit and mold me into the person You desire. Amen.

Friend, He knows you. He has plumbed the depths of your soul! At a glance He can ascertain your sins and see where your allegiance lies - even when you lie to yourself, He knows the Truth about you.

Who can stand before Him and not fall on their knees and prostrate themselves. We truly are lowly creatures even when our massive egos and belief in ourselves is a giant grey shadow of dirt and filth in His eyes.

All our self help books and self realization methods will never on their own merit get us to Heaven. They can help to make us better human beings but without belief in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit we are just good atheists.

The Key is Jesus. Our very soul's eternal home depends on this Key aspect of God. Belief in His Son.

He is Light and Life and Truth and Beauty and Power and Goodness. He wants us to have these Gifts and be ambassadors for Him.

There is a Mission Statement, a Plan a Path for each of us, and it is about time we all got on board.

The first step is belief.

Having faith in Him to guide and direct our path, to provide for us, to teach us. Have you joined the great Army of God?

If not, do it soon, my friend.

Friend, do you believe with your head or with your heart?

Jesus told this story as a way of showing that a passion for Him is the true Way.

He started in this way..."There once was a rich young ruler, (chief, prince etc.) who said he believed but asked for time to go home and put all his affairs in order."

Friend, this type of person resembles many of us who believe with the head and want to be included in God's Plan, reap all the benefits but still have one foot in the world, doing what it is we love that is worldly.

The expectation of God is that we fall so in love with our Saviour that we drop everything, turn around and follow Him.

A good example of this type of submitting to the Will of God is the Apostle Paul who was highly educated and a rising star within the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. He was given a mission to bring to "justice" those Jews who were believers of Jesus ( after his death and Resurrection.)

At that time his name was Saul. He had a believer named Stephen, stoned to death. Stephen's last words to him were of forgiveness. And Saul went with the men he was given, with great zeal and purpose, but on the road to Damascus he was apprehended by God in the form of Jesus, and was left blind.

He saw a vision and Jesus spoke to him. 

A believer named Ananais was sent to him to help him and his sight was restored.

This episode in his life caused him to become a believer. He could not deny the vision that he saw and the words that Jesus spoke to him. His men saw the Light but did not hear the words.

Saul used that same passion for God in spreading the Word about Jesus to many nations and peoples from then on.

Because he was learned in the Holy Scriptures, he was able to understand the prophecies and know that God had fulfilled many of them in the carpenter from Galillee. He understood that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah.

His writings are a great part of the New Testament and bless the reader mightily in their teachings to this very day.

Read Acts 22 as Paul writes about his conversion from Judaism to Christianity.  

He met the risen Christ!

It changed him from a murderous highminded believer of Holy God the Father to a forgiven, born again believer in the Son Jesus, who is the Messiah the Jews did not recognize when He came in humble form; even though He gave them many indications that He was in fact their Messiah.

Ask yourself, "Have I too, done this? Rejected Him because I have not recognized the Truth?"

Friend, are you joyless in your soul?

There is much to rejoice about when you are a believer in the God above all the gods of this world.

Are you caught up in loving something of this world that does not bring you the joy you thought it would?

We go years and decades sometimes, following something of this world that we believe will bring us the satisfaction, love, wealth, inner peace, knowledge, flesh desire; that "something" that none other has!

We run after other thoughts and ideas put forth by mere humans hoping to find the love and acceptance that our soul and spirit is thirsting for.

If it is worldy we will be disappointed at some time.

We try and try to make it work and some of us die in the midst of it, but if you are still alive and you are still thirsting, then my friend, you must start seeking God and His Will for your life.

He offers the cup of water that quenches thirst and the food of knowledge that satisfies.

The one who can stay the distance with Him is the one who receives Eternal Life in Heaven where a Great Reward is stored up for that soul.

Rejoice today that the Father sent His Son to die and be Resurrected in order for you to have a place in the Heavenly Kingdom.

Rejoice that Jesus cared for your soul enough to subject Himself to the abuse of this earth's peoples to overcome the evil that encroaches on our lives here.

He made a Way for us to be set apart from the evil that besets those around us and to have a personal relationship with Him that will show us the Way to Heaven.

Look around and think also about your situation. Has He not been there? Do you see the subtle things He has done to sustain you - even in your sinfulness?

Rejoice and be grateful for His Sacrifice for you. Thank Him right now.