Friend, stay in the safe place where you are so close to Jesus, that you find it more beautiful to be there than anywhere else the world offers.

We love our selves so much that we often think it is not a sin. In fact the world tells us these days to love ourselves first and then all things will come to us that we desire.

This is a big lie from the wicked one who desires to capture your soul for his own purposes - and they are not good, not something you will love when the time comes to pay the piper.

The wicked one will give you some of the things you desire to keep you lulled into a sense that loving yourself and placing yourself first is the right thing to do, but God's Word says this is not a Truth, but a lie from the pit of hell designed to deceive you.

Many are the souls who fall into the trap and cannot see their way out, dying in their false belief, and even sprouting it in books and entertainment venues as the "right" thing for all humans.

Don't be misled. Follow God's Word. It is the Truth. It will be hard at times but the joy in the spirit will see you through when you follow closely behind Jesus. Just walk in His footsteps.

He will never lead you astray or away from Truth, Love, Kindness, Gentleness, Light, Peace in your soul, and all the other wonderful attributes of God's blessings that are ours to take into our spirit to help us grow and be strong in Godly  pursuits.

It's important to daily discipline the mind and body. Count it all pleasure to follow your Lord and Saviour who gave His life and suffered terribly so you could have everlasting life. Don't throw that away for momentary, temporary life here on this earth.  Look to the future - the everlasting life and make choices based on that scenario, not just today's needs and wants and desires.

Don't ignore the Lord's presence in your life. When you have acknowledged Him as God, then don't deny His Presence in your life.

Your acknowledgement of Him caused Him to enter into the throne room of your heart and take up residence. From there He guides and directs you. This you will find manifested to you as conviction and confirmation as the situation demands. 

He takes His responsibility to you as Law and will not waver until you ignore Him and He cannot get through to you. These are the times when we actually move far from Him - not wanting His Fatherly concern anymore.

Have a humble demeanor and know that He is for you and willing to work with your sprit day and night never wavering from arranging all things in your life and making ways where there seem to be no ways.

Sometimes things take a while because He is also working with others who will not listen to Him and deny His existence therefore thwarting Him, but He sends the Holy Spirit to work closely with them to change their thinking so that His plans for you will be fulfilled.

Just stay close to Him in the safe place knowing He cares for you and has your best interests at heart and He will accomplish what He has planned for you, as long as you stay committed to Him and the kingdom of God.

Friend, it's important to be unshaken in our faith in God, by the trials that come our way.

Decide today to have unshakeable trust in His Goodness and Mercy.

The Grace that He extends to us every new day is something we can count on always being available to us.

Never throw away your faith because something has shaken you off your feet.

Be strong and know that He is with you in the midst of your belief in Him. It is your choice always to continue or throw aside your faith.

Satan will always come against believers. He loves to trip up weak believers. Stay strong and God will send you help. Read His Word the Bible to gain knowledge of how God helps us to overcome obstacles and how He deals with satan.

Proverbs 1:33 But whosoever hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Proverbs 2:10-11When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee.

Many people today have turned their backs on God, once being believers because He did not come through for them in the way they wanted. So they joined the ranks of unbelievers.

But today is a new day and anyone who has once believed in Holy God is welcomed back into the fold and given a second chance to find understanding. God knows if you strayed, but He cannot operate on your terms. You must accept Him and ask for forgiveness - which you will immediately receive if your heart is broken and has led you back to Him.

Learn to be unshaken in your faith. Know that God is Good.

No matter what transpires in your life - remember you have walked many an ungodly path - God is Good and will help you to know Him if your heart has the desire to know Truth, Wisdom, Peace and Love.

Friend, do you understand praise?

Praise of God is not like praise of another human being.

Our reward when we praise God is that we become closer to Him and He enters praise that is offered to Him in truth from our hearts and mind.

His infinite compassion is extended to us when He hears that we have an understanding of His Goodness. That is what praise recognizes, His Purity of Goodness, for ourselves and for others.

When He enters the realm of our praise to Him, we are joined in a Godly embrace. He knows we love Him and He fills us with His Love. We benefit by His presence in us and our spirit is uplifted and our soul feels great love.

Praise is a tool as well, when we are feeling low, that is a great time to praise Him. It is an acknowledgement that He is above our sorrow, anger, unbelief, whatever the situation may be and when praised in a true knowing that He is God, and sees it all, we are transported to a realm above the problem and this defeats what evil has placed in our path.

Praise is the answer to any of our problems!

Friend, as 2016 looms on the horizon, many of us think about what we have accomplished in 2015 and where we want to be at the end of 2016. We start to mull-over new goals for our life.

This is a reminder, to set as the first goal, - to know Truth.

Truth for our life; the meaning of life; how to have an abundant life; how to overcome the obstacles of the big inner conflicts.

True growth happens in the spirit when we make a concerted effort to investigate and learn about the One True God.

Satan will know your plan and will come in with his false ideals and gods to disguise what God is laying out for you so it is imperative that you examine any new grain of knowledge you think you have found to see if it lines up with what a Holy God, a Pure God would say is Truth.

The Bible is the best place to measure Truth.  It is the Truth, and when we find something that doesn't measure up, then we must discard it as an untruth.

Use the appendix of the Bible to search out many verses which have the word you desire to examine most. Don't allow your mind to accept just one verse as the point where you accept the new thought or idea. Two or more verses must have the same Truth presented.

The Charles Spurgeon website is a great tool to use also as this mere man had such a great understanding of who God is and how He responds to us. If you don't have access to a Christian church, a Christian body of believers who you can learn from, www.charlesspurgeon.org is one where Truth is presented in the form of his written sermons.

Mentioned in previous posts is www.theblueletterbible.org  where you can find the text of all the books of the Bible and other commentaries by enlightened Christian scholars who share what they have learned through exemplary Christian living and close relationship with Jesus.

For instance on the Charles Spurgeon site you can look up: hate, divorce, inner conflict, pride, love, etc.

He wrote his sermons based on the human conditions that we all face and eloquently explained them from God's perspective which he urged us to use as our measure.

Let 2016 be the year of advancemnt for your soul and spirit into the Knowledge of Truth so you can apply it to your daily experiences; home life, working life, social life, spiritual life.

God bless you in your quest.

Friend, the Cross of Calvary is where God outsmarted, outwitted and outmanoeuvred the prince of this world who convinced the demons he had all the power to get rid of the new King.

Satan and his followers did all they could and were celebrating their victory while Christ hung on the Cross.

But, God had other plans. He allowed His Own Son to suffer the indignities, the hatred, the physical torment so that He could use the Cross as a conversion tool until the end of this earth for souls, such as us. And Jesus agreed to do this before He left Heaven to come to earth as a babe. His love for all of us combined with love for the Father Godhead and His love for all the Kingdom of God and for God's Law and Plan was to be proved as a sign for all in Heaven and on this earth, and He was up for the task.

What satan meant to do was just get rid of the King, even knowing God would send another in some form. But this Cross would have given satan a great satisfaction - thinking he had outsmarted God and therefore could outsmart Him again.

Do you see how God cannot be outsmarted? If you are on this path where you are in cahoots with satanic thinking, then forget it. God has your number. He knows what you are doing, saying, thinking about Him. You don't fool Him. He cannot be outsmarted in any way; He only allows you your successes against Him for His own Grand Design. You serve a Purpose both if you are for Him or against Him.

Friend, we all learn from others along the path of life.

There are many teachers but there is only One, Great Teacher. His Name is Jesus.

And He is God and will only teach you things of Godliness.

He will never steer you astray because of a hidden agenda.

Many teachers start out gentle and kind but as they grow in "power" over others, the evil one comes in with his demons and leads them astray. (an easy target, one person with a following)

So we must be careful. We should never follow the person, but know the teaching and follow that.

Also, we must be careful to be Godly and never teach that which is wrong or will only benefit ourselves - as in a monetary, egotistical, or overpowering ways.

The devil uses, cunning, manipulation, and deceit to lure us into his demonic clutches.

The devil is a LIAR. He will never tell the Truth to you. EVER.

He's sadistic, and a tormentor, and a user of people to gain himself something. Everyone is dispensible to him. There are billions of souls who if he can kill them off before they come to know Jesus, they will be his.

He has no interest in keeping you alive unless he can use you. He roams about like a roaring lion seeking to destroy all those who he sees are weak and whose mind is turned from God.

And, friend, those numbers grow everyday because he has an army of demons who are at work in all areas of our lives to keep us on their path of "the good life."

Friend, be careful!

The Great Teacher has left His Word the Holy Bible here for us to learn from. Read it with an open and sincere and seeking heart and you will come to know Truth. Start with the New Testament which tells of Jesus the Great Teacher and learn from Him and then later you can go to the Old Testament and learn about how powerful and majestic He is as our Creator God.

Friend, a part of Christian living, is in the miracle of blessing.

Blessings from God are always pure and untainted. They always line up with what the Bible says.

Blessings as some people count them, of unholiness, are not of God but are a showing of the copycat satan who fools their wicked hearts.

Every day is a new opportunity for God to pour out His Bounteous Blessings on His people.

If your mind is closed to Him and His Ways, you will not be able to receive the full measure which is intended for you to pass on to others and they to others, and so on.

When He gives it is always full and overflowing meant to bless many.

An example of this is the Bible story where He fed the 4,000 - 5,000 with just a few (5) loaves of bread and (2)fish.  Everyone was fed and there was plenty left over.

The second story within that story is of the disciples who were the instruments of the original blessing and it was up to them to pass on the blessing to the multitudes.

They joyfully did, and were able to tell the story of the miracle as they went along. People believed because the disciples had first passed amongst them earlier, to ask of any stores of food they had, so they could collect and take them to Jesus for the blessing.

Everyone knew there was not enough to feed but ten to twelve people. The people talked among themselves the word spread of the enormity of the problem of feeding them.

But, they stayed, they wanted to hear Jesus speak and they wanted to receive healings and they did not care about the food so much.

In Mark, it says Jesus had compassion for their need for food.

Mark 8:1-2 I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for diverse ones of them came from afar.

There was no anticipation for the food to be multiplied. Up to this point they only trusted for healings, which Jesus had become known for. They are touched in their heart and mind with the teachings and wisdom and Truth He spoke of and they gained from that knowledge, so they stayed with their children and old folks in tow, desirous of learning and receiving healings.

These were trusting people, not yet knowing Jesus was God, and they received the blessing of the blessed food.

Are you a disciple able to pass on the blessing or are you one in the multitude?

Either is good. Both are believers. But, God calls us to step out of the multitude and be a disciple.