THE WATERFALL OF GRACE

1 Peter 5:6-8 "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."  What three signs of vulnerability does the enemy look for in leaders? Where can he inflict the greatest damage on the Kingdom? When am I most susceptible to attack?  1. Pride - We are cautioned to humble ourselves! I get prideful when I think that what I have accomplished is all my doing. It is when I begin to look at my success without a heart of gratitude for God and for others. I am moving into a vulnerable place when I think I know it all and my heart and mind are closed to wise counsel or God's Word. Pride grows in my heart whenever I sit back on my credentials and convince myself that I no longer need to wash feet. Pride sets in when I self-righteously put myself in the p...

Matthew 4:4 …He [Jesus] answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”  When the devil tempted Jesus, Jesus turned the Word of God on him, saying, “It is written…It is written…It is written…” (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10) Likewise, should the devil remind you of the pain in your body, say what God’s Word says: “It is written, ‘By His stripes I am healed!’” (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24) And tell Daddy God, “I have Your Word for it and I am standing on Your Word. I am not trying to be healed. My healing has already happened. I don’t care what this body says. It has to line up with Your Word because by Jesus’ stripes I am healed!” And if the devil says to you, “Look at the meager balance in your bank account. How are you going to pay your bills?” just say, “I'm not going to worry because I know that my God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19) It ...

ROMANS 12:2  Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Many people would like to see change in their life. But how? To change the way you act, you must first change the way you think. Because you act like the person you think you are. But to change your thinking, you will need to focus on different information. Our beliefs are the cause of our actions. So to permanently change behavior, beliefs must be changed.  A belief is a thought you have decided to accept as truth. You choose your beliefs. Then your beliefs determine your actions. You always act on what you believe. As long as you think something is advantageous for you, you will keep doing it. When you realize something is not advantageous for you, you will stop it. You may argue with this, thinking that you sometimes do things you know are not good for you. But you only do them if you think you are gaining some ben...

 Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah when he addressed the Pharisees and teachers of the law:   These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Mark 7:6-7  Jesus is amazed at how religious people will speak the name of God and pray about honoring Him while maintaining distance from Him in their hearts. Is that really who I am sometimes? Do I worship God as formality and routine? Is my faith more about religion than relationship?  Vain worship happens when I pray for God to help the poor on Sunday but won't even look a homeless man in the eyes as he stands at an intersection holding a sign. I pray "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done" on Sunday and then live for my kingdom on Monday. I pray for the lost to be reached but don't even know any lost people because I'm too busy hanging out only with Christians. I pray in thanksgiving to God that He accepted me when I was unacceptable but am not accepting of...

GENESIS 22:14  Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means "the LORD will provide").  One of God's names is Yahweh-Yireh (also spelled Jehovah Jireh) which means, "the Lord will see to it," that is, "the Lord will provide." The Lord sees ahead and provides. That is one of His names! God cares for you, and plans for your provision, even before you know you need it. There will not be one day in your entire life that God has not seen ahead and made provision for you. It may require some searching for you to find it. It may even be difficult to obtain. But God's provision is always there! MATTHEW 6:26  26 Look at the birds in the sky. They don't sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you worth much more than they are? Jesus said God provides food for the birds, implying that God provides for every creature. Yet, if a bird sits still, instead of gathering the food Go...

"Alms" are not some kind of tree, but something you should know about -- and do.  The Greek word translated alms in the New Testament originally meant mercy or kindness, then came to represent the kind deeds caused by mercy and kindness. So it came to mean charitable giving to the poor -- or giving motivated by love. Many times this word is translated as "charitable deed." LUKE 12:33 NKJ 33 "Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. Jesus often spoke of giving alms. But He made it clear that our motives are important. MATTHEW 6:2-4 NRSV 2 "So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what ...

JOHN 16:33 33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  It seems today we cannot turn on the news without hearing a story of terrorism, war, racism, disease and hate in our world. As the world spins out of control and mass peddlers of fear and chaos (the media)stir the pot, we have a choice to live in FEAR or FAITH. The greatest weapon we have is LOVE. As followers of Christ, we must stand in the gap for our country and the entire world. We must intervene in prayer and show God's love in our lives to the unsaved. Our Bible tells us that Jesus has overcome evil and darkness on the cross and will SOON RETURN TO RESTORE PEACE AND ORDER TO OUR PLANET.  Tribulation, distress or persecution cannot stop your heavenly Father’s love from working on your behalf. His love for you is bigger and stronger than your financial woes, marital problems or health concerns. And when...

  1 Timothy 6:17-19 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. In comparison to those who Paul addresses in this letter, we are "those who are rich". In America, even those on the lower end of the economy are rich in comparison to the rest of the world. So what is God's Word to us? First....do not place your ultimate trust in your wealth.  I think many of us have learned this lesson the hard way as we have watched the equity in our homes, our retirement accounts, stocks, and sometimes....even our source of income....slip thru our fingers. Second, pl...

 Who among us could not use another helper?  JOHN 14:16-18 NKJ 16 "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, 17 "even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. JOHN 14:26 NKJ 26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. You and I live in a three-dimensional world. All physical objects have a certain height, width, and depth. One person can look like someone else, or behave like someone else, or even sound like someone else. But a person cannot actually be the same as another person. They are distinct individuals. God, however, lives without the limitations of a three-dimensional universe. He is spirit. And he is...

ROMANS 7:4 In the same way you, my brothers, through the body of Christ have become dead to the Law and so you are able to belong to someone else, that is, to him who was raised from the dead to make us live fruitfully for God. You are not under the (Old Covenant) Law as a way of being right with God. Just as a wife whose husband has died is no longer in that marriage after her husband dies, we are no longer in a relationship with the Law for the purpose of being right with God.  ROMANS 7:1-2 NLT 1 Now, dear brothers and sisters -- you who are familiar with the law -- don't you know that the law applies only while a person is living? 2 For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. The Law is still good. For example, it is still wrong to steal and murder. And it is still right to worship God. But we no longer do those things in order to be right with God. Instead ...

 Psalm 91:5–6 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday  During World War II, German planes bombed London. Houses were leveled. But there was one that remained standing amidst the rubble. Its owner said that when she read Psalm 121:4, which says, “Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep,” she told the Lord, “Lord, since You don’t sleep, then there is no point in both of us keeping awake. I will sleep while You keep watch.” And she did, while the Lord protected her and her house. In 2005, terrorists attacked London’s public transport system. That day, a Singaporean girl found herself unexpectedly late for work and could not get to the train station in time to board her usual train. When she finally neared the station, she realized that it had been bombed just a few minutes earlier. Her mother,  believes that G...