Suffering as a Christian

1 Peter 4:12-19 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.  If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And "If the righteous is scarcely saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
Will we except good from God but not evil? (Job 2:10) This is what Job spoke to his wife while he was being tormented with trials by the devil. She told him to curse God and die. Job knew God would not leave him. He with stood all and praised God.
Lord, we need You! When the trials come, we will be weak but You are strong. In good times and bad, we will praise Your name. Give us what we need to stand in You. Amen
Some of us may suffer even unto death. 

Proverbs/Wisdom/Christ

My pastor gave a great sermon on wisdom being the fruit of a right relationship with God. Jesus has the perfect relationship with the Father and has great wisdom. Sin did not stain his relationship with God as it has ours. Proverbs is a book of wisdom.
Prov.1:1-7 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth—Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs are guidelines for living, not guarantees in life. Here are some of it's guidelines: Love your spouse loyally, instruct your children intentionally, avoid evil company, promote good relationships, guard what you say and hear, work hard, help the needy, and keep your wealth at a minimum for extreme wealth and extreme poverty are not desirable. Christ is our redemption.
1 Cor.1:26-30 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written,  "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
God desires for us to know and follow His will so much that He lives in us and leads us to accomplish it. Col.2:2-5 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
Lord, You are a mystery to us. We strive to honor You in all we do. Help us to follow Your ways and to rest in You. Lord, You have sent us a mighty teacher of Your word in our pastor. Bless and keep him and his family from the evil one. We need Your word preached to us with a mighty roar. Amen

Uzziah’s Pride and Punishment

2 Chron.26:1-5
And all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. He built Eloth and restored it to Judah, after the king slept with his fathers. Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.
He was faithful to God and God gave him victory over the Philistines and some of the Arabian clans. He fortified the cities towers, which he built and his fame spread over the land. He had many soldiers, farmers, many large herds and vinedressers.He grew strong under the Lord but he also grew proud and unfaithful. Out of pride, Uzziah  entered the temple to burn incense to the Lord.
2 Chron26:17-21 But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the LORD who were men of valor, and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the LORD God." Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the LORD, by the altar of incense. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the LORD had struck him.  And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the LORD.
Lord, We pray for You to keep our hearts from pride. Always we need to know everything we have comes from You. You are our creator, master and king. We are Your servants and know we are not worthy of anything but Your judgement. Have mercy on us and forgive us when we are weak in faith. Amen

Jonah and His Underwater Adventure

What if you found yourself alive and in the belly of a whale? It would be most terrifying, would it not? This is the bible truth about Jonah. God told Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh about their wickedness. Jonah decided he did not want to preach to them, so instead he boarded a ship headed for Tarshish. This made God angry and He made the wind and seas very fierce. The whole crew was in a panic and began to pray to their various gods. In a attempt to keep the ship from sinking they hurled the cargo into the sea. The captain spotted Jonah fast asleep and told him to pray to his God for they were going to sink. The crew decided to cast lots to see if they could find out why they were having such evil upon them. The lot fell on poor Jonah and they began to question him. Jonah told them where he was from and about God and how he disobeyed God. Jonah said throw me over and you may be safe. The crew thought this was wrong so they tried to ride the seas but God made the seas even more treacherous. So they prayed to God not to be guilty of this man's blood and they threw him over. The seas were immediately calm. The crew feared the Lord greatly and made sacrifices to Him. Jonah was in the belly of great fish three days and nights. Here is his prayer:
Jonah 2:1-10 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, "I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.' The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!" And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. Then Jonah went to Nineveh to preach. He announced that in forty days the town and it's inhabitants would be destroyed. The king and the people from the oldest to the youngest believed the Lord and repented. A fast was announced by the king and they called out mightily to God. When God saw that they turned from their wickedness, he did not destroy them. This made Jonah mad. Jonah 4:2-4 And he prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.  Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." And the LORD said, "Do you do well to be angry?" Jonah went to sit at the edge of town to see what would happen.
Then God again spoke to Jonah. Jonah 4:6-11 Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said,"It is better for me to die than to live." But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die." And the LORD said, "You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?" O Lord, I praise You. You are creator and king, Lord over all. Amen

Committed/Husbands/Wives/Betrothed

Prov. 18:22 He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.
Eph.5:31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united
to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.
1Peter 3:7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
Eph. 5:22-24 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Eph.5:28-30 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.
Marriage is a life time commitment. It is a holy covenant between one man and one woman ordained by God. It is a give and take relationship, more giving than taking if you want to be happy. I think this is a place the devil really enjoys sticking his nose in. Guard your marriage because the devil will take it from you in a split second. Try to always put the others feelings above your own. I know this is hard but it creates a happy loving relationship. If you are tempted by the devil to make comments of a negative fashion, hold your tongue!!! Those words cut deep!! The hurt is hard to heal and leaves scars that may never go away. I know you can not live with someone and agree with them all the time but you can weigh your words. I have a very sharp tongue. It is a constant battle for me to keep my mouth shut. I am hot-headed and that just makes it worse.
Lord, I pray for all the hard heads who can not hold their tongues. Give us strength to be still in You. Help us build loving and caring relationships with our loved ones. Lord. deliver us from the devil and his evil ways. I pray for long marriages and peace that can only come from You. Lord, I ask for lifetime commitments for all of our marriages. I ask for commitment for all the betrothed couples and blessings from You on their commitments to each other. Amen

Naaman Healed of Leprosy

2 Kings 5: 1-14  Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, "Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman went in and told his lord, "Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel." And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel."
So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy." And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me."
But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel." So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying,  "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean." But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him "My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?" So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.

Just like us, Naaman thought he should get what he wanted when he wanted. God's will is carried out in His time not ours. God had used Naaman, the Syrian, in His plan for Israel's defeat.

Elisha Prays for God to Raise the Dead

Notice in this bible truth, that Elisha calls on God for restoration of this child's life.

2 Kings 4:18-37
When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. And he said to his father, "Oh, my head, my head!" The father said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother." And when he had lifted him and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door behind him and went out. Then she called to her husband and said, "Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again." And he said, "Why will you go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath." She said, "All is well." Then she saddled the donkey, and she said to her servant, "Urge the animal on; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you." So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his servant, "Look, there is the Shunammite. Run at once to meet her and say to her, 'Is all well with you? Is all well with your husband? Is all well with the child?'" And she answered, "All is well." And when she came to the mountain to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet. And Gehazi came to push her away. But the man of God said, "Leave her alone, for she is in bitter distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me." Then she said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, 'Do not deceive me?'" He said to Gehazi, "Tie up your garment and take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone,  do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not reply. And lay my staff on the face of the child." Then the mother of the child said, "As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So he arose and followed her. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. Therefore he returned to meet him and told him, "The child has not awakened."
When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the LORD. Then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house, and went up and stretched himself upon him. The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. Then he summoned Gehazi and said, "Call this Shunammite." So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, "Pick up your son." She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.