Peace in the storm

Matthew 8:23-27 (New Living Translation) Jesus Calms the Storm 23 Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. 24 Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” 26 Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm. 27 The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!” Have you ever taken a moment and looked at this passage not from the perspective of Jesus commanding the wind and the sea but truly looked at how He peacefully slept while the storm occur ed. What kind of faith is that? It's the kind of faith that I am trying to obtain. It is the peace of the Lord

The disciples thought they would surely die because they still had not realized who Jesus was. They didn't recognize the power that He has. The scripture says He told them "Why are you afraid? You have so little faith." That in itself was a powerful statement, He didn't say don't you know who I am am or what I can do but told them they had little faith. How many of us are focusing on who God is and what He can do but in reality have little to no faith.

How many of us can not only have peace in the storm but sleep right through it without a care or concern about how it's going to end? We always talk about peace in the midst of the storm, well how about having faith in the midst of the storm. Faith is what bring you the peace that you need. Without faith it is impossible not only to please God but to have peace. In pleasing God we find peace, peace is in our Father in heaven.

Hebrews 11:6-7 (New Living Translation) 6 And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. 7 It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith. Again I say without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God and when God is pleased we receive righteousness and in that there is peace. I know first hand about finding peace in the storm. I have been through, am going through and I know will go through a ton of trials in my own personal life. Each time I go through my faith gets stronger and stronger and as I sit in this hospital room with my Mother waiting on life changing news, I have peace. Why? because i have faith. I trust in God with all that is within me and I know that what the devil meant for harm my God will turn around for His good.

If you are going through, if your life is going up and down and round and round and you feel like you are on a roller coaster ride it's time to step out on faith. Remember God is not trying to take you out He is trying to build you up and He does that by trying and testing your faith. God wants us to be just like Jesus and be able to sleep and find peace in the midst if every storm.

Are you worshipping God as a pillar of salt?

Main Entry: worship Part of Speech: verb Definition: honor, glorify

Synonyms: admire, adore, adulate, bow down to, canonize, celebrate, chant, deify, dote on, esteem, exalt, extol, idolize, laud, love, magnify, offer prayers to, pay homage to, praise, pray to, put on a pedestal, respect, revere, reverence, sanctify, sing, sing praises to, venerate

Antonyms: dishonor, disrespect, hate

Worshipping God is an act something we must do something we must will ourselves to do. Worship is something that we must do in spirit (the vital principal in man) and in truth (it denotes that which is opposed to falsehood). When I think about worship I think about the heart, because the heart must be in the right place to worship the Father as He has called us to. When our hearts are in the wrong place, when we set our affections on this world and the things in it, when we love others more than we love God when everything else takes precedence over God we end up a Pillar of Salt. That is my word for today and I want you to remember this, can a pillar of salt worship God? a pillar of Salt is useless in the kingdom of God. No worship can come from a pillar of salt

Genesis 19:23-26 23 The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. 24 Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.26 But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Matthew 6:24 24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.We must make a choice and desire in our hearts God who is eternal and lasting. The things of this world will fade away and perish but God will be with you always.

Jeremiah 17:5-6 5 Thus says the LORD: “ Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD. 6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited. What can live in a pillar of salt? Even a snail shrivels up and dies when it is enveloped by salt. So again I ask can a pillar of salt worship God?

Exodus 35:4-9 4 And Moses spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which the LORD commanded, saying: 5 ‘Take from among you an offering to the LORD. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the LORD: gold, silver, and bronze; 6 blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats’ hair; 7 ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood; 8 oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense; 9 onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate. In these scriptures you see that they gave God they payed homage to Him they worshipped Him with their very best. Jesus came and because of Him we no longer have to honor God with things but we still must give Him our best and that best is our lives. Our lives must be an act of worship our hearts desire should be to worship the Father. Do you give God your best is your heart really set on Him and not the world? Are you trying to worship God as a pillar of Salt? Even if we were still in a day and time where we had to give God things what would a pillar of salt have to offer our Father in heaven?

This word is not something I am just giving to you this is for me as well I have to examine my heart, I have to look at myself and ask am I trying to worship God as a pillar of salt? It’s time for us to look within to think back and realize where God has brought us from and what He has brought you threw. There is not one person in this room who can’t think about something and I don’t mean just waking you up, I mean that situation or circumstance you were in where there was no way out. Where you thought you would surely lay down and die, when you knew you would loose your mind, when your family was slipping through the cracks of your fingers. When the sheriff was almost knocking on your door to throw you on the street and God showed up and brought you out and you knew that it was Him and Him alone. Those are the things we should have before us reminding us of what could have should have and would have if it wasn’t for Jesus.

Deuteronomy 4:9-10 (New King James Version) 9 Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, Deuteronomy 4:29-31 (New King James Version) 29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice 31 (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them. We have all sinned and fallen short but that’s no reason to just stop to turn back to Sodom to desire the ways of the world. To want to live in and stay in Sin because now you know better. You know how to defeat sin you know how to prevent becoming a pillar of salt.

1 Samuel 12:20 (New King James Version) 20 Then Samuel said to the people, “Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. Proverbs 14:14 The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, But a good man will be satisfied from above. When God slips from first place in our lives, everything else loses its meaning, Life seems to be no more than the tiresome process of making money to spend on food, clothing and shelter. We just get through the day so we can do the same thing tomorrow. We are not living but existing to me that’s a pillar of salt. But when God has first priority, life becomes an adventure. Even our everyday routine take on meaning and promise because they hold a greater purpose. To honor God to worship Him with our lives.

I’m leaving you today with some wisdom because without wisdom we are nothing more than fools and God has given us wisdom words to live by.

Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life For if you do you know your heart is still in Sodom and you become as Lot’s wife and turn into a pillar of salt. Again I ask can a pillar of salt worship God?

A different place, a different space

I have come to a place in my life where I realize that I want more. Not more material possesions or friends or anything like that but I want more from God and more out of life. I want a better understanding and a better relationship,I want to get to a place where I don't find any tight spots with God. I want serving God to be my reason for living so I know I have to do more and do better. I know that because of who I am and who's I am that I have to pay close attention to what I say and do and to what I even think. God is the reason I live He's the reason I breathe and He has on more than one occassion gotten me through some hard spots and rough times in my life. It's time for a new level it's time to handle God and the things of God differently. It's time for me to be honest with God and honest with myself and tell Him that I can't do this without Him. So God I Thank You for your grace and mercy I thank You for keeping me and seeing me through but I am getting out of your way so that you can do in me what I can not do in myself. I am asking that you lead me that you humble and that you keep your hand on me. I know there is a lot of work to do, but I know that it's Your job and not mine. So I amm asking for your help.