James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

In reading the scripture, I asked the Lord what is it that I lack that would cause me to have to wait? Then the Lord came with the truth which was ‘consistency’ and I was like “that is to much at one time, I struggle with large doses of the truth at one time, I need it in parts!” So I further asked him to break it down because I need understanding. I know that I wrote this note earlier, but I was to be corrected and in the midst of it, the Lord led me to read a few other passages that shook me up pretty good.

See the issue here is consistency but I/we struggle with that on a day to day basis. A lot of times, we walk as the Israelites through the desert in our Christian walk. In Hebrew 11:1 “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Also it says without faith it is impossible to please God. If we are given a measure of faith and we look at faith as a talent from one of Jesus’ parables, then we must cultivate and grow our faith. How do we grow our faith? We must invest our faith in the Word and things of God. Meditating on his laws and precepts, spending time with him to discern his desires, and then live and walk accordingly. Often times we just live in the hope of faith, without the evidence that can be accredited to us as righteousness.

By faith Noh built the ark, and that was accredited to him as righteousness. It is safe to say that if we are inconsistent in the faith we are being unrighteous. How can God bless unrighteousness, inconsistency? One minute you are all for him and the next you are against him. It is like watching the fans in football. One minute the Dolphins are up with a 7 point lead, the crowd is screaming, the fans are happy, shouting and praising the Dolphins. As soon as the opposing team takes over with a 21 point lead at the last quarter lead, the fans start cursing their home team, and throwing their 30 dollar caps down and stepping on it. Then they tear their shirts and throw garbage at their home team. In this same way that is what unrighteousness looks like. We say “God why?” and we become unstable in what we do, one minute we cheer him on and the next we scorn him, because of what the circumstances seem like.

In Psalm 85. It says that righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps. Can we remain steadfast and immovable with God, that our investment of faith in him, putting out hope in him stepping out on faith in him prepares the way for him to step deep in our situation and in our life whatever our need is. In Psalm 65:1 “Praise awaits you oh God”. Can praise await him as we sleep and meet him when we wake? Jacob fought with the angel to be blessed not knowing what the blessing was going to be, but he needed one so bad he would not let go of the angel. Like wise, we should remain consistent in praise, worship, and adoration in God until He blesses us, investing our faith in His word, and moving the mountains and moving on his promises, and principles of the kingdom. In Psalm 65: 5 "You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness." What are your deeds of faith that they require His deeds of awesome righteousness?

How do you prepare the way for the Lord steps to enter in your situation? How will he find you? Will he find you like Adam? “Where are you?” Or will he find you like He did Daniel, with the angel Gabriel, “Daniel from the moment you open your mouth your prayers were answered, O highly esteemed in heaven”. Daniel was met on his knees still holding onto the word of God. Psalm 62: 5 - 6 “my soul waits only on the Lord and my expectation is from him, I will be immovable”. Time is the only thing that proves consistency, better said time proves the consistency of character.

Consistency in the faith is so Crucial in Hosea 6:4 “What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah, Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.”

How do we expect God to show up in judgment or in blessing. Inconsistency in the faith leads to unrighteous living; I say this meaning that inconsistent faith is saying “Lord I would rather believe the world than you right now because you are not moving in my life, I can’t hear you, you don’t care, so I am going this way.” That way des not occur without consequences.

Righteous living says “Lord I come to seek you and find you in your word and in my heart and mind, I come to love you despite my circumstance. I come to praise you and I need you to work in my life. I can’t escape this, but like you said to Sarah, ‘Is there nothing to hard for God!’” With Christ the price is paid there is only inheritance.

-Andalino S. in Nassau, Bahamas

1 Peter 2: 18-19 “For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, 19promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.”

I opened up the newspaper and saw the advertisements inside. Everything from couches and furniture to houses, jobs, meals, and entertainment were being sold in full pages of bright color. Almost without exception every single ad contained something to create a desire or need for that product.

I turned on the television, on the TV guide channel to see what was on. There were advertisements there as well, obvious, blatant, sensual commercials pandering to the deep cravings of our flesh - Alcohol, women, ‘fun’, acceptance, need, “it will make life better!” I flip the channel and arrive at my chosen television show. The screen I arrive at is two teenagers “making out” in a car. The guardian of one of them catches them and is upset, not because the child was necking with someone, but rather because the child lied to the guardian. CLICK. I change the channel and arrive at “Scrubs,” a comedy parody of ER and General Hospital. Filth is everywhere. CLICK, “Friends” shows that its alright as long as you have the best intentions at heart; CLICK, “Blade” is killing vampires; CLICK, Buddy Jesus icons, fallen angels, Apostle, and Jay and Silent Bob spewing profanities to save the earth; click, click, click. The television was hopeless.

I know a person who was raised in a very conservative, Christian environment. She arrived at school and was very devout, but she started listening to the music that “everyone is listening to” and watching the television that “everyone is watching” and she started to speak and act like “everyone else” from TV and the music. She did not even realize that she was changing. Was it the music? Was it the movies? Was it her ‘freedom’ from her parents?

The world offers so much to us. There is much that sounds and - at first glance – looks good and right, yet when looked at deeper there is more that goes against the Bible. “Postman Pat” teaches that you shouldn’t try to share what you believe with others because their belief is just as valid. “Harry Potter” teaches that the ends justify the means. The media teaches that freedom to do what we want to do is right and good, that restrictions on our freedoms are a bad thing.

When we take away those restrictions, we take away the stops that were there to protect ourselves. We take away teaching morality because others can be just as valid in their beliefs, and our crime rate goes up, there are more un-wed mothers, there are more drugs, there is more travel to detox centers. We have the freedom to do what we want, right? As long as I am only hurting myself, right?

To live a life worthy of Christ, we need to understand the perils and traps that surround us. We need to know what the world is trying to teach us and we should compare it to what is taught in the Bible, this is the only way we can protect ourselves from the tempting offers of worldly “freedom.” We are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16), we are enslaved to the desires of God (Ephesians 6:6). Let us then be careful of what we feed our minds on lest we find ourselves in bondage to corruption. We escaped the world so why like the alcoholic who returns to the bar after an AA meeting should we put ourselves in danger of returning to our fleshly addictions?

IT'S NOT HARD TO BE A CHRISTIAN AND FILL A FRIENDLY PEW,
WHERE ONLY FRIENDS SURROUND YOU AND PRAISE THE THINGS YOU DO.
BUT GOD WOULD HAVE US SHARE HIS WORD WITH THOSE WHO KNOW HIM NOT,
ON DARKENED STREETS AND AVENUES WHERE SINNERS CAST THEIR LOT.
HERE DWELL THE NON-BELIEVERS, AND THOSE WHO HAVE NOT HEARD,
THAT JESUS CHRIST STILL LOVES THEM ACCORDING TO HIS WORD.
HERE DWELL THE LOST AND LONELY THE HOMELESS AND THE PROUD,
WHO LIKE SHEEP HAVE GONE ASTRAY BY FOLLOWING THE CROWD.
HERE DWELL THE BROKEN HEARTED, THE ABANDONED AND ABUSED,
WHO HAVE SEEN THE "SUNDAY CHRISTIANS" AND WALKED AWAY CONFUSED.
IT'S NOT HARD TO BE A CHRISTIAN AND FILL A FRIENDLY PEW,
BUT AFTER THE BENEDICTION.. CAN CHRIST BE FOUND IN YOU?
~Author Unknown

Proverbs 27: 17 “Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.”

In High school, I ran track and field. I actually ran in the sprinting events, the 100m, 200m, and 400m dashes. Part of my training for these races, however, was running longer distances as well as working in the weight-room. Why did I have to do weights? I was a runner! Why the bench-presses, the squats, the curls? I didn’t need to have muscles in my upperbody! But the short-distance coach would make us work on our upper bodies, our chest muscles and our backs.

We found out that part of running, what makes us run faster and better is proper body posture, and to have the right posture, we need to have the muscle control in our upper bodies to hold our torso and back squarely in alignment the entire race, no matter what happens. Our coach would make us work out so we could be better runners. This meant that he would push us, cajole us, force us to do more, try harder, lift more, and run faster even when we did not think that we could.

In our walk with God, we need to stretch, to strive, to push. The problem that we face here, however, is that we are inherently lazy. Oh sure, there are those special few who push themselves farther than anyone else. Yet, all to often, we stop when it gets hard, tough, or when we just don’t feel like it anymore.

We need a “spiritual trainer” to help us, like a physical trainer or a coach who will force us to go further, to try harder, who pushes us beyond where we think we can go. We need someone who can make us re-evaluate our position and thoughts.

When I ran track, I hated being in the gym, I hated the work, the effort, the pain, and having to go farther than I thought that I should at that time. Why should I have to do so much in one go?

If had not done as much, I would not have been able to run as fast or as far. I needed to be pushed. We need the same spiritually. We need to be encouraged, to have our habits change. We need to be sharpened.

I like the way the CEV puts this verse “Just as iron sharpens iron, friends sharpen the minds of each other.” Friends sharpen the minds of each other. We come together and fellowship, and in this fellowship we help each other.

Let us strive this week to sharpen each others mind’s and to sharpen each other’s relationship with Christ, our Saviour.

Help me then in every tribulation
So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,
That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation
Offered me within Thy holy Word.
Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,
Ever to take, as from a father’s hand,
One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
Till I reach the promised land.

Acts 3: 19 “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord”

Repentance is a u-turn, a 180. It is the flip side of the wrong way, it's simply apologizing to God for what you have done wrong, turning away from what you've done wrong and asking Him to help you do what's right. What is right is doing what God's instruction manual for life says to do. His instruction manual is actually a library (The Bible). It is His love letters to us.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ”

God is all powerful, all present, all knowing, and all loving. God is love, and love never fails, so God never fails. Since God is all present, all powerful, and all knowing, He knows what is best for us and wants what is best for us. Don't you think you could trust Him and obey Him at His word. He knows what's around the corner. He can protect us from evil and lead us to good. We can't do this ourselves. We desperately need him. God is a good Dad. He is a really good Dad. There is no other way to Him except through Him, meaning through His will. (John 14:6 , 17:3)

The Word of God, His instruction manual is jam packed full of real people facing real danger, and fear and heartache, joy and pain, sorrow and anguish, and peace and comfort (although not necessarily all at the same time, but you catch my drift). Real places that still exist are spoken of all throughout scripture. Real events that are historically and archaeologically documented are all over in the Bible. There are over

300 prophecies fulfilled in the one man Jesus of Nazareth pointing to Him as the Christ including Isaiah 9: 6-7 “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, evenforever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”

Sin can be progressive like a negative snowball affect, so be careful little hands what you do. Be careful little feet where you go. Be careful little eyes what you see. Be careful little ears what you hear. One sin could turn into years of turmoil. Don't mess around with sin. What does the prayer that the Lord taught us say? Lead us not into temptation, but deliver me from evil (the evil one).

Psalm 19 :12-14
12How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
13Keep your servant from deliberate sins!
Don't let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt
and innocent of great sin.
14May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

But let me encourage you, numerous good decisions over the course of time can be a good snowball effect.

~Eric T. in Minneapolis/St. Paul