Christianity Oasis Forum

[saint701]

Hello All,



Blessings!

You know most of the time I feel very blessed if I have more than $50.00 to my name. I do not have a bank account. I do not have any credit. PayPal owes me $80.00 for the 80 articles I wrote for the online newspaper, The Examiner, (that's right, to the world the Word of God is only worth a dollar), but I can't get to it because I lack a bank account. Notwithstanding, every week or two I receive about $8.00 in travel pay in going to and coming from two different veteran hospitals nearby. On those days I also receive $10 dollars for lunch. I do my best to save what I can from those adventures so I have something to give.

I've been battling severe depression since last August when I experienced the loss of a loved one that I could scarcely do without. That tradegy toppled me, not from the life of God, but into the greatest misery of the soul I've ever had to bear. It crushed me to the point I was almost grieved to death, but the Lord helped me at the last moment, and pulled me through with good Christian counseling I could not afford any other way except through the VA.

I am happy to have also served my country.

I have a roof over my head and plenty of food to eat. In this I have learned to be content for most of the past almost three years. During this time the Lord has passed me from glory to glory while also humbling me into the position of the lowest of the low. I'm thankful. Because it was through humiliation that He was able to bring much light to His chosen. And I trust the Lord that such will continue to be the case. I can't do anything without Him. What He causes me to see and understand is what I write to you.

Until now I have lacked boldness, standing in the shadow of that which I knew I was created for, such being made known to me 30 years ago in a prophecy given to me, not by one Man of God, but by two. Such had to be in order for me to survive until The Lord began His purpose in me for you.

Now we see by the overwhelming majority of calamities that have come upon this nation and the world the time we must admit that we are living in. We have been told that when we have seen "all these things," that we must look up for our redemption is near. Now we must stand up and show the world who we have been made to be. There is little time left for us to come to grips with who we have been made in Christ Jesus.

So today I share the Lord's eighty first dollar article with you in the power of The Holy Ghost, and will no longer hide in the shadows because of my weakness. Today I stand before you as a Man of God of old, and it shall be known that from here, this watering hole, that the Word of God shall go forth into all the world as a witness, that only those that continue in the Lord until the end shall be saved! This is the day that "this gospel" of the Lord spoken of in Matthew 24:13-14 has begun to be preached.

Matthew 24:

[13] But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
[14] And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.


Love, in Christ Jesus, Mr. C.

[mlg]

You've touched my heart...storing up your treasures in Heaven...the Lord loves you.

[saint701]

Hello mlg, all,


Blessings!

Well mlg, I rarely hear from one whose heart the Lord has softened to the degree He has yours. I think of all of our Lord's children those that are kind and tender hearted have to be the strongest of the strong, as in such the love of God is the greatest. And Satan hates those that love God the most and God's children greatly as well. Satan is always sneaking up on those in Christ that have yet to tether their soul to their spirit and moving on them to be rude. Such are easy targets for Satan and he uses them to shoot flaming darts at those that love the most.

If not very careful, one that is tender hearted and full of mercy will find themselves wounded deeply by the hardened unjust judgements of others. This is why we are cautioned to guard our hearts with all diligence.

Prov.4
[23] Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Prov.18
[14] The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?

So for those so inclined to open their heart much to others, that one must be tethered to their spirit after the manner of the sons of God. Having the faith to humble one's self and bear the insults and assaults of others and still love them and bless them is nearing the perfection of God's love where there is no longer fear of these things, or death, or dying.

Matt. [5]

[44] But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
[45] That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
[46] For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
[47] And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
[48] Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Oh, I love you so much mlg, you are such a great blessing to me! Thank you Lord for planting this rare treasure in this garden.


Blessings!
Dennis

[mlg]

I sit here in tears...because you have seen within my soul...the cuts that so many have made...and my working to forgive them and keep fighting the good fight for the cause of the Lord. It's rare that anyone understands...but today the Lord has provided you understanding....and I have been blessed with your shared words. Thank you my sweet friend.

luv ya

[saint701]

Hi MLG, All,


Blessings!

MLG, you are most welcome. I have a poem from the net I will share below as it fits us all so well where forgiveness is concerned. But I want to add my 2 cents to what you said about the gracious insight the Lord showed me about your soul. If forgiveness was left to me, (my heart, my soul, my mind), I would have a great deal of difficulty forgiving anyone. There were times in the past I would go for a long walk, or grab my chain saw and hit the saw dust trail to relieve me of the anger I felt because of the callousness of others. But there came a day when I realized all my attempts to have forgiveness for them was not within my power. So I gave up trying about 6 months ago, and I gave up feeling wounded, and started feeling sorry for those Christians. They may never know the love of God in this life, but I do. And I know the love of God is alive in me, and to give that love to others is to forgive them. As I said, these days I don't even try to forgive with my tiny ability. I plead to the Lord for Him to give me His forgiveness for them. He always does. It isn't easy, but when we turn loose of our soul, (self), and open up to all the more of Jesus, our walk is as writing in the sand.

I have prayed that the Lord heal all the wounds of your soul. You have been healed. Thank you Lord Jesus. Amen.

However, if I could be the loving, forgiving person our Lord is on my own, (I can't), I would like to be like the forgiving one in the poem below.


Blessings!
Love, in Christ Jesus, saint701

TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING
THROUGH THE DESERT
DURING SOME POINT OF THE
JOURNEY, THEY HAD AN
ARGUMENT; AND ONE FRIEND
SLAPPED THE OTHER ONE
IN THE FACE

THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED
WAS HURT, BUT WITHOUT
SAYING ANYTHING,
WROTE IN THE SAND

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND
SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE

THEY KEPT ON WALKING,
UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS,
WHERE THEY DECIDED
TO TAKE A BATH

THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN
SLAPPED GOT STUCK IN THE
MIRE! AND STARTED DROWNING,
BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM.

AFTER HE RECOVERED FROM
THE NEAR DROWNING,
HE WROTE ON A STONE:

'TODAY MY BEST FRIEND
SAVED MY LIFE'

THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED
AND SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND
ASKED HIM, 'AFTER I HURT YOU,
YOU WROTE IN THE SAND AND NOW,
YOU WRITE ON A STONE, WHY?'

THE FRIEND REPLIED
'WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US
WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN
IN SAND, WHERE WINDS OF
FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY.

BUT, WHEN SOMEONE DOES
SOMETHING GOOD FOR US,
WE MUST ENGRAVE IT IN STONE
WHERE NO WIND
CAN EVER ERASE IT'

LEARN TO WRITE
YOUR HURTS IN
THE SAND AND TO
CARVE YOUR
BENEFITS IN STONE.

THEY SAY IT TAKES A
MINUTE TO FIND A SPECIAL
PERSON, AN HOUR TO
APPRECIATE THEM

A DAY
TO LOVE THEM, BUT THEN
AN ENTIRE LIFE
TO FORGET THEM.

SEND THIS TO
THE PEOPLE YOU'LL NEVER
FORGET.

I JUST DID.

IF YOU DON'T
SEND IT TO ANYONE,
IT MEANS YOU'RE IN A
HURRY AND THAT YOU'VE
FORGOTTEN YOUR FRIENDS

TAKE THE TIME TO LIVE!

DO NOT VALUE THE THINGS
YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE, BUT VALUE
WHO YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE!

AND IF I HAPPEN TO GET IT BACK,
THEN I KNOW,

[mlg]

Isn't that just so beautiful I find myself "wanting" to forgive people more easily when I've been wronged. I find myself going to God immediately with the hurts and asking Him to help me move away from that pain and to continue to embrace the soul. Believe it or not, I'm getting to that point of forgiving easier. Especially when someone comes and says I'm sorry...when they apologize...I immediately say to myself...now the burden is on myself to forgive them...and when I myself wrong someone...I'm finding that I am quicker to apologize to another also. It's taken me a long time to even get to this point...and I hope I continue to grow in forgiveness and apologies...and watching my ways to be the best example of Jesus that I can be.

luv ya

[saint701]

Hello MLG, All,


Blessings!

There are many Christian norms that challenge us because of their paradoxical nature. Forgiveness may be the toughest norm of all. After what seemed like an eternity of insults and abuse from a close relative I decided she had filled up her cup of 70 times 7 and I wasn't going to forgive her any more. I have since forgiven her as after a couple of years it dawned on me that there was a high likelihood I had sinned against our Lord more than 70 times 7 and that if I expected His forgiveness I darn well better stretch mine a bit farther than that required.

Forgiveness, go the extra mile, turn the other cheek, do good to those..., pray for those..., have paradox written all over them. They cut across the grain of our human nature and if our soul is turned that way we can wear ourselves out trying to forgive out of a nature that no longer belongs to us. The great thing about growing up spiritually is that we solve the mystery of the forgiveness paradox.

Forgiveness is a part of our new life, our spiritual nature, and it flows as naturally through our spirits and on through our souls to an outward release of love for the offender as anger, hurt and resentment do through the flesh.

Turning our soul toward our spirit and our spirit toward the Holy Spirit turns the Holy Spirit toward the Lord to received the flow back to us of His love. It really is like turning on the flow of water. Say for example the water flows from the tap into our cup when we turn the faucet valve to the right but we don't know that because at our house things work in the opposite manner. All our turning the faucet valve to left will never be of any avail to fill up our cup. To fill our soul with our Lord's love supply we ourselves, (soul), must turn toward our spirit to receive the love supply we need to forgive. Turning toward the flesh will not ever turn the water on.

Of course lots of humility is involved. It's like we sit down at our Lord's feet and say we give up all our will in the matter of forgiveness and delight to make Him happy by receiving what He has so richly and wonderfully supplied for those willing to do things His way.

Bless you MLG. You are so richly and wonderfully blessed and loved by the Lord always all of the time. I believe your joy will just grow and grow until it abounds in the healing love flow of God to everyone around you.


Blessings!
Love, In Christ Jesus, Saint701.

[mlg]

After what seemed like an eternity of insults and abuse from a close relative I decided she had filled up her cup of 70 times 7

oh how I've seen this happen in my life, as well as been guilty of it myself...but then who is hurt more by those types of actions? We are...hence I'm so glad you finally decided to forgive and let go.

Of course lots of humility is involved. It's like we sit down at our Lord's feet and say we give up all our will in the matter of forgiveness and delight to make Him happy by receiving what He has so richly and wonderfully supplied for those willing to do things His way.

I think not only of myself but of Paul in this quote...how often he faced matters in His walk with the Lord that required forgiving another...and if He had not...I'm sure He would have been held back in His ministry for God...yet He persevered, laid it all down at the cross and carried on like the good soldier He was...like the good soldier we too should be.

luv ya my precious friend.

[saint701]

Hello mlg, all,


Blessings!

[url][http://www.examiner.com/spirituality-in-st-louis/guarding-our-heart-with-all-diligence-for-out-of-it-come-the-issues-of-life/url]

We're discussing how to guard our heart with all diligence this evening. Of course such wisdom comes from King Solomon, that great sage of old, but it's our job to heed his advice. We're going to tell a story from our past when we lived at 441 Crest in Kirkwood. We were married to the now Mrs. Terry M. of Ballwin. The events in this story occurred some 30 years ago.

Blessings!

Many years ago we dreamed of a relationship with our Lord that would swallow up our life in His. We were especially jealous of those of our species that seemed to blend in so well with the Spirit of God that His love, joy, and peace, etc. seemed to pour out of them like a river of life.

Then came the day we were filled with the Holy Spirit. That infilling gave us a great sense of what Heaven is really like. And oh how the Holy Spirit softened our heart when He moved in. Every love thing we saw, heard, or watched made us cry just like a baby. (Of course that is what we really were, a new born spiritual babe in Christ Jesus). But there was another side of our tear shedding. The infilling of the Holy Spirit made us realize just how horrible the darkness is on this planet. We didn't want to open our front door and go back out in it. All we wanted was to go on to Heaven. So for a few weeks we would just crumple to our knees in despair of this life and bawl like a baby longing to be whisked away out of this world of darkness.

Then a wonderful thing happened. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit filled our heart with the fire of His presence to let us know that He understood our grief. From that day until this we have survived every spiritual onslaught through His comforting warmth in our heart with the exception of a few trials of our faith.

Now as a new born babe in Christ we were sadly lacking in understanding, knowledge, wisdom, and revelation about how to protect our new found love, joy, and peace, etc., and what our love actions or words might bring to our heart. We certainly were not guarding our heart with all diligence although the issues of life were most certainly flowing out of it.

We opened our love heart to others without even considering that there could be negative consequences. We didn't know that our heart could be wounded by a firey dart of the devil shot at us through the callousness of hard hearted individuals that only pretended to love us. Then one day it happened. A close relative who we had been praying for to receive the Holy Spirit turned on us with the venomous bite of a pit viper.

Earlier she had professed that she had received the infilling of the Holy Spirit, but we had become a tad perplexed because there wasn't any evidence of that. So we asked why she hadn't been truthful with us, and she shot back,"I just pretended I received the Holy Spirit to get you to shut up!"

Of course I was holding my heart out to her as a target is to a bow and arrow. She hit the bullseye. I felt the flaming arrow of the devil's words pierce my heart and deflate it like a popped balloon. That pretty much put an end to my love walk and my spiritual life just shrank from there. I fell backwards into the waywardness of the world and my heart rehardened. I stayed in that condition for a few years until friends of mine removed the dart in the name of Jesus. I felt it leave my heart.

Now one way of guarding our heart with all diligence requires the act of faith each day to put on the whole armor of God. But since every day is not an evil day for us, the better way is to wake up each morning seeing ourselves alive in Christ Jesus. Paul says it this way.

Gal.3

[24] Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
[25] But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
[26] For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
[27] For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
[28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
[29] And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Let's see it this way. We live in the heart of our Lord's love for us. We are in Him there and always will be if we continue in the faith. Knowing through faith that we are alive in His love heart makes us certainly alive in Him and wickedness flees the light of our Lord that covers us. We cease to fear what others can do to us or worry about the sins that so easily beset us, but focus on the fact that we are protected as we walk knowing we are alive and live in the love heart of our Lord.

And let us not forget, if we can see ourselves alive in Christ Jesus, that we have indeed put on Christ, and we have no need to fear. If we can stand confidently that we live in Christ then we can also stand in Him knowing we have His authority over serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.

If we stand fearless in the face of our enemy the love of God is perfected in us.

1John.2

[5] But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.


Blessings!
Much love to you from Christ our Lord, Mr. C.

It is most certainly far better to die in faith believing, than it is to live in unbelief.


Continue reading on Examiner.com Guarding our heart with all diligence, for out of it come the issues of life - St. Louis Spirituality | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/spirituality-in ... z1P1O2uhfB