settingatthepoolofgrace

It was the most shameful way to die, a sure sign you were a criminal. They called it crucifixtion, scourging was considered a disciplinary action; although some scourging could lead to death. But the cross or tree was certain there was no escape until death claimed every breath of its victum.

When Cain killed is brother Abel the ground was saturated with his blood. Cain fell prey to  hate and envy, since that time the blood of the innocent has been poured out in every generaton that has graced the earth. The powerful & wealthy trample on those weaker than them.

Evil has no limits to the length it will go to be victorious. It will consume those who have a insatiable desire to be rich, who are williing to do anything it takes to accomplish their goal. The enemy requires you to pour out yourself completely to him,your reward the worlds riches.

The only problem is whatever you receive from him is temporary, yet; your bondage to him could be eternal. His plague of sin has stained the earth in red. Every facet of our environment has been tainted to some degree. Choosing to combat the sin that surrounds us requires us to be willing to pour out ourselves.

As if hanging on the tree we must give until our last breath is consumed.  The battle will be fearce & on going. We must be prepared daily to take up our weapons of warfare giving all we have to the fight. We must shed all the light we have on the deceptions & devises of the enemy.

We are to correct error through the word of God, lead those seeking to the great life giver, and grant agape love to all placed in our pathway. As the earth drinks in the rain poured upon it during the storm,we must be saturated with the sacrifical blood of Christ. Cleansed,renewed and fortified through the blood ready to stand.

We are lumps of clay awaiting the potters touch to become vessels for his service. When our tour of duty is over, our battles complete and we exit the battle ground we can say we have fought a good fight and now the fighting is done; we are prepared to meet the Father and his son.

Like the blood that fell from the tree of Calvery, we are poured out.

My revelation as I sit at the pool of grace.

Do you every think of yourself as a servant? Most of us think of servants as employees who grant your every need for an agreed upon compensation for the services rendered. Then there are those who have no choice, their decision to serve or not to serve has been taken away from them; they are forced to provide whatever service is required of them.

Servants are usually considered to have a lower statis than those they serve. They are given titles such as maid, butler, indentured and yes even slave. All of them denoting having lesser value than their masters. There is honor and dishonor in service depending on who’s servant you are.

The word of God tells us God sent his son as a servant to lost mankind. During his earthly sojourn he healed the sick, feed the hungry, freed sinners from their sins and taught love in all his actions. He was creator of all things; yet, he came to serve fallen mankind. To whom you render service his servant ye are.

Love was his motivator and every service he rendered came from a  place of love. Have you considered what would have happened to mankind had he not accepted our penalty of death? When you look at our world riddled with violence & hate, evil men reign, the poor are trampled under foot, and selfness is exemplified. What would you do with no hope of escape?

To have no choice but to serve the ruler of a lost & sinful world. How would you survive? The goal of the enemy is  for mankind to be eternally lost, separated from the only unconditional love available. The love of God through his son, Jesus the Christ. I rejoice in the enemy’s failure, I rejoice in Gods perfect sacrifice, I rejoice that he rose from and conquered death.

The service provided by his death & resurrection freed me from my sinful fate. His love has transended and continues to wrap me in it’s warmth. His service was given freely, its worth more than I could pay. He became a willing servant for me and you,a priceless gift. His only request of us is to tell his story of love, sacrifice, forgiveness, and redemption. To open our hearts that he can teach us to love as he loved.

Are you willing? Will you serve

My revelation as I sit by the pool of grace

Change is hard for many to accept. It is more comfortable to continue doing what you are use to doing.  We rarely realize change is inevitable, nothing remains the same. we try very hard to maintain the status quo failing to understand without change there is no growth.

Some are satified to be stagnate, to stay the same as the world rapidly transforms. Some think if they don’t acknowledge what is changing they are not accountable, ignorance for them is bliss. From  horse & buggy to automobile, wagon train to locomotive,smoke signal to telephone, and row boat to steam ship.

From traveling over the road to flying in the air, pen & paper to typewriter to computer and from verbal communication to text messaging.  Our lives are filled with constant transition. Yet, there are those who wish to remain in darkness and stagnation. The thought of change for them brings fear and dread.

I must admit all change is not good , for some sudden wealth is their down fall, violence has becme a booming business, hate seems to florish and mens hearts are growing cold and evil daily.  Even with all this, change is still necessary. Each experience is for our benefit.

Through change we shed the rough edges and our characters are refined. Through change we move forward into the destiny that awaits us. Through change we  grow in wisdom & knowledge of the world we live in.  Change is  revealing,renewing , and revitalizing. Change opens our hearts  to receive the blessings given by Father Creator.

We step from fear & darkness into love & light, from uncertainity to acceptance and from pain into joy. Forgetting the former things and reachiing for eternal things. Like the caterpiller becomes the butterfly, we must shed our sinful man and become a new man, santified for service.

come out of darkness and confusion, the doorway to change is open wide. To change is not as hard as you might think if yoou desire it in your heart. Why wait? if not today, when?. Don’t let the door close before you choose/// Help is waiting just across the threshold.

My revelation as I sit at the pool of grace.

 

Every job done well expects acknowledgment; it may not be received, but it wants to be praised. Most people find a pat on the back or at a boy encouraging. No matter what you may be doing when you give  your all to its accomplishment; the expectation your efforts would be noticed is paramount in the mind and heart.

Everyone wants to feel the elation that praise gives. It is not only the huge task that needs recognition but the one’s others refuse to do . Those are the task that requires more determination because they are not pleasant or may be harder to complete. Encouragement feeds the soul creating a willing spirit in the heart to be used.

There will be times in life when you will need a helping hand.  You pray for help hoping it will arrive in time. Sometimes you may have to continue to pray until you get your answer. The answer may not be  what you expect to receive, you may have to walk alone, yet you are never really alone.

Our Heavenly Father is always ready to assist us, but we make him our last resort in time of trouble. We put  faith in what is tangible and close at hand, however; we should make him our 1st choice. Praying constantly placing our hearts needs and desires before him. Once again we may have to wait for our answer.

While we are waiting we must wait in expectancy adopting an attitude of gratitude & praise. When praises go up blessing comes down. Our lives are filled with reasons to praise him. Each new sunrise or sunset our eyes feast upon,each smile that graces a child’s face, mobility & health,family and friends just to name a few.

Praise and prayer can erase all the thunder clouds life sends your way. When the winds of life begin to change indicating a storm is on the horizon make him your first choice. Seek his face in prayer & praise and victory will be yours.

My revelation as I sit by the pool of grace.

“In all things make your request known to God in prayer believing and you shall receive as it is his will to give unto you.” We must remember God knows what is best for us, he can see the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning. In his word, we can find the answer to all the questions of this life.

The Holy Spirit will reveal to our human understanding the mind of our Heavenly Father where we are concerned. His desire is that we know the truth about the depth of his love for us. When we search for him in his word, we will find him. When we ask for forgiveness of our sins, he will forgive us. When we open the door to our hearts when he knocks, he will come in and abide with us.

Each day is a new opportunity to be thankful for his loving kindness & mercy.Each day we should be grateful for the people in our lives; our families and friends. When we make “Jesus” the center of our lives our joy is complete. we can smile in times of turmoil,through sadness and in grief we can find peace in his loving care.

He is a constant that will never change, he is steadfast, immovable, and faithful to those who place their trust in him. Meet with him each day to renew your commitment, receive strength and to give him praise and thanksgiving for his mercy & grace.

Everything in our lives should begin and end with him.  No matter what our condition or circumstance may be, there will be those whose condition or circumstance is far worse. Whatever our situation we must be grateful. Willing to give of what God has given to us no matter how large or small the gift may be it can sill be a blessing to those who have nothing.

Show Gods love in your daily walk to others; a smile or kind word, a listening ear, and acts of kindness to strangers. In this life, we all have trials and burdens that weigh us down. We can rest in the assurance that Jesus is carrying the heaviest of our load and will never forsake us.

There will be dark clouds, storms & circumstances out of our control. Remember after every storm there is a rainbow and God the Father is in control of our lives if we have placed our trust in him. We must have faith that whatever he does it is for our good & the perfecting of our character.

Surrender, we must surrender to the working of the Holy Spirit that when our Lord returns we will be found worthy of his robe of righteousness and gaze into the face of love.

my revelation as I sit by the pool of grace.

 

Life can be so tumultuous, hard to understand, and filled with a crisis for many of us. There are times when we just don’t know what to do or which way to go. We climb one mountain only to see another in the distance.

We are never alone although it feels like we are stranded on an uninhabited island, we try to be so independent we don’t want to ask for help from anyone. We place a price tag on the help of others then assume we can’t afford their assistance.

We forget how great love truly is, how it covers a multitude of fault and how it is always waiting to love back those who embrace it. Often we struggle when we don’t have too. We allow stress and anxiety to rule our thoughts, everything we do is filled with worry. The question I propose to you , is why?

Why do we choose to fight our battles alone when help is available for the asking? Love surrounds us in our families, friends and sometimes even those we consider enemies. Why is it hard to recognize our need for help, who to ask for help, and how to be thankful for the help.

Now let’s just imagine if our friends and family supply the physical help we need & support us in time of turmoil; how much more will a loving creator who considers us his crowning glory of all he created.

His love unchangeable, his presence ever near, and his desire is to encircle us in his joy daily. He never sleeps, is not surprised by what we encounter or what we do, forgives our wrong choices, and corrects us in love with sympathy for our human frailties.

Acceptance of the love he offers will erase stress, anxiety, and fear from our lives. Knowing he is there whenever there is a need will bring comfort and peace. As he loves on us daily, we will learn to love on those around us.

His love changes everything that we are into everything he is and prepares us to spend eternity in his presence; but, we must first recognize our need for him in our lives.

My revelation as I sit by the pool of grace

There is a saying I’ve heard many times, “to thy own self ,be true”.  How often do we look into the mirror of life and see who we truly are? Our characters are formed by every experience of our lives. We grow from childhood to young adult, and  then to adult through each new adventure.

Our education begins with our parents, based on what their parents taught them we are enlightened. Their values become our values, their experiences shape our beginnings, their fears become our fears and their dreams are realized when we achieve our dreams. Unfortunately, life is not always fair and sometimes for reasons unexplained we suffer.

Our childhood years are not good ones for us. We hide them away in the darkness of our minds, with passing time we forget they exist.Everything we know revolves around home whether good or bad. Those years are designed to teach and prepare us for interaction with the outside world.

From these lessons too often the wrong impression is received, there are times when the lesson learned is selfishness, superiority, and deserving. we think the world is our oyster there for the taking.  However, the first interaction with the real world shatters our beliefs and we quickly realize we are important only to those who love us the most, our parents and family.

Relationships formed teach us lessons which enhance or question the life we are living. Our choices determine our consequences. More times than not those choices are based on our past personal experience allowing the past baggage of our lives to surface impacting our future.

The Past hurts and fears that we failed to resolve continue to plague our lives. These issues remain unresolved because we fail to walk in truth; to accept our portion of responsibility for whatever has happened in our life experience. There may be times when we don’t share in the cause and must acknowledge we are not at fault and not harbor guilt.

There is never one side to the story, yet; is it very hard to honestly look at the story from someone else’s perspective.  Most of the time we are too busy justifying our position as being right and not realizing the other person may feel the same way we feel. We must face the reflection we see in the mirror of life recognizing who we are and not who we think we are, self-reflection is sometimes hard but it is necessary.

Learning to allow others to be the individuals they are meant to be is as necessary for their growth as you being who you are meant to be is to yours. A person life does not revolve around what another person thinks it should be. We must not judge others by who we think they should be based on our needs, desires, or experiences.

Everyone must be allowed to walk in their own truth because our life experience is different our truth will never be the same truth. We can experience complete joy of life when we allow others the opportunity to be themselves and not expect conformity to our idea of who they should be, loving them for who they are not who we want them to be.

My revelation as I sit by the pool of grace.

 

As in the days of Noah so shall it be at the coming of the Creator at the end of the age. So it is written, but do you believe it? Time has taken man so far from the image of a loving creator. A love so great it gave all it had to provide a redemption plan for all seeking freedom.

The enemy of mankind has flooded this world with greed, hate, and selfishness; he has changed the face of all creation. Her beauty can no longer be recognized by its creator. Sin has diminished her perfection and her smile has lost its brilliance.

However, this is only a temporary stop along the journey, The question is will you be prepared for the transition at journey’s end? There are so many voices speaking, so many thoughts and interpretations, so many ideologies & doctrines that have filled the world with confusion.

Some kill others in his name,some use his word to subjugate and control. Yet, his voice is the only one that whispers “I am the way” softly in the ear of those seeking the truth. The sincere heart will not be deceived or lost in the maze of confusion.

This world is again scheduled for destruction and rebirth. It will be renewed to its original  beauty, but only those who hear the voice of the shepherd will reside there. Only those who hear the call of love through the many voices and answered will be counted worthy.

Those who leave behind the lust of the world and choose the gift of salvation will be redeemed. Only those who study his word and are guided by the spirit of God will escape being confused and deceived in their time of trial. The word became flesh and dwelt among us that we would have an example of Gods love and the power to overcome sin.

The warnings of impending doom should be shouted from the rooftops, the street corner, in our homes, the halls of government and to every corner of the earth. We must solidify our relationship with our redeemer to be prepared for the trials to come.

He who has ears to hear turn not away, start today that you will be prepared for tomorrow. The truth can be heard, but only if you are listening.

My revelation as I sit by the pool of grace.

 

The world stands on the verge of repeating itself.  Those seeking power disregard what is best for the masses to accomplish their own selfish desires for control. They court the evil lying dormant in the shadows of men’s heart to insight fear.

The courtship starts slow but steady; saying what they think will make the most impact to arouse anger ugly head. ” We are better than them”, “they need to be eliminated”, “we must regain superiority”, and ” save our world from destruction”.

The messages are subtle but still lethal; words have power.  we need to be mindful of what we say, once said it is hard to retract the damage that is done.  The pain caused lingers in the mind and heart, not easily forgotten.

Is there any wonder why the world is going crazy; morals are lost, kindness is fleeting, and togetherness is hanging by a thread. Good people stand by while good people die, who will stand for what is right?. Where is the outcry?

History records how indifference in the past opened it’s eyes too late while millions of lives fell prey to hate.  Voices silenced just because someone who saw himself as greater said they didn’t belong.

The enemy of mankind is trying to lull us to sleep, while he plans history to repeat; hate is his weapon of choice. Man’s inhumanity to man is perpetrated by the evil one and will cover the world if those who recognize him will not stand up.

Together we stand and divided we fall, this doesn’t apply to one group pf people but to all. What hurts me today as you silently stand by will hurt you tomorrow.  The hate that leaves your doorstep will return to its source.

Time to remove the blinders, we can no longer silently stand by watching as our world dies. We are all important, the apple of God’s eye; the war on hate must start with us. Only love will conquer hate but we must stand together we can’t afford to wait.

The many must take back control from the few who govern us all. Greed has corrupted their hearts and they make our laws. Equality must become a right not a privilege for a few. My eyes are now opened, what about you?

We have the power to change the world, your voice is important so make it heard.

Voting is the power of the people, use it.

My revelation as I sit by the pool of grace.

Where do we begin? you work as hard as you can to provide a better home than you had. You remember how it was to be raised with no father, only a mother who was addicted to drugs and alcohol. You remember days when you didn’t eat and had nowhere to sleep.

Maybe you had a father but no mother, he worked so hard to provide he was often too tired to care about your concerns. Worried about how he would feed and shelter you was his primary concern. He didn’t know how to console you when you were hurting so you thought he didn’t love you .

All your life he was there for you, you had the best uncle in the world. So you thought until the first time he molested you. How could you tell your parent their beloved brother had done such a horrible thing. If you told would they even believe you?

He wined and dined you treated you like a queen, promised to give you the moon on a silver plate. You said “I Do”, now you’re wondering what happened to the man you thought you married. At times you think you are sleeping with a stranger. He has changed, he’s not the man you fell in love with; the one who promised you the moon.

They were your angels, you never imagined there would be a day you’d be without them.Now you understand the meaning of the saying”be careful who you have children with” and “momma’s baby, daddy’s maybe”.

You were the best father you knew how to be, yet; you are still denied the right to be with your children. What is wrong with this world? why does it seem good people are punished while bad people prosper? Is there a remedy for this imbalance? Can we break the cycle? How do we heal the hurts lurking in the hidden corners of the heart?

It was not supposed to be this way, in the beginning, there was a perfect balance. Disobedience created the imperfect world we inherited. Our first parents were deceived, the family structure destroyed by the sin that infected the world.

Hope lives through sacrificial love. Love that became a father for the fatherless, a mother for the motherless,shelter for the homeless, food for the hungry, and healing and forgiveness for the hurting.

A walking, breathing example of love wrapped in humanity. He alone can restore the breach and bring perfect balance to the life of man. No matter  the circumstances life has given you he has the answer to solving the problems and breaking the cycle. He is called Emmanuel, God with Us.

My revelation as I sit at the pool of grace