My Tea Time With Jesus

What do you see when you look around you? Are you full of worry, or are you content? Matthew 6:33   (NLT) Seek the Kingdom of God  above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. (MSG) Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. What does it mean to “seek the Kingdom of God”? Well, to me, you just have to look at another version of the same verse, and it tells you. ‘Steeping your life’ literally means to put yourself all-in. Fully immerse yourself. Like we do a tea bag in hot water. Then let it “rest” there – “live” there. This means, that if we look for where God is and “go be in it” – then we are IN God’s Kingdom. We are looking forward to our journey to our “home” which is heaven. We are just foreigners here on earth, and our TRUE Home is in Heaven with God the Father and Jesus the Son. If you have ever visited anot...

What is the best way to have a clean slate before God? Making sure it is clean each night before going to bed. ;-) Using the "eraser" of confession!  Hebrews 10:30-31 “For we know the one who said, “I will take revenge. I will pay them back.” He also said, “The  Lord  will judge His own people.” It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. ” Have you ever had one of those days where nothing seems to go right? Have you ever thought it is due to unconfessed sin? Could be. Could be something from the past that perhaps you haven’t been fully aware of. Then again, it could also just be because we are still alive here on earth, living in a fallen world – nothing to do with us or our life at all. Yes, the enemy can and does try and “trip” us up a LOT! He TRIES to trip us up with things from our past, that we HAVE confessed, and the Lord HAS forgiven. That’s when we need to claim truth, and remind the enemy that he is the one that is the loser and the ...

Hebrews 10:35-36 35  So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you!   36  Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that He has promised. This chapter in Hebrews is talking about when we first became Christians. How, some of us had to endure hardships because of our decisions. Back then, some ended up in jail, were badly beaten, of course they even lost all of their “things”. Well, here in America, we may or may not have suffered like people do in other countries or back in the bible times. However, I DO believe that we DID have this amazing confidence in what we chose to accept – the FREE gift of salvation through Jesus. I see it each year at the Harvest Crusades. People that hear a message that seems designed right for them – they come down to the field with all of their emotions, baggage, confessions… and they are ON FIRE when they leave the st...

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14   NLT The Bible Gateway is my favorite site to be able to see more than one version of the bible at a time! They also have a "verse of the day" that pops up. Well, here is today's verse. I love how this verse takes in all THREE aspects of the trinity and gives us a blessing and a promise with each One. Here is another promise that we can add to our list of promises that we have and can pray back to God at any time. The last part, "the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all" hit me today because in order to have "fellowship" with Someone, we actually HAVE to spend time with Them. Right?!?! Thankfully, the Holy Spirit is with us anywhere and everywhere we are! Because He lives IN us! LOL but that doesn't mean we are always having fellowship with Him though. You know how you feel something, or get a whisper...

Genesis 12:7-8 7  Then the  Lord  appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the  Lord , who had appeared to him.   8  After that, Abram traveled south and set up camp in the hill country, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built another altar and dedicated it to the  Lord , and he worshiped the  Lord . Altars are a memorial of the places where God meets us Altars represent the occasion and place where we have had a personal encounter with God. We may not always be able to make a physical altar, but there can be one established in our hearts. (Jack Hayford)      I have had the opportunity to “meet God” in a few places and special times in my life. I wish I had set up alters, then perhaps it would be easier to relive and share the changes that God did at those times. We have a couple of friends, that collect a rock at diff...

Luke 22:54-62 Unfailing Mercy I am constantly amazed and humbles at how many times the Lord forgives me for my mess-ups! Yes, there was a time that I “moved away from God” in an attempt to ‘do it on my own’ – well, that did not work out so well for me! Yet, really, it sort of did. That is what actually brought me back and made me see just how much mercy, forgiveness, and grace our loving heavenly Father has for us/me!! Better than ANY earthy example of love! He truly will NOT ever leave us, nor forget us!! NEVER! No conditions, no rules, no long lectures… just plain and simple acceptance and forgiveness! Today, as I read this passage from My Daily Bread from last year, another verse jumped out at me: Matthew 16:24 (Mark 8:34 & Luke 9:23) - Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. Which then lead me to realize that no matter what we go through WITH Jesus, it is WAY better than...

No matter what you are going through, where you have been, or where you dream of going - you will NEVER be left by the wayside, standing alone. This is a promise from God! One we can cling to and pray back to Him when we are feeling "alone". In the little but mighty book, Jesus Calling, today's message is super powerful! The part that jumped out at me, was that Jesus' LAST words to us, are that He is always with us, and will never leave us! Pretty stinkin' neat if I do say so myself! Yet, another "promise" we can add to our list of promises from God.  Then, I realized, that when God sent us the Holy Spirit, this is Jesus IN us, for us - WITH US! Again, wowzers! Even when life throws us curve balls, and we feel like no one understands or that no one is "with us" - we can be assured, that Jesus IS with us - each and every day. Remember that says, "When you feel like Jesus/God is far away from you - it isn't He who moved!" We are...

Today was taken from Our Daily Bread, September 5th, 2017 It struck me, that we are all too quick to "want it all" and yet, when we get little bits of "it all" we are still wanting something else! Well, I believe when we have a relationship with Jesus, our desires change. Sure, we still "want" things and want to go places and such - but they seem to take on new meanings and have a different "end goal" in mind. The part that jumped out at me today was "The only remedy for for hearts that "want it all" is the contentment found in the presence of the living God." Truly - Jesus is the ONLY way to have true, real, and complete contentment in this world. Contentment is not getting what we want but being satisfied with what we have. If more of us lived by this definition - we sure would have a LOT less crime as well as a lot less divorces. Something I learned to do a long time ago: use someone or something you WANT to be lik...

Ephesians 3:4-6 (MSG) “ As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through His holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of Him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board. ” I LOVE verse 6 that tells us whether we have been a Christian all our life, or have just now heard of Jesus – we are ALL accepted, loved, cherished, given the same promises, the same help, the same accessibility to God through Jesus! Yes, we were ALL once “outsiders” in the kingdom of God. We ALL were once “outsiders” to this amazing family of God. Then, when the Holy Spirit o...