God gave you the land, why have you not claimed it?

These are just ideas for future services that the Lord Gave me tonight.

God already won the battle, now go claim your land.

In Joshua Chapter 18 the children of israel are claiming the land of Israel as their own for the first time. God has told them it is their and where the outmost bounds should be, but he has not told the children of israel any particulars about which tribes go where. He left that up to the children of Israel to decide. By this point 5 of the 12 tribes had claimed their promise land and started to settle in. The other 7 tribes were simply not claiming their promises.  Joshua realizes that these tribes are not fulfilling their mission and this is the scripture.

1And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them.

2And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes, which had not yet received their inheritance.

3And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which theLord God of your fathers hath given you?

Joshua looks at the Children of Israel and in laymen's terms he says.  "What is wrong with you? Whyare you being lazy?  God gave you this land and you have not claimed it. The one who gave it to you is the LORD GOD of your fathers and he GAVE YOU THIS LAND.   What't wrong with you people?"

In verse one we read that God had already subdued the land. Now what does SUBDUED THE LAND mean?  

One definition for the word subdued is this. to overpower by superior force; overcome.  This means another way we could read this scripture is this, The land was overpowered by a superior force. God had already claimed the land as his own. He had mastered the land and then he gave it to the children of israel. 

For years the the people of Israel had been traveling in the wilderness. A place where there were few to no towns and these towns could in no way hold the the more then 1million men that were with the children of Israel. There was definitely no place to hold more then a million sheep, or a million oxen. The people needed their own land and God had provided it for them.

I used to think that they were given the land and ran the the farmers that lived on the land before they were given the land by God, but this is not the case. God gave the children of Israel. Towns with crops, and buildings, and homes, and stores. There were lumberyards, places for schools and markets. All these places were already built. God tell us later in scripture that they were given crops that they did not plant.  God had prepared everything. 

The first five tribes had already claimed their lands. The others had seen the beautiful things that the first five tribes had been given and that the Lord had blessed them, but for some reason instead of waling over to their land and saying hey God gave me this, they stopped and decided to wait. 

Joshua had to wake them up.  HEY IT IS TIME TO CLAIM YOUR VICTORY, GOD ALREADY WON THE BATTLE.   

more to come.

Life improvement list

So, I have decided that I should start making changes in my life to make me a better in all aspects of my life because I have found that Christ should be seen in all aspects of your life. So I want to be healthier, smarter, stronger, and well versed.

Some of these I have already done, but I want to make sure I remember what I have changed and what I once was.

1. Be at least 5 minutes early for everything. (EVERYTHING) and 15 for church functions, 10 for school functions.
2. Stop Drinking Carbonated drinks,
3. Drink at least 10 glasses of water a day or 80 oz. 
4. Make it a morning routine to get up before 8 am.
5. Set a bedtime before midnight.
6. Make my bed only a place to sleep, so I wont be drawn in to sleep during the day and waste time. (like no more watching TV or movies in bed, no reading in bed except right before bed time)
7. Eat out no more than 3 times a week. (This means going to a restaurant other than the dinning hall on campus)
8. Walk or run 15 miles a week.
9. Read or listen to 4 chapters of the Bible a day.
10. Watch no more than 6 hours of Netflix a week.
11. Start hiking to a set point at least 2 times a week.
12. Ride at least 20 minutes on a bike each week.
13. Spend at least 20 minutes in the greenhouse a week to relax.
14. Read at least 30 minutes a week of a non-text book.
15. Read or listen to at least one book a month.
16. Write at least 5 times a week in my blog.
17. Write at least one entry for my Camp Arrowhead guide book each week.

More to come. I hope. Let me know what I should add or change.  I need things to be measureable, so no "do more of this or less of this" I need numbers.

I am Apostolic, not because of religion, but because of experience.

I am Apostolic, not because of religion, but because of experience.

This was what I received out of a message preached at Chesapeake Pentecostal Church a short while ago.  I have been thinking a lot about this  lately and how it affects my life.  I was taught long before I could read that the Bible is true and that it is God's word and His message to me and to the rest of the world. I was taught that God cared enough for me that He would put His spiritual realm into a flesh body and come to earth to die for me.  He died for my sins so I would not have to worry about the problems of my own sin and my own misdoings.

I was taught long ago that God wanted us to follow Him and that He gave us a special plan for how to start following Him.  God spoke to the people of the earth through a special follow of His named Peter.  Peter was given a special gift from God in that God wanted to live in Peter and not just around Peter in a spiritual world.  God wanted to move into Peter's life and set up a residence so God's power could be shown through every aspect of Peter's life. God entered into Peter's life by a third form called the Holy Ghost (1st, God-all seeing, all powerful, 2nd, Jesus- the human form that cared so much that He died for us, 3rd, Holy Ghost- spirit that can now live in the heart, soul, mind and body of a man.)

When I heard the story of Peter and how Peter had this great gift from God, I wanted to have it just like Peter. I was told that Peter though this gift was so awesome that everyone should have it.  He told everyone around him that the special gift of the Holy Ghost was not just for him, but for everyone.  He went on to tell everyone just how to receive this Gift.  Peter said "Repent, and baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

His instructions were simple. If you  wanted to have God, the healer, the most powerful, the prince of peace, the comforter living in your life, all you had to do was to say you were sorry for your actions that were unpleasing to God and harmful to others, and to have your physical body submerged in water while the name of God was proclaimed over you.  He said that this was it, that was the hard part, the last step to receiving this gift was to simply receive it.  When you have put away your flesh and human thoughts and focused entirely on God, then God will give you a special gift like the one He gave Peter.  The gift would be peace, knowledge, wisdom, mercy, love, joy, long suffering, faithfulness and more.  You would know you had this gift when your prayer and devotion became one with God and you started to speak a language that was different than the one you knew. You would have different pray conversations with God since you would have a direct a link to God and only He could tell what your words meant.

I decided that I wanted this gift.  Since it was a gift, it was free.  I followed the directions and I Experienced the most awesome experience of my life.  God and I  had a connection, I could feel Him. I could hear Him. I had a direct line with God Almighty and He loved me. I did not have to wonder if He was real or if He was listening, because He was now part of me. He had moved into my life and became a part of me.

Since this experience, my life has changed more then I ever thought possible. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, I am greatly different. Over the years I have at times felt my life drift from the will of God and start to push Him out of my life.  He has never left me, but I have often left Him out my life. He has always been a strong place for me to go and feel safe even when I did not have room for Him in my heart.

I have prayed and asked God to strengthen me and to help my will become the Will of God. He is helping me with this daily. He is always pointing me in the way I should go even if I don't always listen.

I know that my life is the way it is today because of the choice I made to follow Christ and be filled with the Holy Ghost.  I also know that things would be much different if I had just listened more often to the leading of God and allowed God, now living inside me as part of my life, to take charge and  lead things differently than I would lead.

Often times I have sat in my pew after a service and said to myself, I will go pray if someone else goes, or if I go up now, the church will think I have sinned and I don't want that.  I have often said that the message was not for me, but I wanted to go pray, I stayed in my seat because I did not want to be the first one up, or even worse, when I told myself that my "duties" (choir, sign choir, offering, special song, or other) might get disrupted if I get out of my seat and go take of my "little thing" that God wanted me to pray about.  How would my life be different if I would have just listened to the God living inside me.

Would my first few steps be the start of a new ministry?  Would God reveal to me His plans for my life, if I just stepped forward?  Was there someone else waiting to be the second person to the alter?  How many times would someone else have stepped up to the alter if they had just seen me go up first?  I know that I did not get anything from the message, but God may have just wanted to talk.

How would my life be different if would just let God lead?

I cannot count the times I have been asked to do something on Sunday or Wednesday and I just said I was busy.  How would my life be different if I had just told the person(s) that I was going to Church and asked if they wanted to go with me.  Would they have said yes?  Would there now be more people filled with this same Holy Ghost that I have inside me?  Would more people have power?

I have lots of friends and even more acquaintances.  When I eat at a good restaurant, I don't hesitate to recommend it my friends or post it on Facebook or even send out a tweet while checking in on Foursquare.  I have an easy time letting people know what is good for them physically even if it cost them lots of money.  If a person I have never met asked me where to go to vacation, I have no problem making a list of places that would cost thousands of dollars to go visit.Why is it that I seem to have such a hard time telling people about something that is free and will change their life?  Isn't the gift of the Holy Ghost much more important then the good restaurant or the expensive vacation? How would my life be different if I had just started spreading the good news to more people when I had the chance instead of making small talk and avoiding the conversation?


How would my life be different if I decided to make a change today?

Today, I want to start letting my Holy Ghost lead more. God will tell me what to say when it is needed.

Today, I want to start going to the alter even when I don't want to go.  This could be the day, God reveals to me His plan for my life.

Today, I want to let God live in my life  and soul instead of just be a guest. I want Him to be the lead force for my life, after all, He paid for it.

How will my life be different now that I am living because of experience and not because of religion?

Sermon on Faith

Sermon on Faith: "Sermon on faith.  Faith - your notarial deed.
(Sermons on Faith)

What is it?How does it function? How to use it? There are many questions we ask ourselves about faith and we will try to answer them today. Issue of faith is so vital for our life that every Christian should have a deep understanding of that subject. As you remember from our teaching about faith and fear we can join God only in faith and through faith. There is no other way, no short-cut! Everything, whatever you are looking for, starting from the basic every day needs to the great spiritual achievements, all of it we can have only by faith."

'via Blog this'

Prayer Before Giving a Sermon « Getting Started

Prayer Before Giving a Sermon « Getting Started: "Prayer Before Giving a Sermon
July 19, 2008 by Peg
One more item for my don’t-lose-this-you-will-need-it-in-the-future file…

“Lord Jesu! Teach thou me, that I may teach them: Sanctify and enable all my powers; that in their full strength they may deliver thy message reverently , readily, faithfully, and fruitfully. Oh, make thy word a swift word, passing from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the life and conversation: that as the rain returns not empty, so neither may they word, but accomplish that for which it is given. Oh Lord, hear, Oh Lord, forgive! Oh Lord, hearken, and do so for thy blessed Son’s sake, in whose sweet name we pray. — George Herbert, 1593-1633"

'via Blog this'

July 5th, 2012

It has been a while since I posted.  I really need to read and pray first thing in the morning.  I have problems managing my time.  Here is where I am today.

Exodus 4
Luke 7
Job 21
1 Corinthians 8

Lord thank You for always being there for me even when I am not loyal to You.  Thank You for being a good and loving King.

10

Genesis 44
Mark 14
Job 10
Romans 14

Can you imagine coming face to face with people that sold you into slavery and did not care for you?  I can't imagine the feelings that flowed through Joseph.

Lord please help me to see others as You see them. I want to have compassion on all as you have compassion. I want to love unconditionally as You love. Thank you for loving me.

Day 9

God has richly blessed me.  Lord it us my desire to be more serious and not so harsh in my playful jokes. I know that some see them as jokes while others seem them as flaws and my image could be marred along with my testimony. Please help me to be more like you. Thank you for giving me a chance to see your beauty in nature today.

I had a good time meeting new people tonight at the campfire.

Beautiful day

I don't know what day I am right now, but I know I am enjoying reading.
These arethe last chapters I read today.
Genesis 30
Mark 1
Ester 6
Romans 1

Lord I thank you for this Bristol day. You make all things well. Even when I was flustered with work, you helped me and gave me peace.

Scout camp 2012 week 1

Beautiful day.  We arrived for week 1 of camp with bright sunny skies. In just 2 short hours it started to rain as the troops arrived.

Day 7

Day 7

Genesis 21-24
Matthew 20-23
Nehemiah 10-13
Acts 20-23

Lord I thank you for giving me good friends. This week has been taking in physical strength, but you have given me strength in friends. Thank you for all you are doing. I love this desire to spend time with you.

Day 6

Day 6

Genesis 17-20
Matthew 16-19
Nehemia 6-9
Acts 16-19
Lot separated from Abram in Genesis 13. This was before Abram's name was changed to Abraham.  God made a covenant with Abraham when Abraham gave all he had to God. Just a short time after Lot left Abraham's side, he was found living in a sin filled city, being captured by the enemy, having future son-in-laws that did not follow God, and then liosung his wife as he ran for his life from the wrath of God, not to mention becoming the father of his own grandchildren. 
Thus just shows that we need to stay close to God'a messenger and the ones God have chosen to lead over us. Please don't neglect the relationship you have with your pastor.
Lord thank you for showing me who You are. I learn something new about you daily.  Lord many people don't know the true you. They claim to be Christians but their lives would never show that You are part if their lives.  They want to be part of You but don't want to learn who You really are or what you have done for them.

Day 5

Well I got busy and everytime I wantes to read the bible I got distracted by much needed work. But I felt that I needed to read, I had a desire for God. This is what I have been praying for. My original plan was 13 chapters a day, I have been reading between 16 and 17 chapters a day so i am not behind, but I feel like I am.

Thank you Lord for a desire to hear from you, to hear your word, to feel your touch.  I know you are with me each day you truly are blessed.

Day 4

Day 4
Genesis 14-17
Matthew 13-16
Nehamiah 3-6
Acts 13-16

Lord, today was a wonderful day.  I was really tired because I don't get to camp till 2 am. But even with the tired body I had today, my mind was rested and I felt great in spirit.

Thank you lord for giving me strengh of body and mind. You truly bless me. You have given me rest even without sleep. Now Lord I want to thank you for tomorrow. The day may not be easy but it is a gift from you so you will give rest.
Thank you for all.
Amen.

Silk moth

As I was leaving campus tonight I saw a beautiful silk moth.

What type is it?

Bonus if you guess the genus and species.

Camp is beautiful

Oh, little note.
The Boy Scout camp is beautiful this summer.  Even with the rain.  The nature lodge is looking wonderful and tomorrow (well I guess today since it is after 12), we will be walking in the creek and catching creatures. I love that part.
 Well more to come.

Day 3

Day 3.

Genesis 9-10. 11. 12. 13
Matthew 9-12
Ezra 9-10
Nehemiah 1-2
Acts 9-12

Lord I thank you for giving me strength. I have been praying for chances to read your word and pray daily and you have given me the time.  You truly answer prayers.  I ask that you give me physical strength this week to make it through the trials that come my way.  I also ask that you bridle my tongue. I don't want to open my mouth and say something that could be offensive to others, or that may damage my witness testimony.  All it takes is one instance for some someones perception of me to change.  I don't want someone to get a bad view of my God because of a bad moment watching my life.  Thank you Lord for your promises.

Day 2.

Day 2
Genesis 5-8
Matthew 5-8
Ezra 5-8
Acts 5-8

Matthew 6:9-13 NIV

“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,
10 your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.
11 And forgive us our debts,
12 as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, [a]
13 but deliver us from the evil one. [b] ’

Footnotes:

a. Matthew 6:13 The Greek for temptation can also mean testing.

b. Matthew 6:13 Or from evil; some late manuscripts one, / for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

God has a plan for me.  I want to be in that plan. I know He will help me grow in Him.

Lord I thank you for you many blessings, you are worthy of all praise.  I want to enter into your presence with praise.  Lord have your way in my life and with your plan for my family and all that I come in contact with. Lord, I pray that you will give me the desires of my heart in my longing for understanding and patience. Please forgive me of all my wrong and forgive me for anything I may have said that was not promoting you. Lead me in the way you want me to go so I will not go astray in thought or action. You ate wonderful and glorious. You are powerful and mighty and I thank you for looking down on me with love and considering me worth while.-AMEN.

God wants us to enter into his presence with praise.  We need to realize that his will is more important than our own.  We can then ask him for what we consider we need. we need to ask for forgiveness remembering that He has forgiven us so we should also forgive others. God will lead us if we ask. Finally we need to again remember to claim our promises, God will provide so we need to than Him.

Let go and let God.

God can't drive your life as long as you are still holding the wheel and pressing the brake. Put it in gear and let God move -- Chad Thompson (@MChadT)

Day 1.

Gen 1-4,  Matthew 1-4, Ezra 1-4, Acts 1-4.

Lord I thank you for an opportunity to be your servant.  Thank you for the things that you have done. I'm grateful for the victories that you have won. I want to thank you for the many things that You and only you can do.  I want to grow with you.

Please Lord give me a desire to tough your thrown.  Lord I ask you to give me a true longing to see a change in my life.  Lord let me see the changes that are making in me as I grow and change.

Thank you for this desire you have given me to be with you in your will.  Thank you for your many blessing that are to come.