Shine

      Let your light shine… don’t ‘hide’ Me.  That is really what you are doing when you are afraid to shine.. and don’t want to be seen… or when you are afraid to speak bold truth.  You are not just hiding yourself; you are not just protecting yourself, like you think.   You are actually hiding Me and stealing My glory.

“You are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but (they put it) on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

Let your light shine before men.

Let your light shine before men
                  in such a way that they may see your good works,
                       and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”  Matthew 5:14-16

Let your light shine before men ¹that they may see your good works AND ²glorify ME!

If you don’t shine, if you refuse to shine, you steal an opportunity to glorify My name.

     
        I came as the light of the world and then call you ‘the light of the world’.  Let Me shine through you.  You have the mind of Christ.  I am calling you to live in such a way that you ‘work out’ (let it shine) what I have placed in you.  Live it out,… yes, to be seen.

Don’t try to avoid the insults or the scorn… in fact I say the opposite: “Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.  Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.”  Luke 6:22,23

“The fear of man brings a snare, But he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted.” Proverbs 29:25
“In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid.  What can man do to me?” Psalm 56:11
           As a disciple of Christ, you are promised to be a fragrance of death to some, but you are also promised to be a fragrance of life to others.  And what you are, a fragrance of life or death, doesn’t need to concern you; you just follow Me. Take no consideration/no responsibility of what I spill over into people’s lives or how they respond.  You are only responsible for the obedience.  Give out the life that I have to give through you.

Shine in who I have specifically designed you to be.

Shine for ME.

Stand Firm

  

                To be true to My Word, I must judge this nation… but they will not turn back to Me.  The hearts have grown cold…so I will reject them…and they will be dismayed.

                But My church will be purified.  It will be harder and harder to stand for truth, and yet for truth you will stand.

               Separate yourselves.  The sheep will be gathered from the goats..in every church, a rod of judgment/separation will go forth and all will become evident.  My people will more and more have to choose to stand for truth in the face of compromise in their midst.  And many will fall…who you think would stand.  Pray for the strength of the individual believer.  Pray for the PURITY of My Word spoken.  Speak it forth in boldness.

                ‘I am raising up a people of boldness who WILL proclaim truth in the midst of a religion that is making crooked the straight way of the Lord.  Stand firm until the end.  Give yourselves to prayer and fasting…and proclaim the favorable Day of the Lord.  Be ready..have your lamps trimmed.'

I Will Be With You

I AM more powerful in you (you yielded to Me) than anything that can come against you (even your own emotions and fears).  I AM BIGGER, I AM ENOUGH, and I am with you.  And THAT FACT makes the difference!      

“And the LORD said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.  So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey,……’”…… “Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:7,8,10

 The Lord tells Moses that He has come to deliver His people and then continues with how He is going to do it: “I will send you.”

“But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” verse 11.

And God’s response makes ALL the difference!
 Moses asks, “Who am I?” and God answers, “Certainly I will be with you….”

He is the difference!

Moses’ second excuse is recorded in Exodus 4:10 “Then Moses said to the LORD, ‘Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” And the LORD answers him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?
 Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.” V. 11 And again in verse 15, “…I, even I, will be with your mouth…, and I will teach you what you are to do.”

                We see it in Joseph’s life in Genesis 39:2 “And the LORD was with Joseph, so he became a successful man.”

We see it repeated to Joshua “Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, FOR the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 2:9

                Gideon is called a ‘valiant warrior’, and Gideon’s response is ‘how shall I deliver Israel? My family is the least, and I am the youngest.’ “But the Lord said to him, ‘Surely I will be with you,…” Judges 6:16

                Then there is David’s example.  “And David became greater and greater;”..  Why?... “FOR the Lord God of hosts was with him.”

That is what makes all the difference!

                He tells Jeremiah, “Do not be afraid of them, FOR I am with you to deliver you.” Jeremiah 1:8 (and verse 19)

                And to Paul He says in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; FOR I am with you…” Acts1:9,10

                Moses’ truths were still his “truths”; Gideon’s truths (I am least) were still his “truths”.  Joseph was second youngest, David was the youngest… those were still their natural ‘birth orders’… God doesn’t care about our natural stature or how the world ‘labels’ us or how we even label ourselves.

God’s truths override our truths…with the fact that “HE IS WITH US” and that FACT makes all the difference in our lives….”for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.  What will man do to me?”  Hebrews 13:5,6

Let that fact make all the difference in this day..
                                                  day by day..
                                                               one step of obedience at a time.
 He is enough to overcome all you consider true about ‘your lack’.  He is the difference between the statement: “ Who am I? I can’t.”  and the statement: “Here am I. Send me.”

Thank You Lord; You make all the difference!  All glory to You. 

May we exchange all the “I can’t, who am I?”s for….

“Because You are with me, I will not be afraid.
                                 Here am I. Send me.”

Excel Still More

Three little, powerful words to encourage us on, no matter where we are (successful in the world’s eyes or in a not so successful season of days): excel still more. I say “in the world’s eyes” because things may look so different from God’s perspective. What we see and enjoy as success, He may KNOW is a detour from His perfect plan; and likewise, what we are considering a complete waste and failure, He sees as the perfect tool and path to make us exactly who He wants us to become: conforming us to the image of His Son (see Romans 8:28-29).


Amplified version of 2 Thess. 4:1 reads, “Furthermore, brethren, we beg and admonish you in [virtue of our union with] the Lord Jesus, that [you follow the instructions which] you learned from us about how you ought to walk so as to please and gratify God, as indeed you are doing, [and ] that you do so even more and more abundantly [attaining yet greater perfection in living this life].”

Hey, you’re actually doing it. Good job. But don’t be satisfied to stay there.

May we always have this attitude, looking to Jesus for our direction (“I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.” Ps. 32:8), and “forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,” let us press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own, and press on toward the goal…Phil 3:12-14.. and excel still more.

Don’t settle. Keep growing, keep grasping, keep seeking His face, and keep being transformed by the power of the Word, by the renewing of your mind.


We beg and admonish you, request and exhort you to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,
to please Him in all respects,
bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might,
for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience;
joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.” Col 1:10-12
You are doing it and doing it well yet, “Excel still more!”

Taste and see that I am good...partake...and be enabled to "excel still more" for it is I who works in you to will and act according to My good purpose. Psalm 32:8, Phil. 2:13