If you've walked with God for awhile, you're going to come up against some opposition. I call the Gospel the sweet and sour good news. The sour side of the Gospel is when He begins to mold you into the image of His Son Jesus Christ. You're clay in His hands and He'll squeeze, push, pull, and twist you into His character. We're NEW creachers in Christ. He molded you together in your mothers womb, and He will do the same thing to the New you in the palms of His hands. It's not fun and it's not something you're going to want to deal with.  A test can be anything depending upon the person. But....the sour wine will ALWAYS turn into sweet wine, right on time, if you stay in line.  Don't run from it. Because wherever you go, it's gonna follow. You will face tribulations, persecutions, set backs, people will disown you, lie about you, etc. Jesus said if they persecuted me their gonna persecute you. Allot of the time when you go through "some Stuff"  the devils going to be right there whispering in you ear things like, you  messed up this time. You blew it. God blesses His people, He doesn't give them a hard time like what your going through, on and on. But the cold truth is God WILL give you struggles and put you through some stuff. And He'll even use the devil to do it. Don't forget, the devil is God's devil. And the devil wants to sift you, me and every other christian like wheat if he can. Before Jesus went to the cross He said peter, Satan has asked if he can sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you. And God let 2 messagers (Angels) of Satan to harass Paul with the "thorn in the flesh" what ever that was. Sometimes even Christians will attack you. That's just the way it is. The devil isn't out dancing with the prostitutes and drug addicts at night, He's already got them. He's trying to bust up God's people. Divide and conquer. And he's good at it. But Listen To Me. Don't retaliate. Don't follow the righteous anger Gig either. That line of thinking has got some holes in it. Let God handle it. He will.  It's not if, but when. When these trials come, it's not because God's left you, or you're in sin, or you blew it.  It's because God knows what He's doing, and He's doing a Good work.

Sins of the flesh. We can easily get confused as to what they are. Paul describes what these are in   >Gal. 5:19-21<    He lists 15 of them which are--->  enmity, strife, jealousy, rivalries, sensuality, sorcery, fits of anger, dissensions, impurity, idolatry, divisions, immorality, envy, drunkenness, and orgies. Every one of these "Sins of the flesh" take place in our mind, not our bodies except for the last two.  OK, lets put drunkenness and orgies aside and concentrate on the other 13. If you're honest with yourself,  These sins of the flesh can come and go through out your whole day sometimes.  Especially if we're having problems with someone.  There easy to commit. We sin and we don't even realize we've sinned because these sins seem so Innocent.  God is a Holy God and we can grieve the Holy Spirit easier than we think we can.  Our DNA has sin all over it.  When a christian says their dealing with some sin,  there not talking (Hopefully)  about drugs, alcohol, nicotine orgies etc.  There talking about attitudes of our mind and heart that go against God's Spirit. Some people have more trouble with these than others do. I think we can ALL say these sins can be problems for us sometimes.  These sins are basically disharmony with your neighbor or your heart within. If we say we have no sin we make God a liar and the truth is not in us. You could almost say because of what Christ did we're righteous sinners. God Bless!

A lot of times we can't see what God's plan is for us in the season we're in until certain things come to pass. Be patient and don't try to second guess what God is doing if things don't make sense in your life right now. And don't let other people try and tell you what God's will is for you in the season you're in. You know more than they do, but God knows more than you do. Usually the pieces to the puzzle come in a little bit at a time. Be patient and wait on God. In time you'll see the whole puzzle come together.

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No matter how successful we are, It's never enough through the lens of our culture and society. TV. books, radio, magazines, commercials, bill boards, tell us what "good" means and what it doesn't mean. Good means--> Smart, successful, tall, youthful, thin, rich, famous, good looking and the like.  If you're lacking in any one of these areas, you've got more work to do in the eyes of others who have been programed to believe that lie.  And to one degree or another we all believe that lie. When God created man and woman He said it is good.  Adam and Eve weren't rich, famous, or successful.  They didn't even own clothes but God said they were good just as they were.  We're all created in the image of God, every one of us.  He died for the sinner and the saint.    We don't earn God's love, we are God's love, or God's Beloved.  I'm not talking about salvation. Salvation is something we choose on our part. God's love for us is something He chooses on His part regardless of anything we do.  The lie we've been taught as to what makes us good as people comes from the enemy, not God.  Jesus loved and died for us while we were still sinners.  Not even sin itself can disqualify us from God's love.  We have to stop believing what man tells us is good, And start believing what God tells us is good. God values us just as much as He did Adam and Eve. You and I don't have to do anything for His love. It's already there. I truly believe that.  Be Blessed.                                                                                                                                              
      

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 If 2 or 3 of you are in agreement with what you ask for, it will be given by my Father in Heaven.  (Matt. 18:19-20)  What's that really mean? I think Christ might be using marriage symbolisms again to help us understand what He's trying to explain in these verses. We're already joined together with Him in the Spirit as His bride, so that's not it. But I do know when we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, or say the blood of Christ, the spirit world gets active. We forget the power  His name has or the power in His blood. When people come together and are praying for the same thing in His name, and both are in "Agreement" for what their praying for, something special that we're unaware of happens to those prayers. When we agree in prayer we come together as one. Those prayers are in harmony. There both  in unity. Your prayers are married (Symbolically speaking) together with the person you were praying with. God works in mysterious ways. And what exactling happens is anybodies guess. But something does happen. Be good and Be Blessed!

Jesus and Paul excepted people right where they were.  Paul became all things to all men to win some over to Christ.  In other words, when in Rome do as the Romans do.  And Jesus at times would brake bread with the pharisees.  The very group He could rip into at times.  He went out of His way to help the pharisees see the truth. But the pharisees had a love & Hate relationship with him.  Sometimes they praised Him, and at other times they ridiculed Him. None the less He tried and ultimately went to the cross for them. We have to remember to meet people where they are in regards to their relationship with God. Everybodies on a different road but we're all headed in the same direction.  Jesus and Paul knew that. And I'm sure the rest of the Apostles did as well. Jesus never rejected anyone if they were willing to listen. He met you on your turf. Paul tried to fit in with people for the gospels sake.  Meaning He didn't make waves when He met new people.   Our part is to simply be the light. Then let the Holy Spirit work in them and do the rest.              
Be Blessed!
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