Is God big enough or is he BIG ENOUGH!

So we all know that God is big... He is almighty, omnipotent, all powerful, and well He's GOD.
But do you  know it.. In your time of need is it obvious to you. Is it more than head knowledge that you can trust him in any situation, at any time. Is trusting God habit, second nature, your immediate response? 

We all know that with this life comes trials and rough times, but we are never told by Jesus that we should be depressed and subdued by these things. In fact he tells us the exact opposite, that we are to be undaunted, of good cheer (happy), and CONFIDENT in his authority over the world.

John 16:33
I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world.

Lets rewind and read that again.... "I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]" The world and all its trials and hardships are CONQUERED through JESUS CHRIST!! God does not lie and faith expects God to act on his word. Faith expects God to be who he says he is and do what he says he'll do.

Has he come through for you before? Does he change?

Malachi 3:6
For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed

James 1:17
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent;
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

If he came through before... Why wouldn't he come through again? Is he not looking to do good things for his children???

Psalm 35:27
Let those who favor my righteous cause and have pleasure in my uprightness shout for joy and be glad and say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, Who takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.

Isaiah 30:18
And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship]!

Psalm 68:19
Blessed be the Lord,
Who daily loads us with benefits,
The God of our salvation!  Selah

Lamentations 3:22-23
Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassion's fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

I can't say that I serve a God that is all powerful and good,  if he makes the sun rise every morning but can't solve my finance problems, or my broken relationships. (Now we understand that many of our problems have to do with our fleshly desires and passions. It was that the devil that made you go max out your 10 credit cards on Coach shoes, or Bears Tickets, when you have no way of paying them. That was you yielding to the lust of your flesh...  God works with us and in us to solve many of these problems in our life.)

God is Bigger than your problems believe me..

Job 26:7-14He it is Who spreads out the northern skies over emptiness and hangs the earth upon or over nothing.
⁸He holds the waters bound in His clouds [which otherwise would spill on earth all at once], and the cloud is not rent under them.
 ⁹He covers the face of His throne and spreads over it His cloud.
¹⁰He has placed an enclosing limit [the horizon] upon the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
¹¹The pillars of the heavens tremble and are astonished at His rebuke.
¹²He stills or stirs up the sea by His power, and by His understanding He smites proud Rahab.
 ¹³By His breath the heavens are garnished; His hand pierced the [swiftly] fleeing serpent.
¹⁴Yet these are but [a small part of His doings] the outskirts of His ways or the mere fringes of His force, the faintest whisper of His voice! Who dares contemplate or who can understand the thunders of His full, magnificent power?
Do you need money??? My god owns the cattle on a thousand hills!!

Psalm 50:10-12
¹⁰ For every beast of the forest is Mine,
         And the cattle on a thousand hills.
 ¹¹ I know all the birds of the mountains,
         And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. 
 ¹² “If I were hungry, I would not tell you;
         For the world is Mine, and all its fullness

Do you need Comfort? I serve the GOD of All Comfort!

2 Cor. 1:3-7 "Blessed be God, even the Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and The God Of All Comfort;
Ps. 23:4 "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.

Do you need Grace? His mercies are new every morning!

Lamentations 3:22:23
Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
²³ They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

Chosen to OBEY

so this is a slight side thought from the Armor of God... but It's what I've been thinking about lately.

1 Peter 1:1-2 (New American Standard Bible)

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.ok so first I dont have much to say about this so I'll just post some verses. and a few comments...

1 Peter 2:11 (Amplified Bible)

Beloved, I implore you as aliens and strangers and exiles [in this world] to abstain from the sensual urges (the evil desires, the passions of the flesh, your lower nature) that wage war against the soul.

you are an alien... that means you dont live like the people in this world... we are not called to fitt in we are called to standout... not only that but we are called to ABSTAIN!!! I'm not a huge fan of the word but there it is... in the bible... defiantly a bible term.. Abstainace is the only guaranteed way to stay clean from sin...

secondly...
We are chosen to OBEY.... interesting isn't it... I'll be back on this topic later... but let me know what you think it means??? cause I'm pretty sure that God is going to have to do clearing on the fact...
In Christ
-MiniMug

Preparation of the Gospel of Truth

and I can't seem to keep on the weekly thing can I???
so.. Here we are at the Preparation of the Gospel of Truth

Ephesians 6:15 (Amplified Bible)

And having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace.

Now I believe that this has a two fold meaning.
ONE... We need to have our feet shod to face the enemy. We need to be ready to judge anything that might come before us. And also to combat the devils scams, Jesus did this when he was tempted (Check out Matt 4:1-11). Notice that is didn't save him that he was the son of God but that he KNEW the truth (the word of God) and that the fact that he KNEW that word it set him free.

John 8:32 (Amplified Bible)

32And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.

2 Timothy 2:15 (New King James Version)

15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Psalm 16:8 (Amplified Bible)

8I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

TWO... We need to be ready to give an answer. We need to be ready to share the word with anyone who ask us about Jesus. When someone ask you about your God, you don't want to have to say “wait come back in a week and we'll talk about it then”. Ummm I think that might be a bad Idea.. the opportunity may never come again.. that maybe a soul lost because I didn't study the word of God..

1 Peter 3:15 (New King James Version)

15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

2 Timothy 4:2 (New King James Version)

2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and teaching.

Side note: Hopefully I will be blogging every week now that I am back at school.. I hope you will all see me a little more often.
God bless you all,
-MiniMug

The Breastplate of Righteousness

It's been awhile.. and I have no excuses to offer..

Lets look at our scripture again..

Ephesians 6:11-18 (Amplified Bible)
Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins and having put on the breastplate of integrity and of moral rectitude and right standing with God.
What is Righteousness-
Righteousness is right standing with God. Being able to stand before God pure and blameless in his sight.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (New American Standard Bible)
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Righteousness is given to us when we are saved but we must maintain this righteousness by acting on the commandments that God has given us.. In other words we have FAITH that we are made righteousness but we know that Faith without works is dead.

James 2:26 (New American Standard Bible)
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Thus, we act according to the righteousness bestowed on us, and bare the fruit of righteousness in our lives. Righteousness is not what we do, but rather who we are influencing what we do...
For example... Abraham...

Genesis 15:5-9 (Amplified Bible)
And he [Abram] believed in (trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness (right standing with God).

Abram not only believed but to show that he believed God's promises he left his family and moved to the WILDERNESS... the desert.. now if that is not Faith and dedication I don't know what is. But the point is that he not only had faith, but Abram had actions to match that faith. He didn't just talk the talk... He also walked the talk...

Now a breastplate was a piece of amour that was worn as protection or an item of status..

So lets look at protection first.

Now directly underneath the breastplate is the heart. We all know that physically, the heart is a vital organ, without the heart the body can not survive. The quickest way to kill a man is to stop his heart from beating. Its the same for the spiritual heart, When we become spiritually dead because of sin our heart stops its communication with God. Thus the quickest way for the devil to spiritually “poison” a person is through the heart.. Because of this God warns us to take up protection.

Proverbs 4:23 (New American Standard Bible)
Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.

Righteousness is a way to avoid having sin enter our lives. Following the commandments that God has given us guards us from the sin that so easily entangles us. Righteousness is not a one time deal, its an everyday sort of thing... like putting on you clothes.

Ephesians 4:22-24 (Amplified Bible)
Strip yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion;
And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude],
And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness.
Constantly being renewed... Constantly means again and again.. not just once.

Now as to the Item of Status...

Righteousness is your Item of Status... It declares that you are a child of the King.. The bible says that they will know them by what they do..

Matthew 7:11-19 (New American Standard Bible)
"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
Thus by putting on Righteousness you are showing to others that you are a part of the body of Christ.

1 Peter 2:8-10 (Amplified Bible)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God's] own [a]purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

God bless you all
-MiniMug

The Belt of Truth!!

Ok so lets start with the main verse...

Ephesians 6:14 (Amplified Bible)

Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins

Let's look at "girding your loins". I take it to mean binding up everything that hinders you from running your race. Lies entangle like no other, so keeping the truth as a belt to keep your members from tripping you up sounds great to me. This reminds me of Elijah:

1 Kings 18:44-46 (Amplified Bible)

And at the seventh time the servant said, A cloud as small as a man's hand is arising out of the sea. And Elijah said, Go up, say to Ahab, Hitch your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you. In a little while, the heavens were black with wind-swept clouds, and there was a great rain. And Ahab went to Jezreel. The hand of the Lord was on Elijah. He girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel [nearly twenty miles].

WOW!!! Thats just cool! Just think of what God can do with you if you are prepared to gird up your loins for him.

Job 38:3 (Amplified Bible)

Gird up now your loins like a man, and I will demand of you, and you declare to Me.

Job 40:7 (Amplified Bible)

7Gird up your loins now like a man; I will demand of you, and you answer Me.

Take responsibility of your words and actions, make sure they are spoken and acted in truth.
Gird up the loins of your mind; get rid of everything that could hidden or trip your  the lies of the world.

1 Peter 1:13 (New American Standard Bible)

Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:13 (New King James Version)

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

BE READY at the drop of a hat... keep your loins girded...

Luke 12:35 (New King James Version)

  Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning

Be ready to speak the truth..

Proverbs 12:17 (New King James Version)

  He who speaks truth declares righteousness,

      But a false witness, deceit.

John 8:32 (New International Version)

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

I LOVE JESUS!

STAND Therefore!

EPHESIANS 6:10-18
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to STAND, against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withSTAND in the evil day, and having done all, to STAND.
14 STAND therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints

I'm going to be blogging about the armor of God for the next 7 -8 weeks. We've been studying it in my bible study and God has been revealing some amazing things in his word.

But first I want to think about Standing and Putting on the armor of God.

Paul tells us to "put on the whole armor of God" then again tells us to "take up the whole armor of God." I'd like to point out that he doesn't say "put on some of the armor of God."
Without the full armor we will only be half protected. Look at this verse

Romans 13:12 (Amplified Bible)
12The night is far gone and the day is almost here. Let us then drop (fling away) the works and deeds of darkness and put on the [full] armor of light.

Putting only half the armor on is like mixing light and darkness. Guarding yourself is certain ways and leaving other part open to sin and corruption. Notice in

1 John 1:5-7
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

We can't continually walk in darkness and in light, thus Paul encourages us to put on the entire armor of God... Full protection from the enemy of Darkness.

Ok, so we know to put on the whole armor of God, But after that what happens. Well I've found myself a lot of times after i put on my armor, sitting or laying down spiritually; In this sort of passive attitude. But think about this.. God doesn't call us to be passive.. He said STAND, notice Paul says it more than once, He says it FOUR times.

may be able to STAND
may be able to withSTAND
having done all, to STAND
STAND therefore

Repetitions usually mean importance right? Once you put on the armor of God STAND, don't sit, don't Cry, don't pout, don't sleep. Stand. Be ready, Be at attention. You are representing a Mighty Man of Valor. You are representing the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. STAND, its a lot easier to defeat a sitting or sleeping army.

1 Peter 5:8 (New International Version)
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

So be ready, be alert and self-controlled, put on the WHOLE armor of God and then STAND. With confidence and dignity in the person God has made you to be.

Philippians 1:6
And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you. 

Fruit

Matthew 3:10 - And even now the axis laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the the fire.
Good Fruit         Other Fruit
good fruit             ok Fruit
                            bad fruit
                             no fruit

Revelation 3:15-16 - I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were hot or cold. So then because you are luke-warm I will spit you out of my mouth.

Proverbs 11:3 - The integrity of the upright will guide them, But the perversity of the unfatihful will destroy them.

I am convicted.  enough said...