Deceived By The Enemy!

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:1-8 NIV

Remember when trump claimed Hillary was "unfit" to have classified information and all the Republicans fell in line behind him? Nothing on her server has ever surfaced, but this morning, trump admits--he shared classified information with the Russians--his buddies and kept the US press out of the meeting.

Most of us have always known the Russians are not our friends--at least the leadership is not a friendly person and we know--he orders the execution of his opposition. The Russian people--may not be as brainwashed by false propaganda as Putin wants them to be. At any rate--we can say--the Russian leadership is an enemy no matter what disguise they attempt to use.

Personally, I don't believe they deceived trump--they manipulated him into doing their bidding in exchange for his 2016 election win--a win that is still under a cloud of legitimacy considering we all know--the Russians interfered with it.

The leak in the WH--is trump's best friend at this point.  Or at least I can say, they are ours. They should tell the press what's going on in the WH in total transparency so we know what we're up against, daily.

The Republicans who claim to be true Patriots and the moral majority--have proven they are the hidden enemy of The State--of America. They have hidden their bigotry and disguised their hatred for "all Americans who don't look like them, think like them or worship like them" by claiming something that just isn't true (God chose trump) in their support of the worst person in the world now sitting in the WH. They knew he wasn't fit to serve as president, but they promoted him anyway because of their personal agenda. They knew he wasn't competent and certainly not a Christian, but they promoted him anyway. They knew he was not a Patriot because he doesn't want to pay taxes that support our government, but they promoted him anyway.

Now--who is America's greatest threat? The enemy occupying the Oval Office is Public Enemy #1 with Pence, Ryan, and McConnell following right behind them. They all knew about the Russian hacking and are complicit in the cooperation to just "win." How do we know--by paying attention to what they're doing or not doing as Christians.  They support and condone a pathological liar who is a bigot and ignites the worst in those who hate people because of their differences. This is not Christ-like behavior; this is the enemy hidden under the umbrella of the Republican party deceiving the masses.

There are a number of people in America who would make a better president than the one we have; I am one of them! The proof will be in the pudding. Watch for it!

Where Do We Stand With God?

But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away. They do not say to themselves, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest. Your wrongdoings have kept these away; your sins have deprived you of good.“Among my people are the wicked who lie in wait like men who snare birds and like those who set traps to catch people. Like cages full of birds, their houses are full of deceit; they have become rich and powerful and have grown fat and sleek. Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not seek justice. They do not promote the case of the fatherless; they do not defend the just cause of the poor. Should I not punish them for this?” declares the LORD. “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?“A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end? Jeremiah 5:23-31 NIV

No matter how hard we may try, we cannot ignore what the prophets of earlier times have said, especially when we see--hundreds of years later--the same thing happening across the globe.

While we have no control over what other people do, are we exercising control over what we--individually do? If we are not capable of self-control and living right before God as individuals, how could we expect a nation to do what is right? After all, the nation is the collective group of individuals. So therefore--each individual's action becomes a benchmark for the nation to be judged. Are we setting a standard to be admired or mocked, to be rewarded or punished? Where do we stand with God?

Unfortunately, we often say things that are attempts to justify our inability to live according to God's Word like, "No one is perfect." While that's true, it is simply not an excuse to live in opposition to God's Word.

Our imperfections and flaws and shortcomings are a result of disobedience and lack of understanding, both of which we have control. We miss the mark when we allow the dictates of our flesh to lead us and not Holy Spirit. We allow our emotions to reign in our lives instead of wisdom and uh-oh, dare I say it, "common sense." When we refuse to get into The Word of God and seek Him for understanding, we continue to fall short of being who He desires us to be and in doing what He desires us to do.

As the Word points out to us, "we are without excuse" and there is no point in our attempting to justify living according to the dictates of our flesh. Though there may be many who claim they do not believe in God and certainly won't read a bible, there are just as many Believers who blog on a daily basis--promoting God's Word and His love. Since many spend more time on the Internet than they do in opening a book, there is much to be found to keep people on the path where God would have us. The global opportunity means we have far-reaching capability to make sure everyone has access to understanding of God's Word. Indeed, there are many people--especially some who claimed to be atheists, who have exposed to the truth of God's Word and accepted.

Now, what was that excuse again? No Bible--no problem--there are many online bibles with commentaries and many bloggers who do an excellent job of explaining scripture and connecting the application to our lives. We are indeed without excuse. So, where do we stand with God? Each individual has to answer that question for themselves and then we can accurately conclude whether or not--we are in the same place today as the people were when Jeremiah spoke to them.

It's Time!

"There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee" (Joshua 1:5).

It's time for all of us to wake up and realize that where we are or aren't in life is entirely our responsibility!

NO MORE BLAME GAMES. OWN WHAT YOU HAVE OR HAVE NOT DONE TO GET WHERE YOU WANT TO BE!

We continue to look back at events in our pasts and point fingers at every negative situation and say, "that's why I couldn't do anything with my life." We lie and Satan is proclaimed our daddy!

Negative stuff happens to everyone at one time or another. What we "choose" to do with the negative reality will determine the positive or negative conclusions in our lives.

Abusive parents--no excuse.

Abusive spouse--no excuse.

Lack of education--no excuse.

Genetic predispositions to illnesses--no excuse.

Laziness--no excuse.

Procrastination--no excuse.

Daddy wasn't around--no excuse.

Mama wasn't around--no excuse.

Accidents that were not your fault--no excuse.

Foolish and unwise decisions--get over it and do something wise about it.

Poverty--no excuse.

Born into wealth--no excuse.

There are no excuses for anyone to be sad, despondent, and pitiful unless they just want to be--sad, despondent and pitiful.

Stop looking for excuses to validate and legitimize your failures and find (earnestly seek) reasons to succeed--at something--anything--everything!

Whose life is this anyway? It's your life and you are the only one who can determine what it is or what it will be by seeking The Lord and getting yourself aligned with His Word.

Get over yourself and your pitiful life and get going with Jesus because with Him, failure is not an option!

Without Excuse for Victory!

“Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you" (Luke 10:19 NASB).

Jesus has talking to those who followed Him at that time, but when we have a personal relationship with Him, we understand that through The Word, He is still speaking to those who follow Him. We have been given authority to "step on the devil's head" and defeat him, by thwarting all of his efforts to defeat us in life.

What is the authority we have? "The name of Jesus who is above every name and at that name, every knee shall bow." If we have the faith of a mustard seed we can "speak" to the mountains in our lives and move them out of our way. When we pray, we can have whatever we "say" but we must believe we have received in order to see it come to fruition.

The power we have is in our tongue--we use it to speak life or death over all our situations. If we learn to watch what we say and say only those things that lead to "having the abundant life" that we have been promised--right here on earth, we will have what we say we have. When we see the enemy raise his ugly head, we have the power to "keep him under our feet" by what we say and do.
Victory--in every area of our lives--is possible because we have the power to make it happen by what we say. We also have the power to defeat ourselves by what we say and do. What are you going to have in your life--victory or defeat?

We do not have to cave to every negative situation that arises in our lives. We can speak to it and see victory. When we pray, we must take action because faith without works--comes to nothing. Speak life to your life and live victoriously!

Lord, we thank You for giving us the power to have victory in our lives and for reserving a place for us in heaven when we reach the end of our journey, here on earth. Thank You for loving us enough to providing us an avenue to be saved from ourselves. This we pray in the name of Jesus!