COMPLACENCY AND ACCEPTANCE - GREVIOUS TO OUR GOD

2 Chronicles 7:14  “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

The Lord has been pouring into me for the last few days, just keeps having me look at the things I see on television, the things I read on Facebook, and the way this world is headed.  Calling me to write, to put His heart in words as He gives to me.  As I kept putting it off, then the Lord began to bring Jonah to mind.  When He wants me to write something, He works on me with one thought after another until He shows me where I am headed.  And so tonight, ……

As I read the Word of God, as I look at this scripture in particular, God is speaking to His people, who are called by His Name…..us, Christians….He is not even speaking to those who have rejected Him, who do not worship Him, who do not call Him Lord.

It is grievous to me when I see the sin of this earth, as I know it grieves the Lord.  But what is even more grievous to the Lord is the complacency and the acceptance of the sins of the world.  The more it is put before us, the more things become ingrained in our subconscious, and the more it sinks in, the less it is thought about.  It becomes a part of everyday life….but it is sin.  Complacency, acceptance toward things that are contrary to the Word of God becomes as sin in us. 

It is God’s people, those of us who call Him Lord that He speaks to.  It is for us to come out from the crowd, to step out and make a stand for the things of God, not the things of the world.  He calls to us to pray, not to judge others for their sin, not to criticize, but to pray for the opening of their eyes, their hearing to be awakened to the things of God, not the world, to step away from their sinful ways and to repent of their sin.  And IF we are walking as we should before God, IF we are praying for these lost in sin, then WE WILL be able to lead them to the foot of the cross, where in repentance….they too, will receive forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Father, I pray this is as You would have me write, that Your thoughts will be seen here, not mine, and that Your Word will be instilled upon the hearts of those who call upon You as their Father.  I pray that our sins of complacency and acceptance will be repented of, as we seek Your forgiveness and thank You for Your mercy and grace on our lives.  Let us then Lord, be as One with You, to show Your love, to show Your mercy and be a roadmap that others can see to find their way to You.

Patspennings 04-29-13

THE HEARTBREAK OF THE VINEYARD

Isaiah :1-4  "I will sing for the One I love, a song about His vineyard: My loved One had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.  He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines.  He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well.  Then He looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.  Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of  Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard.  What more could have been done for My vineyard than I have done for it?

Dear friends, this passage in the Word is entitled The Song of the Vineyard in one of my Bibles, but I was touched by the Lord's heart this morning and realized it was rather "The Heartbreak of the Vineyard".  Go with me for a moment and picture this in your spirit.  The Lord clearing out all the debris of our lives, from every crooked path we had walked, the sin in our life, and yes...what some of you might consider big sin....little sin...but dear friends, sin is sin....so consider all the sin in your life; the Lord cleaning us up, washing us gently.....I see Him using the finest, softest cloth as you might use on a baby's face to dry their tears......He dried our tears of shame, heartbreak, disappointment with His soft, gentle hand, and made us into the finest vineyard imaginable.  Have you been to a vineyard, have you noticed so many have those beautiful rose bushes, trained up into small trees at the ends of the rows, it's fragrance enhancing the sweet smell of the ripening grapes?  That is what I see.  His fragrance lingering over the vineyard of our hearts, of our souls, of our spirits.  The watchtower.....in the vineyard, here is the Holy Spirit, placed in us to guide, to minister, and to administer His presence with us.  The winepress, used I feel by the Holy Spirit to squeeze and press us into the perfected, one day, saint of the Lord.  How beautiful this view from our spirits, don't you agree?  What plans the Lord had, all the preparation, all the pricks and cuts in His hands as he trimmed away the thorns, as He cleared the brambles each day, pruning and caring for us, each so special to Him......I tell you, friends, right here, my heart just cries out to my Living God thanks and gratitude for His caring for me, for His gentleness in His handling of me each day.....and....my heart cries as I feel His disappointment, His hurt as He looks down at His vineyard today......as He looks for that harvest of good grapes.....I see this as the worship of His children, to whom He has given so much care....as He looks for that harvest of how we show His love and mercy to others......See how many look upon the vineyard of the Lord and criticize us, thus criticizing Him....looking at so many in the church....backbiters, judgers, those too busy about their plans to allow Him to work through them.....judging what the Lord has done....proclaiming to have a better way that His way....

What more could He have done than He has not done?  How could He do more, He certainly could not have loved more....He gave everything of Himself to us and asked so little.

I will worship my Lord each moment of my life....I will dedicate my life to glorifying my Lord at all times.  There is not a place I know to go but to Him.  I want Him to look down on the vineyard He has planted in me and see a good harvest.  Yes, I will fail at times, but His watchtower is within me to press me back into that place where I love to be, in the arms of my Lord.  Friends, let the vineyard the Lord has planted in you become the fragrant, overwhelming production of good grapes, of resounding sounds of thanksgiving and worship to the One who has kept us and longs to keep us close always.  Let the heartbreak of the vineyard become what it was intended "The Song of the vineyard"  a rising, beautiful, song of worship to our God.

Patspennings
04-17-13

THE KEYHOLE

Revelation 3:7  "These things says he who is holy, He who is true, "He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens".

Thank You, Lord God, that You remain Who You are at all times.  Nothing changes in the heavenlies, nothing goes amiss in Your Throne Room.  You remain Holy, You remain True.

As I was worshiping in service this morning, my eyes closed, giving my heart to the Lord through the song of my spirit, I saw in my spirit a "keyhole".  As I waited to see what the Lord was showing me, I saw people looking through the keyhole, seeing the glory of the Lord in ALL His beauty inside.  Then they would stand up and begin to question "where is the key?  I want to go inside, please show me the key".  And they were so distressed.  As I wondered why I was seeing this, the Lord, bless You, Lord, He began to speak to me.  What He told me seems so clear, and yet, so many do not see.

The Lord told me that these people are looking for a key, the way into the door.  How foolish, He said, these people are, as the key to the door to His throne room has been given to all who call Him Father; to all who call Him Lord.  The key was given when we gave our life to Him, when upon repentance's floor, as we lay before Him, asking His forgiveness of our sin, thanking Him for the love that took our precious Savior to the cross, we received the Key.  The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Friend that would never leave us, our Guide, our Teacher, the Key.

Through the Holy Spirit, we have access to the door of the throne room of God.  As the Holy Spirit leads us, He instills the desire to worship the Lord with all our being, to lay ourselves before the Lord, pouring out the songs of our heart to Him.  As worship leaves our lips, strengthened by our spirits joining the Holy Spirit, the door of the throne room opens.  As worshiping children of God give Him the sacrifice of their praise, the true worship of a child that adores their Father, the windows of heaven open and begin to fill us with the Light, begin to fill us with the melodies of heaven that blend with our song, and create a new song unto the Lord.  As this new song resounds upward to the ears of our Lord God, He begins to pour out His blessings upon us, causing an echo of praise to rise from earth to the sky, filling every one that will listen with their spirits, knowing that on this day, the Holy One, our God, has been touched with our love, with our song.  We are One with Him.

And yet.......so many fail to see what they have, within themselves, waiting to open the door for them, waiting to show them that the door is not locked, it has been unlocked for some time.....and yet....

Let the Holy Spirit rise up in you, friends.  He is so willing, He has been waiting, He has been assigned to bring you through the door.  You do not have to look through the keyhole, you can walk through the door into the fullness of the Lord, into His grace, receive His joy, know His peace.  You have the Key, you need to let the Key take you places you only saw through the keyhole and dreamed of.....let the Lord, let our God, be a reality to your heart, to your mind, in your soul.  Let the Spirit of the Living Lord take you through.

I thank You, Lord, for Your words of encouragement, of restoration, of joy.  I love You, my God.

Patspennings 04-07-13