Purpose for Silence

It has been awhile since I have written a blog. There has been a purpose for my silence. When I started Bro. Michael's Thoughts I told you that I would write what the Lord gave me. Since my last post many things have changed in my life both good and bad. There have been great gains and some hard losses. Through it all I just simply kept walking along trusting God to do whatever He saw right. Through this time I heard silence.

Many things are absent during time of silence. Obviously noise and voices. Yet, during silence there are no distractions. You are forces to view things as they are and not how you want them or even desire them. In silence, you must face reality. Here is when it gets scary. Reality lets us know that we deserve nothing at all, and apart from God's grace there is nothing for us to enjoy. Reality says that we can lose everything we have and still have a whole lot more than we deserve. Reality also shows us that Someone really does care and His love sometimes puts us where we cannot hear Him.

I believe that there are specific times that God places us in these quiet times to enable us to get a fresh view, of Him. During these months, God has given me so many desires and such purpose to achieve them. Placing people in my life to keep me within the "boundaries" so there would be no way to miss what He has provided. Purpose for silence is that we are placed specifically in position to receive from God everything He has for us, and never miss seeing Him. I love His voice. I treasure the times He has touched me. The greatest gift is the time he did not say anything.

Hope you got some help and encouragement. Thats the purpose in this blog. May God Bless you.

Why I Have Personal Standards

The first thing I must address, from the beginning, is I know the difference between standards and convictions. A standard is a specific way that I practice my personal relationship with God. A conviction is a truth that I am willing to give my life over. Although, these two are different in definition and reality they are still joined together. It is fundamentally no way to have either and not both. This is not a soap box session I am sharing my heart with whoever wants to read my thoughts.

I have the Conviction that the Bible is the Word of God. Therefore my Personal Standard of living is that I put into practice the doctrines and teaches that are brought out through the revelation of the Word by the Spirit. I have the the Conviction that Jesus was God in the Flesh. Therefore, my personal standard is to be like God, I must live my life after the way Christ lived His. This will lead me to a life that will please God, always.

I have standards in my life for only one main reason. I have Personal Standards because I desire Personal Holiness. That desire means that there are things that I both must and must not do to achieve this goal. To me what it takes to make this a reality differs from situation to situation. To truly get in on this is to pursue the way we live, through His personal standard of holiness. This is not to say that I am a god myself, rather I am striving my daily living to mimic my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I hope that this has helped you the reader. My prayer is that we strive together to live as our Standard lived for us. That in living like He did may we accept His changes He makes, in our lives. May God Bless you.

I Refuse to Do It!

We are leaving in changing times, which I am very aware. Though for me to be Christ-like means I must be like Christ. The Bible says "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever." That means that being like Christ means, though everything around me changes I do not change.

This is not a post of arrogance, rather it is a statement of faith and a vow to my heritage. There have been many areas of my life that change has occurred. Many of those changes have came with Spiritual growth. Those changes have rooted me in my faith in the Lord Jesus. This is not the changes that I mean. I hope that many things that are, in my life, that by the grace of God I will not change.

I refuse to change my stand on the Scriptures. I believe that the most pure Word of God is found in the King James Version. This was not given to me by a preacher or an higher education institution. This truth was settled, in my heart, by the Holy Spirit. I am not in any way saying you have to share this view, nor wanting to start a fight. I am saying I refuse to Ccompromise my stand that God has placed, in my heart, concerning His Word.

I refuse to change my stand on Biblical Seperation. I hink Seperation means that I live my life conforming myself daily into the image of God. That means whatever is not like Him is unholy. Whether it is dress, music, appetites or affections. Whatever would draw me away from my standing, in the purpose, of my personal holiness. This is what my responsibilty is. To live seperate from those that laim not His name to show forth a difference. To live an unBiblical lifestyle is to live as there is no difference between life and death, light and darkness, and faith and unbelief. To say there is no difference is to dishonor Christ.

I refuse to change my stand on Salvation. I believe that it is only a working of God, in the heart of man. It is initiated and completed by God, of His own choosing. This mean that we cannot cause God to come to us or love us or deserve this gift of grace. This is how we got in and He keeps us in, through His power and purpose that He has for us. This purpose is created in His Will and then placed in Our Wills. Never the other way around. This is the foundation of our life in Christ Jesus.

My prayer in this is not just for 2012, rather it is for the rest of my days, Hope you received help and maybe you have found things you want to refuse to lose, in your lives, no matter the cost. God bless you.

Time Change

Some have been looking forward to the extra hour of sleep, since it was "taken away", from us. To many it was no big deal and has not even changed the way our lives has been operated. We are so schedule conscience that we do not care about 7:00 is earlier or later it just matters it is 7:00. This is how we have geared our lives and thus it is how they are to be lived.

This is okay and very profitable in our daily lives. For we live in the business world we have adopted the cliche time is money. These day no one can afford to waste either. The tragedy of this mentality is that it has snuck over into our Spiritual lives. We do not care what time has been given or re-giving we just view it as time.

Many things in my life i have wasted and should never have anything of value to hold in my hand. I was not a good steward or even faithful to the ones involved. I should never had a chance to reap the benefits of the completed work. Many times I have never even asked to have another chance audibly.

The glory of this is God knows the desires of our hearts and the dreams and promises He birthed, in us, it is like He said, "I will roll back your clock so you do not miss this." The grace of God will not only work to give us what we have never deserved, but it also honors Him that His Word is not betrayed, in your life. He will let us wander through our places of failures to make us s sick of us we want to die. Just to wind us back up at the place where He has purposed us to be, the entire time.

What we really do not understand is that though we carry the regret of it taking so long to get there, at the same time, we do not lose any of the blessings intended through this action of God's desire. What I cannot believe and even register in my weak mind is that all of my faults and failures do not impede or dilute the God which worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.

Just a long way to say Thank You, Lord for the time changes in my life and the lessons and blessings that accompanied them. Hope someone found some help from this today.

Just Doing My Job

Today I went to a restaurant above my house and pick up lunch. Being so close we just made a call-in order. Once I got there all of my order was not ready. The young lady behind the counter quickly and effectively made sure that my order was correct. I began to think her for her service. She stopped me and I am just doing my job. It is my pleasure to serve you.

This struck my heart. When studying, preaching, teaching, and simple witnessing I should just simply should have pleasure in my service for Him. All that I can do or would desire to to should just simply doing my job. It is my responsibility to carry out everything that my Heavenly Father requires me to do.

Job in this since is not making light of my calling. Our calling of God is our profession. Our job is to live up to the calling of God on our lives. My job is daily and without vacation, time-off, sick days, overtime, and so on. I do not have to be effective just faithful and humble. I do not have to have a dynamic personality, for I have a dynamic Gospel.

Of all I want to do in my life, and the list is large. When its all said and done I want to be able while kicking up gold dust, simply say......I was just doing my job.

What a change was made.

A friend of mine talked me into changing my blog. Being a creature that does not like much change i pressed on painfully. There were options and devices that I did not even knew were associated with using a blog. Then the Lord began to move on my heart and remain me of the changes thaty are made by Him.

The first and most notable change is that it does not even resemble what my blog did before. The same effect the grace of God has within the heart and life of an indivual that He saves. We do not inwardly, nor by our actions, outwardly do we resemble who we one time were.

This change was wrought in the template that was already there. There was a desire of the creator to change what was there to recieve more than it could in the original state. The work and time did not cause me much stress or work. I knew what was in my mind for this blog when I made it. At the same time there was not much stress in the Godhead or heaven over my Spiritual change for They knew what they had desired for me.

Lastly the thing that amazes me is there is so much still on here that I could change it again and again. The secret it when I signed up all of those hidden things that I never knew exsisted. So as in my Christian walk the more i read within the Word of God the more I see places in me that is in need of change.

I am glad what i did not wanted change to begin with was change for the better and for the honor of He who changed it. Hope this helped you. God bless.

God is Faithful

To me these are the sweetest heard that can ever be uttered or heard. In that one statement removes all hope of myself having to get done what needs to be accomplished, in my life. The joy of resting in a God that not only know what I need but He knows what he is going to do to meet my needs.

To a lot of people times seems to be getting harder. More and more people are feeling lonely or like they haven't  done anything worthwhile for the name of Christ. Yet somehow we make it through days, storms, valleys, and whatever else comes our way. Many do not stop and consider that it was not anything that we did, but rather a God that was faithful produced His faith in us by the which we can have a faithfulness about us also.

So the next time we think we cannot make it in our own strength, relax because we  never have made it that way. Hope this has been a help and blessing.