WOW!  it's been so long since I've posted...   I think it's because they changed the layout and I didn't know how to use it. I got it back to the old though HAHAHA!!!    it's crazy weird to think how different my life was the last time I posted. WAY to much to go over on here. God is awesome, thing's are moving and I'm loving it!

Joshua

Burn it down...

For some reason I relate fire to the presence of God. I got to thinking the other day how alike they are... I imagined how quickly God can take one "Burning" individual and start a forest fire, when a man truly get's hold of the presence he can't help but release it. Much like you smell the aroma of a fire from miles away, when God's glory falls you can't hide it. You don't need fancy billboards and advertisements to get people to come, you don't need entertainment to get them to stay, where the presence of God is people from miles around will sense it and need to be there. (In the bible bread symbolizes the glory of God) I look around and see so many churches advertising a house full of bread, and when people get there all they get are the crumbs. So they strive to keep the people happy and entertained instead of getting the bread back. We've made church about people and lost sight of the reason for having church... God. The bible say's that when we truly encounter God we are left changed. We don't see the face of God and leave the same person we came. Much like a fire, when were willing to lay ourselves on the alter, the presence of God will burn up the darkness inside of us,  we stop being slaves of sin and become slaves of righteousness. The sad thing is many churches have grieved the Holy Spirit away by refusing to walk in the knowledge they have been given. They create there Burger King "have it your way" christianity convincing themselves there is such thing as "sinning christians" sadly lies won't set you free... the truth will (John 8:32) God doesn't desire to free us from our sin's as greatly as He desires to remove our want to sin...  I'm thankful that I serve a God that will always forgive when we genuinely ask,  but even more, unlike the pheudo god of these many churches across america that leaves men in there sin's...  I'm thankful that I serve a God that is able to keep me from stumbling(Jude 24) and send me on my way to go and sin NO MORE! (John 8:11) A God that doesn't merely view me as righteous though sinful, but one that enable's me to be and live righteously!  THANK YOU JESUS! through the cross You broke the power of sin! You have NO sin in You! and I know for me to be in You I cannot have sin in me!...  I am willing to live for you ALL my day's! not for my desire's under the guise of religion, for You and only You!

Joshua

It's not about...

As of late I can't seem to escape these thoughts,...  in the midst of life it's easy to think it's all about us. In the midst of ministry it's easy to think it's all about the world, all those people who don't know Jesus. But who's thinking it's all about God?  who is standing up for His name?  who's defending Jesus when people say His blood isn't enough to save from all sin right now?  Who's standing up and saying God does deserve a true church, a Holy people that don't look, act and talk just like the world...    "All seek there own, none seek God's"...   I want to be a man that seek's God's, one who will stand in the face of inevitable adversities and battle the awful thing's being said about Him, the horrifying lies being told of Him. My God is Holy and deserves a pure, blameless, spotless bride. Someone need's to stand up and declare that the loom is empty, the emperor has no clothes...   Wood, hay and stubble will burn in the fire but precious jewel's will be His forever...  He will have his Holy bride.

Joshua

God is amazing...  

 it's so reassuring to think that He has had our lives planned out before we were even born,...  the expectation's, the possibilities, the unspoken dreams...   He is able to do more than we could ever ask or think...  that is my comfort. I take joy in serving a God that can make a way out of no way, a God that not only has my best at heart, but has promised to see me through it, all the way, no matter what...    

"Trust in Him who will not leave you, whatsoever years may bring, if by earthly ones forsaken, still more closely to Him cling,...   Hold to God's unchanging hand, Hold to God's unchanging hand, build your hopes on thing's eternal and Hold to God's unchanging hand..."

This has been my song, my anthem for many season's...        I hear my heart singing it again...

Joshua L.

I keep coming back to this....

"His oath, His covenant, His blood,  support me in the whelming flood, when all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay..."

"Sometimes midscenes of deepest gloom, sometimes where Edens bowers bloom, by waters still or troubled sea, still tis His hand that leadeth me...

Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine, nor ever murmur or repine, content whatever lot I see, since tis Thy hand that leadeth me...

And when my task on earth is done, when by Thy grace the victorys won, even deaths cold wave I will not flee, since God through Jordan leadeth me..."

Joshua