From Faith To Faith!

Mark 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? _____________________________________________________ The world would have you believe that it has all of the answers.   The world will tell you that what you see, hear, feel, touch and smell is all that is real and worth living for.   But you may not know or understand that living for the rewards of this world come at a cost.   The world’s influence, when used as the blueprint for living, takes your heart and shapes it to its will leaving you an empty shell of who you really are. Nothing in this world is worth changing who you are in Christ.   There is no middle ground in the issue.   Yes, we are all a work in progress and live in this world, but who we are is not dictated by anything or anyone in this world.   Who you are is worth more than whatever this world has to offer.   Do not chase the image the world is selling you.   Unless you live life fully expressing what Go

James 4:14   Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. __________________________________________________________ Our plans and plots are events that we try to cram into the short time we have on this earth.   The term YOLO is very true.   We only have one life, and one short chance to live and make a difference in this world.   When we make plans for our lives we are, at best, looking at a very small slice of time.   Our time is like a seed.   A seed is small!  Yet it will leave a legacy that will be manifested in the tree and fruit that is produced.   The seed will die but what it leaves behind speaks to what was planted.   What have you decided to do with your time?   Strive to let your life edify God and leave a legacy of love via your life of expression.   Express the gift that God has given you through His son Jesus Christ in each moment of your life.   Never take one second

Jeremiah 17:7-8 But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." ______________________________________________ Watching the news and living in a world that seems to have given way to fits of pandemonium it seems as if hope is in short supply.   Each week we get reports of shootings, world hunger, sickness and corruption.   How can anyone be truly blessed when the world is going down.   Like a neighborhood that once was the cream of the Crop that has begun to be run down, our world needs a revival and rejuvenation.   This time and moment are the birth pains that will give way for that revival.   No matter what the world news is reporting! No matter what you hear or see! No matter what tools Satan employs: We must never lose

Revelation 3:20 "Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. ______________________________________________________________ The world is asking: Where is God?   In all the mess we see going on in the world one could be tempted to believe that God is absent.   Yet the world forgets that slowly overtime it has shunned God and asked Him to leave.   No prayer in schools, and removing His commandments from every corner of the foundations of our society in the name of political correctness.   The saying “you don’t know what you have until it is gone” is so true.   If God were to completely take His hand off of creation the universe would dissolve and even the structure that drives complete chaos would unravel.   Yet as we push ever closer to the brink of self-annihilation, Jesus is knocking at the door. Many Christians look at the news and the events of the world and worry, and

Acts 7:33-34 33  “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. 34  I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them. Now go, for I am sending you back to Egypt. _____________________________________________________________________ In God’s presence we may be called to serve in many ways.   Like Moses we may be called to go back to the place from where we once ran.   The place that once drove you into hiding will become a testimony that God calls you to face for His Glory.   If we are only praying for our daily bread and missing to ask God for His will to be done we are missing the point of surviving the past tribulations.   We are delivered and made whole in order to help others do the same. One day we all may be called to go back to Egypt.   We must draw near to God and make ourselves ready to go where God calls.   We must remember that we are not the only

Exodus 20:3 You shall have no other gods before me. ________________________________________ We live in a world that offers a plethora of gods for us to serve.   Money, jobs, positions of power, sex and attention are a few that entangle the hearts and minds of many.   Now before you point the finger at those you think have this problem I would ask you to turn your attention towards yourself.   Even though we have the best intentions we are guilty of this.   Many of us have found other gods and placed them before the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in pursuit of the “American Dream”.   We seek more money, better bodies, jobs, and stability in a system that, when abused, causes us to stray from the values and sure footing of the gospel.   And since we have found a way to justify them with excuses draped in good intentions; we shackle ourselves in faith to them.   All the while God is shouting out to us and urging us to follow Him completely.   It is time that we all c

Matthew 11:28-30 28  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” ___________________________________________________________________________ Life can weigh each of us down.   Life can push us to the point of breaking and beyond.   Our frustrations and situations can place a load upon each of us that can be too much to bear. Yet we still try.   Many of us press forward thinking that we can handle anything that comes our way.   We put on faces of steel that hide the pain and burden those chip away at us daily. We keep the real buried and hidden to the point that we fool ourselves into thinking that we are ok.   Life does not have to be this way.   Yes there will be burdens and reason s to worry.   But you are not meant to shoulder and hold them within yourself.   God is c

Hosea 6:1 "Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. ______________________________________________ God has called each of to know Him.  He has done the work of salvation and offered us a way back into his arms.  Some of us have accepted this gift and have given our lives to Him.  And yet we stray back into the very ways that caused our separation from Him in the first place.  It is in these moments we need to recognize what we are doing and immediately turn back to God.  The things we turn to in place of Him only serve to separate us from His presence.  Whether its money, sex, drugs, food, or ourselves we must give repent and give it to Him so that he can handle it, remove it, and heal the wounds it is causing in our lives. Nothing can separate us from God’s love.  But we can choose to turn to our own ways and understanding.  We can choose to put idols in the place of God and effectively harm ou

Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."  Luke 9:23 _____________________________________________________ We are OK with the idea of Jesus being on the cross for us.  But it tends to make many of us uncomfortable to think of us picking up their own Cross and following Christ.  There is something wrong if we are not beating back our flesh on a daily basis.  If you think that you are living your life sin free, and have no need to seek GOD on a daily basis, then you might just want to re-evaluate how you are living.  Jesus said that you must do two things if you want to be his disciple: 1. Deny yourself 2. Pick up your cross. In other words put your flesh in its place.  Stop living to please yourself in every way your flesh pulls you.  This is more than sex or greed.  This has everything to do with self-control in every area of your life. Whether its anger, white lies or glutton

Doing Good! Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ______________________________________ At one time or another we all were enemies of God because of the sinful nature in our flesh.  Yet while we were sinners Jesus died for each of us. (Romans 5:18).  God reached out to us and offered us all a rich reward and redemption based on His goodness, not our action.  If this is true and in Christ we are saved and dare to call ourselves Christians, why would our enemies receive any less treatment?  Why would we hold grudges, and plan revenge if we are new creatures in Christ?  In this scripture the “ungrateful and wicked” that God is kind to, is all mankind.  God offered salvation to every man.  From Hitler to T.D. Jakes, the opportunity to be made whole and become forgiven is extended.  Likew

Matthew 6:25-27 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ____________________________________________________ If your life seems to be filled with seasons of worry broken up by moments of relief it is time for a change.  Worry only takes away from your life and has no place dwelling in your heart.  The warrior within is stifled when worry takes hold.  When worry takes hold the trust you have for GOD flies out of the window.  Too many times we only ask God for what we feel is possible.  We limit Him to the things we think are possible and take the realm of impossibility out of GOD's resume.  In fact when we wor

John 4:23-24 23  Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  24  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” ____________________________________ Worship has to be more than what you do for a couple of hours on Sunday in the sanctuary.  Worship must begin in your heart.  The word says that there will be a time when “true worshipers” will worship in “spirit and in truth”.  Not just with raised hands and in song but in obedience and with hearts filled with a hunger for the Father.  The Father must be worshiped with every action and breath we take.  This kind of worship cannot be faked or done part time.  God demands more than anointed singing and church attendance.  He demands a life of obedience that shouts our citizenship in His kingdom.  If we love Him we will keep his commandments. So the question is how do you

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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ______________________________________ We want God to hear us and to bless us.   We all need a healing and an answer from God.   And yet to achieve it the Bible is clear.   We must pray, seek, and crave GOD.   We must turn away from sin, and to Him.   Think about it.   How can you get closer to GOD when you are focused on yourself and the world?   Bottom line: If you really want God to be more than the reason you go to church, if you want Him to be your Lord and savior, then give up the things that separate you from Him.   Draw near to Him and he will draw near to you.   Consistently seek Him every day in every way.   Read His word and let it become a seed within you.   The healing begins when you let him in.  So the question is: Are you ready

Luke 10:2 2  He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. _________________________________________ How long will it take before we stop seeking to be entertained and get to work.   If you are getting a good word from your pastor and never move from inspiration to application then it is for nothing.   Stop wasting your pastor’s time.   God is not sending a word to you so you can catch an emotional high.   He aims to work through you.   God is speaking into your life so that you can lead others to Him. T ake the work of GOD seriously.   We are all called to be ministers and teachers of the Gospel (Matt 28:16-20).   Saving the lost is not your pastor’s job.   It is yours!   Your Pastor has been established to teach you and serve you as mentor and leader.   But as a congregation, we are called to take the gospel to the world. We are called to feed the sick and love o

Isaiah 40:29-31 He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. __________________________________________________   All power comes from GOD.   All strength obtained is a gift from the LORD.   No matter who or how strong you are the seasons of weakness will come.   Moments of doubt and weariness will rise.   Trials will wash over the shore of your life again and again.   Unless we cling to GOD and seek HIS face we will be overcome by the situations that face us. Glory to GOD that HE has spoken to us in his word!   HE has proclaimed HIS greatness in all of creation and we can reach up to HIM in confidence as a source of strength and great power.   Power to climb mountains, and fly over all that the world has placed in

Isaiah 53:4-5 (NIV) Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. ______________________________________________________ If we are Christians and we understand what the cross means for our eternal existence, why then do we act contrary to that reality.   Why do we continue to grieve Christ by adding more sin on the cross?     A Christian who continues to sin is worse than a sinner who has never known the truth of the gospel.   Christ wasn’t wounded for nothing!   His wounds equal our healing.   And yet time and time again we continue to go back to the very thing Christ died to heal us from.   Jesus suffered, bled and died for us all.   The Cross is where we all deserve to be. So ask yourself the following questions: Are

Matthew 6:25-27 25Therefore I say to you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? 27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? _______________________________________________________ In life we plan, worry and chase what the American constitution calls “happiness”.   We dream and pursue positions, places and things.   In our Christian lives God should be giving us the dreams and plans that, when we depend on and grow in Him, become the desire of our hearts.   Yet even in His presence,(at least for me), we worry about the how’s and whens of the plan and goals that are before us.   We wonder and become anxious to the point of grief when we cannot see th

Isaiah 43:18-19 18  “Forget the former things;      do not dwell on the past. 19  See, I am doing a new thing!      Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness      and streams in the wasteland. ______________________________________________________________ What have you been through?   What chapters in your past still plague your thoughts? We all do it! We focus and recall the painful and uncomfortable moments.   We recall the pain and forget the lesson.   We forget the entry God has placed in His resume for our lives.   We let our past blind us from seeing the new things God is doing and has done.   Our past is not our reality.   God can and will show up and turn any situation around.   The question is:   will you even notice?   Will you miss what God is doing?   I pray not.   I pray that you leave the pain of the past where it belongs.   Look to God and focus on what He is doing fresh and new in your life.   Be encouraged an

Philippians 2:14-15 14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. _________________________________________ Look around and tell me what you see.   This world is not the place God created it to be.   It is flawed and full of flawed people (myself included).   All around us we see the manifestation and shrapnel left behind from the bombshell sin dropped on all of creation.   As God picks up the pieces we can see a glimpse of the perfection He intended for us to experience.     Our flesh wars against the new spirit God has placed into us.   We have to fight each moment to align ourselves with the nature of Christ.   We have to beat our flesh back daily.   Why? Because this fallen world is looking for a lighted path back to the place of God’s design.   Even though the world is crooked and perverse it still longs

Galatians 5:13-14   13  You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” _________________________________________________________________   Today I want each of you to look at your life!   Let your life answer the following question:   Do I serve myself, or God?   Remember GOD is love and by serving him fully you fulfill the law of love as expressed by Christ.   If you are serving yourself then there is no room for the law of love.   In essence, when we serve ourselves, we have replaced God’s will with our own. Service of others is the life and example that Christ has given.   True worship is more than what you say, sing, and shout in church.   True worship is a relationship with God that leads to a life of love expressed to those who are our neighbors.   Remember we ar

LUKE 13:10-13 10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. ___________________________________________________ This past Sunday I was reminded of this scripture when my father gave a sermon concerning the “woman with the infirmity”.   I saw myself in this woman.   I saw all of us in this woman. The chains of our past lives and the consequences of sin in the world have ravaged us all.   Some of us are clinching our past so tightly that there is no room for our future. Some of us have forgotten, or act like we have forgotten, that God is able.   We have been going through the motions and doing what “we” think we should.   However it is n

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. ______________________________________________ Do not flirt with the very thing that tempts you.   Do not play with the fire that would consume your life and destroy the peace God wants to place in your life.   Each time you flirt with your temptation your new spirit gets a little bit weaker and your old flesh gains more ground.   This will happen until you give in and are left wondering; why am I here again?   Do not let yourself become a victim of sin!   Instead live victoriously by turning away from the things that tempt you.   Live each day one righteous decision at a time! I love you always and in all ways. Rev. M. Harrison  

2Cor 13:5 (NIV) Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test? __________________________________________________ Many of us are comfortable siting on the couch of Christianity.   We go to church and love to claim membership in the Kingdom of GOD as His children but never ever dare to examine and test ourselves.   Yes it is easy to judge and test the situations of others but it is rare that we put our own hearts and faith on the line.             It is about time that we regularly ask ourselves: Are we really living a life that expresses our alliance with GOD?   Are we really going to be counted in that number?   The answer to those questions should flow from your life!   Are you using Christianity as a mask to cover your true nature, or does Christ truly dwell inside of you replacing the old heart of sin?   To be filled with the real nature of Christ you mus

Jeremiah 17:7-8 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. "For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit. __________________________________________ Some believe in their plans.   Some put stock in their investments or their relationships they have established in this world.   Others build houses and fill them with all the things that they think makes their lives better.   There is a hole that man is trying to fill and a destination that man is trying to reach.   Without God that hole will never be filled and that destination will never be reached. Do you want to be blessed and lived a blessed life.   I am not talking about a life that lives on thoughtless and careless hope?    I am not talking about a life where you have no problems or pain.   The bless

John 4:7-8 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  _____________________________ It sounds so easy! “Love one another”! But it is a task that takes practice and the Holy Spirit working within us to accomplish.   IT is easy to love a friend or a family member. Those who are good to us make it easy. But what about our enemies? How can we love them?   This verse does not exclude our enemies.   Those who push our buttons need our love the most.   Those who we must pray for daily need to see Christ in each one of us.   And please remember to others we are that person that needs prayer as well. Bottom Line: Loving others the way GOD loves us is not an easy task. It takes the spirit of GOD working in side of us to accomplish.   It takes the death of the old us and the new nature of Christ living in us to truly understand how to do!

Psalm 39:4-7 Show me, Lord , my life’s end and the number of my days;   let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure. Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom; in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be. But now, Lord, what do I look for?  My hope is in you. _____________________________________________ How much time do we waste with worry, and our past?   The past has no bearing on our future! The past is not our destiny.   The lessons we have learned and the future GOD is preparing us for should become our focus. Time is short in this life and each moment is a gift that we should not waste on the things behind us. So I ask: How will you use your time?   In this brief moment between birth and death what will be recorded about you in the book of life?   I pray you fill each of your lasting d

Matthew 9:22 Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment _________________________________________________ Some of us wonder why God hasn’t done what we have asked him to.   We wonder why it seems we keep failing and God has not moved us to the place of victory we want so much.   I have learned that most times this is happening because in our hearts we do not believe God for the victory.   We have made the situation so big that, in our minds, it has become impossible for GOD to accomplish. REALITY CHECK: GOD cannot fail.   GOD has no limitations.   GOD has every reason for you to believe Him to do any and everything you ask “IN FAITH”. Faith is the key.   More specifically your faith is the key.   When your faith becomes bigger than the situation it unlocks God’s Spirit to move in your situation.   So the question is not “Can God do it?”   Rather what you should