Weekends are for quite gatherings of the soul..................

May you feel the Spirit of the Lord working in you and with you this weekend.

May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob quite your anxious spirits this weekend....May you enjoy the peace that only God can give which the world cannot take away........

His Grace,

Robbie

LOVE..............

    Do you ever wonder how could God ever love you? The bible teaches us that God loves us. So why at times do we struggle with this truth? Is it that we doubt? Or is it that we are the ones who fail to keep ourselves immersed in His truth?
Most Christians would say that they know of God's love for them because He gave his only son to die for us. Most Christians can even quote John 3:16; For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The revelation of God's love comes in part when we are born again. We learn something of our love for God; but we never understand the revelation of God's love for us.

        We as Christians need to grasp the truth! He Loves You! He loved you when you were lost, selfish, self centered, etc.....He has proven Himself worthy. He sent His Son to take the sins of the world and to die for you and me!  When we start to grasp and understand His love for us it breaks the chains that enslave us to this life! In other words; understanding the love of God is the secret to overcoming life! When we don't understand His love for us this is where we feel defeated, whipped like we just can't handle one more day! This is where we can grow spiritually lazy. Our greatest weapon against Satan is to know that we are loved! Never forsaken. Nothing can rip us from our Father's hands. Doesn't that give you PEACE?

Maybe the reason we don't feel His peace and don't know we are loved is because we are allowing our feelings to lead us;( ex. "there's no way God could love me, "I have failed him so many times, bringing shame to His name. How could He love me, the way I have acted with the struggle I am facing now..)
Do we dread drawing near to him because we feel that we have failed Him? Do we see Him as a policeman-God, ready to hand out parking tickets for our sins? Thinking we are being judged or worse yet condemned?  Moses felt this way too. He viewed God as a God of wrath, he trembled with terror in the Lord's presence. He petitioned Him, pleading with Him on behalf of Israel. This is how Moses saw his relationship with the Lord. All of this changed when Moses got a literal glimpse of God's glory. Moses wanted more of God; he pleaded with him "Lord show me your glory." God responded by taking Moses aside and putting him in the cleft of the rock. Scripture says; he revealed himself to Moses in all his glory. The way God wants us to know his glory is through the revelation of his great love toward human kind. Are you starting to realize who God is? When we think about his glory we think splendor, power, majesty! This is his glory too but not what God wants us to know only about him! We are missing it! He is waiting! WAITING; for you and for me to show us His LOVE, by forgiveness and mercy, through us having a relationship with him! When we have an authentic relationship with him, we will start to realize that WE ARE LOVED!!!!  Once we know of His true love for us then and only then can we move into a true worship of Him. It will change the way we live, they way we forgive the way we treat others, even people who have hurt us. We will start to become more like him.   He loves you... Don't you want to know that?
Father thank you for laying on my heart to write about your love for us. We want to know this kind of love...
His grace,
Robbie

Kathryn Scott | We Still Believe EPK

Scroll down and turn our music off first; this is so beautiful........

Cemetaries in Jerusalem......

As I look from above down at the cemetery and wonder? Wonder if there is such a thing as eternity????..........Did they run this race as fast and as hard as us the 21st century............If there is such a thing as eternity then isn't it enough to know that time will never run out for "Christians"?........God's word promises us "Life for Eternity".........but when the night is still and you face your fears.....fears of the unknown....the fear that I have wrestled with more times than I care to remember......fear that has enveloped me the night my daughter didn't come home....fear that brought me to my knees and weeping in Israel....the mind games that Satan can play with us over and over again wrecks havoc in our lives....but yet....we "CHRISTIANS," have been promised life everlasting.......

I stare at the cemetery for a long while and think about my life slipping away.........knowing that I can spend it anyway I want.....but we can never store it......and always longing for an extension!!!!!

Time is the one thing in life that is not flexible.......What have I invested my time too?

If I am invested in something then I committed or devoted morally to it.........So am I invested in following Jesus just on Sunday worship? Or have I picked up my cross and followed Jesus? It has to be" EVERYDAY WORSHIP,"  not just" SUNDAY WORSHIP".........

Like the sunset over the "City of God," our Life is everlasting.......God is Faithful........Pain is part of the package.........suffering produces patience.......Who am I?????  BROKEN? Yes............God will teach us who He is through our trials.......When the world starts to crumble all around...(notice I said WHEN not IF) We will remain standing.......the burning off the waste.....when the fire is turned up and the waste that makes us impure....is reduced and removed........the flesh that is killing us...in all we do.......is removed.....

When the misery starts and  loss is unbearable.....remember it is God himself who leads us down that walk even if it is to a funeral of a loved one............He is right there with His children "CATCHING ALL THEIR TEARS"..........

Psalm 56:8 (ESV):    You have kept count of my tossing; put my tears in your bottle.
 Are they not in your book?

All I can think of is that story in Luke 7: 36-50..............................

And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, ³⁸and standing behind him at his feet, WEEPING, she began to wet his feet with her TEARS and^(C) wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

She poured it out......poured out her love.........poured out her heart...........she poured out her heart like dirty water........poured out her everything.....and God saw it and collected her tears and gave her eternity......a life everlasting.........

the pharisees gave him no water for his feet....but she wet his feet with her tears......and she wiped them with her hair......she loved much......one who had so little loved much......one whose sins were many loved much......and was forgiven.....forgiven and given a life that lasts for eternity............ 

     God does know all our wanderings and sorrows and all our tears, and stores them up somewhere
and this same God who can't help himself with perplexing His kingdom forward is inviting us to become one with him.....
pouring it out,
like dirty water.....
Robbie

More Masada.......Pics.........

The soldiers before they are sworn into the armed forces have to march up and down the mountains of Masada... and with blood, sweat and tears dripping from them they are handed a gun in one hand and a bible in the other and are told;  "you can't defend your country until you know where you came from...."

Amy and TJ (one of the guys from our group that was only around 20 years old who was an amazing Warrior for God)............such a blessing to our group.....

Our group on Masada..............

The Dead Sea below Masada........

Just breath taking.........

Still saying over and over in my head......"Greater is He who is in me than he who is in this world."

I am a child of God..........You are a child of God.......We are saved by His precious Grace.........through faith.......Why is that SO hard for us to get that in this crazy life? Being a Christian is hard...........It is a fight everyday of our life........We have to fight the good fight with Faith........

Ask your-self this question today.........Are you living one-way during the week and living a different way on Sunday in church? We still have a sense of selfishness.....we are serving two Gods.....and that cannot be.......we are basically living a lie.............Why are we so adjusted to this world that we have lowered our morals and standards to just simply fit in?

Luke 21:

Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.

How long has it been since you gave away something instead of getting something?

How long has it been since you had joy in your steps instead of mourning?

How long has it been since you had a song in your heart for Jesus?

How long has it been since you ministered to someone else?

HOW LONG?????

Your current situation has nothing to do with you standing with Jesus!!!!!!!

He is perplexing His Kingdom forward with or without us..........

Those who tarry.....will win in the end...those who fight the good fight will remain standing in the end....

look at some of the promises made to the 7 churches in Revelation 2 and 3.( This is only a few verses please read all of Revelations 2 and 3 when you have time.)

Revelation 2:        7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

11 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.

17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’[b]—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation 3:
11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12 The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. 13 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
At the end of each address to the seven churches you will see that He said to them; "HE THAT OVERCOMES."
We have to be over comers! We are being enticed by the devil to live loose lives! We are being taught by this world that we can live any way we want too and still know Jesus! That we can live immorally and go to heaven.....This can not be! God has given us "FREE CHOICE." You can't go to heaven no matter how much you can quote scripture and no matter how much you read your bible if you are living immoral lives....
praying to be enlightened by God today,
Robbie

Weekends.......

Weekends......are for family......may all your journey's this weekend be together in God's Grace......may you feel together the unfathomaable abyss of the love of God to you...........

His Grace,

Robbie

"What is man that you are mindful of him?" (Ps. 8:4)

Alabaster Jar................

What aroma feels your home? Your life?

Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume....
John 12:3.

As I studied this scripture today; I found myself being a bit sad that I don't feel this love for Jesus like Mary did! I want that. I want to give him everything!

(Pure Nard - was a fragrant oil prepared from the roots and stems of an aromatic herb from Northern India.) It was an expensive perfume, imported in sealed alabaster boxes or flasks which were opened only on special occasions.
A pint expressed her LOVE and THANKS to Jesus for himself and restoring Lazarus to life.
Back then Nard was used to anoint Kings.
This was such an expensive imported item that carried such valve that people even used it for investment purposes. Like we use Gold today.

This verse makes me think that Mary in some way wanted to let Jesus know how thankful she was for his Grace and Mercy that he had raised her brother to life even when she had doubt. And she wanted to show him how much she loved him.
Can you picture the scene:
Mary walks in carrying the most valved thing she owned her alabaster jar; its estimated valve was as much as a year's salary possibly equal to Mary's entire life savings. The perfume would only increase in valve the older it got. The room was full of honored guests, Lazarus, Simon, and Jesus' twelve disciples, plus other special guests which were all men. Martha would be the only other woman in the room. It would have took courage to walk into that room full of men who were very important and to walk over where Jesus was and to break open her alabaster jar; and to pour it over Jesus' feet. Meanwhile all the men must have stopped eating and watched. As she was pouring it over Jesus' feet can you just imagine her tears began to fall as she poured out her future, her hope, her financial security, her status in society, her reputation, her pride , her self. By breaking her most valved possession and pouring on to Jesus' feet she gave him her everything, holding nothing back and expecting nothing in return. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume..
The entire home and many others were blessed because of her sacrificial act of worship.
Ask yourself this week "WHAT IS YOUR MOST VALVED POSSESSION?" What is your alabaster jar?
Is it your children?
Is it your job?
Is it your desire for a career?
Is it your future?
Your reputation?
Would you be willing to break your alabaster jar and pour it out over Jesus' feet?
Does he mean that much to you?
Pour it out!! Pour it out!!
Pour out your pride and be the first to say your sorry.
Pour out your reputation and stand up for Christ.
Pour out your future and surrender your goals and dreams to Jesus.
Ask yourself this week; What fragrance is your home full of ?

Oh Father thank you for showing me today that the aroma in my house is one of selfishness. Thank you for showing me that I can fill my home with the fragrance of love for you God. Help us Father to break our alabaster jar and pour it over your feet. Help us to let go and surrender to you Father; our future , our dreams, and our reputations. We are willing Father. Help us. We praise you in your precious name Jesus. Amen...

Trying to break my alabaster jar,

Robbie