I’m starting a bible class this Sunday examining the old testament blessing.  This song is an excellent reminder that we are to be a blessing and not a curse to our world. 

Jesus said, “Everything is possible for him who believes.”

So many people get just what they expect.  They don’t expect to succeed.  They see themselves failing and achieve their self-fulfilling prophecy.  They experience the worst in others, for that is how they see them.  They expect the worst of conditions and get it with amazing consistency.

Here is a radical, yet biblical, thought:

Start to expect the best in everything!  Begin with yourself!  Believe that God will provide all you need for this life and the life to come.  Begin to see yourself as a success, then you will see yourself as a success!

Expect the best out of yourself, your spouse, your friend, your work, the weather, the economy, people, etc.  Begin to believe in the best and you will see the best!

What is it that you want to accomplish in life?  Do you see yourself succeeding at it?  If you can perceive it you can achieve it!  Visualize success.  Visualize that which is good.  Visualize the best.  Speak it.  Put your heart into it.  It will become reality!

Do you find yourself out of energy, no enthusiasm, bored with life, etc.?  Examine your life and see what is poking holes in your gas tank of life.   It’s amazing how we can let the little rodents of life nip away at our vitality.  It seems so easy to focus on the minutiae of life that you no longer have energy to soar with the eagles.  Do you find your self being pulled into a black hole of self-pity and concerns?  You can break free!

Here is some practical advice to help you be re-energized.  Make sure you eat well, get enough sleep, exercise regularly and think positive!  Begin now, today…and start focusing on the positive.  Bathe your mind in the reality of an all loving, unlimited in power, God!  Focus on this loving God, loving YOU!  Get into the psalms and various other scriptures and put them to memory.  Look at the beauty of God’s creation and know that He gives you and I the ability to create as well.  Begin today speaking of how good, how great God is.  Create a new day in your life…Today!  Create a new reality!

When you allow other’s actions, feelings, events, etc. to be your focus, it will drain all of your inner energy dealing with fears, guilt, resentments, revenge, pride, etc. and there will be no power for the life God has called you to.  Jesus said He came to give us life, and life to the full!  Reach out and receive it.

As I speak God’s word, out loud, it gives me a sudden flow of energy that makes me ten feet tall and bullet proof.  You can do it too.  Say it, out loud, “if God is for us, who can be against us.”  Here’s another, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”  Don’t just say it once….do it ten times.  It works right?  Make it a daily habit.  Search the scriptures for more…they are there.

Here’s one more for the road:

Do you not know?
       Have you not heard?
       The LORD is the everlasting God,
       the Creator of the ends of the earth.
       He will not grow tired or weary,
       and his understanding no one can fathom.

 29 He gives strength to the weary
       and increases the power of the weak.

 30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
       and young men stumble and fall;

 31 but those who hope in the LORD
       will renew their strength.
       They will soar on wings like eagles;
       they will run and not grow weary,
       they will walk and not be faint.

Isa. 40:28-31

I’m currently reading an old favorite.  The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale.  Below is his exercises to help you build up your self-confidence:

1. Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding.  Hold this picture in your mind tenaciously.  Never permit it to fade.  Your mind will seek to develop this picture.  Never think of yourself as failing; never doubt the reality of the mental image.  That is most dangerous, for the mind always tries to complete what it pictures.  So always picture “success” no matter how badly things seem to be going at the moment.

2.  Whenever a negative thought concerning your personal powers comes to mind, deliberately voice a positive thought to cancel it out.

3.  Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.  Depreciate every so-called obstacle.  Minimize them.  Difficulties must be studied and efficiently dealt with to be eliminated, but they must be seen for only what they are.  They must not be inflated by fear thoughts.

4.  Do not be awestruck by other people and try to copy them.  Nobody can be you as efficiently as YOU can.  Remember also that most people, despite their confident appearance and demeanor, are often as scared as you are and as doubtful of themselves.

5.  Ten times a day repeat these dynamic words, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) (Stop reading and repeat them NOW slowly and confidently.)

6.  Get a competent counselor to help you understand why you do what you do.  Learn the origin of your inferiority and self-doubt feelings, which often begin in childhood.  Self-knowledge leads to a cure.

7.  Ten times each day practice the following affirmation, repeating it out loud when possible.  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13). Repeat those words NOW.  That magic statement is the most powerful antidote on earth to inferiority thoughts.

8.  Make a true estimate of your own ability, then raise it ten per cent.  Do not become egotistical, but develop a wholesome self-respect.  Believe in your own God-released powers.

9.  Put yourself in God’s hands.  To do that, simply state, “I am in God’s hands.”  Then believe you are now receiving all the power you need.  “Feel” it flowing into you.  Affirm that “the kingdom of God is within you.”  (Luke 17:21) in the form of adequate power to meet life’s demands.

10.  Remind yourself that God is with you and nothing can defeat you.  Believe that you now RECEIVE power from Him.

Even though I’m sure it is nothing new, I’m amazed at those who offer bible opinions, comment on what Jesus would or would not do, make statements concerning theirs and others eternities, and yet are not very knowledgable of the bible or bible study methods.

It is always easier to simply say what you feel and make that a “Thus saith the Lord.”  You can be sincere about your feelings; but it can still be sincerely ….wrong.  The apostle Paul instructed the young evangelist, Timothy,  “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. “ 2 Ti. 2:15

One common error is that people take a position, their own position, on a given issue; and then try to bend the bible to support their pre-determined conclusion.  Honest, diligent, students of the bible will, instead, study the scriptures and bend their lives and opinions to the Word of God.  This practice will bring enormous blessing to your life.

Why this lack of depth among the people of God today?  Can we blame it on the mega churches?  Nope.  It’s always been this way.  The answer can be summed up in one word.  One word that is common to all people.  We all struggle with being ….. Lazy.   It’s much easier to sit in church and open our mouths like little baby birds and let whoever is preaching or teaching to just put the food in our mouths. 

It takes work, effort, time, and energy to practice all the spiritual disciplines.  And they are called disciplines for a reason.  Ask yourself, “how much time do I spend in real, personal, dilligent, bible study each week?”  Do you have a bible dictionary?  Encycopedia?  Concordance?  Do you have more than one bible translation?  When was the last time you studied a biblical topic throughout the scriptures?  What is your daily bible reading program?  When have you made a dedicated study of one particular book of the bible?  What is the last bible verse you have memorized?  Or do you formulate all your opinions and thoughts by those you listen to …. alone?

I challenge you to take your discipleship commitment up a notch and, ”Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”  Eph. 4:14 

Mike Huckabee responds to evolution question

I’ve been listening to some messages by Ray Comfort.  I’m not much comforted by what I hear.  He begins by talking about those who are soundly or unsoundly saved.  This is disturbing.  It seems that his logic is that one who is soundly saved will never sin again after becoming a Christian.  This is in direct contradiction to many New Testament scriptures and principles.

This interview with this young man smacks more of an encyclopedia salesman than an evangelist.  It’s possible to ask questions that will lead a person to the answers you want to get out of him.  I wonder how he felt about it later?  I wonder did his revelation of what he already knew lead him into a true relationship with Jesus?  Or did this young man resent being manipulated?

What is it that really draws a person into desiring a close, personal, and lasting relationship with God?  Is it the fear of hell? Or is it something else?  Is Ray Comfort just the re-treading of the hell fire and brimstone gospel or is he the new, true, evangelical?

During my “You Are What You Speak” class; I am encouraging the class participants to recite, out loud, the following confessional daily:

Daily Confessional

I’m Prosperous.
I’m Healthy.
My soul prospers in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, even Jesus the Word.
Everything I set my hand to will be successful.
I cannot be conquered.
I cannot be defeated.
I’m a stranger to failure.
For me to fail, God would have to fail.
And God cannot fail, therefore I cannot fail.
The Greater One indwells me, and He puts me over.
I have His ability.
That’s what I have.
That’s who I am.

I challenge you to do the same!  Wow!  There is power in the spoken word!  Especially when that word is founded on the promises of God!

He is the Security you seek in money

He is the High you seek in alcohol

He is the Ecstasy you seek in sex

He is the Health you seek in doctors

He is the Song you seek in music

He is the Dance you seek in the clubs

He is the Beauty you seek in travel

He is the Wisdom you seek in books

He is the Peace you seek in worry

It is Jesus whom you seek….

Nancy Arndt