With all of that said, I’m resolving to die more. Jesus Christ said that if any man wants to follow Him, that they will have to take up their cross daily. That means there’s going to be a daily death. The cross was a death sentence. Many times, Christians think they understand the cross but they do not. They have a burden, and they say, “Well, it’s just my cross to bear.” No! It’s your burden to bear, not your cross. The cross is dieing to self. I heard in a message by David Wilkerson that none of us understand what it is like to see a man die on a cross. It was the most painful death anyone could have experienced. As soon as the sentence was pronounced upon that man, he lost all of his rights. When I carry my cross, I lose all my rights. It’s not about me. I, like Christ, must humble myself, even to the death of a cross.

Not only do I need to humble myself to the death of a cross, but I also resolve that I’m going to blog more this year. I’ve not been very faithful to my blogging, and I probably don’t even have a league of semi-faithful followers. All the same, what I hear in the ear I will speak on the housetop. This blog is my housetop. I need to follow the Lord’s command for my life.

I also resolve to be a better college student, but again it goes back to the cross. Why am I in Bible College? Is it because of something I want to do, or something Christ has called me to do? Is it for my own glory, or for His glory? I need to search it out, because I honestly don’t know the answer to it. I definitely think that at the beginning, it was for extremely selfish purposes. If I go to Bible College because it’s what God has called me to do.When it is something God has called me to do, then I can humble myself under His hand, take up my cross, die to myself, and just let go of everything I feel I have a right to.

That’s why I perform so badly in Bible college right now. Because I feel I have a right to do something else when I should be studying, but in reality, I don’t have a right to. I have an obligation to be studying, whether or not God’s called me to the Bible college. I signed up for classes, and I continue to sign up for classes. That puts me in a legal obligation to my Savior to not tarnish my testimony or His name by performing poorly or dropping out. What if Christ dropped out on what God asked Him to do? I wouldn’t be saved, that’s what. I mean, what if there’s some poor soul in Africa who won’t get touched by the Gospel because I don’t go to Bible college? Obviously that is a moronic question that shouldn’t even be asked because it’s tempting God. His sovereignty wouldn’t allow for something like that.

Bro. Burks preached a sermon on being in the way, and how he almost had one of the top bus coordinator jobs at Hyles-Anderson Bible College. He heard that his name had been crossed off a list. God forbid that Michie DeBerry would ever be crossed off of God’s list. I fear that might happen if I don’t diligently search His will for my life and follow that I may attain that which He has called me to.

Well folks, got a lot of studying to do for a big test tomorrow. Please pray for my pilgrimage as it is not getting any easier, but then again, I don’t expect it to. His word continues to be a lamp unto my path.

In His service,

Michie DeBerry

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Pastor Kingsbury was speaking about discouragement, and mentioned how everyone gets discouraged, even those in spiritual leadership, as Elijah was in 1 Kings 19. The third point of Pastor’s message to us was “compelled to a companion.” This companion was Elisha. There’s been plenty a message preached out of 1 Kings 19 about discouragement and about Elijah, but I would like to expound Elisha’s role in this passage of Scripture, as illuminated by the Spirit of God to me this morning.

Words of spiritual encouragement is a ministry that God has called many believers to. Take Elisha in this passage of Scripture. One thing that can be noted about him is that he came from a wealthy family. We know this because he was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. In order for his family to have 12 yoke of oxen, he had to come from a wealthy family. Not only was he from a wealthy family, he also had a strong work ethic. We know from real world experience that many times people who come from wealthy families don’t have a good work ethic.

How many of you are called to give words of spiritual encouragement? Christian encouragement is a ministry that God has called me to, and God solidified that in my heart. Not only will He call someone to be a personal mentor to me, and guide me in my walk with Him, and train me for full-time Christian service, but He is going to call me to a level of action during that time. I have a responsibility to minister to my mentor, and to be a constant source of encouragement to Him.

Also, what can be noted from the Scripture, is that it is important for each of us to have a strong work ethic. God has called each of us to work hard. He’s called us to live a life of rest, but living a life of rest is hard work on His behalf. It’s rest, because internally we have rest, we are not restless. We have rest because God provides peace, and we can stand strongly on His promises.

How many of you have the call to ministry of words of spiritual encouragement?

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My spiritual life took a pretty solid blow. My mom thinks she’s saved, but she doesn’t know for sure that she would go to heaven. She doesn’t pray, and she doesn’t read her Bible. I’m not saying you should base a person’s salvation on that, but ye shall know them by their fruits. Through my personal experience with her I began to question her salvation, and so through a conversation I had with her, I was able to come to the conclusion that she isn’t saved. Please pray for her. Her name is Shirley.

Do you have any unsaved loved ones? Please post it in the comments, I want to pray for them.

Also, I updated my “About Me” page to a shorter edition of my testimony.

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Let not thine heart envy sinners: but [be thou] in the fear of the LORD all the day long.
For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.

Alright, I would like to dissect and define this verse for you guys, as it was on my meditator yesterday. First thing I would like to notice is that it says “let not thine heart.” You are completely in charge of the trigger position of your heart. You are completely in charge of whether or not you’re thinking Philippians 4 thoughts or if you are thinking Romans 1-3 thoughts. When you recognize a Romans 1-3 thought, then cast it down, and think about whatever it is that God gave you that morning. Don’t remember? Carry a meditation card with you and memorize it, and then meditate upon it.

Alright, so, don’t let your heart envy a sinner. What’s envy? Envy is discontentment with the superior service of another. Aren’t we Christians? Should not we be praising God when others do well? Is it worthy of praise? Philippians tells us to think on it. Is it good? Philippians tells us to think on it. Are you thinking on those things? Why not? Who are the sinners this verse is referring to? Everyone. It’s that simple: do not let yourself meditate upon discontentment with the performance of others. Don’t do it. Yield to the Spirit, because when you start to think on these other things it will ruin your day, and your spirit.

Next, live in the fear of the Lord. Allow each moment of the day to be one of reverance for the character and person of God. If you are in the fear of the Lord then it will be rather difficult for you to be envious of someone else’s position because you know you are exactly where God wants you to be, and they are exactly where God wants them to be, and you can rejoice with them. Can I just tell you that it is hard to rejoice with someone when you are not in a spirit of care and brotherly love? You can weep with those that weep, but it’s hard to rejoice with someone who got a job promotion, or a raise, or a new car, or some other blessing that you’ve been praying for and think you deserve. Rejoice with them my friend.

Why should we live in the fear of the Lord? Because our hope will not be deferred when we rest assuredly in Him. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when you’re resting in the fear of God, then there is an expected end, and you’re expectation shall not be cut off. You don’t have to worry about your hope being deferred when God is in the center of your meditations because then you’re looking at it from His perspective. You can say

Alright God, I know what I want, but I would like to thank you for this cross, the opportunity to die to myself, and live to the Spirit, and accept these circumstances that you’ve placed me in. All will happen in your time. Thank you for what you’re doing in my life.

Be wise, hear and listen to these sayings, and guide your heart. Again with the having control over your heart. You hear these sayings, guide your heart, and then you’re wise. You might not do it right every time, but at least you’re listening and doing, and you are likened unto a wise man. Isn’t that what we all want? Wisdom?

Hope you were thoroughly blessed. May God be with you all.

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I felt separated from God for over a month. In the RU Men’s Home, I was privileged enough to do chapel, as unworthy as I am. In my posts, I try not to get too personal, because I want my blog to focus more on expounding the truth that God gives me to the world, rather than what is going on in my personal life, but it will be a mixture of both.

With that being said, I was living in complete rebellion to God. Rebellion is the same as witchcraft. I began to idolize a girl in my life. I began to idolize this girl, and then my leadership asked me to take her out of my life when she began to wander away from the Lord. Let me just say this: your leadership always has your best interest in mind, and even if they don’t, God does, and can I just say, God works through your leadership to reveal His will for your life.

I took that girl, and placed her in my life where God should have been. I created an idol in my life. That was when the descent in my walk with God began. She consumed my thoughts. Nothing bad, but just what she was doing, how her day was, how her devotions were, praying for her. My thoughts were her. What’s so bad about that? My thoughts should be about God, and Christ, and His love for me, and His precious and holy Word.

Then my leadership asked me to stop talking to her. That’s when I stepped out from underneath the influence of the Holy Spirit, and began living under the influence of the flesh. The time I’ve spent at Reformers Unanimous has literally been the best year of my entire life, but I’ve also had the worst month of my entire life while I was here, and that was the month I was separated from God. I lost my peace, and my joy. I lost every aspect of my walk with God. The pain was unbearable. It hurt. Physically hurt. In Matthew 27, the only time Jesus cried out to God was during the ninth hour, and that was the most painful moment in Jesus Christ entire life, I believe, was that separation from God. Isaiah tells us that God’s hand is not slack, that He cannot save, nor is His ear heavy, that we cannot hear, but that our sins have separated us from Him.

I wanna tell you, I have never felt so far from God. Even when I was saved, and I thought about it, I thought God was with me. Every time I opened the Bible or heard someone preach, they mentioned obedience, and God would tell me “Michie, be obedient,” but I didn’t listen. Finally, the pain became to the point where I wanted to do anything I could to numb it. I did what I know best, and that’s drugs. When I came home that night, I had to call my boss, sobbing in tears at the realization of what I had lost. I don’t mean the year sobriety, or the respect of my colleagues, but rather, my relationship with God. We began to take steps of action to correct the errors in my life. The entire time, God was calling out to me, saying “My child, I love you, I forgive you, come back to me.”

I want to close with a Bible verse: Jeremiah 31:3

The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, [saying], Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

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Alright, so, this is all going to be taken out of the book of Philippians. Philippians was written by Paul at a very tumultuous time in his life. He was in the Roman jail. And yet, in spite of all this, we find him encouraging the church at Philippi to “rejoice in the Lord.” The first time in Philippians that we find him using this phrase is the first verse of chapter 3. “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.” The word finally basically means in conclusion. The rest of the book is about rejoicing in the Lord. One such way of rejoicing in the Lord is forgetting those things which are behind. What do we mean by this?

Forget those things which could become a discouragement to you. In my Christian walk, I recently had a severe fall, a severe backslide, as I had been living in self-righteousness in over a month, and my walk with God was almost non-existant. For almost two weeks I was extremely discouraged about what had happened, because it was consuming my meditations. The events leading up to this falling away, along with the events that took place, and they were all very discouraging to me. The devil continued to bring them to remembrance and I was so weak in the Lord. A smile on my face was almost non-existant, and I had most definitely lost my joy. You see, joy is in spite of your circumstances in life! I had lost my joy! Well, I needed to forget about my past shortcomings, and keep pressing on, keep going, to know Him! Forget about my shortcomings, and run, run the race to reach supremecy in my relationship with Christ, pressing toward the mark for the prize. Chapter 3 is one of my favorite chapters, and I suggest an in-depth study of Philippians 3 by anyone who is struggling with joy, but I also recommend looking at chapter 4, which is where I will be expounding.

In chapter 4, Paul tells us a second time to “rejoice in the Lord,” and the exact phrase he uses is “rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice,” so he has told us, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to always be rejoicing while surrounded to the limits by the Lord, and in chapter 4 he gives us another way to do this. Philippians 4 says

Rejoice in the Lord alway: [and] again I say, Rejoice.
Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord [is] at hand.
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.

So, based on this, I would like to show the way that this happens. He’s telling us to rejoice in the Lord. The word moderation means calmness. Joy is a calm delight. So, as we rejoice in the Lord, then people are going to see our moderation, or our calmness in the face of adversity. How do we have this moderation? Because we are not to be full of care for anything, but still yet in everything we are to come to God humbly, asking and making petition, with thanksgiving. As we take our concerns and place them up to the Father, then we can remove those negative problems and begin to focus on things that are honest, pure, just, lovely, of good report, etc. And so we see here that it’s a perpetual circle that continues. As we rejoice, and place all our cares and concerns upon God, then His peace will guard our hearts (our meditations) and our minds (our information) through Christ. Ya know, I would love to explain this peace to you, but it surpasses all understanding. You’re just gonna have to find it for yourself.

Love you all, and may God be with you. God bless.

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5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all [of you] be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Alright, let’s start dissecting and defining this verse out for us. In 1 Peter, a major theme is submission, and that is continued here in chapter 5. Being that I’m a fairly intelligent 20 year old kid, (that’s right, I called myself a kid), submission is where I have a large problem, so this isn’t just for all you readers, it’s for me too.

Anyway, Peter here is exhorting all the young people to submit to the elders. Now, elders in the Bible can mean one of two things: an older person, or someone in Pastoral authority. In this case it is referring to Pastoral staff, however, I believe the inverse is true as well, that it could most definitely be applied to anyone who is considered older than you, and it could apply to people that are above you in the organization you work in.

Basically, this verse could be boiled down to this: every time you have an opportunity to deny yourself and be humble, not just to someone in authority over you, but to anyone and everyone around you, take it as an opportunity to be humble under God’s hand, because that what it is. When we do not submit one to another we are being proud, we are counting ourselves better than the other.

Let’s talk about submission for a minute. It makes me think of the Dennis comics. In one comic, he gets in trouble, and is told to go sit in the corner. He sits in the corner, but there is a thought bubble over his head as he thinks to himself “On the outside, I’m sitting down, but on the inside, I’m standing up.” Submission is doing it on the inside and the outside.

Now, about God resisting the proud. Did you know that God created the universe? Seriously. How many times do we actually think about the kind of power and might that went into creating this universe? About how big and vast the universe is? Well, the Bible tells us how big the universe is to God.
Isaiah 40:12

Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

A span is measured as the space from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger when extended, or nine inches. The entire universe is only nine inches to God. Do you really want Him resisting you?
So, now comes the question: how do we humble ourselves under the might hand of God? We can clearly see how mighty God’s hand is because of how big his hand is compared to the universe. So how do go about being humble? It’s simple: cast all your cares upon Him. I don’t think that these verses are separate. In fact, the colon in verse 6 tells me that they are not separate. When you cast all your cares upon God, then you can submit to what He wants you to do. The Bible tells us that He cares for us, and as such begs us to cast our cares upon Him, and when we do so, we can humble ourselves, and He will exalt us in His time.

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(John 3:16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
(John 3:17) For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

I prayed for a message,
And here’s what God gave.
It’s a list of the people
That JESUS… can save.

He can save a lost father,
And save a lost mother.
And by grace through faith save…
Your lost sisters… and brothers.

He can save your lost children
From the world’s path of sin,
And They’ll stop living for Satan,
… And start living for Him.

He’ll take a dirty ol’ sinner.
And pull him out of the mud,
If they’ll only just trust
…In his precious shed blood.

He can save your lost neighbor
And THEIR Daddy and Mama.
He can even save someone….
Like Ba-rack O-bama

He can save any Muslim,
Buddhist, Mormon or Jew,
Or a lifetime church-goer,…
Who’s just been warming a pew.

He can save those who’ve tried
To live life on their own,
Not knowing the way
To make Heaven their home.

He can save any liar,
any drunkard, or thief.
Did I mention he could save
our Commander-In-Chief?

He can save the lost scientist,
Who has denied His creation.
And, I’ve read,… in a day,
He will save a whole nation.

He could save on a deathbed,
But I think it’s preferred,
That you get in before then,
And LIVE… by His Word.

He can save anybody,
He can save every-one.
Who’ll just trust and believe,
On God’s precious Son.

And, I know he can do it
And I know that it’s FREE,
’Cause He PAID IT ALL,
And he did it for me.

And not just for me,
But for you, and the rest.
He can remove all our sin.
’Far as East is from West

“For… all… have…. sinned”
None righteous,… not one.
And the wages are death,
But God’s gift… was His Son.

So make a list of ALL people,
Alive and breathing today,
That’s a list of the people
That JESUS… can save.

—- Rob Abernethy 1/25/2009

What do you think?

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24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

So it is plain here to see that God intended us to be male and female, man and woman. Only through our disobedience, and the hardness of our heart, does God turn us over to the lusts of our heart. Does this mean that every person has a burning desire in their heart to do that which is unnatural? Well, I tend to think that we do. Does this mean that we are all homosexuals? Absolutely not. The only difference between me, you, and Hitler is how far into the recesses of the wicked heart we go. If it were not for civil government and the laws that they place over us, things would be absolutely crazy in this world. The Bible is very clear when it tells us that a mind that has been abandoned in sin will not do that which is proper, or convenient.
Now, God’s righteousness. Some people say that God is love, and He absolutely is, but at the same time He hates those that work iniquity. Some people ignore this part of Scripture simply because it doesn’t fit into their box. God’s bigger than your box. We’re the sinners, not God. We’re the ones that need cleansing, not God.
Some of you might think: well, doesn’t the Bible say that God is love, and that He loves the world? Well, John 3:16 says He loved the world, not loves.
John 14:23

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

You see, God loves us all unconditionally, as revealed to us in Jeremiah 31:3 where He tells us that He loves us with an everlasting love, but His love is only revealed through Christ. My church calls it “Discovering God’s love.”
Romans 9:13-15

13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14 What shall we say then? [Is there] unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

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