Separation from God is an interesting subject.

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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I want to talk to you guys today about a fruit of the Spirit. This fruit is joy. Galatians 5 is where we learn that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, gentleness, faith, meekness, and temperance, and that there is no law against those things. So, we see then that as we yield to the power and influence of the Holy Spirit that the outcome in our life will be selfless love, a calm rejoice in all of life’s circumstances, freedom from worry, so on and so forth. Today, I wanna talk about joy, because joy has been severly lacking in my walk with God as of recently.

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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I got this from someone on Facebook. His name is Rob Abernathy.

(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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So, I read a blog post about someone claiming they were born homosexual. I disagree with that statement. Any person can claim to be born homosexual as much as they want, but that doesn’t mean that it is true. The only thing that is true is God. God is the foundation for all truth. In Romans 1, it tells us that a reprobate mind, a mind that has been abandoned in sin, will exchange natural desires for unnatural desires.
Rom 1:24, 26-27

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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