Selah for Today 08-12-2019-Life

Your life speaks louder than anything you can say. 

The question is, "What is your life saying?" 

Hebrews 10:23-35 (NIV)Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, ²⁵ not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Selah for Today 08-10-2019-Choose

Hate and Unforgiveness cause your brain to Shrink. Love and Forgiveness cause your brain to Grow. Which do You Choose? 

Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV)This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. 

Selah for Today 08-09-2019 98%

98% of the body of Christ is already positioned IN the world to bring light (truth) into darkness!!!

Mark 16:15-18 (NIV)  ¹⁵ He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ¹⁶ Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

Selah for Today -08-08-2019- DNA

DNA provides a unique set of instructions that build you, however: “All humans are 99.9 percent identical. So to hate someone, a group or race is to hate yourself. Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV) ³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^[38 This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Selah for Today .8-04-2019

The Evil One loads the mind with hate and the heart pulls the trigger.

                         God comes to Love and Comfort. 
 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (NIV) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ⁵ For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
             Praying for El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio

WHO ARE YOU? Part 1

(This is older teaching republished at this time. It is as important today as then. I pray this 4 Part Series Blesses You)
 
  The question, “Who are you?” plagues many a person, including many Christian. Who you are is at the very core of your existence. Most people go through life thinking what they do is who they are. They themselves as a mailman, doctor, mother, father, minister and the list goes on. Those who think of themselves as only what they do have a crisis every time what they do changes. The man or women who spend a lifetime building their career and identity is wrapped up in that career have a major problem when they have to retire or are no longer have that career path available to them. So where do we go to find out who we are? Where do we go to “find ourselves”?

  The best place to find out who we are is God and the Bible. Who does God said you are? Let’s look and find out.

The first thing we see is the servant according to Webster’s is one that serves others <a public servant>; especially: one that performs duties about the person or home of a master or personal employer. Abram uses the first reference of the servant in his relationship to God. This now Abram saw himself in relationship to God. In Genesis 18:3 (AMP) And said, My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant, I beg of you.

   A servant is one who goes and does what the master tells him to do. A servant does things whether they want to or not. They do what they are told. Their relationship with the master is to do or be punished. There may develop a love for their master (if he is a good person), but the relationship is overshadowed by having to please the master or be punished. If the servant wants something from the master, he must beg for it and may have to extras for the master, who may or may not grant their request.

This is true of many Christians, we see ourselves only as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. We go and do as the Holy Spirit tells us. Many believers never get beyond the servant level of relationship with God. We limit ourselves to the servant, as did Abram. We try to please God into granting us His blessings. The servant attitude prevails I have to pray more, fast more, read more, memorize more and do more to get God’s favor so He will bless us with finances, health, healing, deliverance and anything else we might ask.

   This leads us down the road of legalism, of having to do to get. Unfortunately, this attitude and relationship with God have been taught, by many church leaders as “The Relationship with God” and in order to serve God, we must serve them without question, as a good servant.
 
  I am not saying that a servant of the Lord does not love God because he or she does. But, the mentality of the servant position colors everything about our relationship with God. Notice that I said, “Servant position” for it is not who we are in Christ. It is what we do out of our love for God. God stated later in Genesis 18 that He saw Abram as more than a servant, and He sees us as much more than a servant, but more about that later.

                          ©COPYRIGHT 2012 RICHARD SPANGLER

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God is Moving in the Moment

By Richard L. Spangler

   The Lord recently to me spoke “Stop saying I am moving in the hour, I am moving in the moment. What I am doing is different than any other move.  This is a time of my extravagance, there are things that are being released that have not been seen before on the earth. Do not look back to the way I moved before, do not hold onto the past.”

   In Matthew 14:22-36 we an example of God doing something new. We are familiar with the story, Jesus comes walking on the water to the disciples. This was something that had never happened. No one had ever seen a man walking on the water. The disciples were afraid, I would have.  Jesus said, “Do not be afraid, It is I.”  Then Peter, said, “ If it is you Lord tell me to come.” Jesus said, “Come.” In spite of everything Peter had experienced and knew about water, he stepped out of the boat. Peter walked on water until he started looking at storms and not Jesus. Jesus rescued him and they walked together.

  This a time, that Jesus is calling us to get out of our boats and walk with him into the “new” that is happening in this moment. But sadly, there are many that staying in their boats. Their attitude is, this is my boat, I like my boat and I am not letting go of my boat.

    A boat can be any number of things: the Jesus movement of the 1960s, the Charismatic Renewal of the 1970s, the Word of Faith of the 1980s and the Toronto Father’s Blessing and Pensacola Revival of 1990s and the early 2000s. All of these moves were new and different than what had come before and all were great.  These moves served their purpose, blessing God’s people and people all over the world came to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Each time, there was a new move, we had to be willing to let go of the old boat and walk on the water into the new move of God. But, at some point, we build boats of tradition around these moves and became comfortable with our religious boats. They became “our boats”. To be able to experience and be part of what God is doing in the moment, each of us need to let go of “my boat” and step out and walk on the water with Jesus.

  There will be storms raging around us as there were before. The world is always in storms whether manmade or created by the devil. We need to keep our focus on Jesus and walk with him.

 God is saying, “Come and walk with me on the water.” The choice is ours, we can hold onto our boats or we can let go and walk on the water with Jesus. I choose to walk in the moment with Jesus, how about you?

 © COPYRIGHT 2019 RICHARD L. SPANGLER

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Run Your Race with Compassion

By Richard L Spangler

Recently, I completed the challenge of walking the Virginia Beach Rock N Roll Half Marathon. I had never done anything like this before. It took two years of training and discipline, and a lot of support from family and friends, as well as mountain of prayer. So at sixty years old, this man who had a quadruple heart by-pass surgery seven years ago started the race.

   What started as a personal goal two years ago, graduated to a 13.1-mile prayer walk for the seven cities of Hampton Roads, the Commonwealth of Virginia and our nation. If that was enough, I found myself saying thank you to the police officers, firemen and women and the rescue personnel along the race route. Many of these men and women had a surprised look on their faces and smiled and thanked me in return.  Soon others, who were moving at the same pace I was also began to do the same thing. This was showing thankfulness and compassion to our first responders.

 Somewhere, close to the half way point most everyone including myself became very focused on the race. Going down this wooded road with ditches on both sides a fellow race participant caught my attention. She had moved off the road and was holding on to the speed limit sign. I passed her but felt the urging of the Holy Spirit to go back. I asked, “Are you okay?” she said, “Yes” I started to walk away and hear the Holy Spirit say, “She’s NOT okay.” I went back and asked again. This time she said, “I am having problems keeping my balance and walking straight. Can I use your arm to get me to the center of the road and to steady me?” I said, “Yes. There is a water station just down the road, I will you get there.”

 We got to the water station and she thanked me. Out of my mouth came “I Will walk with you some more to make sure your okay.” As we walked she began holding my arm again.  I asked, a couple of times if she wanted medical help? She said, “No, she wanted to complete the race.” After a short distance she said, I think I need the paramedics. “As we came out of the wooded area there sat a rescue unit. I yelled for their help and they came over to assist the lady.

 I finished the race about 20 minutes later than I would have but I still finished. As I thought about the day’s events, I realized that many running their race were so focused on their finish they missed an opportunity to show compassion to someone else. 

 We as believers are running our race for the prize of the crown of glory (1 Corinthians 9:24 and Hebrews 12:1) but we are also to run the race with compassion.  Jesus was moved with compassion, Matthew 9:35-37. Matthew 14:13-21 the feeding of the 5000 started with compassion. And again in Matthew 15:29-38 4000 fed. Luke 7:11-15 The raising of the Widow’s son and Matthew 20:30-34 the blinds eyes opened, were done as Jesus was moved with compassion. Webster’s Dictionary defines compassion:  sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it.

  We as believers, we will finish our race but we need to be moved with compassion as Christ was. I believe our planned works for the Lord will earn us rewards. But, it is our unplanned acts of compassion, prompted by the Holy Spirit that we hear “Will done my good and faithful servant…”  

  Run your race and run it well, by keeping your eyes and ears open for acts of compassion along your course, so that you will not only finish the race but will hear “Well Done...”

©COPYRIGHT 2015 RICHARD L. SPANGLER