Relational Bridges

CONFIDENCE IN PRAYER We can hardly have confidence in prayer if we aren't convinced that His will for our lives far exceeds anything we could ever ask or conceive of. His will for us far exceeds anything we might "will" for our own lives. Isaiah 49:15 " Can a mother forget the baby at her breast   and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget,  I will not forget you!" God knows us. God will never forget, forsake, or abandon His own. He is the only One worthy of our worship. He alone is worthy to serve and love. People have trouble in prayer and doubt God because they don't get what they prayed for when they determined that what they prayed for should be answered in the way they had decided the "answer" would look like. They say, "If God was good, He would have answered this way at this time." They have made an infinite determination with a finite perspective and blind eyes. They have determined how God should ...

THOUGHTS ON COMPLETEING 74 YEARS OF LIFE Having more years behind you than ahead of you makes you look at life differently. I hope it give us an eternal perspective. Believing God and following Him into what is left of life on this earth makes an eternal difference in how we view everything, whether we have 75 years ahead of us or just a few. Believing that there is a God can be deceiving if He simply doesn't matter to you. Sitting "on the fence" of decision may make you feel safe now, but the fence belongs to the devil. Turn your face to the Lord God and surrender all of life that remains before you. Eternity is beyond a long time.

  On Being a Christian 1 Corinthians 1:18 "The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God." For those who ARE BEING SAVED, the message of the cross, Jesus' sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, His death and resurrection, is the very power of God at work in them. But someone is bound to say, "Hey, wait a minute! If I have put my faith in what God has done for me by Christ Jesus, am I not already saved?" The answer is, "Yes, you are." I would then ask those folks, "When a baby is born, is it alive with its unique life?" The only answer could be, "Yes, it is surely alive!" My next question would be, "Is the baby fully mature, grown into the fullness of life laid out in its DNA?" The answer is, "No." The only reason a child CAN grow up, experience the process of maturing is BECAUSE it is alive. When a follower of Jesus Ch...

  From Oswald Chambers today: "If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He doesn’t ask you to make it right; He only asks you to accept the light of truth, and then He will make it right. A child of the light will confess sin instantly and stand completely open before God. But a child of the darkness will say, “Oh, I can explain that.” When the light shines and the Spirit brings conviction of sin, be a child of the light. Confess your wrongdoing, and God will deal with it. If, however, you try to vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness. What is the proof that carnality has gone? Never deceive yourself; when carnality is gone you will know it— it is the most real thing you can imagine. And God will see to it that you have a number of opportunities to prove to yourself the miracle of His grace. The proof is in a very practical test. You will find yourself saying, “If this had happened before, I would have had the spirit of resentment!”...

  THE TIME IS NOW It is written in God's Word that, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." To paraphrase Tim Keller, fearing God is not being terrified of Him, but being taken up into joyful awe and reverence before the inestimable magnificence of God where our hearts tremble with wonder that we can actually know Him, being known by Him and to realize that in believing Him, He has taken us out of spiritual death into His very own eternal Life. He actually and eternally becomes LIFE in the believer. "Sin merely shrugs at God (wrote Tim Keller). Sin's essence is failing to believe not that He exists, but that He matters. That attitude is deadly. The fear of the Lord and true self-understanding grow or diminish together. Indifference towards God is a form of self-conceit and self-deception. To feel no need for God is to be out of touch with reality -- such people have 'ceased to be wise.'" The nature of sin is "claustrophobic and self-a...

  THERE ARE NO "WHITE HATS" HERE Romans 1:18 " But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness." I have posted material recently being uncovered about corruption in the highest levels of the Ukrainian government. I have been called a liar, and idolater (as if I was worshipping our very human and fallible present American President. God forbid, for Jesus Christ alone with the Father and Holy Spirit are worshipped and followed by me.) and a hater of Ukraine and her people. Over the past three years, with the tacit support of its western patrons, the Ukrainian government, NOT ITS PEOPLE, has committed a remarkable number of serious crimes. The Ukrainian government has sold huge quantities of American weapons on the international black market at twenty cents on the dollar. These weapons are now in the hands of armed groups around the world, including Hamas, the Mexican drug cartels and the forces now contr...