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| Ok...you all know it by now, but i'm announcing this site being shut down. If you have any questions about God, the Bible or about anything at all, Visit my personal site and drop a comment or something. It's www.xanga.com/troubled_christian When and If I get to a place where i can again write these messages, i will ressurect tis site so to speak. Thank you all for your support. I'm sorry i let you down. But most of all. Remember God is with you. and He has a plan.
Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Trust In God, Walk in Faith, and be the best Christian you can be.
Peace and God bless,
Charles.
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| Wow...sorry for the extreme lack of update. i should really write these messages in advance...look forward to a new message soon. God willing of course.
Peace and God bless,
Charles.
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| No message today. Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas. And remember,
Christmas
Christ-mas
Remember Christ. Though this is not when he was born, this is when we celebrate it. Remember Him who remembers you before our Father.
God bless you all.
Charles.
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| Weakness. What a word..So strong..so powerful...and so universal. Everyone has a weakness. It could be anything. The thing about weaknesses is there are so many at least one for every person, a lot of people such as me have more than one. I'll be honest here one of my major weaknesses is girls/relationships. I'm one of those people who feel compelled to be in a relationship..To the point where it has before eclipsed God in my life. This is not something I'm proud of, but I feel that if anyone out there is to listen to me I should be honest. So now most of you are expecting a story about how I conquered this weakness correct? Well I would love to tell you one, but I just don't have one. It's still something I struggle with daily. I have other weaknesses as well, but this is not about me, it's about God. Besides, you'll hear more on the others in future messages I'm sure. I tend to be self-centered sometimes..which is exactly why I'm still talking about me. sigh. Alright. Now as I've mentioned..we all have weaknesses..what's yours? Think about that, what is your number one, gets you every time, you're virtually powerless to resist weakness? Mine is anger. Now while anger itself is not a sin, what you do while angry could be. I tend to put people down when I'm angry, and as Christians we are called to build others up, never to knock them down. Now once again, enough about me.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
7To keep me from becoming
conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was
given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But
he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about
my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That
is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in
hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I
am strong.
This is one of my all time favorite scriptures, for it describes how Satan pushes our buttons. It says there was given unto me a "thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me." Now, wait. God told him no? God just let him suffer? That doesn't fit in with the whole God is love persona now does it?..Yes. It does. The reason God denied him relief was for his own good. To keep him from getting conceited, full of himself. ( Oh and to clarify, yes God is love. But he is also just and punishes sin.) God wanted Paul to fully rely on him, not to get puffed up and rely on himself, which as we all know only leads to our downfall. I.e.: Satan. He got full of himself and challenged God..well who's still in heaven, still glorious? God. When we rely on ourselves it never leads to His downfall, only ours. Now there are still yet many ways I can take this message. For tonight I want to Focus on this aspect, Relying on God. What did God say? "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness." He wanted Paul to lean on him. To ask for help. Yes, God knows we all need help, we all have problems, God knows all. But he still wants us to ask, hence prayer. Sure God knows who needs help, and with what. But He wants us to ask, He wants his children to rely on him and not on themselves. Paul had the right idea. He said he would "boast all the more gladly about
my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me" Life isn't a matter of self-reliance, it's a matter of Christ reliance. We must give up our "I'll do it myself" ideals and mindsets. We need to rely on Christ, after all who better to ask for help? Who better to lean on than the one person who did it right. Christ may have lived in a different time, but he was tempted like us.
Hebrews 4:15 15For we do not have a high priest who
is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has
been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
Christ endured all temptation just like we do, but unlike us he even endured Satan's full force 100% temptation when he was tempted in the wilderness. There was no thorn in the flesh for Jesus, no messenger of Satan, there was Satan himself to temp Jesus.
Matthew 4:1 1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. And Jesus resisted even that. We are weak and could not resist Satan's full force, which is why we have Christ to intercede for us. Think of how much we sin now, and then think of how it would be with out God, and without the Whole Armor of God to wear each day and protect us against the devil. ( Ephesians 6:10-17 ) We humans are born with a sinful nature and desire which inhabits us. This old nature which wars with our new Christ-like nature. We sin, Romans 3:23 "23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" But we don't always have to sin. 1st Corinthians 10:13 "13No temptation has seized you except what
is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted
beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also
provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." Christ is our out. He is our escape, our refuge, our shelter, our strong tower. (Psalm 61:3 , Proverbs 18:10) Run to Christ when you are weak. Cling to him when you are strong. No matter what is going on, good or bad, Christ is, or should be, our all. We tend to only come to God when we have a problem, when we are weak, when something bad happens. The truth is we should Come before God daily, just thanking him for our lives. Thanking Him for just being Him. Without God we would all be lost, but more than that, without God we wouldn't exist... I don't have one Challenge for you this time. I have many. 1) Cling to Christ. No matter whether life is good or bad. 2) When you are tempted try and see God's hand, stretched out to save you. 3) When you fail, you fall, when you are insulted, whenever something bad happens, remember. This is when God can help you most. This is when you come humbly before him, and do great things .Think of Peter. He denied Christ 3 times, but then went on to save literally thousands of people. 4) Live for Christ.
Peace and God Bless,
Charles.
p.s.- I'm sorry once again for the lack of updates, with God's help I will do better from now on. Also, I ask for your prayers; For me, for you, for all whom visit this site whether with good or bad intentions at heart. Also i ask a special prayer for a guy named Chris. He is in one of my classes at school, and he generally greets me with something along the lines of "Oh S*** it's the Christian. Or "Oh, great the Christians here *shakes head* " Then he pretty much procedes to make fun of me and my Christianity for the hour and a half or so we're there. He's not a bad guy..just mislead. And the worst part is, he goes to church every sunday. His parents force him to attend. I just pray that God opens his eyes one of these sundays.
p.p.s.- Please Visit
http://www.xanga.com/abovethe_weather
One more:
"REQUEST: so
there is a guy at our school (darby) who is in the hospital for heart
failure, I ask that those who believe in God, please pray. and get
whomever else you can to pray...thank you." ^^^ From a friends site, please pray for him.
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| Okay..well yeah sorry for the extreme lack of updates..There's been a lot of stuff going on in my personal life, but that's no excuse. So once and Again sorry. Idk if anyone will read this..But i'll working on my lesson right now and i'll be updating tonight at the latest. maybe this afternoon.
Peace and God bless,
Charles.
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