"God Loves Wrinkles!"

         

"Then Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old?  And shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?" 

(Genesis 17)

Age matters not to the God of the universe regarding unfulfilled dreams.  In other words, if you're still breathing, it's not too late.  Wrinkles, painful joints, creaking knees, dimming eyesight, and slower gait do not deter the plans of an Almighty God.  As a matter of fact, He probably prefers it that way in most cases, because age brings experience, wisdom, and patience.  Shall we bear at 75 years of age?  "Bear what?" you ask.  Bear the dream that you carry, give birth to the groan in your soul, bring forth from the depths of your spirit  ...  Bear  ...

Moses

Does it take the age of youth to stand upon a mountain and command the seas?  Do you have to be young to give the command, "Let My People Go!"  Does age really matter, in the scheme of things, when sitting on a aerie ledge in foggy coldness waiting for the finger of God to write the law?  Does age matter at all to God?  Joash was "seven" years old when he began to reign, and reigned forty years in Jerusalem. (II Chronicles 24:1)  God looks upon the heart.  A praying mother can have a child called from her womb, and a man over a hundred years old can be told to build an Ark to save a remnant.  Time is in the hands of God, and He uses it, or diffuses it, as He chooses  ...  It's not the wrinkles, or lack thereof; it's that pulsing beating heart, that depth and hunger found in the soul that thirsts for God, that elusive unseen feeling in "dust" that will not be satisfied  ...  without MORE of Him ...

Simeon holding Baby Jesus

"And it was revealed to him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ." (Luke 2:26)  Simeon lived to hold the Lord Jesus Christ in his arms.  God keeps us alive for the promise!  Do you have a promise?  Have you held an elusive dream, so real you can almost feel it coming to pass between your two hands, glowing in the coffers of your soul, a road colorful in beauty and manifestation, for decades?  Have you waited and waited, seeing no evidence of the fulfillment?  Do you wonder if you should just let the dream go, even though you've worked and prayed for it for so long?  Faith is not a "drive through" element.  Growth and maturity in God are not instant, microwave heat.  No, the fires to produce gold are 1950 degrees F, and the ore or slag may need to be fired more than once.  Vessels of honor have been through the fire, endured the flames of persecution and injustice, climbed the mountains of persistence, walked the boardwalks of "faith it till you make it," swam in the deeps of the deep, stood for truth in corridors of misunderstanding, and trusted in times of despair and loss.  GOLD is a process; wrinkles are proof of the process  ...

Joseph

We live in a world of creams and salves, injections and chemical emulsions to erase the wrinkles of time in order to revive the youth and appear to be what we once were.  God knows the wrinkles of His wheel are still etched in the molecules of His beloved creation.  We can look as good as we can, but years we cannot erase, trials of a honing God still exist, the molding and kneading of an infinite Creator still have their marks, and the eternal God knows if we're ready or not.  "Ready for What?" you ask.  Ready for the promise  ...

The tears that drip through the wrinkles have oiled the cogs of time and made the way smooth for the impromptu intersection of "destiny."  It's not over until the Lord God Jesus Christ says it's over.  You're not ended and done until the nail-scarred hands say it's the end; you're not too old, and beyond blessing until the King of Kings stops the flow; if you have a breath left in you  ...  the windows of heaven can still pour forth  ... 

The apostles' Phillip and Paul knew that the word "Wrinkles" means you've waited, you've expected, you've prayed, you've believed, you've stood the test of time, you've been around long enough to gauge the seasons, you've followed the cloud by day and the fire by night, you've dipped the seven times, you've stepped in when the angel troubled the waters, you've bowed low to climb high, you've carried until the "Birth"  ...

                                              



Simeon holding Jesus Christ

(Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com.)

Pastor Kenneth Phillips

(He's living the Promise)

PromiseLand Church, Austin, Texas

Services Sunday 10:30 am and Wednesday 7:15 pm

~~~~~~~Live Streaming~~~~~~~

*****************

{Special thanks to cooltext.com for the use

of graphic text generator}

"Jesus Wept"

"Jesus wept."

(John 11:35)

"As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city,

he wept over it."

(Luke 19:41)

The Lord Jesus Christ knows what it is to hurt, to weep, to feel another's pain, to empathize with the deep anguish of those He died for and shed His blood for on the cross.  He wept at Lazarus' tomb, because He knew where He was bringing Lazarus "back from."  He wept over His beloved Jerusalem; and He wept over the multitudes of sick, diseased, and possessed people.  Does God know about your hurts; does He feel your intense pain and know what it is to cry so much that there seem to be no tears left within us?  Oh, yes; we serve a God, a Holy Creator who knows  ... "Jesus Wept." 

"When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who

 had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply

 moved in spirit and troubled."

(John 11:33)

How would you feel if you knew you were bringing someone back to a lost and dying earth from beauty, glory and paradise?  Jesus wept, because He knew He was bringing Lazarus back from peace, joy, love, and tranquility to chaos, hatred, sin, and imperfection  ... namely Earth.  This should tell us something about where we're going.  Huh?  THIS is not all there is!  If you are a Christian, you're justa' passin' through; our short time on earth of 70 or 80 years is really nothing compared to all of eternity in a place with golden streets, walls of jasper, gates of pearl, rivers of Life, mansions untold, Angels and incense and heavenly choirs, and last but absolutely not least  ... communion with and worship of the One who sits upon the throne, our Lord Jesus Christ.

"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle.

You have recorded each one in your book."

(Psalm 56:8)

Your tears are collected and bottled up in heaven.  Isn't that  the most incredible thing you've ever heard?  Oh, how loving and caring is our God, how attuned He is to our sufferings, how close He is when we are bent over in anguish  ...  We serve a wonderful and amazing God!  I don't know about you, but I have gallons of tears bottled up; life can be treacherous, crude, and alarmingly heinous.  But, it's bearable; it's even song worthy and smiles can be seen through the tears, when you have Jesus Christ in your Boat.  He calms the terrifying storms, whispers sweet peace, scatters evil attacks and predators, holds us steady through torrential winds and rains, speaks healing to our broken bodies, walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death, and that soft cotton-like feathery brush soaking up that tear upon your cheek?  It was your own Angel's wings   ...  always there, day and night.

Jesus Christ, our Lord, weeps for His world, the beloved creation He formed from the dust of the earth, the souls he died for on the cross with His own tears filled with the blood of His tortured body, the mankind He longs to be with Him in paradise and not in the burning fires of Hell and damnation.  You see, He knows what Hell is like and He knows what Heaven is like  ...  You would weep too, if you felt His burden for the lost.  He will not override someone's will; He could blink an eye and every man, woman and child in earth would fall to their knees and worship Him  ... but He doesn't; it must be our own free will to worship Him; it must be the repentance of our own hearts and the desire of our own souls to worship Him, serve Him, and receive redemption's price.  His Name, His Blood, and His Word await every one of us; His Spirit, His name in baptism to wash away our sins, and His salvation are ours for the taking  ...  but people are too busy, too involved in earth's pleasures, too caught up in Sin's gnarly grasp, too unaware of the times and seasons  ...  Jesus weeps  ...

Hezekiah

"Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'This is

what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your

prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now

you will go up to the temple of the LORD."

(2 Kings 20:5)

King Hezekiah became seriously ill, and the Prophet Isaiah told him to prepare for death.  But, Hezekiah sought the Lord with tears, and the Lord heard his prayer.  He was granted a 15-year extension of his life and deliverance of Jerusalem from the threat of the Assyrians.  His promise was confirmed by a mighty miracle.  Prayer is our lifeline to our Creator; tears move the heart of the One who so loves His creation.  Miracles happened then; miracles happen now, because Jesus Christ lives; He died and rose again to wipe away all tears from our eyes forevermore.  There will be no tears in heaven, but in earth, we still fall on our faces, like Hezekiah, and we call out to a merciful, just, Holy, and loving God  ... And He answers  ...  He never leaves, nor forsakes us, NEVER!  He's as close as the mention of His name   ...  Jesus  ...  Call out to Him now, and He will be there.  It matters not what you've been taught, what you believe or don't believe; if you call out to Jesus Christ in sincerity and honesty, He will will meet you where you are  ...  Jesus  ...

We've all been there, done that, if we've lived long enough.  What?  We've been in the low places, the heartache and trauma, the broken spirit and bowed soul, the lowest of the lows, the place on our knees where we think we will not rise again, the ashes of terror and tragedy, the emptiness of divorce, the mourning of death, the hurt of close family heartbreaks, the loss of our assets and all we've worked for, for so long  ...  And, it culminates in tears, which are the answer from the body for the destruction of the spirit; they are the drops of a torn and ripped heart  ...  But, the Bible says our Lord will give us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, "that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.  (Isaiah 61:3)  Wrap yourself in a "prayer shawl" of His love, and know, your sun will shine again; you will rise anew; and your joy will return!

The bottom line?  If all you have is Jesus Christ; He's enough!

(Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com.)

Pastor Kenneth Phillips

(He weeps when you weep; he rejoices when

you rejoice; he loves at all times!)

PromiseLand Church, Austin, Texas

Services Sunday 10:30 am and Wednesday 7:15 pm

~~~~~~~Live Streaming~~~~~~~

**********

{Special thanks to cooltext.com for the use of

graphic text generator}



"What Did You Do With Your Hyphen?"

The time between our birth and our death is marked by

a hyphen, the space of life's span

Many have given their lives, their honor, and they have

fought for freedom for their fellow man

America's greatness is struggling to survive, as morals

decline, and tears streak our liberty

So, it takes all of us to fight for what's right, and let

death be for a cause and a victory

When tears fall from above and tears fall beneath, we 

know the war is great and dire

We're all in uniform, whether it's soldiers for freedom, 

or soldiers of Christ's empire

          

The battlefield to set men free wars in the Spirit, and 

it ever wars in the flesh

And heroes of the two emerge, each time the enemy 

is subdued and conquered afresh

           

Wars are fought on the knees and in worldly nations, 

and the cause is to give one's self

It's for the life of another, the soul of a comrade, and 

it's a denial that is heartfelt

           

To lay down our all, for a cause that is greater, is the

essence of honor and beauty

And, as followers of Jesus, it is the cross we carry, and 

our responsible duty

          

We're a nation founded with tears, a nation holy, and 

established under God

Based on principles of the Holy Bible, Apostles and 

Prophets, of whom we applaud

          

Stand tall, O land of the free, and hold fast to your 

foundation, for which many have died

They were soldiers of America, and the soldiers of 

faith, those of Christ's Bride

             

It all comes down to what you did in this life that to 

another's life will heighten

Because when it's all over; what did you leave behind, and

"What Did You Do With Your Hyphen?"

(Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com.)

Pastor Kenneth Phillips

(He's telling the world the significance 

of the "hyphen.")

PromiseLand Church, Austin, Texas

Services Sundays 10:30 am and Wednesdays 7:15 pm

~~~~~Live Streaming~~~~~

{Special thanks to cooltext.com for the use of

graphic text generator}