Psalm 27:8

SEEK MY FACE

In a world where mankind seeks riches, power, fame, and glory to themselves, there is an ever seeing eye watching from above and breathing whispers through the winds of an urgent and longing request, "Seek My Face." 

                                              

                                                 "When You said, "Seek My Face,"                             

                                                                                My heart said to You,                             

                                                                      "O Lord, I will seek Your face."

We have a God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who desires more than anything to commune with us, walk with us in the cool of the day, and comfort us in the darkest night.  This is a nighttime age we are living in.  It seems every morning we awake to more startling, horrific news, but we are not alone; the Psalm says, "I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears."  He holds us when we ache and calms us when we're terrified; He is a very present help in times of trouble.
 

To seek Him is to obey Him; we are buried with Him and take His name in baptism (Acts 2:38; Acts 10:48; Acts 19:5).  What a lovely name, Jesus Christ; it is the name above every name and soon the whole world will call His name.  The world will have nowhere else to turn; there are no other Gods beside Him; the Lord Jesus Christ, alone, is God, and He is keenly aware of the pitching, groaning agony of His beloved earth.  As numerous earthquakes rock and reel this feeble planet, we have a hope, "I have set the Lord always before me.  Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken."  (Psalm 16:8)  The ground beneath us may crack and move, but we, who are in Christ Jesus, will stand upon the promises and strength of Almighty God. 

When we hunger after the Lord, thirst after Him, and seek Him with all of our hearts, we are reaching for His favor.  "Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what He commands.  Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord's anger."  (Zephaniah 2:3)  Is the Lord angry, and why is He angry?  Sin.  A Holy God and sinful nations do not agree, but He is longsuffering and patient; He is forgiving and merciful if only we call out to Him.  "For His anger endures but a moment; in His favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning."  (Psalm 30:5) 

 

Ah, to experience Joy in the dawn of sunlight; Joy can exist in the weary harshness of utter torment, in the ebony of the loneliest of nights, in the midst of total and massive destruction, and in the middle of the tearful season of sorrows.  The Lord Jesus Christ will fill you with His Spirit, the Holy Ghost; it is Joy unspeakable and full of Glory!  Seek Him for His Spirit; He will fill you; ask and you will receive.  You will speak in other tongues as the Spirit of God gives the utterance; it is your spirit conversing with the God of the universe.  Hundreds of millions have been filled with the Holy Ghost to date and the Bible says in Joel that God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh.  (Joel 2:28) 

We have a God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is not just any man.  He is a man who tells you to catch a fish to pay your taxes, who is mauled by hundreds but asks "who touched me," who purposely leaves a body dead so He can raise him up after four days, and who asks a blind man "what do you see?"  He also said that He was going away, but that He would be back.  And ...  you can count on it!

What does the Lord say to the precious Japanese today?  What does He say to all those shaking their rioting fists in the air, to all who are full of hatred, deceit and turmoil, and to the Nations of the world in the throws of devastation and terror?  He says three little words, "I love You;" then, He pauses and says three more, "Seek My Face."

                                                                                                                                                                    By Sheryl Fowler

            (Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com, PromiseLand

                                     Church, Austin, Texas, Pastor Kenneth Phillips)

Matthew 7:14

NARROW IS THE WAY

There is but one way to Heaven, and it is through the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  A Psalm describes it beautifully, "You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."  (Psalm 16:11)  But, the road there is a strait gate and a narrow way. 

                               "Because strait {is} the gate, and narrow {is} the way,

                                             which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

The way to eternal life is not difficult to find, but the "way" in which humans desire to walk is the issue.  Human beings desire to walk unconfined, uncontrolled, with freedom to do evil, if they so choose.  This, then, makes the passage to the Holy of Holies very narrow in their eyes.  Isaiah said it best, "And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness.  The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way..."  (Isaiah 35:8)  It is a choice; a path to eternal life and joy, or a path to eternal torment in Hell. 

The Lord Jesus Christ left a roadmap to this strait and narrow Way; it is the Bible Book of Acts; when the people asked Peter what they should do; Acts 2:38,39 states, "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and unto all that are afar off, {even} as many as the Lord our God shall call."  Peter gave the people the formula for eternal salvation.  

There is a light behind the gate, beckoning all who are tired of the life of guilt, shame, sickness and disease, corruption and addiction, loneliness and despair, and the ever-haunting feeling of being lost.  The only reason the path is "narrow" is that the "flesh" runs from Holiness.  It is the innate nature of man to walk proudly, without thought of his/her Creator, in an "if it feels good, do it" Age.  But, the happiest life, the most joyful existence, is that of "pure innocence" where sins are washed away and man is restored to a precious place of mercy, forgiveness, and humility before Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The evil flesh of carnal man does not fit through the strait gate and narrow way.  When we walk through the gate of salvation, that narrow little passage opens to an infinite expanse of Joy, Love, Beauty, and Peace.  You say, "Peace, in this world?"  Yes, the Lord gives peace, "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."  (Philippians 4:7)  

There is no God beside Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, "And immediately I was in the Spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne."  (Revelation 4:2)  Only Jesus Christ can promise you eternal life, can heal your body, cleanse your soul, fill your spirit, and give you peace.  

"Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  (Matthew 11:28) 

                                                                                                                                                                         By Sheryl Fowler

           (Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com.  PromiseLand Church,

                                                 Austin, Texas, Pastor Kenneth Phillips)

Isaiah 40:31

Can Sheep Fly?



Sheep, as a general rule, have trouble with a lot of things, but if we consider "racing" as sort of flying, then Yes, sheep can fly, "kinda, sorta" ...  Racehorses break from the starting line and charge for the finish line.  Racing sheep (Oh yeah, there are Sheep Races) usually prefer to "amble."  An English farmer claims one of his racing rams established a world record by covering a 220-yard course (which included a ewe-turn) in just 17 seconds. (text by Eric Shackle) 

                "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew {their} strength;

                                       they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run

                                        and not be weary; {and} they shall walk and not faint."

One definition of "fly" is to go to or from a place with top speed.  We have already established that there really are "racing" sheep; so, mounting up with wings as eagles is entirely within our capabilities as fast-ambling, Nike-wearing, wool-flying, track-running, 17-second, record-breaking, sheep! 

We have an "itty bitty" problem.  Sheep have a natural inbred instinct to follow the sheep in front of them, even if it's headed off the edge of a 100-foot drop.  So, herein, is our trouble.  If "woolly Wilber" decides to go the wrong way, we're "hosed!"

The solution is the Shepherd.  Sheep have to have a Shepherd.  At the end of the day, the Shepherd checks them one by one, removing the nettles and burrs from their tangled matted wool.  He goes ahead of them and dams up the river, because sheep won't drink from running water.  The Shepherd carries a sling to defend himself and the flock from wild animals; he has a flute to entertain himself and calm the sheep; he has a rod about a yard/meter long with a knob at one end; and he uses the very important staff with a crook to wrangle the sheep around the neck and rescue them from thicks and briars.  The sheep know the Shepherd's voice and they will not follow another, unless they are sick; and then they will follow anyone.  Sheep must have a Shepherd for direction and that all-important "flight plan."

The scripture says, "they that wait," shall mount up  ... shall run  ..."  This brings up an interesting thing about God.  With our Lord, up means down; receive means give; to climb higher means to bow lower.  He said while we are waiting, we'll be running!  Waiting reminds us of, "Be still, and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10)  One definition of wait is to "stop and allow someone else to catch up."  So, while we are having church in our homes and teaching the Gospel to our neighbors, we are allowing new souls to catch up; we're waiting on the Lord; we're "being still" and mounting up or "running" at the same time.  The word "run" also means to perform or accomplish something.

We "wait" and we mount up with wings; we "stand still" and we run; it's the inconceivable, irreconcilable, impossible but probable, law of Almighty God.  Oh, woolly sheep that we are; our feathers are a little clumpy, and we don't look quite as graceful as that soaring Eagle, but we believe we can fly!

                                                                                                                                                               By Sheryl Fowler

                        (Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com,

                    PromiseLand  Church, Austin, Texas, Pastor Kenneth Phillips)       

 

Revelation 21:4

NO MORE TEARS



Our Lord Jesus Christ came to save us, to restore our innocence, to give us hope, to remove our guilt and shame as a result of sin, but He also gave us a promise that sustains us day by day.  He said He would wipe away all tears. 

            "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, 

                                     neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:

                                                            for the former things are passed away." 

Every day those words become more precious to this suffering, weather-beaten, war-torn, relentlessly unhappy generation.  What would those words mean to those who have never cried, never hungered, never suffered loss of homes, family and belongings.  The Lord never said we would not have troubles, trials, hurts, and losses, but He promised a better day coming.  He said He goes to prepare a place that where He is, we may be also.  It's a place with golden streets, rivers of life, peace and love, where there is no darkness, and most of all; the most precious promise of all; there will be no more tears. 

Why is there suffering, storms, wars, trials, hate, terror and torment?  God never intended it to be that way for His beloved creation.  It was His desire that we live in the Garden of Eden, never have to work, dwell in peace, love and tranquility.  But, because man sinned, it began the expulsion from the Garden, the downhill spiral of death, and the release of evil and destruction.

The hope for the Christian is a life evermore with Jesus Christ and the saved gone before us.  This life in earth, 70 to 90 years, more or less, is but a moment when we consider all of eternity, "with no more tears."

God did not leave us comfortless; He said, "Come unto me all {ye} that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  Do you feel you can't go on?  Are you tempted to end it all?  That is not the answer.  When I was tempted in that way, the Lord took care of it for me once and for all; He said, "If you do that, you will never hear My voice again; you will never experience My presence again."  That settled it; I would never entertain that thought again!  The answer is to reach up to Your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and ask Him to fill you with His Spirit (Acts 2:38), pray and seek His face. 

The Lord God Almighty left us a promise here in earth that is perhaps one of the greatest of all; He said, "And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." (Isaiah 65:24)

Our tears are bottled up (Psalms 58:6), and our prayers are not lost in the winds, "And the smoke of the incense, {which came} with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand."  When you cry, He will answer.  You say, "I don't hear Him; I don't seem to get answers."  Be filled with His Spirit, (Acts 19); if you have never spoken in other tongues "as the Spirit" gives the utterance, it is essential to hearing the Lord's voice and receiving His direction, guidance and comfort.  The Bible says we sometimes don't know what to pray, but the Spirit of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, leads us into all truth.

We can't keep this treasured information to ourselves; there's a world of wet faces waiting to be dried.  Their hope is no more pain, no more darkness, no more hurt, no more trials, and no more suffering! Just a few more days, and we're all headed home.  The Saints will go marching in; we'll salute the Angel with the flaming sword, and check those "tears" at the Gate!

                                                                                                 By Sheryl Fowler

                       (Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com.  PromiseLand Church,

                                                       Austin, Texas, Pastor Kenneth Phillips)

 

Song of Solomon 2:4

BANNER OF LOVE

The Lord is my rock, my covering

and my banner

His love is eternal, of mercy, and  a

longsuffering manner

He holds me in His arms, of safety

and of love

It's the softness of velvet and gentle

as a dove

I cling to His strength, His power 

and His tenderness

As He carries me through the storms

of life's wilderness

He's the Rock of my life, and the 

center of stability

For a hungering soul, striving 

for humility

His love for this lump, this model

of clay

Is ever enduring, a surety of now, 

and for alway

His name is Jesus, my Christ and 

my Lord

He's One to be extolled, magnified 

and adored

He stands in the portals and watches

from above

Wafting down answers on a banner

of love.

                                                                     By Sheryl Fowler



(Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com.  PromiseLand Church,

Austin, Texas, "Austin In Love," Pastor Kenneth Phillips)

I Chronicles 5:18

Skillful In War

War has many strategies and one of them is to know your opposition and render him ineffective at every turn.  Two ways of doing this are called War of attrition, or wear them down; and crippling them, or taking out key abilities.  It all boils down to becoming Skillful in War. 

          "The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow, and skillful in war, {were} four and forty thousand seven hundred and threescore, that went out to the war."

For the Christian, the Bible states it like this, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."  (2 Cor. 10:4-5)  In other words, it's a "mind" thing; "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."  (Phil. 2:5)  We need to think like our Lord Jesus Christ and see the enemy as He sees him. 

Almighty God fights wars in a very unique way and we may "have to go some," as they say, to figure out His methods.  He told Gideon to place trumpets and empty jars with torches inside, in the hands of all the men.  When they were given the signal, they were to blow the trumpets, smash the jars, hold the torch in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands and shout, "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon."  It so confused the enemy that they smashed into each other and ran crying as they fled!  We could save a lot of money if we fought our Nations' wars with this type of equipment; one plastic shopping bag with a jar, a candle, and a trumpet, per soldier, from the local Kmart and march onto the battlefield with our "baggy" in hand shouting, "A sword for the Lord and America!"  That would do them in, alright!   

If we think about it, it's not so irrational, after all.  The Lord crippled the enemy with utter confusion and with all the running and crying they were doing, He no doubt wore them down somewhat!  Our enemy; the "cast out" one; the one who must ask Jesus' permission to do anything to us; the one who will be thrown "by just ONE Angel" into the lake of fire; the one whose days are numbered, satan, is worn down and crippled by just three phrases:  "By the Name of Jesus; by the blood of Jesus; and by the Word of Jesus!" 

Our Lord is looking for a group that knows how to "pray;" that knows how to pull down strongholds; that laps water like a dog while watching for the enemy; He searches for an army who starves their bodies to strengthen their spirits; for a united people who will humble themselves before Him and seek His Will; and for some that think like Him, walk like Him, talk like Him, and "Win" like Him.  He wants a people called by His name, who will wield the sword of the Spirit, the Bible, with ultimate skill, and render our enemy inoperable and defeated.

God's Church is His shining armor of power sent forth to conquer evil, save the souls of men, and fill the waiting heavenly barracks; it is a completion of His "circle of life;" from Eden to Eden.  This sums up how God thinks: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."  (2 Chron. 7:14)

For the Christian, it doesn't take a tank, a gun, a warplane, or even a face mask to be an efficient soldier.  In God's eyes, it takes a blood-bought, Holy Ghost-filled, baptised in Jesus' Name, praying, humbled, soul-saved, Word-proclaiming, devil-chasing, God-fearing, Saint, clad in the full armor of Almighty God. 

So, grab your "baggy;" let's hit the battleground.  There are some demons and devils we need to send runnin' and cryin'.  It's got a name; it's called being "Skillful in War!"
                                                                                                                                                          By Sheryl Fowler

(Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com.  PromiseLand Church, Austin, Texas, "Austin In Love," Pastor Kenneth Phillips)



  
 

Hosea 2:15

 DOOR OF HOPE

Man came into this world with nothing and he will leave this world with nothing, for there are no pockets in a shroud, as they say.  It is between those 'nothings' that mankind enters the most "nothing" of all, the desert of no hope.  

                       "And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a 

                               door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth,              

                                  and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt."

We have all been there at one time or another; the walls came crashing down around us, and for those in terrible earthquake areas, it was literal.  For the rest of us, we have seen our times of trouble and our dry desert places.  But, as it was for Israel, so it is for us.  In Hosea, the Lord was speaking of Israel and His many blessings He would give her as a result of her repentance.  The Valley of Achor was a large fruitful and pleasant valley near Jericho, at the entrance into the land of Canaan.  It was a door of hope to the Israel He once knew, as in the days of her youth, when He espoused her.

The Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years, but their shoes never wore out; they received "manna" from heaven for food; they drank water from gushing rocks; they were covered with a cloud by day and a fire by night.  They escaped Egypt and ended up in a desert.  They grumbled and murmured, not realizing that their desert had the makings of a song.

God will always make a way of escape and show us that there is reason to go on.  He whispers sweet peace in the stormy midnights and He breathes hope into weary lonesome hearts plodding through the briars and the thickets of life.  No matter what you are going through, our Lord Jesus Christ and His Word have the answer.  He will sustain you and give you a song to sing, even as He gave His people of Israel when they came "up" out of Egypt.  The greatest of songs are written in the dry desert places, the places where the soul dives into the deep for the pearls of glory, and surfaces with gems of splendor and treasures of beauty.  

Who sings in the desert, you ask?  People like Paul in his desert cell, because he understood that the "song" brought the angels.  Angels always gather at the first strains of "Holy, Holy, Holy!"  The people of Israel sang; they had much to sing about after leaving the captivity of Egypt.  Leaving Egypt always makes one sing; "Egypt" is a type of sin; leaving sin ushers one into the corridors of newfound innocence, guiltless inexplicable joy, and peace like a river; a song leaps from the soul like hinds feet on a mountain!

Almighty God, Jesus Christ our Lord, is an all-consuming, indescribable, everlasting, desert-filling light.  Light will not be stopped, will not be smothered, will not be contained; it trickles under stoops, edges through shutters, creeps amidst the fog, fills the deepest canyon, dispels the blackest sky, illuminates the tallest flame, forever brightens the eternal heavens, ... but there's only one thing it will not do; it will never grace the pits of Hell.

Your Valley of Achor awaits; find your way through that desert to your "Open Door of Hope."  Doors don't open for just anybody, but only for those who "walk in the light as He is in the light" .... that's how you 'find' the door!

                                                                                                                                                       By Sheryl Fowler

(Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com.  PromiseLand Church, Austin, Texas, "Austin In Love," Pastor Kenneth Phillips)