Romans 12:6, " According to the grace given to us."

     I've been noticing lately that God gives me the grace to make it through every situation in life.  He doesn't give me an abundance of grace to just jump into every situation and go to the top of the mountain with little or no effort.  I'm not always victorious and standing on the top of the conquered peak raising hands high and jumping up and down with an exceeding amount of energy.  What I've found in my life is that every peak that we reach takes a lot of energy and usually I'm just making it.  I always get there and I'm always victorious if I keep my faith, but usually when I get there I need to drink of Him and get even more nourishment then I had before.  In other words I find myself having to really stand firm and keep pushing to make it.  He always gives me the strength but it takes every thing I have to make it and when I think I can't go on, He gives me just the right amount of grace to see me through.  I always get there, but I know that the journey was strictly accomplished because of something He supplied me, not something I could do on my own.  His grace is always sufficient, not to little and not to much, just what every situation needs.  So no matter what is going on in your life at the moment, just keep climbing.  I know you might be tired and weary but just keep climbing.  His grace will see you through.  His grace is always enough.  He won't leave you or forsake you.  So no matter what, don't give up!!            God Bless,  Rusty 

1 John 3:2, "it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. ”

 
     Our natural inclination is to be so precise—trying always to forecast accurately what will happen next—that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing. We think that we must reach some predetermined goal, but that is not the nature of the spiritual life. The nature of the spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty. Consequently, we do not put down roots. Our common sense says, “Well, what if I were in that circumstance?” We cannot presume to see ourselves in any circumstance in which we have never been.  Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life—gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises. When we become simply a promoter or a defender of a particular belief, something within us dies. That is not believing God—it is only believing our belief about Him. Jesus said, “ unless you  become as little children ” (Matthew 18:3). The spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, just uncertain of what He is going to do next. If our certainty is only in our beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness, become overly critical, and are limited by the view that our beliefs are complete and settled. But when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. Jesus said, “ believe also in Me” (John 14:1), not, “Believe certain things about Me”. Leave everything to Him and it will be gloriously and graciously uncertain how He will come in—but you can be certain that He will come. Remain faithful to Him.   God Bless,  Rusty

Jeremiah 45:5, “I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.”

     This is the firm and immovable secret of the Lord to those who trust Him—“I will give your life to you  .” What more does a man want than his life? It is the essential thing. “ your life  as a prize ” means that wherever you may go, even if it is into hell, you will come out with your life and nothing can harm it. So many of us are caught up in exhibiting things for others to see, not showing off property and possessions, but our blessings. All these things that we so proudly show have to go. But there is something greater that can never go—the life that “is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).  Are you prepared to let God take you into total oneness with Himself, paying no more attention to what you call the great things of life? Are you prepared to surrender totally and let go? The true test of abandonment or surrender is in refusing to say, “Well, what about this?” Beware of your own ideas and speculations. The moment you allow yourself to think, “What about this?” you show that you have not surrendered and that you do not really trust God. But once you do surrender, you will no longer think about what God is going to do. Abandonment means to refuse yourself the luxury of asking any questions. If you totally abandon yourself to God, He immediately says to you, “I will give your life to you as a prize  .” The reason people are tired of life is that God has not given them anything—they have not been given their life “as a prize.” The way to get out of that condition is to abandon yourself to God. And once you do get to the point of total surrender to Him, you will be the most surprised and delighted person on earth. God will have you absolutely, without any limitations, and He will have given you your life. If you are not there, it is either because of disobedience in your life or your refusal to be simple enough.     God Bless,  Pastor Rusty

Jeremiah 45:5, "Do you seek great things for yourself?”

     Are you seeking great things for yourself, instead of seeking to be a great person? God wants you to be in a much closer relationship with Himself than simply receiving His gifts—He wants you to get to know Him. Even some large thing we want is only incidental; it comes and it goes. But God never gives us anything incidental. There is nothing easier than getting into the right relationship with God, unless it is not God you seek, but only what He can give you.  If you have only come as far as asking God for things, you have never come to the point of understanding the least bit of what surrender really means. You have become a Christian based on your own terms. You protest, saying, “I asked God for the Holy Spirit, but He didn’t give me the rest and the peace I expected.” And instantly God puts His finger on the reason—you are not seeking the Lord at all; you are seeking something for yourself. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you ” (Matthew 7:7). Ask God for what you want and do not be concerned about asking for the wrong thing, because as you draw ever closer to Him, you will cease asking for things altogether. “Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). Then why should you ask? So that you may get to know Him.  Are you seeking great things for yourself? Have you said, “Oh, Lord, completely fill me with your Holy Spirit”? If God does not, it is because you are not totally surrendered to Him; there is something you still refuse to do. Are you prepared to ask yourself what it is you want from God and why you want it? God always ignores your present level of completeness in favor of your ultimate future completeness. He is not concerned about making you blessed and happy right now, but He’s continually working out His ultimate perfection for you—“ that they may be one just as We are one ” (John 17:22).  God Bless, Rusty

2 Timothy 4:2, "Be ready in season and out of season.”

     Many of us suffer from the unbalanced tendency to “be ready” only “out of season.” The season does not refer to time; it refers to us. This verse says, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season.” In other words, we should “be ready” whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would never do anything. There are some people who are totally unemployable in the spiritual realm. They are spiritually feeble and weak, and they refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that our relationship is right with God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.
One of the worst traps a Christian worker can fall into is to become obsessed with his own exceptional moments of inspiration. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration and insight, you tend to say, “Now that I’ve experienced this moment, I will always be like this for God.” No, you will not, and God will make sure of that. Those times are entirely the gift of God. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If you say you will only be at your best for God, as during those exceptional times, you actually become an intolerable burden on Him. You will never do anything unless God keeps you consciously aware of His inspiration to you at all times. If you make a god out of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life, never to return until you are obedient in the work He has placed closest to you, and until you have learned not to be obsessed with those exceptional moments He has given you. We all need to be ready whenever God needs us, regardless of our situations, whether we feel like it or not.  If God needs you today,"Are you ready?"         God Bless,  Rusty 

Romans 8:2, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death."

     Have you ever heard the expression, "You've never really lived until you _____!"  Of course you must fill in the blanks because this statement means something different for different people.  But the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the same for everyone.  There are a lot of people who never really experience the life of Jesus inside of them, and that is sad.  I'm not talking about something that lives in this world but something far deeper.  I know a church in Canada that is called, "Deeper Life."  That's what I'm talking about.  But this life is not something we can save our money to experience, or something that we can travel to see or do.  When we say, "You've never really lived until YOU,"  the emphasis is on what we can do for ourselves.  A lot of people do things that are dangerous so that they can, "Feel alive!"  What we're really looking for is an experience that cannot be defined or explained in this world.  The life that we seek after, if you will, is an out of this world experience.  He is not of this world.  Physical things can never bring real life because those experiences will fade away into the dust.The secret to this supernatural life is to say, "You've never really lived until you've died."  You've never lived until you've given away your life, laid down everything in this physical world of sin and death, and picked up your cross.  His life is very costly, at least in this world.  But in the eternal world, His life is everything.  Today is the day to truly experience this life for yourself.  It's time to truly experience the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus for your self. Talk to Him about it today.  It's more expensive then anything you could ever imagine in this life but don't worry, someone has already paid for it.  All you have to do is receive it.  Are you ready?      God Bless, Rusty 

John 14:9, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me Phillip?"

     Are we Phillip, always asking the Lord to do things for us, or asking to see things?  Are we people who constantly look for signs and wonders but very seldom look for Him?  Are we always looking for some future event and waiting for God to come and do something in us?  Maybe we're waiting for a particular event to occur in our churches or cities, or maybe our nation.  What we don't seem to comprehend is that Jesus is not some future event or some concept of what is to come, Jesus is here and now.  He is not the future, He is what is happening to us today.  Therefore we must embrace Him everyday of our life and come to a place where we have relationship with Him.  Every breath that we breath must be part of His life.  Our very heart beat must beat in tune with His.  This is truth and life for us.  Now, not some day soon or tomorrow, but now.  If we don't embrace Him every day in every situation then we just might hear Him say, "Have I been with you so long and you don't know Me?"    Do you know Him?     God Bless,  Rusty

James 1:17, " Every good gift bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting of shadow."

     The first time James uses the word gift, good gift, it refers to the character of the gift.  The second time, perfect gift, refers to the completion of that gift in us.  In other words, the Father puts the very character of Jesus in us in the form of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38, Luke 11:13)  The Holy Spirit wants to conform us into the image of Jesus. He wants to help us to walk in the character of God.  In the beginning, God made man in His image, but certainly not in His character.  As the church of Jesus Christ began, at Pentecost, the Lord poured out His good gift, the Holy Spirit, who would be our mentor, to help us in this transformation from an inherent evil character to becoming Holy and blameless before Him.(Ephesians 1:4)  The second use of the word, perfect gift refers to the completed process inside of us.  In other words, just because we've been baptized, or submersed with the Holy Spirit, or the good gift, the end result is not guaranteed.  "Why not," you might ask.  Very simply because there is one thing that a just God, who never changes won't do, and that's take away our free choice.  We still have the ability to be led by the Holy Spirit or to not follow Him.  So even though the gift that was given was good, and He possessed the very character of God, we don't have to walk in that character.  If we choose not follow Him, then the good gift has been wasted.  If we choose to follow the Holy Spirit's lead in our life, then the good gift grows up and becomes God's perfect gift.  God's perfect gift that is spread to everyone around us so that they can find Jesus.  It's not your birthday today but God has a free gift for you anyway, and He promises it's a good gift.  Do you want the gift?  If so, all you have to do is receive it!!    God Bless, Rusty

John 21:7, " When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on and threw himself into the sea."

     Have you noticed in your own life how we always seem to deal with the outer things when we are dealing with Christ.  In other words we're always trying to change something on the outside.  The things in life which we think will please the Lord are the external things in our life.  If we can only change them, we will be all right.  Have you ever felt that way?  The problem is that when we're concentrating on the external things all the time, it's probably the best indication that we could ever have that we're actually in bondage.  You see, God's not concerned with the outer garments.  He's concerned with the inner man.  Is the inner man's will lined up with God?  Is there a complete and whole relationship deep within?  Is there life within your soul that cannot be touched by outer circumstances?  If there is then we have come to a place where we will always be pleasing to Him.  The most important place is deep, in the center of our being.  You know, "Not my will but Yours be done!"  This is where we need to change.  If we come into an alignment with His will we will walk in a beautiful relationship and we will never feel threatened by our outer garments.  When we put on Christ in the inner man we will never be found naked on the outer man.  Let's all get out of bondage by just being led by our relationship with Him.  If we do this one thing all of our lives would improve.  If we follow Him and stay close to Him we will never have to worry about what's happening on the outside.  He's waiting for a visit from each one of us this morning.  Are you ready to just sit in His presence and have coffee with Him?  Then what are you waiting for, let's go!!  God Bless,  Rusty

John 12:36, " While you have the light, believe in the light, in order that you may become sons of light."

     We always strive to get to the mountaintop experience.  We pray and do everything we know how and have been taught to ascend up the hill.  Then we have that much cherished experience that rocks our world.  Those moments are wonderful and should never be down played, but what happens after?  We tend to go through this experience where we go back down to the valley and start over, searching for that experience again.  The question is, "What do we do with the light we received on the mountaintop?"  This experience is not just for our entertainment but to move us forward.  If God has spoken to us during this time, or if He has given us some enlightenment, we must act on it.  Don't think to yourself, "I'll do it someday. " We must act on it right away.  These moments are not just for pleasure but so that we have a vision that can keep us going through the days that are gray and dull.  We must walk in the light that we receive so that we continue to operate in accordance with God's will for our lives.  We should always pray for, and expect, the experience of really settling into God's presence, but not just for a thrill or the experience.  We must pray for these experiences where God floods us with His light so that we can become sons of light.  This is the whole purpose of a mountaintop experience.  Let us all be conformed into His image.  Let's press into the light and let His presence change us.  We all need to be reformed and reshaped.  I believe it's time to stop putting it off and saying, "I'll do it someday."  God needs us now more then ever before.  It's time to go forward and not look back.  We must walk in the light, before it's to late, and there's no better time to start then right now, the Son is rising!!               God Bless,  Rusty

2 Chronicles 15:17, “The high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.”

     Asa was not completely obedient in the outward, visible areas of his life. He was obedient in what he considered the most important areas, but he was not entirely right. Beware of ever thinking, “Oh, that thing in my life doesn’t matter much.” The fact that it doesn’t matter much to you may mean that it matters a great deal to God. Nothing should be considered a trivial matter by a child of God. How much longer are we going to prevent God from teaching us even one thing? But He keeps trying to teach us and He never loses patience. You say, “I know I am right with God”—yet the “high places” still remain in your life. There is still an area of disobedience. Do you protest that your heart is right with God, and yet there is something in your life He causes you to doubt? Whenever God causes a doubt about something, stop it immediately, no matter what it may be. Nothing in our lives is a mere insignificant detail to God.  Are there some things regarding your physical or intellectual life to which you have been paying no attention at all? If so, you may think you are all correct in the important areas, but you are careless—you are failing to concentrate or to focus properly. You no more need a day off from spiritual concentration on matters in your life than your heart needs a day off from beating. As you cannot take a day off morally and remain moral, neither can you take a day off spiritually and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely His, and it requires paying close attention to keep yourself fit. It also takes a tremendous amount of time. Yet some of us expect to rise above all of our problems, going from one mountaintop experience to another, with only a few minutes’ effort.                 God Bless,  Rusty

Isaiah 60:2, " For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you, and His glory will appear upon you."

     If there was ever a prophecy that points to today it would be this one.  Darkness covering the world and deep darkness on the peoples.  Sounds like Isaiah looked ahead at our country in the midst of her current position.  You might ask how we have become so blind and the answer would be simple.  "The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light."  (2 Corinth 4:4)  When we took the word of God and prayer out of our schools it started.  We took the ten commandments down and now we're coming against the name of God every where we turn.  In the process, more and more people were blinded until darkness spread all through the land, and it's not going to stop.  But, there is still light in this nation.  The light of the Glory of our Lord.  The light lives inside of us, me and you.  His glory has risen upon us.  Do you understand that we are the only light sources?  Can you fully comprehend that God's light has only one way of pushing back the darkness?  That's right, through us.  Jesus said, "You are the light of the world." (Matt 5:14)  His glory is in us so that the world can see Him.  We need to light the fire inside us and let it burn.  We need to go into the dark places of this world and bring Jesus to the blind people.  He is the only one who can open the eyes of the blind.  We need to be ablaze with His glory!  If you're ready he'll ignite you right now.  Just take time in His presence and I'm going to go to my window.  I'm looking for the light.  Are you there?       God Bless,  Rusty

Isaiah 60:1, " Arise shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you."

     Yesterday was Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, whichever you prefer.  We all came together at our churches to celebrate the risen Savior.  What we all should have done was to celebrate the glory of the Lord rising upon us.  You see, He's not dead, so He doesn't have to rise again.  He's already risen and He's alive and well.  What He really wants to do is to rise upon us.  That is not the case in most people.  He's still dead as far as His glory filling us and showing forth to the nations.  He hasn't risen up inside of us.  You see He is, "Christ in us, the hope of glory," but that's all His glory is to most people, a hope.  He wants to be raised from prone position inside of each one of us to a position were He can shine forth His glory through us.  He is alive and well, but only if we allow Him to be alive in us.  We have sat on our pews for years and kept Him at bay, singing and praising Him but leaving the church with our bushel baskets on.  Where is He?  The question is not where is He in the world, the question should be where is He in us?  We need to allow Him to come forth so that His glory can shine forth throughout this world.  If His glory is to come to this world it will have to be through us.  We are His temples and we need to allow the fire to burn bright once again.  Arise, shine;  for your light has come.  He's alive!  Let Him be resurrected inside of you today so that the world can see His life.  Then, my friends, it will really be a day to celebrate His resurrection!   God Bless,  Rusty

Romans 6:6, “our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”

     Have you made the following decision about sin—that it must be completely killed in you? It takes a long time to come to the point of making this complete and effective decision about sin. It is, however, the greatest moment in your life once you decide that sin must die in you—not simply be restrained, suppressed, or counteracted, but crucified—just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world. No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may be mentally and spiritually convinced, but what we need to do is actually make the decision that Paul urged us to do in this passage.  Pull yourself up, take some time alone with God, and make this important decision, saying, “Lord, identify me with Your death until I know that sin is dead in me.” Make the moral decision that sin in you must be put to death.  This was not some divine future expectation on the part of Paul, but was a very radical and definite experience in his life. Are you prepared to let the Spirit of God search you until you know what the level and nature of sin is in your life—to see the very things that struggle against God’s Spirit in you? If so, will you then agree with God’s verdict on the nature of sin—that it should be identified with the death of Jesus? You cannot “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin”        (Rom 6:11) unless you have radically dealt with the issue of your will before God.  Have you entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ, until all that remains in your flesh and blood is His life? “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me ” (Galatians 2:20). If you haven't, I would encourage you to take the plunge.  It's a wonderful season to do it.                 God Bless,  Rusty

Mark 16:12, "After that, He appeared in another form to two of them. ”

     Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many people who have never seen Jesus have received and share in God’s grace. But once you have seen Him, you can never be the same. Other things will not have the appeal they did before.
You should always recognize the difference between what you see Jesus to be and what He has done for you. If you see only what He has done for you, your God is not big enough. But if you have had a vision, seeing Jesus as He really is, experiences can come and go, yet you will endure.  The man who was blind from birth did not know who Jesus was until Christ appeared and revealed Himself to him (see John 9). Jesus appears to those for whom He has done something, but we cannot order or predict when He will come. He may appear suddenly, at any turn. Then you can exclaim, “Now I see Him!” (see John 9:25).  Jesus must appear to you and to your friend individually; no one can see Jesus with your eyes. And division takes place when one has seen Him and the other has not. You cannot bring your friend to the point of seeing; God must do it. Have you seen Jesus? If so, you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either” (Mark 16:13). When you see Him, you must tell, even if they don’t believe. I pray that as we approach Resurrection Sunday, all of us would see Jesus afresh.  I pray we get a fresh revelation of His presence.  I know I need it.  How about you?     God Bless,  Rusty

Romans 8:11, " But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who in dwells you."

     As we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus let us consider what we are celebrating, His life.  Have you ever thought about what a visitor might think if they were to come to our church for the first time on Easter morning?  If they have never really been taught a lot about Jesus and they come to our churches that morning what would they think?  I believe they would think that Jesus had just rose up from the grave today.  I think they would believe that maybe every year around this time He gets out of the grave.  I believe that's what we make it sound like.  One of the reasons we might be so excited about His resurrection that particular day is that we don't know that He actually is alive and lives in us every day of the year.  He has risen, yes, but not on Easter Sunday in a church, He has risen in our hearts.  He lives inside of us and we walk with that resurrection power inside of us every day of our lives.  So, we should be celebrating His life every Sunday morning and Sunday evening.  We should be celebrating every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and yes, even Saturday.  We need to wake up!  If the Spirit wakes up and we dance and sing for joy on Easter morning what keeps us from doing it every day of our life?  Yes, Jesus is alive!!  Yes Jesus has risen!!  And the same Spirit that raised Him, should be quickening our bodies every day so let's all be raised up!  Every morning should be resurrection Sunday.  We should shout and dance for joy every day.  We should scream that Jesus is alive to the highest mountaintop!!   Are you ready?    God bless,  Rusty

Mark 9:9, "He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man should rise form the dead."

     As the disciples were commanded, you should also say nothing until the Son of Man has risen in you—until the life of the risen Christ so dominates you that you truly understand what He taught while here on earth. When you grow and develop the right condition inwardly, the words Jesus spoke become so clear that you are amazed you did not grasp them before. In fact, you were not able to understand them before because you had not yet developed the proper spiritual condition to deal with them.
Our Lord doesn’t hide these things from us, but we are not prepared to receive them until we are in the right condition in our spiritual life.  Jesus said, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). We must have a oneness with His risen life before we are prepared to bear any particular truth from Him. Do we really know anything about the indwelling of the risen life of Jesus? The evidence that we do is that His Word is becoming understandable to us. God cannot reveal anything to us if we don’t listen and communicate with His Spirit.  Our own unyielding and headstrong opinions will effectively prevent God from revealing anything to us. But our insensible thinking will end immediately once His resurrection life has its way with us.  “ tell no one  .” But so many people do tell what they saw on the Mount of Transfiguration—their mountaintop experience. They have seen a vision and they testify to it, but there is no connection between what they say and how they live. Their lives don’t add up because the Son of Man has not yet risen in them. How long will it be before His resurrection life is formed and evident in you and in me?  God Bless, Rusty

1 John 5:4, " For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith."

     We have the victory in this world, only because Jesus has already won the victory for us. The battle of life belongs to the Lord, and He has already won the battle for us.  He tells us, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead , and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of hell." (Rev 1:17-18)  Jesus already defeated the god of this world (2 Corinth 4:4) and won the victory for us.  All we have to do is enforce the victory.  We're occupying forces that were put here to enforce the victory that Christ has already won for us.  In other words the major battle has already been fought and won.  All we have to do is police it and make sure that it's enforced until Jesus comes back.  How do we do that?  How do we enforce something that's already been won?  We simply stand on the word of God.  Faith comes by the word, so the victory that overcomes the world is the word, or our faith in the word.  It's so simple.  When we stand on the word we are simply saying that we will not receive what the world tells us.  Instead, we will speak and walk in the truth of what God's word says, by our faith in that word.  When we do that, we're not standing in our own power but in the authority and power that Christ won for us at Calvary.  Walk in faith and the victory that Christ has already obtained will be a part of your life.  Our faith is the key.  So the biggest question today is very simple, "Do we have any faith?"     God Bless,  Rusty

John 7:38, "He who believes in Me  out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”

     A river reaches places which its source never knows. And Jesus said that, if we have received His fullness, “rivers of living water” will flow out of us, reaching in blessing even “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) regardless of how small the visible effects of our lives may appear to be. We have nothing to do with the outflow—“This is the work of God, that you believe ” (John 6:29). God rarely allows a person to see how great a blessing he is to others.  A river is victoriously persistent, overcoming all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, but then comes to an obstacle. And for a while it is blocked, yet it soon makes a pathway around the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, only later to emerge again even broader and greater than ever. Do you see God using the lives of others, but an obstacle has come into your life and you do not seem to be of any use to God? Then keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you around the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never focus your eyes on the obstacle or the difficulty. The obstacle will be a matter of total indifference to the river that will flow steadily through you if you will simply remember to stay focused on the Source. Never allow anything to come between you and Jesus Christ—not emotion nor experience—nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.  Think of the healing and far-reaching rivers developing and nourishing themselves in our souls! God has been opening up wonderful truths to our minds, and every point He has opened up is another indication of the wider power of the river that He will flow through us. If you believe in Jesus, you will find that God has developed and nourished in you mighty, rushing rivers of blessing for others.  God Bless,  Rusty

Acts 9:17, "the Lord Jesus  has sent me that you may receive your sight ”

     When Paul received his sight, he also received spiritual insight into the Person of Jesus Christ. His entire life and preaching, from that point on were totally consumed with nothing but Jesus Christ—“For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Paul never again allowed anything to attract and hold the attention of his mind and soul except the face of Jesus Christ.  We must learn to maintain a strong degree of character in our lives, even to the level that has been revealed in our vision of Jesus Christ.
The lasting characteristic of a spiritual man is the ability to understand correctly the meaning of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life, and the ability to explain the purposes of God to others. The overruling passion of his life is Jesus Christ. Whenever you see this quality in a person, you get the feeling that he is truly a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22).  Never allow anything to divert you from your insight into Jesus Christ. It is the true test of whether you are spiritual or not. To be unspiritual means that other things have a growing fascination for you, and there are so many things today to distract you.  We must keep our eyes focused on Jesus, His person and His character.  It must be our goal in this life, to know Him better and be transformed into His image.  This world needs to see Jesus.  Can they see Him through us?     God Bless,  Rusty