Podcasts about please lord

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 24th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi 2:6: “And turned many away from iniquity.” Then we go straight to the New Testament to the Book of James 5:20: ”…he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of visiting an older gentleman who was well into his nineties, a very fine older man. I went to have a cup of tea with him. His daughter was there as well and his daughter was concerned about his salvation. We sat and had a cup of tea and started to talk to him (he originated in bonny Scotland) and spoke to him about the old country, as it were, and we talked about lots of different things. Then slowly but surely I started to speak to him about his salvation, about the fact that Jesus loves sinners, about the fact that we need to put our trust and hope in Him. I was praying all the time in my heart, “Please Lord, open this man's heart to you” and I asked the old gentleman, “Sir, do you mind if we pray together?” He was actually quite open to it, together, we prayed the prayer of faith. That gentleman went to be with Jesus just a week or two ago. I want to say to you that when you go to speak to someone about his salvation, especially a man who is a proud man, a good man, but he has never made a commitment to Christ, you need to be gentle. You need to be forthright but you need to be gentle. You need to speak to that older gentleman, or that older lady, or that young person about something they are interested in and get their trust first and then once you have done that you broach the subject and you pray with them the Sinner's Prayer. Very rarely have I had anyone who refused to pray that prayer with me.I want to pray for you today. Maybe you have never actually made a public confession of your faith. Why don't you do it now? Pray this prayer after me please:Dear Lord Jesus,I acknowledge I am a sinner and I am in need of a saviour, please help me to put my trust in You completely.I will serve no other gods but You.I thank You for dying for me, a sinner,In Jesus' mighty name, amen.Have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

Before we get into our study in Luke 12 today, I would liketo ask you for special prayer, and your patience for these next couple ofweeks. For the next couple of days, I will be extremely busy taking care ofsome family matters that involve my older sister, Lynda Smith, who was put intopalliative care this past week. Then on Tuesday, the 18th, my sonJonathan and I will be flying to India to take care of special situation thereinvolving both of our ministries. We need especially for you to ask the Lordfor wisdom for us, and for safety as we travel.  On Saturday, the 22nd, we will fly from India toCairo Egypt, to meet some ministry partners there and prepare for our scheduledtour to Jordan and Egypt that will take place this fall from October 14thto the 25th. We are hoping many of you will join us on thisunforgettable journey to places where some of the most powerful revelations andmiracles of God in the Bible took place. For more information on this tour,click on this link: https://www.gpartners.org/tour I hope to be back home in Sneads Ferry NC by Friday, March28th. It will be extremely difficult to post daily chats during thistime while I'm away, but I will post updates on our travels when I can. Your prayers and support for all the above are always veryimportant and appreciated!  Luke 12 begins with Jesus giving us two “beware” statements.In verses 1-12, He tells us to “beware of hypocrisy”. In verses 13-21, Hewarns us to “beware of covetousness”. Both of these two sins can destroyour Christian witness and our lives. Yesterday we learned from Colossians 3:1-7,that “covetousness is idolatry”. Covetousness is the sin of puttingother gods before and between you and the LORD God! This is the very first ofthe Ten Commandment in Exodus 20:2-5; "I am the LORD your God, whobrought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shallhave no other gods before Me. "You shall not make for yourself a carvedimage, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in theearth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow downto them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visitingthe iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generationsof those who hate Me” The sin of idolatry was the number one sin that brought God'sjudgment and harshest punishment upon the nation of Israel and sent them intocaptivity. Jesus told the story of the rich farmer who forgot that it was Godthat gave him his wealth and that when he died, he would leave it all behind.When we are committing the sin of covetousness, we are forgetting that God isthe owner of everything and we are only His stewards over it. “The earth isthe LORD'S, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm24:1).  We are also forgetting it is God who gives us breath, time,and skills to get wealth. God warned Israel in Deuteronomy 8:17-20, that afterHe had blessed them for their obedience, they would be in danger of forgettingHim and they would: “Say in their heart, 'My power and the might of my handhave gained me this wealth.' And you shall remember the LORD your God, for itis He who gives you power to get wealth”.  We should take the command that Paul gave to Timothyseriously: “Command those who are rich in this present age not to behaughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives usrichly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works,ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundationfor the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Timothy6:17-19). Please Lord, don't let us ever forget that You own it all,and anything we have is a gift and blessing from You, and You gave it to us togive to others and bless them. Amen! God bless!

Jonah 4:1-11 (NASB) 1 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, "Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. 3 "Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life." 4 The Lord said, "Do you have good reason to be angry?" 5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life." 9 Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death." 10 Then the Lord said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11 "Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?" Outline:   1) The Prophet's Unrepentance (4:1-4)   2) God's Patient Rebuke (4:5-8)   3) God's Gracious Dealings with Sinners (4:9-11)

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 23rd of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in Psalm 18:6:“In my distress…” (are you distressed today, my friend?) “In my distress I called upon the Lord,And cried out to my God;He heard my voice from His temple,And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.”Isn't that a wonderful thing to know, that the Lord is hearing every one of our cries? Then we go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 8:25. The disciples are also very distressed because the boat that they were travelling in was about to sink in the middle of Lake Galilee:”Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” Call out to the Lord Jesus Christ today, my dear friend, and He will hear you in your depths of despair. Call upon His name and He will undertake. I looked up in the dictionary “distress” means extreme pain, unhappiness, suffering, agony, or danger. Are you feeling like that today? Well then, this message is for you and the Lord is saying to you today clearly, “Call upon My name, I am listening.” Despair means complete loss or absence of hope. It causes depression, misery, causes one to give up, to lose heart. Are you there today? Oh, I know it well. I have been in that position myself, many times. I have shared that story with you, it is in the movie, “Faith like Potatoes”, when that fire was going to jump over the fence from our farm and go into a massive forest of pine trees and I was totally stressed out. That is the honest truth. I was a brand-new Christian, and I remembered, the Lord said, “Call to me when you are in times of despair and distress." I got on my knees in the dust and I said, “Please Lord, help me. If this fire jumps into the neighbour's pine plantation, we will be ruined.” And what happened? The wind changed, gentle rain came up from the south and the Lord put that fire out.Today, He will put the fire out in your life. I don't know what it is. Maybe it is a sick child, maybe it is a work situation, maybe it is a financial problem. Today, call on His name. He saved the disciples, the boat did not sink, and He also saved David, “the apple of His eye”, as He called out in his distress. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

Delivered by Father Peter Tukan, SDB from Salesian Don Bosco Gerak in the Diocese of Labuan Bajo, Indonesia. Revelation 3: 1-6.14-22; Rs psalm 15: 2-3ab.3cd-4ab.5; Luke 19: 1-10 GOD COMES INTO OUR HEARTS AND HOMES   Our meditation today has the theme: God Comes into Our Hearts and Homes. There was a little girl who was praying in her room. She cried out in prayer as she said: “Lord Jesus, If You are with me, speak with a voice like my Father or my Mother. Please Lord, I love hearing your voice." The girl then closed her eyes and was eager to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus. In a few moments of silence, the door to her room was knocked and there was a voice that called: "Laura, Laura ... can I come in?" The little Laura opened her eyes and immediately jumped with joy because she thought it was the Lord Jesus. It turned out that her father was the one who entered her room.               The house where we live, the school where we study, the office where we work, and our heart where we feel at home with and where God chooses to dwell in, are always blessed by God. Thus they are all the worthy places for God to visit and to be with us. The temple of the Lord is not just a place, but it is more of the person of Jesus Christ who moves, walks and reaches every home, place and people who receive Him. Jesus carries the temple Himself to consecrate all that He encounters.   He told Zacchaeus in the city of Jericho that he was coming to the house of that rich tax collector and great sinner of the society. Once He got there, both the home and the person of the sinner were sanctified. There was salvation offered to Zacchaeus' life. We all admit that God is not always invited or asked to come to our homes and ourselves. However, we just need to devote our time and enthusiasm to prayer, and that's when He is there every time we are at prayer. In this moment of prayer our souls and spirits connect ourselves with God, at the same time there is also an interaction of our fellowship with God.   Through baptism, we officially became the house of the Lord. Every member of our families constitutes the house of God and the unity of all members truly makes the house fo God as a family. Both every single person and family are the basic elements in constituting the Church, which becomes communion of one body with Jesus as the head. Every time we gather and worship in the Church, it is an opportunity for the fellowship of one communion and universal house of God. Outside the activities of worshiping God, we continue live together in the fellowship and unity as the one people of God.   The sins that we have committed did make our fellowship as one community of believers disturbed and even hurt. Jesus must have had compassion and put His power to transform it by visiting both we as individuals and our families. The important thing is we are open and accept Him into ourselves and in our families. Let's pray. In the name of the Father ... Lord Jesus, come and abide in me, and fill me with peace, Your presence and all goodness. Glory to the Father ... In the name of the Father ...

I understand that Ephesians 5:1-13 is a difficult section in the Bible, for at least 50% of the men and about 25% of the women in churches across America view porn at least once a month. To listen to three weeks of sermons on Bible verses that address sexual sins when you already feel defeated is surely discouraging. According to one study, 43 percent of Christian men and 20 percent of Christian women acknowledge that your exposure to porn (and any sexual sin for that matter) has worsened their relationship with God.[1] What that means is that some of you not only feel stuck and defeated, but you also believe that you are far from God and that He is so disgusted by you he wants little or nothing to do with you. I want you to know that if I just described you, you have bought into a lie! One of the titles given to the devil is the accuser and what is said of him is that he is, the accuser of our brothers and sisters... the one who accuses them before our God day and night (Rev. 12:10). Jesus said of the devil that, He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). The devil is both master accuser and master liar, and he wants nothing more than for you to believe that your ongoing pattern of sins is making you more inaccessible to a Holy God whose wrath is being stored up against humanity for sins such as sexual immorality, impurity, and greed (v. 3). It is for the above reasons that I wanted to spend so much more time on Ephesians 5:14 then we were able to last week. What you must remember is that Paul is not writing to non-Christians in his epistle to the Ephesians, but to Christians whose most dangerous adversary exists in their own flesh. It is the thing that the apostle Paul wrote about in Romans 7:14-23, For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin. For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. However, if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, that the Law is good. But now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person, but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my bodys parts. What is important to point out is that Paul was not paralyzed by the tension and struggle he experienced with sin in light of his relationship with Jesus, for it is in what he wrote in response to the war he experienced within that should help us to appreciate Ephesians 5:14-21. What are we to do with the evil that is present within? Listen to what Paul writes in Romans 7:24-25, Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. I have four points that really serve as a plan to keep you from spiritual apathy that can result in the atrophy of your faith and relationship with Jesus. I will spend all this sermon on the first point and next week, we will look at the remaining three. However, I want to list my four points so that you know where we are going in Ephesians 5:14-21. Here is a pathway I believe the apostle gives us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that will keep you from spiritual apathy and atrophy: Run to Jesus as your only advocate (v. 14) Use your time wisely for what matters (vv. 15-16) Live with an awareness of Gods will for your life (v. 17) Be intentional about what you consume into your mind, soul, and heart (vv. 18-21) Apathy is the kind of thing that happens when you are so paralyzed by shame that you stay in your shame instead of allowing it to motivate you into repentance. Repentance is never stagnant but always mobile in the direction where Jesus can be found. Apathy is what happens when you give up and are no longer interested in moving forward. Spiritual apathy, if left untreated, will lead to spiritual atrophy. Spiritual atrophy happens when your shame renders you spiritually immobile. Run to Jesus as Your Only Advocate (v. 14) Ephesians 5:14 is not so much an appeal to non-Christians to find Jesus, but for Christians. Most commentators/scholars agree that verse 14 is most likely a verse from an early church hymn quoted by Paul that was familiar to the Christians in Ephesus. What I find so fascinating about the placement of verse 14 is that it is sandwiched between verses 3-13 that address the need to refuse to participate in the useless deeds of darkness and 15-21 that encourages the Christian to live wisely as children of light. Here is what I think was going on and why I believe Paul felt the need to write what he wrote in Ephesians 5:3-13. I believe that there were some Christians who were spiritually and morally apathetic towards certain forms of sexual immorality, impurity, greed, filthy and foolish talk, and vulgar joking. Not only were they apathetic, but their apathy resulted in a type of spiritual atrophy resulting in their participation in certain forms of sin, which Paul listed. In a very real sense, there were some in the Ephesian Church, as is true in churches today, who were slumbering in certain sins. One of the many reasons why I believe this is the case is what is written in Romans 13:11-14, Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore lets rid ourselves of the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Lets behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and debauchery, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. As is true with many of the hymns and praise songs you are familiar with, the one quoted in verse 14 is infused with language from the Bible. In fact, there is so much packed into verse 14, that I could preach multiple sermons just on this one short verse, but I will not do that. What I will do is share four scripture passages with you that will open Ephesians 5:14 up to you in the same way they probably did for the Christians in Ephesus. I am not going to say a whole lot about the verses, I only want you to see them for reasons I believe will be obvious. So, here we go: Here are two passages on what is waiting for those who have been redeemed by Jesus: Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. (Isa. 60:1-2) And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. (Dan. 12:2) Here is a passage on how the redeemed should respond to God as a Father who loving disciplines His children: Do not rejoice over me, enemy of mine. Though I fall I will rise; Though I live in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. I will endure the rage of the Lord Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light, And I will look at His righteousness. (Mic. 7:8-9) There is a fourth scripture passage I believe is tied to Ephesians 5:14, and it is found in Jonah 1:6. Before we look at that verse, you need to consider the story of Jonah and how he got into trouble after being commanded by God to go to Ninevah (the capital of Assyria) to preach about the coming wrath of God upon Ninevah; Jonah got on a boat to go the opposite direction from where God told Him to go. While in disobedience, we are told, the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea... (Jon. 1:4) which made life very difficult for everyone on the boat. While everyone on the boat desperately threw stuff off the boat to lighten it in hopes of surviving the storm, Jonah was sound asleep in the stern of the ship. Put another way: The prophet Jonah was asleep in his sin of rebellion. Finally the captain of the ship found Jonah sleeping and had some words for Jonah: How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish (Jonah 1:6). In summary, it became obvious to the sailors that Jonah was running from His God (1:7-14). When they asked what they needed to do to get Jonahs God to calm the storm, the prophet told them that they needed to throw him overboard (vv. 15-16). They tried to avoid throwing Jonah overboard, but it became clear that it was their only option, so they threw him into the sea, and while in the sea, the Lord designated a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish for three days and three nights (1:17). While in the belly of the great fish Jonah endured the rage and discipline of his heavenly Father because he sinned against Him. Jonah called out to the Lord for help (Jon. 2:1-9), and God delivered His prophet by commanding the fish to vomit Jonah up onto the dry land (v. 10). Awakened from his proverbial slumber from the stern of the ship to the belly of the great fish, Jonah obeyed Gods will upon his life by going to Nineveh to preach the word of God to a people walking in the darkness of their sins and idols (3:1-9). The whole reason why Jonah fled for Tarshish when God told him to go to Nineveh is because of what Nineveh represented. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire whose army has been credited with some of the earliest forms of psychological warfare. Nineveh was filled with violent people who were guilty of some of the most horrible things against humanity. After Jonah preached his very brief message about Gods coming wrath, the entire city repented (see Jonah 3:5-10). Jonahs response was resentment and anger; this is what he prayed after God spared Nineveh from His wrath: Please Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore in anticipation of this I fled to Tarshish, since I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and One who relents of disaster (4:1-2). Against the backdrop of Gods promise of redemption for His people because of the shed blood of Jesus (Isa. 60:1-2; Dan. 12:2), how His redeemed people ought to respond to His loving discipline (Mic. 7:8-9), and Jonahs story of his rebellion and repentance, consider Ephesians 5:14 again: Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Conclusion Maybe you are like Jonah, while in your sin, you are asleep in it. Maybe you have slipped back into certain sins due to your spiritual apathy. Maybe your apathy has become spiritual atrophy. If you are truly a Christian, this 2 Corinthians 4:6 describes how it is you have been made alive with Christ: For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. You are here today, not by accident, but because it is time to wake up! The enemy of your soul wants nothing more for you than to remain in your spiritual apathy and atrophy, but today your heavenly Father summons you from the stern of your rebellious slumber: Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. So, how do you get up from your slumber? You must repent by calling your sin for what it is and by turning from it to Jesus. Listen to what the Bible says about your sin: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2) The Devil is a liar and the great accuser, but Jesus is a great savior and our all-sufficient advocate! We can run to Him in the spirit of Micah 7:8-9 and we can respond to our sins, failures, and even the devil himself: Do not rejoice over me, enemy of mine. Though I fall I will rise; Though I live in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. I will endure the rage of the Lord Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light, And I will look at His righteousness (Mic. 7:8-9). One more thing I would like to point out that I find ironic about Jonahs story and ours. It is possible that the great fish that swallowed Jonah was some other creature rather than a whale, but in my opinion that is doubtful. I do believe that the great fish that swallowed Jonah was most likely a whale. A species of whale that is large enough to swallow a human and swam in the same waters where Jonah most likely would have been tossed overboard is the sperm whale which can grow up to 60 feet long. Do you want to know what else the sperm whale is known for? It is known for both being one of the few whales that vomit, and it is also known for what it vomits! The sperm whales vomit is called Ambergris (aka liquid gold). In the water, it is a dung-like smelly substance, but once exposed to the sunlight and saltwater, it develops a muskier (perfumed) odor. After Jonah was vomited up onto the shore, covered in Ambergris and saltwater under the Arabic sun, it was not the stench of death and dung that Jonah was covered in, but a fragrant aroma that was the result of the forgiveness of his heavenly Father that he did not deserve that resulted in his redemption! Oh dear Christian! Can you see the parallels of Jonahs story and ours? Jesus said, ...for just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights (Matt. 12:40). Jesus died a death we deserved for our sins, was buried in the belly of the earth, and three days later... He came out of the tomb for our redemption! Unlike Jonah, we are not covered by Ambergris and salt water under the hot sun! No, we are covered in something infinitely better! If you are a Christian, it is in Jesus, that you have redemption; listen again to Ephesians 1:7-8, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. If you are a Christian, you are covered in the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and according to the apostle Peter: ...you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. My appeal to you is the appeal of Ephesians 5:14; do not slumber in your sin and do not stay there! Do not be apathetic towards those sins that the wrath of God is coming for and those sins for which Jesus endured that wrath you deserved. You are covered under the blood of Jesus and because that is the case, There is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). So turn, Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. [1] Keith Rose, How Porn Affects Church Attendance (Covenant Eyes; 2023)

I understand that Ephesians 5:1-13 is a difficult section in the Bible, for at least 50% of the men and about 25% of the women in churches across America view porn at least once a month. To listen to three weeks of sermons on Bible verses that address sexual sins when you already feel defeated is surely discouraging. According to one study, 43 percent of Christian men and 20 percent of Christian women acknowledge that your exposure to porn (and any sexual sin for that matter) has worsened their relationship with God.[1] What that means is that some of you not only feel stuck and defeated, but you also believe that you are far from God and that He is so disgusted by you he wants little or nothing to do with you. I want you to know that if I just described you, you have bought into a lie! One of the titles given to the devil is the accuser and what is said of him is that he is, the accuser of our brothers and sisters... the one who accuses them before our God day and night (Rev. 12:10). Jesus said of the devil that, He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). The devil is both master accuser and master liar, and he wants nothing more than for you to believe that your ongoing pattern of sins is making you more inaccessible to a Holy God whose wrath is being stored up against humanity for sins such as sexual immorality, impurity, and greed (v. 3). It is for the above reasons that I wanted to spend so much more time on Ephesians 5:14 then we were able to last week. What you must remember is that Paul is not writing to non-Christians in his epistle to the Ephesians, but to Christians whose most dangerous adversary exists in their own flesh. It is the thing that the apostle Paul wrote about in Romans 7:14-23, For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin. For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. However, if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, that the Law is good. But now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person, but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my bodys parts. What is important to point out is that Paul was not paralyzed by the tension and struggle he experienced with sin in light of his relationship with Jesus, for it is in what he wrote in response to the war he experienced within that should help us to appreciate Ephesians 5:14-21. What are we to do with the evil that is present within? Listen to what Paul writes in Romans 7:24-25, Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. I have four points that really serve as a plan to keep you from spiritual apathy that can result in the atrophy of your faith and relationship with Jesus. I will spend all this sermon on the first point and next week, we will look at the remaining three. However, I want to list my four points so that you know where we are going in Ephesians 5:14-21. Here is a pathway I believe the apostle gives us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that will keep you from spiritual apathy and atrophy: Run to Jesus as your only advocate (v. 14) Use your time wisely for what matters (vv. 15-16) Live with an awareness of Gods will for your life (v. 17) Be intentional about what you consume into your mind, soul, and heart (vv. 18-21) Apathy is the kind of thing that happens when you are so paralyzed by shame that you stay in your shame instead of allowing it to motivate you into repentance. Repentance is never stagnant but always mobile in the direction where Jesus can be found. Apathy is what happens when you give up and are no longer interested in moving forward. Spiritual apathy, if left untreated, will lead to spiritual atrophy. Spiritual atrophy happens when your shame renders you spiritually immobile. Run to Jesus as Your Only Advocate (v. 14) Ephesians 5:14 is not so much an appeal to non-Christians to find Jesus, but for Christians. Most commentators/scholars agree that verse 14 is most likely a verse from an early church hymn quoted by Paul that was familiar to the Christians in Ephesus. What I find so fascinating about the placement of verse 14 is that it is sandwiched between verses 3-13 that address the need to refuse to participate in the useless deeds of darkness and 15-21 that encourages the Christian to live wisely as children of light. Here is what I think was going on and why I believe Paul felt the need to write what he wrote in Ephesians 5:3-13. I believe that there were some Christians who were spiritually and morally apathetic towards certain forms of sexual immorality, impurity, greed, filthy and foolish talk, and vulgar joking. Not only were they apathetic, but their apathy resulted in a type of spiritual atrophy resulting in their participation in certain forms of sin, which Paul listed. In a very real sense, there were some in the Ephesian Church, as is true in churches today, who were slumbering in certain sins. One of the many reasons why I believe this is the case is what is written in Romans 13:11-14, Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore lets rid ourselves of the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Lets behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and debauchery, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. As is true with many of the hymns and praise songs you are familiar with, the one quoted in verse 14 is infused with language from the Bible. In fact, there is so much packed into verse 14, that I could preach multiple sermons just on this one short verse, but I will not do that. What I will do is share four scripture passages with you that will open Ephesians 5:14 up to you in the same way they probably did for the Christians in Ephesus. I am not going to say a whole lot about the verses, I only want you to see them for reasons I believe will be obvious. So, here we go: Here are two passages on what is waiting for those who have been redeemed by Jesus: Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. (Isa. 60:1-2) And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. (Dan. 12:2) Here is a passage on how the redeemed should respond to God as a Father who loving disciplines His children: Do not rejoice over me, enemy of mine. Though I fall I will rise; Though I live in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. I will endure the rage of the Lord Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light, And I will look at His righteousness. (Mic. 7:8-9) There is a fourth scripture passage I believe is tied to Ephesians 5:14, and it is found in Jonah 1:6. Before we look at that verse, you need to consider the story of Jonah and how he got into trouble after being commanded by God to go to Ninevah (the capital of Assyria) to preach about the coming wrath of God upon Ninevah; Jonah got on a boat to go the opposite direction from where God told Him to go. While in disobedience, we are told, the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea... (Jon. 1:4) which made life very difficult for everyone on the boat. While everyone on the boat desperately threw stuff off the boat to lighten it in hopes of surviving the storm, Jonah was sound asleep in the stern of the ship. Put another way: The prophet Jonah was asleep in his sin of rebellion. Finally the captain of the ship found Jonah sleeping and had some words for Jonah: How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish (Jonah 1:6). In summary, it became obvious to the sailors that Jonah was running from His God (1:7-14). When they asked what they needed to do to get Jonahs God to calm the storm, the prophet told them that they needed to throw him overboard (vv. 15-16). They tried to avoid throwing Jonah overboard, but it became clear that it was their only option, so they threw him into the sea, and while in the sea, the Lord designated a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish for three days and three nights (1:17). While in the belly of the great fish Jonah endured the rage and discipline of his heavenly Father because he sinned against Him. Jonah called out to the Lord for help (Jon. 2:1-9), and God delivered His prophet by commanding the fish to vomit Jonah up onto the dry land (v. 10). Awakened from his proverbial slumber from the stern of the ship to the belly of the great fish, Jonah obeyed Gods will upon his life by going to Nineveh to preach the word of God to a people walking in the darkness of their sins and idols (3:1-9). The whole reason why Jonah fled for Tarshish when God told him to go to Nineveh is because of what Nineveh represented. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire whose army has been credited with some of the earliest forms of psychological warfare. Nineveh was filled with violent people who were guilty of some of the most horrible things against humanity. After Jonah preached his very brief message about Gods coming wrath, the entire city repented (see Jonah 3:5-10). Jonahs response was resentment and anger; this is what he prayed after God spared Nineveh from His wrath: Please Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore in anticipation of this I fled to Tarshish, since I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and One who relents of disaster (4:1-2). Against the backdrop of Gods promise of redemption for His people because of the shed blood of Jesus (Isa. 60:1-2; Dan. 12:2), how His redeemed people ought to respond to His loving discipline (Mic. 7:8-9), and Jonahs story of his rebellion and repentance, consider Ephesians 5:14 again: Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Conclusion Maybe you are like Jonah, while in your sin, you are asleep in it. Maybe you have slipped back into certain sins due to your spiritual apathy. Maybe your apathy has become spiritual atrophy. If you are truly a Christian, this 2 Corinthians 4:6 describes how it is you have been made alive with Christ: For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. You are here today, not by accident, but because it is time to wake up! The enemy of your soul wants nothing more for you than to remain in your spiritual apathy and atrophy, but today your heavenly Father summons you from the stern of your rebellious slumber: Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. So, how do you get up from your slumber? You must repent by calling your sin for what it is and by turning from it to Jesus. Listen to what the Bible says about your sin: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2) The Devil is a liar and the great accuser, but Jesus is a great savior and our all-sufficient advocate! We can run to Him in the spirit of Micah 7:8-9 and we can respond to our sins, failures, and even the devil himself: Do not rejoice over me, enemy of mine. Though I fall I will rise; Though I live in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. I will endure the rage of the Lord Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light, And I will look at His righteousness (Mic. 7:8-9). One more thing I would like to point out that I find ironic about Jonahs story and ours. It is possible that the great fish that swallowed Jonah was some other creature rather than a whale, but in my opinion that is doubtful. I do believe that the great fish that swallowed Jonah was most likely a whale. A species of whale that is large enough to swallow a human and swam in the same waters where Jonah most likely would have been tossed overboard is the sperm whale which can grow up to 60 feet long. Do you want to know what else the sperm whale is known for? It is known for both being one of the few whales that vomit, and it is also known for what it vomits! The sperm whales vomit is called Ambergris (aka liquid gold). In the water, it is a dung-like smelly substance, but once exposed to the sunlight and saltwater, it develops a muskier (perfumed) odor. After Jonah was vomited up onto the shore, covered in Ambergris and saltwater under the Arabic sun, it was not the stench of death and dung that Jonah was covered in, but a fragrant aroma that was the result of the forgiveness of his heavenly Father that he did not deserve that resulted in his redemption! Oh dear Christian! Can you see the parallels of Jonahs story and ours? Jesus said, ...for just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights (Matt. 12:40). Jesus died a death we deserved for our sins, was buried in the belly of the earth, and three days later... He came out of the tomb for our redemption! Unlike Jonah, we are not covered by Ambergris and salt water under the hot sun! No, we are covered in something infinitely better! If you are a Christian, it is in Jesus, that you have redemption; listen again to Ephesians 1:7-8, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. If you are a Christian, you are covered in the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and according to the apostle Peter: ...you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. My appeal to you is the appeal of Ephesians 5:14; do not slumber in your sin and do not stay there! Do not be apathetic towards those sins that the wrath of God is coming for and those sins for which Jesus endured that wrath you deserved. You are covered under the blood of Jesus and because that is the case, There is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). So turn, Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. [1] Keith Rose, How Porn Affects Church Attendance (Covenant Eyes; 2023)

I understand that Ephesians 5:1-13 is a difficult section in the Bible, for at least 50% of the men and about 25% of the women in churches across America view porn at least once a month. To listen to three weeks of sermons on Bible verses that address sexual sins when you already feel defeated is surely discouraging. According to one study, 43 percent of Christian men and 20 percent of Christian women acknowledge that your exposure to porn (and any sexual sin for that matter) has worsened their relationship with God.[1] What that means is that some of you not only feel stuck and defeated, but you also believe that you are far from God and that He is so disgusted by you he wants little or nothing to do with you. I want you to know that if I just described you, you have bought into a lie! One of the titles given to the devil is the accuser and what is said of him is that he is, the accuser of our brothers and sisters... the one who accuses them before our God day and night (Rev. 12:10). Jesus said of the devil that, He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). The devil is both master accuser and master liar, and he wants nothing more than for you to believe that your ongoing pattern of sins is making you more inaccessible to a Holy God whose wrath is being stored up against humanity for sins such as sexual immorality, impurity, and greed (v. 3). It is for the above reasons that I wanted to spend so much more time on Ephesians 5:14 then we were able to last week. What you must remember is that Paul is not writing to non-Christians in his epistle to the Ephesians, but to Christians whose most dangerous adversary exists in their own flesh. It is the thing that the apostle Paul wrote about in Romans 7:14-23, For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin. For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. However, if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, that the Law is good. But now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person, but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my bodys parts. What is important to point out is that Paul was not paralyzed by the tension and struggle he experienced with sin in light of his relationship with Jesus, for it is in what he wrote in response to the war he experienced within that should help us to appreciate Ephesians 5:14-21. What are we to do with the evil that is present within? Listen to what Paul writes in Romans 7:24-25, Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. I have four points that really serve as a plan to keep you from spiritual apathy that can result in the atrophy of your faith and relationship with Jesus. I will spend all this sermon on the first point and next week, we will look at the remaining three. However, I want to list my four points so that you know where we are going in Ephesians 5:14-21. Here is a pathway I believe the apostle gives us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that will keep you from spiritual apathy and atrophy: Run to Jesus as your only advocate (v. 14) Use your time wisely for what matters (vv. 15-16) Live with an awareness of Gods will for your life (v. 17) Be intentional about what you consume into your mind, soul, and heart (vv. 18-21) Apathy is the kind of thing that happens when you are so paralyzed by shame that you stay in your shame instead of allowing it to motivate you into repentance. Repentance is never stagnant but always mobile in the direction where Jesus can be found. Apathy is what happens when you give up and are no longer interested in moving forward. Spiritual apathy, if left untreated, will lead to spiritual atrophy. Spiritual atrophy happens when your shame renders you spiritually immobile. Run to Jesus as Your Only Advocate (v. 14) Ephesians 5:14 is not so much an appeal to non-Christians to find Jesus, but for Christians. Most commentators/scholars agree that verse 14 is most likely a verse from an early church hymn quoted by Paul that was familiar to the Christians in Ephesus. What I find so fascinating about the placement of verse 14 is that it is sandwiched between verses 3-13 that address the need to refuse to participate in the useless deeds of darkness and 15-21 that encourages the Christian to live wisely as children of light. Here is what I think was going on and why I believe Paul felt the need to write what he wrote in Ephesians 5:3-13. I believe that there were some Christians who were spiritually and morally apathetic towards certain forms of sexual immorality, impurity, greed, filthy and foolish talk, and vulgar joking. Not only were they apathetic, but their apathy resulted in a type of spiritual atrophy resulting in their participation in certain forms of sin, which Paul listed. In a very real sense, there were some in the Ephesian Church, as is true in churches today, who were slumbering in certain sins. One of the many reasons why I believe this is the case is what is written in Romans 13:11-14, Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore lets rid ourselves of the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Lets behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and debauchery, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. As is true with many of the hymns and praise songs you are familiar with, the one quoted in verse 14 is infused with language from the Bible. In fact, there is so much packed into verse 14, that I could preach multiple sermons just on this one short verse, but I will not do that. What I will do is share four scripture passages with you that will open Ephesians 5:14 up to you in the same way they probably did for the Christians in Ephesus. I am not going to say a whole lot about the verses, I only want you to see them for reasons I believe will be obvious. So, here we go: Here are two passages on what is waiting for those who have been redeemed by Jesus: Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. (Isa. 60:1-2) And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. (Dan. 12:2) Here is a passage on how the redeemed should respond to God as a Father who loving disciplines His children: Do not rejoice over me, enemy of mine. Though I fall I will rise; Though I live in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. I will endure the rage of the Lord Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light, And I will look at His righteousness. (Mic. 7:8-9) There is a fourth scripture passage I believe is tied to Ephesians 5:14, and it is found in Jonah 1:6. Before we look at that verse, you need to consider the story of Jonah and how he got into trouble after being commanded by God to go to Ninevah (the capital of Assyria) to preach about the coming wrath of God upon Ninevah; Jonah got on a boat to go the opposite direction from where God told Him to go. While in disobedience, we are told, the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea... (Jon. 1:4) which made life very difficult for everyone on the boat. While everyone on the boat desperately threw stuff off the boat to lighten it in hopes of surviving the storm, Jonah was sound asleep in the stern of the ship. Put another way: The prophet Jonah was asleep in his sin of rebellion. Finally the captain of the ship found Jonah sleeping and had some words for Jonah: How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish (Jonah 1:6). In summary, it became obvious to the sailors that Jonah was running from His God (1:7-14). When they asked what they needed to do to get Jonahs God to calm the storm, the prophet told them that they needed to throw him overboard (vv. 15-16). They tried to avoid throwing Jonah overboard, but it became clear that it was their only option, so they threw him into the sea, and while in the sea, the Lord designated a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish for three days and three nights (1:17). While in the belly of the great fish Jonah endured the rage and discipline of his heavenly Father because he sinned against Him. Jonah called out to the Lord for help (Jon. 2:1-9), and God delivered His prophet by commanding the fish to vomit Jonah up onto the dry land (v. 10). Awakened from his proverbial slumber from the stern of the ship to the belly of the great fish, Jonah obeyed Gods will upon his life by going to Nineveh to preach the word of God to a people walking in the darkness of their sins and idols (3:1-9). The whole reason why Jonah fled for Tarshish when God told him to go to Nineveh is because of what Nineveh represented. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire whose army has been credited with some of the earliest forms of psychological warfare. Nineveh was filled with violent people who were guilty of some of the most horrible things against humanity. After Jonah preached his very brief message about Gods coming wrath, the entire city repented (see Jonah 3:5-10). Jonahs response was resentment and anger; this is what he prayed after God spared Nineveh from His wrath: Please Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore in anticipation of this I fled to Tarshish, since I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and One who relents of disaster (4:1-2). Against the backdrop of Gods promise of redemption for His people because of the shed blood of Jesus (Isa. 60:1-2; Dan. 12:2), how His redeemed people ought to respond to His loving discipline (Mic. 7:8-9), and Jonahs story of his rebellion and repentance, consider Ephesians 5:14 again: Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Conclusion Maybe you are like Jonah, while in your sin, you are asleep in it. Maybe you have slipped back into certain sins due to your spiritual apathy. Maybe your apathy has become spiritual atrophy. If you are truly a Christian, this 2 Corinthians 4:6 describes how it is you have been made alive with Christ: For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. You are here today, not by accident, but because it is time to wake up! The enemy of your soul wants nothing more for you than to remain in your spiritual apathy and atrophy, but today your heavenly Father summons you from the stern of your rebellious slumber: Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. So, how do you get up from your slumber? You must repent by calling your sin for what it is and by turning from it to Jesus. Listen to what the Bible says about your sin: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2) The Devil is a liar and the great accuser, but Jesus is a great savior and our all-sufficient advocate! We can run to Him in the spirit of Micah 7:8-9 and we can respond to our sins, failures, and even the devil himself: Do not rejoice over me, enemy of mine. Though I fall I will rise; Though I live in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. I will endure the rage of the Lord Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me out to the light, And I will look at His righteousness (Mic. 7:8-9). One more thing I would like to point out that I find ironic about Jonahs story and ours. It is possible that the great fish that swallowed Jonah was some other creature rather than a whale, but in my opinion that is doubtful. I do believe that the great fish that swallowed Jonah was most likely a whale. A species of whale that is large enough to swallow a human and swam in the same waters where Jonah most likely would have been tossed overboard is the sperm whale which can grow up to 60 feet long. Do you want to know what else the sperm whale is known for? It is known for both being one of the few whales that vomit, and it is also known for what it vomits! The sperm whales vomit is called Ambergris (aka liquid gold). In the water, it is a dung-like smelly substance, but once exposed to the sunlight and saltwater, it develops a muskier (perfumed) odor. After Jonah was vomited up onto the shore, covered in Ambergris and saltwater under the Arabic sun, it was not the stench of death and dung that Jonah was covered in, but a fragrant aroma that was the result of the forgiveness of his heavenly Father that he did not deserve that resulted in his redemption! Oh dear Christian! Can you see the parallels of Jonahs story and ours? Jesus said, ...for just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights (Matt. 12:40). Jesus died a death we deserved for our sins, was buried in the belly of the earth, and three days later... He came out of the tomb for our redemption! Unlike Jonah, we are not covered by Ambergris and salt water under the hot sun! No, we are covered in something infinitely better! If you are a Christian, it is in Jesus, that you have redemption; listen again to Ephesians 1:7-8, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. If you are a Christian, you are covered in the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and according to the apostle Peter: ...you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. My appeal to you is the appeal of Ephesians 5:14; do not slumber in your sin and do not stay there! Do not be apathetic towards those sins that the wrath of God is coming for and those sins for which Jesus endured that wrath you deserved. You are covered under the blood of Jesus and because that is the case, There is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). So turn, Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. [1] Keith Rose, How Porn Affects Church Attendance (Covenant Eyes; 2023)

God's plans are already being carried out through our lives. As you are presently in this tough season of life, lean on God. Find support in Him and trust Him with your life. The plans He has for you will prevail and they will be glorious. SUBSCRIBE to our sister podcasts:Your Daily Prayer: https://www.lifeaudio.com/your-daily-prayer/Your Daily Bible Verse: https://www.lifeaudio.com/your-daily-bible-verse/ Full Transcript Below: How Can I Take Comfort in God's Plans for My Life? By Vivian Bricker  “‘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.'” – Jeremiah 29:11 Due to living in a fallen world, we are always coming across problems. Problems with work, our relationships, and our health can leave us feeling worn out. It never feels as though we can get a break. Instead of being relieved once one problem is resolved, a hundred new problems replace it. Whenever we are feeling like this, we need to turn to the Lord and know that He has a beautiful plan for our lives.  There have been many times in my life where I don't feel like there is a purpose to the pain I am experiencing—there is only suffering. We are often taught that pain makes us stronger, when sometimes it can actually make us weaker. Every pain, every tear, and every heartache does not lead us to something greater. Instead, it can lead us to meet the end of the road.  Plans we previously had for our lives seem to be non-existent and we don't even know how we are going to make it to the end of the month. When these issues arise, we can find lasting hope and purpose in God. He has great plans for our life. Through the pain, we can see His will more clearly and we take joy in knowing that our suffering is never forgotten by Him.  Recently, I had an issue in my life that God worked through. I thought I was going to have to make a major life change; however, God kept me where I was. He placed me on level ground and told me I was right where He wanted me to be. From that day, I felt the assurance of the Lord. His plans for me would never be sabotaged by anything or anyone, including myself or this season of suffering.  His goodness and his love will ensure all of the plans He has for our lives will be accomplished. Some of them might not be completed in the ways we once thought; however, we can trust in His plans. We might be lacking direction or guidance, but God never does. He will direct and guide each of our steps.  In Jeremiah 29:11, the Lord tells us He already knows the plans He has for us and that these plans will prosper us. They will not harm us in any way. Rather, these plans will give us hope and a future. Whenever we are unsure about the future, we need to rely on God's plans for our lives.  Your present season of suffering will not endure forever because the Lord has beautiful plans for your future. This future will not harm you nor will it cause you problems. It will only give you hope and surround you with the Lord's goodness. Choose to live out this truth today by walking confidently in Jesus' promise.  The plans God has for our lives is far greater than anything we could ever imagine. If you are presently going through a season of suffering, rest in the truth that you will be brought out into a season of joy. Similar to how the physical seasons change, this season of life will change too. The suffering and pain you are experiencing now will not endure forever.  Intersecting Faith & Life: This season might last for a while, but you can continue to trust God. No matter what season of life we find ourselves in, we can know with confidence that God is working all things out for our good (Romans 8:28). It is not a pleasant season right now; however, God's plans for your life are still being fulfilled. There is nothing we can do to mess up God's plans for our lives nor is there any season of life that can separate us from His plans.  God's plans are already being carried out through our lives. As you are presently in this tough season of life, lean on God. Find support in Him and trust Him with your life. The plans He has for you will prevail and they will be glorious. “Dear Jesus, I am going through a tough season right now. There only seems to be suffering at every corner. Please Lord, help me to have hope for the plans You have for my life. Bring my heart and mind to meditate on Your plans for my life rather than the tragedies I am currently going through. I know nothing can usurp Your plans for my life. I praise You, Amen.” During this present season of suffering, what has the Lord been teaching you?  God has many plans for your life. Does this bring you a sense of comfort? Why or why not?  How does knowing that God has plans for your life change your outlook during this present season of life?  Further Reading: 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Psalm 119:76 Romans 8:26-28 Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

July 7, 2024 Sunday Morning message by Jeff Colón Website: www.lighthouseontherockky.org Facebook: https://facebook.com/lotrchurch

गणेश जी को खुश करने के आसान उपाए | Vastu Tips for Please Lord Ganesha | Dr Puneet Chawla --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ecom-live-vaastu/message

A Divine Marital Intervention - A couple gets a gift from God. (Erotic Coupling) By Masterful_Husband. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Like a lot of people, I met my wife in college. We were in the same dorm and fell into that common dating circle trap where everyone is dating everyone. It wasn't until we left for separate grad schools that we realized how much we meant to each other. It's ironic that our relationship got more serious as we dated long distance but it worked well for us. I asked her to marry me when we graduated and we were wedded and honeymooning within six months. I'd say our marriage was idyllic but that would be a lie. There was one issue that kept coming up over and over as a source of friction. My wife would tell you that we were “unevenly yoked”. I would say, “She's religious and I wasn't.”We had discussed it (at great length) when we dated. I wasn't some militant atheist. Those people have elevated that belief to an absurd level. I was an agnostic. I believed that disproving God was as futile as believing in one. I remember one memorable conversation my wife (then fiancée) and I had. “I kind of admire people of faith,” I'd said. She propped herself up on one elbow, looking at me with some excitement. “Really?” I nodded, “Truly. I just can't make myself believe in something so, ephemeral. Unverifiable. You know?” “You believe in my love, don't you?” “Of course.” “Isn't it just as ephemeral?” I kissed her, “No. You show me how much you love me every day.” “So does God. You just have to know where to look.” The certainty in her voice was compelling but not persuasive. I sighed, trying to avoid a fight, “I, I understand why you say that but I don't see it that way. I do see wonderful, amazing things in this world but I also see plenty of reasonable, non-divine, explanations. On top of that, I don't see why Christianity has to be the only answer. I mean, Have you made an extensive study of all major religions? Maybe there's another out there that's more internally consistent than Christianity?” She frowned, “Danny, do you think I only believe because of some myopic view of the Bible?” “Um, This feels like a trap,” I said, grinning and trying to defuse the situation. “It's not. Look,” she said sitting up. Her pert little breasts were bare in front of me but I tried not to focus on them. She didn't help when she grabbed the gold cross that nestled between them and spun it. “This is just a symbol. The Bible is the instruction manual. But God is all around me. He talks to me. He saved me.” “I will consider it,” I said and kissed her again. I was hopeful for another round of lovemaking. My wife is incredibly devout and spiritual but, thankfully, not particularly dogmatic. Sex before marriage wasn't off the table which I was truly grateful for in those days because, frankly, it was incredible. “One more thing. I know you don't believe, yet,” she added with a smile, “But I need to know that you're not going to close yourself off to this.” “What do you mean,” I asked. “I just want to know you'll keep an open mind. Maybe try out some churches with me from time to time. Okay?” I nodded. I didn't really love going to church but I didn't hate it. Over the years, plenty of my friends had tried to convince me so I'd gotten used to it. “How about once a month?” Karen smiled, “Plus Christmas and Easter?” I smiled back, “Sure,” I said and kissed her. We did make love again that night and in the morning. And the pledge wasn't forgotten. After we got married we tried out a bunch of different churches. Karen's lack of doctrinaire adherence meant that she was perfectly fine trying out lots of different flavors of church. She was always hoping to find one that I felt comfortable with. She prayed every night for me, often peeking out of one eye in a manner that made me think she expected a bolt of lightning to change me right in front of her eyes. We continued like that for years. We were happy but there was always this small little wedge between us. We both felt it and we both hated it but there was no changing either of us. We moved to Seattle when we both found jobs in the area. I had just turned 29 and my wife's 30th birthday was right around the corner. We were both very happy and Karen now had a whole new batch of churches to try out on me. Some days I thought that was the only reason she agreed to the move. After about six months, she found this Presbyterian church just outside of the city. I think of it as the Goldilocks church. It wasn't a big mega church, nor was it a little dinky church. The congregation was neither geriatric nor were they a bunch of new age hippies. The pastor was impassioned but not fire and brimstone, us vs. them, burn the gays. It was one of the few churches that she'd brought me to that didn't make my skin crawl when I walked in. It felt like a family without feeling like a cult. “I like this place,” I whispered to Karen as we found our seats. A couple a little older than us greeted us. There were kids running around and just a general sense of community that pervaded the church. I listened to a sermon that day that changed my life in ways I couldn't even fathom. If I'm being truthful, I don't even really remember the sermon, however. My mind wandered and I thought about all the different things that I'd seen and learned. Something changed in me during that hour and I knew I believed suddenly. It sounds cliché to say that the will of God worked its way into my heart but given what happened later that night, I think that's probably what happened. What I do remember from the service was the pastor's closing prayer. “Lord, I don't know a lot of things but I want to know what you're willing to show me. Just help me learn how to know you, Lord.” For the first time ever, I said the words silently but earnestly. They seemed like perfect words for me. We drove home in silence as I contemplated what was happening. I was too terrified to tell Karen. I didn't want to get her hopes up in case it wasn't what I thought. Maybe I'd just eaten something odd the night before or something, right? But for the rest of the day, I felt it tugging on my mind. There was still uncertainty but now there was a quest for learning more mixed in. That night, Karen knelt at the foot of the bed, just as she'd done every night since we'd gotten married and said her own prayers. “Lord, you know my heart. You know what I want. I pray for Danny and that you will work your will on him. And Lord, that other silent prayer that I've been saying for years. I'm ready for that too. I've been putting conditions on it and that's not right. Please Lord, I trust you completely.” That last part confused me. I'd never heard her say anything like that and never heard her pray for anything consistently other than for my salvation. She crawled up into bed, wearing just a t-shirt and snuggled up next to me. I resisted the urge to ask her about the odd addition knowing that prying wasn't going to score me any points. Within five minutes, we were having wild sex. She seemed much more relaxed than normal. Not that she was particularly restrained in bed. But our lovemaking generally followed a bit of a formula on most occasions and that night we completely deviated from it. We were rolling all over the bed, shifting positions multiple times like a porno or something. Eventually, we came together while I was slamming into her with her legs over my shoulders. We were staring into each other's eyes while she whispered, “Thank you. I love you,” over and over. We drifted off to sleep feeling tired and sated but also weirdly excited. The Divine Revelation The next thing I remember, I was in an incredibly lucid dream. I was walking along the bank of a river. The moss covered pebbles crunched under my feet as I looked down and realized I was completely naked. Somehow I wasn't particularly bothered by that. The temperature was perfect. The sun kissed against my skin while a cool breeze wicked away the hint of sweat. I could hear the river flow and the birds and insects in the forest buzzed peacefully. Something about the setting felt more perfect and relaxing than anything I'd ever felt. That's when God appeared. Don't ask me how I knew it was him. I just knew. He wasn't an old bearded man with a robe. Nor a guy wearing a well pressed suit. Frankly, it wasn't at all what I expected. Out from the forest floated an ephemeral mixture of dust and fire and water. A swirling maelstrom confined into a vaguely humanoid body. The eyebrows were formed from small rocks, the mouth was a roaring fire. And the eyes. I swear the eyes were stars,  or maybe whole galaxies. It was magnificent and awe inspiring. Or it would have been if not for the Hawaiin shirt and Birkenstock sandals that the elemental construct wore. “How do I look?” came a booming, commanding voice. It shook the whole forest, trees swayed and the river behind me sloshed violently. “What?” I asked, confused and scared. “Oh. Sorry,” God said. “Is that better? I don't talk to a lot of humans these days. Mostly whales and elephants. They're the next big thing on Earth, you see.” He laughed at his own joke though I was too stunned to reciprocate. “What?” I asked again. Less scared and more confused. “Sorry, sorry. Danny, Or do you prefer Daniel?” “What?” God sighed. He actually sighed. Frosty breath flew out of his mouth and dissipated into the wind before he said, “Calm down. Take a breath. I'm God. You're Danny. Everything's fine.” I did as he told me and felt a little less agitated but no less befuzzled. “Sorry, I'm just; you're God?” “In the flesh. Well, my version of it anyways. Nice to meet you?” he said and extended a watery hand. I reached for it and felt my hand slosh through the wetness. God laughed at the look on my face, “Sorry, Danny. I love that joke.” “I don't understand any of this,” I said and just sat down on a rock at the side of the river. “I know. This is all new to you. I get that. But I've been following your wife for years. She's amazing.” “Yes she is, but what do you mean; following? Don't you pay attention to everyone?” “Well, technically I'm omniscient and omnipresent and all-powerful and all that. But it doesn't work the way you humans think of it. I can see and know anything I want but only the stuff I really think about. Most humans have gotten pretty bad at worshipping me. They don't do it right. They don't do it out of a sense of love. They want something from me. Your wife is one of those rare exceptions. She loves me just for me. You can see why that's so appealing, right?” I thought about it, “So basically humanity has become a bunch of gold diggers telling you they love you but really wanting your money?” God nodded, flexing the sand in his neck and giving me a fiery thumbs up. “You got it. Not Karen. She's only been praying for two things that were for her and tonight she realized why she was wrong to condition them. She made that final, selfless step of praying just for me to do what I thought was right.” “So that really was you today?” “Yeah. I knew she'd have her epiphany tonight so I made sure you had your own earlier today.” “How could you,” I started to ask. God tapped his fiery hand against the hard surface of his skull causing sparks to shoot out, “I see the future, remember?” “Oh,” I said. That made sense. “So why show up to me like this? Do all new believers get this treatment?” God laughed. It was a joyful, musical sound that I could have listened to forever. “Oh no. Definitely not. This is kind of my little gift to Karen. To let you know you're not imagining things and you're on the right path. Plus, I can't really give her her other wish without talking to you first.” “What do you mean?” “She loves you, Danny.” “I know,” I said, confused again. Of course she loved me. I know a lot of people say that they know their spouse loves them but secretly doubt it. I never did. If anything, I always wondered if I loved her as much as she loved me. “No. She really, really loves you. Nearly as much as she loves me, actually. And she's very traditional. Almost to a fetish.” “What do you mean? She's not particularly traditional about stuff that I've noticed.” “That's because she knows you're not looking for that. So she's kept that little part of her hidden lest it bother you.” “What do you mean,” I asked, still not understanding. “She wants to serve you. Completely. She wants to be perfect for you in whatever way you want.” “Isn't that true of everyone that truly loves their spouse?” “No. Not really. Think of it this way. Would you kill someone if she asked?” “Of course not. Would she?” “No. But she wants to.” I was startled and really bothered, “She wants to kill someone for me? What the f” I stopped myself from vulgar talking in front of God. He laughed. “Don't worry. You can be vulgar around me. I invented all the words, remember?” he said and patted me on the shoulder. Somehow his fiery hand didn't burn me, though I still flinched. “No, she doesn't want to kill someone. She wants to be so devoted to you that she would if you asked. But she knows you never would. Understand?” “Not even a little,” I said truthfully. “She wants to be able to be literally anything for you. If you want it from her, she wants to be that for you.” “Oh, I get it. Like she wants to like computer games and watching basketball even though I know she doesn't like those things?” God nodded, “Exactly. It's how she thinks of being a good help-meet. She wants to literally be anything you want. And that's what I'm giving her, well, I'm giving it to both of you.” “What do you mean?” “When you wake up, you'll be able to change anything about Karen you want. Forever.” “Permanently?” “If you want. She'll be able to be molded in whatever way you want for the rest of your life. Want her to like Basketball? Done. Want her to hate Basketball the next day? Sure.” “Why not just change her into my perfect girl? Why give me all this power?” “Three reasons, Danny. First, that's not what she wants. She wants to be malleable and flexible for you. She knows that people change and she doesn't want to be perfect for you in this moment and terrible for you years from now.” God ticked off one stony finger as he talked, then sprouted a little twig as a second finger, “Second, I needed to talk to you about this so you'd understand. So you'd believe and would appreciate that this is well and truly what she wants at a deep, fundamental level. She finally let go of conditioning it upon your salvation and that was the key but she's always wanted it from the day she met you.” He smiled at me and I saw one of his eyes twinkle, “And third, I like to have a little fun and watching you two will be just that. I'm curious what you do with the complete control of another human being. Daunting isn't it?” I nodded as a million thoughts and questions rolled through my mind. God smiled at me again, “Don't worry. I know it'll be fine. I can see the future remember? Oh, one thing. There is one limit. No matter what you change, she'll never stop loving me. That's key to her and one part that you can't change. Not that you'd want to, I know. But just to give you some peace of mind.” I nodded again. The dream started to fade a little and I could feel myself waking up. “Wait!” I called. The elemental deity turned to gaze at me with those piercing eyes. “What can we do for you?” I asked. He smiled, a blazing smile of warmth and serenity. “It's a good question Danny. Find your own way. Love Karen. Love others. Put love into the world. That's my greatest commandment. All the other dogma that religions attach to worship are just fluff. Love is all you really need.” He started walking away, his strange footwear crunching on the pebbles as he walked. But then he paused and as I called out, “Really? That's all? We don't need to convert people or something? Preach your message?” “For crying out loud. Why does everyone think that? Sure, tell people about me if you want. That's your call. Remember, I'm the one in charge. If I wanted more followers I'd snap my fingers and it would happen. I want you to make the world better in whatever big or small way you can, Danny,” he continued walking and the dream began to fully fade. I could feel the haze lift as the morning light broke through my eyelids, ripping me from the verdant dreamscape that I truly didn't want to leave. As I started to stir, I heard the voice one last time, “Oh, I gave you both a little gift that I think you'll really enjoy.” I tried to call out to ask him what it was but my mouth wasn't working. Suddenly, I bolted upright, the dream gone and already fading from my short term memory. Morning's New reality “What is it, honey?” Karen asked, my sudden movement having woken her. Karen was a very light sleeper which was pretty nice when I woke up feeling frisky. Of course this morning, I was only feeling perplexed. Had it been real? Was it just a crazy dream? Surely it was just my imagination, right? “Karen? Do you feel, different today?” She looked at me, “No, why?” “I don't know. it's just, I had the weirdest dream,” I said. She looked at me, puzzled for a moment. “Bad dream or good dream?” “Good, I mean I think it was good. Um, Okay, let me ask you something. Last night when you said your prayer, you said something different. Something about a silent prayer?” Karen's eyes grew wide and she blushed, “You noticed?” I nodded, “What was it, if you don't mind me asking?” My throat was dry and I could feel my heart pounding. Would she tell me? Was this the moment of truth? She looked at me and fairly whispered, “I prayed… well… I've always prayed that… that I could be the best wife for you.” I smiled. It was true! It was absolutely true! But I had to be sure. Maybe my subconscious had heard her murmuring or something. I had to know. “That seems pretty benign. Why pray that silently. And by the way, you are a perfect wife for me,” I told her as I leaned over and kissed her forehead. Karen smiled, “I know you think that. But I"m not. And and, I want to be, Danny. I want to be perfect even with all the little things that you dislike.” My grin probably took on a manic look, “What… like how you don't like watching basketball with me?” Karen krinkled her nose but then exclaimed, “Yes… exactly. I hate it but I wish I didn't.” I studied her for a minute, trying to remember the words I'd heard. What did I need to do? Snap my fingers? Make a wish? Or just will the changes into being? I looked at Karen and just thought about her happily watching basketball with me. I pictured us cuddled up on the couch, her wearing one of my UCLA jerseys as we happily watched a game. Karen seemed to get a little twinkle in her eye, “But you know what… in keeping with my prayer last night, what the heck? Let's watch a game today?” “Really?” I asked, surprised in spite of myself. “Why the heck not?” she said, giving me a kiss. “I'll go make us breakfast, you find a game you've been wanting to watch and we'll see if maybe I can learn to like it. It's been awhile and I owe you the effort.” I smiled and stretched out in bed as I watched Karen's gorgeous ass climb out from the sheets.. She stripped out of her night shirt and then stood there pondering what to wear. She looked at me, smirking at how I was staring at her naked tits like a kid who found his dad's Playboys. She got an idea and went into our closet, coming out only a few moments later wearing my old, beaten up Ed O'Bannon jersey. My mouth must have dropped three feet as I stared at her. She looked super cute in the oversized jersey. It was long enough to be worn like a very short mini-dress and it made her legs look great. Not to mention, the side-boob view was amazing. “What? I figured I should look the part of a super fan. Besides, if I'm wearing your jersey, better odds of you being shirtless.” Karen liked it when I walked around the house wearing just my pajama bottoms and no shirt. You know what they say, “Happy wife, happy life.” She went into the kitchen and started cooking and I did my usual morning ritual. As I was standing there peeing, I looked down and was shocked to see something that I was completely unprepared for. My cock was bigger soft than it had ever been hard. It was like a giant slab of salami was dangling down from me. I remembered the last words that God had spoken to me. Was God's parting gift to me a giant cock? And how was I going to explain this to Karen? As I stood there, my panic subsided. This was going to be fine, I told myself as I walked back into the bedroom and put on the silk pajama pants she'd bought me for Christmas. The long green cloth felt cool as it slid across my cock. I felt my arousal start but really didn't want to alarm Karen any sooner than I needed to so I willed myself to keep it down. It was quite difficult as Karen was moving around in the kitchen and every time she reached up for an ingredient, her ass would peek out from beneath the jersey. I distracted myself by finding the game I'd recorded Saturday night on the DVR. We'd played USC and I hadn't been able to watch it live but I'd still managed to avoid the results. It was ML King Day and I'd planned on vegging out on the couch and watching the game while Karen went shopping with her friend but now that plan seemed out the window in a good way. As if she'd read my mind, Karen called out, “I texted Jill and told her I was staying home today. So it's just you and me, honey.” “Excellent,” I said as I fast forwarded through all the garbage at the beginning of the game, pausing it at tip off as big Moses Brown was just starting his jump. Karen came in and sat next to the couch, yanking a blanket over her legs for warmth as she snuggled against me. She ran her fingers along my chest and cooed softly before saying, “Ah, looking good big guy. I could get used to this, I think.” I draped my arm around her as I took the plate from her. She'd made an omelet and cinnamon rolls and it smelled absolutely delicious. “Me too,” I said as I started eating. I hit play on the game and immediately knew that something had changed. Karen was interested and alert. She asked questions about the game and repeatedly made interesting insights. By half time, she was really into it. We'd finished our food and, despite UCLA losing by three points, we were ready to go. Even more importantly, Karen was ready to go. She was cheering her heart out but Boatwright and Rakocevic just took us to the woodshed. With two minutes left, USC was stomping us by 26 and I flipped off the TV and threw the remote away in disgust. Karen crawled up to me and whispered, “Oh, baby. I'm sorry. What can I do to make it all better?” She looked so sexy in my jersey as she straddled my hips on the leather couch that I forgot all about the dream last night. Let alone my newly enhanced cock. “Suck me until I explode?” I said. Karen wasn't a huge fan of blowjobs. She saw them as foreplay but they rarely lasted more than a minute. Today she just nodded happily and hopped down on the floor, eagerly stripping the silk pajamas off me. When my semi-hard cock flopped out, her eyes got wide. “Oh, shit,” I thought to myself. “Holy crap, Danny. What happened?” she said as she took the hardening shaft in her hand, holding it reverently. Like many couples, one of the first things she'd done with my cock when we'd gotten together was to measure it. So we both knew full well that six and a half inches was the normal length. Instead she was now holding a nearly nine inch cock that wasn't fully hard. And where a roll of quarters might have been the right measurement of girth before, now it looked like a coke can. I'd never appreciated the euphemism “third leg” before but now it seemed pretty apropo. “Uhh… I took some of those pills you order online and they actually worked?” I said. My words carried absolutely no conviction. No way was Karen going to believe them unless she was trusting to a fault. “Oh wow. Well I wouldn't have thought they would work but I guess the evidence is right here,” she said as she licked the head of my cock, “In my mouth.” She smiled up at me and started trying to wrap her lips around my cock. Karen took a couple inches in her mouth, bobbing up and down. I honestly still hadn't realized what the effect I was having on her was. I know it sounds stupid, but you try having a crazy dream where you talk to God and then waking up with a giant cock and tell me how analytical you are. What kicked things into gear was what happened next. I was lying there enjoying an enthusiastic, but not particularly great, blowjob from my gorgeous wife and thinking about how great it would be if she could easily deep throat me. As soon as I imagined it, she sank about an inch further. Then another inch. And another. After five or six thrusts, she was suddenly taking my cock all the way down her throat. Her nose touching my pelvis as her tongue snaked out to tickle my balls slightly. She looked up at me and seemed to smile at me with her eyes before resuming her work, taking my cock down her throat over and over. “I didn't know you were such a good cocksucker,” I said breathlessly. She pulled off my cock and frowned, “Please don't call me that.” “But I want to,” I said and she nodded meekly. I saw the unhappy look on her face though and added, “But only if you like it.” Her attitude shifted a full 180 instantly. She smiled a wicked smile and licked her lips, staring hungrily at my cock. “I do, baby. I'll be your good little cocksucker. I'll be the best cocksucking wife ever,” she said before diving back down on my cock. She started slamming her mouth down over and over as I urged her on. It wasn't long until I felt my orgasm coming. “Yeah baby. I'm so close. Be a good little cocksucker and suck it all down your greedy throat, slut,” I roared. Karen normally doesn't like the taste of cum but that was no longer the case. She latched onto my cock and sucked hard as I felt spurt after spurt fill her newly eager mouth. It was too much for her and she pulled off it, mouth filled with my cum as one last blast shot out and landed on her chin. She sat there panting as she wiped her face and licked the cum off her wrist. She just knelt on the ground staring up at me with wide eyes. “That was amazing. I didn't know I could do that,” she said as she nuzzled my cock and licked the last little drops from the head of the shaft. The sensation was like a pleasure overload and I twitched with each little teasing touch. When my vision cleared, I pulled her up next to me on the couch, “So you liked that, baby?” “Oh yeah… I'm so horny now, lover. Can you go again? Or does your new equipment take longer to recharge?” “I don't know. I guess we'll find out. So you really liked that?” “Yeah. Why do you ask?” “Well, you didn't seem to like me calling you, um, a cocksucker at first.” As I said it she shuddered in my arms, sending a pleasurable ripple through her body. She thought for a moment, “At first I didn't. But then you told me you wanted to and it was like something clicked. Suddenly being called, a cocksucker, was a huge turn-on for me.” I thought about that and the idea that my perfect little churchgoing wife liked being called a ‘cocksucker' really stirred something in me. “What about when I called you a slut?” I asked, hopefully. “In the moment, I barely noticed but hearing you say it now…?” she said somewhat breathlessly. Her skin was flushed and she inched towards me with a hungry look in her eyes. “Whore?” she nodded. “Tramp?” another nod. “Cunt, bitch, fucktoy?” She was practically panting. “You don't mind being called those degrading names?” I said. Now I was getting the hang of this. I was imagining her getting insanely aroused by the name calling and it was happening right here in front of me. “Fuck, I'm so turned on, Danny. Please take me in the bedroom and fuck me. Fuck me. Use me. Call me names. Call me whatever degrading, horrible, humiliating names you want. Please?” She had one hand on my cock and another between her legs. She'd never asked me to fuck her. We always “made love” but that wasn't what either of us wanted anymore. I practically dragged her to the bedroom and threw her onto our bed. She yelped and I dove on her, grabbing her hips and raising them up so I could slam into her from behind. Her cunt was soaking and my cock slammed into her. She screamed out, “It's too big!” with a pained shout. “No it's not. It's perfect for your slut cunt,” I whispered in her ear and it instantly became true. Her pained whimper became a lusty groan. We were suddenly just two animals fucking. I grabbed her wrists and held her suspended so I could see her face in the mirror on our dresser. I loved the look of mindless pleasure she displayed as I hammered into her. “Cum for me you dumb cunt,” I told her and her body responded with a more powerful orgasm than I'd ever seen. I felt her cunt clench my cock tight and it was all I could do not to shoot into her right then. I held on though and just as she came down from her first orgasm I shoved my hips in hard and whispered, “Cum again. Don't stop cumming for me, slut!” It was like I'd shocked her with lightning. Her whole body started shaking and spasming as she came over and over again. I looked down and saw her cunt squeezing at my cock as I pulled the huge shaft out before slamming back in faster and faster. Her eyes were rolled into the back of her head and her screams had turned into nearly silent pleadings of “Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes.” I flung her forward and grabbed her hips, shoving my cock in with three more hard thrusts before unloading inside of her. She and I both collapsed in a fit of giggles and laughter. Cum was already leaking out of her and down her legs as we kissed. Her sweaty hair was matted on her face from the exertion of it all as she whispered, “I love you. I love you.” “I love you too, babe,” I said. “Wow you came a lot,” she said looking down. “Oh no… You didn't use a condom!” she exclaimed in a panic. “Don't worry,” I said. I thought about how she couldn't get pregnant unless I wanted and I knew it was instantly true. She laughed at me as she wobbled into the bathroom. “What? Do those big dick pills also make you infertile?” “Something like that,” I said with a laugh. Karen cleaned herself up and came back to bed, snuggling next to me on the sweaty sheets. “I guess you've got some sheets to change,” I joked. Changing the sheets was one of my jobs around the house. Again, my new found control worked both consciously and subconsciously, apparently. “Sure thing, babe. After that fucking I'm happy to do the sheets.” Seeing her hop to my direction, I arrived at a quick conclusion. “Karen, there's something I need to tell you.” “What's wrong?” she said, looking suddenly concerned. “Nothing. I mean,” I paused for a second, thinking about it. If everything God had told me last night was true, and it sure seemed to be, then truly nothing was wrong. “A couple things. Uhmm… yesterday I… I realized that I believe in God.” “What? Really?” she lunged at me and gave me a huge hug and a kiss. “Seriously? That's wonderful!” She was nearly shouting and there were tears in her eyes. “Hard as it is to believe, that's not the most important thing that happened yesterday,” I said. She looked at me, “What could be bigger than you finding God?” “Funny you should say it that way because something else happened. Uhmm… God came to me in my dreams.” She waved her hand, “I dream about God visiting me all the time, Danny. Totally normal.” “No… you don't understand. God came to me. He talked to me. He… gave me stuff.” “What do you mean?” “Well… this cock for one. I haven't been taking any pills.” “Seriously, Danny? That's amazing. What else?” I was surprised at how willingly she believed me before I remembered what I'd changed before. “Well… Uhmm… He… he gave me control of you,” I said, letting the words hang in the air. She looked at me with wide eyes, “What do you mean, Danny? What do you mean he gave you control of me?” Her breathing was suddenly more rapid and her nipples hardened in front of my eyes. “God told me about your prayer last night. That you'd always wished for it and it's really what you wanted deep down. He gave you your wish because he loves you and you finally let go and simply trusted him.” Her eyes got even wider as I spoke. She knew it was true, I could tell. She was also a little scared. And very aroused. “What does that mean?” “Well… didn't you wonder how you could take my new cock so well? Or why you suddenly liked being called those names?” She thought about it, replaying the last 30 minutes in her mind. “You made me do that?” she asked in awe. “That's… That's so hot. Wait, did you just make me think that's hot?” she asked accusingly. “No. That's all you,” I said with a smile. I gave her a kiss and watched as she processed all of this. “So… so what can you do to me?” “I don't really know. I mean… I think basically anything.” “Oh my gosh… is that why I liked watching basketball?” she asked as she thought about the events of the morning. I just nodded as she continued, “Wow… if you can do that you really can do anything,” she said with a smirk. I smacked her with a pillow and we laughed. “Can you change my hair color?” “Uhh… sure,” I said. I pictured her with green hair and suddenly her chestnut hair slowly changed to the bright green, exactly like I'd imagined it. “Ugh… really?” she said as she looked at it. I then willed her to like it and suddenly she smiled, “I love it. Wait… oh my gosh. Did you make me like it?” I nodded with a grin. She was practically panting now, “Do it some more. Make me your dream girl, Danny. Please?” “You are my dream girl,” I said and gave her a kiss. She kissed me back but then pushed me away, “That's nice of you to say but seriously. I want you to make me whatever you think is perfect. That's why I wanted this. That's… that's why God gave you this power, right?” I thought about it. I still didn't have any actual idea why God gave me this gift. But I could tell the idea of having no more control turned on Karen and I wasn't about to miss an opportunity of this magnitude. I looked at her and tried to imagine what a perfect version of Karen would look like. I pictured her in college when we'd met as Sophomores. Then I took that image and tried to completely idealize it. I pictured her with a more hourglass figure. Slightly wider hips and narrower waist. I pictured her with perfectly smooth, sun-kissed skin and bright red hair that cascaded down her ample breasts. I pictured her cute little pink nipples now sticking out like small thumbs. I imagined how sensitive to the touch she was. How easily aroused she was. I'd always loved her blue eyes and I dialed that up to eleven making her eyes so gorgeous and piercing that Alexandra D'Addario would be jealous. My mind wandered as I imagined the things we would have done. The wild crazy sex. The depraved things we'd have done together as we experimented. I imagined fucking her in front of our friends at a frat party. I imagined her getting off to being treated like a slave when she dressed as Princess Leia at Halloween. I imagined her showing me how much she loved to be spanked and how she could get off from just having her nipples teased and tormented. I opened my eyes and the vision from my mind was lying there in front of me. She was smiling at me with a lusty gaze. “Is it done?” “Yeah, go look,” I said gesturing at our mirror. She hopped out of bed and stood in front of the mirror for a moment before she turned back around to me. “Hahaha… Seriously… C'mon Danny,” she said. “What? Do you not like it?” “It's just me from college,” she said with her hand on her hip. I looked at her in confusion. “What are you talking about?” I asked. Karen's red-brown hair had never been this red, her tits never that big. I'd even made her subconsciously just a little bit taller and I could tell because now the jersey she was still wearing wasn't covering anything. “I appreciate that you think college me was a vision of perfection but you have to have had something to improve.” That's when it hit me. I'd imagined doing things to this version of Karen in college. It must have completely changed her memories of the events. “Karen, do you remember that frat party we went to?” She thought for a second then shuddered, “The one that you fucked me like a whore in front of everyone while they all cheered… fuck that was amazing.” I closed my eyes and imagined her back to normal right up until I changed her appearance a moment before. Now her expression changed to one of amazement. “Holy crap. That was… that was so trippy. It's like I had a whole other life for a moment. Oh wow… Oh Wow!” she said now looking at the mirror and appreciating the changes. “So this is what you like, huh? I nodded. She stripped off her shirt and played with her breasts, enjoying the sensation of her now very sensitive nipples. “Wait… all those nasty sex things I imagined us doing… Those were things you want?” I grinned in embarrassment, “Uh… yeah… kind of.” “Kind of?” she said, getting a grin on her face. “You kind of want to fuck me in front of our friends?” I nodded again and she crawled naked on the bed, “You kind of want to lead me around on a leash like a… like a fuck toy?” Again, I nodded and licked my lips as she got closer, “You ‘kind of' want to spank my ass while I beg you to use me like a… what did that version of me say?” Her captivating eyes looked off in the distance as she tried to remember the fleeting, fake memory, “Like a 'cheap, dumb cock socket'?” I reached up and stroked her nipple with one hand and her whole body shuddered in overwhelming arousal. “That's so hot,” I whispered. “That version of me was always dressing in really slutty clothes too. And lacy, sexy lingerie. Do you like that too?” she asked. I hadn't even realized it but she was right. All the sexy images I'd had in my mind had her wearing short tight little dresses and shorts and low cut tops. High heels and sexy underwear were always featured to. I licked my lips and choked out a “Yes.” Karen dove on me and kissed me, “Thank God.” I couldn't agree more. By Masterful_Husband for Literotica

A Divine Marital Intervention - A couple gets a gift from God. (Erotic Coupling) By Masterful_Husband. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Like a lot of people, I met my wife in college. We were in the same dorm and fell into that common dating circle trap where everyone is dating everyone. It wasn't until we left for separate grad schools that we realized how much we meant to each other. It's ironic that our relationship got more serious as we dated long distance but it worked well for us. I asked her to marry me when we graduated and we were wedded and honeymooning within six months. I'd say our marriage was idyllic but that would be a lie. There was one issue that kept coming up over and over as a source of friction. My wife would tell you that we were “unevenly yoked”. I would say, “She's religious and I wasn't.”We had discussed it (at great length) when we dated. I wasn't some militant atheist. Those people have elevated that belief to an absurd level. I was an agnostic. I believed that disproving God was as futile as believing in one. I remember one memorable conversation my wife (then fiancée) and I had. “I kind of admire people of faith,” I'd said. She propped herself up on one elbow, looking at me with some excitement. “Really?” I nodded, “Truly. I just can't make myself believe in something so, ephemeral. Unverifiable. You know?” “You believe in my love, don't you?” “Of course.” “Isn't it just as ephemeral?” I kissed her, “No. You show me how much you love me every day.” “So does God. You just have to know where to look.” The certainty in her voice was compelling but not persuasive. I sighed, trying to avoid a fight, “I, I understand why you say that but I don't see it that way. I do see wonderful, amazing things in this world but I also see plenty of reasonable, non-divine, explanations. On top of that, I don't see why Christianity has to be the only answer. I mean, Have you made an extensive study of all major religions? Maybe there's another out there that's more internally consistent than Christianity?” She frowned, “Danny, do you think I only believe because of some myopic view of the Bible?” “Um, This feels like a trap,” I said, grinning and trying to defuse the situation. “It's not. Look,” she said sitting up. Her pert little breasts were bare in front of me but I tried not to focus on them. She didn't help when she grabbed the gold cross that nestled between them and spun it. “This is just a symbol. The Bible is the instruction manual. But God is all around me. He talks to me. He saved me.” “I will consider it,” I said and kissed her again. I was hopeful for another round of lovemaking. My wife is incredibly devout and spiritual but, thankfully, not particularly dogmatic. Sex before marriage wasn't off the table which I was truly grateful for in those days because, frankly, it was incredible. “One more thing. I know you don't believe, yet,” she added with a smile, “But I need to know that you're not going to close yourself off to this.” “What do you mean,” I asked. “I just want to know you'll keep an open mind. Maybe try out some churches with me from time to time. Okay?” I nodded. I didn't really love going to church but I didn't hate it. Over the years, plenty of my friends had tried to convince me so I'd gotten used to it. “How about once a month?” Karen smiled, “Plus Christmas and Easter?” I smiled back, “Sure,” I said and kissed her. We did make love again that night and in the morning. And the pledge wasn't forgotten. After we got married we tried out a bunch of different churches. Karen's lack of doctrinaire adherence meant that she was perfectly fine trying out lots of different flavors of church. She was always hoping to find one that I felt comfortable with. She prayed every night for me, often peeking out of one eye in a manner that made me think she expected a bolt of lightning to change me right in front of her eyes. We continued like that for years. We were happy but there was always this small little wedge between us. We both felt it and we both hated it but there was no changing either of us. We moved to Seattle when we both found jobs in the area. I had just turned 29 and my wife's 30th birthday was right around the corner. We were both very happy and Karen now had a whole new batch of churches to try out on me. Some days I thought that was the only reason she agreed to the move. After about six months, she found this Presbyterian church just outside of the city. I think of it as the Goldilocks church. It wasn't a big mega church, nor was it a little dinky church. The congregation was neither geriatric nor were they a bunch of new age hippies. The pastor was impassioned but not fire and brimstone, us vs. them, burn the gays. It was one of the few churches that she'd brought me to that didn't make my skin crawl when I walked in. It felt like a family without feeling like a cult. “I like this place,” I whispered to Karen as we found our seats. A couple a little older than us greeted us. There were kids running around and just a general sense of community that pervaded the church. I listened to a sermon that day that changed my life in ways I couldn't even fathom. If I'm being truthful, I don't even really remember the sermon, however. My mind wandered and I thought about all the different things that I'd seen and learned. Something changed in me during that hour and I knew I believed suddenly. It sounds cliché to say that the will of God worked its way into my heart but given what happened later that night, I think that's probably what happened. What I do remember from the service was the pastor's closing prayer. “Lord, I don't know a lot of things but I want to know what you're willing to show me. Just help me learn how to know you, Lord.” For the first time ever, I said the words silently but earnestly. They seemed like perfect words for me. We drove home in silence as I contemplated what was happening. I was too terrified to tell Karen. I didn't want to get her hopes up in case it wasn't what I thought. Maybe I'd just eaten something odd the night before or something, right? But for the rest of the day, I felt it tugging on my mind. There was still uncertainty but now there was a quest for learning more mixed in. That night, Karen knelt at the foot of the bed, just as she'd done every night since we'd gotten married and said her own prayers. “Lord, you know my heart. You know what I want. I pray for Danny and that you will work your will on him. And Lord, that other silent prayer that I've been saying for years. I'm ready for that too. I've been putting conditions on it and that's not right. Please Lord, I trust you completely.” That last part confused me. I'd never heard her say anything like that and never heard her pray for anything consistently other than for my salvation. She crawled up into bed, wearing just a t-shirt and snuggled up next to me. I resisted the urge to ask her about the odd addition knowing that prying wasn't going to score me any points. Within five minutes, we were having wild sex. She seemed much more relaxed than normal. Not that she was particularly restrained in bed. But our lovemaking generally followed a bit of a formula on most occasions and that night we completely deviated from it. We were rolling all over the bed, shifting positions multiple times like a porno or something. Eventually, we came together while I was slamming into her with her legs over my shoulders. We were staring into each other's eyes while she whispered, “Thank you. I love you,” over and over. We drifted off to sleep feeling tired and sated but also weirdly excited. The Divine Revelation The next thing I remember, I was in an incredibly lucid dream. I was walking along the bank of a river. The moss covered pebbles crunched under my feet as I looked down and realized I was completely naked. Somehow I wasn't particularly bothered by that. The temperature was perfect. The sun kissed against my skin while a cool breeze wicked away the hint of sweat. I could hear the river flow and the birds and insects in the forest buzzed peacefully. Something about the setting felt more perfect and relaxing than anything I'd ever felt. That's when God appeared. Don't ask me how I knew it was him. I just knew. He wasn't an old bearded man with a robe. Nor a guy wearing a well pressed suit. Frankly, it wasn't at all what I expected. Out from the forest floated an ephemeral mixture of dust and fire and water. A swirling maelstrom confined into a vaguely humanoid body. The eyebrows were formed from small rocks, the mouth was a roaring fire. And the eyes. I swear the eyes were stars,  or maybe whole galaxies. It was magnificent and awe inspiring. Or it would have been if not for the Hawaiin shirt and Birkenstock sandals that the elemental construct wore. “How do I look?” came a booming, commanding voice. It shook the whole forest, trees swayed and the river behind me sloshed violently. “What?” I asked, confused and scared. “Oh. Sorry,” God said. “Is that better? I don't talk to a lot of humans these days. Mostly whales and elephants. They're the next big thing on Earth, you see.” He laughed at his own joke though I was too stunned to reciprocate. “What?” I asked again. Less scared and more confused. “Sorry, sorry. Danny, Or do you prefer Daniel?” “What?” God sighed. He actually sighed. Frosty breath flew out of his mouth and dissipated into the wind before he said, “Calm down. Take a breath. I'm God. You're Danny. Everything's fine.” I did as he told me and felt a little less agitated but no less befuzzled. “Sorry, I'm just; you're God?” “In the flesh. Well, my version of it anyways. Nice to meet you?” he said and extended a watery hand. I reached for it and felt my hand slosh through the wetness. God laughed at the look on my face, “Sorry, Danny. I love that joke.” “I don't understand any of this,” I said and just sat down on a rock at the side of the river. “I know. This is all new to you. I get that. But I've been following your wife for years. She's amazing.” “Yes she is, but what do you mean; following? Don't you pay attention to everyone?” “Well, technically I'm omniscient and omnipresent and all-powerful and all that. But it doesn't work the way you humans think of it. I can see and know anything I want but only the stuff I really think about. Most humans have gotten pretty bad at worshipping me. They don't do it right. They don't do it out of a sense of love. They want something from me. Your wife is one of those rare exceptions. She loves me just for me. You can see why that's so appealing, right?” I thought about it, “So basically humanity has become a bunch of gold diggers telling you they love you but really wanting your money?” God nodded, flexing the sand in his neck and giving me a fiery thumbs up. “You got it. Not Karen. She's only been praying for two things that were for her and tonight she realized why she was wrong to condition them. She made that final, selfless step of praying just for me to do what I thought was right.” “So that really was you today?” “Yeah. I knew she'd have her epiphany tonight so I made sure you had your own earlier today.” “How could you,” I started to ask. God tapped his fiery hand against the hard surface of his skull causing sparks to shoot out, “I see the future, remember?” “Oh,” I said. That made sense. “So why show up to me like this? Do all new believers get this treatment?” God laughed. It was a joyful, musical sound that I could have listened to forever. “Oh no. Definitely not. This is kind of my little gift to Karen. To let you know you're not imagining things and you're on the right path. Plus, I can't really give her her other wish without talking to you first.” “What do you mean?” “She loves you, Danny.” “I know,” I said, confused again. Of course she loved me. I know a lot of people say that they know their spouse loves them but secretly doubt it. I never did. If anything, I always wondered if I loved her as much as she loved me. “No. She really, really loves you. Nearly as much as she loves me, actually. And she's very traditional. Almost to a fetish.” “What do you mean? She's not particularly traditional about stuff that I've noticed.” “That's because she knows you're not looking for that. So she's kept that little part of her hidden lest it bother you.” “What do you mean,” I asked, still not understanding. “She wants to serve you. Completely. She wants to be perfect for you in whatever way you want.” “Isn't that true of everyone that truly loves their spouse?” “No. Not really. Think of it this way. Would you kill someone if she asked?” “Of course not. Would she?” “No. But she wants to.” I was startled and really bothered, “She wants to kill someone for me? What the f” I stopped myself from vulgar talking in front of God. He laughed. “Don't worry. You can be vulgar around me. I invented all the words, remember?” he said and patted me on the shoulder. Somehow his fiery hand didn't burn me, though I still flinched. “No, she doesn't want to kill someone. She wants to be so devoted to you that she would if you asked. But she knows you never would. Understand?” “Not even a little,” I said truthfully. “She wants to be able to be literally anything for you. If you want it from her, she wants to be that for you.” “Oh, I get it. Like she wants to like computer games and watching basketball even though I know she doesn't like those things?” God nodded, “Exactly. It's how she thinks of being a good help-meet. She wants to literally be anything you want. And that's what I'm giving her, well, I'm giving it to both of you.” “What do you mean?” “When you wake up, you'll be able to change anything about Karen you want. Forever.” “Permanently?” “If you want. She'll be able to be molded in whatever way you want for the rest of your life. Want her to like Basketball? Done. Want her to hate Basketball the next day? Sure.” “Why not just change her into my perfect girl? Why give me all this power?” “Three reasons, Danny. First, that's not what she wants. She wants to be malleable and flexible for you. She knows that people change and she doesn't want to be perfect for you in this moment and terrible for you years from now.” God ticked off one stony finger as he talked, then sprouted a little twig as a second finger, “Second, I needed to talk to you about this so you'd understand. So you'd believe and would appreciate that this is well and truly what she wants at a deep, fundamental level. She finally let go of conditioning it upon your salvation and that was the key but she's always wanted it from the day she met you.” He smiled at me and I saw one of his eyes twinkle, “And third, I like to have a little fun and watching you two will be just that. I'm curious what you do with the complete control of another human being. Daunting isn't it?” I nodded as a million thoughts and questions rolled through my mind. God smiled at me again, “Don't worry. I know it'll be fine. I can see the future remember? Oh, one thing. There is one limit. No matter what you change, she'll never stop loving me. That's key to her and one part that you can't change. Not that you'd want to, I know. But just to give you some peace of mind.” I nodded again. The dream started to fade a little and I could feel myself waking up. “Wait!” I called. The elemental deity turned to gaze at me with those piercing eyes. “What can we do for you?” I asked. He smiled, a blazing smile of warmth and serenity. “It's a good question Danny. Find your own way. Love Karen. Love others. Put love into the world. That's my greatest commandment. All the other dogma that religions attach to worship are just fluff. Love is all you really need.” He started walking away, his strange footwear crunching on the pebbles as he walked. But then he paused and as I called out, “Really? That's all? We don't need to convert people or something? Preach your message?” “For crying out loud. Why does everyone think that? Sure, tell people about me if you want. That's your call. Remember, I'm the one in charge. If I wanted more followers I'd snap my fingers and it would happen. I want you to make the world better in whatever big or small way you can, Danny,” he continued walking and the dream began to fully fade. I could feel the haze lift as the morning light broke through my eyelids, ripping me from the verdant dreamscape that I truly didn't want to leave. As I started to stir, I heard the voice one last time, “Oh, I gave you both a little gift that I think you'll really enjoy.” I tried to call out to ask him what it was but my mouth wasn't working. Suddenly, I bolted upright, the dream gone and already fading from my short term memory. Morning's New reality “What is it, honey?” Karen asked, my sudden movement having woken her. Karen was a very light sleeper which was pretty nice when I woke up feeling frisky. Of course this morning, I was only feeling perplexed. Had it been real? Was it just a crazy dream? Surely it was just my imagination, right? “Karen? Do you feel, different today?” She looked at me, “No, why?” “I don't know. it's just, I had the weirdest dream,” I said. She looked at me, puzzled for a moment. “Bad dream or good dream?” “Good, I mean I think it was good. Um, Okay, let me ask you something. Last night when you said your prayer, you said something different. Something about a silent prayer?” Karen's eyes grew wide and she blushed, “You noticed?” I nodded, “What was it, if you don't mind me asking?” My throat was dry and I could feel my heart pounding. Would she tell me? Was this the moment of truth? She looked at me and fairly whispered, “I prayed… well… I've always prayed that… that I could be the best wife for you.” I smiled. It was true! It was absolutely true! But I had to be sure. Maybe my subconscious had heard her murmuring or something. I had to know. “That seems pretty benign. Why pray that silently. And by the way, you are a perfect wife for me,” I told her as I leaned over and kissed her forehead. Karen smiled, “I know you think that. But I"m not. And and, I want to be, Danny. I want to be perfect even with all the little things that you dislike.” My grin probably took on a manic look, “What… like how you don't like watching basketball with me?” Karen krinkled her nose but then exclaimed, “Yes… exactly. I hate it but I wish I didn't.” I studied her for a minute, trying to remember the words I'd heard. What did I need to do? Snap my fingers? Make a wish? Or just will the changes into being? I looked at Karen and just thought about her happily watching basketball with me. I pictured us cuddled up on the couch, her wearing one of my UCLA jerseys as we happily watched a game. Karen seemed to get a little twinkle in her eye, “But you know what… in keeping with my prayer last night, what the heck? Let's watch a game today?” “Really?” I asked, surprised in spite of myself. “Why the heck not?” she said, giving me a kiss. “I'll go make us breakfast, you find a game you've been wanting to watch and we'll see if maybe I can learn to like it. It's been awhile and I owe you the effort.” I smiled and stretched out in bed as I watched Karen's gorgeous ass climb out from the sheets.. She stripped out of her night shirt and then stood there pondering what to wear. She looked at me, smirking at how I was staring at her naked tits like a kid who found his dad's Playboys. She got an idea and went into our closet, coming out only a few moments later wearing my old, beaten up Ed O'Bannon jersey. My mouth must have dropped three feet as I stared at her. She looked super cute in the oversized jersey. It was long enough to be worn like a very short mini-dress and it made her legs look great. Not to mention, the side-boob view was amazing. “What? I figured I should look the part of a super fan. Besides, if I'm wearing your jersey, better odds of you being shirtless.” Karen liked it when I walked around the house wearing just my pajama bottoms and no shirt. You know what they say, “Happy wife, happy life.” She went into the kitchen and started cooking and I did my usual morning ritual. As I was standing there peeing, I looked down and was shocked to see something that I was completely unprepared for. My cock was bigger soft than it had ever been hard. It was like a giant slab of salami was dangling down from me. I remembered the last words that God had spoken to me. Was God's parting gift to me a giant cock? And how was I going to explain this to Karen? As I stood there, my panic subsided. This was going to be fine, I told myself as I walked back into the bedroom and put on the silk pajama pants she'd bought me for Christmas. The long green cloth felt cool as it slid across my cock. I felt my arousal start but really didn't want to alarm Karen any sooner than I needed to so I willed myself to keep it down. It was quite difficult as Karen was moving around in the kitchen and every time she reached up for an ingredient, her ass would peek out from beneath the jersey. I distracted myself by finding the game I'd recorded Saturday night on the DVR. We'd played USC and I hadn't been able to watch it live but I'd still managed to avoid the results. It was ML King Day and I'd planned on vegging out on the couch and watching the game while Karen went shopping with her friend but now that plan seemed out the window in a good way. As if she'd read my mind, Karen called out, “I texted Jill and told her I was staying home today. So it's just you and me, honey.” “Excellent,” I said as I fast forwarded through all the garbage at the beginning of the game, pausing it at tip off as big Moses Brown was just starting his jump. Karen came in and sat next to the couch, yanking a blanket over her legs for warmth as she snuggled against me. She ran her fingers along my chest and cooed softly before saying, “Ah, looking good big guy. I could get used to this, I think.” I draped my arm around her as I took the plate from her. She'd made an omelet and cinnamon rolls and it smelled absolutely delicious. “Me too,” I said as I started eating. I hit play on the game and immediately knew that something had changed. Karen was interested and alert. She asked questions about the game and repeatedly made interesting insights. By half time, she was really into it. We'd finished our food and, despite UCLA losing by three points, we were ready to go. Even more importantly, Karen was ready to go. She was cheering her heart out but Boatwright and Rakocevic just took us to the woodshed. With two minutes left, USC was stomping us by 26 and I flipped off the TV and threw the remote away in disgust. Karen crawled up to me and whispered, “Oh, baby. I'm sorry. What can I do to make it all better?” She looked so sexy in my jersey as she straddled my hips on the leather couch that I forgot all about the dream last night. Let alone my newly enhanced cock. “Suck me until I explode?” I said. Karen wasn't a huge fan of blowjobs. She saw them as foreplay but they rarely lasted more than a minute. Today she just nodded happily and hopped down on the floor, eagerly stripping the silk pajamas off me. When my semi-hard cock flopped out, her eyes got wide. “Oh, shit,” I thought to myself. “Holy crap, Danny. What happened?” she said as she took the hardening shaft in her hand, holding it reverently. Like many couples, one of the first things she'd done with my cock when we'd gotten together was to measure it. So we both knew full well that six and a half inches was the normal length. Instead she was now holding a nearly nine inch cock that wasn't fully hard. And where a roll of quarters might have been the right measurement of girth before, now it looked like a coke can. I'd never appreciated the euphemism “third leg” before but now it seemed pretty apropo. “Uhh… I took some of those pills you order online and they actually worked?” I said. My words carried absolutely no conviction. No way was Karen going to believe them unless she was trusting to a fault. “Oh wow. Well I wouldn't have thought they would work but I guess the evidence is right here,” she said as she licked the head of my cock, “In my mouth.” She smiled up at me and started trying to wrap her lips around my cock. Karen took a couple inches in her mouth, bobbing up and down. I honestly still hadn't realized what the effect I was having on her was. I know it sounds stupid, but you try having a crazy dream where you talk to God and then waking up with a giant cock and tell me how analytical you are. What kicked things into gear was what happened next. I was lying there enjoying an enthusiastic, but not particularly great, blowjob from my gorgeous wife and thinking about how great it would be if she could easily deep throat me. As soon as I imagined it, she sank about an inch further. Then another inch. And another. After five or six thrusts, she was suddenly taking my cock all the way down her throat. Her nose touching my pelvis as her tongue snaked out to tickle my balls slightly. She looked up at me and seemed to smile at me with her eyes before resuming her work, taking my cock down her throat over and over. “I didn't know you were such a good cocksucker,” I said breathlessly. She pulled off my cock and frowned, “Please don't call me that.” “But I want to,” I said and she nodded meekly. I saw the unhappy look on her face though and added, “But only if you like it.” Her attitude shifted a full 180 instantly. She smiled a wicked smile and licked her lips, staring hungrily at my cock. “I do, baby. I'll be your good little cocksucker. I'll be the best cocksucking wife ever,” she said before diving back down on my cock. She started slamming her mouth down over and over as I urged her on. It wasn't long until I felt my orgasm coming. “Yeah baby. I'm so close. Be a good little cocksucker and suck it all down your greedy throat, slut,” I roared. Karen normally doesn't like the taste of cum but that was no longer the case. She latched onto my cock and sucked hard as I felt spurt after spurt fill her newly eager mouth. It was too much for her and she pulled off it, mouth filled with my cum as one last blast shot out and landed on her chin. She sat there panting as she wiped her face and licked the cum off her wrist. She just knelt on the ground staring up at me with wide eyes. “That was amazing. I didn't know I could do that,” she said as she nuzzled my cock and licked the last little drops from the head of the shaft. The sensation was like a pleasure overload and I twitched with each little teasing touch. When my vision cleared, I pulled her up next to me on the couch, “So you liked that, baby?” “Oh yeah… I'm so horny now, lover. Can you go again? Or does your new equipment take longer to recharge?” “I don't know. I guess we'll find out. So you really liked that?” “Yeah. Why do you ask?” “Well, you didn't seem to like me calling you, um, a cocksucker at first.” As I said it she shuddered in my arms, sending a pleasurable ripple through her body. She thought for a moment, “At first I didn't. But then you told me you wanted to and it was like something clicked. Suddenly being called, a cocksucker, was a huge turn-on for me.” I thought about that and the idea that my perfect little churchgoing wife liked being called a ‘cocksucker' really stirred something in me. “What about when I called you a slut?” I asked, hopefully. “In the moment, I barely noticed but hearing you say it now…?” she said somewhat breathlessly. Her skin was flushed and she inched towards me with a hungry look in her eyes. “Whore?” she nodded. “Tramp?” another nod. “Cunt, bitch, fucktoy?” She was practically panting. “You don't mind being called those degrading names?” I said. Now I was getting the hang of this. I was imagining her getting insanely aroused by the name calling and it was happening right here in front of me. “Fuck, I'm so turned on, Danny. Please take me in the bedroom and fuck me. Fuck me. Use me. Call me names. Call me whatever degrading, horrible, humiliating names you want. Please?” She had one hand on my cock and another between her legs. She'd never asked me to fuck her. We always “made love” but that wasn't what either of us wanted anymore. I practically dragged her to the bedroom and threw her onto our bed. She yelped and I dove on her, grabbing her hips and raising them up so I could slam into her from behind. Her cunt was soaking and my cock slammed into her. She screamed out, “It's too big!” with a pained shout. “No it's not. It's perfect for your slut cunt,” I whispered in her ear and it instantly became true. Her pained whimper became a lusty groan. We were suddenly just two animals fucking. I grabbed her wrists and held her suspended so I could see her face in the mirror on our dresser. I loved the look of mindless pleasure she displayed as I hammered into her. “Cum for me you dumb cunt,” I told her and her body responded with a more powerful orgasm than I'd ever seen. I felt her cunt clench my cock tight and it was all I could do not to shoot into her right then. I held on though and just as she came down from her first orgasm I shoved my hips in hard and whispered, “Cum again. Don't stop cumming for me, slut!” It was like I'd shocked her with lightning. Her whole body started shaking and spasming as she came over and over again. I looked down and saw her cunt squeezing at my cock as I pulled the huge shaft out before slamming back in faster and faster. Her eyes were rolled into the back of her head and her screams had turned into nearly silent pleadings of “Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes.” I flung her forward and grabbed her hips, shoving my cock in with three more hard thrusts before unloading inside of her. She and I both collapsed in a fit of giggles and laughter. Cum was already leaking out of her and down her legs as we kissed. Her sweaty hair was matted on her face from the exertion of it all as she whispered, “I love you. I love you.” “I love you too, babe,” I said. “Wow you came a lot,” she said looking down. “Oh no… You didn't use a condom!” she exclaimed in a panic. “Don't worry,” I said. I thought about how she couldn't get pregnant unless I wanted and I knew it was instantly true. She laughed at me as she wobbled into the bathroom. “What? Do those big dick pills also make you infertile?” “Something like that,” I said with a laugh. Karen cleaned herself up and came back to bed, snuggling next to me on the sweaty sheets. “I guess you've got some sheets to change,” I joked. Changing the sheets was one of my jobs around the house. Again, my new found control worked both consciously and subconsciously, apparently. “Sure thing, babe. After that fucking I'm happy to do the sheets.” Seeing her hop to my direction, I arrived at a quick conclusion. “Karen, there's something I need to tell you.” “What's wrong?” she said, looking suddenly concerned. “Nothing. I mean,” I paused for a second, thinking about it. If everything God had told me last night was true, and it sure seemed to be, then truly nothing was wrong. “A couple things. Uhmm… yesterday I… I realized that I believe in God.” “What? Really?” she lunged at me and gave me a huge hug and a kiss. “Seriously? That's wonderful!” She was nearly shouting and there were tears in her eyes. “Hard as it is to believe, that's not the most important thing that happened yesterday,” I said. She looked at me, “What could be bigger than you finding God?” “Funny you should say it that way because something else happened. Uhmm… God came to me in my dreams.” She waved her hand, “I dream about God visiting me all the time, Danny. Totally normal.” “No… you don't understand. God came to me. He talked to me. He… gave me stuff.” “What do you mean?” “Well… this cock for one. I haven't been taking any pills.” “Seriously, Danny? That's amazing. What else?” I was surprised at how willingly she believed me before I remembered what I'd changed before. “Well… Uhmm… He… he gave me control of you,” I said, letting the words hang in the air. She looked at me with wide eyes, “What do you mean, Danny? What do you mean he gave you control of me?” Her breathing was suddenly more rapid and her nipples hardened in front of my eyes. “God told me about your prayer last night. That you'd always wished for it and it's really what you wanted deep down. He gave you your wish because he loves you and you finally let go and simply trusted him.” Her eyes got even wider as I spoke. She knew it was true, I could tell. She was also a little scared. And very aroused. “What does that mean?” “Well… didn't you wonder how you could take my new cock so well? Or why you suddenly liked being called those names?” She thought about it, replaying the last 30 minutes in her mind. “You made me do that?” she asked in awe. “That's… That's so hot. Wait, did you just make me think that's hot?” she asked accusingly. “No. That's all you,” I said with a smile. I gave her a kiss and watched as she processed all of this. “So… so what can you do to me?” “I don't really know. I mean… I think basically anything.” “Oh my gosh… is that why I liked watching basketball?” she asked as she thought about the events of the morning. I just nodded as she continued, “Wow… if you can do that you really can do anything,” she said with a smirk. I smacked her with a pillow and we laughed. “Can you change my hair color?” “Uhh… sure,” I said. I pictured her with green hair and suddenly her chestnut hair slowly changed to the bright green, exactly like I'd imagined it. “Ugh… really?” she said as she looked at it. I then willed her to like it and suddenly she smiled, “I love it. Wait… oh my gosh. Did you make me like it?” I nodded with a grin. She was practically panting now, “Do it some more. Make me your dream girl, Danny. Please?” “You are my dream girl,” I said and gave her a kiss. She kissed me back but then pushed me away, “That's nice of you to say but seriously. I want you to make me whatever you think is perfect. That's why I wanted this. That's… that's why God gave you this power, right?” I thought about it. I still didn't have any actual idea why God gave me this gift. But I could tell the idea of having no more control turned on Karen and I wasn't about to miss an opportunity of this magnitude. I looked at her and tried to imagine what a perfect version of Karen would look like. I pictured her in college when we'd met as Sophomores. Then I took that image and tried to completely idealize it. I pictured her with a more hourglass figure. Slightly wider hips and narrower waist. I pictured her with perfectly smooth, sun-kissed skin and bright red hair that cascaded down her ample breasts. I pictured her cute little pink nipples now sticking out like small thumbs. I imagined how sensitive to the touch she was. How easily aroused she was. I'd always loved her blue eyes and I dialed that up to eleven making her eyes so gorgeous and piercing that Alexandra D'Addario would be jealous. My mind wandered as I imagined the things we would have done. The wild crazy sex. The depraved things we'd have done together as we experimented. I imagined fucking her in front of our friends at a frat party. I imagined her getting off to being treated like a slave when she dressed as Princess Leia at Halloween. I imagined her showing me how much she loved to be spanked and how she could get off from just having her nipples teased and tormented. I opened my eyes and the vision from my mind was lying there in front of me. She was smiling at me with a lusty gaze. “Is it done?” “Yeah, go look,” I said gesturing at our mirror. She hopped out of bed and stood in front of the mirror for a moment before she turned back around to me. “Hahaha… Seriously… C'mon Danny,” she said. “What? Do you not like it?” “It's just me from college,” she said with her hand on her hip. I looked at her in confusion. “What are you talking about?” I asked. Karen's red-brown hair had never been this red, her tits never that big. I'd even made her subconsciously just a little bit taller and I could tell because now the jersey she was still wearing wasn't covering anything. “I appreciate that you think college me was a vision of perfection but you have to have had something to improve.” That's when it hit me. I'd imagined doing things to this version of Karen in college. It must have completely changed her memories of the events. “Karen, do you remember that frat party we went to?” She thought for a second then shuddered, “The one that you fucked me like a whore in front of everyone while they all cheered… fuck that was amazing.” I closed my eyes and imagined her back to normal right up until I changed her appearance a moment before. Now her expression changed to one of amazement. “Holy crap. That was… that was so trippy. It's like I had a whole other life for a moment. Oh wow… Oh Wow!” she said now looking at the mirror and appreciating the changes. “So this is what you like, huh? I nodded. She stripped off her shirt and played with her breasts, enjoying the sensation of her now very sensitive nipples. “Wait… all those nasty sex things I imagined us doing… Those were things you want?” I grinned in embarrassment, “Uh… yeah… kind of.” “Kind of?” she said, getting a grin on her face. “You kind of want to fuck me in front of our friends?” I nodded again and she crawled naked on the bed, “You kind of want to lead me around on a leash like a… like a fuck toy?” Again, I nodded and licked my lips as she got closer, “You ‘kind of' want to spank my ass while I beg you to use me like a… what did that version of me say?” Her captivating eyes looked off in the distance as she tried to remember the fleeting, fake memory, “Like a 'cheap, dumb cock socket'?” I reached up and stroked her nipple with one hand and her whole body shuddered in overwhelming arousal. “That's so hot,” I whispered. “That version of me was always dressing in really slutty clothes too. And lacy, sexy lingerie. Do you like that too?” she asked. I hadn't even realized it but she was right. All the sexy images I'd had in my mind had her wearing short tight little dresses and shorts and low cut tops. High heels and sexy underwear were always featured to. I licked my lips and choked out a “Yes.” Karen dove on me and kissed me, “Thank God.” I couldn't agree more. By Masterful_Husband for Literotica

A Divine Marital Intervention - A couple gets a gift from God. (Erotic Coupling) By Masterful_Husband. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Like a lot of people, I met my wife in college. We were in the same dorm and fell into that common dating circle trap where everyone is dating everyone. It wasn't until we left for separate grad schools that we realized how much we meant to each other. It's ironic that our relationship got more serious as we dated long distance but it worked well for us. I asked her to marry me when we graduated and we were wedded and honeymooning within six months. I'd say our marriage was idyllic but that would be a lie. There was one issue that kept coming up over and over as a source of friction. My wife would tell you that we were “unevenly yoked”. I would say, “She's religious and I wasn't.”We had discussed it (at great length) when we dated. I wasn't some militant atheist. Those people have elevated that belief to an absurd level. I was an agnostic. I believed that disproving God was as futile as believing in one. I remember one memorable conversation my wife (then fiancée) and I had. “I kind of admire people of faith,” I'd said. She propped herself up on one elbow, looking at me with some excitement. “Really?” I nodded, “Truly. I just can't make myself believe in something so, ephemeral. Unverifiable. You know?” “You believe in my love, don't you?” “Of course.” “Isn't it just as ephemeral?” I kissed her, “No. You show me how much you love me every day.” “So does God. You just have to know where to look.” The certainty in her voice was compelling but not persuasive. I sighed, trying to avoid a fight, “I, I understand why you say that but I don't see it that way. I do see wonderful, amazing things in this world but I also see plenty of reasonable, non-divine, explanations. On top of that, I don't see why Christianity has to be the only answer. I mean, Have you made an extensive study of all major religions? Maybe there's another out there that's more internally consistent than Christianity?” She frowned, “Danny, do you think I only believe because of some myopic view of the Bible?” “Um, This feels like a trap,” I said, grinning and trying to defuse the situation. “It's not. Look,” she said sitting up. Her pert little breasts were bare in front of me but I tried not to focus on them. She didn't help when she grabbed the gold cross that nestled between them and spun it. “This is just a symbol. The Bible is the instruction manual. But God is all around me. He talks to me. He saved me.” “I will consider it,” I said and kissed her again. I was hopeful for another round of lovemaking. My wife is incredibly devout and spiritual but, thankfully, not particularly dogmatic. Sex before marriage wasn't off the table which I was truly grateful for in those days because, frankly, it was incredible. “One more thing. I know you don't believe, yet,” she added with a smile, “But I need to know that you're not going to close yourself off to this.” “What do you mean,” I asked. “I just want to know you'll keep an open mind. Maybe try out some churches with me from time to time. Okay?” I nodded. I didn't really love going to church but I didn't hate it. Over the years, plenty of my friends had tried to convince me so I'd gotten used to it. “How about once a month?” Karen smiled, “Plus Christmas and Easter?” I smiled back, “Sure,” I said and kissed her. We did make love again that night and in the morning. And the pledge wasn't forgotten. After we got married we tried out a bunch of different churches. Karen's lack of doctrinaire adherence meant that she was perfectly fine trying out lots of different flavors of church. She was always hoping to find one that I felt comfortable with. She prayed every night for me, often peeking out of one eye in a manner that made me think she expected a bolt of lightning to change me right in front of her eyes. We continued like that for years. We were happy but there was always this small little wedge between us. We both felt it and we both hated it but there was no changing either of us. We moved to Seattle when we both found jobs in the area. I had just turned 29 and my wife's 30th birthday was right around the corner. We were both very happy and Karen now had a whole new batch of churches to try out on me. Some days I thought that was the only reason she agreed to the move. After about six months, she found this Presbyterian church just outside of the city. I think of it as the Goldilocks church. It wasn't a big mega church, nor was it a little dinky church. The congregation was neither geriatric nor were they a bunch of new age hippies. The pastor was impassioned but not fire and brimstone, us vs. them, burn the gays. It was one of the few churches that she'd brought me to that didn't make my skin crawl when I walked in. It felt like a family without feeling like a cult. “I like this place,” I whispered to Karen as we found our seats. A couple a little older than us greeted us. There were kids running around and just a general sense of community that pervaded the church. I listened to a sermon that day that changed my life in ways I couldn't even fathom. If I'm being truthful, I don't even really remember the sermon, however. My mind wandered and I thought about all the different things that I'd seen and learned. Something changed in me during that hour and I knew I believed suddenly. It sounds cliché to say that the will of God worked its way into my heart but given what happened later that night, I think that's probably what happened. What I do remember from the service was the pastor's closing prayer. “Lord, I don't know a lot of things but I want to know what you're willing to show me. Just help me learn how to know you, Lord.” For the first time ever, I said the words silently but earnestly. They seemed like perfect words for me. We drove home in silence as I contemplated what was happening. I was too terrified to tell Karen. I didn't want to get her hopes up in case it wasn't what I thought. Maybe I'd just eaten something odd the night before or something, right? But for the rest of the day, I felt it tugging on my mind. There was still uncertainty but now there was a quest for learning more mixed in. That night, Karen knelt at the foot of the bed, just as she'd done every night since we'd gotten married and said her own prayers. “Lord, you know my heart. You know what I want. I pray for Danny and that you will work your will on him. And Lord, that other silent prayer that I've been saying for years. I'm ready for that too. I've been putting conditions on it and that's not right. Please Lord, I trust you completely.” That last part confused me. I'd never heard her say anything like that and never heard her pray for anything consistently other than for my salvation. She crawled up into bed, wearing just a t-shirt and snuggled up next to me. I resisted the urge to ask her about the odd addition knowing that prying wasn't going to score me any points. Within five minutes, we were having wild sex. She seemed much more relaxed than normal. Not that she was particularly restrained in bed. But our lovemaking generally followed a bit of a formula on most occasions and that night we completely deviated from it. We were rolling all over the bed, shifting positions multiple times like a porno or something. Eventually, we came together while I was slamming into her with her legs over my shoulders. We were staring into each other's eyes while she whispered, “Thank you. I love you,” over and over. We drifted off to sleep feeling tired and sated but also weirdly excited. The Divine Revelation The next thing I remember, I was in an incredibly lucid dream. I was walking along the bank of a river. The moss covered pebbles crunched under my feet as I looked down and realized I was completely naked. Somehow I wasn't particularly bothered by that. The temperature was perfect. The sun kissed against my skin while a cool breeze wicked away the hint of sweat. I could hear the river flow and the birds and insects in the forest buzzed peacefully. Something about the setting felt more perfect and relaxing than anything I'd ever felt. That's when God appeared. Don't ask me how I knew it was him. I just knew. He wasn't an old bearded man with a robe. Nor a guy wearing a well pressed suit. Frankly, it wasn't at all what I expected. Out from the forest floated an ephemeral mixture of dust and fire and water. A swirling maelstrom confined into a vaguely humanoid body. The eyebrows were formed from small rocks, the mouth was a roaring fire. And the eyes. I swear the eyes were stars,  or maybe whole galaxies. It was magnificent and awe inspiring. Or it would have been if not for the Hawaiin shirt and Birkenstock sandals that the elemental construct wore. “How do I look?” came a booming, commanding voice. It shook the whole forest, trees swayed and the river behind me sloshed violently. “What?” I asked, confused and scared. “Oh. Sorry,” God said. “Is that better? I don't talk to a lot of humans these days. Mostly whales and elephants. They're the next big thing on Earth, you see.” He laughed at his own joke though I was too stunned to reciprocate. “What?” I asked again. Less scared and more confused. “Sorry, sorry. Danny, Or do you prefer Daniel?” “What?” God sighed. He actually sighed. Frosty breath flew out of his mouth and dissipated into the wind before he said, “Calm down. Take a breath. I'm God. You're Danny. Everything's fine.” I did as he told me and felt a little less agitated but no less befuzzled. “Sorry, I'm just; you're God?” “In the flesh. Well, my version of it anyways. Nice to meet you?” he said and extended a watery hand. I reached for it and felt my hand slosh through the wetness. God laughed at the look on my face, “Sorry, Danny. I love that joke.” “I don't understand any of this,” I said and just sat down on a rock at the side of the river. “I know. This is all new to you. I get that. But I've been following your wife for years. She's amazing.” “Yes she is, but what do you mean; following? Don't you pay attention to everyone?” “Well, technically I'm omniscient and omnipresent and all-powerful and all that. But it doesn't work the way you humans think of it. I can see and know anything I want but only the stuff I really think about. Most humans have gotten pretty bad at worshipping me. They don't do it right. They don't do it out of a sense of love. They want something from me. Your wife is one of those rare exceptions. She loves me just for me. You can see why that's so appealing, right?” I thought about it, “So basically humanity has become a bunch of gold diggers telling you they love you but really wanting your money?” God nodded, flexing the sand in his neck and giving me a fiery thumbs up. “You got it. Not Karen. She's only been praying for two things that were for her and tonight she realized why she was wrong to condition them. She made that final, selfless step of praying just for me to do what I thought was right.” “So that really was you today?” “Yeah. I knew she'd have her epiphany tonight so I made sure you had your own earlier today.” “How could you,” I started to ask. God tapped his fiery hand against the hard surface of his skull causing sparks to shoot out, “I see the future, remember?” “Oh,” I said. That made sense. “So why show up to me like this? Do all new believers get this treatment?” God laughed. It was a joyful, musical sound that I could have listened to forever. “Oh no. Definitely not. This is kind of my little gift to Karen. To let you know you're not imagining things and you're on the right path. Plus, I can't really give her her other wish without talking to you first.” “What do you mean?” “She loves you, Danny.” “I know,” I said, confused again. Of course she loved me. I know a lot of people say that they know their spouse loves them but secretly doubt it. I never did. If anything, I always wondered if I loved her as much as she loved me. “No. She really, really loves you. Nearly as much as she loves me, actually. And she's very traditional. Almost to a fetish.” “What do you mean? She's not particularly traditional about stuff that I've noticed.” “That's because she knows you're not looking for that. So she's kept that little part of her hidden lest it bother you.” “What do you mean,” I asked, still not understanding. “She wants to serve you. Completely. She wants to be perfect for you in whatever way you want.” “Isn't that true of everyone that truly loves their spouse?” “No. Not really. Think of it this way. Would you kill someone if she asked?” “Of course not. Would she?” “No. But she wants to.” I was startled and really bothered, “She wants to kill someone for me? What the f” I stopped myself from vulgar talking in front of God. He laughed. “Don't worry. You can be vulgar around me. I invented all the words, remember?” he said and patted me on the shoulder. Somehow his fiery hand didn't burn me, though I still flinched. “No, she doesn't want to kill someone. She wants to be so devoted to you that she would if you asked. But she knows you never would. Understand?” “Not even a little,” I said truthfully. “She wants to be able to be literally anything for you. If you want it from her, she wants to be that for you.” “Oh, I get it. Like she wants to like computer games and watching basketball even though I know she doesn't like those things?” God nodded, “Exactly. It's how she thinks of being a good help-meet. She wants to literally be anything you want. And that's what I'm giving her, well, I'm giving it to both of you.” “What do you mean?” “When you wake up, you'll be able to change anything about Karen you want. Forever.” “Permanently?” “If you want. She'll be able to be molded in whatever way you want for the rest of your life. Want her to like Basketball? Done. Want her to hate Basketball the next day? Sure.” “Why not just change her into my perfect girl? Why give me all this power?” “Three reasons, Danny. First, that's not what she wants. She wants to be malleable and flexible for you. She knows that people change and she doesn't want to be perfect for you in this moment and terrible for you years from now.” God ticked off one stony finger as he talked, then sprouted a little twig as a second finger, “Second, I needed to talk to you about this so you'd understand. So you'd believe and would appreciate that this is well and truly what she wants at a deep, fundamental level. She finally let go of conditioning it upon your salvation and that was the key but she's always wanted it from the day she met you.” He smiled at me and I saw one of his eyes twinkle, “And third, I like to have a little fun and watching you two will be just that. I'm curious what you do with the complete control of another human being. Daunting isn't it?” I nodded as a million thoughts and questions rolled through my mind. God smiled at me again, “Don't worry. I know it'll be fine. I can see the future remember? Oh, one thing. There is one limit. No matter what you change, she'll never stop loving me. That's key to her and one part that you can't change. Not that you'd want to, I know. But just to give you some peace of mind.” I nodded again. The dream started to fade a little and I could feel myself waking up. “Wait!” I called. The elemental deity turned to gaze at me with those piercing eyes. “What can we do for you?” I asked. He smiled, a blazing smile of warmth and serenity. “It's a good question Danny. Find your own way. Love Karen. Love others. Put love into the world. That's my greatest commandment. All the other dogma that religions attach to worship are just fluff. Love is all you really need.” He started walking away, his strange footwear crunching on the pebbles as he walked. But then he paused and as I called out, “Really? That's all? We don't need to convert people or something? Preach your message?” “For crying out loud. Why does everyone think that? Sure, tell people about me if you want. That's your call. Remember, I'm the one in charge. If I wanted more followers I'd snap my fingers and it would happen. I want you to make the world better in whatever big or small way you can, Danny,” he continued walking and the dream began to fully fade. I could feel the haze lift as the morning light broke through my eyelids, ripping me from the verdant dreamscape that I truly didn't want to leave. As I started to stir, I heard the voice one last time, “Oh, I gave you both a little gift that I think you'll really enjoy.” I tried to call out to ask him what it was but my mouth wasn't working. Suddenly, I bolted upright, the dream gone and already fading from my short term memory. Morning's New reality “What is it, honey?” Karen asked, my sudden movement having woken her. Karen was a very light sleeper which was pretty nice when I woke up feeling frisky. Of course this morning, I was only feeling perplexed. Had it been real? Was it just a crazy dream? Surely it was just my imagination, right? “Karen? Do you feel, different today?” She looked at me, “No, why?” “I don't know. it's just, I had the weirdest dream,” I said. She looked at me, puzzled for a moment. “Bad dream or good dream?” “Good, I mean I think it was good. Um, Okay, let me ask you something. Last night when you said your prayer, you said something different. Something about a silent prayer?” Karen's eyes grew wide and she blushed, “You noticed?” I nodded, “What was it, if you don't mind me asking?” My throat was dry and I could feel my heart pounding. Would she tell me? Was this the moment of truth? She looked at me and fairly whispered, “I prayed… well… I've always prayed that… that I could be the best wife for you.” I smiled. It was true! It was absolutely true! But I had to be sure. Maybe my subconscious had heard her murmuring or something. I had to know. “That seems pretty benign. Why pray that silently. And by the way, you are a perfect wife for me,” I told her as I leaned over and kissed her forehead. Karen smiled, “I know you think that. But I"m not. And and, I want to be, Danny. I want to be perfect even with all the little things that you dislike.” My grin probably took on a manic look, “What… like how you don't like watching basketball with me?” Karen krinkled her nose but then exclaimed, “Yes… exactly. I hate it but I wish I didn't.” I studied her for a minute, trying to remember the words I'd heard. What did I need to do? Snap my fingers? Make a wish? Or just will the changes into being? I looked at Karen and just thought about her happily watching basketball with me. I pictured us cuddled up on the couch, her wearing one of my UCLA jerseys as we happily watched a game. Karen seemed to get a little twinkle in her eye, “But you know what… in keeping with my prayer last night, what the heck? Let's watch a game today?” “Really?” I asked, surprised in spite of myself. “Why the heck not?” she said, giving me a kiss. “I'll go make us breakfast, you find a game you've been wanting to watch and we'll see if maybe I can learn to like it. It's been awhile and I owe you the effort.” I smiled and stretched out in bed as I watched Karen's gorgeous ass climb out from the sheets.. She stripped out of her night shirt and then stood there pondering what to wear. She looked at me, smirking at how I was staring at her naked tits like a kid who found his dad's Playboys. She got an idea and went into our closet, coming out only a few moments later wearing my old, beaten up Ed O'Bannon jersey. My mouth must have dropped three feet as I stared at her. She looked super cute in the oversized jersey. It was long enough to be worn like a very short mini-dress and it made her legs look great. Not to mention, the side-boob view was amazing. “What? I figured I should look the part of a super fan. Besides, if I'm wearing your jersey, better odds of you being shirtless.” Karen liked it when I walked around the house wearing just my pajama bottoms and no shirt. You know what they say, “Happy wife, happy life.” She went into the kitchen and started cooking and I did my usual morning ritual. As I was standing there peeing, I looked down and was shocked to see something that I was completely unprepared for. My cock was bigger soft than it had ever been hard. It was like a giant slab of salami was dangling down from me. I remembered the last words that God had spoken to me. Was God's parting gift to me a giant cock? And how was I going to explain this to Karen? As I stood there, my panic subsided. This was going to be fine, I told myself as I walked back into the bedroom and put on the silk pajama pants she'd bought me for Christmas. The long green cloth felt cool as it slid across my cock. I felt my arousal start but really didn't want to alarm Karen any sooner than I needed to so I willed myself to keep it down. It was quite difficult as Karen was moving around in the kitchen and every time she reached up for an ingredient, her ass would peek out from beneath the jersey. I distracted myself by finding the game I'd recorded Saturday night on the DVR. We'd played USC and I hadn't been able to watch it live but I'd still managed to avoid the results. It was ML King Day and I'd planned on vegging out on the couch and watching the game while Karen went shopping with her friend but now that plan seemed out the window in a good way. As if she'd read my mind, Karen called out, “I texted Jill and told her I was staying home today. So it's just you and me, honey.” “Excellent,” I said as I fast forwarded through all the garbage at the beginning of the game, pausing it at tip off as big Moses Brown was just starting his jump. Karen came in and sat next to the couch, yanking a blanket over her legs for warmth as she snuggled against me. She ran her fingers along my chest and cooed softly before saying, “Ah, looking good big guy. I could get used to this, I think.” I draped my arm around her as I took the plate from her. She'd made an omelet and cinnamon rolls and it smelled absolutely delicious. “Me too,” I said as I started eating. I hit play on the game and immediately knew that something had changed. Karen was interested and alert. She asked questions about the game and repeatedly made interesting insights. By half time, she was really into it. We'd finished our food and, despite UCLA losing by three points, we were ready to go. Even more importantly, Karen was ready to go. She was cheering her heart out but Boatwright and Rakocevic just took us to the woodshed. With two minutes left, USC was stomping us by 26 and I flipped off the TV and threw the remote away in disgust. Karen crawled up to me and whispered, “Oh, baby. I'm sorry. What can I do to make it all better?” She looked so sexy in my jersey as she straddled my hips on the leather couch that I forgot all about the dream last night. Let alone my newly enhanced cock. “Suck me until I explode?” I said. Karen wasn't a huge fan of blowjobs. She saw them as foreplay but they rarely lasted more than a minute. Today she just nodded happily and hopped down on the floor, eagerly stripping the silk pajamas off me. When my semi-hard cock flopped out, her eyes got wide. “Oh, shit,” I thought to myself. “Holy crap, Danny. What happened?” she said as she took the hardening shaft in her hand, holding it reverently. Like many couples, one of the first things she'd done with my cock when we'd gotten together was to measure it. So we both knew full well that six and a half inches was the normal length. Instead she was now holding a nearly nine inch cock that wasn't fully hard. And where a roll of quarters might have been the right measurement of girth before, now it looked like a coke can. I'd never appreciated the euphemism “third leg” before but now it seemed pretty apropo. “Uhh… I took some of those pills you order online and they actually worked?” I said. My words carried absolutely no conviction. No way was Karen going to believe them unless she was trusting to a fault. “Oh wow. Well I wouldn't have thought they would work but I guess the evidence is right here,” she said as she licked the head of my cock, “In my mouth.” She smiled up at me and started trying to wrap her lips around my cock. Karen took a couple inches in her mouth, bobbing up and down. I honestly still hadn't realized what the effect I was having on her was. I know it sounds stupid, but you try having a crazy dream where you talk to God and then waking up with a giant cock and tell me how analytical you are. What kicked things into gear was what happened next. I was lying there enjoying an enthusiastic, but not particularly great, blowjob from my gorgeous wife and thinking about how great it would be if she could easily deep throat me. As soon as I imagined it, she sank about an inch further. Then another inch. And another. After five or six thrusts, she was suddenly taking my cock all the way down her throat. Her nose touching my pelvis as her tongue snaked out to tickle my balls slightly. She looked up at me and seemed to smile at me with her eyes before resuming her work, taking my cock down her throat over and over. “I didn't know you were such a good cocksucker,” I said breathlessly. She pulled off my cock and frowned, “Please don't call me that.” “But I want to,” I said and she nodded meekly. I saw the unhappy look on her face though and added, “But only if you like it.” Her attitude shifted a full 180 instantly. She smiled a wicked smile and licked her lips, staring hungrily at my cock. “I do, baby. I'll be your good little cocksucker. I'll be the best cocksucking wife ever,” she said before diving back down on my cock. She started slamming her mouth down over and over as I urged her on. It wasn't long until I felt my orgasm coming. “Yeah baby. I'm so close. Be a good little cocksucker and suck it all down your greedy throat, slut,” I roared. Karen normally doesn't like the taste of cum but that was no longer the case. She latched onto my cock and sucked hard as I felt spurt after spurt fill her newly eager mouth. It was too much for her and she pulled off it, mouth filled with my cum as one last blast shot out and landed on her chin. She sat there panting as she wiped her face and licked the cum off her wrist. She just knelt on the ground staring up at me with wide eyes. “That was amazing. I didn't know I could do that,” she said as she nuzzled my cock and licked the last little drops from the head of the shaft. The sensation was like a pleasure overload and I twitched with each little teasing touch. When my vision cleared, I pulled her up next to me on the couch, “So you liked that, baby?” “Oh yeah… I'm so horny now, lover. Can you go again? Or does your new equipment take longer to recharge?” “I don't know. I guess we'll find out. So you really liked that?” “Yeah. Why do you ask?” “Well, you didn't seem to like me calling you, um, a cocksucker at first.” As I said it she shuddered in my arms, sending a pleasurable ripple through her body. She thought for a moment, “At first I didn't. But then you told me you wanted to and it was like something clicked. Suddenly being called, a cocksucker, was a huge turn-on for me.” I thought about that and the idea that my perfect little churchgoing wife liked being called a ‘cocksucker' really stirred something in me. “What about when I called you a slut?” I asked, hopefully. “In the moment, I barely noticed but hearing you say it now…?” she said somewhat breathlessly. Her skin was flushed and she inched towards me with a hungry look in her eyes. “Whore?” she nodded. “Tramp?” another nod. “Cunt, bitch, fucktoy?” She was practically panting. “You don't mind being called those degrading names?” I said. Now I was getting the hang of this. I was imagining her getting insanely aroused by the name calling and it was happening right here in front of me. “Fuck, I'm so turned on, Danny. Please take me in the bedroom and fuck me. Fuck me. Use me. Call me names. Call me whatever degrading, horrible, humiliating names you want. Please?” She had one hand on my cock and another between her legs. She'd never asked me to fuck her. We always “made love” but that wasn't what either of us wanted anymore. I practically dragged her to the bedroom and threw her onto our bed. She yelped and I dove on her, grabbing her hips and raising them up so I could slam into her from behind. Her cunt was soaking and my cock slammed into her. She screamed out, “It's too big!” with a pained shout. “No it's not. It's perfect for your slut cunt,” I whispered in her ear and it instantly became true. Her pained whimper became a lusty groan. We were suddenly just two animals fucking. I grabbed her wrists and held her suspended so I could see her face in the mirror on our dresser. I loved the look of mindless pleasure she displayed as I hammered into her. “Cum for me you dumb cunt,” I told her and her body responded with a more powerful orgasm than I'd ever seen. I felt her cunt clench my cock tight and it was all I could do not to shoot into her right then. I held on though and just as she came down from her first orgasm I shoved my hips in hard and whispered, “Cum again. Don't stop cumming for me, slut!” It was like I'd shocked her with lightning. Her whole body started shaking and spasming as she came over and over again. I looked down and saw her cunt squeezing at my cock as I pulled the huge shaft out before slamming back in faster and faster. Her eyes were rolled into the back of her head and her screams had turned into nearly silent pleadings of “Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes.” I flung her forward and grabbed her hips, shoving my cock in with three more hard thrusts before unloading inside of her. She and I both collapsed in a fit of giggles and laughter. Cum was already leaking out of her and down her legs as we kissed. Her sweaty hair was matted on her face from the exertion of it all as she whispered, “I love you. I love you.” “I love you too, babe,” I said. “Wow you came a lot,” she said looking down. “Oh no… You didn't use a condom!” she exclaimed in a panic. “Don't worry,” I said. I thought about how she couldn't get pregnant unless I wanted and I knew it was instantly true. She laughed at me as she wobbled into the bathroom. “What? Do those big dick pills also make you infertile?” “Something like that,” I said with a laugh. Karen cleaned herself up and came back to bed, snuggling next to me on the sweaty sheets. “I guess you've got some sheets to change,” I joked. Changing the sheets was one of my jobs around the house. Again, my new found control worked both consciously and subconsciously, apparently. “Sure thing, babe. After that fucking I'm happy to do the sheets.” Seeing her hop to my direction, I arrived at a quick conclusion. “Karen, there's something I need to tell you.” “What's wrong?” she said, looking suddenly concerned. “Nothing. I mean,” I paused for a second, thinking about it. If everything God had told me last night was true, and it sure seemed to be, then truly nothing was wrong. “A couple things. Uhmm… yesterday I… I realized that I believe in God.” “What? Really?” she lunged at me and gave me a huge hug and a kiss. “Seriously? That's wonderful!” She was nearly shouting and there were tears in her eyes. “Hard as it is to believe, that's not the most important thing that happened yesterday,” I said. She looked at me, “What could be bigger than you finding God?” “Funny you should say it that way because something else happened. Uhmm… God came to me in my dreams.” She waved her hand, “I dream about God visiting me all the time, Danny. Totally normal.” “No… you don't understand. God came to me. He talked to me. He… gave me stuff.” “What do you mean?” “Well… this cock for one. I haven't been taking any pills.” “Seriously, Danny? That's amazing. What else?” I was surprised at how willingly she believed me before I remembered what I'd changed before. “Well… Uhmm… He… he gave me control of you,” I said, letting the words hang in the air. She looked at me with wide eyes, “What do you mean, Danny? What do you mean he gave you control of me?” Her breathing was suddenly more rapid and her nipples hardened in front of my eyes. “God told me about your prayer last night. That you'd always wished for it and it's really what you wanted deep down. He gave you your wish because he loves you and you finally let go and simply trusted him.” Her eyes got even wider as I spoke. She knew it was true, I could tell. She was also a little scared. And very aroused. “What does that mean?” “Well… didn't you wonder how you could take my new cock so well? Or why you suddenly liked being called those names?” She thought about it, replaying the last 30 minutes in her mind. “You made me do that?” she asked in awe. “That's… That's so hot. Wait, did you just make me think that's hot?” she asked accusingly. “No. That's all you,” I said with a smile. I gave her a kiss and watched as she processed all of this. “So… so what can you do to me?” “I don't really know. I mean… I think basically anything.” “Oh my gosh… is that why I liked watching basketball?” she asked as she thought about the events of the morning. I just nodded as she continued, “Wow… if you can do that you really can do anything,” she said with a smirk. I smacked her with a pillow and we laughed. “Can you change my hair color?” “Uhh… sure,” I said. I pictured her with green hair and suddenly her chestnut hair slowly changed to the bright green, exactly like I'd imagined it. “Ugh… really?” she said as she looked at it. I then willed her to like it and suddenly she smiled, “I love it. Wait… oh my gosh. Did you make me like it?” I nodded with a grin. She was practically panting now, “Do it some more. Make me your dream girl, Danny. Please?” “You are my dream girl,” I said and gave her a kiss. She kissed me back but then pushed me away, “That's nice of you to say but seriously. I want you to make me whatever you think is perfect. That's why I wanted this. That's… that's why God gave you this power, right?” I thought about it. I still didn't have any actual idea why God gave me this gift. But I could tell the idea of having no more control turned on Karen and I wasn't about to miss an opportunity of this magnitude. I looked at her and tried to imagine what a perfect version of Karen would look like. I pictured her in college when we'd met as Sophomores. Then I took that image and tried to completely idealize it. I pictured her with a more hourglass figure. Slightly wider hips and narrower waist. I pictured her with perfectly smooth, sun-kissed skin and bright red hair that cascaded down her ample breasts. I pictured her cute little pink nipples now sticking out like small thumbs. I imagined how sensitive to the touch she was. How easily aroused she was. I'd always loved her blue eyes and I dialed that up to eleven making her eyes so gorgeous and piercing that Alexandra D'Addario would be jealous. My mind wandered as I imagined the things we would have done. The wild crazy sex. The depraved things we'd have done together as we experimented. I imagined fucking her in front of our friends at a frat party. I imagined her getting off to being treated like a slave when she dressed as Princess Leia at Halloween. I imagined her showing me how much she loved to be spanked and how she could get off from just having her nipples teased and tormented. I opened my eyes and the vision from my mind was lying there in front of me. She was smiling at me with a lusty gaze. “Is it done?” “Yeah, go look,” I said gesturing at our mirror. She hopped out of bed and stood in front of the mirror for a moment before she turned back around to me. “Hahaha… Seriously… C'mon Danny,” she said. “What? Do you not like it?” “It's just me from college,” she said with her hand on her hip. I looked at her in confusion. “What are you talking about?” I asked. Karen's red-brown hair had never been this red, her tits never that big. I'd even made her subconsciously just a little bit taller and I could tell because now the jersey she was still wearing wasn't covering anything. “I appreciate that you think college me was a vision of perfection but you have to have had something to improve.” That's when it hit me. I'd imagined doing things to this version of Karen in college. It must have completely changed her memories of the events. “Karen, do you remember that frat party we went to?” She thought for a second then shuddered, “The one that you fucked me like a whore in front of everyone while they all cheered… fuck that was amazing.” I closed my eyes and imagined her back to normal right up until I changed her appearance a moment before. Now her expression changed to one of amazement. “Holy crap. That was… that was so trippy. It's like I had a whole other life for a moment. Oh wow… Oh Wow!” she said now looking at the mirror and appreciating the changes. “So this is what you like, huh? I nodded. She stripped off her shirt and played with her breasts, enjoying the sensation of her now very sensitive nipples. “Wait… all those nasty sex things I imagined us doing… Those were things you want?” I grinned in embarrassment, “Uh… yeah… kind of.” “Kind of?” she said, getting a grin on her face. “You kind of want to fuck me in front of our friends?” I nodded again and she crawled naked on the bed, “You kind of want to lead me around on a leash like a… like a fuck toy?” Again, I nodded and licked my lips as she got closer, “You ‘kind of' want to spank my ass while I beg you to use me like a… what did that version of me say?” Her captivating eyes looked off in the distance as she tried to remember the fleeting, fake memory, “Like a 'cheap, dumb cock socket'?” I reached up and stroked her nipple with one hand and her whole body shuddered in overwhelming arousal. “That's so hot,” I whispered. “That version of me was always dressing in really slutty clothes too. And lacy, sexy lingerie. Do you like that too?” she asked. I hadn't even realized it but she was right. All the sexy images I'd had in my mind had her wearing short tight little dresses and shorts and low cut tops. High heels and sexy underwear were always featured to. I licked my lips and choked out a “Yes.” Karen dove on me and kissed me, “Thank God.” I couldn't agree more. By Masterful_Husband for Literotica

Awaiting the "Blessed Hope."

We Need To Check Ourselves (4) (audio) David Eells 1/24/24  The Blessings Of Humility Missy Pollock said, This is a quote from David's book “The Blessings of Humility” at the very end of chapter 3. I thought it was such a good ending to the chapter because it greatly blessed me!  Jesus sought a simple life. He sought not to have and do the things that men thought were great. He didn't mind speaking Truth, even if it offended the high and the mighty. He didn't mind leaving the multitudes behind in order to go seek fellowship with the Father. (Matthew 14:13; Luke 4:42; Mark 1:35; etc.) We need to emulate Him.   Jesus had such a desire to meet the needs of the people, that in some cases, He was working night and day. (Matthew 8:24-25,13:2; Mark 3:9; etc.) Jesus said, (Mat.8:20) … The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. He didn't have any time for Himself and I believe that God has some servants down here who are doing the same thing. They see the need, they're moved with compassion, and they go to meet the need, but not for the glory of man.   Jesus wasn't doing it for the glory of man because He didn't mind leaving the multitudes and going up into the mountains to pray. He's our Example, and as the Bible tells us, (1Jn.2:5) But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily hath the love of God been perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him: (6) he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked.      You Just Need Me Debbie Fenske 1/19/24 Yesterday I decided to look for some very quiet worship music that I thought I'd have playing while having my quiet time with Jesus. I found what I really liked and started to play it. Then, as I began to sit with Jesus, I heard Him, very quietly, tell me something. He said, "You don't need sound." I said, "That is really good, Lord." And then, He continued to quietly say more to me. I turned off the quiet music and listened. This is what He said.   "You don't need sound. You just need Me. Listen for My voice. You don't need a plan. You just need Me. Desire Me. Desire to seek Me with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. You don't need a feeling. You just need Me. I will give you My peace. You don't need routine. You just need Me. I will lead you, and I will guide you."  Lord Jesus, thank you that you have not made it a hard thing to come before you, to get alone with you. Lord, please help us to kick aside all these preconceived ideas that say we need so much more. Please Lord, help us to desire just you, and to cast down the need for sound around us, and to cast down any inner thoughts and feelings, and our plans. Help us to just drop all these things, and just desire to sit with you. To desire only you. Thank you, Jesus that you are our peace, and that in that peace you will lead us and guide us. You will speak to us and let us know whether to open your Word to begin receiving from you there, or to just sit and wait on you. What you can do with us in our time alone with you, Lord, is limitless. Thank you, Jesus. We just need you. Thank you that you just want us, alone. Thank you, Lord. Amen.      Dying To Self  Winnie Osegueda 1/21/24  I read this and enjoyed it, and wanted to share it with you all. Thank You Lord for Your grace and for completing the work You started in us:  “When you are forgotten, or neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don't sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight, but your heart is still happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ, THAT IS DYING TO SELF.  When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, your best intentions misinterpreted, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, or even defend yourself, but rather take it all in patiently, loving silence, knowing that Christ alone is your defender, THAT IS DYING TO SELF.  When you patiently bear annoyance, disorder, inconvenience, irregularity, and even impunctuality from others; when you feel your time has been wasted and you've been treated harshly and unfairly and yet you still respond in love, maintaining your peace, and enduring these things with meekness as Jesus endured, THAT IS DYING TO SELF.  When you are unruffled with less than desirable accommodations, uncomplaining with meager food, difficult climates, re-arranged travel schedules, when you maintain cheerfulness even though others are grumpy, when you are loving, kind, and attentive even to those who can do you no benefit by their association, when you remain calm despite interruptions to your agenda and plans by the will of God, THAT IS DYING TO SELF.  When you don't care to refer to yourself in conversation, when you don't feel the need to boast of your accomplishments and record every good deed you do for the world to see, when you don't itch after commendation and applause, when you don't mind when others are acknowledged and your name is ignored, when you're more concerned with being faithful to God's call, when you are okay to be unknown, THAT IS DYING TO SELF.  When you see your brother prospering, when you see him succeeding with a project that you contributed to, and yet you can honestly rejoice with him in spirit, being happy to remain behind the scenes, not questioning God, but being grateful that the work is being accomplished so that God is glorified, THAT IS DYING TO SELF.  When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart, THAT IS DYING TO SELF.”  "That I may know Him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death." Php 3:10  “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Gal 2:20      Idols In The Heart  Anonymous 12/10/22   I sought the Lord regarding idols in our heart and heard:   “Be aware of idols of ‘insecurity' and ‘selfishness'. You need to reshape and rethink on how you perceive life in Christ.”  (We are accounted righteous when we believe we don't live anymore, Christ lives in us. Rom 6:11  Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.)  Col 3:3-4 For ye died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God. 4 When the Christ, our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory.   Eph 4:22-24 that ye put away, as concerning your former behavior, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit; 23 and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.   “Insecurity is where you want or require something, that when put to the test of eternity with Me, would be thrown out into the fire. I supply all your needs and desires of your heart. Continue to replace and put Me always first and keep a watch to the things that could be contrary to My Word.”   1Pe 5:7 casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you.   Php 4:6 In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.   Php 4:19 And my God shall supply your every need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.  Psa 37:4-5 Delight thyself also in Jehovah; And he will give thee the desires of thy heart. 5 Commit thy way unto Jehovah; Trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass.    “Selfishness is where there is pride and misunderstanding, especially when what has been taught and learned through the world's ways, comes between us.”  Mar 7:13  making void the word of God by your tradition, which ye have delivered: Php 2:4-5 not looking each severally to his own things, but each severally also to those of others. 5 Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus   “The renewal of your mind is the best place to begin, to be cleansed and sanctified. After these things are put into check and aligned back according to My Son and My Word, you can receive and manifest 100 fold!”   Rom 12:2 And be not fashioned according to this age: but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, that ye may prove what is the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.   “Like when a bath is filled with water. You get in, and the water rises. When you get out, you can fill up all the way. It is the objects of no value within, that are to be removed to enable more room to be filled with Me.   Aim and focus on the hardest and most hidden of evil. This is self. Learn to hate the concept and mindset of being an individual. Instead, you need to incorporate My Son as He is the perfect replacement.  To get past all of self and anything that is carnal and fleshly, you need to find and root them out. Keep an eye and ear on the self (watch out for outward evil manifestations) and bring it to the Light for full exposure.”   Eph 5:8 for ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light.  Eph 5:11-13 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; 12 for the things done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of. 13 But all things when reproved are manifested by the light: for everything manifested is light.   “Speak it out, and pray it out, and know that it is a process for it all to go. Believe that you are at the end from your current state, and are already perfected in Christ. It is just the flesh and soul with understanding that needs to catch up.”   Col 1:27 to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:     Humility Brings Grace David Eells If there's anything you need from God, humble yourself, and confess your sins. As the Bible says, (Psa.66:18) If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear. Many people are diligently attempting to exercise their faith, and yet they find no grace from God to hold on to their faith. Faith is a gift from God. If He doesn't give it to you, you won't have it. And you can try your best to stand in faith and you will fail, because the Word says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not, will not hear.” He will not hear. Well, what choice do we have then? God is telling us that He's not going to hear unless we repent. (Pro.28:13) He that covereth his transgressions shall not prosper: But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy. We just read unless we humble ourselves concerning any sin, we're not going to receive grace. And here we see that, unless we confess our sins, we're not going to prosper or have His mercy, therefore other things besides lack of faith can block us from receiving the blessings of God. God is very forgiving to us because, many times, we don't know that we're doing wrong and so God overlooks them. He puts them under the Blood because of our ignorance. (Jas.4:17) To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. But if God is showing you something required of Him in your life, then you're responsible to make corrections because it may block you from receiving what you need from the Lord. In this case, we can see that we have to confess our sins in order to receive our healing. Some may say, “That's salvation by works, David.” Well, you can take it for whatever you believe it is, but the Bible says, “confess your sins one to another...that ye may be healed,” and that's what we have to believe and act on. (Pro.16:18) Pride goeth before destruction, And a haughty (This is gobah meaning “lofty; high; height; pride.”) spirit before a fall. (The Hebrew kishshalon there is also translated as “stumbling; ruin.”) That doesn't sound like somebody is receiving what they want from the Lord! Destruction is not what we pray and believe for; it's not according to the good promises. And possibly you've heard people say, “You Christians, you accept all the good promises but you don't like any of the bad promises.” Well, this is one of them, right here: “Pride goeth before destruction.” So it behooves us to find out what pride actually is and how many ways it can be manifested in our life. That's another reason why we need to read the Scriptures, because there can be things in our life that block us from receiving grace that imparts faith from God to bring us salvation. Certainly we don't pray to fall into destruction and ruin or these kinds of things; we pray for God's blessings. But Jesus said in (Mat.12:30) He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. If you're prideful, which is the opposite of humility, you're going to be destroyed. And if you're haughty, which is being self-promoting, you're at the very least going to stumble, and possibly be ruined. All that is chastening upon the wicked, unregenerate old man, who is prideful and has to be crucified. He's the one you're supposed to be leaving on the cross. (Pro.16:19) Better it is to be of a lowly spirit with the poor, Than to divide the spoil with the proud. Recently, I was giving some advice to a person who was forsaking running after the Lord with all their heart in order to get a “higher” education. I asked them, “Are you sure that's what the Lord really wants for you? You know, we're coming very, very close to the end times now. What is more important? Is it to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, which is what we're commanded to do? Or is it to get a ‘higher' education so you can earn a higher income?”  I tell you, the most important thing is to humble yourself to the Word of God, now and forever. That “higher” education doesn't matter in the least. Personally, I'd rather be stupid and humble, and get what God gives me in His Word. Obviously, some of you may be contrary to my thinking there, but I would rather be of lowly spirit with the poor, and not worry about the “higher” education. I don't know how many people come out of their so-called “higher” education anti-Christ in their thinking. They've lost God in the midst of it because a little leaven leavens the whole lump (1 Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:9). Also we have in (Pro.15:33) The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; And before honor goeth humility. There is it again, before honor must be humility. Do you want to be honored of the Lord or of man? Humility has to come first before we can have the blessings of God, those great promises that we believe for. And, (Pro.22:4) The reward of humility and the fear of the Lord Is riches, and honor, and life. How many people have lost their lives, spiritual or physical or both, because they didn't humble themselves to God's Word? (Mat.6:33) But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. We need to seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness. His Word needs to be put in our heart every day. The most important thing that we do, over and above and including going to “church,” is humbling ourselves to the Word of God. It is the Life of God. So many are caught-up in, and puffed-up by, false doctrines of false religion. They're in idolatrous worship of false leaders and are being led astray from the faith. Humility and the fear of the Lord go hand-in-hand. If you are humble, you fear the Lord. If you fear the Lord, you are humble, and this goes before “riches, and honor, and life.” If you want to manifest not just more of physical life, but more of the Life of Jesus, one of the ways to receive that is through humility. Many people pass away because they don't humble themselves to the Word. They haven't read the Word enough, and don't believe the Word enough, to find out that God already provided deliverance from the curses that have fallen upon mankind. Glory to God! It's a wonderful thing to walk in that faith and to see that God keeps His Word! What do we have to be proud of? What do we have that we can claim is on account of our righteousness, our power, our wisdom? What do we have? As we're told, (1Co.1:26) For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, [are called]… In other words, the people who are great in this world are not the kind of people the Lord calls. And He says, “not many,” meaning He does call some of them. He likes to give a demonstration of His power because He's able to save even these people by humbling them. Even Paul was humbled. But generally He does not choose the wise, the mighty, the noble. (1Co.1: 27) but God chose the foolish [things] of the world… That word “things” was added-in all through this text, but is not found in the original Greek manuscripts and so it should be italicized in your Bible. There's no numeric pattern in the word “things” here. This text properly reads, (1Co.1:26) For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, [are called]: (27) but God chose the foolish of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak of the world, that he might put to shame them that are strong; (28) and the base of the world, and the despised, did God choose, [yea] and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are: (So God chooses people who are foolish, weak, base, and despised by the world. Why?) (29) that no flesh should glory before God. “Glory” there is the Greek kauxáomai meaning, “I boast; I exult proudly.” It's important to God “that no flesh should glory” before Him. The people that God chooses are not the wise or the great or the gifted or the necessarily handsome. And, although many times the people who are promoted to the top of Christianity are just like that, they're not found to be faithful nor really gifted in the Spirit of God. It seems like a person has to be weak in the ways of the world before they will really have trust in God and lean upon Him. I'm one of those people. For instance, I never considered myself a speaker, never liked to get up in front of people, and don't relish it to today, but I do it. And I'm able to do it by the Grace of God, not that my speech is all that great today. But, you know, Paul's on my side because he said that he wasn't a great speaker either. Moses too. At any rate, when we're made capable of doing something only by God, we have to trust in Him because we know we have no strength within ourselves to do it. You may ask, “Why does God pick people that are weak?” Well, He says, so “that no flesh should glory before God.” And also in 2Co 12:9 ASV  And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. (Get this important principle:) Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. A person who seeks importance because of self confidence is not qualified. Where is Superman now? What has happened to the superstars? Where are all the factious leaders who thought they should have a position of authority that God did not give them. Carpenters know that the head that sticks up gets hammered. And here is why. Mat 23:12 ASV  And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted. He doesn't want any pride in us. He doesn't want us taking any credit for what He chooses to do through us. He wants us to give all glory to Him. (Isa.42:8) I am the Lord, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise unto graven images. God will not share His glory with another, and when you try to rob the glory of God because of your own personal gifts, then God has to humble you because you're lifting yourself up. “Pride goeth before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.” Jesus Could Do Nothing of Himself It's hard to even imagine it, yet Jesus said in (Joh.5:19) … The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner. Now, obviously, if Jesus could do nothing of Himself, we can do nothing of ourselves. Nothing of any importance in the Kingdom can we do of ourselves because self has no power to do the work of God. Self cannot walk in the Spirit. Self does not have the renewed mind of Christ with the renewed sight and hearing (Ephesians 4:23), having been washed with the water of the Word (Ephesians 5:26). Self has no power to walk in the Spirit or to do the works of God.     Question Yourself  Anonymous12/3/22   I was in prayer and I asked the Lord what He wants to tell me:  “A question to self: Am I doing what I know to do?” NENT Jas 1:23 For if any is hearer of the word and not doer, HE is like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror:  “Am I on the right side living by faith in the Word?” (I.e. Righteous by faith, abiding in Christ) NENT Rom 1:17 For herein is being revealed God's righteousness from faith unto faith: as it is written, But the righteous man shall live by faith.  1Jn 2:5-6 but whoso keepeth his word, in him hath truly the love of God been perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him: 6 who saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as HE walked.   “Be on the perfect team, and you will never fail or lose. Believe you are not anymore, but Christ lives in you.” NENT Rom 6:11 Thus ye also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.   “This is an excellent choice, as the self-part of you is really the loser, and there is nothing you can do that is better than I”. Job 38:33 Knowest thou the ordinances of the heavens? Canst thou establish the dominion thereof in the earth?   Job 42:2 I know that thou canst do all things, And that no purpose of thine can be restrained.   “Admit it before men”. NENT Mat 10:32 Every one therefore who shall confess in me before men, in him will I also confess before my Father who is in the heavens.  1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.   “Humble yourself and come to me”. (Being humble allows the Lord to utilize us as vessels of honor.) Num 12:3 Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth. NENT 1Pe 5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he might exalt you in season;   “The more frequent you let go of self, and imitate My Word as Christ, then infinitely more My Love will manifest through you”. (I.e. We will progress from star to moon to sun glory manifesting Christ with 100-fold fruit.) NENT 1Co 15:41 One glory of sun, and another glory of moon, and another glory of stars; for star differeth from star in glory.   “I washed you in the Water of My Word to clean out all the lies. You can then have a clear mind which can do My Works”. Joh 15:3 Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you. NENT Rom 12:2 And be not fashioned according to this age: but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, that ye may prove what is the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.   2Ti 1:7 For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and sobering.   “There is real life through the release of the carnal and worldly ways of men”. NENT 2Co 6:14 Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness?   Mat 11:29-30 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest to your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.   “I know you, and you know and will do as I say. And I can see that where we are, here in eternity.” NENT Eph 2:5-6 even when we were dead through the trespasses made us alive together with the Christ (by grace have ye been saved), 6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus.     Finding Balance in Faith David Eells  (Mar.16:17) And these signs shall accompany them that believe... (18) they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.   Should we always eat what we want, drink what we want and breathe what we want because we are not under the curse, according to Galatians 3:13? Possibly the key words here are "what we want" not "what we need". God said He would supply our every need. Some think that because we are not under the curse that we shouldn't tell people that certain things are poison. Where is the balance here?   No one should tempt God by taking poison on purpose when there is a choice. That is like the snake handlers who often die tempting God to prove who they are. Permit me to paraphrase the devil when he tempted Jesus: "Throw yourself off this temple, Jesus, because God said the angels would catch you". His answer was, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God". Like the angels' promise of safety, God also said you are not under the curse. Does that mean you should put poison in your mouth on purpose when you have a choice not to? That would be tempting God in the exact same way.   Notice the devil tempted Jesus to use His promise of protection and His deliverance from the curse to jump off the temple. He tempts you to use your promise of protection to eat known poison for no purpose or eat after your own lusts. There is no difference, unless that is all you have to eat, like the man who said to Elisha, "There is death in the pot," because in their foraging for food, poisonous gourds had been thrown in the pot. Since that is what they had to eat, he blessed it and they ate it.   I have drunk Pensacola water, driven my motorcycle through the chemtrails when I could smell them, ate whatever food was put before me because I needed to and was blessed. I knew an otherwise strong Christian who believed with all his heart that he could eat anything he wanted because he was not under the curse. I agreed with the principle but not the way he was using it to justify his eating habits. He was using the doctrine to eat in an unhealthy manner and was overweight and under-exercised. To make a long story short, he died with his arteries clogged and dying because of lack of circulation.   The Lord said we ask and don't receive because we want to consume it upon our lusts. The demons jumped on the seven sons of Sceva, who thought they had protection, but their own lives were not right with God and so they were under the curse.   The promise that, if you drink any deadly thing it will not harm you, is for those who have to drink the water and eat the food available to them, like when Moses blessed the bitter waters in the barren wilderness. When we are given poison secretly to kill us, as the powers that be are doing now, we are protected. When we know about it and have a choice between poison or pure, we should choose the pure. Of course, if you have something to prove, like the devil was tempting Jesus with saying, "If you are the Son of God," and then he went on to test him with prove who you are. Jesus had no such lust and He proved it. There was another way down from that temple roof. Some today would say to someone like him, "You don't have any faith". Who is the teacher here?   The man who said there was death in the pot was not wrong. Now they had a choice to make: believe God if you need to eat or opt out if you don't believe. Many Christians don't believe God will protect them from poison. Should we just let them die because they do not believe God's promise? Is it alright to say to them, there is death in the pot? They would die and never have a chance to grow up and learn that they are not under the curse. Of course God could give them a demonstration, like He did, of His power over the curse.  The Lord said in Hosea 4:6 that His people would die for lack of understanding. Let us have mercy on them and tell them that fluoride, chemtrails, chemotherapy, many drugs they take, etc., are poison but should they be forced to take them or deceived into taking them, they should believe they are not under the curse. Now we know serpents are also demons but Paul didn't take up that serpent on purpose. It bit him. But when it happened, he shook it off by faith and was none the worse.   I knew a couple who believed they were not under the curse but they were under a law of their own making, instead of grace through faith; they were under pride, Jezebel and a false Jesus. God didn't care what their doctrine was; He refused to answer and protect them.   In short, walk in holiness and under the protection of God but don't try to prove who you are in pride, don't put yourself under a law and don't be competitive with others, for God will humble you.   We are not looking to make or find the line in this balance for others; just share Biblical principles to help them find balance. Let everyone find their own line in their conscience and according to the measure of their faith. We don't want to be caught making laws for others here. 

Please Lord, let this end.   For more resources on reading through the Bible in a year, visit my church's website at this link or text us at 888-644-4034.   Feel free to join me on my other daily podcast, Your Next Step.   God bless - Doyle  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this Episode we shift into Psalms 112,118,122. I read all of 112, then read out my highlighted notes in green

Isaiah 63:15-64:12Pastor Peter Bogert

Matthew week 19   Matthew 3:7-9 ESV   7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.       Matthew 23:23-24 ESV   23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!       Matthew 9:13 ESV   13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”       Hosea 6:6 NIV   For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.       1 Samuel 15:1-3 NIV   Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. 2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'”       1 Samuel 15:9 NIV   9 But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.       1 Samuel 15:13-14 NIV   13 When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord's instructions.”   14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”       1 Samuel 15:22 NIV   22 But Samuel replied:   “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices   as much as in obeying the Lord?   To obey is better than sacrifice,   and to heed is better than the fat of rams.       1 Samuel 15:26 NIV   26 But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!”       Matthew 5:7 ESV   7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.                     Jonah 4:2 NASB   2 Then he prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore in anticipation of this I fled to Tarshish, since I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and One who relents of disaster.                     Exodus 25:21-22 ESV   21 And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. 22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.       1 Samuel 6:19a NASB   19 Now He fatally struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord…       Romans 3:25 NASB   25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in God's merciful restraint He let the sins previously committed go unpunished;       Luke 10:33 ESV   33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.       Luke 10:37 ESV   37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”       Micah 6:8 NIV   He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.   And what does the Lord require of you?   To act justly and to love mercy   and to walk humbly with your God.       Matthew 18:27 ESV   27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.       Matthew 18:33-35 ESV   33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?'34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”  

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I'd like to first dedicate this episode to Big 12 expansion. I'm putting it out there for good juju. Please Lord, if you're listening, get Arizona to the Big 12. We talk about the expansion rumors and what it could mean for schools like Arizona, ASU, Utah, Oregon & Washington. We talk dream destinations for tailgating and also of course for watching basketball games. What could this potentially mean for recruiting? How inept really is the PAC 12's leadership brass? And finally... the dream of never having to play on Oregon's floor ever again. Fingers crossed this move happens. Then we end the program on some praise for Ole Miss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Lord let her be okay

Psalm 70For the director of music. Of David. A petition. (v 1-5)**********Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ®, NIV ® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used with permission. All rights reserved worldwide.The “NIV”, “New International Version”, “Biblica”, “International Bible Society” and the Biblica Logo are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.  Used with permission.BIBLICA, THE INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY, provides God's Word to people through Bible translation & Bible publishing, and Bible engagement in Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America. Through its worldwide reach, Biblica engages people with God's Word so that their lives are transformed through a relationship with Jesus Christ.Support the showSupport the show

When the resurrected Lord appeared to his disciples, the first thing he said was, “Peace be with you.” The world is full of conflict, internally and external. We're overwhelmed, we're exhausted, we're conflicted, What do we do!? Please Lord tell me…we'm scared to mess this up. We still need the peace that only Jesus can give. Give us peace. We long for peace.

The Outcast of the OutcastsJohn 4:13-14 “Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”A friend suggested I talk about the woman at the well today as it was the Gospel for mass yesterday.  For those of you who are not sure which story I am talking about let me recap quickly.  Jesus stopped by a well outside of Samaria.  There was a woman who was getting water at the well and Jesus asked her for a drink.  This was strange for her as Jews did not use anything that Samaritans used.  They kept their things separate.  This was also strange for a Jewish man to be talking to a Samaritan woman.  However, Jesus asked her for water again and then told her the verse above.  Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”The woman asked Jesus to let her drink of this water so she wouldn't have to keep coming to the well for water.  You see, most woman came to the well first thing in the morning when it was not so hot.  However, this woman did not want to be seen by the other woman as she was an outcast.  She had already have 5 husbands and the man she was living with at the time was not her husband.  What is really interesting is that this Samaritan woman is the first person that Jesus offered the living water too.  He had not spoken of this before, He had not revealed who he was to anyone before this encounter.  The Jews and the Samaritan had a feud going on, so they did not associate with one another.  The Samaritans were basically outcasts to the Jews.  This woman was an outcast to her own people.  So she was an outcast to the outcasts and yet Jesus chose her to reveal His identity to.  I learned something new during the sermon at mass today too.  The priest said Jesus specifically sent the apostles to look for food while he waited at the well so that he could be alone for this encounter.  He did not want the apostles there to judge this woman.  He wanted it to be just Himself and this woman so she would feel comfortable.  Isn't God so good.  He takes into account our feeling, our wants and needs.  He arranges our circumstances with such detail.  The verse above talks about living waters.  What does that mean?  Actually it says the water Jesus gives will give them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.  Jesus told this woman that whoever drank of this water would not thirst again.  I wanted to know what this actually meant, so I looked for an article.  I found an article that talked about how we all have an ache in our heart that only Jesus can fill.  We don't always understand this at first.  We know we have this ache, as I am sure this woman did.  I am sure this woman was missing something in her life and she did not know what it was.  She kept searching for it in various men, but what she was really searching for was God.  I have heard people say we all have a “God size” whole in our hearts and only God can fill it.  I think this is so true and I wish it were easier for us to realize this.  I know people who have had to take the really long road around to realize that Jesus was what they were searching for.  I know plenty of people that were searching in all the wrong places for this water that Jesus is talking about.  Some have turned to alcohol or drugs to find this water.  Others have turned to other relationships, other people, or sex to find this water Jesus is talking about.  Others have turned to self harming  behaviors, stayed in abusive relationships, gone back to unhealthy relationships, just to have what Jesus is offering this woman.  In the article I read it said, “Only Jesus can supply the water that our thirsty souls desire. Only he can fill the emptiness and the ache.”  I love how this is worded.  Our souls are thirsty.  We are constantly searching for what will quench our thirst.  It is more money?  Is it having a spouse?  Is it having kids?  Is it having the right car, the right house, the right job title?  What do you think will make you happy?  What have you been telling yourself will make you happy?  A lot of us think, I will be happen when… What is your when?  What are you waiting for before you can be happy? Only Jesus can quench our souls.  Without Him we will keep searching for that next best thing that will make us happy. We will keep searching but never finding.  Another thing I thought of when I was thinking about this verse is the fact that Jesus chose this particular woman to reveal his identity to.  I have mentioned this before but did you notice God has a pattern of using those who by human standards, don't really deserve it?  Moses was brought to my mind first after this woman.  I was thinking about how Moses had killed a man and then ran away from Egypt.  This is who God decided to use to save the Jewish people.  Think about all the truly amazing things Moses did.  His life did not start off in an amazing way.  His mother had to put him in a basket in a river when he was a baby to avoid him being killed.  She gave him up so that he could have a life.  Then he wasn't even raised in the Jewish culture.  He was raised as an Egyptian prince.  This is who God used to save all of the Jewish people from Egypt.  We often think God can't use us and we come up with all the excuses in the book.  I am too old, I am too young, I am not from a religious family, I am not as “holy” as other people in my family or in my friend circle.  We are super great at coming up with reasons why God won't use us.  Sometimes those things are our tendency to sin.  For instance we think God can't use me because I have sinned in my past and I continue to sin.  Guess what?  Murder is a sin and yet God used Moses.  Adultery is a sin and yet God used David.  We all sin, God doesn't need us to be perfect.  God has a purpose for each one of us.  I was going to say, “If God wants to use you, He will.”  However, I don't believe it is a matter of “if”.  God definitely wants to use you, He wants to use all of us to help Him build up His Kingdom.  Whatever you feel God putting on your heart know that He chose you for a reason.  Maybe that thing you feel is a weakness is the exact reason God chose you.  Maybe He is going to use that weakness to help you talk to others with that same weakness?  Maybe your addiction or alcohol makes you perfectly suited to bring his good news to others with an addiction to alcohol.  God will use all our mistakes, all of our pain, all of our sins, for good if we let Him.  Don't listen to that inner voice that tells you God wouldn't use you.  That is the voice of the enemy trying to keep you down because he knows God has powerful plans for you and the enemy is worried about what will happen if you step into those plans.  God knows you are not perfect and that is exactly why He wants to use you.  Let Him.  Say Yes.  Surrender to God and He will use you.  You are exactly who He wants.  Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those who are listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to drink of the living waters, please help us.  Lord, give us this wellspring of water inside of us.  Help us to say yes to your call on our life.  Help us to see that you use imperfect people all the time.  Help us to see we are exactly who you want to use.  Please help us to stop listening to that annoying voice of the enemy telling us you would never want to use us.  Please Lord, make your voice so much louder than the enemies.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen.Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you here again tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I!  Have a blessed day!

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Please watch: "Home tour vlog | Beautiful house vastu | Delhi Vlog | Travel Vlogs | Dr Puneet Chawla" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_vgkIOzpcE --~-- #vastu #astrology #lordganesha आज में आपको बताऊंगा कि कैसे आप भगवान गणेश को खुस कर सकते है स्वस्तिक का निशान भगवान् गणेश का प्रतीक स्वस्तिक अपने घर के दरवाजे पर बनाये | आप अगर १०८ नाम भगवान गणेश के पढ़ते है पुरे घर में घूमते हुए तो बहोत शुभ होता है | अगर आप इन नामो को नहीं पढ़ सकते तो इनको किसी पेपर पर लिख कर अपने घर में लगा सकते है | भगवान् गणेश को लड्डू या मोदक का प्रसाद बहोत पसंद है तो उनको इसका भोग अवश्य लगाए और अपने घर के आस पास के बच्चो को ये प्रसाद अवश्य दे. ऐसे और जानकारिया में आपको देता रहूँगा पर उसके लिए आपको मुझसे जुड़े रहना होगा | Dr. Puneet Chawla is a Life Guru, guiding and mentoring the followers to solve their life problems and make a easy living. He corrects the reasons of troublesome life by way of Vastu, Mantra and Tantra Mandalas. Being an intuitive personality he senses the negative energies, the reasons of problems and rarely predicts the life decisions too. He is a Shiv and Shakti Sadhak and guides people through Shivpath. ============================== Like, Share,and Subscribe!!! Our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/vaastuwithpuneet========Connect with us======= Android App: https://goo.gl/7yrFjc============================== iOS App for iPhone: https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/live-vaastu/id1251274555?mt=8============================= Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drpuneetchawlaTwitter: https://twitter.com/PuneetVaastuG+: https://goo.gl/m4CQAuLinkedin: https://goo.gl/yat644============================= Websites: https://www.livevaastu.comProfile Website : http://drpuneetchawla.comEmail us: contact@livevaastu.com Call Us @ 9555666667 | 9873333108 | 9899777806 mahavastu vastu tips for lord ganesha vaastu expert vastu shastra for lord ganesha vastu for lord ganesha --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ecom-live-vaastu/message

Distribute Srimad Bhagavatam And Please Lord Chaitanya. Lecture delivered by His Holiness on philosophy, principles, and practices of Krishna consciousness based on revealed Vedic scriptures as received in parampara.

Distribute Srimad Bhagavatam And Please Lord Chaitanya. Lecture delivered by His Holiness on philosophy, principles, and practices of Krishna consciousness based on revealed Vedic scriptures as received in parampara.

Delivered by Andrew Lazaro and Adrian Budiman from Santa Maria Ratu Church, Archdiocese of Jakarta, Indonesia. Revelation 3: 1-6.14-22; Rs psalm 15: 2-3ab.3cd-4ab.5; Luke 19: 1-10 GOD COMES TO OUR HEARTS AND HOMES Our meditation today has the theme: God Comes To Our Hearts And Homes. There is a little girl of grade 1 elementary school who was praying in her room. She exclaimed in prayer as she said: “Lord Jesus, if you are with me, speak with a voice like my father or my mother. Please Lord, I love to hear Your voice." The girl then closed her eyes and hoped to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus. In a moment of silence, there was a knock on her bedroom door and a voice was heard: "Laura, Laura... may I come in?" The child Laura opened her eyes and immediately jumped for joy because she thought that it was the Lord Jesus. It turned out that the one who entered the room was his own father. The house where we live, the school where we study, the office where we work, and our hearts where we are at home with and to which God chooses to stay, are always blessed by God. Thus they are worthy places for God to visit and be with us. The temple is not just one place, but is in Jesus Christ who moves, walks and reaches every home, place and person who welcomes Him. Jesus brought the temple Himself to sanctify all that he comes in or encounters. He told Zacchaeus in the city of Jericho that he would come to the house of that rich tax collector and sinner. Once he came there, both the house and the person of the sinner were sanctified. There was salvation going on in Zacchaeus' life. God is not always invited or asked to come into our homes and ourselves. We just need to provide time and eagerness to pray, and that's when and where He is present with us. Every time our soul and spirit connect ourselves with God, at the same time there is also an interaction of our communion with God. We have officially became the house of God through the Sacrament of Baptism. Our own families should be considered as a community of God's houses made by each family member. These individual persons and the families are then bound to the Church which is a communion with one body and with Jesus Christ as the head. Every time we gather and worship in the Church, it is an opportunity for the unity of the one entire and universal house of God to witness its real life. When we finish this gathering and worship, we return to our routine life in the spirit of that unity and togetherness that continually animate and bind us. The sins we commit indeed disturb our unity and even hurt the sacredness of our faith community. Jesus must have pity and endow His power to fix it by coming to both each individual and our families. The important thing is that we are open and accept it into ourselves and our own families. Let's pray. In the name of the Father... Lord Jesus, come and live in me, and fill my life with peace, Your presence and all goodness. Glory to the Father and to the Son ... In the name of the Father... --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/media-la-porta/message

A newspaper reading from the small town of Moonberry Lake.  A short commentary from "A Moment with Martha."

“Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.”  Luke 7:6bThese words are spoken by a wealthy Roman centurion. His servant was ill and messengers were sent to Jesus to ask that He come heal the servant.  However, this centurion deeply sensed his unworthiness before Jesus.  As Jesus was arriving, the centurion sent his friends to humbly greet Jesus, profess his unworthiness, and profess his faith that Jesus could heal his servant from a distance.  Jesus does just that after stating publicly, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith” (Luke 7:9).One profound truth this passage reveals is that humility, faith and mercy are intertwined.  The centurion knew the humble truth of Jesus' greatness and his own unworthiness.  The humble profession of that truth was an act of great faith on his part.  The result was that mercy was sent forth upon the centurion and his servant.The example set for us by this centurion is a powerful one.  Too often in our life of prayer we pray as if we have a right to God's grace.  This is a profound mistake.  We must seek to follow this centurion's example by understanding that we do not have a right to anything from our Lord.  This humble acknowledgment is the necessary foundation for the reception of the abundant mercy of God.  Mercy is a gift, not a right.  But the good news is that God's heart burns with a desire to pour forth that gift.  Acknowledging mercy as an absolute gift, to which we have no right, unleashes its power in our lives.  Understanding this humble truth is a profession of faith in God's mercy and delights His heart abundantly.Reflect, today, upon those inspiring words of the centurion.  “Lord, I am not worthy…”  Say them over and over and allow them to become the foundation of your relationship with our Lord.  In this humility, you will be richly blessed.Most merciful Lord, I am not worthy that You would come to me.  I am not worthy of the precious gift of Holy Communion or of Your mercy in my life.  Please Lord, help me to continually see that all You give is a gift of Your unlimited mercy.  I thank You, dear Lord.  Jesus, I trust in You.Source of content: catholic-daily-reflections.comCopyright © 2022 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission via RSS feed.

MAILBAG SHOW 7.5.2022 * * * * * * * * * * 700M WORLDWIDE WILL DIE FROM CV-19 BY 2028 https://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/700-million-worldwide-will-die-from-cv19-vax-by-2028-dr-david-martin/ CV-19 'VACCINES' DESIGNED TO KILL AND DEPOPULATE EARTH https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/06/no_author/reiner-fullmich-50-lawyers-the-vaccines-are-designed-to-kill-and-depopulate-the-planet/ Saudi Arabia/U.S. Relations Not Good Since Biden In White House https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/biden-factor-saudi-arabia-discussions-join-brics-coalition-china-russia-move-away-us-potentially-explosive-consequences/ * * * * * * * * * * Augusto on Brighteon… https://www.brighteon.com/channels/theappearance/playlists?page=1 Augusto's Website... http://theappearance.com Augusto on iTunes... https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast//id1123053712?mt=2 Augusto on YouTube... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVBzMEBbLEO-poZaNo4wLTA/playlists Augusto on MediaFire... https://www.mediafire.com/folder/byndkxqfq7ohj/The_Appearance Contact Info: Augusto Perez POB 465 Live Oak, FL  32064 Larry Taylor Blog: http://larrywtaylor.org POB 317 Talihina, OK  74571-0317 Chuck Wilson Email: chuk.wilson@tutanota.com Listen to Larry Taylor, Chuck Wilson and Augusto Perez discuss the latest headline news through the lens of Bible Prophecy in the first hour. Topics include: true leaders needed in America, dire prediction of coming deaths from the Covid shots.

Tom battled with himself against nervousness and the impulse to cry. A praise song with a message about believing God was broadcast on the radio. Tom jolted himself to prayerful silence: "Please Lord,” Tom prayed, “let me focus on Your promises that you will provide, rather than putting my reliance and my faith on this job." Blessed day! Support our podcast: get the book Success Habits available online at Amazon Books. Seek help: Feeling stuck, stressed, anxious, and wish to talk things through? To get clarity on the problem and map the way forward, schedule a free 15-minute breakthrough call with our certified Master Life Coach. Book Here --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tarlie-francis/message

A very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, the 18th of May 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.If we go straight to John 20, I am reading verse 25:“The other disciples therefore said to him (Thomas), “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”Well, what can we say? There are none so blind as those who do not want to see... Isn't that how the old saying goes? Seeing is believing, the proof of the pudding is in the eating? But those are all worldly terms. They are not terms that come out of the mouth of a Christian. Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what you cannot see but the reward of that faith is to see what you believe.”You see, Hebrews 11:6 says, without faith it is impossible to please God. We have to start walking more by faith and not by sight. Even the disciples said to Jesus in Luke 17:5:“Please Lord, increase our faith.”We are living in perilous times, all over the world, and I want to say to you my dear friend, if you are suffering from depression, anxiety and stress or fear, you have got to start to believe the promises of God. You have got to start to believe the word of God and you have got to stop listening to the lies of the devil. You have got to be really careful about who you are spending time with because there are so many people who are in a desperate situation at the moment in the world. You see, without faith, you cannot even be a Christian. Because if you say, “Well, I am a Christian”, can you believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin? Can you believe that Mary never even knew a man and she was impregnated by the Holy Spirit? That takes faith. Can you believe that a man was raised from the dead like Jesus was? Can you believe that He is coming again, in the clouds? Well, that takes faith. One of my heroes in the Bible is Caleb, in Numbers 14:24, this is what the Lord says:“But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit (What kind of spirit? A spirit of faith.) in him and has followed Me fully, (obeyed me) I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.”There were only two men from an entire generation that went into the promised land, into Israel. One was Caleb and the other was Joshua. When Caleb was 85 years old, are you listening up boys? Eighty five years old, Joshua said, “You can have any part of Israel that you want because you have been a faithful servant.” He said, “Give me the big mountains where the big mountains live.” I love that spirit. Today, let us walk by faith and not by sight.Have a wonderful day.God bless you and goodbye.

The Unmerciful Servant Jonah 4:1-11 Phil Leaney Jonah 4:1–11 (NASB95) — 1 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. 3 “Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” 4 The LORD said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” 5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.” 9 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” 10 Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11 “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

THE PASSOVER SUPPER Passover was the busiest time of the year in Jerusalem when crowds of Jews from all over the Empire were gathering for the feast. Jesus had arrived triumphally seated on a donkey into Jerusalem earlier in the week and the crowds had welcomed him as their prophet, miracle worker and King to be, shouting Hosannah and casting palm leaves on the ground before him. People were amazed and awestruck at his commanding presence when he tipped over the tables of the greedy money changers in the temple, and all of this brought Jesus under fiercer and more intense scrutiny from the temple leaders than ever before. Questions were hurled at him to entice him into confrontation regarding moral and legal issues of their temple religion. But Jesus was not about to be baited like an animal of prey. He fielded their questions with a calm authority, and it was the tormentors who became enraged by the superior wisdom and integrity of their victim to be. Crowds of Jews looked on in expectation. Many wanted a show of power and strength to come from Jesus after these thrusts and parries, for surely this was the time for him to start his kingdom, but they were to be disappointed. Jesus was on a path that would lead to a far greater demonstration of such power that the whole cosmos would be shaken by it, and he knew that even though the time was short, it was still not yet. After three days of this exhausting exchange with the leaders and the constant attention from the crowds Jesus took the twelve aside and told them that he wanted to go and spend some time in prayer with his Father. He told them he wanted to share the Passover feast with them that evening. Jesus told them he had organized somewhere for them to have the meal. “Where will it be Master?” asked Peter. “In about three hours I want you and John to go to the city square where you will find a water carrier with a pitcher of water on his shoulder. He will be looking out for you. You are to follow him to the place he leads you to and go in and ask the owner to take you to the guest room, a large room upstairs. He will be waiting for you and will show you where everything is and you can then prepare the feast for us. We will be along soon after.” With that Jesus told the others to go off and spend some time in prayer and preparation for the event, while he would pray by himself, and meet them back at the place where they now were. The two disciples found the man carrying the pitcher of water in the square just as Jesus had said, and they followed him as he entered a two-storey building. There they met the owner of the house who led them to the room that had been prepared for them. This man had been instructed by God in a dream to set aside the room and he had obeyed without question. After his time of prayer Jesus met with the others and they went to the room. It was evening time and there was a large table set out with the Passover meal, and there they sat at the table with Jesus in the middle of them. Passover was the festival time that celebrated the event of Moses bringing the Nation of Israel out of their slavery from Egypt. The Passover meal was not just a meal but a series of meals, interspersed with pauses for reflection and readings from the Scriptures in remembrance of the miraculous way God had freed them from their oppressors. After one of the meals, at which they ate roasted lamb and bitter herbs, Jesus stood up and went over to one of the sizeable bathing bowls and taking off his outer robe he wrapped a large towel around himself and beckoned the disciples to come over to him. “What are you doing?” asked Peter. “I am going to wash your feet,” replied Jesus. it was customary as a Jewish ritual of cleansing for guests to have their feet washed by a servant of the house from the dirt and grime of walking in the dusty streets when they gathered together for a meal. But Peter resisted this servant act from his master Jesus. “Not mine,” exclaimed Peter. The other disciples were also curious and uneasy. “Yes yours,” replied Jesus, “and all of the others too.” When he saw Peter balking and raising objections he stopped and stood up to face them all. “Do you remember when you all became so angry with one another when James' and John's mother wanted me to give the highest places to her two sons next to me in my kingdom?” “Yes,” they said, remembering it well. “Well at that time I told you that if you want to show you have true authority you will serve one another. If you think I have authority with you then you will let me serve you by washing your feet. Otherwise, you are saying you don't recognize my authority.” He began to wash the disciples' feet, and when he came to Peter, Peter protested. “No Master you will not wash my feet.” “So, you don't want to be part of what I am doing?”  Peter knelt in front of Jesus and said. “Of course, I do. I'm sorry. Please Lord, wash my hands and my head as well.” “Just your feet Peter, here, in the bowl.” Jesus then continued to wash the feet of all the men, as they came forward one by one, some with tear-streaked faces. Heaven watched on silently as thousands of thousands of angels strained to see all that was being done and said in this most holy moment. They watched as their God cleansed a grimy unclean world from off those he loved, as he would for all who would let him do so, down through the ages. When he had finished washing them, he stood up again and said. “Now you are clean, but not all of you.” One of them wanted to know what he meant, so he asked them to come back to the table with him, where they would continue their meal. After they had sat down, he asked for the bread and wine to be served, and then he said plainly, “One of you will betray me.” They were all shocked, and began to discuss this amongst themselves, but then their distress overwhelmed them, so they began to ask him one by one, “Is it me Master?” they pleaded anxiously, without getting a reply. John knew the depth of love that he himself had for Jesus and did not even question his own heart as to whether he might be the one, so he simply asked, “Who is it Lord?” Jesus saw their trouble and concern, so he said, “The one who dips his bread with me into the soup.” At that very moment Judas had his bread in the soup along with the bread in the hand of Jesus. The moment passed in the confusion, and nothing appeared to register in the minds of the other disciples, so Jesus let the moment pass, then Judas, feeling safe, said, “Is it me Lord?” “You said it.” Jesus handed him the piece of dipped bread from his own hand and said to him. “Go and do what you have to do.” Judas got up and grabbed the money bag and strode out, excited by a dark and distorted sense of power in his newfound political mission. Judas always was a political activist looking for regime change, and he had seen Jesus as the man who would satisfy his rebellious and resentful attitude to Roman authority. And now he was bitterly disappointed in the kind of servant leadership that Jesus was demonstrating. It was too weak for his liking, and he felt betrayed. Satan had captured his will and his resentful revenge was targeted at Jesus, and the best way to get even was to betray his friend Jesus in return. That cost Judas everything. The other disciples supposed that he had received instructions from their master concerning some arrangements that had been organized between them, perhaps to distribute the money to the poor. Jesus turned to the other disciples and took a large piece of bread from the bowl. They watched him as he broke it into twelve pieces, keeping one, and handing the rest around to the remaining eleven. “This is my body. This has been broken into pieces but when we eat it, it becomes one piece again, because we are one. Whenever you and those who come after you do this in the future, you will join yourselves to one another and to me, and I will be there with you. Unless you have my life in you, you will not know what life really is.” He took a cup of the ceremonial wine and drank from it, then passed it around for them all to drink. After they had finished it he said to them,” This is my blood. Just as my body will be torn to pieces for you, so too will my blood be spilled for you. This is a sign of my life and of the new promise from God to give you and all of humanity our life to share, not just a life of rules and regulations, but our very divine life. Whenever people do this in the future, I want them to remember that I died for them and that I will come back again at the end of time, in the full power and glory of my kingdom.” Once again, they recalled what he had said to them about his coming back at the end of time. He had warned them of the things that would happen in the earth just before that mighty and awesome day when he would be seen by all the world coming in the clouds of heaven. They recalled his predictions of the earthquakes and natural disasters that would strike the earth, the rising tide of self-interest and wars and terror, the epidemic of fear and hopelessness. They shuddered within themselves, and they were comforted by his presence. The feast had come to an end, and he stood and asked them to come with him into a garden near the olive grove, where he wanted them to pray with him. “In a few hours the temple leaders will arrest me, and I will be put on trial. After my arrest you will all become terrified and desert me, but it will fulfill the Scripture which says that when the shepherd is struck the sheep will run in all directions.” Peter protested, “Even if everyone else deserts you I will never run,” and James and the others joined in the protest. Peter drew out his dagger, quickly followed by James. “These are two daggers,” said Peter, seeing James's drawn dagger, “and I will die with you before I let anyone take you away.” Jesus looked at Peter. “Lucifer is out to get you Peter, and before the night is over you will separate yourself from me in fear, but I will be praying for you that your faith will remain strong. You will hear a rooster crowing in the morning, and when you hear it, it will be a stark reminder of what I just told you, and for now, you can both put your daggers away.” But Peter protested all the more, and Jesus let him talk on. Jesus took the men to the garden area and asked Peter and John and James   to accompany him further, motioning for the others to stay back. A little farther on he asked the three to wait and pray while he went on his own to pray to his Father. Finding a place, he fell on his face and began to quake inside with a peculiar dread. He would face torture and death in an unbearable and agonizing way. He would be totally alone, suffering the shame and reproach of a criminal. These thoughts tormented his mind and dried up his soul.  Darkness tried to ride in on this torment. He began to sweat profusely, and he groaned, till he started to taste blood in his mouth. The blood ran down his chin, and then he saw droplets of blood on the backs of his hands. This was the cup of pain and sorrow that he was being asked to take. It was too much, and he begged for Father to take it away. He asked if there was some other way that he might accomplish what he had been sent to do, but he told Father that nonetheless he would do whatever he wanted him to. He staggered to his feet and groped his way to where he had left the three disciples. They were asleep. Jesus groaned inwardly again and waking them up he pleaded with them. “Couldn't you have stayed awake and prayed? You know I am about to die, and I feel my life draining from me already, and I am almost overwhelmed by it. You need to pray too so that you will not be completely overwhelmed.” They spluttered out their apologies. He forlornly made his way back to his place and cried out to Father again, to never forsake him, but still the agony fastened itself to his soul. He asked Father again if there was any other way, and again he yielded his will to his Father. After more suffering that became more than he could bear, he returned to the three, but they had fallen asleep again. He pleaded with them again not to go to sleep. They didn't know what to say. Sleep had become their escape from the heaviness of their grief and sorrow. Father watched from heaven and shared his son's agony, knowing that this was the darkest hour that his son had ever known. This was breaking his heart and all of heaven was watching with him and sharing his grief, so he summoned an angel to go and strengthen and comfort his Son. Jesus drew in heavenly strength and stood to face his betrayal, denial, trial and flogging, his sentencing and his carrying a cross to die upon at Calvary - for us.    

“He prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.” (Jonah 4:2 NAS95) https://accordance.bible/link/read/NAS95S#Jonah_4:2

“He prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.” (Jonah 4:2 NAS95) https://accordance.bible/link/read/NAS95S#Jonah_4:2

Hello Mama who may have had her share of disappointing Christmases…Welcome to the 3rd episode in a series called Cultivating Christmas Calm – How to Have a Holiday Season You Actually Enjoy. You might want to go back and listen to Episode 6 and 7 – two under 15-minute episodes that will help you navigate a calmer and happier holiday season. I'm the mom who worked way too hard to make everyone in my family's Christmas wishes come true. Anybody else? In a nutshellI bought way too many gifts and collapsed into bed at about 4 am Christmas morning. I did “all the things” – class parties, baking, baked for them, assemblies, services, events, and activities.I bedecked every inch of my home. I loved most of it. The problem was I believed if I didn't do it all, Christmas would be disappointing, to me or someone I loved. As a result, Christmas was exhausting and depleting. And no matter what lengths I went to, Christmas was disappointing to someone. In previous episodes, I've asked questions to help you determine your highest holiday priorities.  And hopefully you've discovered the one word that can make this your happiest holiday season yet – NO! I want to return to the topic of disappointment. Often our disappointments in life are based on dashed expectations. We have something in mind, and we may not even know it. But when our reality doesn't match up with that picture in our minds, we feel disappointed. I'd like to suggest a few things you can do this Christmas to manage expectations so they don't lead to disappointment. 1. Make a plan for gift-giving. Adopt a Gift Rule for your kids…and spouse. Determine a budget.Opt for a family gift exchange. A gift-giving plan means you, your kids, spouse, and other family members have clear expectations of what they're getting for Christmas. It helps you with decision-making. And it keeps gift-giving from spiraling out of control. 2. Another idea for managing expectations and avoiding disappointment is to have a little Celebrating the Holidays family meeting. Keep this meeting to 15 to 30 minutes at the most. Invite each family member to talk about what Christmas celebrations and activities matter most to them.Write down (on a calendar ideally) one activity, event, tradition for each person.   3. Don't forget the Reason for the Season. Have an Advent Wreath Give each child a Jesus-themed Advent Calendar Choose an Advent Family Devotional or Book Just Google to find all the above. I know it can be hard to slow down enough to be intentional about Christmas, but I promise it's worth the effort. Your Christmas will be more calm and bright!Lord, I lift up this precious mama today. Will you free her up to have a happy Christmas this year? Help her to find the space to do the things that bring her and her family joy. Give her clarity and confidence to make decisions and plans that guide her to a calm and beautiful holiday season. Please Lord, meet this mom right where she is in the middle of her busy life. Show this mama you hear the cries of her heart. In Jesus name amen!

“Please Lord, give me strength to be your missionary and live for you every day.” You will be amazed how God answered this prayer from the heart of a young college student the night she gave her heart to Jesus.  Who was this college student? Our dear Moms in Prayer sister, Kathie Arnold!  Today Stacy welcomes this wonderful mom of four and grandma to fourteen to the podcast.  Listen in as Kathie shares her journey from a small town in South Dakota to traveling the world sharing Moms in Prayer and the love of Jesus through the ministry she co-founded with her husband, Come and Sew Ministries International, CASMI.  Only God could write a story like this! About our Guest: Kathie Arnold always had a passion for mission, yet she never imagined or planned anything like CASMI.  It just came out of her life story!    Kathie and her husband Steve were married in 1972, supported missions, raised 4 children, and now have 14 grandchildren.  Kathie and their oldest daughter went on their first mission trip to the former Soviet Union in 1991.  Upon returning home from that trip, Kathie began a sewing school from their home. Ten years after that first mission trip, Steve and Kathie were asked by another ministry to use their life experiences to return to Russia, to investigate how to bring the gospel to orphans through sewing classes in state-run orphanages. They saw a need, were encouraged to go forward, and in 2003 CASMI became an official not-for-profit 501(c)(3).  Steve and Kathie make their home in Texas and continue to share the love of Jesus through CASMI. Links: https://www.comeandsew.org/ https://momsinprayer.org/give/ https://momsinprayer.org/new-to-moms-in-prayer/ https://momsinprayer.org/join-a-group To give to the ministry of Moms in Prayer: Support Our Mission | Moms In Prayer International             Moms in Prayer International- www.MomsInPrayer.org

Today we are called to recognize our own blindness, our own struggle and call out to the Lord of life and love. "Have pity on me". Please Lord show me your mercy and compassion. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/john6345/message

“Ungracious Representatives of a Gracious God” **Jonah 4:1-11 [NASB]** 1 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. 3 “Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” 4 The LORD said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” 5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.” 9 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” 10 Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11 “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” **Sermon Outline:** **1. Who is Jonah?** **2. Why is Jonah so angry?** **3. What do we learn about mankind through Jonah's prophecy?** **4. What do we learn about God through Jonah's prophecy?** **2 Kings 14:25** - He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher. **2 Kings 14:27b** - ...but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. **Jonah 1:1-3a** - The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. **Jonah 4:1** - But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. **Jonah 4:8b-9** - ...begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.” 9 Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” **Jonah 3:4** - Then Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” **Jonah 3:5-8** - Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. 6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. 7 He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. 8 But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. **Amos 6:14** - “For behold, I am going to raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord God of hosts, “And they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath To the brook of the Arabah.” **Amos 7:10-11** - Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words. 11 “For thus Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.' **Matthew 12:40-41** - for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41“The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. **Jonah 4:2-3** - He prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. 3 “Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” 4 The LORD said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” **God Directs** 1:4 – The Lord hurls … great wind 1:17 – The Lord appoints … a great fish 2:3 – The Lord casts… into the deep 2:4 – The Lord … expels 2:10 – The Lord commands … vomit 3:10 – God … sees and relents 4:6 – The Lord God appoints … a plant 4:7 – The Lord God appoints … worm 4:8 – The Lord God appoints … scorching east wind **Ephesians 2:3** - Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. **Jonah 4:10-11** - Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11 “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” **Ephesians 2:4-9** - But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Today, Tuesday November 24 - James 3 - If there is anything that has gotten me into trouble or has cause a problem in a relationship with someone, it is my tongue! How about you? Well, that's what James is dealing with in chapter 3. In chapter 1, we find the mark of a spiritually mature person is their attitude toward suffering. In chapter 2, it's their obedience to the Word of God. Now, in chapter 3, James tells us that our speech is another test of maturity. We read and hear many words every day and forget what a wonderful thing a word is! When God gave us the faculty of speech, He gave us a tool to build with; but it also can become a weapon of destruction. Psalm 139 tells us that God knows our thoughts afar off. He knows what we are going to think even before we do. But other people only know what our thoughts are when we release them verbally through our tongue. The Scripture also teaches "that from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." James reminds us the the tongue has a great power and needs to be controlled. The Book of Proverbs, the Book of Wisdom, especially in building and maintaining good relationships with others, has many warnings about the use the of tongue. "Please Lord, help us to set a guard over our mouths today!" (Psalm 141:3) God bless! Have a great day!

TOPIC: GOD WANTS YOU TO FULFILL YOUR PROMISE TO OTHERS (PART 4) BIBLE READING: Joshua 2:14 - ‘'we offer our own lives as a guarantee for your safety; the man agreed. If you don't betray us, we will keep our promise and be kind to you when the Lord gives us the land. MESSAGE The cost of betrayal is much more expensive than the cost of being loyal. Despite the fact that people trust in the Lord and put all unto God, there are certain individuals whose words we esteem when they speak to us. They have integrity. When they say ‘Yes', we are sure they mean yes and when they say ‘No', we are sure they mean ‘No'. As we can see in the scripture above, the above, the spies used the word ‘If'' as a chance to make sure they both got back to Joshua alive without any disappointments. At that point, they were still in Rehab's house. They wanted to be certain before they put their lives at risk. They knew the power of promise. The word ‘'If'' signifies doubt, uncertainty and all they needed was to get out in peace. Never should you in any situation jump into making promises. Your words are potent and the one you speak to will hold you accountable for them. What will your reaction be when someone saves your life and does you a very huge favour? Will you do as the spies who were not carried away with excitement by rushing out in a hurry without giving the blueprint that will help them to fulfil their promise? It is important you think before you make a promise to someone, don't make a promise and later discover you have said too much and need to reduce the content. PRAYERS 1. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your words to me today, please accept my thanks in Jesus name. 2. Lord, forgive me of any promise I made in a rush and was unable to fulfil afterwards. 3. Lord, please help me to be calm when promising anything to anyone. 4. Lord, please give me the ability to fulfil all my promise to you and to all men. 5. Lord, please cancel all repercussion of unfulfilled promises. 6. Father make me a perfect example of a man and woman who keep to his/her words in Jesus name. 7. Please Lord, help me mend, heal and restore every heart I have broken in the past or present in Jesus name.

Looking Left & Right it feels as though 2020 is nothing but a Dark Year or Start for what is to come. Too Much Death Happening all around & it feels as though Faith & Hope are so far. We will get through this, but the Journey through the Storm is still a Hard Travel to make. Praying to Keep the Faith Alive & Looking Up for God's Help & Guidance. We have to Pray for Help & Safety - To Help make it through this Painful; Year. Please Lord, No More Death. _______ This Podcast is dedicated to the Hearts & Spirits of those who are the Chosen Children of God! Speaking the Truth about the Struggles of Life & the Rewards of Faith - Being Open about the Battles & the Aches of the Wilderness. Faith as Small as a Mustard Seed & Dedication as Powerful as Job's during Times of Trials. Studying, Overcoming, Understanding, Relating, & Yearning for God's Words. These are Personal True Stories, Events, Experiences, Feelings, Revolutions as well as a much needed Bible Study. This isn't your usual Reading of Psalms over & over again - This is Much Deeper! _______ For Any and All Equals who want to solely continue Supporting "Majority Podcasts Productions" & seeing New Episodes of your favorite Podcasts Platforms brought to you by "Majority Podcasts Productions" - Feel Free to Donate whatever your Heart's Desire, ALL DONATIONS ARE APPRECIATED. Paypal: majorityproductions@outlook.com Google Pay: honeyglow.beautiful@gmail.com Anchor Support: https://anchor.fm/majorityproductions/support _______ MPProduction Platform Links: INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/majoritypodcastsproductions?igshid=4fjrsfh5xbw5 YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvImMLSFOC8ASnGN_geW5FA TWITTER: https://twitter.com/MPProductions01 TUMBLR: https://mpproductions-official.tumblr.com/ PERISCOPE: https://www.periscope.tv/MPProductions01 YOUTUBE EPISODE: https://youtu.be/E9loHC3N1K8 TWITCH TV: https://www.twitch.tv/majorityproductions --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/majorityproductions/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/majorityproductions/support

Audio Transcript:You're listening to audio from Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.comGood morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, one of the pastors here at Mosaic along with Pastor Shane and Pastor Andy. And if you're new, if you're visiting, welcome, we're so glad you're here. We'd love to connect with you through the connection card and the worship guide or the connection card in the app that you can download in the app store.If you fill out the physical connection card, please do so legibly and then you can either toss it in the offering basket after or redeem it at the welcome center for a gift. It's also a great opportunity if you have any prayer requests, list those there or if you today have made a decision to follow Christ or recommit your life to Christ, or if you're interested in baptism, please let us know there.With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy word? Oh great God of the universe, Holy Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It is so good to be in your presence. We pray Lord that you today come into this place. You're already here, but in a powerful, tangible, palpable way. Come and speak to us. Lord there's nothing better than being in your presence when our souls glorify you and are satisfied by you.Lord Jesus we thank you for revealing the way that we can be reconciled with you. We thank you for your sacrifice Jesus. We thank you that you, the God of the universe came, and you came into history into a time and place and space and you came as a human being. Factually, you are here. Historically, you are here and you prove to us the way of God by living the perfect life, dying the death that we deserved to die and being resurrected on the third day. We thank you Lord.We thank you that there were eyewitnesses and we thank you that you give us testimony that's objective and testimony that's subjective by the power of the Spirit, so we pray Holy spirit come. And if there's anyone here who is not yet a Christian, I pray, give them the gift of faith. Open the eyes of their heart to see you and to behold how great it is to be in the presence of God, to be a child of God. How great you are.Lord bless our time, the Holy Scriptures, we pray all this in Christ's Holy name. Amen. Today we're finishing our sermon series through 1 John that we've been calling meno from the Greek, which means to abide, to remain in. This is how we walk in the presence of the Lord. This is how we grow. Today is our eighth week finishing off this series. Next week, we're beginning a new series that we are calling Stratagem Know Thy Enemy where we'll talk about the different roles of Satan and the different attack plan strategies that he has to pull us away.Today, the title of the sermon is faith and facts. Benjamin Franklin said, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Hopefully you've done your taxes. Deadline's coming up, sorry for the reminder. Of course, a wise man like Ben Franklin knew that there were other certainties in life and we as Christians know that there are many other certainties and of spiritual truth. We as Christians can say wholeheartedly, we know. We know who God is, we know God, we know the way to God.We know the will of God and this is how John wants us to talk about faith, as knowing that this is true. He uses the word ‘know' 39 times and the Epistle uses it eight times in our text today in 1 John 5:6-21. Now, to say we know things of God is extremely counter-cultural, and might be strange to you. I had a conversation a few weeks back when a young lady approached me after a service and she's like, “You talk about this Christianity thing as if it's true.” “Well, yes.” “No, no, no, fact true not faith, true.”“Yes, I believe that this is fact true.” Now, this is really fascinating. David Hume a long time ago, came up with this distinction, this faith fact distinction that there's truth when it comes to fact and there's truth when it comes to faith, and a lot of people in our culture, this is how we operate. That there's knowledge, fact which is objective. You can prove it in a lab. Objects fall, hot air rises, the earth revolves around the sun, facts.And then there's faith truth, which is subjective. It's your opinions only. It might be meaningful to you, might not be to someone else. It could be part of your faith. Tradition has nothing to do with objective reality, and many people today are willing to believe about objective truth, fact truth when it comes to science or math, engineering, maybe history and that's up for debate. Definitely not. Faith, religion, ethics, morality.Hardly anyone is consistent with this worldview and those who are fully consistent, those who have been historically consistent with this worldview were moral monsters, like Hitler or Stalin. Let me just give you a thought experiment. Human life is valuable, fact or faith? Human rights are real because humans have equal dignity, value and worth, fact or faith? Sexual trafficking is evil, diabolical evil, fact or faith? Love is of supreme importance, fact or faith?There is true meaning and purpose in life, fact or faith? It's wrong for me to hit you, fact or faith? Fact, fact, don't hit me. Do you have this distinction in your mind of faith truth and fact truth? If so, why? Is that presupposition true or have you just believed in it? And this is something that we're going to talk about today in 1 John 5… the whole text of six through 21. I'm going to read six through 12 here and then I'm going to give you five certainties that you can build your life on. Five bedrocks for your faith, a substantiated faith.Would you look at the text with me? Today, we are in 1 John 5:6, “This is He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the spirit is the one who testifies because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater.For this is the testimony of God that He has borne concerning His son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His son. Whoever has the son has life, whoever does not have the son of God does not have life.”This is the reading of God's Holy inerrant infallible authoritative word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. What can we know for sure, five things from this text? First, Jesus is God. Second, believers have eternal life. Third, God answers prayers. Fourth, Christians do not practice sin and finally, the Christian life is real life. It is reality. First of all, Jesus is God.Here in verse six, John talks about three things that testify to the veracity, the historicity of Jesus as God. He came by water and blood. That's Jesus Christ, and not only by water only but by the water and the blood and the Spirit is the one who testifies because the Spirit is true, for there are three that testify, the spirit, the water and the blood and these three agree. What's he talking about?In Jewish thought, to prove something in a court of law, you need to have at least two, preferably three testimonies, witnesses, and John brings forth the testimony of three witnesses, water, blood, and the Spirit. By water, what does he mean? He means the baptism of Jesus Christ. That Jesus did not have to get baptized because there was sin in Him. Jesus was baptized in order to identify with us.At the start of His ministry, the blood is Jesus dying on a cross for our sins, bearing the penalty that we deserve for our law-breaking. That's the blood. He poured out His blood to cleanse us. That's at the end of His public ministry. The water and blood, two book ends of His public ministry and the Spirit was there at both of them. Jesus was getting baptized. The Holy Spirit comes down like a dove upon Him, to anoint him for the ministry.As Jesus was being crucified, the Holy Spirit was right there. The sky darkened, the earthquake. People were resurrected, came from their graves and the veil in the Holy of Holies was torn from the top to bottom. The Spirit's witness was then confirmed in the resurrection of Christ, historical, factual resurrection. Over 500 people witnessed. Then Jesus was on earth for another 40 days showing Himself bodily resurrected.Then Jesus ascends. The Holy Spirit descends again to testify the veracity that this is all fact. Upon the church on the day of Pentecost further affirms that witness through the miracles of the apostles finally inspiring the apostles to write the documents of the New Testament, and we have that witness in the Holy scriptures. What John is saying is, God has given us enough to believe.There's enough factual evidence for those who have an open heart to see it, and this is a really important caveat because unless you're coming to God willingly and humbly and prayerfully, openly asking God, “Please reveal yourself to me.” With a searching heart, asking God to open the eyes of… your eyes to His truth. Unless you do that, God does not reveal Himself because God is not in the business of giving proof to proud sinners.If you come to God as a proud skeptic and say, “God reveal yourself on my terms,” you will walk away with nothing. If you come to God with preconceived notions of what, “This is the savior I'm looking for. This is the God that I'm willing to submit to,” you're actually placing yourself over God, over His authority and Jesus Christ is not a savior that fits every single one of our whims and desires. He's got enough evidence.For those who are looking, water, blood and the Spirit. Verse nine, “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater for this is the testimony of God that He has borne concerning His son.” People often tell me, “I wish I had your faith. You've got so much faith. I wish I had your faith.” And my response is always, “Everybody's got faith.” The question is, what are you believing? What are you trusting in?We can't but live in this world, survive in this world without exercising faith. Every single time you go to a doctor, you're exercising faith. Every time you go to a pharmacist, you're exercising faith. Anytime you order food at a restaurant, you're exercising faith. Anytime you get an Uber, you're exercising faith. Every time you go get on an airplane, every single day. Anytime you drive in Boston, you got to be a believer.How do you not believe that the people next to you aren't going to merge into your lane? This is what He's saying. If you trust people, if you trust men, then why can't we trust God who is all truth? Verse 10, “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning His son.”He's not just saying, “Do you believe in God?” He's saying, “Do you believe God?” And if you don't believe God, he's saying that's tantamount to calling God a liar. To not trust God is to make him a liar and if God is a liar then nothing is certain. And this is fascinating, because he doesn't talk about unbelief as a misfortune to be pitied. “Oh, woe is me. I don't believe.” He talks about unbelief as a sin to be deplored and repented of.Because to not believe in a God who is truth, who speaks only truth, is to ascribe falsehood to God. He's saying, “Repent of your unbelief. Repent of your audacity of calling the God of truth a liar. Receive His truth, receive His grace and as you do, you have a sure foundation of your faith.” And he says, “You have a testimony in yourself.” In the Christian faith, there's the objective truth, objective proof of God.It's in the scriptures, it's in the archeological evidence, it's in history. He says, “But then you also have the subjective internal testimony of self-authenticating of the Holy Spirit that says, “Yes, yes. Deep down inside, I know that this is true. I know that God is Holy. I'm a sinner and Jesus Christ is the only way for me to be reconciled with God. I know this, with every fiber of my being, I know that Jesus is God.”Second of all, “Believers have eternal life.” That's verse 11 and this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life. This life is in His son. God gives eternal life as a gift. There's nothing you can do to earn it. It's not about effort. It's not about living a good life. It's a gift. Just receive that gift by grace through faith, and we have that present possession and we already have eternal life, and the life doesn't come from Christ. It is in Christ.That's why it's so important to abide in Christ, to walk in Him, remain in Him, and this is really the greatest gift that Christianity offers, that God offers as His son Jesus Christ. That you can walk in His presence by the power of the spirit. And if you don't have Him, you don't have life. You don't have eternal life. If you don't have Christ, you don't have eternal life. If you say, “Well, I have a connection with God, I have a connection with Allah, I have a connection with the spiritual realm,” if you don't have Christ, you don't have eternal life.Christianity is Christ. All of God's promises are yes in Him. All that God offers us, He offers us in Christ. Verse 12 and 13, “Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” Are you going to heaven? Lots of people who identify as Christians answer by saying, “I hope so. I hope I've done enough. I've hoped that I've done more good than bad.”That's not Christianity. That's not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ offers us assurance is security in our salvation, ultimate security. He doesn't want you to say, “I hope so.” He wants me to say, “I know. I know so, not because of what I've done but because of what Christ has done and I'm in Him. I trust Him. I love Him. I follow Him.” Every single person alive is looking for that place of comfort and security.And that primal drive is why many people pursue sin because they're looking for that one place where I'm fully known and fully loved, comfort and security. We're looking for that place. Thought experiment. What is your favorite place in the world? Currently, not just historically. Your favorite place in the world, the place where you feel most secure and most comfortable. What is that place?For me, it's being at home, and not just being at home, in a very particular spot at home. The left side of my bed, under the blankets. So much do I love this one position that there's a dent in the mattress that perfectly fits my whole body, and under the blanket from IKEA, the very warm one. In that one spot, I feel comfort. I feel security. I've tested other beds in the world. You travel, hotels. Airbnb isn't nothing. Every time I'm in a place I'm like, “I wish I was home. I wish I was home.” Every single time.We're all looking for that comfort. Whatever your places, we're looking for that comfort and that security. We're all searching for it. And this security is utterly unique to Christianity that in the hands of God, you have ultimate security. You have eternal life. Most philosophies, religions, they reject absolute security, that it's impossible. Islam, there's no assurance of paradise in the Quran.Even Muhammad himself had dark dreams about judgment day. You hope for the best, but who knows? None of the Eastern faiths offer this. Secularism has no answers. Nothing in the face of death, just helpless. Even certain Christian faiths, Catholicism, Russian orthodoxy, even Armenian evangelicalism, who knows? You might lose your salvation.He says, “No, you already have eternal life. You are in the hands of God and nothing will pluck you out of the hands of God because your name is graven on his hands because of the work of Christ.” For Christians, there is eternal life. Third, we know, we can be certain that God answers prayers. Verse 14, “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.”Jesus in His earthly ministry, He helped people all the time. People would come and He would help earthly fathers help their children. Does the heavenly father help? Does Jesus still help? And he's said here, “Through our prayer, we come and according to God's will, God responds.” And I love how He talks about faith and prayer in the context of confidence. Prayer for Him isn't ritual. It's not obligation. It's not investment. You give a little to God and then God will give back to you.It's a confident conversation between a child and a father. Very few people can wake me up at any moment of the day. Very few people could do it. Very few people have the privilege to do that. My kids can do that. They need help. They come to me. It's that confidence of if I go to my Father, my heavenly Father, any time that He will answer. It's genuine, personal, emotional, practical, it's confident conversation with God and you see how emotive, how viscerally motive prayer is in the scriptures.Jacob wrestles with the Lord all night, is holding onto Him and says, “I'm not letting you go until you give me what I ask.” In the Psalms, you see an outpouring of emotion, personal appeals, crying out to God, rending their hearts before God. Jesus tells parables and is like, “This how you pray.” There's a guy that goes to his neighbor in the middle of night because he had a guest come. You didn't have any food to give him.He goes to his neighbor and wakes him up, wakes up his whole household and says, “I'm not leaving until you give me some bread.” And Jesus said, “I want you to pray like that. I want you to pray with that tenacity, the tenacity of a widow who keeps pestering a judge, “Give me what I long for. I long for justice.” He says, “Pray like the tax collector who stands before the presence of God in the temple and says, “Please Lord, forgive me for I am a sinner.”Honest heartfelt prayers, like the Lord and the Garden Gethsemane. The anxiety and the pressure of what is to come. He's going to the cross about the sip from… Drink down to the dregs, the cup of God's wrath, and He says, “If it's your will, let this cup pass from me, but it's not my will. Yours be done.” Here says that, “The Lord hears our prayers. When we ask, He hears our prayers,” but He hears everything. God is on mission. Why even tell us that? Because for God to hear a prayer is to answer it.And of course, there are conditions to our prayers being answered. For example, unconfessed sin is a serious block to answered prayer. Obstacle. Psalm 66:18, “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” Dear Christian, how many of your prayers are not answered because you cherish sin? Is there sin in your heart that you're cherishing? Sinful inclinations, temptations that are in your heart.Perhaps you're not indulging in the acts, but they're in your heart and says, “That right there, cherishing that iniquity is an obstacle.” There should be a pattern in your life, dear Christian, where you can say, “Yes, I look back at my life, I can see that the Lord answered here, and He answered here and He answered here. He's proven Himself to be faithful and even when He said no, it's to say yes to something better.”For married couples, conflict in a marriage can hinder prayers. This is 1 Peter 3:7, “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel.” By vessel, the imagery is between the different types of vessels in the household, and he's saying, “Men are made out of clay and women are much nicer porcelain.” That's what we'll go with.He says, “So there's got to be honor. Husbands, are you honoring your wives?” He says, “If not, they are heirs with you in the grace of life so that your prayers may not be hindered.” If there's conflict in your relationship, that conflict keeps the prayers from being answered. If there is conflict, husbands, wives, don't let the sun set on your anger. Reconcile and pray together, and just Christians in general, conflict gets in the way of prayers.Matthew 5:23 through 24 so, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First, be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.” “Oh, my prayers' not being answered. I'm asking, I'm asking, the Lord's not giving to me.” Is there sin? Is there conflict in my closest relationship? Is there conflict between me and another Christian?If so, repent, reconcile and seek peace. And then unless a believer's abiding in Christ in love and obedience, prayers aren't answered, this John 15:7, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” Do you abide in the presence of Christ? Do you seek Him through scripture, significant times of scripture, meditation and prayer, speaking to God, pouring your heart out to God, seeking to live according to His commandments? That's what abiding means, and everything will be done according to God's will.And this condition, I've always thought it's like… It's weird that the Lord does this. Ask whatever you want, according to my will. It's as if one nullifies the other and it's like, “Great. Why even ask? The Lord's going to do anything that He wants, but one of the things that we need to know is that the Lord predestines the end, but He also predestines the means of how the end comes to pass.If He has a will and you're like, “Yes, God, you're sovereign.” But His will is also that we pray. He says, “I want you to pray,” because He understands that our greatest need isn't just for our needs to be met. Our greatest need is to be in the presence of God. Jesus, what were His physical needs when He was on earth? Yet He's God, but He spent significant amounts of time in prayer because He needed the Father. He relied on the Father.And according to the will, what happens when we pray is our will begins to align with God's will. There's a unity in our wills, so prayer doesn't just move the hand of God. It shapes our hearts. The Lord Jesus, He taught us to pray like this. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. We're not asking, “Lord, let my will be done in heaven.” I'm asking, “Lord, let your will be done on earth.”Now, the question is, what about unanswered prayers? Moses prayed to enter the Promised Land. God said, “Stop praying. Stop asking for that. You're not getting it.” Jeremiah prays that God takes away the judgment on Judah and God says, “Stop. No, stop praying that.” Jesus in the Garden Gethsemane, “Let this cup pass from me, let thy will be done.” Paul asking for the removal of the thorn in the flesh, three times God says, “No, because my strength is made manifest in weakness.”We need to understand that God's will is infinitely better than our will. When He says, “Ask whatever you want, I'll give it to you,” He's not relinquishing control of the universe. He's still in control. What He's saying is that, “My will is better than your will.” Often our will is very shortsighted, because our goal is our happiness. God's goal for us is so much greater than our temporary happiness.It's our holiness, and sometimes He's willing to sacrifice our short term happiness for our long-term holiness, which will lead to greater amount of joy and happiness. For example, when have you ever asked for a thorn in the flesh? When have you ever asked for trials? “Lord send me trials,” because James said that, “When you meet trials of various kinds, count it as joy.”When's the last time you said, “Lord, send me suffering. Lord, send me afflictions.” And yet the Lord knows we are not going to ask that, but sometimes that's what it takes to soften our hearts, to build our faith, to deepen our humility. The reason why the Lord sent Paul the thorn in the flesh was because Paul got a glimpse of heaven, and then he comes down. He has this incredible transcend spiritual experience.Now, what could that potentially do to a person? It could potentially puff him up with pride. “I'm so much better than all of you,” and the Lord says, “Let me just remind you. You are chief of sinners.” His will is the one that we can count on as being universally always best for us. His will alone is invariably better and advances our true interests like nothing else. It's just like in a relationship with kids.My youngest daughter is two years and nine months, Milana. She loves to eat, so good at eating. She's a great eater. That's a spiritual gift. If she comes to me and she says, “Daddy, can I have a third slice of cake?” Honestly, if mom's not there, I'm like, “Yes, okay." Now, because girls, first of all, so hard to say no to because it's so cute. Second of all, I don't want to deal with the drama. I just don't.As I say no, I do it with a smile and I do it in the spirit of saying yes. “No? Because this is the best thing for you. You don't understand now, but you will. You're going to thank me, long-term. I'm going to save you from so much.” You know what I'm saying? He says no because He's got a greater yes for us. That's what John is saying and also there are some times where we just don't know His will.It feels like He's impressed upon our hearts. “Ask for this. Ask for this. I'm a great God and I have great power. Ask for this and just that desired or common asks,” that's already an act of faith. But we don't know. We don't know if that's His will so we say, “Lord, not my will, but yours be done.” We walk by faith. We walk in the Spirit and God promises to meet our needs not our greeds. We're not beggars, but we're also… we're His children and we come to the wealthy Father who loves to give His children what they need.I love verse 15, it is a fascinating twist… turn of phrase. He says, “If we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him. We already have the requests. What's He doing here? What He's doing here is He's connecting our present in the future and He says, “Our present in the future are connected by faith, by prayer. We may not see the answer immediately, but we have an inner confidence that God has already answered according to His will."For example, Abraham asked for a son, “God send me a son.” God says yes, and it's another 25 years until he's holding Isaac in his arms. But He says, “Believe that you already have the request.” Mark 11:24, the words of Christ, “Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” It's hard to articulate, but I had moments in my life where God just pressed something in my heart and I know it's already a reality.I remember in seminary, we were praying, “Lord, where do you want us to go?” My wife and I were praying. We thought we were going to Russia or Ukraine as missionaries and the Lord was pressing on our heart. “You're going to Boston and you're going to plant a church.” We started praying about that and before we left, people came to us and said, “Are you sure?” Boston's lost. There's more Dunkin' donuts in Boston than there are Christians. That's a fact.And I said, “I don't know how to articulate it, but in my heart, it's a reality. We haven't planted it, but in my heart, this is the truth that I already believe and because of that faith, I'm going to do everything I possibly can in my actions, from my will. God's given me the grace of faith and I'm going to do everything I can with that grace so that it's not in vain.” This is what He's saying. We might not see the answer immediately, but we have this inner confidence.What breathing is to a physical person, that's what prayer is to a spiritual person, a Christian person. Luke 18:1, “And He told them a parable to the effect that they ought to always pray and not lose heart.” Pray without ceasing. The scripture says it's an attitude of the heart of dependence. “Lord, I need you, Lord. Help me, Lord. Lead me. Reveal your will.” Jesus depended on prayer, prayed all the time, spent full night in prayer. Would serve all day, wake up early and go pray.And if the sinless Son of God needed to pray on the cross, prayed three times, prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. If He needed to pray, how much more do we pray? Point four is, Christians do not practice sin. This is one of the more curious passages in the book, in scripture in general. Verse 16, “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will give him that brother life to those who commit sins that do not lead to death.”But there is sin that leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin but there is a sin that does not lead to death. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who has been born of God, Christ protects him and the evil one, Satan does not touch him. We know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.Multi-dimensional texts, let me just unwrap a couple of the layers. First of all, in his mind and John's mind, and this is the same mind of Christ, there's only two sides. There's only two kingdoms, there's only two teams. There's team Jesus and there's team Satan. If you're like, “No. no, no, I'm not on team Jesus, I'm on team me. I'm on a team Switzerland. I'm neutral. Don't fight me."And he said, “That's not a thing. Team me is actually team Satan. You're either in the Kingdom of light, in the Kingdom of Christ or you're under the rule of Satan. You lie in the power of the evil one. Then he talks about Christians who are in the kingdom, who are brothers and sisters who have been born of God and He says, “They do not keep on sinning.” And here, He's talking about the continuous pattern of sin, that Christians can't remain in this practice of habitual sin.Christians obviously there's occasional slip-ups, occasional sins, but he's saying, “That's an exception not the rule. Christians' no longer defined by sin.” Now, he says that in the context where he's talking about seeing a brother in sin. It's a Christian, and he's saying that, for the Christian, “When you see a brother in sin, when you see another Christian in sin, we are to hold them accountable and it begins with prayer.” We pray for that person, but there… And God will give them life.But there comes a point where even the Christian gets to a point where they commit a sin unto death. This is credible, incredibly sobering doctrine and you need to know about it. In the Old Testament, God often mentions people whom God removes from the world because of their sin. And these are people who were priests. For example, Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, the priest deliberately disobeyed God and they died.Korah and his clan opposed God and died. Achan was stoned because he disobeyed Joshua's orders from God and died. A guy named Uzzah touched the Ark of the Covenant and God removes him from the world. And you say, “That's the Old Testament. We're in the New Testament. We're under grace.” Well, let me just say, “To whom much is revealed, much is required. Who much is given, much is required.”To a believer today, you, dear Christian, have more revelation than the Christian… than people in the Old Testament. We have the Holy Scriptures and we have the internal witness of the Spirit. In the New Testament, Ananias and Sapphira lied to God about an offering and died. Believers in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 11, took part in Holy Communion without discerning the body and blood of Christ and says that some of them were sick and some of them died.In 1 Corinthians 5:1 through 5, a person that is in egregious, unrepentant sin and St Paul says later that if that person had not repented and confessed, they would have died. This is called the discipline of God the Father. It's outlined in Hebrews 12, and it begins with, so to speak, God's spirit convicts and then there comes a discipline from the Lord or a spanking of God's rebellious children.But it gets to a point if a Christian does not yield his will or her will to Christ, does not repent of a sin is stubbornly sitting, the Lord might and has removed people from this world in order to not lead others astray and not bring further disgrace on his name. Hebrews 12:9, besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? Why am I saying this to you? Same reason John is telling us this, the Apostle John, that sin is not to be trifled with. Look what it cost God to save us from our sin, the sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ.And He does not save us so that we can continue living in sin. He saves us so that we can be sanctified, so that we continue to be transformed to the image of Christ. And He says, “If a Christian sees a brother committing a sin we should pray for them, but if in our praying we don't sense that it's God's will to forgive them, then we stop praying.” That's what He's saying. Sobering, sobering truth and here's how I apply it to my life.I hear this, I'm like, “Where is there sin, unrepentant sin that I'm allowing in my heart, in my life, repent of it, leave it, follow Christ.” Finally, Christian life is real life. He tells us in verse 20 and we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true and we are in Him who is true in His son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life, fact and faith. Facts and faith, for Him it's one in the same.We believe in these facts because they're true. It's not our believing that makes them true. We believe it because it true. He is the true God. He is the true son. He is true knowledge. He is true reality. If we fellowship with Him, we have fellowship with the God of reality. It's not a copy. It's not counterfeit. Jesus is the true light, the true bread, the true vine, truth itself. That's why verse 21, He says, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”And in the context, it's not idols like images and wood and stone. What He's talking about in this context is false conceptions of God, false conceptions of Christ. Whenever you go to the scriptures and you're like, “Ah, I don't like that God. I don't like that attribute of God. My God wouldn't say that. My God would not demand that.” He's saying, “At that moment, what you're doing is, you're creating an idol, god of speculation, not a God of revelation.”Do you allow the truth about God from the Holy Scriptures define God for you or do you define God yourself? He's saying, “Be careful, that's idolatry. Keep yourselves from idols.” Fact or faith? Jesus comes and He says, “I am the truth and faith.” How are we to live? “I am love.” He's truth and love, He's light and love, and He molds the two together, the fact and faith.Christianity isn't denying reality. It's not our escape from reality. “Oh, you're a Christian. You escape from reality, the truths of reality. On Sunday morning, I escaped from the truth's reality and Friday night.” Now, what He's saying is that Christianity isn't denying reality. It's discovering reality. The world talks about enlightenment. We're so enlightened. Christians walk in real light because God is light. The world talks about love all the time and they have no idea what real love is.Real love is sacrifice and commitment. It's eternal. It's the love of Christ. The world displays its wisdom and learning and Christians say, “We know the truth in a humble, confident way.” God is light, love, truth, and these together make a life that is real. As we walk in Christ, abide in Him, we love Him, we know Him and we follow Him. Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”Missed any of the points, what can we know for sure that Jesus is God? Believers have eternal life, God answers prayers, Christians do not practice sin and Christian life is real life. Let's pray. Lord I pray if there is anyone here who is not yet a Christian. Not yet a follower of Christ, is not yet abiding in you, is not in Christ. I pray today. Draw them to yourself. Show them that these facts are true and that we believe them because they're true, they're not true because we believe them.We thank you Lord that you came in the testimony of the blood, the water and the Spirit together. They give us a substantiated foundation for our faith, an anchor for our souls. Lord I pray you make us that people who abide in you. We thank you for these weeks that you've given us in 1 John, what a book. And I pray that you continue to keep us close to you and clean from sin so that you, by the power of the Spirit, can cultivate much fruit through us to your glory and for our joy. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.