Things Gained or Lost

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 Reference:  Jeremiah 5:1-6:30

God tells us that He will use a foreign power as His instrument of judgment against His people. He did  this when He sent a mighty ancient nation to invade Judah, destroyed its crops, livestock, and overrun all its walled cities. I had picked out verses of Jeremiah 5:1-6:30 to make a short mention on this after a brief summary. 

As we see, God's judgment is on both Judah and Israel.  Many verses in the great book of Jeremiah also dealt on backsliding and backslidden Israel.  At first, the Israelites ignored and laughed at the great prophet, but  soon enough seemed to revolt when Jeremiah preached to them.  Yet, God had, does and will always have the final say in all things no matter who is backslidden or refuses to go forward and live for Him. This book is my favorite and Jeremiah is my favorite major prophet. The Lord deals with me much in reading this book. 

Now, let us look at the verse the Lord gave me. Jeremiah 5:25 - Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.

(To save much time and deliberation, you will also need to read the whole chapter 5 plus chapter 6 as the above brief summary describes both chapters.  Pray the Lord will show you what is needed for you to know.)

That verse is great to me because it tells me that our iniquities, sins, transgressions, and constant breaking of the Lord's commandments have turned us from the Lord God.  He faithfully gives us life, new breath each day,  and renewed personal revival inside us, too. He gives us the physical power to go on everyday to do the things He required us to do as His followers. Yet, because of these, we have turned from our Lord who has liberally given us ALL good things.  He has lovingly given us so much, but we turn our backs on Him despite who He is.  What He has done for us, and for what He has given us, we should be ashamed to ignore. Our wickedness,  constant sins and transgressions have kept the Lord God, "the Holy One of Israel", from giving us the blessings that He wants us to have. Our rebellion, constant unfaithfulness, needless complaints, and nasty dispositions have separated us from the Holy God who wants to bless us.  Because of the reasons above, He holds back much from us. He will deal with our backslidings as well.  We will suffer the great and terrible consequences of our unconfessed sins if we would not come before His throne of grace and ask for mercy. We must submit and be subjected to His Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins and vileness. He will convict us terribly if we would refuse, deny, reject and disgard Him.  He is  holy, just, righteous, faithful, loving, merciful, full of truth, and full of grace.  But, He is also full of anger and wrath if we would dare to abuse  Him daily.  

Friends, yet we take ALL God did for granted.  HOW DARE US to do these to the one who gave His life for our rotten lives.  It should of been each one of YOU and me on that cross!  GOD will destroy all those whom He has given so much, yet refuse and reject His Son Jesus Christ till death.

Our wickedness, stinking pride and putrid sins will keep the Lord back from giving us all He loves to give us.  He  does want to bless and give us much so that we can give back even more to Him. Are you a follower of the Lord?  Are you a doer? Do you give yourself to Him as the ultimate sacrifice? 

The best thing you can give to the Lord is YOU to HIM each day.  Live a surrendered, holy,  and acceptable life to Him, if you are saved. Give yourself as a living sacrifice to the Lord in heaven.  Let Him use you the way He wants to so that you can be better equiped in serving Him all the days of your life.

Do you want the devil to overrun you?  Do you want to live for him and sin, without any remorse and conviction from the Lord? He will quench His Holy Spirit in you if you would backslide till your death.  When You call upon Him, do not be surprised.  He will not respond. 

Yet, there is always hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.  Those  who are in the sewers of the gutter can still be saved.  God can take them out from there and bring them to heaven after  their acceptance (John 3:3), repentance (Luke 13:3,5), belief (Acts 16:31, John 3:16,17) and verbal admittance (Rom.10:9). It is just a matter of losing one's pride.  Stop thinking you will get by with good works.  The God-approved ones come only after salvation.  

I  pray the Lord will bless those who are serving Him faithfully.  l also pray for those who are not saved yet that they will be convicted.  I pray, too, that they would allow the Lord to save them because only Jesus can make them enter heaven and miss going to Hell, in Jesus name.  Amen.

(c) December 12, 2010; Michael Carey

Happy News: New Website For Caremikenluisa!

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentation 3:23

Friends, we have a new website - Twosome Faithfulness.  This is a dream-come-true for us because we have been longing for one (and free!) we can consider truly ours.  The dream has been there ever since we have discovered we, too, can write a blog.  We are just starting so that the discovering of better things for the website in lieu of another by surprise is very exciting.

Come and visit us at www.caremikenluisa.webs.com. Watch how we do things there from scratch (and without  background of virtual "science" and the internet).  See you there soon!

God bless us all.

                                              Mike and Luisa

Someday Soon We Go

adirondackbaptist.org

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.  Matthew 28:19,20
 

This song touched my heart because it reminded me that one day soon, at God's appointed time, couple Mike and I will go to where He would lead us to share the gospel to anyone who would listen. Thanks for your continued prayers...

THE REGIONS BEYOND

To the regions beyond I must go, I must go
Where the story has never been told;
To the millions that never have 
heard of His love,
I must tell the sweet story of old.

Refrain

To the regions beyond I must go, I must go,
Till the world, all the world,
His salvation shall know.

To the hardest of places He calls me to go,
Never thinking of comfort or ease;
The world may pronounce me 
a dreamer, a fool,
Enough if the Master I please.

Refrain

Oh, you that are spending your 
leisure and powers
In those pleasures so foolish and fond;
Awake from your selfishness, folly and sin,
And go to the regions beyond.

Refrain

There are other “lost sheep” that the 
Master must bring,
And to them must the message be told;
He sends me to gather them out of all lands,
And welcome them back to His fold.

Refrain

(c) December 6, 2010 - Luisa Mercado

Love Email: Unforgettable Message To A Family

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 Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full. 2 John 1:12

This was an email I sent to my Tito and Tita last December, 2009.  I am sharing it with you in the hope that you will be blessed by the words as some did. Here it is:

"Blessings to you all from the Most High God who personally gives us everything we need according to His will for us.

Happy thanksgiving everyday to Jesus Christ who gave His life to save us from sins, and if each one of us would truly accept Him personally and heart-fully as our personal Savior and Lord, we would have the assurance of everlasting life with Him in heaven.

With the Holy Spirit who gives us daily guidance to do right from wrong, let us truly listen to Him always.

In everything we give our thanks, in Jesus' Mighty Name. Amen."

Happy reading! 

Note:  Tita had undergone a bypass surgery (heart) a few years ago while Tito had his last September, 2010.  All operations were successful, thanks God!
 
(c) November 23, 2010 - Luisa Mercado 

Rejoicing Still

firstassemblyng.org

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Philip. 4:4

This beautiful song, sang in four voices by my pastor and his family at the church this morning, really filled my heart with awesome gladness.  I immediately got a copy of the lyrics in the internet so that I can share it with you.  The lyrics in red tells you and me that God purges us to refine us so that we will come out purified as gold.

Let us then rejoice, friend, for the testing of God will make us  wonderfully perfect!  

God bless...

O Rejoice in the Lord

God never moves without purpose or plan
When trying His servant and molding a man.
Give thanks to the LORD though your testing seems long;
In darkness He giveth a song.

I could not see through the shadows ahead;
So I looked at the cross of my Savior instead.
I bowed to the will of the Master that day;
Then peace came and tears fled away.

Now I can see testing comes from above;
God strengthens His children and purges in love.
My Father knows best, and I trust in His care;
Through purging more fruit I will bear.

O Rejoice in the LORD
He makes no mistake,
He knoweth the end of each path that I take,
For when I am tried
And purified,
I shall come forth as gold.

(c) November 21, 2010 - Luisa Mercado 

Christ's Love: More Than Enough

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35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39

What persuaded me to write something about the verses above was because I was touched by my best friend's acceptance of the realities of life.  It was a true-to-life experience of a real Christian facing life's bigger challenges  in her home, at work and in the ministry with non-believers that God had called her to perform.  I learned from her, too. I called "her"  ministry deserving a crown in heaven.  Honestly, the way I  assessed the situation, it required God's hand for her to move the high mountains.

The way she wrote the words in her somewhat mixed vernacular dialect (mind you, friend, she is a very good English professor) was quite funny (she used bulldozers, dump trucks, backhoes, etc.), but the message behind it was very deep.  For her,  the problems were all processes to beautify the highway of life.  

Friend, I hope, as a true Christian, you too will learn to smile at the truckloads of problems and difficulties you may be facing today.  This life is not at all full of happiness.  Maybe the people you love most may fail you greatly.  Your home may not be conducive to your growth as a Christian.  Your job may not be accepting you for your very good intentions even when you have done your best.  Others may be hard on you even when you try to reach them for Jesus.  Yet, God  has always said in His word that no one  "shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39b)."  Oh, what a promise!

(c) November 16, 2010 - Luisa Mercado

Mastering Forgiveness

wendyusuallywanders.wordpress.com

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?  But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Psalm 130:1-4

Below was what I wrote on facebook just a few days ago because I felt it in my heart that I should have said this many years ago to a lot of people whom I had erred (knowingly or unknowingly) or had erred me, too.  Sometimes I tend to forget that beyond all the pride and ego I could possibly master, it is still more Godly and humanely to ask forgiveness and to forgive. Has not God forgiven me too?

"Forgiving, forgetting, letting go and even asking forgiveness for the wrong things we've done in the past to people we met but had forgotten to say these things wholeheartedly.

God bless us."

 

(c) November 15, 2010 - Luisa Mercado