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Unstoppable

March 15, 2011 — Standard — Leave a comment

Is 14:26-27
26 I have a plan for the whole earth, a hand of judgment upon all the nations. 27 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has spoken—who can change his plans? When his hand is raised, who can stop him?”

God has always been in control of history.. It is true that there is a cause and effect reality to many things that occur through out time. It is true that there is judgement for sin. God’s judgment, however, is never separated from his mercy. It is convenient for us to misquote scripture and say that “All things happen for a reason”, implying that God would choose to use our suffering to bring about his perfect will. This is not scriptural nor true! God is a God of order, and will not suspend that order even for the good of his people. But, what is true is that in all things, weather horrible or wonderful, Gods plans still stand, continue to move forward and always come to fruition! He, his love, and his will for the earth, and all of us who inhabit it, is unstoppable! What the bible actually says is this in Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them”.
Right now, in whatever trial you find your self in, or, maybe, as you look at the horrific images coming out of Japan, don’t ask “How could God have let this happen”?.. but rather this, “How is God going to use this to bring about his will”?

So thankful for the unstoppable love of God,
Pastor Josh

Romans 8:38
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.

Devine Purpose

January 26, 2011 — Standard — 1 Comment

Matt 1:17
All those listed above include fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile, and fourteen from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah.

It’s hard to be a skeptic when you see the careful planning God put into bringing about our salvation. I’m not going to pretend to understand the symbolism behind every ” type and shadow”‘, nor do I know the significance of all the numbers and dates and so on and so on….but any idiot (a category that I may very possibly fall in to) can see that so many consistencies can’t possibly be a coincidence. Before man ever fell, God had a carefully laid out plan for restoration. Our God is the greatest strategist ever…OK, that’s kind of an understatement. Think about it though! You really have to have more faith to be a skeptic then a believer. But here’s the really awesome part. The same careful planning that went into salvation, went into our purpose and destiny! Check this out…..

Eph 1:4-5
4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

Even before he made the world!!!!! What!!! There are no coincidences in our existence. before the world was even made there was a plan…for me. I was loved, I was wanted, therefore I am loved and I am wanted and I have a purpose and a destiny and a “call” that is eternal and irrevocable! Wow! Meditate on that one as you go through your day. What could the world possibly throw at me that could touch it!

Loved and Chosen,
Pastor Josh

Write the Vision

January 25, 2011 — Standard — Leave a comment

Habakkuk 2:2 Then the Lord said to me,
“Write my answer plainly on tablets,
so that a runner can carry the correct message to others.

Well, as all of you, my adoring public, know, I have not been to good at staying on top of this blogging thing. I do hope to change that in this coming year. God put it on my heart some time ago to write a yearly devotional for our young people, and have begun to peruse that the last few weeks. Something I have always tried to do is journal every day as I study the word. I heard someone say once that the mind doesn’t remember revelation so as God reveals himself to us through his word and prayer we should always record those things we receive. As I have been reading through my past years journals in preparation for the devotional, I have been overwhelmed by the amount of entries that I have completely forgotten about. Some of them were even revelations that actually changed the course and direction of my life! If I hadn’t written them down, they would now be lost in that one moment of encounter, which though it was an awesome moment, would have little to no lasting effect on the rest of my life. It is these revelations that I will be using to write the book that I hope will be a blessing to those who use it. I have decided to post some of my new daily journal entries here on my blog. I don’t pretend for one moment to assume that God is revealing anything to me that he is not revealing to anyone else that is truly pursuing him with a heart to hear, nor that my thoughts are any more important than anyone else’s….but, this is joshkiefer.com, which means I get to write what I want! Just kidding. I promise I won’t rant and rave about my opinion on this and that, or go off on tirades bashing the government, exposing some new conspiracy theory. Just quick little thoughts about what God’s showing me in his word. Nothing more, nothing less. So, check it out….or don’t. It’s all good.

Peace and Love,
Pastor Josh