Category Archives: It’s a Bonus Post

2022, It's a Bonus Post, Just Chatty Today, Questions

Appropriated

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I have a list. 
A written list of people in my life, family, close and beloved friends, some close acquaintances, some people that friends have asked me to remember in prayer, and folks I have yet to meet but have found their way to my list. 
I regularly open this list, read their names, if I can visualize their faces, and I pray for them.

Today is a particularly sobering day with my list. 
Many of those names coming before me today give me no confidence of salvation for them.
I said to Father I want to see evidence of salvation.
I want to see fruit meet for repentance – fruit that is evidence that they are saved, that they have been delivered from Darkness to Light. 
I am confident they know. I am confident they have heard the Gospel – repeatedly. 
And then a word came  — appropriated. 

Appropriated is a tricky word. 
I looked it up.

At first glance, it looks like a word not applicable but on closer examination, it surely is just the word. 

You see it does mean to take or make use of without authority or right.
And in that sense, it is way not applicable. 

But it also means to take exclusive possession of 

And that does fit. So fits!

I think many people, lots and lots of people – particularly Americans, have heard the Gospel over and over.
They are so very aware that JESUS is the Son of GOD.
They are so very aware that He died and even rose again – they celebrate Easter and Christmas.
So they have heard. They know. But they don’t know. 
They don’t know because they have not APPROPRIATED the Gospel to THEMSELVES. 

JESUS has not become personal to them. He is not THEIR Savior, He’s just the One who claims to be the Savior of the world. 

This means these precious, loved people are still LOST. 
And this disturbs me – greatly! 

Do you have people in your life this way too?
What do you do?

2 Corinthians, 2022, From the Quietness of the War Room, It's a Bonus Post

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This brings us to prayer; for ourselves and our families.
It is natural; it does not go against the natural flow of breathing to concentrate on temporary things – things of this earth that will not, do not last.

Things that are necessary to live here but even so are temporary.
And so we are instructed with this verse to
FIX.
We are instructed to Fix our eyes, our focus, attention, affection, direction, on The Eternal.

This does not naturally occur – it takes an earnest, dedicated decision and FEW make that decision.

So if you have fixed your eyes on The Eternal, it is imperative and it is love to pray for your family and friends that are still focused on the temporary to turn from the temporal to GOD permanently.

1 Kings, 2022, Christian Living, It's a Bonus Post, Questions

Feed Me First

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1 Kings 17

Perhaps it’s just me but I think it would be hard to do what Elijah did. 
I think it would be hard to ask the Widow of Zarephath to feed me first. 
Feed me before you feed your son or yourself. 
I just think that was not an easy request to make. 
I think he had to have a sure Word from The LORD to come up with such a thought as that!

You see I think speaking the Truth of GOD to the people of the world can look like hate to them. 

But he was not talking to a woman of the world, he was talking to a woman who believed GOD. 
What do you think? 

She obeyed. 
She cooked what looked to be the last of her meal and her oil, but it wasn’t. 
The Bible tells us 

15 She went and acted according to what Eliyahu had said; and she, he and her household had food to eat for a long time.
16 The pot of meal did not get used up, nor did there fail to be oil in the jug, in fulfillment of the word of Adonai spoken through Eliyahu.
Source 

Would you think with me how amazing this is? 
This Widow from Zarephath likely did not have her own set of Old Testament Scrolls and neither did she have the indwelling Holy Spirit but she obeyed GOD in the face of not only her death but the death of her son. 
I have to ask — what excuse do we have for disobedience?

But I can’t leave us here just yet; one more thing. 

Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of GOD. 
Do you know that Scripture? Romans 10:17 

It worked that way in Zarephath too. 
Here’s how I know. 

13 Eliyahu said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go; and do what you said; but first, use a little of it to make me a small loaf of bread; and bring it out to me. After that, make food for yourself and your son.
14 For this is what Adonai the God of Isra’el, says: ‘The pot of meal will not get used up, nor will there fail to be oil in the jug, until the day Adonai sends rain down on the land.’” 
source 

Faith (trust) cometh by hearing and hearing by the WORD of GOD. 
He spoke the WORD of GOD to her; she heard and she acted in faith – she trusted the WORD of GOD she heard. 

So I have to ask again.
What excuse do we have?