Come forth and be among the living

Published 9:00 am Friday, April 8, 2016

Jesus is the author and the finisher, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord. 

When he hung on the cross and before he died, he said, “It is finished.” He said, “God forgive them because they know not what they do.” Don’t ever be afraid to call on the name of Jesus because he said, “He will never leave you or forsake you.” 

We have got to pray, repent, turn and change – we are talking about the Holy Ghost — let thine heart keep my commandments. Obeying God and respecting Jesus, we have to thank God every day. He let us live to see one more beautiful day, put one foot on the floor, to dress ourselves and hear the sweet sounds of God’s creation of the birds singing and praising the Lord. With the sweet song, and to see the sun come up one more time, out of the east is such a beautiful sight, and to see it go down in the west. We have so much to praise God for. This is why I say when the high priest opens my eyes in the morning, I say Lord, this is the day you have made. I shall rejoice and be glad of it. 

When we think about the mercy of God, he didn’t have to wake us up this morning. He could have let every one on the earth sleep for a half of day. And just like he told Lazarus, come forth, he could have done the same for us. That is just how much power He has, but His grace and mercy touched us with His fingers of love and woke us up this morning. I can’t praise him enough. If you don’t want to praise him or are too ashamed to tell your friends about the goodness of God, move out of my way because he has been too good to me not to tell someone about this man called Jesus. 

Take a look at the stars and moon at night when you are traveling or settling down at night, or on your patio. It is so  pretty to see the stars. Sometimes, a star will fall across the sky, with the moon shining so beautiful when it is not cloudy. 

Glorify the Lord in the dawn light, the name of the Lord God of Israel in the coastland of the sea (Isaiah 24:15).  We all get sad and feel sorry sometimes but we can fall down on our knees and look up to the  heaven and call on the name of Jesus. Make sure you are not trying to fool God because he knows when you are real. Say all of my good days outweigh my bad days in the name of Jesus. 

Strength in stillness (Exodus.14:14). The Lord will fight for you. You will only need to be still. Be still and know that I am God, the Psalmist saith (Ps 46:10). When we remain still we get to know God . Our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (v.1). We see our weakness apart from God and recognize our need to surrender to Him. When I am weak then I am strong, saith the apostle Paul (2 Cor. 12:10). The Lord may calm your storm, but more often, he will calm you.

Your ticket to heaven — may I offer your ticket to heaven? You don’t have to pay for it and that’s a good thing because someone has already paid the ultimate price for it. God loves you and  wants you to have a fulfilling life on earth. He also wants you to live with Him in heaven forever. He is the one who offers you a paid ticket in full. No one wants to go to hell where there will be no joy and pleasure whatsoever. God doesn’t want anyone to go there either. 

The Bible says that God is not wanting anyone to perish. But, there is a problem with getting that free ticket. We have all done wrong. We have all sinned, haven’t we? 

God’s word says, “If we say that we have no sin, we  deceive ourselves” (John 1.8).  Sin pollutes. It make us unclean, unfit for God’s  presence in that wonderful, perfect place called heaven. Sin separates us from a sinless God. For the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6-23). Our sinfulness blocks the delivery of the ticket that is needed to get into heaven. We all have to pray at all times, whether we are in a storm or not. God says lean on me, I will never let you fall, no worries (Mark 4-35; 5:1). Let us go over to the other side whether the storm we encounter today is the result of a tragic accident, a loss of employment, or some other trial. We can be confident that all is not lost. Our pilot can handle the storm. He will get us home. We don’t need to fear the storm with Jesus as our anchor. 

Welcome each day as a gift from God. When we keep our minds on God, His Spirit keeps our minds at peace. We have to lift up holy hands unto the Lord.  

James Miller is a resident of Lakeland.