Wisdom at your Fingertips
I’d like to ask you a question…as humbly as I possibly can. Some will have no problem with this question; some probably haven’t even thought about it. Some may not practice this because they may think; they don’t need to, because they get all they need from Church. Some may think, they don’t understand it anyway, so, why should they read it? And some of you may think, you don’t have time…it’s out of date…it’s King James no one talks like that anymore….But…
How are you going to know what God says, if you don’t read His Words?
My husband Bob, has been getting up every morning at breakfast, he opens his Bible starting with Genesis and has been reading for about four months now. He’s now in 2 Samuel. He tells me what he’s read and is finding so many things he never knew before.
This thrills me to no end…because he’s not only reading God’s word; God is changing him, transforming him, and giving him wisdom and understanding.
No one told Bob to start reading the Bible every morning at breakfast. He just started doing it.
We have been given the Holy Bible, inspired by God, and when we pray and ask the Holy Spirit to open our understanding he is more than willing to do that. Don’t you think it would be ridiculous to have wisdom sitting at our fingertips, but never pick it up to read it. There are answers to every situation known to man in this book.
You want a lifetime instruction book? It’s been around for hundreds of years. What a gold mine.
In our country you can buy one from a store for a dollar. Or order one that’s leather bound with a commentary. People do still like the ones made of paper.
Now days you get them on digital and audio….you don’t have to carry the “big book” around, there’s an App for your phone. Letters too small, just widen it on the screen and it is enlarged…talking about at your fingertips…
The point is…OPEN IT UP and READ IT!!! Let the Holy Spirit open mysteries and secrets and life plans and dreams and how to raise your children and how to become the best person you’d ever want to be…read the true account about the Life of Jesus and see how the Old Testament and the New Testament are really all one book connected through time…
There’s healing, marriage restoring, relationship miracles and so much more…
Read it with an open heart, pray and let God speak to you. Find a translation that you can understand and use Matthew Henry’s ‘free’ commentary he’ll explain to you what each verse is talking about.
If you saw someone starving literally to death, and needed food and water, wouldn’t you give them what they needed or see that they got help? If that person was you…wouldn’t you want food and water? It’s not just spiritual it is also for the body and the mind and the soul. Find out for yourself what it says about all that. Don’t take someone else’s word for it…You, read it, so you won’t be deceived. And when someone tries to tell you the Bible says this, or that, you will know for yourself what it says.
The Bible is…sweeter than honey, a well, that never runs dry and, it is the words of God to live by! His words are written in a book just for you.
I’ve taken the liberty to give you one of the Epistles, a letter of James below…
Lord Jesus, I ask that whoever reads your words today that you will give them new insight to who you are, and that it will inspire them to keep reading your word. They are Words of life and peace and hope. Holy Spirit, bring healing into the hearts of God’s children. Amen.
~MSO, June 12, 2017
James 1 New International Version (NIV)
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:
Greetings.
Trials and Temptations
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Listening and Doing
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Quiet the Soul
Crowds pressed in on every side…
Healing and ministry there collide…
More and more the people cried…
So many needs can’t be denied…
Time for a rest, to recharge refresh…
Into the quiet solitude of the wilderness…
Into the wilderness he went to pray.
To be still and seek and knock and ask…
Grace for the journey and peace that lasts.
He went into the wilderness, to pray.
Luke 5:16
~Marla Shaw O’Neill June 11, 2017
I Let Out Lungsful of Praise
There’s a song for us to be singing…
While living on this earth…
It’s the song of Heaven’s Kingdom
The angels hasten to hear…
Coming from earthen vessels
The hearts of the redeemed…
Stand and shout it out…
And do not fear
Be bold, be courageous and SING…
This song has no ending
Open your heart,
You, the Redeemed…
Sin has no hold on me
The blood of Jesus poured out; hear and see…
The grave cannot hold me and death has no sting
The same Spirit who lives in him, in us is quickening…
We have God’s favor and by faith we walk in Him…
Children of Heaven’s Kingdom
Sing it out for all of them…
To know as it is in heaven, so it is within the earth….
For Heaven’s, King, has given us a brand new-birth…
Sing, Redeemed, Sing!
~Marla Shaw O’Neill June 10, 2017
Psalm 71:23-24 The Message (MSG)
You got me when I was an unformed youth, God, and taught me everything I know. Now I’m telling the world your wonders; I’ll keep at it until I’m old and gray. God, don’t walk off and leave me until I get out the news Of your strong right arm to this world, news of your power to the world yet to come, Your famous and righteous ways, O God. God, you’ve done it all! Who is quite like you? You, who made me stare trouble in the face, Turn me around; Now let me look life in the face. I’ve been to the bottom; Bring me up, streaming with honors; turn to me, be tender to me, And I’ll take up the lute and thank you to the tune of your faithfulness, God. I’ll make music for you on a harp, Holy One of Israel. When I open up in song to you, I let out lungsful of praise, my rescued life a song. All day long I’m chanting about you and your righteous ways, While those who tried to do me in slink off looking ashamed.
Run for Your Life, and Do Not Look Back
Many times we start out in life, young and carefree; we have lots of dreams and ambitions…
Somewhere along the line we fall into a pit. We make wrong choices and before we know it we are caught in a web. Lies and corruption entangle our hearts and minds and evil’s bony, sharp, talons dig deep within us.
The spider weaves its web around us knowing we can never be free. The more we struggle the tighter the web becomes. The spider lurks, waiting to make his move. Its victims, unaware that the angel of death is coming for them.
Let me tell you a little story. It’s about Lot, the nephew of Abraham. Lot chose to leave the protection of Abraham and move away from the mountains to be closer to the city of Sodom and Gomorrah.
He wanted a different life. He wanted the city life. Although he still kept his religious beliefs. Maybe he thought that sin would not taint him or his family. That he could live that close to evil and it wouldn’t rub off on them. Where did the angels find Lot when they arrived? He was at the city gate. The city gate was a place of authority where all the important men gathered. He was important, or so he thought. (Read Genesis 19)
Let me back up for just a moment…
The Lord and two angels, appearing as men, were walking by Abraham’s camp when he saw them; Abraham knew immediately who they were. Bowing before them he invited them to eat and to offer them refreshments. Afterwards, the Lord stayed behind with Abraham. The two angels continued on their way.
The Lord told Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah was going to be destroyed because of the great sins that were going on there. Abraham beseeched the Lord and said, “Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked?” Abraham interceded for the people. He asked, “What if there are fifty righteous living there, would you spare their lives and not destroy the cities? The Lord said he would not destroy them if he found fifty. Abraham must have known that there probably was not that many righteous living there so he counted down with, what about forty, and the Lord said, if forty, he wouldn’t destroy it…Abraham didn’t stop with forty, what if there are only thirty, twenty, he counted all the way to ten. Abraham said, “What if there are ten righteous?” The Lord said he would not destroy them if he found ten righteous…
But…he didn’t find ten righteous; in fact he found that the place was so corrupt that the men of the city wanted to seduce the angels… but the angels caused all the men to become blind…(Genesis 18:23-32)
God’s judgement is righteous and true. He blinds those who try to harm God’s own.
Lot, took the angels into his home and tried to protect them. Read (Genesis 19) The angels told Lot to take his family and get out of Sodom it was going to be destroyed. Lot’s sons-in-law thought it was a joke. It was no joke.
With urgency the angels told Lot you must leave now for these cities will be destroyed tonight.
The angels remembered Abraham’s plea for the righteous, and so they took Lot by the hand and his wife and two daughters and led them out of the city to a place called Zoar (which means little place), and told them to get to the mountains. To run for their lives and “DO NOT LOOK BACK!”
You can read the account in Genesis 19…
How many times do we look back over our past and wish…?
How many regrets are staring back at us as we look back?
God has said, “Do Not Look Back!”
Lot’s wife looked back and died. She no doubt, had family and friends in those cities. She grew up in the place and probably didn’t even consider what they did as wrong. They called good, evil, and evil, good, they did every evil thing that entered their minds. Sodom and Gomorrah was so vile and putrid that God took notice and destroyed it with fire and brimstone.
Abraham prayed…if not for the pleading of Abraham to the Lord…even Lot and his daughter’s would have perished.
Sin blinds…sin corrupts…sin brings death and destruction…but the prayers of a righteous man or woman, God will hear and answer.
Pray for marriages…pray for young people…pray for children and for our Nations and lands…God sees everything and he does not turn a deaf ear to the cries of the righteous. He does not wink at the acts of rebellion and corruption he sees and hears all the evil that rages. Don’t think for one second that God is not aware of what’s going on, for he sees and he cries right along with us…He will send judgement. “Vengeance is mine,” says the Lord!
Pray, people of the Living God. Intercede, for God hears and he will answer.
Respect each other. Even if you don’t like someone, you still have to love them, that is, if you call yourself a child of God for God is Love!
Don’t look back at the sins of the past…not even for a second… it will destroy you…
But run to the safe haven which is in the arms of Jesus your savior…the place of safety and rest. Run even if it is a little place, for there you will be delivered.
The past can never be changed because the past is gone.
God doesn’t say he has plans to give you a past. He says, he has a plan to give you a hope and a future…
His plan came through the blood of His Son Jesus, which means Savior. And it is for all who will accept Him as Lord and Savior of their lives.
What are we saved from…? We are saved from death and destruction. We are rescued from evil. To live holy set apart lives not to see how close we can get to evil and it not affect us…but to live as far away from evil as we can possible get…even if it means to the mountains…the place where God dwells…spiritually speaking.
The Angel of the Lord is saying to you today, “Run for your lives and Do Not Look Back!
~Marla Shaw O’Neill – June 9, 2017
God’s Armor One Size Fits All
Stand your Ground…
We have an enemy…
He is strategic and powerful…
Ancient in years…
Destroyer of all that is good and pure and true
Kills all in his path
And steals everything and anything in his grasp…
He is the prince of the air…
If not for the hand of God…
He would annihilate every living thing…
Do not think you can out smart, out shoot, out live, or conquer this foe…
At least not on your own…
He is not one to do combat with…you will not win…
But…
By the authority of God and the Name of Jesus and by the Power of the Holy Spirit when we stand with Them…all demons tremble…all hell freezes…and God in his Majestic, Omnipotence, Omnipresence, and Omniscient…we WIN!!
When he said to put on the FULL armor of God…that is exactly what we must do…it’s God’s armor, not ours that will keep us safe…
So Stand…
Wearing the girdle of Truth
The breastplate of righteousness,
Having your feet fitted with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace,
Take up the Shield of Faith
Put on the Helmet of Salvation,
Using the Sword of the Spirit
And Pray in the Spirit…
These are the weapons of our warfare…
You have the Holy Spirit within you; he gives wisdom and discernment and is more powerful and more strategic than any demon…
So be Filled with the Holy Spirit and let him lead and guide your thoughts, your body, your soul to walk you through the minefields that the enemy has hidden before you…
He has night-vision equipment so you don’t walk blind in the darkness…and he has the artillery to shoot out against the enemy which is the Word of God…
And the shield of Faith protects you from all the fiery darts of Satan…
Soldier stay alert…be watchful…be diligent…and fight on standing in prayer and fasting…with the Holy Ghost…
This is how we win the war, by keeping in close contact with, God the Father, Jesus the Son and Holy Spirit and fire…
God is for you, no one or nothing can stand against you with Him on your side…because He is In You!!!!
Activate your Faith!
AMEN!!!
Ephesians 6:10-18 Modern English Version (MEV)
The Battle Against Evil
Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your waist girded with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace, and above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the fiery arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Pray in the Spirit always with all kinds of prayer and supplication. To that end be alert with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
~ Marla Shaw O’Neill June 8, 2017
Love Wears the Crown
Here’s my life I lay it down,
I give it freely to thee…
A man’s life offered,
In total sacrifice,
He laid it down for all to see…
No greater love could there ever be,
Than what Jesus did for you and me…
Love poured out in blood and tears…
How, dear Jesus, did you forgive?
While watching from the cross impaled
The ones who used the hammer and the nails
Taking your life away…
Help me to forgive this way…
Hurt and pain our training ground
Until we, can at last be found…
Surrendering our life and laying it down.
The greatest sacrifice we will ever give
For those standing in the crowd,
Crying out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
They will see…
Love, wears the crown!
~Marla Shaw O’Neill June 7, 2017
John 15:13 King James Version (KJV)
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Romans 12:1-2 The Message (MSG)
Place Your Life Before God
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Practice Makes Perfect, Passion Makes Dreams Come True
Doing a thing over and over and over and over again and again….
Eventually it becomes second nature…like breathing; you don’t even think about it, you just do it…
Piano lessons, Ugh! Did you ever sit at the piano or keyboard and practice over and over again…but each key was struck “off key?” Thinking to yourself, “I could be outside with my friends right now. Or I could be reading a mystery and discover, “Who done it?”
That all behind you now, and you’re all grown up, and you get to choose who, what, where and when, you want to do something or not.
So, you attend a concert and you hear someone like the following link…you think back to that time when you had to practice piano and hated it and so eventually you gave it up…it just wasn’t worth all that agonizing PRACTICE…no matter how much your mom insisted.
God loves order, he loves music and dance and song…he loves us…
When you have a passion for something it’s not agonizing to do it over and over and over again and again…it comes from your deepest being…when you rise up in the morning that’s what you think about and when you lie down at night you are thinking about it. You’re constantly thinking on how to improve your craft, gift, talent. It is your passion.
Your instrument doesn’t have to be strings or trumpet or drums…maybe your passion is painting or poetry or carpentry or driving a race-car or climbing a mountain…maybe it is caring for people or teaching or ministry, or writing…maybe it’s flying or going into places that are yet to be discovered…
Whatever your passion, practice comes without even thinking about it…it is something born within you and you must do it or cease to exist…
Maybe you don’t have a passion and wonder how in the world someone with passion has it…
You know when you have it…because you pursue it with all your heart, strength, resources…
I have a passion to write for God to tell of his love and goodness…he put that passion inside of me and when I pursue Him it is with all my heart…
It may not be perfect grammatically or make sense to anyone other than God and me. But I must write…it is who I am. Now of course I want what I write to be meaningful and bring praise and glory to God. We have to start someplace but it’s the continuing to keep going even when you are discouraged, even if no one in the world listens or responds…because we are not doing it for ourselves but for God. And “practice makes perfect.”
Although there are many people who don’t know God, yet they have passion for many things, it is still God who put that passion within them even if they don’t believe it.
When you know, Him, it is all the sweeter…
So, moms, dads, look for what hidden talents in children, who knows you may just have a Picasso or Yanni or Dave Earnhardt or Rudyard Kipling, maybe a Jennifer Lopez.
[Famous mountain climber, Sir Edmund Hillary joined the Everest reconnaissance expeditions on 1951 and 1952. Finally, he decided to go all the way in 1953. The expedition reached the South Peak in May 1953, after which all but Hillary and his counterpart, Tenzing Norgay, went ahead and reached the summit at 11:30 am on May 29. Standing at 29,028 feet above sea level, Hillary not only made his nation, but the world proud.]
Just maybe you’ll be an Esperanza Liverio, or Karen Clarkson Friday, or Michael E. Wells, or Charisse Sheppard, or Paul Phillips or Mary Harwell Sayler…David Pollen…Elias Liverio…Bryan Brazell… whoever you are whatever your passion…you have within you to be the best at whatever you set your heart and mind to do…So, do it, with all your heart!!
After all, Practice, makes perfect!! Passion makes dreams come true!!
~Marla Shaw O’Neill-June 7, 2017
Psalm 33:2-5 The Message (MSG)
Good people, cheer God! Right-living people sound best when praising. Use guitars to reinforce your Hallelujahs! Play his praise on a grand piano! Invent your own new song to him; give him a trumpet fanfare.
For God’s Word is solid to the core; everything he makes is sound inside and out. He loves it when everything fits, when his world is in plumb-line true. Earth is drenched in God’s affectionate satisfaction.
Generation’s X, Y, Z….Millennials
From generation to generation we watch as events change and the world takes on a sort of kaleidoscope of change. Taking the scope in our hands we zoom in and out of history, each generation taking on the colors and swirls of their own unique designs and customs.
From speech to the clothes they wear, to hair fads, tats and art and food everything evolves into something different from generation to generation.
I’ve been hearing the name ‘millennial’ used a lot more lately, more than before. So I did a little research and this is what I found.
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They are born between 1977 and 2000.
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They make up 25% of the U.S. population.
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21% of consumer discretionary purchases which is estimated to be over a trillion dollars in direct buying power and a huge influence on older generations.
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53% of Millennial households already have children
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About 1 in 4 are parents today
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Believe parenthood is a partnership 64% dads and 50% moms believe that they have equal responsibility of child care
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46% report they have 200+ Facebook friends
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Compared to 19% Non-Millennials (@Millennial Marketing)
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If interested in learning more, follow the link below.
