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.
(http://www.businessinsider.com/baby-boomers-caused-millennials-destructive-spending-habits-2017-6)
~From Victorian babies, to Baby Boomers, to Echo Boomers to Millennials, there are labels for each generation…
I guess I never really gave it much thought before but somehow Millennials caught my attention…
I don’t like labels…but I have found it most interesting to read how, from one generation to another our world seems to be going from bad to worse…
Just some thoughts to ponder…when looking through the generational kaleidoscope, keep in mind…what the previous generations have donated to, future generations…
I wonder…
If say, someone from the First Century were to suddenly come back to life…what would they say about this generation…?
I’m living in this time period and I can’t even explain it…
Kaleidoscope, please tell me the world survives?
I’m afraid not! It all comes to an end…
There will be a new heaven and new earth…~Kaleidoscope
~Marla Shaw O’Neill-June 6, 2017
Isaiah 65:17-25 New International Version (NIV)
New Heavens and a New Earth
“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.
“Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.
This is Only A Test
(Please understand, I was relating the story according to what Bob had shared with me. I never, ever, want to offend or hurt anyone. I love you all dearly! Tiny little adjustments and forgiveness goes a long, long way! <3 )
So, here we go…You know we are all faced with tests and trials but when we come through them we are finer than fine gold…I was probably more like rusty tin yesterday…as some of you know, Bobby had to go to Houston yesterday. He left at 4:30a.m., stopover in Atlanta and onto Houston. It was a business trip. He was there for a few hours and then would be coming home.
So he was taken to the airport but the flight was going to be delayed and that would cause him to miss his flight in Atlanta and possibly have to stay overnight…well that did not sit well with me. You may not know this about me but I have a few issues with trust and abandonment…with insecurities…God has Done an amazing job on restoring me but there’s still some little edges (OK a lot) that need repair…being alone is not my strong suit.
I asked you all to pray…in the meantime here is my prayer…
Me: “God if he stays overnight in Atlanta it is not going to go well. You know how I am God, please help me. I do not like this God. Are you hearing me? I’m sorry but this just can’t happen.”
God: Silence.
So I occupy myself with Facebook. (9:00 p.m.)
Bob calls, he’s made it to Atlanta and has 20 minutes to get off the plane and make it to his next flight.
This morning I told him I got a C- on my test. He said he didn’t get an “A” either.
He said he was on the plane and everything seemed as though it was happening in slow motion. He knew how I’d react if he had to stay overnight so he was praying.
Bob: “God you have to do something. Please don’t let me miss my flight.” (He’s so sweet, poor thing, I really am sorry for putting him through this.)
God: Silence.
Even though God was silent, he was working in us to trust him.
So, Bob, on the plane….Plane lands and is taxing forward then stops…
Bob: “What, no, why are we stopping?” He looks out the window and two planes were coming in so they had to wait for them.
The plane moves on and stops. He’s in the back of the plane. He flings his seatbelt off and races past the people in front of him like a flash and then, (no disrespect) but there was a family of six in front of him, taking their time like they have all the time in the world. Bob is frantic…looks at his watch…tapping his finger on his bag…ancy…failing is test miserably…he gets past them and there are lines everywhere…he manages to get his bag…stop go, stop go…the whole time he’s thinking, “God, are you laughing at me?”
He’s in line and realizes he’s lost his boarding pass…panic hits the pit of his stomach, “no, no, no”….But then he remembers…he has another one in his bag he had made a copy, (he hears his mother’s voice inside his head, “See it helps to have extra.”) He zips open his bag, SCORE! He’s able to get on the plane and is finally on his way home.
We all have tests and trials…none of us have arrived… (lol) It’s how we behave in those tests that God watches. It’s a heart matter. He’s always with us, working all things for our good…and you know what? We will be tested again and again until we get it right and then we’ll be tested some more.
You are in a test right now, and it’s OK, just be aware of it and try to get an “A.”
I know I will be tested again…and again… and again…only next time I hope to pass with “flying” colors…
~Marla Shaw O’Neill June 6, 2017
1 Peter 1:7 New Living Translation (NLT)
These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
A Hug for God
I hugged God today
I knew he’d come
He promised he would
I saw his face in the tiny child
Called Jesus, Savior of the human race…
I felt him snuggle up close to me
In my embrace…
God, the great I AM
Held within my arms…
The one who created me
Is alive and I am free…
Now I can lay me down in rest…
Go to sleep in peacefulness…
God was hugged by me I confess
Messiah, Redeemer, Good Shepherd
Gentleness…
Sovereign Lord, as you have promised
I held you today…
Simeon, my precious son…
Life is sweet
When everyone…
Opens their eyes and fully beholds
The redemption in the face of God.
I held God in my arms today…
God smiled in his special way…
I was held by my child today.
–Marla Shaw O’Neill June 5, 2017
(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”
The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Luke 2:23-35 New International Version (NIV)
Deeper, Higher, Fuller, Wider…
Oh, take me deeper into your realm…
Let my soul soar as you take me higher and higher
To the place where you dwell…
In the quietness of your heart, your consciousness,
To see, as you see.
To act, as you act.
Until your likeness changes me…
Closer than a heartbeat…
Saturated totally and completely metamorphosed into who You are!!
Loved by you, until I love like you…
I surrender my heart, my mind, my spirit…
Jesus…
I AM, Yours!!! And You are Mine!
You are the blueprint…of my soul…
Your DNA, your blood, running through my veins…
How can I be anything, other than what you have called me to be…?
Detailed in every way…
Transformed from clay
To Spirit-walker, Spirit-talker,
Revealer of secrets…come what may…
Loved by you, to love like you!
Refined by fire, gleaned from the world
Breath of God, breathe in me…
Healer, deliverer, friend…
Amen!
~Marla Shaw O’Neill, June 3, 2017
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 The Message (MSG)
Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way:
“I’ll live in them, move into them;
I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.
So leave the corruption and compromise;
leave it for good,” says God.
“Don’t link up with those who will pollute you.
I want you all for myself.
I’ll be a Father to you;
you’ll be sons and daughters to me.”
The Word of the Master, God.
The Heart of Jesus
