Live Delivered

Ok, it’s time for a message.   “He is Risen – But where is He”.  Luke 24:6 says “He is not here, but is risen”!  Today is Easter, the day we acknowledge Christ rising from death and the grave.  He is not in a tomb any longer.  He is not a dead man walking about; He is alive but where is He now?  Everybody back at that time wondered where He was.  The believers wondered about the victory they thought they had but was now lost; and the unbelievers wondered about the victory they had but was seemingly lost.  Today, many of us who want to believe are looking for Him and many of us who want to remain nonbelievers are trying to keep Him from being found.  Well to find Him, you must stop looking for a dead Man; you have to stop looking for a body.  Dead men don’t live.  The Living lives among the living.  He lives so that you can trade in your life of simple existence for life  eternal.  When you do this, He can be found living right in your heart.  If to us Easter is how we acknowledge what Christ means to us; to Him, Easter is His way of reminding us we can have life today and we can have it in abundance.  He rose to find a place in your Heart to Live.  You ought to be the evidence to the non believer that He is risen and alive!  Stop looking  for Him as if you are a non believer.  Believe, and let Him find you and  He will rise up to life in your heart.  Then you will have an eternal victory.  Let Him have that Joy with you.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you

Ok, time for a message.  Psalm 91:1 says “he who dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty”.  Hide so you can be found.  Most of us I’m sure is under some type shelter in place order as we try to protect ourselves from the COVID-19 virus.  We are trying to hide from something so we can protect ourselves from something.  The question is where are we hiding and is that place going to really protect us?  Here in Psalm 91, God is inviting us to play a game of hide to be found.  When we learn to live our lives by hiding out in plain sight in the Secret Place of the Most High God, We will live under the glory of His great shadow and it is there we will find safety and security and food and shelter and all that we need to protect us from all that we cannot protect ourselves from.  When we hide in His Secret Place, others see His Shadow around us and are cautioned that we live under the protection of something greater than ourselves.  My 3 year old granddaughter loves to play hide and seek.  When my boys close their eyes and count to 10, my little baby runs to me and hides behind my legs as I sit in my chair.  Of course she is in plain sight of anyone who has eyes but she doesn’t know it.  She is in her secret place and it casts a shadow big enough to hide her or protect her.  We will make it through the threat of being found by COVID-19, when we dwell in plain sight under the mighty shadow of God Most High.    Take every precaution you can take yourself to protect yourself and then go and dwell in the Secret Place because in the end, if you are found you want to be found with Someone Who can save you and protect you and feed you and heal you and do all that you can’t do yourself.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you

Ok, it’s time for a message.  Win the battle to trip you up.  Ephesians 6:10 says “Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the Power of His might”.  Finally, means that after all that is said and done – is in fact said and done – do this one last thing to secure things for you.  The devil wants to kill who you are; he wants to steal what God has given you and he wants to destroy what you believe so you don’t do what you should do.  He is not ready for you to die now, for that is a loss to him; he simply want to trip you up daily – over and over again – for that is victory for him.  He wants you to question who you are because you do a lot for God, but nothing seems change for you.  He is tricking you to believe that as a believer things should go your way more than they do not.  Don’t listen to the ways of the devil but listen to and learn to live by the ways of God.  We are not fighting to get our way; we are not fighting to have what is right for us; we are not fighting against other people and even what they do; we are fighting to stay in the way of God; to live His way so that we are not tripped up by something that satan uses against us.  The battle is not for those you pray for; it’s not for those you love; it’s not for the sick or the hurting.  The battle is for you.  The battle is to cause you to slip and fall and to hurt; to become sick; to be unloving; to live like you are a defeated believer.  Put on God’s armor and you will be ready to win the battle that is for you; then you will have success against the things that come against you.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you

Hard things don’t need to make you a harder person.  Matthew 11:28-29 Jesus says “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”.  An eagle can fly higher than any bird of the air.  It loves to fly when there is wind because it can use the wind to fly even higher and faster.  The eagle doesn’t struggle against the wind, the eagle uses the wind for its good.  Sometimes we are burdened by a thing because we haven’t learned to use that thing for our good.  All the challenges that come our way are not necessarily meant to be challenges against us but for us – to help make us better.   If your work is difficult now, stay there and learn how to use the difficult part to work better; if your children are a challenge now, stay close to them and learn how to be a better parent, if your marriage is difficult right now – for all that is within you – stay committed and learn how to be the best spouse you can be.  If being a faithful believer is a challenge right now, stay with it – go to Jesus  – put His yoke on your neck- watch Him and see how He Works; see how He is a parent; see how He is a great spouse – even if His spouse. – you and me – are not our best – your circumstances want to teach you how to struggle and to become hard but Jesus wants you to let Him use your circumstances to teach you how to live right where you are, as the best that you can be, as soft as cotton but as sure as the purest gold.  Do this and you will find rest for your life.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you

Ok, time for a message.  Job 1:8 is an account of God’s feelings towards Job.  God speaks to satan saying “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man; one who fears God and shuns evil”.  God is bragging about the man Job is.  Job feared God and shunned evil.  Fear in this sense is Love so deep that it hurts when you fail.  And to shun evil is to intentionally stay away from saying, doing or living in any way that the devil would live.  Evil is simple:  it’s doing anything at all that the devil would also do.  So let’s live like we want to earn the Lords confidence in us – let’s fear Him so strongly that the fear becomes love for Him and others.  And let’s be intentional about staying away from doing, saying or living in any way that the d(evil) would live.  Fear God enough to Love Him with all that you are and love Him enough to wake intentionally in ways that evil cannot be found.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you

Merry Christmas!  Luke 2:7 “And she brought forth her first born Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”  There may not be room in the inns of the hearts of others, but make sure that in the inn that is your heart, He will find room to live.  Merry Christmas and love you

Ok, time for a message.  Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.  And lean not on your own understanding: In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths”.  These questions came to me – “ Allen, will you move past what you understand and live by what you don’t understand?  Allen, will you  allow Me to direct the path you take so you get past relying on yourself and your own ways”?  Before I could answer, it was showed me that,  Jesus lives in the things we don’t understand and He walks in ways and on paths we cannot find on our own.  We cannot engage the Lord with our hearts and we cannot discover and accept His ways for our lives, as long as we live more by what we know and by the way our heads tell us to go.  Learn to get your understanding from what you don’t know and look for the path your ways cannot find – then you will find Him.  Let go and live a Delivered life.  Love you

Ok, time to get up and get going down to the church.  

Simple  Things!  Our granddaughter is 2.5 years old now.  When she comes over she will go to our bedroom and get her outdoor shoes.  She will come back to me and put them on and they say to me “outside”.  We go walking on the sidewalk.  When we have to cross the street she grabs my hand and helps me across.  When we get to the other side she let’s go and walks on ahead of me so I will learn how to follow her.  She will occasionally look back to let me know she is leading me and she hasn’t walked off and left me to myself to find my own way.  She wants me to know sometimes I may walk on my own but never alone.  It’s in the simple things like this that she is the biggest person to me – when she takes me on our walks.  Like her, God is biggest when we allow Him to lead us in the simple things of life.  He will not run off and leave you; He will help you across tough dangerous pits yet He allows you to learn walk a bit on your own so you will learn how to depend on him when you feel safe and secure.  He is at your door and He has His outdoor shoes on.  Why don’t you go for a walk with Him today and every day of your life.  You will find how great He is in the simple things.  If you don’t feel like God is leading you or that you are following Him it may be because you are walking alone.  Love you guys

Ok, it’s time to get up and get going down to the church.  Today I want to encourage you not to grow up and be an unhappy believer – you know them – they don’t get their way with things or God doesn’t fix things the way they want so they get a pouty attitude and say “ well – I don’t know what the plan is but I know the Lord has a plan for my life.”  I believe that is just a sneaky way for us to say we are not happy with the way things are going but we want others to think we are ok.  God often times cannot or will not fix the things we ask Him to fix before He can fix the one doing the asking.  Learn to be a happy believer – happy because you let Him fix you before you get snotty at the fact that He doesn’t fix something else fast enough for you.  We have to learn sometimes things that are made or look impossible to change are made that way because we make it impossible for God to change us.  Love you guys

Ok, it’s time to get up and get going down to the church.  I asked myself these questions recently.  Does God do a poor job at the things He does?  I answered no.  Am I the clay in His hands?  I said I was.  Is it God working on me or am I working on myself?  God answered me on this one  – He said What does the evidence say?  I cried!  What about you?  Love you