“The knowledge of Christ’s love for us should cause us to love Him in such away that it is demonstrated in our attitude, conduct, and commitment to serve God. Spiritual maturity is marked by spiritual knowledge being put into action.” Edward Bedore

Why is it that people stranded at sea suffer from dehydration when they are surrounded by an ocean of water? The reason is that sea water contains seven times more salt than the human body can safely ingest. By drinking water from the ocean, a person dehydrates because the kidneys demand extra water to flush the overload of salt. The more salt-water one consumes, the thirstier he or she becomes. Salt-water consumption causes an individual to actually die of thirst.

Attempting to satisfy our need for love and intimacy with lust is like drinking sea water to quench thirst. Lust is very deceptive because it resembles a God given natural desire for something we want, desire and need. True love bonds for a lifetime; it never dies, lust fades away with each passing moment. Sexual passion is like a mirage of cool water appearing to a thirsty person in a steaming desert. This unfulfilled yearning for intimacy in our lives creates an illusion in our mind, causing us to drink from what we perceive to be a fountain of cool spring water, in reality its simply a hallucination. The more we lust the more we crave love and more unsatisfied we become. When our need for intimacy has been neglected it often turns into some form of insidious behavior. Some become promiscuous; others turn to homosexuality, some turn to pornography, drugs, crime, alcoholism, and violence. Many promiscuous persons, whether heterosexual or homosexual, I believe is simply attempting to fill a need in their life for love and acceptance through sex. Lust is the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst Lust will always fail.

Todays culture has ignored our basic need of love, pushing it into the shadows of our daily existence, in an effort to devote the majority of our energies pursuing things we think will make us happy. Our society drives people crazy with lust and calls it advertising. In socities search for power and a better way of life we must not lose sight of this crucial fact; there is no difficulty that love will not conquer, no disease that love will not heal and no sin that love will not forgive.

The Bible says, “Hatred stirs upstrife, but love covers all sins.” (Proverbs 10:12) It makes no difference how deeply seated the trouble or how great the mistake; there is no problem to big for love. Drugs, psychiatrists, treatment programs, knowledge, sexual experiences can not take the place of love and morality in our lives. Love recieved and love given comprise the best form of therapy. “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.” (1 John 4:9)

Seek God’s will for your life,  allow God to show you the real meaning of unconditional love. Pray and ask for His direction in your life and you will truly be amazed..

“if Have not I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. ” (Joshua 1:9, NIV)

How comforting it is to know that wherever we go God is there with us. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations and we wonder if God is paying attention. We may feel so alone and even depressed. We can’t feel God’s presence, and we need His guidance and help. Sometimes friends, spouses, and parents don’t really understand what we are going through. But God does and He cares. God told Joshua to be strong and to have courage. Then He told him a wonderful truth: “The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Yes, that’s right… wherever! We don’t have to feel all alone. God is with us. He is working out the problems, and we don’t even realize it.

But now…the Lord who created you says: “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…. From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can oppose what I do. No one can reverse my actions.” (Isaiah 43:1-3, 13, NLT)

God is with us, leading us, guiding us, loving us, providing for us — all with His unlimited resources. What do we need? Do we need strength, peace, love, joy, or hope? He has it all. He is longing to pour out His favor and blessing upon us. We need to be open to Him and to trust Him. We need, by faith, to receive what He has for us. It is essential that we realize how much He loves us and that He has a good purpose and plan for us.

When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 3:14-16, NLT)

This Scripture is awesome. There is nothing that God doesn’t know and can’t do for us. He walks with us every moment of every day. We need to speak these Scriptures to our hearts. The devil can’t stand it when we, in confidence, speak God’s Word. It builds faith in us and gives us the strength to stand.

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand-up. You know my every thought when far away. You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know where I am. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You both precede and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to know! (Psalms 139:1-6, NLT)

Like David let us declare:

“Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord; point out the right road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.” (Psalms 25:4-5, NLT)

You can trust God. No matter what is going on in your life, He is there! God goes where you go.

“Do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord, no matter what happens. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.” (Hebrews 10:35-36 NIV)

When we go through major disappointments in life, our natural reaction is to pull back and isolate ourselves. We want to handle it ourselves. We want to keep our losses, our failures, our mistakes and crises a secret. We want to withdraw. This is a terrible idea.

When you go through disappointment or crisis or loss is when you need your friends the most. You need to accept help from others. God doesn’t intend for you to handle all the pain and stress in your life by yourself. We were wired for each other. We need each other. We’re social beings. The first thing God said in the Garden of Eden is, “It’s not good for man to be alone.” We’re made to be in relationships.

Job 6:14 says, “When desperate people give up on God Almighty, their friends, at least, should stick with them” (MSG).

There will be times in your life when you are in so much pain you will say, “I don’t even believe in God right now!” You need to have friends who will come alongside you and say, “That’s OK. We’ll believe God for you right now.”

There will come a time when you’ll say, “I don’t have any faith right now. I’m full of doubt.” That’s when you need your friends to step in and say, “That’s OK. We will have faith for you. We will trust God for you in this.”

“By helping each other with your troubles, you truly obey the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). What is the law of Christ? It’s this: Love your neighbor as yourself. The Bible commands us to help each other. Every time you help somebody who’s going through pain, you are fulfilling the law of Christ.

Trying to handle your trouble yourself will only make you more tired and stressed out. You need to accept the help of others and let your friends carry you through it.

Our Lord Jesus is only a call away, And He already knows the trouble your having. He is already calling out to you. Answer His call,

“Give Jesus a try….if you don’t like Him, the enemy will always take you back!”

Dear Dad,

Please make my heart long for your words more than anything else.
Open my eyes so I can see amazing things in the Bible.
Unify my heart in fearing you and only you.
And satisfy me with your unfailing love.

I ask that all people, including me, would honor you and uphold your reputation by both our words and our actions.
I ask that your sovereignty would become tangible and evident in people and nature around the world.
And I ask that today, and each day forward my actions and leadership of my family would align with your plans for my life.
I want to please you.

I’m needy, spiritually, physically, emotionally, and mentally; please give me everything I need for today.
When I stumble and sin, please forgive me. May I forgive others and show them grace as you do for me.
Don’t put me on the path of temptation, because I’m not very good at resisting it.
Please rescue me from the evil one.

And now, I’m going to be happy because of everything you have done for me! I’ve cried for help so many times, and you always comfort me and save me through the hardest times. I want to trust you more and more with everything. You paid the ransom for my life; I’m yours now. And you are mine too! I pray that You won’t hold yourself back from me, and that I get to know you more and more each day.

How is it that you show me so much attention when I’m so small? I’m overwhelmed by how a God so powerful and famous shows so obviously that he cares about me and my life. Thank you for always being with me! Thank you that I don’t have to be ashamed of myself

Thank you for my beautiful spouse, thank you for my children, my parents, my friends and the special ones that you have led into my life to help guide and teach me in your ways.

I LOVE YOU.

Sincerely your son.

****Note****
Obviously that was a prayer of mine today, dont let this opportunity pass to give thanks for the people and the circumstances that God has had His hand on. Take a moment to let your loved ones know how much you love them, forgive them for any hurts that may have caused you, ask forgiveness for anything you may have done to hurt them.
Please don’t wait another day, don’t wait until later, do it now. You never know when they will leave this earth and you won’t have the opportunity to do so. I lost my father when I was 22, I was unsaved and there is so much I wish I could say now.

May the Spirt of God overwhelm you today, and may God bless you.

Pastor Rob Lavallee

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. (James 1:2-4)

In the Christian walk I think these might be some of the hardest verses to follow. They are completely counter intuitive to how our minds work. But it is truth. We need to realize the big picture in life. Jesus has started a good work in us. Not an easy work but a work that will make us “mature and complete, not lacking anything.” What a reward we have when we allow Jesus to work on us. And all we need to start is faith. When we have faith that Jesus is in control, it allows us to have joy in the trials. When we know that our Saviour is in control it gives our faith a base. Faith lead us to perseverance. Perseverance is the commitment to seeing things through (with joy). Joy is the key though, without joy perseverance is stubbornness.

I challenge you this upcoming week to see every trial as an opportunity for your faith to lead to perseverance that will make you a more whole Christian.

“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. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  (Matthew 11: 28-30)

Jesus loves to give invitations.He addresses this one to people who are loaded with problems and working themselves to exhaustion trying to solve them.  Jesus promises that if we come to Him He will give us rest.  If you look closely at this invitation, He is inviting us to come to Him and learn about His heart, His burden and His yoke.  What we learn there will lead us to this rest.

Jesus wants burdened people to learn that His burden is light, His heart is humble and His yoke is easy.  There is a sense in which Jesus had the weight of the world on His shoulders and yet He claimed that His burden was light.  His burden was light because He let the Father carry the load.

Jesus alao wants us to learn about His yoke.  A yoke is not a burden — it’s an instrument that makes it possibleto bear a burden.  When a cart is piled high with cargo the yoke makes it possible for an ox to pull a great load with ease.  It is the yoke of Jesus that shows us how to pull our heavy burdens of life.

The yoke of Jesus was that He let His Father carry the burdens.  We take His yoke upon us when we let the Holy Spirit carry the load

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9)

The preaching of Jesus quoted above from Luke’s Gospel is repeated in the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus challenges us in these two places to ask, to seek and to knock. Seeking is intense asking and knocking is intense seeking. The context will show you that He was not speaking of the forgiveness of sins or of faith. He was speaking of knowing God in a real and personal way. Revised translations will show you that this asking, seeking and knocking is to be continuous and with great perseverance. This is what the theologians call “Importunate prayer.”

This scripture is followed by the absolute promise that everyone who asks will receive and everyone who seeks will find and everyone who is willing to knock on the door of knowing God will find that door opening to them. If your personal pursuit of God isn’t working in this way you have two choices. You can question the integrity of the One who made these promises, or you can consider the possibility that your pursuit of God may be flawed.

If this is a new thought to you I challenge you to take Jesus up on His challenge. The context of this teaching as quoted above was that Jesus was a Man of intense prayer and His disciples were not. This was His response to their request to teach them what He knew about prayer that they obviously did not know. I challenge you to prioritize much time to intentionally pursue God. Your pursuit of God could be the greatest pursuit of your life!