When

When God is in control, it's easy to trust. When it's easy to trust, it's easy to relax. When it's easy to relax, it's easy to appreciate. When it's easy to appreciate, it's easy to be thankful. When it's easy to be thankful, it's easy to realize that God is the cause. When it's God's Who's the cause, it must be reality...because God is always in control. Just sayin ;)

With the Eyes of Barnabas

This is taken from Jesus Freaks - Revolutionaries. It got me thinking a lot tonight:

"Don't be a fool, Joses. The man is a murderer and a spy! He only wants to come to us so that he can gather names to give to the council and bring us all to trial as he did Stephen. He will stop at nothing to see us all executed. No, we cannot let him come here, no matter what he claims. Brother Barnabas, we know you mean well as always, but you must see the reason in protecting ourselves. We cannot let Saul come to meet with us. Brother Peter, I turn to your leadership as always in this matter; please tell Barnabas that we would be exposing ourselves to unnecessary risk.

Peter looked from the speaker to Joses, whom the members of the first church had nicknamed Barnabas, the "son of consolation," because of his constant encouragement to the brethren. Barnabas looked troubled by the words, but Peter could tell he wasn't finished pleading his case. "Brother Barnabas, you have something else to add?"

"Only that I know the change that came to my life from accepting Jesus as the Messiah. And I know the change that came to your life, Brother Peter. And yours, Brother Isaac, and the change that came to the rest of you here today. Didn't Jesus preach that all who call upon His name would be saved? Well, Saul has called on that name. He also met with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. I know the man who held the coats of those who stoned Stephen as we stood by helplessly, and I know the man who reasoned with the Jewish Brethren and Greeks in Damascus that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the same man on the outside, but not the same man on the inside. Saul is no longer a persecutor, but a brother in Christ. In fact, he left Damascus in fear for his own life because of the boldness of his testimony. What good is Jesus' sacrifice and Stephen's forgiveness of those who killed him if we cannot look past the flesh of a man and accept what Jesus has done to change his heart?"

Those in the room grew quiet for a moment, then Peter spoke for all of them. "As always, Barnabas, your words have spoken straight to my heart. I cannot refute fellowship to any who will call upon His name, as Jesus himself said He would not. Can any of the rest of you?"

As Peter looked around the room, no eyes met his gaze, but many nodded their heads in agreement with him. They knew the danger of rejecting Jesus' words was greater than any threat to their lives.

It was in such a way that Saul, who was destined to become Paul the apostle, was admitted as a brother to the church in Jerusalem by Barnabas, "the encourager."

Barnabas continued to travel with and encourage Saul for some time after that. They journeyed together to Antioch in Syria, where they taught and argued the cause of Christ so well that the members of the church in Antioch were the first to call themselves "Christians". He also supported Paul as he returned to Jerusalem to persuade the brethren there that Christianity was not to be a sect of Judaism - following all the laws of the Old Testament and just adding Jesus - but it was a transformation of their covenant with God into something new through Christ, surpassing the law to a life in the Spirit made possible by Jesus' death and resurrection.

Barnabas was such an eloquent speaker and preached with such passion and convincing doctrine that he was the chosen speaker over Paul on their first missionary journey. However, when God began to bring Paul to the forefront, Barnabas the encourager took the lesser place without complaint. He was not worried about position as much as seeing the call of God being fulfilled in Paul's life.

John Mark, Barnabas's nephew, had deserted Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey when things looked like they were getting rough, but he repented and asked to go along with them on their second journey to the north. Paul refused to let him come along because of his earlier desertion, but Barnabas stuck with John Mark much as he had stuck with Paul before the brethren in Jerusalem years earlier.

Thus Barnabas and Paul went separate ways, Paul took Silas and headed to Syria and Cilicia, and Barnabas and John Mark went to Cyprus. Barnabas eventually encouraged John Mark to travel with Peter.

Being originally from Cyprus, Barnabas stayed on there preaching Christ to all who came across his path. Such a following rose up that he fell into contention with a Jewish sorcerer who was losing business because the things Barnabas taught freed the people from their fear of him and what his "magic" could do to them. Because of this, the sorcerer stirred the non-Christians of the city against Barnabas. They soon falsely accused Barnabas of some crime and had him thrown into prison.

When a time was set for Barnabas to come before a judge in Salamina, fearing the judge would discover his innocence and release him, a mob led by the sorcerer raided the jail, put a rope around Barnabas's neck, dragged him outside the city, and burned him."



Barnabas was not swayed by the views of the mainstream. When everyone else flowed idly with the currents of fear or popular opinion, he took his paddle in hand and fought hard to get their boat back into God's flow of love and acceptance, even if he was the only one paddling. He judged people by the confessions of their hearts and how they lined up with the Word of God, not by their past or what they looked like. Where others saw a lost cause or an enemy, Barnabas saw great potential and a brother or sister in the Lord that needed the support of an encourager. He stood by those others rejected, and by doing so he helped them to realize greater things in their own lives than he did in his own.

In a world where self-promotion seems to be a key to success, there are not many like Barnabas. How many of us would be willing to help those around us go on to accomplish greater things than we do ourselves or befriend the unpopular because they claim they belong to Christ?

God claims YOU, if you've claimed Him. Do NOT believe otherwise. You are loved, and just like Barnabas saw great potential in those that others didn't (and was right!)...God sees great potential in YOU. Anything in your head, heart, or soul that says otherwise is from Satan. Not Jesus. Be loved, Be forgiven, Be accepted, Be redeemed, and above all - Be sure of who you are in Christ - His Child, His Beloved, His All-in-All. :)





Now you can have sincere love for each other as brothers and sisters because you were cleansed from your sins when you accepted the truth of the Good News. So see to it that you really do love each other intensely with all your hearts. ~ 1 Peter 1:22

Enough is Enough!

Satan,

We need to talk. Here's the thing, I haven't been able to be myself in a few days...3 to be exact...and well, when I am - it's been a constant battle against self. And I'm really weak right now, frustrated that I've given you any ground at all lately. I've been hurting, tired, frustrated and even scared. It's like fighting you everyday, but always feeling like I'm barely holding, or worse - Losing ground! Don't you know that you're not supposed to have power over me? Better yet, don't I know it?!? After all, I've been praying against this very thing since it started. I know the cause isn't anything or anyone here, it's the demons you sent to take places in my life....

So tell your flunkies to get away from here. Now.

Better yet, allow me:

"Demons, there is a clearing of my heart, mind and soul in this moment. A clearing of my eyes. I see you now, and I recognize the part you've had in me. It seems you like to keep coming back to finish what you started years and years ago....

But I recognize something more now...I know you no longer have a hold on me anymore! You, my uninvited "friends", are scabs that have just fallen from a sore. I have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and I claim that cleansing now.

I was born for this "New Life"...you were just hoping I wouldn't claim it weren't you? Well I do! I won't live for the demons in my life. I see you - selfishness, bitterness, pride, hurt, fear, lust, tyranny, hate, doubt, pain, lies, anger, frustration, gossip, and the rest of you that I don't recognize on sight. I banish all of you, in the power of Christ. And in Christ alone! I, a child of the Most High, brother of Jesus the Nazarene, Possessor of The Holy Spirit, Saint in the battle the rages daily...with the Authority of my Savior, Jesus Christ, give you place in my life and heart no more! Be gone!

I see you all! But I see them too! God's angels, and I recognize them too - Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control, Humility, Forgiveness, Healing, Courage, Modesty, Benevolence, Faith, Truth, and the rest of His Heavenly Host! :D

I've started this letter to let you know how much power you had over me...and how I resented it. But now, I thank you for it! Because I needed to feel overwhelmed, I needed to be disgruntled, I needed to struggle with your forces. Why? Simple, because I needed to realize that it was you, Beelzebub, that was attacking my mind. God has already beat you. :) You have no power over me, except what I give you :) You have failed oh dark ones, I am a son of the light. Flawed yet Holy. Sinner yet Saint. Fallen but Redeemed!

I will still encounter pains, but I'll embrace those pains. I would not barter them for any earthly pleasure. All the delights of sense, heart, or intellect, with which you could once have tempted me, even the delights of virtue itself, now seem in comparison to the half nauseous attractions of a raddled harlot would seem to a man who hears that his true beloved whom he has loved all his life and whom he had believed to be dead is alive and even now at his door! I am caught up in a world where pain and pleasure take on the transfinite values and all our knowledge is dismayed. I guess you could say that I've been reintroduced to the inexplicable ;) And I like it!!! :)

Thank you demons! I know where I've been, where I am, and where I'm going! I will be a better friend, brother, and man. Not by my strength, but through my flaws! I will forgive, forget, and love my neighbors and my enemies. I will recognize the presence of darkness, and seek my strength in the giver of light! My God is the God who saves! He is Mighty to Save!

Thanks for your time satan ;)

Never Yours,

Daniel

*ROUND TWO STARTS NOW! (and I read the ending already ;)*

:)

Only in You

I can only move, when I move in You.

I can only breathe, when I breathe in You.

I can only rest, when I rest in You.

I can only choose, when I choose in You.

I can only surrender, when I surrender in You.

I can only succeed, when I succeed in You.

I can only laugh, when I laugh in You.

I can only love, when I love in You.

I can only trust, when I trust in You.

I can only hope, when I hope in You.

I can only stand, when I stand in You.

I can only be strong, when I'm strong in You.

I can only be humble, when I'm humble in You.

I can only show courage, when I show courage in You.

I can only do right, when I do right in You.

I can only believe, when I believe in You.

I can only have faith, when I have faith in You.

I can only stop thinking of You....well that day will NEVER come.

I can be all things good, but only in You. Only in You, can I let Your will be done. So, Abba, let Your will be done, always. If it costs me something, or everything. If I gain the world, or lose it. If i live or if I die. I will obey. Only in You. Only in You. Can I truly be myself.

Light Up the Sky