I just finished my second course at Global University last week, on Acts, now I started my 3rd course which is the Introduction to Pentecostal Doctrine, studying the 4 Core Doctrines of Christianity, which are Salvation through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and His Dynamic Work in Spirit-filled Christians, Divine Healing as part of the Atonement, and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I believe in all of these as a Christian and a Spirit-filled believer. As an Assembly of God minister, we have 16 Fundamental Truths, and these 4 Core Doctrines are in the Fundamental Truths, Salvation is #5, The Holy Spirit Baptism is #7, Divine Healing is #12, and the Second Coming or “Blessed Hope” is #13. But this course only covers 4 of the Fundamental Truths as the Core Doctrines. This course has already piqued my interest greatly as I study it. I’m only in the first Core Doctrine, Salvation, and it is just wonderful because it is covering the whole Bible so I’m not just reading one Book of the Bible like I did with Acts, or 4 Books, like I did with the Christ in the Synoptic Gospels, but this course is going all over the Bible. I just love that. Because sin came in the first Book of the Bible, Genesis, it starts there. It describes the different names for sin—transgression, iniquity, all the different names to describe how we have fallen away from the Lord in the Bible. This course is so interesting that it just blesses my soul. It’s not just for someone who is trying to get their ministerial papers, it’s for anyone who wants to know more about what they believe. It’s for any Christian, for any age. As I go along in this course, I’ll write more in my blog about it, but this course is a blessing. Thank the Lord for this course being written.

I was just reading Exodus 40:35, and here was my thinking, The idea that Moses tried to enter the tent of the congregation when the Glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle is what I think people will try to do when they get to heaven, just enter that MOST HOLY OF HOLIES, Heaven, where God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit dwells and such Glory no one can imagine when here on earth, but I don't believe when we get to Heaven that we'll just run around to our heart's content, I believe all we'll want to do is sit at Jesus' feet, as Mary did in the New Testament when Jesus and the Disciples came to visit their house and Martha complained to Jesus that Mary wasn't doing her share and Jesus told Martha that Mary was doing the best thing. We may not even want to sit at His Feet in Heaven, but be prostrate at His Feet, as the song, "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" says. God's Glory, the Shekinah Glory, says one thing and one thing only, to me. We are not worthy to be in His Presence, but thank You, Jesus, that You died on that Cross for our sins, and so now we can enter into Your Presence with thanksgiving in our hearts without having to go through a priest, because You are our High Priest.  I don't think people realize just how Holy You Are, Lord! Also read Revelation 15:8.

I had written this last year on Facebook, but it is still so poignant yet today and will always be thus. How Holy God is, He’s so Holy that He expects us to be Holy as well, because in Leviticus 10:3, it says, “be ye Holy, as I am Holy,” says the Lord God. That’s not the only place He says that to us, but it’s enough for us to know that He is Holy and wants to live the same way in our lives.

As I wrote the other day, I’m studying the Book of Acts in my studies at Global University. I’m thoroughly enjoying it.

I’m not just using my book from Global University or the Bible when I’m studying my courses. I’m using the books suggested in the courses, too, to give a broader understanding of the Books of the Bible that I’m studying so I have an in-depth knowledge of the Word of God. I want to know the Word in my heart, as the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 119:11, to hide the Word in my heart, that I might not sin against God. That’s what I’m doing by taking these courses at Global University, to hide the Word of God, that I might not sin against God. Oh, I’m also taking them to get my ministerial degree so I can preach the Word of God, too, but I can preach whether I have papers or not, but the more I study the Word of God, the more I know the Lord and about the Lord and what His Will and plan are for my life. Pastor has been preaching from the Book of Nehemiah and about how Nehemiah had a S-M-A-R-T plan in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Earlier, the Jews had been allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, but the walls of Jerusalem had been destroyed by fire. So Nehemiah had been lead by the Lord to pray for several months. After he had prayed, the king asked him why he was downcast and sad looking. To be sad looking before Artaxerxes, the king, could mean death to Nehemiah. But Nehemiah told him what the Lord revealed to him about rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, which was Nehemiah’s S-M-A-R-T plan. Because the plan was God’s plan, of course, the king okayed it. When it’s God’s plan, the pieces fall right into place. Nehemiah’s S-M-A-R-T goal was from Nehemiah 2:6-8 and it was:
1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Advantageous (worthwhile)
4. Realistic
5. Timely.
We all need to have these goals in our lives if we’re going to work for the Lord. Not just Nehemiah, but all of us who want to get somewhere in our lives working for the Lord, even just getting a chapter or Book of the Bible read. We need SMART goals in our lives, just like Nehemiah. We need to HIDE the Word of God in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives, so much, that we don’t sin against the Lord. That’s what these courses I’m taking at Global University has been teaching me. To really dig in and learn what the Lord wants me to know and to know Him  as the Apostle Paul taught in his Epistle to the Philippians 3:10-11, (AMP): “10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] 11 That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].” That is what I want to attain for myself, what the Apostle Paul wrote in that Epistle.

I’ve been taking a new course at Global University for the last several months on the Book of Acts. And I tell you, the Book of Acts cannot be studied hurriedly. In all my versions of the Book of Acts, the title will say it’s the Acts of the Apostles, but no, the Book of Acts is NOT the Acts of the Apostles, but it’s the Acts of the Holy Spirit working in the Apostles and others who were filled with the Holy Spirit. The name of my course was actually, Acts: The Work of the Holy Spirit in Believers. That’s what the Book of Acts was all about, the work of the Holy Spirit in believers after they were filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Jesus was leaving the earth to go back to Heaven to be with the Father and told the Eleven Disciples to tarry in the Upper Room until they were filled with the Power of the Holy Spirit. Well, there weren’t just the 11 there in the Upper Room. According to Acts 1:15, it says, “Now on one of those days, Peter arose among the brethren, the whole number of whom gathered together was about a hundred and twenty.” If you notice, Peter was there and he had denied our Lord 3 times the night Jesus was arrested, yet he was there waiting for the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room. Why was he there? Because after Jesus had arisen from the dead, when the women had gone to the tomb, the angel had told the women when they saw Jesus wasn’t in the tomb, he said, in Mark 16:7, “But go your way, tell His Disciples and Peter, that He goes before you into Galilee; there shall you see Him, as He said unto you.” Jesus specifically mentioned Peter in that message to the women, to make sure that he knew that he was forgiven by Jesus for denying Him that night. Jesus also pointedly made sure Peter was noticed in John 21:15 and following when he asked him if he loved Him 3 times. The 3 times was to counteract the 3 denials, I believe. Peter was grieved that Jesus would ask him if he loved Him 3 times, but Jesus had to to point out that Peter indeed loved Him, and He knew that Peter loved him, even though he had failed him earlier. What forgiveness and love Jesus offers us. So yes, Peter was there in the Upper Room and he was mightily filled with the Holy Spirit and power and became a powerhouse for the Lord. On the Day of Pentecost, when they were filled with the Holy Spirit, in Acts 2:4, “Acts 2:4 (AMP): 4 And they were all filled (diffused throughout their souls) with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other (different, foreign) languages (tongues), as the Spirit kept giving them clear and loud expression [in each tongue in appropriate words].“ There were people from all over from every country round about that spoke languages that the 120 in the Upper Room were speaking through the power of the Holy Spirit and the people outside in the streets understood what they saying. Now, these 120 in the upper room had never spoken these languages before because they had been given the power only through the power of the Holy Spirit and the people in the streets thought Peter and the 120 were drunk and full of sweet wine. So Peter stood up with the other 11 Disciples, oh by this time, they had elected a new disciple to take the place of Judas Iscariot, who had betrayed Jesus, his named was Matthias, and Peter preached so powerfully under the power of the Holy Spirit that day that 3000 people were saved  and were baptized. And that’s just the first two chapter of Acts. This is how the Book of Acts is, it’s not the Acts of the Apostles, but it’s the Acts of the Holy Spirit and it continues on to this day today, 2018. He hasn’t changed one bit in all this time, neither has the Father or the Son. He’s the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Thank You, Lord!

I was reading the Word today and saw a wonderful verse that just told me how much the Lord loves us, that He loves us so much, that He has us engraved on the Palm of His Hand. In the King James Version of the Bible, in Isaiah 49:16, it says, “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My Hands; thy walls are continually before Me.” Now, that’s love! The previous verses had been talking about Israel saying that the Lord had forsaken them, but in Isaiah 49:13, it says, “Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O Earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD has comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted.” Then in verse 14, they say, “But Zion said, The LORD has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.” But the Lord has not forsaken or forgotten us, or in this case, forsaken or forgotten Israel, but this Scripture is also prophetic, as related to the time of the Tribulation period when the Antichrist will be ruling the earth under the devil’s power after the Rapture of the Church before Christ returns with all the Saints to reign on the Earth for a 1,000 years during the Millennium. Then the Lord says to Israel and to us today in verse 15, “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget you.” That shows us His wonderful Love for us, why He came to the Earth to die on the Cross for us, to take all our sins for us, from Adam to the last person ever to be born, to be raised again on the third day, and to ascend into Heaven ever to make intercession for us with the Father and to prepare a place for us, that where He is there we may be also, and that brings us to that wonderful 16th verse, of which I mentioned at the beginning of this blog episode, of how the Lord has engraved us on the Palm of His Hand. It’s just wonderful, the Love He has for us, and that Love is Eternal, never to stop, and His Mercies are new every morning, as it says in Lamentations 3:22-23. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so! It is not just a Sunday School song, it is the Truth!

I’ve been watching Joyce Meyer’s program the last couple mornings and she’s been preaching on, of all things, “The Mouth”, and how what we say can affect our lives. After all, the Lord did preach, in Matthew 12:34, the last part of the verse, it says, in the Amplified Version, “For out of the fullness (the overflow, the superabundance) of the heart, the mouth speaks.” Whatever is on the inside of us comes out of our mouths. If we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us, they’ll be coming out of our mouths or should be coming out of our mouth, but if we’re living for the world or for ourselves, that’s what comes out of our mouths. That’s what Joyce has been preaching on the past couple of days and boy, does she hit hard, or the Lord hits hard because He’s the One Who told her to preach it. She says at the beginning of the programs that the Lord has been laying these hard-hitting sermons on her heart to preach and they’ll be a lot of people who don’t want to hear them because they’re not the ear-tickling sermons, they’re the kind that get to the heart of the matter where we get uncomfortable and want to leave or in my case, turn off the TV or my iPad, because I’m watching her on Facebook every morning. But, I’m not turning it off, because I need these hard-hitting sermons that dig deep into my soul, that make me sit up and take notice, because I know I say things I shouldn’t say at times. She made a very true statement today, “For it to come out of us, it has to be in us. Nothing reveals more about the real us than our words. We can learn so much about ourselves by listening to ourselves.” Since I have closed captioning on my iPad when I watch programming, I sometimes take down word for word what she says on her program so I get everything she says verbatim because the Lord really has a word in season when she preaches. She hits hard and like she says, if you don’t want to listen, there’s an off button on the TV or iPad. That’s true, there is, but I’m not shutting it off, I’m going to listen until it’s drilled into my soul and spirit.

It’s a beautiful day out today here in Missouri.

This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

Truly it is the day the Lord has made. We have every reason to rejoice because He has given us another day to live and worship Him and love Him because He left Heaven to come to this earth to die for our sins on that cruel Cross, take those stripes on His back for our sickness and disease, and rose again from the dead to give us Eternal Life, ascended into Heaven to sit at the Right Hand of God the Father to be our Intercessor with the Father, and He’s preparing a place for us that where He is, there we’ll be also, as He said in John 14. We have so many things to thank Him for, just getting us in the morning, knowing He has given us another day to live is a reason to be thankful. Living in a country where we can worship Him anytime we want to, where we can read the Word without fear, where we can pray anytime, go to church, we have much to thank the Lord for that I can’t name them all. He gives us so many reasons to love Him and no reasons not to.

I know there is a lot of wickedness out there in the world, but the Lord did not cause the wickedness, sin caused the wickedness, people’s choices caused the wickedness. We can’t even blame the devil for our own choices. People need to own up to their own responsibility to what they’ve done, no “blame game”. But we still have a lot to be thankful for today and every day.