Month: February 2021

The Word is our sword. It does us no good if we don’t learn how to use it and if we don’t take it out and swing it around when the enemy attacks.

The Word of God is SUCH a blessing. I’m always amazed at its power and what it can do in me.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12

The Word of God cuts to the heart of the matter because God wants us free and victorious. Praise God!

Ann told me, “Thank God for how you were feeling when you first got up, Mark (see the regular CJED email for today). He’s showing you how to live in His Might by taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Hallelujah!”

She was right on.

The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make His face to shine on you and be gracious unto you
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace
And I put the Name of the God of the children of Israel on you and bless you in Jesus’ Name, the Name that is ABOVE every other name.

Thanking and praising God in all things,

Mark

I don’t like brats and bullies. Never have…

Got up today feeling the depressing, weakening emotions of the migraine I had Sunday. The enemy’s lies were flying all around me. “You’re a victim, you’re a victim, you’re a victim…”

I had enough. I got out my Oregon list of verses and began saying them out loud. Soon, The Truth of God’s Word began to change my mind and emotions and I became strong in the power of His might.

The devil wants us feeble-minded. He wants us spiritually weak in our minds.

The devil will do all he can to keep you a victim in life, to keep you reacting to all of life from a victim mentality and stance. I know this firsthand. On the other hand, Jesus died to make us victorious over all of life. Lies keep us victims. Jesus, Who is The Truth, sets us free to be victors.

1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Hebrews 12:1-3

Fear thou not; for I (God) am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness (The Truth).
Isaiah 41:10

Thanking and praising God in all things,

Mark

 

The best thing I can do when I get hit with fear or some intimidating spirit is to step back and ask God what’s really going on right now. I let the initial impact of fear go by and then react in Jesus. I let His peace rule in the situation.

God has not given us a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7). That means fear can come from only one other source – Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44). Lies create fear.

With all of the changes taking place these days, it’s easy to be consumed by all the lies flying around. The enemy is so active with his poisonous lies. This is why it is imperative that we’re in God’s Word, The Truth, as much as we can be these days. This is why I say the Word out loud as often as I can. Doing so expels fear along with the principalities and powers of darkness we wrestle with in the spirit realm.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ephesians 6:12

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
1 John 1:4

Thanking and praising God in all things,

Mark

Note: While we may not agree with everything a particular church or Christian group teaches or believes, there are times when we can be blessed by something outside the realm of our current understanding of God.

Then said Jesus to those Jews (or Mark, Ann, and anyone else who will take up the challenge to believe Jesus) which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John 8:31-32

The sooner we get onto the fact that Satan is a liar and only wants to take us down, the sooner we can get with God’s plan for our lives by studying and living God’s Truth that sets us free from the devil’s lies and plans for us.

Satan has one life for you and God has another. I was living listening to a lot of the devil’s lies and it made life unbearable. God’s Truth is setting me free from the lies that had me believing that I was not worth anything to anyone, that my life just made everyone else’s lives more difficult, and so on.

God has a plan for your life no matter how difficult it may seem. He wants to redeem us from destruction and He’ll do it if we’ll let Him transform us with His Truth.

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
3 Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
4 Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Psalm 103:1-5

Thanking and praising God in all things,

Mark

Thank You Lord For Saving My Soul
^{Lyrics and music: Seth and Bessie Sykes}

Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul
Thank you, Lord, for making me whole
Thank you, Lord, for giving to me
Thy great salvation so rich and free

So come on, everyone. Let’s go and find out what Jesus has for us this week as He continues to show us His great love and faithfulness.

Praise You, Lord

 

 

 

 

 

Thanking and praising God in all things,

Mark

Note: While we may not agree with everything a particular church or Christian group teaches or believes, there are times when we can be blessed by something outside the realm of our current understanding of God.

30 As he (Jesus) spake these words, many believed on him. 31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (from the devil’s lies that attempt to impact and destroy our lives).
John 8:30-32

10 The thief (the devil and his lies) cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I (Jesus and The Truth) am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (the abundant life is one lived free from the devil’s lies).
John 10:10

I can attest to the fact that lies lead to PTSD and then to even deeper CCPTSD – YOu can google the list of deadly CCPTSD symptoms. Lies lead many to so many wrong conclusions about themselves, their past, and their future – in general, life. Living in the lies of the enemy leads to passing lying, destroying, oppressive, tormenting strongholds onto future generations. The Truth of God is the only thing that can stop lies and their destructive impact.

“The evil kingdom holds its power by one thing – lies. And that’s what (The Apostle) Paul said (in Romans 1:25), “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie.” The evil kingdom gains its power by lies. It holds its power by lies by suppressing The Truth (of God). What the evil kingdom fears most is Truth. Truth.”
^{Taken from the youtube video titled, “Where We Are Now” by Pastor John MacArthur while speaking on Romans chapter 1}

Here is the rest of Pastor John MacArthur’s timely, and excellent teaching, “Where We Are Now.”

Thanking and praising God in all things,

Mark

Note: While we may not agree with everything a particular church or Christian group teaches or believes, there are times when we can be blessed by something outside the realm of our current understanding of God.

I (Jesus) am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
John 15:5

Only God can remove the evil, anxious, striving thoughts (enemy lies) associated with “care.” By telling us to cast all our care on Him, we take “care-derived” thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ and experience His peace. His peace is so freeing.

The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make His face to shine on you and be gracious unto you
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace
And I put the Name of the God of the children of Israel on you and bless you in Jesus’ Name, the Name that is ABOVE every other name.

Thanking and praising God in all things,

Mark

The devil can so deceive us with “care.” He’ll disguise care any way he can to get us to carry it. It can come through hurt, anger, unforgiveness, striving, responsibility, pride, and so many other avenues. And, he lies to us making us think we must continue to carry cares.

With CCPTSD, I was in an IC (Intensive Care) for many decades. Only Jesus could release from the prison the devil’s lies had me living in.

Oh, precious Jesus, please set us free from all care as we agree to cast it all on You, wonderful Savior, for you to deal with. Thank You so much for lightening us from the heavy burden of care. You truly are the Good Shepherd. You are the Good Shepherd. You are the Good Shepherd. You are the Good Shepherd. Thank You for watching over our minds, bodies, emotions and souls. Lord Jesus. Thank You that you will be faithful to do Your almighty work in our lives. Hallelujah!

I don’t know what kind of “care” you’re trying to carry these days, but I do know the One Who wants to set you free from all care, and He’s so loving, powerful and wonderful. Casting all my care on Him (where all care belongs) is one of the most fun things I can experience. Really!

Doing God’s Word has nothing to do with legalism. It has everything to do with setting me/us free indeed. The more I follow the Word, the more I’m enjoying Life. ☺

Yipee! Jesus is setting me free!

I’m getting so blessed obeying the Holy Spirit. He keeps surprising me with how much more “care” I can cast on Him and how He’ll take “care” of whatever I agree to give Him to work out however He wants to in His time. It just keeps amazing me.

I knew the Bible verses that indicated Christians should and could have God’s peace, rest and joy. I knew a lot of them by heart. But I still didn’t have those Spiritual attributes operating in my life. As time went on, I met Christians who seemed to be able to trust in the Lord at all times – how I did not yet know. And to make it worse, some believed in Romans 8:28 and said it gave them peace that put a stop to their worrying and fussing. For the first time in their lives, they knew God was in control of their lives and it made such a difference in their lives. Knowing God was in control of their lives gave them a new sense of calm and control in life.

Well, I knew I had to have what they had. When I found out how to go about getting what they had in Jesus, I began doing what they did to get Jesus’ peace – Really, it was getting Jesus into me. And it worked!

That’s why I write Choosing Jesus Everyday emails. I want others to know Jesus and His incredible faithfulness, peace, rest and joy. There is simply nothing like Jesus living in me.

Thanking and praising God in all things,

Mark

Note: While we may not agree with everything a particular church or Christian group teaches or believes, there are times when we can be blessed by something outside the realm of our current understanding of God.

Happy Monday, Everyone!

I want to share something wonderful with you – you probably already know this. As long as I was operating in my own understanding instead of trusting in God with all my heart, I had a very difficult time believing and living in the amazingly freeing truth of Romans 8:28. My own understanding (not filtering something through the Word and Holy Spirit, but rather trying to deal with it in my own, limited flesh) about something would block and blind me from seeing the blessing God had in store for me in a situation. I simply could not believe or acknowledge that God could use it for my good as long as I was not trusting in the Lord with my whole heart.

As a child of God we have this enormous blessing of being redeemed not only from our sins when we ask Jesus into our lives and repent of our sins, but we have this incredibly powerful Savior redeeming everything in our lives each second. This is what Romans 8:28 is all about and it’s one of the most loving things I know about Jesus.

Romans 8:28 is key to being able to take all thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. There is so much freedom, peace, rest and joy when our thoughts obey Christ.

Thanking and praising God in all things,

Mark

Note: While we may not agree with everything a particular church or Christian group teaches or believes, there are times when we can be blessed by something outside the realm of our current understanding of God.