Stop Looking Back

Stop Looking Back
Carolyn McCardell

When watching scary movies like Friday the 13th, when the villain Jason was chasing his victims though the woods I noticed that the victims always seem to fall and end up getting caught. I know it was just a movie and I should not put too much thought into but I could not help but to wonder why is it that they always seem to fall.  I noticed instead of them looking ahead to get escape the danger they were always looking back. It was the looking back that caused them to fall.

 This reminds of me Genesis 19:26  Lot ’s wife when she disobeyed the command of not looking back she became a pillar of salt. The Hebrew for “looked back” means more than to glance over one’s shoulder. It means to regard, to consider, to pay attention to.   When God is trying to move us to safe place we must trust Him enough to know the place He is bringing us out of can’t compare to the place He is taking us to.  We get so fixated on the past we until we become stagnant staying in that place of danger and pain.  Sometimes He removes people and things from our lives in order to save us. It is so hard, nearly impossible to move forward looking backwards. Looking ahead is what is going to get you out of your situation. There is no point in looking back about the relationship that failed, no looking back about the person who had wronged you, no looking back on the things that you cannot change. I love this prayer “Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” There is no sense in looking back on what happened yesterday or years ago. Let it go and start moving forward. Your past does not define your future. The only reason you need your past is to reflect back on how good God is. Don’t be a victim of your past.  God Bless

Don't Fall For It!!

Don’t Fall For It.
By Carolyn McCardell

In the movie, I was speaking of "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Bolt Thief" when Percy found out who he truly was, and the powers he possessed, he decided to take a journey in hopes of rescuing his mom his mom who was taken by Hades because of stolen the Lightning bolt. He only had a short time to get everything done. He was on track until he arrived in Las Vegas at the Locus Hotel. Everything in the hotel was just charming and seemed so accommodating to him. The hostess were serving appetizers which they called Locus flowers, he was just living it up laughing and what seemed to him was fun and games and he lost his focus and forgot the reasons that he was there. But what he didn't know was that this was a trick from his enemy to keep him there forever. What the locus flower was doing to him was interfering with his senses, it was distracting him from his journey, when Percy Jackson finally came out of the trans he found out that he had lost four days of the Journey.

This really spoke to me about how when we as Christians have it in our minds to pursue our journey (walking with Christ) the enemy tries to distract, detour us from our purpose. Sin is one of our biggest detour we get so caught up in the things that seem and feel desirable. Sin is a set up just like the locus hotel, was it is a trap to keep us there forever. It interferes with our spiritual senses we become dull to sin we are unable to discern what is true. It disconnects us from God.

How do we keep from falling for this trap by putting on the full Armour of God? In Ephesians 6 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Just like Percy, it is possible for us to fall into the same traps and fall into sin which can be adultery, fornicating, substance abuse or whatever has us, we have to do what one of my favorites song the lyric says "We fall down, but we get up" by Donnie McClurkin. When we get up we have to repent and keep on striving on our journey without looking back. In 1 John 2 1: My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if you do sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who pleases God completely.2 He is the sacrifice for our sins. He takes not only our sins away but the sins of all the world. And how can we be sure that we belong to him? By obeying his commandments. 4 If someone says, "I belong to God," but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and does not live in the truth. 5 But those who obey God's word really do love him. That is the way to know whether or not we live in him.

Keep in mind Percy's enemy was not only out to kill him but to distract him from his purpose. The enemy does not only try steal, kill, or destroy us but also tries to steal our time by distracting us placing things that are extremely pleasing to us that is outside God’s will for our lives like adultery, fornication, and etc. Percy had lost four days of his Journey falling for the tricks of the enemy. We can get back money, we can get our relationships back, but one thing we cant never get back is time. Lost time is something we cannot ever recover. How much time are we willing to lose? I want to enjoy the fullness of God. We can obtain the fullness of God by applying and living by His Word.

Remember when we find out who we are in Christ be prepared for the tricks and lies of the enemy and the only way we can recognize them is by the truth which is the Word of God.

God Bless

Is your marriage in a state of complacency?

Is your marriage in a state of complacency? 

I see so many marriages that are in trouble and they don't even see it. Complacency is the root of this trouble. This word means : self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies. Being complacent is dangerous to your marriages because people become lax and lack the motivation to safe guard their marria

ges and this can cause other things to creep into it....which includes finances, adultery, the act of singleness, a lot of other things that I can mention that are destroying marriages.

Marriage could be one of the hardest if not the hardest merger that you might experience in your life time. It is a partnership, if the partners of a company spends 80 percent of their time doing things that doesn't benefit the company really spending time trying please themselves and try to build a strong profitable company with the other twenty percent then that company is doomed to fail. Like wise you can not have a successful marriage putting twenty percent of work in that is so impossible. People who do this have become have become complacent.

I hate to see complacency prevail in our lives when it's so directly contrary to the teaching of Christ.
--Jimmy Carter American, President

When God is in your marriage there isn't anything to hard for Him to correct. He can correct the complacency in the marriage. If He isnt in it then it is so possible that your marriage is in trouble. You have to make a decision that you are going to put in the effort to ensure that you have a strong marriage which means that you have to become more than roommates.

When two people actually become one they have to give up part of themselves in order to do that. I always said if you are doing everything you want to do then someone is suffering. Don't take each other for granted. The enemy is looking to come in and destroy marriages don't give him any room. There are instructions that you will need to follow in order for you to have a marriage that glorifies God and it is located in His word . His love letter to us. Spend time together reading it, and applying it. Making sure that you guys have quality time together is really needed. Take time to date your spouse dating shouldn't ever stop. In order not fall in the state of complacency I took some pointers from one of my favorite movies 50 first dates. The main character was dating this woman who had a head injury that affected her memory and in order for them to be together he would have to get her to fall in love with him everyday so he came up with different ways to do this on a daily basis I just love that concept that he loved her that much that he would go so far to keep their love alive and I think we all can learn a lesson or two from it. Communication is major in any area of your life especially in marriage. People change everyday by communicating with each other you can learn of that change a make adjustments accordingly.

Be aware of the state of your marriage. It is dangerous for your marriage to be in a complacent state. Start praying before things get to this stage. Pray for revelation of deficiencies that you might have that will hinder you for having a marriage that glorifies God. We have to learn how to be married. I look forward to experiencing the marriage that God intended me to have. I am praying for you guys and really know when your marriage is centered around God ,you will overcome any obstacles that the enemy will try to throw at you. When you start living for Him things will start to fall in place, it wont be perfect but I promise you it will be a marriage of purpose. Be blessed!!

The Source

"The Source"

By: Carolyn McCardell

I took my youngest son to the movies awhile back to see “Percy Jackson and the Olympians the lightning thief”. The story was about Percy Jackson who was a Demi-god (son of a god and a human). The main character in the movie (Percy) was falsely accused of stealing the lightning bolt of the Chief God Zeus and had to retrieve it before the earth is torn asunder by the warring gods. Percy always knew it was something unique about him, but he didn't realize to what extent, until the lightning bolt came up missing. His mom and his protector had to take him to a training camp for people with special powers like him. He had no idea of his powers or how to use them. In one part of the movie Percy was thrown into a fight as a part of his training with the daughter of Wisdom, who simply tore him to pieces. After the battle, Percy was just lying down bruised, and counted out by the spectators. While lying on the ground, he heard a voice which was his father Poseidon (the god of the sea), telling Percy to go to the water, because it is the source of his powers. So just by placing his hand in the water his wounds began to heal, and his strength was not only renewed, but he was stronger than before. As he started to approach his opponent again this time he had the courage and confidence. The change in his demeanor was so noticeable that his opponent got extremely nervous and knew instantly that she was defeated.

My son loved that part and so did I because that particular scene in the movie spoke to me because Christ has given us the living water the Holy Spirit. We can only get our strength from Him. He is the one who heals our wounds when we have been beating down by our adversary. Whether it is a divorce, broken/bad relationships, destructive decisions that we have made, Christ is the one that we need to turn to so that we can face our adversary with courage and confidence. What I didn’t mention about the movie, was that Percy was always drawn to water, but he never quite knew why until the voice of his Father told him that the water was the source of his strength.

On the spiritual side, if you are not hearing the voice of our Heavenly Father by reading and hearing His Word, you will never know how powerful you are through Christ. It is physically impossible to survive without water. Likewise, spiritually we cannot live without the Living Water that Christ provides. He is the source for our lives. Just like Percy you might feel awkward but just don’t know why or you feel an insatiable thirst that cannot be quenched by the World. I was reading John 4:13-14 it says “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

It is my prayer everyone will be Applying Biblically scriptures for Life Essentials, so at the end of the day you can say that I’M A.B.L.E. Being a Christian is not only a title but a lifestyle. By applying God's Word to our daily lives, we can have the victory over our trials and tribulations that we might encounter but here is the challenge, we cannot apply something that we don't know.  In order to know Gods word we have to diligently seek Him by studying and meditating on the Word of God, followed by daily prayer should be a daily. By doing this, we have the privilege of drinking from His presence by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Remember the power of the (Living Water)!

God Bless!!