James 4:8 Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you.  Amplified Bible

(Come close to God and He will come close to you.)  Psalms 145:18 The Lord is

nigh unto all them that call upon Him. The definition of likeness is resemblance,

portrayal,  sameness.

   A serious and often distressing problem for many of us, is our feeling that God

is far from us, or that we are far from God, which is the same thing.  It is hard to

rejoice in the Lord when we are suffering from this sense of remoteness. It is like

trying to have a warm bright summer day without the sun. God is Spirit, and spirit

dwells not in space. Space has to do with matter and spirit is independent of it.

God swallows up all space. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?”  He fills heaven and earth

as the ocean fills the bucket that is submerged in it, and the as the ocean surrounds the

bucket so does God in the universe He fills. The heaven of heavens cannot contain thee!

God is not contained… He contains.

Always remember…To be near Him, is to be like Him…  I John 4:17 Herein is our love

made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement: BECAUSE AS

HE IS, SO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD.

Note the words to the blessed old hymn written by Fanny Crosby.” I AM THINE O LORD”

I am thine O Lord, I have heard thy voice. And it told Thy love to me, But I long to rise

in the arms of faith, and be closer drawn to thee.

Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord, To the cross where thou has died, Draw me

nearer, nearer precious Lord. To THY precious bleeding side.

PSALM 23:6   SURELY GOODNESS and MERCY shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

   Look at the first word SURELY. David didn’t say maybe goodness and mercy shall follow me. Or possibly goodness and mercy shall follow me,

or I have a hunch that goodness and mercy shall follow me. David could have used one of those phrases, but he didn’t. He believed in a SURE God,

who makes SURE promises and provides a SURE foundation. Our moods may shift but God’s doesn’t. Our devotion may falter but God’s never does.

Even if we are faithless, He is faithful for He cannot deny Himself. He is a SURE God, and because He is a SURE God, we can state confidently.

SURELY goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

What follows the word SURELY? Goodness and Mercy. Goodness is to supply every want. Mercy is to forgive every sin. Goodness and Mercy,

if that duo doesn’t reinforce your faith, try this phrase: all the days of my life. Goodness and Mercy follow the child of God each and every day.

Think of the days that lie ahead. What do you see? God will be at your side, He will walk you through days of loneliness, He will take your hand.

What an amazing God! He pursues us, follows us, tracks us and wins us over. He is indeed a God who follows us with His goodness and mercy,

all the days of our lives.

II Corinthians 12:7

Before God will trust you, He will test you. Not all trying times and tough times come from the devil (your adversary) .

Your God will allow pain, problems, suffering and struggle, that He may toughen you, tender you and teach you.

Note in Deuteronomy 8:2… God led His people forty years in the wilderness….. to humble them and to prove them;

to know what was in their heart.

Consider with me one of the facts about a real pearl is that it is a product of a living organism,

which is not true of any other precious stone….whether sapphires, diamonds, rubies or emeralds.

The pearl is produced as the result of an injury suffered by a living organism, such as an oyster.

The occasion of the pearls’ production is the presence of some irritating substance such as a grain of sand.

Out of much suffering an object of beauty is produced. I wish to emphasize this awesome thought…

the pearl comes from a CONQUERED IRRITANT!

The pearl never assumes very large dimensions,, but its value may be almost priceless.

This teaches us that size isn’t everything. The pearl is formed slowly and gradually,

the formation of the pearl is a secretive one…none but the eye of God watches

the oyster transforming an intrusion into a pearl of beauty and great worth.

Despair not, as you perhaps suffer an injury like the oyster, you may find what you are experiencing

is very irritating, could this be God causing a grain of sand to produce a beautiful pearl in your life?

Be encouraged, God is not finished with you yet.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to HIS PURPOSE.

God never acts without purpose…Never. People act without purpose, a great deal that is done in the modern so called church is PURPOSELESS.

But God never acts without a purpose. God has intellect and this means that God thinks; and God never acts without an intelligent purpose.

After this magnificent created world was finished, God saw that the world wasn’t yet complete. He made man, His masterpiece! He being the great potter that

He is scooped up a useless mound of clay and worked on this clay until it became a man, an invaluable species called a human.

A human who had the unique honor to bear the stamp, in HIS IMAGE! Of all the creation that God is responsible for,

only you can it be said, MADE IN HIS IMAGE!

   God being the God He was and is, and being infinitely glorious and infinitely beautiful and infinitely admirable, desired to have some creature

that was capable of adoring Him, loving Him and knowing Him. So God made man in HIS OWN IMAGE, The ultimate desire and plan of God was

and is and forever will be to take up residence within His created masterpiece CALLED MAN. When God breathed into the nostrils of man he became a living soul.

There is life found in the breath of God, the breath of God is always referenced in scripture as the Spirit of God. John 20:22  

He breathed on them and saith…Receive ye the Holy Ghost. He wants to abide, reside and preside within each of us.

Just know if you are made in in His image and He resides within you, and things happen to you or you are called upon to go through difficult situations of life.

There is a Purpose, there is a meaning and a message working on your behalf. What you are experiencing is not PURPOSELESS, His Purpose is working together for good on your behalf.

GOD IS WHAT HE IS!!!!

Bro. Larry Fletcher

God is what He is! He is what He has always been. He is the One who is. He never changes.

He is also an uncaused God. Though He creates, God was never created. Though He makes, He was never made.

Though He causes, He was never caused. From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. God doesn’t check the weather, He makes it.

He doesn’t defy gravity, He created it. He has no limitations. He is uncaused, unchanging, and ungoverned!

These are only a fraction of God’s qualities.

When I fall, He lifts me up! When I fail He forgives! When I am weak, He is strong! When I am afraid, He is my courage!

When I stumble, He steadies me! When I’m hurt, He heals me! When I’m broken, He mends me! When I’m blind, He leads me!

When I’m hungry, He feeds me! When I face trials, He is with me! When I face persecution, He shields me! When I face loss,

He provides for me! He is God, He is faithful, I am His, and He is mine!

So remember, there is no burden beyond His strength; no boundaries to His love; no limit to His mercies;

no problem outside His solution; and no need beyond His care.

THE VOLUME OF YOUR EMPTINESS, DETERMINES THE DEPTH OF YOUR FULLNESS

2 Kings 4”1-6 A certain woman’s husband died, and the creditor was coming to take her two sons to be his slaves.

Elisha ask . . . what do you have in the house? She said, nothing, but a jar of oil.

Then he said, go borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors---EMPTY VESSELS and do not gather just a few.

Why would God speak through a prophet and tell a widow to collect emptiness from her neighbors? He said borrow not a few.

That means borrow a lot of pots and pans. Get as many empty containers as you can. Collect all the emptiness you can find.

The desperate widow and mother had no idea that the Volume of her collected emptiness was going to determine her future.

She didn’t know how it would all work out, all she knew to do was to obey God’s command.

She didn’t realize that her cumulative emptiness would literally determine the measure of her miraculous filling.

When you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.

So she did so, and when the vessels were full, she said to her son, Bring me another vessel, and he said there is not another empty vessel.

So the oil ceased. The man of God said go sell the oil and pay your debt.

Some of us are determined to present our fullness for God to fill. Note: God isn’t interested in meeting you at your best,

that’s really when you are at your worst. He isn’t interested in blessing your independence. He responds to your dependence,

His strength is attracted to your weakness’ God loves to pour out his fullness on your emptiness, but this won’t happen

until we deplete our fleshly resources and plead our dependence on Him.

You will never know He is all you need, until He is all you have!

The Dew of Heaven

“I will be the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.” Hosea 14:5-6

Dew- water droplets condensed from the air, usually at night, onto cool surfaces.

Dew is used in the Bible as a symbol of refreshment (Deut. 32:2, Psalm 133:3);

a symbol of the loving power of God which revives and invigorates (Prov. 19:12);

a symbol of the sudden onset of an enemy (2 Sam. 17:12); a symbol of brotherly love and harmony (Ps 133:3);

a symbol of God’s revelation (Judg. 6:36-40); and a symbol of God’s blessing (Gen. 27:28).

Dew is a mist, or thin small kind of rain, which falls upon the earth morning and evening in a very GENTLE way.

It is not manufactured or produced by the hands of man. The dew is at God’s disposal, and under direction and control!

In Palestine, little or no rain is known during the summer. Were it not for the heavy dew all vegetation would perish.

The coming down of the dew has been accounted one of God’s special blessings. What the dew is in the natural world,

causing the earth to soften, to bring forth; that is the Spirit of God to the soul of man. It softens the heart,

implants the principles of grace, sows the seed of eternal life, and puts forth all the evident tokens of a new creation within.

Dew comes only in the night. As the dew falls from heaven in the stillness of the night, so is the way of God’s grace.

The dew descending makes no noise. It comes silently without footsteps, without trumpeting of any kind,

the most delicate ear cannot hear. It visits every bud and blade of grass. It does not visit the big trees and forget the little plant.

The dew comes so gently that the feeblest can bear it. No blade of grass can be injured by the dew.

God’s presence and influence comes as close to men as the dew to the flower. It is inspiring to know that ours is not a

God who lives only in the light of His own majesty, but He dwells with the humble everywhere.

He not only rides in the rolling chariot of the stormy skies, or sits in silence above the crested billows of the heaving ocean,

but He stoops to earth and kisses the face of the flowers with His presence, and touches the weak and the weary with a tenderness

that surpasses that of the dew as it rolls into the heart of the lily, and becomes a hidden fountain of strength and refreshment.

Even when you lie down at night, the Dew of Heaven falls silently, gently refreshing your soul and spirit.

The dew is the silent blessing of God.

Larry Fletcher

Hebrews 6:19… Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.

   Our bodies have been constructed to withstand an enormous amount of pressure. God has made us to be resilient people.

We can survive the heat of the tropics or the icy winds of winter. With undaunted courage we can go through seasons of illness,

financial reversals, domestic disappointments, unemployment, or death of someone dear to us….if. If we don’t lose the one essential ingredient-HOPE!

   We can rebound against wind and weather, calamity and tragedy, disease and death, so long as we have our hope.

We can live weeks without food, days without water, and even several minutes without air, but take away our hope and within the briefest amount of time, we toss in the towel!

…God knowing this about his children, God calls Hope the ANCHOR OF THE SOUL! “the irreplaceable, irreducible source of determination.

He not only calls it our anchor,

He develops a helpful series of thoughts about hope in His Book, the Bible. But in one verse

He concentrates on the word hope, just remember when the winds blow and the waves toss you about, you have and anchor, and its called hope.

                            DOWN FROM HIS GLORY

To understand what Christmas is all about, one must have this revelation or scriptural understanding. I am talking about

THE EMBODIMENT OR UNION OF DIVINITY WITH HUMANITY IN JESUS CHRIST!

The beauty of the birth of Jesus Christ

cannot be understood by mere head knowledge, intellect or book learning.

Note the words of this beautiful song “DOWN FROM HIS GLORY”

Down from His glory, ever living story, our God and Savior came and Jesus was His name.

Born in a manger to His own a stranger, a man of sorrow tears and agony.

What condescension , bringing us redemption, that in the dead of night not one faint hope in sight.

God, gracious tender, laid aside His splendor, stooping to woo to win to save my soul.

Without reluctance, flesh and blood His substance, He took the form of man revealed the hidden plan.

Oh glorious mystery, sacrifice of Calvary, and now I know thou art the Great “I Am”.

Oh how I love Him, how I adore Him. My breath my sunshine my all in all,

the great creator became my savior…and all God’s fullness dwelleth in Him….. 

  Let us not forget that Incredible Moment. Don’t allow the ‘Meaningful to become the Meaningless!

                       THE BIBLE.. THE LEAST READ BEST SELLER

I am sure there would be a variety of answers if asked what is the Bible, or what does the Bible mean? Please notice with me….

Written on two separate continents by 40 different men over a time span of 1600 years.

The  Bible without divine inspiration would be nothing more than a conglomerate of literary confusion.

However, ALL SCRIPTURE IS GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD….and regardless of the immense

differences existing among it’s writers, it contains no contradictions or confusing errors. Consider the diversity of this authorship;

there was Moses learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, there was Joshua the captain of his people. Job the patriarch,

David the shepherd, Solomon the wise King of Israel, Isaiah the prophet, Daniel the prime minister of Babylon,

Amos the fig tendering herdsman. Matthew the tax collector, Luke the physician, Peter the fisherman,

Paul the great apostle….Only the Spirit of God could have produced a work with such perfection, unity and accuracy!

B..BASIC

I..INSTRUCTION

B..BEFORE

L.. LEAVING

E..EARTH

The Bible is so many things…it is a blueprint to the builder,

a road map to the traveler. A light, a lamp, a map mirror and compass.

It is the mind of God, the will of God. Last but not least….t

he Bible is our inspiration and revelation, that leads us to SALVATION!