Cigi Smokers, Scantily Dressed Women, and Alcohol in the Church

And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18, AMP)

A while back, while we were walking into the church for Sunday service, I saw a man smoking a cigarette. He was standing far from the door, near a tree. He was so embarrassed, he was trying to use the tree to hide. He attempted to use the tree as a barrier by moving his body around the tree as we walked by.

Shortly sometime thereafter, we were in church service and sitting behind a row of women. Two was which were scantily dressed. One, to the point she looked like she was wearing night apparel. 

Prior to these two incidences, we were at a church service and the pastor said, "Please greet someone and tell them, "I am so glad you are here." A man walked up to me to say hello, and as he spoke, I could tell he had been drinking, a lot...at 10:00 a.m. The wreak of alcohol was so intense when the man spoke.

What should our response be to these incidences in the church?

Incident # 1 

Love and Pray

Welcome them and ask, "Is there anything I do can to help you?"

And then help them. (James 2:14-26)

Incident # 2

Love and Pray

Welcome them and ask, "Is there anything I do can to help you?"

And then help them. (James 2:14-26)

Incident # 3

Love and Pray

Welcome them and ask, "Is there anything I do can to help you?"

And then help them. (James 2:14-26)

As we can see, no matter what the incident is, God's kind of love is always the answer. (John 13:35)

Independent of everyone else's current situation at church and everywhere we go, we (as born again believers) are all in the midst of 2 Corinthians 3:18. (Matthew 7:1-5)

Father, I thank You walking in Your great unfailing love for each and every one of us. Continue to quicken our spirits and remind us to walk in Your unfailing love with everyone we come into contact with. Thank You for drawing hurting people to Your church house, they are in the right place! We are so thankful they come to church and into our lives, giving us all an opportunity to put actions to our faith forever changing their lives and our lives. Thank You for giving us opportunity to sow good seed! Thank You for making a way for us to cultivate and determine our own harvest by teaching us, the same measure we sow determines what we receive! Our heart's desire is truly to be Your disciples, thank You for teaching us how to walk in Your command of love! Thank You for shedding Your love abroad in our hearts by Your Spirit! I pray all our hearts be flooded with light so that we can understand the confident hope You have given us! In the name of Jesus, I declare it be so and thank You! HALLELUJAH!

Psalm 136

James 2:14-17

Genesis 1:29

Luke 6:38

Psalm 37:4

John 13:35

John 13:34

Romans 5:5

Job 22:28

Ephesians 1:18

Luke 17:11-19

Willful Disobedience

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. (James 4:17, NLT)

If you've followed Key Tov Blog for very long, you know we have a wonderful dog named Bo. He is a wonderful, obedient, loving dog. He is a rich blessing to our family.

There are activities Bo loves and there are activities Bo hates. 

He loves to go bird hunting. 

He hates to get a bath.

Bo has been bird hunting a lot lately. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the last two weekends and he's hunting again this upcoming weekend. Bo will hunt from daylight to dark! 

Due to all that hunting, he needed a bath today. Bo's bath is a huge joke at my house. He runs. We laugh. He hides. We laugh. He pouts. We laugh. It is hilarious how much he hates his bath.

My middle child gathered Bo's bathing paraphernalia. Bo knows the drill. As soon as he saw his bath items come out of the cabinet, he ran to Mike in hopes Mike could rescue him out of getting bathed. Nope. And he pouted the whole time he was being bathed. My girls took him for a walk after his bath so he could dry off before coming back inside.

As always, the "joke" was on Bo. He was upset while we were all laughing at him over his behavior.

Mike and I were sitting outside on our lanai about to eat breakfast when Bo came back into the house. He ran to the door as if to tattle on the girls. Again, we laughed. Bo isn't allowed to sit near the table while we eat so we told him to go back inside. He turned around, stuck his tail between his legs, and slowly walked back inside, and laid down…right inside the door. Again, we laughed. Then he went a step further, and stuck his front paw just outside the door.

We laughed again and I said, "That's like doing what I said, but not doing it all the way, and with a bad attitude." We left him there and didn't say a word to correct him.

All through breakfast, Bo continued to adjust his body weight in an attempt to relieve the pain and pressure on his own body! All the while, leaving his leg outside the door. Not doing anything to help himself. All he had to do was move his leg and put his whole body inside!

Obedience.

Every time he adjusted and groaned we laughed at him. I thought, it would be way easier (and less painful) for him to just do what I said. The floor is way more comfortable than laying on those sliding glass door tracks!

He was mad and pouting while the rest of us went happily about our day.

Then. All the sudden. My heart cried out, "Oh Lord my Lord, for all the times I didn't do what I knew to do, but instead made adjustments here and there in an effort to relieve self inflicted pain and pressure. How many times I've ran to You and tried to get out of doing something I knew I had to do, just like Bo ran to Mike to get out of having a bath! Thank You for Your Son who taught us, "Not my will, but Your will be done". Thank You for loving me enough to teach me follow through. Lord, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me! Oh great is Your faithfulness! Oh great is Your unfailing love-love-LOVE! Thank You for showing me life lessons through the attitude and behavior of my dog! I will keep my heart and attitude connected with You and Your Word! I will attend to Your words, I will incline my ear to Your sayings! I will be willing, teachable, and obedient! Father, I pray for each reader right now. In the name of Jesus, I thank You for conviction that prompts us to get off the "tracks" we're on, stop making adjustments trying to relieve pain and pressure, and to just obey Your life giving Word! Forgive us for pouting! Forgive us for all the times we've known what to do and didn't do it. Thank You for forgiving us as we forgive others. Thank You for teaching us to operate in love, mercy, and grace to others as You have so graciously loved us and extended Your heart of mercy and grace to us!

James 4:17

Luke 22:42

Psalm 51:10

Lamentations 3-22, 23

Psalm 136

Psalm 37:23

Proverbs 4:20

Ephesians 4:32

He Is...and He is a Rewarder

From time to time we invite a guest to contribute a blog post to Key Tov Blog. Our really great friends, John and Hannah (We've used their first names only to protect their privacy.), have blessed us with an amazing testimony of how God works things together for our good! We have personally watched John and Hannah consistently operate with a spirit of excellences, love, mercy, grace, and faithfulness in all areas of their lives. They truly have a servant's heart! Their testimony is one that confirms that God is and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, enjoy!

So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up. (Galatians 6:9, NLT)

After struggling, for years to pay our mortgage, we fell behind...way behind. Modifying was out of the question because we had already modified once. Hope was lost and we finally asked the bank to “take it back”, hoping for a deed in lieu, rather than face foreclosure. Growing up in a somewhat conservative working class home, foreclosure = failure! You worked hard, paid all your bills, you always had enough. I didn’t want to fail. Like a dark cloud hovering over us, condemnation found a way in. I internalize everything, so it was always my fault…the economy shouldn't have affected me like everyone else, because I had it all together, I always did.

Preparing for the worse, we looked for rentals on craigslist and the newspaper. We believed that God had something better down the road, and this wasn’t really a tragedy but a blessing. After all, He was blessing our business in a way we couldn’t have predicted. Losing this home would mean there was something better on the way. While at peace, I still felt a loss…a failure, careless, worthless.

One day as my husband and I talked, we began to feel a fire about our home. My husband said, "God didn’t put this house in our hands, to let it be snatched away." We prayed and agreed that we would press on with yet, another modification application. We asked friends to pray with us.

Every week I had an appointment with a “relationship manager” from the bank who would begin the conversation with “Good morning, this is Ms. So and So from the bank. I have to inform you, we are a debt collector and we will use the information you give us, to collect that debt. With that being said, are you ready to begin our call?" 

Whew…yes, I was ready, because God was with me!

Week after week, they needed more information, or updated information. How do you keep going when you feel strung along and hopeless. “God you are bigger than this and we have found a refuge in Your loving arms, thank You for the strength to press on, thank You for blessing us with health and a business we love, thank You for giving us the money to pay Verizon so we could be on this call today! We trust You and thank You for being our fortress, in Jesus’ name…AMEN”!

Feeling like we did all we could, I took a deep breath and answered that final call a few weeks ago. The relationship manager said, "Congratulations, we were able to modify your mortgage, but there are some terms." (As we had guessed, pay on time for 3 months...etc. etc. etc.) "Your mortgage balance was $591,800, but your new balance is $199,000!!! We have forgiven $392,800 of your principal balance!!!

Writing this, I am crying my eyes out. What a great God we serve! We would have been ecstatic at another shot at this, but this goes to prove our God's economy is definitely better than ours and there is POWER in agreement!

Mahalo Nui Loa John and Hannah for sharing this powerful testimony of God's goodness! Father, we pray for every reader right now! Since You did this for John and Hannah, You will do this for every reader! Since You be for us, who can be against us! Thank You for being no respecter of persons! Thank You for being and for being a rewarder of those who diligently seek You! Thank You for continuing to make our paths straight and smooth! Thank You for ordering our steps and giving us heart desires and then, giving us what our heart desires! Thank You for placing prayer warriors in our lives who stay in prayer covenant with us all the way from heart's desire to manifestation, availing much! All the glory, honor, and power to You Father!

James 5:16

Acts 10:34

Psalm 37:23

Psalm 37:4

Matthew 18:19

James 5:16

Be Still AND Know

Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world. (Psalm 46:10, NLT)

In our busy, busy world, we must be mindful to be still, really still. And know, really know, 

He is God!

Last week Mike told me about a message he had just heard from Keith Moore at Faith Life Church in Branson, Missouri. We highly, HIGHLY suggest you listen to the message. We've been playing it at least once a day (some days, all day long) and it is a life changing, atmosphere improving, healing, revelation bringing, biblical based, message. As you can tell, we are extremely excited about this message!

For quick access to the message, follow the directions below:

1. www.moorelifeministries.org
2. at the upper right hand of the screen, click "Free downloads"
3. click "search"
4. in the search window (lower left of screen), type "Be still and know"
5. click search
6. click "Be still and know"
7. you will find options for audio or video

I tried to attach a direct link but for some cyber reason, couldn't get it to work. If you follow the step by step directions, it is easy to locate.

The first thing that caught my attention about the teaching was when Brother Moore said, "We already know a lot of stuff." and "It's not what you know that changes your life, it's what you do." (James 1:22) 

The second thing Brother Moore said that immediately caught my attention was when he discussed sounds are anointed. This is confirmation for me that is documented in a blog post at the link below.

http://keytovblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/true-worship.html

If for some cyber reason that link does not work, you can find the blog post by googling, "Key Tov Blog True Worship".

Please get alone, make time to sit and listen, truly listen to, "Be Still and Know". And please listen in it's entirety, the longer it plays, the better it gets! If after listening to the message, if your life isn't changed, commit to listening to it everyday until your life is changed! You will be so thankful you did, it is a great investment in your life and the lives of all those you come into contact with.

Below are some snippets from Brother Moore in this teaching:

• "I'm running my race."
• "Not looking back."
• "The enemy tries to hinder me. The Lord looks at him and laughs!"
• "Gonna finish my course with joy!"
• "It just keeps getting better and better!"
• "Don't get tied up." 
• "No hurt can hold me down."
• "Keep your place."
• "I'm going all the way." 

Thank You Father, for loving us so much and sending words in due season changing our lives forever! Thank You for teaching us how to worship You in spirit and in truth! Thank You for teaching us how to run this race with joy unspeakable! Thank You for allowing us to see You laugh! Thank You for teaching us how to laugh, a head thrown back, mouth opened wide, HA! HA! HA! Glory to Your wonderful name! All glory, praise, and thanks to You Lord God!

Proverbs 25:11

John 4:24

Isaiah 40:29-31

Hebrews 12:1

1 Peter 1:8

PSALM 2:4

1 Corinthians 10:31

My Race is NOT Your Race

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. (Hebrews 21:1)

Yesterday while we were leaving church service, one of my children who shall go un-named  (with as much distaste as she could muster) said, "Mommy, I saw a kid eat candy the WHOLE service." Praise God who prompted me by His Holy Spirit to say, 

"You can't get one cavity from all the candy he ate."

Let us extrapolate Hebrews 21:1 for uno momento!

"Surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses"

That is so powerful! Praise God we are never alone! (Deuteronomy 31:6)

"life of faith"

LIFE! John 10:10 

"strip off"

Colossians 3:5-17 

Yep, that covers that!

"The race that GOD has set BEFORE US"

We run our race. We don't run anyone else's race. 

We cannot get even one "cavity" from candy that someone else "eats".  (John 15:1-17)

Every weight is EVERY weight. Every weight is not just the weight we feel like stripping off or is easy to strip off. "Every" defined is being each individual or part of a group without exception. (Mucho mahalos Merriam-Webster.com)

Weight is ANYTHING that holds us back or trips us up. In other words, what takes our eyes off Jesus? Does anything prevent us from operating in Matthew 6:33?

I understand there are some issues that arise that must be addressed. We biblically address them by:

• Praying (Matthew 6:33)
• Being spirit led not flesh led (Galatians 5:16-18)
• Addressing it in love (John 13:34-35)
• Trusting in the Lord (Proverbs 3:5, 6)
• Stripping it off (Hebrews 21:1)

 

To some, Gracie was rightfully bothered about the child eating candy in service yesterday. The plastic wrappers were a distraction to everyone who allowed it to distract them. Not to mention his refusal to share with his friends, his oral care, and blood sugar levels. But thank God the child was in church service, candy and all. Rather or not, we are in the "right", a trip up is a trip up and God's Word tells us to strip. it. off.

We must remain diligent in insuring no one's "candy" (behavior) keeps us from seeking God's kingdom first and operating outside love.

Father, I pray for every reader right now, in the name of Jesus we declare our eyes are fixed on You! We view others through a filter of love, Your unfailing love! We continually do a heart check and insure we immediately strip off every weight that tries to trip us up and we run our race with endurance! Thank You for teaching us and guiding us! But most of all, thank You for loving us! We glorify You and adore You! 

If I had a Favorite, This would be It.

So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20, NLT)

This morning, my girls and I studied the parable of the prodigal son. We were all brought to tears (so much so that my eight year old couldn't even speak) when we read verse twenty in Luke chapter fifteen, 

So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, 

his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; 

he ran to his son, 

threw his arms around him and 

kissed him.

Is there anything more filled with power than that? Just meditate on that for a while, meditate on it until it becomes part of who you are. Write it down on a card and read it throughout the day over the next coming weeks and months or however long it takes for it to become part of your very core.

First, the son came to himself, (Luke 15:17) then he got up, and went to his father.

The father's reaction:

• filled with compassion
• ran to him
• threw his arms around him
• kissed him

The bible says the father ran to him. The father didn't wait until the son walked up to the porch. The father was so excited to see his son, he couldn't wait and so he ran!

That's true unfailing love…

That's the love our Father has for us!

No matter who tells us what (even if we are the ones telling ourself), no matter where we've been or what we've done….God, our Father always wants us!

That's the love our Father has for us!

Father, thank You for this parable. Thank You for being filled with compassion for us. Thank You that when we "come to ourselves", You are always approachable and willing and desire to wrap Your arms around us even when we've rolled around in pig stuff! I pray for every reader right now, as well as myself, that from Your glorious, unlimited resources, we become empowered with inner strength through Your Spirit! We are rooted and grounded in Your great love! I declare we have the power to understand and we will all come to know how wide, long, high, and deep Your love is! You are able, through Your mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think! All glory, honor, and power to You Father, in the name of Jesus, Amen!

A little side note: Please don't ever ask me to study this verse with you face to face because it makes me bawl every time...yep, every time! And I must have been teaching it with much emotion because my ten year old sincerely said, "Wow...you should be teaching this in a stadium right now."

She always thinks in terms of huge, just like her father, earthly and Heavenly!

Life: The 8 Second Ride

From time to time, we host a guest and invite them to write a blog post. My husband, Mike, the love of my life and God's gift to me straight from Heaven wrote today's post. Enjoy!

Life is like an 8 second bull ride! (James 4:14)

You have to ride like there's no tomorrow! (Psalm 90:12)

You have to hang on for all you've got! (Matthew 6:33)

You have to live for the moment! (Philippians 4:6, 7)

And don't wait around to hear the buzzer! (2 Corinthians 5:8)

Father, in the name of Jesus, we pray for every reader today. We understand our life is compared to a vapor, we holdfast to You and Your law of love. Continue to teach us to number our days, our heart's desire is to have a heart of wisdom. We commit to seek You and Your kingdom first in the name of Jesus! We are bold and strong! We are not anxious for or about anything, but in everything we make our requests known to You with prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving! Thank You for peace! Your peace that surpasses all understanding that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus!