"Castaway"

The enemy is throwing everything he can at people who are living for God!  I heard a man say, "I realized I had become bitter and I didn't like what I felt in my heart. I had never felt that way before."  It's great when a person can RECOGNIZE this foreign feeling. When you no longer feel the change that's happened, you are being deceived.  "Create in me a clean heart...renew in me a right spirit."  A song called "Castaway" that Sis. Bobbie Shoemake, my brother Keith and I sang a long time ago still plays in my mind today. "If I carry the gospel to the regions of the lost, to a world that's going astray. Don't let me fail in sight of the gate and become just a castaway."  The chorus went on to say..."Castaway...castaway...lost forever on a cold, dark ocean. Turned away...castaway...lost, just a castaway."  (I think the words are correct, but you get the message.) I remember one service we sang it in. Bro. Shoemake preached with a soberness and deep conviction to a youth group about a clean heart. The altars were filled with kids who wanted to be saved, no matter the cost.  Do we still feel this way?  Will we give up ANYTHING that's pulling us away from Him?  Do we even RECOGNIZE what is happening in our heart that is pulling us away from Him?  Are we willing to fall at the foot of the cross so our human spirits are broken once again?  There's too much ME in me!  Like the man who was transparent about his heart...there's been  times, "I've felt something in my heart I'd never felt before, and I didn't like it!"  The words to that song will haunt me the rest of my life..."Don't let me fail in sight of the gate and become just a castaway."  #thinkinoutloud 

If you feel this post is too heavy, too negative, too convicting...I'm not sorry. It's time we, who claim to be Apostolic, fall at the foot of the cross and crucify our flesh!  I can hear our elders, through tears, admonishing  us to "PREPARE FOR HIS COMING!  HE'S COMING SOON!"

We ARE Living in the Last Days

Ever since I was a little girl and could understand what the preacher was saying over the pulpit I have heard it preached that Jesus is coming soon! I have sat in services that was so full of conviction that I knew I better get myself to the altar and pray any sin out of my heart that a little girl could have. I've grown up "in the church" and I've listened to preacher's preach under the anointing of God, and as they came to the end of their message they gave an appeal to come to the altar. I have watched grown men who were under so much conviction grip the back of the pew so hard that you couldn't pry their hands away! They would not yield to the bidding of the man of God, or God Himself. I've wondered what could hold them so captive that they didn't want God in their life. I still do not understand it.

The events that have been taking place in the world are some of the very things I heard preached about all of my life. Many nights, I've gone to bed thinking that the Lord would come that very night. I've prayed and cried wanting to be saved more than ANYTHING! I can honestly say there is NOTHING in the world that I want. And for sure..there is NOTHING worth missing Heaven over.

My heart is stirred for those who have known "truth" yet do not seem interested in "living" truth. It takes more than just knowing Jesus. It takes a relationship with Him that causes us to WANT to be LIKE Him. I shake my head in disbelief when I see people "dilly-dallying" around with the things of God. It's one thing to have never known the Lord in the fullness of truth, but it's totally different to have KNOWN HIM, and to have turned your back on Him and all the things He's done for you. I shake inside to think of what it would be like to be lost FOREVER!

I don't know who might be getting ready to come read my blog tonight, but for some reason when I sat down at my desk to check my blog, I felt to write! It's TIME to wake up out of your sleep and return to the Master's house! He is waiting and longing to take you in His arms. He is wanting to wipe away your tears, and heal your broken heart. I feel His mercy extending to you tonight.

COME HOME! COME HOME!
Ye who are weary, COME HOME!
Ernestly, tenderly Jesus is calling.
Calling, Oh Sinner, COME HOME!