Finding You

1 Peter 5:8 - 'Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:'

The devil has a campaign against you going on at all times. His objective: To stop you from hearing what God is saying about you. God has spoken a word over your life, but the cares of this life, past experiences, and negative influences will block you from hearing it. You must get into position to hear what God has said about you. The enemy seems to already know because he is usually attacking the very place in your life that God is wanting to use. You must find that word. You must hear what God has said and act on it. You must align yourself with the plan of God for you. The word has already been spoken, and now it needs to be activated! But you must know what it is before you can align yourself with it. That struggle for freedom, that struggle for acceptance, that struggle for fulfillment is your unconscious plight to get that word. But you must know first that God has the word and you need to get closer to him to hear it so you can activate it in your life.

It's not hard to hear God. The hard part is deleting the other voices in your life so that you can hear him clearly. The television, the radio, the soaps, the movies, the boyfriend/girlfriend, the newspaper columns, the stories, the novels, the friends, the family, etc. are all voices! Many times we surround ourselves with people, places, and things before we have learned to hear from God and that is dangerous. You could have people in your life blocking you or voices in your life detouring you. Take some time to find yourself! Not by searching inside of you, but by seeking the will of God for your life. Get away from everyone and everything for a period and silence all other voices in your life. You will hear God speak to you and once you learn his voice, he will show you who you are and why he made you. He will show you why the enemy is against you and how you can walk in victory. Then, you will know who belongs in your life and who doesn't. At that point you will know what voices to keep in your life and which ones to silence. Take the time and do it! What in this world could be more important to find, than the Word God has spoken over your life?

Suggested Reading: Gen. 3:8, Ex. 15:26, Deut. 13:18, Deut. 28:1,

MESSAGE TO CHRISTIAN RAPPERS!!!!

A message to Christian Rappers by: G. Craige Lewis - aka The Messenger This message is from the Lord. It was given to me in response to the opposition we have received from the Christian rap community. We are not coming against Christian rap or any other form of Christian music. We support any music that supports the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. But we do not believe that the Hip Hop culture that exists today is to be glorified, praised, or utilized to reach any sinners or to change the hearts of unbelievers. The Hip Hop Culture in it's origin is demonic and it's foundation is set upon a doctrine that is contrary to the Word of God. Therefore, how can this culture be embraced by Christians? If it's creation was wicked, then it's roots are foul. And therefore, God will not use it to minister the Gospel (check out Zulu Nation.com to get info on the origin and spiritual side of the Hip Hop Culture. But beware, the spirit behind that website is strong and will spiritual damage your beliefs if you are not Spiritually strong) We know that a powerful message can be given through rap and we believe it can be very effective in teaching, strengthening and persuading people to Christ. But we cannot embrace the culture of Hip Hop along with the rap. The Hip Hop culture stands against the word of God. It's founders do not believe the Bible to be the true Word of God. Therefore, we must reject all claims to Hip Hop as believers because that culture does not promote the truth. Are we gonna rally to turn Hip Hop into a Christian culture? God forbid. If you read the word, you will find that God rejected what man offered to him whenever it was birthed from, or taken from a corrupt source. Achan in the Bible hid valuable jewels, thinking that they were good for him and his camp. Jos 7:1 But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel. But God rejected Israel until Achan was burned to death. Why? Because God did not want what was used for evil to be offered up to him. The same thing happened to King Saul. King Saul took of the spoil of the Amalekites and desired to give it to God because it looked good. It was the best of the best. 1Sa 15:15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. But God rejected King Saul because he didn't want what the people that hated him and served other gods had. It was corrupt because it's origin was evil. God is feeling the same way about Hip Hop. We cannot support this corrupt culture because its very foundation is evil. Hip Hop was birthed through poverty, and sin. It was not created to uplight God. But it was created to be a voice for those that could not be heard. It was birthed through some guys who desired to rise above their environments and communities by empowering themselves. In turn, Hip Hop has brought much power to the black man. It has given them a voice, a way of life, and money. But what has is done to glorify the true Kingdom of God? Nothing. Christian rap artists, we cannot embrace this demonic move of the enemy to glorify ones self and promote a false religion. I know you want to stay true to your people and where you came from, but understand, that is not what God desires of you. You must change your mindset and understand that it takes the Spirit of God to reach the lost. Hip Hop has taken the place of the human spirit in our youth of today. Hip Hop gives them their identity, their values, the morals, and their callings. It does not give them what God wants to give them. And we cannot try to hold on to it once we have been transformed into the image of Christ. You see, staying true to your homies, or your people cannot be done if you plan to stay true to the Kingdom of God. Jesus said that if any man chooses to follow him, he must deny himself. Mt 16:24* Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. That means that we must let go of the mentality that kept us in the bondage that we were freed from. Simply put, let go of the culture! Lu 9:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Yeah, you may have grown up in it, killed for it, or put everything you had into it, but it's not of God, so you must forsake it. God destroyed millions of people that he chose to rescue from bondage, but they would not let go of the culture that they were once enslaved by. The original children of Israel were freed from slavery. But they would not let go of the Egyptian culture! Did God allow them to use the culture of the Egyptians to glorify him? NO. God killed them all to destroy all recollection of their former days. He forbid them to perform or mimic any of the Egyptians actions because he did not want them subject to the spirits of that culture. Joshua 5:5 Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. 6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD swore that he would not show them the land, which the LORD swore unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. 7 And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way. 8 And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole. 9 And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day. The same is happening with Hip Hop. Staying true to it makes you subject to the spirits of its creators. Allow God to continue to use you as a Christian rapper for Christ, but never conform to the Hip Hop Culture. When Christ saved you, you were changed into the image that he originally had for you. Therefore, the old man is dead. 2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. You are no longer a Gangsta, or a thug, so why do you refer to yourself as one? How can you be dead with Christ if you are still promoting the old man's deeds? You are changed if you are in Christ. Ro 12:2* And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. It's okay to share your testimony of your transformation, but why would you pay homage to your old man and his culture? Throwing up gang signs, tattoo glorification, dressing and looking like a gang member does not disciple the lost. It only confuses the lost into believing that the change Christ made is only internal, but the flesh should still be in bondage. Another thing that God has been speaking to me about is the Christian rap movement and how some of it disses the Church of God. In my dealings with many Christian rappers or rap fans, I have seen a new spirit that is rising up through the enemy's influence. Dissing the Church is a very dangerous move to make. In your music or in your everyday conversations, we must not speak negatively about God's church. God is gonna operate through his church, no matter what we think or feel. Many have been hurt by negative experiences through churches, but that does not make the church of God a bad place. Yeah, the church has problems, but the easy way to keep the problems from being solved or dealt with is for us to only talk against each other and never work together. And God will NEVER change his order. You must submit to the authority of a Pastor before you will be effective in any ministry. A man that cannot follow, will never lead! There are so many people these days talking about what God is showing them, or what God is telling them, but they never follow the order of God. God will not tell you to do anything without confirming it through others. And God will never defy the order of his Kingdom or his church. That's why you see so many people constantly changing what they say was God's will for them. Without the protective covering of your pastor, you are dangerous to God. You are like a child holding a loaded shotgun. You are a spiritual bastard and your ministry will only give birth to bastard followers! I know that sounds harsh, but the word "bastard" means "fatherless" and if you have not submitted to your Pastor, you have no spiritual father! You are not ready to do ministry on any level if you have not submitted to leadership. The church is your home base for your ministry. So we cannot diss the church in our raps or in our conversations because God is gonna work through the church before he works through you. Growing up without a father or on the streets alone teaches us to rely on ourselves many times. We get to the point where we are our own covering. We begin to move according to our will instead of the will of God. And we feel that we are hearing God, but actually we don't understand God because following is something that we have never learned. That's why the church is so important to the Kingdom of God. It teaches us how to submit to authority when we never learned it in our upbringing. The spirit of Hip Hop teaches that we are all "gods" meaning that we choose our own destiny's and no one can lead us. But the Bible teaches that the order of God is more important than any sacrifices! Remember King Saul, when he offered the sacrifice in place of the priest? 1Sa 15:22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. He defied the order of God and was rejected and doomed for it. We must understand that we are in the same position as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus. God is more concerned about 1 sinner being discipled the right way by us, than 1000 being discipled by us and we have no spiritual authority to do it! Can you imagine Jesus growing up knowing he is the Word of God and yet God hasn't released him to ministry? I imagine people where saying, "Jesus, you have all that ministry in you and you have not done anything for the Kingdom." or "Jesus, you got to get busy because you got this gift..." But God had not released him. Jesus waited 30 years to prepare for 3 years of ministry!!!! Wow!! We can't even get some of these modern day Christians to finish new members class before they are already talking about what God has "shown" or "told" them. God called Paul to the ministry on Damascus road, but immediately following it, God sent him to study and be subject to his leaders for 7 years. We must not think that just because we have the Zeal, we can step out and do ministry for the Kingdom. We have to be assigned to ministry and God will always confirm our callings and gifts though our pastors and churches. So be careful! God wants his order and will never defy it. That's why we cannot talk against the church. What good is it to win souls for Christ and have no where to send them for discipleship? Your first order of ministry is the local church. That's where you will receive your commission to go out and that's where you can continue to bring sinners in. Glorify God in your music, not the Hip Hop culture. Do not use secular music to reach the lost because it will not do the job. Only the Spirit of God can draw sinners to salvation.

What is your source of Music!!!

The Corybantes (English pronunciation: /ˌkɒr.ɪˈbænt.iːz/, Ancient Greek: Κορύβαντες) were the armed and crested dancers who worshipped the Phrygian goddess Cybele with drumming and dancing. They are also called the Kurbantes in Phrygia, and Corybants in an older English transcription. The Kuretes were the nine dancers who venerate Rhea, the Cretan counterpart of Cybele, Mother of the Gods. A fragment from Strabo, book vii,^[1] gives a sense of the roughly analogous character of these male confraternities, and the confusion rampant among those not initiated:

Many assert that the gods worshipped in Samothrace as well as the Kurbantes and the Korybantes and in like manner the Kouretes and the Idaean Daktyls are the same as the Kabeiroi, but as to the Kabeiroi they are unable to tell who they are"

A decorous Corybantian dance, as pictured in William Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities^[2] (1870).

These male dancers in armor, kept time to a drum and the rhythmic stamping of their feet. Dance, according to Greek thought, was one of the civilizing activities, like wine-making or music. The dance in armor (the "Pyrrhic dance" or Pyrriche [Πυρρίχη]) was a male coming-of-age initiation ritual linked to a warrior victory celebration. Both Jane Ellen Harrison and the French classicist Henri Jeanmaire^[3] have shown that both the Kouretes (Κουρῆτες) and Cretan Zeus (called "the greatest kouros (κοῦρος)" in the Cretan hymn found in an inscription at Palaikastro)^[4] were intimately connected with the transition of young men into manhood in Cretan cities.

The term "Pyrrhic Dance" in English is a corruption of the original Pyrríkhē or the Pyrríkhios Khorós ("Pyrrhichian Dance"). It has no relationship with the king Pyrrhus of Epirus, who invaded Italy in the 3rd century BC, and who gave his name to the Pyrrhic victory (a victory achieved at such cost so as to be tantamount to a defeat).

The Phrygian Korybantes were often confused by Greeks with other ecstatic male confraternities, such as the Idaean Dactyls or the Cretan Kouretes, spirit-youths (kouroi) who acted as guardians of the infant Zeus. In Hesiod's telling of Zeus's birth,^[5] when Great Gaia came to Crete and hid the child Zeus in a "steep cave", beneath the secret places of the earth, on Mount Aigaion with its thick forests; there the Cretan Kouretes' ritual clashing spears and shields were interpreted by Hellenes as intended to drown out the infant god's cries, and prevent his discovery by his cannibal father Cronus. "This myth is Greek interpretation of mystifying Minoan ritual in an attempt to reconcile their Father Zeus with the Divine Child of Crete; the ritual itself we may never recover with clarity, but it is not impossible that a connection exists between the Kouretes' weapons at the cave and the dedicated weapons at Arkalochori", Emily Vermeule observed.^[6] Among the offering recovered from the cave, the most spectacular are decorated bronze shields with patterns that draw upon north Syrian originals and a bronze gong on which a god and his attendants are shown in a distinctly Near Eastern style.^[7]

Kouretes also presided over the infancy of Dionysus, another god who was born as a babe, and of Zagreus, a Cretan child of Zeus, or child-doublet of Zeus. The wild ecstasy of their cult can be compared to the female Maenads who followed Dionysus.

Ovid in Metamorphoses says they were born from rainwater, Ouranos fertilizing Gaia, which might connect them with the Pelasgian Hyades.

The Kouretes dancing around the infant Zeus as pictured in Jane Ellen Harrison, Themis 1912, p. 23.

The scholar Jane Ellen Harrison wrote that besides being guardians, nurturers, and initiators of the infant Zeus, the Kouretes were primitive magicians and seers. She also wrote that they were metal workers and that metallurgy was considered an almost magical art.^[8] There were several "tribes" of Korybantes, including the Cabeiri, the Korybantes Euboioi, the Korybantes Samothrakioi. Hoplodamos and his Gigantes were counted among Korybantes, and Titan Anytos was considered a Kourete.

Homer referred to select young men as kouretes, when Agamemnon instructs Odysseus to pick out kouretes, the bravest among the Achaeans" to bear gifts to Achilles.^[9] The Greeks preserved a tradition down to Strabo's day, that the Kuretes of Aetolia and Acarnania in mainland Greece had been imported from Crete.[10

The Importance of Accepting Others
A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam.

He called his parents from San Francisco.

"Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've got a favor to ask. I have a friend I'd like to bring with me."

"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him."

"There's something you should know the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mined and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us."

"I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live."

"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us."

"Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He'll find a way to live on his own."

At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him.

A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son had died after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it was suicide. The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn't know, their son had only one arm and one leg.

The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don't like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay away from people who aren't as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are.

Thankfully, there's someone who won't treat us that way. Someone who loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes us into the forever family, regardless of how messed up we are.

Tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, say a little prayer that God will give you the strength you need to accept people as they are, and to help us all be more understanding of those who are different from us!!!

There's a miracle called -Friendship- that dwells in the heart. You don't know how it happens or when it gets started. But you know the special lift It always brings and you realize that Friendship Is God's most precious gift!

Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us.

If You Never...

If you never felt pain,
Then how would you know that I'm a Healer?

If you never went through difficulties,
Then how would you know that I'm a Deliverer?

If you never had a trial,
Then how could you call yourself an over-comer?

If you never felt sadness,
Then how would you know that I'm a Comforter?

If you never made a mistake,
Then how would you know that I'm forgiving?

If you knew all,
Then how would you know that I will answer your questions?

If you never were in trouble,
Then how would you know that I will come to your rescue?

If you never were broken,
Then how would know that I can make you whole?

If you never had a problem,
Then how would you know that I can solve them?

If I gave you all things,
Then how would you appreciate them?

If I never corrected you,
Then how would you know that I love you?

If you had all power,
Then how would you learn to depend on me?

If your life was perfect,
Then what would you need Me for?

Help Us Remember

As followers of Christ, we should never judge and we should never be quick to anger. Read this below as a reminder and give someone a big smile today instead :)

------

Help us to remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day, that she is rushing home to cook dinner and help with homework, to do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.

Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who takes forever at the checkout stand, is a worried 19-year-old college student, who is balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.

Remind us that the scary looking bum, begging for money
in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!)
is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.

Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow
through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.

Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive.
Let us show patience, empathy and love.

Open our hearts not to just those who are close to us,
but to all humanity.

Remind us each day that of all the gifts you give us,
the greatest gift is love.

Encoragement when i need it

"Encouragement When
We Need It the Most"

"They helped every one his neighbour: and every one said to his brother, BE OF GOOD COURAGE". Isaiah 41:6 KJV (Capitals are mine for emphasis)

A GOOD HABIT I HAVE ENDEAVORED TO DEVELOP OVER THE YEARS

No matter who we are, all of us are going through something, and need a word of encouragement. A good habit I have endeavored to develop over the years is to find something good about everybody, and compliment them on it. There are enough people with toxic personalities injecting their poison wherever they go. When people spread gossip and evil reports, don't you feel dirty, and like you need to take a bath? These kind of conversations are non-productive and only serve to drag down those who engage in such practices.

REACH OUT TO THE DOWN-AND-OUTERS AND GIVE THEM A BOOST

When we receive a good report of encouragement it produces the desired affect of lifting us up. There are enough "downers" in this world already without us adding insult to injury to the list. Jesus came to our planet not to push people down further than they already were, but to reach out to the down-and-outers and give them a boost. In my mail it is not unusual to read words such as, "Some days I do not want to live anymore". This does not come from those who do not know the Lord, but from Christians who have been serving the Lord for a long time. They have been so continually put down, that they are despairing of life itself.

THE LORD SEEMS TO ARRANGE FOR GOOD REPORTS TO COME TO US FROM ALL DIRECTIONS

When we need it the most the Lord seems to arrange for good reports to come to us from all directions. Recently friends in Oklahoma and Missouri surrounded me with hospitality and godly love. This included a couple I have known for 30 years, and two professors who were in my meetings about 40 years ago, and the pastor of the mother church of Pentecost on the West Coast, USA, whose life was changed dramatically when he was a teenager in one of the spiritual renewals I preached. Happily they shared with me during a time I needed to hear good reports.

ONE LITTLE WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT CAN TIP THE SCALES

Have you encouraged someone lately? It could make a difference which would make one feel like a failure or a success. People need to feel worthwhile and as though they are needed and appreciated. The devil knows that his time is short and he is pulling out every trick in the book to bring discouragement to those on the front lines of battle of spiritual warfare. One little word of encouragement can tip the scales favorably to be a catalyst to propel one over the top to be the best they can be for the Lord.

Bishop Marvin Schmidt

World Changers International

"Making a Difference in Our World"

Bishop_Marvin@WCI888.com

"Your First Source of Inspiration and Information"

Marvin Schmidt