Tag: God

Only for a Moment

Featured Rev. Nina Brown Johnson

“We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore I have spoken, we also believe, and therefore speak; 

Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us (disciples) with you.

For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. 

For which cause (for this reason) we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 14:14-18

The Gen Z’s use some of the coolest slang, just as all generations do, as teens we all need our own language to set up apart from the fogies that came before us.

My favorite that I think applies here is “That’s the hill I’m gonna die on.” It means exactly what it says, it is absolute determination.

A stance taken so strongly that come what may we will not be shaken or moved away from the belief that we hold to be true.

We looked at some of the things Paul had suffered in our past post and how he had come to terms with what he had suffered and at the time of his writing still suffering.

The days in which we find ourselves are extraordinary days, as what can be shaken will be shaken.

Think of it this way, if you were trying you best to take water to someone who is on the ground dying of thirst and there is another person standing right beside them that wants them to die and the closer you are to reaching them with that water, the more that adversary tries to prevent you from getting there, finally the enemy resorts to literally picking up whatever can be found and hurling it your way in hope of stopping you from proceeding any father.

That is the reasoning behind many of the afflictions suffered by God’s people.

God does not send bad things our way as punishments or because he doesn’t love us, it is all part of being human being on this earth and as you read what the disciples and martyrs suffered you also see that with pivotal spiritual times the afflictions are greater. 

But we also have been blessed with instructions for us to not only survive but to eventually thrive even in the darkest of times.

Thinking about what they suffered, they had the Old Testament, but they were living the New.

They had to trust and to know and to believe that everything that they knew of Jesua and his teaching and for some of them even knowing him personally was true and accurate and to place not only their mortal lives but their very souls in his hands.

They seemingly were going against in a sense everything that they had been taught while actually in truth they were embracing all that had been taught only on an entirely new level.

These guys had to go against the leaders, the elders, and I am sure in many cases, against their own families to preach and believe and share the Gospel.

They were beaten and hated, and imprisoned from all sides, their own people, the Romans, everyone and everything trying to stop that which is unstoppable.

The “wearing out of the saints’ described in the Book of Daniel.  All very specific spiritual times in not only human history but eternal history.

Paul resolving that these suffering were a light affliction and only for a moment.  

In the eternal span of infinite time, they were and so are our sufferings, that does not make it any easier, but God left us his words as a reminder of these things,

What we suffer now is nothing in comparison to the wondrous glorious eternity that we will one day embrace and all the sorrow, and all the trials, and pain of this life we no longer even come to mind because we will forever dance and rejoice with the Lord himself.

Renewed day by day in our spirit by that hope and promise. 

The only way we will hold on is to have that resolve that this is the hill we are willingly to die on.

Taking life one day at time, this is why Jesus warned us not to worry about tomorrow.

It is very hard not worry or ponder the future, we have to pray and completely reprogram our own brains as in this world we are taught from birth to worry about the future, but the world knowledge is completely contrary to God’s knowledge.

Believe me I struggle with all these things too and no one is exempt so don’t ever feel like you are alone. we strengthen each other by sharing our faith and praying for each other.

Seasons do change, sometimes it may feel like the longest “winter” of life, but we can look back and see other times in life when God faithfully took us through other situations that we thought would never end.

And when you stand before the Lord and hear “Well done, my good and faithful servant” and enter into his joy. every moment of this life will be as nothing.

Revelation 3:21: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame, and am set down with my father in his throne.”

 

A Little More Hope

Rev. Nina Brown Johnson

“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for it? Romans 8:24

Hope is one of most powerful forces given to us. Hope can truly make difference between life and death and it second only to love.

1 Corinthians 13:13: “And now abideth (continues forever) faith, hope, charity (love), these three; but the greatest is love,”

Hope makes it possible for us to be, believe that good news will come, believe that things will turn around, believe for lost loved ones will come into the sheepfold.

We hope for things planted to bloom, and we hope for the future to be better than the past.

Hope is one of the most dangerous things to ever be lost.

Job in his suffering in the midst of the attack of the devil on his life, said this: “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.” Job 7:6

When we are young time seems completely irrelevant, seems to drag on and on… as we wish our lives away with thoughts and hopes of our exciting life ahead, with no one telling us what to do or how to do it. but soon those days come, and seasons change.

As we age and grow, we realize how fast it really has gone by and it seems with each passing day that invisible clock speeds up, ticking away our mortality.

Teenaged freedom fantasies turn to fearful futuristic thoughts of uncertainty, and making our own decisions reveals its own reality of being responsible for those decisions and the consequences of wrong ones.

Job was completely laid waste by the enemy, and he had no hope in this world.

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” 1 Corinthians 15:19

Our true hope most rest in the afterlife, we can and do certainly have hope in this life, but our main focus must be on the next.

Hope can be and often is the deciding factor between victory of defeat in this life and we can live on this earth for years and years without any hope in today, tomorrow, or next week.

We can be alive on the outside and we can even be truly saved and still be without hope.

We can ask for that hope, we can ask to have the newness of hope renewed in our lives because joy, peace, love, and hope all good things God will give as we ask, believe, and have patience in his timing.

Something that usually does not happen instantly, but you can later on look back over those times and see changes happening slowly each day.

Hope for this life and the hope in the next life that will take us all the way, no matter what the future brings.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3

We are dead and truly hopeless without Christ and God who had created us, brings us again to himself, giving us the most amazing promise of eternal life.

Resurrected and with Jesus forever, what could ever give us more hope?

I know this has been a running theme, but we need what we need and most of us can always use a little hope.

“Looking fior that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13

Have a blessed day.

NBJ 2024/ Rev, N Brown Johnson

Just What We Need

Rev. Nina Brown Johnson

“(A Psalm of David) The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall, I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh (to destroy me), they stumbled and fell.

Though an host should encamp against me (a great army surround me), my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

One thing have I desired (asked) of the LORD, that will I seek after (will pursue): that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion (tabernacle, dwelling place): In the secret place of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me upon a rock.

And now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me; therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy: I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.

Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: Have mercy upon me also and answer me.

When thou saidst (you said), Seek ye my face; My heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD will I seek.”  Psalms 27:1-8

Good morning! Good evening and all that other jazz! Depending on when you are reading this.

It is raining at my house, it’s kinda chilly but still beautiful on all the tree blooms. Sometimes rain can beautiful but sometimes the rain just reminds us of all our tears, and we see no beauty through them.

That passage was on my heart this morning.

David was such a character, and he truly embodied every emotion that we go through.

He was up, he was down, he was hunted, he was king.

He was ridiculed, he was victorious, so many emotions and circumstances and God established his throne forever.

His brother jealously hated him, when God sent the prophet to anoint a new king, he was so insignificant to his family as far as their thoughts for his future that they did not even bother to call for him and yet he was the chosen.

He fought a lion, a bear, in defense of the sheep he was to protect, which was just the warm-up for the fight against a giant in defense of his people.

Him being the only one courageous enough to accept the challenge of the enemy. That acceptance leading to the further mocking and disdain by those whose own cowardice manifested through their hatred toward him.

The victory over the giant leading to more animosity from even the homicidal king himself, whom he had to hide from until the danger was over past and he would go on to fight army after army.

Being human, good choices mingled with tragic mistakes, but in all situations seeking God and his wisdom.

It was a process, and through every step of that process, he learned, and he sought, and God gave him all that he needed at the perfect moment in his need.

David’s enemies were human, humans influenced by forces of the enemy, and we also fight those enemies and the foes we often face are the foes of emotions, the losses, and grief, sorrow, and hopelessness that it all brings, and it comes to us all at one point or another.

David was learning the secrets to life as he was living life and God through his word has shared all that David learned with all of us.

He learned that nothing on this earth was of a greater benefit than seeking the face of God and resting in those secret spiritual places.

In his losses and in the losses of family, and in the pain and loss of his own son rising up and waging war against him, God saw him through it all.

Jesus is our secret place. He is our pavilion, our healer, our strength and He will be anything we need him to be in our lives.

He destroys our enemies, slays our giants, and still dries every tear.

“When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.” Psalms 27:10

When we have lost through death or simply have been abandoned as described here:

Job 19:14: “My kinsfolk (family) have failed, and my familiar (close) friends have forgotten me.”

There is a greater friend.

John 15:15: “Henceforth (from now on) I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

The dwelling place literally means to live in God and in his protection, his rest, and ask him and then allow him to be everything we need.

It is perfectly fine to ask him to fill all those voids left in our hearts, it is perfectly fine to ask him to just hold us in his spiritual arms and just let us cry, as a good earthly father will hold and comfort his child, allowing us to let go of all the vulnerability and pain, allowing us to feel safe, protected, and loved.

Years ago, I was going through something and was just at the end of my rope feeling so overwhelmed, helpless, and alone, I had family and friends I could call, but this was a different kind of thing. I had just cried and cried and finally I just said “Lord, could you please just hold me?”

And he touched me with all of it.

I wondered after the fact, is it even okay to ask for such a thing?

I went to church and at the time our pastor was a lady, who had been one of the first female pastors in our area and had gone through tremendous persecution for obeying God’s call, she has since gone home.

She testified one night shortly after my experience, her husband had been very sick, and she was sitting there crying and explaining what she had been through and feeling terribly lost and alone, with her husband sick and hospitalized, she said she just sat at her kitchen table and asked Jesus to please hold her, and he comforted her through the terrible ordeal.

“For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and my mother.” Mark 3:35

He is our Savior, our deliverer, our healer and he will be family, he will our friend.

Proverbs 18:24 “… and there is a friend that sticketh (stays) closer than a brother.”

Allow him to be whatever you need today. He loves you and will take you every single step of the way.

Sending prayers of Love & Peace your way!

NBJ 2024/ Rev. N Brown Johnson

Signs of the Times

Rev. Nina Brown Johnson

“And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against (across from) the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,

Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?” Mark 13:3,4

The greatest question in human history. Since Jesus ascended back into heaven after his resurrection, everyone has wanted an answer to this.

Even the disciples who believed that he would return during their generation because the wickedness was so great and we can see why they would think that with all the tortures and demonic evil of the Roman persecution.

Slow burning Christians to use as torches for the city and to light their parties. Pure evil, as the demonic rises in every generation.

But we can certainly understand why they thought that with that kind of evil the world was surely coming to end,

They saw vicious cruelty; we have seen wicked perversion and the slaughter of innocents.

Just as Jesus warned in advance our society would become as violent as Noah’s day and as sexually perverse as Sodom and Gomorrah.

As the world awaits Eclipse 2024, it is a great time to get people thinking about the Gospel but there is also no need for his children to be horrified.

He does not want us to be afraid because when everything is fulfilled, we will be with him, and he will reign over earth, and it will be beautiful.

We just fear the unknown, and I will tell you, for me personally, the thought of the sky, all the clouds, the entire firmament of what we see as humans looking up, to just roll back as if you rolled up a sheet of paper, is horrifying.

The knowledge that an earthquake so strong that the earth will literally rock on its axis is horrifying. Even though we know that it is part of the return of the Lord and that he will keep us safe and never harm us in anyway, it is still horrifying.

That is one of the reasons, in my belief, that he removes us, obviously to save our lives but to protect our minds, we couldn’t bear witnessing the carnage and the destruction, so we are moved safely away.

For sake of not being redundant, I just want to highlight a portion of his teaching on the end-times.

You can read a more detailed post on my sister site by clicking here. Hopefully that will also help ease the fear, you can also use that search bar on the site and search end times for much more on the topic.

But for today, let’s check out what he said:

“But in those days after the tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great glory. 

And then he shall send his angels, and shall gather together his elect (people) from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven,” Mark 13:24-27

There will certainly be many scary events that take place as time fulfils, Jesus even told us that men’s hearts would fail them for fear of things coming upon the earth.

But we are not to be afraid because we are his, and he gave us these signs to watch for so that we would know what is taking place as it unfolds.

Scripture tells us that not even Jesus knows the time of his return, not the angels, no one except the Father.

As he also taught us, his return will be as a thief in the night, which means it will be a complete surprise to the secular world, only understood by those who are awaiting his return.

Which will be without further warning to those who have rejected the warnings and rejected Christ. These events will be supernatural, and it will never be as easy as science having advance knowledge of such things, as they do solar eclipse and meteor showers, when this happens it will be cataclysmic,

It will not be something people will travel to watch as am entertaining journey. The end time events will literally be the powers of heaven shaken and that will be a terrifying event.

Love & Peace till next time!

NBJ 2024? Rev. N. Brown Johnson

Freely Given Grace

Rev. Nina Brown Johnson

“And you hath he quickened (made alive) who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

Among whom also we all had our conversation (conduct) in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”  Ephesians 2:1-3

We’ll be getting back to that passage, but I wanted us to go over a few a time, I know we are all wired differently but for me it makes it easier to understand.

It’s like reading one scripture and cross referencing and really studying it out as opposed to reading and entire chapter at a time. either way is great, our relationships with God are induvial and we all learn in different ways.

But for me I can spend three hours cross referencing and gleaning one scripture and discover something new every single time and feel alive and refreshed.

But if I just sit down and read an entire random chapter, for sake of reading my Bible, I often find when I am finished, I have to ask myself what I had just read, just doesn’t sink in and the thirty minutes spent have exhausted me.

That’s important to know when studying the word. Just go with it as you feel in your heart, if you feel that excitement that you just have to know more, keep going but if you read a verse and you feel good right there, leave it right there.

When the Bible tells us that the Word of God is easy to be intreated, it means that it should be simple, pleasant, and good food for your soul.

We should never feel like we have to force that, it’s not meant to be. Trust God, he will lead you.

In this passage he is explaining that God has revived our spiritually dead souls to make alive in him. Even though we were spiritually dead when we were in trespasses, which is times of not even realizing that we were being disrespectful to things of God and also in outright sin, things we knew to be wrong.

Enlightening us to the knowledge that in these past times we were behaving exactly as the world, society, and all those constant voices that their best convince us that something is right when we know deep down inside it is wrong.

Those voices are at the urging of the devil, as he is the price of the power of the air, referred to in this verse and it clearly points out that is that same spirit that is working in our society in those who hate Christ.

We were all in the world, in the flesh, in the desires and deceived rationale of our own thinking and that is just our nature by birth.

We only understand what is means to truly be alive when we accept Christ and become alive in him.

We can be eighty years old and be spiritually “dead as a doornail” accept Christ and become alive and new as a newborn baby.

This is the reason we were give scripture that assures us that there is no condemnation when we are in Christ.

It is our sword to fight the enemy as he tries to fill our minds with doubt, regret, and all the negative emotion that God does not want us to be slave too.

And the more you seek God in prayer, just talking to him and have your personal relationship with him, the more you will find his presence with you.

Ephesians 2:4-9: “But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ; (by grace ye are saved)

And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places with Jesus Christ.  

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. 

Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Beautiful.

Again, we are reassured that God does intentionally care for us and loves us so much that even when we were still in our fleshy, human nature his love and mercy comes to us and literally resurrects our souls as he resurrected Christ.

He brings us into the joy and presence of those spiritual places that are accessed only through the blood of the risen Lamb.

It is completely grace, simply there for the asking, through faith, which is simply believing that his word is true.

We ask and it is given and not required to do certain works or given a set quota of tasks that must be performed before we are given salvation.

We are equal, it is freely given so that no one can be prideful in their own works or use that to try to make another feel inferior.

We are not granted access to heaven through works on earth, we are granted access by our acceptance of Christ.

We are rewarded in heaven for things done on earth but that is for another post 😊It has absolutely nothing to do with salvation and God’s goodness towards us,

God loves us simply because he loves us, we do not have to work for it.

We just have to accept it.

Thinking of those that we love in our lives, we don’t require then to do certain things to attain that love and we love them in everything, if they’re grumpy, happy, sick, well, whatever the case. We do whatever we can to help them when they need us not desiring anything in return.

God has a love so much greater than that toward us, it is a love that humans do not even have the mental capacity to comprehend because it is so great,

So don’t ever doubt his love for you, just rest and rejoice in that great love, it is always there for you.

Love & Peace, Thanks for reading! NBJ 2024/ Rev. N Brown Johnson

“Nearness of God.”

Rev. Nina Brown Johnson

“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.

While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:

In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,

And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and the daughters of musick shall be brought low; 

Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:

Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern (different stages of life that death may come). 

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.” Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

King Solomon was God’s chosen heir to his father King David’s throne.

God had given him the blessing of asking for anything and it would be given. Solomon chose wisdom and God granted it beyond measure.

God was pleased with his choice and graciously added to Solomon incredible wealth and peace from all wars for his kingdom.

However, Solomon still being human, as are we all, at the end of his life found that he had not only disobeyed God in his multitude pagan marriages and worship of pagan deities, but he had also failed to recognize the greatest gift, the gift of time.

Upon this realization and his return to the truth of the true God Jehovah, he wrote this passage among many realizing the frailty of life.

As he wrote this as a gentle reminder to the young to not make those same mistakes.

Instead to serve God and enjoy a full life by choosing the right paths. We can clearly read many emotions coming through, depression, sadness, and regret at the realization of age, the happy days that are past and the joy that was taken with them.

In life we too can find ourselves in those dark, dark places, where the evil days have come, days that have taken loved ones away, and as he so beautifully and poetically described the stages from miscarry to old age while giving us that shred of hope that even after the life of the earth is over the eternal awaits.

But even knowing that, our hearts are still left helplessly broken and we have no pleasure in our days because we cannot see a future ahead.

It was not just Solomon who suffered this, it would be a stretch to find anyone written of in the Bible that did not go through these emotions.

Job from our last post, Jeremiah the Prophet had both expressed quite clearly that they had moments of wishing that they had never even been born.

Jesus himself praying alone in the garden that the cup would pass from him, that the horrible death that he had been sent to accomplish would not come. He also prayed that it would be his Father’s will and that his will be done.

The third time that he prayed his sweat became drops of blood, this was his answer and while no human offered him comfort, his Father sent holy angels to strengthen him.

Many others found throughout the pages of the Bible were fraught with sorrow, anguish, discouragement, and distress and I personally believe that we were given all those accounts to give us the hope to go on.

The common denominator with all their accounts is this, once they expressed their anguish, many of them to God, and some he sent angels and to some he himself came. such as when Elijah the prophet just wanted to go, and not home but to go out if this world.

Having these emotions and times in life does not mean there is something wrong with us, it means that we are human.

And once they worked through those emotions and voiced their hurts and fears to God the door opened for divine intervention, and they found help and renewed hope.

God did not love any of these more than he loves you.

He loves his children and when we are in pain he is in pain.

I have used this many times but when Mary and Martha were crying because their brother Lazurus was dead, Jesus cried also, he knew that he was going to raise Lazurus from the dead and this proves to us that he was crying because his daughters were devasted, it broke his heart to see them heartbroken and it breaks his heart when ours is also.

When he told us to “Come unto him” he means literally with everything and he will listen and he will heal us, that does not mean that it will never hurt again but he gives us his supernatural help to see a way forward.

With that I want to give you some scripture to pray as you talk to him and ask that he take it all away. Let his word encourage your soul in his promises, which he will never ever break nor can he, by his own words he has promised us that.

Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end (future).”

Psalm 50:15: “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”

Isaiah 43:2:” When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” (He will save us through all the sorrows and trouble, even when we feel overwhelmed)

Psalms 57:17: ” The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite (literally crushed) heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”

This means we give him our pain and he will never reject us in doing so.

2 Corinthians 12:9: “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

He wasn’t saying that he enjoyed suffering it was that he had come to understand that his worst moments were in fact the moments that the presence of Christ was nearest him.

John 14:18: “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.”

Matthew 28:20: “…and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

Love & Peace to you today.

NBJ 2024/ Rev. N. Brown Johnson