Good Morning Peeps! How are you doing this Thursday morning, good I hope? Are you having a good work week so far, I sure hope so? Have a good and very Blessed day today and week too! - May God Bless You and Yours In 2018 and Beyond!!! - “Are YOU 100% sure, that you are Saved and headed to Heaven when you die? Are you sure YOUR name IS written in the Heavenly “Book of Life?” Is there absolutely not a shadow of a doubt in your mind, that your Salvation is already secured and you’re just waiting on the good Lord to call you home to be with Him? If the answer is “No, Not Sure, I Think So, Maybe, or Probably, then you need to get busy right now working on fixing that. You need to be totally sure where your Soul will spend eternity!” And AMEN goes right here….
***Remember, if you haven’t purchased it already, my newly published book “The Third Eye Perspective” book of Devotionals is available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Xulon Press in Paperback, Hardback, also on EBook. It is a great gift idea for a friend or loved one! Thank you!
#SalvationIsOnlyThruJesusChrist
“This is the day that the Lord has made! I will rejoice and be glad in it!”
The Third Eye Perspective:
By Carlos C. Brown
Thought For Today – “I Need U To Survive…”
If you would, turn with me to the book of Psalm 23rd chapter, also known as “A Psalm of David.” In these verses you will find the following, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. (2) He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. (3) He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. (4) Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear NO evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. (5) Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. (6) Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” It is with this train of thought, or line of thinking, that it was placed on my heart this morning to talk about, “I Need U To Survive…” And AMEN goes right here! When this one came to me, it was as I was sitting in my favorite chair at home frustrated and deflated over some issues I was having with my truck and one of my horses. The past few weeks, I have had one thing after another go wrong with my truck, and then learn from my farrier that one of my horses has a hoof infection known as “thrush” in all four hooves. And anyone that knows me will tell you, that I am very adamant about taking care of my horses, and vehicle also. I keep my truck serviced regularly, I don’t dog it out, or drive it too hard other than normal driving. But it just seemed like it just up and decided “Hey boss, I want some new parts so I’ll point out the new parts I want you to install. LOL! Anyways, as anyone would probably do in this situation, I started contemplating trading it in and getting me a new or newer one. But the more I thought of having a payment (a pretty good one too if I got the same type of truck) again, the more that just didn’t sound favorable to me at all. I am liking having my vehicle paid off and no monthly payment rolling around like clockwork, and my truck still being in pretty much better than average shape. When my frustration level was at its highest point, I just happen to get a text from my good and dear friend named Miss Nancy. I like to call her my guardian angel! She is the person I deem responsible for me writing my new book “The Third Eye Perspective” that was just recently published. She hounded me almost everyday it seemed until I agreed to proceed with the book avenue, and even help me make it a reality by helping with the editing, and even the artwork for the cover. It’s almost as if she can sense when I’m down or frustrated and in need of encouragement! As she always does when I’m down, she will encourage me with a kind word, or some Biblical scripture. But most importantly, she will not allow me to give in to my frustrations. She will say something like, “Not today Satan, you can’t have Carlos, I cover him with the blood of Jesus” or something to that effect. Then she’ll say in her soft voice that sounds like an angel from God speaking, “Carlos, I need you to survive because I depend on your daily devotionals, and Dawson needs you to survive, the whole world needs you to survive!” Keep your head up buddy, and stay Prayed up, God will end this season of frustration, doubt, and lack in due time!” Lord, THANK YOU for blessing me with true friends like miss Nancy! And AMEN goes right here too!
Now as fate would have it, that one phrase of hers kept ringing true in my mind over and over, “I Need U To Survive.” So much so, that it didn’t take long for me to realize that I was being prompted with a devotional topic. What’s crazy, is that I had heard Miss Nancy say that phrase many times before and it never affected me like it did this day. And as I try to always do, I obeyed and whipped out my keyboard and started typing. My mind started flooding with people from the Bible who were at their wits end and ready to give up or throw in the towel, when God tapped them on the shoulder (figuratively speaking) and said something to the effect of, “Uh Uhhhhh, don’t you dare give up, don’t you dare give in, you still have work to do for the Kingdom. Now pick yourself up out of that self-pity, frustration and despair, dust yourself off and get back to being about MY business!” Immediately came to mind was the story of when the Israelites were in the wilderness for forty years. (read the book of Numbers starting around the 32nd chapter) They (600,00+ men on foot, besides women and children,” plus non-Israelites and livestock according to Exodus 12:37-38) had escaped from Egypt and Pharaoh, but cursed to stay in the wilderness for 40 years until the heads of the 12 tribes had died off. This was due to 10 of the 12 spies sent into Canaan to scout it before taking it over, returning with what they deemed an impossible task of taking the city from its current occupants. All but two of them (Ephraim and Caleb) came back with stories of how impossible it was for them defeat the Canaanites because they were like giants. Upon hearing this, the Israelites became afraid, angry and their Faith was almost non-existent. Some of the Israelite people even contemplated going back to Egypt and back into slavery. They felt it was better to be in slavery that die fighting a winless battle. In my Third Eye Perspective mindset, I can imagine how low the morale was, and all the feelings of hopelessness going around throughout the masses. I can also see that being where God stepped in to stop the bleeding so to speak and tell them “I Need U To Survive,” to all of the ones who still had Faith that Canaan was still THEIR Promised Land. You see, God did not want the Israelites (His chosen people) to return to Egypt and back into slavery. One of the reasons He wanted them out of Egypt was to keep them from submitting to worshipping idol gods. He wanted them only to worship Him and the best chance of that is to #1. Provide them with a great leader (first Moses, and then Joshua) to keep them focused on Him and His will for their lives. And AMEN goes right here also!
The next example that comes to mind, would be the story of Jonah. A Hebrew prophet in the Old Testament who is said to have been swallowed up by a giant fish/whale after he tried to run from God calling him to Preach in Nineveh, so he boarded a ship to Tarshish. As the story would have go, the ship was caught in a bad storm and Jonah ordered the ship’s crew to throw him overboard. Once in the water, Jonah was swallowed by a giant whale (read the book of Jonah). The reason behind the story of Jonah fitting in today’s devotional topic, is that Jonah was being disobedient, and tried to run from God’s mission for him. As a result, the Bible says that he was punished and swallowed by a giant fish. Jonah repented and prayed for forgiveness and then received mercy from God, resulting in the whale vomiting Jonah out of its belly and him carrying out the mission assigned to him, of preaching in Nineveh like God instructed him to. God could have easily allowed Jonah to perish inside that giant fish, but instead, He stepped in and I can almost hear God say, “Jonah, I Need U To Survive! I have plans for you and I need you alive in order to carry them out!” There is an old saying about God, “you can run, but you can never hide from the Lord because He is everywhere!” Ironically, whenever we stray from God nomatter how long, God is always waiting for you to repent and come back. The only problem with that, is the fact that you might run out of “earthly” time in the process of our straying. I am so very glad today, that God placed not only Miss Nancy, but so many other people in my life to encourage me to keep my eye focused on the hills from which cometh my help and strength! I have been fortunate in my life to have people who knew just when the “encourager” needed encouragement and were happy to take on that task. There is nothing worse than being in a season of struggle, and not having anyone you can count on to encourage, uplift, and motivate you to keep on keeping on! Can I leave you with a question to ponder today if I may?
“Who is dependent on YOU to survive? Is it your significant other? Your children if you have any? Is it your friends, or maybe just an acquaintance? Who do YOU need to survive because you depend on them? Can I get an AMEN???
“Today, choose to “Ride or Die” with Jesus Christ! Afterall, isn’t that exactly what He did for us on the cross?”
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