Daily Archives: March 7, 2015

by

AND YOU ARE?

Don’t you just love it when you voice an opinion in mixed company only to have the person with the opposing view look at you and say in that smug tone laced with sarcasm and disgust at the mere thought that you could possibly question their obviously superior intelligence, and they say “And you are???
I for one love it! Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of exactly who we are in God.
Elijah the prophet of God, who was allowed to pray that it not rain, pray the rain would return and pray that fire would come down from heaven in the presence of his enemies.
Elijah started those prayers with this statement “If I be a man of God..” Paul, in his writings dubbed himself “The prisoner of the Lord”, James refers to himself as “Servant of Jesus Christ”, John the “Beloved”  and Mary who never gave herself a title but at his feet she knew exactly who she was and she fell absolutely, helplessly in love with him, a love born from being touched by love itself in the most pure form, a love so gentle, humble so powerful that it had restored her soul. She knew to be separated from Him would be a fate far worse than hell.
They and so many more throughout the Bible have a very common denominator, they knew who they were in God and never let anyone convince them otherwise.

Today we hear so many voices telling us what to think what to eat, what to buy, what we should wear, and who would should be, our minds can become so clouded that we don’t even know who were are and we become too quick to forget who were are in Him.
To achieve our purpose in these blessed last days God has chosen us to be born into, please give up a little you time, or TV time, just make a little time to get in that prayer closet, your personal secret place that is just and God, pray and fast, and remember this does not have to be food, you can fast anything.

Salvation and grace are completely free gifts, but to get in position for the last day outpouring of the spirit and great harvest of souls, and to allow him to stir the gifts and the calling he has placed in you, well it requires diligence on your part.
2 Thessalonians 2:3, tells of the great falling away of the church, we’ve been seeing that come to pass over the last few years.
It is a time to weed out those who serve one day a week or for some reason other than a relationship with Christ and they will fall away.

 Those who are willing to make any sacrifice necessary to see His Kingdom come will be those left standing, the approved of God .
The ones before us who held on, no matter what suffering, ridicule and persecution they had to endure. and when they fell they sought God to lift them up again.
David was human just as human as we are, yet he made tragic mistakes but he sought forgiveness.
God said David was a man after his own heart, I know the common thought on it, but I really take it as David sought the very heart of God, to know Him and be part of the very heart of God.
His praise was constant and he continually sought to have his heart searched, cleansed, restored and anything that may stand between them to be removed.
God wants to help us and there is nothing inside of us that He doesn’t already know. He is a supreme gentlemen, he will never embarrass you ,or tell the whole world all of your secrets. He wants us to bring everything to Him and  admit that we have problems so he can help us.
Everyone needs trusted prayer partners but you also need that one on one with God, seek purification, seek out the calling and gifts and seek confirmation of them at church.
We can feel lead in certain areas, but I tell you ,whatever area of ministry that stirs your heart is usually where your calling will be found BUT always study God’s word and if seems like a foreign language in the King James , get the New King James, it’s more easily understood, there several of versions of the Bible out there but I personally stop here, but no matter what you are called to do, you must have a good foundation of the word of God. It protects you from false doctrine especially when you are seeking.

“Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which is given thee by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.” 1 Timothy 4:14

I feel this is another shortcoming of modern churches today, we are to seek these gifts because they are not for us, they are needed to accomplish the work in the Kingdom.

“Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly unto them; thy   profiting may appear to all. TAKE HEED UNTO THYSELF, AND UNTO THE DOCTRINE; CONTINUE IN THEM: FOR IN DOING THIS THOU SHALT SAVE THYSELF AND ALL THAT HEAR THEE.” 1 Timothy 4:14,15

The time has come to seek and stir up those gifts of God, as he said if you will do these things you will see the lost saved.
And while seeking, the enemy will rear his head to attempt to discourage you, and he will ask “And you are?” 

Take your answer from Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:10 (a)”But by the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain:..”

We are the generation chosen to seek His face, now it is up to us to believe that!


Original Post Date: 02/15/14  Φλογίζω/  All Rights Reserved.  Nina BrownJohnson/ 2015

 

by

TRIP JUNKIE

Trip junkies, thrill seekers who use physical danger to satisfy the psychological and emotional cravings that feed something so much deeper and much more darker.
Cravings so dark, so deadly and so primitive that they are as old as sin itself.
It comes in a variety of forms and varying degrees of severity. It can be found in the need to watch horror movies, gambling, drag racing, sky diving, seemingly minor things, but if you are the personality type that is prone to thrill seeking then it may make its way into darker, more dangerous places because with each trip taken, the thrill level is harder to reach.
It often equates not to circumstance or demonic forces, but simply to this, it’s not about reaching the destination, it’s all about the trip getting there and we are the ones who drive that spiritual vehicle.
Samson, Samson, Samson who should be the warning poster child for trip junkies worldwide. Even though his birth had been foretold to his parents from the mouth of an angel of God, he has been given super human strength as an extension of the very arm of God and in fact was created for one purpose to be, as I like to call, God’s handcrafted Philistine killing machine.
Despite the hand of God on him, all his strength and foretold prophecies he still could overcome his greatest enemy, HIMSELF.
Having an arrogant, self servicing, self-righteous personality coupled with his bad attitude and unrestrained lust, not just  with women either but in every area of his life.
Every thing he was told, rather commanded not do, he did, going to the dead lion to retrieve the honey, using the jaw bone as a weapon, being a Nazarite he was forbidden to go near anything dead, but for him the rewards of his desires far outweighed the sin of the matter.
And as sin goes, he fed it to others in the form of honey not telling where it had come from, because sin always drags others down with it.
He was the proverbial moth to the flame. He loved playing games and seeing just how far he could go before he lost. Even knowing present dangers he chose to ignore warning and brush it off, choosing to rest assured in his own arrogance.
“Pride goeth before a fall and a haughty spirit before destruction”.  The day came when the twisted game of “How may I kill you?”
that he had been playing with Delilah lost its thrill, his nerves finally shot from her constant badgering because this was the third time they had played this. Each time she asked for the secret to his strength, each time he would lie to her and wake up the next morning to find she had done to him exactly what he told her would defeat him.
So giving into yet another forbidden thing, he told her the truth of his great strength. I have yet to figure out if Samson just did not believe all he had been told or if he had grown so prideful that he really thought that he could lose his God-given abilities and still somehow defeat his enemies.
Trip junkie mentality . A game, played a little too often in our Christian walks, there is no “little” sin. We are born into sin, of sin, and by sin and there is no good thing in us until we accept Christ,
and even then we have to follow David’s example in being very diligent in seeking God, asking him to search our hearts and show us the things hidden in us that the enemy can so easily use against us.
1 Corinthians 10:13 teaches this,” Wherefore let him who thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
want to know Samson’s deal? He never cared, he never tried, he never wanted help because he was so blind to the fact that he needed it!
He, like Paul had to be allowed to become physically blind so God could reveal to them their spiritual blindness.
Sometimes we are blind, blind to our flesh and our own trip junking
that we never realize that the road we are on leads straight into a place that we will one day wish to God we had never gone.
The hardest fight we will ever fight is not against Satan, demons, or all the forces of hell that Jesus fights for us. It is the fight within us, the flesh and the spirit that he has given freewill to. That is who we must fight against every day and learn to submit our flesh to the will of the Lord, because we can’t win that one without Him.
So if you’ve been feeling tempted or have something your having trouble letting go of, take it to the throne, he knows we have problems that is why he saved us!
Take it all to the cross, confide in a trusted prayer partner or request unspoken prayer.
He will help you, just as he helped Samson who once he realized his folly, repented and called upon the Lord, God answered, blessing the desire of his heart, allowing him in vengeance for his eyes to literally bring the house down on his enemies, killing more with his death than ever with his life.
Samson is my Bible favorite, so never feel alone, anything that you are struggling with you can be assured a fair share of your brethren have also, don’t beat yourself up, just let him help you. Rest assured in the world of trip junkies it truly takes one to know one. 

https://youtu.be/QASREBVDsLk
Check out “Slow Fade” by Casting Crowns shared from YOUTUBE, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Original Post Date: 08/22/2014

 Φλογίζω/All Rights Reserved.  Nina BrownJohnson/ baresoulphlogizo 2015

by

AMONG THE THORNS

“As the lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters” Song of Solomon 2:2
The beautiful spiritual garden of the Lord, filled with every plant and flower to be imagined and the plot he has chosen for you to grow in.

You have been created in the image of God, the enemy knows this and he knows the value of the true beauty which you possess. He despises it, so he plants his briers in your life to rip and shred that image until there is nothing left but bloody, twisted, painful wounds.

Thorns, the gnarled twisted vines that entangle us and who we believe ourselves to be.

Their razor-sharp points piercing our souls, preventing our movement in either direction for fear of their sharp sting. If left to grow they will completely take over our souls.

Proverbs 12:18(a): “There is that (one who) speaketh like the piercings of a sword.” 

We go through some pretty rough stuff in this life but often the real damage to us is not caused by physical sufferings but rather through words.

Words are so powerful, that is why Jesus is referred to as “THE WORD”, He spoke everything into existence and the enemy loves nothing more than to battle you with his own perverted, twisted, destructive words.

As the Bible states, those words stab our hearts, souls and spirit to a greater degree than any dagger ever might, because these cuts go straight to the heart.

“Four Eyes”,

“Dumb”,

“Stupid”,

“Wimp”,

“Fat”,

“Bone rack”,

“Flat chest”,

” Slut”,

“Idiot”,

“Cry Baby”,

“Should have never been born”,

“Never will amount to anything”.

Of course, they are always offered to us with the all too familiar, “YOUR…” which automatically red flags our minds which have been programmed to the values of this world and our social need to conform to default to self-blame.

It hurts just reading them doesn’t it?

These words are so powerful and carry so much force that even not being spewed hatefully at us, they still affect our emotions.

Words piercing our souls, and so many young men and women in our world today have listened to those words and the thorns that accompanied them are now strangling everything a Holy, loving Father has created them to be.

Society has set levels of supposed beauty and social conduct that are both impossible to achieve and disgraceful.
We have all been there at one point or another in life, maybe you are there now and the effects of these words can linger for life.

Self destruct mode takes over when those thorns have convinced us that rather than rid ourselves of them, that we must instead change ourselves to accommodate their presence.

IF we were prettier, more handsome, bigger busted, more muscular, slimmer, sexier, had better skin, whiter teeth, had more friends or could get that perfect date.
Maybe we could fit if… we drank more, tried the cool drugs, give our virtue away to everyone who asked, losing a little of our soul each time, joy, self-esteem and self-worth being strangled out, while depression, guilt and shame moves insidiously and comfortably into their spot.

Achieve one goal and a new one will be set because that score board is rigged and it forever changes to keep the players on the field right where the enemy wants them.

If it is so grand, why do so many celebrities commit suicide and die from drug overdoses?
Their souls have become so covered by thorns even all the money, fame and power can’ take the pain away, they are so miserable inside that they can no longer survive the torment of living.

These thorns manifest themselves in many, many ways the most common alcoholism, drug addictions, pornography and gambling addictions, cutting and eating disorders and host of self-destructive behaviors.

We, as Christians must get our heads out of fairy land and see what is really taking place in the lives of those Christ sent us to minister to and start acknowledging that these problems are very real and offer help to the untold number of teens and adults that suffer alone in silence, fearing that they will be farther ridiculed if their secrets are out.

We have to teach them that is okay to talk about these things and that there is help and most of all there is hope.
The realization has to come that THERE IS NO STANDARD!

We are fearfully and wonderfully  created, completely on purpose by someone who loves and does not make mistakes.

He wants us all to feel beautiful from the inside out and most of that our true value will be found in Him.

That we would understand that true beauty comes in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors and personalities.

Just as roses, daisies and orchids are completely different and yet all equally as stunning.
His love is as the lily, the beautiful precious thing, completely surrounded by those thorns.
His love and His love alone is the only force that can cut all the thorns away and allow us to grow in that beautiful garden, being ourselves, just exactly who he intended us to be.

Hold on to God, give him all your pain and trust him because “HE IS THE ROSE OF SHARON AND THE LILY OF THE VALLEYS” and you are beautiful in Him!
Original Post Date:06/06/2014 

All rights reserved. Nina BrownJohnson/ baresoulphlogizo 2015

Part 1 ASHES

Gallery by

ASHES

Ashes, sometimes all that is all that is left of what once was your life all that was held precious and dear, all that is left of what once was and most importantly what will be never again. Maybe you feel that way today, maybe you have wounds that are so deep, wounds that are […]