Gems with LoReign's Daughter

Friends share common interests. My mother used to say that birds of a feather flock together.  We are known by the company we keep. Our character, beliefs, and the position of our hearts are revealed by our behaviors and habits. To be a friend of God, we must represent Him, be like Him, die to our unregenerate ways, be transformed, and renewed to be like His nature.  Let us reflect on these truths: Jesus said we’re friends of God if we obey His Word. (John 15:14) James 4:4 reminds us that we cannot be a friend God while also being a friend to sin.  The Word of God prunes us so that we might bear more fruit to God, if we allow Him to do so. We can’t bear fruit apart from being united with Jesus Christ.  The fruit we bear is to love one another. No greater love has one shown that to lay down His life for a friend. (Mark 12:31) Let us lay down our lives to live for God. (John 15: 13) Or, we can choose to turn away from the Truth. (John 8:42-47)

We remember how King Nebuchadnezzar was appointed by God to take hold of the exiled Israelites. King Neduchadnezzar was used as an instrument by God to enact judgement on God’s people due to their rebellion, idolatry, and stubbornness of heart. Continually, through God’s prophets, God sent word of correction, word of warning, word of impending doom to the children of Israel, but they hated God’s Word. They refused to hear and to repent. Instead, consumed by their own evil desires, they turned to false gods.  Some might say that King Nebuchadnezzar was God’s choice because he had rulership over God’s people, but perhaps the king was only an instrument in the hand of God. Was Nebuchadnezzar a servant of God, or was he only appointed by God without having his heart turned toward God. Was he set in place to rule, but not commissioned or sent? Was he appointed but not anointed? He played a significant part in the fulfillment of the 70 years of exile that Prophet Jeremiah warned Israel o...

When David’s heart was heavy, when he was being attacked and oppressed, when his soul was an utterly broken ruin of despair, he remembered the goodness of God. David remembered the times God revealed His heart and His hand toward him. David looked back over his experiences with God and decided to praise God, yet, again! ( Psalm 42:4, 6, Psalm 103:2-5) David decided to forget not all of God’s benefits. David remembered the lion. He remembered his battle with Goliath. He remembered hiding in caves when fleeing Saul. What battles has God already brought you through? What ways has He already made? Look around you. You are living right now in the midst of answered prayers. As we live in the middle of the "right now" and the "not yet", and as we look perhaps at what is facing us today, let us remember that G od Almighty decrees that He encamps around us (Psalm 34:7, Psalm 125:2). God covers us from all sides. The circle of encampment is special because the number of point...