When LOVE Grows Older

As you advance in days, weeks, months, and years, you will soon discover that you are not near as perfect as you thought you were when you were younger! In plain terms: We ALL possess strengths and weaknesses. The latter tends to be more pronounced with aging ... It is just the way it is on earth!

LOVE's growth on the other hand is inversely proportional to our earthly time. In truth, LOVE is eternal! The "Apostle of love" - 'John the Beloved' - inspired by the Holy Spirit, described Who the Father-GOD is. He wrote: GOD IS LOVE | 1 John 4:8. Not that God has love; no, GOD Himself is LOVE!

The aged apostle went further to state that true LOVE audibly speaks! That true LOVE is demonstrative. That LOVE is a doing word: "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (vs. 9).

Is your love demonstrative? Does it absolutely cost you to love? Or it's the 'same, same', status quo, filling love-quotas minimally?

Now, not only is true, Godly, agape love demonstratively very costly; furthermore, it was 'paid upfront, in full' by GOD's own Son, Jesus the Messiah even while we yet lived riotous, rebellious lifestyles against GOD. This was the commencement of this irrational, inexplicable, overwhelming love of GOD! Jesus explained that our FatherGOD shines both the sunlight and sends rain-showers upon the just and the unjust, alike! | Matthew 5:45. Doesn't the Scripture also say that "the goodness of God leads to repentance" | Romans 2:4?

Mary of Magdala from whom the Lord Jesus Christ had cast out seven strong demons grew to love the Lord, h-a-r-d. Read Jesus' comments about her loving HARD in Luke 7:47 thus: "Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 2 Samuel 24:24 is quite a remarkable memory verse: the Lord had me drill that into my spirit as early as twelve years of age. Here King David was about to raise an altar to the Lord of the field of Araunah the Jebusite after a terrific plague. The erstwhile submissive subject had freely offered the King his inheritance. David had replied him: “ 'Nay; but I will surely buy it from thee at a price; neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing.' So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver."

Ponder within your soul, these questions:

'How much have I been forgiven?'

'How do I love Him: Rough-shod, often showing Him no regards, OR softly and tenderly like Mary Magdalene?'

'Is my offering/gift unto God costing me my all - or nothing at all?'

Most of you are going to be 'playing' loving the Lord, safely! Stop doing that! Love Him back h-a-r-d!

Lastly, the Apostle John described perfect LOVE. He says: It casts out fear. And has no torments | 1 John 4:18-21. I often run into people who blurt out to me "I have trust issues!" That is a hugely, complete statement! This translates into any - or all of the 'summations' below:

• I am wounded. And I will wound back!

• I have been lied to, gossiped about, and back-stabbed. I will punish you if you attempt to talk evil about me!

• I'm quite a piece of ammo, I'll explode in your face if you dare detonate me!

• I'm a time bomb tik-toking to explosion!

• I'm mean - and I know it: I'll cut you to the quick, and won't be sorry that I did!

• Why should you be happy? After all, I am not ...

• I will never trust anyone again! Or you may spend a lifetime convincing me to trust you!

Which is your 'summative'?

Do you know why people have trust issues? It is because of FEAR!

Fear of betrayal. Fear of abandonment. Fear of being 'dogged'. Fear of loneliness. Fear of being vulnerable - because once they become vulnerable, they open themselves to vicious attacks from the wolves among humanity. Fear of evolving into an abuser of the same as they had experienced. Fear of brokenness. Fear of this; fear of that, and many more ... FEAR. FEAR. FEAR.

But the God-kind of love cures and heals your heart, soul, and mind from ALL kinds of fears and its enslaving shackles! This love of GOD doesn't stop at healing and restoring you: He empowers you, despite your visible scars, so as to be able to show empathy, compassion, and understanding to many more of God's humanity without even waiting for a reward! (Cf. 1 John 4:17).

See, when true LOVE grows older, it waxes stronger. It renews. Re-plenishes. Re-invigorates, like sweet new wine!

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Written by Sammy O. JOSEPH.

Photo credit courtesy PULSE Publishing House, UK (copyrighted). Order the book 'APPRECIABLE Gifts' to learn more on how to approach, cultivate and grow the different types of relationships today at the link:https://www.harvestways.org/product-page/your-new-beginning OR order from anywhere books are sold in the world!

The Race is Set!

"Happy New Year!" Isn't that how we have come to learn to say it? It has become our culture and tradition: Actually, the Yuletide season's greetings are lesser than a hundred and fifty hours separated by the thin-line boundary surrounding a bright, and a brand new year! An imaginary line that tens of thousands of souls did not get to cross past the December 31st mark! Life is a race some, simply, are not privileged to complete!

That you're here today, reading this first blog of the new year is an act of the mercy of God! Some more have managed to cross that finish line of the 2021-race into January, only to have succumbed to not witnessing the third as it is today! This is one of the reasons why the living ought to be grateful! Vocalize these words: "LORD, I am grateful that I am alive and well; able to breathe, see, talk, walk - and make use of all my faculties and members to the glory of Your name. I do not take Your grace, for granted!"

You see, it's only when we cultivate the habit of gratitude - not focusing on Mr. & Mrs. Jones' fortunes that we seem to be deprived of - not giving in to the temptations of unbelief, but rather always "strong in faith, giving glory to God" that we will be kept from stumbling at the promises of God in the race en route our Canaanland!

Obviously, God has spoken! He has called out 2022 for us, our "YEAR OF FULL RESTORATION with A Vengeance." If you're wondering how we got to this concept, it was spoken by the mouth of the Lord unto the Prophet Jeremiah concerning Israel's restoration from the land of captivity in Babylon. Just like I am writing unto you, God instructed His prophet to write a letter to the Israeli-exiles in captivity, thus:

"Therefore all they that devoured thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all they that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.

For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after." - Jeremiah 30:16-17.

Would you love to see the goodness of the Lord this year 2022?

Let me share with you from Hebrews 12:1-2 very succinctly how you would actualize this:

1. Recognize that the calibrated timepiece is ON. The race for dominance and the experience of God's prophecies unto you has started!

2. Notice that there are clouds of witnesses, always surrounding and watching how you run this race (Hebrews 12:1). The phrase 'clouds of witnesses' refer to the angels of God, the saints who had preceded you into glory, watching and often cheering you on your race, praying for you to finish well and do better than they had done in their time-allotted spaces. It also refers to fellow citizens of Heaven who are watching your life as an example to encourage their faith-walk/race with God. These are the major ‘clouds of witnesses’ that we would love to reckon with in this discussion!

3. Lay aside every encumbering weight ... Weights are heaviness that drags you down whatever that is. For most people, 'weight' is the past they couldn't let go of ... God says "Cast your burdens upon Me, for I care for you!" (1 Peter 5:7). For some others, it's unprocessed emotion over sad occurrences or losses of the past. Lay it all away from you in Jesus' name.

4. Deal ruthlessly with your besetting sin! What is a besetting sin? It is an iniquity that always overpowers you. You didn't mean to tell a lie, but you have always lied! That's a besetting sin. Or gossiped - and felt so condemned after engagement. And you should feel bad ... But that's not the end of it: Make sure that you confess this sin to God and appropriate the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. Thereafter, get accountable to someone whom you love and trust well enough; let them hold you accountable, even as you hold yourself accountable to them. (This works well in the area of addiction and addictive behaviors). Besetting sins have a free flow into our lives to destroy and ruin us. Even every addiction is besetting, and vice versa! Deal a deathly blow to your addictive behaviors today: Our ministries for the past three decades had always fasted and sought the face of the Lord for the entire month of January of each year, submitting ourselves before His rulership. It's always worked for us. You find what works for you, but deal a deathly blow to your besetting sin(s).

5. Run now with patience! This implies you setting achievable goals: Break down your goals into quarters, and quarters into months, and months into weeks and weeks into days. By the end of each day, you must task yourself to tick boxes of attained targets. You must write out your vision and break it down into achievable and sustainable goals!

6. Finally, constantly looking unto Jesus Christ as your Author and the Finisher of what He has called you to do!
   

May you and I at the end of 2022 be bold enough to declare that this indeed has been our year of full restoration! Amen.

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Written by Prophet (Dr.) Sammy Joseph. Should you wish to book/schedule a one-on-one counseling time-slot with the man of God regarding what subject you've read here, please copy this link onto your web browser: https://www.harvestways.org/counseling

and follow through!

Photo credit: PULSE Publishing House, UK

Copyrighted. Photo must not be reproduced, or altered without the written permission of the owner!)

Driving on an Unfamiliar Country Road

Driving up or down an unfamiliar country road away from major connections to a major highway or a major road network has its benefits. Particularly if you have no satellite navigation device: The journey becomes eerily quiet. It's you - and your instincts. You get lost; drive along, burning gas, music blaring loudly off from your car's surround speakers. For adrenaline-junkies, their thrill has just been fueled! For others, it's time to cry for help sending SOS messages via their cell/mobile phones, awaiting rescue!

I know you'll be asking by now: How can this be? What happened to common sense?

Exactly! Common sense is not always common. People generally may not perceive notions exactly the same way, or operate at the same rates of perceptive understanding!

How could anyone ever drive on a country road without the aid of their map, Sat-nav or GPS device? Isn't that a pertinent question to ask?

Yet, that is exactly what most people in our generation do! Larger than the majority travel through this complexity called life without the compass! The 'compass' of God's Word! Father-God, the Creator of our world - and everything in it - never designed it to be traversed without extensive, day-to-day consultation with His Word!

Consider these truths, individually:

1. Every new 'journey' you undertake is a journey you've never experienced before even if the route is a familiar terrain! So, you would require adequate preparedness, carefulness, alertness, and full observation!

2. Life's 'journeys' are not designed to be taken alone without adequate information and counsel. The big Manual says: "Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety" | Prov. 11:14, KJV.

3. You cannot afford to substitute human rationale for divine counsel - because it is not! "Because the foolishness of God is stronger than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men" | 1 Corinthians 1:25.

4. Human logic may drastically fail; whereas, divine understanding avails! "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" | 1 Corinthians 1:19-20.

5. People, at times, will either be blinded by an unseen fold on the eyes, or be proud to not consider the way of righteousness being freely offered in the moment of their euphoria driving through the unknown, so recklessly. Until the inevitable occurs! But Wisdom cries out: The Devil, the god of this materialistic, sensual, lustful world on intent, blindfolds eyes with scarves of deception and deceit, lest the glorious light of the wisdom of God should shine in on their ‘roads’ | See 2 Corinthians 4:4. Worse off still, you by "chance" drive past whom you by experience do know is lost. You stopped. And then turned your car around to pursue the 'lost' car and its occupants. You flashed them your beam until they stopped. You freely offer them suggestions as to how they will find the nearest intersection that will obviously put them back in touch with civilization. Instead of appreciating you, they rebuffed you; rudely puffed some sweet methol cigar smoke up your face, dismissed your suggestion with a lackadaisical wave of the droopy hand, and tell you to never mind or mind your own business!

Have you encountered hippie-happy folks like these?

I have purposely written this three minute blog today for those of you aspiring to travel a new road; dream of a brighter future, or enthuse of the evolvement of a better you in 2022. It is a proverbial re-telling of over thirty years of experience accumulated in my counseling, praying with, or proffering solutions to peoples' issues. I pray you will emerge with your shiny dreams fully accomplished in 2022. And if by any means you falter, stop immediately; run your checklist through these five points mentioned above. I am assured that the spirit of the living God will re-direct, comfort, and be your Counselor through the new year! God bless you all in all your journeys. Amen.

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Written by Sammy Joseph. Should you wish to book scheduled one-on-one counseling with the man of God, please copy this link onto your web-browser: https://www.harvestways.org/counseling

Photo credit: Stacie Raupp, Missouri, USA.

Sammy Joseph Ministries, U.K. obtained the copyrights to this image. (This is a copyrighted photo that must not be reproduced, or altered without the written permission of the owner!)