This will be the last in this series and I hope you have been blessed and challenged by the subject matter. I would love to hear your feedback on what you got out of the topic. If you have a unique story of a dark time in your life when God seemed silent yet the Lord taught you a valuable truth or lesson I would love to hear about it.

A common problem for many Christians is that they base their beliefs on superstition and legend rather than on scripture. Most will say they have a biblical foundation for their faith, but when questioned with deeper issues beyond simple concepts like John 3:16 they often are lost and can’t explain what they believe nor why. It is my experience that when we can’t explain what and why we believe, we often don’t really believe it. what we say we do. Somehow we have relied on sermons or Christian books rather than digging into the scriptures to discover what is really true and what is just religion or good ideas. 

This is the fourth part of a series on having an “Orphan Spirit” which is defined as a person who, although being a child of God through the sacrifice of Christ, still lives as if they are disconnected from their Heavenly Father’s care and interaction. It is my experience that far too many confessing believers live lives less than God designed or desires. When Jesus said in the gospel of John chapter 14 that he would not leave them (the disciples) as orphans, it was due in part to their feeling of abandonment as Jesus was heading to the cross.

Jonah 1:1-3                                                                                                                                                                        

The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the LORD by sailing to Tarshish.

In the first article on this subject I explained that often we focus too much on our problems and brokenness and thus fail to encourage our walk with focusing on the goodness of God. Let me explain up front that I do not believe you can ignore our many problems or deny them, but if the problem is taking up most of your perception in life you are bound to continue in them and develop greater damage to your soul. As a counselor and pastor I would try to help people see their main problem and then help them focus on God’s ability to resolve and overcome these problems. By helping people see God’s proven faithfulness in other’s lives, we gain hope and confidence for ourselves. If you have not read part one on this same subject please read before continuing with this article.

This is the fifth article in the series “Christmas Time”  and it will be the final one on this topic. I suspect some readers are asking the question, “When Is He Going To Write On Something Else?”  One reason I have done five articles is because I suspect many will still not share Christ this Christmas season. It is my hope that by approaching the subject enough times in print that it will motivate those whose hearts tend toward God and their fellow-man. If I can motivate just one person to realize they have the words of “Eternal Life” in them then maybe they will open their minds enough to open their mouths for Jesus.

This is now the fourth article on Christmas and I want to move from the negative things that keep us quiet to the positive things that result in an expectation that God will use them in ways they may have not experienced as of yet. God is constantly on the lookout for believers that will “Believe” that He is able to do “Extraordinarily More” than we can ask for when it comes to touching the world for Christ. If you haven’t read the first three articles please do so first so that you are able to track my thoughts throughout this topic. These articles are all starting with “Christmas Time”.

I have found that there is no better time to talk about the love of God and the birth of Christ than during the month of December. The real truth is that the radio and TV are doing a lot of the work for us and the Holy Spirit is speaking to the human heart no matter how broken the person may be. We so often are reluctant to share the story of the gospel because we look at the outside of people and think they don’t need our help when, in fact, they are crying out on the inside.

I had intended to only write a three-part article on the meaning and application of sacrifice, but decided to add one more before moving on to another subject. This then, is the fourth and final part of this series on sacrifice so if you haven’t read the first three please do so before reading this one.

This is the fourth and final part on dreams, so if you haven’t read the first three, please do so before reading this final article. Dreams are far more important than we have been led to believe and I believe they can be awakened and developed if we understand their importance.