Tag: Learning

Handle With Care

James 2:1-7

When handling something precious and valuable, it’s often advised to treat it with care, and avoid mishandling it, as to respect what it is truly worth. This holds true not only in material things, but also in the realm of the spirit. True value in the life of the believer is made manifest through Christ, and the faith that we have in Him, should be shown to all men equally, and without partiality. For God so loved the “WORLD”, that He gave…, and those who follow after Him, should be willing to treat all men the same, despite their differences.

While it’s obvious the world won’t see things the way the church does, we must still treat them the way we desire to be treated. As for members of the body interacting with each other, the love of Christ should abound in every point of contact. Whether someone was blessed with much, or very little, dissention should never rear its ugly head amongst those who are in the faith. The church should always remain in perfect unity and harmony, so that the Gospel that was preached thousands of years ago, can still be seen, heard, and believed today. Men and women literally died, so that the Word of God could be passed down to our generation, so take pride in knowing that someone who never knew you, cared enough to save you.

Let these words keep you humble, as you show real love to those striving daily, just like you.

Keep your chin up… it’s easier to see Heaven that way,

Ell

Avoid The Shame

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

After creating His most wonderful masterpiece, in His own image and likeness, God knew that soon after man was tainted by sin, he would begin to harbor thoughts more higher of himself than he ought to. God created mankind, not to elevate themselves more than that which pleases the Father, but to walk in humility, so that each member of the family of God, could hear and obey clear instructions on how they are expected to live.

From the time of Adam and his family to now, mankind has become more corrupt, and the mere thought of humility is barely even seen amongst those who claim to be Christians. Fortunately, these times are not surprising to God, nor were they in times past, as He knew they would manifest, so in order to naturally keep men under the subjection of His way of thinking, He allows for foolish things to confound those who are full of earthly wisdom, and has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty in the eyes of men. To confound someone could also be translated as to dishonor, disgrace, or put them to shame.

God loves the world so much, that not only did He give His only Son to save it, but He will continually prove His love by trying to get stubborn men’s attention, even if it embarrasses them. Believe it, or not, there are men walking the earth who think they are the BOMB, when in all actuality, they are no more potent than those little white firecrackers you throw on the ground, that make a little “pop” sound. High-minded, and haughty individuals are in no way capable of carrying the message of the Gospel, nor are they worthy to receive God’s promises, because these persons operate in pride, and 100 percent of men who live with pride in their hearts, always meet an unfortunate, and unfavorable end. If you don’t believe me, look back through history, and you’ll discover that men in biblical times, and most recent, who put themselves before God, never fulfilled what God had predestined for their lives.

Mankind was made to live holy, acceptable, and pleasing lives to God, and while this truth may seem boring or uneventful to some, when a man truly tastes and discovers how amazing God is, they’ll never want to delve into their wicked, and unprofitable past behaviors again. A real God-experience causes the heart of a man to change. If you were once haughty, God can change you to be humble. In those times you may have puffed yourself up to gain the praise of men, but when God touched you, you decided to turn the spotlight away from yourself, and directly toward God.

Walk daily in humility, to avoid being shamed by God, and to always be in the right posture and position, to receive all of His good benefits.

Keep your chin up… it’s easier to see Heaven that way,

Ell

Salvation That Excites!

1 Peter 3:13-19

Aren’t you glad that the Lord saved you from a miserable life of sin? Do you get joy when you consider, Christ suffered and was put to death, so that you could be made the righteousness of God? When you look at the state of this present world, do you rest assured, knowing there’s a better place reserved for you in the next life? Many today are losing faith in God, not because they deny the truth of the Gospel, but because they’ve allowed their suffering to consume them to the point they’ve lost sight of its purpose. Being constantly criticized, falsely accused, or even put to shame can cause anyone to faint or lose heart, but when we sanctify the Lord in our hearts, His Spirit will equip us with what we need to withstand all that comes against us.

Doing good doesn’t omit the church from suffering. In fact, it attracts more attention from the enemies of God. But, we don’t have to faint or become weary while doing the works of the Lord, because in time, we’ll reap a great harvest from our good works.

The church should get more excited concerning their salvation, because it’s the only free gift, by which we were redeemed back to God, and through it, are able to exhibit consistent good behavior amongst a world of evil men. If it had not been for Jesus, where would you be today?

Keep your chin up… it’s easier to see Heaven that way,

Ell

ATTEN-TION!

Luke 6:20-26

Fret not, because of those who appear to be living life a little (or a lot) better than you. Worry not, about men who seemingly have the upper hand concerning matters of finances and other resources. Mind not those things which the world considers as “fancy”, or “flashy”. Don’t lose heart, when your life is full of sadness and pain, while those around you are filled with laughter. Stand strong, even when men hate you, and literally defame your good name. Walk with your head held high, in the midst of snakes, fakes, and ravenous wolves. Be strong, and very courageous, while facing trials and temptations. Get excited, in those moments when you get rejected from the crowd, and appear to be left all alone. While the world makes attempts to keep you in the fog negativity, God will give you strength to endure all of their ploys and distractions. Not only will God keep you in perfect peace during hard times, but He will reward you greatly in Heaven.

Those who seem to be living the “good life” here on the earth, and willfully reject God, will only enjoy good until their death. After this life, comes the judgment, and every man and woman who rejected God, will mourn and weep throughout all eternity, as they spend their next life in that horrible, bottomless pit.

Saints, be encouraged, and continue fighting the good fight. The battle belongs to God, and He’s already won the victory! Soon, and very soon, all our troubles, worries, and struggles will be over, but until then… fight well!

Keep your chin up… it’s easier to see Heaven that way,

Ell

Worthy Of The Kingdom

2 Thessalonians 1:3-5, 11-12

What is the proper way to conduct oneself while facing persecution? Well, there are two answers to that question. One response is fairly simple and straightforward, while the other can oftentimes be rather vague. For the child of God, enduring inevitable persecution requires patience and faith. For those who live beyond the realm of God’s readily available safety, persecution tends to consume them without a sense of reason, or purposeful end. When worldly men suffer, they typically expect others to pity them, and make sacrifices on behalf of their tragedies. On the contrary, when a believer suffers, they endure to prove that in their suffering, they can still perform works that are pleasing to God.

The church doesn’t suffer, so that they can get contaminated government assistance, but it suffers because the world hates the truth, and will go to great measures to silence those who go against worldly beliefs. In our text, the apostle Paul, and those who sojourned with him, were pleased to see that those in the Thessalonian church were continuing to grow in faith exceedingly, and spread love amongst each other, despite enduring persecutions and tribulations. The apostle Paul did not commend the Thessalonian church for building a great edifice, or rendering awesome praise and worship, but he counted them worthy of the kingdom of God, because of their suffering.

When hard times come in our lives, God allows them to test our level of faith in His Word, and to prove to our adversary, he has no claim, nor influence in the lives of God’s people. Take pride in being a child of royalty, and see your suffering as a way to show God that if those who died before us endured until the end, then you can too! “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:3-4).

Keep your chin up… it’s easier to see Heaven that way,

Ell

Don’t Hate, Love

Leviticus 19:13-18

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man… (Matthew 7:21-24a). These were words spoken by Jesus, to teach His followers the importance bringing forth good fruit, for the purpose of edifying God’s kingdom. While some willingly humble themselves, to allow all glory to go to God, others seek vain glory for themselves, and do works to promote their own agendas.

God is all about teamwork, and shuns selfishness and pride. He desires that those who claim His name, not only focus on trying to accomplish major feats in the earth, but place more emphasis on fine tuning the small things. Some of which include loving our neighbors as we love ourselves, being fair in judgment, and paying those you owe on time, and not withholding what’s owed to those who have completed work for you. A few more of those small things God pays close attention to are respecting all men the same, whether they be deaf or blind, poor or rich, keeping the business of others out of your mouth (gossiping), and choosing to love your fellow brethren, rather than hate them, no matter the circumstances.

The church today, should look completely different from the world. Where there’s bickering and arguing amongst the world, love and peace should be found in the church. When the world slander, gossip, and tear down each other’s names, the body of believers should only be heard building, edifying, and lifting each other up.

We are to be the light, salt, and difference in the earth, so that those who are seeking a better way, can be positively influenced from our example. Prove your love to God by being a better you, every day, and let your love for others mirror the love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Keep your chin up… it’s easier to see Heaven that way,

Ell

Prayer Plus Faith Equals Manifestation

James 1:1-11

Bestowing blessings upon a double-minded man, is like giving car keys to a four year old. A child that young, inexperienced, and underdeveloped, can’t possibly operate a vehicle properly, as they are not equipped to do so. God prefers not to bless those who are wavering and unstable in their faith, because doing so could cause them more harm, than good. Can you imagine if God gave everyone all the things they prayed for, even if they weren’t stable in their minds? This world would be in even more chaos than it already is. God is holy, and He is wise enough to know that only when a man’s mind is stable, can he truly benefit from His goodness.

Many people pray to God daily, but fail to attach faith with their requests. For this reason, they accuse God of not answering their prayers, but the problem was not with God, but their lack of faith. Faith is essential for many reasons, but most importantly, it proves that one’s heart is set on God’s agenda, and not on self. When we pray in faith, we don’t stop doing the works of the Lord. Instead, we continue living a holy life, while waiting and anticipating our manifested prayers.

God wants to bless His children daily, but we must do our part by trusting that He knows what’s best for us, and continuing in His divine will. Always remember, the text teaches us, “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways”, and he should never expect God to honor any of his prayers, and only when we function with a sound mind, can God then trust us with His honorable gifts.

Keep your chin up… it’s easier to see Heaven that way,

Ell

Fading Flowers

Isaiah 40:1-8

Unlike the average man, my stance on buying a girl flowers differs from most of them. While I understand the significance of presenting beautiful flowers to a deserving woman, I’ve always held the belief that flowers eventually fade away, so why not get a gal something that last a bit longer, and has more relevance like gas money, or gifts cards to a spa or clothing store. While my popularity with the ladies may not have been ideal, at least when I gave gifts, they lasted a while, and actually made a difference in someone’s life.

As time continues to pass, all things in the earth are steadily fading away; from flowers and trees, to birds and bees. But, there’s one thing that has never faded, nor lost value since it was presented to the world. The Word of God has withstood the times, since the beginning. We also learn from the Scriptures, “In the beginning was the Word”, and today that same Word still stands strong. Throughout each day, men place their trust in things that will inevitably cease to exist, while at the same time, neglecting the only thing that will literally last through all eternity.

God gave the Word, so that men could learn of Him, consider their unhealthy lifestyles, then commit to changing in favor of His way of living. According to the great Dr Kent Hovind, the Bible is simply “Basic Instructions Before Leaving the Earth”. God made the world good, and very good, and He could have made it any other way, but what we see every day, is the awesomeness of His handiwork. While He’s aware that the beauty of this present world is fading, He has His concerns set on the souls of men.

Allow God’s everlasting and life-changing Word to penetrate deep into your heart, so that all He desires for you can be accomplished in the life you live for Him.

Keep your chin up… it’s easier to see Heaven that way,

Ell

Worth The Grind, Refined To Shine!

Romans 5:6-11

According to the website howstuffworks.com, the entire process of gold mining can be broken down roughly into four steps: prospecting, mining, extracting and refining. OceanaGold, a Waihi operation, goes into great detail concerning the gold mining process. This process includes:
1. Mining – open pit and underground
-To define the ore from the waste rock, samples are taken and assayed. Assay results are used to mark out areas of ore and waste rock, which are mined separately. Some of the harder areas require blasting to loosen the rock prior to excavation by hydraulic diggers. Dump trucks haul the rock to the primary crushers in the open pit or to the ore stockpiles from underground.
2. Crushing
-The primary crushers located at the open pit mine site, receive ore and waste at separate times. They break the larger rocks down to a size suitable for transport on the conveyor belt.
3. Transport
-A rubber belted conveyor transports the ore and waste rock from the open pit, approximately two kilometres, via a tunnel through Union Hill, to the mill and waste rock embankments. Large electromagnets remove any steel debris excavated from the old Martha Mine workings.
4. Grinding and sizing
-Ore from both open pit and underground is stockpiled separately at the mill before being fed into a S.A.G. mill with lime, water and steel balls. The larger particles from this mill are returned to the S.A.G. mill for more grinding. The finer particles receive more grinding in a ball mill, and are size classified to give a final product of 80% < microns. See more detail on grinding and sizing
5. Leaching and adsorption
-A slurry of ground ore, water and a weak cyanide solution is fed into large steel leach tanks where the gold and silver are dissolved. Following this leaching process the slurry passes through six adsorption tanks containing carbon granules which adsorb the gold and silver. This process removes 93% of the gold and 70% of the silver.
-6. Elution and electrowinning
The loaded carbon is fed into an elution column where the bullion is washed off. The barren carbon is recycled. The wash solution—pregnant electrolyte—is passed through electrowinning cells where gold and silver is won onto stainless steel cathodes.
7. Bullion production
-The loaded cathodes are rinsed to yield a gold and silver bearing sludge which is dried, mixed with fluxes and put into the furnace. After several hours the molten material is poured into a cascade of moulds producing bars of doré bullion.
8. Water treatment
-Some water from dewatering the mine, from the embankment underdrains and decant water from the tailings pond is recycled for use in the grinding circuit. Excess water is pumped to the water treatment plant and treated to the required standards before discharge into the Ohinemuri River.
9. Tailings disposal
-Waste rock from the open pit mine is used to build the embankment structures. The embankments retain the tailings slurry in a pond where solids settle and compact. Water is decanted off and used in the process plant or treated before it is discharged.

Companies around the globe, work the looooooong mining process for years, to recover precious and valuable ore from beneath the rocks. In the eyes of men, the value of gold (and other precious elements) is worth sacrificing days of hard labor, to gain only a little at a time. In addition, the benefits men gain from mining gold include jewelry, finances, such as gold bars or bullion, conductor for electronics, computer edge connectors and memory chips, dental fillings or crowns, as part of a radioactive solution for some medical diagnoses, awards or decorative gilding.

Everyone born into the earth, take on a sinful nature, and are shaped in iniquity. It’s an unfortunate circumstance, but the cause of such a curse was due to the fall of the first man. While men are inherently unclean, they still have hidden value that comes to surface once they allow Jesus to perform the mining process of their hearts.

For centuries, men have sacrifice time and hard labor to possess gold, but Jesus sacrificed His very life, so that the true value of God’s greatest creation could be revealed. Humans are by far, God’s most prized creation, and once a man or woman fully commits themselves to God’s authority, He will literally reveal their shine to all the world.

Believers are the most precious commodities in the earth, and while gold, silver, and platinum may hold some value, those cannot begin to compare to a Saint of the living God. Giving His life on the cross, was an extremely hard thing for Jesus to experience, but all the suffering, shame, pain, and agony He went through, was well worth it, so that the true worth of God’s people could finally come to light.

Keep your chin up… it’s easier to see Heaven that way,

Ell

No Pain, No Gain

Romans 5:1-5

During this season of pandemic and hard times, many people have resulted to exercise and other physical activities, to distract themselves from their current hardships. While it’s not always fun to workout, consistent and repetitious efforts always improve one’s levels of strength, endurance, and motivation.

There are many different exercises, that affect certain areas of the body. For example, pushups work the triceps, pectoral muscles, and shoulders, whereas squats build your glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, adductors, hip flexors, and calves. Not much is gained from easy workouts, but pushing yourself to your limits and beyond, will prove very beneficial to you the rest of your life.

While physical exercise does good for the natural body, growing stronger in the spirit involves totally different exercises. The text lists the basic process of how a believer grows in God. The first step in establishing a strong spiritual relationship with God is, studying and meditating on His Word. Once you’ve developed a mature understanding of those things you’ve read, prepare yourself to be tested in some of those same areas. Aside from the normal tests and trials of life, God, at times, allows some people to go through tribulations (trouble, affliction, anguish, persecution, or heavy burdens).

The small tests of life contribute to the daily lives of the Saints, but those who endure tribulation gain immense increase in patience, experience, and hope. Patience is a spiritual muscle many fail to exercise, and when the time comes to use it, those who don’t have much of it, often break when pressure is applied.

A great deal of things we learn in life are gained through experience. After you’ve gone through something that has tested your patience to the max, the next time you face a similar situation, you’ll have the experience to overcome it with ease. Experience is a great teacher, but the key is, to actually learn from them, so you don’t repeat them.

When we hope for the right things, we’ll never be ashamed. The average person hopes for possessions like money, cars, houses, and other material things, while the end of those things is destruction. On the contrary, those who put their hope in the Lord, will desire things that have eternal value.

Exercising our spiritual muscles far outweigh any physical workout men can do, and in the eyes of God, it matters more that His people can overcome demonic forces, rather than lifting metal weights.

Keep your chin up… it’s easier to see Heaven that way,

Ell