IN THE STORM WITHOUT AN UMBRELLA

     You get up and get ready for work without looking outside yet. You’re going to wear your nice linen outfit with your favorite pair of fancy flip flops. You’re so excited because you know that when you get to your destination that people will be looking at you in your awesome outfit and say how wonderful you look. You giggle to yourself as you ponder the many compliments you will get. Then you run down to the garage, jump in the car and open the garage door to leave and it’s raining – really hard! “Oh man, so much for my nice outfit”, you say to yourself as you watch the water splashing against your car window while you slowly pull back in the garage to change clothes. “Now I’m going to have to change into my other clothes, get my overcoat, my rain hat, and my umbrella”.


     When it rains, and I mean a downpour, what do you do before you leave the house? Do you just run out into the rain without any protection anyway? Of course not, not most people at least. Most people will make sure they are protected when they know they’re going through the door to encounter a storm. Some will even turn on the TV to get the latest weather report, not just for now but for the whole day so they know what to expect.

     So if you’ll do all of this for a natural storm, why wouldn’t you protect yourself when you’re walking through the open door to the next opportunity that God presented to you. The Bible says in Psalms 27:5, “For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock”. The Lord our God said He will be our shelter during the rain. He will be our umbrella to protect us from the rain if we just take Him with us. The problem is many of us don’t. We run right through an open door without praying and fasting and seeking the Lord on His direction. That’s what I mean when I say carry the Lord with you. When God opens a door for you don’t just jump up and run through it. Make sure you doing it God’s way. When you do, God will bring you through it. Because He is the ultimate “umbrella” during the rain.

God bless you!

Robert T Sells
http://www.robertsellsonline.com/

Proverbs 10:25 “When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever.

Isaiah 25:4 “You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat”.

It is Finished!

     One thing I have not been good at my whole life is finishing a project once I get it started.  When I was growing up I had so many paintings I started but didn't finish.  I actually have 2 of them hanging in my house.  I used to write stories when I was younger and I never finished them.  I used to start ambitious projects like cleaning my room and washing the dishes and I would always leave before I was done.  Well this went into my adult life when I used to always start businesses and never finish them.  I had gotten so good at not finishing things that I had become the "Unfinished Expert"! LOL!!

     After accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior I started reading the bible. Then my church introduced a bible reading program called "Read Through the Bible In a Year".  I figured, "I can do this".  They had a schedule laid out and everything!  I was so excited that I followed the schedule as closely as I can.  There were some days when I missed so I just caught up over the next few days.  Over the year I actually completed reading the Bible all the way through for the FIRST TIME EVER!!!  Imagine my excitement when I realized I actually finished something! 

     But here's the thing that happened during my bible reading.  I learned what happened when Jesus died on the cross.  He was finishing an assignment the Lord placed on His life!  He was dying on the cross for the sins of the entire world! The last thing He said on the cross right before He died was, "It is finished".  John 19:28-30 says, "Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit". So even though Jesus encountered many obstacles and barriers, He overcame them and went on to complete the assignment the Lord placed on His life. 

     Do you have something the Lord asked you to do and you have put it aside for now? Or maybe you faced some opposition that caused you to shrink back? Maybe you thought at some point that you need to prepare better for what the Lord needs you to do?  The truth is that whatever the Lord has given you specifically to do, you already have everything you need to see it to it's completion.  God has given every man a measure of faith and that is all you need to be able to "speak to your mountain".  Be encouraged in your assignment and know that if God gave it to you, you CAN do it.  Trust God to guide you every step of the way and you will finish!!  And when it is time for you to transition to your eternal dwelling with Jesus, you will hear Him say, "Well done my good and faithful servant".  That is the most important thing I want to hear when I meet my Lord. 

     So be encouraged in all you do and continue to move forward.  Don't let anything stop you because the devil will send everything he has your way.  But the one thing He doesn't have is the promise that everything will be alright.  He doesn't have the help of God, who is all powerful and able to defeat any enemy.  Keep this in mind as you move forward in your ministry.  Believe with all your heart and you will succeed in Jesus' mighty name!!  

God bless you!

Robert T Sells
http://www.robertsellsonline.com/
www.youtube.com/theanointedpoet
www.reverbnation.com/theanointedpoet

I'm Getting My Rest - I Think

     I was just reading an article in the paper about how the snowplow operators were so tired and run down after working grueling hours plowing, re-plowing and re-plowing again several back roads in their battle against “mother nature”. The Lord showed me something while I was reading. He said, “This is how it will be during the tribulation period after I take my church back with me during the rapture. Many people will seek and end to the tribulation but they won’t find it. Many people will seek rest from all of the sheer chaos that’s going to happen here on earth after I remove My Spirit from the earth. But they won’t be able to rest, they won’t be able to close their eyes for fear of another tragedy coming.”


     We need to understand that judgment is not ours to do but rest assured judgment is coming to the earth eventually and it will come from God. This will be the result of all of the times we refused to believe God or believe that He sent His Son to this earth for us to receive Him so we may be rescued from the coming destruction. During the first half of the tribulation period many will seek death but they won’t find it. Revelations 9:1-6 (NIV) says, “The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them”.

     Just like those snowplow workers who battled a relentless foe (mother nature), so it will be for those during the tribulation period. But there will be one big difference. The snowplow workers eventually found rest when the storm ended. During the tribulation period, the storm won’t end. There will be a brief time of peace for those who survived the first half when the anti-christ shows himself. But eventually the final judgment will come and the Lord’s armies will rise up and cast all into the lake of fire and brimstone. I’m not making this up. It’s in the Bible. And if we’re going to believe the bible, then we have to believe ALL OF IT. Revelations 20:11-15 (NIV) says, “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire”.

     Don’t wait until the storm comes. By then it will be too late. God doesn’t want to lose any of His children. He said in His word, “Your Father in heaven feels the same way. He doesn't want to lose even one of these simple believers”. (Matthew 18:14 MSG)

Choose Jesus today, because unlike the snowplow operators, there will be no rest when the storm comes.

God bless you!
Robert T Sells
http://www.robertsellsonline.com/
www.youtube.com/theanointedpoet
www.reverbnation.com/theanointedpoet

GOD CARES ABOUT YOU

     I'm looking out the window and we're in the middle of a snowstorm, possibly the biggest one in NW Indiana since the big snowstorm of 1967!  As I look at all of the snow come down, completely covering the nearly 22 inches of snow I just removed from my driveway, I am amazed at God!  Regardless of how much snow falls, each snowflake has it's own unique shape and is completely different from all the others.  That is something that is so amazing about God. 

     God is concerned about us much more than snowflakes.  In Luke 12: 6-8, Jesus was teaching and he used an example of how much God cares for sparrows.  "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows". 

     If God is that concerned about sparrows and snowflakes, then how much more will he be concerened about you. In Hebrews 2:6-8, the word says, “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.' In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them".


     God was so concerned for us that He created us from the dust and breathed His breath of life into man's nostrils.  So when you're going through things think about your heavenly Father and how much He cares for you.  God loves you and He is concerned about what happens to you.  Just as He carefully forms each snowflake differently regardless of how many fall, He is concerned about the details regarding you and your life. 

God bless you!
Robert T. Sells
http://www.robertsellsonline.com/
www.reverbnation.com/theanointedpoet
www.youtube.com/theanointedpoet