What is or isn't?

I write this post as a believer in Jesus that has struggled with forgiving people who have harmed and hurt me in ways you may or may not believe. I'm currently working out some of my own forgiving issues and just thought I would share with you what God is teaching me about forgiveness. I pray this post will shine light on one of the biggest problems we face in and outside the church in this nation and in the world. The church in America and across the world is full of people who have been hurt in some way, shape or form. Whether we were hurt by someone in the church or someone outside of the church it's painful and it can hinder our walk with Jesus. It can also shape and change who we are as Christ Followers in a great way. The issue I will be talking about if you haven't already figured it out is forgiveness. I am convinced that some people have unresolved conflicts toward a group of people or just one person and it has hindered their walk with Christ and it causes pain in their lives everyday. Forgiveness is a tough issue to write about. For some it may not be hard for you to forgive, but for others it may be very hard to let go and just simply forgive the person or persons that have hurt you. For some it may be a deep issue that you have tucked away and tried to forget about without forgiving but that NEVER works. It will ALWAYS resurface until you deal with the issue of forgiveness. Why is it so hard to forgive others? We serve a God who has forgiven us. He sent his son to die on a cross so we would be forgiven and made right in the eyes of God. Therefore you would think that it would not be an issue, but for some it is the very thing holding you back from being who Jesus Christ is calling you to be. So today I want to shine light on what TOTAL forgiveness is and what TOTAL forgiveness is not. I am currently reading one of the best books I have ever read in my life and the title of the book is TOTAL FORGIVENESS and the author is R.T. KENDALL. I encourage you to get this book and let it penetrate your heart and mind. Let it begin to help you work out the very thing or things that could be holding you back from being who you are in Christ Jesus. Jesus said in scripture if you have a problem with a brother that is unresolved to leave the altar and go work it out. So we as believers in Jesus need to work out things as we come across them in life. First lets look at what TOTAL forgiveness isn't. 1) Approval of what they did. 2) Excusing what they did. 3) Justifying what they did. 4) Pardoning what they did. 5) Reconciliation. 6)Denying what they did. 7) Blindness to what happened. 8)Forgetting. 9) Refusing to take the wrong seriously. and finally number 10) Pretending we are not hurt. NOW let's look at what TOTAL forgiveness is. 1) Being aware of what someone has done and still forgiving them. 2) Choosing to keep no record of wrongs. 3) Refusing to punish. 4) NOT TELLING WHAT THEY DID!!! 5) Being merciful. 6) Graciousness. 7) It is an inner condition. 8) It is they absence of bitterness. 9) FORGIVING GOD!!! 10) FORGIVING OURSELVES!!!! As I close I pray that you will take this and dig deeper into your heart and soul and deal with any forgiveness issues you may have in your life. IT'S WORTH IT.... BUT IT TAKES WORK SPIRITUALLY, PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY!! One Love, Jason Ashley

Holy Spirit? HIM!!

This is post #2 on some teaching about the Holy Spirit basically today we are going to look at the characteristics of Him. Let's just dive right in this morning. The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a person. Jesus never referred to "it" when He was talking about the Holy Spirit. In John 14, 15, and 16, for example, He spoke of the Holy Spirit as "He" because He is not a force or thing but a person. Whoever speaks of the Holy Spirit as "it" in uninstructed and perhaps undiscerning. In the book of Romans Chapter 8:16 the King James Version(Which is not the only version of the Bible!!!! Just figured I would throw that in there.) refers to the Holy Spirit as "itself". This is a mistranslation. Nearly all of the newer translations have changed "itself" to "himself". As we look through the scriptures we see that the Holy Spirit has intellect, emotions, and will. Also the Bible ascribes to Him the acts we would expect of someone who was not just a force, but a real person. So let's journey through the scriptures together. This is going to take time and effort on your part, because you have to look up the scriptures. He speaks: (Rev. 2:7). He intercedes: (Romans 8:26). He testifies: (John 15:26). He leads:(Acts 8:29 and Romans 8:14). He commands: (Acts 16:6, 7). He guides: (John 16:13 RSV). He appoints: (Acts 20:28). He can be lied to: (Acts 5:3, 4). He can be insulted: (Heb. 10:29). He can be blasphemed: (Matt. 12:31, 32). He can be grieved: (Eph. 4:30). Clearly the Holy Spirit is a person all of the emotions and acts I just listed are characteristics of a person. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force, like gravity or magnetism. He is a person, with all the attributes of personality. But not only is He a person; He is divine as well. We will learn more about how Divine he is in my next post. Oh and just to throw this out there HE IS GOD!! One Love, Jason Ashley

Our needs!!

Today is the first day of many days I will be writing about what God has been teaching me about the Holy Spirit. I pray as you read and learn with me our lives are transformed and made even more complete through the work of the Holy Spirit that works within us to shape us and lead us into total and complete truth. So here we go...........Man has two great spiritual needs One is forgiveness. The other is for goodness. Consciously or unconsciously, his inner being longs for both. The Spirit of the living God has already given us both we just have to walk in it and live it out day by day. We have to realize that God does not want us to come to Christ by faith, and then lead a life of defeat, discouragement, and dissension. Rather , He wants to "fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power; in order that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in us" (2 Thess. 1:11, 12). We have to realize as children of God that we have been given the authority and the power through the Holy Spirit to bring Jesus ultimate Glory. I read a quote once that stuck out to me it read like this "I need Jesus Christ for my eternal life, and the Holy Spirit of God for my internal life." As Christians we tend to wait on God or wait on the spirit to tell us something, when we need to realize that the Holy Spirit is waiting for us. We are no longer living in a time of promise, but in the days of fulfillment. Let's live lives that shake a generation. Let's start walking in the POWER and LOVE God has given us as children as Him. I pray this post changes your life. I am currently working on my next post titled "Spirit it or HE?" One Love, Jason Ashley

Wash Da MuDDDDDDDD!

Good afternoon to all! I just finished a killer workout and some lunch! Today I plan on relaxing and taking some time for myself! I believe quiet time is essential in our walk with God! When I say quiet time I mean complete quietness; no cell phone, no TV, no radio just total silence! This is so necessary it’s amazing how clear you can hear the voice of God when you just get alone with him and LISTEN! Try it! I have been wondering what to blog about today and I was told Character! I usually write all my blogs in advance on paper after alone time with God, but this one is coming straight from my fingers! The title “Why do Christians waver?” I believe it’s because our commitment to stand is not grounded in God’s character, but rather upon the characters with which we are standing or our circumstances. We as believers must be anchored in the God who does not change. Malachi Chapter 3 verse 6 says “I the lord do not change”. You see we can’t base our lives off of emotions and circumstances, we would never be happy! The kind of character you have reflects who you are as a person! You see Jesus is reliable and trustworthy. That is the kind of character he is looking for in his children! If any of you have kids you can honestly say you want them to be reliable and honest with you all the time! It’s the same way with Jesus Christ he expects us to be true to him and to others! Life is hard; no one can say it’s easy. I firmly believe character is important; your word is all you have so when you give it to some one follow through with what you said you would do! Remember your children learn from you! Have a great day! With Love Jason

Washing Mudd!

Good morning everyone. I am going to be talking about being spiritually blind. In John chapter 9 verses 10-11, and also 35-38,39. Jesus has healed a blind man in these verses. I find it funny how the religious leaders demanded the man tell them who done this for him! Anyway that's another story for another time! Jesus said something in this scripture that blows me away. ' I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind!" The last part rocks my world. He is saying we should become blind to our plan and follow his! That's awesome that the creator of the universe would choose us. In this text the miracle is great. Jesus encounters one who has never seen or known light-a blind man from birth- and he gives this man sight and light. After Jesus spit on the ground and made mud, he covered the mans eyes with the mud. What happens next is a sign of how strong the mans faith was. Jesus told him go to the pool of Siloam and wash this off and you will see. So the man had to step up and go! After he washed his eyes he could see i can only imagine the excitement that came over him! He never had to go back to his begging post again! You see in verses 35-38 was the conversion. Jesus gave him a spiritual light also he could now see with his heart. The way to see in this world is a willingness to admit we are blind. The blind man did not argue with Jesus. He acknowledged his condition and his need. He submitted himself to Christ and was OBEDIENT! My question for you is we all have certain things we try to keep in the Dark! What are you trying to keep hid in your life? You see Jesus sees it all you can't hide it from him. Instead of hiding it ask Jesus to take it away and watch him do another awesome and great work! Love you Guys! Jason

The inauguration!

What a day! The inauguration was off the chain Rick Warren done a great job! The speech by Obama was one of the best I've ever heard. I'm starting to like the changes taking place throughout our land. I believe Jesus is fixing to rock this nation and really turn our eyes to him as a Country. The one thing I take time to do everyday is pray for our nations leaders. I challenge you to do this everyday. We must stand together through these challenging times and love one another. To every worker out there we must continue to work hard and better days are ahead! To everyone without work just put your faith and trust in almighty God he will pull you through! To all the racist, criticizing, negative people out there I pray that you would awake and realize that you reap what you sow! You know I wonder one thing...What if God was to turn everyone Orange? Would we then look at each other by race and judge by the very color of someones skin. I pray today for unity to sweep this land and that God would lift us up once again. I will end this post with a quote that rocked my world. "Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

He is all powerful and sufficient!

First let me say ministry went great yesterday and people excepted Jesus as there Savior. Thats what it's all about! Now for my post!I am going to be getting very personal with you this morning. I fail sometimes to do the very thing I’m going to be writing about this morning! If we were all honest many of us fail to do so. You see we limit God sometimes! Jesus is bigger than anything, any problem we face, any unexpected bill we get in the mail, any sickness we may encounter or doctor report we may receive that didn’t go exactly like we wanted it to! So why do we “myself included” limit God in our lives! In all the gospels we see a very familiar story about a little boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish! You see this boy had little to offer but when put in Jesus hands he made it a lot! We could look at this story in a lot of ways but one that sticks out to me is how little faith the disciples had! They had been with Jesus and seen him heal the blind, lame and sick but when they seen all these people following behind sit on the mountainside in Galilee, they questioned themselves how will we feed all of them. They looked at a problem instead of a solution! Jesus Christ was sitting right beside them probably resting because he had been teaching all day! Scripture says in John 6:9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” The disciples questioned themselves! This is such a problem in our everyday journey through life. We serve a humongous God and he is all powerful and supreme! So why do we limit him! You see we as believers do the same thing the disciples done. We look at how big our problems are instead of how big God is! We all have done this at one time or another! If you say you have not you probably have a problem with lying! I’m convinced if the disciples had been concerned with feeding there spiritual hunger this problem would not have seemed so big! You see Jesus wanted his followers to seek him for himself, and not for what he could do for them. You see we serve an in control God in an out of control world! We all need to believe that through the lowest of lows we serve the highest of highs! In John 16:33 Jesus said in this life we will have trouble, notice he said we will, not we might! So when a problem comes your way look up and smile for Jesus is with you do not fear! Joshua 1:9 Have a Jesus Christ filled day! With Love Jason