When God Looks at Us

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When God looks at us He sees our life as a whole. Not just one day or one moment but one lifetime. He looked at us from the beginning of time and watched us take our last breath. He has seen all the mistakes you have made. He knows how high the mountain of sin at the end of your life.

So today when you wonder if God still loves you just remember. He has seen it all while hanging high on a cross. But, today He will forgive it and wipe it all away.

- – – The End – – -

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When God Looks at Us
By: Raymond Brady

Article Source: www.BuildYourHouseOnTheRock.org

Build Your House on The Rock Changes

I have made a few changes to the Build Your House on The Rock website by moving things around a bit. I wanted to consolidate some pages to prepare for some future additions.

You will find the testimony link under the “About the Author” page. This page has been updated with some new information so you might want to check it out.

Be sure to keep an eye out in the next few days. I will be adding some new stuff.

God Bless,
Raymond Brady
www.BuildYourHouseOnTheRock.org

Just a Branch?

John 15:4 - Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. (NIV)

Have you ever noticed braches on a fruit tree? The braches are where the fruit is produced. You will not find a fruit tree that grows fruit on it’s trunk. The branches must first grow and become mature enough to produce fruit. This maturity process involves nutrients being fed to the branch from the trunk. In fact a branch is created by the trunk.

As the branch is fed by the trunk it grows stronger each day. Once it has grown enough to support fruit it will begin to produce fruit in the right season. Jesus said we are the branches and if we want to bear fruit we must remain in Him.

The branch has an interesting job. It has a unique ability to create fruit for people to eat yet it cannot create this fruit on it’s own. It has to stay connected to the trunk in order for it to fulfil it’s purpose. If it becomes disconnected from the trunk it cannot create fruit.

The branch also does not have to work to be part of the trunk because it is already connected. The branch also does not have to strive to produce the fruit. What this means is that the branch does not do any real work at all in producing the fruit. It simply acts as a conduit to take the nutrients given by the truck  and transfer them out of itself. As these nutrients are pressed out an amazing transformation takes place and fruit is created.

Our job is simply to remain in Him. This simply means to rest in Him. He is everything we need and He will supply all that we need. How do we remain in Him? Simply by keeping our faith in Him. Verse 5 tells us that if we remain connected to Him we will produce alot of fruit and Jesus also reminds us that we cannot do anything on our own.

We have a purpose and we can produce an amazing amout of fruit as long as we stay connected to Christ. It is Him that does the work through us and not ourselves therefore we must remain in Him. We remain in Christ simply the same way we came to Him, by trusting Him and placing our faith in Him alone.

Colossians 2:6-7 -So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, ⁷rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

From The Inside Out

This is my song of praise for today!

Let Me Grow – Re-Published

I wrote this article in February of 2007. I was reading it again today and it brought tears to my eyes again just as it did the day I wrote it. I was not mearly writing this article from my own intellect but I know God was speaking directly to me the day I wrote this. I decided to re-publish it again in hopes that it will bless someone else.

Who Do You Claim To Be? Part 2

The “If You Are” Trap:

Some fall into the “If you are” trap. What I mean by this is when you are confronted with this question your gut reaction is to defend yourself.

If you are a son or daughter of God then satan will try to make you doubt this. He does this using the “If you are…” trap. If you are really a Christian then prove it. Turn stones to bread or do some other spectacular miracle. He pressures you by using the same teqnique he used on Jesus. In other words prove to satan that you are spiritual.

Many Christians get tricked into trying to prove they are spiritual rather than just standing justified before God by their faith. They fear the big “IF” question and then react.

Simply standing in grace makes you less vulnerable to temptation. The moment you begin to give place to doubt, pride will step in and take over. You will begin to say things like: I know I am a Christian because I do this, or I do that.

What WE do will never make us a Christian. For this is where the law failed. Only one person has ever been able to keep ALL the law and He died on a tree. You will be tempted, you will fail him, and you will fall. These things are sure. But when you fall will you fall at the cross, or will the cross fall on you?

Have faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. It is the power to set you free.

Ephesians 2:8-10 (KJV)

⁸For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹Not of works, lest any man should boast. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Who Do You Claim To Be? Part 1

When you ask yourself “Who am I?” what answer do you get? Some will answer I am a bank teller or a sales clerk. Others will say I am an athlete or maybe even a superstar. How you view yourself says volumes to the world around you, and if we are not careful our view of ourself can fall into pride.

It is said of Mohammed Ali that he got the title “The Greatest” by proclaiming himself as “The Greatest”. However, just because someone claims something doesn’t always mean that it is true.

Gaining a true understanding of yourself can only happen when you are open and honest with yourself. When you look into the mirror each morning and see a hair out of place you stop and fix it. So, you should also stop when you see something out of place in your life and take the time to correct it.

Jesus took the humble road in life. Even though he had every right to boldly proclaim he was great He chose rather to let His Heavenly Father speak on his behalf. We see one example of this in Matthew 3:16-17.

¹⁶As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. ¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

It was soon after this that Jesus was being tempted by satan in the wilderness. We find that satan tempted him on what seems to be three different occasions. However, a closer look at these temptations will show there were actually more than three temptations. It is in this revelation that we can learn several valuable lessons.

First satan tempts Jesus in Matthew 4:3

³The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Second temptation in Matthew 4:5-6

⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ⁶“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: 
   ” ‘He will command his angels concerning you, 
      and they will lift you up in their hands, 
   so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

Third temptation in Matthew 4:8-9

 ⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Look at how satan asks the first two questions. “If you are the Son of God…” We can clearly see that satan was trying to make Jesus doubt who he was.

God had just proclaimed that Jesus was the Son of God in the previous chapter. Now, satan comes to him and says “If you are the Son of God…” This is typical of satan as he is the father of lies. He is the exact opposite of faith, which is doubt.

I find the replies of Jesus full of wisdom. He completely ignores the doubt and doesn’t even address it. You see, Jesus knew who he was and that was good enough. He did not have to defend himself by debating with satan on his Sonship, so maybe He simply chose to ignore satan on this issue.

I recently attended a bible study with a friend of mine. The study was discussing the meekness of Christ. It is awesome to think about how meek and humble Christ is. Christ is the epitome of humbleness and meekness.

Jesus was God Incarnate but yet he was also fully human. Knowing the weakness of the flesh He chose not to proclaim his diety, but rather to humble himself in the sight of God.

Phillipians 2:6-10

 ⁶Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: ⁷But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: ⁸And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. ⁹Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: ¹⁰That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

Maybe that is why God chose to proclaim the Sonship of Christ as he did. For if Christ boldly proclaimed it in the flesh it could have conceived pride. I am thinking out loud here so if anyone has something that contradicts me on this than by all means post it so I can review it.

So, who do you claim to be? When the tempter comes to you how do you answer?

The “If You Are” Trap

Well this post is getting way too long so I am going to continue this in another post. I don’t like reading posts that go on forever so I won’t make you do the same….

Story of St. Nicholas

He was a boy when he lost his parents very early in life. It was an epidemic that took them, but not before he was old enough for them to help him discover the gift of faith. Little Nicholas went to Myra and lived a life full of self-offering, and giving of himself. His life was full of sacrifice and love, just like Jesus. Nicholas lived such a Christ like life that when the town needed a bishop he was immediately elected. Later he was imprisoned for his Christian faith, but released by the Emperor Constantine. Thereafter, many stories of his generosity were collected and they spread from mouth to mouth all through out the lands. It was told how he begged food for the poor and how he would somehow get money for girls to use as a dowry so that they could have husbands. The story most often repeated was about how he would put on a disguise and go out and give gifts to the poor children. In factNicholas gave away everything he had, plus everything he could get. He died in AD 314; his body was moved to Italy where his remains are believed to be to this day. The story of Nicholas has spread all around the world, and today there are more European churches named after St. Nicholasthan any other person in the history of the church, aside from the famous Bible characters. People have done many things to old St. Nick. Clement Moore the poet gave him a red nose and eight tiny reindeer. Artist Thomas Nast gave Nicholas a round belly and a red fir trimmed suit. But those things really aren’t that important are they? What is important is that he lived in the mind set and the life style of Christ. And because he lived that lifestyle, the life of Nicholas touched the whole world and it does to this very day. But here is the really important part of the story. That same Christ like mind set and that life style is supposed to be in all of us and lived by all of us. And that is the true story of St. Nick.

– Author Unknown

Contending For The Faith

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
Jude Chapter 1 Verse 3

Faith is the very foundation of Christianity and faith in Jesus Christ as the one and only son of God is the very root of our relationship with God. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6) so we know that faith is one of the core foundations our spiritual house must be built on.

Jesus taught a story about a wise man and a foolish man. Each man built a house. The wise man built his house on the rock and the foolish man built his house on the sand. We know this story very well because of the little song we sang in Sunday school as kids. I am singing it in my head now as I even write this. But we have to somehow translate this cute little song in our head to real life actions that have an end result of a strong solid life.

I am reminded of when Peter and John were walking up to the temple to pray and found a lame man sitting at the gate. We get a brief glimpse of how deep there faith went in this moment in time. The Bible tells us that Peter grabbed the man by the right hand, pulled him up, and immediately the mans feet and ankles became strong.

I don’t know if you believe in healing and miracles or not but this teaches us so much about the faith that we should strive to achieve and hope to have. There was no question in Peters mind about whether God would or wouldn’t heal this man. It’s as if Peter knew that God was going to heal the man. Peter took immediate action and did not question anything. God performed a wonderful miracle using the faith that Peter expressed.

It was only a short while before this that Peter himself struggled with his faith while having more faith than you and I may ever have. It was on the choppy waves of the sea that Peter jumped ship to walk on the water with Jesus. No one today would even attempt such a thing but Peter did not hesitate until he took a few steps and the waves began to crash into him. Then he began to sink. Peter eventually came to a realization of his faith in God and his faith did not waiver when he reached down and picked up the crippled man.

So… Dear friends, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. Let us go forth with our feet planted on a solid rock, our faith in Jesus Christ.

Jude Chapter 1 Verse 3

Another One Down

At work we have a special project going on where we have to monitor computers we have installed in trucks and we have to monitor them 24 hours a day. If one goes down it affects the whole operation and has to be handled quickly.

We are in the early stages of our project and development of this system and we have had some communication problems that have plauged us. The system has had times where all the computers have went down. We have these alerts sent to a couple of technicians who are on call 24/7, one of them just happens to be me.

There have been so many times now that the system has gone down I am not sure if it is a real alarm or not so we have become relaxed in our response to this.

Have we as Chriastians become relaxed in trying to save those who are fallen away from Christ? Has there been too many around us that have fallen and so now we have become so used to this that we can stand by and watch it happen and not even think twice about it?

We have to be so careful in our life to maintain a vigilant attitude while living for God. If we allow ourselves to grow cold are in a dangerous position. God can put is in the life of someone to help them with their struggles, but if we have grown relaxed we may not respond to someone in need when God would want us to.

I am reminded of a young man who recently quit coming to church. He was a young man with a passion for God. Always carrying his bible around and reading scripture. Going to the church and praying most days. But one day it was as if someone turned out the light switch. He stopped coming and grew cold.

I had the opportunity to get somewhat close to this young man and so I felt I could maybe talk with him and help. I have yet to be successful in helping him to be restored but I believe God has put me in a place where I can help him make his way back to God.

God, help me that my spirit would not grow cold and relaxed as I see others fall down. Help me to have the attitude of the good samaritan that I might do your will in helping others in need. That I would love my neighbor as myself and do my part to help others.

I understand that some will not want me to help and so those I will try and if I am rejected I will comtinue on in another place where you call me.