trimercy

1. Don’t worry

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. – Philippians 4:6 NASB2020

At Jesus’ first public teaching, Matthew records,

Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.- Matthew 6:31-32 NASB2020

Worry leads to doubt and doubt to unbelief and then the cares of this world spring up in us as weeds and thorns, choking out the word of God. As in the parable of the sower, the cares of this world.

And the one sown with seed among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, and the anxiety of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. – Matthew 13:22 NASB2020

Worry and anxiety are a constant pricking of thorns. They immobilize you and keep you from moving on, causing you to turn to the god of mammon, the deceitfulness of riches, the god of this world. Uproot the thorns of worry and anxiety in our mind in the name of Jesus!

2. Don’t live in the past

Do not call to mind the former things, Or consider things of the past. “Behold, I am going to do something new, Now it will spring up; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.” – Isaiah 43:18-19 NASB2020

Seeing we are a new creation by being reconciled to God, old things have passed away: BEHOLD, ALL THINGS HAVE BECOME NEW. The old man has been put to death, our sin nature canceled, he has been buried, never again to live. We are not only raised to a new life, but we are now in Him, Jesus Christ, righteous, holy, living eternally now and forevermore. Father, cast off the chains of my past, who I was, I renounce in Jesus’ Name!

3. Don’t please man

For am I now seeking the favor of people, or of God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. – Galatians 1:10 NASB2020

Paul’s letter to the Galatians concerning our relationship with the Holy Ghost for our times is all the more vital. When the disciples asked Jesus what the sign, not signs, of His coming would be, His response was, “Let no man deceive you.” He did not refer to the devil, as before, but to man. Man-pleasing and living one’s life to do so is detestable to God.

And He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of people, but God knows your hearts; because that which is highly esteemed among people is detestable in the sight of God.” – Luke 16:15 NASB2020

Trust the Lord with all your heart, and love the Lord with all your heart and strength. Pleasing man is impossible to attain, Jesus proved this every day during His time on earth. How many times have we thought, “There is no pleasing him or her.”

Some years ago, the Holy Ghost spoke to my heart, “Go get your heart back.” Our hearts are made to belong completely to Him and Him alone. If that is not so, Jesus would have not commanded us to do so. Love God with all your heart! Besides, He never intended for anyone to get man’s love, but His love, Agape. He will love through us as shed about in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

…equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. – Hebrews 13:21 NASB 2020

Father, I take back my heart from any man or woman who I gave it to by trying to be a pleaser of them. In Jesus Name!

4. Don’t blame others

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. A prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought about, can accomplish much. – James 5:16 NASB2020

Blaming others is one of the clearest signs of immaturity, childish and adolescent. This was the first reaction of Adam and Eve’s fallen state in the garden. The denial of our accountability for our behavior and actions in our lives keeps us from maturing spiritually as sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. We are His children, yes, but His intention in sending Jesus was to take many sons and daughters into glory.

For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the originator of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for this reason He is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,” – Hebrews 2:10-11 NASB2020

Blaming is shaming someone else for your shame; hiding from our own shame. How this age-old spirit has continued in generation after generation. It was not me, but the……. Ultimately we are blaming God, which, as in the beginning, keeps us from Him and grieves the Holy Ghost who is the spirit of truth. Father, make me a lover of truth and when I am convicted help me quickly confess my sin. I renounce the spirits of blame and shame in Jesus’ Name.

5. Don’t try to be perfect

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9 NASB202

There is a vast difference between perfection and maturation. Even when a man came to Jesus and called Him Good Master, He deflected the praise,

But Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” – Mark 10:18 NASB2020

As long as we are in these mortal bodies we are subject to our daily struggle of denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Him.

For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. – Romans 7:18-19 NASB2020

The true prize is to know God intimately and be His friend.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV

Father deliver me from self-righteousness and my own perfection. I renounce my zeal and works in Jesus’ Name!

May we cast off every encumbrance that so easily besets us and fix, focus, our eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.

Happiest Heavenly Blessings in the year to come.

-Keith Curlee

And now, O man, remember, and perish not. – Isaiah 4:30

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the word ‘remember’ in the standard works. ‘Remember’ is used 352 times in the scriptures. When its variants are counted, that number jumps to more than 550. The root of ‘remember’ is to keep in mind or to be mindful. It has the sense of being “concerned about” and is related to the word “tradition.”

The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘remember’ as “to retain in, or recall to, the memory; to bear in mind; to recollect.” ‘Remember’ also means “to think of or to recall the memory of something with some kind of feeling or intention.” ‘Remember’ can also mean “to have mind of and mention someone in prayer.” Importantly, ‘remember’ can mean to commemorate or “to preserve in memory by some solemnity or celebration.”

‘Remember’ is often used in connection with covenants between God and man. The word ‘remember’ is first used in the Bible in Genesis 8:1, when God remembers Noah and the passengers on the ark after the flood. God set a “bow in the cloud” as “a sign of a covenant” to not again destroy the earth by water and “that I may remember the everlasting covenant between me and every living creature” on the Earth.

We are to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy “as a perpetual covenant … between (God) and the children of Israel forever” (Exodus 31:16-17).

When Abraham entered the promised land of Canaan, he built an altar to commemorate the Lord’s appearance to him and the renewal of the covenant the Lord made with him (Genesis 12:6-8).

This could be one of the most overlooked commandments. All of us have made covenants, vows, promises, and commitments to God and one another and our greatest need is to remember.

‘Remember’ is the word.: “This do in remembrance of me.”

God has a perfect memory. It is so perfect He can even forget, as in our sins. Clearly remembering is a choice we can make, as well as forgetting.

Genesis 19:29 tells us that, “God remembered Abraham” and rescued his nephew Lot. “God remembered Rachel,” Isaac’s wife, and she conceived (Genesis 30:22). Psalm 9:12 tells us that God “remembers…the afflicted.” Many times God is said to remember His covenant or His promises.

This attribute is plainly seen in the Godhead. Jesus says this concerning the Holy Ghost:

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. – John‬ ‭14‬:‭26‬ ‭NKJV

‬‬Jesus told them there were many things He wanted to share with them, but they could not bear it now. Sometimes we lose perspective because we are thinking concerning tomorrow. This is detrimental to remembering and we forget all that He is and has done.

Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren – ‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭4‬:‭9‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Communion has been reduced to a small part of our services. We read what Paul wrote, the blood and wine, pray, and move on. Little reflection, recollection, or giving the Holy Ghost time to move on our hearts. To take communion without introspection is most grievous. We are explicitly told not to take with unforgiveness in our hearts. There is a stern warning: many sleep because of not taking it in the fear of the Lord.

As we approach the New Year, take time to remember not just what was difficult, or trying, but what He did to bring us through.

He always leads us in triumph! Hallelujah!

-Keith Curlee

Abba Father

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But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters. Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!” – Galatians 4:4-6

Paul, in just a few verses, sums up what both Luke and Matthew recorded. The great fulfillment of the prophets, the angelic announcements, Mary, Joseph, and the child born to us, Christ the Lord. Elizabeth, Zachariah, and the shepherds tending their flocks. Lastly, as the scripture says, Bethlehem of Judea, the city of David.

Paul marks the birth of Jesus, “in the fullness of time.” Since creation, there is nothing in previous time that has ever happened like this new creation. God, not just intervening in time, but now time has been fulfilled. Everything that has happened, the glorious storyline from Adam to now, has served and come to this moment in time. Born miraculously and perfect under the Law. He will not only redeem His people but all those who will believe in Him for generations to come.

He will show us the Heavenly Father and His desire to adopt sons and daughters into His heavenly family. They too will be born again, when the same Holy Ghost overshadows their hearts and convicts them, and they will cry out, “Abba Father.”

They will be born again.

We now have entered into the Eternal Family of God, our names written into His book of life. We now pray, “Our Father which art in Heaven.” Our Father is God, Jesus is our elder brother, and the Holy Ghost is with us and in us. Receiving a great inheritance, all of the promises of God:

For as many as the promises of God are, in Him they are yes; therefore through Him also is our Amen to the glory of God through us. – ‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭1‬:‭20‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

This morning we celebrate the fullness of time and Jesus the fulfillment of all that God has promised, who is the fulfillment and filler of all things. Jesus, our Emmanuel, Glory to God in the Highest and Maranatha, to He who is coming again!

-Keith Curlee

Read the rest of the series: December 1 | December 2 | December 3 | December 4 | December 5 | December 6 | December 7 | December 8 | December 9 | December 10 | December 11 | December 12 | December 13 | December 14 | December 16 | December 25

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army of angels praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among people with whom He is pleased.” – ‭‭Luke‬ ‭2‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

The traditional depiction of angels by humans contrasts sharply with Luke’s account. These are not fairies or Disney renditions. These angels carry all of the awe and awesomeness of God and His heaven.

• Angels are messengers, especially the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. 
• The multitude of angels that attend upon God
  The heavenly hosts are God’s servants who obey his commands and carry out his will. 
• An armed company or multitude of angels and men
  The word host is derived from the Latin word hostis, which means “stranger” or “enemy”. In the Bible, it’s used to describe a troop or military force, the army of God is angelic. The angels of heaven have these three basic functions. We know by the teaching of scripture they are completely obedient to the will of God and they clearly know and obey whatever they are sent to say and do.
  
  Contrary to how they are depicted by tradition and man, they are more militaristic in nature. Their many appearances in scripture came when Israel needed to be delivered from their enemies. They are God’s army, and I believe they are arrayed in this way. It is evident when they appear to man they have to say, “Fear not.” They are nothing like us, nor do they understand us. They only know obedience to God and His will.
  
  Since Satan’s casting out of heaven along with a third of the angels who rebelled with him and the fall of man, there has been a war waged against the prince of the power of the air and God’s angelic hosts. War originated in heaven and it was cast out and will never get back there again, including its rebellious pride. The source of all wars is Satan’s vengeance and man’s own will to exalt himself above God.
  
  We see in this angelic birth announcement to the shepherds God’s intention to offer peace to men, whose will desires to make peace with God.
  
  A few comparative translations: NASB “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among people with whom He is pleased.” NIV “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” NKJV Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
  
  The righteousness of God and His ways is to offer peace first, always before His judgments are carried out. He is compassionate, longsuffering, and would that none should perish. With His continual appeal to Pharaoh and so many demonstrations of His ways, Moses sings of Him, “The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him. “The Lord is a warrior; The Lord is His name.” – Exodus 15:2-3 NASB2020 
  
  We see in this passage the God of peace:
  
• He is our strength
• He is our song
• He is our salvation 
• He is our God
• He is our Father
• He is our Warrior
• He is Lord        
  
  When we are not at peace then it is not a stretch to say that we are at war. For the Spirit is against the flesh and there is no good thing in it. May we, like the shepherds, receive the message of God’s peace and His favor in His Son given to us.
  
  Glory to God In the Highest!
  
  -Keith Curlee