Encouragement

“Washed by the water of the word” is an expression from the Bible describing one of the truths that godly marriage is built on as well as our first relationship with our God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The important place, responsibility, and function of husbanding. It appears in Ephesians 5:26. It refers to the truth that God’s word cleanses people’s souls, thoughts, motives, and consciences. 

When a husband neglects God’s word and expects his wife to submit, it makes it difficult to endure. Paul says this is a picture of how the Bridegroom and His Bride function. We know there is no neglect in our Bridegroom for His Bride concerning His washing and cleansing of her. The letters to the seven churches in Revelation confirm this.

Marriage is designed from the beginning, before the fall of Adam and Eve, and their relationship becoming dysfunctional. Blame and accusations come from one source: the serpent: Marriage cannot survive this demonic onslaught. The picture in Ephesians of a husband washing His wife speaks of beautiful intimacy in the marriage covenant.

…so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. – ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5‬:‭26‬-‭27‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

This is the Bride He is coming for, who will rule and reign with Him.

The promise of the Holy Ghost and His sanctifying truth comes only by His leading us into all truth. Jesus said,

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh provides no benefit; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and (they) are life. – ‭‭John‬ ‭6‬:‭63 NASB2020

It is the two, each one’s own desires, their flesh, that is detrimental and of no benefit. They are in juxtaposition to becoming one. They need the Word, to do so.

Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. – ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭6‬:‭11‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

• The word is linked to water baptism, (washing) which calls a believer’s death to sin and new life in Christ and His word.

• The word emphasizes the power and authority of God’s word to change our soulish minds. Renewing us and our lives. 

• The early Church believed that the word of God was central to spiritual growth and maturity. It is living and active. 

• The word brings spirit and truth, God’s word brings cleansing power, renewing people’s minds, character, attitude, and conduct. It feeds the spiritual man in all of us.

On Monday 1/13/2025, Betsy and I will celebrate 52 years of covenant. I am grateful to the Holy Ghost who was sent from heaven and led us together. He sealed us and has kept us and guided us all these years. Hearing His word to us and remembering our vows before Him has kept our covenant that cannot be broken. He is the messenger of the covenant,

“Behold, I am sending My messenger, and he will clear a way before Me. And the Lord, whom you are seeking, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of armies. And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. – Malachi‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬, ‭3‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

It is He and only He who is able to keep covenant and two people, man and woman, husband and wife, God’s mystery, to walk together for a lifetime.‬‬

Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His faithfulness to a thousand generations for those who love Him and keep His commandments; – Deuteronomy‬ ‭7‬:‭9‬ ‭NASB2020

I thank you for Betsy, for finding her for me and I for her, according to Your unchanging will. I want to thank so many brothers and sisters over these 52 years who have been friends to our covenant, who prayed and stood with us and blessed us. So many to thank. Hallelujah!

-Keith Curlee

Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it; for the time is near. – Revelation‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

As John records this revelation of who the ascended, victorious King Jesus is. So changed, transfigured, and transformed to the point He did not recognize Him.

He encourages us to read this book by declaring a blessing when we do. I would venture to say that if we don’t, I wonder if we really believe in His prophetic return.

There is so much to hear and keep and to stay ready, for the time is near. I would encourage us all during this time of prayer and fasting to read this wonderful revelation of Jesus our coming King and our Bridegroom, the Head of His Body.

Maranatha!

-Keith Curlee

This Christmas, my family gave me this new bird feeder. It not only feeds but videos them as they come to feed. How wonderful the tech world can be.  

I have always been a bird watcher and my favorite urban bird is a cardinal. When I lived in Nashville for eight years, a male and female cardinal came to my office window every morning. Cardinals are generally monogamous and mate for life, reminding me of my covenant with Betsy.

When Jesus first appears and begins to teach and show us the Father, He speaks about two of the most delicate and vulnerable species in creation: The birds of the sky and the flowers of the plant kingdom. I want to share concerning the birds.

Some years ago, a very dear brother was led to get up very early, just before daybreak, and walk his dog. In our fellowship, he shared how at a specific time the birds would begin welcoming the morning. He was astounded by how loud they were and the silence of the night being broken with their singing.

At least once a week I am up at around 4:30 and the birds of our neighborhood begin their chorus of greeting the day.  It is not just a few peeps, but every bird making its powerful sound filling the dawning of the day. Jesus reveals their complete freedom from worry. They are a sign to us of their total trust in the Heavenly Father.  He says,

”For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? You of little faith! “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” – Matthew 6:25-26, 28-30, 34 NASB2020

Webster’s 1828 definition of reason: “The cause, ground, principle or motive of any thing said or done; that which supports or justifies a determination, plan or measure.” All of creation declares and reveals the glory of God.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse. – Romans 1:20 NASB2020

In Genesis 1:28, the first time God blesses, are the birds of the air and fish of the waters. Be fruitful and multiply is also His first command, as He later spoke to Adam and Eve. They are blessed and are a sign of the Father’s eternal power and divine nature given to every part of creation. Every morning, they faithfully declare and sing His praises for His faithful provision.  

The Bible includes passages that describe creation praising God, such as Psalm 148, Psalm 69:34, and Luke 19:40.  Psalm 148 records a list, including the winged fowl, of all of creation praising Him, declaring, “Praise The Lord!”

Heaven and earth shall praise Him, The seas and everything that moves in them. – Psalm 69:34 NASB2020

So, every morning the smallest of creation sing their chorus of praise and their message includes the reminder to not worry. For if He cares for the birds, how much more important are you than them. Oh you of little faith, see the birds praising the Father as the great provider.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord And to sing praises to Your name, Most High; To declare Your goodness in the morning And Your faithfulness by night, – Psalm 92:1-2 NASB2020

Praise the name of the Lord! Hallelujah!

-Keith Curlee

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