This Pressin' IN Toward The Mark blog post is written to aim our sights on God's Holy written Word, The Holy Bible, provided to all of us so that every person can seek God by investing themselves and their time inside of it. The Holy Bible, The Holy Scriptures, God's written Word, is so much more than “a book”. It is a collection of "Love Letters from our Father” and our LORD and Savior Christ Jesus, written by the leading of The Holy Spirit. This “The Bible Love Letter from God” message is our re-take of the “Love Letter from Your Father… in TWO Parts” blog post. We wrote both posts to proclaim how we have read, re-read, studied, and met with The Holy Spirit in the pages of God's Holy Scriptures, each time waiting as long as it takes to "hear" the voice of The Holy Spirit.
Now, to expound on the way we get to enjoy hearing the teaching, the voice, the words of comfort, and the leading of The Holy Spirit of Jesus, we’ve put a detailed instruction together. As we pray you will find for yourself what you may not know already, let’s get INto The printed Scriptures and rendezvous with The Holy Spirit there to experience the real “Life” He is always ready to bring... just like God repeatedly promises in His written Word - The Holy Bible.
"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, The LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? [there is] no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon The LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint (Isaiah 40:28-31)."
"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, The LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? [there is] no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon The LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint (Isaiah 40:28-31)."
Thank you for joining us for another fun and encouraging journey as we, once again, set out to show GOD big in a world that sees Him small. We're writing about something that's really cool – one of our favorite subjects, “Love Letters from our Father” about the collective group of Love Letters God has had written to us through His apostles, prophets, and scribes down through the years - The Holy Bible... where we find “Home” i-n The Holy Trinity. There’s nothing like it! “Love Letters from our Father (God)” in The Holy Bible help us to, over time, "become one" in Him, through Christ Jesus, by the leading of The Holy Spirit.
Now letters can be a funny thing. We can tend to leave them lay on our desk where things can pile up around them, and they can disappear kind-of like our Holy Bible can. As an example, Brenda was in her closet the other day and told Keith about a big box of letters she forgot about up there. It is a box full of letters that she held on to during her military career, 20 years in the Air Force. While she was working her different assignments across the country and around the world, sometimes deployed away from home, sometimes in the foxholes, the closest thing to “home” she could put her hands on was a letter.
If you don't know who we are, don't know where we've been or what we're about, we'd like to share with you that, since she was a little girl, Brenda dreamed of serving in the United States Air Force. Now, with a 20-year career of serving our country under her belt, she in deed followed through with that dream. She used her skills in BioEnvironmental Engineering, Military Personnel management, and ambassadorship as she sang and danced with premiere music groups world-wide. Keith often commends Brenda for being one of the rare few who had a vision as a young person and actually saw it all the way through. Most of us don't know a whole lot of people that have kept with their visions they’ve had since they were a kid. One of them that we do know is Keith’s dad. And, actually, if somebody in your life is going to be steadfast at keeping that vision, and walking it through, it's good if it's a parent, and you get to see that.
When Brenda found those letters in that box, she saw them as a reflection of how the “Love Letters from our Father” are represented in The Holy Bible. A lot of people seem to look at The Holy Bible as “a book of do's and don’ts” but we look at it, especially these days, as a wonder-filled “Love Letter” that God provided for us to have and to live by. The Scriptures, The Holy Bible, has been preserved and passed down through all of The Old Testament and The New Testament history, which is longer than any book has ever lasted... over 3,600 years. It is definitely miraculous, only by God’s superintending Ways, that The Holy Bible, The Scriptures, God’s written Word to us, has been preserved and provided for the world to have, to study, to read, and most of all to be able to use as “a place of meeting with The Holy Trinity”. Because of God and His apostles, prophets, and scribes, we can read the “Love Letters from our Father” printed in The Holy Bible that is available to almost everybody in the world in almost every single language. We must cherish the “Love Letters from our Father” in our Holy Bible in our hearts, much like Brenda cherishes the letters she received from loved ones while she was working away from home.
Now, let’s get into some of the main reasons that we wanted to sit down and write “The Bible Love Letter from our Father” message for this blog post. Being able to get alone with our Heavenly Father to receive His Word of prophecy and wisdom for us, this is a most wonder-full reason for reading The Bible. In The Holy Bible, The Holy Spirit comes to meet with us. We ask Him to come and define God’s written Word for us as we read it with Him, together. He also defines what our Heavenly Father has for us, personally, at the very time we are reading it. God's written Word, The Holy Bible, is for intimacy, quality time, between us and our Father.
It's really cool that we're talking about our Father because there's a huge difference between “our dad” and “our Father”. I love my dad greatly, but The Love of my Father is even greater because my Father is God. Your Father is God. And, if you're reading this and you want to hear from your Father, we hope that you'll take from this message the way you can obtain the ability to hear The Voice of your loving Father speaking to you. It is a fact that your Father, God, is always wanting to talk to you. And The Holy Bible “Love Letters from our Father” plays a key part in “our communication”. The military used to use the term “communiques”. What is that? A communique is a written letter from one office wanting to correspond with another, often containing “personalized” and “confidential” messages. That's what The Bible is, written “Love Letters from our Father” containing personalized messages between God and us, personally.
Keith has always enjoyed watching old World War II movies. He and his dad had that quality in common. Often, in old war movies, you’ll have a scene where you hear somebody in the camp scream out “Mail call!” Everybody lit up because they were hoping to receive some mail, especially a personal letter from back home. For those individuals who were deployed, receiving those letters loved ones sent in the mail connected them by allowing the bonds to stay in place between them and their family. That is just what meant so much for Brenda and her loved ones. And she remembered it clearly when she ran across that box of letters from friends and loved ones back home... letters from her parents, sister, children, and precious family, as well as notes and letters she saved that she had written to her children when they were little.
Maybe you, like Brenda, have kept a collection of personally valuable letters too. Or maybe you didn’t keep personal letters and you wish you had. Brenda explains how, when she has low times in her life, when she has doubts about love or hope in her life, she would open those letters and remember how others care for her and how she loves and cares for others. Wow; How appropriate that we are doing this message about The Holy Bible, the greatest book of letters filled with The Love of God, “Love Letters from our Father” relaying to us His tender loving care and where we relay to God our care by simply w-a-n-t-i-n-g Him enough to spend time with Him there!
We think of The Holy Bible as “communication” from our Father, God. Our Father relays His instruction to us, but His Love for us is relayed to us first and foremost. He uses The Bible to also relay to us His correction as well as His direction about the boundaries we best set up in our Life so that we can stay “between the lines” so to speak. Especially think on how much we can learn about God by the way that He moved in the Lives of His people in The Bible that committed to Live by His blessed boundaries. Because of their love for God and His ways, the people and their testimonies tell us everything we need to know. Each time we start reading a few pages of the accounts written by God’s people, we wish we had all day to stay there reading and learning with The Holy spirit! It makes us wonder why our Bible so often sits on the shelf so long that it collects dust. Why aren't we in it more often?
More important than a million love letters from our parents, our brothers, sisters, friends, or anyone else in our lives, God’s written Word, The Holy Bible provides for us “one big Love Letter” from God that is a collection of the most blessed gift of all -- “communication” between us and Him! The Holy Bible messages are what God has had on His Heart for His children – us! These are the things He wants us to know so that we can have a full Life -- a Life filled with one-ness in Him in The Spirit. That is exactly what The Holy Bible is.
A lot of times we don't know what we don't know… until we find out. The Holy Bible is not “just a book”. So, when we begin to read The written Word of God, listening for The Holy Spirit to speak to us, things we hadn’t even thought about before suddenly “pops off of the page”. All distractions removed, noise and clutter removed, and it's “just us and God”... there we are positioned to hear His Word. We are set to expect to really hear Him tell us what He wants for us to know. It's a time for Him to talk with us and us with Him, a sweet exchange that nothing else compares to! We'll talk about this until the day God takes us Home because The Bible is God's “place of meeting with us” that is indescribably priceless to all who love Him and w-a-n-t Him and His Will for our lives.
God’s written Word is “the only book” that becomes “a place of meeting” when we open it to read God’s letters written to us with Love. This is why God has gone to great lengths to make sure that The Bible, The Scriptures, were protected and preserved down through history, “His-story” in the world for over 3,600 years. And, as a side-note here, something that’s got to be said because we don't hear it enough: “The Holy Spirit comes to meet with us in the pages of The Holy Bible, to bring to us God’s Word for us, personally.”
People ask over and over, “Brother Keith, you've heard the voice of The LORD; How do I get to hear the voice of God? What am I not doing that you’re doing?” Keith explains it in the way The Holy Spirit best leads him into it, basically using the following eight steps:
• You get your printed Bible out;
• You find a quiet place where you can relax;
• You make sure the phone and electrical devices are off;
• You make sure there is no TV noise or other distractions in the background;
• You open The Bible in your hands and, as you are relaxing, begin to pray and ask for The Holy Spirit of God, in the name of Jesus Christ, to please come and meet you there;
• You ask The Holy Spirit to read with you and interpret for you what God had in His Heart when He entrusted these words to His apostles and prophets to write down in these passages;
• Then, as you relax and read, you focus on listening for The Spirit to upload what God has for you in that hour;
• And, remember, “But they that wait upon The Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint (Isaiah 40:31).”
Once you experience “meeting” with The Holy Trinity in the pages of The Bible, you will see for yourself the indescribable blessing that comes in your time of reading “with Him” and you’ll only want more! There’s no better way to read a letter from someone who loves you than having it on printed pages you hold in your hands. God knew this and set the example for us to follow; He wrote us a Love Letter we call The Holy Bible. Our Father did that for us "as a gift". Now we get to read His written Word and follow after His example by sitting down and writing personal letters “as a gift” to bless others.
To read more about the personal notes Keith and Brenda gathered in “meetings” of the heart with The Holy Trinity over recent years, click to read the “Love Letter from your Father… in TWO Parts” Pressin’IN Blog post. Then consider writing your own “Love Letter from your Father” to read over and over, and to print copies you can send to friends and loved ones by mail. Be encouraged to write the following words on your heart, part of a Love Letter from Scriptures God has emphasized to Brenda from His written Word... and watch what God will do.
Hear God saying to you, today...
Dear child of Mine,
You may not know Me but I know you. I AM familiar with all your ways and everything about you, even the number of each hair on your head. For you were made in My Image.
Nobody in the world knows when you are lying down or rising up to the deepest parts of your being like I do. I AM with you every place where you sit. I understand your thoughts, whether big thoughts or small.
In Me you live and move and have your being, for you are My Offspring. I knew you even before you were conceived.
I chose you when I planned Creation. You were not a mistake, for all of your days are written in My Book. I determined when you would be born and where you would live.
You are fearfully and wonder-fully made. I knit you together in your mother's womb and brought you forth on the day you were born.
I have been misrepresented by those who don't know Me; I AM n-o-t distant and angry, but I AM the "Complete Expression" of Love. And it is My desire to lavish My love on you, simply because you are My child and I AM your Father.
I offer you more than your earthly father ever could, for I AM The omnipotent Father, your Heavenly Father. Every good gift you receive comes from My Hand. For I AM your provider and I meet all your needs.
My plan for your future has always been filled with hope because I Love you with an Everlasting Love. My thoughts toward you are countless as the sands on the seashore.
And I rejoice over you with singing! I will never stop doing good to you, for you are My treasured possession. I desire to "establish you" with all My Heart and all My Soul and I want to show you great and marvelous things.
If you seek Me with all your heart, you will find Me. Delight in Me and I will give you the desires of your heart, for it is I Who gave you those desires to begin with.
I AM able to do more for you than you can possibly imagine, for I AM your greatest encourager. I AM also The Father Who comforts you in all of your troubles. When you are broken-hearted, I AM close to you.
As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to My Heart. One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes, and I will take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth.
I AM your Father, and I Love you even as I Love My Son, Jesus. For in Jesus, My Love for you is revealed. He is The Exact Representation of My Being. He came to demonstrate that I AM for you, not against you, and to tell you that I AM n-o-t counting your sins.
Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled. His death is The Ultimate Expression of My Love. I gave up every-thing that I love that I might "gain" your love. If you receive The Gift of My Son, Christ Jesus you receive Me, and nothing will ever separate you from My Love again.
Come Home and I will throw "the Biggest Party" that Heaven has ever seen. I have always been your Father. I will always be Father.
My question is, will you be My child? I AM waiting for you.
When you draw close to Me, I AM drawing close to you.
I love YOU!
Eternally yours, your Father,
God
Eternally yours, your Father,
God
Halleluia and Amen!! “The LORD gave The Word and great was the company of those who published it Psalm 68:11.” We encourage you to publish "the word" God lays on your heart also, writing it on letters to send out to those you know, love, and who need an "encouraging word" from God's Word.
Begin to read The Holy Scriptures slowly, with focus, with determination, as you listen quietly with your spirit's ear for The Holy Spirit to arrive. Read slowly and intentionally focus on God's written Word written on the pages. As you read, listen intently for His whisper into your spirit, personally... waiting to "hear Him" no matter how long He takes. If you truly w-a-n-t to hear God's Word for you, "spoken" to you, The wonder-full Holy Spirit w-i-l-l come and deliver The Word God give Him for you, and with gladness, personally.
Someone said to us once that God speaks by way of His "still, small voice". We have found that to be a very accurate description of how He sounds when He speaks to us. We would also add from our personal experience that, once you hear Him begin to speak to you in your spirit, you will begin to continually listen for Him with ever-growing zeal! Selah.
We thank you for joining together with us for this message from out hearts! We have posted it to help fan the flame in your heart for Christ Jesus, His wonder-full ways, and His plan and purpose for us in this life. To ask questions about our work and organization, to make a special tax-deductible donation to help in this work, to place a special order for our special offer of "Keep the FAITH, Keep Your VISION" or another Keith Shealy and Toward The Mark book or CD, or to share a testimony or prayer request with us, please click here to e-mail us, or write a letter and mail it to the address on our website, which is also provided below.
We pray God bless you greatly in carrying this message in your heart. Our thanks for taking part in this, and all that is, made possible by the faithful support of our loving Toward The Mark, Inc. Family of sponsors!
Your friends & servants in Christ,
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Keep PRESSIN' IN!
To Show GOD BIG in
a World that Sees Him small…
sums up the reason Keith stepped out in faith to focus on reaching the lost and strengthening believers everywhere, through Toward The Mark, Inc. Keith and Brenda's prayer is that you will be encouraged and edified by the Secrets from God's Word that are recounted in each and every written and recorded project of TTM.
sums up the reason Keith stepped out in faith to focus on reaching the lost and strengthening believers everywhere, through Toward The Mark, Inc. Keith and Brenda's prayer is that you will be encouraged and edified by the Secrets from God's Word that are recounted in each and every written and recorded project of TTM.
We couldn't do
this without the help of our friends!
This blog message, along with the complete collection of original podcasts, music, blogs, books, CDs, and other Bible-based resources of Toward The Mark, Inc. is made possible by the faithful prayer and financial support of the TTM Sponsorship Family. We'd like to invite you to come on-board, to become a part of the TTM Family as well, by becoming a monthly financial partner. Your support will go toward fulfilling our God-given calling to help provide effective, contemporary outreach tools that are available to everyone, the churched and un-churched alike, who desire to know more of the love, truth, and salvation of Jesus Christ. We invite you to partner with us, as we, "press Toward The Mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:14)
This blog message, along with the complete collection of original podcasts, music, blogs, books, CDs, and other Bible-based resources of Toward The Mark, Inc. is made possible by the faithful prayer and financial support of the TTM Sponsorship Family. We'd like to invite you to come on-board, to become a part of the TTM Family as well, by becoming a monthly financial partner. Your support will go toward fulfilling our God-given calling to help provide effective, contemporary outreach tools that are available to everyone, the churched and un-churched alike, who desire to know more of the love, truth, and salvation of Jesus Christ. We invite you to partner with us, as we, "press Toward The Mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:14)
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