Here’s a word the Lord spoke to me yesterday:
Son,
I am your God,
I am your Father,
I am your Friend.
Be strong in Me; secure in our relationship and My love for you.
Be confident that I’m with you; that as you move forward in a direction that I’ve spoken, you can be assured that whatever opposition rises up against you, I am for you.
Now don’t let opposition be more influential to you than My Word.
Stick with what I’ve said, no matter the opposition.
My Word will bring you to victory.
Hey Friends,
Here’s my journal from this morning:
Jeremiah 45:5
And seekest thou great things for thyself?
seek them not
Matthew 6:33
But seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and his righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 7:7
Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Matthew 7:8
For every one that asketh receiveth;
and he that seeketh findeth;
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Son, seek Me!
Pursue Me!
Hunger & thirst for Me!
I can be found by you
and your soul will be rewarded
I am your Prize!
Be blessed,
Joe
Hey Friends,
I heard that one of the meanings for the word “understanding” in the book of Proverbs is “organization”.
My pastor, Bill Winston, taught me many times that
About a month ago the Lord asked me a question:
That is a thought provoking question.
Taking time to answer it will pay you handsome dividends.
I came across this simple book. 
Although I don’t like to classify myself as a dummy sometimes in the area of organization I may act like it. So I’m taking time to read a simple book like this to shore up in this area. It is amazingly helpful to do this.
If you are weak in an area shore it up. But don’t spend too much time on your weaknesses. It’s better to staff your weaknesses, but that’s another subject. Get your weaknesses to a place where you can at least function reasonably. Reading/studying in these areas will help you.
Also, in areas where you have expertise you may want to read up on something in that area to see if there is something new or something you forgot about. That can be a humbling experience for some, but be encouraged: you’re bettering yourself and those you serve.
I read my Bible a lot and I’m glad I do. But I find reading other books that bring understanding/organization can greatly enhance your life.
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I hope you all are seeking the Lord diligently.
Today in my prayer time the Lord spoke this to me:
I hope this encouraged you today.
Joe
Well Friends,
I’m off on another prayer retreat. Leaving tomorrow after church, I’ll have to miss the SuperBowl which I was kind of looking forward to, but when you really think about it, if you know God very well at all, watching the SuperBowl can’t even be compared.
So here’s my challenge:
Are you setting aside any time to meet with the Lord?
If you don’t know how to do that check out the last post before this one.
Pray for me, I’ll be praying for you.
Blessings
Joe
Hey Friends,
Don’t neglect the great benefits you receive by just taking time in God’s word.
Let His word just cleanse you, purify you.
It works if you’ll take the time to do it.
Turn off the TV, the email, even the web-surfing, get to a secret place or somewhere that you won’t be interrupted, get your Bible and your journal or a fresh notebook.
Take time.
Pray and ask Him where to turn to start reading. If no thought comes to you, just turn to wherever you want to read. As you read you might want to write down in your notebook or journal some of the key verses that seem to really be speaking to you.
Write down other thoughts that you have, God will speak to you through this. When I’m doing this I often get a wave of thoughts that try to pull me away from having time with God. So if I remember, “Oh I have to call so-and-so!” I write that down. Then leave that thought alone, go back to my reading of the Word. If another distracting thought comes I do the same again.
As you are persistent in this you get better at it. You’ll get your task list written and clear your mind out of all these thoughts that are floating around demanding your energy and attention.
David said in the Psalms, I have stilled and quieted my soul. This is how you do it.
Get focused on God,
He is good and He wants to touch your life.
Go ahead friends, try this out.
Hebrews 11 says that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
God bless you
Joe
Hey Friends,
Here’s something the Lord was teaching me in my journal this morning:
Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Son, peace to you. Let my peace reign in your life, in your heart. All is well.
My goodness and mercy desire to come forth on you, don’t block them. Don’t let your heart block them.
Proverbs 4:20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
Proverbs 4:21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
If you let a lie about me arise in your heart then your heart becomes impure. The pure in heart see Me. Letting your heart become impure will block your sight of me. I am good Son. I’m loving. I’m here for you. Let it be known in your heart that I am loving, kind, generous, helpful, encouraging and strengthening. I am good Son. Now you can see Me better.
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Hey Friends,
Happy New Year!
I hope all went well for you.
The Lord has put something strong on my heart:
Being strong in moral character will help to keep you from falling.
I preached a message about it yesterday at church, take a few minutes to listen.
I believe it will help you.
God bless
Joe
I believe your (and my) success for the new year is directly related to you spending time alone with God.
The Bible says in Hebrews 11 that
He(God) is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
He also promises in Jeremiah 29:13
“If you look for Me wholeheartedly, you will find Me.”
The most meaningfully successful people I know seek the Lord the most.
The one’s whose success is purposeful and very blessed are the one’s who intentionally set aside time to pursue improving their relationship with God.
I know you’re busy but God is waiting and He’s available to you.
Consider going into your room by yourself, closing the door, kneel down next to your bed and talk to Him.
He’s ready. He’s waiting.
Consider taking a day and getting away by yourself to seek Him.
He’s ready. He’s waiting.
Consider taking three days off by yourself to pray and discuss your future with Him.
He’s ready. He’s waiting.
Open your Bible, read it.
Get a journal, write what you want to say to Him, write down thoughts and impressions you think might be from Him.
Go talk to Him.
He’s ready. He’s waiting.
Happy New Year!
Pastor Joe
21252
During Christmas time people try to be very cheery. MERRY Christmas!
Well some people struggle with that.
One quote I heard this year was
“Happiness doesn’t come from money it comes from relationships.”
In the Bible, the very first thing that God disapproved of was man being alone.
He set about immediately to change it. You should too.
The other night my wife, Nancy, came home from shopping with a few of our kids.
She said something about really needing to spend time with me because she felt lonely.
Now I don’t claim to understand women 🙂 , but I can’t see Nancy being lonely. We have seven children and we spend ALOT of time together.
As soon as she said that, I said, “Nancy, I don’t think that’s you. I think it’s a burden to pray for someone else.”
She said she instantly knew that I was right. She said it was a deep grieving in her gut. Someone hurting really bad.
She spent some time praying in the spirit for them until the burden lifted. Nancy is quite a prayer warrior.
If that was you that she was praying for, be encouraged. God is thinking about you. God agrees with your discontent with being lonely. He wants to change it. He wants it changed.
The other day I was taping a video devotional for the TLN network. One of the devotionals I taped went something like this:
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January 9
Researcher Carolyn Schwartz wanted to see if multiple sclerosis sufferers would benefit from receiving monthly peer-support phone calls from other MS victims. But over time, a surprising trend emerged. While those receiving support calls appeared to gain some mild benefit, the real beneficiaries were those lending a supportive ear. In fact, those who offered support experienced dramatic improvements in their quality of life—several times more so than those they were helping.
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My Friend,
If you’re lonely. Change it. Call someone. Help someone. Get out of those four walls, either physically, via phone, email or snail mail. Reach out. Help someone. You will be quite blessed.
Local nursing homes need volunteers to come and just talk to people.
If you’re lonely reach out to someone else. Don’t wait until they reach out to you.
You’ll be blessed if you do.
Love ya
& MERRY CHRISTMAS
Joe
21059
For the last year and a half we have had a young lady teaching our children here in our home. She has been a huge blessing. Her name is Rebecca Collins.
It’s been amazing how much she’s helped us. The kids love her. So do we.
But today was her last day of teaching the kids. She’s going to the mission field. Her life-long dream is being fulfilled on December 27th.
She’ll be home-schooling for a family in Guatemala and helping in an orphanage.
God has mighty plans for this young lady. Keep your eyes open for her.
If you want to get involved in her work financially go to our website and make a donation. She doesn’t know that I’m doing this, but I think this would be a huge blessing to get behind her and bless her and the ministry she’s working with.
You can stay up to date with her ministry by viewing her blog.
Keep her in prayer.
Watch her works and watch her faith, maybe God will have you follow suit.
Be blessed
Joe
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Joseph Barlow 