FOCUS ON VICTORY ONE STEP AT A TIME!

Focus on Victory One Step at a Time!

Deuteronomy 7:22, And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beast of the field become too numerous for you.

Do you ever get impatient? Do you ever wish God would just hurry up? Boy I do!!

It is so hard for me to wait on the Lord...Often I have to slap myself on the head and ask the question...Who knows best, me or the LORD? We all know the answer to that question...because we truly know it is the LORD who knows best...

Do you remember the TV show, "Father Knows Best"? I do, and I can still see The Beaver as he shakes his head, because he just can't understand why his father has told him to do a certain thing a certain way...

In the end, he always understood why his father had told him to do things in that special, certain way...Because really "Father knows best."

ONE WAY GOD WORKS!

When God led His people into the Promise Land, He did so step by step...If He had allowed them to over take their enemies at once, the land would have been too difficult to manage...also if they would have been able to take all their enemies out at once, they would have most likely gotten big headed...So He allowed some of the enemies to remain for a time in order to maintain the land and suppress some of the wildlife...

In doing so, God taught His people to trust Him step by step...He gave them only as much responsibility as they could handle at one time...

Often in my own life, when things seem to start getting out of control, I believe it is because I had taken on to much...and am trying, in my own strength to take care of everything...{This is human nature that causes us to do this... We want to be in control, and we want things done right now...}

As God leads us in our Christian growth, He will allow challenges that match our character and relationship to Him...God will not totally change our character at once when we become a Christian...Rather, He will lead us through a process to become more like His Son...He will keep working in an area in our life until it is controlled by His Holy Spirit...

WHAT GOD SEES!

You may eagerly desire maturity in every area of your life...but steady...gradual growth is more lasting...God will not take short cuts in His process of makeing you like Christ...He sees your life from eternity and will take as long as necessary to produce lasting spiritual growth in you...

Do not beome impatient while God is producing Christlikeness in you...Do not seek more responsibilities than those He has already given you...Obey all that you know He has asked...and He will lead you at a pace that fits your present character and His purposes for you...

Focus on Victory One Step at a Time...because OUR "Father Knows Best!"

RLF. Robert N. Graves, Sr...

Fisherman for Christ...

FOCUS ON A HOLY STANDARD!

Focus on a Holy Standard!!

We must continually remind ourselves of the purpose of life… We are not destined to happiness, nor to health, but to holiness…

Today we have far too many desires and interests that do not come inline with Holiness, and our lives are being consumed and wasted by them… Many of them may be right, noble, and good, and may later be fulfilled, but in the meantime God must cause their importance to us to decrease…

The only thing that truly matters is whether a person will accept the God who will make him holy… At all costs, a person must have the right relationship with God...Without a right relationship with God, no other relationship will prosper...

Do I believe I need to be holy? Do I believe that God can come into me and make me holy?

The preaching of the gospel should awaken an intense resentment because it is designed to reveal my unholiness, but it also awakens an intense yearning and desire within me.

God has only one intended destiny for mankind— holiness… His only goal is to produce saints… God is not some eternal blessing-machine for people to use, and He did not come to save us out of pity— He came to save us because He created us to be holy…

Atonement through the Cross of Christ means that God can put me back into perfect oneness with Himself through the death of Jesus Christ, without a trace of anything coming between us any longer.

Never tolerate, because of sympathy for yourself or for others, any practice that is not in keeping with a holy God... Holiness means absolute purity of your walk before God, the words coming from your mouth, and every thought in your mind— placing every detail of your life under the scrutiny of God Himself... Holiness is not simply what God gives me, but what God has given me that is being exhibited in my life.

RLF. Robert N. Graves, Sr.
Fisherman for Christ.

FOCUS ON DIRECTING YOUR THOUGHTS!

Focus on Directing Your Thoughts!

Colossians 3:2, KJV, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth..."

Do you direct your thoughts and affections toward things that are honorable, true, and uplifting? The Bible says that we should...

Do you lift your hopes and your prayers to God many times each day? The Bible says we should...

Do you turn away from bad thoughts and bad people? The bible says we should...

God's Word instructs us to guard our thoughts against things that are hurtful or wrong...And when we turn away from the bad and turn instead to God and His Son...we will be blessed and protected from the consequences that could result from the sins that often come from bad thoughts...

Good thoughts create good deeds...

Good thoughts lead to good deeds and bad thoughts lead elsewhere...So guard your thoughts accordingly...

Get around the right people...Associate with positive, goal oriented people who encourage and inspire you to do the right things, and think the right thoughts...

Be selective about your external and internal influences...Your multi-dimensional brain is influenced by everything you see, hear, read, touch, feel or say...

Avoid negative people at all cost...They are the greatest destroyers of self-confidence and self-esteem....

Focus on directing you thoughts in the right direction...you want regret it...

Robert N. Graves, Sr.

Fisherman for Christ...

FOCUS ON FOLLOWING JESUS!!

Focus on Following Jesus!!

Mark 1: 17-18, And Jesus said unto them, “Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men…” And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed Him…

DEFINE FOCUS: A center of interest or activity…a condition in which something can be clearly apprehended or perceived.

A center of interest or activity…the word “center” means, “middle”, “heart”, “core”, “axis…”

Interest means, “attention” or “importance…”

Apprehend means, “detained”, “held in custody”, or “seized…”

So, where can we go with all these words?

What is the center of your interest? What is in the middle of your heart or core? What is it that you rotate around? Where is your focus?

WHO DO YOU FOLLOW?
To follow someone is to join in union with that person on the road of life…So if we follow someone who is going in the wrong direction we will be going the wrong way also…

Many years ago, I followed someone who was going the wrong way…I focused only on what he focused on…what was at the center of his life, was the center of mine…Whatever his interest were, mine were the same…

At the core of my life was sin and destruction…All I was interested in was how to make more money…It did not matter what I had to do to get it, I just did it…

Because I was following the wrong person, I was detained, held in custody, or seized in the world of sin and the consequence there of…

At first it seemed so good, so cool, but the Bible tells us that, sin is fun for a season…AND it is so true…

But then………the consequences…

Because my focus was centered on the wrong things… I lost every thing and when I say everything I mean everything…Sin had taken me farther than I wanted to go…and left me stranded out in the middle of a place called “Nowhere…”

I know there are many out there who may read this that know where this place is…In the world of “Nowhere” there is no love for others, only love for self…Selfishness is what people eat and drink in Nowhere…There is no real life in this awful place…only loneliness, darkness and separation…

When we find ourselves in “Nowhere,” we have gotten there because we have given up the greatest for the lest…We have placed our attention on something that was nothing, and it lead to “Nowhere…” When... we could have placed our attention on Him and received the peace that passes all understanding…

When we focus on the wrong things in life, we will in due time, find that we have been separated away from what was truly important and meaningful in life…For me, I was separated away from my wife, my family, my home, self-respect, the list is endless…I found my self stranded in “Nowhere…” But guess what!!!

Even in the darkness of “Nowhere”, there is something so powerful that can penetrate that darkness and show you the way out…It is Jesus Christ…He is the Light that shines in the darkness of Nowhere…Nothing can stop His light from reaching you, because He has chosen you…

(Words of Jesus Himself) John 15:17, Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain…

WHAT CAN HAPPEN!
Somewhere along the way, and I am not really sure when it happened, I started calling on the name of the Lord, and He heard my remorseful plea…

One thing that needs to be understood right now is that when I called on Him, I was lost in this place of darkness and He not only heard me, He came and rescued and brought me out of that terrible place and brought me into the Light of His grace and love…

My reason for saying this is that it makes no difference where you are or what you are into or what is into you…if you really want help to get out of that place called, “Nowhere,” you can get out…Know that He has chosen you…He has paid your penalty and you can get out…just choose Him and call on His name…He will come…He came for me and if He came for me He will come for anyone… God is no respecter of persons…this simply means that I am not any different or any more special than you or anyone else…We are all valuable in His eyes and heart…

IT’S TIME TO FOLLOW JESUS!!
We often assume that Jesus’ disciples were great men of faith from the first time they met Jesus…But they had to grow in their faith just as all believers do…I really believe that some of the men Jesus choose were living in, “Nowhere” when He called them to follow Him…As I have studies from God’s Word, I have come to believe that in this scripture we are using as our text, that this was not the first time Jesus had called Peter, James, and John to follow Him…But this time, when Jesus called them, they “straightway,” forsook their nets and followed Him…

Often it takes time for the call and message of Jesus to get through…The reason it often doesn’t get through at first, is not because anything is wrong with the call, the problem is with the ones who are being called…remember He said, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you…” too often we are hard of hearing…


WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE FOLLOW JESUS!
Hard of hearing…is an understatement…hard of hearing and blind is more like it…But don’t forget the Light…Because of the Light of Jesus Christ, I was given another chance…Thank God for second chances, and third and many more…

When His light penetrated my heart, I could not only hear but could also see the right way to go…and that is the way of faith…Forsaking all I trusted Him…

Christ lead me out of “Nowhere” and brought me into His Kingdom, which is a Kingdom of grace and love…greater love has no man that he lay his life down for his friend…

He loved me and gave Himself for me when I was still lost in Nowhere…Then I reached up my hand to His, and made a decision to follow Him…in other words I choose to follow Him on the road of life…

When I started following Jesus, my interest changed, my attention went from worldly things to spiritual things…My focus is on Him…He is the center of my activity…when I obey His teachings, I can learn the right things…and do the things which He has predestined for me to do…I am held in His custody and seized by His Holy Spirit… He has not forced me to come…I came because I heard that still small voice calling out to me…A voice that called even into the darkness of a place called “Nowhere.”

I started going to church…God created a hunger in my spirit for His Word…I wanted to do what pleased my heavenly Father…

When I started going to church, I walked down the isle one day and gave myself openly to Jesus…as I continued going, I started sitting on the back row in the church…but because I did not want to miss anything that was being said, I moved up about half way to the front…then in a few weeks I was sitting up on the front pew…then after a while of learning and instruction, I found myself standing all the way up front preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ…

Since then, God has taken me many places to proclaim His gospel to whom ever He puts before me…God is so good…I praise His name for His loving kindness and His truth…

Needless to say…everything I had lost, I got back…I got my wife back…I got my home back…I got my self respect back…God has blessed my with so much until it would take pages and pages to tell all about it…But…listen, I know that we can't all get back exactly what we have lost...but what we get is much more than we could ever realize or think...

Remember Nowhere?

The world is full of people right now that are caught up in the darkness of this world…they are blinded just like I was…Jesus is calling someone right now to reach up and take His hand and choose to follow Him…

Conclusion:

Who will you walk with today? Do yourself a favor---walk with Jesus…Focus on following Him…

God’s Word promises that when you follow in Christ’s footsteps, you will learn how to behave yourself, and you’ll learn how to live a good life…Jesus wants you to be a, “New Creation” through Him…And that is exactly what you should want for yourself, too…So talk with Jesus through prayer and walk with Him by obeying His rules today and forever…

We are the chosen and ordained of Christ, we have been given the very same purpose of Christ Himself: to go into the entire world and bear fruit among men.

Believers are chosen and ordained by Jesus… At first...we do not choose Him nor do we ordain and send ourselves out to serve Him…

It is God who approaches and draws us John 6:44-46. John 6:37.)
It is God who appoints us to live for Him and to serve Him.

Believers are chosen and appointed for specific purposes…To go forth as ambassadors for Christ, proclaiming the glorious message of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ…

Believers are the ambassadors of Christ in the world… Once they have been saved, their duty—their sole reason for being appointed and left in this world—is to deliver the message of their King…

If you want to stay in “Nowhere” and do nothing, that is OK, because that is just what people do there…But not for me anymore…I want to do what God has called me to…and He said “Come, follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.”

Most people achieved their greatest success one step beyond what looked like their greatest failure...

You don’t have to be perfect to follow in Christ’s footsteps…Jesus doesn't expect your perfection…He expects your participation…

Robert N. Graves, Sr. Fisherman for Christ

Focus First On Your Faults!

Focus First On Your Faults!!

Luke 6: 37-38. (37)Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall find forgiven: (38) Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

Here’s something worth thinking about:

If you judge other people harshly, God will judge you in the same way…But that’s not all …The Bible also promises that if you forgive other people, you, too, will be forgiven…

Are you tempted to blame people, criticize people, or judge people? If so remember this: God is already judging what people do, and He doesn’t need or want our help…

Look in the mirror!

Are you doing what you are telling others to do…I got a good dose of this one morning not to long ago when my grandson was living with us…I told him one morning to make up his bed…his remark back to me was, “Granddaddy, you haven’t made yours up yet.” He was right…Although, I always make up the bed, this morning I was busy looking around at what he was doing and had not cleaned up my own mess first…So here was a good messages to myself and to you… Before we can help others get their jobs done, or help them get their lives in order, we must first set the example for them to follow…What kind of example are you setting?…By looking in the mirror of our life and actions, we will be able to help ourselves first and then maybe we can be an example for others to follow…

So often, Christians think they are prosecuting attorneys or judges, when in reality, God has called us to be witnesses…Perhaps you had a different job description in mind when you decided to follow Jesus…maybe you thought you would be joining Him in judging the world…you would be pointing out all the evil in the world so He could give them what they deserve…

Answer this question…What do you deserve?

A forgiving spirit demonstrates that a person has received God’s forgiveness…Jesus uses the picture of measuring grain in a basket to ensure the full amount…If we are critical rather than compassionate, we will also receive criticism…If we treat others generously, graciously, and compassionately, these qualities will come back to us in full measure…We are to love others, not judge them…

Luke 6: 41-42, NIV: (41) “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? (42) How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye.”

Jesus doesn’t mean we should ignore wrongdoing, but we should not be so worried about others’ sins that we over look our own…We often rationalize our sins by pointing out the same mistakes in others…What kinds of specks in others’ eye are the easiest for you to criticize? Remember your own “planks” when you feel like criticizing, and you may find that you have less to say…

The disciple never becomes the judge!

As humans, our tendency is to be too easy on ourselves and too harsh on others…We see a tiny speck of dust in the other person’s eye, and want to remove it…The other person must be perfect…all the while, other people wonder why we are so blind…Can we not see what is sticking out of our own eye? No, that two-by-four in our own eye goes unnoticed, no matter how many times we look in the mirror…

We moan and complain about the hypocrisy in this world, even the pretense in the church…Jesus looks lovingly at us and says, “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye…”

Until we allow Jesus to help us see ourselves realistically and to deal with our own spiritual problems, we cannot become mature disciples—the teachers of others whom He calls us to be…

So what will we do with this…?

Christ has called us to be witnesses, not judges…But before we can become the real witnesses He is talking about, we need to look deep into the mirror of ourselves and see what real adjustments we need to make…

PS. Make up your bed!! And “Focus First on Your Own Faults.”

Robert N. Graves, Sr. Fisherman for Christ

http:/fishermanforchrist.blogspot.com

Focus on the Right Things

FOCUS ON THE RIGHT THINGS!

Proverbs 4:23-26,Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life…Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on and let thine eyelids look straight before thee…Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established…

It is probably one of the most unpleasant and ignored realities that Christians face in life… They are living in the middle of the enemy’s territory and their response to it is usually denial…

They either try to deny that demonic activity even exists, or they admit that it exists but that there is nothing that they can do about it and just ignore it… God will just take care of it for them, and they will be just fine…

Jesus dealt specifically with demonic activity, and he taught us to as well… Christians must accept and respond to the truth that is in Christ and His word … To do less is at best, self-destruction and the enemy works continually to bring that about… This destruction can come from Satan’s hand or ours, it doesn't matter to him, he enjoys and uses both!

And yet to do either of those things, deny or ignore, is to deny or ignore, the very words and teaching of Christ himself…

The people of God can neither run from the enemy or the responsibility of dealing with him… That always ends in trouble for people because he is relentless in going after what he wants and will not give up… Battle your enemy or he will overtake you at some point…

God's people must begin to understand the fullness of their authority that Jesus gave them, and the power of the Holy Spirit that they walk in, as well as the protection they enjoy when they walk before the Lord with a right heart and confidence in their life in Him…

What He has said, He will do, what He has promised, will always come to pass, what He has said you can do in His name you can do… If the body of Christ would quit fighting themselves and each other and turn their strength and energies on the devil and his demons, they would get much, much further with much less trouble…(Most often we try to fix “It” ourselves instead of letting God fix it through us… We gain our strength and direction by focusing on Him… …focusing on His Word, His Holy Spirit and His guidance…)

I Peter 5:8-9 says " Be self controlled and alert, your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him ( you do it ), standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings."

The other part of the picture is that there are actually two enemies in your midst; you are actually your own worst enemy… Mankind has always been his own worst enemy, opposing himself with the wrong choices he makes, and with the deliberate sins he commits… He sets himself up by not taking the time to learn and remember from the past, by being prideful and not admitting his sins, faults and weaknesses…


The devil is a real foe that Jesus said you must wage war against and keep out of your midst as much as possible, dealing with him firmly as soon as he shows up… But he can only do what we allow him to, he has no power against us, no ability to do us any real harm except through some other channel, a person, sickness, deception, lies etc. (SIN)

We open the door for Satan, when we do things that are against the will of God…Our focus should and must be on doing the things in life that God would have us to do…

Answer this question for your self…If you lived a life in which, you did not ever sin, think of the problem that you would not have had to face that you have had to face because you have sinned...{Mouth full}

I know we all have sinned and we will continue to sin to some point but we need to realize that each time we do…we will suffer the consequence thereof…so knowing that we suffer because of the choices we have made to sin, we should learn, to focus more and more on God and His Word…We need to live each and every moment of our lives with a “God Awareness.”

We have all the power, but it works through faith and love and a right heart before the Lord… You have the right and the responsibility to deal absolutely with Satan, but you also have the responsibility to deal with yourself, and that's the one we have the most problem with…More times than not, when we have problems, it is because of the choices we have made in whatever situation we have been involved in…

Focus on Attitude:

Where does a good attitude begin? It starts in our hearts and works its way out from there…Jesus taught us that a pure heart is a wonderful blessing…It’s up to each of us to fill our hearts with love of God, love for Jesus, and love for all people, and that includes loving our selves…

Sometimes, of course we don’t feel much like feeling good…Sometimes, when we’re tired or frustrated or angry, we simply don’t want to have a good attitude…On those days when we’re feeling bad, it’s time to calm down…and rest up…

Do you want to be the best person you can be? Then you shouldn’t grow tire of doing the right thing…and you shouldn’t grow tired of thinking the thoughts…

Above all else, guard the attitude of your heart…we must know that the heart is the wellspring in life…

We need to put away perversity from our mouth and keep corrupt talk from our lips…Our eyes need to be always fixed straight ahead and on Jesus as we keep Him ever before us…We need to know we have the authority He says we have…and keep our paths level for the traveling this life hold…we do that by keeping away for sin…and by doing this we will keep our foot from evil…

Focus on Jesus and He will focus on you…

Holiness is not the way to Jesus…Jesus is the way to holiness…

Every great leap forward in your life comes after you have made a clear decision on some kind, so today, make a clear focus to do the right thing…Keep you focus of Jesus…

“Focus on the right things…”

http:/ fishermanforchrist.blogspot.com