The Stickman's Understanding...

  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. -John 12:24 Good morning!!!! TGIF…Jesus in a moment before the cross taught the purpose of His sacrifice and how the release would come forth from His sacrifice.  The release involved a seed having to die to reproduce and the dying isn’t rapid, but in stages. Each stage has a level of suffering required.  We often unknowingly share in His suffering. No we are not nailed to the cross as that was His price; and our being martyrs couldn’t ever provide what He has done for all mankind.  But as the seed, it is never able to reach its potential intact. The crushing is never without purpose.  In ministry we are often asked what keeps us going. Adversity, abandonment, the pouring out of self with what appears to be nothing in return.  It is because what we know is the seeding principle and it’s stages. In the natural ...

  Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together -Psalms 98:8 Good morning and tremendous Thursday to you! I was thinking about the scripture where the Pharisee told Jesus to tell those praising God to be quite.    The Lord responded that the rocks would replace them in praise.  I believe literally earth praises God! The sun in its perfect position, the moon in its perfect orbit, the mountains, the oceans, all send up praise. In their obedience, their function, their very being, God’s power, intelligence, wisdom, appreciation of beauty is on display.  My mentor once was exalting God saying “let the dog bark it, let the cat meow it, let the bird chirp it,    let the cow moo it…Let everything that has breath!!! Those things have breath, but even those things that don’t are required to bow before His majesty!  My question to you this morning is are the rocks taking your place, are the waters out clapping you, are the mountains out ...

  9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.                       -Romans 12 (ESV) Good morning, happy hump day and to God be all the glory! The world has a warped sense of what true love is and more often than not fail to love unconditionally.  In the scripture above we are being told how love with conditions allows a vengeful heart to operate.  The Lord knows that vengeance blocks genuine love and calls on us to forgive and to love unconditionally.  Christ loves us without condition and His sacrifice for us was the greatest display of    genuine love ever shown. And though He had justification He forgave those who laid Him on the cross and drove the nails through His hands and feet.  Given that we should forgive and strive to love genuinely.  Your comments and questions are welcome. Contact me at:  drschaefferinterceding@yahoo.com You can give to In...

  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. -Romans 12:1 Good morning and welcome to Tuesday. On this morning before prayer I dreamed and in it the Lord said present yourself.  The dreams was as real as the text which appears before you. I was blown away but as always obedient.  As I was examined by God I came to know that His purpose in examining me was to give me an encourage to of the day and a sermon for later.  It is a ritual of God well known to Jews whereas every male must present themselves before the Lord three times a year.  When they present themselves they must be first sanctified and clean physically and also not empty handed that is they must bring a sacrifice.  Paul called us the sacrifice. A sacrifice is dead and unable to protest. It is surrendered to its examiner. Being Holy speaks of the condition of our heart befor...

  The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. -Isaiah 40:8 God bless you and happy Monday. When we moved into our current home a few years back the lawn was… well horrible.  It was really more a patchwork of competing weeds; and riding roughshod, blocking the sun was this out of place tree.  Our first year I cut down the tree and at the beginning of our second year we sodded the front yard and planted some flowers.  That first year with the grass was touch and go. I tried to treat it until my wife grew weary of my lack of grass expertise and called a lawn company.  The other day I looked as the dormancy set in and the grass began to turn yellow. Eventually it will be almost white. It reminded me of the scripture above.  During its season I can for the most part count on a lush lawn, but when fall sets in almost immediately the grass begins to fail.    Yes it will comeback when the weather becomes favorable...

  1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. 4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.             -Eph 6 God bless you and TGIF!!! On yesterday I was reading an article about child rearing in the 21st century.  Of course it provided that parents should take a more hands off approach to child rearing. It suggested instead of calling a new born baby, they said we should call them, “theybies”.  Adults please do not buy into this foolishness. We must raise our children, not just let them grow up. Be active in the lives of children we have in our lives, hence all adults not just parents should help shape those children.  Children that are raised are successful sooner without as many learning curves as...

  And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel: and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years. -1 Kings 16:29 God bless you and welcome to Thursday. Very early this morning I woke up with two words on my mind.  Title and character. I don’t know why and I’ve learned not to ask the Lord why he does certain things. Just trust Him and in His time he will reveal.  It begin to unfold to me how title and character do not necessarily align themselves within a person.  It is human nature to expect someone with a title to act in the character of that title. Just because you have the title doesn’t mean you have the character.    Time and time again it is proven character does not come with the title bestowed.  The character in the scripture above had inherited the title and as many who came before him ungodly character.  A title does not entitle you as much as your chara...

  But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: -1 Peter 3:15 Good morning and happy hump day!!! Ive always rehearsed the instruction of the scripture above.  The word sanctify here means to have so much reverence for the Lord that your time is well spent learning Him and growing in your relationship.  Doing so is important if you are to carry out the great commission and answer those that do not understand your peace, joy and love.  Through your effort some will be saved. But you are called to more than those who will accept, but also to those who will reject.  I recently saw in ignorance how a scripture was taken out of context, not taking into account place, time, customs, etc and thought of how the elements of rebellion will cause a person to want to believe what is convenient to their lifestyle.  Are we called to them, yes we are! ...

  Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. -Isaiah 41:10 Good morning and Terrific Tuesday!  Three things that God distinguishes in the Bible as not things He gives His people, fear (2Tim 1:7), confusion (1Corinthians 14:33) and weakness (Is 40:31).  We are living in a dangerous world for those of faith. Murder, kidnappings, threats, beatings, torture, rape, and more befall Christians at a higher rate than any other group.  For those in peril now and for us when our time comes, above is powerful scripture to pray. There is such a lesson in the phrasing found therein.  Surely the love of money is the root of this evil. Many such things are happening all over the world and it is a matter of time before persecution of Christians reach this shore.  Our trials may not be as much physical as it is spiritual now but be prayed...

  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.               -Matthew 24:13 Good morning beloved, happy Monday.   Ecclesiastes 9:11    (“The race is not given to the swift) appropriately begins the recognized conclusion of this well known ending in Matthew 24:13.    Sometimes while in our race we seem to be swamped with the throng of the crowd. Many times we feel like we are not as effective as others, lagging behind them, or we can barely stay ahead of the things next to us or behind us that are screaming quit.  But the Lord Jesus Himself gives us the encouragement in such an appropriate place (Matthew 24 end times prophecy) to stay in the race.  Many who start out the gate like bullets may soon fizzle as fast and many who start late may give up, just do not let it be you.  Just know it doesn’t matter at what point you enter the race or what position you finish, what matters is ...

  The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. -Psalms 14:1 God bless, good morning and welcome to Thursday. Once an atheist brought a civil suit against a city government because of the terrible crime of praying before counsel meetings.  The gentleman really became obsessed and pushed through the case wanting them to stop praying. Once the case went to court, the judge made it a point of praying daily before the procedure of that day.  This really had the plaintiff miffed but the words of final ruling dismissing the case was yet to come.  On the day of the ruling, the gentle sat snugged as the day before he and his attorney had insulted Christianity and were blasphemous.  The judge sat and as he read the ruling the attorney went scampering for law books to understand the weird expression of the judge in his dismissal.  The judge said “I am dismissing this on the technica...

  Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.  -Psalms 150:6 Good morning and happy hump day. In one of my first sermons I used this scripture as the basis.  I was a newly minted licensed minister and over the course of my training I had encountered some older saints who had lost that fire.  Along for the ride were many new saints who joined the chorus singing, “It doesn’t take all that!”  Some say it doesn’t take all of that, but my God, didn’t He take all that separated you from salvation away?  He suffered the wounds for our sins, the bruises for our fore father sin, the disrespect for our peace, and the pain of the stripes for healing.  So before you begin belting out in unison, consider how the enemy is busy. Seeking, slaying, stealing, killing, and destroying.  From one day to the next we are not sure what we will face, deadly pandemics, deranged murders, adverse weather, or a combination of those things and worst....

  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. -Matthew 6:33 God bless, good morning and terrific Tuesday…while in morning prayer the Lord reminded me of an often omitted part of the the scripture above.  We seek His kingdom first but we forget the requirement of living righteously. This is a glaringly obvious truth as we see individuals who state God but don’t live righteous.  We encounter this daily on social media, at work, shopping, and or home where one state they seek kingdom blessing whilst the next post, comment or action promotes fear, glamorizes perversion, supports hate and more. Those things are the epitome of unrighteousness.  To say for God you live and die while you openly have moments of unrepentant inclusion is not keeping with the intent of Matthew 6:33. That is unstable living and it is dangerous. Your comments and questions are welcome. Contact me at: drschaefferinterceding@yahoo.com Yo...

  8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and SPEAK ye unto the rock before their eyes And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he SMOTE the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. -Numbers 20:11 Good morning, Happy Monday and God bless you! Frustration may be agitation to move you towards or away from your destination.  Truly a bold statement easily proven in the events which lead up to Moses striking the rock and God denying him entrance to the Promiseland.  Before Moses allowed his frustration to prompt him to not consider God’s glory and strike the rock only thinking of alleviating his own frustration, folks had plucked his last nerve.  His brother and sister murmured against him, the people rebelled, his cousins tried to undermine him and finally before he failed his sister died.  At this point we all would have been asking God, why? None of thos...

  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. -1 John 4:10 God bless you, TGIF. It is Friday again! As I was reading this scripture the other day, a revelation shook me.  The chapter concludes saying God loved us first and as I considered a comparison it is astounding how we fall so short.  In the natural the phrase I love you is reciprocated. When someone says it, it is fully expected that the same phrase is returned, loved or not.  But when the Lord commanded His love towards us, He was fully aware that many would not say it because they did not love Him.  John expounds that the very essence of God is love and all God does is based on the choice to love us.  Society has this twisted view that says love those who love you, or give love as a matter of contract, quid pro quo, not as a matter of covenant.  But God says love is not 50-50, love is expressed when it is not returned, lovi...

  3Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.                      -Romans 6 Good morning and welcome to  blessed Thursday. Upfront there is an identity crisis in the body of Christ.  Not just in terms of United Methodist calling out Methodist, Baptist calling out Church of Christ,    Episcopalian calling out Roman Catholics, etc… The identity crises goes deeper than that and it is no secret to those who haven’t professed Christ. They use the conflict as a reason not to accept Him. So not only are we unidentifiable within, but also without.  The question of identification can not be addressed by those on the outside of our faith and not even within the body, our denominati...

  23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: - 24For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. -James 1 Good morning and happy hump day. When I read James 1:23, it drew me into verse 24. And in that verse I wondered, how can one forget his own face? But if you think about it our face is a vague memory that will fade quickly if we do not look at it.  Yes we look into the mirror to ensure our face is clean, but in the deep recesses of our mind vanity calls out for us to look and compare ourselves to society as a whole.  If we do not look at ourselves we can actually forget what we look like.  Recently I was trying to remember a song from years ago and after it seemed forever it came back to me. It was a song somewhat popular as the melody caught your attention.   I didn’t sing it often but often enough to have thought I knew the words....