Luke 4:18-19 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Do you watch basketball? If you do, then you know the foul called goal tending. The ball must not be touched as it is descending upon the hoop or it is a foul. So does this have to do with our scriptures today. I call goal tending.

The Word is coming down upon the goal. These men of Galilee rejected the shot. How you ask?

V23b whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

In their hearts they did not want the salvation message, all they wanted were the miracles. I the Words of Jesus, “No prophet is accepted in his own country.” V24 And what was their response to the truth?

V29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

Is this why we withhold the Good News? Are we afraid of being treated the same way?

Malachi 2:2 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

Do you fear man more than God?

Goal tending!!!

Ecclesiastes 5 (random) Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.

To heed the last line, do I really need to add more? Can we not allow the Word to stand on its own and do a work it is meant to do?

So much of what I share here is a testimony of what God has done in my life. Being that I am human and the human condition is a common affliction I would hope that my examples might help others. They are my advice. But I am not every man, nor have I been afflicted with every ill. Many perhaps, but not all.

So I will end this here and ask you my readers to ignore what I have to say and read the opening verse for yourselves. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you in particular, privately, alone, without undo bias or opinion coming from me.

Be mindful of the Lord, not me.