I decided to start this blog (2010) because my son, John-Robert gave me a One Year Bible for Christmas, the New Living Translation... reading it has changed my life... I post a daily Bible verse on my Facebook page every day and it has been well received... I thought that this would be a wonderful way to share part of what I read each day!... I hope that you enjoy it.



This Year 2012 I am going to do things a little different... not much...just a little. I am again reading through my One Year Bible (for the 3rd time). But I am also using "The Secret Power of Speaking God's Word" by Joyce Meyer. This book is divided by putting scriptures under different categories so they can be used to speak over our life situations. Each day I will read a category of scripture and pick a scripture in that category to write about.



Hugs

Jeannie







Wednesday, November 16, 2011

11.16.11

Hebrews 13:15 Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise a to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.

My Thoughts
Verse 11 tells us "Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp." Every time I read this I think of how the people had to raise a perfect animal...one with no blemishes.  It had to be a first born male animal.. perfect in every way. To keep this animal perfect it had to be watched over continually... special care had to be taken with this animal, during its life an during its death. Then this perfect animal was given to God for the sins of the people.  This took so much time and energy, so much effort, so much thought.  Since Jesus died for out sins our sacrifice is praise to God. Simply praise to God! We can do that as we go about our day.  Yet we often fail to even acknowledge God in our day at all much less offer praise. How sad this must make God, that he gave his perfect son, one without any blemish of sin, that walked on this earth for us. He gave his one and only son as a sacrifice for us and we forget to send up praise to Him. We forget to set apart time for God. We think we are too busy, that we don't have time.  We need to make time for God.  We need to stop and thank God for all that we have. We need to treat what we have as a gift, not as a right. The money we have in our pockets, or our bank accounts was given to us by God for us to use wisely! Our ability to make that money in our pockets was given to us by God.  We need to be mindful of the fact that it is a gift from God so that we can do so much for ourselves and for others and we need to thank God for the gifts that brings into our lives. We need to be in constant praise and in constant state of thankfulness.

If we were to strive to be thankful always, always mindful of all that we have as being a gift... our chores would not seem so much like chores. I need so to learn to do this.  Thank you God for these dishes, for the food that was ate on these dishes! Thank you God for this dishwasher that makes my day so much easier. Thank you God for these dirty clothes..this huge pile I have means that I have more than enough and you gave them to me, to adorn me.. so that I can feel pretty, be warm. Thank you God for this power bill, it means that I have been cool in the summer and warm in the winter.. it ran my dishwasher, and my washing machine and dryer... my hot water heater... this wonderful thing called power that you created for us makes my days so much easier... you love me so much God that you make my days so, so, so much easier then they could be... you give me time in my day for enjoyment!!  Thank you God for that.  Our list should go on and on and on!!  And on and on and on!!! 

Imagine how happy it would make God if we acknowledged Him in all that we do and in all that we have each day. Imagine how much more we would appreciate what we have if we would stop and think of each thing as a gift.Our minds are filled with constant thoughts as we go about our days anyway! Why not stop the randomness of our thoughts and fill those places with praise and thankfulness.  Imagine how much more God would want to give us if we stopped to be thankful for all that he has given us!!! Imagine how our friends would feel if we said each time that we saw them... God thank you so much for this dear friend of mine. Imagine how much our hearts would grown... and our attitudes would change if we lived in a constant state of praise!

Just taking these minutes to think of all that I have in this way has made me happier! So much more aware of my wonderful God who has given me so much... What allllllllllll are you thankful for today? Tell God how great He is for giving  you so much!!


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