9.19.14

Galatians 5:6b What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

My Thoughts

God calls us to love. To love others, to love our enemies, to love the seemingly  unloveable.  Not to feel love, to act in love. What is love? 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. ... We need to know this verse, so when we wonder of we are acting in love we can call it to mind and make sure. 

9.15.14

Galatians 1:10 Obviously I am not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant.

My Thoughts

You would think for a people pleaser like myself that this would make my life harder. And sometimes it can make life a little bit harder. But for me it eased my burdens! It narrowed my choices. It made life so much easier when the people around me  expect different things. I just have to ask myself will saying yes to this please God? Sometimes I ask myself, "If I commit myself to this now, will it cause me to sin later?" 

That second question may be a bit confusing. But I use it in those times I am asked to commit to something that I know will stress me out. I ask will my thoughts and feeling about this project be good and kind as I get to the end?" It the answer is NO! I say no. If the answer is, this could get stressful but I can handle all that comes with it." Then I say yes. You have no idea how much this has helped me. This has freed my life up in amazing ways. And it has helped me learn that people still love me even when I have to choose to tell them no. 

I find it amazing at how loving and honoring God can simplify out lives so. Yes sometimes it makes life a bit harder in the inset of the change. But as I continue to choose what God would have me choose life just gets better and better and better. 

The more I choose to please .god over people, the more I have past successes to draw from. Successes that tell me that God is bigger, God is stronger, god will make me able when I choose to follow Him. 

3.20.14

Galatians 5:25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.

My Thoughts
This was in my study notes in my Bible today.  In Luke 4 today, the scripture talked about Jesus being led my the Spirit. Jesus said I do and say only what my Father tells me in John 5:19. He knew what His Father told him by listening to the Spirit.

This verse today came to me at just the right time. We just finished studying the Holy Spirit in Bible Study and now on Wednesday nights we are studying the importance and power of prayer. The more I learn to walk in the Spirit the better my life becomes.  We recently learned a new song in our
Church about there being less of me and mor of You. The only way to grow in this area is by inviting the Holy Spirit into every area of our lives. Robby (my sweet husband) and I were talking about this just this morning ... We talked about how when the phone rings we need to ask the Holy Spirit to guard and guide our words. Vector we drive we need to ask the Holy Spirit to lead us. Before each of Robby's stops in his UPS truck he need to ask for help with that stop and those customers. We need to learn to make prayer, and learn to be constantly aware of hearing the Holy Spirit in all that we say and do. Too often we go about our days, with our own plans in mind, never stoping to hear or bothering to ask until a problem arises. If the hard times are better when we call on God, won't the good times and the every day times be that much better I. Prayer and in hearing the leading of .god through the Holy Spirit?  I must become more acutely aware that I need the Holy Spirit in all that I say and do and to have Him ever present I must invite Him in.

9.21.13

Galatians 15:22-23 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  There is no law against these things!

My Thoughts

The Holy Spirit is key in our lives!  Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to live with us when He went to heaven, so that we would have constant guidance, council, a constant presence of God in our lives.  Always with us.  When we are a child of God we are blessed with the wonderful presence of the Holy Spirit.  It is our job to tap into His love for us, His power for us.  We we see anything that is opposite of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control we are not in tune with the Holy Spirit inside of us.  We are not listening.

When we spend time in God's word, when we spend time in prayer, we improve our reception of the Holy Spirit inside of us.  Our time with God makes us more aware when the Holy Spirit speaks.  Knowing what the Holy Spirit produces in us is how we are able to know if have changed our channel and are listening to the world or if we have kept our dial tuned in to the Holy Spirit. How wonderful that God give us a way to be the person He would have us be!  

9.16.13

Galatians 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

My Thoughts

Now that I have learned how to know God, not just who He is, but to really know Him for myself I get this verse down to my bones.  These are not just words I hear and think I understand, they are words that are effecting my life even if I never read the words.  Every time I hear the Holy Spirit who Jesus put inside me to guide me because He loves me, I am more able, every time I choose to do what God says in His word, I am more able, every time I choose God's word over my emotions I am more able.  When I do the things God would have me do, no matter how the world plays out around me, I have peace and joy, I fee loved, I feel strong.  When I choose God's word, when I choose to do what the Bible tells me to do, the if part of, "If you do this then I (God) will do this!" Every time I choose the "if" I can know the "then" will come because all of God's promises are yes and amen. The good days are wonderful... but the best part is that in the mist of the storms of life I can still stand strong, I can still feel joy, I can still feel peace, I can have hope that things will get better. My God tells me that He will take care of me if I love Him, truly love Him and He is stronger than anything this world will bring on me.  Every day I am amazed.  Each day that I depend on God and see His promises ever present in my life my faith grows stronger! 

9.14.13

Galatians 1:10 Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant.

My Thoughts

I am a people pleaser, so you would think that this verse would not be a verse that feel under my favorites list (I have so many favorites!). But it is!! This fact simplified my life like you would not believe.  I now make my choice on what would please God and let everything else fall into place.  Sometimes I mess up, after all I have spent all my life trying to please people.  But I do my very best to please God.  When I do this, I find that God softens the hearts of the people around me and I usually please them too!!  But when I don't that is okay, I have done what God would have me do, so I don't end up with anxiety.  Too there is one God...and so many people... you are never going to please all people.  It makes life so much simpler to choose to please God.

See being a servant is a good thing, it simplifies life!  If we are a child of God we are the servant of a loving master that only does the best for us.  So He will take care of our needs and protect us from danger, spend time with us and love us beyond measure.  It is a win, win!!

PS  God even gives us instructions!!

10.10.12

James 4:1-3 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

 

My Thoughts

We are studying the book of James in our Beth Moore Bible Study.  I am loving this book...I am trying to truly learn it and understand it to the fullest. As I thought about these verses today, I thought of them in a different way than Beth Moore did. At first I thought I am not at war with anyone, I don't scheme and kill to get anything.  But today I thought about this verse a little different.

 

The memory verse this month for my IMPACT girls is Galatians 5:22-23  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! I had this verse on my mind as I read today's verses in James.  And I thought,"Every time I have a desire in me that kills any of the fruits of the spirit evil is winning out!" If I am jealous of what others have I kill one of more of those fruits... when I desire what somebody else has I can often loose my peace and/or patience.  If we want somebody else's place in traffic we can kill our gentleness and self-control.  Sometimes there is a war going on inside me for the desires of this world over God's desires for my life.  I need to constantly check my desires with the fruits of the Spirit within me... If I have a desire that is killing my love, my joy, my peace, my patience, my kindness, my goodness, my faithfulness, my gentleness or my self-control I need to re-examine my motives.  My utmost desire should be to do what pleases God...then God will take care of the other desires of my heart that truly matter. 

9.21.12

Galatians 6:15-16 It doesn't matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. My God's peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the now people of God.

 

My Thoughts

Today this could say, "It doesn't matter if you have the 'I am a Christian' t-shirt or bumper sticker. It matters if your actions are that of somebody that loves God.  May God's peace and mercy be on the people who's actions show how God has changed them; they are now the people of God."

 

This is how this has played out in my life.

 

When I was about 9, I "asked Jesus into my heart." not because He loved me and I loved him right back...but because I didn't want to go to Hell!!!  Who does?  Then I spent a whole life time of trying to be good enough for God to love me ... not because I knew Him enough to even feel how much He loved me but because I didn't want to go to Hell!!  Did I believe in Jesus? I did... because I had heard about Jesus all my life. I believed He died for my sins!  Well I believed He died for "our" sins.  But I never really trusted that Jesus died for my sins!! For me!!  So I keep trying to be good enough to stay our of Hell... I kept failing at it, because I was not relying on God's grace to help me. I would give up for a while and not really try at all. I felt like I was a Christian, after all I HAD asked Jesus into my heart. That is all I had to do?? Right??

 

Then I was given a One Year Bible, by my son, who I taught about God and Jesus. My son who I took to Church and Church camp.. who "got it" long before I did.  I started reading that Bible and I got to really know God. I got to really understand that Jesus died for ME. I finally understood that the only way I could be "good" was with God's grace. I finally knew, really knew Jesus. Finally I had a real relationship with God. And day by day, more and more I was able to turn things in my life over to God.  God began to change me!! God began to make me able.  Now my actions are that of a Child of God...I new feel like one of God's people. Now I feel confiding that if I were to die today I would see the face of God!  Not because I acted "right." but because God loves me and I love God, because Jesus died for My sins too!!  God is changing me and growing me every day. Each day I feel more joy and peace and love!  I am growing in confidence, not because of my abilities, but because I know that God loves me. He loves me even when I mess up and I am always messing up!! Now I can be like that child that runs to his earthly daddy with a broken toy that says "fix it." I can run to God and say, "I messed up God, fix me!" And right then I feel God start working in me, teaching me how to do it better next time. We don't have to do better... we have to believe Jesus died for our sins because He loves us so much, because God loves us so much. Then we keep our eyes and hearts on God... we call our for his grace and He makes us better! We go from seeing the information in the Bible as rules to follow... to seeing the information in the Bible as tidbits of pure gold that will change our lives and make them better.  God is amazing, His love for us is amazing!! 

 

I would love to hold your face in my hands and look at you with all the love in my heart showing through my eyes and say to you "Take time to know God because He loves you so much!! Please don't miss out on all the blessings He has in store for your life!!" Then I would kiss your cheek and hug you up and pray with all my being that you hear me!!

9.17.12

Galatians 3:22 But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God's promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.

 

My Thoughts

I use to think of salvation as a thing that happened. Now I think of it as an ongoing process.  Once I believe in Jesus I am going to heaven. I do believe that.  But the more I know Jesus, the more I believe in Jesus the more I receive a daily salvation here on earth.  The more I grow in Jesus, the better my life gets.  I love how it is worded in Philippians 1:6 "He that began a good work in me will carry it to completion until the day of Jesus." God begins a good work in us the day we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior... God works on that good work every day in our lives all the way until Jesus comes back.  Making our lives better and better and better. Our part is to listen to the Holy Spirit inside of us. Our part is to pick up that instruction book on life, the Bible, and read it and learn and grow and get to know Jesus more and more and more.  The more we know Jesus, the more we know God the better our daily salvation becomes.

 

When I look at my whole life laid out before me, not sinning seems impossible, and it probably is.  But if I look at just today, it seems possible for today, God grace makes it possible for us to be free from sin.  Will we mess up sometimes? Sure we will! But that should never ever keep us from trying for today to have a day free from sin.  If we take one day at a time, renew God word in our hearts, listen to the Holy Spirit inside of guiding us...use Jesus as our compass we won't have to be a prisoner of sin!!  God keeps working with us! Day by day by day, God works with us...Jesus died for our sins so that we could be free, so we could have a better life. Our part is to take advantage of that by getting to know Jesus more and more and more...by learning to hear and learning to listen to the Holy Spirit... our part is to stay in communication with God...then God does the rest!!

9.16.12

Galatians 2:19 You and I are Jews by birth, not 'sinners' like the gentiles.  Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law.  And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law.  For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law."

 

My Thoughts

There were some Jew who believe that if they followed the letter of the law that they were made right by following the law.  They could be mean people in so many ways... they would often use the law as an excuse not to do the very things they needed to do.  Their heart was not about loving God but about saving themselves while they acted like they wanted to act. 

 

What I seemed to do with the "rules" in the Bible was to use them to be "good enough" for God to love me.  Then I would mess up and feel so unlovable that I would go for a while without even trying.  Then I would get convicted again and start the process over again.  I never felt worthy of God's love, because I never felt like I could be "good enough."

 

Through reading and studying God's word I have learned that what I have to do is love God, because I love God... when you get to know God, really know God, He is so easy to love!... God already loves me, no matter what I have done!!  There is nothing I could do to be made right with God but to love Jesus and to love Him.  Once I understood that it got easier and easier to do what God ask me to do.  When I keep my eye on God I want to please Him.  Because He loves me so much I want to be good.. Because I love Him so much I want to show Him I love Him by doing what He ask me to do.  When I mess up, I don't feel unlovable! God loves me always... so I ask forgiveness, think about how and why I messed up and I move forward able to do better.  God's love keeps me from giving up.  When I depended on me I was giving up all the time... now that I depend on God I never give up, because I know that God never gives up on me.  I keep trying... God's love makes me able to be a better person. 

 

I had it all backward...I thought that if I was good enough God would love me. The fact is God always loves me no matter what... knowing that and loving God back along with His grace and  along with knowing and understanding that Jesus'  made a sacrifice for my sins,  makes me able to be a better person. The more I know God, the more I love God. The more I love God the better I get at being good.

 

 

5.7.12

Proverbs 14:29 People with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness.

My Thoughts

On of the virtues listed as Fruit of the Spirit is self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).  That means that as a child of God we have the ability to have self-control.  God through his grace gives us self-control no matter how angry we may feel.  God gives us the ability to choose our words wisely. To choose words that are not loud or hurtful. To choose actions that are not hurtful... God gives us, through his grace, the ability not to lash out. What we have to do is take a step back... talk to God about our anger and frustration... wait for His peace to settle on us...and ask him to give us the words so that the other person understand where we are coming from.  We need to to ask God to help us see the other person's point of view.  We also need to ask God for an open heart and an open mind. We need to ask God to help us choose the thing that would make Him pleased...not us, and not the other person. 

We always have a choice when it comes to anger because God gives us the Fruit of the Spirit!. When we take care of ourselves by growing our mind in God we are better able to access that fruit.  Prayer, time with God, reading God's word... they are to us like the right  fertilizer is to a fruit tree. It changes how much our fruit grows!!  If we find ourselves unable to control our temper we have probably not fertilized out hearts and minds enough with God and His word. It is a sign that we need to get busy making changes.

12.1.12

Matthew 21:43-44 I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit.

My Thoughts

Jesus was at the temple talking to the leading priest and the elders who were trying to trip Him up. What I get from this verse and how it applies to us today is this...It doesn't matter how much we know, it doesn't matter if we can quote the Bible word for word. It does not matter if we grace the doors of the church each time it is open if we don't show love...if we don't produce the fruits of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22) these are the things that come with a truly changed life. God knows when we do it to brag about it and when we do it because we love Him... people will know too by our love.

One example of this in today's world is a person that goes to church on Sunday morning.... then out to eat... then they treat the sweet kind waitress with contempt because she was working on Sunday and not going to church. They have been to Church but don't show love, they don't show the fruits of  Spirit. The waitress on the other hand has been nothing but loving and kind, gentle and self controlled, but has not been to Church. If Jesus came back and could only take one person back with Him to  heaven who do you think he would take?

We need to always act in a way that shows the fruits of the spirit.. we need to walk in love! God is love and if God is in our lives love with be in our lives. When we find ourselves not acting in ways that show love that is a warning sign that we are stepping away from God, even if we are in Church on Sunday mornings. It is not our Sunday morning clothes that prove we are a child of God, it is our actions! As the song says "They will know that we are Christians by our love, by our love. They will know that we are Christians by our love."

1.9.12

Matthew 7:20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruits, so you can identify people by their actions.

My Thoughts

I once worked with a man that talked all the time about being a Christian. When I met him I was impressed by his talk. Then the more I was around him the more I realized that all he was was talk. He was unkind and unfair to his employees. He denied people breaks they were suppose to have, he lied.  He  jeopardized every employee by not taking care of his duties as manager. He even stole from the store. The store was in danger of closing when he got there...his actions were the final nail in the coffin of the store, the doors did shut and many, many people lost their jobs. This man not only effected the people in the store he also effected their families and his family. His mouth said that he was a Christian, his actions said that he wasn't. The fruit of his spirit was not love.

When we become Christians God puts the Holy Spirit inside us... making us able to grow the fruits of the spirit where are  fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5: 22-23). We should be able to see these fruits in our lives.

This man I knew talked about being a Christian was not producing these kinds of fruits at all.

When we find that the fruit that we are producing is not loving and caring..when we find ourselves not being kind..when our lives don't produce goodness..and we feel no joy or peace..... we need to step back and examine our actions. Ask God to show us where our actions are coming from. Sometimes God will show us that we are not walking in love ourselves...sometimes God may show us that someone else is not walking in love and it is effecting us... our answer may be to remove ourselves from a situation that is causing changes in our hearts... we may need to put ourselves back on fertile ground where love can grow where the fruits of the spirit abound....  Either way once we find ourselves not producing fruits of love something in our hearts has changed... it is a caution that we need to refocus... talk with God and get back to a place where we produce the good things that God intended for us to have. We all have out moments...where something wrong gets grafted into our trees... when that happens we need to prune our tree so we only grow in goodness.

It is our duty to take care that our tree grows the fruits of the spirit..we are to be diligent (1 Timothy 4:15) to make sure that our lives reflect our hearts...as Christians our hearts are made for love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self- control and forbearance. When we go to God and say something had grafted the wrong fruit on my tree... God will gently prune our tree and make it right again. Our part is to make time to notice what is amiss and to go to God for help.



12.1.11

1 John 2:5 But those who obey God's word truly show how completely they love him.  That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives like Jesus did.

My Thoughts

I remember that campain, we all do "What would Jesus do?"  It was a passing "fad." How sad that it was a passing fad... it was a brilliant idea... if only it had worked.  I remember that it did make me ask myself quite a few times "What would Jesus do?" I just didn't ask myself enough times.  I think it is because even though I knew it was the right, good thing...I did't really know what Jesus would do... I had not taken time to really, truly know. What I am learning, as I take time to read my Bible each day, is that the more I know God the more I want to know God.... the more I read what Jesus taught the more I know how to be more like Jesus... I am learning that growing is a process...  and that God sees that I am trying... I am becoming a little more like Jesus each day... I have forever to go!!!... I am only a tee nincy bit into my journey...but I am making progress!!  The Bible is always talking about planting the seed and it growing.... for that seed to grow it takes lots of tending to!!..Lots... weed pulling, watering, feterlizer... a constant watch for things that attack the garden.... God puts into us the Holy Spirit... the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5: 22-23). All those things are there... ours for the taking.... we just have to make sure to nourish them with God's word, and with prayer. When we see these things begin show in our lives we can know that we are growing... God knows that we need time to grow into the person he intended for us to be.... the plants in the garden start growning soon after they are planted...you may not see it for a while...but the growing is happening deep underground... then you see the sprouts of progress.... the plants in the garden grow until their death... it is an ongoing, lifetime thing... that garden needs tending until the farmer is ready to harvest the plant.  We need to fill our mind and our heart with God's word so that when the Holy Spirit speeks inside us, guiding us we recognize His voice...so that we can show God just how much we do love him... this for us is a lifetime process.... the weeds, the enemy can always get in if we are tending to our garden... The amazing thing is the more we take time to know God the more time we make to know God. When this begins to happen in our lives, we will never be the same again!!

I challange you to make a commitment to yourself and to God to take the time to read and to learn and to grow. God's word never returns void (Isaiah 55:11). God has a way of making our time work for us when we make time for him. We all want our lives to be better!  Taking time for God is a sure way to change your world.  It changed my world in amazing ways!!...Amazing ways!!!  I will never be the same. If I could sit across from you right now I would take your face in my hand and say "God loves you, YOU so much! If you never learn anything else from me hear this.... God loves you! He made you, he is proud of you, he thinks you are amazing...he has so much joy and love  to pour out on you... it will be overflowing!" ..then I would put a Bible in your hand and say, "Read this every day, never stop! It will change your life! I promise it will!"

11.18.11

James 2:17 So you see, faith by itself isn't enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

My Thoughts

To be honest I had to really think about this verse... it got me in my gut... made me a little afraid if you want to know the truth.  I spent lots of time reading how Paul told the believers that your good works would not get you into heaven... it is by grace that we are saved. We could never be "good" enough without God's grace.  Then I read this verse and it tells me that unless my faith produces good deeds, it is dead and  useless. My heart started pounding and I started to feel afraid.

Then God reminded me of this verse... Philippians 2:13 says For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. God can not do that if I walk down the isle of the Church and ask Jesus in my heart then go about being the same person.  It is my job to seek after God, it is my job to learn all I can about what God has planned for my life... I have to make an effort to have a relationship with God... when I make that effort God helps me grow.  Philippians 2:13 says that God is working in me.... that means to me that it takes a while to get where I need to be.  God gives me his grace to get better and better at doing what pleases him.  God wants to look down and see that I am growing and learning. It is by faith we are saved.... by believing what God tells us... to believe what God tells us we have to know what God has told us. True faith in God will change us it will grow us into the people we need to be.

I asked Jesus in my heat when I was nine. When I was 47 I picked up my Bible and started getting to know God.  All the years in between... I tried to be a good person.... I wanted to go to heaven, who doesn't?  I went to church on and off.... I said I had faith.  I thought I had faith.  When I started seeking after God, truly seeking after God... I wanted more!!  Was it slow at first? Yes it was... I am still growing and growing...but each day God puts a new desire in my heart and as I seek after that new desire God gives me the strength to do what he puts in my heart to do.  The more I know God's promises for my life the more faith I have that God is taking care of me.  The more faith I have that I can do what God sets in front of me to do... not because I am capable...but because I am learning to call on God's grace to make me strong enough.

I worked with a man once... oh he talked about loving God... he talked of all the good things he was going to do... all the good works we were going to do for the community... when I listened to him I was so impressed with how much he "loved" God.  Then I was around him, he mistreated his employees, he stole from the company, not just stuff, but time and money.  His "faith" did not produce good works...it just helped  him make a good first impression.

The more I know God the more my life is changing... so much of me has changed. My mouth is better! I am kinder! I am less and less and less afraid! I recognize my sins much more quickly now and can actually stop myself in the middle of one! I am more careful about what goes in body through my eyes and ears! God is changing me little bits at a time... carving away the bad... sanding away the rough edges... We are God's life's work.... He will work on us for our whole lifetime... giving us new desires and new strengths... giving us his grace to do what he calls us to do.  As Joyce Meyer says "I am not where I want to be, but thank God, I am not where I use to be."  God is always working within me changing me...give me the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.

Now I read what James is saying and I believe James is telling us be careful not to have "faith" for appearances sake... God sees in our hearts... true faith in God makes  us want to seek after him. True faith realizes the huge sacrifice that Jesus made so that we could be forgiven of our sins. True faith is about relationships not just words.  James is saying to us if the desires of your heart are not changing, if you don't find yourself doing good, and being better, STOP and rethink, reassess your relationship with God. Don't fool yourselves into believing that you believe.  Make sure that you see the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) growing inside of you so that you know, that you know, that you know, that you are truly a child of God. James is telling us if we don't see those things we are in danger of having fooled ourselves into believing we have a relationship with God.

Will works save  us? No, only Jesus could save us. But true faith will make us want to do good works it will  make us want us to be better people....Good works out of love and kindness are what begins to grow from forth from us when God is working in our lives.

9.23.11

Ephesians 2:1 For we are God's masterpiece.  He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

My Thoughts

Isiah 42:1 "Look at my servant, whom I strengthen. He is my chosen one, who pleases me. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring justice to the nations.  I love this...God was telling his people that he was sending Jesus, this chapter goes oh to tell us how Jesus will be kind...how Jesus will not lose heart...how distant lands beyond the sea will wait for his instruction.... it tells us that Jesus will demonstrate Gods righteousness...and how God will take the hand of Jesus and guard him....God gave us the promise of Jesus long before Jesus arrived here to save us... Jesus was in God's plans from the beginning. God knew how much he was going to love us before he even made us. 

Jesus left this world so that he could send us the Holy Spirit to guide us...In John 14 it says:

 ¹⁵ “If you love me, obey my commandments. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. ¹⁷ He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. ¹⁸ No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. ¹⁹ Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. ²⁰ When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”

God gave us a way to have a better life, Jesus left the earth so he could send the Holy Spirit to live in each of us. The Holy Spirit lives in us to guide our steps to help us be more like Jesus. The more we learn about Jesus the more we know how to be like him... the more we learn about Jesus the more we know the difference between the Holy Spirit leading us to be like Jesus or the devil tricking us into doing wrong. 

We are God's masterpiece... we all have, each and every one of us the ability for greatness!  Not what the world calls great, but what God calls great. Jesus walked always in the greatness that God created... Jesus always walked in love. The Bible tells us that God planned for us long ago so we could do good things. So  that we could love God with abandon and love one another. The more we learn to walk in God, to listen to the Holy Spirit, to be like Jesus, the more we have of God's promises.... When we listen to the Holy Spirit inside of us and do what he guides us to do that is when we get to experience the fruits of the spirit that God planed  for us .... those fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control.(Galatians 5:22-23).  There is no way not to have a wonderful life if we are filled with these fruits. Our part is to take the time to really, really know God. When we do that the rest will come.

9.21.11

Galatians 6:4-5 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else.  For we are each responsible for our own conduct.

My Thoughts

Wow oh wow... would it not be interesting to watch a business where everybody did this for one day?! Can you imagine how much would be accomplished if everybody payed attention to what they were doing and doing it to the best of their ability! How much time do we loose judging other? Joyce Meyer said today "Judging people is a fruit of not loving people." If we could put into practice going about doing our best at what ever we do.  Doing our best at home, with our families, at work in our friendships. Just think of how much more we could get done if we didn't stop to see what and how other people were doing their thing!!  Most importantly we need to do our best at loving God and loving others the way God ask us to.  Can you imagine getting to heaven and God showing you a rerun of parts of your life.... how many times when God ask "Why weren't you doing your job here in this picture?" would we have to say, "I was busy judging somebody for not doing theirs." 

We all go about judging, it seems to make us feel better about what we do wrong and what we do right. If we would take time just to do our best at what ever we are doing we wouldn't feel the need judge others... Right here it tells us if we do our best we won't need to compare ourselves to anyone else.  We so need to learn that God gave each individual person his/her own individual personality and abilities.  God does not what us to be like others. God wants us to be the best person he made us to be! We need to embrace our abilities and our differences and do our best...and when it comes to other people we need to just love them!! Do our very best to show every family member, every friend, every acquaints, every stranger love. If we spend our time being the best "me" we can be.  If we spend our time loving others. We, each indiviual, each "me" can make a positive difference in the world.

9.20.11

Galatians 5:22-23 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against these things.

My Thoughts
All we have to do to see if God is changing us, really changing us is to look at this list of amazing qualities.... if our life has more of these than it use to we are listening and acting on what the Holy Spirit is telling us.  If we don't see more of these things in our lives it is time to ask our self "What can I change in my life that will give me a closer walk with God?"

Don't forget that God waits to be invited into our lives.... If we want God to be a part of our days we have to ask him.... every day we need to ask.  When we ask God to be a part of our life we are aware of the things God does.  The more we talk to God the more the Holy Spirit talks to us... the more involved the Holy Spirit is in our life the more we will see the fruit of the spirit manifest itself in all that we do. When we spend time with God, when we take time to hear the Holy Spirit our lives are filled with more love, more joy, more peace, more patience, more kindness, more goodness, more faithfulness, more gentleness and more self-control!!.. We can all use more of these.... we never run out of the need for the fruit of the Spirit!!

9.15.11

Galatians 2:15-16 You and I are Jews by birth, not sinners' like the Gentiles.  Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law.

My Thoughts

I love this... this means that a person that is perfectly good and a person that is really bad both need Jesus... and it means that no matter how much we have messed up that we can be made right by Jesus. There is no sin too big... or no sins too many that Jesus didn't wash them all  away on the cross. All we have to do is ask Jesus into our heart, believe he is the son of God and confess our sins. Then we are as good as new! Then when the devil tires to make us feel all guilty, and unworthy we can just confess out loud for the Devil himself to hear "I am in right standing with God, I have been forgiven and I a whole in God's sight!"

I was busy folding laundry one morning, not long after my mother died.  I was thinking there was so much different I could have done, should have done. The devil was dealing me a guilt trip and I was taking it all in.  Then I started praying and God said to my soul "When you waste time worrying about the person you didn't know how to be, you can't become the person you are meant to be." It was at that moment that I truly understood that the devil stops us in our tracks with guilt. God throws our sins as far as the east is from the west never to be remembered. Maya Angelou said it best when she said "When we know better, we do better."  God knows that when we know better we do better. That is why he tells us to mediate on his word day and night, he wants us to know better so we can do better. God knows that we are always learning and growing and he smiles when we get it... and forgives us for when we didn't. God wants us to live in the moment doing our very best right now...the devil wants us to feel guilty about the past and worry about the future so much so that it limits our abilities.

Think about it...  we can be good right now in this minute. We can make the choice to do today right.  But if we look out at all the days stretched out before us that seems impossible. The devil tells us it is impossible. God tells us in Philippians 4:13 that all things are possible through Christ. God tells us in Matthew 6:34 that today is enough to worry about, not to think about tomorrow until it gets here.

Today we are in right standing with God through Jesus, today we are forgiven just by asking. The yesterdays are gone and all the tomorrows will be a "today" to get through when they get here. Today is good and when the devil dangles guilt and worry in front of you just tell him "Today I am in right standing with God."

5.25.11

John 14:11 "I (Jesus) am leaving you with a gift -- Peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give you is a gift the world cannot give.  So don't be troubled or afraid."

My Thoughts

Imagine if we went about spreading peace of mind. Imagine if we all recognized peace of mind as the wonderful blessing that it is? Jesus himself said that peace of mind and heart is a gift... a gift the world cannot give.  Just think how our anger at one another destroys somebody's peace of mind.  I know when somebody is angry with me I don't feel at peace.  When we withhold praise of the people we love we often take away their peace of mind. We take away our own peace of mind too when we do things that are directly against what God teaches us. When we break God's commandments...when we don't listen to the Holy Spirit inside us prompting us to do good. Jesus made it simple "Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as you love yourself." (Matthew 22:37-38) When we love somebody we do what they ask... what makes them happy... to show our love to God we should do the same.  We should go about showing love to others too... we should give the person at the check out at the store peace of mind.  How can we do this? Easy be nice, be patient... leave earlier to shop if we have to so we won't be in a hurry.  Give the people that cross our path that smile of approval and love. Be kind and loving to our friends and family.. guard our words... speak words of love and praise and kindness. Never act in a way that makes somebody dread seeing you.  Jesus wants us to love ourselves too, after all how can we love others if we don't love us!  How do we love ourselves??? One, we forgive ourselves...once we ask God to forgive us we forgive ourselves... we can't be the best we can be if we are living with guilt all the time. God tells us to forgive others.. God wants us to forgive ourselves too. Another way to love ourselves is to be honest with ourselves...totally honest.  An example of this is when we spend money we know we don't have... we convince ourselves that what we buy will make us feel better...when in fact it robs us of our peace of mind...we get home and don't even enjoy the what we thought we had to have for worrying about spending money we didn't have.  We have to be honest with ourselves about everything...when we are honest with ourselves we can fix what needs to be fixed... we can do what needs to be done..and we can go about with peace of mind.

The things of this world don't bring peace... God's love, the love of Jesus, the love of others.. loving ourselves is where we find peace.  We all go about looking for love... but as the song says ... in all the wrong places.  God is love!  We need to look to God for love... and to get love we have to love... when we love others... love comes back to us every time. It may not come back from the person we are loving, maybe because they don't know how to love themselves...but it always comes back in some form. When we go about spreading love and happiness and joy we just feel better about ourselves... we feel better about others.

What better gift can we give others than love, than peace of mind and heart? There is no better gift.  Jesus in all His wisdom understood this way beyond what our minds are even capable of.  Jesus knew it was important enough to label it as a gift.  When we go about our day we don't need to spread anxiety, anger, despair.  We need to spread love and peace of mind.  Anger and impatience and unkindness takes from people... but when we spread the fruits of the spirit which are  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) we spread the gift of peace of mind and heart.  We show love in its purest form. These are gifts we can give to every path we cross. Imagine going about our day giving out gifts to everyone we meet!  We can!