8.31.12

2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; and new life has begun!

My Thoughts

When I woke up this morning Rita, a friend of mine had posted this:

SURRENDER-"the more we let God take us over, the more we truly ourselves we become- because he made us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be... It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to his personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own." C. W. Lewis

Then I read this verse in my Bible reading... wow!!  How timely!  

What I do know from my experience is that the closer I get to God, the more the personality He gave me works in my life for the good!! Before I knew God like I do now it seemed to trip me up and make me feel different.  Now it just makes me feel special... it works in ways that matter.  The more I know God the more  I am able to become the person He intended me to be.  God didn't give me my personality for the world, to fit into the world, God gave me my personality to bring glory to Him. 

8.30.13

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly out weights them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

My Thoughts

I love this verse... my first time through the Bible it frustrated me a bit, not a bit, it bother me a whole bunch!!! This year is my fourth time through the Bible and I see this verse so differently now. Praise God that I do. Today when I read this I thought, "When I am grumbling and complaining I have my eyes on everything but God, when I have my eyes on God not even the pain in my body matters very much at all."
Yesterday was a good example of this, so reading this verse today was very timely. Wednesday night we were talking about healing in Church, I remember feeling so blessed that God had healed me of depression, anxiety and panic over Lupus. Lupus has never done to me what depression, anxiety and panic did! Then I woke up yesterday with such pain in my feet that I could hardly walk, Lupus can cause arthritis and the arthritis in all the joints in my feet was acting up like crazy. When I got back to my bed from making it to the bathroom, I smiled, I actually smiled. Why because I thought that this pain was not a big deal at all, God had my back, He would take care of me and I was not sad, I didn't panic, I was not anxious, I was blessed! I looked around me and felt so blessed that God had provided me with Lemongrass oil for my feet, a warm blanket to wrap them in... in a cool home on a hot morning. I felt wonderfully at peace and God allowed me to drift back off to sleep with a smile on my face and when I woke back up my feet were much better, with only a little pain.
Yesterday I had my eyes on God!! I didn't grumble and complain and get all caught up in self pity. I just kept my eyes on God. As I did this my day got better, my pain got better, but most importantly my spirits stayed high, I felt good in spite of pain. That is a huge victory. A gift straight from God!
I have in the past wallered in self pity. Spent the day feeling sorry for myself. Spend the day with my eyes on me, on this world and what I couldn't do... and all that did was intensify my pain because my mind was magnifying my pain instead of magnifying God.
I have learned a great lesson. God is growing me, making me more and more aware. When I grumble and complain I magnify my troubles, when I keep my eye on God I magnify Him, making Him so much bigger than my troubles that I barely see my troubles at all. God healed me of anxiety, panic and depression so that I see beyond the minute, so that I could see beyond myself, so I could see beyond the world, so that I could see Him and all the love He has for me. What a wonderful gift of healing He gave me.  This gift strengthens my faith beyond measure... and gives me hope like I didn't know was possible. I am blessed. I am loved, I am happy. 
Do I believe that God can heal my earthly body? Yes I do!! If God doesn't heal my body do I think He does not love me? No! God loves me so very much. God has a new body waiting for me in heaven that will be so much grander than this body healed or not healed. God has done for me what was necessary, He got me to Him, He put me in the hands of people that build me up, He put his word in my hand in a way that would get me to read it, He gave me wisdom because I seek it, just like He promises he will. He is teaching me to keep my eyes on Him no matter what comes my way. Those are the important things! Lupus is secondary or even less than that, and when I get healing in my body that will be just icing on the cake. When it happens I will celebrate and give God all the glory. While I wait on God's timing I will embrace the lessons I am learning, I will be thankful for all that I have and know that all that I have is a gift straight from God. And I will trust that God knows what is best for me. I will fix my gaze on things that can not be seen. Today I know that I am blessed, I am loved. Today I am so very thankful for all that God has done for me! Today my hope knows no limits!  Wow!



8.29.13

2 Corinthians 4:8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandon by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.



My Thoughts
These are the words of Paul... who suffered so much to spread the word of Jesus. He was loved by God, protected by God, but suffered the effects of the world. But he was never, ever abandon by God.


I must remember these words on a bad day, on a day when the things of the world press in and effect me. I am pressed on every side, but I am not crushed. There was a time in my life when I would feel crushed... unable to deal with all that was going on around me. Now some days can still be hard...but I never ever feel crushed!! I know that God has my back and that He gives me new hours, new days, new weeks!! Life will always get better and probably by tomorrow! Sometimes I am perplexed, I don't understand why...but I know that God has the why so I don't feel despair!! God's word lives in my heart and I draw from it, instead of letting despair feed me! Just the other day I got knocked down for a minute, I had a fender bender. Before I knew God like I know God now, I would have felt knocked down, I would have felt panic and despair. I would not have been able to cope. I would have had to call Robby to come to my rescue. But now I have God, I informed Robby and God gave me His strength and His grace and I handled the situation. The next new hour of my day was a good one. Before God that could have effected me for a month!! Today I still suffer pain from Lupus and Fybromilgia, but Jesus is here with me... He shows His face in my life every day. Loving Jesus through my pain has touched way more people for Jesus than I ever would have without pain. It is not why I am in pain... but it is a wonderful consequence of what I am going through. Jesus is with me always, every day, He makes me able to get up and get out of bed, He makes me able to smile, He gives me strength that I didn't have before. I may suffer pain, but I am victorious in Jesus, I am blessed because of Jesus, I am able because of Jesus. I have great joy in my life because of Jesus. Any pain I suffer does not compare to how happy my heart is! I may feel pain but because of Jesus I am not held captive by pain!! And because of that I know that Jesus will heal me!!
Paul didn't choose an easy life...but he did have a full life because he was filled with the love of God. And the days that were hard were not hopeless. He was pressed on every side but not crushed... perplexed but not driven to despair!! He was knocked down but not destroyed...he was never abandoned by God. He suffered but Jesus shined in that suffering. Paul loved God and God never abandoned Paul. I love this!! It give me strength and hope.

8.28.13

2 Corinthians 3:17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 

My Thoughts
This just makes my heart happy!  And it makes me just laugh out loud at the lies the devil tells us!!  He tells us that if we do what God ask we don't have freedom... that we can't do anything we want.  But what God is telling us when He gives us something to live by is if you do this, then you will be set free from this!!   There is not a thing that I do that God tells me to do that does not make me feel free-er.  Free from worry, free from stress, free from burdens. And on the joy that comes with that freedom!! Oh the peace that comes from that freedom. And lots of times I am free from having to make a choice. 

The best example, in my life,  of being free from making a choice is this... I am a people pleaser, or I use to be... I still like to make people happy, but I am not so much a people pleaser...which is so freeing!!  Anyway I use to always feel like I was choosing between people when I was making choices.  Now I choose to please God and let the rest sort itself out... every time I do this everything else does work out.  And each time I am so amazed!  Then I get the added bonus of sleep without worry, without questioning myself.  And even if somebody else is unhappy with what I decided... I can feel good about my choice because I chose to please God. 

I am constantly amazed at how free I feel... the more I know God and the more I follow what He tells me the free-er I become.  The more I keep my eyes on God the free-er I become.  The more I know God the more of His grace I receive, grace that frees me from the desires to even want to do the things that could hold me captive!!

God and all His grace... God and all His love... God and all His care changed my life and made me free! Oh the joy that floods my soul!! 

8.27.13

2 Corinthians 1:22 and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us.

My Thoughts

I love this!! Every time we feel the Holy Spirit prompting us to do good to choose the right thing, whispering in our spirit that we are making a bad choice, we can smile and know that God's promises are for us!! After all we have the first installment that guarantees everything God has promised us! That thought just makes me smile.

We have to remember that God's promises most always come with an if and a then. If you do this, then I will do this for you. When we are not receiving a promise from God, it is not God it is us failing to do the "if."

If we take responsibility for our actions then we can improve out lives. When we stop and say to ourselves, "What is my part in what I am not getting in life?" that is when we begin to grow. God always keeps His promises. But he gives us a part to do in those promises. So next time we have a thought about what God has not done for us yet, we need to find out the if part of what God does for us...and ask ourselves if we have done the "if." God after all wants to give us everything, He loves us and He started out by giving us the Holy Spirit. Even that had the if and then... If we believe that Jesus was the son of God, and confessed out sins, then the Holy Spirit is sent to live in our hearts If we ask. "If we confess, believe and ask, "then God sends the Holy Spirit.

So each morning as the Holy Spirit prompts me to sit down and do my Bible reading, I am assured that God is with me and that God will give me all that He has promised me, when I do the "if" parts. I love it!!

8.26.13

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do ever thing with love.

My Thoughts

Paul is talking to the Church, to believers, to Christians. He is telling is here that we have to be on guard... we must pay attention, the devil will use anything to trip us up, even our faith. Satin even used scripture on Jesus in the wilderness to try and get Him to sin. So we must know God's word so we can defend ourselves. And we must watch out for the people, or things that Satin sends our way to trip us up.

Then we must stand firm in our faith. I didn't know how to do that until I started reading my Bible every day. Until I surrounded myself with people that loved God. I stand firm by renewing my mind each day in God's word. I stand firm by getting what I know will be Godly advice from Godly people. I stand firm by choosing what God would have me do!! Do I mess up? All the time!! But I go to God and He forgives me and I learn from my mistakes and I ask God to give me His grace to do better next time I am faced with the same or a similar situation. I am learning... and I will continue to learn until Christ comes back. That is a promise from God that He will grow us until the day of Jesus' return. (Philippians 1:6)

We have to have courage...the courage to stand up for what we believe in. The courage to be different... The courage to be called a "Jesus freak." We have to have courage to stand strong if things ever get really hard for Christians. If we can't stand up to everyday challenges of being a Christians, how will we ever be able to stand up if the world turns against us? We must have courage. We must be strong in anything we face as God's child. And we must stand firm in being a child of God no matter what somebody else thinks!!

And last but so important is that we must do all of this in love. We must be on guard in love, we must be courageous in love, we must be strong in love. Everything we do needs to be done in love!! And that can be hard. So often we stand firm, in an argument. With an I am going to win this at all cost attitude! No matter what I do to you...I am standing firm. We must stand firm in love, we must take courage in love... we must at all times, in every situation act in love. I was not taught how to do this growing up, my mother was not taught how to do this growing up, I probably didn't teach my kids how to do this. But God's word tells me that I should do all things in love. In Matthew 7:11 it tells us that even the evil love know how to give gifts to people they love. The Christian thing is to love our enemies... to treat our enemies with love to treat strangers with love...and to stand firm in love to the people we love, to the people we don't know...and to stand firm in love to the people that don't like us.

Love is an actions not a feeling... it is easy for anybody to act in love toward people they feel love for... as Christians we are called to act in love toward everybody, even those who hate us. We have to be strong enough to act in love if somebody has a gun to our heads. We have to be strong enough to use our last words to try and win that soul into the kingdom of heaven out of love. We are called to be that courageous, that strong, that loving. And if we can't act in love to our family when we are standing firm, how could we ever act in love in the toughest of situations? We must practice, work at, be determined to stand firm, be courageous, to be strong and in everything, even the hardest of things act in love.



8.23.13

1 Corinthians 15:22 Just as ever one dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given a new life.

My Thoughts

I love how reading my Bible and growing my faith, growing my roots in to good soil makes me feel comforted when I read God's word. I would have read this verse a few years back and felt a bit of anxiety... "Will God really give me a new life?" "Am I really saved?" "Does God love me that much?" Then I would have told myself that I asked Jesus into my heart at age 9 that it would all be okay... but I would have still felt such anxiety.


Now that I take the time to know God, to really know and understand Him I read this verse and feel utter joy!! I could almost picture my new life when I read this verse today. I could feel my healthy body... my youngest prettiest face, my white dress and the smile on my face because I was in the glowing presence of God. Standing there in soaking it all in.

Now when the devil tries to tell me, "Oh you are not good enough to get to Heaven!" I just tell him, "I am covered in the blood!"
I encourage you, that if you feel that doubt that I felt... please, please pick up your Bible and start reading it. I love the New Living Translation it is easier for me to understand. Reading God's word each day changed my life. If you are thinking, "But I just don't understand what I am reading." Let me tell you this, when I started reading my Bible each day I was so lost!!! Beyond lost, but I kept reading each day. God's word tells us that if we seek wisdom, wisdom will find us. And I can tell you that this is so true. Now I love reading my Bible... there is always a little nugget there that reassures me. That grows me. God blesses our efforts. God changes us when we seek after Him!! Please, please pick up your Bible and start reading... you will be transformed.