3.31.13

Deuteronomy 16:15 For seven days you must celebrate this festival to honor the Lord your God a the place he chooses, for it is he who blesses you with bountiful harvest and gives you success in all your work. for this festival will be a time of great joy for all.

 

My Thoughts

For it is He who blesses you with bountiful harvest and gives you success in all your work!!  I love this, it is so true... I knew it but I loved reading it gave me peace to know that because we love God, He will bless us with a bountiful harvest and success in all of our work.  When we keep our heart and our eyes on God... God takes care of the rest!! 

3.30.13

Deuteronomy 14:22-23 You must set aside a tithe of your crops -- one tenth of all the crops you harvest each year.  Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship -- the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored -- and eat it there in his presence.  This applies to your tithes of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of your flocks and herds.  Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God.

 

My Thoughts

First we have to understand what fear of the Lord actually means... wiki.answers.com says this:

 

The word 'fear' as used, especially in the Authorised version (King James version) of the Bible is a perfect example of how words have changed over time and now have a slightly different meaning.

 

The word 'fear' as in 'we should fear God' does not mean that we should be scared of him, as the modern meaning of the word should suggest. Instead, the word 'fear' means 'a healthy respect for', or to 'stand in awe of' him - or, even more accurately, a mixture of the two.

 

Notice that the people took their best to God..then they ate what they took.  God gave it back to them...He gave them back the best that they gave to God!!  This was not food they could sell ... it was a gift to God... a gift that He gives back to them.  So God, when the people gave Him their best, gave the people back their best.  He actually made sure that the people had the best of what the raised for themselves!!  That is so special.  When we give to God our tithe, our ten percent... God gives us back the best that that ten percent could get us!!  God protects that ten percent for us!!

 

Then notice what happens after that, "Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God." If we used the definition in place of fear this verse would say, "Doing this will teach you to always have respect for and stand in awe of God." When we tithe.. give our first ten percent... God will bless us so much that we stand in awe of Him!! 

 

Micah 3:10 tell us this, "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the LORD of Heaven's Armies, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!"  Look here it says put me to the test and I will show you what giving to me will do for you!! 

 

God does not, can not go back on His word... I challenge you to tithe your ten percent and see what amazing things happen in your life!! 

3.29.13

Deuteronomy 11:13-15 If you carefully obey all the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and soul, then he will send the rains in the proper seasons--the early and the late rains--so you can bring in your harvest of grain, new wine, and olive oil.  He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock, and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.

 

My Thoughts

When we love God, and obey his commands...when we walk in what God teaches... God takes care of us!!  God will supply our needs when we love and obey Him!!  I think of the Great Depression and how people had to depend on God in those years to get by... and when our nation turned to God, God made our nation prosper!!  Just after the Great Depression there was a great turn around, jobs were created, people were buying homes, bank accounts grew, industry changed.  This was not by accident..it was because a whole country of people had learned to depend on God for their needs.

 

We must not... we can not forget God if we want a prosperous country!! We must not, we can not forget God if we want to be prosperous as individuals... if we want our families to prosper.  God honors  us when we honor God!! 

 

We have a choice! Deuteronomy 11:26-28 says Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse!  You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today.  But you will be cursed if you reject the commands of the Lord your God and turn away from him and worship gods you have not known before. ... If we follow God, God will bless us, he will make what we do prosper.  If we choose not to honor God we move right out from under His protection...we step into a lake of curses brought on by the devil himself. We have a choice. 

 

Worship other gods?... I myself do not know of anybody that worships another God. But I am coming to understand that when I spend time doing something that would make God sad with me, I am choosing other things over God.  This week my son and I had a chance to visit New Orleans... it was a fascinating place!! There were some really grand people there that we so sweet I just had to hug them.  There were so much interesting to see.  But there were things there too that I could not imagine ever seeing ... I thought they were things of movies... not things of real life. We were there with two other young men, one was showing us all around. The young men stepped into a voodoo shop (There were many!!), they were curious, I could not go inside so I stayed outside, I knew that my presence in that store would make God sad. I felt very strongly that if I stepped inside, even just to see, that I was in essence worshiping Satin himself for a second in time.   It made me think, how many other things do I choose to do that makes God sad.  What things do I bring in my house via the TV that would make God unhappy.  How often do I do something that God would see as me stepping into Satin's church for a moment in time?  How many times in a day do I choose to walk just outside the protection of God?? 

 

I have a choice, I can choose God and my life will prosper...I will always have enough to eat. I can choose blessings!  The choice is always ours, we can always choose God.  And we can be aware that if life is getting hard, really hard it is time to take inventory of our lives and where we are choosing to walk. Are we walking in the blessings or are we walking in the curses?  

 

Sometimes life will just be hard, we do live on this earth!!  If we are in one of those moments and we have taken inventory and we are walking with God, under the protection of God, we can rest in the fact that God is in control and there will be a blessing to follow the hard time!! 

 

 

Will be out of pocket for a few days.. will post again on Friday!! 

I will be doing my daily Bible reading please keep yours up!!

Hugs to everybody that reads my blog...have a blessed week! 

Deuteronomy 1:32-33 But even after all he did, you refused to trust the Lord your God, who goes before you looking for the best places to camp, guiding you with a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.

 

My Thoughts

The Israelites didn't trust God.  God had brought them to the Promise Land where bunch of grapes had to be carried on a pole.  God had parted the sea before them and they still didn't trust God.  They looked at the giants of that land and measured those giants against their own strength and not God's strength. So they refused to go in!!  A whole generation of people lost out because they didn't trust in God. 

 

We don't have a pillar of fire by night or a pillar of cloud by day, but we do have our Bibles and we have the Holy Spirit inside of us guiding us.  What do we miss out on when we don't trust God? How many people do our decisions effect when we don't trust God? We can read the story of how the Israelites didn't trust God and wonder why...then miss out on opportunities to trust God ourselves because we size up a situation on our abilities instead of God's abilities. 

3.22.13

Luke 5:17b And the Lord's healing power was strongly with Jesus.

 

My Thoughts

In John 12:50 Jesus tells us that He only says what His Father tells him to say.  Jesus was not powerful just because He was God's Son... Jesus was powerful because He let God work through Him and He gave God all the glory!  This verse says "the Lords healing power was strongly with Jesus." Look at all Jesus accomplished here on earth... it was because God was with Jesus, and Jesus allowed God to work through Him.

 

If perfect Jesus, the very Son of God, needed God to be powerful, to be able to do the things He did on this earth... imagine how much more we, sinners, need God to have any power at all to even get through a day! 

 

Mark 5:16 tells us that Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.  Jesus went to talk to God and to listen to God, often!!  We need to do the same.  Jesus stayed in close contact with God... always listening to His instruction.  If we are to be like Jesus we have to be in constant contact with God, stopping to take quiet time to pray and to listen to what God tells us to do. The only way to learn to grow and be more like Jesus is to take note of how Jesus did things.  To do that we have to pick up our Bibles and learn!  

 

God's word can not change us collecting dust on a shelf. God's word changes us when we learn it enough that it drops down into our hearts and becomes a part of us. 

3.21.13

Luke 5:1-7 One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sear of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the world of God.  He noticed two empty boats at the water's edge, for the fishermen ahd left them and were washing their nets.  Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water.  So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,  "Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish."

"Master," Simon replied, "we worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing.  Bit if you say so, I will let the nets down again." And this time their nets were so full of fish that they began to tear! A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish on the verge of sinking. 

 

My Thoughts

I wonder how many times I have worked hard in my life only to have no fish in my boat?... Many!!  But as soon as I started doing what Jesus asked of me I started having fish in my boat, and the more I do what Jesus ask, the more my boat is filled. 

 

I am telling you, this is happening to Robby and me!!... we find that our money is protected these days... it goes further!!  It buys what we need and we are getting a lot more of our wants met. I know, we know that this is a God thing... we had a conversation just this Sunday about how far our money is going now that we are doing the things that Jesus ask of us. 

 

These fishermen had worked so hard and caught no fish at all... but as soon as they did what Jesus asked, and he asked so little, Jesus made sure that their boat was filled to overflowing!! 

 

I am learning that when my work produces little or no results that I need to run, not walk, run to God as ask Him, "God where am I not listening, where am I failing to do what you ask?"  As soon as I am right with God again everything falls right back into place... my effort produces more than enough because God has His hand in my life!! I am so thankful for the gifts and the mercy of God.  

 

These fishermen were not just thankful for the fish that day...they were thankful for Jesus... they left those fish and followed Jesus.  Why? Because they realized that day that Jesus is what we are to seek after with all our being.  When they left all that behind their boats were not what was full..their hearts, their souls, their lives were full and overflowing!!  I love that God overflows all of me!! 

3.20.13

Luke 4:1-4 Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days.  Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.

 

Then the devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread."

 

But Jesus told him, "No! The Scriptures say; 'People do not live by bread alone."

 

My Thoughts

Jesus was tempted for 40 days... while he was very hungry!!  We are told of three ways the devil tempted Jesus... the verse above tells of Him being tempted with food.  Then Jesus was tempted with all the kingdoms of earth and power over them, then He was tempted to show off how He could call God's angels to protect Him.  Each time Jesus used scripture!  Once Satin used scripture to tempt Jesus and Jesus used scripture to show Satin where he was wrong. 

 

Scripture is our sword against Satin.  We can win our battles with Satin if we know the Scriptures.  But we have to know the scripture!!  When we know God's word we can stand strong against temptation!!  We can put Satin under our feet with scripture!

 

I am not good at memorizing... I can't seem to learn, no matter how hard I try, the scripture by chapter and verse.  But as I read God's word each day it becomes a part of me.  I know what the Bible says.  With the Internet I know it enough to find chapter and verse.  What I am learning is that the more I know God's word the stronger I become... the more often I am able to put Satin under my feet.  The more I know God's word the free-er I become because I trust that God loves me and is taking care of my every need.  The more I know God's word the more like a baby I can become, totally dependant on God for my every need and able to go about my day enjoying life to the fullest.  The more I know God's word the more I am able to stand strong when the storms of life come along.  There is power in God's words.. true power.  I am more and more amazed every day!

 

If Jesus needed scripture to fight the temptations of Satin.. we need them all the more!

 

3.18.13

Numbers 28:1-2 The lord said to Moses, "Give these instructions to the people of Israel: The offerings you present as special gifts are a pleasing aroma to me; they are my food.  See to it that they are brought at the appointed times and offered according to my instructions.

 

My Thoughts

When I read this I immediately thought of Psalms 50:14 (I didn't remember it was verse 50:14, but I did remember it was Psalms...thank goodness for Internet search!). Psalms 50:14 says to "Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God.  Numbers 28:2 says that the offerings we present to God are pleasing, that they are His food.  Would we withhold food from someone we love? No we wouldn't... so if we love God we should be feeding him all the time...with thankfulness!!  We should be totally aware of all that God has given us and we should tell Him all the time "thank you!"  Not offering up an appetizer or a snack..we should offer up to God a feast fit for the King that He is!!

3.7.13

Luke 2:52 Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.  

 

My Thoughts

We are suppose to do our best to be like Jesus.  This verse was just after a story where Jesus was only twelve years old.  Just as our bodies grow..we are to grow in the wisdom of God.  When we take time to grow in God, God makes sure that we grow in favor with the people around us! 

 

For our bodies to grow we need to fill them with good food on a daily basis... for our wisdom to grow we need to feed our minds and hearts with the wisdom that we find in God's word... and the more we read and study God's word...the more we grow in wisdom!! 

 

To be like Jesus...we can't just be kind and loving..we also have to grow in wisdom!!

 

 

3.16.13

Luke 2:13-14 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others--the armies of heaven--praising God and saying,

                 "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth   to those with whom God is pleased."


My Thoughts

I am learning so much this year!!  As I hand write these words I can't miss a thing... there was so much that I just overlooked before.  Notice the words peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased." As I look back...when I have not had peace in my life is when I was not being careful to do what God would have me do or when I have not ask God for forgiveness for when I have done wrong. When I am not right with God I loose my peace.  That moment when I loose my peace I need to run to God and ask, "What have I done wrong?"  and I need to ask for forgiveness and do better.  Peace is mine, God gives it freely, I just have to do my part. I have to do my best and ask for forgiveness when I mess up!!  That absence of peace in my life is my red flag to get busy getting right with God!! 

3.15.13

Numbers 22:8 How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I condemn those whom the Lord has not condemned?

 

My Thoughts

King Balak wanted the prophet Balaam to curse the children of Israel...three times he tried to get Balaam to curse them...but Balaam said that he could only say what God told him to say and each time God blessed the Children of Israel  instead!! 

 

When we walk in God... when we do what God ask us to do... when we depend on God ... when we love God... God protects us!!  Even from the curses of our enemies!! 

 

There is so much that comes from loving God!!  Satin will try to convince us that we loose out...that we have to give up so much if we walk with God. The truth is this, we gain  so much when we love God!!  We even get blessings in place of curses!! God protects His children... He loves them.. He blesses them... He watches over them and fills them with love and joy and peace!!  He provides all their needs and cares about the desires of their hearts!

 

I am constantly amazed at how much God loves me... I feel so very blessed that He does!!

 

3.14.13

Proverbs 11:11 Upright citizens are good for a city and make it prosper, but the talk of the wicked tears it apart.

 

My Thoughts

I found this interesting... just the talk of the wicked can tear apart a city... a country.... but good, upright citizens make it prosper.  I thought about how everybody talks and talks and talks about the shape our country is in right now.  We go about talking about it all the time.  Blaming is what we go about doing.. not doing our part to do the right thing...but playing the blame game.  If we want a good strong country it is up to each one of us to go about being good people, upright citizens... then God will make sure the rest fall into place. 

 

So the next time we start to complain about our country... lets keep our mouth closed and our hands and minds and hearts busy doing something that is good is right...then we will be making a better country...not destroying our country with our talk!! 

3.13.13

Luke 1:6 Zachariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God's eyes, careful to obey all of the Lord's commandments and regulations.

 

My Thoughts

I love this...  it is a lesson to me...maybe a frig verse...Zachariah and Elizabeth were careful to obey.  Notice the word careful.  I try to do my best to do what God would have me do... to follow his commandments ... but today I decided careful...and trying are two different degrees of being obedient. I try...but I am not always careful...I must be better at being careful to obey God!!   Careful will never sound the same to me again!! 

Mark 15:5, 29, 31, 32, 34 and 37 It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified Jesus. The people passing by shouted abuse. The leading priests and teachers of religious law also mocked Jesus. Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him. Then at three o'clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, "My God, My God why have you abandoned me?" Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last breath.

 

My Thoughts

As loving parents most all of us would choose death in the place of our child.  Dieing ourselves would be less painful than seeing them die.  We could not stand to see them suffer!!  And if we had to watch people shout abuse at them, mock them and if we had to watch criminals make fun of our perfect child...while they suffered for 6 hours as they died... we would for sure take their place if at all possible. 

 

God's love is so perfect...so powerful... so strong... yet He loves us, you and me, so much that he fought back the urge to save His Son, Jesus... perfect Jesus who was only on that cross to die for our sins. He didn't save Jesus because He loves us!!  Can you imagine a love so strong for someone that did things you didn't approve of, things you hate, a love so strong that you would put your child in their place to suffer? 

 

God loves us that much!!! Jesus loves us enough that He did God's will even though at one point he asked "If it is possible will you take this suffering from me?" ... yet Jesus died for us anyway!!  A man on a cross next to Jesus, who mocked Jesus, asked Jesus' forgiveness and Jesus told him that He would see him in Heaven!!  Jesus loved that bad, awful man...Jesus loved those people that hung Him on the cross.  He was dieing for their sins that day...and ours.

 

Jesus loves you!!!  Jesus wants you to be in Heaven with Him so much that He suffered in your place. God wants you there so much that He watched His, Son suffer for you.  Please don't walk away from that kind of love!!  It is an amazing love... a love beyond measure.. a love that brings peace and joy. It is what fills that place that seems unfillable. It is a love that is life altering. Don't walk away from it!! 

Mark 14:65 Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and beat him with their fist. "Prophesy to us," they jeered. And the guards slapped him as they took him away.

 

My Thoughts

I have read these words several times before...but today as I wrote them out by hand I had this awful feeling in my stomach.  The thought of the things I had done wrong causing anybody, especially Jesus being spit on because of me, being blindfolded because of me, being beat on by many people with their fist because of me, being slapped by men because of me!!  It made me sad.  And this, this is just the beginning of what Jesus endured, because of what I have done wrong. 

 

Think about it... if you were walking down the street on your phone, gossiping...and  you ran upon a group of people were beating on somebody and they said if you stop that gossiping this beating will stop.  Most all of us would drop that phone! What if our phone was set to go off anytime we did something wrong and we would see somebody getting slapped, spit on or beaten up each time we did something we shouldn't ...and we knew it was real and happening wouldn't we stop!!??

 

What if each time we don't sin, it was one less punch Jesus had to take?  My sins caused Jesus to suffer... just the thought of what happened to Jesus in these verses make me sad for my sins...and this is only the first part of a true story!! 

 

Dear Jesus I am so sorry for the suffering you endured because I can't say no, because I don't say no... because sometimes I deliberately choose sin!!  Jesus it makes me sad that anybody hurt you because of something I did.  Please forgive me... please, please forgive me!!  In Jesus name, Amen

 

3.9.13

Mark 15:38 Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give into temptation.  For the spirit is willing but the body is weak.

My Thoughts

We have to learn to recognize sin...until we recognize sin we can't watch for it.  When we learn to recognize sin...we need to keep watch at all times.. so when we are tempted we can start praying... calling God to us so that His grace will make us strong enough to resist our temptation to sin. 

 

I do this a lot...and it never ceases to amaze me that it works!! And it works every time!! Every time that I remember to do it!!  I must get more and more aware of my sins...so that I can stay watchful!!  The thing I have the hardest time keeping watch over is my thoughts... you know the ones that are going to eventually come out of your mouth!!... I need to keep watch of those like I was guarding the president!!  And when I hear those thoughts that I know that I don't want to be words... I need to start praying for that situation... and praying for God's grace to give me the right thoughts!! 

So often we make it so much harder than it is... we need to spend time finding out what God considers wrong, keep watch for those things to pop up in our lives...then we need to get busy praying.  Then God takes over and His grace is stronger than we ever thought about being!! 

3.8.13

Numbers 11:5,6 10 We remember the fish we use to eat for free in Egypt.  and we had all the cumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic we wanted.  But now our appetites are gone.  All we ever see is this manna." Moses heard all the families standing the the doorways of their tents whining and the Lord became extremely angry. Moses was also very aggravated.

 

My Thoughts

The Israelites might have had a bigger variety when they were back in Egypt.  But how quickly they forgot that they were slaves then too.  Slaves!  Without much time to enjoy anything.  Here they were, provided with all that they need, and they were free, yet they complained! And it made God angry!! 

 

We often do that!!  Think that what God has chosen to give us is not enough, forgetting that what God provides for us is always enough...and when we show good responsibility with what we have been given then God will give us more.  Instead we jump ahead...thinking we deserve more and make ourselves a slave to payments.  Then those payments become such a burden...and last long after the "things" we "had" to have ware out. 

 

I wonder if God looks at us like he looked at the Israelites that day, when we make ourselves a slave to credit??   I think that He might.  After all aren't we saying, "You have not provided me with enough! I want more! Even if I have to be a slave!" 

 

We should try living on what God provides...and not a bit more and see how much freer we feel!!  God cares about our needs, and He cares about the desires of our hearts.  He will supply all of our needs when we love Him and do what He ask us to do...and we will also get enough of our desires ...not so many that we don't stay grounded but enough of them.  When we show God that we can handle what Has given us and still follow Him, still Honor him...then he entrust us with more. But in a way where we can enjoy the more... freely enjoy it!! Enjoy it without the chains of slavery!!  It is our choice.. to be a slave or be free...which will you choose?

3.7.13

Mark 13:35-37 You, too must keep watch! For you don't know when the master of the household will return-- in the evening, at midnight, before dawn, or at daybreak.  Don't let him find you sleeping when eh arrives without warning.  I say to you what I say to everyone. Watch for him!"

 

My Thoughts

As I read these words I though of how we live in a "NOW" world!!  We can be at home and the grocery store all at the same time with cell phones and video surveillance. We don't have to remember everything because we can call and ask.  If we need to know something we just a Google and the answer is right at our fingertips!!!  We can text several friends while talking to another. Gossip can spread faster than the speed of light.  CNN had breaking news all day long every day. 

 

I think that gives us this false notion that we will hear from somebody that Jesus is back and have time to make things right, right quick.  We can not depend on getting ready tomorrow or tomorrow or tomorrow.  My mom use to say that it didn't matter when Jesus came back, any of us could die today in a car accident... that our last day was our last day no matter. 

 

We can't be asleep at the wheel...we have to be wide awake and alert, ready at all times.  We can't let life get in the way of knowing God and being ready for the return of Jesus.  We were put on this earth, not to serve our own purpose and our own agenda not for our own happiness, but to love God. the wonderful thing about loving God is that when we do that... God takes care of our happiness, God takes care of all of our needs.  Being prepared and alert will not only save us when Jesus returns, it will save and serve us here on earth as we live our lives.  We should treat  getting ready, being ready for Jesus as a the privilege it is and not a chore.   

 

When I started reading my Bible... it did seem a bit like a chore... now it is the best part of my day.  When I pick up my Bible I run my hand across it just before I open it up...my heart beats a little faster at the anticipation of what I am about to learn. As I flip pass the parked passages in my Bible I feel joy that I have learned things that make my life better.  I find things that I need to ask forgiveness for and as I do I am relieved that God showed me where I was wrong and how to be better.  And as I do it better my life gets better and better and better.  Each day I am more alert, each day I am better prepared for the return of Jesus. Each day I am glad that I didn't want another day to get ready!! 

 

If I could impart any wisdom  to my children, to my family, to my friends it would be, "Read your Bible every day!! It will change your life!" Why this?  Because it is life changing it the most amazing ways. There is nothing I want more for my children than love and peace... they will find it in the words of the pages of their Bible!! 

3.6.13

Numbers 6:22-27 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with this special blessing:

May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on  you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show  you his favor and give you his peace.'

Whenever Aaron and his sons bless the people of Israel in my name, I myself will bless them."

My Thoughts

OH! God's blessings!!  God's blessings are beyond anything we can even think to imagine.  God's blessings on our live are enough... not more than we need so we get into trouble... not ever less than we need... God's blessings are perfect blessings sent down in perfect love!

When we become one of God children by accepting Jesus into our lives all of God's promises apply to our lives too.  This blessing didn't just happen.. it had to be spoken over the lives of people..then God would bless the people himself!  If we don't know these verses we miss out on giving the people around us wonderful blessings of God.   What better gift could we give somebody!?!?

This one is going on my frig!!  It is a must remember!!  Robby called just a minute ago and I was able to say this over his day!!  I need to say it every day over him!!  Over my children... over my friends... over my enemies. I need to know these words!!!  If they only work on those moments where I am  totally right with God then maybe I have moments where my words will bring down God's blessings on someone.... I don't won't to miss out on  a chancce to speek God's blessings on somebody's life! 

3.5.13

Mark 12:33 And I know it is important to love him (God) with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.

 

My Thoughts

"All my understanding," these are the words that stood out to me the most when I read this verse this time.  We have to go about understanding God...and God's love!!  Jesus often ask the teacher of religious law "Have you not read the scripture where it says?" (Matthew 12:3) In Mark 12:35 Jesus refers to scripture that the teachers of religious law should have understood.  Will Jesus ask us "Did you not read in the Bible where it says?"  "Did  you not understand?"

 

Most of our homes have at least one Bible in them... Books stores have shelves devoted to the Bible.  We can get them at the library on our computers... even on our cell phones.  We have no excuses for not understanding.  Do we really want to look into the eyes of Jesus and say "I didn't read the scriptures for myself." 

 

After the man answered "I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than offering all the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law." Jesus said to the man "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." 

 

 Loving God with "all my understanding" is as important as loving our neighbor.. it is more important than giving to the church.  If we stood before Jesus and said "I didn't have time?" would He say back to us, "You didn't make time... I made time to die for you."  Can we really face Jesus with a Bible in our house, with a Bible at our fingertips and say to him "I didn't have time?"

 

Wiki Answers says that the average person stands in line about an hour a day...which totals 2 to three years in a lifetime.  What if you committed to downloading a Bible on to your phone and just spent that time...time you spend anyway... reading God's word?  csun.edu.com says that the average person spends 4 hours a day watching TV... What if we took one of those hours and read our Bibles.. or just a half of one of those hours.... how about the time we spend on the Internet?  There is a way to make time to understand God.  I challenge you to find your way... I challenge you to make time for God's word in your day!! I challenge you to commit to one month of making time for God on a daily basis and see if that doesn't change your life!!  It will change your life...and when we make time for God... God honors that time!

 

 

3.4.13

Proverbs 10:24 The fears of the wicked will be fulfilled; the hopes of the godly will be granted.

 

My Thoughts

Have you ever felt like you worried something into existence? Or have you ever felt like hoped something into existence?  Oh I have!!  Right here it tells us this was not coincidence!! When we live in fear we are believing, thinking on, pondering what the devil tells us... when we live in hope we are believing, thinking on, pondering what God tells us!!  Right here it tells us that our fears will be fulfilled and our hopes will be granted!! 

 

We can not put our hopes in God if we don't know the promises of God!!  The more of God's promises I know and understand, the more hope I have.  And the more I believe in, think on and ponder what God tells me!!   The more I do this the more I find my life improving!!  The less I live in fear.  In fact I find myself hardly fearful at all these days!!  If you knew me when I was always fearful you would be amazed at the difference in my life!! I am, everyday totally amazed at the peace and hope that I have!!  As much as I believed in the existence of God before I understood His promises, I still had tons of anxiety and panic.  When I learned to get to know God and all about His promises for my life by reading my Bible the more I had hope...the more I believed in all that God is instead of just the existence of God.

 

 God offers us salvation here on earth!!  An amazing salvation.. a peace that passes all understanding... love beyond measure... hope, a hope that is beyond your wildest dreams.  But to have that earthly salvation, that peace and love and hope... we have to understand it. How can we hope on something we don't understand?  How can we hope on something we don't quiet believe in?

 

Satin makes sure that we have disappointment to draw on... he makes sure we are fearful..and if he can get our mind on fear and disappointment...then he can move on and watch as we create disappointment and fear to the point we bring it on ourselves. 

 

We don't have to choose fear, we don't have to choose to live in fear... We can choose to live in love and hope and peace... we can choose to think on love and hope and peace and when we do... our lives change in amazing ways... love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). Love is greater than all evil!!  Love will win out... if we choose love... and love, God's perfect love produces hope!!  

 

I challenge  you today.. if you only really know of God's existence.. if you only understand that there is a God...but you don't know God's peace and love .. find a Bible that you can read and understand...and start reading!!  Don't give up on the first day... or the first week.. or even the first month... keep reading!! Love and Peace follow!!  And it is amazing!!

 

3.3.12

Mark 11:24-25 I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you've received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone  you are holding a grudge against, so that your father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.

 

My Thoughts

Forgiveness! Oh Forgiveness!!  We can't be forgiven unless we forgive.  I have recently really noticed that the Lords Prayer says in Matthew 6:12 and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.... Look at those words closely... forgive our sins "as we have forgiven" those who sin against us.  If we don't forgive, we can't be forgiven!! 

 

Sometimes it seems we humans have the hardest time forgiving the smallest things!!  Have you ever noticed we can forgive those things that seem really big... so big they are on our mind so much that we finally just give up and forgive.  Then there are those little things that happen...something somebody says.. or a minor annoyance that somebody does to us over and over again without thinking, and we keep feeling angry every time we think about it.  Something like "She always invites so-in-so to lunch and she never invites me!"  Here we have forgiven somebody that has taken something from us and we can't seem to forgive somebody that didn't invite us to lunch (an example only).  Can you imagine unforgiveness over a "lunch invite" keeping us out of heaven? 

 

You may ask yourself, "But how can I forgive that?!"  God forgave us everything.  Every sin we commit against someone, we commit against God, Himself.  As a parent we can often forgive anything but something somebody does to our children.  Those seem to be the hardest things to get over, something done to our children.  But each of us are God's children... so anytime we do something to somebody else we are sinning against one of God's children. Yet we go to God all the time and ask for forgiveness.  Jesus died on the cross so we could have that forgiveness... How can we not forgive others... look at all God forgives us!

 

We might think that forgiveness of others can be impossible...but with God all things are possible.  Sometimes it takes the grace of God to grow forgiveness in our hearts. Sometimes we have to pray and pray and pray for that forgiveness to take root.  But our forgiveness of others is a must if we are to be forgiven.  We can not go about overlooking this fact!  Prayer is the key... recognizing that grudge swelling up inside us needs to be our signal to pray instead of anger taking root.  Prayer is our fertilizer for forgiveness... prayer makes forgiveness take root. Our forgiveness of others leads to God's forgiveness of us. 

 

 

 

Mark 10:46-49 Then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and his disciples left town, a large crowd followed him.  A blind beggar named Bartimaeus (son of Timeaus) was sitting beside the road.  When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

 

"Be quiet!" many of the people yelled at him.

 

But he only shouted louder, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

 

When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, "Tell him to come here."

 

My Thoughts

Since this is a story told in Sunday School when we are little we all know that Blind Bart was healed that day!!  He walked away able to see. 

 

What I noticed today was that the people that thought of Bartimaeus as a beggar didn't think that he had the right to ask Jesus for anything...after all he was just a beggar!  They told him to be quiet!!  What if Bartimaeus has listened to the people?  What if he had not listened to his own heart?  What if he had not asked again?  He would not be a story in our Bibles... he would not have gained his sight!!

 

We can't listen to what the world thinks we need, or want, or deserve...we need to listen to our own hearts...to the Holy Spirit inside of us.  We need to go to Jesus with our wants and needs and desires. There is no telling what we will see in this world if we ask Jesus!!  God tells us we can...it doesn't matter what the world tells us!

3.1.13

Mark 5:9-31 "Yes," Jesus relpled, "and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property -- along with persecution.  And in the world to come that person will have eternal life.  But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be greatest then."

 

My Thoughts

We have been blessed in America to be able to love God.  We are blessed in America to be able to talk of our wonderful God.  But as we become more and more politically correct and less and less Bucolically correct the more those blessings are slipping from our hands. 

 

We have to be so grounded in God that we are able, if necessary in our lifetime, to give up anything that would stand in our way of being what God would have us to be.  We must be prepared, we must be strong enough to withstand persecution... we must be prepared to give up anything to say we love and serve the Almighty God.  We must be prepared to become the least if that is what it takes, so that we may have eternal life in Heaven with God. 

 

God's word will make us strong!!  But we have to know it! It has to be planted in our hearts enough that we can call on the words of God to keep us strong.  We have to make sure that our hearts are fertile soil that grow the Word of God where the roots are so deep we don't even waver in what we might be ask to do!!   In what we might be asked to give up!!  

 

It is easy to read the good part of these verses... if I am strong I will have a hundred times more now.  We can miss the part that we will also have persecution. We can't miss the fact that there is not one of our family members we would want to give up..even if we could have a hundred times more.  Yet we must be prepared to do just that if we are the ones that end up living in the last days.  People in other countries have been taken from their families for believing in God.  They have had property taken away, they have been persecuted.  We, we have been blessed.  To stay blessed we have to stay strong in God. To be strong if we have to be...we have to get as rooted as possible.  If we can't stand up to political correctness... will we be able to stand up to persecution?