8.8.12

1 Corinthians 4:20 For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.

My Thoughts

I love when I go to right about a verse so that I understand it more.  Sometimes I start out thinking it means one thing...and as I search through the different translations to see which one makes the verse more clear, I often find it means another.  Every time this happens I feel like the Holy Spirit is directing me so that I truly understand God's word.

I started out thinking this verse meant that we couldn't just say we love God, our actions needed to show we loved God.  But, what it really means is that God's word is not a lot of fancy words for people to use to look knowledgeable and holy. God's word are power, God's power.  The Bible is not just words we read... the Bible is full of our weapons of warfare against evil.  The more we seek after God the more of God's power we have to fight that evil.  The Bible is like a treasure chest of weapons against evil, against the devil himself.  We can open it up and use it or we can try to fight all on our own where our chances are slim.  We have the power of God here for our use against all darkness, we just have to open that treasure chest, know those weapons and use them and we can win against the evil that lives on this earth.

8.7.12

1 Corinthians 3:6-8 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It's not important who does the planting, or who does the watering.  What's important is that God makes the seed grow.  The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their hard work.

My Thoughts

This is what happened to me...when I was 9 I asked Jesus into my heart...but nobody watered the seed that was planted.  I didn't take time to water it.  No adult in my life either knew how or took the time to water the seed that was planted.  My parents were divorced so I went to one church one weekend and another church the next weekend.  I was kind of like a stray that never fit in.  That feeling followed me into my adult years and no matter where we went to church that I still had that feeling.  And I had never learned to water that seed that had been planted.

Then my son, who I had taught about God the best I new how. Who we also sent every summer to church camp, where he flet he fit in, there his seed was watered. He gave me a One Year Bible.  I felt like I had to read it at least one year...and in doing that I started watering that seed that had been planted 39 years earlier!!  God's word tells us that if we seek wisdom, wisdom will come to us (Proverbs 2). I started seeking, watering the seed that had been planted, and God started making it grow. I didn't even know that was what was happening...but it was exactly what was happening.... then God put me, and it was totally God, in the right church with the right people that would help water that wonderful seed that had been planted. 

We must water that seed...the seed in us, the seed in others!  When we do, oh  the harvest that will grow from that one little seed!!  God honors our efforts. God's word will not return void!!  If you have asked Jesus into your heart and you feel like your life is not changing... find a way to water that seed!! If you seek the wisdom of God, God will make sure that you receive understanding. When I started reading my Bible it was almost like reading a foreign language...then day by day... little by little I begin to "get" what I was reading!!  Little by little that seed was growing.

The wonderful thing about a seed that is growing is this.  If you see it like a tree...and the branches are the knowledge and the leaves are the understanding.. amazing things happen.  The tree is tiny and it grow a little and has a few leaves.  Next it grows more branches ....and as we prune it (and God prunes us)...then we get more branches and more leaves.... then more pruning...and the next time we get more branches we get 3 or 4 times the amount we got the first time... it grow exponentially!!  It is amazing!! It is comforting!!  It is exciting! It is life changing!!  Find a way to water that seed planted in you!!!

8.6.12

1 Corinthians 2:11-12 No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own spirit. And we have received God's Spirit (not the world's spirit), so that we can know the wonderful things God as freely given us.

My Thoughts
When we believe Jesus is the Son of God and we confess our sins and ask God to come and live in our hearts, God sends down the Holy Spirit to live inside of us! To tell us what God wants for us and from us.  We get the wonderful privilege of being the home to the Holy Spirit, who has access to God's thoughts.  God sends His thoughts down to the Holy Spirit who then helps us, when we listen, to become the people that God intends us to be.  We need to take notice of the Holy Spirit inside of us... we need to listen and learn and grow.  The voice of the Holy Spirit can only make us better. Isn't that what we all want, to be better??  God has freely given us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us, we have this wonderful perfect resource with us at all times, we can become so much more when we learn to listen to that voice inside of us directing us and we can hear that voice so much better when we take time to close our mouths and quite the world around us and ask God to direct our words, our feet, our hands in a way that brings glory to Him.

8.4.12

Proverbs 20:21 An inheritance obtained too early in life is not a blessing in the end.

My Thoughts

We have lost several important people in our lives over the last several years... too many, too fast.  In our loss we were blesses a couple of times with an inheritance.  We have been really careful with our inheritance.  Careful to use it in a way that would bless our lives for years to come. Careful not to just use it up.  Careful to use it in a way that would bring honor to the lives that worked so hard and left us with blessings. If we had gotten these inheritances earlier in our lives we would have spent the money in a much different way... we would have felt it helped us then...but it would have been gone now. I know that we would not have used it as wisely or thought to use it in a way that would honor the lives of the people who loved us so much.

When we become children of God, He has so much to give us...and since God will always be here with us we get to receive our inheritance from Him while He is alive.  I believe that God watches us and knows when we are best able to handle the gifts He wants to bestow on us. When we can handle those gifts in a way that will bring Him honor.  So often we wonder where God's blessing are in our lives when we have not taken the steps we need to take to grow.  So often we need to grow enough that we will use God's blessing wisely.  God knows if we will be wasteful or if we will us those gifts He gives us in a way that will honor Him, and change our lives forever.

I have seen people inherit something somebody worked for all their lives and then use it up in a matter of weeks or months. Taking something somebody took a lifetime to build and spend it up in a way that you would never know they ever even had such a blessing.  It is a very sad thing to see... sad for the person who is gone and sad for the person that wasted a life time of work in the blink of an eye.  Even worse, live and in person, I have seen people take something that was to be such a special gift and make their lives worse for having had it.  Imagine working all your life to leave somebody something and making their lives worse!!  How sad that would be!!! 

God does not withhold blessings from us because he does not love us... God withhold blessings from us because He loves us so much!!  In fact when God withhold a blessing from u,s I think it  makes a bit sad because He has to wait.  He loves us so much and wants to give us so much...He wants to shower us with His love!  But God's love is big  enough to let us grow when we need too before He sends down His blessings.  Our part is to do what we need to do to grow into the people that God needs us to be.  When we do that God does not have to hold back any good thing from us!!  And He won't!! All that God does for us, and blesses us with...all that God withholds from us is out of the abundant love that He has in his heart for us.  God's decisions over our lives are always in our best interest.  If we feel like we are missing blessings from God we need to buckle down and grow.  If we spend out time doing that in place of complaining then before we know it blessing will fall down from heaven bigger that we could even wish for ourselves.

8.3.12

Romans 12:6-8  In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well.  If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

My Thoughts

I love this verse... it says to me "God made you, and He made you just like He needed you to be! What you can do is valuable, it is a gift from God! Use it as the gift it is and use it to help others!"

For so long I thought that God didn't give me a gift...nothing that stood out.... there are lots of things I can do..I am more that "Jack of many trades, but master of none."  I have always been a bit crafty and can pick up most crafts pretty easy...but I have never been wonderful at any of them.  I can loom knit but I make hats and scarves and shawls and sometimes blankets...and I can crochet a bit...and do the same with that.  I use to make cards...but never got published in a magazine, even though I tried!!  I made pretty cards...but as wonderful as that is it was not exactly like being an "artist"...one that could make money!!  I have painted shirts... sewed pretty things for my kids when they were little.  I have painted paintings...I am ok at that!  I don't sing...in fact when Madison was little, like 3 she would say "Momma pease (sic) don't sing!" And she can't even sing herself. 

When I worked .. I was a hard worker... a perfectionist in many ways...but somehow never a really stand out worker... I was liked and appreciated...but I was not "going places."  And even though I have had a passion for many things it has never been a passion that would "take me places."

I don't have a good memory for birthdays, or even things people tell me. I care, I care deeply about people...but sometimes it may not look that way just because I don't always remember who told me what...I just don't have that attention for that kind of detail no matter how much I try.

Some people are good business people... some housewives are perfect housekeepers!! There are nurses, thank God for them...I could not do what they do!!  And teachers who make sure that our children know so much in so little time (not my gift either).  There are people wonderful with numbers and laws... I am good with numbers ... but again not a master of them.  The list goes on and on.

I use to let the devil really beat me up about not being "gifted" at anything. It could really get me down. I would hear that God made each one of us special, but could never find out where my "special" was!! Then I came across this verse and in it it said "And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly."

One thing I knew about me was that I was kind. To find out it was a gift!! Wow.. to get to know that being sweet to others could actually be a gift!!!  Maybe I was special after all!!  People all my life have told me how sweet I am. I often stop and ask myself what it is that I do that is so sweet...I can't really figure it out. And as sweet as I could be, and as sweet as I wanted to be I never realized that I could use that "kindness" for God.  Once I realized it was a gift, I started making an effort to use it that way.  To make sure that people saw God's sweetness and kindness in me. I want people to know that my kindness, my being sweet, is a gift that come through me but it is a gift straight from God to them. I don't have to be a great painter, or a nurse, wonderful with numbers or laws. I don't have to be able to sing (thank goodness!). I just have to be me...and let God work through me utilizing the gift that He designed especially for me. I, me, Jeannie Phillips get to just go around being sweet to others! I get to use something that I am already good at, and somehow, even if I never see it, it makes a difference in the world, if I use it to glorify God!!

We all have something that we are good at, something that comes naturally. Something that we see as easy and ordinary because it does come so naturally. If we just stop and look at our lives.  What we are good at matters, it is after all one of God's gifts to us!! What we are good at can be used for God!  So often we don't see our gifts as gifts, oh but they are!!  Take a look at what you can do and ask God, "How can I use my gift to serve you!!"

P.S. If you are good at organizing and cleaning you are more than welcome to bless me!!! If you lived in my mind you would know that what  you can do is, for sure, gift!!! ;o)

8.2.12

2 Chronicles 32:7-8 The Hezekiah encouraged them by saying, "Be strong and courageous! Don't be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria or his mighty army, for there is a power far greater on our side! He may have a great army, but they are merely men.  We have the Lord our God to help us to fight our battles for us!" Hezekiah's words greatly encouraged the people.

My Thoughts

I love this!! The  more I read the Bible and know God the more I love scripture.  The Assyria army was huge..was strong... had trampled so many kingdoms... it was something to be feared!  But Hezekiah knew that God was greater than even the biggest, strongest army of that time!!  Hezekiah trusted in God.  God sent an angel to destroy the army of Assyria and the kind of Assyria went home and was killed by his own sons.  The king of Assyria had made fun of Hezekiah for believing in God and he had mocked God. God took care of Hezekiah because Hezekiah loved and honored God.  God protected Hezekiah from something bigger than him or his city! 

When we love God and honor God, He will also protect us!! There is nothing bigger than God, nothing!!  Our part is to love and honor God and put our problems in God's hands.

Not only was the Assyrian arm defeated, King Hezekiah became highly respected among all the surrounding nations and many gifts were brought for the Lord and valuable presents were brought to King Hezekiah too (v. 32)  God not only saved Hezekiah and his people, God made sure that Hezekiah was honored for trusting in God.

God will bring us honor... He will make sure that people admire us when we love Him and choose to do the things that honor God!! When we love and honor God we not only receive love back from God, we also receive wonderful gifts that God wants to shower on us because He love us so very much.  In my mind I see it like a grandparent that loves a grandchild...the grandparent is in a place in his or her life where they are able to shower those grand-babies, that they love so much, with wonderful gifts. They love those babies so much that they just can't help themselves...they have to buy presents and give hugs and love.  They just can't stop themselves that love just pours over. That is how God is when we love and honor God he just can't help himself. He loves us so much that His blessings just pour over into our lives in great abundance!! 

God is like a wonderful mixture of  parents and grandparents all rolled up into one.  He protects us, and He disciplines us when we need it...then He can't help Himself, He pours out His blessings on our lives in amazing ways!!

8.1.12

2 Chronicles 31:5-10 ⁵ When the people of Israel heard these requirements, they responded generously by bringing the first share of their grain, new wine, olive oil, honey, and all the produce of their fields. They brought a large quantity—a tithe of all they produced. ⁶ The people who had moved to Judah from Israel, and the people of Judah themselves, brought in the tithes of their cattle, sheep, and goats and a tithe of the things that had been dedicated to the Lord their God, and they piled them up in great heaps. ⁷ They began piling them up in late spring, and the heaps continued to grow until early autumn.^{[a] 8} When Hezekiah and his officials came and saw these huge piles, they thanked the Lord and his people Israel!

⁹ “Where did all this come from?” Hezekiah asked the priests and Levites.

¹⁰ And Azariah the high priest, from the family of Zadok, replied, “Since the people began bringing their gifts to the Lord’s Temple, we have had enough to eat and plenty to spare. The Lord has blessed his people, and all this is left over.”

My Thoughts

I love this ... a promise made by God in the New Testament ... many years before this happened was honored before the promise was made!!  In Luke 6:38 it says "Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full--pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back." When we give to God, God takes care of us.  It is that simple!!  If we want to prosper again as a nation, if we want our families to prosper we must remember that all that we have comes straight from God and give Him back the first part of what we have!  When we do this we will have nothing to worry about!!