365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 197

My bible study is working on the book of Hebrews. We met last evening to discuss chapters 9 and 10. In one of the study books we are going by called Be Confident by Warren W Wiersbe, he talks about sin being man’s greatest problem. He goes on to say, “by nature, man is a sinner, and by choice, he proves that his nature is sinful.” He finalizes all this with a quote from sources unknown, “We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.” This one little line gets to the heart of the reason why many have a difficult path to real spiritual relationship with God. In my study on temperaments, there are temperaments that because of their needs or lack of needs do not think they need God or think they are too unworthy and unlovable. Shinning the light on sin is thwarted by our own weaknesses within our temperament but Jesus can be that light. Jesus can show each of us that we are sinners no matter how many good things we do or no matter if we have never committed a “big” sin. Sin is sin and we are all by nature sinners but we will try to cover it up, hide it away, disregard it. Our weaknesses are being played on by Satan. He will play upon those weaknesses to keep us from the light of Jesus and a real spirit-to-spirit relationship with God. Accepting ourselves as sinners is the great hurdle we have to jump over on our path to God. This hurdle cannot be done alone. Each of us play a part, plant a seed, say a word that can encourage and motivate another to seek God and get over that sin hurdle. Share your story, live your life as an example of Christ’s love, be all you can be for the Lord.

Hebrews 10:12-14 But when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.  

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 36

Saturday evening we will be with some of my husband’s family sharing and celebrating Christmas. I consider times like this so joyful. We enjoy the food and have lots of laughs with each other as we play Apples to Apples which has become a tradition. I will bring our new Bible version of Apples to Apples to play. We also have lots of laughs doing a gag gift exchange game which I introduced to my husband’s family because it was done with my dad’s side of the family for many years. This year I introduced the idea of doing a mini bible study with each other to connect with each other with our faith and learn more about each other that way. I am anticipating the joy and will report back how it all came to pass on Monday.

Psalm 133:1-3 A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 315

I am pretty sure there are distinct personality types created by God and some of those types or at least one of those types is more prone to having fears. I have struggled with fear of what people think of me, fears of being on the phone, fears of conflict and more for my whole life. This last year since doing the bible study Fearless by Max Lucado, the Lord has really helped me get past some of these fears. Mind you, we are always a work in progress so today may be a fearless day and tomorrow I may take a step backwards. Yesterday at work, was one of those fearless days. I have been confronted with having to cold call alarm companies at my job in the past 3 years but have managed to delegate it to someone else to do or find a way around it like discovering an email address. Yesterday, I was emailed a copy of an invoice an alarm company received with a quick written note on it that the alarm had been installed in 1970. Unfortunately, that was not an excuse to get out of the fine this alarm company received. In looking at their account, I discovered there was no contact information except a phone number. OH No! I contemplated it briefly, got side-tracked temporarily, and than came back to it and just picked up the phone to cold call this alarm company. I ended up speaking directly with who I needed to speak to so that was a good thing but he ended up getting defensive right away and definitely had an attitude. I was relieved to finally get somewhere with this man and get off the phone. In the end, I am pretty sure he just doesn’t want to pay or follow what the law says but at least I made the good effort attempt to educate him and help him clear up his account and try to get him into compliance with the law. I would never have made that call had not the Lord been working within me and helping me overcome my fears and build my confidence. So all praise to Him!!! But I will be praying this day will be without any need for such phone calls. Thank the Lord it is Friday!

Isaiah 41:13 For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 109

Commitment is a wavering thing in our culture today. That word has been on my heart the last few days. The definition of commitment is the act of commiting or the state of being committed. Interestingly, the second defition is dediction and application. When I look at the things in my life that I have been dedicated to, I have grown more and that 'thing' has been successful. My first mememory of dedication goes back to my high school days when I was in drill team. I didn't make the drill team the first year I tried out but all my friends did. In looking back, I can honestly see I am a late bloomer in most things. I was dedicated in that next year to perfecting my skills and getting on the team and I did it with flying colors. I ended up getting awarded with the Most Dedicated award in my second year with drill team. My marriage is another thing that both Nathan and I went into with hearts that were committed to endure until the end and beyond. On a smaller scale, I went to a dentist cleaning appoitment one time and they said things weren't looking so great, I needed to do more. So, I committed right than to flossing every night. I have only missed two nights in the last two years. It made a difference! Committment brings success, blessings and growth. Committing to doing this praise challenge has been a glorious thing. I am in His Word everyday, thinking about Him all the time and am more open to seeing Him in everything. It is an amazing blessing. Commitments can be challenging but they are worth the effort. Have you committed to doing something to help you on your faith journey? Reading the bible everyday, praying more, memorizing scripture, bible study, faithbooking. Pick something today and say I am dedicated to doing this everyday and enjoy the fruit of God's blessings upon you.
2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose herts are fully committed to him.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 83

At my bible study last evening, we got off on a 'bunny trail' and ended up talking about negativity and how it can affect us. My first inclination was to pray about it everyday. If anything is bothering you or making your life not all it can be, pray about it. My second thought was keeping the focus on Jesus. It seems to be the major theme throughout the bible study Fearless by Max Lucado. How do we keep our focus on Jesus? Prayer, being in the Word as much as possible, being around other believers and more prayer. This morning I read from my email called Words of Wisdom from Crossing Your Bridge about change and peace and found this so 'right on' with the negativity discussion I had just had the night before. God provided a scripture that can be the focus of our prayers. Here's that little snippet I read:
2 Thessalonians 3:16

May the Master of Peace himself give you the gift of getting along with each other at all times, in all ways. May the Master be truly among you!

INSIGHT:

People who irritate, that happen to be in our lives, are there so we can activate God's peace. God's peace can help us see them as He sees them and allows us to not have them bother us. We can't control them but we can control how we react to them and how we allow them to bother us. People can't bother us unless we let them.


ACTION:
Activate God's peace in our lives when we are faced with someone who is irritating us.

Thank you Lord for bringing your Word to me that can help us change our outlook on the negative people that are around us.
Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 68

Courage: Quaility of mind that enables one to face danger or fear with resolution. My husband and I watched the movie Courageous last evening. It is one of those movies, that EVERYONE needs to watch. It is definitely a tear-jerker so have your box of Kleenex ready but suprisingly it had lot of humourous moments and had a lot to say about the word 'courage'. I am not going to give away the plot of the movie but you are in for something good. We are all tending to just survive our day to day lives and it's time to stop and look at what we are doing or not doing and re-evaluate what is truly important. There is so much more study I want to do on this word and, of course, it will ultimately come out on a scrapbook layout so I can really get it to stick within me and have a wonderful reminder that we humans SO need. I would love for you to join me on studying this topic and hope you can come to a crop sometime to get it faithbooked.
1Corinthians 16:13 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 62

God gave me an idea this week. You know how an idea can just come to you out of the blue, yeah, that's God. After my experience with my new friend who came to the first FTLC Crop and my conversations with her, I could see how crucial it is to get people to try out faithbooking and that what was going to really convince them of it was actually going through doing their first layout. So, how do I get in front of women to do that? My new friend suggested to do a workshop at a Women's retreat which is an awesome idea and a day or two later God popped that little idea into my head. Women's bible study groups. Oh yeah, and I have one that I am in. So, yesterday as our bible study group was wrapping up for the evening, I conquered my fears and made the pitch to them. It will be an experiment and they are my guinea pigs. LOL! They were agreeable and I left feeling on top of the moon with excitement and amazement that with the Lord's help, I let go of my fear of rejection or 'what are they going to think' and kept saying to myself just as Jesus says to us over and over again in bible, "Don't be afraid" He was right there with me, I knew it. So, I am So praising him for the enlightenment that I got last night. Like Max Lucado says in our bible study Fearless, you can't do anything about the storms that may come your way but you can choose not to fear. How about you? Do you have a fear that needs to be knocked flat? Look to the Lord and he will help you take that fear and shove it.
Mark 5:26 Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe."

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 58

I live in a beautiful place. God certainly has an eye for beauty and majesty with the mountains. We are having very unseasonably warm winter days and it is wonderful. I don't want to hear anyone crumbling that it's due to global warming or anything else. I just want to enjoy what God has created and relish the warmth while it is hear. Have you ever stopped to consider all the wonders in our world? It often blows my mind how complex the world is and yet how incredibly it all works together. That was not because some single celled amoebas decided to merge. This was definitely the work of a supreme being that had a plan. We did a bible study called Crazy Love last year and there was a video about the amazing wonder of creation and how big it is. You have to see it! I have put the Crazy Love website link in the resources section. Click on it and go to the page with all the chapter videos. Towards the bottom of the page is a video called The Awe Factor of God. Be amazed and be blessed.
Genesis 1: 1-3 In the begining, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 49

I started a bible study group through my church 2 years ago when I kept finding that the timing of things going on at the church just wasn't lining up with my time. I think we have done about 6 different studies now. We have had some join for a short time and other long timers leave us who moved out of CO whom we have missed but we keep at it. We are currently doing a study called Fearless by Max Lucado. I am a huge fan of his writing style and love his children's books. I had the privelege of hearing him speak at a Women of Faith conference several years ago. He really knows how to say things that you already know but puts a great spin on it or puts it in another perspective that is just golden. In one chapter in Fearless, he talks about the incident on the boat with the disciples and the big storm. How afraid for their lives they became and how Jesus who was sleeping the whole time got awakened by them and their fearfulness and said for the uncounted time, 'do not be afraid'. Lucado points out that they are in a boat with the Son of God, the Messiah, sleeping or not, the disciples had no reason to fear. The same is true for us. He is with us whether we think he's sleeping or not and we have nothing to fear. My praise today is not only for this wonderful perspective gleaned from this bible study but for the ladies in my study who have brought lots of insight, wisdom and laughter to our group and made it so special. We truly are sisters in Christ. Do you have a community of believers that you gather with regularly to learn and grow more in your faith? If not, definitely seek one out or take the initiative and start one. If you are local, you can always join mine.
Proverbs 13:20 He who walks with the wise grows wise.