Patience is a gift we always have to call upon

Romans Romans 12:12 Rejoice in our confident  hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. 

I was reading these verses and my initial reaction to be patient in trouble was that is not so easy. I have a misbelief or lie that I am believing that being patient can be easier, depending on the situation. But isn't the Spirit of God living in me? The Spirit that gives me patience is always there so the truth is I can always be patient in times of trouble no matter what the circumstances may be. The first part of this verse sets you up for this truth. Rejoice in our confident hope. We always have the capability to wait on the Lord and the best action plan is to keep our focus on the hope that we can be confident in rather than on the negative things that Satan is trying to plant within us. Fight the battle and always be rejoicing in the hope that Jesus has already given us! We have to acknowledge this fruit within us and accept this gift from the Holy Spirit. When we do this everyday, we can be patient in all circumstances.
Lord, how forgetful I am of the gifts you have given me. Help me to acknowledge and praise you for these gifts everyday. Let the fruit of the Spirit pour out of me in all circumstances. In the precious name of Jesus, I pray.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-I have lost count of the day!

I went to my church website and listened to the sermon from last Sunday again. We had a guest pastor preaching and there were some things said that were spoken too quickly or in such a way that I didn’t understand. But those things I did understand were so enriching that I had to listen to it again to see if I could hear the other parts. He mentioned that the bible said many are the afflictions of the righteous and the Lord delivers him from them all. The book I am reading on Expository Listening explained that discerning what we are listening to is a part of growth. If we hear someone preaching on something that he says is in the bible, we should be verifying it to be truth. So, I did my research and found the verse the pastor was referring to: Psalm 34:19. In looking over this verse and highlighting it in my bible, I underlined the words “the Lord delivers him”. I can’t think of how many health/medical issues have come up over the past decade of my life. The Lord has delivered me from them all. I wasn’t instantly healed but rather God was refining me in the process of the healing with having more patience, gaining peace in the circumstance, being kind, gentle and loving despite the hurts and pain and so many other aspects. The whole point of the sermon was the truth of our hope in Christ and how we need to focus on the blessing of Heaven awaiting us.

Psalm 34:19 A righteous man may have troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 134

As I was driving home from my bible study group meeting last evening, I was on a dark two-lane road of hills that go through a dark forest. Everything is dark but the little bit of light from my headlights but as I look out on the dark horizon I see the edges of light shinning upward from an approaching car. It reminded me of a sunrise the way it looked. My thoughts turned to our dark roads that we inevitably get on during our lives. The dark roads are the trials and troubles that come to our lives. That light out at the horizon is Jesus. If we drive straight towards the light, we will get through our trials and troubles with hope in our hearts. Hope brings comfort. That light out on the horizon gave me that same comforting feeling of I am not alone out here. We are never alone when we have Jesus on our side and the Holy Spirit within us. The next time you are feeling alone, feeling like you are on a dark road, look straight ahead and see the light of Jesus leading you forward and through the darkness.

2 Samuel 22:29 You are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord turns my darkness into light.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 92

Sometimes during a sermon my thought process sticks to one word said and the rest of it becomes a blur. The word that had me going off in my own thoughts was convicted. It is likely many words we use and hear and understand the meaning but couldn’t put it into a definition. So, I got onto the handy dandy Google site and got the definition of convicted or conviction: a fixed or firmly held belief. Conviction isn’t just about belief but about the groundedness of that belief, the solid foundation of that belief, the belief that doesn’t waver in the sifting sands of this world. I remember an when an earthquake hit in southern California when I was about 16. Usually, the earthquakes always came in the early morning hours and you slept right through them so this was my first experience of the ground beneath me shifting in this jolting rolling motion. I was drying my hair in the bathroom when it hit and immediately tried to get to the doorway where we were always taught you would be safer if the building/house collapsed. The ground was not what it always was. It was all over the place and walking those 4 feet the doorway seemed to take an eternity and be the greatest of challenges. By the time I made it to the doorway, the earthquake has stopped and my emotions bubbled over into a torrential rain of tears. It was hard walking those few feet with the shifting foundation below me which is what is like when our spiritual foundation is not solid. Would you rather walk on a solid surface or in a jungle where there may be quicksand in any step you take or on an icy driveway where you slip and fall? I want my walk to be on solid ground and that solid ground comes from the one and only Jesus and the Word of God. How convicted am I of what I believe? I can honestly say that my convictions have been on shaky ground at times but the more I am in his Word and working on living out the Word within my life the more I feel the foundation getting stronger. I think it will always be a life-long process of working on keeping the foundation strong and building it stronger but that is where the Spirit will help us in giving us patience, perseverance and hope to keep going, keep fighting the fight, keep walking the walk.

Romans 4:18-22 Against hope Abraham believed in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations according to the pronouncement, “so will your descendants be.” Without being weak in faith, he considered his own body as dead (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. He was fully convinced that what God promised he was also able to do. So indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 71

At this point in Job’s suffering, he is consumed with self-pity. His friends come and their words do not help him, do not comfort him but rather condemn him. But there is always hope and within all this talk with his friends he grabs back onto his faith for a bit. The truth is right there before him that it is faith that will see him through. He must learn to trust in God’s goodness and know that he is in control. He must put his focus back on God and others and not on himself. Teresa of Avila wrote these words that speak of what will help get a person back on track with God: The best medicine—I do not say for removing the trouble, for I know of none for that, but for enabling the soul to endure it—is to occupy oneself with external affairs and words of charity and to hope in God’s mercy, which never fails those who hope in Him. May he be blessed forever. Amen. We watched a movie last night called Exit Humanity. It was about zombies and honestly after watching some of the previews before the movies I was not anticipating a good message from it but there was one. This man in Civil War times is the main character and he looses his wife and 11 year old son to the zombie plague. He goes crazy in his grief but God gives him a purpose when he reminds him of a conversation with his son about a waterfall he had drawn a picture of. He knows he must take his sons ashes to the waterfall. Along the way, he meets up with Issac and is persuaded to help him free his sister from the clutches of the Rebels who are led by a general from the war who has really lost it. They come to a place where a “witch” lives to get help when he is wounded by a gun shot. They discover that she is not a witch but just a women who has suffered. She confesses to him that she was the one who started this zombie plague in using some ancient scrolls she had found to try to bring back to life her sister who was hanged by the community. He is at a point now where he is able to forgive her and she says to him, “it is never too late to heal the soul.” In the end, he begins to feel hope and life again and says so in his journal he writes in that that is the only cure he knows of is to keep the hope.

Job 19:25 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 69

I know a young lady at my work who is suffering from chronic migraines. She told me she has had them since she was 12 years old. They have gotten worse in the last month and it seems almost anything she eats triggers one. She’s been to doctors and tried acupuncture but so far nothing is helping. As I talked with her about this I wanted her to know that despite the pain she is loved by an awesome God. God lead me to the story of the woman who has been bleeding for many years who came up to him in a crowd just wanting to touch any part of him. She touched the edge of his cloak and was healed. The pain and troubles we go through in life are used by God to mold us, change us and lead us to Him. If it is God’s will my young friend will be healed but in the meantime I have to let God use me to guide her towards him. So, I pray for the fruits of the Spirit to be filled up within me that the hope that is in Christ will be shown to her.

Mark 5:25-34 A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” You see the people crowding against you, his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear told him the whold truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 351

My daughter picked out this book at the library called Christian, the Hugging Lion. It was well written and we loved the illustrations and in the end found out that it was based on a true story. The back of the book indicated that there was a video about the reunion of the lion with the two guys who bought him and set him free.  Here is a link to that video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozXwG-bAf1k&feature=fvwrel

     I think ultimately God created us to be in communion with animals and not them eating us and us eating them kind of thing that is predominant in our fallen world. So, I am betting that what I will see in heaven are animals and people in a communion of love. This story is just a glimpse of how God created us to be in relation to animals. Praise the Lord for these little snipets of truth and hope.

Genesis 1: 24 And God said, "let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds; livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so.



365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 335

There are days where your kids drive you crazy, exhaust you and frustrate the heck out-of-you but than there are the moments that are so precious, so cherished and I am so thankful to God for. One of those wonderful moments happened last evening. The weather had turned and when we left church it was raining but as we got closer to home, the rain turned to snow. Of course, it isn’t going to stick to the ground but the falling snowflakes got my daughter all in a tizzy. She was giggly with excitement about a hopeful snow day and when we got home and out of the car, she rushed out onto the driveway and put her face up to catch snowflakes on her tongue. So much joy surrounded that moment. It was awesome! In this world, life can take its toll on us and make us grumpy, moody, and negative but we have the hope of constant joy, love, peace and all the good things that the Lord will bring us in heaven. So, when I am feeling grumpy or frustrated with circumstances in life, I pray that I will be able to pause and remember this moment with my daughter and the hope that Jesus gives.

Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 302

Today is the first official day of Fall. We all have our favorites and mine has always been the Fall. I think because it is more of a drastic change than the Spring is.  Spring doesn't seems to come all at once. First you see the daffodils, than the tulips than some trees start to bud and the grasses start to change from yellow to green. But the Fall is much more dramatic and sudden. That first colder weather pattern that moves through tells all the trees and grasses your time is about done. You wake up the next day and suddenly your whole world has changed. The temperature is a nice mild 50 degrees, the trees are changing colors and the mountain has its first bit of snow on it. I think we can feel that way everyday with Christ Jesus in our hearts. Everyday we are made new. We can ask the Lord for forgiveness for our sins of the previous day and be washed clean of them. Thank you Lord for this gift of a new day, a new beginning everyday. We so need it! If you are living in a place without hope, than its time to look to the one who gives us hope everyday like a mountain with fresh snow.

Ephesians 4:22-24 To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 289

I created this scrapbook page recently and finished it up yesterday. I titled it Family Love because these photos reminded me so much of my family and how much we have each endured. My own family going through the scary ride of having premature babies, one being 3 months premature. And my brother's family going through adoption and the issuses they have had been confronted with;  Bi-Polar, ADHD, CAPD. Having children is not all the joyful moments you see on birth announcements or on Christmas cards. God has given us our children for a reason, for his purpose. Both my husband and I have grown tremendously in our faith and have developed a strong marriage because of the adversities we have faced. I know my brother and sister-in-law have struggled but I see them coming out of the hardest part of the adversity stronger and am sure their relationship will end up being stronger for it as well. Is the adversity over? No, there will be more things to overcome and endure as we and our children age. That is life in our fallen world but we have the hope found in Jesus of the life to come and the Holy Spirit to help us through our lives now. This verse about love says it all when it comes to family love.
1Corinthians 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 269

My eating program has been in slow-mode the last two weeks and I was day after day starting to feel more and more discouraged and tempted to eat something I shouldn't have. Well, the day finally came on Saturday afternoon. With no more crunchy meals in my Medifast stash and having a very strong desire for crunch, I ended up cheating and pulled out a bag of baked pita chips and pigged out as I watched an afternoon chick flick. Unfortunately, a lot of this is hormone driven as I have been super crabby, falling asleep when I should be awake and not sleeping when I should be sleeping. So, if this comes across wrong in any way, it's because I am need of some caffiene. So Sunday morning I go to get on the scale and weigh myself for the day as I do everyday. I half expected it to be up or at the very least the same as it has been all week long but to my delighted surprise I lost a pound and made it down into the 150's. Haven't seen those 150 numbers in quite a while so it felt amazingly good. Unfortunatley, my cheating bout didn't end as my hormones are still wreaking havoc and I raided the last bit of what was left in the pita chip bag after having lunch with a little avocado and some fresca cheese and a few tortilla chips. In any case, even if the drop to the 150's may be brief at least I know it can happen. I needed a little hope to get me through these hormonally driven dark days. This whole situation reminds me very much of how it is with our sins. Though we are trying not to sin, we may have those days where things are stacked against us and pushing us to sin more and more until we finally do. The great thing is that like I got on that scale and saw hope, we have the hope of Jesus every morning when we wake up to start a fresh day and every night when we go to bed discouraged, sad and guilty, Jesus is right there for us to say "please forgive me". Hope is alive and waiting for you. Just keep seeking...and praying...and looking and listening for Him.

Romans 12:12  Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 242

We watched the movie Big Miracle last evening. It is about a mother and father gray whale trapped with their baby whale in the ice in Alaska. It was so fun to watch the excitement of my daughter as we watched and they came to the point where the whales lived or died. She cheered and was bouncing up and down when the whales came up out of the water free from the ice. I can imagine God cheering and bouncing up and down with excitement when another lost soul is freed from the bondage of sin when they accept Jesus. Unfortunately, the movie also showed how not all are saved. The baby whale does not make it. It is the saddest moment in the movie and it is the saddest thing for God to see a soul lost forever to Satan. The truth is just as the whales made the choice to stay with their baby until the end and than chose to follow the ice holes cut all the way to the ice wall that needed to be broken through. We also have to make a choice. As the people were waiting for the whales to make the move to the go through the ice holes, we started shouting out words of encouragement, prayer and hope.  We have to do that with the lost who are around us encouraging them, praying for them and giving them hope through Jesus Christ. Thank you Lord for this inspiring movie and the message that can be see from it. My prayer is for the lost all over the world but especially for the lost within my own circle that you would help me to be an encourager and a witness of your love and hope. Amen.

Romans 8:21 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into glorious freedom of the children of God.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 210

Nobody ever talks about the emotional side of getting old. I think when your body starts not cooperating and is not like it use to be, it can be a bitter pill to take. There is a grieving process that you end up in. Greiving for the body and capablities you once had. In the midst of the grieving, I grabbed onto words from a song by Jeremy Camp, "there will be a day with no more pain, no more tears, no more fears". The hope of what's to come pulled me through another bout of old-age grief. I am forever thankful to God for the gift of Jesus and the hope of what's to come in heaven. He is a light at the end of our journey in the latter part of our lives that can take away the darkness. I will keep looking to my hope.

John 16:20 I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.  You will grieve but your grief will turn to joy.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 159

My latest assignment for my mastermind group has been to write down my dreams for this ministry in detail for what it will look like in 5 years. I have to say I have struggled with this greatly. A little piece of me started doubting it all and yet another piece of me thought maybe I need to go to seminary and go that route. Another piece of me has been contemplating the idea of writing my own faithbooking bible studies. I also just got an email from my sister-in-law about doing what I do for a treatment school for mentally ill children. I am realizing there are many roads I can take with this ministry so when asked where do I see it in 5 years, I would like to being doing 2 workshops with at least 10 participants a week, make connections in 20 more churches, teach 10 women how to become FTLC workshop leaders at their church along with pursuing these other avenues and helping others connect their faith to their life. I see the title picture on my blog of the road heading toward the snow capped mountain and think my dream is to do God's will and let him take me and this ministry wherever he wants it to go. I am thanking God for the lightbulb idea for the topic of my first faithbooking bible study I will write that came to me in the shower yesterday morning and for these other ministry avenues that you will bring my way. My 5 year plan is to do God's will and follow what's in my heart to do as God reveals it to me.
Proverbs 23:18 There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 135

He is Risen! Today is the day we celebrate our salvation. God gave us hope in his son Jesus. We can go through our lives with the Holy Spirit guiding, helping, strengthening and growing us. Jesus has overcome the world! We, too, can overcome the challenges that life will throw at us with Jesus by our side. Hope is Alive! Jesus is Alive! Thank you Lord for the greatest of all gifts. Have a blessed Easter and may you keep the celebration of your salvation in your hearts, souls and minds throughout everyday of the year.
1John 4-5 And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 105

Spring is definitely on it's way. We have had a couple of days of fabulous warm weather. No coats needed, no icy roads, no freezing wind chills, just the wonderful warmth of the sun on your face and the comfort in the air. Of course, it will all change back to cold but for a breif time we were given this blessing. It is an analogy for hope. The warm weather gives us a glimpse of the better days to come. Jesus and the cross our our hope of better days to come. With Easter approaching, it seems so appropriate to have Easter in the Spring although I am not sure that is accurate to the actual timing of Calvary. In any case, praise God for the hope he gives us and hold onto it during those freezing wind chills and icy roads that life will bring.
Isaiah 40:31 ...but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 80

I purposely do not watch the news on TV because most of it is negative. They do occassionaly have the feel-good stories but it's not their primary news segment. When you are trying to keep positivity in your own life, watching the news just doesn't work. But you have to keep up on current events somewhat and so can't avoid it altogether. I found a website where you could get the news with a Christian perspective called Worthy News. There a some others as well that I will check into and let you know what I think. I want to surround myself with positive stuff so I did a search for websites with Christian stories of hope and found one with lots of poems and stories. I am thankful to God for all those good hopeful stories out there in the world and pray that each of them can find avenues to share their stories and touch those with a bit of hope and encouragement. I found this poem about hope on this website. See the links in the resources section.

It’s magic and it’s free
It’s not in a prescription
It’s not in an IV.

It punctuates out laughter,
It sparkles in our tears,
It simmers under sorrows,
And dissipates our fears.

Do you know what Hope is?
It’s reaching past today,
It’s dreaming of tomorrow,
It’s trying a new way.

It’s pushing past impossible,
It’s pounding on the door,
It’s questioning the Answers,
It’s always seeking more.

It’s rumors of a breakthrough,
It’s whispers of a cure,
A roller coaster ride
Of remedies, unsure.

Do you know what Hope is?
It’s candy for the soul,
It’s perfume for the spirit,
To share it makes you Whole.

Psalm 62:5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 36

My shoulders continue to hurt and I have delved further into researching surgery option and found there may be other options related to a particular kind of calcium. I will probably call my acupunturist today and get in and hope that some of those needles will be able to alleviate the pain at least until with God's help I can figure out what to do. I have been praying about guidance on what to try. I really don't want to have to do the surgery especially after more research and finding that there are way too many that have had negative things to say about the outcome of their surgeries. So I am praising God for this glimmer of hope to avoid the surgery but praying he will give me a definite answer that I clearly know is from him.
Psalm 62:5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone: my hope comes from him.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 35

The bible doesn't promise us an easy life or to not have challenges, difficulties, grief, fears and pain but God does promise to always be there. Today I am praising God for this promise that he will always be with me. Despite the extreme pain both my shoulders were in yesterday, I managed to tearfully make my way through the afternoon at my work desk. Focusing on my work and intermintent prayers when I was waiting for the computer program to do it's thing kept my mind from totally caving into the pain and just sobbing. I did a little research on surgery for shoulder bone spurs and found a lot of people wished they had done it sooner. So, my plans for things are a little up in the air until I go to the doctor on Jan 3rd and talk to him about surgery. It looks like a few days to a week out of work kind of thing and many months of physical therapy. My greatest concern at this point is that both my shoulders are hurting but I don't think that both can be done at the same time and that could create a lot of problems if I can't use my arms for any length of time. I am in God's hands at this point and we shall see where he leads me and this ministry.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 33

Today I am praising God for giving us some visual symbols that remind us of him. The cross is the most obvious one but as I sat in my hot tub last night reflecting on the events of our Christmas day here at home, I found myself just in awe of the stars out shinning and thought of how Jesus is the bright morning star. I wondered where that term came from exactly. In my study of the bible I couldn't recall where it might be written but thanks to the concordance in the back of my bible I was able to look for 'star' and find the scriptural reference. It is from Revelation 22:16 I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star. I thought about this symbol of a star and realized that it was the perfect symbol for hope. Morning star is the name given to the planet Venus when it appears in the east before sunrise. Jesus is this star that brings hope. They say that it is darkest before dawn. Jesus, The Morning Star is like a beam of light coming across the sky going off in the darkest of night and helping lead us to God who is the brillance of the rising sun. The star is our hope in our dark world. I am thankful to God for the gift of Jesus and putting that into a visual of a brillant star that we can hold on to. May our Morning Star bring you hope this day and all the days to come.
Numbers 24:17 I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob, a scepter will rise out of Israel.