365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 150

I think there is a misconception that when you choose Jesus and become a Christian you are saved and that is it; nothing else needed. Yes, we are saved and that doesn’t change but God calls us to grow in our relationship with him through Jesus. I have grown more in these last two years of being in the Bible everyday than in all my years before that combined. We have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit within us but must enable the power of Holy Spirit by fostering our relationship and knowledge of Jesus. This is when you will start to see the power of the Holy Spirit changing you from the inside out. All those bad habits and negative things that we learned can be weeded out of our soul. We can also pluck the sins we will commit everyday from our hearts with God’s grace and draw on the Holy Spirit to sin no more. It is all a process that will keep going until you go home to be face to face with our Lord. Be in the Word, pray, meditate and take action for God everyday and this growth will bring wonderful blessings.

2Peter 1:3-8 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness; knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 345

I had the blessing of being able to attend and help with a workshop hosted at my church for Special Needs families called There’s a Person in There. I was very humbled by the appreciation for my being there from some of the parents. They were very thankful that someone without a special needs child was there simply because of compassion. I feel for what these parents are going through. There was one thing that has really stood out to me that I heard during the workshop. Some parents on a video clip were saying they realized that having a special needs child was not a bad vs. good thing but rather it was an easy vs difficult thing. Despite not having a special needs child, I was able to participate in the discussion simply because most everything these special needs parents go through can be applied to the typical child parents. We talked about what we do to show our kids they are loved, disciplining our children and teaching our children about God. Things that most parents are striving to do with their children. I think that there are things like fears or misconceptions that keep other people from embracing these families with special needs children. These kids are amazing and uniquely made by God just as all of us are. We just have to accept them for who they are and not be afraid of the unknown. These parents need our support and love. Do you want to do something for the kingdom of God? Get to know a family with a special needs child, give them encouragement, a listening ear, babysit their child so they can get some time-off from their difficult task of parenting.  It will end up being a great blessing to them but to you as well.  Check out this website for  volunteer opportunities in the COS area. http://www.sksfcolorado.org/ or search Google for opportunities in your area. Talk to your church leaders and let them know we have to reach out to these parents for if one part of the body of Christ is hurting, we are all hurting.

1 Corinthians 12: 25-26 …that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.