365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 9

The core part of who we should be is love. Without love, the rest of the fruits the spirit gives us are nothing. I learned this way back before I met my husband. I reached the bottom and my life was a mess so I sought some counseling. Now counseling when you are working 3 jobs just to survive is a one shot kind of thing. Thankfully, the counselor I saw understood my predicament and how much I wanted to figure out what my problem was. She suggested a book and even gave the copy to me. It was a good jumping off point and my creative side to me took over. I capitalized on an idea in the book and made it my own way. I wrote “I am statements” about myself and than wrote each one on a single sheet of paper and took each paper/statement and on a wall placed them where I felt they were in terms of importance. The center or core is the most important and moving outward less and less important. My problem was a negative statement right in my core. I am a sex object. How that ended up in my core is a long story but to speed up the point of my story, I began a course of positive affirmations to help me move that negative out of my core and off my wall completely. At this time, I also hooked up with a little Episcopal church. Through prayer and words heard at church, I realized my core needed to be what God saw me as. So, I came up with my new core that I would at some point believe. I am unique. I am special. I am Human. I didn’t connect all three to God until later but in the end the core part of me is knowing I am loved by God. Our sermon yesterday was the beginning of a series on Isaiah 9:6 and specifically about the name “Wonderful Counselor”. Our pastor reiterated my belief today that the main thing we need to take from our Wonderful Counselor is that we are loved and accepted.  If you are not feeling this in your core, than get yourself in the Word and pray that God will help you to truly believe in how much he loves you.

1Corinthians 13:1-3 If I speak in the tongues of mean and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I posses to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 319

My church has over the last couple of years had on display artwork from artists in the church. They create pieces that have to do with an upcoming sermon series and often are shown on the big screen during the sermon as a visual. After seeing a piece of jewelry that someone had made on display this last go around, I realized that I should look into this so I can submit a faithbook page. So, I went to the recent meeting for all artists with our new pastor to go over his thoughts and expectations and we went over a little bit about the upcoming series which will be called Faces on the scripture Isaiah 9:6. The sermons will specifically be about the names in the scripture: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.  These are the faces of God but because we are made in God’s image and have the Holy Spirit dwelling within, we can be a humble glimpse of these faces of God, we reflect in little ways these faces of God in our own faces. A counselor is someone who listens and shares truth and wisdom. We get this all the time from our spouses, parents, friends and co-workers. The friend who listens patiently to you all the time when you need to express the challenge you are facing or the co-worker who empathizes with you as you vent your frustrations or your spouse who will hold you as you cry out your hurts. We see our Mighty God in the faces of people standing up for their faith, in people loving in big ways and in the creative people in the world who can express how great is our God. We can see a glimpse of our Everlasting Father in the dad that has sacrificed his career to take care of his daughter, the mother who in her exhaustion still shows her love to her children, the friend who is always there when you need them. And finally our Prince of Peace can be seen in the face of a family member suffering from cancer with a smile on their face, the friend who lives cheerfully with chronic pain and the neighbor who brings you fresh baked cookies just because. These faces of God are all around us but do we see them in our daily busy lives as the faces of God? Start living each day looking into these faces and recognize that God is with us and working through us all each day. Thanks be to God for showing us who He is, in and through those that are all around us.

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.