365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 82

Last night we attended our Ash Wednesday church service. Admittedly, it has been the first Ash Wednesday service that I have attended since I was a Catholic kid. We sat up close which is not our norm and found it to be a different experience. In the closeness, we were able to truly see the tears in the eyes of the pastor speaking and the emotions on her face. It made the words that she was saying so much more. God makes us into more than just the dust, dirt and clay that we are. At the end of the sermon, the pastor went to a potter’s wheel and began to make a clay bowl as the rest of us came up to have the ashes marked on our foreheads as a sign of humility to Christ and to remind us that we are made new. God’s love for us is beyond our understanding it is so great but I know that his love is within me and I am to become that pitcher, vase, bowl or whatever he is making me into that will do something with that love that will glorify him and build his Kingdom.

1 John 4:9-12 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 48

I am finding that the fruits of the spirit are very much interconnected at least when it comes to joy. Joy is definitely connected to peace and love. And I am betting it probably associates with the other fruits as well.  The fruits of the Spirit can be like a fruit salad rather than individual fruits. The truth is when the Holy Spirit is within us, we do have all of the fruits and the more we call on the Spirit to ripen this fruit within us, the more we are growing and our fruits are getting peeled and cut and are turning into a delicious fruit salad. This is much like the analogy of the potter and the clay; God molding us into a beautiful pot. Everything is a process. We grow and change and get closer and closer to being what God intended for us, to be more like Jesus. This goal of becoming more like Jesus will give God so much joy. When we truly love God, we will have that motivation to do and be all that He wants us to be and we will be making Him joyful. Relationships are a give and take kind of thing. How well am I doing at truly loving God?

3John 1:4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 28

Today I am praising God for something that may not seem so significant and important to others but to me it's made an impact. I found an ice pack at Walmart made of clay a few days ago that has a strap so it can be strapped to my shoulder. The clay makes it much more moldable and it also has an even cold through out and lasts longer. So, this isn't really a big thing but this little thing has made my life more bearable the last few days and kept the swelling down in my shoulder. It's a good lesson to see that anything we do or say can be of great significance to others. The impact we make on others by just loving and caring about them and maybe dropping a seed or two about Jesus can make all the difference if this person finally deciding to make the "choice" to beleive in Christ. We may never know the impact a word or action we take can have on someone or someones like the person who came up with this clay ice pack but he did it and it made a difference. So I am praying that today and all the days to come I can be more aware of my actions and words and that what I say or do can make all the difference to someone's hopeful eternal life.
2Cor 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.