God's Not Dead

I watched the movie God’s Not Dead tonight. The intellectual argument part was good but so not might thing as I just can’t process what someone is saying that has so much profound stuff in it without hearing it again and again or reading it so I can really process the words. In any case, it was a very good movie. I looked outside and saw the sun had just set behind the mountains but some sunshine was still coming through the clouds making a beautiful display so I decided I would take a walk with God. Along this walk God brought it to my attention that we are on a journey like a person walking down a path, we are going to encounter people and situations as we go along each day. God is working in us in each and every one of those people and/or situations that happens in each of our days. He is showering love on us, convicting us of our sins, drawing us to come closer to Him, encouraging us, bringing us wisdom, reminding us about Himself and His love, and so much more. Each day in everything we do God is working in and through us. He may be bringing us wisdom and strengthening of our faith as we read His Word or He may be giving you the encouraging words to say to a friend or motivating you to smile to a stranger who looks like they could use a smile from someone. Each day is filled with God’s work. How much more can we grow as believers if on our journey we take a moment with God to stop and reflect on our day, the people we encountered, the situations we were in, the conversations we had or didn’t have. We should be asking ourselves at the end of each day, what work has God done in me today? and what more can I learn and do tomorrow?

Wash Your Robes

God is so awesome. This morning my husband said he had washed and bleached our white robes which were so in need of washing. They had been on top of the washing machine for the last month or so. So, I look at the memory verse for today on www.bible.com memory verse plan and it is saying blessed are those who wash their robes. I think we often just like we did with our physical robes, put them out to wash but procrastinate or let the things of life distract us from putting our focus on God. We need to be washing our robes daily, even continually as sin will always be making its way onto our robes. Lord, forgive me for my lack of focus on you. Purify my heart and draw me closer to you that I will begin to come to you always for everything. Amen.

Revelation: 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 260

A car doesn’t just go into a car wash on its own. The driver has to acknowledge that the car is dirty and needs to be washed. Like the car, we have to acknowledge we are dirty, we are sinners then we have to make the choice to go to the car wash, go to the Lord or do we keep on driving our car and hope the rain will come and wash it clean or that our good deeds will make up for our sins. When we take our cars to the car wash, we are letting the light of God shine fully upon us which shows us completely. All the dirt, mud, bird poop that has accumulated on our car is exposed. But Jesus will wash all that away. So our car goes through the car wash and comes out clean but not perfect. For us that is done with prayer, study, worship and fellowship. These things are polishing the car, vacuuming the interior and dusting the inside so it can be like new. And like our cars, our souls will need to be taken to Jesus to keep us clean. Are you driving around with a dirty car that now has the words written in the dirt “wash me”? Let the love of God shine upon your soul without fear or shame and be cleansed of your sin so you can fully enjoy the blessing of freedom and fellowship with our Holy God.

1John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another , and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

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 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 Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 114

Through my Bible concordance and the leading of the Holy Spirit, I came to read this scripture David wrote. He wrote this after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan for his sin of adultery with Bathsheba. Rather than excuse his sin or try to cover it up, he bared his soul and asked God for his help and mercy. Though are sins are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, we too must confess them to God and ask him to help us overcome and renew our spirits. The word in this scripture steadfast had me going, “huh?” I found steadfast to mean firmly fixed, unchanging, steady, resolute, established and unwavering. In our world, we are surrounded by sin and evil that can distract us and turn us away from God even if it is just a moment. Steadfastness is something we need to be praying for everyday. David’s Psalm gives the perfect words for this prayer. This is one to put to memory.

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 72

I find it interesting in Job that all his friends are giving him advice but it is misguided advice. The latest friend, Eliphaz tells him to submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Unfortunately, although he got the first part right in turning to God, asking forgiveness and being obedient to him, the second half is not always the case, a prime example being Jesus who was the ultimate in righteous and yet was led to and nailed on a cross. His friend thought Job had sin that he was being punished for. There are definitely consequences to sin but they are not there to punish but rather to direct you back to the Almighty. I was thinking the other day of the analogy of the clay and the potter. We are the clay and God is the potter. He is sitting at his potting wheel pouring water over us which keeps us from drying out and is shaping us into something. When God is not at the potter’s wheel because we have turned away from him, the evil one is going to suck the life out of us leaving us a dark formless lump of clay, nothing.  We must ask God to come back and sit at the potter’s wheel, than the Holy Spirit will be poured into us giving us life and light and God will work again at shaping us to work into his plan. Will we be like a vase that stands there and shows the beauty of the picked flowers? Will we be like a pot that is mixing something up that will be for all? Or will we be like a pitcher made to pour out water? We will discover his plan for us as we journey through our faith. Job’s friend had his assumptions wrong. It is not about sin and being repentant and obedient to God so that we will have prosperity. It is about being in relationship with him. Job is angry at God but he is still talking to him. We too must keep talking to God through our struggles, troubles and tribulations and ask him to pour the water over us.

Job 23:16-17 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me. Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruit Challenge

Today begins a new year's goal of working with the Holy Spirit and being filled with His fruits each day. I am going to focus on one particular fruit for 6-week segments. They always say in trying to change yourself or break a habit or create a new one you need at least 14 days. Well, I always need a lot more than that if I want to make it a new thing that really sticks with me. I am just going in the order based on the scripture from Galations so we will be starting with “LOVE”. There are so many things to talk about when it comes to this subject but I am going to start us off with the topic of what blocks us from truly loving God and others. That would be SIN. I think one of the most challenging things is recognizing our sins for what they are. I found this list of 667 sins in the bible on-line at http://www.scribd.com/doc/14087682/667-Sins-in-the-Holy-Bible  I would suggest you read through these as a way to start that recognition process. It certainly opened my eyes. Remember Sin separates us from God. Though we have been saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, we must work at our relationship with God by asking for His forgiveness everyday and asking Him to help us forgive others. To love we must forgive first.

Let us pray this prayer everyday:  Father of all, because of your love, I am saved. I am sorry for my sins of this past day especially the sin of (name the sin). Please wash over your grace upon me and take away my sins. Make me clean and fresh for the new day before me. Help me to forgive as you have forgiven me. Guide me in taking away this blockage of sin that keeps me from loving you and others as you want me to. For with you all things are possible. Amen and Amen.

(**note** I will post all prayers on the new prayer tab for daily reference)

Jeremiah 5:25 says, "Your sins and iniquities prevent good things from happening to you."

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 359

We watched the movie Brave last night. It is well worth your time to watch especially if you are a mother or a daughter since the plot is about the relationship between the mother-queen and daughter-princess. The thing I love most about this movie is how it shows the conflict within a person when it comes to facing their sins. The princess ultimately faced what she did and asked for forgiveness. This conflict within a person came up in my reading from a Tim LaHaye book called The Spirit-filled Temperaments. He told of a woman who asked him to tell her the truth about what she was doing that was making her ultimately be depressed. He was hesitant about it but she pushed more and so he told her the flat out truth, it is because you are selfish. The sin of selfishness was making her thought patterns turn negatively and so she ends up depressed. This lady obviously was having conflict within herself and finally was brave enough to ask someone who was going to give it to her straight. The main point in both of these stories is that we have a choice but in making that choice we have to be brave. We have to be able to see the truth of ourselves so that we can go on and ask for forgiveness and be cleansed. Facing our sins for what they are is the first hurdle in restoring our relationship to God that was ripped apart in the Garden of Eden. It is like the symbol in the movie of the tapestry that the princess cut in two with a sword. One side was her and the other side was her parents. One side is us and the other side is God.  Jesus came and he can stitch the tapestry back together when we bravely face our sins and ask for forgiveness. Thank you Lord for giving us the motivation and bravery to face our sins each day and ask your forgiveness.

Romans 14:11-12 If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 328

Praise the Lord for a new day, a new beginning, a new everything. What a gift that is to be able to go to bed with the gossip you may have partaken in at work or the yelling you did at your kids or the lack of love you showed and wake up the next day and start fresh. Sins of the day before washed clean. Each day we can say we are sorry and know that we are forgiven. The Holy Spirit will fill us up and guide us in our new day but we have to listen. That is probably the hardest part. I got caught in the trap of talking negatively about someone with co-workers. I saw it coming and fought it internally but what I should have done is got up and walked away from it or even better stand up and say no more negative talk about anyone. I am thankful for the forgiveness given to me thanks to Jesus and I am thankful for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in helping me learn from my mistakes. Have you done something recently that you just knew after doing it that it was wrong? Stop and tell our mighty God you are sorry and pray for his help.

Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 282

I started a new book yesterday by John MacArthur called Twelve Extraordinary Women which is about 12 women in the bible. Can you guess who the first chapter is on? Well, of course, its the mother of all living, Eve. I can't tell you how invaluable this chapter on Eve has been. I have read the story of the fall into sin too many times to count but never thought of some of the things this chapter has explained. I know I have heard it said before about the prophecy of Jesus going back all the way to the beginning but I have not until now really looked at it. The curse on humankind in Gensis 3:14-19 comes in three parts: to the serpent, to Eve and finally to Adam. The part that I am focusing on is about the serpent. We all know that the serpent is Satan but I found out in this chapter that this is actually revealed in the book of Revelation. We all know the serpent is cursed to live on his belly and eat dust all the days of his life. I always thought well yeah but hadn't considered that perhaps before the curse that maybe serpents had legs or in someway were not reduced to slithering in the dirt. The next part of the curse on the serpent is that part that is referred to as Protevangelium which literally means "the first gospel". And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. The word "enmity" was throwing me off. What does that word mean? I think I had an idea of it in my head but couldn't put it into other words so I have looked it up and found several definitions or synonyms: ill-will, hatred, bad blood, animosity and opposition are a few. "Enmity" is changed later in the verse to be as a person saying "he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." The "enmity" is our savior, Jesus Christ. He will crush Satan but not without Satan striking his heel first by his death on the cross. I am a word person and like to put in words that make more sense to me. Those first few just didn't fit my idea of Jesus but the word "opposition" made the most sense. Let's replace "enmity" with "opposition": And I will put opposition between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. That makes the most sense to me in terms enmity being personified as our saviour however, the other words make sense in that animosity and bad blood is between us and Satan. This really shows me how complex the word of the bible is. God had to put a whole lot into one fairly small book so it makes sense that the use of personification and all kinds of literary devices are used. God has meant for us to be studying his Word so we can work out the complexity and see really the simplicity. One last thing in this chapter about Eve really made me feel good. God could have destroyed Adam and Eve right there but in his love, grace and mercy for us he still allowed Eve to have children and still kept her as the companion of man and most importantly he gave her and all of us hope right from the fall that He already had a plan in place to save us. What an amazing God we have!
Genesis 3:21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 271

My daughter had a homework assignment to read a story and than ask us our opinion on who should go to jail. The story in a nutshell was about a man whose wife is sick and in need of medicine. He goes to an apothocary to get medicine but does not have enough money. He asks if he could give him what he has, take the medicine and pay the rest when he gets it but the apothocary says no. He goes home and later goes out and breaks into the apothcary's place and takes the medicine his wife needs. Who should go to jail? Well my son and I said the obvious answer and went with the law. The man stole the medicine that is breaking the law. What the apothocary did wasn't breaking the law it just was an uncompassionate choice. My daughter who was totally into this said well maybe the woman should go to jail for getting sick. NO-NO-NO I told her. You don't go out and ask a virus to make you sick. The woman didn't have any choice in getting sick. So do you see where I am going with this? Some choices aren't against any standard law or against the Ten Commandments and some choices are but no matter what the choices are, there are consequences. Though the apothocary's choice didn't directly break any law it spurred another man to make a choice to break a law. The bible tells us that if there is something that may cause our brothers or sisters to sin than we should not do whatever may cause the other to sin. Each choice we make, each action we take, each word we say can be that "whatever" that may cause another to make the choice to sin. I am thankful for this homework lesson that came home for my daughter that brought up this bible truth. May the words and actions I take today be only loving and kind and not cause another to make the choice of sinning. Amen.

1Corinthians 8:13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 236

100% containted! The Waldo Canyon fire was reported to be 100% containted last evening. So thankful to God for helping the fire fighters get control of this fire. This thought of a fire being contained makes me think of us and our sins. How contained are our sins? I don't even know that we can be fully contained when it comes to sins but I do think it is something we can strive for. Find your area of trouble and focus on containing that sin. Like the firefighters who would focus on the really hot spots.  Do you have a mouth that needs to stop talking and start listening? Do you have no self-control when it comes to food? Do you relish talking about others behind their backs? The questions could go on and on. What is your fire that needs containing? Only the help of the Holy Spirit can help in this containtment on your sins. The Holy Spirit is like a plane full of fire retardant ready to be dumped on the fire but that plane needs to be called into action. Pray for the Holy Spirit to help you contain your fire, conquer your sin. Our fires will continue until the day we die. Keep fighting the fires of sin with the Holy Spirit. Be in the Word and have the Word be in you. Strive for as much containment as possible.

Psalm 119:11
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

 

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 153

It hurts and is humiliating even to write this but I am a sinner just like everyone. While in San Antonio, my mom and sister and I went out to a pub for drinks and dinner. I intended to stick with just the one beer I order especially after getting a headache the day before after having the margarita at Rita's on the Riverwalk. But a table of folks next to us had ordered this drink sampler thingy the pub had. It was probably less than a minute and we were ordering one for our table. I call this the downfall. This is where it went downhill. Having 6 different mixed drinks that were all pretty darn good was just the frosting on the cake. The cherry and whipped cream were added when the table next to us order a round of tequila for us. Oh no! We all went along with it except my sister who has had a very bad experience with tequila enough to make her never want to have it again. I ordered some food thankfully at this point but my mom ordered more tequila for us so we were pretty toasted. At this point a singing drunk man came over to our table and was on his knees singing very loud and obnoxiously. I had eaten most of my pasta dish that I wanted at this point and without really thinking took a bite of pasta and put it in the singing drunks mouth. Once wasn't enough, I did it again and at this point my mom whispered to me that the man was a pan-handler. I stopped and the guys at the table next to us escorted the singing drunk out of the restaurant. It hit me later on at about 4am in the morning when I woke up in bed what I had done. I cried to Jesus for forgiveness for being a drunk fool. I opened up an avenue for sin to come out in myself with drinking too much. I am not a drinker anymore so it doesn't take much. In any case, I spoke to my mom and sister about it and vowed never to drink like that again. My mom told me he wasn't a pan-handler but just some drunk guy in the bar but that still didn't excuse my own sin. Drunkeness leads to foolishness, period. Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.