Sin/consequences

While I was reading yesterday I came across this in my study bible. I thought I would share.

 In the  Bible, David sinned many times. But he was quick to confess his sins. He never took God's forgiveness lightly or his blessings for granted. He experienced the joy of forgiveness even when he had to suffer the consequences of his sins. 

We tend to get these two reversed. We would rather avoid the consequences than experience forgiveness. Even though David sinned greatly, he did not sin repeatedly. He learned from his mistakes because he accepted the suffering they brought. We don't seem to learn form our mistakes or the consequences that result from those mistakes.

This morning's readings gave me insight into waiting. And reading the Word. And just being quiet and knowing God. Being comfortable in His presence is it.
Yesterday I attended a burial service of a great man. A wonderful christian with a beautiful family. A true legacy. In the midst of it I realized how small my trials are. How insignificant. To me they are a lot. But this family had been through hell. And they rejoiced, praised God, and ministered to others in the midst of their battle. How awesome is that. I am on the way up. I am seeing more every day.

Psalm 32:8, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." (NIV)

Jeremiah 29:11, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" (NIV)

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior" (Isaiah 43 v.2-3a, NIV).

appearance

1 Samuel 16-17
As I'm reading this morning, I notice where Samuel (the prophet) goes to anoint David as king. Samuel has been mourning over Saul (the reigning king) for his disobedience to God. I love this: The Lord said to Samuel, "You have mourned long enough..."
Samuel did as he was told and went to find David. When he got there Jesse (David's father) had 3 other sons. When Samuel saw Eliab, the first, he thought surely this was the one. (Saul was an impressive looking man) Judging by his appearance, Eliab was impressive looking too. But, the Lord says: "Don't judge a man's face or height,...I don't make decisions the way you do! Men judge by outward appearance, but I look at a man's thoughts and intentions."(ch 16 verse 7)
Fortunately, God judges by character. Only God can see the inside. We spend hours maintaining our outward appearance. ( I spend hours maintaining appearances for people for my living.) We should do even more to develop our inner character. Everyone can see your face, only you and God know what your heart really looks like. Which is the more attractive?
This really spoke to me today because of the offenses I have faced recently. I have struggled with that. And have prayed God would show me more about this. And today I got it. I know God knows whats in my heart. Even when people get offended by me when I'm not aware. As Bro. Bo says "People who get offended choose to". I have no evil intentions in my heart. God knows that and I know that. Whether the rest of the world knows it does not matter. God is my only judge. I have to remember that.

P: Patience, persistance, perception, perspective...

Trying to come up with a title for this post...Anyway, I'm in the midst of my fasting.  And while fasting and really drawing in closer to God, the devil will throw more stuff at you to shake you up.  I led the Women's meeting for our church Friday night. I prayed and studied for two weeks trying to come up with a lesson. To no avail. I had a couple of devotions I printed off to read. We never got to them. I prayed God would just lead me by His Holy Spirit and He did. We sat and fellowshipped (is that a word?). And each woman got to give a little of the "lesson". I enjoyed it. It was different than our usual meetings, but good at the same time.
I'm still trying to get "through" my mully-grub. Hate that my situation is bothering me, while I look at what others are going through and my stuff is so trivial. Yet at the same time I am still waiting for God to move. I know He will. I have faith. I believe. In the midst of the battle is where I am. And you know we win, everytime, with God on our side. 
While I'm waiting I'm learning about perspective. And Perception. My perspective on things is not always the same as someone else's. And the way I perceive something is most always not perceived the way someone else sees it. I find that even though I don't intend something to be taken wrong, sometimes it is. Even without me knowing it.
I'm learning that the closer I get to God, the harder the devil tries to take your focus off God. He tries to get you to focus on your problems instead. So, I stand firm and keep my eyes on God and not my problem. I get weary, weepy, and emotional. But, I keep turning to God. I keep turning it over to Him. I keep going back to Him. Trying (really hard) to give it to Him. And trying (really hard) not to pick it back up. 
So, I'm gonna praise Him everyday, all day. I 'm gonna continue to wait. Be persistent. And patient.

He has a hundred different messages to give you during a hundred different dungeon experiences. He knows just the right message at just the right time, and all it takes to receive it is a sensitive, obedient, trusting heart. A heart that says, "Lord God, help me now. Right at this moment. Deliver me from my own prison. Help me to see beyond the darkness, to see Your hand. As I am being crushed, remold me. Help me to see You in this abandonment, this rejection." Pray that prayer. Turn your trial into trust as you look to God to tenderly use that affliction, that dungeon, that abandonment for His purpose.

May He give you the grace to endure.
From Day by Day by Charles Swindoll

a good one.

 Free from Your Critics!
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
God loves you so much that Jesus Christ hung in agony and blood for you.
You are precious to God. You are the object of God’s love. The blood of Jesus Christ was poured out on Calvary for you. Friend, if you know all that, then you can stand up against any criticism. It won’t bother you what others say about you. The cross sets you free. He who died for you now lives in you. He gave Himself for you that He might give Himself to you. When Jesus Christ died for you, He didn’t just take away your sins, He took away your self. You are crucified. So who can harm a dead man?
Have you felt the sting of criticism this week? Remove the stinger and bathe the wound with the balm of Jesus’ love. Give your critic to the Lord. Then ask God to teach you from what happened.

This was so good to me this morning I had to share. Hope someone else appreciates it as well.

Suffering, Building endurance.

The old saying “when it rains it pours” seems to be true sometimes when it comes to the trials we face in life. There are occasions when we seem to be in one trial and get hit with another. That feeling or reality, as the case may be, is not far from what James actually tells us. He lovingly says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials” (Jas. 1:2).
we have to understand that joy and happiness are two different things. James is not saying be happy in or about your trials. There are some circumstances where it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to be happy.
God gives us emotions for a reason. Of course, we must control our emotions and not let them get the best of us.

heartache is just that: heartache. We can’t always be happy about our circumstances. What James is getting at is joy. Christian joy is the certain knowledge that God is in control and nothing has happened to us that He did not allow for a good purpose in our life; that He loves us more than we could ever imagine; and that we can trust Him to do what is best and right no matter what. We get peace in knowing these things. That’s joy. That helps. But how can we really count our tough times joy? James says we can do that because we know “that the testing of our faith produces endurance.” Part of the reason God allows trials to come into our lives is to test our faith. The second half of that is to produce endurance in us. He tests our faith not so that He will know whether or not we are trusting Him (He knows already), but so that we will know how much or how little we are trusting Him. He tests us for our benefit. In the trial, we really learn where our focus is; we really learn where our hope is; we really learn where our peace, joy, and satisfaction is. If we find our trust is in Him and not ourselves or something else, we get real happiness from that. If we find our trust is in something other than Him, we turn our hearts to Him and find peace in so doing. The test helps us see.
Then, the benefit of being tested is what it ultimately produces in us: endurance. This word in the Greek is also compound and means to bear up under the load. God tests us with trials along the way to produce in us a greater and greater ability to bear up under the load of suffering. That’s important because suffering is simply a part of this life. At the same time, the Bible says that believers must enter the kingdom through much tribulation (Acts 14:22) and that suffering is part of what it means to be a Christian; we participate in the sufferings of Christ (2 Cor. 1:5). But the good news is those sufferings will give way to great reward when we see Christ face to face (2 Cor. 4:17).
We need endurance to make it all the way to the end of life without laying down and dying from depression and without walking away from the Lord Jesus Himself.

Paul says we work for a medal (crown) that’s imperishable (1 Cor. 9:25).We’re told in Hebrews to run the race with endurance. How? By looking unto Jesus, our great reward (Heb. 12:1-2). That’s why James says “Let endurance have its perfect work in you that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (v. 4).

----I really enjoyed this devotion and thought I would share it. I did not write it. I copied & pasted it here. It is on my Bible Study Tools website. Great website.  The devotion was written by Paul Dean. I'm in the midst of praying and fasting. I am studying God's Word. Looking for verses and answers for my trials. God Bless you all.

Random devotional

I'm studying and reading and praying for a message for my "women's meeting". I'm waiting for breakthroughs in areas of my life. I'm looking for guidance to teach my Jr. High youth group. I'm being a wife, mother, friend, housekeeper, and business owner (barber)...What else?
But through it all, I am learning. And while I'm pouring my heart into my study this morning, one of my devotionals touched me and i wanted to share.

Remember Paul and Silas who shouted praise songs through the halls of a dark prison? Your situation depends mostly upon your personal attitude. Perspective is everything. So what has you staring blindly, trapped and immobile? What are you afraid will happen if things change? Pray that God will give you a new perspective to see your problem through his eyes.

Once again, I see "through His eyes". Praying for "eyes to see". And praising - no matter what the situation at hand looks like...dark grungy prison or financial strain or what ever.  And "perspective": do you see the mountain you're staring at as "a mountain or a mole hill"? Do you perceive things getting better? Or worse?


I have so many topics and ideas to blog about. I hope I can keep up. I hope they will touch someone else's life the way they are intended. Not for my glory but for God. He gives me the ideas. I am just the vessel. I give Him the credit and glory.

So keep checking in. I have several more blogs to come. No set days, times, etc. Just random. If I get more organized or by some miracle have more time, I will try to make it certain days or time. 

Tata for now. 
By His Grace. 

Post # 2

Ok. So, as I wind down and get ready to end this day, I'm feeling wonderful. Today was a good day.

Church was great. Pastor out of town. Fill-in was great. Worship was great. Some songs I wasn't familiar with, but all in all worship was great! God showed up.  I have to post some of the scriptures used in the sermon. There were some that really hit me.
The main message was about faith. Having faith to fight the good fight. To overcome trials & tribulations. Perseverance to go THROUGH the trials & tribulations. Magnify God not your problems.
In Mark 11:23. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.  Jesus says "if anyone says to this mountain..."   The mountain is the problem. So, speak to the mountain. Say to your problem "Go, throw yourself in the sea." See the problem as God sees it, not through human eyes. Have faith that God has done His part.  Ask that your eyes be opened.
In Colossians 2
⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. ⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 10

⁴ The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
All this is saying to me to be rooted in Christ Jesus, built up by faith in Him and captivate my thoughts so they don't make my problems bigger than Him. I am a human. My trials tend to take forefront of my thought life.

 Lastly 1 Peter 5:6-10
 ⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
 ⁸ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
 ¹⁰ And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
So if we will:

• humble ourselves
• cast our anxiety on Him
• be self controlled
• resist the devil

Then, He will restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
And we know there are others going through the same kind of sufferings. And after we have gone through our suffering, we may be able to help someone else out who has to go through a situation like ours.

Well, ok so I got a little lengthy this evening. But this is what was on my mind today. There's so much more. But, it'll have to wait. This is why I chose to do a blog. So, maybe I can help someone else going through something. This allows me to get so much more out than fb status updates or "notes". Then, if you want to keep up, or not it's your prerogative.

Getting started

So, I decided to create a blog. :/ What's a blog, anyway?  We'll see how this works. And see if anyone is interested in my random thoughts. I think facebook gets a little boring sometimes. Mostly I'll probably be posting lots of devotional type stuff, since that is what I mostly read. And if I like this blogging thing (and if I feel like it) I'll probably make one for the shop. This is my trial run.

So, it's soon to be the time of year for me to fast. At my church (Cathedral of Praise) we do a 40 day fast before Easter every year. This year I think my main fast is gonna be from Facebook. And I hope I don't make blogspot more important. The main reason for fasting from facebook is because I find it eats up my bible study time. I'll stay on facebook reading posts until I notice it's time to go get ready for work. Then I haven't spent the time I intended with God. I will fast from a meal during that 40 days too. I haven't decided yet exactly which meal and how many yet. I've been doing this fast for about 4 years now. It is really a spiritual thing. I find that when it starts getting time to fast, that devil starts pulling the rug out from under you. All kinds of craziness starts happening. And during the fasting days....wow, you have to really push through. It gets hard. Once again, that devil will hurl things at you that you would never expect. But, in the long run, at the end, it is/was so well worth it. You will see major breakthroughs in areas. You will get closer to God. You will have faced the devil head on and beat him.

Well, for now I'm gonna go. I'll be praying and fasting. I'll be thinking of what I want to blog about. Hope this is a good thing.