Keepers

These are a few of the many phrases I've written down. I call them keepers. They come from church, christian friends, bible readings and christian television. Today I share them with you.

• God is responsible for your life so obey Him and let Him be God.
• Wisdom is obedience.
• It's not about sin or works it's about grace and trust.
• His plans are higher than ours so trust Him, wait on Him.
• God is never late for His timing is perfect.
• He has carved you on the palm of his hand.
• He places each tear in a bottle and counts the hairs on you head.
• Our hearts desire is to be loved so step out and be loving.
• We love Him because He first loved us.
• The deepest level of intimacy should be saved for the deepest level of commitment.
• A relationship is not about you it is about what you give to another.
• Let God give you your passion and those who are to be in your life will show up.
• Have no other God's before me.
• Guard your heart and stay far from the path of wickedness.
• Motives are weighted by the Lord.
• Pleasant words are sweet so the soul and healing to the bones.
• Place boundaries on yourself and others to eliminate negative words and wakes.
• Ask God to heal you everywhere you hurt and to lead you safely home to Him.
• With Jesus in your life all things can be made new.
• God never sleeps for He watches over us and all our actives.
• God's power and presence never leaves you.
• God supplies, delivers, protects, heals, provides and bless you through the blood of Christ.
• God with holds not good thing from us. He corrects, leads and talks to us continually.
• Those who seek Him shall be blessed.
• The Lord makes wise the simple and converts the soul.
• The blessings of the Lord are bountiful and He adds no sorrow or trouble to them.
• God has plans for our welfare not our calamity for a future and a hope. No plans of His can be stopped.
• Even if we are faithless, God will remain faithful for He cannot deny Himself.
• Cast your care on Him for He cares for you.
• The fervent prayer of a righteous person brings much
• The Lord watches over those who fear Him.
• Put your total trust in the Lord.

God's blessing be on you and yours always.

Praise Him

Colossians; Psm

"Praise Him, Praise Him....Praise Him in the morning praise Him in the noon time. Praise Him, praise Him... Praise Him when the sun goes down.
Serve Him, serve Him... Serve Him in the morning serve Him in the......." and the song continues.

"Bless the Lord all my soul and all that is within in me praise His holy name. For God is so good... God is so good... God is so good... He's so good to me...." and the song continues.

What has God done?

Provided a home for us in heaven.

Changed our lives and gave us eternal life.

Love for others lives in us through the Holy Spirit.

We are privilege to know God because He lives in us.

We enjoy the inheritance of experiencing God, our creator.

We've been rescued from darkness and placed into the 'Kingdom of Light.'

He has purchased our freedom with His blood and has forgiven all our sins.

His mighty power, the power that raised Christ from the dead, works in us.

Once far away and separated from God by sin, now we're children of God.
Christ's blood cleanses & presents us to God holy, blameless without fault.
Christ reconciled everything to God and brought peace to heaven and earth.


Praise God for who He is...for what He has done...for what He continues to do and will do through all eternity. Let the 'High Praises of God' be on our lips. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.

What are the 'High Praises of God'? Praise begins with 'Thank you Lord' for....... then it escalates in to a worship for who He is regardless of what He has done for us. This worship is called the 'High Praises Of God.'

I can bless the Lord? My praise and worship and appreciation blesses the Lord? Yes, indeed. We not only blesses the Lord but we proclaims to all, even the principalities of the unseen world of darkness, that we belong to Him. I heard a story on Christian TV...... went something like this....
Satan wanted to be God. He took several Angel's with him in this rebelled. As he left, he said, "now who will praise you." God picked up a hand full of dirt and breathed through it the breath of life.
We, made from the earth, are given that privilege.

Try it today. Go ahead, yes, take a moment right now and spend time in praise and worship. The result will surprise you.

Blessed

Eph 1; Phil 4: 4-8

When ever I am discouraged I return to the old standbys. Yes, I get discouraged often too. Sometimes people who know that I write & speak to encourage others think I never get down or discouraged. You would think a person who writes and encourages others would be in the word enough to make it nearly impossible to get down. That's just it, when you encourage, counsel, write or speak, a lot of life is drained from you. It takes time away for reading the word, worship and prayer. All the things that keep each of us in close contact with Christ. You see by how few blogs written to you this month that both time and discouragement choked inspiration from me. Praise be to God. He has lifted me and again inspired me to encourage you to look at these verses with me.

Phil 4: 4-8 once again reminds me to fix my mind on that which is true, honorable and right. To think about things that are pure, lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worth of praise. To keep putting in to practice all I've learned, heard and seen God doing in myself and those around me. Then the peace of God will surround me. It tells me to rejoice in the Lord....Rejoice. Let everyone see that I am considerate in my actions. To remember that the Lord is coming soon. That I need not worry, instead pray about everything, and let God know what I need. To thank Him ahead of time for the answer.

Yes!! Of course I remember these words of encouragement. They have lifted me often. Why? Because I believe Him. Believe...that's faith. He says He is the author and finisher of my faith. Even that come from Him.

Then there is Eph. That first chapter is filled with promises from God to me...to you. He says that Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly reams because we belong to Christ. So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. It continues to tell us of how great these blessing are and how powerful they are in us. Then around verse 16 the writer prays the we will understand this. That we gain wisdom from and grow in this knowledge. Understand What? Understand that God works in us and that the power used to work in us is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. How can we loose? We can't. You see, regardless of how discouraged we become He promises to be there...to encourage...to lift...to restore. How? Mostly through His word. It may take awhile, but reading the word to someone over and over every day will have an effect, even if it looks like they can not see or hear or think. The word of God will heal.

Thank you Lord for such great Blessings. Help me never to forget them.

Motivation

Prov. 16:2b, 24; Prov 10

No one can know the heart. The scriptures say that we do not know what is in our own heart. It warns us to look into our heart and to search out the truth. David asked God in psalms, "search my heart Lord and reveal any wicked way in me." He asked God to convict him of any sin in his life. In the verse above, it says that we all think our ways are innocent and only God knows the motives. We need to get gut level honest with God to enjoy the advantages of being a Christian. He places His life in us which draws us to the truth that sets us free from sin and death. Can we dare to face the realities in our thoughts, actions and words?

It surprised me when I read God's definition of perverse speech...words. Oh, I knew that gossip was perverse for it attacks someones character and remains akin to murder. I knew using the Lords name in vain was perverse and of course swear words fall in that category. But perversion in speech also includes fear, worry and lack of faith for these imply God is incapable of being God. In fact, these words leave such a negative wake behind they steal peace, joy, love and most of the fruits of the spirit from the one who speaks them and those who hear them.

We've been told often to think before we speak and that a person who remains silent in a group appears wiser than all the others. Sometimes we get so nervous when there is silence on the other end of the phone or during dinner or when seated in a social setting that we let our mouths run a muck and say anything that pops into our head. Too many words get us into trouble. We are warned of that often. Since feelings, words, thoughts and actions all come from motivation, maybe, we should ask God to reveal our motivations before we speak.

I went to a christian seminar once and they talked about 'walking in the spirit'. I asked the question about thoughts. Like, when does the action of 'walking in the spirit' actually come into play. The answer was 'in the thought'. Correction from God's Spirit to ours happens in the thought. Thoughts create feelings, feeling create actions. Many times we try to correct our actions. That's a Little late in the game for once a thought is conceived and believed the action takes place. Lust is a good example of this one.

I know, we are taught to ignore feelings and to just do what we should do and I agree to a point. However, those actions come as a result of the feelings created by thoughts. Correction of the thoughts and understanding the motivation behind those thoughts tells us where the heart is and how it needs to be corrected. Feelings go with the flow and they can not be trusted to lead us correctly. But feeling can tell us where our thoughts are and those thoughts, when taken to the Lord, will reveal our true motivations. Are those motivations based in the Lord or in the world?

What is the point? God lives His life through us, (covered in Teach Me, Lord) and understanding the motivations behind feelings, which are based on thoughts, will tell us who is in control. God connects us to the truth and that truth will set us free from perverse thoughts, motivations, words and actions.

Lord today please reveal my motivations that I may be set free through Your loving kindness, grace and forgiveness.

Deception

Psm 119:59; Exd 20:3

Often times we pray for those in areas of poverty or religious suppression because of the terrible mental, spiritual and physical suffering they encounter, especially those of the faith. We are thankful that we live in an affluent society and we should be thankful for the life Christ has given us. In fact thankfulness and forgiveness are basic necessities of a healthy Christian walk. But there are hidden deceptions in an affluent society that cause us to be as suppressed and tortured mentally, spiritually and physically as those we pray for in those depressed areas of the world.

The deceptions I refer to lead us astray. We look beyond God to meet our needs and then we worship any person, place or thing that meets those needs. We make gods out of the the affluent world around us.

I remember a testimony years back from a woman who lived in the USSR. She came to tell us about her life in that suppressed country. She did not labor over the sufferings her family went through. She talked about how much God blessed them and told us of how He supernaturally delivered them often. Then she turned to us and said, "I know you pray for us and our needs. Thank you. We pray for you too because we know your suffering is greater. How you can survive in a world of noise and plenty astounds us. We pray for your protection from the terrible deceptions that surround you, for we see how it steals dependence on our Savior and worship of His majesty." We were all taken back by her statement but the truth soon settled into each of us.

I became aware of the dangers she pointed out at that time in my life but often, today, I find myself in worship of and dependence on the affluent society. The constant drive to fill my spiritual needs of being loved, valued and accepted thought the world around me eliminates God's touch on my life often.

The industrial revolution brought advertisement. The goal of advertisement is to make us unsatisfied with what we have, to tell us that we need more, to stimulate pride, murmuring, a critical spirit, gossip, lust, prejudice, and to dump integrity to get what we think we need. It also steals time, worship and conversation with the only one who can meet those needs, God.

Those who have desperate physical needs, who are suppressed by governments or who are tortured turn to Him daily to survive. We have the same need yet we can not see through the deception. We do not always turn to Him daily to receive what we need or worship Him as God. We open ourselves to a shallow, self-made, prideful, lustful existence. We are a people ripe for deception in a world that tortures the soul. How do we escape? Repent, surrender and worship the only true God, the Lord and Savior of our lives and daily allow Him to meet us in the a quiet interlude, an interlude where He meets every need His way.

Forgiven

John 3:16; Psm119: 105-112

Easter is upon us and we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The celebration of victory over death and new life given to us through His sacrifice. Generations past looked forward to His arrival...the arrival of their Messiah, the one who takes away the sins of the world. His genealogy, His life, His death and His resurrection...all predicted and recorded. He did this to let us know He, the creator of the universe, loves us, wants to save us from death and wants a personal relationship with us now and through all eternity.

My grandchild came to me this week. The christian preschool is talking about Easter. It is a little scrambled in her mind but the essence is there. We were making a craft, as we often do, of a bunny. Make believe is always part of our crafts so after the monkey, the yellow bird and the bunny met, she said this:

"Nana we need to tell the bunny about Jesus."
"What should we tell him"
"That Jesus died for us"
"Why did He die for us?"
"Because of Satan...Nana, he's the bad guy."
"Oh...so should we tell the bunny to ask Jesus into his heart?"
"Nana...He is already in our heart."

So we helped the bunny know about Jesus and how he saved us from the bad guy.
Let me tell you about Jesus and how He has saved you from the bad guy.

The genealogy of Christ includes many questionable personalities. No one in this world is perfect so God used imperfect people. David, one who lied, murdered and committed adultery, Rahab a prostitute and Ruth a foreigner to the faith are just a few of those people (check out the genealogy of Christ.) I bring this up because so many people feel they have to be perfect to come to Christ or remain perfect after they come to Christ. I hear phrases like... 'I'm not good enough or I've made too many mistakes, or no one in our family has ever believed this stuff." None of this matters. The scripture says 'who so ever believes'. That means anyone who hears the story, who's heart softens to His call, who repents and invites Him into their life, He saves from the bad guy.

It's a done deal. If you have had this experience and back-slid from the faith, don't panic. You still belong to Him regardless of where you have been or what you have done. It's called grace. He is a breath away, a prayer away. Just repent and come home.