1) Every day write down 3 good things that happened that day for which you are grateful.
A. Once we got to my daughters house, as mentioned in day 4, one of the simple things that emotional entangles me easily
was repaired. I have a really personal kitty named dragon show to the left. I missed my kitties and more important, I missed any kitty sleeping on me. 10 minutes on the bed, and Audrey, my daughter's oldest kitty, decided I was a good kitty person, and moved right in.
B. I discovered that I could walk with the crutches the same distance I could walk with the walker, 1 week ahead of schedule.
C. I discovered that I could go up the twenty stairs to the bathroom, and did not have to use the commode as a commode, unless no-one else was in the house.
2) Journal about one positive blessing. One of the three, and explain why that good thing is better than the bad things that happened.
The counter point that represents Thursday's evil is that the home nursing company my hospital chose to use to give me injections lied to me at the hospital. One of the reasons we stayed at my daughter's home was because when we asked if I could have a friend, one of our black belts no less, who worked for them, be our nurse. The told us that we defiantly could. This accomplished 2 things. First, I did not have to reintroduce myself and TBI to yet again another health care provider, which is one of the worst self debasing and humiliating things I have to do every time I see one. Second, this nurse has been a rock in my life. Her church treated her like garbage at exactly the same time I was discovering Christ, so as I grew into the light, she began walking in the darkness. The problem is, there is more Godly fruit in this persons life than nearly any Christian I know, and I owed her. So, this would have been a blessing I could have sent her way. I was emotional destroyed by this companies lie, and it was going to get worse, because I had not yet started answering all the freaking questions. The blessing that countered all the Bad for day 6, the source of light that brought shining brightness into my dark world was the simplest one. My daughter's kitty. I was unconditionally adopted, (as unconditional as you can get for a cat) by my daughters kitty. She made me her bed. She trusted me. She changed the light in my world. The littlest things sometime really do matter. 3) Meditate and detach from multi-tasking, by focusing on scripture~ read it, research it, think about how it might impact your life.
I a continuing my exploration of the Holy Spirit and relationship to him, and today's reading from this awesome book, and consequently the bible supporting his research knocked hard at one of my God given gifts, Leadership. Today, I was reminded that I MUST be able to follow if I am going to lead, and it is not just and idea, but a daily reality for the Christian Leader. This is a quote from that book:
The name of the Book is "Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit."
I got this picture the other day in my email inbox. It instructed me to look at the far right side of the photo, notice the people there near the guard rail, looking at the pickup truck. It went on and pointed out that the truck was traveling in the opposite direction from where it stopped, at 70 mph, when it lost control and crashed through the guard rail, jumped the culvert and landed on the ledge facing in the opposite direction. Finally, for this picture, it pointed out that the two passengers in the pickup truck were NOT injured. That would generate some fear in my life, I would think. But, if you know me at all, or you have read anything I have ever written, you already know that God is the reason that they survived. Pretty awesome God. When I started karate, I had never spent more than a few moments feeling fear. Sure, there were things in my life I did not look forward to, like punishment and the like from my childhood years, but fear was never really a part of it. More like duty or acceptance. This is going to suck, but then there is tomorrow, and everything will be all right. I have often looked back at my childhood and young adulthood, the parts that I can remember, (I don't remember much - I have TBI, which has robbed my of most of my long term memory and much of my short term memory - for more about this, click Here.) and I have determined that I always felt safe and loved. Safe because either I absolutely trusted my family to keep me safe, no matter what, or later on, because I rested on my own power and knew that I was safe because I had always made it so. There had never been a problem I could not turn into a positive, generally without thought or plan. Kinda like Midas' magic fingers. I could make me and anyone around me feel alright. So, having personal experience with being able to convert apocalypse into sunny beaches, I swallowed a Big Lie that I have still not been able to shake, even unto today. The lie that I learned within the first few hours of resuming my martial arts training after my injury was, "FEAR is not real. It stand for False Evidence Appearing Real."
Sure, being able to reduce FEAR into the abstract allows you to let it go, so the acronym actually works. Don't confuse "actually works" with actually happens however. Doing so is the equivalent of believing that the sun is actually drawn by a chariot from the East to the West every day by Apollo. Assuming Apollo is riding the chariot around the world every day does explain why the sun rises and sets rather well, it is just not true. A working model, so to speak, but nothing more. I still think about this acronym when fear is washing over me. It is my first thought. It is my life line to sanity. It is one of my largest problems in my faith now, and it has become a god to me. For example, when my insurance company decided that they would no longer honor their side of my disability insurance, and sued my family for some huge amount of money, I was thrown into fear that nearly took my life. Despair mixed with power from somewhere else creates a feeling of hopelessness faster than you can imagine. There was nothing I could do, since THEY were subjecting me to pressure that required money, and lots of it, to defend against. Most people think that justice is guaranteed within the USA, as I did, but that simply is not true. Justice is a commodity that must be purchased, and the insurance company was made of money. I have never found out what their real motive was. I have been told by many attorneys that it was only about money, meaning they knew they could get mine, but I have a hard time accepting the role of the victim, so I still don't know. Anyway, I stood to lose my house, I had already lost my car, and my wife and daughter stood to lose their business. I was afraid. Turn your stomach into a fire, weaken your knees and make you sick all the time type of fear. I had begun to rationalize the fear into one of my steady state conditions, paranoia, by waking up each day, telling myself that it was False Evidence Appearing Real. In other words, I was paranoid, because this could not really happen, and I was really safe. I just thought I was at risk. I knew that I had not done anything wrong and they, meaning the insurance company, knew that. At some point, this situation really had to go away. Yet, for years and years, it only got worse. I lost contact with my wife, daughter, karate, faith and myself. I was physically there, I just was not present. I watched movies and ate. I hated myself and contemplated, even planned a few times, how to end my own life. I talked to my pastors, who only told me to hold on and it would work out. In other words, they told me that it was False Evidence Appearing Real too. Just hang on. Then my mental health councilor told me that it was NOT paranoia, but rather I was afraid of a real risk. Real evidence appearing real. Victory. I was right all along. They really were coming to get me. Not really. My heart sank even further. I had nothing left to hang onto. They were really coming to get me and there really was nothing for me to do. Hope had been banished from the building. Yet, though I did in fact lose both my income and my car forever, I did not lose everything. I had forgotten one very important thing. I forgot that I was NOT alone. God was with me. Zechariah 4:6 (NIV) "So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty."
The evidence was real enough. They were after me. What I had forgotten was that is was not by my own power through which salvation came. I could not defense myself, for the first time I could remember in my life. I was literally standing in the storm, and the water was coming toward my mouth. My only choice was stand and wait for the end to come, which was not far off, or end the pain and duck under the waves. I not only considered ducking under the waves, I actually planed it. I might have actually tried to duck under the waves, but that is a different story. In the end, my wife, daughter and fellow martial artists propped me up long enough for me to see the life boat coming. When the insurance company finally dropped the suit, I was thinking about God, "took you long enough to rescue me." What I missed was that I WAS rescued. God is outside of time. He already knew he was beside me. He already knew how he was going to pull me out. I just did not trust him to do it. I needed it to be on my time, my schedule my way. I even tried to do it myself, by saying over and over to myself, "False Evidence Appearing Real," hoping I could save myself by just accepting that I had made choices that I could now change. I was so busy trying to save myself or lamenting my "fate," I forgot to invite my God into my problem. He already knew what the problem was, and compared the stuff he has to deal, it was puny. I forgot that FEAR was the problem, and I needed to tell my FEAR that my God was bigger than it. God is the solution, for sure. I know that now. Why is it, then, that I am at this very moment terrified of what might happen tomorrow? I would like to say that it is my brain injury, but that would be telling my FEAR that it is false. It is not false. The world is a horrible and broken place, and there are few you can lean on and rely on. I am blessed to be able to rely on my wife and daughter, though I forget that more than I remember it. However, what I did not remember or know until this very day, this very moment, was that God already has already solved it. I just am not paying attention. I FEAR what may happen so much, I forget to worship at the feet of Jesus, and instead worship at the feet of the monetary system that rules our world. I keep letting my solutions run through my mind. I could feel the boat bumping up against me while I stood within the storm, but all I felt was annoyance. I actually, metaphorically speaking, looked at the boat as an unwelcome distraction, batting it away in my mind. So today I bring the solution to YOU and to my life. Instead of bringing my list of woe and pain to the Lord, as a menu of things I need from him, I will instead bring my God to my problems. I am not telling you to stop communicating to God about your problems. Far from it. He already knows for sure, but any solid relationship involves honest and direct communication. We are supposed to lay our problems at his feet. So lay them out. Yet, the power is in the faith, not in the action of telling him the problems. God IS on the job. Bring him into your loop. Bring him INTO the problem. How, you may ask? Open the freaking door. Sometimes, in order to understand how God works his spiritual will in our physical world, actually physical actions help us see it happen. Physically, with your left or right hand, reach up and act out opening a door. Sure, it is going to look strange. People might see you pantomiming, and you without your white face paint, you are going to look strange, but do it anyway. Open the door, and look in. If your fear is anything like mine, you can see, feel, smell, taste and maybe hear it. There it is. The bible, the very word of God, promises us that if you open the door, God will walk in. As you are looking in, you should smile at your fear, because your God is already there. I actually said, "I'm sorry, but you have already lost. FEAR, this is my God", and turned my back and walked away. Revelation 3:20 - "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." When Jesus said this, we has talking about Spiritual Power and Spiritual Salvation. Remember the verse Zechariah 4:6 above, where the Lord told Zerubbabel that the oil would burn endlessly because of God's Spiritual Power? God acted in the physical world with Spiritual Power. We tend to make our God too small, and say, because science tends to deny spiritual power, that God's actions are only in the spiritual part of our existence. We do that, in spite of knowing that Paul and Peter brought people back to life, gave them back their ability to walk and see. We do that because our faith is far smaller than a mustard seed, and we are worshiping our FEAR. Stop it. Open the door. Physically open the door, and introduce your FEAR to your GOD. Then, by faith, turn you back and walk away, because the boat is already there to rescue you and your FEAR prevented you from see it. Back to the email I got that I mentioned at the beginning. You probably would now see that I am pushing the point that God can do anything. That God turned the whole thing around for those two in the truck. But, when I saw this picture, I too saw that, as the email directed me to see. I was wrong. My GOD was far too small. I cropped GOD right out of the picture, so to speak. look now at the real picture, and see how big your GOD really is.
Today I saw my last acceptable Picture of Jesus, with the words, "Like if you think Jesus ______, Share if you ________ Jesus.
Give me a break. Back in the 1500's a monk named Martin Luther nailed 95 points where he felt the church had missed the boat, and slipped back into Pharisitical behavior. (He did not know at the time that the world would come unglued when he did it. When they put him on trial for his life, he refused to back down.) You know, the pharisees; the guys that made rules up so you could follow the rules, instead of the word of God. You know, the people who caused Jesus to say "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?" Matthew 3:7b NIV. Luther's main point was people were being sold indulgences, a piece of paper to get them into heaven. They actually stopped going to church, because they would bring him the paper, and it "proved" they were getting into heaven without accepting Jesus as their savior. They just bought it. Just like God read mail. Just like it really mattered. Just like the rules of man bound God. Just like Facebook making you feel compelled to ______ Jesus, or suffer the wrath of God. Again, I say Give Me A Break.
Many people complain that there is too much God on facebook. That is not what I am writing about. Seriously, if you don't want God to show up on your News Feed page, just tell facebook not to post to your news feed from people who are talking about God. If you want to be extreme, de-friend them. It's not like facebook requires you to read posts. I have either un-liked every page that has sent me one of these guilt trip post more than three times; or if it came from a friend more than 3 times, I went to their page, pushed the friend button, and unchecked the "News Feed" button. That way I am still their friend on FB, but don't have to read this stuff.
Am I saying you should NOT post about Jesus. NO. Post away. I love the Lord and I am a Jesus freak extreme, and if you are a friend of my page, or our Christian Page, Does God Serve You, you will see that I use facebook to spread the word. It is at least as good as standing on a box in a mall, and this way the people who want to know, can hear, and those who do not want to know, do not hear. This is America after all, and we are founded on the principle of individual freedom and religious freedom. That includes, by the way, the freedom not to be bothered, pestered, damned by man or forced to hear the word of God.
Someone else allows you to pick your faith too. His name is Jesus. He died so you could be forgiven you sins, if you chose to be. He allows you to pick too. If he did not, we would all be dead. Viva la Choice.
Christmas Eve we attended the church we went to 20 years ago, oddly, before I was saved. We normally attend this church Christmas Eve because they have the pomp and circumstance we expect for Christmas, including the Candle Light singing of Silent Night at the end of the service. I love that. We miss that tradition, so we attend. The last few years the message has drifted further and further away of the real Jesus, and closer and closer to the "Jesus was a good example of good people," type of Jesus. I don't believe 100% of the Bible is literal, but I do believe that most of it is literal, as far as translation and historical context will allow. I also believe that it is the word of God, not the word of man or religion, so we have issue with Jesus as only a Good example, unless he is also Real and God. So we did not expect much from this service. We were there for the pomp, and the candles and the singing of silent night. It's funny, God seems to know when I am being cynical, and shows up just to let me know I am being a putz. He showed up Christmas Eve, and the pastor taught me something I had never quit thought of before. It is still setting me back and making me think. I have waited a week to write this down, for fear that I imagined it. I didn't, so here goes. In business, most Christians set goals, because as we all know, "you can't get there, unless you know where there is". Imagine, I was once told, where Christoper Columbus would have ended up if he left Spain without a plan. Wait a minute, I always think, he did have a plan. He was going to sail to India, and prove the world was round. He failed on the India part. He found Hispaniola instead. Yet, most people still think goal setting is required. This mystifies me. One of my friends, someone who used to be one of my spiritual role models, and is, in fact, one of my spiritual parent, is a real good example of goal setting gone wrong. He told me he decided he was going to have 500 or 600 hundred karate students. He prayed about it. He decided God agreed, so he set about writing a plan for getting 600 student. He almost made it. See, God helped him reach his goals. I do not see it that way. This, in retrospect, is how it looks to me. He decided what he wanted. His goal. The he spiritualized it, by asking God to help him achieve it. That is kinda like looking in the mirror and scrutinizing what you see, compared to what you want to see, in the light of Christ. When you see the difference, you go about make cosmetic changes, to bring the image of you closer to the image you want to see. That, for sure, is way better than never looking. If you just did what you wanted to do, and never checked your behavior or your motives against the Word or the Spirit (the mirrors in this example), you would be living as most people, and most Christians do. You would be living on your own power. So what he did, by checking his behavior in the mirror, after he had decided what his behavior was going to be, is a level of maturity that most of us do not have the courage to achieve. So I followed him, for I was not even close to being able to do that at the time. It did not work out so well. Goals kept feeling like me holding up my own power and plans to the Lord, and asking him to bless them. You know what I mean, I think. An example would be, Lord, I took this job because it gave me a chance to earn more money. Thank you God for giving me this blessing. Please help me reach my income goals so I can be a better (father, husband, wife, mother, provider.) It seemed like I was asking God to Bless MY plans. So I stopped. I began asking God to tell me what I should do. I don't "hear" God, or "see" God as some people do. I see him in my history and the blessings that occur around me, and in the nudging I get in prayer and from my pastor and fellow Sunday School teachers, my students and their families. Or, sometimes, from the overwhelming conviction that a certain behavior, lesson or action is necessary of me. Then I do it. Mostly, I am nudged by my current spiritual advisers to teach, and stop freaking out about it. I am reminded by actions, words and testimony that my gift is teaching and leading. So that is what I do. Whenever I slip into to goal setting or business, I, and everyone around me, fails. Worse, I get ill, physically and mentally, and am unable to exercise my gift of teaching. So I stop doing that more and more every day and week. (As I have TBI, when I say I get ill, I mean ILL. Vomiting, headaches, GI issues, panic attacks and more.) Then, during one of my spiritual crisis's, Christmas arrived, and we went to the service I mentioned above, for the pomp. The pastor said, freaking me out quit a bit, "most Christians see Jesus' life as a mirror. I encourage you to see it as a window." Don't decide to look at what you already are, and what you are already are doing, and then change it based on what you see in the mirror, when you read the bible or contemplate on the life of Christ. You see, I had finally discovered how to use Jesus as a mirror, and I thought of it in those words. It was like he was talking to me. I really hate when that happens, as it is happening, because it is hard for me to remember that it is the Spirit of the Lord rather than him actually knowing. Paranoia is also part of TBI. I wanted to get up and leave. If I could have, without being noticed I would have. Rather, he suggested, look at the life of Jesus as a Window into the world of Jesus, the only perfect man, and START everything in your life with what you see in through the window, rather than modifying what you are already doing. Don't decide what you want, and then go do it, but rather see what Jesus would do and want, in your situation, and go do that. Have faith, he encouraged us, in the life of the Christ, and model your life, your business and your actions after him. Do as he would do. So, instead of putting a band aid on you actions, that you have decided on, and you have controlled, build the New Man, and rebuild from what you see through the window of the Bible and Jesus' life. Wow. Ouch. Wow. But, I hesitate to write the next part. So What? Honestly, for me, knowing that you need to model your life after Jesus is ground breaking, but nearly useless. Just how do you do that? It is almost to the point of Christian Ease or Slang, which reminds me of a video that one of my friends posted a link to on facebook.com. I show it to you here, for you amusement, but also so you know that I, and perhaps you, are not the only one that hears the words, understands the words, but have no idea how to do it.
So, since this was such a kick in the pants to me, I am going to share with you how I can do this through the window modeling, without turning it into Christian Ease.
I have friends, a spouse and and adult child who are all strong Christians, to whom I go to for advise. My personal board of directors, if you will. This is critical for me, since I have a major brain injury, and I live in a world of self doubt, confusion, loss of impulse control, depression, migraines, illness and paranoia from the dark side of hell. I find it hard to see good in anything I do but find it easy to see the harm and evil in everything I do. And yet, I have just begun to see through the window, and am beginning to model my actions after the Lord.
I found out what my gift was. Jesus was the disciples pastor. He guided them, pushed them, and told them when he had to, what to do and not do. I asked and still ask my pastor, and my "board of directors," what my gifts are. Nearly every day. They have to be sick of telling me, but that is the life of TBI. I am still in shock that I can teach, when before and after teaching and Sunday School, or at karate, I am ill. I immediately seek feedback, so I don't spend too much time under the covers in my bed, hiding from reality. They told me my gifts.
You should ask your family, pastor and friends what your gifts are. They can pray about it, but they probably already see it. I am told, that we are the last to know what are gifts are, because they seem so natural to us. I teach as I breath, without thinking or effort, so I would never have know.
You should be thankful for your Gift to the Lord. In that act of being thankful, you admit that you are aware of what God wants you to do with your life. It is really hard to ignore God's plans for you if you know that he knows that you know. So thank him, with words, in prayer. Every day, or as the Bible suggests, always. Thankfulness is also good, because it prevents ego from getting in the way. It is really easy, once you know you are good at something, Holy Spirit good, to look at others and notice they are NOT good or at least not as good as you. The next most natural reaction is to take credit for it yourself, and rub other peoples faces in it. That is nuts. Be thankful, and your Ego will stay in check. I have done it many times the ME way. When I finally discover how pompous my actions and life has become, it hurts. In my case, it drives me away from everyone, as depression and paranoia take over. Be thankful.
Ask for wisdom in using your gift. Clearly, one of the things you see through the window of the Bible is Solomon asking for wisdom to use the many gifts that God gave him. How well did that work our for him? He lost control of his ego, even though he was the wisest man that would ever live, short of Jesus. He lost control. We have the Holy Spirit, thanks to Jesus' sacrifice, so we have a power he did not have to draw on, but even he asked for wisdom. Model you life after that picture through the window. I ask for it daily. It slows me down, and allows me to see, feel and understand the Spirit actions in my life. I have been told that "feelings" are not good to follow, but recently, I have begun to feel the spirit is my life. It is kinda super cool.
So, live your life by looking through the window God has given us into how we are to live. Model your future life by that picture, rather than changing superficial behaviors or justifying current actions. God already has a plan for you, and it is Up to Him, if it is going to be. You just have to look through the window, and do everything you can to follow the example.
Philippians 3:20-21 - (ESV): "But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself."
Want some really good news?
Your a citizen of Heaven, and the man in charge is God. He and his angel armies will guide you, guard you and eventually you will get your new Body, as a right of being a citizen of Heaven.
Seriously, what problem could possible overcome you and what fear could hold you down, when all you have to do is remember where you are from. So, whatever is bothering you, be brave, and hang in there.
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For information on be certain of your Status with God, overcoming your actions that keep you from God, and allowing you to accept his free gift of eternal life, Click Here.
1 Corinthians 10:13 - (NKJV): "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."
First off, this one verse is really really good news. The first part tells you that you are NOT alone. Nothing you are fighting has not happened to someone else. Not your fault, and you are not alone.
The second part of the sentence tells you that God will NEVER allow you to face a temptation that is beyond your ability to deal with. He will NEVER allow you to face something that you can not hack.
It gets better. The third part tells you that God will give you a way to escape. This is both a promise and a warning. There is a way out for sure, and you can escape, but you have to be aware.
So Chill out, and relax. You are on God's Team, and you have already won. Keep you eyes open when things are bad, and you will be able to jump out of the problem.
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For information on be certain of your Status with God, overcoming your actions that keep you from God, and allowing you to accept his free gift of eternal life, Click Here.
1 John 4:7-8 - (NIV): "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
In the words of Jefferson Airplane's "Don't You Want Somebody To Love", Don't you want somebody to Love? But this song, though awesome as music, is not a good source of happiness. There are not answers here.
In 1 John 4 we are being told that we should love one another, as if loving on another is difficult and not a day to day occurrence.
Think back to the last time you were angry at someone.
Got that picture in your mind.
Good.
That is what John is talking about. It shouldn't be there, and the Love that should be there comes from only one place. It comes from God. So if you lost your cool, as we all do, it means we lost our love, and we need to be in contact with God more often.
So, if you have already been saved, and can say you were born of God, (if you do not know if you are, click the link at the bottom of this message) then you have walked away some how. Fortunately, in the same verse, we are told the solution. All love comes from God.
Want some, walk back to God, or run back, or just stop for a second and hear and see the Love of God. See the bottom for some easy ways to walk back toward God.
Now, if you don't feel as though you have enough love in your life, the answer is just as easy. You need more God in your life.
How to do that is just as easy. Here are some clues from the bible.
1) Go to Church.
2) Hang out with others who are born of God,
3) Talk about the stuff in your life that bothers you with fellow Christians.
4) Read the bible daily. (If you run out of time, then you can always just subscribe to this daily verse of inspiration, and use it as a daily devotional.)
5) Smile. God Loves you.
6) Finally, never forget, Smile, God Loves You.
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For information on be certain of your Status with God, overcoming your actions that keep you from God, and allowing you to accept his free gift of eternal life, Click Here.
There is never any question that we all have deserts in our lives. Everyone has difficulty, loss and dreams of another way it could or should have been.
But have you noticed that some people don't even mention the difficulty in their lives while other swim in it?
Have you ever noticed that the ones who never mention it have awesome attitudes about their lives?
The hardest questions is, are you or do you know any of those who have the awesome attitudes? Most of them have the hardest and most impossible difficulties in their lives, some of them still do.
I would like to tell you that it is all attitude, and all you have to do is change your attitude, but it is way easier to do than that.
First, remember that you are a child of God and that you can always have a direct line to the power of God. Then remember that you have THE blessing; that you have been saved from your sin, an you will live forever.
Now ... count your blessings. Start with you have the ability to read this. You are educated, and you either have access to a computer, or someone you know does. You have an interest of a passion for God and his son, or you would not be reading this. You have eaten.
You fill in the rest. Don't Stop until you run dry. I suggest you write them down.
Now count them.
Now look at the bad stuff that has or is happening in your life. It will never look so bad again. The Desert looks like a beach when you are holding on to God's hand.
Done. Welcome to the vacation. God Rocks!
Psalm 30:11-12 - (NIV1984); "You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever."
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For information on be certain of your Status with God, overcoming your actions that keep you from God, and allowing you to accept his free gift of eternal life, Click Here.
NIV (1984) - 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."
When you first read this, it sounds awesome. It is awesome, but maybe not in the way it seems when you first read it.
If you go back and read the context from which 29:11 is taken, you will see that God is talking about the country Israel, after having been taken into slavery in Babylon. He is telling them to be patient and persevere. He is telling them to hang on and that he knows their names. He is telling them he has awesome plans for them, and they are all good.
What a bummer. He's not talking to you about your life.
Or is he?
First, if you are a Christian, you are one of his children; an adopted child for sure, but you are one of his children. (It is good to be adopted, by the way, because biblically you have to be treated better than natural children in biblical tradition.)
More, he is telling you by extension you, that he knows YOUR name too. He is telling all of us that we need to hold on, for he has plans for each of his children, and they are all good.
So really, if you want to own this blessing, all you have to ask yourself is, are you his child? If you are, hold on, he is coming.
If you are not, click the link below to find out how to become one of his children.
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For information on be certain of your Status with God, overcoming your actions that keep you from God, and allowing you to accept his free gift of eternal life, Click Here.
A.W. Tozer starts and ends with the premise that much of modern Christian behavior is centered on the individual Christian's needs rather than on Christ himself. In one place in The Pursuit of God he says, "Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice." Wow. I feel like that a lot. I was surprised to see it in print, but he had me from that moment to end of the book. Unlike most books I have read about how to live the life of a Christian, he does not throw around Christian Ease, buttressed with personal stories illustrating how it applied in his life. Rather, he supports his suggestions with scripture and scholarship. This is a book that tells you how to pursue God, and when you are done, you will understand the bible better than you did we you began. The Key Character in this book is God. Most books about God these days are about YOU, rather than God. If you want to know how God is going to help you, this book is not going to tell you that, beyond the gift of Grace that leads us to salvation. As he puts it, "Essentially salvation is the restoration of a right relation between man and his Creator, a bringing back to normal of the Creator-creature relation."
What will you learn? You will learn what it means to posses Jesus. As Tozer puts it, "I desire that I may feel no sense of possessing anything outside of Thee."
He spends many pages on the dis-assembly of modern evangelical fundamentalism, pointing out its trend toward legalism and away from the freedom that Jesus life, death and Resurrection bought us. Tozer feels that we are once again losing our way, and becoming the Pharisees that Jesus taught against.
This book reads as a scholarly text of our era combined with the letters of the apostle Paul and the early fathers of the Church. It also gives the feel of a New Orleans Baptist Church, where you feel challenged by the authors obvious faith and spirit and yet compelled to ask more questions, so you too can share in the fruit that he so obviously has. You also feel a little out of your element.
Have you already made up your mind about what Jesus wants you to do with your life? If you have, then you will not like this book, as it challenged most of my closely held ideas on doctrine and attitude. Do you feel comfortable living in an environment where the expectations, behaviors and attitudes are well laid out in advance? If you do, this book will rock your world, because this book is about live a spirit lead life without limits or rules. A.W. Tozer was a turn of the 20th century Christian author and pastor who lived a non-materialist life of sacrifice and study, as well as attempting to lead the world to the Jesus of the first century with missionary zeal. This book is true to that life.
I have to be honest. I find easy Christianity to be, well too easy. Do this, don't do that. Easy and boring. The sinners prayer strikes me as an incantation to invoke Saving Grace from God, as if we could compel him. This book explained to me, for the first time, why I feel that way and what to do about it.
Read this book if you want to know Jesus better, but leave your doctrine and your previous plans on the back burner, because this is going to change everything.
'Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”'
Jesus was in the middle of a discussion of who could and who could not get into heaven. He had just given an example of a rich man having a very hard time getting into heaven.
When they all heard him teach this saying, they began to panic, and asked him, basically, if a rich person can not make it into heaven, it is impossible for us. How can anyone get into heaven; what can we do to get into heaven.
Then we hear the most astounding thing I have ever learned about Jesus and God. He says that we can do nothing, for it is impossible for man. This is a hard saying even now, because it means your behavior is not going to get you close to God. It means your money is not going to get close to God. It means you can do NOTHING to get close to God.
Jesus then says, for God, anything is possible.
You have to surrender your life to God, and he will rescue you. Only he can, and Jesus says to us here, that he will.
It easy to apply this same saying to your daily life as well. Over and over Jesus tells us that if we dedicate our lives to God, he will make it turn out alright. He promises us. This is another such promise. All things are possible to God.
God really does care about your life.
Here and now and forever.
All the Glory goes to God, and if it does, he is right there beside you. Always.
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For information on be certain of your Status with God, overcoming your actions that keep you from God, and allowing you to accept his free gift of eternal life, Click Here.
"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong."
Do you believe in Satan?
Do you believe that he has the ability to put stumbling blocks in your way?
I never did. My education is in physics, and I have spent my academic life and the remainder of my life since then, solving problems. The basis of all that is observation. If you can measure it, you can duplicate it, and it is real. If you can not, you either lack knowledge, or it is not real.
One thing it never is, nor can it be, is outside of rational thought, or supernatural.
Yet, if you are a Christian, as I am, you already acknowledge the supernatural. Nothing ordinary or explainable in Jesus' life, your salvation or Grace. For no reason, other than love, you sins have been forgiven.
So if you believe in God, Jesus and Grace, then you believe in Satan. Since you are God's now, he can't attack you directly, but he can and does throw things into your way, to break your spirit, your will and your faith.
This verse wants you to be aware that the attack is coming.
This verse says it will not be easy to stand in the storms in your life, but do it anyway.
This verse tells you to live lives of courage.
Why does he tell you this? Because sometime God does not stop the storm. He lets it pass, and instead he calms you. This verse is the calming spirit of God, reaching out to you to tell you that you ARE strong enough to stand. So Stand. Be Strong. Have Courage. God has made you strong enough to do it.
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For information on be certain of your Status with God, overcoming your actions that keep you from God, and allowing you to accept his free gift of eternal life, Click Here.
Galatians 2:20 - (NIV1984) "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Sometimes I wonder how Peter could deny Jesus at all, much less three times. I often ask myself how much easier faith would be if we lived in the time of Jesus, and saw him and his signs and wonders.
If Peter only knew how much He was loved by Jesus, he never would have betrayed him, I say to myself.
It's not true though. We have much more the Peter had, even though he had the living Jesus. We have the entire story, and we know exactly how much Jesus loved us. We know he died for us and we know of his Resurrection. We know it all because we have the bible and 2000 years of witness. Peter had none of that.
We know without any doubt that our sins have been washed clean, removed, and all the guilt that goes with knowing your are a sinner is also gone. Clean. Live with God Forever. We know that.
Yet, there is even more good news. We have been crucified with Christ. The Price has been paid forever and for all sin in us. With the Crucifixion comes the Resurrection, if it is with Christ. We get the Resurrection too. Just to make sure we get it, we are told that Jesus LIVES IN US ... wow.
How would you behave if You know how much Jesus Loved You?
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For information on be certain of your Status with God, overcoming your actions that keep you from God, and allowing you to accept his free gift of eternal life, Click Here.
Deuteronomy 31:6 - (NIV1984) "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Imagine for a moment, that you are again a child, and you are confronted by 3 bigger kids, all of them mean, calling you names. How does it feel? Focus on the humiliation, the loss of personal power and respect. Now the take a few steps closer to you. How does that feel?
Now imagine someone 5 times your sized walks up behind you, and takes your side. What does that do to the people tormenting you? What does that do to your feelings of power and self respect?
Courage would be simple, if there was always someone so much larger than you, you could not explain it, standing right behind you.
Well, that is exactly what Deuteronomy 31:6 is promising you. God what's you to know, so you can be courageous and unafraid, that he is standing right behind, and he will never leave you.
Take that feeling of safety, strength and courage into you day today, just as God wants you to do every day.
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For information on be certain of your Status with God, overcoming your actions that keep you from God, and allowing you to accept his free gift of eternal life, Click Here.
Book Review: The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
