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9/7/14 Hello, and welcome to my kingdom. Some people would describe this kingdom as a wishful thinking place. I like that picture!
I wish I didn't need to confront my loved one about that thing they said or did.
I wish I didn't need to look at my finances with eyes wide open so that I can plan instead of just making do.
I wish I didn't need to look at my own attitudes and behaviors.
I wish that everyone understood each other without words so that I would never need to stand up for myself! Well, not really, I am over that one. But it's a tough place to be when you are there.
I do show up for work, doctor appointments, the dentist, parties, and dinner at a restaurant. What I don't always show up for is the hard conversations and relationship work that is required to keep my connections healthy and real.
You might have noticed that all of my procrastination issues seem to be about avoiding conflict. I saw that too. I wish I could just pray and God would make everything better. As in, He would make all of these issues disappear without my having to do anything!
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:7 KJV
Dear Lord, thank You for loving me and drawing me up out of my weakness. As I choose to do a hard thing, I will trust that no matter the outcome, that You are still with me. In Jesus name, amen.
Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.
The first Sunday after Labor Day was set aside in 1978 in the U.S. to honor
grandparents. A woman named Marian McQuade is sometimes credited with being the founder. She made it her mission to educate youth about the important historical contributions made by seniors and encouraged them to "adopt" someone as a grandparent for life. It is celebrated in other countries on other days during the year. It is not, as some believe, the greeting card industry's attempt to sell more cards! The actual U.S. statute states the purpose is "...to honor grandparents, to give grandparents an opportunity to show love for their children's children, and to help children become aware of strength, information, and guidance older people can offer".
The Bible puts it this way: Children’s children are a crown to the aged,and parents are the pride of their children. Proverbs 17:6 (NIV) God delights in us honoring our elders and those who are in authority over us. But grandparents hold a special place of honor.
Some people have had difficulties with family members - estranged relationships, absent parents, even abuse by grandparents. In those cases we ask God to help with forgiveness and healing where able. Others have lost their grandparents. And some are losing them slowly as we speak. Here is a beautiful piece about an aging grandparent, perhaps in a nursing home, called the Beatitudes for Friends of the Aged:
May we always remember to honor our grandparents either directly, by visiting, helping, and supporting them while they are here, or indirectly by living a life of Godly values. May God help us in this task, forgive us when we fail, and help us to grow in our capacity to honor them and all those in our lives who are elderly.
"And we, who with
unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory,
are being transformed into his
likeness..."
II Corinthians 3:18a
Receiving
the love of God into your heart and being born again of the Holy Spirit means
change. Receiving from God always means change. Once we receive we
cannot remain the same.
We
see this in the way we now long to be closer to God. So we look forward
to worshipping the Lord in church with fellow believers. We value the
time we study the Bible and learn what God has to say to us. We pray
without ceasing and know God listens to us. We serve other in our
community with our time and
money. We share our talents in our
congregations to promote the growth of the church and bring other into
fellowship with us.
If
we truly remain in Him we will change. If you're still the same as you
were a year ago or five years ago, then you need to evaluate your life in
Christ. Life in Christ is a life-long process of transformation.
The Spirit brings transformation not stagnation. In Him you will not
remain the same.
I am so happy today to remember that I have victory….No
matter what is happening is my life I always have Jesus and He is my
victory! Thank you my wonderful God!
But thanks be to God!
He gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:57
(NIV)
The life that I have lived has had failures and sins, given
me a broken heart, doubts and pain, these among other things have effected who
I am, but it will not define me, I have many times been overwhelmed, felt lost
and hopeless, however, I will not allow myself to be overcome by this pain. I have Jesus deep in my heart and with Him in
my life the negativity of the enemy will not cripple me. I have put on the armor of God.
The Armor of God
Finally, be strong in the Lord
and in his mighty power.
Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take
your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the
powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the
day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have
done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled
around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with
your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In
addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can
extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
And pray in the Spirit on all
occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert
and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Ephesians 6:10-18
(NIV)
What a comfort and glorious victory this is to have in my
life. I have freedom from God to live a
life full of love….to be the loving person that God made me to be. I will not allow the hurts of this broken
world to rule over me. There will always
be a battle, because that is what the enemy does, but he does not stand a chance
with me standing in the light of such a
powerful grace and mercy being the Jesus lover that I am!
"For the Lord your God is the
one who goes with you
to fight for you against your enemies to give you
victory.”
and for thy truth;
for thou has magnified thy word
above all they name.”
The Greek word for
loving kindness is checed, which means “goodness, kindness and
faithfulness”. David had a revelation of God’s character and nature that caused
him to have confidence in God’s convenant promises.
What I find
interesting is that I couldn’t find the use of the word checed in the
New Testament, but there are scriptures that refer to God’s kindness in the New
Testament. Here are several examples.
Ephesians 2:5-7
Even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us
together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
And hath raised [us]
up together, and made [us] sit
together in heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus:
That in the ages to come he might shew
the exceeding riches of his grace in
[his] kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus.
Titus 3:4-7
But after that the kindness and love of God
our Saviour toward man appeared,
Not by works of righteousness which we have
done,
but according to his mercy he saved us,
by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Saviour;
That being justified by his grace, we should be made
heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Romans 2:2-4
But we are sure that the judgment of God
is
according to truth against them which commit such things.
And thinkest thou
this, O man, that judgest them
which do such things, and doest the same,
that
thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
Or despisest thou the riches of his
goodness
and forbearance and long suffering; not knowing
that the goodness of
God leadeth thee to repentance?
The words kindness and
goodness used in Ephesians 2:7, Titus 3:4 and Romans 2:4 is the Greek word chrestotes.
In Vines Dictionary (Strong #5544) it is defined as not merely goodness in
quality but rather it is goodness in action, goodness expressed in deeds; yet
not expressing itself in indignation against sin, for its contrasted with
severity by grace and tenderness and compassion.
In Romans 11:22,
What this says to me
is that God, in his goodness, is looking for opportunities to express his kindness,
tenderness and compassion towards us in action and deed. We don’t have to beg
and plead, or get a thousand people bombarding heaven to get God to move. He
wants to.
God
used a seer named Hanani to rebuke Asa, the king of Judah, for not trusting in
the Lord’s plan. At the end of Hanani’s message, he made a statement in verse
nine about God’s faithfulness.
In 2 Chronicles 6,It says,
“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro
throughout the whole earth, to shew himself
strong in the behalf of [them]
whose heart [is] perfect
toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly:
therefore
from henceforth thou shalt have wars.”
The word perfect is
the Hebrew word shalem, which means complete, safe, peaceful, whole,
full, at peace, unharmed. Shalem is derived from the root word shalam
which means to be in a covenant of peace, to be complete, be sound. In this
context, I believe it means the heart of the individual which is at peace
because of their trust in God’s covenant provision and promises. God is looking
for people who trust him to keep his word to show himself strong of their
behalf.
In the New Testament,
Paul expressed to the Ephesians, in chapter 1, that his desire and prayer for
them was that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him.
In Ephesians verses 19 and 20, Paul says,
“And [so that you can
know and understand]
what is the immeasurable and unlimited and
surpassing
greatness of His power in and for us
who believe, as demonstrated in the
working
of His mighty strength, Which He exerted in Christ
when He raised Him
from the dead and seated Him
at His [own] right hand in the heavenly [places].”
(Amplified Bible)
Look at the power that
God has made available to us and in us when we believe! He makes the same power
used to raise Jesus from the dead available. It is available and released when
we believe. If you are having trouble believing how much God loves you, pray
that prayer for yourself, for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him.
I believe a foundational
key to seeing and releasing this power in our lives is understanding how much
God loves us and wants to demonstrate that love to and through us.
Ephesians
2:4,5 says,
“But God - so rich is
He in His mercy!
Because of and in order to satisfy the great
and wonderful and
intense love with which He loved us,
Even when were dead (slain) by [our own]
shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship
and in
union with Christ; [He gave us the very life
of Christ Himself, for] it is by grace
(His favor and mercy which you did not deserve)
that you are saved (delivered
from judgement
and made partakers of Christ’s salvation).”
(Amplified Bible)
God’s love for us is
so great! When we understand how much he loves us and the extent he went to in
order to demonstrate his love, giving his own Son to remove the issue of sin,
it makes believing him a lot easier, regardless of the situations in our lives.
Romans 8:32 says,
“He who did not
withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not
also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things?” (Amplified
Bible)
David knew God’s covenant promises and expected him to be faithful. We have a better covenant.
What challenges are you facing in your life today?
2 Corinthians 1:20 says,
“For all the promises of God in him [are] yea,
and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”
Find God’s New
Covenant promise for that situation you are facing, sow it into your heart and
as David worshiped God in his lovingkindness, worship him in his chrestotes
because he loves you and wants to demonstrate his goodness in your life
today. Expect it to come to pass.
There is no denying that we are living in desperate times. As we look all around the world, many of the situations look quite hopeless. There is trajedy and despair at every level. I am sure millions are downtrodden and feel as though they have no place to turn.
The beauty in all of this is that each of us do have someone we can turn to. God's Word tells us in Psalm 62:5
"Yes, My soul, find rest in God, my Hope comes from Him."
To me that scripture is like an "oasis scripture." We can fully find rest in God and be completely assured that He will gives us Hope in that time of need. That is a promise for everyone of us that turn our hearts onto Him.
During horrendous times we can still come away with Jesus. We can rest our weary head in his bosom and experience beautiful rest and profound Hope in Jesus.
Look into the eyes of Jesus and find Hope and Rest in Him today!
Most everyone enjoys going to the movies, even
though the cost of seeing a movie at a theater is getting to be very expensive.
There is something about watching a newly released movie on the big screen,
especially ones filled with action. It seems as though many people are drawn to
movies that have a hero in them like Spiderman,
Non-Stop, or White House Down.
Even children’s movies contain a hero like The
Lego Man or Kristoff in Frozen.
Have you ever wondered why people are drawn to
heroes? Perhaps they are in need of a hero, in need of being saved from
something? Maybe they have a desire to be that hero for one reason or another?
It’s exciting to think that as Christians we serve
the biggest hero of all, Jesus Christ, our
Lord and Savior. Even better, Jesus
is not a made-up character that can only be seen by watching a movie. He is
REAL! There is no super hero that can compare to Him.
Kari Jobe sings a song called Forever that contain lyrics revealing Jesus’ mighty power.
“The ground began to
shake
The stone was rolled away
His perfect love could not be overcome
Now death where is your sting
Our resurrected King has rendered you defeated”
Our Hero did not just simply defeat the enemy,
He overcame death itself! He does not go away when the movie is turned off. He
is Real and He is ALIVE! We can call on Him at any time.
Matthew
28:20b says, “And behold, I am with you always, to the
end of the age.”
Luke 11:9 reads,
“And I tell you, ask,
and it will be given to you; seek,
and you will find; knock, and it will be
opened to you.”
If we are in need of a
hero, there is none like Jesus. If we want to be a hero, we can help lead
others to Christ. Just remember to give Him all the glory because He is the one
who saves, not us. We can, however, point the way to Salvation.
I see so many people
revealing their hero by wearing t-shirts containing the Superman logo,
necklaces with the Hunger Games pendant, Spider Man masks, wigs that look like
Elsa from the movie Frozen, etc. They talk about these characters as if they
were real.
A few questions we
should ask ourselves? Do people know who our real hero is? What are we doing to
show our dedication and admiration to the King of all kings? Do we share our
hero with others? Jesus deserves to be lifted up. Let’s lift up a Hero among
heroes!
I do show up for work, doctor appointments, the dentist, parties, and dinner at a restaurant. What I don't always show up for is the hard conversations and relationship work that is required to keep my connections healthy and real.
