God Will Give Us a Full Life...Thursday

7/16/15

 

 

We all know that the thief ...the destroyer...the devil and his minions want nothing more than to steal us away from our relationship with God. I used to wonder why people who were strong in their beliefs and their commitment to serve in God's world sometimes were drawn away. I realized that the answer to this question is the fact that satan does not have to go after the ones he already has in his clutches. He goes after those who are not part of his evil groups. The other thing that happens a lot is that a person serves God and all is well. Then all of a sudden, things start to go wrong. Some people still carry on and continue to serve God in spite of the challenges they keep facing. Job was an example of this. When challenges come others become disheartened and fall away in despair. In this case, the devil seems to have won...at least in the moment. The person can turn it around and come back, or just wallow in his misery, give up, and walk away.

 

I have examples of both kinds of cases. I know a person who recovered from a life that that was being lived outside of boundaries of normal behavior. For almost a decade that person served the Lord and in the process helped many others in need of guidance. Then it seemed as if the person just wandered off course again, and fell down further than life had ever been before life had changed. That person has not yet made it back to the new life that was lived for ten years. This has been going on now for more than eight years.

 

Anther person I know has had many close family members to adversaries because of lies that have been told. Life as this person and spouse as knew it has changed. The hardly get to see their closest and dearest relatives with whom celebrations were shared. This is heartbreaking for them. The enforced barriers seem to leave no hope of a solution at this time. This couple are still serving God and do not let their pain drag them away from Godl

 

The good news is that we have our Father in our corner. Even in the low moments in the deep valley there is hope because God knows what we are going through. If we hang on to faith and take whatever the lessons there for us to learn, we will be much wiser when God helps to be able to rise our of the dark valley.

 

Dear Lord,

You are Jehovah Jireh, the Lord provides. Please help us to remember why you have come and to call on you when adversity strikes. Help us to be aware that we are not alone, and that even when satan rallies all the powers of hell against us, that we are not alone. We must  to call on You even when we do not immediately see a resulting change. You are God and we are in Your holy hands.  Amen

 

Written by

Corinne Mustafa

 

                     

 

 

Refreshing the Saints...Wednesday

7/16/15

Everyone of us from time to time need our hearts to be refreshed. We tend to sometimes overdo our work load and just  need a brother or sister in the Lord to come along and pray for us to be refreshed.

 

 

That is exactly what Philemon did for the Saints. He saw their needs and reached out and ministered to them with a tender and caring heart onto the Saints.

 

 It says in Philemon 1:7 ...
"Your love has given me great joy and encouragement,
because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts

of the Lord's people."

 

All that God has placed within him, he willingly poured out onto them God's love, joy, encouragement  and refreshing waters.

 

Philemon's heart was huge for God's people because he had a solid relationship with the Lord. He was willing to go beyond and above to be that  vessel of the Lord to deeply touch the hearts of his brothers and sisters.

 

Philemon spurs me on to be ready in season and out of season to be fully surrendered to God and filled up with Him, so that I may refresh the hearts of the brothers and sisters in the Lord that are in need of a fresh touch from Jesus. For it is Jesus through us that will overflow us with His joy, love, encouragement and refreshing waters!

 

Refreshed in Jesus, 

Sandy Billingham

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add Paitience to Your Faith...Tuesday



 7/15/15



 

 

Jesus turned and saw her. 

Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.”

And the woman was healed at that moment.

Matthew 9:22

In this verse of scripture Jesus was speaking to the woman who had been suffering from constant bleeding for 12 years. Bu this point she must have become very despondent and discouraged. In addition the ravages of the illness by now must have depleted her strength completely. Still when she heard that Jesus was in the area she took hope. She did not want to bother Jesus. She did not feel the need to explain her needs and problems. We all knew what she did. On her hands and knees she crept

up behind Jesus thinking that all she had to do was touch His hem and He would heal her. Her despondency turned to hope and faith that her long torment would be over. The above scripture tells what Jesus said and did.

The patience comes in when you think about the long wait she had to undergo to regain her health. In the end it was her faith and patience that saved her.

Sometimes when we have a need or issue we go to God with a "Honey Do" list for which we expect rapid answer and changes. After all we have asked Him in prayer, and there are promises in the Bible that we take as meaning that God will hop to it since we did ask Him.

That is not how it works. We are reminded in Isaiah 55:8...

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.

 

Elsewhere we are reminded in 2 Peter 3:8...

                         But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved,
                            that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years,
                                       and a thousand years like one day.

 

Next time you are praying to the Lord for something you have faith he will deliver to you if you ask, be sure to remember that Gods ways and thoughts are not ours and His counting of time is out of sync with our counting of time. We must remember to add patience to our faith; for in the end, in His way and His timing the Lord will provide.

 

Written by

Corinne Mustafa

 

Your Life, Your Choice......Monday

I was still fuming two days later. What kind of speaker was that? I asked myself. His whole premise was short-sighted and judgmental. It didn't take into account any of the circumstances that occur in people's lives that are not of their own choosing.

I repeated my complaint that evening over dinner to my husband. "Did you agree with what that speaker shared last weekend?" I demanded. He hardly paused his eating as he calmly asked me what I was talking about.

The speaker claimed that "You are in your life, right where you have chosen to be." How can he make such a sweeping statement about people he doesn't even know? My indignation was running under full steam and I could have gone on for quite some time. Just as I was taking my next deep breath my eyes met my husband's thoughtful and peaceful ones. I paused as hope leaped into my heart that my husband had an answer that would reassure me.

"We make choices every day." Then he described what he was referring to:some choices are moral decisions like to not cheat or steal. Some choices are practical decisions, such as buying a used car instead of a new car in order to stick to our budget. Then he said, "We live a certain way, because certain things are more important to us than others." 

Peace washed over me as I realized that my husband wasn't discontent with our lives. If he could be happy, then I could be happy too. 

My husband took the speaker's words to mean, that we are as happy as we choose to be. Circumstances, money, fame, popularity, or any other measure of success is only important to who we are if we choose to make it important. 

 

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 ESV

Dear Lord, thank You for giving me a friend who hears and sees things differently than I do. Please help me to be as patient with him as he is with me. Please gives us all ears to hear, and hearts to understand the truth that You are revealing to us each day. Please  make our hearts clean from every sin, wrong thinking, and judgmental attitudes. In Jesus name, amen.

Written by Mary M. Wilkins

This Is The Stuff by Francesca Battistelli

PERFECT CREDIT RATING... Sunday

Devotional for 7/12/15

A good credit score helps us in the financial world.  With a good rating we have less difficulty getting loans with a good rate, taking out a mortgage, or getting a higher limit for a credit card.  A good credit score is considered to be 720 or greater.  After a while if you pay your bills on time, carry a line of credit less than 30% of your income but pay off the balance every month, and never default on a loan, your credit score can be in the 800's, like mine and my husband's.  A perfect score is 850.  The closer people get to that magic number, apparently, the harder they strive for that elusive "perfect credit rating."

Many people "keep score" in their lives like that.  Giving to a charity: check.  Giving 10%, a tithe, to the church: double check.  Giving more than 10% in total donations: priceless!  Or it can be doing good works like volunteering at a local food pantry once a week, which then leads to helping at a homeless shelter several times a week, and then grows to leading a prison ministry.  While these are worthy causes, some people may think that the more they do, the more points they score with God.  This can lead to the trap of impossible perfectionism.

In sports and other games whoever amasses the most points wins.  But what if no one wins unless they get a perfect score?  That's what God expects, a perfect score to get into heaven.  Anyone who wants to work their way into heaven has to get a "perfect credit rating" in God's eyes.  Impossible?  For us, yes, but for God, nothing is impossible.  Only God can earn that perfect score for us.  That is why He sent his only son, Jesus, to earn our salvation through his death and resurrection, the only one who could earn that perfect score on earth.  And God will give us credit when we believe and are faithful through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 4:1-3, 23-25 (NIV) What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter?  If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about - but not before God.  What does Scripture say?  "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."...  The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness - for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.  He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for earning our salvation by being perfect for us and dying on the cross in our place. Help us to realize we are given a perfect credit rating not because of what we do, but because of what you have already done in your death and resurrection.  Help us by the power of your Holy Spirit to believe and be your faithful followers.  In your name we pray, Amen.

written by Jan Andersen  

song: Perfect Sacrifice by Trent

THE FUTURE...Saturday

 7/11

"It gave me great joy to have some brothers come 

and tell about your faithfulness to the truth 

and how you continue to walk in the truth." 

III John 1:3

     Some people look forward to tomorrow so much that they miss the day in which they are living.  They never quite focus on the day and its projects and blessings but look for tomorrow and wish if it were only so.  If only...

   

  Each day we get out of bed we are one day closer to heaven.  Yet we can't be so heavenly minded that we neglect today.  God doesn't want us to dwell so much on the future that we miss the present we live in daily.  God wants us to continue to walk in faithfulness to the truth.  He wants us to do what we must do regardless of the outcome.

     We need to learn to focus on what He wants us to do today and leave tomorrow to Him.  We must continue our walk into the future one step at a time -- guided by God's powerful and loving hands.

Written by

Carol Steficek

Gratefulness...Friday

July 10, 2015

I am just grateful today!  Grateful that God has orchestrated the exact people, places and things in my life just as they were supposed to be, exactly as I needed.  I have not always known that at the time, but, I have always learned and grown out of every struggle or challenge that I have walked through.

Life doesn’t make sense…I don’t think it is suppose to.  I have been hurt, lied to, cheated on, insulted, judged, accused wrongly, used and abused.  During these seasons of trial it can sometimes take me a minute to get through them.  I put up my walls to protect myself from the pain.  The reality is…”Everything Happens for a Reason”.  I many not know what that reason is, but, God sure does and He is always protecting me through it all.  I don’t need to put up my walls anymore; He has put them up for all around me already with His ever-loving arms of grace.  So for that I am waking up every day with at happy and grateful heart and I proclaim that out loud.

 This is the day that the Lord has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it.Psalm 118:24   (ESV)  

Give thanks in all circumstances; 

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV)

 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.Psalm 136:(ESV) 

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James 1:17(ESV)

 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,

Hebrews 12:28 (ESV)

Can you and I not be living a life of gratitude when we meditate on these and so many more scriptures of truth and promised from our Father.  Amen

Written by
Kelly Dobyns