Our walk with God 8~27~13

     I am so blessed!  I just thought I would put that out there....I am also a bit forgetful at times, anybody else?  This past Saturday, a dear woman, with whom I am cultivating a friendship, was visiting at my house, and we were working very diligently canning peaches!  What a blessing she is, and was to me that day!  We had fun! And we accomplished a fair amount in the process!  And I say I am forgetful, because I had a perfect opportunity for some wonderful action shots with my camera and I was so engrossed in what we were doing, I forgot!

Now we must travel on to our current study, our should I say our never ending study, of what we are trying to learn about our Heavenly Father....Thank you Daddy, for always being there, and always taking care of us...you are the beyond the best!

Last time we finished up on Proverbs 11:25, and today we will start off with Isaiah 40: 31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

They that wait upon the Lord, just think about this portion...can you wait upon the Lord?  I look at the children of today, and everything is instantaneous, I really do not like this word!  We have become a society that is IMPATIENT, and this is not good.  Young women, some young women, want their husbands now!  They are so impatient, they are incapable of waiting for the very best that God has to offer to them!  How sad is that!  And in all honesty, I have to admit that I was one of those women, and boy oh boy did I make mistakes!  But God in His infinite wisdom allowed me to come into His presence and wait upon Him in the end to receive the wonderful husband that He had for me!

But they that wait upon the Lord, We need to get back to waiting upon the Lord!

And the Lord shall renew their strength, I want that!  This morning when I awoke, well actually I woke during the night, and I was awake enough to realize that the Lord woke me, and I asked Him, who do you want me to pray for, and a person came to mind, and so I prayed for that person, I think it was about 3:00 AM, and this is something I am trying to train myself, of course with God's help to do, but when I awoke again at 4:30, I was awake! And ready to do whatever the Lord has for me to do this day!  The Lord renewed my strength!  This is a PROMISE, and I fully intend to claim it in full!  I will run and not be tired!  And I will do as He directs me to do!  Oh thank you Daddy!  You know God is just so amazing; if we would just take a moment or two or three each and every day to realize this!  We do not have to be an "instant people." We can be patient, but it will take a little time and a lot of patience, as we retrain the people we are around and the people in our families and our associates as we become more patient!

Isaiah 41:10  King James Version (KJV)

10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Isaiah 43:2  King James Version (KJV)

2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

Our Pastor told us that there are 365 times in the Bible that it says "Fear not" one for every day of the year.  

Do you understand that these are promises from Me?  Don't waste your time on fear!

I so love it when God takes over my fingers...He wants us to know that fear is no good...don't waste time on it!  There is so much more out there to spend time on!  Both of these verses point us in this direction. Don't be afraid, God is with us always, always, do you understand this word.  Always doesn't mean sometimes, always is always!  Every minute, every second, always!  God is with us in the good times and thru the fires, and He will protect us and encourage us, if we will just allow Him (and invite Him) to do this!  Yes God said, "and invite," we have to invite God into our lives and into our hearts, so that He can be, such an integral part of us.  Then these promises can all be a part of our lives.

We aren't finished yet.  Their are six more verse to go thru...and we will continue on...But as this day proceeds, try to be patient and walk with God,  God wants only the very best for us, can you be patient enough to wait upon the Lord?

Our walk with God....8/23/13...continued

Good Morning or Good Evening, how about Good Day!

This day we will start with Psalm 34:15  
The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. Not only does my God hear your prayers, but He sees you as well!  Or else this verse would not be in the Bible! When we accept the great gift of eternal life from God, God see you, once you become one of His, He hears you…so no matter what is going on in your life, you can rest assured that not only does God hear all, which I think most people know, but He also sees all, now, how awesome is this!

Psalm 37:25 I have been young and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. David said this, he was getting a bit older as he wrote this Psalm, and he was having a chat with God, first of all I really want you to remember that the Psalms are written mostly by King David, and some of them are like letters to God and some of them are lyrics to the songs that David wrote to God…can you even imagine having this kind of relationship with God. I want this kind of relationship, don’t you? We can have this! Any good relationship has some vital components; one is frequent communication, and another is complete honesty. David talked to God a lot! I spend a fair amount of my day speaking to God…Before I even get out of bed in the morning, as the day proceeds, most times you might not be able to tell, because I am thinking with God, since is everywhere and in everything, He is in my head, He can hear my thoughts, and your thoughts…so be careful what thought you think! God knows all and He will take care of the righteous and their children!

Psalm 119:165 Great peace have they which love the law: and nothing shall offend them. Yes we have great peace, does this mean that our buttons don’t get pushed, and the answer is, a resounding NO, unfortunately, I still have buttons, and I am guessing you do to! But I do have a peace about me that is another promise we have from God, and in that peace we also have grace to deal with the button pushing experiences of life as we live it and learn to not have our buttons pushed…just let stuff roll of your back, don’t let it stick! And enjoy, yes I said enjoy the peace that God gives to us, His children. God wants us to be UNOFFENDABLE, and since God says it, it is possible!

Proverbs 11: 25 The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Do you understand what this is saying? Okay think about a potted plant. I have a few in the house. And when you have plants in the house you have to care for them….you have to water them, because God doesn’t usually rain in the house…so what God is saying here is that you water and care for some and I (God) will see that you are cared for as well. Sowing and Reaping as Pastor Don said….How awesome is this!

So isn't God amazing...I took this shot last evening and I wasn't even thinking about my blog...but here it is...Thank you Daddy!

And on this note I am going to get on with the rest of my day...there is sewing to do for a friend of mine...and there is peach jam to can and church to visit!  So how about if you go and find someone to water....

Our walk with God ..... 8/22/13.... continued

Our Walk with God 8/22/13

Our Personal Relationship with God and Gods promises to us…. (Continues)

Yesterday we stopped at Deuteronomy 30: 9 and today we will begin with:

Psalm 27: 4-5 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me upon a rock.

Okay let’s remember that David more than likely wrote this Psalm. Do you remember David? He is the King that was to follow Saul…and something occurred with their relationship after they had been to battle….when they arrived back at home the people where chanting, ”Saul has killed his thousands and David, his ten thousands!” This made Saul jealous, and we all know what jealousy can do to a person. So think of this verse as coming from a man who is running for his life…and as he is running he knows that God will protect him. Now David’s walk wasn’t always squeaky clean, there were times that David did things that God was sorely disappointed with David, but God, knew David’s heart and what David’s future held. David realizes that the: one thing I have desired of the Lord was his personal relationship with God. David desired the closeness of that kind of relationship, and he says to himself, “that will I seek after!” Have you ever been sitting quietly, perhaps in your secret place, and suddenly you had a light bulb come on, or as I like to call it, “had an epiphany?” I love that word, it says so much…back to David…David suddenly realizes that where he wants to be is in his Father’s presence David knows that when he’s with God, trouble can’t find him because God will hide him and protect him.

Just like in the present time, You don’t have to be living in the time of King Saul and David to have me to protect you, I will protect you now, in 2013 and 2014, no matter the time I am here, let me be your hiding place in time of trouble. Wow, that was God was God you all. I love it when He does that! As Pastor Don would say, “Yay God!” When I sit down to write my blogs in the wee hours of the mornings, I am up at 4:30 AM (Yes 4:30 comes twice a day) I make my husband his lunch and a cup of coffee for myself and I am on to the computer to see what God wants me to say today! And sometimes I am privileged to have Him speak thru my fingers to the keyboard to you all, what can I say but “Yay God!” Back to matters at hand! God wants us to know that He is here for us, He has promised us this! And God doesn’t break His promises! David sought after God just like we can seek after God! And you know what is really amazing about all of this? God has wanted the same things from His people since forever! I was going to put since the beginning of time, but God has been around since before that, God has always been!

Well let’s move on to the next verse: Psalm 30:5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning. God is telling us here that we may have a trial or two or three, but there will be JOY that follows these trials. And sometimes, not sometimes, but most of the time, we need these trials to make us better people for God! I don’t want to see my children sad! I want to see them joyful! There was a time in my life, and you can ask my now grown children to verify this, when I was coming out of a not great relationship with the narcissist, and I was sad all the time, and I was crying almost all the time! I had given my gift of Joy, that I had received from God, to this man, and therefore I had no Joy, until I realized this and had to go to my secret place and talk to God and ask Him for another fill up, if you would, of the Joy that I had once had. And when I began walking more closely to God and talking more with Him, I was restored to Him. And yes just like this Psalm says I believe that God was angry at me for just a moment in time, but after the weeping, joy came in the morning, Thank you Daddy!

Our Walk with God 8/21/13

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Our Personal Relationship with God.... 

Okay the other day we talked about Elkanah and Hannah and Peninnah. 

Our relationship with God NEEDS to be personal...what kind of relationship can we have if it is not personal. 

The promises that God has made to us are awesome. All the promises of God are "Yes and Amen!" Not Maybe...  

When we were in church this past Sunday, our pastor took us thru a whole lot of promises that our God has made to us.  

There will be some parts of what I am writing that will sound just like Pastor Don Wolabaugh, and that's because they are quotes from him... 

So where ever you see italicized text that will be straight from Pastor's sermon.  

So the other day we spoke of 1 Samuel.  

The next promise is 2 Corinthians 1:20 and this verse tells us that all the promises of God are yes and Amen and direct from the bible: For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. 

The next verse is Exodus 23:25 And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. You know all the promises of God are so awesome, but lets take this apart a little bit, and then we will read it all together again.  

The very first part of this verse...And ye shall serve the LORD your God, oh this is so important, and I want you to really understand what it says...next we have...and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; God wants to bless us! He wants to bless our bread and He wants to bless our water...we will always have plenty when God is blessing us!  

The last part of this verse says: and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. You know that sickness is straight from the devil. Now I know this is true and I do struggle with this one. Even though I know it's true. Why do

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I struggle with this...well I will tell you, a few weeks back I caught a little bug, now this is really the first time I have been even a little sick, in a few years. And I just figured this out. I got sick because I am walking closer to God (and so is the rest of this house hold!) and the evil one doesn't like it! So he says I think I'll throw this at her and see what happens. Well it did affect me, but I am not sure that the devil would agree that it was what he wanted. This was the week of our VBS (Vacation Bible School) and I was planning on going and kind of floating and helping were ever...so the ladies weren't really expecting me in a solid position. Well Monday and Tuesday I went to bed at 6:30 in the evening and slept until 4:30 in the morning...I coughed and had a runny nose all that week and we decided that God was just making sure that I got some rest that I needed. So that is what I did! BUT I am going to work to attain this promise in full.  If I am doing what God wants me to do I will be able to claim ALL His promises.  Now read the whole verse again... And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.  

Let's move on... Our next verse is Deuteronomy 30:9 And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers: When Pastor Don was speaking about this verse, he went into detail about the fact that  when Temp agencies call Harvest Chapel asking if there is anyone looking for work to please send them to them because, and I think this is so neat,  the people that Pastor sends to the temp agency are good employees.   They have a good work ethic.  If they are working in a factory and everybody else is producing 10 in a given time the people that are sent from our church are producing 12, and it is not because of our own strength and ability, it is because we rely on the strength and ability of God.  

Well I really hate to do this, but I have to stop for a bit...so I will be back to you soon with more promises from God. 

Our Walk with God 8/19/13

        Well, how was your weekend? As is usual for our household it went way to fast! However on Sunday we went to early church and we were treated to some exemplary teaching by our Pastor Don Wolabaugh. And I thought what I would do, is to share this. Pastor spoke of having a personal relationship with our Lord, something that I am afraid to many people do not have. And how sad is this? I can’t imagine not spending time with God, frequently over the day. Do you?

The first verses we will look at are 1 Samuel Chapter 1: 1-18... 1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:
2 And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
3 And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were there.
4 And when the time was that Elkanah offered , he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions:
5 But unto Hannah he gave a worthy (Hannah received a portion, that would have been larger than half) portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb.
6 And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret , because the LORD had shut up her womb. [Hannah’s adversary is represented here by Peninnah, I get an image of the devil sitting on one of Hannah’s shoulders (really Peninnah) and God, represented as Elkanah, showing Hannah how much he loves and cares for her…God uses such wonderful imagery to make His storys plain to us, and what women, who is wanting a child couldn’t understand this? ]
7 And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept , and did not eat .
8 Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved ? am not I better to thee than ten sons?
9 So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk . Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD.
10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore .
11 And she vowed a vow, and said , O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.
12 And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth.
13 Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved , but her voice was not heard : therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.
14 And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee.
15 And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.
16 Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.
17 Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.
18 And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.

Do you see?
How our God takes such a personal interest in our happiness?
He wants a “Personal” relationship with us. So let’s have at it!

Thank you Father for all your amazing Blessings that we already can call our own…and for the Blessing we are yet to receive, You are so good to us Father and we Thank you and Love you for everything that we have as well as for those things that You may be with holding from us for a season, You know when the timing is correct far better than do we. Father we ask that you would walk with us this day, and always keep us in your sight, just as a parent always keeps their child within their sight…we love you Lord, in Jesus precious name..and all God’s people said Amen and Amen!

Our Walk with God.....

Pray: Lord, you know what is on my plate for today…please give me the grace to accomplish all these things to your honor and glory. Also Lord please give me the words to speak and guide my fingers on this keyboard that I may be able to pass along the information that you want me to pass along. For my church family, oh Father, sometimes you just completely blow me away with the loving family that you have blessed me with, what amazing brothers and sisters I have. Help me to be a contributing member of your family, help me to do the things that you want me to do and to help to expand on our family; so that more might hear your word and know that You are truth, the way, and the life! Psalm 37:5-7 (KJV)

5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. 6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. 7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

Say: Okay, have you all read this…..Okay, now have you read this…if you have read any of the before and after verses in this chapter, you will see that David is speaking to his personal relationship with God. And isn’t that exactly what each and every one of us wants? In this personal relationship that David has with God, David is speaking to the way that we should behave in our relationship with the Lord. The chapter starts out: Fret not thyself because of…..and then we are given a list of wrong doing people! Don’t fret, don’t get excited about, and don’t worry! Do you know, how many people waist so much of their lives worrying? Ugh! Not me! Some time back in one of my blogs I mentioned about “Mind over matter” something my earthly father taught me…which I have changed, with God’s help, to God over mind! Let God rule your mind!

Mean: Okay, let’s look at the first few words of our verse. “Commit thy way unto the Lord.” This doesn’t say commit some of your ways, it implies to commit everything…no holding back! And in the very beginning of the chapter, “Fret not.” If you commit all to our Father, you will have NO reason to fret! No reason to worry! God is there all the time and He will protect you from everything, as you are walking with Him. Now that doesn’t mean no trials…so please don’t think that I am saying clear sailing, I am not, but the way that you choose (Remember God gave us free will.) to handle things says a lot about your relationship and your walk with the Lord. Do you remember the bumper sticker that used to be popular?

“Be careful how you live your life.

You may be the only Bible some people ever read!”

I really think that was a great bumper sticker, and one that I would like to convey to more people. Isn’t God awesome? Sometimes I just feel the Daddy’s presence so strongly!

Apply: So how do we apply this scripture to our lives? Hmm! Well, I talk to God; He is the most important man in my life. And when there are problems or difficulties, I talk to Him about them and let Him handle them. Some times I may be a little impatient, But God, will always do what is best and if I need to do something He will provide the words for me to speak, or the actions for me to do, all I have to do is ask Him.

So spend some time seeking our Father, you may be amazed at the outcome!

What will be revealed to us today?

Pray:  oh my Father, How are you this morning?  I slept fairly well last night...and I sure pray that everyone else in this household did as well....you know God I really would like some extra special jot of wisdom....I have a few little things to handle and I would really appreciate it if you would take the wheel on them.  I am not going to spell them out here on this page, but you know my thoughts, so you know the issues at hand.    But right now Father if you would guide my thoughts and fingers, and please jump right in and speak thru me, should you so desire, as we explore these few verses from your Holy Word.  Please give to those of reading your words this day an extra measure of understanding that we might be able to expound on these words with others that we might come into contact on this very day.  Thank you Father and I love you Lord, Amen and Amen.

Romans 6: 3-10

3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin ; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.       

 Okay just a little rabbit trail.  Do you know how hard the evil one just tried to throw a monkey wrench into this blog…so what we have here must be some pretty powerful words… So first of all thank you Daddy for helping us to prevail!  I was on my Ipad and that wasn’t allowing me to continue, I think because of the way I had copy and pasted the Bible verse…but any way we had a bit of a bollix! So here we are again, back on track!  And again thank you Father!

So…..what does this verse say to us….it says everything, everything that is, in the beginning, of a new Christian’s life all that is necessary to begin our walk with Christ.  Now mind you not all the instructions are here but this is the beginning!

When we ask Christ to come into our lives, into our hearts, we are to die to ourselves.  (Just as I died on the cross for each and every one of you.)  We are to give up our worldly and fleshly desires and take up the desires that Christ and the Holy Spirit put onto our hearts and hence our minds.  Do you see how amazingly simple the path to eternal life actually is?  But remember, there will definitely be difficulties ahead.  The evil one doesn’t like to loses, so he will make trouble.  Just go to the Father, and He will help you.  You can also go to other Christians or your pastor. 

What do these verses mean to us?  Well I can’t speak to what they say to you, but to me they say, that even though I am so unworthy of what Christ did, I am willing to try to walk as He wants me to walk.  Because, since I have accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior, I owe to Him to try my best, and to do the things that I know that He wants me to do.  Does this mean I will never again make mistakes…absolutely not.  I do make mistakes, and I make them everyday.  But I think, I hope, I am making fewer today than I made last year at this time.  I particularly like verse 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,  We now live with Christ, because He is in us, and we can talk to Him whenever we want!  He is always, right there with us!  Even if you would rather He wasn’t…so keep that in mind.  Yay!

So how are we to apply this to our everyday lives?  Well, when you go to work today, will you work, or will you watch Netflix?  You know you will do a much better job, at your job, if you keep your entire mind on your job.  A long time ago I had a boss, who was really quite strict,  and she was the accounting department supervisor, and she was a great boss, I might add, anyway, one day she said to me, Kirsten, are you spending time thinking (mind you just thinking) about things other than just your work?  Well I was…and she said leave those things at the door when you arrive at work…they do not belong in here!  And keep your mind focused.  That was some very good advice.  So I ask again, how will you apply this verse to your life today, remember Christ gave EVERYTHING for us.  What can we do for HIM?

Where Are You Going Today?

Philippians 3:7-11 (King James Version)

7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Pray: Heavenly Father, I what to know you more! More and More and More of you is what I want inside of my head.  The more of your words that are within me, the more of you will leak out of me.  So Father as I study your book this morning please give me wisdom and understanding and then help me to understand how to apply your knowledge to my everyday life and to the circumstances I find myself in thru out the day.  I love you Daddy

 Say: What does the scripture say, loss is gain!  And I understand this!  But do you?  There is a verse in the Bible about a camel being able to go thru the eye of a needle.  I think it is in Proverbs, but I am checking so I can direct you to the correct pages, how about that, it is in Matthew 19:24, and it is in Mark, and in Luke (not Proverbs) And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go thru the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.  Now consider this. If you have a million dollars, and every day you gave away a few dollars, but at the end of the day you would still be going home to your lovely and comfortable home, and the next day you went out and purposefully gave away some more of your money.  And you kept on doing this.  It would take quite a bit of time.  Now consider that you have only a thousand dollars, and maybe not a quite so comfortable home.  And yet, you where doing the same thing as the millionaire....who would get to empty sooner?  Who wouldn't  mind quite as much?  Perhaps I am being prejudice? I actually think that I am being realistic!  And so realistically speaking I believe that to have complete loss for the sake of gaining the complete reality of living for Christ is worth far more than millions.  In my Bible the sub headings are as follows:

          Warning Against Confidence In the Flesh, verses 1-9
                Exhortation to Know Christ, verses 10-16
                      Warning Against Living For the Flesh, verses 17-21

Means: what does this mean.....well I sort of covered this in the "say" section, but I am going to expound a bit more.  Isn't God amazing?  When I sit down to read His words and instructions, I am blown away sometimes by what I would call "Holy Ghost Setup!"  I read something and boom, it happens in a flash, I will just have a sudden understanding.  I know I may seem a bit scattered this morning, but I promise there will be a completeness to what I am trying to get at....Paul was a missionary.  And he was a missionary that gave up everything to follow Christ.  We have a family at our church, that has this year, sold their home, quit their jobs, and gone to Africa to serve our Lord.  This is what this reading this morning is saying.  God told them He wanted them to serve Him, and that is what they are doing!  Would it be more difficult for Carlos Slim Helu and family?  With a net worth of $73 billion, or how about Bill Gates at $67 billion?  Now I really don't know that much about either one of theses people, and they may be philanthropist......I don't know.  But could they give away everything and follow Christ?  That is a question only they could answer.

Apply: a portion of Joshua 24: 15 (end) but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  My husband and I may not be the couple who sell everything ad move to Africa, but we can be facilitators, helpers if you would.  But please don't think that we wouldn't go, we are actually positioning ourselves to be able to help in anyway that we can.  We are doing what needs to be done, so that we are available for whatever God calls us to do.  As far as applying this to today....we all have to work towards the goals that we feel have been placed in front of us by our Father, and that is where Mr Tim and I are at just this minute.   We are working on being the gospel to those people that God puts in our ways.  And what an amazing journey!

How is your journey today?

Galatians 5

Galatians 5:16-21 KJV
 
16  This I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.  17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would . 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before , as I have also told you in time past , that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Lord this is a little tough this morning....I look at the words in this scripture this morning, and I must confess,  this is a tough one!  I look at this list of sins, and wow, it is overwhelming!   And I have just had one of those moments Lord when you speak directly to me and you say, "Rebecca Kirsten....you are no longer under the law, you are led by the spirit." Thank you Father, I so love it when you speak directly to me!   You can in the blink of an eye, clarify the murky waters.  Thank you Daddy!  This is still quite a list!  And one that I am so glad I am no longer partaking of...but I still need to understand how some who are Christians still do,  "No you don't Rebecca Kirsten, just pay attention that you don't!" Yes Father. Then I take it, that I am to pray fervently for those who still do participate in these sins?  I guess this is one of those questions that really doesn't need an answer, because I already know the answer....okay I think I am ready to move on with my study and I believe I have already dealt with #2, What does the Text say!

#3. Mean....What does this mean....well I personally think it would be way easy to get really deep on this study.  But I am not going to do that, instead I am going to go with the KISS philosophy.  You all know what that is, don't you?

             Keep
               It
                 Simple
                   Silly! (I really don't like the other word that you commonly find there)

When we become a Christian, I think we become more aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Like when you are perhaps tempted to watch something on TV, that you know, you really know down deep inside that you should not watch.  You conscious pricks at you, and makes you a bit uncomfortable.  I believe, and these are my thoughts, that, that is the Holy Spirit, that has taken up residence with in our very being letting us know that this is wrong.  Turn it off....leave the room....this isn't for your eyes or ears!

In this chapter of Galatians, in my Bible, the little headings are as follows:
      Chapter 5
           Position of Liberty"Stand Fast" verses 1-12
            Practice of Liberty-love one another verses 13-15
              Conflict between the spirit and the flesh. Verses 16-18
                Works of the flesh  Verses 19-21
                  Fruit of the spirit Verses 22-to the end.

For most of you who have been with me for some time, I think you are aware of the fact that I am generally a positive person. However that being said we still need to, at times be corrected!?  And perhaps warned. Okay we have the meaning....now for....
#4 Apply...how do we apply this scripture to our daily walks....this one is so black and white isn't it?  Especially since Christ has already atoned for our sins...we need to stay clear of anything on this list that might take us down the wrong road!
And don't think that you are infallible.... because I can guarantee that you are not!  I was once told by a Pastor that I was not allowed to join his church, until I had gotten my relationship, with my then husband straightened out.  Well that didn't happen, so I wasn't allowed to join that church....and that was okay....but that Pastor, he found out that he was also fallible.  He found himself in a place where he shouldn't have been, and he is no longer a member of that church.  So what is my point?  Simply this...be careful, it is so easy to point your finger at others who are sinning, just remember the story of the splinter/log in the eye!  And remember that God is so good that when we ask for forgiveness, the forgiveness is given and the sins are forgotten.  At least He forgets them....just make sure you do as well!  God bless you all!

A New Chapter Begins! Genesis 3: 14-19 KJV

I have come upon a little book recently that is teaching me an awesome why to study the Bible, and if you haven't heard of it, it is called, "Diving for Pearls in God's Treasure Chest," by Robert A French. And it is really quite good, with solid direction on how to study the words of God.  So come along with me on my lifetime adventure as we study the word together....


Genesis 3:14-19

14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field ; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life ; 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed ; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel." 16 To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children ; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you." 17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18 "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field ; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken ; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.'

1. Lord, what would you have me learn from these verses.  I know I need to at times pay better attention to my attitude with Tim...okay, not at times, but always,  help me Lord to be the kind of wife to Tim, that you Father, want me to be!  Not the wife I want to be, or the wife that Tim wants me to be, but help me and help me to help Tim, in being the best godly wife I can be! Now Father continue in teaching me what I need to learn from these verse...that I may grow in my knowledge of you....help me to know you more.

2. This text is saying to me that the husband & wife, (Adam and Eve) allowed something insidious into there lives, and they allowed this temptation to become a part of them....and oh how sad is this!   Because in doing this, these two have made our wonderful and loving marriages that much more difficult for us to keep our marriages wonderful and harmonious.  But and this is an very big BUT,  once this is recognized, that's it.  It is no more.  Now it is time to deal with the issue and move on to having that wonderful and harmonious relationship that you know that you can have.  This is a Yay God moment!  I don't know about any one else, but I sure am glad to have "Yay God," moments!

3. What does the text mean in it's context? Hmmm...this could get a little long, but I will try to be concise.  In my Bible there are headings in this chapter, the first is the "Temptation of man". And the next is the "Fall of man" and the last is the "Judgment of man.". Well these are all very good titles, but. I think I  should point out that perhaps we need to consider that God gave us the ability to choose, hmm, I think I heard some one say recently that our Pastor called it "free will."  You know someone once told me, nothing is free, everything comes with a cost.  And you know this is true!  No matter how much you want to waste tome trying to argue the point, everything has a cost, especially if it has any real value!

4. What is the author, Moses, (this is the consensus, that Moses is the author.) communicating,  I think he was and is telling us quite simply that there is a little flaw in us and we will have to spend our entire lives fighting tooth and nail, trying to overcome these issues, OR when you get further on in the book, you will see that God had a Son, just for us,  so that we might be forgiven.  These verses exemplify our beginnings, but it is up to us how the ending is written.   How will your story end? Mine will not end, it will just have a new beginning.