Tag Archives: God

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Gifts


2 Timothy 1:6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

How do you choose a gift for someone you love? Whether it is for a friend or a relative or one of your children you pick something that will enrich and bring joy to their lives. And through the giving of the gift you receive joy. I especially love to give my children gifts. I remember on their birthday or Christmas morning basking in the laughter and squeals as they opened their presents. I think God is the same way. He loves us with an everlasting and complete love. He is so pleased to lavish on us good gifts. He loves to watch us receive a gift from Him. He watches as we inspect it from every angle. Jesus said in Matthew 7:11 if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

I believe my writing is a gift from God. He started urging me to write, last year, as I began my journey through cancer and all the surgeries and treatments. I fought it. I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t do it consistently until several weeks ago when I started this blog. Then, as I began to write, I would wait for Him to show me the topic for the day. As I wrote each days blog I would pray continuously for Him to speak through me. And I believe He has. Before I allowed Him to control the flow and direction of my writing I couldn’t put two cohesive sentences together.

There are several places in scripture that talk about the gifts of God. It says in Ephesians 4:7-8,11-12 but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.” And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
So the gifts are given to us for two reasons according to this scripture.
1.) For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry.
2.) For the edifying of the body of Christ.

In the summer of 1999 The Lord told me that the gift He was giving me was to preach and teach. He told me by illuminating that part of the scripture I just referenced. I had no idea that it would take 14 years for me to step into my calling, even to the small degree that I have begun. God is faithful and He doesn’t forget. (Romans 11:29 for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable) Even while I was so far away from Him He never forgot His plans for me. (Jeremiah 29:11) A lot of things have happened in my life in the last 14 years. I know that if I share, without reservation, He is going to use the things I have done and been through to draw people to Him. He will soften their hearts so they can accept that if, after everything I did, God loves me and blesses me and calls me His child, He will do the same for them. That is my calling and I accept it without hesitation.

What is yours? Are you being obedient?

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Draw near


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John 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

Jesus talks a lot about us being sheep and him being our shepherd. The beginning of this verse reminds me of when my children were little. We would be walking through the store. The grocery isles are not wide enough for me and 3 children and they always wanted to argue about who got to walk next to me. So I instituted a new rule. I would quack like a duck and they were to follow behind me in single file so we weren’t obstructing the grocery isle. It was great at getting their attention.

That reminds me of what it says in Isaiah 30:21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,“This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.” Sometimes it seems so hard to hear Him. Doesn’t it? I know that the bible is full of promises of Him being present, and active in my life but I don’t always feel or hear Him.

When you feel like He is far from you what do you do?

Do you rely on what you feel or what you know?

I wish I could say that when I feel farther away from God my first reaction is always to go to the bible and encourage myself with the Truth. That even though I don’t feel Him He is right beside me holding my right hand. (Isaiah 41:13) I am not as consistent as I want to be in this but I’m still breathing so there is time to change. I think it would be helpful to have some scriptures written down and easy to access so I’m going to list a few for me and you to refer to when we need encouragement.

Isaiah 41:10, 13 Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you,Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’

Psalm 73:23-24, 28 Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, And afterward receive me to glory. But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, That I may declare all Your works.

Psalm 27:4-5 One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: 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 inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.

Psalm 42:11 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

Psalm 27:14 Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!

 

 

 

 

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He first loved us…


1 John 4:19-20 We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

There are countless scriptures about love. Well, not countless, but a lot! I checked my concordance and there were over 500 times that love is mentioned in the old and New Testament. Do you think there would be so many if we “got” it? If we understood how important love is? I have found, in my bible research, that God repeats Himself when the topic is dear to Him. It says in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 that if you do great things for people but aren’t operating in love it’s counted for nothing. That’s strong…

I knew I wasn’t operating in love when I did things for other people or in my interactions with people, so I starting praying about it. Each day I ask God to 1) show me how much He loves me, 2) show me how to love Him the way He loves me, and 3) show me how to love people the way He loves them. He has definitely softened my heart in that area but I’m not going to stop praying those prayers yet because I still have a very long way to go. I’m still way too selfish and self centered.

It is easy to love the people you are close to like your friends and family. You know, nice people. The people you have picked and choose to be around. But what about the people that grate on your last nerve? What about the surly cashier, the guy who cuts you off in traffic, or your boss? Jesus said in Matthew 5:44 “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those that hate you, and pray for those who use you.” Wow! Just WOW! Is He kidding?! No I don’t think He is.

So, how do we do this? Good news…we can’t. Not in our own strength or our own wisdom. So we pray and ask Him to fill us up with His love. He has an infinite supply and daily He gives us what we need for that day if we ask Him. We can’t give what we don’t have.

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The world, the flesh, and the devil


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2 Corinthians 10:3-4 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,

The three things we war against once we decide to follow Jesus. The world, the flesh, and the devil. Not necessarily in that order that’s just the order they were given to me today to write about. It seems daunting, definitely not a light-hearted writing.

In the scripture above I have typed the New King James Version. I find it interesting that in the New International Version the word “flesh” is replaced with the word “world”. It reads (2 Corinthians 10:3-4) For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. It states clearly in the bible that we have to physically and consciously “put on” the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:13-17). So that we can stand against the schemes of the devil. That takes intentionality.

We are in a battle.

Once we are saved Satan has lost the prospect of taking us to hell with him but he makes it his goal to try to keep us confused. He is very subtle about it. One of his favorite things is to get us distracted by the things of this world like television and the internet. Another of his tactics is to distort God’s word. Go back with me to the garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3. Satan is talking to Eve about what God said and what God meant by what He said. (Genesis 3:2-5) The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  That didn’t sound so bad did it? Those sound like things that would be good to have in this world, don’t they? The point is she is using her own reasoning in determining right from wrong. She should have trusted God and His direction. If she had not doubted that God had her best interest at heart when He made that rule she would have never sinned. Do we do that? Do we doubt that God has our best interest at heart when He gives us direction? Satan hopes so. I believe he uses the same tactics he used with Eve. We come to church and hear an inspiring message using Malachi 3:6-11 as the basis, for example. You leave thinking I need to tithe, it’s Gods will, it says in the bible that God will bless me if I test Him in this, I’m going to begin tithing! You are convinced that it is the thing do! You are pumped! You go about your week and little thoughts begin plaguing you like “I heard a noise what if my car breaks down and I have to repair or replace it…I can’t tithe” or “my bills are really tight I can’t afford to tithe”. Satan comes and distorts then steals that fabulous truth you heard and you begin reasoning based on the worlds standards.

So how do we fight against satans schemes? I believe that we first must recognize them. We need to be so familiar with the Truth that when the lie comes into our head we recognize it for what it is and cast it out. Immediately. Did you know that a Secret Service agent is trained to recognize a currency forgery by becoming intimately familiar with legitimate currency? That is what we must do. We must be so familiar with Gods character and will for our lives that we recognize the lies of satan immediately. How do we do this? Well, we read the bible and pray. Regularly. Daily.

Being a Christian is not for sissies. Jesus is very clear about following Him. (Matthew 12:30) “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” There is no gray area with Jesus. Either you are for Him or against Him. You can’t be a little bit saved or a half-hearted Christian. I think this is what scares the world. You can’t do just a little bit of Jesus. You have to go all the way. That also puts a bulls-eye on us in the spiritual realm. Which is another really good reason to put on the full armor of God during your prayer time each morning. Don’t leave home without it…

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Our unchanging God


Not only does He not change (Numbers 23:19) neither does His plan for our lives….

We can go back to Abraham to see that His plan to make Abraham a great nation never changed. Even after Abraham listened to Sarah and conceived a child with Hagar, Sarah’s servant. That was one of the biggest blunders made by mankind thinking they needed to help God. You can read all about it in Genesis. Don’t miss the part where they probably delayed the promise by thinking they needed to help God.

Then there was Moses, who definitely had a call on his life. Saved as an infant, when they were killing all the Hebrew boys of his age. Raised in the palace alongside the king he would later confront. After killing one of the Hebrews’ taskmasters he runs out into the desert, surviving against all odds. He carves out a life, marries a local girl, and while he is performing his job, one day, gets the “call” from God to go get His people, the Hebrews, out of bondage. He argues with God, explaining to Him that he didn’t speak well and wouldn’t God rather choose someone else. Can you just see it? The scene is set. The bush is burning. There is the booming voice from heaven saying, take off your shoes because you are on Holy ground. Then God tells him His plan. And Moses argues with God. All because he was insecure. I do feel like I should give Moses a little break here because he didn’t know much about God. He hadn’t been brought up being told the stories of the Hebrew heritage. He had been brought up in the palace being taught customs and heritage of the pharaohs. As far as how he was brought up goes, he was used to the Hebrews being around doing all the work and there were at least hundreds of thousands of them. He had to be thinking that pharaoh was NEVER GOING TO LET THEM GO! If he did, who would do all the work in Egypt? I think it was partly insecurity and partly knowing his adversary and what he was up against.

But I digress.

The point of today’s blog is…God and His plan NEVER changes.
The words He has spoken to us over the years NEVER change.
The visions He has given us are still in effect.
The plans He has for us haven’t changed.
The promises He has made to us haven’t changed.

So go back and remember the things He has told you and be reassured. He hasn’t forgotten you or His plans for you. Hold on to them with your whole heart and know that your God WILL bring them to pass. Don’t go out and try to make it happen on your own. You know you don’t want your own “Ishmael” situation.
Wait, wait, wait for The Lord! And while you wait praise Him for the plans He has for you and for what a good, loving, faithful Father He is to us! His timing is perfect! If you are still breathing you haven’t completed His plans for you!

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God’s priorities


2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Matthew 9:37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Sometimes I get frustrated because I don’t feel like I have enough time to spend with God.
I know He wants me to make Him a priority not because the bible, or my pastor, or my peers say that I should. But because it’s the best thing for me. When I am close to Him He leads me to the best choices for my life. One step at a time. So when I have time how do I choose the best way to spend it.
I know God is into relationships. Not only does He want to have an intimate relationship with me, but He wants me to have intimate, loving, caring relationships with believers so that we can encourage each other. Even further He wants me to have loving, caring, relationships with non-believers so that I can witness, through the way I live my life, to help draw them to the light that shines through me. My Jesus.
So, back to my original question. How to spend my time? I believe that 2 Peter is true and that it’s not Gods will that “any should perish but that all should come to repentance” so it must be pretty important to God that we, believers, do everything we can to draw people to the saving knowledge of our lord Jesus Christ. How? Well, since I can’t see into people’s hearts I need to stay close to the One who can. He will show me how to talk to a person. He will show me who to talk to. He will show me what they need from me so I can minister to them in the way that will soften their hearts and help them be more receptive to His love and grace.
So I guess the answer to my question is as I get closer to Jesus, He will show me how to spend my time. He is ever present in our lives. He shows us just enough for our next step (Psalms 119:105). He will guide us as we choose the next thing we should do in any circumstance (Isaiah 30:21).
We are so blessed in all that we do if we will just tune our ears in to His still small voice and become sensitive to His will. He will never lead us wrong.

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Who is like The Lord?


Exodus 15:11 “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Deuteronomy 3:24 ‘O Lord God, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds?

Sometimes I wonder if we are too familiar with the way we speak to and/or about the Trinity. I know that things changed when Jesus died for our sins.
When He shed His most precious and completely Holy blood for us on the cross.
When He bridged the gap between mankind and God.
When Jesus made a way for us to enter into the holy of holies and approach the throne of the Most High God.
When He BECAME sin in our place.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Let’s go back to the 6th day of creation when mankind was created.
(Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.)

I think, of course, it was a joint decision. I believe mans body was fashioned, but before the breath of life was breathed into man I think God turned to Jesus and said, “Are you sure you want to do this? You know they are going to sin against Us, you know they are going to break Our hearts…they will seek after everything under the sun to satisfy that longing deep in their hearts. You know You will have to be born as one of them, live an uncomfortable life, be ridiculed by them, die a horrible death, be buried and resurrected, and then walk among them in Your glorified body to prove Who You are. He waited for Jesus’ answer and all of heaven stood holding their breath. Then came Jesus answer “I love them. I will do whatever it takes for the fleeting moments of joyous fellowship and communion. I wait anxiously for my beautiful, spotless bride and the day she comes to me in fine linen made ready for our union and the marriage supper.” There was a collective exhale as all of heaven breathed.

Thank you Jesus for loving us so much and wanting an intimate relationship with each of us.

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Love…actually.


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God loves me. It’s true He does. I’ve known it for a long time but I’ve never really acknowledged it. God loves me. Jesus loves me. Just like the children’s song…you know it…we have all sang it as children growing up in church.
“Jesus loves me this I know. For the bible tells me so. Little ones in Him belong. We are weak but He is strong…”
How is it that you can know something and not “KNOW” something? Like knowing water is wet, fire burns, and you don’t lick a metal pole when it’s below freezing outside. I knew God loved me. It was just something that IS. Did I feel loved… Did I act loved… Did I reciprocate… Not often and definitely not consistently. You would think that if the Creator of everything that is loves me and I know it I would take better care of myself. Not be so cavalier with myself. Not be so self destructive.Not only does He love me, He has a plan for my life. It has been told me in a variety of ways in the last 14 years. I am to preach and teach. Ok so if God loves me, Jesus loves me, and They have a specific plan for my life aren’t I special. To Them I am. So if I’m special to them shouldn’t I, at least be special to myself? I don’t treat myself special. I have a hard time forgiving myself. I don’t take care of myself. I don’t monitor what I eat very well therefore I have gained 30 pounds in the last year. I don’t get enough rest. I don’t spend enough time with the One Who loves me unconditionally. There are specific things Debbie, my counselor, has told me I need to do to get better. Why am I not doing them? All I can figure is that I’m not ready to be well. Is that true? If that is true it has to change today! I can’t continue this life the way I’m going.It is like the man by the pool that Jesus asked “do you want to be healed?” Well, Marianne, do you want to be healed? Do you want to be set free to accomplish that which the Creator of everything has set for you to do? Yes I do. I want to be happy, healthy, whole. I want everything that God has for me. So what do I do now? Well, I guess I should start by doing the things that Debbie says will make me better. I am physically getting better after the cancer. Now its time I start taking better care of myself. Lord, I know you love me so please help me to recognize things that I do that are harmful to me. And once I recognize them help me to act according to Your will for my life. I realize that I can’t do this on my own but I also know that I’m not on my own. You are with me. You never leave me or forsake me. You are unchanging.  And Your love is unconditional.

thank your Lord.