Monday.  Windy and cold, but green!

TRUST in the Lord

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight." 

Proverbs 3:5-6

Man, am I ever having to constantly remind myself to remember this in my work and life.  For me it comes out in trying to "manage" everything.  Basically, all I can do is my best in my efforts and judgment, the rest is up to God.  The Newsboys have a song with a lyric that says "In the hands of God, we stand tall."

That probably has a lot of meanings, but here I intend to use it as a "life manual."  If we leave our lives in the hands of God, in every respect, we will be okay, provided for, strong.  I think some people may read that and say that it's not necessarily true.  I've heard people say that Christians still suffer even when they pray and believe, etc.  Well...yeah. Jesus TOLD us we would suffer. 

When I say that God will provide for us, I don't mean that my life here on this earth will be perfect.  I mean that I will have what I need and at the same time be storing up my eternal reward of spending eternity with God and Jesus Christ in Heaven. 

Right now work has me very stressed.  I have a lot of cases that are keeping me busy, deadlines, and I'm doing things I'm relatively new at.  It gets scary.  So what do I need to do?

Give it to God.  Ask for His guidance and pray for strength.

That's it.

Until tomorrow.

Come Believe...

Today's post pretty much speaks for itself.

    Read it and then think about how many times a day you do exactly what Jesus said not to do.  I can think of about at least five or six times today where I judged someone.  It's a natural thing to do considering the world we live in.  But it's the wrong thing to do.

    What about feeling condemned or condemning someone else in your own mind?  I know that I have said things to myself and others about the condemnation that will befall murderers and the sexual immoral.  That's wrong for me to do.  If I do that, according to what came out of Jesus's mouth, I'm just as bad as if I had committed that sin myself.  You are not even supposed to condemn yourself!

    And how about giving?  I know that I for one do not give near enough.  I tithe, I provide for my family, I give to others.  But not nearly enough.  I know I have work to do.

    What about you?

    Until tomorrow.
  
    Come Believe...

Tuesday.  Sunny, windy, cool.  Beautiful day on God's planet.

Justified Through Faith

Romans 5:1-2:

    "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand."

    Just read that a few times.  Justified through faith.  How?  Get out your bible (or borrow someone's until you get yours tomorrow!) and read Chapter 4 of Romans, then read the first two verses of Chapter 5 again. 

    Basically, when you believe in God through your faith, you are justified through that faith.  In turn, God grants you peace through Jesus Christ, which completes a circle of having access to Christ through that faith, which also means you are in God's grace.  Bottom line:  Believing in God, having faith in Him, is a great place to be.

    Are you there?  Do you want to be there?  Are you afraid to believe in something that you think may not exist?  Guess what? 

    You will never know whether or not God exists until you believe in Him through faith.  And once you truly give yourself to Christ and place your faith and trust in God, it becomes all too clear that God is there, He exists, and He loves you.
   
    But read what I wrote:  You "truly" give yourself to God and "truly" place your faith and TRUST in God.  He knows your heart.  He knows a fraud.  So if you're going to commit, do it with all your heart, strength, soul, and mind. 

    You won't know God's glory and experience His blessings upon you unless you truly believe, do not fear, do not worry, and you never look back. 
   
    Trust in Him.

    Try it out.  You won't be disappointed.

    Until tomorrow.

    Come Believe...

   

Wednesday. The last day of 2008.  Windy but sunny and bright.

He Will Protect You

    God wants us to be happy and close to Him.  If you are living the life of the righteous, glorifying God, loving and serving others, and avoiding sin, God will bless you.  Of course, bad things happen in this world.  My belief based on my study of the Bible is that these bad things are not God punishing people or "letting" bad things happen.  These bad things are the results of man's disobedience to God. 

    For so long humans have rebelled against and rebuked and forgotten our Father that this world has become a place of sin and danger.  My Bible study has taught me that God never intended for this to happen.  It's the result of sin. 

    Of course, we all have our time to die and our time to endure grief.  That's part of life.  But if you take those necessary parts of life out of the picture, the other bad things that happen can be avoided if you live a righteous life. 

    I think about all the bad things that have happened to me.  Pretty much all of them happened because of bad choices I made leading up to them.   I experienced a lot of depression stemming from my sins of lust, specifically how it affected my relationships with women.  I experienced financial hardships based on greed affecting my decisions regarding money and credit.  The list goes on.

    Those bad choices were usually sinful in nature.  I was separated from God not only because I was sinning but because I had not repented and asked for God's forgiveness through Jesus Christ my Savior.  My belief is that I was suffering because God was not blessing me or protecting me because of my disobedience. 

    Now that I have accepted Christ and live to glorify God, my life isn't a bowl of cherries, but it's worlds better than it was.  God is with me because I am not separated from Him by sin or lack of faith.  And He protects me and answers my prayers. 
   
    I urge you to allow God to be close to you;watching over you at all times, inside of you in the form of the Holy Spirit, walking next to you in the form of Jesus Christ.  Repent and change your wicked ways.  When you sin ask God for forgiveness. 

    Yes, people close to you will die.  Yes, people close to you will get sick.  And yes, money will not always be there and stress will attempt to invade your life.  But pray to God to protect you from evil and from condemnation from Satan and all of these things will be easier to deal with because God will be with you, protecting you.

    Until tomorrow.

    Come Believe...

Monday.  Only a few days left of 2008.  Sunny, brisk, cold.  Great weather for being outside if you can get there.

Doing God's Will

    I think we humans often get too caught up in doing our own will.  When we live like that we defy God in a way that doesn't help us to receive His blessings in this world full of sin and suffering.  After all, that is what God wants us to do!  Remember, the Bible is His word written through humans He selected.  And look at what He had one of them write in Hebrews:

    "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

      Hebrews 13:20-21

    Take two or three good looks at that passage.  In particular read the part that says "for doing his will."  And how about the part that says "what is pleasing to him."  It doesn't say "your will."  It doesn't say "what is pleasing to you."

    So why do people often live like that?  Because they are not following the commands of Jesus. The commands of God!  People have turned away from God as they have for thousands of years since Creation beginning with Adam's original sin.  How do you get back to God?  By accepting Jesus as your Savior and repenting to God for your sinful ways.  At least that's the simplified way of putting it.

    Is this confusing?  If you either don't know God or have never studied up on this stuff, it probably is confusing.  That's okay!  I encourage you to do some Bible study and work on understanding it.  Use my site and my archived posts to help you.  I've tried to simplify it here for you as much as possible.  There are tons of other study guides out there.  Get your hands on some and use them.  I certainly do!

    This passage is not just about sin as much as it is about doing God's will.  Sinning is one way you fail to do God's will.  Let's use sin as an example.  Don't get lost in the "sin" part of this passage and miss the main message:  God wants you to live according to His will.  Let me explain a little more about how I believe sin removes you from God and prevents you from doing His will.

    God wants to bless you.  But the Bible states that if you are sinning you are separated from God.  If you do not accept Jesus as your Savior then you are not saved with eternal life.  Read the Book, specifically John 14:6.  It's all there. 

    I believe that once you're saved you can't "lose" it by sinning.  But...if you live a life of sin without ever thinking about God or Jesus or feeling convicted, maybe you weren't saved to begin with.  That's really between you and God.  But for me personally I know that I am saved and that when I fall into sin it makes me feel absolutely horrible because the Holy Spirit within me is convicting me.  I am not condemned as Satan wants me to believe but I am convicted.   I immediately ask God for His forgiveness through Jesus Christ. 

    I do this not only because I love God but because if I sin and do not repent I am separated from God.  God wants to pardon us and bestow blessings upon us but He will not do this if we are living in sin, not repenting or asking to be forgiven for our sins (this is all throughout the NT).  So I ask God to forgive me and He will (this nugget is in 1 John 1:9).

     Now, it's not just some quick, "Hey God, I sinned, will you please forgive me?"  kind of thing.  When I sin I not only tell God that I am unworthy of His grace, mercy, and love, but that I am a worthless human sinner in His eyes and that I know it.  I tell Him that I know if it wasn't for Jesus dying on the cross I would be spiritually dead because of my sin, and that only because of God's mercy can I have eternal life.  I tell Him exactly what my sin was, being as specific as possible and I acknowledge it is a sin against Him.  After acknowledging that I ask for His forgiveness through Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross.  God wants us to be accountable to Him.  When He hears you ask Him for His forgiveness He will give it to you.  That's my belief based on His Word in the Bible.

    So what does this have to do with doing God's will?  Well for one thing, when you're living life according to "your" will, you're sinning.  But if you accept Jesus as your savior and repent and ask for forgiveness from your sins you are back with God and you should live your life according to His will. 

    He bought you with a huge price: Christ Jesus dying on the cross. 

    Your body belongs to Him and the Holy Spirit dwelling within you.  Who are you to use that vehicle for your own joyriding? 

    You have been loaned your Daddy's car: do with it what He wants. 

    How do you know what God's will for you is?  Prayer!  Lots and lots of meaningful prayer all day every day is my opinion.  That's what keeps me in line with God.  Am I perfect?  No!  Only Jesus was perfect.  But by praying constantly I live life according to what I hear God telling me through prayer.  He answers; you just have to know what you're listening for.  You figure that out through a mature and nurtured faith in God and a relationship with Jesus Christ.  It's one of those things you just have to experience. I just prayed for anyone who reads this to experience it as soon as possible if you haven't already. 

    So live according to God's will and receive His blessings.  Of course that means you have to believe in God and accept Christ as your Savior.  It means you have to do as God commanded and as Jesus taught.  It means you have to forgive others and God will forgive you when you pray for it.  It means you have to love and serve others and God will bless you.  It means you have to be honest and forthright with others in your dealings. 

    Trust God.  Have faith.  Hold fast.

     Until tomorrow.

    Come Believe...