It’s NOT about today…It’s about eternity:)))

After a week of vacation,

and a POWERFUL Easter Sunday, I’d say that I’m a tad behind on blogging and reading others blogs…

I must admit that I feel very blessed that a good number of you have said that you look forward to reading my post for encouragement.
My purpose is exactly for that reason which also glorifies Christ:)))

2 CORINTHIANS 4:16-18
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Today, a good friend and I met to walk and catch up. We discussed our physical limitations, family situations, and had a wonderful time of encouraging each other in the Lord. Oh, how we will continue to face obstacles in this life on earth, but we must keep our commitment to serving Christ.
Rather than giving up when persecution wore him down, Paul concentrated on experiencing the inner strength from the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:16).

FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: Don’t let fatigue, pain, or criticism force you off the job for Christ. Our ultimate hope in terrible illness, persecution, or pain is realizing that this life is not all there is-there is life after death!
Let’s remember that we will live forever with God in a place without sin and suffering! 🙂

IT’S SIMPLY a MATTER of SURRENDER:))

Have you ever thought about the word surrender? As Christians, we read and hear a lot about how we are to ‘surrender‘ our lives to Christ. I believe sometimes we think that we have until another obstacle arises and we find ourselves in the middle of yet another growth spurt.
Surrender means giving up possession of or power over; yield to another on demand or compulsion.

JOB 11:13-15 Contemporary English Version (CEV)

13 Surrender your heart to God, turn to Him in prayer,
14 and give up your sins- even those you do in secret,
15 Then you won’t be ashamed; you will be confident and fearless.

In a sense, surrender and faith go hand and hand. Christ meant for the Gospel to be straightforward and easily understood. The word surrender can be misunderstood as being to difficult for us actually to live as we should for Christ, but as believers in God’s Holy Word, we are to trust what Scripture tells us to do and obey how He wants  us to live in obedience to Him.
To surrender ourselves is just as simple as taking God’s Word at face value as to what it implies. We aren’t going to be perfect; we can expect to make mistakes daily, but knowing that God knows all things that we do and say can lead us to pray and ask for forgiveness to be forgiven.
By staying in a right condition with Christ causes us to be usable for Him, and keeps us in a ‘surrendered’ state.
It’s a matter of obeying His Word and nothing more. Now isn’t that simpler than you thought?
FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: We can sometimes make the Christian life harder than it’s meant to be, it’s a matter of applying our faith and fully obeying.

Let’s do our best today and every day to apply God’s Word to our daily lives and be fully surrendered for His use! 🙂

Mesmerized memorizers we MUST BE!!

Some days are better than others aren’t they? It seems that situations can happen and redirect our entire day.
We can depend on one sure area that will never redirect us, and that is God’s Word.
God’s Word is real and beautiful. Stay true to God and His Word no matter how bad the world becomes.

 

Obedience to God’s law is the only way to achieve real happiness.

PSALMS 119
This is the longest psalm and the longest chapter in the Bible. It may have been written by Ezra after the Temple was rebuilt (Ezra 6:14, 15) as a repetitive meditation on the beauty of God’s Word and how it helps us stay pure and grow in faith.
This psalm has 22 carefully constructed sections, each corresponding to a different letter in the Hebrew alphabet and each verse beginning with the letter of its section. Almost every verse mentions God’s Word. Such repetition was common in the Hebrew culture.
People did not have personal copies of the Scriptures to read as we do, so God’s people memorized His Word and passed it along orally. The structure of this psalm allowed for easy memorization. Remember, God’s Word, the Bible, is the only sure guide for living a pure life.

FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: Storing God’s Word in our hearts is a deterrent to sin. This alone should inspire us to memorize Scripture. But memorization alone will not keep us from sin; we must also put God’s Word to work in our lives, making it a vital guide to everything we do.

Scoffers, READERS and HAPPY ROOTS:))))

Do you ever feel challenged or a little-disappointed when trying to share God’s Word with others? It can seem as though they think that you may be too excited about studying a boring history book of days long ago. I want to encourage you not to get discouraged for one moment:))))))) God is working in our heart and mind! I feel a real sadness for people who don’t show any concern or excitement about our God that they profess to ‘believe’ in for their eternal salvation.

PSALMS 1:1-3
1 Blessed is the man
that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord;
and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;
his leaf also shall not wither;
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

God doesn’t judge people by race, sex, or national origin. He Judges them by their faith in Him and their response to His revealed Will. Those who diligently try to obey God’s Will are like healthy, fruit-bearing trees with strong roots (Jeremiah 17:5-8) And God promises to watch over them. God’s wisdom guides their lives. In contrast, those who don’t obey God have meaningless lives that blow like dust.

FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: As a tree soaks up water and bears luscious fruit, we also are to soak up God’s Word, producing actions and attitudes that honor God. To achieve anything worthwhile, we must have God’s Word in our heart.

Let’s soak up God’s Word today and every day! Man-made sources are temporary…But salvation is FOREVER:)) We NEED the correct WATER SOURCE:)

We shall be like trees planted by a river NOT like an overflowed puddle that leaves our roots compromised

An EMPTY chair, Bagged garbage, and a Rolled up RUSTY fence:)

I get SO EXCITED when I see something that speaks “OH, THIS IS AN excellent PICTURE FOR A BLOG!”

Today is a BEAUTIFUL DAY to SIT QUIETLY and decide if you have a RUSTY FENCE that needs to be rolled up and some GARBAGE that needs to be BAGGED !

PHILIPPIANS 3:7-9
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.

After Paul considered everything he had accomplished in his life, he said that it was all worthless when compared with knowing Christ. This is a profound statement about values: a person’s relationship with Christ is more important than anything else. To know, Christ should be our ultimate goal.
Sometimes, we can allow worldly things to accumulate in our lives, and that can lead to placing our security and confidence in the wrong areas. After a while, God will remove the rusty fence of protection that we built around what we thought was OUR INDEPENDENCE.
God demands a TOTAL SURRENDER of our lives to Him
We need to SIT QUIETLY before him and BAG UP THE GARBAGE that keeps us from being one hundred percent usable and ROLL UP THE RUSTY FENCE that we’ve put up around our OWN INDEPENDENCE.

FRUITFUL OBSERVATION: We need to consider our values and not place anything above or around our relationship with Christ. Our independence should be depended  COMPLETLY  UPON HIM!

Let’s DEPEND ONLY UPON CHRIST today and every day:))