Just Look!

 Through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.  Romans 5:2

As I continue to ponder the meaning of the scripture For we walk by faith and not by sight I came to realize that although I have never saw God face to face I do see evidence of him everywhere I look.  I saw Him at the birth of my children---for it was He who breathed life into them.  I see him in the miracles that I have witnessed throughout my life.  I see Him in the hands of my family and friends each time they hold me, hug me, wipe my tears away, and when they pray for me.  I see Him in the trees, the flowers, the clouds, the sunrise and the sunset.  I sense His peace through a warm breeze and through the sound of the ocean wave as it rushes to the specific place God intended for it to go.  I hear His voice speak wisdom, love, and peace to my very soul.  The evidence of our Almighty God is all around us and that my friend strengthens faith.  However, there is one secret to all this---you have to look, you can not just live life going through the motions of each day---you have to set your eyes on Christ and allow him to show you where to look!
For He is God and although I have never stood face to face with Him, I have stood in His presence and that is enough!

By Faith!

For we live by faith, not by sight! II Corinthians 5:7

How many times have I heard that? How many times have I said that? How do I live it?

Today is a day of thanksgiving and I am thankful beyond what words can say.  My life is not perfect, but no matter how bad some things seem I cannot let go of Jesus Christ and knowing his plan is greater than anything I could ever imagine.  Putting all my trust and all my faith in knowing that he has got me and my family in his hands is what I have to do---to me, there is no other choice!  It took me many years and many tears to get to this point, but I have come to know that I can live no other way except for Jesus Christ!  So today I am thankful for many things---my family, my friends, where I live, but mostly I am thankful that God loved me enough to let his only son, Jesus Christ, be crucified so that I may have a chance to live by faith!  How can I not trust the one who died for me so that I may be saved!  Thank you Jesus for your love, your grace, your mercy, and your salvation!

Raising Them Right!

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38-39

 

All I can say is what a week!  Well that’s not all I can say because I am about to say a bit more!  The last month has been so busy that some days I don’t know if I am coming or going!  Our two children keep us quite busy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Just when everything seems like it is going smoothly things get shook up and I have to question if being shook up is what I need to stay on track with God?  Maybe so.  I usually write about the current scriptures I am reading, but tonight my thoughts are on how I am raising my children.  I am certainly not the perfect mom, but I do my best to teach them to follow Christ above anything or anyone else.  I am so thankful that I have two children that talk to me about things (Haley more than Brett) and listen (sometimes) to my advice, but I do think about that advice and pray it is the right answer to their questions and concerns.  So how do you let go and let them learn things on their own?  Do they have to get hurt at some point in order to learn some of life’s lessons?  I so want to protect their hearts, but I realized this last week I can’t always do that.  They are both growing up so fast and are past mom kissing it and making it all better.  All I can do now is love them, hold them and promise them that some things will only get better with time.  One great conversation that came out of all this is how much Jesus loves us.  I told them that He is the only one that will never let them down, will never hurt them, will never disappoint them, and will love them like no other, including me!  It is almost incomprehensible to think that He loves them more than I do, but he does and if they (and I) learned that this week than it was all worth it!

My prayer is that my children not only hear my voice telling them about the love of Christ, but that they hear that sweet voice of the Holy Spirit telling them of His Love!

Faith And The Word!

It is not about you, but it is all about God.”

“Much is required from those to whom much is given.”  Luke 12:48

Lord, I need You, oh, I need You
Every hour I need You
My one defense, my righteousness
Oh God, how I need You

            --Matt Maher, “Lord, I Need You”

If through a broken heart God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart. –Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 1

Do you not know that . . . you are not your own? —1 Corinthians 6:19

We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment. The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 R

So these quotes, scriptures, and song lyrics all in some way or another came into my view over the past couple of days and not only did my eyes see them, my ears hear them, but my heart was penetrated by them.  I do believe that God works in mysterious ways, but I also believe that he is always at work and nothing is a simple coincidence---but there is always a divine purpose in the things that are revealed before us.  I have been struggling lately with the suffering of so many people around me and as I was praying late last night, I asked God to tell me what to say, to show me what to do, basically I was asking God to help me fix everything, but he quickly revealed the truth to me.  He reminded me that my focus is to be on him and him only, just as everyone else’s should be as well. The Holy Spirit spoke to me and told me that all the answers that I need to know are in His Word and I am to pour myself into that Word and to put all my trust, all my heart, and all my soul into serving Jesus, and to allow him to fix situations, to fix people---That is His job, not mine!  He even led me to a specific Bible reading plan!

I will have to admit that I have started many, many Bible reading plans to which I have not completed a single one.  However, this time I have a group of family and friends that are doing this with me, so I and they will have an accountability group!  So along with a few others, I started today and I am extremely excited about it and of course I will be sharing my thoughts about the scriptures on my blog! J

Romans 1-2

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse (Romans 1:20).  He is here!  He is right in the midst of everything that surrounds us!  Every bird we hear, every bloom we see, every breeze we feel is all evidence of our Father, yet we still doubt that he hears our cries.  We wonder if he sees our pain and question if he truly listens to our prayers.  There is no excuse for not putting every ounce of faith in him!  It is all about him and he reminded me of this over the last few days and I have found that when I study his Word with my heart wide open that he will reveal himself to me in a mighty way.  No word I can say to anyone can ever match the power of the Living Word of God, so I will quite trying to fix everything and spend more time in his Word, having faith that he will “fix” everything according to his will and not mine!  So I will close this post with the words of Paul…I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For in the gospel a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)

Seize Me!

Wow, since my last post I can’t stop thinking about the word that God had given me in Philippians 4:9…Do!  I can’t tell you how many times I have went back to that scripture and then I began to search the Bible for specific instructions on doing.  So many times I was lead to scriptures found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and if you are not familiar with those chapters in Matthew, it is The Sermon on the Mount given by Jesus.  I have read those chapters over and over again and each time God has revealed something new to me.  It is one of the most powerful messages that Jesus gave while on this earth and he teaches us so many things through this message. 

As I think about Philippians 4:9 along with The Sermon on the Mount I can’t help but think about the importance of surrendering my life to Jesus Christ.  You see there is no way I can do what God has called me to do without total surrender.  Are you totally surrendered to Jesus Christ?  Have you allowed him to seize you…to seize your heart, to seize your soul, to seize your mind, to seize all that you have?  Have you?  Have I?  I ask myself this all the time and sometimes my answer is a resounding YES and then other times I think ‘what am I doing, why am I trying to do everything myself?’  I have come to the conclusion that it is hard for me to surrender everything 100% of the time; so I pray ‘Lord seize me, take me over, I can’t do this myself, I need to let go of everything and just let you seize everything in me’.  I do want to follow the directions of our Lord and do what he has asks in Philippians 4:9, but I, nor you, can truly do what Jesus has called us to do without total surrender, without allowing Jesus Christ to seize our lives.  So I challenge each of you reading this to take the time to lay at the feet of Jesus and give it all to him, to allow your Father to seize your life so that you can live the life that you were created to live!

Do!

Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.  Philippians 4:9

 

Seems like so long since I wrote and for me it has been, not only have I not posted anything, I have not written anything in a while either.  It seems that I have been thinking a lot lately about a little bit of everything, but mostly about life and how it unfolds in ways we neither expect or comprehend.  I find myself understanding the ways of Christ and seeing with His eyes and then without notice I find myself questioning his ways.  I know that I should not question the Lord, that I am to only trust him and I do.  I trust Him with all that I have, but I am human and sometimes my mind questions even when my heart is on him.  I have learned that instead of trying to ignore the questions of my mind, I just ask Jesus.  Who better to ask?  Besides, he knows what I am thinking before I even ask, so why not just be totally honest with him and myself?  Now, I do not always get the answers to my questions, but I do get peace about each question and isn’t that what God promised us?  Not answers, but peace, sweet peace!  I have also come to learn that living a life for Christ and doing his work is not always pretty.  In fact, sometimes the tasks that he gives us is just down right messy, they can be unpleasant, they can be frustrating, and they can be some of the most difficult things that I have ever done.  However, not one tasks for Christ can be done without love and that love will sustain us through those messy and difficult tasks.  The most difficult tasks usually end up being your greatest reward.  Just like we can’t understand all the twists and turns that this earthly life takes us, we can neither understand all the ways that the Lord is working through the tasks that he gives us.  Each and every tasks, whether huge or small, all are important in the Kingdom of Heaven, all are crucial to the winning of souls for Jesus Christ.  So tonight I thank God for the mess that he takes and turns into glory for him.  I thank him for using me even when I am not the perfect vessel.  I thank him for speaking to my heart, even when I don’t deserve to hear his sweet voice.  I thank him for all the questions that he answers and for the many more that he doesn’t. 

 

Two letters, one simple word...do!  That is what God tells us in Philippians 4:9.  Take what you have learned, received, heard, and seen in me and do them!  God has given us the Bible to teach us His ways and He has given us the Holy Spirit to lead us...what more could we even ask for?  Our minds will always question moments in our lives and we will never completely understand all of God's ways, but we have to trust Him in all things and do!

Jesus Is My Peace!

Who is Jesus to you?
Jesus is my Savior, He is my Forgiveness, and He is certainly my PEACE.


When I think of true peace, I think of Jesus walking on water in the middle of that awful storm. He knew his disciples were struggling and afraid because of the strong winds that raged around them, and he could have stopped the wind and waves at any moment, but he chose not to.  Instead, he told the disciples to "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." (Matthew 14:27)

How many times has Jesus whispered this exact phrase in my ear..."Rosanne, Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid". Jesus will not always stop the storms that surround me, but I can rest assure that he is always whispering sweet peace into my ear. I will not always understand the storms and the reason they arise, but I can always, always trust that Jesus will never leave me even in the middle of the most raging storm. And I know that God will use those storms to continue to mold me into the woman of God that he has chosen me to be.

It is our choice to accept the peace that Jesus gives to us. We can be filled with the peace of Jesus or we can be filled with the negativity of this world, we will be filled with one or the other! So I choose the peace of Jesus---in fact, I have come to realize that I can't live without it! His peace sustains me and allows me to sing his praises even in the middle of life's storms. 
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  John 14:27

Jesus is My Forgiveness!

Who is Jesus to you?
While Jesus is my Savior, He is also my FORGIVENESS.

Isaiah 55:7 says "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. He doesn't just forgive my sins, His Word says here that He will 'abundantly pardon'. Think about that for a minute---so different than the way I think about forgiving people. He lets it go, he pardons--an act of officially saying that someone who was judged to be guilty of a crime will be allowed to go free and will not be punished (http://www.merriam-webster.com). What a Savior, even though we are guilty, he still forgives us because he loves us just that much!


My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. I John 2:1 While we will always find forgiveness in the arms of our Father, Jesus Christ, we also find direction, and that direction comes from His Word. That Word tells us not to sin, it explicitly gives us examples of what happens when people go against God and when people follow God. I love how he refers to us as 'my little children' in this scripture and then He goes on to tell us that all these stories are written down for our benefit---to guide us and to direct us away from sin.

I say again, what a God we serve! He is my Savior and He is my forgiveness and my heart continues to be humbled by who He is and what he does for me!