Sunday, March 30, 2014

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)

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

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!