Category: Bible thoughts

Loving the way Jesus teaches – Is it even possible? 

​”Love must be sincere. 

Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 

Be devoted to one another in love. 

Honor one another above yourselves. 

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 

Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. 

Practice hospitality.  

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 

Live in harmony with one another. 

Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. 

Do not be conceited.  

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. 

Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 

Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 

On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”   

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” – Romans 12:9‭-‬21 NIV (http://bible.com/111/rom.12.9-21.NIV)

Really??? Does God expect us to be all that? Well, the short answer is yes. The human answer has to be no, because we are flawed and fallen beings who are incapable of having the sincere, loving existence God originally planned for us. (Thank you, Adam and Eve!) 

God gave us each free will so that we all individually responsible for our decisions, good, bad, and ugly. I could go line by line and point out every verse that I have ignored or broken in order to have my own way. As I move through life and it’s myriad of interactions, I am discovering that there actually is some wisdom in these words. What a shocker!

While I was growing up, my Grandma and Mom would say things like “You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” Not my thing. I preferred sarcasm and barbed words to kindness. Judging people. Revenge…. oh, yes. Gossip was the rule instead of the exception, and you know what?  Being all that didn’t bring me any peace or satisfaction, ever. Smiling and thanking someone who is being hateful or in your face really throws them off. 

I find that the more I strive to emulate Paul’s words and Jesus’ commands, the more peaceful and stress less  (is that even a word??? 😎) my life becomes. I still don’t get everything I want, and people are still rude and thoughtless, and sometimes just plain mean. It’s always my choice on whether I react, or respond, just as it is yours. We don’t know what is going on in that person’s life when they do things we don’t want to deal with, just as they have no idea what is going on in ours. 

Choice. It can be incredibly freeing, or you can tie yourself up in your misery and take it out on everyone else. Blessings come when we are thankful!

I Will Trust In You

​”Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! 

    How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His ways! 

    For who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give Him advice? 

    And who has given Him so much that He needs to pay it back? 

    For EVERYTHING comes from Him and exists by His Power and is intended for His Glory. 

    ALL Glory to Him forever! Amen.”  

    Romans 11:33-36 NLT (http://bible.com/116/rom.11.33-36.NLT)

I’m sitting outside in the backyard, contemplating God’s beautiful creation. He is so good to me! I was reading a post from a friend who’s ex is refusing to bring her children home after his visitation. I am blessed in not having that drama in my life, but there have been plenty of other dramas to deal with. There will be more, I’m sure, because the enemy has temporary control over the earth (just until Jesus returns!!). I remember during a particularly difficult period as I was driving home, I was crying from frustration and exhaustion, when I felt the physical presence of the Holy Spirit in the car with me as He touched my shoulder and said “I am with you.” There’s a song that Lauren Daigle sings and the chorus goes like this:

“When You don’t move the mountains

I’m needing You to move

When You don’t part the waters

I wish I could walk through

When You don’t give the answers

As I cry out to You

I will trust, I will trust

I will trust in You”

The enemy makes it REALLY difficult to rest in the trust we have in Jesus. When we can’t do anything else, we pray. We can’t see God’s plan and it is incredibly frustrating to keep finding ourselves in the dark valleys. I have to watch myself and remember that no matter how bad it gets, God is still in control. My heart hurts for all the pain being suffered today by so many. Prayer is always the BEST thing we can do for those hurting! Can I get an Amen!!

Here Come the Judge 

​“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.  For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.” – Matthew 7:1-2 NLT (http://bible.com/116/mat.7.1-2.NLT)

Man, this is HARD. I think I know right from wrong, and then, just when I think I am making strides towards being the person God wants me to be; just when I feel like l’m actually beginning to reflect Christ in my life, I see or hear something and I jump to judge. Ugh

Terrorists – “Shoot them all and let GOD sort them out.”

Rudeness, disrespect (includes people who use inappropriate gestures and foul language) – “Oh no you didn’t!” Just let me crawl up in their face and teach them a lesson in kindness.

Flat out meanness, criminals, and cruelty – Put them in stocks on the village square for a week without shelter or food, and allow bystanders to throw rotten fruits and veggies at them.

Fat people; trash (white, black, red, yellow… trash is trash) – Get a job! Quit being lazy and get off your a**. Clean up your house and yard. Do something productive. 

I’m not opinionated, right? (Okay, you can stop laughing now!) Judging others is natural. Normal – but just because it’s normal does not make it right. I want to point out all of the issues of others so I don’t have to look at mine. Now that is normal and natural to our human nature! 

LORD of my life, Savior. You are Awesomeness personified. Beautiful, perfect Father. I ask for forgiveness for my judgmental attitudes, and pray for Your contentment within my life and thoughts. I am not judge and jury over any human, including my own thoughts and actions. You alone are GOD. Bless my neighbors and friends and family today, O LORD. I lift up those people who are reeling from the tragic events that seem to be popping up more and more frequently. You promised that by accepting Jesus as Savior, we would never be alone again. Thank You for keeping that promise, and for covering us with Your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Going All Political 

I’ve been staying off of social media for the past few days because of all the negative news and posts. I know there are a lot of positive posts and people are coming together, too, but even within many of the “positive” messages there seems to be an underlying hatred. Our beautiful country is being destroyed in a systematic fashion by both those in power and in radical fringe groups. God – not Mohammed, not Buddha nor Mother Earth or any other god – God the Almighty, Creator, was at the center of the founding of our nation, and He is being pushed aside for all other gods. Professional athletes and musicians are treated with more respect than we give almighty God.

People sit in lines and even camp out in parking lots in order to be first in line for the best deals and the best tickets…. Have you EVER seen anyone waiting in line for the church doors to open? America, without God, we are nothing. This nation is heading for an EPIC fail. Our so-called leaders, from small town mayors to the White House continually undermine the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We the people are having to go into survival mode. 

It is so easy to fall into the hatefulness and prejudice that is being preached from Washington, but we as Christians MUST overcome those emotions and attitudes. Yes, I know how easy it is to say, and what a difficult challenge to do. It can only happen when we follow the Words of Jesus. Love the ones who want to hurt us, and PRAY for them. That is NOT what I want to do!

Father God, LORD of ALL, have Mercy on me. You are The Almighty; The  Forgiving and Merciful GOD. Help me to leave Judgment to You, and with Your help, I will forgive and pray for those who would do me and this great nation harm. I pray for clarity and for a contented spirit. It is only with You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that I can have peace in this world. It is only through You, LORD Jesus,  that this nation, and our world, will ever have peace. Thank You, Father God, for Your continued presence in my life. Amen.

Are you willing to pray this prayer, too?

Perfect Peace 

“You {LORD} will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, all whose thoughts are fixed on You! Isaiah 26:3 NLT

(http://bible.com/116/isa.26.3.NLT)
The morning after a rain shower is so sweet. The breeze is cool and there’s still enough shade in the side yard to sit and enjoy being outside in God’s creation. We have groceries in the house, and the bills are paid; we’re all  (relatively) healthy; life is good. It is well with my soul.

But what about when it is all turned upside down? Financial struggles, health issues, losing our livelihood or our home, death…. can we be like Job? Will I be content if I lose all that is dear to me? In the past, I have lost nearly everything – home, belongings, animals, family, health. My physical body was abused and violated. I was anything but content, and I was screaming at God. If I were to face those things now, I want to say I would be like Job (read his story!) or Horatio Spafford (story below) or Fanny Crosby (blind since she was 6 weeks old) or Helen Keller (an amazing woman ), but I don’t know. I pray I never face those kinds of catastrophic loses again, but if they should occur, I pray for God’s peace to wash over me.

My Dad had all kinds of physical issues that should have left him incapacitated when he returned from WWII, but that didn’t stop him. He pastored into his 70’s and raised a family with the help of my beautiful mother (Phyllis Henry) until he became bedridden – and even then, unable to care for His own broken body, he ministered to everyone he came in contact with. I can still hear him singing this song with all of his heart…

This hymn was writ­ten af­ter two ma­jor trau­mas in [Horatio G.] Spaf­ford’s life. The first was the great Chi­ca­go Fire of Oc­to­ber 1871, which ru­ined him fi­nan­cial­ly (he had been a weal­thy bus­i­ness­man). Short­ly af­ter, while cross­ing the At­lan­tic, all four of Spaf­ford’s daugh­ters died in a col­li­sion with an­o­ther ship. Spaf­ford’s wife Anna sur­vived and sent him the now fa­mous tel­e­gram, “Saved alone.” Sev­er­al weeks lat­er, as Spaf­ford’s own ship passed near the spot where his daugh­ters died, the Ho­ly Spir­it in­spired these words. They speak to the eter­nal hope that all be­liev­ers have, no mat­ter what pain and grief be­fall them on earth. (www.cyberhymnal.org)


IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL

“Praise the Lord, O my soul.” Psalm 146:1

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Refrain

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Refrain

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

Refrain

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!

Refrain

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Refrain

The POWER of Christ

“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s Love?
Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For Your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.” )
No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who Loves us.
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from GOD’S Love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the Love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our LORD.” – Romans 8:35‭-‬39 NLT
(http://bible.com/116/rom.8.35-39.NLT)

What a fantastic scripture!

How can I possibly add to this? If life were left to me, I’d not only be dead, but trapped in the depths of hell as consequences for my actions. Fortunately, life is not under my control, regardless of how many times I’ve tried to make it that way. No, God is in control, and He is not me. Thank You, Jesus!

Over the years, I have made some really bad choices. When I say I should be dead, I’m not exaggerating. Things I’ve done, well, I’m astonished to have survived. There were close calls, and interestingly, they didn’t really serve as wake-up calls. No, I counted myself “lucky.” How do you feel about “luck”? I have to the conclusion that luck does not exist. Neither does coincidence. Everything is part of a plan, an overview, that we humans can’t see. The master plan. It contains what we consider flaws – but there aren’t any flaws. The problems, the situations we find ourselves in, can be consequences for our own actions, but they can also be consequences of the original sin of Adam and Eve. Yep, we get to deal with those consequences, too. Free will isn’t necessarily the great thing we like to think it is. After all, it was my great thinking that got me into those messes in the first place!

God did not cause the bad. The choices we make determine who gets to orchestrate the consequences. Don’t get me wrong, children  suffering is never okay. God doesn’t condone hurting children, or anyone or anything else! We blame Him for the evil in the world; abuse, torture, cancer… God doesn’t cause any of these. We can only blame ourselves for setting evil loose in the world. Dang that free will! God hurts when we hurt, and that’s why He made such a sacrifice to send Jesus, His SON, to die once and for all to save us from our sins. Our bad choices. Can you imagine giving up your child so that he or she could be tortured and ridiculed and killed for someone else’s children? Children who were wicked and sinful, where your child was obedient and beautiful?

I can’t! And yet that is exactly what God did so that we don’t have to deal with the ultimate consequences of our choices, our sins, which is eternal death in an obscene, unimaginably horrible place. All we have to do is to reach out to Jesus. We can be forgiven and receive eternal LIFE just by asking Him to be the Lord of our lives. Doing so doesn’t mean nothing bad will ever happen again; in fact, just the opposite is true because the evil one, Satan, takes every salvation as a personal challenge to beat us down. He knows he can’t win, and once we accept Christ, he has lost us forever. Being a poor loser, his goal becomes making us as miserable in this life as he can. He takes innocent souls and heaps misery and illness and disaster on us, trying to get us to blame God and to renounce His Supremacy over all. Remember, he doesn’t win! (Read the back of The Book. It’s FABULOUS!)
“… nothing can ever separate us from God’s Love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.” – Romans 8:38 NLT (http://bible.com/116/rom.8.38.NLT)

Hallelujah and Amen!

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Wealth, Success, and Wisdom

King Solomon is said to be the wisest – and richest – man who ever lived. He knew that it was crucial for him to give honor and praise to the Lord, and to give God the credit for his success.

“True humility and fear of the Lord lead to riches, honor, and long life.” (NLT) or
“Humility is the fear of the Lord ; its wages are riches and honor and life.” (NIV) – Proverbs 22:4 (http://bible.com/111/pro.22.4.NIV)

Do you require financial wealth to consider yourself a success? Do you need the recognition of man through your job?

I’m not super intelligent. I don’t have lots of money, and right now I don’t even have a paying job. By the world’s standards, I can’t be counted as successful in business. There aren’t a ton of trophies or certificates lining the walls of my home. I should have died years ago, based on the decisions and consequences of them in my life. But check this out!

I am already a success in God’s eyes. He has given me wealth beyond measure in family and friends. When I lost everything, including my right to be a mother, He carried me and provided for me – although I certainly didn’t see it at the time!

God is Provider and Healer, Comforter, Savior, and King. Yahweh, Jehovah God, Almighty King. He is also our Advocate when we stand before the judgement throne of God. Don’t know about anyone else, but there’s no way I want to be judged for my life without Jesus standing up for me!

I pray you’ll open your heart today and let Him be yours. Amen!

My Strength

“I can do ALL this through Him who gives me strength.” – Philippians 4:13 NIV (http://bible.com/111/php.4.13.NIV)

No matter what I am facing, I can rely on the LORD. David faced lions and bears as a shepherd, and he faced a giant of a man whose stated goal was to kill David and devastate David’s nation. Noah faced crowds of jeering people for years as he built his ark. Joseph faced Pharaoh and spoke truth that should have gotten him killed; Daniel did the same to Nebuchadnezzar. He faced lions in a pit, and he was thrown into fire with his companions for not bowing to the king. Abraham was told to kill his son Issac and offer his body as a sacrifice. Job lost everything. The Apostles were hunted and killed.

God delivers us! No matter what is going on, no matter what we are facing in our lives, God is good. Sometimes it means that we lose our physical health, or even our lives, but look at the big picture. Regardless of what man can do to this shell, I belong to to the Most High God, King and Ruler of the entire universe. Whatever I suffer on earth will be more than compensated with an eternity with Jesus.

If you are worried and afraid, there is a way to contentment and peace. Sometimes we just have to remind ourselves of Who is in control….. and I can promise it’s not me, and it’s not you. If justice and peace were left up to us – well, look at the world as we know it, and there’s the answer to how well we are doing! I am looking forward to the new heaven and the new earth that we have been promised when Jesus returns. That’s when life becomes good!

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He’s reaching out for your hand. Are you going to take it?

Failed

Why did I ever think “I” could do life on my own? Did I really believe that I was smart enough & strong enough?

I hate the idea of failure, but then, what IS failure? One definition is: “lack of success:
synonyms: lack of success, nonfulfillment
an unsuccessful person, enterprise, or thing. Synonyms: loser, underachiever, ne’er-do-well, disappointment…

These words all come from the enemy to erode away our self worth, and God disagrees! He created us in His image, and He created us to succeed, not to fail. It’s a constant battle to remember that I am NOT a failure in God’s eyes!

I am fabulously made. I am beautiful… doesn’t matter what the world says. I am a success in God’s eyes, and I am perfect in His sight under the healing, covering, and protection under Jesus’ blood!

“Give praise to the LORD. Give praise to God our Savior. He carries our heavy loads day after day. Selah” (Psalm 68:19)

Think on this. Let JESUS cover you today!