Toxic!

When we fail to recognize and confess our sin to God, we spread that sin to those around us.

Don’t you know that your own sin can spread to your children?  What about the compulsive liar who lies to make him look good…this in effect teaches those around us that it is okay to tell that “little white lie.”  It is not.  In addition, those extended breaks at work, or the late arrivals and early departures from work; demonstrate to your employees or colleagues that this “cheating mentality” is okay.  It is not.

Lord, expose the obvious and not so obvious sin in our lives.  Bring us to confession of these sins and acceptance of Your forgiveness.  Jesus died to take away our sin.  Receive Christ’s deliverance from all sin today and stop the spread of toxic waste. Genesis 3: 6-7

After Death…

We do not hear a lot about life after death.  Most prefer not to think about it and some do not believe life after death exists.  The bible tells us this in Philippians 1:20-24, Christ is exalted in our bodies whether by life or death.

We desire to be here on earth but it is better by far to be with Christ in Heaven. Because Christ died and was raised again, when we die we will be raised again with Him.  The soul of an unbeliever after death remains in the grave for judgment.  The death of a believer departs this body at death and is reunited with Christ and all other believers!  Yahoo!  That is great news!  Now you see why Paul was torn between living and dying.  He understood the gain from death for the believers in Christ! Why not just take us all home Lord?—to start eternity now!  Because there are many unbelievers on earth and we need to lead them to God for salvation!  In Heaven, there are no unbelievers, no people to make disciples; they are all Believers!

So while we are on earth, do not lose sight of our purpose.  Tell someone that Jesus saves!  That He loves them and wants to spent every day on earth with them and the rest of eternity face to face with them. Our loved ones, who have gone on before us are enjoying the bliss of Heaven, Our Savior and the Saints!  We will be there with them one day!  Until then, take Jesus throughout the earth.  Jesus wants every living person to be with Him forever.  Oh Lord, what a joy it is to think of Heaven!  What hope we have as believers that death brings us such gain!  Our time on earth is shorter than we think.  Help us to tell the good news of your love so that many will experience eternity with you!

Hacked!

Last night, a friend of our 10-year-old, Sam, became a victim of a cyber attack.  Someone hacked into Tim’s computer and stole all his games, passwords, and content; locking him out of his computer.  When Sam learned that his friend’s computer had been hacked, he was deeply saddened.  “Mom”, he said, “Tim is a Christian!”  I prayed with Sam for his friend, Tim.  Sam asked if he could stay up a little past his bedtime to console Tim; I granted his request.

Sam couldn’t understand why someone would do something so awful to Tim.  He explained to me how for months Tim had saved up his birthday money in order to buy these computer games.  And now all his games were gone.  Sam and I talked about evil and good and that the works of the hacker was evil.  I reminded Sam that God is still in control.  And that Christians will suffer as Christ did, but God will always be with us to make our burden light.  As we were walking down to his bedroom Sam said to me, “Mom, I don’t wish anything bad to happen to the person who hacked Tim, I only pray that he will ask God for forgiveness.”  Hallelujah!  My 10-year-old understood the power of forgiveness over material loss and hurt.  He understood that it was most expedient for this hacker to seek God’s forgiveness over rejoicing in the gain from stealing someone else’s treasure.  Sam’s attitude was right toward God.  He had the mind of Christ.

My eyes filled with tears to hear Sam pray for the sinner.  Sam understood that there was a greater benefit to God’s Kingdom if this hacker would turn from evil and turn to God.  He could have easily wished that the hacker would suffer the same evil that he caused to his friend—but he didn’t.

Philippians 2:5 reminds us to, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”  The mind thinks, reasons, perceives, feels, wills, judges and remembers.  Paul was encouraging us to have the same attitude that Christ has.

Father, help us surrender our mind to you.  Choosing Your way over our way, Your attitude versus ours, following your examples versus our feelings.  We believe the more we meditate on Your Word, the more our lives and attitudes will change to become like Christ.  Thank You, for helping us Lord.

Shhh…”Say no more!”

Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble.  (Proverbs 21:23)

Those who control their tongue will have a long life; opening your mouth can ruin everything. (Proverbs 13:3)

Take control of what I say, O LORD, and guard my lips. (Psalm 141:3)

And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! (James 3:10)

The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. (Proverbs 18:31)

What is the Lord telling us through these scriptures?  In some instances He is saying, “Say no more!”  In other instances, He warning us to be careful what we say because there is power in our tongue. It is really important to censor what we say, before we say it.  Think about your words.  The Bible says that our words have power to bring death or life.   How many times have you said, “I’m sick and tired of being in this situation?”  Perhaps the reason you are not only remaining in the situation but you are “sick” and “tired” too, is because you spoke those words over your life. How many times do we curse ourselves by our very own words?  “You make me sick!”  “I don’t care if I get fired.”  “I hope she drops dead.”  “I’m afraid this isn’t going to work out.” LISTEN to what you are saying!  We are cursing our blessings.  I know you may have been waiting a long time for your break through, but the Bible says, in Romans 4:17, God called those things that didn’t exist into existence.  Isn’t that what He did In the Beginning?  He spoke creation into existence…”Let there be….”  And in Mark 11:23, “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.”

I believe God wants us to use our mouth to speak into existence the things in our lives that are not present today.  To call those things that are not as though they were. Instead of being “sick and tired” of your situation—Praise God by faith to bring you through it.  “Lord, I praise You because I know You are able to heal me—I speak healing over my arthritis.”  Try telling your co-worker this…”I know things aren’t fair here, but God is a just God and He will make right the wrong.”  Don’t curse yourself anymore by saying, you’re sick and tired of a situation; tell God, “Lord, I know You see the struggles I go through, I believe I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:14)

We have to SPEAK life over our situations, over our life, over the lives of family and friends.  Just because he or she has always been ‘slow’, or lacked knowledge, doesn’t mean they will always be that way!  Watch your words!  Cancel out the cursing that comes from your mouth—words that bring death—And speak blessings into your life! Believe in God and speak.  Shhh…Say no more negative, cursing, lifeless things over your life or anyone else’s!  Start speaking life into your life and the life of those around you and watch the Power of God transform things.

Father, teach us each day how to be more like Jesus.  We have been deceived into using our everyday language to curse our lives.  Forgive us Lord.  We thank You for showing us how to turn things around.  It is not enough for us to just think it in our mind, but give us the courage to confess with our mouths, blessings.  Sanctify our mouths Lord.  Guard our tongue.  We submit our mouth to You, Lord.  You have come that we might have life and have it more abundantly!  Help us Holy Spirit!  Help us speak fluently this new language of blessings and life.  In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Becoming Like Jesus

Ever get frustrated with difficulties?  Wonder why this is happening to you?  You’re not alone.  God wants to shape the way we think, feel and behave; it’s called character.  God wants to shape our character to become more like Jesus.

No doubt, we will experience unpleasant situations and find ourselves facing difficult circumstances, but the way we respond should be Godly.  I know you’ve heard the slogan, “What would Jesus do?”  Well that’s a great question to have in the front of your mind as we live each day.  I remember when I was going through a very tough time.  I was angry and hurt!  I remember going to God and just screaming out in anguish, “Do something, PLEASE!!”  I had no idea how I was supposed to get through this experience.  But I did know that God could help me.

The key to building a character like Christ is to first realize that we can’t do it on our own.  We need the Holy Spirit to change us over time.  If we believe that God is able and willing to help us go through whatever challenges we face, we can then accept His strength when we’re weak, His joy in the midst of sorrow, His hope for our future, His Way instead of our way.  Then we will begin to see God’s Power working in our lives.  When we submit to God, His Will is at work in our lives, and we are able to experience the supernatural that comes only from God.  As long as we try to handle things on our own, we are limited to only being able to what comes naturally.

Becoming like Jesus is a lifelong process.  Each day we have to submit our minds, and our wills to God.  It’s not easy to give up control but wouldn’t you rather know that the Creator of this Universe, the Most Powerful King, the Almighty Savior, the Prince of Peace, the only one with Ultimate Control; is in charge of your life?  Lead us Lord.

Philippians 2:13

Romans 12:2

Spring Cleaning…

As the days of winter come to an end—we prepare for the warmer days of spring: a time when we typically clean our houses from top to bottom.  Spring is a time to get our house in order.  Although I’m not referring to our houses that we live in, of brick and mortar, but our physical bodies that are houses of the Holy Spirit.  1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

It is time to remove the dust and stubborn grime from our lives.  Only, we’re not alone to do spring cleaning by ourselves.  Our role in cleaning our lives is confessing to God the areas of habitual sin and willful disobedience.  Once we confess and turn to Jesus for help to avoid committing the same old sin over and over, we can begin to enjoy the springtime season of our lives.  I pray that God will open our eyes to see the hidden sins in our lives—once exposed, we will have a deep desire to want to sin no more.  For those known areas of disobedience, I pray that we can take those directly to God and confess that we need help resisting the temptation to disobey God’s plan for our lives.

Let me give a couple of examples.  Many years ago, I thought it was okay to pay all my bills first, then, give what I had left as an offering to God.  When I learned that I must give God my tithes and offerings before paying my bills, I thought, “No way!”  Surely God doesn’t want me to lose my house, have my car repossessed, or not have food to eat!  And it seemed like, every week that I avoided paying my tithes and offering, I ended up incurring an unplanned expense that was almost exactly the same amount of what my tithes and offerings to God should have been.  After several times of noticing that I couldn’t afford not to pay my tithes and offering, I decided to prioritize my bills into the “must have” “nice to have” and “don’t really need at all.”  Doing this is an exercise that I still do from time to time.  I let go of getting my hair done every week, and learned to do it myself.  I cut my clothing budget to something new twice a year, not ever paycheck.  I eliminating eating out and ate a sandwich, one bag of chips and a pop for lunch for an entire year!  Not only did I have enough money to pay my tithes and offering but I had money to save.  This practice continued, although I finally started eating more for lunch, and I increased my giving to God well beyond 10%!

Another example of asking God to help me with bad habits occurred recently.  A couple of years ago, I wasn’t praying to God daily, not to mention reading my bible daily.  I was so consumed with my career, being a mom, a wife, going to school for a second career, volunteering and having time to watch my favorite TV show that I didn’t make time to spend with God.  I felt pretty successful most of the time, although I was much stressed.  The stress stole my sleep and my ability to function on days.  I was very sad.  I noticed, that the sadder I became, the more time I had to call on God to help me.  I struggled with letting go of anything that I was doing.  I tried to incorporate time with God and still do all the other things too.  This led to a complete wear down of my body…diseases began to invade my body and mind.  When I felt like a worn-our dishcloth I remember telling God, “I can’t do this.”  I asked God to help me to be what He wanted me to be, at this particular time in my life.  At that point, there wasn’t much I wanted to be, other than a wife and mother, and daughter and sister…well you see how my priorities had changed.  God has used these past couple years of my life to bring me into a wonderful place of peace with Him.  And although I’m still often under attacks with over committing, over achieving, facing physical illnesses—God sustains me with peace.  Actually, the past two years of my life have been the worst and best two years of my life.  I still can’t understand how that can be—if you know, feel free to share it with me.  All I know is that God is always in control of my days and nights.  And He cares for me.  He takes very good care of every need I have!  He keeps surprising me with blessings that I didn’t ask for—and the things I ask for, He grants in His way and in His time.

Dear Lord, search our lives today.  Search our intentions and our actions.  Don’t let us desire the things that are not good for us.  Break the unhealthy habits in our lives.  Increase our faith in You O Lord.  If you show us the areas that need to be cleaned up this spring, we will surrender them to You.  You can cleanse us from our bad habits, and willful disobedience.  Let our goal be to seek a deeper relationship with You and others.  We need Your help Lord.  Jesus died for all the dust bunnies and skeletons that are hiding under our beds and in our closets.  Let Your Word shine light on the areas in our lives that need correcting.  And then cleanse us of our sins and we will turn away from them as free people.  As we come closer to You, You will come closer to us.  Replace our desire to continue in sin with a desire to please You.  Set our hearts to follow Jesus.  James 4:8.  We thank you Lord for helping us with our spring cleaning today.  In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Bless The Lord who causes us to triumph!

My strength has arrived!  I’ve been extremely tired and weak. I’ve been praying for God to help me to shake off this tiredness.  God showed me that I was in a spiritual warfare, and the weapons I need to fight with are not natural.   The weapons I need are, The Word of God to fight, The Name of Jesus to resist the devil and The Blood of Jesus to protect me! 2 Corinthians 10:4

Daniel 7:25 tells us that the devil will try to wear out the saints.  He tried to wear me down, to frustrate me, to leave me with no health, no peace, no finances, no relationships, and no strength!  He tried to make me so tired that I wouldn’t have enough energy to pray. The Holy Spirit had me to pray that The Lord would open my eyes to see this deceptive trick of the devil. God shared with me that the enemy was trying to wear me down.

God wants us to be balanced and cautious at all times because the devil is seeking whom he may destroy. When we overwork or become lazy…we are out of balance and we leave our door open for Satan to come in.  I was overworked and Satan took advantage of that opening. God showed me some areas in my life where the enemy was trying to infiltrate my camp.  When we’re in God’s Army, we need to stay fit.  We must get proper rest, eat proper food, and exercise!  Take care of your physical self.  When your physical body gets tired, you lose your passion, drive, and energy.  You need to pray and ask God to stir up the passion in you.  Stir up the Holy Spirit. 2 Timothy 1:6

Take a minute to count your blessings.  Someone else has it worse off than you.  Stir up the joy— because the joy of The Lord is our strength.   Just staying busy can wear you down. Satan wants us to be busy; God wants us to be fruitful.

1 Peter 5:9 tells me to withstand the devil.  I have to stay rooted and grounded in God, being too busy left me open for attack.  As soon as we see the devil, we must pray.  We must resist him immediately. When we’re going through hard times, the devil try’s to back you into a corner and make you believe you’re the only one going through this.  Don’t believe the devil.  Stir up the Holy Spirit within you today. God will cause you to triumph over whatever situation you are facing. 2 Corinthians 2:14

A child’s heart shared…

We all have busy days and often busy nights too.  Of late we’ve battled snowstorms, ice damage, frigid temperatures, colds, headaches, and muscle aches.  However, let’s not be distracted by these things.

As I was folding back the boys bedding in preparation for bedtime.  I thought, “Tonight would be a good night to change the cotton sheets and apply the warm, cozy flannel sheets to the bed.”  Forgetting all the body aches, although making it difficult to lift the mattresses, I knew how happy the boys would be when they snuggled in on a cold night.

As I was walking with Sam to his bedroom, I told him he would be able to sleep in shorts and a t-shirt tonight!  No heavy night-suit!  When we got to his room, and he gazed at his bed, his eyes lit up!  He quickly changed into his shorts and t-shirt and jumped into bed.  “Ahh…Oh mom, my bed feels so good with these sheets on.”  As he hunkered into the bed, as if to dig a hole into the memory foam mattress, he sighed.  Then he turned and raised his hand to rub my arm gently.  “Oh mom, you do so much to make us happy.  I know you do not feel well, but you are always concerned about us.”  Then a sniffle, “I wish I were bigger and could do these things for you!”  He whimpered.  He proceeded to tell me how he will take care of me when he got older as I have taken care of him.  That he would even move me to a warmer climate, near him, because that is where he has already decided to live—in a warmer place.  I guess he has had enough of the harsh winter too.  He said, “Mom, what can I do for you?”  Without thought or hesitation, I said, “Just obey, Sam.”  I proceeded to tell him how delighted I am when he starts homework on time—when he comes to the dinner table, when I call. Also, that he brushes his teeth, when asked.  “That is it Sam.”  When you do these things, you make me very happy.

Sam and I said our nightly prayers, and when I finished my part of the prayers…Sam was fast asleep.  I was glad Sam appreciated something as small as flannel sheets on his bed.  However, I am most happy that he shared his gratitude and appreciation for my efforts.  Later, as I prayed to God, he shared with me that all He wants is for us to obey Him, also.  I was sorrowful that perhaps I’ve been doing more complaining than praising of late.  So I looked back over the past week and began to thank God for all the victories of the week that might have been overshadowed by the many challenges.  I started smiling and imagined that God was starting to feel a little like I did when Sam shared his heart with gratitude and thanksgiving with me.

Lord, I thank You that I can see you in big and small ways!  Most of all, I thank You for loving me.  You care for me, and I believe you seek opportunities in my life, even amidst my challenges, to let me see You.  I will be obedient to Your call Lord.  So I thank You for restoring me.

From a child’s heart, God shared with me a lesson of love and obedience.

Deuteronomy 6:4-13

 

What’s holding you back?

I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running and I’m not turning back. Philippians 3: 13-14 (MSG)

Many of us may have reason to forget our past—we haven’t been faithful to God, we have made some poor choices in life, we have hurt someone, badly. If you’re like me, I wish I could take some things back. Some of the things in our past seem to threaten our future; that, not-so-perfect college transcript, the run-ins with the police or the stretched truth on your tax return. No doubt, many of us have things that we’ve done in the past that we are ashamed of, and we struggle with what we hope to be based on what we have been.

Paul is telling us in Philippians 3:13-14, to let go of the past, the guilt and the shame. Because our hope is in Christ Jesus now, we are free to look forward to what God will help us become. And the Lord wants you to come to Him. God wants you to grow in His knowledge by focusing and concentrating on, a dedicated relationship with Him. Realize that you are forgiven and move on to a life of faith and obedience. God is offering you the opportunity to trade in your past for a new life with Him.

Lord, Jesus, we come to You today, with a past, we’re not proud of. I realize that the mistakes I’ve made, in some cases, can never be corrected. However, I learned today, that You can set me free from the guilt and shame of my past and allow me to be a living example to others.   You can still use me. You will use anyone, who comes to You with and open heart. O’ forgive me dear Lord, wash me clean of my past which comes to haunt me daily. I’ve decided to become what Christ Jesus wants me to become. I’m no longer the person I use to be. My past tells me, I’m never going to amount to much. But I believe Your word in Jeremiah 29:11, which says, “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” I believe Your word over my life today. I’m going to keep looking to You Lord, to help me become what you want me to be. I will forget what I use to be, by your grace and mercy. Thanks for the hope You’ve given me today Lord. I won’t hold back any longer, because of my past.

God won’t listen…

The bible says in Proverbs 28:9, God does not listen to our prayers if we intend to go back to our sin as soon as we get off our knees. If we want to forsake our sin and follow Him, however, He willingly listens—no matter how bad our sin has been. What closes His ears is not the depth of our sin, but our secret intention to do it again. God hears our intentions as clearly as He hears our words.