Peace

      There is something about the old hippie in me that will never tire of the word, "peace." I no longer hold up my two fingers while saying this, well, maybe I do, but I really think the word is cool.

      Peace is something that we all hope for. Back in 60's and 70's we had Jesus freaks. They tried to spread peace by way of Jesus. I have to admit that I tried to avoid them, but I liked the message they were sending.

      So much of my life has evolved around this thing called peace. I use to try to find peace with my parents as a teenager, I try to maintain peace with my husband and I'm always praying for peace with my children. I find it's an important word and a valuable thing to seek. Most days I am very blessed to have peace in my heart even when things seem crazy in the world around me. But that peace isn't something I have learned how to have along the way. No, it is a blessing I've received from Jesus.

      In order to carry on with the hippie, "peace" tradition, I would like to encourage everyone to pray for peace and prosperity within their nation. In Jeremiah 29:7, NIV,  it states, "Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because as it prospers, you prosper too. 

      Our nations and governments will never be able to provide us with the peace that we are hoping to find. We need to seek out our peace in Jesus.

     

Clouds

I have become very intrigued with the sky over the last few years and amazed with all the pictures that God has provided me with. I took this photo today from Michigan. Thank you God, I heart you too!

This picture also reminds me of the bible verse, "Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens;your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds." NLB  

God, Can you hear me now?

Have you ever prayed from the deepest of desperation you have ever known only to find that God doesn't seem to be listening? Have you ever been brought to the brink of your faith, wondering why God isn't helping?

Not so long ago, I went through an excruciating time in my life.  I prayed that God would come to help me, but he was silent, and I was wondering why he seemed to be gone.  I went through many emotions during this time. I became angry with God, confused by his silence, and wondered what it was that I had done that was so wrong.

Before long, I went back to my bible and searched for God's promises to hear me. These are some of the things that I found out.

Our God is not in a hurry like we are. He already has things worked out. I began to see this as an opportunity for me, a chance to practice some patience. When the time is right we will all see what God has been doing. In Psalms 40:1 it states, "I waited patiently for God to help me;then He listened and hear my cry.TLB

We need to see that our God is bigger than our problems and not the other way around. Crying and whining about our difficulties must seem almost humorous to Him.
Be still and know that I am God.  Psalms 46;10 TLB

We need to learn that God is working on our behalf and He does hears us when we pray. Our attempts at begging and pleading over and over are unnecessary. Take for example when Moses brought the people out of Egypt and Pharaoh's army had them trapped on one side, the Red Sea had them trapped from the other. God already knew what He planned to do. He knew how He was going to save the people.That's why Exodus 14:14 makes sense,  The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still. NIV  


To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1NKJ
This verse describes why it is that God may seem silent during times of desperate prayer. He has His own timing, His own way of helping us, and His ways are absolutely perfect. The next time you pray and feel that God is not listening, just step back and know that He has already worked the problem out and while you are waiting to see your results, thank Him for the opportunity to gain some patience. Thank him for being bigger than your problem and thank Him for being your loving God. If you, like me, don't hear from Him right away, don't let yourself become fearful that God may not chose to help you or that God will be too slow and be too late. I have also held these fears and doubted, but I pushed past them to hold onto my faith and in doing so I have never once been disappointed. I have seen God work in mysterious ways, providing solutions I could have never even thought of, and he always comes though in perfect time. It's an exciting adventure to watch God's work and to see all the glorious things that He can do! Yes, I do believe that God hears me, and you need to believe that he hears you too!

The Benefit Package

These last few years have been very difficult for many people and those looking for a job are certainly no stranger to the benefit package. Everyone wants to have the best they can get. We all need to have insurance to protect our heath and a good retirement plan secures our future, right?

There is another benefit package that we all should be taking advantage of though and it comes from the promises of God in the bible. His promises will get you through the good times and the bad. Did you know that God has promised to never leave you or forsake you? You may have the best boss in the world, but I doubt that they would ever tell you that.

I have come to understand that when I pray, instead of asking or complaining, I thank God for His promises. I thank God for loving me and for giving me His only son, who took away all my sins. I thank God who in John 14:27 says," Peace I leave with you, peace I give unto you. I do not give as the world gives (Praise the Lord!). Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

God wants us to live in His grace, which is His undeserved goodness and kindness. Would you sacrifice your son on the cross for all the people you know? Would you consider them worth it? God loves us so much that He did that for us so He absolutely considers us worth it.

I would challenge you to go about your prayer time for the next week or so giving thanks for the promises of God. I will list a few at the bottom of this writing, but if you would like a specific promise for a certain difficulty then perhaps you can look some up. I believe that it won't take long before you realize what a great benefit package it is that God offers. I pray that you will enjoy all the benefits that you have been promised and live a life that truly very blessed!

I suggest that you begin your prayer something like this," Dear Lord, I thank you for your promise of  _________.


For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord." Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

Be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid, for the Lord they God is with you wherever you go.   Joshua 1:9

I waited patiently for God to hear me then he listened and heard my cry. Psalms 40:1-3

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ. Philippians 4:6-7

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should,go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Psalms 32:8

Spirit in the Sky

I recently took this picture of what I thought was just a beautiful sunset, but when I uploaded it onto my computer I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There in the clouds is the Michigan Mitten, and of course, I live in Michigan, so this was really a hoot for me!

Then today, my husband viewed the photo for the first time and he noticed something else, a face of a girl in the clouds, in the center, right above the trees. He said that she must be our guardian angel.

Is it any wonder that I think God is so cool? Oh, the miraculous things he does for us!

Keep your eyes to the sky and you may be surprised what you will see. Happy Easter!

Hearts and Love

I wonder how much of our lives are spent in an attempt to get others to love us, to accept us, to appreciate us? Do you think it's ten percent, fifty percent; more? If I had a dime for every time time I let someone get to me and take away my feelings of being valued and loved I'd be rich. If I had a dime for every time I allowed myself to become offended I'd have even more.

People talk about loving their families, but I don't know too many families that are very loving. I did not come from a particularly loving family and I certainly did not marry into one. But inside my heart I felt love, and I always seemed to have enough to give out. So this being the case, where did all my love come from?

We tend to associate love with the human heart, don't we? For the most part we believe that hearts are red. Red is also the color of spilled blood. We mostly think of spilled blood when one is hurt or wounded. When one is hurt or wounded is it generally because of an accident or incident, both of which lead us to believe that the spilling of blood is not good. So if all this is true then why do we associate the human heart, with being red, and with love?

There can only be one reason. Because God sent his son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us, to shed his red blood in forgiveness of our sins, because He loves us from His very big heart.

If you are not loved by a single soul on this earth, you can always know that God loves you. He fills your heart with His love even if you don't ask for it and refills it as you need it. It doesn't take another person to fill your heart with love. It only takes God and Jesus!

Reasons to love being a Christian

Reasons to Love being a Christian

I love being a Christian because we can believe in what the bible says. It never changes and never will. Because it never changes we can rely on it. If it changed to satisfy us, it would be no more dependable than the daily news or our government. We may not always understand it, but it does have the answer for everything. It shows us the character of God and allows us to decipher His voice from ours, and from Satan's. We may not like what it says, but if that's the case, we are not seeing it from the heart of God's love. God's word always has our best interest at heart.

I love being a Christian because we can know how much God loves us! We can really know this! He loves us so very much even though we're so imperfect. We make so many mistakes. We do so many things wrong. We hold on to so many wrong thoughts. If I was Him I would be disgusted by all the things we have done. But He loves all his children and wants to save us from ourselves. That's why He gave us His son, Jesus. God wants to see us in Heaven! I truly believe that he leaves a whole in our heart that can only be filled up by Him.

I love being a Christian because we can know and love Jesus! He died on the cross-for us! He took all our sins with Him when he died, and He gave us the opportunity to accept his death, as our gift, as our means to get to Heaven. It's the only way to get there. And when we arrive, because we accepted Jesus gift, we will all arrive sin free!

I love being a Christian because God gave us Jesus who understands our human experience. Jesus lived in this world, but was not of this world. Some people didn't like Him, Jesus was tempted, some rejected Him, some betrayed him, some didn't understand Him, some didn't appreciate Him, some were downright cruel to Him, some wanted to see Him dead, some killed Him. Jesus understands what we go through, so I love it that as a Christian, we can all get through this life with Him.

The Holy Spirit! Oh, how I love The Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit tells our hearts when we are doing something wrong and it prompts us to do many things right. We as Christians benefit so much by listening for this voice. The Holy Spirit is powerful! The Holy Spirit gives us gifts! The Holy Spirit lifted up Jesus and transported Him up and into Heaven. The Holy Spirit is a powerful friend!

I love being a Christian because God allows bad things to happen so that we can learn good things from every bad situation. This helps strengthen our character. Being a Christian is not for the weak because you will come under Spiritual Warfare with the dark side. For anyone who thinks that only weak people believe in God, they couldn't be more wrong. Satan doesn't come against those who are already his. Satan comes after Christians. We are only weak in that we allow God to aid us in fighting Satan; in this, God becomes our strength. Jesus defeated Satan at the cross! Jesus has already won! Satan had already been conquered! Now, Satan is just a big nuisance!

I love being a Christians because there is so much to know and understand about God that it would take more than just this one lifetime to get it all. Christianity is an exciting journey of learning and growing and becoming better than we were yesterday.

I love being a Christian because God is all about Grace. Grace is God's goodness and kindness, directed at us, as undeserving people. He doesn't want us to live in condemnation. He gave us the 10 commandments to show us that none of us could keep them, on our own strength. He gave us the 10 commandments to show us why we all need Jesus. Jesus was sent to provide us with forgiveness for our sins! Jesus is the only way for us to get into Heaven! It's because of God's grace that we were given Jesus! As Christians we have the abundance of God's Grace everyday and we have the gift of righteousness through Christ blood on the cross.

I love being a Christian because I am living in this world, but I am not of this world. This can be difficult at times. It encompasses everything we encounter in this life. Each of us will have to fight our own strongholds such as addiction, anger, fear, jealousy and offense, but the Trinity is here to help us. It should be our goal to proceed in life with faith, and to become as Christ-like as we possibly can. This makes the life of a Christian exciting!

Sadly, I know many who have given up their walk with God. They felt their prayers weren't being answered during trying times and they lost faith and gave up on Him. But giving up on God is never the answer. It is never okay just to quit! Just because you quit God doesn't mean that he doesn't exist, it only means that you quit! God will see you through your tough times, but you have to keep your faith and your hopes upon Him. Don't blame God if you give up before he chooses to help you. One more day of faith could have made all the difference!

Antichrist

In the last chapter of the bible, Revelation, it speaks of the Antichrist.   I will not chose to be Anti-Christ during this Christmas season. I enjoy wishing a Merry Christmas to folks and do so with a grateful heart. I am not trying to insult you or hurt your feelings, in fact it's quite the opposite, I am sending you a greeting of love. I hope that you'll try to receive it in the spirit it is intended.

I understand that there are those who don't believe in Jesus Christ. What I don't understand is why they celebrate His birthday. I suppose it's because they get so many presents.  If you would like to have a Happy Holiday celebration, then by all means do so, but please choose another day to do this. I promise that I wont kick and scream like a sensitive child if you wish me Happy Holidays. Christmas is my celebration with my Lord and Savior though. Please respect my holiday and I will respect yours. I'd like to see us all just try and be kind to one another and put away all this ultra- sensitivity. Can't we all just be a bit more tolerant and live in peace?

Peace and Blessings to all and I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Simple Satan Says

Satan twists the truth to justify self; he kills, steals and destroys.
 One moment, one day, one lie at a time, until wrong feels so right it's enjoyed.
 So question yourself in all that you do; in all that you hear and you see.
One day it will be you he comes after. Be prepared to tell Satan to leave!

Lust and Heaven's Tear

I recently became aware that a Christian friend of mine has taken to hanging out at a strip club and has befriended one of the strippers. I told him that Jesus would not hang out at places like this and he responded by telling me that Jesus hung out with a lot of bad people.

 Lust is a powerful drug and can be an insult to the Holy Spirit within us. It sneaks in and slowly begins to control the way we think. It's addicting and it's only goal is to  satisfy self. Sadly, it affects the lives of many and has destroyed more than a few lives.

When I think about how sad this makes me feel towards my friend I can't help and think about how God feels about us. We are all so weak. We can't keep God's commandments. We can't do anything in our own strength. How sad it must make God to have created us, whom he loves, and we do everything on earth that disappoints him.

Fortunately for us, instead of drowning us with his tears or sending fire down on us from above,  God sent his only son to die on the cross for us and to forgive us. Those who call themselves Christians, should walk in gratitude for what God has given us and we do this by becoming living examples. We do this by following Jesus, we do this because we Honor God.

Are you living your life serving Jesus or are you living your life serving self? This is a question I must ask myself each day. I ask God to give me my answers.

Afterlife

Someone recently posted this on my Facebook wall. At first I felt very offended, then sad for the ones who believe this.

This is hard for me to understand. If there were only a chance, a slim chance, that God exists, and that there is an afterlife, wouldn't it make sense to strive for the best life possible? Isn't this a truly perfect opportunity? Isn't hell on earth enough for them?

Kathy Lee Gifford recently referred to how we will all become dust one day. This is so true. No healthy living plan is going to keep our bodies living on this earth forever.  We are all going to die.

Some people believe at death we will all turn into nothingness. But, just wonder if this is not true. Is it really worth taking a chance on? 

Why is it that some folks put all their eggs in the earth basket, which is profoundly limited? Why wouldn't they strive for the life that lives on forever, and offers them the best of everything?

These and other questions I can never answer. But I believe God has. In His book, he calls them Fools.

Communication

If you don't know me very well then you may not understand the way I communicate.

If you don't know God very well then you may not understand how He communicates at all.

I hope you'll get to know Him! Peace and Blessings