The Fear Factor

What fears are you facing today? What steps do you need to take in order to find victory over those fears? Defination of fear is...False Evidence Appearing Real. If you fear the Lord, you don't have to be afraid of anything else. Here is some truth from God's Word:
Psalm 46:11..."God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble."
Psalm 63:7-8..."Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of Your wings. My soul clings to You ; Your right hand upholds me."
Isaiah 42:16..."I will lead the blind by ways they have not known..."
I pray you (and I) are victorious today!

The Golden Rule—old and new…

The Bible gives us a lot of good advice on having successful relationships. The verse in Matthew that we call the “golden rule” is one great piece of advice: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)

There is a “golden rule” verse in the Old Testament too. It’s found in Leviticus 19:18—“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”

These two verses teach us to treat others as we ourselves would like to be treated. I would guess that each of us would like to be treated as a special person. I certainly would!  How about you?

"treasured possession"

We are studying the story of the Israelites in the wilderness in Sunday school class. Here is a group of people who have seen many awesome miracles performed by God on their behalf. He has protected them from their enemies, guided them, provided them with food and water in the desert and now they are told that He wants to make a covenant with them. Exodus 19:5 says “Now if you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.”

You would think that they would be so happy and grateful that they would rejoice in the fact that the great and mighty I AM is their God and never dishonor Him as long as they lived. We know that throughout the 40 years they wandered around in the desert, there were much grumbling and many complains.

We would certainly never act like that you say. REALLY???  I think we would and do act like that and we who have read His book know better! However, because of His grace and mercy extended to us, He still thinks of us as His “treasured possession”! How fortunate we are.   

Overcoming bumps...

Overcoming bumps in the road…

We are challenged every day to overcome frustrating and irritating situations. If we are not prepared, our lives will be an endless series of annoying trials that keeps us from the peace that God desires for us.  As Christians, our lives shouldn’t be out of control. Oh, I know there’s bound to be days, but it’s up to us now in the relative calm to build a firm foundation so when those bumps in the road come, we will be standing firm. 

Isaiah 54:10 says, “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor My covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” Now that is quite a promise and should give us confidence that we don’t have to handle our frustrating circumstances on our own.

Life on planet Earth is a preparation time for Heaven.  Growing our love and trust in Him now will carry us through this short time here in order to see Him face to face there.

Some bumps have to do with people...

Some bumps in the road have to do with people…

A friend who is loyal and forgiving of your shortcomings is priceless. However, there may be some people in your life who frustrate and irritate you. (Let’s be honest!) Hopefully, those people are not related to you because the saying is that “you can choose your friends but not your relatives!” But if they are related, you have the great opportunity to grow in kindness and patience, two of the fruit of the Spirit that God has given to you as seeds to help you produce mature spiritual virtues.

Don’t let what people do and say offend you. Keeping a calm, peaceful spirit can eliminate many bumps in the road. Dwelling on those hurts can be a major bump.  People will always disappoint, but God never will. This verse can help: “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.” Psalm 118:8 (this verse is in the very center of the Bible, pretty neat, right?)

The lesson here is to accept people for the good that comes from them, don’t take offense and trust in the Lord above all!

More bumps

Some bumps are made by our own choices

Not all the bumps in the road are unexpected. For example, our wise choices play a big part in our over-all good health. But if we let ourselves get tired and run-down and then are with people who have a cold or the flu without washing our hands and doing all the things that the health experts say to do, it shouldn’t be a big surprise when we get sick.

Being physically sick  (whether a cold or something more serious) will also effect us spiritually too. Because when we don’t feel well, we don’t think clearly. We are vulnerable to the enemy’s trash talk in our heads. We listen and dwell on things we never would if we were physically strong. We’re not as active when we’re ill, so we have more time to ponder things we wouldn’t give a second thought to if we were well.

We all will get sick from time to time. But let’s stay spiritually strong by having scripture ready to think on so we won’t be vulnerable to the enemy’s discouraging words. Here are a few:

“…let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.  Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.” 1 Chronicles 16: 10-11

“God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1

“But the Lord is my defense; and my God is the rock of my refuge.” Psalm 94:22

“The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17  

Bumps in the road

Thank You God for a new fresh year! We all probably had a few bumps in the road last year so it's great to have a new year to look forward to. Oh! but wait...we will most certainly have a few bumps this year too! That is because we live on planet Earth and it comes with the terrotory. The Word says that in this life there will be troubles so we should learn to expect and be prepared for these times of stress and frustration.
There are many promises and principles from the Bible that will help in times of troubles. They won't help of course if we don't know what they are. That's our first step in preparing for unexpected and upsetting events in our lives.
One of my favorite verses is Proverbs 3:5-6. It teaches that we should trust God, not ourselves, that we should make Him an important part of our lives and in return, He will guide us through those bumps in the road! More next time.

Growing Sustaining Fruit

I've been working on a series of Bible studies about the fruit of the Spirit. These fruit are given to us to help us in our daily walk and make our lives here on planet Earth more victorious for us and more pleasing to God. The natural outflow of the Holy Spirit is the fruit produced by the inward workings of the Holy Spirit in us.
Galatians 5:22-23 list the virtues such as love, joy, peace... Our aim is to grow these seeds that the Holy Spirit plants in us and to produce a harvest we must act intentionally, because growth is not automatic. Some of the fruits will be easier for us to produce than others depending on our personalities. But we are to work on all of them for our lives to be balanced and fruitful. Why are we doing this? Because we love Father God and want to honor Him with our lives. Right?