Tag Archives: Christian

Assurance - Promise, Guests

Borrowing

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I am borrowing from YouVersion.com, a reading plan that I am following.  It’s Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with God. Yesterday’s was so good I want to share it with you for our Wednesday time together.

LIBERATED

Michelangelo saw the task of the sculptor as that of freeing figures from their marble prisons. In each block of stone, he saw some “person” then chipped away until that form emerged. Sometimes he failed, as with St. Matthew. This famous statue is only half-finished because Michelangelo could not get the stone to release the figure of the brilliant apostle.

Paul saw God as the Sculptor Who frees men from the prison of their carnal nature. He wrote to the Philippians that God was doing a great work in and on their lives and encouraged them to have confidence in His work. He assured the new believers that God is perfectly capable of “finishing” us as He desires, for His (and our) greatest good. This Master Sculptor never gives up, and no prison is too strong for His skilled eye and learned hand.

In yielding ourselves to the direction of the Master, we are being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God (Philippians 1:11). All believers should remember that today’s bumps and bruises may merely be the Master chiseling, working away at our lives until we are conformed to the image of His Son. Thus we relax, even though the chisel may bite, for we know His work is sure and the result well worth the moment’s inconvenience.

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Please keep praying for Kathy and her family (Jack Bell Family)

Prayer is breathing for the Christian.  Please continue to check the Praying For These Page for updates.

JESUS LOVES YOU,
Kathie +++

Christian Living

What’s Within?

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Psalm 103

1. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

I read it and rested on — and all that is within me.

What’s in me, I asked me. The answer was not coming quickly. Other than the answer one would expect a Christian to answer – The HOLY SPIRIT.

It was my beloved who astounded me with the answer. He began with attitudes. He says we all have them within us. He so totally bowled me over with the sobering truth of what is in me. He enumerated emotions that he has seen in me. Some I’m humbled to hear he sees; some I am ashamed to admit.

Attitudes.
Like
eagerness for some things and apathy toward other things (perhaps people too, and not just things)
willingness for  and stubbornness against
love and hate
tenderness and callousness
procrastinating vs impetuous
generous and selfish

Perhaps you could name others.

Now back to  — and all that is within me.
With all that is within me, all my attitudes, wounds, hurts, strengths, weaknesses, prejudices, fears, doubts, knowledge, wisdom, experiences, victories, defeats; with all that is within me I am to bless the LORD.
Let me say it again. Let it sink in. I am to bless the LORD with all those things jumbled, tangled, running, still within me! So are you.

How can that be? How can we bless Him with bad attitudes, wounds, hurts, weaknesses, prejudices, fears, doubts, defeats?
Surrender I think.
Surrender the good. Surrender the bad to the LORDSHIP of JESUS CHRIST.

He can use it all, you know. Really.
The good, ministering to others. And the bad? Well, once we are healed, even the bad will minister in His name.
And what would bless Him more than for us to help others and be made whole ourselves?

And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

And all that is within you too, bless His holy name!

Prayer for the Christian is breathing.

JESUS LOVES YOU +++
Kathie

Christian Living

Mouse Clicking

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Some clicks of the mouse are fatal. That one hasty, unguarded click just cuts you off, closes down the page and there’s no going back. Can you relate? When the page is gone and the back arrow is no longer an option, well … all you can do is start over. Call that original page up again and wait for it to load.

This is a hurry up society. And I am as guilty as the next, probably more so. Some years ago when I was building a website, those in the know, counseled me it was wise to construct the page so it would take no longer than 10 seconds to fully load because people would not wait any longer than that to see the page. Truth? Today, 10 seconds is too long. More truth? Unless I am REALLY interested in the page, I won’t wait longer than 2 to 3 seconds – how sad is that???

And it is that got to have it now, cannot – will not wait clicking, that is undermining our lives, families, churches, and our Nation. Just who do we think we are that we have to have now? That we cannot wait? Will not wait? That we cannot give it some thought (SOME PRAYER) before we leap? Would just another second to be sure before we click that mouse be so intolerable?  Well, would it?

What’s that old adage? Haste makes waste. Is that the truth or what?!  Be it the click of the mouse on a webpage or sin? The hasty web-click steals time. Sin steals much more!!

Think a second before you buy that purse on credit you can’t afford.
Think a second before you say that string of words.
Think a second before you get all flattered at that married man’s attention.
Think a second before you pass on that information – even as a prayer request.
Think a second before you _______________________.

I am counseling myself to slow down a second or two before I go clicking my mouse here and there. Perhaps slowing down a second or two in some other areas would save lives, families, churches and our Nation a whole lot of waste.

Whatcha think?

Anything you need to slow down a bit before you waste something precious?

Romans 12: New American Standard Bible (NASB)
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
via Romans 12:2-4 NASB – And do not be conformed to this world – Bible Gateway.

Prayer is breathing for the Christian.

JESUS LOVES YOU,
Kathie