Every person I meet is someone MY best friend loved enough to die for
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And there’s the gem. Those two little words Trina would use so often in her conversation. MY Jesus. The most important lesson I ever learned from Trina, though I wouldn’t even realize it until YEARS later, was that He needs to be ‘MY’ Jesus. When you speak of your Saviour, it should be personal. The same way you say, ‘My kids’ or ‘My husband’. Possessive. Loving. Is that how you think of Jesus, or do you not really think about that relationship much at all? We all hear quite regularly in preaching that we need to have a relationship with God(Jesus), but do we really think and ponder and try to figure out what that entails? Oh sure, there’s the ‘read your Bible more! Here’s a 1 year plan!’ and don’t you dare misunderstand me, reading your Bible is paramount in a Christians life, but are you just going through the motions of Bible reading so that you can check off a little chart? You’ll be closer to Jesus than if you weren’t reading at all, sure, but would you feel that possessive love? Trina challenged me without even saying it to get that possessive love. To thirst for it. And it’s so funny because, the closer you get the more you want.
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This year my plan and I feel the Lord has led me to this… the Pause. To focus on the pause or pauses of life. I want to listen to when the Lord says, “ Pause.” I believe the Lord wants us all to “stop for a minute,” or to “linger” here for a time. He always has a reason. He may have something better for us or He may simply be protecting us from what we can’t see.
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Work together to create a budget. When you don’t know what you are spending it can get out of control fast. Look at your budget from time to time and adjust as needed. Talk about it and make spending decisions together! (Money is one of the biggest reasons for marriage problems.) Keep your checkbook balanced!
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One day, I overheard a third grader disdain a kindergartener’s work. “Oh, that’s SO EASY! I wish my work was that easy.” Of course, the sixth grader immediately scoffed, “You think YOUR work is hard?? Wait until you get to sixth grade!” Whereupon the 11th grader in the room piped up with scorn, “Dude. You have no idea. Take a look at this chemistry equation I had today!” (And I wanted to tell HIM that, chemistry and all, his life is so simple compared to an adult’s life!)
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Single girl, go find people! Ask God to send you people to love. Learn to see those around you and really love them.
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The lesson I learned actually took more than one winter to learn. It also took the preaching of the word of God. It took reading my Bible more. It took praying more and it took trusting God more. Did I really believe all things worked for my good? And then, I purposed in my heart that I would learn to enjoy winter.
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Let’s be real for a minute and please let this question sink into your beautiful soul. Do you feel the need that your life must be all wrapped perfectly and tied up in a perfect bow? Do you ever feel like you don’t measure up to other people’s expectations? Do you ever feel like the expectations are too? How about an example; do these thoughts or similar ones ever creep up in your head? “Look at that perfect Christmas tree…mine doesn’t look like that.” “That family picture is so beautiful…I wish we could do that so others can see us look that good.” “They always get such amazing Christmas gifts…we can’t afford those but I’ll get them anyway.” “It all has to be perfect…I have to do whatever I can to make it perfect.” I am using Christmas time as an example because I sincerely feel that not-measuring-up can be a dominating feeling during and after the holiday season.
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“I thought we were friends.” / “I thought you loved me.”
The hurt behind those words can overshadow years of life, love, and memories. All the good times fade away when a friendship is betrayed.
Investment, down the drain. Trust destroyed. Love questioned.
Have you been there? / Are you currently there?
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Now don’t get me wrong, I do get depressed; I do struggle at times with frustration; I do wonder why things can’t be easier or why does everything have to be tough sometimes, but I try very hard not to live there. In fact over the last few years, I’ve had many conversations with God about certain things in my life that seem “unfair!” And God has been working on me in this area very much in the last couple of years. One of my very favorite Bible characters is Joseph.
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1. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me? 2. How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
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“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21
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Sometimes it seems that our world is getting worse and worse. Listening to the news, you would think that there is nothing but wickedness and evil to be found. But really, there is nothing new under the sun. Think about it, everything that is a sin was addressed in the Bible, so man had already done every evil deed thousands of years before there was a CNN or Fox News.
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I wasn't doing something right or enough! Years later - got married, my Pastor husband was saved at his brother’s church during his first revival.
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We are all on the go, busy, have hectic schedules, need to see, do and say many things! We want our opinions expressed and we want to be heard. Many are bold, boisterous and speak more than listen.
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When you serve the Lord together, your hearts knit in a special way. A church God allowed us to help restart in 2004 held special memories for us. God allowed us to purchase a building for it! Memories with the ladies, decorating for different events. You grow to have a special place in your heart for each person. God was faithful!
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When you think of emptying yourself do you truly rid yourself of your wants/desires and allow God His deserved place as head of your life? This is something I’d never really given a lot of thought to until I started really studying His word. Asking God to fill me with His Spirit to be number one above all my wants and needs.
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According to tradition, when an Eskimo hunts a wolf, the first thing he does is coat his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds layer after layer of blood. He then puts his knife in the ground with the blade up. The wolf follows his nose to the source of the scent and begins licking it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more vigorously until the edge is bare. Harder and harder the wolf licks the blade. His craving for blood becomes so great that he doesn’t notice the razor sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue. Nor does he recognize when his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his own warm blood. His tongue has become desensitized. His appetite continues to crave more until in the morning light the wolf is found dead in the snow.
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. KEEP YOUR MIND IN CONTROL… verse 6a – In other words, don’t be too worried or
dedicated to the problem or situation. Paul was reminding us to not worry about
anything. Yes, nothing at all! I know this can be really hard to do, especially when it
involves marital and family problems, sickness, and problems at church which can often
be difficult to ignore. I, myself, have had the tendency to rethink things too much. I put
too much focus on the problem or on the person creating the problem. I often have to
be reminded to not get too emotionally attached to the problem or to someone that I
feel has offended me. We cannot allow these problems or thoughts to take over our
minds and reside deep in our hearts. If we do, we will soon find ourselves having to deal
with the issue of anxiety.
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So, we know the areas in which God does not give us strict guidelines. But what about the areas He does give specific instructions? Like fellowship with God, prayer, church attendance, tithing, soul winning, faithfulness, purity, godliness? Are these things important to us? In the last few years, I've had multiple conversations with people who told me that God would understand why they chose not to tithe to a local church, or go to church because we now have livestream (a great tool when there are no other options or because of sickness, but not a substitute for fellowship with other believers, Hebrews 10:25), or that soul winning wasn't something for them because they are shy, or that Bible reading and prayer is too time consuming and God would rather that they were doing something more “meaningful”, or that watching an R-rated movie was okay because it was with their spouse and they skipped all the bad parts, etc. These weren't people “of the world”. They were born again Christians. People in churches of like-faith. According to the Bible they are playing a dangerous game. Isaiah 33:31b says, “...for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.”
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