What are you spending you time and energy doing? The Bible clearly tells us: Ephesians 1:3-6 (ESV) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. We are chosen and predestined, the Bible says it, by faith I believe it! Do I understand it, not at all. Can I explain it, no. Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV) 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. I have a choice, am I going to spend my time searching out what being predestined means, or am I going to spend my time doing the things He has called me to do? Is a foot soldier more useful if he spends his time trying to figure out what the general’s plan is and why he does what he does or is he more useful if he spends his time learning how to use the weapons he has been given? There is a battle, it is God’s battle. He has chosen to use us. He has provided us with everything we need to win the battle through His power. He has given us all the armor we need, all the weapons we need to glorify Him. As Eph 1: 5 and 6 tells us, we are adopted according to His purpose for His glory. Colossians 1:9-12 (ESV) 9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. That about say it all…….just saying!

Just wanted to share something from this mornings devotional. (Thank you Alisha for giving us this book, I am really enjoying it.) Joshua 1:8-9 (NLT) 8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. Imagine that, Joshua who had been with Moses as he wrote the books of the law and probably was able to be one of this first to read them was told to always study it! That just blows my mind! If God thought it was so important to remind Joshua to study it continually, how much more to I need to be in it! 9 This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” What words of encouragement from the Lord, I claim that He is saying these words to me and to all who are seeking Him and His will in our lives. Praise His Holy Name! May you all have a blessed day, May our precious Lord cause His face to shine on you today and to grant you His peace.

does saying a prayer really save anyone?

John 7:10-13 (NLT) 10 But after his brothers left for the festival, Jesus also went, though secretly, staying out of public view. 11 The Jewish leaders tried to find him at the festival and kept asking if anyone had seen him. 12 There was a lot of grumbling about him among the crowds. Some argued, “He’s a good man,” but others said, “He’s nothing but a fraud who deceives the people.” 13 But no one had the courage to speak favorably about him in public, for they were afraid of getting in trouble with the Jewish leaders. The thing that struck me in this scripture was that no one wanted to say anything that the leaders might find offensive. I was not raised Baptist but joined a Baptist church when I was in my early 30’s. I was told that to receive salvation I had to say a prayer, in the prayer I had to admit I was a sinner (no problem there!) and ask Jesus into my heart. If I would just say the prayer I would have eternal life and no one could ever take it away from me. Now to question this would have greatly upset the church leaders. Does just saying the prayer give me eternal life? Does believing that Jesus died for my sins so that I can now spend eternity in heaven get me there? Let me give you this illustration to help you see what I am saying. For those of you that do not know me I am about 5 ft 2 inchs tall and I weigh 230 lbs as of today. Now I gotta tell you that I believe with all my heart that if I ate less, if I ate healthy food, if I exercised more I would lose weight. So does believing all those things make me any thinner? No! So, where does that leave us? Well, first I do have to understand I have a problem or that I am a sinner. I need to see my need of a Savior. I need to understand that the Creator of everything (including me) wants a relationship with me, that is why He took the time and effort to create me. I can know that He exists, that does not give me a personal relationship with Him. Relationships take time and effort. If I want a good relationship with Him I need to know what He wants from that relationship not just what I want from it. He wants me to get to know Him, to spend time finding out what He wants. That means taking the time to read the book He provided. But just reading the book will not change our relationship, even the devil has read the book! Just like if I want to lose weight I have to start doing the things necessary to make a difference, then if I want a real relationship with Him, a wonderful relationship I have to start doing the things in the book. I need to allow Him to change me into the person He wants me to be. I don’t need to become who I think will please Him, I just have to give Him permission to remold me into who He wants me to be. Bottom line, yes, say the prayer but MEAN what you are saying!

Some times good things give very bad results!

So one day I had a taste for cream of broccoli soup. I looked in the freezer and found just enough broccoli to make one bowl of soup. Very happy about this I got out my pan, put a little butter in it to melt, got out an onion and chopped up a little to sauté in the pan. When the onion was just right I added the broccoli and covered it with water. Once that had cooked until the broccoli was just the right shade of green I added milk. Next I got out my container of cornstarch. I prefer cornstarch to flour for thickening. I added a spoonful of cornstarch and stirred but the soup did not thicken, so I added another spoonful. Still it did not thicken so I added one more with the same results. Next I tasted the soup! That is when I realized my mistake….. powdered sugar does not thicken soup! And it tastes really really bad with broccoli! The point here is that something that looks right isn’t always right, and even when things are good things (after all powdered sugar is a good thing) it turns out bad when not used in the right way. Lesson learned! I also learned to keep my cornstarch in one colored container and my powdered sugar in another, to this day the one with the light blue lid had cornstarch!

My question about this blog

So, I am wondering why no one leaves a comment on this blog. Do you actually have to be a member of blogger.com to leave a comment?

What can I learn from Judas?

What if Judas did believe that Jesus was the Messiah? You need to understand what that meant, the Jews were looking for a King to overthrow the Roman government that were in control at that time. The Messiah was to restore Israel as the world power. Judas was ambitious; he had aligned himself with the one he thought was going to bring all this about. What if his reason for betraying Jesus was to force Jesus’ hand? Maybe he thought that if Jesus were arrested He would have to show Himself for who He really was. Then with Jesus as King Judas would hold an important position in that regime. So how does any of that apply to us? When we study the Bible should not the end results be to learn something that we can apply to our lives? So, this is what I learn from looking at Judas. When we think we know how things should turn out and we do whatever we think it will take to get the job done as we think it should be , we are in trouble. I have learned to depend on God’s wisdom and to hold onto His pant leg, clinging for dear life as He works things out for His glory not for my convenience. After all I was created for His glory so that should be my goal in all that happens in this life, right? Just saying!

If you want to know all about God, read His book!

Think about this, how do you develop a relationship with someone? Say your friends tell you about someone they think you should know, you hear about this person from others. Then you meet this person for yourself and you agree He is someone you would like to get to know. So, how do you go about getting to know Him? Do you rely on others to tell you all about Him? Well to a degree it is good to hear what others have to say about Him, but what if He wrote you a letter and told you all about who He is and why he wants to get to know you. Would you ask someone else to read the letter and tell you what it said? Would you take the time to develop a relationship with Him? It depends on how much you want a relationship. He will not force Himself on anyone. God has written an entire book about why He created us and why He wants a relationship with us. He has invested a lot in this relationship, even gave up Heaven where He sat on the throne and became man. We cannot say that God does not understand what it is like to be human because He became human, dealing with all that life means. And as if that were not enough He then gave up His life so that we could have that relationship with Him. It’s all there for us, everything we need to know about Him and about us, all we have to do is read the book! Just saying!