As Christians, we are called The Body of Christ. Romans 12:5, tells us that “we are all parts of His one body, and each of us has different work to do”. As different parts of the same body, we belong to, and need each other. We are a family, the family of God. Romans 12, goes on to say in verses 6-8, “God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out when you have faith that God is speaking through you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, do a good job of teaching. If your gift is encouraging others, do it! If you have money, share it generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly”.
When we ask Christ into our lives, our spirit connects with God’s Spirit. This is the beginning of our spiritual journey. The first birth is physical. The second, or new birth, is spiritual. Our conviction and choice to believe can occur at any physical age. We are physical beings on a spiritual journey. The third being of the trinity now lives within us. In Romans 12:2, God tells us that now He wants us to stop “copying the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is”. The renewing of our mind is a continuous and ongoing process. Ones mind chooses to believe and with this decision, a spiritual journey is begun. The Holy Spirit now lives within us and we begin to experience the gifts of the spirit in our life. These desired gifts of the Spirit are recorded in Galatians 5:22. They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
As these gifts become who we are and direct how we act, they light up how we serve. “They will know we are Christians by our Love” is a song title identifying who we are by how we act. We are accountable to God for our actions. No one is perfect but we are also held to a greater accountability by others because of our faith. More love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control should exemplify our lives as being a member of the body of Christ.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
A Lifestyle of Thanksgiving
Psalm 100 is called a Psalm of Thanksgiving. It says,
“Shout with joy to the Lord, O earth! Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before Him singing with joy. Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us and we are His. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with Thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise.
Give Thanks to Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love endures forever, and His faithfulness continues to each generation”.
Throughout the Psalms, David comes to God in Worship, Praise, and Thanksgiving. In Psalm 138:1, David says, “I give you Thanks, O Lord, with all my heart”. Psalm 136 lists the numerous reasons why we should be Thankful to our God. These include various acts of creation and the powerful acts of miraculous interventions in the lives of God’s people, the Israelites.
We should be in constant awareness of God’s gifts in our lives but instead we take so much of what we have for granted. It seems that only when we face the loss of something of importance do we prioritize the things we treasure. Examples of these treasures are; life it self, health, and the ones we love. After the experience of a loss, we no longer tend to be consumed with the trivia which seemed to be so important to us previously.
Let us not take God’s gifts in our lives for granted. Let us continually live in an attitude of Thanksgiving, an attitude of gratitude! A positive person is a Thankful person. A positive person is a witness to the goodness of God and is a light in the darkness. A negative, complaining, and ungrateful person lives in darkness. No one wants to listen to or be around a constant complainer for any length of time. Let us not be consumed with what we do not have. We should be aware of and grateful for that which we do have, no matter how humble. We tend to take the beauty around us for granted, including the splendor of nature, our family, and our loved ones.
God’s love endures forever! Belief in this love and in the knowledge that God is in control with a plan for my life gives me a sense of peace. This faith and peace give me the ability to rest in God’s promises and blessings. As I seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, I know that He will supply all of my needs according to his riches in glory. He is generous with me and I will be generous with Him. A generous attitude is a positive and Thankful attitude. He has, does, and will continue to meet my needs. His faithfulness is a constant in my life and I will continue to live a “Lifestyle of Thanksgiving”. When I pray, I pray believing. I thank Him for all of His blessing in my life. I also thank Him for the anticipated answers to my prayers even before my requests are realized.
I am especially Thankful for Richard, Erica, Trevor, Christa, Kris, Trevor, Hunter, and my expected grand-baby-to-be. I am grateful for our Lab, Molly, and now for Richie’s new little kittens, Suki and Socki. I lift up a prayer of Thanksgiving for the successful surgery on Richie’s right hand. The operation went well and I pray a prayer of gratitude in anticipation of the successful restoration of motion in his right thumb after the cast removal and rehabilitation. Thank you, Lord!
I Thank you Lord for family and friends and most of all I thank you for your love and the gift of faith which you have given me. With a grateful heart I wish everyone a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving. “In all things we are to give Thanks” (Ephesians 5:20). My favorite bible verse is Romans 8:28, “All things work for good to those who love the Lord and are the called according to His purpose”. Even if you are going through a difficult time in your life, know that God is with you and He is weaving the circumstances of your life for good. In times of discouragement and difficulty, keep thanking God for carrying you through. He will! His joy and peace are internal and do not change with the external circumstances of life.
As recorded in 1Chronicles 29:13, “now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name”. Amen
“Shout with joy to the Lord, O earth! Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before Him singing with joy. Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us and we are His. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with Thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise.
Give Thanks to Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love endures forever, and His faithfulness continues to each generation”.
Throughout the Psalms, David comes to God in Worship, Praise, and Thanksgiving. In Psalm 138:1, David says, “I give you Thanks, O Lord, with all my heart”. Psalm 136 lists the numerous reasons why we should be Thankful to our God. These include various acts of creation and the powerful acts of miraculous interventions in the lives of God’s people, the Israelites.
We should be in constant awareness of God’s gifts in our lives but instead we take so much of what we have for granted. It seems that only when we face the loss of something of importance do we prioritize the things we treasure. Examples of these treasures are; life it self, health, and the ones we love. After the experience of a loss, we no longer tend to be consumed with the trivia which seemed to be so important to us previously.
Let us not take God’s gifts in our lives for granted. Let us continually live in an attitude of Thanksgiving, an attitude of gratitude! A positive person is a Thankful person. A positive person is a witness to the goodness of God and is a light in the darkness. A negative, complaining, and ungrateful person lives in darkness. No one wants to listen to or be around a constant complainer for any length of time. Let us not be consumed with what we do not have. We should be aware of and grateful for that which we do have, no matter how humble. We tend to take the beauty around us for granted, including the splendor of nature, our family, and our loved ones.
God’s love endures forever! Belief in this love and in the knowledge that God is in control with a plan for my life gives me a sense of peace. This faith and peace give me the ability to rest in God’s promises and blessings. As I seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, I know that He will supply all of my needs according to his riches in glory. He is generous with me and I will be generous with Him. A generous attitude is a positive and Thankful attitude. He has, does, and will continue to meet my needs. His faithfulness is a constant in my life and I will continue to live a “Lifestyle of Thanksgiving”. When I pray, I pray believing. I thank Him for all of His blessing in my life. I also thank Him for the anticipated answers to my prayers even before my requests are realized.
I am especially Thankful for Richard, Erica, Trevor, Christa, Kris, Trevor, Hunter, and my expected grand-baby-to-be. I am grateful for our Lab, Molly, and now for Richie’s new little kittens, Suki and Socki. I lift up a prayer of Thanksgiving for the successful surgery on Richie’s right hand. The operation went well and I pray a prayer of gratitude in anticipation of the successful restoration of motion in his right thumb after the cast removal and rehabilitation. Thank you, Lord!
I Thank you Lord for family and friends and most of all I thank you for your love and the gift of faith which you have given me. With a grateful heart I wish everyone a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving. “In all things we are to give Thanks” (Ephesians 5:20). My favorite bible verse is Romans 8:28, “All things work for good to those who love the Lord and are the called according to His purpose”. Even if you are going through a difficult time in your life, know that God is with you and He is weaving the circumstances of your life for good. In times of discouragement and difficulty, keep thanking God for carrying you through. He will! His joy and peace are internal and do not change with the external circumstances of life.
As recorded in 1Chronicles 29:13, “now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name”. Amen
Monday, November 14, 2011
The Verb "To Be"
In grammar, we know that a noun is a person, place, or thing. God is a person, therefore in grammar, God by definition, is a proper noun. Recently, in a sermon I was made aware of the fact that God is also a verb. This fact became an Ahah moment in my greater understanding of God’s character.
In Exodus 3:14 God told Moses that His name is “I Am”, revealing Himself as the God who is always there. YHWH, "I Am who I Am", is a divine name containing the truth that God alone IS in the fullness of Being and perfection, without origin and without end.
A verb tells us something about the noun or subject of a sentence. It expresses actions, events, or states of being. “To be” is a linking verb connecting the subject to the action. It shows the condition or existence of the subject.
God is “I Am”. “I am” is from the verb “to be” which can be conjugated into past, present, and future. God, the “I Am”; IS, Was, and always Will Be.
God is always at work in our lives.
God is, was, and always will be Life itself.
God is, was, and always will be Love.
God is, was, and always will be Light.
God is, was, and always will be Triune
God is, was, and always will be Spirit.
God is, was, and always will be Truth.
God is, was, and always will be The Way.
God is, was, and always will be Omniscient.
God is, was, and always will be Omnipresent.
God is, was, and always will be Omnipotent.
God is, was, and always will be Merciful.
God is, was, and always will be Gracious.
God is, was, and always will be Righteous.
God is, was, and always will be Holy.
God is, was, and always will be Good.
God is, was, and always will be Wise.
God is, was, and always will be Unchanging.
God is, was, and always will be Sovereign.
God is, was, and always will be Faithful.
God is, was, and always will be Eternal and Infinite.
God is, was, and always will be the Living Word.
“I Am” is not just an identity, it is an action. God IS what He does. He IS the act of Love, Mercy, Truth, Graciousness, Goodness, Faithfulness, and Righteousness.
Because “I Am” is who He says He is; let us be who He wants us to be in faith and love.
In Exodus 3:14 God told Moses that His name is “I Am”, revealing Himself as the God who is always there. YHWH, "I Am who I Am", is a divine name containing the truth that God alone IS in the fullness of Being and perfection, without origin and without end.
A verb tells us something about the noun or subject of a sentence. It expresses actions, events, or states of being. “To be” is a linking verb connecting the subject to the action. It shows the condition or existence of the subject.
God is “I Am”. “I am” is from the verb “to be” which can be conjugated into past, present, and future. God, the “I Am”; IS, Was, and always Will Be.
God is always at work in our lives.
God is, was, and always will be Life itself.
God is, was, and always will be Love.
God is, was, and always will be Light.
God is, was, and always will be Triune
God is, was, and always will be Spirit.
God is, was, and always will be Truth.
God is, was, and always will be The Way.
God is, was, and always will be Omniscient.
God is, was, and always will be Omnipresent.
God is, was, and always will be Omnipotent.
God is, was, and always will be Merciful.
God is, was, and always will be Gracious.
God is, was, and always will be Righteous.
God is, was, and always will be Holy.
God is, was, and always will be Good.
God is, was, and always will be Wise.
God is, was, and always will be Unchanging.
God is, was, and always will be Sovereign.
God is, was, and always will be Faithful.
God is, was, and always will be Eternal and Infinite.
God is, was, and always will be the Living Word.
“I Am” is not just an identity, it is an action. God IS what He does. He IS the act of Love, Mercy, Truth, Graciousness, Goodness, Faithfulness, and Righteousness.
Because “I Am” is who He says He is; let us be who He wants us to be in faith and love.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Promises and Fulfillments in God's Story
We find God’s story in the scriptures. The book of Genesis, the beginning, reveals God to us. We see His character, who He is, and His creation, who we are. Throughout the sixty six books of the Bible, He shows us His plan to make the way for us to be right with Him. We were created to commune with, and to praise Holy God. Natural man fights this spiritual relationship until he or she has a personal encounter with our Holy God. The New Testament is the fulfillment of that which He promised in the Old Testament. One is the continuation of the other. The New Covenant fulfills the Old Covenant. The Old Testament is quoted throughout the New Testament. The New Testament fulfills prophesies found in the Old Testament. The Bible is the most widely and carefully read book of all times. It IS the living Word of God. God and His Word are the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Reading and studying the Bible grows our faith. In it we find the building blocks of our faith. It is the living Word, because when we let it, it speaks to us; God speaks to us through His word. His presence, through His Word, will fill the emptiness that each of us experiences at times in our lives. We try to fill our longings, hungers, and emptiness in all of the wrong places until we have a personal encounter with the Living God found in the Living Word. You cannot believe this because of my experience, you must seek to have your own experience and spiritual encounter.
God gave His law in the Old Testament. We were separated from Him because no one could follow all of the law. In the Word, God uses building blocks to lay out His plan to fulfill His promises to us, preparing the way, to the Gospel Story. Jesus, in the New Testament, fulfills God’s promises and God’s plan. Jesus IS The Messiah. God reveals this throughout His scriptures. All believers become connected, become one in Christ.
He is the final sacrificial lamb. In Revelation, the sixty sixth and last book of the Bible, God shows us, through John, a new heaven and a new earth without the barriers between God and Man. God’s promises have been, are being, and will be fulfilled. We read in Revelation 21 that John was shown “The Holy City, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It was filled with the glory of God….The wall was made of Jasper, and the city was pure gold, as clear as glass…..No temple could be seen in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the lamb is its light… nothing evil will be allowed to enter….but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life”. As a believer, I know that my name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life because John tells me in 1John 5:13 that “I write this to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may KNOW you have eternal life”. I choose to believe in God’s word and I have made Christ The Lord of my life. I believe that He is who He says He is. I believe God’s promises and I believe that He will fulfill what He has promised. Revelation 22 says, “See, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me, to repay all according to their deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, The beginning and the End”.
Reading and studying the Bible grows our faith. In it we find the building blocks of our faith. It is the living Word, because when we let it, it speaks to us; God speaks to us through His word. His presence, through His Word, will fill the emptiness that each of us experiences at times in our lives. We try to fill our longings, hungers, and emptiness in all of the wrong places until we have a personal encounter with the Living God found in the Living Word. You cannot believe this because of my experience, you must seek to have your own experience and spiritual encounter.
God gave His law in the Old Testament. We were separated from Him because no one could follow all of the law. In the Word, God uses building blocks to lay out His plan to fulfill His promises to us, preparing the way, to the Gospel Story. Jesus, in the New Testament, fulfills God’s promises and God’s plan. Jesus IS The Messiah. God reveals this throughout His scriptures. All believers become connected, become one in Christ.
He is the final sacrificial lamb. In Revelation, the sixty sixth and last book of the Bible, God shows us, through John, a new heaven and a new earth without the barriers between God and Man. God’s promises have been, are being, and will be fulfilled. We read in Revelation 21 that John was shown “The Holy City, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It was filled with the glory of God….The wall was made of Jasper, and the city was pure gold, as clear as glass…..No temple could be seen in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the lamb is its light… nothing evil will be allowed to enter….but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life”. As a believer, I know that my name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life because John tells me in 1John 5:13 that “I write this to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may KNOW you have eternal life”. I choose to believe in God’s word and I have made Christ The Lord of my life. I believe that He is who He says He is. I believe God’s promises and I believe that He will fulfill what He has promised. Revelation 22 says, “See, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me, to repay all according to their deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, The beginning and the End”.
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