Only One Lives Without Sin

Watch this clip:  (there is no sound)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDuUUgLItNA​

1 Peter 2:22-25

“He never sinned. No lie or bad talk ever came from His lips.  When people spoke against Him, He never spoke back.  When He suffered from what people did to Him, He did not try to pay them back.  He left it in the hands of the One Who was always right in judging.  He carried our sins in His own body when He died on a cross.  In doing this, we may be dead to sin and alive to all that is right and good.  His words have healed you!  You were like lost sheep  But now you have come back to Him Who is your Shepherd and the One Who cares for your soul.”

Jesus lived a pure life.  A life that led to no wrong doing.  Can you imagine the statements that were made to Him?  The wrong doings that He endured.  NO BAD WORDS OR THOUGHTS CAME FROM HIM.

Have you ever tried to live one day without sinning?  No gossiping, nothing bad coming from our mouths or even our thoughts…IMPOSSIBLE.  Human nature is hard to beat.  Our natural response when someone does us wrong is to defend ourselves, whether in thoughts, actions, and/or words.  

However, in order to cleanse us from our sins, His blood had to be shed.  In Hebrews 9:18 it states, “The Old Way of Worship had to have a death to make it good.  The blood of an animal was used.”  In Hebrews 10:10 it states, “Our sins are washed away and we are made plain because Christ gave His own body as a gift to God.”  Because He gave his own blood for all of us, there was born a “New Worship”.  I had never really thought of it as an “old way” of worship or a “new way" of worship.  No longer where animals needed to be slain, Jesus’ blood is good forever.  

Wow!  Thank goodness for His Grace and the fact that His cup never runs empty on us.  He suffered and did not give up until “It was finished”.   

Happy Easter!

Mental Real Estate

Galatians 5:1  “Christ has set us free to live a free life.  So take your stand!  Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.”

Romans 12:1-2 “…Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking around-life-and place it before God as an offering.  Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.  Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.  Instead, fix your attention on God.  You’ll be changed from the inside out.  Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it.  Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you into its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

I truly love being able to walk in awe of how He places these messages on my heart.  There are some weeks where, on Wednesday nights, such at tonight, I don’t have a true clear understanding of what He is wanting me to put on paper, but then sitting and reflecting the week and events that have occurred, it might as well slap me in the face.  He has it ready and sitting right in front of me.  Here is what He has laid on my heart tonight:  

We have been looking for a new home closer into town.  I find myself on Zillow daily trying to find the “just right house”.  However, we can’t put a contract on anything until we sell our house.  Why am I wasting my time?  Why am I taking my time to search for a home that I, subconsciously, know that God already has for us? The thoughts, the rollercoaster of “what ifs” have consumed so many moments over the last few months.  Where does it get me??? No where and certainly not into a new home.  

Did you know that that we have Mental Real Estate?  Yep, we have real estate in our heads.  What do we let occupy it?  The “what if’s”, the anxiousness, the worry… I recently learned that I’m a Neuroplastician.  Did you know you were too?  Dr. Caroline Leaf has studied the brain and found that negative thoughts take over our brains like weeds.  “What you feed grows, what you starve dies.”  You are in charge of those thoughts, your mindset.  Take those thoughts and those feelings captive.  Don’t let them grow, toss them out and don’t let them take control of your life.  What does the mental real estate look like in your life?  Is it something that is pleasing in God’s eyes?  Is it fruitful in your life?  If not, be a neuroplastician and change it, because you can.  

Be blessed!  

Faith vs. Hope

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for.  It is being sure of what we CANNOT SEE.”

2 Corinthians 5:7 “Our life is lived by faith.  We do not live by what we see in front of us.”

Faith vs. Hope

We have all had an instance when the electricity has gone out, whether it be for a few moments or even a few days.  How many times have you gone into a room, while without electricity, and hit the switch out of habit?  We then have a few seconds of frustration and then the knowledge of knowing it will come back on once the problem has been fixed.  This is called “faith”.  If we were wondering “IF” it would come back on, that would be called “hope”.

Reflecting back on different seasons of my life, I have seen so many seasons where I have displayed “hope” rather than faith.  “I hope I get this job.”  “I hope that my child does well in the tournament.”  “I hope __________.”  Do you sit in a chair and hope it holds you up?  No, we sit in a chair having faith that it will hold us up.  Faith is knowing it will happen, even if we don’t understand how it is going to happen.  Faith is knowing that the outcome may not be what we predict, but it will have benefits that we never dreamed up.  Faith is knowing that regardless of what the next step in our lives may be, He is holding our hand and/or carrying us through.  

How do we tap into this “faith”?  Flip the switch and know that He will always light up the room and show you the way when it is time.  Stay rooted in His truth and clarity with come in time, His time.  TRUST IN HIM AND HAVE FAITH!

Lauren Daigle - Trust In You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv-SXz_exKE

Be Blessed.

A Deep Seated Peace

Psalm 119:165 “Those who love Your Law have great peace, and nothing will cause them to hurt in their spirit.”

Isaiah 54:10 “The mountains may be taken away and the hills make sake but my loving-kindness will not be taken from you.  My agreement of peace will not be shaken…”

Luke 1:78-79 “Because the heart of our God is full of loving-kindness for us, a light from heaven will shine on us.  It will give light to those who live in darkness and are under the shadow of death.  It will lead our feet in the way of peace.”

Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not worry.  Learn to pray about everything.  Give thanks to God as you ask Him for what you need.  The peace of God is much greater than the human mind can understand.  This peace will keep your hearts and minds though Christ Jesus.”

Peace, as defined by Priscilla Shirer, is the “deep, inner, eternal stability the believer possesses by Virtue of Relationship with Jesus that is not subject to external circumstances.  It is also the quality that enables us to live harmoniously with others.”  This is not a peace that is easily defined or even to explain to a nonbeliever, but it can easily be displayed.

Have you ever seen a person who seems to have the world falling apart around them, but yet they seem to have a “supernatural power” for continuing to display a beautiful “deep-seated peace and confidence” that can only be founded by a relationship with Him?  Many of us reading this today, know of someone in our own school who have displayed this peace.  She fights a battle that seems to beat her down continuously, but is always smiling and gracious in all her actions.  She has that peace.  Even on her toughest days, she kept displaying that peace.

When in the midst of what seems to be the worst, if we are anchored in our relationship, he keeps us from crumbling.  He will respond by activating His peace within us.  This peace will “not only guard but also guide us by helping us.”

Blanca - "Greater Is He" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fht61vcBeIw

(Priscilla Shirer, The Armor of God)

Be Blessed!

Life Suckers

1 Timothy 6:11-12The Message (MSG)

But you, Timothy, man of God: Run for your life from all this. Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses.

Sugar is a sweet substance that many of us crave on a daily basis.   Take suckers for instance, the sweet taste, that curbs a craving for an instant.  Our taste buds jump for joy.  The simplicity of something so simple can change our mindset for a brief moment.  What if we left that sucker in our mouths for a long period of time?  What happens?  Nothing good, that is for sure.  A sugar rush and then a sudden crash.  Our immune system is effected.  Over time our teeth are effected, and even possible diseases could start lurking.

What about life suckers?  Things in life that tend to trick us into believing it is “normal” and “ok” to partake in for a brief moment.  What if that brief moment turns into a few brief moments?  Then what if those few brief moments start seeping into our “spiritual bodies”.  What harm is it doing to us immediately and eternally.  What are these life suckers?  Here are a few that I was able to come up with tonight as I brainstormed:  worry, anxiety, anger, gossip, fear, guilt, temptation, and hate.  Some intertwine with each other, most begin with one and roll into the next.  If we let these things sit on our heart and in our minds, they tend to dig cavities and disease in our thinking, way of life, and demeanor.  

I like sugar as much as the next “Sweet Tooth Queen/King”.   A little sugar doesn’t harm you when you enjoy it occasionally,  However, “too much at once is when the trouble starts, and clearly, your body will let you know when it’s had enough” (Vicki Santillano / Divine Caroline, 2009).  These life suckers are present every day and for some of us, myself included, can be suckers dealt with on a moment to moment basis.  What are some ways to make sure that they don’t eat away at our spiritual mentality?  Attending a church, daily devotionals, small groups, a Bible study, but most importantly opening the Bible.  If you don’t know where to begin, reach out and ask.  We all had to start somewhere, and it is a choice as to when and how you start fighting that life sucker.

Be Blessed!

Check Your Maintenance Light

Psalm 46:1-5, 7 "God is our safe place and our strength.  He is always our help when we are in trouble.  So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is shaken and the mountains fall into the enter of the sea, and even if its waters go wild with storm and mountains shake with its action.  There is a river whose waters make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most Hight lives.  God is the center of HER.  SHE WILL NOT BE MOVED. GOD WILL HELP HER when the morning comes...The Lord of All is with us.  The God of Jacob IS OUR STRONG-PLACE." 

Ok, so my husband and I notably joke about the “maintenance” lights that are on in our cars.   We have had them on in both our cars for as long as we have married, regardless of an old car or a newer vehicle.  Those lights tend to come on and flash in front of me.  The first moment of them coming on, my blood pressure seems to get a little higher.  Thoughts tend to run 10 different directions on trying to diagnose the problem MYSELF.  Yes, we do eventually get it checked out, but for the most part, they get ignored until we start to notice something that is “not normal” while driving.  

In our lives, we tend to run until we can’t stop.  If God sends us a signal, that we need to stop and do some “maintenance” do we?  Or do we ignore the signs, turn the radio up a little louder, or better yet, cover the dash board up with a positive quote card so that we don’t see the maintenance light (yeap…that would be me).  Thank goodness that I’m not the driver in the vehicle of life.  

God is always within and completely in charge.  Psalm 46:1 “God is our safe place and our strength.  He is always our help when we are in trouble.”  Do we notice the maintenance lights or do we ignore them until our vehicle starts to show signs of trouble?  If we become believers who maintain our faith engine, He will be within us and when He is, “She will not be moved.  God will help her…God is our strong-place.” (Psalm 46:5,7)

'More Than Conquerors" from Rend Collective 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p8_4NbrcKA

Be Blessed!

Reflecting His Light

John 8:12 “…I am the Light of the world  Anyone who follows Me will not walk in darkness.  He will have the Light of Life.”

Ephesians 5:13  “All good things can be seen when they are in the light.  Everything that can be seen is in the light.”

Matthew 5:14,16 “You are the LIGHT of the world.  you cannot hide a city that is on a mountain…Let you light shine in front of men.  They they will see the good things you do and honor your Father Who is in Heaven.”

Our main source of light comes from the sun.  Even the moon depends on the Sun’s light to reflect upon it for us to see in the dark of night.  Light can be so blinding at times.  However, it is what our planet depends on for survival.   

Now, visualize the Sun being our Heavenly Father, and we are the moon.  At night, when there is no moon, it is dark.  Complete darkness is scary to most.   We are the light in a dark world.  The people around us daily may or may not have a relationship with the Lord, but they do have a relationship with you.  Dr. Daniel Doriani states, “Many people find it hard to look at the Word of God, but they do observe the people who reflect it.”  

Are we reflecting the His light?  Are we letting our “Sundays” bleed into our Mondays with our actions and our words?  2 Corinthians 4:6 tells us that He is the one that shines in our hearts.  If we allow the light to shine through, regardless of who we are talking to or what we are talking about, “God’s shining-greatness” will not be contained.  Let your light shine today!

Be Blessed!