Free At Last ( Part one)

 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth, not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he givet] God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not and giveth God thanks. Romans 14:1-6

Set Free!!!!

There it was. The passage that I had been looking for. The one that had set me free. I was at a critical time in my life. And though I had been saved at a very young age, I had pretty much turned away from God as I grew up. Even though I still believed in Him.  And so at this time, having gotten back to Him, my faith was pretty weak. It was verse 1, that really spoke to me because it was right where I was. And yet, the leaders of the church were tired of me evidentially, for not being the person they thought I should be. Maybe I tainted their church because of my sin. Maybe they hoped I would leave.

I didn't know. But I had left not long before this time and the sense of peace that come the day I had read this passage, was so worth it. 

For the first time, I was totally free! And ecstatic could not come close to how I felt that morning!

🧡🧡🧡

It had been they that was wrong. And not me. They had no right to judge me. Especially having made no attempt to speak with me first about what they thought I was doing wrong.

To clarify what Paul was talking about in these verses, I will post a part two and go into that. So please come back next time for it. Thanks for coming by. God bless!

A Lesson For Me

 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Romans 12:14-15

I had to admit that it was pretty hard to bless those that had hurt me. "Really, Lord? Do I really have to do that?"

But yes, I did. I don't remember it as something I did right away. Sometimes it does take time to get over something that someone has done to hurt us. But it was necessary and it taught me that in this life, there would be many more times when I would have to do this very thing with other people and situations. 

It has been one of those things that God used to work together for me as it says in Romans 8:28.

I didn't have a whole lot at that point in my life to rejoice about. Life was hard. I had four children all under the age of 10, and an alcoholic husband. And I was holding on to my life by a thin string. At least that is how I felt.

It's hard to rejoice when going through the things I was at that time. And most of the people at church did not understand. Not that I talked about my life. It was too private. Too embarrassing. And so how could they understand?

Even though I didn't share my life with them, they knew there were problems. I was a fairly young mother, with 4 kids always with me, and my husband did not go. I don't know what my sister-who had originally got me going there, told anyone. She was in Florida and did have contact with a couple members. And though most may not have known the circumstances, there were a couple people that tried to encourage me in different ways. That wasn't exactly weeping as verse 15 says, but, it showed me that there were compassionate people there.

And the good thing about that was that it helped teach me to be compassionate with others women that found themselves in the same kind of boat as I had been, or any other kind of boat, for that matter.

God asks us to share his love to people and when the time came that He took the alcoholism out of our lives, I could reflect back and know just how good He was to me. Despite the hurt that had happened in my life.

And I am and will always be eternally grateful to His loving kindness!

🧡🧡🧡

Hello, Friends. Thanks for stopping by. I apologize for not posting over the last couple of days. It had been a kind of tough weekend. But I thank you for coming by and pray God's blessing on you!

Did They Think More Highly of Themselves?

 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according to as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Romans 12:3

That leaders in a church could pass judgment on someone that did not follow their teachings to the letter, they must regard themselves more highly than they should. If you could weigh those teachings on a scale, which would be more important?

Wearing glasses/not practicing the teachings of not going to doctors/not celebrating holidays...on one side of the scale.

Salvation on the other side of it

What is more important? 

Ummm, let me think about that....I choose salvation as being more important.

Oh, not that the leaders did not preach salvation, but as I think about back to then, not once in any meeting (which was what we called them) did they ever give an altar call. 

How did they ever know if I had ever been saved? I don't know. No one ever asked me that question.

But here they wanted me to wear my glasses....it seems to me that they chose the other scale as being more important.

Even if they did not realize it.

To be sure, I did not know their hearts. I only knew mine. Well, Ok, Jeremiah says this about the heart:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9

So sure, I could not know their hearts or where they were at with the Lord. And sometimes didn't even know my own.

But what I did know was that I had tried hard to follow this group and yet never felt really a part of them and didn't get to the place where they were on the teachings of healing etc.

And that hurt, the day I got called out on it in a meeting. 

But you know, I hadn't meant to be there in the first place and here I was now going through the book of Romans to discover what I truly believed. 

I was getting closer to the truth.

And the bottom line was not whether I could get to where everyone else was (or said they were) but was knowing that despite that, God had shed his blood for me. Nothing about those other teachings could be more important than that.

Not that they aren't, don't get me wrong. Because the bible does teach healing etc. But it does not teach it as a requirement for heaven. 

And wearing glasses? Humph. That whole thing had been just plain wrong.

🧡🧡🧡

Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to spend a few moments with me, Friends. May God bless the rest of your day!

No Need For Glasses Here!

 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:9-10

There it was again. Another passage to prove that needing glasses or anything else, apart from what it says here-is how we can know we will end up in heaven.

And again in verse 13:

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

I had believed in Jesus that night in the car when my dad led me to the Lord at the age of 8. 

Awe, but some might say, that it was just a childish faith that didn't mean anything.

Well, that is just not true. It had meant to me that Jesus now lived in my heart and that child's faith has grown into what it is today.

Many times over the years, I  have called on the name of the Lord in times of stress and doubt. I am sure not above having those times in my life, for sure. 

But when I do, I know that no matter what it is, the answer is to call upon God who is my refuge and strength in times of trouble. Psalm 46:1

And no one could ever take that away from me. 

🧡🧡🧡

Hello, Friends. Thanks for coming by today. I pray you will have a wonderful and blessed day!

All things Work Out

 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

To be honest with you, that verse really got to me when I read it during this time. I had heard all of these scripture passages for a long time in the different churches I had been in over the years. But this one was special because it reminded me that no matter what I was or would go through, good or bad, all things would work out for my good.

This situation was no different. I had believed that I had been called by God at the age of 8. God had proved that to me over and over down through the years. 

And look what verse 35 says in that chapter...

 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

 Nothing and no one could separate me from Christ's love. Nothing. Not the leaders of any church. Not the fact that I wore glasses. The "distress" I was going through, was absurd if it was anything. 

But it was because I was letting it by listening to the wrong message. Surely not the message of the cross. It was coming from the message of a man that had decided that wearing glasses was unacceptable under his teaching. 

And the final 3 verses in that chapter made that  just as clear:

 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us I persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I had been learning a lot during this time spent with the Holy Spirit every morning. Was there more? I kept reading to find out.

🧡🧡🧡

Hello Friends. Thanks for coming by today. I pray that you will have a wonderful day! God bless!

No Comdemnation?

 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2

The day that I read this passage in light of what I had been going through, was....well...I was really getting it. That no matter what the leaders thought I had done wrong, and right or wrong, Jesus did not hold me in their condemnation at all. 

And that meant He held none for any sin I committed and confessed, no matter who thought otherwise.

Paul goes on to say this in verse 8:

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Leaders in the church were always teaching about 'the flesh.' One popular verse is in 2 Chronicles 32:8 which talks about God being our "arm of the flesh, which is our strength." And we are not to lean on our own flesh or any others, like doctors, etc. 

With good reason, they taught about it, because it is in the bible, but once again, they took it too far. Especially with doctors. Instead of taking a child to a doctor for a broken bone, or a hospital to give birth, they would 'believe' for healing, or, let a child die if it was in trouble, instead of using a medical procedure could save it. And perhaps, let a person go blind...Ummm. Just saying...

Going on down to verse 16 is this:

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us

If we are truly born again, the Holy Spirit joins with us to help us understand that we are God's children. I had known this from a very early age. I should have never doubted it. And yet, I had for a time.

Not only that, but we are joint-heirs with Jesus! And while we may suffer things on earth, they are nothing compared to the glory we will share in when we go to heaven!

I had learned much from these few scriptures about what I was going through at the time. My mind was truly beginning to accept that I had nothing to fear about where I would end up after death. Despite what others may be saying. 

And it was because the Holy Spirit was teaching me. Praise God!

🧡🧡🧡

Thanks for visiting today, Friends. Take care and God bless you! Til next post....

God's Gift

 

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 

Romans 6:1-2

Paul, in his letters to the early churches, wanted them to know, that all sin. But once we identify with the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are no longer bound to it. We can choose to avoid temptations of it. But when we do, we can get God's free gift of grace. (see full chapter)

The book of Romans was a familiar one to me as, throughout my life in the churches I had gone to, and it was preached on a regular basis. But I had not read the whole book myself. 

And so this chapter was not just for me but for everyone. The leaders of the church I was at, at this point, and I had those looked to for guidance in my life was not perfect, but probably more highly regarded, and yet were not exempt from what Paul was saying here.

Still, I did not see anything in this chapter whereby we had to do anything to attain our salvation, except understand that we have only to accept God's grace when we do sin and ask for forgiveness. 

Paul ends this chapter with the following verse:

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 3:23

Romans

agh, but the gift of God is 

And there it was again. God's gift to us is from him alone because of Jesus Christ. Not because I wasn't exactly following the teachings of any church the way they thought I should be or growing at a faster pace than I was. 

They did not know or really bother to know what stumbling blocks I might be having in my home life that made some things pretty much impossible for me to grow.

Even though, I had been trying the best I could.

🧡🧡🧡

 Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Til next time, God bless you and yours!

Romans 6

Fact or Fiction? A Rvised Post 8/20

 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. or if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Romans 5:7-11

Hello Friends. If you have not read this post from a couple of days ago, I am truly sorry but I inadvertently deleted it today and do not have another copy of it. I am going to share with you some things that I did learn from this passage, but it may change some because I don't have the original one to look at. 

And so this means that nowhere in this passage does it say that we have to make ourselves ready to go to heaven once we believe that Christ came to die on the cross for our sins, was buried, and rose again to go to his Father and sits with God on His right hand. 

I did not have to stop wearing my glasses or be healed of the eye disease, or whatever else they taught we should be doing. I was not committing a sin by wearing them.

If we believe this and accept His gift of eternal life, that in itself, is all we need to do to be with Jesus when we take our last breath on earth.

I had been taught that in other churches throughout my life. And I believed it. 

But why was I questioning it now? 

It was because I was allowing myself to be in a church whose teachings were off that grid of the bible to a degree. 

To be truthful, however, that meant that they did believe in salvation, in Jesus' death on the cross, etc. However, their teachings went much further. They didn't celebrate birthdays or holidays of any kind. They believed in no doctors or taking medicines. That sort of thing. And they tried using the bible for backing those things up.  People would ask me if we were Jehovah's Witness and no we weren't. But I couldn't blame them for asking.

Paul tells us to not be tossed about every wind of doctrine in Ephesians 4:14, and it seems that is what the teaching was in this church. You had to do what they did, believe what they did, talk and act like they did, or they call you out on it. 

When I hadn't completely sold out to them after a time when they thought I should have, they did just that. And made me feel like I wasn't going to heaven when I died and that was scary.

And yet, in this passage in Romans, it was not what I did or didn't do that seals my way to heaven. It is only by His blood that was spilled on the cross for me long before I would ever arrive here.

In heaven, and standing at his throne, He is not going to ask me why I wore my glasses and didn't stay in that church. That fact is and was irrelevant. It is only my belief and acceptance of him, that will matter.

We need to align ourselves with a bible teaching church that teaches the truth. Now that isn't to say that, even a good bible church can't be wrong at times in some things. Because we are human, people do make mistakes. Even bible theologians don't always agree on everything. And God reveals to us only what he wants us to know and it is not always clear. So we do the best we can. 

But it is tragic to use teachings to cause fear in someone that really felt like I was alone in their church because at the time, my home life was so bad and I really wanted God to work within it. No one came to me from the church to speak with me about my "sin" and if they wanted to get real with it, the bible does have things to say about how you go about doing that when someone is sinning and yet they did not. 

One thing that did come out of all of this though, was to be in a church where I knew what I believed what was being taught, as much as possible, and not where people didn't let a Christian grow at their own pace and instead judged them for what they weren't doing right in someone else's eyes. 

The important thing we must believe in where we get to spend eternity has nothing more to do with the fact that we have to believe and accept Jesus and what he did for us. 

Nothing more and nothing less!

🧡🧡🧡

Well, Friends, this is a bit different than what I had originally posted the other day, but it could have all been put together to make a longer post. And so I will conclude here. 

And I will not be posting a new one today. Things around my home have been quite busy this week, and so I plan to be back tomorrow with the next one. I pray for your understanding and thank you for your support of this site. God bless!

Hope

 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: Romans 5:3-4

Well, there was a word I was feeling a lot those days. Going through tribulation was surely what it felt like to me. A feeling of suffering was what the dictionary had said it meant. And yep, that pretty much described me.

But why? If I should have been feeling a sense of peace, why was I experiencing fear. Because even though we will go through times of suffering even as Christians, I should not have been fearing hell at the end of this life. I should have been feeling the peace of knowing that when I die, no matter what I go through here on earth, I would be in heaven with God. I had believed that from the time I gave my heart to Jesus in the car that night long before, with my dad.  What made me think differently now. What had changed?

I knew my answer was still ahead. But when would I find it? 

From that passage, I saw that I needed to be patient and a bit of that hope began to come in. Hope I so desperately needed.

🧡🧡🧡

 Hello, Friends. Thanks for coming by today. Hope is something we all need. Especially with all the craziness in this world, we are living with today. There is so much fear. Fear of this virus going around. Fear of loss of jobs, homes, and even life. It exists even in the lives of those that serve God. We sometimes tend to forget, that he is overall that is going on and while we are to be cautious, we need not fear. Because he is with us. Have a blessed day!

There It Was Again

 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2

There it was again. That word peace. Surely God was trying to tell me something. Where was the peace I should be feeling?  It comes to those that are justified or in other words are made righteous in God through his Son Jesus Chris

I could not shake the feeling that some of the teachings of this church were off base at least to some degree. Not only that but were not even backed up by the unconditional love that the bible talks about.

No one in leadership had bothered to talk to me in a private meeting. Instead, I was called out during a worship service. It had been embarrassing and that was just wrong. 

And, when I left the church, no one bothered to give me a call and talk to me about it. Plus, knowing it as I had come to, I am sure it was like one of those deals within other churches when someone leaves, they are shunned. 

What kind of unconditional love is that. I was bad news. I wasn't compliant and so I was one for members to stay away from.

I had had that peace and hope in my life that Romans 5:1-2 speaks of, or I would never have accepted Christ in the first place. 

Had I completely lost it? And if so, could I get it back again? But if I did get it back again, at what price would I have to pay?

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Have a great day in the Lord and may God bless you in his love

 

Abraham Did Not Stagger....

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, Who delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Romans 4:19-25

Abraham had not been weak in his faith in God. So why was I at this place in my life when that passage also includes the phrase, "not written for his sake alone, but it was imputed for us also...."

That meant me as well as all other believers. Right? Why then,  hadn't it given me any peace? With doctrines in the church that seemed to be different from other churches that claimed the name of Jesus Christ, and yet made its members feel that if they didn't "walk" in those teachings, and/or left their church, may not be going to heaven upon death. 

I had believed in Jesus all my life. Even as a small child. I had not always stuck close to God and for a time had gone my own way as Isaiah 53:6 states that all do. But now I had been trying hard to do what he wanted me to do.

And so again, where was that peace that I should have had?

I didn't know. It sure wasn't there. Yet.

Hello, Friends.Thanks for coming by today. And thanks for sticking with me through these busy days. Some days I never know what may be coming. And mostly, that is ok because I know that my God reigns, and whatever comes, he orders my steps as he has promised. 

Are they always easy? Fun? No. Sometimes, they may even seem a bit crazy. But still, I know, God is with me. And if I have ever learned anything, it underneath it all, there is a layer of peace in God that I didn't have all those years ago while trying to find it, in the book of Romans. No matter what.

God bless your day