Will You Really Forgive Me God?

Why is it that sometimes we don't think that God can or will forgive us?

Are our sins greater then every one elses? 

Hebrews 8:12 says this: I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.

That word 'wickedness' is a pretty strong word. It includes perversion, corruption, viciousness, immorality and many other definitions.

And yet, there it is right in the bible as a word that God says he will forgive and remember it no more.

So why then can't we believe that promise is for us? Perhaps it is because we can't seem to forgive ourselves for the things we have done.

But 2 Corinthians 5:17 says:Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold old things have passed away, and all things have become new.

We do not have to live under the devils condemnation any more. We now belong to God who has redeemed us and forgiven our sin. Romans 8:1

The next time you get down on yourself, and think that the sin you have committed is too much for God to forgive, go back to that verse in Hebrews. In fact, if you really have a problem in that area of thinking God can't or won't forgive you-print that verse on a card and tape it someplace or maybe in several places in your home where you can see it on a regular basis. Let it get into your spirit as you go through your day.

Because he wants to forgive you and I or he would not have given us that promise.

June 11, 2019 Promise: Blessed are those that keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.

Thanks for coming by today Friends. God bless you today and be sure to pass your blessings on to someone that needs them.

Promises, Promises, Promises

Promises, Promises, Promises

Has anyone every made you a promise that they didn't keep? Have you ever made someone a promise you didn't keep? Sure, promises are made and not kept every day to people. Whether they can't be kept or the person making them didn't intend to after all, and was just trying to appease someone. 

God doesn't make promises that he doesn't keep. He does what he says he will do, when he says he will and how he says he will. 

It may not be in our time frame. Or, how we think it should be.

Years ago, my mother had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Doctors gave her a month to live but she passed several days later. My sister came from out of state to attend her funeral. Linda was one that believed in absolute healing, and not in doctors. Going to doctors was committing sin, so the church in which she attended taught and she believed. She said to me that morning of the funeral, that she had prayed that our mother would be healed. I said to her, "But she has been healed. As soon as she breathed her last in this life, God had healed her."

She looked at me like I was crazy. If only all of us had been praying for mom's healing, she would not have died. I guess she thought it was our fault for not praying the way we should have, or because she had gone to doctors, that was why she had died. 

She didn't seem to think that it wasn't up to us. It was up to God when he called her home. If he had wanted her healed, he would have done that. Instead, we had depended on him, praying his will, and not our own.

And that evening when she passed, it had been his will. 

God does not always answer our prayers on our time clock. He does not have a magic button on which we can push to get what he want. He knows what is best for us, and when the time is right he will answer our prayers. And he doesn't always answer them just the way we ask or hope. 

Jesus was teaching his disciples how to pray one day, and part of that prayer he had told them to say was, "...thy will be done. in earth as it is in heaven..." (Mathew 6:10)

That means God's will, not my will. If God does not heal someone that I am praying healing for here, I am confident that if they are saved by his blood, that they will be when they take their first breath after they have passed. 

Why?

Because, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways, declares the Lord."  "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher then your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."  Isaiah 55:8-9

I don't know about anyone else, but that is way good enough for me. Because after all God is above all and he has the final say.

June 10, 2019 Promise: Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. Psalm 119:1

Thanks for coming by today Friends. May God bless your day! 

God's Masterpiece or Barbie Makeover?

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14.

As a young teenager growing up in the early 60s, I had a complex about my body. I didn't like the way I looked. I thought I was too skinny. I really don't know where those thoughts came from because I don't remember anyone actually making fun of the way I looked. And yet those feelings that I had, carried on into long after I was married.  (They don't any more even though I am sixty plus years old and beginning to get gray hair.)

We all know that the entertainment world has done a lot of damage to girls and women especially in their quest to make them believe that they have to have a certain image, a certain "look" in order to make it in movies and so on. Sad to say, because they want it so bad, they fall for so many lies that the devil has told them about how they need to change their looks to meet certain requirements to become famous.

I recall seeing a woman on a talk show program that was addicted to having plastic surgery so much that she did not even look normal. Or how about the lady that wanted to look like the Barbie doll so she reportedly spent $500,000 on plastic surgery to become a "Human Barbie." And then there are those that find phony surgeons on the internet that have injected cement into parts of the body supposedly to enhance those body parts, only to maim or cause death to them. 

For what reason do any of these surgeons do that? Whether licensed or not, it all boils down to money, of course. It is a huge industry. 

How sad is our God that looks down on his creation to see the willingness of those that want to transform their bodies into something other then what he had knitted together in their mother's wombs. Yes, how sad.

And how sad is for those men and women that have so little confidence in their looks to spend their money on changing what God has given them, either from some that is qualified, or God forbid, someone that does it that has absolutely no training in it and ruins someones life because of it. All because they are willing to trust someone that has no business at all taking money from vulnerable people.

And yet, they want, when they want it and are willing to do what it takes to get it.

The Psalmist David had it right He knew where he came from. He knew that he wasn't just tissue in his mother's womb to become a baby at some later point. God put him together as he was growing in the secret place, and God actually knew him from his very beginning. Just as he knew you and I in our very beginning.

We must give our children the confidence that they are beautiful because God made them, so they do not grow up thinking they need some surgeon or back alley fraud to make them over into something they are not. It is our duty as parents and even as grandparents.

God help us if we don't. 

June 9, 2019 Promise: Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in times of need. Hebrews 4:16

Hi Friends. I am so sorry that I didn't get here yesterday. I thank you for your patience and wish you a happy and blessed Lords day!

Weed or Seed?

Do you ever feel a little like this dandelion that loses its flower and its remains float off into the wind, losing their strength as well? But do you know that those seeds that do go floating off, plant themselves somewhere else, only to grow and irritate people that do not want them in their yards.

The thing about them is, there are truly some remarkable things to say for these weeds that we don't really want around. From being edible to possibly helping to control blood sugar and more.

However, I am not going to talk about their benefits in this post. If you want more information on that you can go to:  13 Potential Health Benefits of Dandelion

 I think the main thing is, they are a bit like us. Wait. What?

When a person becomes a Christian, they are often so happy for what God does for them, that they want to spread it all around. Just like those dandelion seeds, we spread this good news for all to hear. Only some do not want to listen. And so eventually some get tired of trying.We may lose our strength and become idle. Just letting everyone  else plant the seeds and doing the things that we should be doing to further the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That is when we need our fellow "dandelions." To gather around us, praying for us to take on the strength of Jesus Christ again to grow his kingdom.

Thank God for the ministry of those around us. That can lift us up when we are bent down. That we can also lift up when they feel like their life is just blowing in the wind.

Luke 8:11 says: The seed is the word of God.

But if we are stagnate, and not spreading it, it will not grow. We need God's Word and sometimes the prayers and support of others in Christ, so that we will be as strong as those weeds that we may detest and yet are as quick to come back as soon as our grass is mowed.

Because, unlike those dandelions that will one day pass away forever, God's Word will never pass away.

June 7, 2019 Promise: But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength. 2 Timothy 4:17

Thanks for coming by today Friends. God be with you and bless you and yours!

What is True Love? God's Love

Love never fails. But what does that mean? Because it does everyday. That is why there are so many divorces. Not to mention all the other ways in which it does.

However, the love of God never fails. He created us. And because he created us, he will  never leave or forsake us. Hebrews 13:5. In fact, nothing can separate us from his love. Romans 8:38-39. His love for us is so great that he sent Jesus to die for our sins. Romans 5:8.

God's love is the only thing that has stood the test of time. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says it all for us. It does not matter if we speak in the tongues of men or angels, have the gift of prophesy,  have the greatest faith in the world, give everything we have to the poor, or give our selves to be sacrificed-if we do not have love, we are no more than the banging of brass or clanging of a cymbal.

That reminds me of these cults that teach all these weird things and people are told to follow all their rules and when they do not, some are ousted from the fellowship or worse yet, beaten, tortured or even killed. What kind of love is that. It is not God's love. And yet, people blindly follow them because they seek something that they need, in hopes of finding it.

The fact is, that kind of ministry-if we can call it that- is sounding brass and the clanging of cymbals because it is without God's love. All they do is make noise. That does nothing for the Kingdom of God and it can lead people straight to hell.

But we can make that kind of noise to. In our communities, in our churches and in our families.

What is true love? These verses in 1 Corinthians is what it means. From here to there, from beginning to end, it is defined by God. He created it. He gives it. He is true love. Love that even in the most difficult of our life experiences, we are called to love as he has loved us.

And even when our love falters, his does not.

June 5, 2019 Promise: Humble yourselves in the sight of God and he shall lift you up. James 4:10

Hello Friends. I hope your summer is getting off to a wonderful start. God bless!

What is True Love? Perseverance

Love....it always preserves: 1 Corinthians 13:7

Perseverance:

 doing something even though difficult

continued effort to do something despite difficulties

never giving up

When I was a fairly young teenager, we used to go out to a farm in Hilliard, Ohio where my aunt, uncle and cousins used to live. I was born in a small town and raised in the city and so getting to go out and spend   time on a farm with them were special times to me.  They had these huge trees on their property and in the summer I used to go out and climb my very favorite one, every time we went out. That was no small feat, I assure you. I had to carefully climb up one limb at a time until I reached very close to the top, so as not to miss my step and go tumbling to the ground, which I was sure would probably be the end of me. Thankfully, I never did and if my parents had known what I had been doing out there, they would have put a stop to it. But they didn't and climbing that tree had gone on for several years with each visit we made there.

Why did I do it? Well, looking out over the beautiful country side had been an amazing experience for me. Not only that, but it was a small piece of freedom and a private place I had apart from everyone else, that they didn't share with me. I suppose I liked that. It was like this tree had its limbs around me holding me in place with each step. I know sounds silly. But how often our thoughts are silly as kids, and yet maybe it wasn't so silly because it did keep me safe.

It had taken perseverance to get up high in that tree and back down without meeting my end and I knew it. All through my life, I have mostly not willingly taken such dangerous actions as I did climbing that tree. Thank God I had chosen a tree strong that would hold me although I was a skinny kid and didn't really weigh all that much even as a teen.

Love is persevering in things even and especially when they are tough. In marriage. In raising our kids. In financial crisis. When we are growing older. In all things.

Jesus himself was the model for us in  Hebrews 12:2. ...looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right of the throne of God.

He persevered in love for us even to his death. Easy? Was his life and death easy? Absolutely not. And sometimes ours isn't either. There are times when it takes the all the strength of God just as those limbs that so long ago held me,  to hold us in his arms to be able to preserve to the end of what we are going through.

It takes love, it takes patience, it sometimes takes the support of others-but mostly it takes God.

June 3, 2019 Promise: And the peace of God that passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

Hello Friends. May God be with you and bless you today and always!

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What is True Love: Hope

What do you hope for?

A brand new car? A beautiful home? The latest smart phone? Or maybe something like a husband or wife. Or children.

Grand as those things can be, our first hope should be for the eternal life we will have one day through Jesus Christ. For those who have called upon his name. He is called our hope in 1 Timothy 1:1.

And our real hope should be laid up in heaven if we are saved by his blood.

Sometimes it can be hard when going through a trial to see any hope for our situation. We can feel stuck. We can feel like things will never change. I know because there was a time in my life when I felt and believed these things.

Until I got hold of the verse in Hebrews 1:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith and hope goes hand in hand. If we hope for the things that we cannot see, God sees our faith and he will work our situation out to our good. Why? Because he loves us and he wants the very best for us.

June 2, 2019 Promise: In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie promised before the foundation of the earth.

Hello Friends: The post today is rather short and I apologize. I had some technical problems with the first one and had to shorten it so I can go on with some other things we are doing. Anyway, I want to wish you with birthdays this month a very "Happy Birthday!" God bless!