Thursday, February 14, 2013

Yes, Jesus Loves Me!

Thank You, Jesus, for loving me while I was your enemy, and living deep in my sins.  Thank You for having such great love for Your Father, and for all of creation that You gave up Your life on the cross so we could receive salvation.  I'm so glad God loves us unconditionally, that is how He could let His only beloved Son die on the cross for us.  Thank You for Holy Spirit Who lives in us, and is our constant guide and keeper.  Thank You, God, for teaching us how to love You, ourselves, and each other through Your Word.  We love You, Lord!  Happy Valentines Day.

Love is always patient; love is always kind; love is never envious or arrogant with pride. Nor is she conceited, 1 Corinthians 13:4 (ISV)

Monday, February 11, 2013

Take Nothing and Making Something (THAT'S HIS SPECIALTY)

We all know the story of the feeding of the multitudes.  John the Baptist had been beheaded at the request of Herrod's daughter on the king's birthday; Jesus was told this news by John's diciples and withdrew, but the people saddened came to Him and being Jesus with the compassion only He has, healed the sick among them.  As it was getting late, the diciples urge that the people go so they could go buy themselves something to eat, but Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
 “Bring them here to me,” he said.  And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.  They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.  The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children. Matt 14: 16-21 (NIV)
How how does God get into Godless places; He sends in God filled people, but that's His specialty.  We want situations on our jobs to change for the better , but are we complaining instead of praying.  There is power in prayer and prayer changes things.  After all, God answers prayer because that's His specialty.  Wondering where your next meal is coming from and how the bills are going to get paid?  God always provides, but that's His specialty.  We pray for family and friends to be saved. We know God can and will save souls, after all look what He did for wretches like us, but that's His specialty.  Oh come on now, let's talk about finances, you know money!  We need it and we want it, and money has it's place.  In fact, let's take a detour into scripture about money so we can dispell the misinterpretation of scripture that money is the root of all evil.  1Tim 6:10 "For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."  The reason we have such a struggle with money or better yet the lack of it, we don't budget wisely; we don't tithe (at least 10%) like we should (Malachi 3:8-10); we don't save for a rainy day.  Oh, we want God to bless us, and we're praying for change to come in some area of our lives, but are we doing our part to help make this happen?  It was once said that there is no greater insanity than doing the same thing and expecting to get different results!  There is nothing too big for our God.  He can turn a thing around.  He can make the impossible possible.  He can do anything, but fail.  God can change our situations in a twinkling of an eye, but that's His specialty.

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Psalm 37:25 (from Aunt Mamie's scripture slices box)