I Need to Hear the Gospel

At no time am I more likely to love other people, than when I have been preaching the gospel to myself. I never get tired of hearing it! There is never a time when I don't need to be reminded that while I was a sinner - a dweller in the darkness -, and an enemy of God, He loved me and forgave me of all my sin through Jesus Christ, His Son. There was nothing worthy or beautiful about me, and I certainly didn't deserve His forgiveness. It was His gift to me. I could never have done enough to earn it.

How then can I not pass on this same forgiveness to others? What about someone who has slandered me? What about someone who has ridiculed me and gone out of their way to hurt me? And what about the one who has stolen from me, then told lies to cover it up?

Well what about it? There's really no debate here. There is one answer and one alone for the believer. FORGIVE.

We pass on what has been given to us. It's simple. But what if my feelings are that I don't like this person or trust this one who has been so hurtful to me? Let your mind - not your feelings - tell you what to do. Listen to your conscience and DO the right and loving thing. Fake it until you make it. You don't have to trust the one who has betrayed you.... Look at the example we have in King David. Saul treated him unjustly and even tried to murder David. But David refused to reciprocate that kind of hatred. He treated Saul with the respect that a king deserved. David was a man after God's own heart regardless of what anybody else did.

Set Your Course

This morning I have set my course. I read in Galations 5:22-23, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." This is enough to be joyful over! God has promised to produce joy in His children. Even though I go through uncomfortable moments, frightening experiences, doubts, temptations to despair, pain, loneliness, discouragement, abandonment, betrayel, ridicule or whatever else Satan or the world may throw at me, I can choose to believe God and be joyful. James 1:2-4 says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials; knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Circumstances cannot steal away my joy. It is the fruit that is produced in me by God.
I find that the more I read God's Word, the more sure I am that He is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do. Is this not cause for rejoicing? The Master and Creator of the universe loves me, and has made promises to me! He is my joy and nothing but nothing can separate me from Him!

As I meditate on these things, I am strengthened and fore-armed against Satan's deceptions and the empty and vain philosophy of the world. We are bombarded all day every day with lies that would steal our joy. Take time this morning to read God's Word and set your course. You will be fruitful and develope the endurance needed to survive in this dark world.

Courage Under Fire

We never know what tomorrow will bring, and we are not to worry about it. Those of us who belong to God are to trust Him to protect us, and guide us through whatever comes.

These are perilous times, and we can be sure of nothing outside of the fact that God is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do.

This doesn't mean we're not going to have hard times (as you already know) but that WHEN hard times come, He will help His children through it all. He will give us the strength we need, but that doesn't mean we won't feel the stretch and ache of our spiritual muscles. It doesn't mean we won't strain with effort, and tremble in our overworked spiritual selves.

He will give us the courage we need to face whatever giants shake their fists at us and taunt us with their lies, but that doesn't mean fear will be absent. It means God will supply the will to take the NEXT step. It many not be easy, but God makes it possible to conquer in the midst of fear.

Find out who God says He is and what He says He will do for those who belong to Him. Then when your feelings tell you to start worrying, you'll know they aren't telling the truth.

Anna's DBS Presentation

My Story

To know a little bit about my story, check this link out.


My Story on Youtube

Your Story

I want to hear YOUR story. Do you have a testimony in relation to presenting your body as living sacrifices to God as your spiritual act of worship? I am inviting you to respond and share with us part of the journey you have been on.............

My Body on the Altar

"Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." Romans 12:1

I am reminded that today is yet another day with many opportunities to worship God. My body is to be given to God on this day - whatever condition it is in. I will have opportunity to pray, to praise, and to let the members of my body be used for God and by God. Even if I am sad or worse - in agony - I still have this directive from God to present my body as a living sacrifice to Him. This is not to say that I cannot pray for healing, or cry out to God in my pain, but we have the choice before us: to worship Him in the midst of a diseased body or not.
This is a mystery: to worship in spite of darkness and evil which appears to prevail. "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known." 1 Corinthians 13:12

A Little Tin Box

I was going through boxes and I came across some things that belonged to my grandfather. There were newspaper articles about him, poems he had written, geneology, and sermon notes. My grandfather was a Methodist minister in the early 1900 s. There was a lot of information about him and by him. But not that much when you consider that he lived to be almost 90. Now - at this time in 2011, my grandfather's life has been reduced to a metal tin and its contents, and a box containing the high points of his entire life. But the choices he made during his life time, and the actions that he took, are still effecting the world, mostly in ways we are not aware of.
I began to ponder what this meant to me. I remember in Scripture we are compared to grass that is here for a day, then withers. I suddenly feel the fact that I am not the center of the world, but I belong to the One Who is. I wonder......if my grandchildren should find a box that contained tidbits of my life, what would they learn?
Would they find evidence of a character weathered by things once life changing (like Parkinson's Disease) but now insignificant? Would that box point the curious onlooker to the God who shaped me, molded me, made me fruitful, then carried me tenderly through old age to the end?
Or would that box be filled with junk? Would it be proof of a life spent on selfish pursuits and fruitless deeds? Would the focus of that box be disease and death ending it all, or would it be the beauty that had been brought forth from the ashes of yesterday.
Today's sorrow will bring about tomorrow's legacy. I pray that legacy is an honorable one pointing to the One Who matters.