Tag: love

Can I Absolutely Seek God With All My Heart?

Can I Absolutely Seek God With All My Heart?

So many cares of this world that draw us aside and pull at our hearts. So many distractions that cause us to seek after comforts and desires. We rush about our lives with so much on our minds; yet, the one true source of love, hope and joy is pushed aside into a small moment or time. We chase after careers, success, money, love, and things as though they will fulfill the desires of our hearts. Oh, certainly we must go about our days making a living, caring for our family, and our health. Yet, the question that we must consider is “what holds center stage in our hearts?” Have all these things become our first loves and thereby our idols? Or do we seek God first and let Him add that which we need? “33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6).

seek the Lord

[bctt tweet=”What would one life fully devoted to seek God above all else look like? “]I truly want to know that in my life. I want to know how to love Him more, desire Him more, and fully abide in Him. Perhaps if I were to forsake everything and live in a tent in the woods away from the world, I could be alone with Him. Yet, then I would be unable to present Him to a world in need of God’s love. To love God fully with all my heart means I must love the world that He was willing to allow His son to die for. So, how do I live surrounded by the world and still seek God with all my heart?

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3 Psalms Proclaiming Hope, Joy and Grace to the World

3 Psalms Proclaiming Hope, Joy and Grace to the World

David’s life with all the ups and downs, the great victories and the moments of failure is a portrait of our Christians lives. Each step of the way, David was drawn toward an ever increasing passionate love for God. David had moments of great joy and seasons of deep sorrow. His Songs to God reflect these very emotions. Yet if we look a little closer we also see the gospel of grace being portrayed. How amazing it is that David’s moments of conflict were used to portray Christ’s crucifixion is Psalm 22. Then raised from the dead the shepherd cares for the sheep in Psalm 23. And finally the chief Shepherd appears as King of glory to own and reward the sheep in Psalm 24. A trilogy of Psalms portraying the Gospel. Look a little closer.

THE CRUCIFIXION PORTRAYED

jesus christ picturePsalm 22:(NIV) “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?” Are these not the same cries that we hear from the cross of Christ? Is this not the good shepherd who gave his life for the people?   Then we see the foreshadowing of Christ again  as  they hurl insults, shaking their heads. 8 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
“let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.” Are these not the same cries of the people against Christ in Matthew 27:43.
picture used with permission of Ronald Barba  for information about his artwork go to  http://barba-art.com         

   Then we see the picture of the cross itself. ” I am poured out like water, all my bones are out of joint.  My  heart has turned to wax; it has melted within   15 My mouth[d]is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.” This  is a picture of crucifixion. The joints being pulled out of place, the blood and water poured forth, the intense perspiration, the parched lips, the intense strain upon the heart and the death. Then we even see the “18 They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” David with great detail gave us the picture of Christ to come. Was he aware of that? Or did God use David’s moments of conflict to form the words that would point to Christ? A question we must ponder as we look at our own moments of conflict. Are they a means to portray Christ to the world?

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Can I Really Engage People In A Computerized World?

Can I Really Engage People In A Computerized World?

It has been an amazing journey since 2010. I began when Dr. Bajaj asked if I could start sending a devotional email to the staff every day. From the devotional email, I got the idea of starting a blog post. If my emails could reach or encourage a few, perhaps on the web I could reach more. I had just published my first book of poetry and was working on another book that was dear to my heart. Perhaps I could reach a larger audience for Christ. At the same time I had begun speaking in a jail ministry. Not having much capital, I did obtain some help from a young man who understood computers and how to set up the website.

A FAILURE TO READ THE MANUAL

Pretty much later, I had to figure it out. Sadly to say, I have one of those brains who has trouble reading the instruction manual. You know the type, the one who tries to figure it out. Well, that was me. I did watch a few YouTube videos for how to. You can imagine how I have stumbled along this path. Hours and hours sometimes to accomplish the simplest of tasks. Still work was too commanding and chaotic to ever consider taking a class in all this technical stuff. (My difficulty with reading the manuals is why I so often have lead you through entire books of the Bible or series. The one manual I do want to learn, is God’s Word. When I am taking you through a series, I am committing myself to fully read, study, and understand before I teach you each section.)

prayer for you in computer world

[bctt tweet=”Lost in the mass of the technical jargon, the one thing that kept me going was love for each of you”] You see, every step of this journey called life has been a journey reaching for hope, joy, and peace in the midst of chaos. The thought of not sharing the wondrous mysteries of the gospel with you would be an unbearable thought.

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6 Reasons Why Suffering In the Life of Believers

6 Reasons Why Suffering In the Life of Believers

Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries or questions that we as believers face is why is there still so much suffering?  Didn’t Christ say “come unto me and I will give you rest”?  (Matthew 11: 28)  Didn’t God promise that “3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds” Psalm 147?   Yet, Paul wrote concerning the Christian that   “8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4). So, what is Paul talking about? When I am cut do I not bleed?  Troubled on every side, but no distress?  If I am distressed does that mean I have failed in my faith?  Are all these trials a punishment for my sin? Or can there be other reasons?

save meArtwork used by permission of the artist Ronald Barba for information go to http://www.barba-art.com

[bctt tweet=”If anguish forces me to turn & look at the cross Could it be storms in my life are God’s Grace?”]

A STUDENT OF SUFFERING

My life has not been exempt to sorrow.  Indeed, trials have always been present in one sense or another as a part of this my journey, my pilgrimage.  I have not been a stranger to emotional and physical abuse, cancer, chronic illness, financial disaster, multiple surgeries, false accusations, tragedies, death of those I loved most, and periods of desperate loneliness.  Beyond the sufferings from outside, there have been those torments from within. I mean by that the sufferings deep within the heart. Those moments of feeling unworthy, guilt laden and that fear of failing.  I tell you all this very honestly to allow you to know that I have been a student of suffering and as such have learned that there are 6 reasons that God allows suffering in the life of the Believer. All six reasons that God allows suffering in the life of the believer are acts of Grace born out of God’s perfect Love. Through suffering He leads and guides us to a place of Glory, Peace, Hope, and Exceeding Joy.

The six reasons why God allows and even ordains suffering in the life of the Believer are as follows.

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Can Praying the Lord’s Prayer be actually powerful?

Can Praying the Lord’s Prayer be actually powerful?

We find in the Bible two recordings of Jesus instructing his disciples to pray. Once in Matthew 6 and the second time in Luke 11. These do appear to be at different times because the one in Matthew is while Jesus was preaching the Sermon on the Mount. The prayer in Luke is amongst a much smaller crowd and occurred when one of His disciples had seen Jesus praying and then asked if Jesus would teach them how to pray. The differences between the two prayers are minor.

Of note, in Matthew; a few verses before Christ had warned against repetitious prayers. “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking” (Matthew 6:7). Then Jesus proceeds and says, “After this manner therefore pray ye” (Matthew 6:9). The Lord’s Prayer that follows was to be a template, a guide. Still, can we use it as our prayer? There are those times when it can be actually very powerful, when we pray it from our heart.   Let’s exam it- section by section.

Our Father Which Art In Heaven (Matthew 6:9)

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What an amazing truth those words.  God is my Heavenly Father The fact that we can call God Father reflects that this is a relationship.  I have the wondrous gracious privilege to talk to my Heavenly Father; because of the redemptive work of Christ on the cross.

 

 

© Liz Lemon Swindle/Licensed from GoodSalt.com

[bctt tweet=”I can sit beside God, My Father with childlike wonder and tell Him all about my day.”] No pretenses. No need to hide my flaws. I can sit beside Him, babbling on in my child like speech; knowing that He listens. I also know that He will guide and teach as a loving Father who desires my best. And, note;the word “our”. In this relationship with God, I have many brothers and sisters, including Christ Jesus. I am not alone; rather,

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