Friends that want to hang out

Showing posts with label christ. faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christ. faith. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Not Trusting Enough.. again


A friend called me yesterday on the phone... She had seen that I called her cell earlier that day and did not leave a message... She thought that I may have called her about my mom and her recent surgery... I had called her because I wanted to talk to my friend...

As we talked about what's been going on in my life lately - she asked if she could pray with me... So she prayed for me over the phone....

In her prayer she said that I trusted God to take care of me.. My mom.. my children.. my marriage... And in that prayer I realized that I had stopped trusting Him... I was taking control again.. And I realized in that moment that I had to let go..... again..

** thank you Roxanna for calling me.. praying with me.. and knowing my heart..

Psalm 40:1-2 I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.

John 16:33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on Earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have over the World.

Romans 5:3-4 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us - they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character...

1 Peter 1:8 Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy.

Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Well Done Good And Faithful Servant...


Tonight one on the questions in my Bible study was this....

"If the Lord was to take you home tonight, would you be able to say that you did not waste your life, but lived it for God's kingdom?"

This question is a really tough to answer - don't you think?

You know the saying - "Good intentions pave your way to hell"? If I am going to be honest here - I have to say that I do have good intentions... I will get very fired up and somewhere along the way I lose steam and often times fall back into my lazy ways....

In our round table discussion we talked about how to get and stay passionate about Jesus... The main answer was to love one another... To love the unlovable.... To stop judging.... What God requires of His Followers is basically simple... He wants us to love and honor His children and to love Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind....

Romans 14:10-12 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God." So then each of us shall give account to himself to God.

We I need to live my life honoring Christ... I need to reach out to the unloved and love... I need to humble myself... I need to get out of this comfort zone I have created and get uncomfortable... Because when I go home to my Father - I want to be able to say....

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. And God will reply.... "Well Done, good and faithful servant."

** image from yahoo images

Friday, April 9, 2010

Jesus: God, Lunatic, or Evil Man...


By C.S. Lewis

When we come to the Incarnation itself, I usually find that some form of aut Deus aut malus hom (either God or a bad man) can be used. The majority of them start with the idea of the "great human teacher" who was deified by his superstitious followers. It must be pointed out how very improbable this is among the Jews and how different to anything that happened with Plato, Confucius, Buddha, Mohammed. The Lord's own words and claims (of which many are quite ignorant) must be forced home..

On the one side clear, definite moral teaching. On the other, which, if not true, are those of a megalomaniac, compared with whom Hitler was the most sane and humble of men. There is no half-way house and there is no parallel in other religions. If you had gone to Buddha and asked him "Are you the son of Brahman?" he would have said, "My son, you are sill in the vale of illusion." If you had gone to Socrates and asked, "Are you Zeus?" he would have laughed at you. If you had gone to Mohamed and asked, "Are you Allah?? he would first have rent his clothes and then cut your head off. If you had asked Confucius, "Are you Heaven?" I think he would have probably replied, "Remarks which are not in accordance with nature are in bad taste." The idea of a great moral teacher saying what Christ said is out of the question. In my opinion, the only person who can say that sort of this is either God or a complete lunatic suffering from that form of delusion which undermines the whole mind of man. If you think you are a poached egg, when you are looking for a piece of toast to suit you, you may be sane, but if you think you are God, there is no chance for you. We may note in passing that He was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. he produced mainly three effects - Hatred - Terror - Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild approval.

Jesus told people that their sins were forgiven... This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. H would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Excerpts from God in the Dock, "what are we to make of Jesus Christ?" 1950 and Mere Christianity

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Today - I am Letting Go!


Today - I am letting go - I am giving up control - I'm letting Jesus take the wheel.. I've been driving too long - and I'm tired.... With me behind the wheel there have been too many detours.. too many dead ends... I realized today (again) that I cannot do it all.... I try to be everything to everyone and I am exhausted... I've put my Father, my husband, and my kids on the back burner... The most important things in my life have been upstaged by my mad desires.. My mad and crazy business... my mad and crazy need to be in control... Not trusting God to take care of me....

With me in the drivers seat - I have driven off the road... I have gotten lost... I have ended up in places that I should never have ventured to.... So picture me stepping out of the car... walking around to the passenger's door getting in... not putting on a seat belt - with Jesus driving - there is no need - He alone protects me...

The Lord will keep you from harm - he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore... Psalm 121:7-8

Sunday, February 21, 2010

No, I Don't Want To Listen


You know what is super crazy about God? It's the fact that when He wants you to listen up - He makes it Clear and Apparent... A friend today called it the echo of God... That description fit perfectly into where I am today... The echo of God is telling me the answers... loud and clear... But do I want to listen to Him? The truthful answer would be "No" Being a follower of Christ is not an easy road to travel. My pastor this morning said it perfectly clear in his sermon... We live in a world of sin - God warns us throughout the Bible that because we are followers of Christ - we will be ridiculed and tempted... We will be unpopular - because of our faith... our beliefs... and the enemy - the evil one is just waiting for that slip... that break in our faith... that over indulgent moment to drive that wedge between our relationship with Jesus.... and many times we don't even recognize it's happening until it's too late...

As I shared before - I am going through a thing... And this thing is driving me insane - crazy...I want to say that I Don't know what to do ...that I Don't know what to say.. that I Don't know how to have my cake and eat it too.. But the truth of the matter is I do know what I have to do... and my sin... my want... is making it a tough choice.... But like I said - God makes it clear and apparent what He wants.. so much so that it is impossible to turn the other way...

So today not only was I hearing an echo in Sunday school... I heard an echo in the sermon, the radio, and tonight... Crazy.... What this echo thing is telling me is that God knows me... Me as an individual.. Me as the person I am - not one of many but just me and me and alone... He loves me and wants me to stand in the Son... He wants me to be in His word.... He does not want me to wonder.... He knows my name...

Saturday, February 20, 2010

What Is Character? -


We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. Romans 5:3-5

My Sunday school class is studying character and I have to say that I find it to be the most meaningful study I have done in a long time. Character is what we show to the world... What we show to our children... Character is Who we are when no one is looking.... Character is developed by our belief system... our rights... and our wrongs...

I have been having struggles with character lately.... It's strange how when we pursue God more... the Evil one tries to pull you back even harder... I have to resist - I have to keep looking up.. I have to build up my character... I need to focus on Him and Him alone...

One of the things I love about blogging is the incredible women I have met - Oh Sew Good is SSSSEEEWWW good at telling me like it is and I love her for that.... She made a comment to me recently in one of my posts and God just laid her words on my heart.... today - I realized that I did not trust God enough... I did not take His job for me seriously.... I did not show the character that I need to show... One of the many things I love about my God - is that he gives me do-overs... and today - I am praying for a do over... He knows what it is... I don't need to say it here in this blog... but He knows...

Friday, January 22, 2010

The Special Bonds


Last night I had the privilege to spend an evening with five incredible women.... The kind of women whom I can depend upon to love me.... to lead by example... to give me encouragement.. and to make me laugh until my mascara is running down my face...

God blesses us with friendships... I believe that He loves us so much that he wants us laughing... being joyful.... and enjoying one another.... There is a special bond that occurs between women of faith... women who are mothers... There is an unspoken understanding.... I can't explain it -there just is....

Today, I am thankful... Thankful for being so richly blessed....

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: if they fall down, they can help each other up. But pity those who fall and have no one to help them up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12


Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Ann Coulter - In Your Face


I was recently reading an article about the top 100 women bloggers - Ann Coulter being one of them - below you will find a post she wrote - I completely agreed with her beliefs - had a little difficulty with the "in your face" tactics but she is Ann Coulter after all.... No holds barred.... No political correctness... Just The Word and only The Word.... ( I can't say I am a fan of her other writings because I have never read them) Read this post - Tell me what you think.....

IF YOU CAN FIND A BETTER DEAL, TAKE IT!
January 6, 2010

http://www.anncoulter.com/
Someone mentioned Christianity on television recently and liberals reacted with their usual howls of rage and blinking incomprehension.
On a Fox News panel discussing Tiger Woods, Brit Hume said, perfectly accurately:

"The extent to which he can recover, it seems to me, depends on his faith. He is said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So, my message to Tiger would be, 'Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world."

Hume's words, being 100 percent factually correct, sent liberals into a tizzy of sputtering rage, once again illustrating liberals' copious ignorance of Christianity. (Also illustrating the words of the Bible: "How is it you do not understand me when I speak? It is because you cannot bear to listen to my words." John 8:43.)

In The Washington Post, Tom Shales demanded that Hume apologize, saying he had "dissed about half a billion Buddhists on the planet."

Is Buddhism about forgiveness? Because, if so, Buddhists had better start demanding corrections from every book, magazine article and blog posting ever written on the subject, which claims Buddhists don't believe in God, but try to become their own gods.

I can't imagine that anyone thinks Tiger's problem was that he didn't sufficiently think of himself as a god, especially after that final putt in the Arnold Palmer Invitational last year.

In light of Shales' warning Hume about "what people are saying" about him, I hope Hume's a Christian, but that's not apparent from his inarguable description of Christianity. Of course, given the reaction to his remarks, apparently one has to be a regular New Testament scholar to have so much as a passing familiarity with the basic concept of Christianity.

On MSNBC, David Shuster invoked the "separation of church and television" (a phrase that also doesn't appear in the Constitution), bitterly complaining that Hume had brought up Christianity "out-of-the-blue" on "a political talk show."

Why on earth would Hume mention religion while discussing a public figure who had fallen from grace and was in need of redemption and forgiveness? Boy, talk about coming out of left field!

What religion -- what topic -- induces this sort of babbling idiocy? (If liberals really want to keep people from hearing about God, they should give Him his own show on MSNBC.)

Most perplexing was columnist Dan Savage's indignant accusation that Hume was claiming that Christianity "offers the best deal -- it gives you the get-out-of-adultery-free card that other religions just can't."

In fact, that's exactly what Christianity does. It's the best deal in the universe. (I know it seems strange that a self-described atheist and "radical sex advice columnist faggot" like Savage would miss the central point of Christianity, but there it is.)

God sent his only son to get the crap beaten out of him, die for our sins and rise from the dead. If you believe that, you're in. Your sins are washed away from you -- sins even worse than adultery! -- because of the cross.
"He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross." Colossians 2:14.

Surely you remember the cross, liberals -- the symbol banned by ACLU lawsuits from public property throughout the land?

Christianity is simultaneously the easiest religion in the world and the hardest religion in the world.

In the no-frills, economy-class version, you don't need a church, a teacher, candles, incense, special food or clothing; you don't need to pass a test or prove yourself in any way. All you'll need is a Bible (in order to grasp the amazing deal you're getting) and probably a water baptism, though even that's disputed.

You can be washing the dishes or walking your dog or just sitting there minding your business hating Susan Sarandon and accept that God sent his only son to die for your sins and rise from the dead ... and you're in!

"Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9.
If you do that, every rotten, sinful thing you've ever done is gone from you. You're every bit as much a Christian as the pope or Billy Graham.

No fine print, no "your mileage may vary," no blackout dates. God ought to do a TV spot: "I'm God Almighty, and if you can find a better deal than the one I'm offering, take it."

The Gospel makes this point approximately 1,000 times. Here are a few examples at random:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God." Ephesians 2:8.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23.

In a boiling rage, liberals constantly accuse Christians of being "judgmental." No, we're relieved.

Christianity is also the hardest religion in the world because, if you believe Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead, you have no choice but to give your life entirely over to Him. No more sexual promiscuity, no lying, no cheating, no stealing, no killing inconvenient old people or unborn babies -- no doing what all the other kids do.

And no more caring what the world thinks of you -- because, as Jesus warned in a prophecy constantly fulfilled by liberals: The world will hate you.

With Christianity, your sins are forgiven, the slate is wiped clean and your eternal life is guaranteed through nothing you did yourself, even though you don't deserve it. It's the best deal in the universe.

COPYRIGHT 2009 ANN COULTER
DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL UCLICK
1130 Walnut, Kansas City, MO 64106

Thursday, August 13, 2009

My Want List


I want to be an approachable person..... I want to be the person that others feel comfortable with... I want to be seen in a positive light.. I want to be a beacon to others.. I want to be able to share my faith.... I want to love others unconditionally...
I want to always trust in God.... I want to be a prayer warrior.... I want my children to grow up to be followers of Christ... I want my husband to be proud of me... I want to go into the mission field.. I want to help in a shelter..... I want to see my kids have a happy life.... I want to be able to forgive completely... I want to feel comfortable being me.... I want to make a difference.... I want to not be shy.... I want to glorify God in all that I do....

What do you want?

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