1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
(Genesis 2:1-3, New King James Version)
Ephesians 1:7, In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; KJV
The blood of Jesus! There’s nothing like the blood of Jesus when it comes to cleansing our soul from sin and guilt. As much as the blood and the forgiveness of sin have been preached, Christians still wrestle with receiving forgiveness. It’s hard for them to realize that their heavenly Father truly loves them that much. If you ask them if they have the Holy Spirit residing in their hearts, without batting an eye, their answer a resounding yes.
This is a clear indication that the blood has been applied, because the Holy Spirit can’t enter a vessel until the blood goes before Him.
The Holy Spirit wasn’t sent to enter man until after Jesus gave His life’s blood upon the cross. Forty days after His resurrection, he told the disciples that He was going to leave them, but they wouldn’t be left alone. He went on to tell them that the Father would send the promise of the Holy Spirit as a sign of His covenant with us.
The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are indeed a child of God. Another way to look at the struggle of so many is to address the faith, or the lack of faith… which gives us the ability to receive and walk in God’s forgiveness.
Their focus is more on their sin than on the faith to receive forgiveness.
There’s only one reason I can think of that would make a person feel unlovable and that’s unworthiness.
To this I would remind you of John 3:16, that God SO loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
This passage tells those who might struggle with their fleshly identity how much God values us in our fallen state.
Through the blood of Jesus, the Father doesn’t see where we’ve been but where He’s taking us.
We are complete in Christ Jesus.
I never know what the reason is for a particular devotion… all I can do is obey.
If this helps you to receive forgiveness, know that it was intended for you. You’re special in the sight of your heavenly Father.
Don’t allow the opinions of anyone else to distort what God has already said about you.
You are accepted in the Beloved. You can’t get a higher affirmation than that. So I will call you blessed and highly favored!!
From World Harvest Church North
” Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. “-2Timothy 2:15
Sunday Praise and Worship is a weekly meme that I had started but due to well…life, was unable to keep up with.
As I find myself refocusing and repriortizing the things in my life, the biggest thing was finding the much needed time, to spend with our Father in Heaven and His word.
There were and have been many things that have come up, of a personal reflection, that reminded me so much that of all the things we shouldn’t neglect in our lives, living and studying His word is one of them along with taking care of our family.
I’ve taken the time to create the following bookmark, that I pray and hope, I can have prepared to offer to you, Gentle Readers, as well, so that you can find time to spend in His word.
Something that I have used and discovered through another website, has been the,”Life Journal” which is a very insightful method of reading God’s word and encouraging the habit of spending time, each day with His word.
I highly suggested looking into incorporating the “Life Journal” in your scriptural reading, to help encourage yourself, to read God’s word each day.
If you, like me, have felt a “Spiritual Famine” in your life, this is one of many ways to bring life back into studying’ God’s word.
It is with prayer and hope that this simple bookmark can help encourage you to start reading your bible, or if you have thought of reading the bible as a whole, to be one of many ways that are out there to encourage you to start today.
To participate in Sunday’s Praise and Worship just add the Sunday Praise and Worship logo on your post using the following:
Please don’t forget to link back here to Sunflower Faith and add your post link to the “Mr. Linky” that will be up Sunday Morning so others can come by your site and share in your “Sunday Praise and Worship”.
Hope to see you Sunday!
My apologies for not posting as much as usual, but I’ve really taken a lot of time to just concentrate on not only homeschooling and gardening but spending time with my family, working on the garden and taking that always needed mini-sabbaticals in life to just spend time with our Heavenly Father, contemplate life and well….let Him talk.
It was a much needed break for the soul and lot of things to reflect on.
During the time, my roma tomato plants fell under the menacing jaws of Murphy the Dachshund and when it happen, I remember thinking with fear I had lost the plants. They were still seedlings and he had torn them out of the pot and I feared that the roots and the plant itself were gone, but rather than just throw them away, I gave them a chance…I planted them and at the time, it seemed the plant was gone for good.
The leaves look shriveled and not really wanting to give them up just yet (I was an optimist), I stripped the plant back and just water it and let it be.
We have had some pretty good storms, these past few weeks go by, and between that and just starting fresh again, it was apparently what the plants needed, because as I went out to check on all the plants, I realized that the leaves were growing back on the roma tomatoes and growing stronger and taller than before.
How often are we like that with ourselves and life?
Feeling like we are stripped of everything, barely just hanging on and feeling what else is there?
I think many of us tend to feel like that…I pretty much felt close to just tossing out that roma tomato plant, but something just told me to hold on and see it through before I gave up so soon.
Habbakkuk 3:17-18 (NIV)
Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Seeing the green leaves on the plant and knowing that maybe by mid summer if not the end, I will have roma tomatoes, was a strong reminder that we all will have periods in our life when we may feel like we are in a desert or everything in life seems to be collapsing, but that we have to hold on to our Heavenly Father like He is holding on to us, because through and in us, He uses us to teach us and to reach out to others.
It is through those moments of uncertainity, of feeling stripped , of feeling imperfect, that He uses at some point or time to reach through others that are in need of Him.
I had one of those moments.
Very unexpected moments to be exact.
And the funny thing was that it was planned, which made it perfect.
I wasn’t at my best, which made it perfect.
It was me at my most human, that God shone through and it was in that moment, not only did I learn, but I pray and hope that through and in my imperfection, He was able to use me to reach another.
I rarely share my testimony; I do with other Christians, but mostly out of shyness and being inhibited, rarely with strangers or even with the neighbors.
Come to think of it.
I rarely talk about being a Christian with them.
I mean…I don’t make a show of it.
I don’t wear a neon cross or t-shirt and if you saw me, unless I told you, or saw you at church, I don’t flash it like a brand.
If people ask, I tell them.
I don’t hide I read my bible, but I don’t make it a show either.
So….it was…well…a first, I guess, you can say, when I shared about being a Christian, how and why I was a Christian with my neighbor who was moving…and you know what.
It humble me.
It humble me because I realize how much being a Christian meant to me and this was the first time I did it without the safety of being in Church and saying, “yeah I’m a Christian”.
I really hadn’t plan on talking about Christ with her.
Who does?
Well, I didn’t. Lol
I had invited her in for tea and coffee cake and thought we were going to talk about her moving and plants and sports and fashion….
My oldest had pointed to something I written on the calendar and I had casually said, “Honey that’s a church event we are going to” and my neighbor looked up with curiousity and said, “You go to church?”
“Oh yes”, I reply,”Every Sunday”, and I did something I couldn’t believe I would do, I asked her if she would like to visit our church (she is thinking about it and said when they can, they actually would like to try in the near future so please, if you are reading, this, pray that an opportunity will arise that our Father would reach them in their hearts to give it a try at least).
She then asked if I was a believer.
I told her, “Yes, I believe that Jesus Christ lived and had died to pay the price of our sins and that I had accepted Him as my Lord and Saviour”.
She stood there….and asked me, “You believe this?”
“Yes” I said,” I believe and know when I die I will go to heaven and that I’m imperfect but that for my sins, Christ paid the price for me and her”.
She asked how did I know?
I told her…”Accepting Christ as our Lord and Saviour is about having a personal relationship with Him. I can’t describe being married, I just am married. I know I’m imperfect and that being a Christian doesn’t mean everything is instantly better, but that He has done the hard work, my job is to let Him work through and in me, to be the person He wants all of us to be. To know that I’m imperfect and I make mistakes yesterday, today and tomorrow, and always, but it’s not about perfection. He loves us as us. He doesn’t want us to make mistakes, but He offers us the hope to overcome and His love is so great that He has already say, Hey…I died for you. So when God sees us, He doesn’t see the messes we had made, but Jesus Christ and the potential that even Jesus Christ knows we have in us.”
I told her,”Right now, its hard for her to explain because when she is ready, she will know in her heart, but that final step was hers and that journey was her and everyone’s journey is different. I know just by the faith in my heart, through the blessings of knowing when I wake up each day, what makes it different is that there is hope each day, hope through Him. He’s there for her and when she’s ready, she’ll know when to take that next step.”
She went, “But I have hope in myself”
And I said,”Yes but we also have doubt in ourselves”,”Through Him, He is always there. There is no doubt. He already knows what we can be. People will leave us. Things will happen, but He doesn’t. He is there through our prayers, it’s our way of talking to Him, not to ask for things, but to talk to Him, and it’s in His word, through the bible. I know He is there and I don’t have to see Him to know He is there. He was there when I wasn’t ready and He is there when I am. If hope in us was all it took, then wouldn’t we be filled and happy? God gives us what we can’t give ourselves.”
I realized..how much Christ meant to me and how much Christ is needed for others to really get to know Him and to have a personal relationship with Him.
My neighbor kept going to me, “This calm…what is this calm I see in you, I’ve never seen this” and all I could think of was…”Calm? What Calm? Uhm…I’m talking a mile a minute and feeling like a clown, I’m calm? What? Huh? Who? Me?”
2Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
I didn’t think I was being calm and thought I was the worse person at that moment to be telling her about Christ. Lol.
Me?
Uhm..I’m not qualify…
Nope.
Nada.
Wrong person.
It was one of those times I told myself, “Okay stop talking; You sound like an idiot; You have NO idea what you are saying and you just turn her off….”
And know what she said?
“I want to know more..can I come over maybe next week and we talk more and you can tell me more about having a relationship with Christ”.
Please pray for me (BIG TIME,lol), but really, please pray that Our Heavenly Father will touch her heart and if not through my complete incompetance, maybe at least, a seed maybe sown and through that seed, He will and can touch her heart and reach her like He has reached me, you, all of us and from that seed….hope in and through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ will grow.
I am probrably and should have been the last person she talked to and I just hoped I handled it well. I wasn’t ready; I wasn’t sure if I said the right things,lol.
I do know…I pray that God can use this broken, incompetant vessal to reach her and if not her, maybe through her someone who doesn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ yet.
I know for this soul, it really humbled me and just struck home that we can’t always have a nice, neat scripted moment to share Christ with someone.
It maybe the neighbor you normally don’t talk to and in that time and moment that is good for God and not for you, that He uses you to open a new door with someone.
It might be that stranger in the grocery line and God decides that is a time for you to share your faith and it may feel uncomfortable to you, but it is what He needs to use to touch the heart of someone who needs Him and has been searching.
Or as one lady shared, it was in a dressing room, she shared her faith with another lady, she overheard talking and led that lady and her family to a new home and relationship with Jesus Christ.
Sometimes the best moments, aren’t the moments that are good for you, but the moments that are good for God.
“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
The most dangerous thing to be is a perfectionist.
Being a perfectionist it’s easy to fall in the trap of giving up too soon, because hey, what you’re doing is going to fail anyway or it’s because of “fill in the reason” you can’t get something to work or go your way or you’re wrong anyway.
Allowing this to overwhelm your thought process, endangers your spiritual growth because it’s easy to feel like, “Well you fail, it’s not worth trying” or “If this happens and that happens, THEN I will go to church or read my bible or…..”
The trouble is that it’s because we allow ourselves to be imperfect,to make mistakes, to be wrong, can we really grow and part that also includes being honest with ourselves about how we really are and that often times, what causes a distance between us and our Heavenly Father…is well…us.
People who fail-well..truth is..they are usually the ones who learn the most and what defines them from failing is that they use their failures to keep moving forward.
They figure out where they went wrong, learn from it and move forward. The same with our walk.
No one is stopping us from having a relationship with our Heavenly Father and our imperfections doesn’t stop our Heavenly Father from wanting to have a relationship with us…so don’t just give up and accept that there is no hope or time.
Get up.
Read your bible.
Find a bible-believing church and don’t just hide behind a remote and think that is enough. Our Heavenly Father WANTS you to succeed in building a relationship with Him. He’s given you the tools to win the prize…use it.
Everybody fails. It’s part of the process that leads us to maturity and success. Most successful entrepreneurs have been through a number of failures in life, but they usually don’t think of their failures as defeats. They think of them as lessons.
My failures have served to help many people who are also experiencing failure in their lives. God will always have a redeeming value in our failures if we let Him reveal His life through them.
If you hope to succeed, learn everything you can from your failures.-OS Hillman for TGIF devotionals
“Isaiah 55:8. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord.”.
I want to but I can’t.
I want to but what will people think.
I want to but I don’t want to lose my friends.
I want to…..
I want to….
I want to….
How often do you feel this way about your faith and just even sharing your faith with others?
How often do you find yourself either second guessing yourself or censoring yourself because you are more afraid of what people will think if you talk about your faith then you are afraid of what our Heavenly Father would think.
Being a Christian in modern times, is a challenge because we find ourselves under pressure to conform to the world and what the world wants and a struggle with living for and with and by what our Heavenly Father wants which unfortunately in many times, translates to unpopular opinion.
I chuckled as I read this passage from a devotional,
”
As Christians, we also wish to discover God’s will for our lives. Surely He is already laying the groundwork for our lofty aspirations in life. Then, when things don’t quite meet our expectations, we are perturbed. And if they take a dire turn into disaster, we are perplexed. What went wrong? We missed the point.
The thing is, God’s will is just that – God’s will. He tends to do thing His way, in His time, according to His own plan, and with His own purposes in mind. God often ignores our agenda! Over and over the Scriptures bring up an important theme: “My ways are not like your ways!” Sometimes we need a gentle reminder that He’s not like us”
Trouble is that many times, we try to box God in a way that makes us comfortable or feel in control, instead of just GIVING Him that control that is His not ours and having faith that no matter what, all things work out to His glory and is to be for His glory,not ours.
The thing is that we have to learn to step down and remember that even if we are at work, we don’t go into the bosses’ office and run things, we let our boss do his job and the same with our Heavenly Father.
He knows our hearts better than we know our hearts, but when we find ourselves willfully hiding His work or our walk from Him, is that not a display a lack of faith in well…Him and if we go..okay,”I’m going to pray to You, but I’m going to be in control”, isn’t that kinda trying to tell Him what to do.
Human nature is that inevitable we try to take care of ourselve, but we have to remember that once we accept God’s grace, it’s ALL Him and not just part of the time or on Sunday, but ALL of the time and a lot of time, it’s not going to be a comfy feeling.
It’s going to be a ride on a roller coaster but we can’t forget that He has HIS hands on the control and HE is not going to let go.
Just because sometimes things don’t work out the way, WE want it to, doesn’t mean God has failed us or hasn’t heard us…We have to remember that He has already seen the end of the line before we do and HE does know what is better for us.
Like children, it’s easy to want to pout and throw a tantrum and rebel, but that’s how we got here in the first place and if we are going to say, “God,I’m going to let You do what YOU need to do,” we have to hold our end of the bargain,take a deep breath, grab His hand and just trust Him.
Heavenly Father, I ask that you give us more strength and discernment to trust You and Your word and instead of trying to compromise Your word to fit our lives that we compromise our lives to fit YOUR word.
Lord, give us maturity and strength that if we are going to walk the walk, that we are going to do more than just talk the walk, but show it in our lives and in our trust in You.
Gentle Friend, if you are finding yourself on the balance beam, ask yourself, what are ways you can live a life that reflects God more and less about making compromises just because you want to keep friends, live in the world or to be in control.
God doesn’t want you to be a hermit, but He also doesn’t want you to feel like you are falling either.
What are ways you can share on how to strive to grow and mature as a Christian?
We are planning on starting a garden this year, starting literally from the ground up with container garden as we get the yard ready for actual planting.
Psalm 92:13 (New International Version)
planted in the house of the LORD,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
This is our first year and among that, we wanted to get ready for winter planting, but in the meantime we are starting off with, I have to say, a good start of plants that will offer just as much from a container.
Well…while my husband and I were talking, I went to get an onion from our wire vegetable basket and one of our onions were beginning to sprout.
Although this one won’t be ready for planting, please correct me if I’m wrong Gentle Readers, this onion will eventually yield seeds to actually plant onions from.
For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
~ Isaiah 61:11(NKJV)
I’m still learning about gardening so if anyone out there can offer me some insight, that would be fantastic, but I wanted to say a quick prayer of praise to our Heavenly Father, for what we feel is a good start on being not only self-sufficient but just learning to appreciate what He blesses us with.
The kids are excited since, though we haven’t officially started working on studying plants, apparently our Heavenly Father has decided to get us started on our “raising a garden” lesson.
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your humor and blessings and promises of hope each day.
Like plants, our growth in Jesus Christ, starts as a small sprout, bursting through where we feel there is nothing that can be grown. We may feel we are “dead soils”, but in and through Jesus Christ, we are ripe for growth in His arms.
1 Corinthians 3:7 (New International Version)
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow
Be not discouraged because of your soul's enemies. Are ye troubled with thoughts, fears, doubts, imaginations, reasonings? Yea, do ye see, yet, much in you unsubdued to the power of life? Oh! Do not fear it; do not look at it, as to be discouraged by it; but look to Him! Look up to the power which is over all their strength; wait for the descendings of the power upon you; abide in faith of the Lord's help, and wait in patience till the Lord arise; and see if His arm do not scatter what yours could not. So, be still before Him, and in stillness, believe in His name; yea, enter not into the hurryings of the enemy, though they fill the soul; for, there is yet somewhat to which they cannot enter, from whence patience, faith, and hope, will spring up in you, even in the midst of all they can do.-Isaac Penington qhpress.org/texts/penington/
Sounds like something we can all use in these days and time.
We live in times of uncertainity and questions; our economy is in turmoil, we don’t know if we want to know what will happen tomorrow, but through it all, though the storm is raging high waves around us, Our Heavenly Father is in the center of it all and saying, “Be still”.
It seems easy sometimes to go, God can’t solve this but the reality is that He has and He will.
He has seen far worse and far better than we ever can, so what seems a storm to us, is but a raindrop to Him.
In the midst of lifes turmoil and an uncertain times, share how or if you feel this draws you closer to our Heavenly Father and His word and if not, what ways do you think, you can do for yourself and your relationship with Jesus Christ, to “Be Still” and grow closer to Him rather than feel as if there is a rush of worry, pushing you along?
“Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you.”
–John 6:27
When I came across this via my email, I thought this would be a fantastic thing to share for Sunday’s “Praise and Worship”.
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not shouting “I’m clean living’”
I’m whispering “I was lost”,
Now I’m found and forgiven.
When I say …”I am a Christian”
I don’t speak of this with pride.
I’m confessing that I stumble and need CHRIST to be my guide.
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not trying to be strong.
I’m professing that I’m weak
and need HIS strength to carry on.
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not bragging of success.
I’m admitting I have failed
and need God to clean my mess.
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible
but, God believes I am worth it.
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I still feel the sting of pain,
I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not holier than thou, I’m just a simple sinner
who received God’s good grace, somehow.
(Share this with somebody who already has this understanding, as reinforcement. But more importantly, share this with those who do not have a clear understanding of what it means to be a Christian, so that the myth that Christians think they are “perfect” or “better than others” can be dispelled.)
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