Here Am I.......Send Me......Me???????

What is the meaning of Holiness?   Holiness means morally perfect, pure, and set apart from all sin. Today, as I was reading Isaiah chapter 6,  Isaiah,  while in the presence of the Lord, witnessed seraphs (or angels) shout praises to God and stress  God's holiness. They were calling to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory."  The Bible says, at the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. The awesomeness of this that Isaiah witnessed, must have been so overwhelming, seeing the Lord and listening to the praise of the angels, I mean, think about it, verse one says the train of the Lord's robe FILLED the temple! Can you imagine what Isaiah was seeing?  So when Isaiah witnesses all of this going on, and he's actually in the presence of the Lord, suddenly he cries out, "Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!"  Isaiah realized he had no hope of measuring up to God's standard of holiness. ( None of us are perfect like God is, nor will we ever be in this life. )  But as soon as Isaiah said this, one of the seraphs flew to him with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched Isaiah's lips with it and said, "Your guilt is taken away and your sins atoned for."  It wasn't the coal that cleansed him, but God.  When this happened, Isaiah submitted himself entirely to God's service. This may seem like a painful process of cleansing, but it was necessary before Isaiah could fulfill the task that God was calling him to do.   Sometimes, letting God purify us, may be painful but we have to be purified before we can truely represent God, who is pure and holy. Once this happened, it helped Isaiah to see  God more clearly and this made him more aware of his own powerlessness, and inadequacy to do anything of lasting value without God. But it also made him more willing to be God's spokesman.
You see, none of us are perfect. There is no perfect christian, no perfect person. As we've heard time and time again, Jesus was the only perfect man that ever walked this earth. But sometimes, in our christian walk, we get slack in the things we do, or the way we act or represent Christ. We get caught up in things in this world, and when God calls us or commissions us to do something, we argue with him, try to change His mind, maybe put it off for awhile, swear up and down that it wasn't really God who told us to do it.......but, just maybe, if we stop and began to search ourselves, and recognize that we need to let God purify us, then we would be more willing to do what He asked of us. In otherwords, we need to search our hearts, and ask ourselves this question.... " How close am I willing to walk with God? How much am I willing to do for the Lord? If He calls me into the ministry, am I willing to accept the call? If He asks me to witness to a total stranger on the street, will I do it? Or will I be too embarrassed, and say to myself, "Well, God don't really expect us to do things like that...".  If He asks you to be a missionary....will you go? Are we truely willing to do whatever God wants and asks us to do?  My mother loved God so much, that I truely believe she was willing to do anything God asked her to. She witnessed to people at department stores when she was shopping, in line at a register she would tell them what God had done for her, it didn't matter if they wanted to hear it or not, she would witness for God as long as someone was willing to listen. If God wakes you up in the middle of the night and asks you to pray for someone or pray about something going on in your life, and you have to work the next morning, will you be willing to get up and pray? What are we willing to do for God?   After this happened with Isaiah, then he hears the voice of the Lord saying,  "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"  And Isaiah said, "Here am I, send me!"  He was willing to do whatever the Lord wanted him to do.
What about us............... when God says, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
Will we be as eager as Isaiah was and say,  "Here I am Lord.....send me!"  Or will we say, "Who Me?"

What Kind of Mirror Do You Have?

What Kind of Mirror Do You Have?
This morning, God woke me up at 5:00 am and I went into the living room, got my Bible and sat down and began to read in Luke chapter 11. As I read it, I read where the Pharisees were looking at things Jesus was doing and finding fault in Him, accusing Him, and trying to point out what they felt like He was doing that wasn't right. I read on down and when I reached verse 9 and 10 where Jesus said, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it shall be open unto you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened. As I read this, in my heart I said, "that's what I want to do", and I've said this before when I would read this. But then, God began to speak to me and opened my eyes to something I've never seen before.............
What kind of mirror are you looking in? If you remember the kids program that used to be on called Romper Room (some of you may not be old enough to remember this program) the woman, at the end of every program, always had a magic mirror that she looked through, and she supposedly could see little kids out in TV land. She would look through that mirror and say, "I see Tommy, and Bobby, I see Katie and Shelia....and maybe I'll see you next week on Romper Room! I remember how I used to set in front of that tv, hoping she would see me! Well, this morning, God showed me two different kind of mirrors. And He asked me this question... "Are you looking in your Spiritual Full Length Mirror or are you spending more time looking through the Romper Room Magical mirror? You see, if we look in our Spiritual full length mirror, we can see the truth. When we stand in front of a full length mirror, we can see from head to toe, if everything looks right, or if we need to change something. We can see if we need to wash off something that we didn't know was there, or maybe if something's out of place....we can see everything in that full length mirror. Well if we look into our Spiritual Full length mirror, we can see what needs to be changed, what doesn't look quite right, something that we need God to help us clean up. It's not a mirror that we sometimes find at a fair or carnival that is distorted and we can't see the true picture. We can't move a certain way and look better, or smaller, or bigger...no, our spiritual mirror is a TRUE mirror that lets us see what we truely look like.
Then there is that Romper Room mirror, that magical mirror, that lets us look through it and see everybody else but ourselves. Do you have a Romper Room mirror? Come on, let's be truthful....All of us at one time or another have picked up that Romper Room mirror that let's us see everyone else's faults, what we think they are doing wrong, their flaws, what we don't like about them. But how many times do we look into that spiritual mirror? See where our flaws are, our mistakes, what we need to change? Well this morning, the Lord showed me that it's times to put away the Romper Room mirror..........start looking in that Spiritual mirror..every day, just like we do that mirror each morning and throughout the day to check and make sure we look okay, and see how we're looking spiritually. Is everything okay? Do we have on our whole armor of God? Are we doing what God wants us to do? Are we truely forgiving those who wrong us? (and that is very hard to do at times) Are we showing compassion to those around us? Are we taking the time to witness to others? Are we finding things to praise God in, even when it seems like everything is going wrong?
I do know this.....God opened my eyes this morning, gave me this message, and put it on my heart to share it with you, and I am obeying Him in this. Take a look at yourself today, search your heart, see which mirror you are using.....I know I had to this morning.... The Spiritual Mirror....or the ...Romper Room Mirror?
God bless you today......... ~Renee

Are you?

Last night, as I was reading in the Bible, God allowed me to open to a scripture that touched my heart and I wanted to share it with you. I was feeling a little on edge last night, so many things have happened the past 2 weeks, and it seemed as if everything had just piled up on me last night, so the enemy was trying to throw things at me. As I picked up the Bible and opened it. God brought a scripture to me in Psalms 145:8 and it reads, "The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love". As I read this I began thinking about it and I realized that I wanted to be like that. I want to be compassionate to people. I want to evaluate their circumstances and try to understand what they might be going through and have compassion for them. I also want to be ...slow to anger... It's so easy to allow the enemy at times, to cause us to get angry with people about something that maybe doesn't go quite right, or if they say things to hurt our feelings or cause us to feel pain, then sometimes it makes us feel that anger. But we need to strive to be slow to anger. Then last but most importantly, be RICH in love.... Rich means having an abundant supply...so this is saying God has an abundant supply of love! And that's the way we should strive to be! Having an abundance of love, and that's hard to have sometimes when people hurt you or tear you down. But Jesus had that kind of love, when he gave his life for us. But we're not God, and we're not perfect, but we need to strive to love as much as possible, and not only say we do, but truely feel that love! Are you slow to anger and rich in love? Maybe it's something you have to work on...I know I need to.... God bless .... ~Renee

THE NEW HARDEE'S COMMERCIAL..ARE YOU SERIOUS????

This morning, I had the tv on watching the news and weather, and a commercial came on for Hardee's. I was shocked and somewhat taken back as to what I saw. This was almost like watching Porn. Unfortunatly, Hardee's feels the need to use sex to sell their hamburgers now. Apparently the taste of their hamburgers are not good enough anymore to boost their sales, now they have stooped to using sex.  Anyone who has seen this commercial, will know what I am talking about. It starts out showing a couple at a drive in movie....and then it takes off with some very provocative stuff after that.  Several people have commented to me about this too and we agree we will no longer eat at Hardee's.  I recently sent a letter to Hardee's concerning this.  Now some people may say, "Hey, what's the big deal? It's just a commercial."  .....People, our kids are watching this garbage!  How much more do we, as Christians,  allow to just be acceptable before we stop and say, " Enough is ENOUGH!!"  As Christians, I believe we need to take a stand against this junk!!  Will it stop it completely? No....but I don't believe God wants us to just sit back and say, " oh well, I can do nothing about it"....
At least, if we stop buying their products, we won't be guilty of supporting it! 
Just sayin............

Put the Past....In the Past

How many times do we cheat ourselves of a happy life, simply because we can't forgive ourselves for things we did in the past? Maybe we lose a closeness with our family because we feel like our past is hanging over us. Or we blame ourselves when things don't go quite right because we think that's our punishment for our past....
The thing about it is, if we have asked God to forgive us, then He does, and the wonderful thing about it is....He doesn't remember it anymore!  God chooses not to remember our sins. He chooses never to bring them up again. He doesn't forget because He cannot. But, He doesn't remember them either; that is, He will never bring them up again.  Isaiah 43:25 says, "I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions  for my own sake, And I will not remember your sins."  God doesn't bring our past sins back up to us. The enemy will try to remind you of them, but not God.
We have to learn to forgive ourselves, and do our best to live for God, and the way we grow, is by trying to not repeat the past, but learn from it. God loves us, and we have to love ourselves also. We need to put our past ....in the past... and leave it there.
Don't let your past rob you of your present....and your future.
Love yourself....and most of all...Love God!!! 
.....  Just somethin to think about......
               Keep Smiling :-)

God Is Plan A:::There Is No Plan B

‎"Be still...and know that I am God. I will help you, just stay in My Word." This is the word God gave me this morning when I was praying and seeking him. Wow! What a message! When God gave me this word this morning, my heart was lifted and I knew I had been in his presence! So many of us are going through things in our lives that we don't understand or we maybe don't know how we're going to get ...through it. But God knows what we are going through, and not only does he know what we are going through, he knows how to help us get through it. He sees the big picture...he knows exactly what we need, when we need it, and how it's going to turn out!
Isaiah 55:8-9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." So if God's thoughts and ways are higher than ours, and we know that they are, then we have to learn to trust Him.....IN EVERYTHING.... and sometimes that's a hard thing. I'll be the first one to admit it. I know my God is exceedingly able to handle anything I face, but then there are times if I let my mind dwell on it all the time, then I began to try and figure out what I'm going to do...just in case....it doesn't work out the way I'm praying for God to work it out. I was telling David the other day, so many times we make the comment, "Well the only thing left to do is trust God." ....Really?? The ONLY thing left to do is trust God???? Shouldn't that be the first thing we do? We have got to learn to trust God. Instead of saying ....I'm going to give it to God....we have to understand that God already has it. We just have to take our hands off it and turn it loose. When we do, we will be amazed at what God will do!
We need to ...Be Still...and know that He is God. And know that God is always listening to our prayers, looking at our circumstances, watching over us, and He has a plan for us .... if we're willing to trust Him and do what He leads us to do. Just remember, "His thoughts and ways are much higher than ours" We can trust Him in everyway.
                 ~Keep Smiling~   

How Close Do We Want To Be?

How much of God do we want in our lives? For the past few months, I have felt such a hunger for more of God....I crave His presence....desire such a closeness with Him. Tonight, He brought a scripture back to me- Jermiah 29:13 "You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart"
I thought about this and I asked myself...do I seek Him with ALL my heart?....
Do I truely want more of ...Him than I do anything else? How determined am I to really put everything I've got into seeking Him? I believe God is saying in this scripture, " I am here, I haven't gone anywhere, but if you really want this closeness with Me, then you have to desire it above anything else...you have to seek Me with every bit of your heart". Here in my home, every day, after a shower, I wipe down the chrome, get all the water spots off, in my kitchen, I wipe down the sink and the chrome, because I know if I don't, the water spots will build up and over time, it will be harder to get it clean. One day, God used this as an example to me. He reminded me that I take a lot of pains in being faithful to take care of my house, to keep that chrome shiny....but what about my spiritual life? What about my walk with God? Am I that dedicated to Him? Do I read and study His word faithfully? Do I pray, and seek His will for my life, and when He shows me His will, am I faithful to obey Him in doing what He wants me to do? Does my witness shine for Him? Do I live my life in a way that I, keep those spots wiped off that could possibly make my christian walk become dull looking? I came to the conclusion that I sometimes fail to do what I should, to be able to have that awesome closeness with Him....and I want that! I desire that more than I desire anything else in my life! I believe it pleases God when He sees us desiring Him and seeking to be closer to Him! And He wants that with us as well, but we have to want that and be willing to do whatever we need to do to have that closeness with Him.
"When you seek me with ....ALL..... your heart, then you will find me"
Do you desire God more than anything else in your life? I do... God I want more of you...I want to seek you with ALL my heart.....because you are my everything...
                                       ~ Renee ~