What's Weighing You Down Today?

Hebrews 12:1 says Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us or ensnares us.
Lay aside....in other words put it down and get as far away from it as you can!! We can't put down those things that weigh us down in our christian walk and yet try to keep them close to us. We have to realize how important our walk with Jesus is and how important it is to put away the weight and the sin that does so easily ensnares us. Jesus took his mission to die on the cross serious! We have to take our walk with him serious! Satan will try his best to zoom in on our weaknesses if he can.
What's weighing you down today?

Are You Following Jesus From a Distance?

As I sit here this morning, looking out the window at the glorious sunlight filtering through, my thoughts are on the message Pastor preached yesterday. Are you following Jesus from a far? I have been thinking about this since yesterday and God brought some things to my mind.
How closely are we willing to follow Jesus? Are we willing to do whatever He asked us to do? Are we willing to give up anything He wants us to give up? Do we seek Him daily in our lives, are we offended by what He is offended by? Or are we kind of careful in what we do for Him because we don't want anyone to make fun of us, we don't want anyone to feel like we think we're better than them, or maybe we still want to fit in with the crowd? God said if we are lukewarm He will spew us out of His mouth. We can't straddle the fence, so to speak, when we are living for God.
Peter loved Jesus, but not quite enough to follow Him closely. When Jesus was arrested and taken to Caiaphas (Matt. 26: 57), Peter followed Him from afar. Now Peter had just told Jesus, back in Matt. 26: 32-35, that He would never leave Him. Jesus told him that he would deny Him 3 times before that night was over and even then Peter said," Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you!" But Jesus knew he would.... So Peter stayed close enough that he could see Jesus from afar.....but not be involved. And 3 times that night, people recognized him from being with Jesus...and Peter denied him..... Do we want to follow Jesus from a distance? Are we afraid of what others will think of us? Are we more interested in fitting in with the crowd than we are interested in following Jesus closely? And if so, how can we be a witness to others when we ourselves don't even want to walk as close as we can for God?
We need to search ourselves, our lives, our hearts. We can't have it both ways. We can't serve God half heartedly and still expect Him to be there whenever we need Him. He's not our buddy, our genie in a bottle for whenever we need Him. He's our Creator, our Savior, our Provider. We have to be willing to give Him our whole heart. We have to be willing to follow Him closely. I will never reach a point where I feel like I have enough of God, or I don't need to go to Him with everything in my life, or I don't need to talk about Him or tell others about Him too much, or I have arrived.
My sweet Mother used to love to talk about Jesus. She would witness to anyone who would listen to her tell her story, tell what God had done for her, and worship Him. Even up until the day God called her home, she loved the Lord and she followed Him closely.
I don't want to follow Him from a distance.....I want to walk as close as I can to Him. He has been so good to me and I will never be ashamed of Him. Am I better than others? Absolutly not! Never have had that attitude and don't want it. When we stand before God.....it won't matter what kind of clothes we've worn, it won't matter how many degrees we have, it won't matter where we've worked or what our profession was, it won't matter what kind of house we've lived in, and it won't matter how much education we have. It won't matter how much money we have. We will stand before him with just what we have....ourselves, us, nothing more.
Do you want to follow Him from a distance? Or do you want to follow Him closely? ............. I want to be as close as I can be to God....

As I sit here tonight thinking about everything that has happened in the past 4 weeks in our lives, I can honestly say this is one road we haven't traveled before. We can seek God's will all we want and tell God we are willing for his will to be done in our lives, AND actually convince ourselves that we mean it.. but until we are stripped down to where God can receive from us COMPLETE surrender then we haven't quite reached that point that we can say we truly are yielded to h...is will for our lives.
Tonight, I finally understood that. Tonight, I finally see the place I have to come to with God. It's hard to get to that point but complete total surrender is what it takes. It's true, no matter how much it seems like the fire we are going through is going to completely destroy us......we have to embrace the fire and know that when God's work is done in us, he will fashion and form us and mold us to be what he wants us to be....then we will eventually see how God was working his plan in our lives. Tonight I had to come to that point.
I don't know what God's plan is for mine and David's life but I do know his plans for us are good and far beyond what either one of us can see. And I know that David and I love the Lord with all our hearts and we want to be used of him. Those of you that know us, know that we love God with everything in us and our desire is to be used of him. But we have learned a lot these past few weeks that only the Lord knows about. Sometimes God has to show us things in ways that we do not understand, and it seems so hard to accept....but God will never leave us, however he will allow things in our lives to mold us and shape us for he is the Potter and we are the clay...... and no matter what things look like, he sees the bigger picture and he knows the direction he is taking us.
Jer. 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you. Plans not to harm you but to prosper you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.
You have my total attention God.........

How To Be Happy!

You are not suppose to be anyone else....You are suppose to be who you are! We waste so much of our time comparing ourselves to other people.....oh I wish I looked like her/him....I wish I was as popular as her/him...... I wish my hair looked like hers...... I wish I was as small as her or I wish I wasn't so skinny.....
We are who we are....and that's who we are suppose to be and we need to love ourselves ....then we will be happy with who we are!  Love yourself....take care of yourself....be good to yourself....you are beautiful/handsome!!  Just be Happy  :)

Is It Fate....or ....Excuse?

Is It Fate.... or .....Excuse?
Have you ever been around someone that when they start talking about the way their life has turned out, you hear, "Well, I can't help it. When I was little, this happened or that happened, or my parents were not good parents, so that's why I'm like I am." I know a woman who used to say, "Well my ex husband was an alcoholic so now my son's going to be  an alcoholic."  I asked her at one time, "Why do you say that? You're son doesn't drink." But she would say, " Well I know he don't now but he will eventually because of his dad."  I never understood that. She had already determined what she just considered his fate in life.  I am a firm believer that we make our own choices as we get older...as we grow up.  God gives all of us that option. Once we learn the truth and know that we can make different choices, then if we had a bad upbringing, why would we want to continue that cycle?
On the other hand, we could turn that around. For example, I was raised in a wonderful christian home! My daddy was a minister and we pretty much lived our lives in church. However, when I got older, I decided I wanted to see what was out there. So I sang in nightclubs, drank, and acted stupid. Made a lot of stupid mistakes. But they were choices I made for myself. I got back in church eventually, then later on, after my divorce, I gave up on God again. I was angry, so I decided to do things my way. (I know God had to be laughing on that one. Your way? Yeah right..)  But my upbringing was wonderful. Two of the best parents anyone could ever have! I love my parents with all my heart! But I made a decision to go a different direction. Now they continued to pray for me, and God convicted my heart, and I rededicated my life to Him and have been serving Him every since. But it was choices I made. I know someone who didn't have the best upbringing in her childhood. She seen things and witnessed things that she should not have had to. So when she got grown, she could have continued down that road and said, "Well, that's just the way I was raised." But she didn't. In fact she said that when she got old enough to make her own decisions, she decided that she was going to do things different. She said, " I don't have to be like that just because they did." And now she is serving God and has a beautiful life!
So is it fate...or is it excuse? There are times when people have lived a life that has been horrible and the things they have been through are unheard of. And at first, they may think, "I guess this is the way it's always going to be." But then when they discover that it doesn't have to be like that....that they do have a choice....then it's up to them to change their thinking and to make better decisions. Now where the excuse comes in at....is when they realize they do have the option to be different...they do have the choice to change and make something out of their lives... and  yet they choose not to. And I want to say that  the best way they can  do that is to ask Jesus to come into their hearts and He will forgive them and help them to make those right choices. So if they  choose to lean on that crutch and say, " Well, I can't help it. I was just raised that way so it's just inevitable that my life has to be this way" ..... then to me, that is an excuse. It's easier to blame than to change.  Now some of you may disagree with me, and that's okay. But I'm saying, don't let anyone convince you that you are stuck into living a certain way, just because you had a rough childhood. Don't let anyone steal your dreams and convince you that the bad cycle can't be broken!  Remember....we all have choices to make.... What's your choice?

Attitude Is Everything

How many times could we make a difference in a person's life,just by sharing a smile with them.... We never know what a person may be going through, problems they're dealing with, maybe they have a situtation in their life that they don't know how they are going to handle, and they are burdened down by it. But if they happen to look at you....maybe glance your way....and you give them a sincere smile....you could possibly give them some hope, some encouragement, just a bit of happiness...even if it's just for that moment... it's still something they might need. And what does it cost you? ... nothing, and it should make you feel better! I LOVE  to see people smile! And I LOVE  to smile! Oh my goodness, to me it's just a good feeling  and I love  to make other people feel better! I think it's a beautiful thing! Why don't you give it a try today?

Wisdom....

Wisdom...
How much wisdom do you have? How much wisdom do you display in your every day life? The decisions you make...great or small... how you handle things? I believe it is so important to have good wisdom. So important that God wants us to ask Him for it, desire it, seek it out! God told Solomon to ask for anything he wanted and God would give it to him. (2 Chronicles 1: 7-12) What did Solomon ask for? Wisdom! This pleased God so much that He not only gave him awesome wisdom, but He also gave him great wealth, possessions, and honor! Sometimes, we get that backwards. We want wealth first because we like having money. We like to be able to buy what we want. We want possessions because we like to impress others. We want to look like we have it all. (Have you ever tried to buy a present for someone who seems to have everything? It's not fun.) We want honor because we like to recognized, acknowledged, know that we're important. But we need wisdom more than any of these! Because if we have wisdom, we will be wise in how we handle our money, how we use our money. (And there have been times David and I needed more wisdom on this..believe me.) If we have wisdom, we won't feel like we need all those possessions. We won't feel like we need to impress people. If we have wisdom, we won't feel like we need to be recognized for what we did, or for helping someone, or for being obedient to God. If God wants us to be recognized, then He will make that happen. But there are times He just wants us to be humbled and be obedient and do  whatever He lays on our heart to do. If we have wisdom, we will be satisfied with that.
I don't know about you, but I pray for more wisdom because I desire only what God wants me to have. Is that your desire today? Truly deep down in your heart, is it your desire to have wisdom above everything else? If God offered you anything you wanted....what would you ask for?