Saturday, January 26, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
A New Song In MY Heart
One remark that is often said to Christians from a non-believer is " you Christians can't do anything" Your life is too restricted you can't even drink. It's not that a Christian can't drink but it's that we don't want to drink. I don't drink because I have a new song in my heart, a new life in Christ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. 2 Cor.5:17 The price for our salvation, paid by the Lord Jesus Christ. was the greatest ever paid for anyone. My new life now consist of wanting to please him and not myself. Why put old wine into new wine skins. We have liberty in Christ- the liberty not to drink. Now if a Christian were to have a drink with friends one night it doesn't mean the next morning they would have their name written out the book of life. What I'm saying is, for me it's worth giving up the things of this world because Christ has given me so much. A Christians mind set should be how can I give the most glory to God. How can I build up others and not be a stumbling block. We have liberty in Christ- but it is limited by love.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
We all have a cross we must bear
And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:27
How do you handle it when God does not answer your prayer in the timing you think He should? In Genesis 16, Abram and Sarai mixed faith with unbelief in their attempt to hurry along the promise from God of a son. Because Sarai was still barren at the age of 75 she persuaded Abram to take her maid servant Hagar as his wife. When Hagar conceived, Sarai was despised in Hagar's eyes. Now lets stop there. What was Abram and Sarai thinking??!!! Well, it was a custom in that day to have your maid servants bear children for you if you were barren. So they went along with the customs of their culture. Abram and Sarai bought into the lie that because something worked it means it must be true or because it was accepted it must be right. Wrong thinking leads to wrong actions. As believers we face the same temptations today in waiting for God to answer our prayer or the fulfillment of a promise. We all have a cross to bear and barrenness was one of Abrams and Sarai's. Abram believed the promise of God to give him offspring but came up with a worldly solution. We are guilty of that as well because, lets face it, sometimes we just don't want to bear our cross any more. We become weary, impatient, frustrated. We stop praying and start justifying, manipulating and we try to remove our cross our selves. It was a surprise to me when I first realized that it's not up to me to remove my cross. In God's perfect timing He will remove it. A part of our exercise of faith is to submit, wait and surrender our will in order for His will to be accomplished in our lives. When we are confused about a situation or in need of wisdom the Lord is gracious to give us assurance when we ask in faith. "If any of you lacks wisdom,let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him" James 1:5
How do you handle it when God does not answer your prayer in the timing you think He should? In Genesis 16, Abram and Sarai mixed faith with unbelief in their attempt to hurry along the promise from God of a son. Because Sarai was still barren at the age of 75 she persuaded Abram to take her maid servant Hagar as his wife. When Hagar conceived, Sarai was despised in Hagar's eyes. Now lets stop there. What was Abram and Sarai thinking??!!! Well, it was a custom in that day to have your maid servants bear children for you if you were barren. So they went along with the customs of their culture. Abram and Sarai bought into the lie that because something worked it means it must be true or because it was accepted it must be right. Wrong thinking leads to wrong actions. As believers we face the same temptations today in waiting for God to answer our prayer or the fulfillment of a promise. We all have a cross to bear and barrenness was one of Abrams and Sarai's. Abram believed the promise of God to give him offspring but came up with a worldly solution. We are guilty of that as well because, lets face it, sometimes we just don't want to bear our cross any more. We become weary, impatient, frustrated. We stop praying and start justifying, manipulating and we try to remove our cross our selves. It was a surprise to me when I first realized that it's not up to me to remove my cross. In God's perfect timing He will remove it. A part of our exercise of faith is to submit, wait and surrender our will in order for His will to be accomplished in our lives. When we are confused about a situation or in need of wisdom the Lord is gracious to give us assurance when we ask in faith. "If any of you lacks wisdom,let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him" James 1:5
Friday, January 11, 2013
Monday, January 7, 2013
Porches
When we purchased our home in 1989 it wasn't the recent updated new floor tiles in the foyer, kitchen and bathrooms, the ceramic counter tops or the spacious recreation room that I fell in love with. Nor was it the walnut kitchen cabinets or the built in vacuum system. Not so desirable today because you see everything eventually gets outdated. But there is one thing in my house that I was smitten by and that I will never find out dated and that is my front porch. I love sitting along with my hubby in the Adirondack chairs he surprised me with on our wedding anniversary a few years ago. Many times we have sat in those chairs on our porch during a summer evening sipping iced tea in a mason jar. (tea seems to taste better in a mason jar) I read an article that said in the late 1800's, front porches of all sizes graced the majority of houses built in the U.S. Don't see as many today. Porches are so charming aren't they? Southern hospitable, inviting. welcoming are words that come to mind. It's the first thing a guest will see when walking up to your door and makes the first impression about your home. When we walk up to a clean and inviting porch or front door area it can be so uplifting.
At the start of every new year my porch is always in need of a good cleaning and sprucing up. How is your porch or front door area looking? It only takes about 15 minutes to tidy up your porch and make it more welcoming. Step outside with me and lets survey our porches to see what we need to do to tidy them up and make them more inviting. Here's a list of things we can do:
1. sweep porch
2. clean cobwebs
3. clean door and windows
4. prune back bushes and plants. pinch off any dead leaves or flowers in potted plants. Replace if needed.
5. clean porch light and touch up with paint if needed.
6. wipe down hand rails
7. wipe down furniture, tables and chairs
8. remove cobwebs off door wreath
9. sweep off door mat
10. remove any items that don't belong
If you need to make your porch more welcoming maybe you could add a wreath on the door, a new welcome mat, buy a new porch light or place a potted plant or flowers next to the door. Just a little effort can make a huge difference, it can make something ordinary into something extraordinary!
At the start of every new year my porch is always in need of a good cleaning and sprucing up. How is your porch or front door area looking? It only takes about 15 minutes to tidy up your porch and make it more welcoming. Step outside with me and lets survey our porches to see what we need to do to tidy them up and make them more inviting. Here's a list of things we can do:
1. sweep porch
2. clean cobwebs
3. clean door and windows
4. prune back bushes and plants. pinch off any dead leaves or flowers in potted plants. Replace if needed.
5. clean porch light and touch up with paint if needed.
6. wipe down hand rails
7. wipe down furniture, tables and chairs
8. remove cobwebs off door wreath
9. sweep off door mat
10. remove any items that don't belong
If you need to make your porch more welcoming maybe you could add a wreath on the door, a new welcome mat, buy a new porch light or place a potted plant or flowers next to the door. Just a little effort can make a huge difference, it can make something ordinary into something extraordinary!
Friday, January 4, 2013
Quotes
I have been collecting quotes for over 25 years. Notebooks filled with quotes from pastors to favorite authors. I have two chalkboards in my kitchen, one is for the weekly menu and the other is for pearls of wisdom. So I thought it would be fun to share some of those quotes with you on Fridays post.
I used to pray for God to give me lighter burdens
I now pray that God give me stronger shoulders
I used to pray for God to give me lighter burdens
I now pray that God give me stronger shoulders
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Happy New Year!
So, what do you think about New Years Resolutions? Do you make one each year only to find just days later you have already failed at keeping it? My guess would be that happens to pretty much everyone. It's good not to give up hope. Hope is looking forward to something good happening in the future. Also it pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark!
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