YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

We have all heard it said, "you are what you eat". I was sitting here thinking about that as I was eating my rice krispy treat for breakfast. lol It is the Lords day and we are on a weekend get-a-way so I have heard calories don't count on the Lord's Day and vacation so I should be alright :) So,as I was sitting here looking across the river at God's beauty, those words hit home. We are what we eat both physically and spiritually. If we eat junk food everyday and don't exercise, we will get fat and feel sluggish. We will slowly kill our bodies. The same holds true for us spiritually. If we feed our soul with the junk that this world has and don't exercise our faith, we will slowly die spiritually. The scripture tells us that both are important but our spiritual health trumps everything."1 Timothy 4:8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." It is so easy to lose sight of God and our purpose in this all about me world. We have social media which has some good but for the most part is evil. We have churches competing to see who can get the most people to attend rather than focus on the souls that need Jesus. We have kids, work, husbands, and yes even church that demands our attention to the point we push God to the side. My weekend sabbatical has showed me we have lost touch with God. If we as Christians aren't careful about the food we feed our soul, we will slowly die and end up in a devils hell and before we even realized what happened. It's never too late to start over. You can do it and I will pray we all get back on track. "Father God, please forgive us for the spiritual junk food we have been eating. I pray you send us nourishment and allow us to exercise our faith so we can grow in you and accomplish what you have set us out to do. In Jesus Name I Pray." AMEN

Stand Ready

During my morning devotional, one piece of scripture really hit home. 1 PETER 3:15 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”This one little verse holds so much power. In order for us to even be able to share the hope of Christ, we must first sanctify our hearts. In other words, purify our hearts and be free from sin. I have to purify my heart daily. I have to ask the Lord to create in me a clean heart sometimes hourly. The point is to always seek to live a sin free life. We are human and fail, but we need to always aim higher. Second point of this verse is always be ready to share your hope in Christ and GIVE A REASON. That part we ALL seem to forget. We give the same I have hope because Jesus died on the cross and rose again so I can have eternal life. That is all well and true but have you ever shared what he has done for you personally? We don’t like to share our personal lives. That makes us vulnerable. It opens us up to ridicule and judgement. People are going to ridicule and judge you regardless of what you say. Jesus told us this in Matthew 10:22 “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved” The world already hates you for the Christian that you are so don’t let fear stop you from sharing your faith. Overcome fear by BOLDY declaring whom your Lord and Savior is. Last but not least, is the most important part of the verse, with meekness and fear. Now I know I just said don’t let fear stop you and here it says share your faith with meekness and fear. This part is saying share your faith with gentle kindness in fear of the Lord not man. We fear man more than we do God. It shouldn’t be like that. Matthew 10:28 tells us “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” God is our protector. We should not let fear of anything on earth keep us from sharing our hope in Christ with others. So I guess in all my ramblings, I want to impart this to you. We are coming up on the holiday season. You will encounter many that don’t know the Lord or have fallen to the wayside. I want to encourage you to stand ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you. Tell them what God has done for you personally. Pray he puts those in your path that you can be a help to. My prayer is for you to have faith and confidence to share his love. God Bless You!

Red Light

The time has come. God has shown you where he wants you to go! So you are ready....set...RED LIGHT!! 😡 what?! But Lord, you have shown me where to go. Why oh why is there a red light? Just because we know where we are headed doesn't mean we get to race to the finish line. God has to prepare the finish line to receive us. That may mean we have to sit at a red light. I am SO EXCITED that God has shown us where to go. We have been waiting for this for a while now. I wanted it to happen like yesterday but of course God knows best. He is preparing the hearts waiting at the finish line.The  children of Israel had to spend 40 yrs. in the wilderness so God could prepare them. They learned while they were waiting. They didn't sit still at their red light. They worked while waiting. God was showing them that no matter what lay ahead at the finish line, he would take care of them. Sometimes we need a red light along the way so we will slow down and see the hand of God at work. Too often we rush with our busy day to day lives that we miss all the little big things that God is doing for us. So today I want to encourage you to enjoy your red light. Take a look around and thank God for what he is doing and what he is going to do. You will be amazed at what he is working on in your life. Then before you know it, your red light will turn GREEN. ☺️

Meddling Hands

There is a fine line between God’s plan and mans plan.  An example of this is Abraham and Sarah. God told Abraham he would have a child. He didn't say when this child would come but he did promise him a child. Well Sarah, his wife, got a little impatient, so she decided to help God’s plan along a little bit. You know like God needs help LOL so we go on to read (Genesis 16)how she got her husband Abraham to take her handmade Hagar and go into her so they could have a son. When Hagar  bare a son lo and behold Sarah got mad saying God has judged me. Funny how she gets mad at Hagar for doing something she told her to do .  How many times do we get mad at God for something we did not him? She took it upon herself to meddle with Gods plan. I am sure none of us have ever done that lol Sarah didn't stop God’s plan, she just meddled with it. You see she ended  up taking the scenic route to get to where God wanted her to go. We think we are helping God when in reality we are meddling. You see God has a perfect plan for each of us. We just have to be willing and patient enough to follow it. You can want something so bad that you manipulate and work people so you can get get it. We see this with Sarah. She wanted a baby so bad she made it happen by her hand not God’s. Yes Abraham had Ishmael but Ishmael wasn't part of God’s original plan. Therefore things didn't go smoothly. When we fall out of the will of God, or worse deliberately go against it, we are asking for trouble. That is why we should pray and fast when discerning what road God wants us to take. If we get impatient like Sarah did, we could end up in a foreign place crying because we are lost. We may not like the path God chooses for us but we must follow it. We most definitely will not understand it all but we still must be obedient. Sarah learned to be obedient after she suffered from her disobedience. My prayer is that we always seek Gods will and NEVER get in the way. If we do, our lives will be so much better. 

Are We There Yet?

If you are a parent, you have heard this question so many times you could scream. I was wondering if God felt the same way as I was asking him this question for the hundredth time. It seems like we have been going in circles lately. Like we can't quite get ahead. I know God has Great plans for us but I find myself asking him every day are we there yet? Every time I think we have arrived God always tells us no keep going. I was reminded today about the Hebrews in the wilderness. You know They had to keep thinking are we ever going to get to the promised land. Perhaps they might have even said I didn't sign up for this hardship. Why is this so hard? Instead of focusing on how long it is taking or wondering when are we going to get there, we should be looking around at what we can do NOW! Can we pray with someone? Can we visit the sick? Can we help another bear his load?“Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”Galatians 6:2 KJV

Sometimes we get so focused on where we are going that we forget we have so much we can do along the way. My prayer today is that we can all focus on what we can do NOW before we end up with tomorrow's regret of missed opportunities.

When God Says No

My husband and I had been praying about a situation a few weeks back. We were seeking Gods will as to what step he wanted us to take next. We fasted and prayed, then cast our fleece. I was waiting with excitement because I just knew Gods answer would be yes. Then came the resounding NO! My heart sank. I thought oh surely this couldn't be. It felt so right. Everything was perfect. I had already made plans and could see our future. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9 “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.” Gods plan is always better. He has our best interest at heart. You see, the problem here was I had already planned it all out. My plan is not perfect. Gods plan is perfect. I could have chosen to disobey and push to have things my way. I may have even gotten what I was after. That would have been a disaster. If we don't let God direct our path, we will become lost. Even though I am sad because he said no, I know he has something better planned. When we can get past our small petty mind and have faith in Gods plan, we can bloom where we are planted and reap the Showers of blessings sent down from above. My prayer is for us all to be found directly in the center of Gods will. 

Little By Little

My daughters’ back door has been leaking when it rains off and on for about 6 months now. We cleaned out the gutters and that helped for a while. We are always going to fix it later or tomorrow, which never seems to come. The leak is small and only happens when it rains hard. The damage it has made because of our negligence, is now big. A small leak has now swelled the wood on the bottom of the door facing and made the bottom of the adjoining wall soft. If we had nipped it in the bud and fixed it when we first noticed it, we could have stopped the later damage. I have said all this to get to the lesson that God has showed me. Sin enters in our door little by little but causes much damage. Jesus is the door we use to enter into heaven. He is also the door that blocks out the sin of this world. Just like my daughters earthly door has become weak by neglect, our spiritual door can become weak from sin as well. We might start off by neglecting to read our Bible. I myself have said not reading my Bible just once won’t hurt. I will catch up tomorrow. We bend a little here and a little there. We lower our standards. Then little by little the world starts to trickle in. It isn’t enough to make us sit up and take notice but it is enough to do damage. The Bible tells us to: Abstain from all appearance of evil.”  1Thess. 5:21 KJV It is because it is so easy to get entangled with it. We don’t realize how easy it is for sin to enter in and spoil our soul. We think just a little bending of the rules won’t hurt. The Bible also tells us in Matthew 13:33 “Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” Just like it only took a little water coming in the door to damage the whole wall, it only takes a little compromising to damage our entire soul. So, the Lord has taught me that the very second I realize there is a weakness or even a breach in my spiritual life, DON’T ignore it! Take action to stop it right then and there so there won’t be any damage later.