The Wonder of Christ is Captivating

Has the WONDER of God diminished in you?

AS THE FATHER DRAWS YOU INTO HIS PRESENCE, IT WILL CHANGE YOU.

SEEING THE FATHER'S LOVE FOR YOU, IN SENDING, HIS ONE AND ONLY SON, JESUS TO EARTH TO LIVE AND DIE IN YOUR PLACE.  TO BRING YOU TO HIM...  YOU ARE GOD'S GIFT, THE FATHERS, GIFT TO HIS SON.

Take time to be still, listen, wait, pray and pray and wait.  Enjoy, delight in Jesus and His creation.  He turns the hearts of Kings.  If HE, continues to change my heart he can yours.  Even if you struggle as I do, you can have great joy in the Lord, by the gospel.  You are the righteousness of Christ, in Him.  Satan will try to rob you of joy of sharing this good news.  You are much worse than you think.  You are more loved than you know.  I think this was first said by C.S. Lewis.  But we adopt it, whomever it was, today.  it is the gospel throughout the bible.  Our hearts burn for our coming of the Lord...2,000 years ago and today.

OUR JOY OF TODAY DOES NOT LAST THROUGH TOMORROW.  IT IS LIKE THE MANNA OF THE ISRAELITES.    
THE FRESH, FREEDOM OF THE GOSPEL IS FOR EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I prayed a simple prayer...God may your love burn within me.

The people God used, the prayers and teaching He gave me that

followed has given me an awe of the great love of God.

May we prepare our hearts for our King, for Jesus has come. 

Advent is approaching.

God is a jealous God.  Yes, patient, loving, kind, but He has come

to rescue us. He is crazy with love for us and nothing can stop Him. 

He longs to be with us.  To be our Savior daily.  We are saved once 

but He rescues us over and over again.

When the days of evil come.  He will fight for you.  He has given 

us weapons in His word and His Spirit.

Self control, the Spirit
Stand firm in the truth of the gospel,
Eph 6 in His Word
Worship
Thanksgiving
Prayer of friends and our own
The righteousness of Christ that is ours
We have the very mind of Christ.
He keeps His promises.
He delights to give us good gifts.



Speak truth to your heart and mind, believe, claim what is yours in 

                                      "JESUS".

When you are too weak to pray, Jesus is praying.  He is fighting

The Spirit groans for redemption.  He gives us the very prayers to 

pray.

Darkness can not remain in the light.  We can fight darkness or we

can ask our God to move us into His marvelous light.  We can resist

the Devil and draw near to God.

So we can celebrate.  In due time, as you wait on Him, He will 

you wings like eagles.  He will raise you up out of the pit.  

God rescues the oppressed and sets the captive free.  He brings rest

to the weary.  Boldness and gentleness to faithless.  He heals our 

wounds.

When things were hard for me mentally...I prayed, Lord, I know 

are perfecting your bride.  I know you are purifying my faith and

giving me perseverance.  I fought to not lose hope and the Spirit

would remind me my hope is in Jesus not in an easy circumstance.

Our joy is not in the world but in Jesus.  The joy of the Lord is our

strength.

THE VICTORY  HAS BEEN WON...

Things will just work out?

Have you ever heard someone say...Things will just work out.

This implies that, things work themselves out and everything will

be ok on their own.

Things don't just work out.  We live in a broken world...

The only hope we have is in the promises of God to work every-

thing even our brokenness and dysfunctions for His glory and for 

our good.

If you think you are beyond hope
Your situation is beyond hope.
You are beyond hope in being used by God.
Those you love are beyond Gods redeeming power.

Remember His promises and His character...

He who makes the world keep spinning.
He who created it all from nothing.
He who knows your name.
He who is faithful.
He who promises to be our God and we His people.
He who sent His one and only Son to rescue us.
He alone is good.  Everything good comes from Him.

Jesus is our hope this Thanksgiving.

He will work everything in your life for your good beyond anything
you can imagine.  Think BIG.  Think GOD.

He can even use your sin to glorify Him.  Look to Him as our only hope.  Expect surprises from Him!

He made the blind man see.  The lame walk.  The prostitute forgiven.  He healed the sick.  He made kings out of slaves.  He freed the captives and the oppressed.  He wants to free you from your guilt and shame.  We all have shame because of the fall, the world and Satan.  He wants to heal our pain.

A free man longs to do the will of His God. 

Christ came, the son of a carpenter, to save us, rescue us and make us into the image of Himself. 

Our God is about good.  Even our suffering we can know He is meeting our need.  He is working for you, for Him.

 In your suffering are you angry with Him?  Do you blame Him for your sin?  Can you see Him as a loving Father that is jealous for your affections and heart?  He can handle you.  He is not disappointed in you because of... 

1. His Sons righteousness is yours and
2. He knew you and the struggles you would have even before time.

So be thankful.  If you are not thankful, ask Jesus to work in your heart as only He can and will do.  Ask Him to burn within your soul the very love of God for you.  

Confess to your Lord you need His love.  Open your heart and invite His love.  This is more difficult for us than we realize.  We close our hearts to God and others. We put up walls to protect ourselves.  We shrink back, we run, we turn to other things for comfort and joy.   God knows if we love Him and others. So do not be afraid to be honest and transparent with Him.  He knows we are but clanging symbols. 

We have the very love of Jesus living in us by His Spirit.  If we see His goodness in sending Jesus we have much to be thankful for.  He delights in His children.  He made the birds sing and the sun shine.  He gives you this meal this Thanksgiving. 

 Maybe you are homeless or have been before.  Or are in a broken home.  There are stories of how God met the needs to the least of these.  Just begin, thanking Him.  You will be amazed how your heart catches up.  Ask Him for that.  We have all we need in Jesus for righteousness and godliness.  But God loves giving good, good gifts to us.  Ask Him for what you need without grumbling or complaining.  Thanks flows out of a heart of love so... Give Thanks! Phil 4:6

How God is Meeting Me

GOD LOVES TO SHOW HIMSELF FAITHFUL, IN SEEMINGLY, IMPOSSIBLE SITUATIONS...

THIS MORNING AS I WOKE...I felt so bad.  My head was throbbing and my body hurt. My thoughts were not clear.  My attitude stunk.  I was not thankful.   Many of the struggles were the same as they have been for a couple of weeks now.  Especially in the morning.

I searched my heart and confessed my sin...What came to me was so sweet.  I am not a burden for God.  I cast my fears and burdens to the cross.  He has brought me to a place of dependence on Him.  I am learning to rest in His promises.  Learning to trust His word is true.  Only He can rescue me.


I opened our junk drawer and thought...this is impossible.  It reminded me God loves to work in the impossible for man.  I am still working on that drawer lol.

Yesterday I was to go to a pottery class. It was really hard for me to commit and go.  I have backed out of so many things in the past.  I was looking for examples in my experience of God being the Potter and us the clay.  As I turned the wheel and pressed firmly onto the clay, to get the shape I wanted...there was a clump of clay that had worked its way up to the top.  My teacher broke it off.  She said this is dead clay.  It reminds me of dead works I have done for me and not in faith, for God's glory. Of trusting in things other than Him to save me.

I think of how the intentions of our heart move to our thoughts and actions for us to confess and repent to God.  Only God can bring true repentance.  We are told the love of God brings us to repentance.

I learned in my class, it took me pressing in with my whole body through the care of my hands.  We are to press in, lean on Jesus.   It was such fun! We can experience God in everything we do.    He delights in us.


He may not heal my broken mind,
He may not give you the marriage you always wanted,
He may not turn your rebellious teen,
Give you the job of your dreams,

 but He wants to bring worship from the heart to Himself.  It is glorifying to Him and it is where I am most happy.  The enemy cannot coexist with our worship to God.


This morning,  I ask for Jesus heart, mind, and will.  His surrender.  I have great joy, but it is His joy.  Him living through me.  Jesus calls me to give up my plans.  He has something better for me.  Himself.


It is an illusion that I can fix anyone else, let alone me.  It is my self-reliance to think otherwise.


I have prayed hard prayers.  That God would use my illness for His glory.  No matter how bad it got.  That my children would love Him no matter what it took.  Many years ago before I got sick, I prayed God I want to know you and the power of your resurrection.  What was I thinking uggh!  I believe it was Jesus prayer for me.

When I suffer, I think...How did you also suffer Jesus?  How is Jesus in this suffering.  He is always working for our good.  When the thoughts come that I don't want, I search my heart.  I ask the Spirit to search me oh Lord.  Most of the time I confess them...I resist the devil and cling to God and He draws near.  When I despair I think of the disciples that despaired over Jesus death.  I cling to His righteousness.  For it is truly all I have.  Jesus meets me.  Even when I don't feel His presence I know He is living inside me.

When I have moved from imagining who I wanted Jesus to be, to searching for the only one true God.  It was a lonely, scary place.

He is moving me beyond my comfort.  Beyond my control.  He is teaching me that I back away from doing the hard thing.  I see my part is to take a small step of faith.

As we move beyond our walls of comfort into the unknown God meets us there.  When I think of the ones in the bible like Abraham, Jonna, Mary, Ester, Joseph, the prodigal, and even Jesus Himself.  God moved them into the unknown.  Beyond their world of comfort and familiar.

I sought knowledge.  As good as this can be it is not wisdom.  God confuses the proud.  Paul, who was full of wisdom and knowledge declared to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified.  The whole bible flows out of this...

These are the hands of some of the ladies in my class.

This is my first class.  I had lots of good help.

God is so faithful.  He has shown me that in my fears I sin.  I have thought I had to fight the fears.  Evil has no hold on me.   He is keeping me with His everlasting arms.  I am safe with Him.  He is purifying my worship.  He is redeeming me for His splendor.




 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.