Day Seventeen

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi


Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace!

That where there is hatred, I may bring love.

That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness.

That where there is discord, I may bring harmony.

That where there is error, I may bring truth.

That where there is doubt, I may bring faith.

That where there is despair, I may bring hope.

That where there are shadows, I may bring light.

That where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort, than to be comforted.

To understand, than to be understood.

To love, than to be loved.

For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.

It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.

It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.

—Saint Francis of Assisi—

Day Fifteen

Today we were presented to our church for membership. It was a good day! The last church we attended closed in April, 2016. We have been at our new church for about a year and a half now. I am blessed by our new family and can't wait to get to know everyone even better as time goes on.

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!
(Psalms 84:10-12 ESV)

31 Days of healing Day 2 "A careful examining of my heart"

This process is going to take a careful examining  of my heart. I wrote an earlier bog post that I reread a few days ago that really made me think about how I got where I am emotionally.You can read it here Beauty For Ashes.  My own words stung me.  I knew it was time to take a closer look at my heart and confess any sin that I found. One thing that jumped out at me was when we are hurt by our circumstances or people we need to choose how we respond in our hearts. When we hang on to the hurt and try to justify our anger or other feelings and allow them to remain unchecked then our thinking may become clouded and we will not see truth.  We will want to keep carrying our hurts like a prized possession instead of dealing with them. 

"Sometimes, the pain we have worked so hard to avoid is the one thing that leads us to where God calls us to go. Sometimes, feeling our need is the greatest work of faith we can surrender to". ~Bonnie Gray, Faith Barista

And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?"
(Luke 9:23-25 ESV)

31 Days Of Reflection Day 4 "The Body of Christ"

     How are we the "Church" to be the the hands and feet of Christ towards others? First within our local body and then into our community?  In today's busy demanding  culture we can sometimes become self adsorbed and not see the true needs of others.

     If we can not minister to the body of Christ within our churches, how then can we reach out in to the community?  There are hurting people in the church that need our intercessory prayers and our compassion. There are some that we need to come along side and mentor. There are some that have physical needs. There are some that have spiritual needs. Are we willing to notice these needs and be willing to actually be the hands and feet of Christ?

All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. 1 Corinthians 12:27 

 How did Jesus respond to peoples needs ?  First He had to spend time with the Father. Second he was flexible, Jesus was willing to be interrupted.Third Jesus was willing to get His hands dirty and

 fourth He shared His love for "the least of these.

Christ Has No Body
Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

31 Days of Reflection Day 3 " She Doesn't Know Him"

Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
(1 John 3:1 MKJV)

While caring for my father and mother in NM has been a challenge, God is teaching me through it all.  There have been times when I have been frustrated and impatient. God is faithful to remind me that I need to have patience and love the way He loves. One day in particular I became very upset with my Mom.  When I went in to care for my Dad (whom recently accepted the Lord as Savior),  he grabbed my arm and in tears said, " She doesn't  know Him.  Maybe she will know Him soon." I  Immediately was pierced in my heart for my attitude towards her.   She needs unconditional love from me not condemnation.

And we know that the Son of God has come, and He has given us an understanding so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and the everlasting life.
(1 John 5:20 MKJV)

31 Days of Reflection Day 1 " Broken Eggs"

 In August 2015 my daughter's family and I were in a car accident. We all had minor injuries and we are healing well. Immediately after the accident, my grand daughter Jude began "rounding" things up that had been strewn about in the car. She carefully found everything and put it all in the diaper bag. She returned to the car to have one last look around and that is when her heart was broken. There in the backseat floorboard area she found the eggs her mother had just purchased. She began to sob and ran to her Daddy and said "Oh Daddy the eggs are broken!!"  He reassured her that it was OK and they would be taken care of. She continued to sob and replied" but they can not be fixed daddy!

       I thought about this many times over the next few days. We try to gather ourselves and fix our problems, but we are broken eggs needing repair, we can not fix ourselves. Abba Father wants us to bring everything that is broken in our lives: our hurts our heartaches and our grieving. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted, and he delivers those whose spirit has been crushed. (Psalms 34:18 ISV)
 He is the only one that can heal us. Here we are Lord, we can not fix our hearts but you can. We need to be completely surrendered to Him so that He can work through all He has purposed for us. 

At the same time the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we don't know how to pray for what we need. But the Spirit intercedes along with our groans that cannot be expressed in words. The one who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit has in mind. The Spirit intercedes for God's people the way God wants him to. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God-those whom he has called according to his plan.
(Romans 8:26-28 GW)

Day 11 Biblical Womanhood " What is Purity?"

Today we will study what purity means. As I was studying  what purity is I realized while most people think that purity "just" relates to being sexually pure that is not the case. Purity is a lifestyle choice  that encompasses every area of life, not just sexuality. Purity is not a wide path, but a narrow road. Purity is a singular matter that touches everything.

Purity~

 "In the Old Testament, the basic sense of the Hebrew word for purity is probably an emptying out or being clean. The verb appears about forty times, most occurrences with an ethical, moral, or forensic sense. Purity is opposed to being guilty. It stands over against such conduct or attitudes as unfaithfulness to God's covenant (Hosea 8:1), rebellion against God's law (v. 1), and idolatry (vv. 4-6, 11). Purity consists of "clean hands" (Gen 20:5), innocence ( Psalm 26:6 ; 73:13), and an "empty stomach" (Amos 4:6).

In the New Testament, there is little emphasis on ritual purity. Rather, the focus is on moral purity or purification: chastity (2 Cor 11:2 ;Titus 2:5); innocence in one's attitude toward members of the church ( 2 Cor 7:11 ); and moral purity or uprightness ( Php 4:8 ; 1 Tim 5:22 ; 1 Peter 3:2 ; 1 John 1:3). Purity is associated with understanding, patience and kindness ( 2 Cor 6:6); speech, life, love, and faith ( 1 Tim 4:12 ); and reverence ( 1 Peter 3:2 )."*

* http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/purity.html" 

Join me tomorrow as we study "How To Keep Our Way Pure"

Day 10 Biblical Womanhood " How to have Self Control"

    So today we are looking at  "How to Have Self Control". Yesterday we learned that self control is a fruit of the spirit.  We basically must yield our hearts to the Holy Spirit and obey Him when He speaks to us. By doing so it will produce the fruits of the Spirit in our lives.  You ask, "How do I know when He is speaking to me?"  Bill Jones and Terry Powell include the following chart in their book, Walking in the Spirit. (Camp Hill: Christian Publications, 2001. p. 81): 

       Characteristics of the Holy Spirit's Promptings 
       

They Will Always	They Will Never
Confirm Scripture	Contradict Scripture
Be Specific	Be General
Convict	Condemn
Lead you	Push or drive you
Be Simple	Be Complicated
Motivate you to faith	Create fear in you
Focus primarily on changing you inwardly	Focus primarily on changing you outwardly
Emphasize character	Emphasize circumstances
Be True	Be False
Be Clear	Be Confusing
Restore Relationships	Destroy Relationships
Major on your faults, others’ needs	Major on others’ faults, your needs
Lead you to do something	Lead you to overdo something

       

 This list should help us to discern when the Holy Spirit is prompting us. 

"And how does the Spirit produce this fruit of self-control in us? By instructing us in the superior preciousness of grace, and enabling us to see and savor (that is, "trust") all that God is for us in Jesus. "The grace of God has appeared . . . instructing us to deny . . . worldly desires . . . in the present age" (Titus 2:11).     When we really see and believe what God is for us by grace through Jesus Christ, the power of wrong desires is broken. Therefore the fight for self-control is a fight of faith. "Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called" (1 Timothy 6:12).*

* http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-fierce-fruit-of-self-control
 See you tomorrow!