What nature are you feeding?

Today Im preaching to myself....I sat here this evening asking myself am I becoming more like Christ. It is something we have to do daily and every minute of it. God knew that it would be a daily battle because we are of a sinful nature.
Colossians 3, tells us that when we become Christians that we have been risen with Christ. To be risen with Christ we must die. No this isn't a physical death,but of the old man,the sinful nature. God then goes on to tell us HOW to do this.First we have to set our sights on things above,not earthly things.Setting our sites on things above is Christ and how he does things. Not doing things our way because this is working against God and not becoming more like him. Remember when the WWJD bracelets become so popular? People would wear them as a reminder to ask themselves in everything they did ..would Jesus do this? If we are not doing what he would we are still feeding our sinful nature. I for one know this is a hard task because so many times the enemy lies and tells us "OH  IT'S OKAY YOUR HUMAN. Yes we are human,but we have been raised with Christ. If we are looking to God and his direction we are  feeding the new nature.
You know it is kinda like this...You go out and buy one of those TV stands with so many pieces. You decide I've got this I don't need directions. Before long you realize you have a mess and start digging in the box for the directions. It is the same way with living for Christ. He has given us direction and answers in his word, but we think we got this. We try to live not feeding our new nature and going by his directions and we wake up one day and realize we have a mess.
Second after God tells us to set our sights above he tells us what to do next. put to death what belongs to your earthly nature.Some of these things are sexually immorality,impurity,lust,evil desires,greed,anger,rage,slander,filthy language from our mouth.  Why do you think God had to tell us what to do? Because he knew we were going to do these things. That is the old nature trying to live in us. But he tells us when we came to him we put off our old self and those practices.When we decide to do this we put on his knowledge and become more like our creator.
Ask yourself...am I feeding the old or new nature with the choices im making? Am I becoming more like him in my life? When people look at me and the example I am setting for others do they Jesus?
It comes down to this. If the things we do in our life is feeding the old nature more than the new nature he gave us it will show in our life.We will reap from our choices. It is not God punishing us we do it to ourselves.
My desire is to be happy and I know this kind of happiness only comes by reading his directions and deciding your will not mine. Die every day to sin and feed my new nature more than the old.
What nature do you feed more in your life?

Those who are healthy don't need a doctor

                 

In Mathew 9:12 we see where Jesus over hears the Pharisees (religious) and tells them one of the purposes in which he came.

This may get a little sticky for some,but I only speak this to open eyes. I love church and being with believers, BUT that should not be our goal. Jesus tells us to go out to the highways and byways. So many times in the world we live in we see groups that have built up beautiful places to worship.Even going as far to have coffee shops,gyms,basketball courts.We rally around one another,hangout together and life is good. We make sure we are in church every time the doors open.It is very comfortable when we get to this place,BUT are we following what Jesus did? In Mathew 9:11 they ask the disciples why does your teacher eat with the sinners" 
Let me break this down to how this would be today. Believers sitting together and one ask have you seen Brenda lately.Another speaks up and says " oh gosh you wouldn't believe,but I saw her out with that lady that just came to town. You know the one that just moved here and has all those kids. The one that half the kids have different dads. I think she even works at that club down the road. Oh no Brenda has started hanging out with sinners.
Jesus came for the sinners. he speaks to the religious after he over heard them ask why he was sitting with them"Those who are healthy don't need a doctor, sick people do.
Hosea 6:6 I have not come to get those who think they are right with God to follow me. I have come to get sinners to follow me.
We can never get good enough to come to God. He doesn't ask us to get it all fixed up our way and come to him. He says come as your,sick and sinning I am the healer.
Jesus used people in the Bible that today we would shun and not hangout with and he does this today. Jesus looks at the heart and not your faults. Jesus can use the person with a heart of love that will get out and get dirty and not care what others say only what he desires.
It is time to search who Jesus was,how he did things and what he commands us to do.
           "Those who are healthy don't need a doctor" 

Beauty for Ashes

                        Beauty for ashes......
                                        Isaiah 61:3
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,to give unto them beauty for ashes,the oil of joy for mourning,the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;that they might be called trees of the righteousness,the planting of the Lord,that he might be glorified.

As I write this blog I have a very heavy heart. I just returned today from burying someone  I loved very much. As I laid in the bed the last two nights and cried my self to sleep God started to share somethings with me.
I will not go back over my story at this moment,but I will say  about 3 1/2 years ago the man I was married to for 29 years walked out on me. The man I thought I would be with the rest of my life. From that moment I realized what true morning was. The years have not been easy. I have had others in and out of my life,but never found the happiness I needed. The good thing is in those years I have turned to God more than ever because I had no one else.
We do not ever understand the whys and hows,but I assure you God does. Last night as I laid there I started to think of my niece and how she mourned for the husband she lost to death. I started to see others that had been sexually abused,abandoned by someone they loved,lost parents,lost a child or never knew their parents. So many times we find ourselves lonely, hopeless and mourning. Looking for something just anything to take away the pain. During these times many turn to drugs,alcohol,promiscuous sex anything to help. This is just what the devil our enemy desires for our life. If he get our eyes on the pain and keep bringing up the memories he continues to still our joy and cause pain.
Gods plan is not that at all. He wants to be the husband to the widow,a father to the child who is alone. He wants to hold us in his arms and love us. He wants to give us beauty for the ashes that have happened in our life.
I have known for sometime God called and gifted me,but along the way I got off track. I have served him much of my life,but the times have caused change. God has purpose and wants to use our hurts as a testimony for him.
Last night God revealed to me that the things that had happened in the past 3 1/2 years he wanted to use for me to help other women. Women who feel they can't go on. Women who have been so hurt and abused they feel lost, like failures,rejected. 
I thank God that daily he takes my the ashes of my life and gives me beauty. Nothing in my own power could change me only my lord.

Beauty for ashes..only with God

We must run the race and lay aside the worlds distractions

We must keep our eyes open to see where we are running!
Do you ever find yourself running to and fro,but coming back full circle..never getting any where,but worn out,stressed out and blisters on your feet. I think we all have and I know I have. Many times this happens because we are not running the direction God has for us or we take our eyes off the finish line.We get sidetracked by so many things along the way.
When a runner runs a race, his focus is not on the people in the stands or the runners around him,but on the finish line! As a believer,your life is just like a race and as you run,it is important to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus
 (Hebrew 12:1,2)
1)Therefore then,since we are surrounded by so great of cloud of witnesses who have borne testimony to the truth,let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weigh)and that is sin which so readily(deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us,and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race set before us.
2) Looking away from all that will distract to Jesus, Who is the leader and the source of our faith giving thr first incentive for our belief and is also the Finisher bringing it to maturity and perfection. He for the joy of obtaining the prize that was set before him,endured the cross,despising and ignoring the shame,and is now seated st the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1 tells us if we are going to run the race we must lay down the weight( What has you past and life weighted you down with that you still carry? We must lay it down to make it to the end)
We also in this race have to make sure we are in shape( fed up in Gods promises to give us strength to go forward)
We must also see that there is nothing attached to us that will hinder our run.(shed the garbage from your life that has weighted you down)
Some hindrances to running a race well is to many commitments is one that keeps us from developing our potential.Letting others control us and tell us how we should do, can keep us from our potential.Not knowing how to say no and getting to involved in others problems keeps us from our full potential.
The devil comes up with many ways to get us sidetracked to keep us from doing what we should be doing.
If we want to do what God has called us to do, we MUST stay focused because the world we live in is filled with distraction and entanglements.
KEEP YOU FOCUS ON THE LORD AND LAY ASIDE EVERYTHING THAT MAY DISTRACT AND HOLD YOU BACK
FINISH THE RACE GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO!!!

I was called to LOVE

I was talking to a very good friend of mine a few weeks back and our conversation turned to being a wife and mother.I told her how much I missed it and how sometimes I felt something was missing. I know it may sound crazy to some,but I knew from a very young girl where my heart was. God defiantly blessed me with the heart to love.I will never forget when I was just a small girl I didn't just play with dolls I had the whole setup. I had turned my dads chicken coop into a house. I had clothes,shoes and purses hanging on one side so I could dress like a mommy. I would go in the garage and get moms canning jars and pretend I was canning and cooking. There was nothing I loved more and I always had friends coming over that loved my playhouse.
There is nothing that can make me more happy than to be able to love and take care of someone. When I make others happy I am so blessed. and fulfilled.
The sad thing is today a woman that stays home and raises her family and makes the house a home is not seen as important anymore. Our phone conversation also led us talk about what God calls use to do as a wife and mother. I remember when I got married at a very young age and started having my family there was never a doubt how things would be. I had a husband that never wanted me to work and knew that it was a job in it's own.I have always took pride in my home and making sure everyone that walked in my door felt love. I remember one of my prayers used to be that people would feel the love of Christ when they visited. I also pray over my food that people will feel the love from my heart when I cook.
I still miss having my children come in from school and work because I always had them something special made. I was the mom that believed home made is best..the house that the teenagers would pile up in to eat and watch TV.My son had me cook for the couples on Prom night and serve them and then come back about two in the morning for biscuits and chocolate gravy. Those are memories that can never be taken from me and will always be special .
 As good as those days were after my divorce I always felt an empty spot. A unfulfilled feeling I could not shake.I woke up one day and I was all alone. I know longer had to prepare and take care of a husband and the door wasn't swinging open with the children coming home.For awhile I thought there was something wrong with me because I still had that desire.after doing some Bible studies and sharing with others I now know that this is my gift. Not all women have this ability and love to give. I think God has used this time to heal my heart and give me that deep desire again. I will say that having sometime to be me and find peace and comfort in my life has been good,but I can say that isn't what I desire long term.So many people have tried to talk to me and say just travel and have fun. I say I will do that,but it will not always be alone. I am trusting God to give me the other half..my best friend..my lover and companion.  He must be a special man and one that believes in marriage the way God ordained it because I am a lady that has come to realize "I was called to love" my gift from God

The past is gone..move forward

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do,forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14

The past is just that..gone,over with,something that happened before.

Letting go of the past and moving forward is one of the hardest things to do. The enemy loves to remind us of our past so we can not let go and move on. We find ourselves giving to much time to how and what has and hasn't happened in our lives keeping us paralyzed and stagnant. It seems like such a simple thing,but yet so hard. 

I know when my children were growing up and found difficult times in there life I always told them " You can't move forward looking back..you will stumble every time" I know you remember as a child how much fun it was to try and walk backwards. It was fun until we fell and scraped our knees and then our mind was on the hurt. This is just how life is today. We find ourselves walking down the road of life and looking back. The pain of the fall and mistakes we made start to hurt and we are consumed in the pain.

In my speaking to others God showed me another vision that I like to use. The grave and death. We are to bury the past and not dig it back up over and over. When something dies it starts to smell rotten and deteriorate.Maybe at some point it was beautiful and had life,but no more. It is buried and covered up for a reason. We can have a beautiful picture in our mind about how it was,but when go back to the grave and look that picture soon changes.

I stand here today and say we all have a past.It is a daily choice to bury it and not allow the mind to dwell there. God has given us the power to cast these thoughts down. The same power that we have to cast the thoughts down is the same power we have to move on.

We have to stop listening to the lies and grasp the promises.

Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken
Psalm 55;22

Where are our values today?

It has been a good day today I got in a good workout,came home and made a big pot of soup and now im sitting here alone with my fur babies.
One of the key words is ALONE. I have really had a heavy heart lately to see the value that people put in marriage and relationships these days. It seems every where I turn homes are breaking up and people are giving up. What happen to for better or worse,in sickness and health until death parts us? We have become such a fast fix it, selfish nation that we have allowed it to enter into our homes and lives. I look around and I see so much pain and brokenness.Adults wondering how to go on and children having to suffer. 

I'm not sure if this burden is stronger for me because I have lived it or what. I know God has spoke to me and said that which the devil meant for bad I will use. I take that to mean that he has used this process to prepare me to help others facing pain. I ask myself "Who am I" just a vessel that is willing to share a testimony. Yea I know most testimonies have a happy ending and I am still claiming mine. With all the destruction going on in marriages and relationships it doesn't make it easy. I have been single going on four years and I have met some bruised and abused men. Each time I meet someone and hear the stories I question...where are values? When did women stop being what God says we should be? When did men stop loving like Christ loved his bride? The picture in this world that we have painted before us sure isn't the

picture God has for us. I hate to see so many with hopelessness in their faces. I for one am holding on to the hope because Genesis 2:18 "The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Yes that is the truth...Man does need woman and we are to be his helper and in return we need them. I believe there is strength when a husband and wife team follow God. When we set Godly examples for the youth of today then we will start to see less destruction. It is a team effort and a team has two or more. Marriage and relationships can not be one sided.My desire is for my team to have three that is God as the center.Satan knows this and that is why he is out to destroy the home.

Now let me get back to how easy it has become to walk away. I have heard it all for sure..she didn't do this right..he never did this. All excuses because we are none perfect and we all have issues. Real love sees the faults and loves them anyway. We will none see perfection until Jesus comes back so isn't it time to stop running? Isn't it time we study more on what God says is our duty?

It is usually to late when we find out the "Grass isn't greener on the other side" it still has to be mowed,weeded and taken care of to make it beautiful!!!

1 Corinthians 13:4–8a 

(English Standard Version) 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. (ESV)