Great Gratitude Day

Well, life has been so busy I haven't even had a chance to blog.  However,  I want to deliberately take a moment to acknowledge the great things in my life.  Amidst the trials, struggles, and frustrations of life I  have the underlying sense of peace that "all is well".  There is a God in heaven who is in charge.  His government is the ultimate authority.  He knows the number of hairs on my head.  He knows everything that I struggle with.  He is waiting for me simply to acknowledge Him in all my ways.  So, that is exactly what I wish to do.  I am grateful for everything in my life: the good, the bad and the ugly.   The "good" cheers my day,  the "bad" makes me rely on Christ, and the "ugly" makes me turn to Jesus and call on His name, so I can reflect Christ to others.   In this season of Thanksgiving,  I pray that we all can have an "Attitude of Gratitude"  for all that is.......

Declaration of the Day

I think there is a battle going on in the universe.  A battle for our very lives.  Our soul.  Satan is the ruler of this age.  Ultimately , God is in control. However, he has given me free will.  Well, today I choose LIFE.  I feel a battle raging...  I have to declare to the principalities and powers of this age that; according to Isaiah 12:2-6

  God is now my salvation; I will truat and not dread; For Jah Jehovah is my strength and song.  And He has become my salvation. Therefore, I will draw water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation. And I will say in that day, give thanks to Jehovah; call upon His name! Make His deeds known among the peoples; Remind them that His name is exalted.  Sing psalms to Jehovah, for He has done something majestic! Let it be made known in all the earth! Cry out and give a ringing shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. 

Amen

Not Stealing My Joy

ok,  so now is the time I get to put into action my faith.  Slow computers, broken dishwasher, phones batteries (notice the plural) dying, no cell phone service at the house, printer died 2 weeks ago, garage refrigerator took up the ghost last night: taking along with it --5 lbs of ground beef, 4 steaks, one pot roast, and numerous ice pops.  The lawn needs mowing, the fence needs fixing, the new kitty is creating havic wherever he can. I can say more, but I fear I would be too exposed.

 These are the "cares of this world"....  praise the Lord, all these things are temporary.  I declare that my hope, my future, my goals are not of this world.  My view is for eternity.
             And I can go to the altar of God. To God, my exceeding joy; And I will praise You with the             harp, O God, my God (Psm 43:4). 
      As a result of these concerns I choose to go to the altar and identify with Him.  I consent to Him directing my ways. He knows my needs.  His need, however is to work Himself into me as my life and my everything so that I can take Him as my person, live Him and express Him.  That is the desire of God's heart and the focal point of the bible.  I chose to keep my Joy inspite of all these worldly worries.  Amen

Enjoying the Lord

Well, I just returned from a conference in Jax, Florida.  The conference was on The Living of a Believer Who Enjoys the Lord in the Body of Christ for the Fulfillment of God's Eternal Purpose.   Wow,  what a title.  How to even explain all that was contained in these messages is beyond my ability.  For now, I am going to share where I am in reviewing what I heard and learned. 
  I heard that God has a purpose.  There is a reason we were born/created.  He wants us,  a group of individuals who form the body of Christ to enjoy Him.  He created us with a need for pleasure.  God Himself has a need for pleasure.  His pleasure is to dispense Himself into us.  When we allow Christ to be dispensed into us and for His life to spread through us, we are pleasing to Him.  When I turn to the Lord and call on His name,  I open to His dispensing and I can enjoy Him.  The first phrase I am musing on is this:  the secret to the Christian life is how much we enjoy God. 

Simple Practices

Daily I work at touching my spirit.  Some days are harder than other days.  Although the practice is simple, sometimes the practice is not easy.   The practice of touching the Holy Spirit by my spirit is simple because it only takes my mouth to call on the name of the Lord.  Like, as in...  "O Lord Jesus".  If  I say this, I am beginning to open my being to the Lord and looking to touch the person of Jesus.  However,  I must admit that the simple idea of calling on the name of the Lord,  does not come so easily some times.  There are other things that I might find my mouth doing i.e.  complaining, yelling, explaining, rationalizing, venting, and of course eating.  I desire to "call" more and do those other practices less.  Lord, help me to remember you more, so I can call on you and cast my cares and concerns to you. 

A tri-part being

Well, first let me say how much I am enjoying this process of blogging.  To be honest,  I never thought that I would be doing this.  However, I am finding it very interesting to think  about what I want to blog about and share with others.

Today I will share a thought about the fact that  I believe we are a tri-part being.  Meaning we have a body, soul and spirit.  First, the body piece is pretty self explainatory --  our physcial part. This is the part that houses the biological and psychological components.   Secondly, the soul -- which has three parts: our mind, emotion and will.  Our mind is the thinking part; our emotions - the faculty of inner feeling, capable of loving, hating, being depressed and/or elated; and  a will, this is the faculty for making decisions.  Lastly, we have a spirit.  Hidden and obscured, this faculty deep within man has remained  mostly a mystery.  It is deeper than your mentality or understanding.  It is deeper than your soul.  Hidden within the soul is the human spirit.  It is so close to the soul and so encased by the soul that it is often mistaken for the soul.  Alas, it is not the soul,  it is the spirit.

This spirit was created within man to contain God.  That is why many of us have the experience of trying to fill ourselves up with all kinds of activites, material things, status etc.. and never feel full or that we have attained enough.  Man can never be satisfied because this deepest part still remains to be filled.  The very function of the spirit is to contain God.  The mind can think, our emotions be expressed, but only the spirit is able to contact God.  God is a Spirit (John 4:24).  Just like the air surrounding you, He is available to fill the   place that was made especially for Him.  He is the Holy Spirt and you have a human spirit -- these were made to go together. 

To receive the Holy Spirit into our human spirit is what Christians call being "born again".  To take God into you is very easy.  He has paved the way, by His death on the cross. All we have to do is ask the living Christ to come into your spirit and He will.  This is the basis of the Christian living.  From this starting point we can then learn to allow the Spirit to fill our spirit and spread from our spirit into our mind, emotion and will.  This will allow us to live more of Chris and less of us.  This is where I am...  learning to live out less of me and more of Christ.   

Hello World

Well, here I go.  Sharing myself with the world.  Giving my ideas, telling of my struggles, sharing my beliefs.  My prayer is that all who find me, will be blessed.  Blessed in their business.  Blessed by their thoughts and awarenesses being challenged and changed. Blessed by connecting with others who want to live a life that is honoring and pleasing to Jesus.

So, this brings me to my first thing to share: Is it possible that we might be pleasing to God?  After all, we are sinners.  We are living in this degraded world with all sorts of things to distract us from the very thing that we were created for; which is to contain and express Christ.  I know just trying to get thru the day sometimes is a struggle: paying bills, dealing with my kid, working, caring for my husband and household, trying to find time for friends and family, not to mention "me" time.  So it is no wonder that  I can feel disconnected, stressed or question why  Jesus would want individuals like me to serve Him. 

Well, the bible says that He came to heal the broken hearted, set the captives free and to give sight to the blind.  That describes me.  Does it describe you?  If it does, He came for us.  He died for us.  He loved us.  So, we can now love Him! If we love Him, desire to be more like Him, are willing to have Him fill us and live out of us --  then we are pleasing to Him.   Nuff said.