Watch “Without faith it is impossible to please” on YouTube

Stand

My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. Psalm 89:28

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
1 Corinthians 16:13

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Ephesians 6:13

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
James 1:12

Kay Arthur: Keep Seeking Him

Keep Seeking Him

Have you ever thought about the fact that as a Christian you will never arrive, never have all the answers, and you should never think you can make it alone. It’s quite the opposite of what the world tells you to do.

The more you walk with Christ, the more you learn how much you desperately need Him. Throughout scripture you see that it is only through Christ can you know your purpose and your direction in life.

It’s simple, yet profound, that daily you need to ask, seek, and trust God for everything that you do.

“Make me know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.” (Psalm 25:4) #direction #godswill http://bit.ly/1ouP7Hi

Every good and perfect gift

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Watch “Graham Cooke – Moving In Your True Persona” on YouTube

“Living in our true identity with God” Isn’t this what we long for? When God says we are more than conquerors do we say “I know that! I live that!”? Or do we say “Really? That’s not my take away. I feel defeated more than not.” Yet Paul said in Christ we are new creations. Old is out. In with the new that is a warrior, a winner, a prophet speaking the truth of God, a priest blessing and interceeding for others, an ambassador of the Kingdom of God, a fragrance of Jesus, the letter of God read by all mankind, entrused with Jesus’s mission to release the captives, bind up the broken hearted, proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord!

But a lot of us are living more in the shadows. We feel chained to reputations and how people expect us to be. The name Jabez, in the Bible, means pain. Jabez’s mom made sure everyone knew how much she suffered giving birth to this baby that she named him pain. Jabez. How hard would it be to live that down? First of all Jewish moms have the reputations of never forgetting–never letting up. If its praiseworthy the child couldn’t ask for a better press agent! But gotta say this must have been the WORST delivery EVER to hang this on her son for the rest of his life! It got so bad the Bible says Jabez CRIED OUT TO GOD. In the New Testament bad things happening to people was seen as punishment for sin. When the disciples and Jesus came upon a blind man the disciples asked Jesus “Who sinned, his parents or this man, that he should be born blind?” Because God’s curses were seen in loss of fortune, ill health, defeat, Jabez, a man undeserving of his name, for the Bible called him a man more honorable than his brothers, cried out for God to prove to everyone he was not the man they thought he was. Pour out Your favor over me! Line my pockets with money. Prosper me and expand my borders, my territory. And God answered his prayer (1 Chronicles 4:9-11).

When I was about 4 years old our family went to the Fun Zone at Santa Cruz California. My dad took me up a high stairs to a long wooden slide. He wanted me to slide down it. I was afraid. I didn’t want to. I cried. I felt panicked as he kept insisting and got a splinter in my hand from the wooden hand rail. My dad returned me to ground level in disgust and called me “panty waist”. What would have changed about my selfimage after that if my dad said “You are so brave! We are unstoppable together! Let’s take on this slide together! You sit on my lap and together we’ll see how scarry this slide really is!”

God says we are more, much more in Christ. Listen to this message from Graham Cooke as he unlocks the mystery of being an OVERCOMER in Christ!

Born again? How about renovation?

I wrote this January 19, 2014. Now we’re nearing a year and a half since we began this very hard process of renovation. And we’ve been installing furniture now!!! The rooms have beds! The living room has sofas! The closets have shelves and poles to hang clothes! We have a new roof! And I am falling in love with this once abused and broken and disgusting house.

I must say this is a perfect example of how we were before God came to save us. He says we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. But when God sent Jesus to cover our sins with His blood He, like HGTV, flipped us! He did a total makeover. Much more then, being now justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For He has made Him to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God In Christ.

That is just the beginning. Like the garbage removal and the hole filling and wall painting and floor renovating is just setting the stage for usefulness, accepting Jesus as your Savior is just the beginning. The Bible says we need to study to show ourselves approved unto God as workmen that don’t need to be ashamed but can rightly divide or correctly assess the word of truth. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for doctrine, for reproof and correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be whole and complete, fully equipped and furnished for all good works. Can you see it? Can you see that we are God’s makeover? He say we are His house!

My husband and I have come a long way since we took on this house. I didn’t like it at first. I dreaded all the time I had to spend with it and sometimes I went away injured and exhausted. This is the stuff of relationships. They can be hard and painful. But God showed His love for us by dying for us even when we hated, or didn’t even have a clue about Him and were a hot mess. He took us on and promised that we would be AWESOME, ADORABLE, WISE, POWERFUL, BEAUTIFUL! We are all a work in progress but the more time we spend with the Master and submit to His scraping, and refining and prepping the sooner we will become ready for the furniture and that’s when we will begin to take on the character, attitudes, and wisdom of our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

janjoy52

I love seeing the befores and afters with HGTV’s renovations. They seem so quick and, ok it looks like hard work, but, how hard can it be? Well, now that I’m neck deep in renovating our thrashed rental I can tell you it is neck breaking, back breaking and heart breaking. Yes, I am being a drama queen. When I am weary my thoughts and mood turn to the dark side. But, I must say, through my scrapping, spackling, hole-filling I have had some awesome conversations with God. Starting with a conversation Jesus had with religious leader Nicodemas in his day. Jesus told Nic if he ever wanted to make it into God’ s kingdom he would have to be born again. His basic genetic code was not Kingdom friendly. He needed a rebirth. A makeover.

God starts the process with a basic rewiring by implanting His Holy Spirit…

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The amazing truth about you

Trash collector: musings from the sermon on the mount

Soon after we moved into our present home my husband decided we needed storage. We had 25 years of accumulated living from our marriage and child rearing we couldn’t part with: bikes, a sassy seat, camping gear, lawn mower, tools, and the huge preserved marlin my dad caught on a fishing trip. So on the back of our large yard we cut a foundation, put up a COSTCO metal storage unit and packed it full. 15 years later it was like opening a defective time capsule when we discovered, much to our chagrin, most of it was rusted and now worthless. And the marlin looked like it had seen better days. This disappointment called to mind Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount found in the gospel of Matthew in the New Testament of the Holy Bible. Jesus said “Don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on earth were moths and rust corrupts and thieves can break in and steal. Rather lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where moths and rust do not corrupt and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasures are your heart will be also.” I’d say if Jesus needed a good word picture to prove His point I had a few I could offer. The fact is everything this side of the grave is, with time, going to be worthless and useless. Everything we work so hard to attain or achieve will eventually slip through our fingers like sand. The Bible says God put eternity into the hearts of man. He has put into mankind a spirit and soul that will never cease to exist. This spirit and soul is the real you and is precious, and dear and, to God, worth dying for. Jesus is saying if we really want fulfillment, true wealth, status, peace then find out how God defines wealth and how we cam earn points with God. If God holds the key to true wealth then it stands to reason to bank with Him. Jesus said “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”

Who is Jesus:Hebrews 1:1-3 (Amplified Bible)

IN MANY separate revelations [each of which set forth a portion of the Truth] and in different ways God spoke of old to [our] forefathers in and by the prophets, [But] in the last of these days He has spoken to us in [the person of a] Son, Whom He appointed Heir and lawful Owner of all things, also by and through Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of space and the ages of time [He made, produced, built, operated, and arranged them in order]. He is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God’s] nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power. When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high,
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When my days are hectic and I feel confused, anxious, irritable or sad I find turning to God puts everything into perspective. When I fail to see God in the storms of my life I loose my moorings. It is a relief to know I am not expected to know all the answes as long as I am depending on the One who does.

Happy Sunday! Happy SON day!

Born again? How about renovation?

God starts the process with a basic rewiring by implanting His Holy Spirit when we acknowledge we are totally unable to reach God’s standards of perfection and accept His substitute payment, His Son, Jesus, as our qualifying certificate. I have done that. I have downloaded the Holy Spirit but that is just the intro. My foundation is Jesus but I know I am still a hot mess with dings, and garbage and graffitti written on the walls of my mind and heart. The Bible says I am a new creation in Christ Jesus ( 2 Corinthians 5:17) but God uses our hard times to knock down the rough edges James 1) and His Word, the Bible, to get our thinking straight (1Peter2:2). So, back to our house reno, I am patching dings, filling holes, sanding and smoothing surfaces and through my tears I hear the Holy Spirit say this is what He is doing in my life right now. Just as I struggle with the awesome vision of one day having a wonderful, strong and amazing home, He is working together everything in my life for my good (Romans 8:28). In Jeremiah 29:11-13 God says “I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future. Then you will call my Name. You will come to Me and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will search for Me. And when you search for Me with all your heart, you will find Me!” Such good news for this one in need of repair!