Jesus

Seven reasons you should forgive your enemy

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Thinking about why I should not avoid someone who has wounded me and walked away from our friendship. First of all God has deep affection and investment in growing that person into the character of His love. Secondly that person is in bondage, imprisoned by barriers of their making: anger, fear, bitterness, resentments, pride. There can be no rest without surrender and trust. In other words, they are in a world of hurt and need rescuing. Fourth, when the Lord places that person on my heart to pray for them I know He is working miracles of warfare and transformation in my heart and in the heart of that one who offended me because He said when we ask anything according to His will He hears and answers us. Fifth, whatever is not of faith is sin. If I begin praying and investing my time and heart in rescuing this one who offended me and choose to avoid and continue to replay the tape of offense in my mind than I am refusing to believe God is at work and miracles are happening. Six, God calls us up into the ministry of reconciliation and redemption. He loved us and pursued us while we still had our backs turned to Him. He initiated love and as His ambassadors we can do no less. And Finally, seven, resisting the pride of our flesh and surrendering ourselves to love is our only way out of our self made prisons too! This is Kingdom theology and a major beat down to the kingdom of darkness! Jesus said when Satan came around he found nothing to gain traction and a hold of Him. Jesus came only to do the will of His Father. This was His bread. This was His deepest joy and passion. This was His fulfillment. To do the will of Him who sent Him. When the flesh cries out “No! They can’t treat me like that!”, when Satan lurks near to replay the betrayal tape in your head shut it down! Remember who you are, who you belong to and your prime objective: to do the will of Him who sent you, to bind up the brokenhearted and set the captives free–even if it’s you!

What to do when a strange God shows up in your life:Beliefchangers

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What to Do When a Strange God Shows Up in Your Life

Born again? How about renovation?

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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.
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janjoy52

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

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Shared from WordPress: How heavy is the half full glass of water?

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This is an awesome object lesson on the harm of holding on to negative thoughts.  Philippians 4:8 says what to spend time focusing on.  1 Peter 5:7 says to cast our cares on Jesus because He cares for us.  Place the “Can’t do anything about that” into the hands of the One who can and take from His hand the memories and reminders that leave you with a grateful heart.
Short Story – http://wp.me/p4giX7-cr