Dying

I have talked about dying to self on here many times. Today God gave me a word in regards to that as I was seeking Him. I felt Him say, that not only did I send my Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, that He also sent Him as an example for us to see what happens when we die to ourself. Jesus didn't want to die either, He asked God if there was any other wayy, that God take the cup from Him.

We can be so thankful Jesus came to save and to teach us, but who knew in His death He would also teach us, because when He died He was raised again and lives in us all. When we are able to die to ourselves we will be able to say no longer is it about "I", but it is about Christ who lives in me. It is so hard to die to self, to lay down what I want and live for Him, all in. No longer does it matter how someone may treat you, because you can love just as Jesus loves.

Jesus came to teach us how to be the Christians He calls us to be, even to His death He did that and than after as well. He came to show us life everlasting, because no longer is it about me, but about Jesus. We will strive to honor Him, no longer will our worth be in what people think, because it will be in how we strive to honor God. He displayed that to us in His life and death, what are we displaying to Him in who we are?

Jesus is calling us all to die to self, so that we can live a new life, just as we are baptized, the old passes away and we are born into a new life, death to self is much the same, because no longer is it about "me", but all about Christ.

God Voice (Listening to God)

It is easy to listen to music, to turn up the radio in our cars, to turn on the TV while we are at home. We are busy moving through life, this way to that way, we are constantly moving with the phones in our hands, the constant buzz of something, but how often do we sit at Jesus's feet? How often do we turn off all the noise and listen to Him? That is what He wants us to do, because He is always speaking to us, directing us and teaching us through the area's of our life, but when we are to busy to hear Him, we are not really listening.

Jesus wants us to turn off the distractions of life to hear Him, to worship Him, to honor Him. Have you ever thought about what you are listening too? It may just be calming music, but when we are focused on everything else, do we hear what Jesus is saying to us? Today take sometime and if you want to hear Jesus, focus on Him, direct all your attention to Him. It could be in the car or stopping everything and saying Lord speak to me. Don't just wait 30 seconds and then get busy about your life, because if you love God the most, you can give Him more of your time. What is more important to you, Him or you?

Take time to be still and quite in the presence of Jesus today and ask Him to speak to you. He will comfort you, He will guide you, but when we don't spend time seeking Him, we are lost in ourselves, lost in our own ways.

I heard this song this morning and I also listen to why they wrote it. It really touched me. May Jesus speak to you today, may He bring you peace in all that you are going through, because He said He will never leave us nor forsake us. We need to sit in silence and hear Him.

The reason why Kari Jobe talked about writing this song. Let God fill you up with His the Holy Spirit today, because there is no time better than now to seek Him and allow Him to speak to you. What will He say?

Complacency

I find it easy to see how it is easy to become complacent. I can think that times are good and forget all that God has shown me in the past, to forget all that I have been through to bring me to this place where I am today. God has promised us so much, but yet we live our lives in the fact that nothing bad will come to us, but the truth is that bad will come our way no matter how we live. Being a Christian doesn't guarantee us a life full of fun and more, it guarantees us a place in heaven, but while we are here on earth we are called to reverence God, to honor God, to serve God.

I look at the world today and especially America and we are becoming less and less effected by what God has said. It is as though His word hold less and less weight, because we have a life of good, but God says that we are to Love Him no matter when it is and when we love Him the most we will be more than willing to keep His commands, there will be no question to follow His teachings. He calls us to lay our lives down for Him, but yet we do not want to surrender our will for His will, we do not want to die to self and live for Him, but that is what He calls us to.

How many times do we think that we don't have to do what He says because something else seems more important, like how "I" feel? If that has come to your mind, than do you really love God the most? Loving means ultimate dedication to and when we are dedicated to something there is nothing that will change our minds from doing all that is necessary.

I am reminded of some verses that apply to just doing enough:

Revelations 3:16 "So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

What does lukewarm look like, it is neither completely the world, but not completely a following God's teachings either. Some good questions to ask to see what God sees. You know your own heart and you know the answers, but may you consider it before saying I am not lukewarm.

• Do I only come to God when I have a problem?
• Is my Christianity based on what can God do for me or how can He make my life better? 
• Do I obey the Word of God or do I try to twist Scripture to justify my sin? 
• Do I think I am a Christian because I do good deeds, I tithe or go to church, but live like the world 6 days a week and are holy on Sunday? 
• Do I compromise with the world because it’s the most popular choice? 
• Do I have true repentance because if I do, I will be truly sorry for my sins and want to change. 
• Do I compare myself to others instead of comparing myself to Jesus? 
• Am I more concerned what others think rather than the Lord?

If you are reading this and becoming angry as though I am judging you, take it back to God and ask Him. I am not judging anyone, I am just writing what is on my heart.

What does the Bible say?

Matthew 7:16-17 "You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. You need never confuse grapevines with thorn bushes or figs with thistles. Different kinds of fruit trees can quickly be identified by examining their fruit."

Matthew 23:25-28 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."

Isaiah 29:13 "The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”"

Titus 1:16 "They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good."

Mark 4:15-19 "Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful."

Refusing to listen to God’s Word.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

1 John 3:8-10 "Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother."

Hebrews 10:26 "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left."

In love with the world

1 John 2:15-17 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."

James 4:4 "You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God."

Reminders

2 Timothy 3:1-5 "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people."

1 Corinthians 5:11 "But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people."

We Must Deny Ourselves (No longer about self)

Matthew 16:24 "Then Jesus said to his disciples,Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

Matthew 10:38 "Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me."

Examine yourself

2 Corinthians 13:5 "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?"

Pull in the Anchor (by Chuck Swindoll)

This was my devotional today. I need to learn to write shorter and right to the point blogs. This was very well put. I wanted to share it with you. 

Pull in the Anchor
by Chuck Swindoll

Matthew 6:12

Have you done someone wrong?

Have you been offensive?

Have your actions caused hurt?

To do nothing is not only in direct disobedience to Jesus' teaching, it also complicates your life. It adds heavier mental weights than you are capable of carrying.

It is like dropping an anchor and then cranking up your boat's engine and putting it in gear. The anchor keeps catching and snagging on the bottom, making for a terribly uncomfortable ride across the water.

How simple the solution! Just pull in the anchor . . . .

Let me give you a simple tip: We cannot be right with God until we are right with others.

Choices

I have talked about choices a lot before, because I believe that the devil wants us to believe that we just have to be, instead of putting a choice to all we do. The world says if it feel good do it, there is the word "feel". The world says follow your heart it never lies, but what does the word of God say, it says that in our hearts are full of junk, we need to be careful to lead our hearts.

Gods word tells us to do many things daily, it comes down to a choice. For example Luke 9:23 "Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." Do you see the word that I have placed in bold and underlined? It says we need to do it daily, why, because it comes down to a choice that we have to make. We must deny ourselves daily, it isn't just a one time thing, it has to be a daily choice. Who likes to do that? But it can't be about me, it has to be about God. It says in John 14:15 ""If you love me, keep my commands." So not only do we have to deny ourselves daily, we must choose to love God daily, because when we chose His way over our own, it is no longer about I, but He who lives in me. Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

The Devil wants us to believe that things are just done out of feelings, when we feel like it, when it feels good, when I am angry feeling, it is OK to react any way I want to, but Christ says NO, we must deny ourselves, that is basing things on feelings, we must deny. We must therefor live in Christ Jesus who says it is not based on how we feel, but how He feels. What makes Him happy is when we surrender our way for His way and know what??? That is a choice that we have to make. It is no longer about our feelings, but based on Him and only Him.

This choice applies to everything in our lives, love is an easy one to pick on. When we get married we take a covenant vow before God to love in all things, in the good and the bad, not because it is easy, but because we have to make a choice that no matter what we chose to love. That means even when we don't feel like it. The devil wants us to base our marriage, our relationships on feelings, but God has directed us to base it all on Him. It comes down to a choice. We have to make a choice moment to moment to follow His commands, not our feelings. Feelings lie, they will tell you that it isn't worth it, or it is to much work, but God says press into Him. The devil is the master of deception, who will you listen to?

Our marriages, our lives are to represent what God wants, not what the world says is OK. What does God say, is what we need to compare to, not the world.

1 John 4:19 "We love because he first loved us."

Song of the day

I woke up singing this song and I wanted to share it with you. I hope it touches your soul like it does mine.

Oh My Soul
By Casting Crowns
Oh, my soul
Oh, how you worry
Oh, how you're weary, from fearing you lost control
This was the one thing, you didn't see coming
And no one would blame you, though
If you cried in private
If you tried to hide it away, so no one knows
No one will see, if you stop believing

Oh, my soul
You are not alone
There's a place where fear has to face the God you know
One more day, He will make a way
Let Him show you how, you can lay this down
'Cause you're not alone

Here and now
You can be honest
I won't try to promise that someday it all works out
'Cause this is the valley
And even now, He is breathing on your dry bones
And there will be dancing
There will be beauty where beauty was ash and stone
This much I know

Oh, my soul
You are not alone
There's a place where fear has to face the God you know
One more day, He will make a way
Let Him show you how, you can lay this down

I'm not strong enough, I can't take anymore
(You can lay it down, you can lay it down)
And my shipwrecked faith will never get me to shore
(You can lay it down, you can lay it down)
Can He find me here
Can He keep me from going under

Oh, my soul
You're not alone
There's a place where fear has to face the God you know
One more day, He will make a way
Let Him show you how, you can lay this down
'Cause you're not alone
Oh, my soul, you're not alone