Contentment

Hop on over to Smelling Coffee and check out her article on contentment.  So good!

I, personally, am going to re-read that one several times!

More on Real Life

ANITA RENFROE STYLE!


This Momsense to the William Tell Overture is hysterical enough:





But I laughed and cried over this one about Dads!:

There is a sequel to the 1st one over at YouTube, 

if you want to look for it.  Momsense 2.

Give Grace to yourself, Ladies!

This is a hilarious Anita Renfroe video, encouraging realism in our self-images.  I laughed and laughed!



Remember, in the words of the Bob the Tomato on the VeggieTales:  "God made you special, and He loves you very much!"

And here is a link to a post over at At the Well that encourages a realistic outlook on our homes.  Unrealistic expectations bog us all down.  Remember, if you are free in Christ, you are free indeed!!!

God's Beauty on Parade

The Hydrangea Blossom Parade:

The Bare Lady

The Lady Clothed in Splendor

The Lady:  'up close and personal'

The Lady's Offspring

Journeying off from her home to be a blessing elsewhere.

Watch her spin and turn!

Brightening a messy and otherwise boring table!

And now she will journey on from here 

to brighten the day of another,

a dear friend who deserves the best.

John 12:37 Amplified

"Even though He had done so many miracles before them (right before their eyes), yet they still did not trust in Him and failed to believe in Him."

This verse primarily refers to those who have not come to the Lord Jesus and believed Who He is and thus have not been saved.  However, I felt convicted, even as a believer.  Just yesterday I was blogging about this very thing.  Not trusting.  Not really believing.  Succumbing to anxiety due to lack of true and steady faith.  The double-minded man syndrome is a disease from which I have not yet been fully healed.

I have seen Him work many miracles in my life:  my salvation, my rescue from sin, healing from a back injury, major changes in my character, plus His daily sustaining power.  And yet, I still freak out first and come back to faith and peace through a process.  Even though He is the King of Glory, the LORD God Almighty, Creator and Sustainer of all matter, and even though He controls everything, and even though His actions toward me are always grounded in His extravagant love for me, I still waver and wobble.  Argggghhhhh!  He's worth so much more than I am able to be for Him!!!

Knowing I'm an unworthy worm in more than just this way, I can only rest in Him and His saving work in my life.  I am SO glad He loves me and doesn't require perfection.  He is my perfection.  If I could be perfect, I wouldn't need a Savior.  But I can't. 

AND HE LOVES ME!!!  

Yipppeeee!!!

So...

I'm praying to do and be better.

I'm praying He will work change miraculously in me,

just as He always has,

and, I'm trying to rest in Him and in His love for me.

I love these quotes I found on my friends' pages and I am going to borrow them for myself because they encourage and help me to live in His grace, which He extends freely to worms like me.

"I am not what I ought to be.

 I am not what I wish to be. 

 I am not even what I hope to be. 

But by God's grace and Christ's love, 

I am not what I was." 

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"Finish each day and be done with it. 

You have done what you could. 

Some blunders and absurdities 

no doubt crept in; 

forget them as soon as you can. 

Tomorrow is a new day; 

begin it well and serenely 

and with too high a spirit 

to be encumbered 

with your old nonsense." 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fret not yourself...

Did you know that Psalm 37 says this phrase, "Fret not yourself...," three times in the first eight verses?

Hmmm...Do you think He means it?

Verse 8 states it pretty strongly:  "...fret not yourself---it tends only to evildoing."

I've also read that the Word says to "fear not" 365 times.

One for each day of the year.

Hmmm...Do you think He means it?

And then there is always Philippians 4:6 (NIV)  "Do not be anxious about anything..."

SO...

Here's a conversation I have frequently 

with the LORD, my Rock of Faithfulness:

Me:  "Well, then LORD, what am I supposed to do when things are feeling out of control?"

Philippians 4:6 (NIV)  "...but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

1Peter 5:7a (Amp.)  "Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all you concerns, once and for all] on Him..."

Psalm 37:3-7(Amp.)  "Trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) in the LORD and do good; so shall you dwell in the land and feed surely on His faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed.  Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.  Commit your way to the LORD [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass.  Be still and rest in the LORD; wait for Him and patiently lean yourself upon Him..."


Me:  "Well, if I don't fret, LORD, what will I do?"

Psalm 46:10a (NIV)  "Be still and know that I AM God."


Me:  "If I don't fret, LORD, what can I count on You to do for me?"


Philippians 4:7 (NIV)  "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."


Psalm 37:3-7(Amp.)  "...so shall you dwell in the land and feed surely on His faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed.  Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart....He will bring it to pass."


Me:  "And, why should I trust You?"

1Peter 5:7b (Amp.)  "...for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully."

Hmmm...I think He means it.

This is a lesson the LORD has spoken to me about and tried me on 

and led me through over and over again.

I'll just think I've finally gotten it, "once and for all" 

and then something difficult will happen and 

I'll feel my nerves jump and 

my neck will start burning.

Like last night, for instance:

My son was out in the yard, where my husband has stashed old fence pieces while he is putting in the new, and he was climbing on the pieces.  He stepped on a rusty nail and it went through his shoe.  He came to tell us about it.  Before I even knew the full story, anxiety leaped upon me, burning neck and all.  Praise the LORD, upon inspection of his foot, no puncturing had occurred.  Whew!  Crisis averted.

How I would love, however, to get to the place 

where my heart leaps instantly into trustful peace,

instead of into instant fretfulness.  

Because I agree with the LORD, 

fretting does lead only to evildoing, 

AND ulcers!

Back to my constant prayer:  

"Please change me, LORD.  

If You don't help me, I'll NEVER

be any better than I am.  

HELP!!!"

Plus a song for good measure:

Change my heart, O God.  

Make it ever true.  

Change my heart, O God.  

May I be like You.

Intertwined

John 10:30 "I and the Father are One."

The Son and the Father; the Father and the Son, are irrevocably intertwined.  You can't have One without the Other.  People seem to want the Father, the Creator God, or however they view Him.  They want to believe in an image of God they can be happy with; one who doesn't interfere too much in their lives.  They create a God in their own image, breaking the 2nd commandment (Exodus 20:4).

Jesus has hard teachings that our fleshly nature does not like.  But the Father and the Son are inseparable, bound together in love, thought, and deed.  You might not like this concept, but it is the Truth.  God the Father will not allow a person to accept Him without His Son.

John 6:44a "No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him."

John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I AM the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me."

John 14:7-11 "If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well.  From now on you do know Him and have seen Him."
       Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
       Jesus answered:  "Don't you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?  Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.  How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?  Don't you believe that I AM in the Father and that the Father is in Me?  The words I say to you are not just my own.  Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, Who is doing His work.  Believe Me when I say that I AM in the Father and the Father is in Me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves."

John said, "We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the Testimony of God, which He has given about His Son.  Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart.  Anyone who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son.  And this is the Testimony:  God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.  I write these things to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life."  (1John 5:9-13)  "For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.  Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because He has not believed in the Name of God's One and Only Son."  (John 3:16-18)

Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind.  Does He speak and then not act?  Does He promise and not fulfill?"

1Samuel 15:29 "He Who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man, that He should change His mind."

God, as the LORD God Almighty, gets to say Who He is and how to get to Him.  He, as the Sovereign of all creation has the right.  We, as His creatures, do not have a leg to stand on in telling Him how we will be saved.  We must submit to His Way and His Truth to get His life.

Isaiah 43:10-13  "You are My witnesses," declares the LORD, "and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I AM He.  Before Me no god was formed, nor will there be one after Me.  I, even I, AM the LORD, and apart from Me there is no savior.  I have revealed and saved and proclaimed---I, and not some foreign god among you.  You are My witnesses," declares the LORD, "that I AM God.  Yes, and from ancient days, I AM He.  No one can deliver out of My hand.  When I act, who can reverse it?"

Isaiah 44:6  This is what the LORD says---Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: "I AM the first and I AM the last; apart from Me there is no God."

Isaiah 45:5-6  "I AM the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.  I will strengthen you though you have not acknowledged Me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides Me.  I AM the LORD, and there is no other."