Living & Learning: 11/2008

2008/11/28

Taking it all in

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,

Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,

Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art, How great Thou art.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

One of the things we have been studying for awhile but were at a stand still is American Sign Language. We did learn some basic things on our own at home, like the alphabets and words like mom, dad, sister , brother and so on. Recently I found out there is a sign language class not very far from us starting again in January. I signed myself and my oldest son up for it. I became interested in this because we have friends who's son is deaf. I have 5 cousins (all from one family) who are deaf as well. ASL is such a neat thing to learn! I guess a lot of other languages interest me too, but just can't fit it all in, lol. (my memory is getting too full as my son puts it)

2008/11/17

Lets Begin Seeking Him

I will try to post on my Seeking Him Blog within the next few days. (If I get a chance then, I will tonight.)
If you would like to join me in this study, stop in any time and I would appreciate your comments too!
Just go to http://seekingoursavior.blogspot.com/ .

2008/11/13

Following God's Plans

My prayer is that God will use me however, whenever and where ever he wishes. He wants to do great things through all of us. When we look to Him, He shows us what He wants us to do and when this is clear, nothing has to stand in the way, even if satan tries to discourage us.

So often God has clearly given me a vision on something He wanted me to do.... But even though He already showed me, I go asking for opinions on it from other people. Then when those opinions discourage me from what I already knew to do, I decide to forget about it. I no longer want to do that. If God says it, it's true and I need to stick with it. No opinions needed after that, Just my obedience!

2008/11/11

In Our Storms

Sometimes life is like being on a rocky boat in a big storm. Here is an example of that.

Matthew 8:23-27

23And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.
24And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.
25And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.
26And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
27But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!

Jesus could have prevented the storm from ever coming, but He didn't . He allowed the storm to come and and it showed His disciples their need for Him.

Our rocky boats show our need for Jesus as well. Often we only call out to Him when He is the only one who can help us.

It is also a time of testing to see if we will really trust Him. Can we depend on Him even when we do not understand what He is doing?

This came to me today because, it seems like we are in the middle of a storm. God is showing me to trust Him alone in these times, to rely on Him alone above all else or anyone else. So often I relied on people instead of going straight to my savior. Though He calls us to encourage one another and weep together and laugh together, and these things are wonderful; only He is always there, always faithful, always trustworthy. Noone should come above Him. He is my best friend.

He had to take me through some aches to engrave that on my heart. I must say it is a relief to not have expectations from people anymore. (that was always very selfish of me)

I am so blessed in my relationship with Jesus. With Him being such a good friend, I also want to be a good friend to Him. ( we love Him because He first loved us) It's not all about me, it's about Him....

Romans 12
1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

In saying these things, I know I will also be tested in them yet again!

2008/11/10

Changing Focus

The best way to encourage myself is to encourage other people. Often I am tempted to feel sorry for myself and well become ... a loner! :( Yes, have a poor me, I am all alone in this world pity party. (the only way one can have one of those is by making sure one is alone, right?) Often in the past it was not only a temptation, but that is what I have done. God convicted me of this, so I now know that is not the answer to anything , but only lies from Satan. First of all how can I say that I have noone when I have Jesus. He is a friend that is always there. So I have to say thanks be to God Himself, I no longer have reason to have this poor me attitude! I still go through times of discouragement, but God showed me a great solution to this problem! When these times come, find ways to encourage others. There is plenty of work to be done and many out there who need a friend a "cheerleader" to cheer them on as they run this race. God has a way of providing the right friend at the right time.
God blessed us this weekend with some good fellowship and great encouragement. I found a simple note in our mailbox at church, that just really lifted me up, and meant so much! It made me see again that I need to do much more to cheer others on too! It doesn't take much and I can't say that I don't have enough time for these little things.
I am sure I will go through more struggles and so will anyone who reads this, but I want to keep my eyes on Jesus, and serve Him in these times in more ways then ever!

Someone at church shared about this very same thing and it just really confirmed what God is saying!

(However, Jesus alone is our ultimate comforter!)

2008/11/04

Seeking Him

I have had a book called Seeking Him by Nancy Leigh Demoss and Tim Grissom on my shelf for a LONG time. Looked through it a few times but never got into it. I kept waiting, thinking maybe I would find other people who were also interested and go through it as a group study.

Never really did mention it to people though. Well this last while a few people mentioned it to me, and I remembered oh ya, I too have that book. Though it is only a couple people, I think it's time to go through it.

I have a hard time getting out of the house , so getting together very often may not even work.

What I thought of doing now is making it an online study as well, so that if we don't get together with our study group much, we could share our thoughts this way too.

We could email each other and I think I will even share what I learn here on my blog as well. Who knows maybe there will be others out there who would like to join us in reading this book as we study God's word.

I welcome your thoughts.

http://www.seekinghim.com/radio/today.php

Life saving Verses

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,—Romans 3:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.—Romans 6:23

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,—John 1:12

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.—John 3:16-17

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.—Ephesians 2:8-9

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”—Romans 10:9-13

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.—1 Peter 1:8-9

Saved By Grace

All of us are born sinful. People might do good things but we are not born good....because to be good would mean to be perfect, never breaking God's commands, always doing God's will. So first we have to acknowledge that we have all sinned. Then we can cry out to God for mercy and forgiveness and repentance. God has paid the price of sin through Jesus who died on the cross for our sins. If we believe in Jesus, confess our sins and turn from it, He will forgive us.The bible says to seek God and search for Him with your whole heart. If we do this and ask Him to fill us with the holy Spirit, He will and that gives us a new life. This is what it means to be born again. There is no other gift as great as the gift of the holy Spirit! We then will want the things of God. We will love God and He will become the most important thing.This does not mean now you will be perfect. This just means that God will teach you and show you day by day what he wants or does not want you to do. It will not make life easy, and there will still be temptations and mistakes. So we just have to continually pray and ask for His guidance.When a baby is born they need time to grow and learn . It does not happen all at once. The same thing when we are born again, we will grow each day, and become more like Jesus. God will show us bit by bit. Only God is able to do all this in our lives. .It is not the things we do that make us Christian, it is faith. We can not make ourselves Christians no matter how hard we try. By faith though he will bring us to Himself and we will want to live the way God wants us to and the things we are doing will often show that we are Christians. God will make us a light in the dark because of what he has done in our lives.