Tag Archives: personal relationship

Devotion II Thessalonians- 8/6/21

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To think of God’s faithfulness is amazing. To think He is perfect, He is apart from evil, and He brings people into His world in heaven from His son Jesus Christ is amazing. He could have not given us the chance at eternal life to live for Him and to spend with Him in heaven which we would have deserved because of our sin but He still wanted us with Him.

He is faithful to His word in letting an ultimate “lamb of God” come to earth one without blemish to die for our sin which we could have died and been a part of God’s wrath. He then put that wrath on His Son, His only Son, to die and go in our place!

I can’t fathom what God the Father would dwell on when He looked at His son and saw the world’s sin and turned away. He was seen as sin to God because every sin was laid on Him.

He bled and then died taking our punishment and rose again, bodily and is one day coming again!

To think He has done so much in people’s lives in the bible and in our lives as well, how great is God’s faithfulness!

I keep falling short of Him. I must realize though also because I keep depending on my strength that even if I am faithful it is God’s glory I should depend on because I still can’t make things “right” with Him. I still have sin no matter what I do but I can sin less because there are things I can avoid as I know what is right and wrong.

I must remember what He has taught me up to this point in my life and to resist the devil’s plans which is to avoid living for God.

But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. II Thessalonians 3:3

I should use my body as a living sacrifice to God.

To have my body to be to serve Him totally and fully. And treat it like it is an instrument of “righteousness” to God like when Paul encouraged the people He wrote to which we find in Romans 6:13.

I miss the intimacy that I used to have with relationship to God and I want to return to that because it is what He desires of all of us, to be close to Him.

God may we all see how awesome it is to live for You. Thank You Lord for Your faithfulness and may we be established in Your will and keep guard so You can keep us from the evil one Satan. Amen.

Devotions Psalm 3- 5/29/21

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Wow I am humbled by things about David. I never sent a man to war to die but man was I a spiritual struggler in the heart about stuff…

From the bible NKJV:

LORD, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who say of me, “There is no help for him in God.” (Selah_) But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head. I cried to the LORD with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill. (Selah) Psalm 3:1-4

Have you ever struggled and tough stuff just continued? I can give you examples of that but also I can also tell of times I struggled a different battle and I cried out to God so loud and I knew He had heard me.

From a worldly perspective a person who is in peril or problems people think they should just accept their “fate” and be done with life. Or they think “Oh, that person apologized? Off with their head (Well not that dramatically, but you get what I mean)!”

We live in a strange demeaning as well as seek and destroy type of culture here in America. Everything has to be protested. People must be angry about anything they see day to day or else no one will be able to understand why they are so mad.

A woman online wanted a restaurant shut down because Caucasian people were making Korean or Asian types of food. It made her furious (on Twitter, bet you didn’t see that coming…..? sarcasm) and because of cultural appropriation, some “rule” where people who are actually in and a part of the culture have to actually be the ones showing that culture she wanted the place gone since those people were doing something she saw as wrong.

Sometimes if people don’t get what they want they will get more people to fight alone with them. They will “increase” their numbers so more will see their plight and join in.

It is bad to publicly apologize it seems nowadays. Because others think it’s like you exposed a vein in your neck and so ones will say “Welp, they admitted it, let’s ‘bleed them dry’!”

There seems to be no accepting, forgiveness, and love, at least in most of the news.

Is it just the Lord who forgives now…? At least people had some form of values in the past. Forgiving was seen as a nice thing. It may not have been real biblical forgiveness seen in this culture in America but at the very least on shows in television, etc., there was media publicly “practicing” it!

Life, love, freedom from peril (at least for a while), and seeking the Lord for a dwelling place with Him was something David was all about!

Apparently it says in my bible that he wrote Psalm 3 while fleeing from Absalom who was getting ready to usurp the throne from David!

David was a king in Israel but fell after letting himself be tantalized by lusts. He went out of his way (!) to get onto the roof of his house and peered over in hopes of seeing something. He saw Bathsheba, nude.

Then he coveted in his heart, I must take her. I want her! After doing many awful things including sending a man to war to die who was her husband, he then took her for himself.

After God punished David, now he was facing consequences. His family as a result of His punishment was thrown into chaos, violence, and some death! David walked every day knowing this happened because of the awful things he did while reflecting a king (a knower of the Lord) in Israel.

If you are curious about David’s plight, read 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel in the bible: It is both amazing and sad to read the things that happened in his life!

So maybe ones David suggested said “There is no help for him in God.” had a shallow view that a lot of people felt in Israel. But that was something that Israelites did towards people who didn’t deserve any form of punishment. This was David!

King David was facing consequences for his actions. He was still being protected by the Lord (the “shield”) being His glory and being the one who “lifts up” his head when he was feeling overcome and weary by circumstances. He probably felt afraid yet encouraged that the Lord somehow was still with him, terrified at the actions he had were now turned into patterns he was facing because of his sin, and maybe humbled that He cried out to God and was heard from the “holy hill.”

Have you ever cried out to God from your circumstances? I have. I was so deep in sin I wanted some way out. I got so fed up with myself and had no one in my family to turn to so instead I threw myself onto my bed and, not just yelled to God, I cried out so loud!

I am known as a usually “quiet” person but in this case I yelled in desperate prayer so loud in my head I think the heavens heard me!

I realized after that moment I didn’t just pray to God but lamented, poured out my spirit, and I screamed because I found out I was broken and could not live without Christ.

Have you ever heard of Roman culture? The people there had many desires towards others who were winners of battles. Immoral, feelings, lusts towards the ones who won. The human body is an amazing thing but ones should not look intimately or ponder about it for too long…

Well I was like David as I coveted in my heart and had thoughts I knew were not good. I also went “out of my way” to see them, not just imagine them!

Recently a bunch of months back I checked out a “figure” online. That one was just like Bathsheba! I heard that something controversial had happened and a person who was active on social media was actually secretly on the side sharing vids and images to someone they didn’t know. I had heard for a while there was some content that people could possibly find online, so I went and sook that person out. Then I desired. Wanted. Thought I “needed” that person though it was just lustful thoughts.

Man was that wrong! It was disgusting. Messed up. And I realized that all I did was give in to stuff that was seemingly seductive in its so-called “best” places and yet actually demonic in its worst places…!

And then I battled and fought a lot not just against staying away but internally in my heart as well.

Wow this has ended up more humbling than I thought it would be! I started writing this not thinking I would share about the blog note above.

So apply your life to Psalm 3. Think of what you’ve learned. Take time to read the bible for your own spiritual life!

And also know we must live for good not because we seem good but because God makes us better and better through his Son Jesus every time we ask Him to help us! Whether we are asking for forgiveness or guidance, or if we need Him for the first time! Jesus will come and rescue you.

Cry out and He will answer you, if you are truly sorry…

Deep Impact-11/2/2014

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Going to a class these past few weeks that have been encouraging while at the same time restricted. Can cause a huge impact on the worlds around us. I wish that we had at least 40 minutes to spare to have full effect. It is worth it though many people don’t seem to find it important or are intimidated at its subject. Hope they take the “risk” and try it out with the rest of us, our small number of people.

Happy November! I know I am a little late in wishing everyone well but I hope that people will not mind that much. It is probably one of my favorite celebrations coming up. Thanksgiving. I hope everybody here does not try to make this “holiday” alone but will stay with friends or family just for personal fellowship or for pure fun.

Okay off topic. Now I will try to hone in what I want to talk about.

If you lived during the 90’s as a young teen or younger like I did you might remember the movie. I am not sure which film ripped off of which other film, all I know is one movie aped another’s premise. Those films were Armageddon, a movie about a giant piece of rock headed toward Earth’s atmosphere possibly ready to take out any or all life on it.

And a second film released the same year called “Deep Impact.”

While slow-going in a way throughout the entire pace of the story Deep Impact is a pretty good epic, disaster movie. It is more but mainly about a huge piece of space debris slowly heading to earth and the people including the president of the United States fight with fervor to do ways to do away with this “evil” all-destroying rock.

The other part involves families trying to reconnect or reconcile past dysfunctions and some getting together or trying to as this doomsday scenario hangs above their heads.

Isn’t it great comfort (I know you do if you believe) to know this is not the way the world will end? To merely get along with others because everything is ready to be wiped out and work things out human perspective-wise before we all “bite the dust”?

It must be, person reading, that you have to know of real comfort. There are conflicts with family, there are spiritual battles, there are even deaths due to life’s circumstances happening every day. But do you also know there is Jesus who makes all the at times terrible things we go through worth it?

Christ can make the worst things that happen in and to our families worth living for. I can tell you I have not grown up in what observers would call a “Christian” household. At least as of my late understanding it was not what people would describe as high in morals or pure and always ready for church.

I grew up until the age of 8 years old not knowing Christ. Anytime my father tried his hardest to bring us to church in general there was a fit or certain family members deliberately lagging behind. That battle still goes on today. I hope to continue this habit but I can think of times my youngest brother watched me avoid church. And though that was partly his will to not go, I think I am to blame at least partially for why he does not go to this day.

I think it is possible if we give Him the chance through us to make great things. How? Not by our own power, no pride, or even sometimes not by the things we want. We must be small to make God great in our lives. We must realize that we don’t have God by our side because we don’t let Him in our daily growth. Just like milk is good for us, we must read His word and find out what He wants for our lives. We must “drink” it because it is good spiritually for our hearts and minds.

If you don’t know what Christ wants for your life ask yourself this first. Have you accepted Jesus personally into your heart? Did you ever reach the point in your life that you realized you could do nothing and could not live without Jesus? Did you pray so that this relationship could begin?

If you answered possibly all of these you must know that you might have sin in your life that is keeping you from reaching your goals for God. Or maybe He has another thing planned for you that you don’t know yet. Maybe a door has closed and a window of opportunity has been opened in effect.

And we must remember that Jesus Christ gave His life for all of us. We did not deserve what He did. The sin of the world had to be laid upon Him or else we would not find salvation through Christ’s sacrifice. Like a spotless lamb, he was crucified and after three days He rose again, showing God’s authority over death. He wants us to have life by the action of His Son Jesus because without Him we can’t live.

Well you might not agree with that but I know I can’t live without my Jesus. I don’t even think I’d be alive to this day if God altogether hadn’t existed.

And that’s what helps make the existence of God great. We can know Him, trust in Him, and because of that we can honor and show our love to Him just because He first loved us. Knowing God is in no way a “religious” thing (ew, you might hate that word…). It is a relationship, it is personal, it is individual, and while this world is going gray and heading slowly into darkness know that Jesus still loves you and you can either surrender to His love today or re-commit your love to Him for His glory.

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Because who knows what kind of deep impact you will have on other individuals if you just take up your cross and follow Him.

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