Phil 2:14-15

I read this verse just a few moments ago and, wow, it convicted my heart!

Philippians 2:14-15

Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

I know for me that speech is not a strong point for me, even though I am relatively quiet most of the time. But, there are times when I just say what I feel like saying and don't think about how the other person(s) might react. So, this passage was pretty convicting to me. I am to do all things without complaining (murmurings) and getting into fights with people (disputings). This is why...because I am a light to this crooked and perverse nation! The Bible says that I am to be blameless (innocent or guiltless) and harmless in front of the world, because I am their light to Christ!

This is something that I need a lot of discipline with and I am going to work on this week!

Blessings

Well, I have to share this story that happened to me yesterday morning...

I wake up and I take my dog out first thing. As I am walking my dog I am talking to myself and to God all at the same time. I am thinking that I don't have money for gas and for a decision that could cost $30,000. As I am walking along I look on the ground and I see a 1 dollar bill! I look a little farther and I see another one....and another one....another one....and another one! Five, one-dollar bills!!! It was as if God was smacking me upside the head telling me that He can provide for my needs! All I have to do is to trust Him and believe Him.

That's my story from yesterday. I hope you all enjoy!

The way has been long, but I'm blessed!

Five days ago I woke up with this song in my head:

It's been a long journey, but I have been blessed.

Walking with Jesus I have no regrets,

He's been so good to me I must confess

The way has been long, but I'm blessed!

On September 15, 2009, a girl went to sleep around 5:30 in the afternoon. She was woken up by her friend who had called her a little after 6. Because the girl had a slurred speech, her friend asked her where she was and what she was doing. The girl said "I'm on the floor!" Whenever they hung up the phone the girl got up and walked downstairs, all the while she had a migraine headache! So, she decided to lay back down again. Eventually her friend came home from work and asked her some questions and they chit chatted about the day. Two hours after she called the girl, her friend and her friend's mom took her to the hospital, which turned out that the girl had had a seizure.

Ok, the girl in the story is me and the friend is my best friend and roommate, Leslie.

For the past 6 months, I have not been able to drive, which has been really difficult. The first 3 months went by so slow, but the last 3 went by really fast. I look back on everything that has happened in the past 6 months and I am just amazed! After I had that seizure I got the bill, which was expensive (of course everything was expensive since I had no job). And so I was like how in the world am I going to pay that off. I also needed to get healthcare, so Leslie took me to the clinic which is where I get all my medicine and healthcare, so that was the first blessing. The next blessing was a couple months later when the hospital people called about my bill. They were going to put me on a payment plan. (During the mean time I had applied for charity at the hospital.) Well, I call the lady, because I was kind of upset that I kept getting billed for the first amount. I called and I had to tell the lady my account number and all that jazz. I told her my number and name and she goes "ma'am that account has been taken care of". I said "what?!" She went on to say that charity had paid IN FULL everything that I owed from my ER visit on the 15th. All I could do at that point was praise the Lord! And I did over the phone,which I am sure the lady was wondering if I had overdosed that day! Other blessings were things like the clinic set me up with Health Access, which through them I was able to get an EEG and a MRI done for free. God has been so good to me. I cannot complain; He's just been good, more than good.

All during this time I have been doing a Bible study about believing God. I learned a 5 statement pledge of faith: believing God is who He says He is, believing God can do what He says He can do, believing I am who God says I am, believing I can do all things through Christ, and believing God's Word is alive and active in me. I am only 2 weeks away from finishing it (at least in the book). I have learned so many awesome truths. Here are a few, some of them I am still in the process of learning.

Early on in the study (soon after I had my seizure), I was fooling around with some leaves at the church. We needed some to decorate our Sunday School classroom. Well, I got a bunch of them and I didn't think anything about it for a day, maybe two until I woke up with a horrible red rash starting on my forehead going down the side of my face ending up on my ear. Yuck! But I think it helped me with facing my insecurity fear. I always try to look nice and make sure my make up is just right. And then I get poison oak on half of my face. It was not fun! But, I still went to church. I still did stuff, even though I felt like I was dying on the inside. It went away after lots of cremes!!

Another lesson I learned was from week 4, which was about believing who God says I am. For a while in the fall I struggled with not accepting God's forgiveness. I knew I was saved, I just didn't think God forgave me of my past sins and failures. Who I am in Christ is amazingly expressed in Ephesians 1. Isaiah 43:25 says that God doesn't remembers our past sins anymore! In fact when I looked up the words in the Hebrew, it actually means that God destroys our sins; He wipes them out; He exterminates or obliterates them! That's pretty amazing!

One of the other lessons I learned was in week 5 which was all about believing I can do all things through Christ. I thought for a long time that I could only bring shame to the Lord's name. I learned from the harlot Rahab. To me, that would be on my top 5 list of dirty sins! But, God used her to save the spies and then eventually she was in the line of Christ. How amazing that God saved her out of that lifestyle and brought her to a new place where eventually she became a great great great grandmother of Jesus Christ. Pretty cool! God can use anyone from any background if they are willing to believe God!

A more recent lesson would be one of remembering. Week 7 was all about remembering. I learned about how God remembers. It seems as if when God remembers, He is about to act. Right now, I still don't have a job, but I know that God hasn't forgotten about me. I must keep believing that God hasn't forgotten my situation and that He is about to act.

I also have a tendency to remember either useless things or past failures. The lesson dealt with what Christ did for us on the cross. Hebrews 10 was the passage. To sum it up would be that Christ died on the cross one time. He only had to offer Himself once because He is the perfect sacrifice for sin. Now, I don't have to keep saying "I'm sorry" over and over again, because He has already forgiven me the first time (ie: remember what Isaiah 43:25 says). Of course there are things I just won't be able to forget, but I must not let them have power over them.

These are just a few lessons I have learned, but I do believe God is working in me and I know I still have lots to learn! These past 6 months have been a journey, one of which I don't have a desire to do again. I am thankful for everything God has done in me the last 6 months and I am excited about the future months to see what God will do!

Never forgotten!

Isaiah 49:15-16

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

What an awesome reminder! Isaiah was saying that God will never forget us! I was doing my Bible study yesterday and the topic was about God remembering us. Well, that is strange because I just said that He will not forget us. Let me shed some light on the topic.... God remembered Noah and his family on the ark and then He stopped the waters. God remembered Rachel and gave her a child. God remembered the children of Isarael and delivered them from Egypt. There are several more accounts in the Bible where it says that God remembered so and so. Well, each time that God remembered someone, He acted upon that memory.

Here is what is so awesome...the Hebrew word for "graven" is "engrave". Wow! We are engraved upon God's hands!!! He knows what we are going through. Sometimes I feel as if God has forgotten me because I don't have a job right now, but that is a LIE!! The truth is He knows I don't have a job. He will remember in His timing. Right now God is teaching me. He is also trying me to see if I will trust Him and believe that He will do what He says He can do. (He will supply all my need. Phil 4:19)

Here is an awesome quote I read yesterday...

"If we cannot believe God when circumstances seem be against us, we do not believe Him at all."

Charles Spurgeon

Complaining and Lies

I have been reading in my personal devotions in Exodus lately. Today I was reading about how the children of Israel were complaing to Moses about not having food and water. They were basically saying that God wasn't providing for them. There were a couple things I thought of while I was reading...

You know it is so crazy to me how quickly they forgot about how God led them out of Egypt. God did anazing wonders in their sight and yet they for got so fast. It reminds me of my life; how quickly I forget what God did in my life these past few months. I'm not happy with my situation right now- not being able to drive or being unemployed- but I have to keep reminding myself that God is always going to provide, IN HIS TIMING.

The other thing was about lies. The Israelites were believing the lies of the Devil. They were listening to Satan as he told them that God wasn't providing for them. But the truth was that God was providing for them. He hadn't left them in the wilderness all alone. He was guiding them day and night. Yet, they had started believing a lie. First, about them not having water to drink. Then about them not having food to eat. Moses even told them that they weren't complaining to him or Aaron, but that they were complaining to God! (I'm sure that is still true today. We don't complain to the authority in our lives, we're actually complaining to God. I know that pierced me alot today.) I know in my own life right now I have been battling different lies. One in particular is about not having a job. I have been looking and looking for a job since September when I moved back to Georgia. And lately two of my best friends have been given or found second jobs. (No offense to them whatsoever!! I love them, but this is what I am going through right now.) At first, I felt like and I did say "God why haven't I gotten a job yet?!" But lately, God has been teaching me to keep trusting Him and believing the truth that He will provide a job (and many other things). The key is IN HIS TIMING. The Lord wants us to wait patiently for Him so He can be gracious unto us. It's a hard lesson to learn, and one that is a day to day thing. But, I know I must keep believing HIM.

God is who He says He is!
God can do what He says He can do!
I am who God says I am!
I can do all things through Christ!
God's Word is alive and active in me!

I just finished my Bible Study that I do every week with Mrs Maria. The book has been focusing on the Hall of Faith. The last day for this week was all about Rahab. I learned two lessons from her story.
First, you know she was a harlot. She brought shame to her name and to her family's name. I'm sure she thought that she would never be free from that. I've thought that alot with my own failures; "I will never be free from disappointing people and sinning against the Almighty God". But, my God gives me hope through this woman's life. Even though she had a terrible past, she chose to believe God. She was saved from the destruction of Jericho. She even got married to a man named Salmon. And they had a son named Boaz. It's amazing to see how God can use people like her. She thought she would live forever being a sinful and shameful woman, but God had other plans. He chose for her to be in the lineage of His Son! Praise the Lord, He can use anyone!!
A week away from our mission's conference at church, I learned another lesson from the spies. They made Rahab a promise. They said "our life for yours". WHO SAYS THAT?! I mean this lady was terrible, yet these men made her that promise! It makes me think, that needs to be my motto for those whom the Lord has me to teach or lead. My life for their life. Right now my mission field is here in GA. I get to work with kids several times a week. I also have the opportunity to influence them in the right way. My motto when working with these children should be "My life for them". If I am not striving to give my life for them, I am not reaching my potential for Christ!