Holding on to the Promises

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faith, fruit of the Spirit, God is working, liberty, life, Philippians 4, promises

Around the beginning of the year, a new chapter began in my life, and I want to share some of it with you. It had to do with His WORD, His Promises, and my (us, as believers) position “In Christ!”

Every promise contained in the New Testament
belongs to every believer.

Everything God asks from us,
He first gives to us so He knows
we have it to give back to Him.

Woman taking refuge in the wings of God inspired by Psalm17:8

If something ugly is happening in our life, we must meet it with something GOOD because we “overcome evil with ________!!!” (GOOD Romans 12:21)

Find the Promise(S) God has assigned to your circumstances, and hold on tightly!!! Look for His GOODNESS!!!

“In every area of struggle in your life, God has granted you life and godliness. The truth is in every area of need and struggle, He has placed a promise there so that by the exercise of that promise, you would know the fullness of His affection for you and you would wake up to greater love.”

From FULLNESS NOW ~ Graham Cooke

Does this mean pulling the “cliche” promises into practice? The promises that so many of us quote without really apprehending their power? The ones we sometimes throw toward our friends when they’re in trouble and we don’t know what to say or do? Those promises?

OK So … I thank you, FATHER, for this opportunity to challenge the veracity of Your word and since I can do nothing, FATHER, I depend on You. Teach me how to “exercise” Your promises for Your glory! What is the promise(s) for my current situation?

• Phil 4: 6-7 NASB
  6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
• Phil 4: 8-9
  8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
• Phil 4: 11-13
  11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
• Phil 4:19
  19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
• 1 Cor 2:9
  But as it is written (Isaiah 64:4):
  “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
  Nor have entered into the heart of man
  The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
  Isaiah 64:4 For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You,
  Who acts for the one who waits for Him.

While the WORD has been familiar to me for decades, God is opening my eyes and my heart to … MORE!
More richness,
More abundant life,
More fullness,
More Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control!

GOD is GOOD, and every transaction with Him must result in GOODNESS!!! But I leave you to chew on this a while.

“There is no security is what God is doing.
There is only security in who GOD is!”
Graham Cooke

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Why the Future is Bright?

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family, friends, life, love, moments, time, treasures

Why the Future is Bright? (click here)

From calendar page to calendar page….
the years are blinks and all these moments are our lives.

LOVE is a VERB!

Tags

active-love, basic life truth, I love America, I love GOD, life, love, Nature of LOVE, reality

As many of you know, I have three adult children who continue to teach me about life. Funny how we, as parents, think we will teach our children, and we do, but only in proportion to who well we learn from them!

Family is about LOVE. Home should always be a “safe haven” from the harsh realities of life for each member of a family, a place of acceptance and truth. This is not so simple these days! We all have many influences in our daily lives and not all of them are healthy. Choices are a requirement!!! We have to learn to choose what builds us up rather than what destroys or corrupts us.

This reality prompted me on many occasions to ponder the “Nature of LOVE!”

Parents, teach your children LOVE by loving them … by giving to them not material things, but REAL things that will help them through life. Things like manners, integrity, and kindness are foreign in our modern culture, particularly in our celebrities and leaders, yet if well-learned, they can lead to a satisfied life.

We SPEAK our love every time we part from one another, whether for a routine trip to work or to go to our separate space. But words sometimes fall short. Have you noticed? I cannot be content simply saying, “I love you!” Since my kids were small, I have prayed for creative ways to DEMONSTRATE my love to each of them in unique ways, personal to them. LOVE is a VERB, and it is not only a CHOICE we make, but actions take confirm our choice.

One thing about a basic life truth is that it fits every situation from the most public to the most intimate. The same active-love that motivates my daily life with my family simultaneously impassions me as regards my country. I cannot simply SAY, “I love America,” I must DO whatever I can do to strengthen her, to build her, to inspire her to further greatness, and to unify her.

Do you love your family? your GOD? your nation? Are you as tired of all the divisive, hate-filled rhetoric filing the airways? We must overcome hatred with LOVE!!! What actions demonstrate your love?

Sometimes, God is … GOD!

Tags

blessings, challenges, difficult life, faith, God, GOD’s love, hardships, Laura Story, life, Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience, purpose, trials and tribulations, trust

Many people quote this verse at various times and sundry situations in their lives. It is a vital truth! “Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Is 55:9 CEV) God’s priorities in our life are different than ours. He uses anything and everything we ALLOW Him to use as teaching tools for our growth in Him. That means He uses our prayers and answers them as He sees fit. It means he uses Nature to teach us His Ways. He uses other people, knowingly or unknowingly, to work His purpose deeper into us. There is nothing God cannot or will not use, as we pay attention. But it is His purpose He is working out in us, not our own!

We generally seek our own comfort, ease, or wealth. God, on the other hand, is changing us (with our cooperation) into the likeness and image of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 3: 17-18 CEV) Our Spirit is regenerated and new, but we live in corrupt bodies with unhealthy and unholy desires and habits. We all want our own way! We pray for healing, for smooth roads through the “wilderness,” for easy answers to life’s deepest questions, and we panic or revolt when we don’t see the responses we seek. Right?

There are times when God gives us exactly what we want or need. There are also times when, thankfully, God doesn’t give us what we ask for because He knows where He is taking us and what He is building into us. We seldom know.

Remember Paul’s story? He was a passionately religious man raised in the height of the traditional Jewish knowledge and traditions. So fervent was he that he chased down and murdered new Believers until God confronted him personally, like He does each of us. In that moment, Paul saw Jesus as his Messiah, and he never looked back. ACTS 9: 1-22 CEV Some believe Paul was visually disabled for the rest of his life. Paul gained a deeper revelation of God’s grace. “My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, my power is made perfect in you.” (2 Cor 12: 1-10 NCV)

Years ago, I was a single soldier stationed in Alaska. It happened that I was the ONLY single girl in the small Christian fellowship on the base. I remember fervently praying for a Godly husband. A single man began to show interest, and we dated a few times. One night while praying again for “my husband,” thinking of this young man, I felt God say to me, “You can have this man if you wish, but He is not my BEST for you.” WHOA! The ball was in my court! Reluctantly, I yielded! I wept for days after I explained my feelings to the guy. We continued to be friends, and a few months later, he reunited with his fiance. Last I heard, they were living happily ever after!

We can pout and throw our tantrums, but if we are truly surrendered to Christ, we must acknowledge that He knows best. His ways are best. His plan is best. When we are securely nestled under the shadow of His wing, we can hear His heartbeat of devastating love for us and know that everything … EVERYTHING that we encounter comes through His fingers and is laced with His love to accomplish the purpose He intends. Even the traumas and tragedies that we each face at times, will produce good fruit as God redeems the situation.

Don’t hear me saying that God creates bad or difficult situations for us. That is not what I’m saying. He permits them for His purpose. Some difficulties are simply a result of our own unhealthy attitudes or behaviors, and we are simply “reaping” what we “sowed.” Some hardships are simply part of living in this corrupt world. We also have a very real enemy but, GOD is in CONTROL, right?

Do you love God? Are you “called according to His purpose?” If so, then trust that even the most painful and challenging situations that face us are meant to build the character of Christ into us, and for that, we can be eternally thankful!

MEDITATE on THIS: Psalm 139

TRAINED FROM BIRTH

Tags

education, goals, honor, life, morality, poetry, purpose, SGT Sanchez

Although still recovering from his injuries overseas, Sgt. Sanchez insisted on leaving his electric wheelchair to walk the flag down Main Street, U.S.A., saying “If it’s for the colors, I’ll walk”

I was born at a time when freedom was honored,
Trained from birth to be a productive adult,
Emotive and intuitive, pensive and strong,
With many gifts and talents, among them, the gift of thought.

Back in those days, Parents and Teachers actually taught;
We learned how to read, how to interpret and think,
To see life’s difficulties as training for coming events,
Fodder for the cut and paste adventures in Life.

I just don’t know how things got twisted around,
And comfort and ease became watch words and goals,
Is nothing worth working toward, nothing innately prized,
And what about morality – Is it all about fast pleasure?

I weep and I mourn for our culture of leeches,
Unwilling to work – unable to dream,
But able to kill, to rape, and to languish
Without a purpose, without goals, without freedom.

Oh people, my friends, don’t you see what’s going on;
Don’t you feel the manacles tighten with each handout received?
Don’t you sense the great insult: always underestimated,
Coddled and indulged as lies wrap around and around?

Hear me and break free; please open your hearts,
To think for yourselves as the valued creations you are;
Yes, masterpieces of ability and bundles of talent,
Nobility untried awaiting Truth to break you free.

** For Inspiration Monday via Bekindrewrite

America, We Need to Talk!

Tags

America, character, conversation, courage, greed, liberty, life, Old Glory, politics, pursuit of happiness, US Constitution, virtue, WE THE PEOPLE, welfare

Yes, America, you and me, we need to talk:
Do you want to be slave, or do you want to be Free?
That’s the question: Do you need to be Free,
As time exchanges blunt realities.

America, you and me, we need to talk:
Freedom is about personal choices, dreams and goals,
But today, we are starved for such Life, Liberty,
And the drive to pursue happiness: slavery.

America, you and me, we need to talk:
Leadership that chooses, with friendly masks,
To enslave by lethargy the weak among us,
With pretty words and outstretched hands: slavery.

America, you and me, we need to talk:
We used to know, and usually did, the right thing,
The noble thing, the virtuous thing, the neighborly thing,
Now, it is the pampered, arrogant, and selfish thing that thrives: slavery.

America, you and me, we need to talk:
I hear you say, through the veil of myriad sleep juice,
“Look at me now, dressed up so gangsta tough!”
But your heart is rotting within you, my love: slavery.

America, you and me, we need to talk:
So much corruption and so little honor,
So much manufactured contention and so little real caring,
So much competition and so little family: slavery.

America, you and me, we need to talk:
You plus me is supposed to equal we-the-people free,
It’s a musical equation most of us still know:
“O’re the land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.”

America, you and me, we need to talk:
Old Glory still waves gracefully from coast to coast,
Over this land of immeasurable blessing,
No longer quite free, but I see pockets of COURAGE rising!

*Inspiration Monday via BeKindReWrite

WHAT’S HE BUILDING IN THERE?

Tags

Building, character, choices, Creator, goal, Inspiration Monday, life, source, treasure, values

WHAT’S HE BUILDING IN THERE?

Out of the abundance of the heart, my mouth speaks,
From all that Life has poured into me thus far:
The good, the difficult, the fun, and the not-so-much fun;
The true riches of this world are incorruptible.

Out of the abundance of the heart, my mouth speaks,
Nuggets of golden wisdom wrapped in pain,
Compassion born of struggle, and patience from grief,
Still joy and rejoicing come freely in the morning.

Out of the abundance of the heart, my mouth speaks,
Paper lies unfold and fall away along with phantom pain,
But gratitude flows unchecked, persistent, and random,
Like the flight of a butterfly through a bountiful garden.

What is the treasure that germinates in your heart?
What dream or trial or endless rage?
What is the Source or Goal of your heart?
What is our Creator building deep inside you?

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good;
and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.
For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
Luke 6:45 NKJV

Check out Inspiration Monday @ BeKindRewrite’s place!

MY “ONE CLICK AWAY” PRAYER

Tags

ALONE, chaos, life, order, pain, past

Once upon a time, my life was full,
Family and friends one click away,
But one by one, they’ve vanished, it seems,
Till now, all alone am I.

From within my walls I watch the world,
Go by in its chaotic dance,
But here in my small world, I am safe and alone,
Watching LIFE one click away.

What happened to my heart to break it so,
And lock it away from view,
What are those small red spots on my back,
But scars from those claws of betrayal.

How is it suddenly, my alone-ness closes in,
And reveals its uglier truth,
I may have built it, but I can’t tear it down;
Help me put my past under my feet.

Take my hand and lead me out,
Out of this prison I built,
Into the fullness of the life You designed
Surrounded by family and friends.

INSPIRATION MONDAY: Angel Hair

THERE’S A CATCH

Tags

anti-anxiety, choices, consequences, decision, Don't worry, life, Matthew 6:25-34, poetry, Seek first, truth

FUTURE MEMORIES float around us,
Waiting for us to grab hold;
Waiting for choices to be decided,
Waiting for definition.

But there’s a catch, as there always is,
Consequences strung through each choice,
Baggage surrounding each future memory,
Unseen, unheard, and often untold.

Each day is a canvas left to conquer;
Colors are chosen, but there is no order,
It’s up to me to choose the object,
And bring order to the colored chaos.

But there’s a catch, as there always is,
Consequences strung through each choice,
What is the price for each future memory,
Unseen, unheard, and often untold.

What is the Framework and where are the boundaries?
What defines my life’s direction?
What are the goals, the prizes, the treasures
That define the goal of my life.

There’s a catch, as there always is,
Consequences strung through each choice,
Out of death comes life; and out of pain, there’s joy,
And FREEDOM in borne of TRUTH.

Run toward the TRUTH, the love of God among us,
The birds of the air or the lilies that bloom,
They don’t worry, or strive, or fret;
They just Run toward the TRUTH of GOD’s LOVE.

Matthew 6:25-34

Inspiration Monday: future memories

Tumbling Down the Rabbit Hole … Again

Tags

abortion, America, declining society, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, journalistic pride, life, mainstream media, Sanctity of Life, state run media, WAKE UP

“A society is judged by how it protects the most vulnerable, those unable to protect themselves. In the case of abortion on demand magnified by abortion just before or just after the baby is born, America has been found wanting.” More HERE!

LIFE is very important. Maybe not everyone has realized this, but it is! In fact, without LIFE, there is only … nothing! Void! Emptiness! LIFE is EVERYTHING. LIFE is purpose! LIFE is hope.

Jesus said, “A thief comes to steal and kill and destroy,
but I came to give life—life in all its fullness.”
John 10: 10

A horrendous darkness has been exposed hidden away, ironically, in the birthplace of the American Experiment in self-governance. Since early in the 1970’s, our society has been drifting into the dark hole while millions of ignorant or apathetic Americans looked the other way. Some of us saw the darkness, others made excuses for its existence. But now, the world knows, and strangely (or not-so-strangely) the media, who should be conscientiously detailing the events for the benefit of the population and would-be victims, is deadly silent. Why so silent? Is there no journalistic pride amongst today’s media moguls?

“One reason may be that the trial of late-term abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell for multiple counts of murder is about an African-American killing mainly African-American babies — and so the common sense among liberals, or, as a friend of mine would say, the “coven-sense,” is that such a story disparages that community. This is something newspapers are loath to do. In much the same manner that they cannot dwell upon the causes of hand gun violence in inner city black communities. Or perhaps they view these killings as prophylactic: one cure for out-of-wedlock births.


Dr Solomon’s Decision – a story of Life

“But perhaps an even more telling reason for ignoring the Gosnell story is that among the terrible details is revealed the fact that many, many babies being aborted late-term survive the process — not just a tiny few, as pro-abortionists keep insisting. And so these innocent little souls have to be murdered.

“In Dr. Gosnell’s clinic, typically by cutting their heads off. In one instance, a child arrived on the table with its eyes and jaw torn off by Gosnell’s forceps. While this helpless, sinless, creature lay writhing on the table, screaming, Dr. Gosnell gestured impatiently at an assistant — do something about that.

“How many children were so murdered? I believe that Gosnell’s charged with seven counts, but testimony indicates there may have been a hundred — maybe more, maybe a lot more. And so the liberal press, ever supportive of a woman’s right to “choose,” just can’t have that known.” READ MORE via Working Up to Auschwitz

Maybe a hundred babies … and it’s not newsworthy? The administration has decided we-the-people don’t need to know this? There are other more vital matters for the people to know and understand? What’s the big deal? Just a few babies?

My heart cries not just for Americans, but for those waiting for Americans to return to their heritage and BE the LIGHT in this darkening world! Sadly, many are merely lining up in agreement with the policies that permit, and even condone, this devaluation of LIFE! Do we really want to experience the tyranny and poverty known by many parts of the world? Whether driven by faith or humanity, compassion costs. MONEY is not evil; it is the LOVE OF MONEY that destroys! Policy makers and population alike, we are ALL doomed if we don’t WAKE UP, AMERICA, and start acting like Grown ups!!!!!

“We make a living by what we get,
we make a life by what we give.”
Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)

Related reading:

Why Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s Trial Should Be a Front-Page Story

Gosnell Abortion Defense Admits Murder

• Working Up to Auschwitz
• Abortion Doctor Accused Of ‘Snipping’ The Necks Of Hundreds Of Live Babies
• ‘Fetuses and blood all over the place’: Medic’s graphic account of ‘be-heading live babies’ at abortion ‘House of Horrors’ in Philadelphia
• Newtown In The Clinic: Media Ignore The Gosnell Trial