Journal of Faith: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling Philippians 2:12

 I read one of my previous posts from last year about my desire to see the promises of God working in my life, and I have a report to go along with that previous post.  To see the part 1 of this post go to  growing my little faith seed . In the past month or two I have been really tired and simply holding on to the hope that I would see the results if I didn't faint. Galatians 6:9 says "and let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." (KJV) In the past week I have been sent flowers and a spa kit, given a new stove and refrigerator, and had my summer classes paid for.  Thank you Jesus!  I am a witness that his word is true and his love is strong.  I am moving from faith to faith and from glory to glory.  With God I always win.   The part of the story that it pains me to tell you is that right before all of this happened I almost let go.  I was standing in my room and had a vision of what my life woul...

I have always struggled with making decisions.  I have a fear of bad decisions.  I don't like being wrong, and I dislike disappointing my teachers, trainers, my son, and parents.  As I was painfully analyzing my employment possibilities, and some other areas in my life that are in transition,  I started to stress out to the point of just going to sleep for days.  It was a cop out, but it was better to me than making a choice that was another failure.  Then one day as I was again contemplating my next bad decision, I felt an urgency come over to me to just make a decision. An inner exclamation followed that said, "God can handle your worst decisions, so if your going to fail do it quickly and move on to the lesson." This is a painful and yet freeing  revelation.  I get so caught up in my power of choice that I forget that I've already made the one choice that has guaranteed my success already.  I have chosen to be a Christian.  I have cho...

Today is good Friday which means that it is this day in history that innocent Jesus, God's only begotten son, died with all of our wrong on him.  I don't know if people recognize this, but when Jesus died he died in sin.  This means that when he died he went to Hell, not Heaven.  Yes Jesus experienced that horrible cross for us, and then he went to Hell for us too.  The good news is that when Jesus went to Hell he took the keys to Hell and death from Satan.  Jesus did go to Heaven, but he went to Hell first.  What love the Father has for us that he would die and go to hell for a people who rejected and reviled him.  Thank you Jesus for loving me. This is what makes me a Christiana.

All God wants from us is our trust and love.  God doesn't take advantage of us or lie to us like people do.  Christ died the exact way that it was prophesied because he said he would.  He died by us and for us because he loves us.  Then he rose again just like he said he would.  His every word is true and therefore he has earned my trust.  Has he earned yours?  Give him your life and watch him do amazing things with it.

If you saw someone making a sign like this, would you think they were representing peace or victory?  If you are from a country outside of the United States this might represent neither peace nor victory, but in the U.S. it means both.  I was meditating on this today along with the scripture that says "blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God" (Mathew 5:9) I believe that when we make peace everyone has the victory.  My mother is such a wise woman, and she believes in only working with "win/win" situations.  She specializes in listening and finding the area of connection between two opposing parties and creating solutions where everyone walks away feeling like they have won. As Christians we are supposed to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.  The ultimate win/win situation is the salvation that we have through Jesus Christ.  We have peace with God because Jesus has the victory over sin and deat...

   It amazes me how the exact same words can mean so many different things.  this is why context is so important in all forms of communication.  It breaks my heart to realize when I , or someone else, have used the Word of God out of context.  This is why it is so important to study to shew ourselves approved, workmen that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.   Take the simple statement, "you got me", and it can be used in so many different ways that show different relationships.  I use that phrase with God often.  Firstly, I use it to recognize that God has clearly seen where I was trying to hide.  "Okay Lord, I really didn't feel like being kind today, and I didn't mean what I said in my heart.  You got me."  This is my moment of truth that frees me from trying to mask how I really feel.  Nothing gets past God anyway.  The second "you got me" seems more painful than the first, but to me it is ...

This morning I was reading the gospel accounts of Jesus' arrest, death, and resurrection.  Each account told the same basic story, but in each story there was a different revelation of what Jesus said and did on those final days.  Many of us, including me, have looked at the priests of that time and Judas the betrayor and said "How could you?!" As I read this morning I realized that they had no choice in the matter.  It was the will of God, and none of it could have happened without the permission and the initiation of the LORD.  As I looked at the different gospels, I noticed that everything that happened to Jesus was prompted by his own words.  All of what happened was the will of God. According to the gospel of Mathew it wasn't until after Jesus declared that he would be betrayed and crucified that the chief priests began to conspire to kill him and Judas made a pact to deliever him.  According to the gospel of John, before Jesus was tak...