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

If you could get yourself together, salvation would be unneccessary.  We all need saving.  Not one of us can be good enough to claim perfection, but perfection in the hands of God who sent Jesus to become sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus.  John 3:16 in the Bible says that God loved the world (that includes you) some much that he sent Jesus his only begotten son to die so that anyone who believes in him (that's jesus) could have everlasting life.  The ultimate death is eternity apart from God and eternal life is eternity with God. Don't wait to get yourself together.  You don't have the credentials, and you don't need them. God's love covers us.  Greater loves hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  The only difference between a sinner and a saint is a single relationship with the son of God Jesus the Christ.  Get to know him and his salvation.  All you h...

So I've been crewing on the righteousness study all month and yesterday Psalms 37 opened the flood gates and here is why. There is so much scripture about what righteousness looks like, but I desperately wanted to know how we get to that place. Psalms 37 is the road map and the solution to my righteousness searches. In verses 3-6 it says this, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgement as the noonday." Wow! This informs us that the work of our righteousness is hinged on our ability to trust God completely. Once again faith makes it's appearance. This is the prerequesite for righteousness, and when we place our complete trust in God then HE brings forth our righteousness and j...

So the Lord hit me hard with this one.  Righteousness is involved in a lot of scriptures concerning promise, and is used many times to describe what the life of a Christian should look like.  I was in a leadership meeting with my pastor this week and he challenged us to think critically and deductively about what our Christian walk individually and as a ministry should look like.  Although his point didn't focus on righteousness on purpose, it still stood out to me because the Lord already placed the subject in my heart and he referred to Mathew 25:31-40.  In it is described the day when the Lord will separate the righteous(sheep) from the ungodly(goats). The way in which he decides who is his and who is not is by their compassion for those in need. Pastor continued to describe what he would like to see in his ministry leaders, and he read Colossians 2:6 several times that says "...Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him....

Quitting is one of those things that I can't stand.  It hurts my feelings to quit anything because it feels like admitting defeat.  I have pushed through many situations in order to create momentum for myself of success. It would have worked perfectly for me except...there are some things that once started need to be abandoned.  Here are some things that I believe are worth quitting/giving up according to the Word of God 1. Worry John 14:1  says "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me" Mathew 6:31-33 "Therefore take no thought, saying What shall we eat? or , What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things whall be added unto you." 2. Fear  Psalms 27:1 " The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom ...

Hey everyone. As I thought about my commitment to embrace a more godly temperament with my son I started to count how many times I've messed up today.  Thank God that the Lord stopped me in my tracks.  I suddenly felt the urge to count the number of times Jesus won for me instead.  Counting failures is a sure fire way to depression and true failure which is quitting.  I am not saying that I won't measure myself, but I am saying I should measure my progress and praise God for another chance when I blow it.  It takes the pressure off of me and puts it on the love that God has shared with me.  That love enables me to do better.  Even in school they give you a score of what you've gotten right (if they are a good teacher).  It used to really bother me when teachers would only mark (-3) or whatever on an assignment.  It was as if all the work that I got right didn't count.  Imagine how Jesus might feel when we focus in on how flaw...

I was about through today when my son made himself sick in order to get my attention while he was in time out.  I call it the reset because he gets time to go to his room and lay down while he calms down.  The boy has got it cushy!!  Anyway after I took care of it, I told him that God wants us to control our tempers and that his temper tantroms weren't okay (even if they are normal).  I asked him if he wanted me to help him to do better, and he shook his head yes.  As I looked up scriptures to read to him, I realized that I needed that word just as much as him.  I thought about all the times he did things like throw down food or toys when he was angry, and then I thought about my own reactions.  Sometimes my reactions were good, but there was a significant amount of yelling and lack of forgiveness in those memories.  I realize now that my goal shouldn't be to fix my son but to give him a better example.  I don't have to yell to get a point ac...

So God says that he already knows what we have need of before we ask and that anything that we ask believing that we would receive.  I am challenging myself to pray one thing all month.  This month I am only praying that the perfect will of God be done in all things.  Yep, that's it. Why...because the father's good pleasure.   God desires to bless us beyond measure and has great plans for our lives.  To submit to God's perfect will is to have greater success, prosperity, and love than we could ever plan for ourselves.  It pleases God to prosper his people.  I'll give updates if I see anything changing.  Feel free to take on this challenge also. 

The Lord is a magnifacent creator.  He's made masterpieces from nothing.  Every delicious flavor; every beautiful arrangement of nature; even the plush clothing of the animals was created by God's careful words and stroke of genius.  I think of cooking in this way too.  I love to bake and cook.  I feel like an artist skillfully scheming to turn a group of items into a masterpiece.  If I give the right measurements in the right combinations of foods then I can produce great food to my delight.  What really amazes me is how a simple change in calculation can turn a cake into a biscuit or a pancake or a pie crust.  That is the power of the measuring spoon and cup.  One thing about cooking is that you can't get the results without pouring out the ingredients.   I see my life in this way, a group of ingredients to be poured out for the creation of something wonderful in the hands of the master creator.  The won...