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

Are you the "yes man?" If you are then chances are you have way too much going on in your life.  I have a tendency to be that person too.  I had to pray hard about it because I love to do for people.  Acts of service are one of my ways of showing love.  I felt like I was being unloving when I didn't do for others. That is a big part of who I am, and scripture even says that the greatest love is to lay down your life for a friend.  While I continue to follow my heart in this matter, I also now apply some sense (or attempt to).  It doesn't make any sense for me to be so exhausted that I can't do what I need to do for my family.  It also doesn't make sense to lend myself to others in ways that I am not willing to do for myself.  The Bible says to love your neighbors as YOURSELF.  That means that if I wouldn't do a certain thing for myself, I probably shouldn't be doing it for anyone else. This could be just me ...

So I am on the look out for a job again to help my family while I build my business.  I've been building my business and ministry while going to school and raising my son for a while. I've never placed a lot of value on money.  It was just a resource for me, and a lot of times I could use other resources to create whatever I needed.  I left my last job in tears after a year and a half because it was destroying my family.  Now it's time to get back into the rat race, and I find myself grieving.  I haven't figured out a way to keep doing ministry and work a full-time job while being a good mother and business woman. Oddly enough, the jobs that want me are full-time.  I feel like I am choosing between what I was meant to do and what others need me to do.  I got by with my job before because I viewed my job as ministry. I loved on families and taught skills that children need in order to do well i...

Okay so this is the range of positive titles that I place on the people in my life, but today I was thinking about the guys.  So many of us don't know where we stand with our male counterparts, but I separate these levels of relationship by only two things.  1.  Time:  This isn't in reference to how long I've known a person, but how much time I spend with that person now.  The more time I spend, the more likely they are to be higher on the relational scale.  I have experienced that if someone is suppose to be high on the scale but doesn't get the time for the title, they will eventually get upset and downgrade you in their lives.  For example if you have a spouse and you don't spend much time with them at all, they will probably downgrade you to partner and you'll find yourselves sharing money, food, and housing.  You are unofficially downgraded to roommates. (not a good sign).  On the other hand, if you are investing mo...

I was talking with the Lord and reading a little book of the promises of God when he told me that there is nothing that I can do to deserve relief from my struggles and hardship. I can do everything "right"  and things could still be wrong.  As I looked at the promises I noticed that almost all of them were different ways of instructing God's people to come to him.  Over and over again in the Bible scripture tells us to come to the Lord, to follow the Lord, to look to the Lord.  Why not just come?   I talk a bit about the reality that God has our every circumstance covered in my blog called "What's Already Done?" See the link here.   http://singleyoungma.blogspot.com/2013/01/whats-already-done.html However, what I want to talk about today is why people don't come.  It bothers me that my idea of perfect doesn't cut it.  I can't do anything perfect because I must first be perfect, but God can do p...

This month was both my parents' and my brother's anniversary.    I had an anniversary too.  It's the anniversary of my celibacy! I am so grateful to God for helping me to hold it together.  I had no idea the blessing in waiting so much as I do now.  I was never a promiscuous woman, but I didn't value my purity as much as I did my desire to feel loved.  Honestly I feel more loved now then when I was being sexually active and I'm not even dating! God has blessed me to bring people into my life who hug me, kiss me, and tell me how special I am to them.  With each expression of love I can see God in them saying "I see you."  If any of you have seen the movie avatar it means a lot to be "seen."  Thank you Lord and happy anniversary.  With this truth I thee wed my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.  Have a great day everyone, and don't forget to celebrate your walk with the Lord and your growth in him. 

I have mentioned before that I am a part of a women's movement called Daughter of Promise Women's Club.  I love it because I am at the beginning of something that I know we all need.  As I was preparing for our next event the theme came to me from the book of Esther in the Bible.  For those of you who don't know the story well, Esther was a jewish girl who hid her lineage and became the Queen of all of Egypt.  She hid because her cousin warned her that she might get in trouble if the assistant to the king knew she was a jew.  He was right at the time. She didn't want to be queen, but she held the role with honor.  She had the favor of the king and he loved her.  When the king unknowingly gave permission for his assistant to wipe out Esther's people, she struggled about what to do because her life was in danger.  Her cousin made this appeal to her in Esther 4:14  God's timing is perfect and each of us have been placed here for such a ...

I've been really tired lately, and I feel like I am almost at that point where I feel like I am wasting away without results.  When this time comes it is important to remember that I am not alone and that I am not wasting my life. Nothing is hidden from the face of God and nothing is done in the dark that isn't brought to the light.  For the saint this is a welcome declaration. Thank God for that.  Even though no one else may see my struggle, God knows.  Be encouraged fellow labourers for Christ. 

I am a born athlete, and my body reminds me of that whenever I haven't worked out in a while.  I was doing some swimmer kicks earlier while and realized that I can do a lot more than I thought.  I started out thinking okay I'll do twenty, and then I said "I can do five more."  Then  I said "just another five."  I ended up doing thirty extra kicks before I realized that my limit wasn't what I thought.  I didn't realize it before, but I set my limits too low for myself in almost every area.  One area that I know that I need to actively fight this mindset is in my walk with the Lord.  It's easy to look at scripture that talks about how to respond to life situations and think "it's too much for me."  The truth is that responding according to the word of God in spite of how we feel is too much for us if we are working under our own power, but we aren't.  God have given us his spirit and if we'd just push the envelope with our l...

  Does the Lord have our minds?   I just looked back on a blog I wrote about how difficult it can be to remember the good things and how easy it is to hold on to the "bad things" in my life.  So many times people become pesimistic in an effort to be realistic, but when did wonder and hope become imaginary?  The Bible tells us to think on the things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, virtuous, and praise worthy.  I would also say that as God's people and the light/salt of this world we need to be those things as well as look for those things in this world.  If you can't see anything pure, then be an example of purity for someone else.  If you can't seem to find anything lovely around you, then be lovely.  If you can't find a single good report then look at yourself, you are a miracle.  If you can't find virtue, then be virtue, and praise God in advance.  We don't have time to think about what we don't want because ...

So I was reading my daily scripture in my email today and  I immediately said "this is blog worthy."  After I wrote on Psalms 37 about God bringing forth our righteousness, I realized that I was still a little unsure about the "commit thy ways unto the Lord" part of it.  I've actually struggled with this one for a while because I thought that maybe it meant I took what I was doing and dedicating it to the Lord, but the text doesn't say dedicate.  It says commit which means that there is something already there and you make a commitment to it.  Psalms 119:9-11 shows us how to commit our ways to the Lord.  It says: Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. So, this means that everything that I do I first measure against the Word of God which I should...