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

Some people prefer to ask the question "why am I here" or "what do I want to do with my life?"  As a christian who is aware that God placed me here with specified skills for pointed purposes I have to ask the question a little bit differently.  I ask myself constantly how I can use what God gave me to glorify him and satisfy my soul without wasting anything or neglecting anything.  What can I dedicate my life to without shame or lack of fulfillment?  Strangely enough I am finding that the only thing that I can live for is LOVE. I am not talking about that sappy "you are the wind beneath my wings" love, but the love that God has for all people.  I live to love God and people.  I can not work in an environment that attempts to hinder that in any way, and can not embark on any adventures that don't encompass this, and I am not willing to invest my life in anything but the love of God and people.   I came up with this because I needed something to li...

In his word God says continually for us to talk to him, ask him, pray to him, sing to him.  Seek  me first and I'll take care of your everything he says "but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you"  Ask me and I will do it he says "ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be open unto you"  God is desperate to have us in his life, and when we do put him first and make room for this relationship in our daily lives he rejoices.  God has been showing me that this week.  Every time I pray he answers me.  I love that about God.

Have you ever felt that God was that father that never saw you doing anything right; as if he was ignoring you for your younger mischievous sibling or always pushing you to your limits?  The word says that God is a just God. Isn't JUST another word for FAIR? So if God is fair that means that he does see me trying to follow his word and will for my life, and he does see what other people are doing to and around me.  God's word creates so all of existence must obey his sowing and reaping law which some people call karma.   I think the part that gets me sometimes is the ability for God to be both fair and merciful.  This is what I call being more than fair.  He warns us over and over again about the laws of God that men keep trying to break(I saying trying because the law of God stands we just crumble under it) and about our own lawlessness, then he tells us of an umbrella of salvation that can save us from the downpour of reaping that we have coming which would cr...

I am at a point in my life right now where it is easy to look over my shoulder at what someone else has with envy and bitterness, but I hear the Lord saying to me take care of what you have and be grateful.  I truly am blessed, and my heart is filled with thankfulness and praise for the Lord who has kept me through it all.  It is a wonderful thing for me to remind myself of the many blessings I have seen in my lifetime.  He has provided for me and kept me from what could have been disasters several times; he even blessed me and my son just to show his love for us even though I disobeyed him.  God loves me and it shows. It is important to me to remind myself of that because when I forget I begin to act in ways that reflect my forgetfulness that God loves me and keeps me.  I begin to panic about things and become controlling.  I even get meaner, and that is not who God created me to be or how he wants his people to represent him. Today try to think of all of ...

.  As being created in God's image we are created to exists in relationship with our creator God almighty.  Therefore we are all born with a desire for something to fulfill us.  We all try to fill ourselves up, but often times we feel the sting of dissatisfaction with who we are, where we are, or what we are doing. It doesn't help that the world perpetuates this feeling in order to keep the population dependent on them for the temporary satisfaction it provides through sin.  At times is seems like  everything around me is trying to make me feel like I am incomplete for one reason or another.  God says differently over and over again in his word.  He says that his grace is sufficient for us, and that he would complete what he started in us.  He says that we are complete in him.  Therefore I am in need of nothing; I am lacking nothing.  It is easy to forget when everything around me says otherwise, but let God be true and every man a liar....

The other day I was thinking about my relationship with the Lord, the father relationship, and how I didn't ask for certain things.  I am the type of person who has always tried to avoid being seen as greedy or a user.  I didn't want to be one of those people that makes those around me feel like they are just a source for whatever I want.  I feel that same way with God.  I have been hesitant to ask for certain things because I feel like it is too much.  Not that God can't do whatever he wants to do, but God didn't put me on this earth so that he could give me whatever I wanted.  I don't want to be spoiled.  I feel like I am dishonoring God or trying to assert my wishes over his for my life.  I became dissatisfied with my relationship with him, and with the way that things were going with my life, and I was wondering what was going wrong! Something was missing. My mother told me that maybe I was looking at things from the wrong angle.  God as ...

A lot of ministry students like myself have heard this term or saying before.  It means scripture only.  This is the way I strive to live my life.  It is according to the inspired word of God.  Because God holds all wisdom in his hands if we follow what he has said then we will be able to live victoriously in this present world.  People try to say that the Bible is outdated, but God is not subject to time therefore God can not be outdated.  God knew the end from the beginning and before we were formed in the whom he knew us.  How can he ever be outdated?  I am not trying to shove aside tradition, but tradition should be taken as just that rather than our means of salvation or mark of christianity.  A christian by definition is a Christ - follower.  I think that many traditions are great, but if you can not apply the word or God to your life than you have only a form of Godliness.  I want to exude Godliness from the inside out. ...