Provisions

Ps 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.
:24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.
:25 I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread,
:26 He is ever merciful , and lends; and his descendants are blessed.

 
Ps 63:8 "My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me."
There were a few times over the years money and food were scarce. Those times God sent total strangers to our home with bags or boxes of food, and envelopes with just enough cash to pay for whatever was about to be disconnected.
He cares about us and will provide for us in ways we could never imagine if we just believe and not lose faith.

Character

2 Pet 1:1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
:2 grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
:3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
:4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
:5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
:6 to knowledge self control, to self control, perserverance, to perseverance godliness,
:7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
:8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
:9 For he who lacks these things is short sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
:10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble,
:11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 
Virtue – fulfilling God's design for a life with moral excellance.
Knowledge – studying God's Word to gain wisdom to combat falsehood.
Self-control – revering God so much that we choose godly behavior.
Perseverance – having a hopeful attitude even in difficulties, because we're confident in God's character.
Godliness – honoring the Lord in every relationship in life.
Brotherly kindness – displaying warmhearted affection for fellow believers.
Love – sacrificing for the good of others.
Godly exercise is the key to godly character.

What’s your function?

1 Cor 12:14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
:15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body?
:16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not of an eye, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body?
:17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?
:18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
:19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
:20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.
:21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you", nor again the head to the feet," I have no need of you."
:22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
:23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty,
:24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body having given greater honor to that part which lacks it,
:25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
:26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

 
There are no unimportant people in the body of Christ. All have a place and a function.

How’s your walking?

Deut 11:13 And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,
:14 then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.
:15 And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.
:16 Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.
:17 Lest the Lord's anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.
:18 Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
:19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
:20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
:21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.
:22 For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do – to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to hold fast to Him –
:23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves.

 
Rom 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

 
To walk in the way of the Lord requires time, effort and lots of practice. If we stand still and smile, we can pass as being transformed. But the way we walk (and talk) tells how far along we are in living out the transformation. Being changed means giving up our previous way of life and learning a new way to walk and talk.
A change in behavior begins with a change in the heart.

Are we distracted?

Lk 10:38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.
:39 And she had a sister called Mary who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word.
:40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, " Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me."
:41 And Jesus' answered and said to her, " Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.
:42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."

 
Are we to busy doing good that we don't spend time getting to know Him better?

 
If we are too busy (even doing good) to spend time with God, we're simply to busy.

October 12, 2014

One of my very favorite verses is the last one in this passage.
Isa 40:25 "To whom then will you liken Me, or to whom shall I be equal?" says the Holy One.
:26 Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing.
:27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel; "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God"?
:28 Have you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
:29 He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.
:30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary. And the young men shall utterly fall.
:31 But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Have you ever had to wait for an answer or miracle? I have. It is not easy at all. But here we are promised strength if we wait. I don't know about you but I always need strength from God. Guess that is why I wait so much lol.