Love and marriage

I've been reading through the Love Dare book. It is an eye-opening read. There are a lot of great thoughts and ideas and scripture in this book.
One thought about marriage that I wrote down was: Marriage shows us our need to grow and deal with our own issues and self-centeredness through the help of a lifelong partner.
A thought about love: Love is selfless, sacrificial, and transformational!
Now that's powerful!

thoughts from 1 peter 5:8-11

Satan is real. Don't focus on the things that Satan might do to you, but focus on God and the things that He promises He will do!

V.10 "After you have suffered for a little whilee, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself PERFECT, CONFIRM, STRENGTHEN, and ESTABLISH you.

(perfect) If Satan tears you apart=God will mend you for your intended purpose
(confirm) If Satan knocks you down=God will set you back up
(strengthen) If Satan causes you to get sick=God will heal you
(establish) If Satan destroys your foundation/support system=God shall put you on a foundation, restore your support system.

Remember: Satan can do nothing without the permission of God. So, if God allows Satan to attack there is something important at stack. (Job's life...)

God is great!!

God hasn't changed

It's so comforting to know that in the midst of life's trial, the fact that God has not changed for one second! He is still good even when life is bad.

A grace-filled world

On Sunday we were challenged by the fact that everything we enjoy is a gift of God's grace. The flowers, the breeze, they are all made possible by God's grace.
Hell is the end of God's grace. The end of enjoying flowers and breezes. The end of God for that person.
God allows even the unsaved a bit of His grace now in earth, but unless they believe they will loose God's grace.

A Woman's Heart

"A woman's heart should be so lost in God that a man needs to seek Him in order to find her."

In the World and not of it

I have been hearing the statement, "we need to be in the world but not of it," a lot recently. It is a reminder that we need to be salt and light to the people around us.
We need to love the sinner, but hate the sin. We shouldn't be suprised when sinners sin, and we need to be on our knees praying as if God were coming at any minute!

Psalm 68:19

Blessed be the God who DAILY bears our burdens.
The Lord who is our salvation!

Lay all your burdens at the foot of the cross!

The Bible

Thought for the day...
The Bible is not a refernce book or a place to look up help for problems. (Hey, look up stress). It does have wise words for daily problems, but the Bible is written for a RELATIONSHIP. We should be spending time in it daily, not just go to it when we have problems or need a topic to look up. (It is the BEST place to go for that, but the Bible is more than that!)
God wants a personal relationship, and hey, you won't know God or know what His will is for your life unless you are in His word spending time with Him.
The Bible should be like a love letter. You can't wait to read it, and you can never read it enough!

Church sign

I saw a sign today at a church today that I really liked. It read:
If Jesus is in your heart, notify your face!
This is good advice...sometimes hard to live, but it is true.
Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS!

Proverbs 16: 20 (Message)

Proverbs 16:20
It pays to take life seriously; things work out when you trust God.

I love the fact that God is in control and that nothing suprises Him. He is God and we can freely trust Him to help us get through the day.

Proverbs 16: 20

Thoughts from the weekend

What are you passionate about? I think that life is too short to do things we are not passionate about. Are you passionate about God? I mean, after all He's done for you, are you just merely interested in Him or are you passionate about Him? Are you passionate about the unsaved?

What are You passionate about?

True Joy

A thought today . . . We will only be able to experience TRUE JOY in Heaven. There we will be free from worry, from fear, from loss, and all the trials we face here on earth.
Like having a baby . . . You really can't know the joy of having your own until you actually have your own. It is a joy to hold a baby, your own baby. Like TRUE JOY, we only get a taste here of what it will be like. We will be in the presence of GOD! Now that will leave no room for depression or self-centeredness when we are with Him at last!
I can't wait!

I had the chance to go away this weekend and I learned a whole mess of things.
Here are some highlights:

Guys like girls who flippin' like themselves (Chad Eastam)

"O taste and see that the Lord is good"... God is like chocolate. He is the sweetest thing out there, we just need to take off the wrapper and enjoy. If we just hold it and leave the wrapper on we will miss out on God. Oh, and don't put wrappers around your life. Let God have all access to your heart and your life. He is in control and knows what's best anyways!

A thought

I heard something this week that really made me stop and think. It was a truth I really hadn't thought about before. The statement was: It doesn't matter who sings a certain song, or who wrote it, it doesn't change the truth of the message found in that song. If the song has a message about God's saving grace it is still going to have that message no mattere who sings it.
Who are we to judge that persons heart or standing with Christ anyways...
What are your thoughts?

thought of today

We shouldn't let people or circumstances dictate whether we are happy or not. True happiness should depend on God because He's the only one who won't dissapoint.
I am so thankful for a God who loves me even when I mess up!

Ephesians 5...a great reminder

"Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, Christians have better uses for language than that. Don't talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn't fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect."

This verse is a great reminder to me to watch what I say. It's easy to get talking and not realize what you say.
It also is a reminder to not gossip and also to be thankful. Sometimes it's hard to be thankful, especially when trials come, then we have to remember that God has done so much for us. We have a lot to be thankful for every day.

2 Corinthians 1 (Message)

"God comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us."

I love this verse! I know hard times aren't fun, but there is a reason why we go through trials and tough times. The biggest reason may be so that we can be there, as the verse says, for our friends when they experience similar situations. We can be a living testimony to them. If they see we made it through it, it can offer hope to them.

Thoughts

Thought of the day:
Joy is a choice we have to personally choose daily. We shouldn't blame our unhappiness or our lack of joy on people of circumstances. True joy should be found in God alone. I mean just look at the cross and what Jesus did for us there! That alone should cause us to sing and dance for joy!