Jesus, beautiful friend of mine

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last.  Revelation 1:17

Can you just imagine?? It's hard to comprehend how it will be to see my Lord, face to face, wow! I can totally relate to falling at His feet, utterly prostrate, laid out as if my body were dead.  I don't think I could ever feel as if I were humbled enough; but, to know He loves me enough to say, "don't fear me, it's ok. I am the beginning and the end, but I am also your savior and friend." Yea, I'm amazed that He chose to die for a lost sinner like me, and now, because of His grace, I am His and He is mine. Shew wee girls, that's got me smiling and praising His name this afternoon!! What a mighty God, what a beautiful friend is our Savior, Jesus!!! 

O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.  Psalms 34:3

Moments

Lamentations 3:22-26, 31, 56-58 KJV

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.  The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.  The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.  It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord .  For the Lord will not cast off for ever:  Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.  Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.  O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

He is ever nigh, waiting to reveal himself at just the right moment...that moment when I feel lost, that moment when I feel undone and alone, that moment when I don't think He can possibly be ok with me, and yes, in that moment when I feel so unforgivable, THIS is when He chooses to unveil His mercy the most. Thank you Lord for loving me so, for giving me hope, for being not only my Savior, but my friend. I love you!

Keep Walking

It's an awful thing to feel so out of sorts with everything, when no one seems to understand what you're facing. Life goes on all around you, your friends have lives that are different than yours and you just don't fit anywhere, well, anywhere that seems right anyways. But the beautiful blessing of being a child of God is that you ALWAYS belong, He totally understand what you're facing and, although you aren't always where you should be, He is, and He loves you. So, keep moving forward, even when it feels like you're walking through sludge...keep walking, hold to His hand, for, even when your heart and flesh fails,  the Lord will be the strength of your heart and portion forever (psalm 73:26)

It is The Lord!

I began my journey in the Word with an awesome truth this morning...

"Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him"

and ended up so blessed when the Lord directed my path to here...

"And he said, It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth good...and he [Samuel] grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground."

Samuel had it so right... "It is the Lord, let HIM do what seemeth good", and because He listened to the WORD ( pure shield) of the Lord, God continued to talk with him and inspired him in his walk. Oh  how I want to grow in the Lord like Samuel did, to have that shield of protection fall around me day by day, for it to strengthen me, encourage me, convicting change within me. 
He is the Lord, let Him do what HE will, for His will is ALWAYS good!! :-)

May each of you have a wonderful day walking and talking with your Savior, I pray His precious peace falls all around you and that you hear him whispering, "I love you my daughter, you are more lovely to me than you know! "

Contentment not resentment

1 Timothy 6:6 KJV

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

   This verse convicted me in my soul yesterday because I am often discontent when trying to serve my Lord  😞. I pray, "dearest Jesus, help me to live for you and do good" yet when I am working and he is answering my prayer by giving me opportunity to serve Him, I find myself grumbling within. The flesh is constantly fighting the spirit doing its best to rob me of all JOY in serving Him, all that CONTENTMENT vanishes and I'm left with a tired, complaint-ridden soul and I lose out on the beauty of serving my Lord 😔. "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as unto the Lord" heartily (sincerely, genuinely, profoundly, thoroughly,completely...in an enthusiastic manner) well, folks, when I look at that, I begin to realize that if I'm serving Him THAT way, my attitude will change. If I'm feeling burdened and worn out, I need to check where my priorities are because, I know HIS burden is light and HIS yoke is easy...oh how I desire to just live in Him with contentment, for a life lived with it is great gain!!  😊

O be careful little minds...final week's lesson...PRAISE

O Be Careful Little Minds…

Phil. 4:8 Sunday School Series

 

Well guys, here we are at the final week in our lessons from Philippians 4:8.  I can’t believe it!!  It has been such a wonderful journey for Ms. Misty and I to learn right along side of you kiddos about the things we should always think upon… Whatsoever things are  TRUE, HONEST, JUST, PURE, LOVELY, OF GOOD REPORT, if there be any VIRTUE, and of course this week’s lesson rounding them out…if there be any PRAISE…think on these things!!  

 

This week, we are going to talk about the passage of scripture in the bible, Psalm 100. But first, let’s rewind a bit to the past few weeks…Do you guys remember Noah, a man of truth? Or Samuel the honest prophet, what about the just Queen Esther?  Stephen was a man who thought on things which were pure, to the point of his wonderful forgiveness of others…remember him?   I loved the Lovely friendship of David and Jonathan, what a joy.  And David who had a good report because he trusted God and fought the giant…and last week, we spoke of Ruth, a woman of virtue…wow, look at all the people we have learned about each week and how they ALL were children of God who loved Him and praised him with their actions and thoughts, how we, when we get our HEARTS and MINDS fixed upon these things Philippians 4:8 talks about, then we will be praising Him all the time.  He is good kiddos…really really good!!

 

What a wonderful joy it is to PRAISE THE LORD!!  Let us take a look at our passage for this week …

 

In verse 1 of psalm 100, David is talking about how we ALL should be praising him…shout for joy the bible says.  He created everything and everyone.  Genesis 1:1 tells us that!  

In verse 2, he talks about serving the Lord with all of our heart… what kind of heart? A HAPPY heart, thankful and so “Whatsoever ye (we) do, do it heartily as unto the Lord” (Col. 3:23)

In verse 3, we can be assured that we are His FOREVER and He is in control.  He made us and He will keep us always…”My beloved is mine and I am His. He feedeth his flock amond the lilies” (Song of Sol. 2:16a)  We can count on Him!!

In verse 4, when we have a heart filled up with thankfulness when we greet the world each day, that shows how grateful we are to Him for being so good to us!  It honors God!  “Oh give thanks to the Lord; for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever..” (Psalm 107:1)

In verse 5, the psalmist makes sure to sing the truth of how God is forever faithful, His mercy is everlasting… do you guys remember how long everlasting is?  YEP, for always and always it never ends…kinda like the infinity symbol you are gonna glue on your heart today in your craft.  God is good forever and ever!  “For the Lord is good and His love endures forever, his faithfulness continues…” (Psalm 100:5)

 

Can you guys see how all the ones we have talked about the past few weeks are all people of PRAISE?  They “fixed” their hearts upon the Lord and praised him with their thoughts and actions!! Today, I pray that each one of us will walk away with our hearts and minds fixed upon God’s truth and love…for He truly is good and His mercy definitely is everlasting!!  

 

Activity/Craft:  My HEART of Praise!

 

 

 

O be Careful Little Minds ... Philippians 4:8 Series

O Be Careful Little Minds…Phil 4:8 Series week 6

My goodness how time flies when you are learning about the goodness of the Lord.  I am so excited to be here in our sixth week of our Philippians 4:8 bible series lesson.  Last week, Mrs. Misty taught you guys about whatsoever things are of good report and I hear that you made an awesome “report card” where you could think about the things you guys have done that are good things for the Lord.  What a blessing that is!

Well, this week we are going to be talking about Virtue and what that means to the Lord.  Virtue means to be filled with goodness and right-living.  Basically to be doing what the Lord tells us to be doing.  So all those things we have been learning about are a part of this.  When we are keeping our minds are the truth of God’s word, honest things, behaving justly, keeping pure thoughts and making sure to have all A’s on our “report card” by living all these “virtues” out then we are pleasing to God.  I am so excited to share with you kiddos today about one of MY favorite women in the Bible, Ruth!  The Bible says in Ruth 3:11 that she was a “virtuous woman”.  

Ruth was a Moabite woman who had married into a family but early in her marriage her husband died.  But, Ruth, although she was not a Jew, loved her Mother-in-law, Naomi, so when Naomi was left all alone and decided to go back to her hometown where her family was, Ruth wanted to go with her.  This surprised Naomi because she knew that Ruth would have to leave her way of life and more than likely as a Moabite she would be treated as an outcast when she was among the Jewish people.  But, Ruth loved her and wanted to serve the same Lord that Naomi did which was our God.  What a blessing to know Ruth loved the Lord.  Ruth showed such virtue (right-living) that she had made an impression on Boaz who owned the fields where she worked.  She took care of her ailing Mother-in-law and always was respectful and grateful for having the chance to be with her.  This impressed Boaz so much that he had his men leave handfuls of the good wheat on purpose for Ruth.   When Naomi guided her in what to say to Boaz, the bible says Ruth said unto her, “all that thou sayest unto me I will do.”  She showed obedience and wisdom by listening to Naomi when she spoke of how to talk to Boaz.  Kids, Ruth is very special in the fact she was a person who stayed true to her word and wanted to do what was right “virtuous”.  She didn’t complain when she worked in the fields or when things may have seemed difficult.  Instead she was thankful and worked hard to take care of herself and Naomi, serving the Lord with virtuous living.  And, in the end, Boaz took her as his wife and cared for her and all of her family from that day forward.  And guess what?  God had a plan; he used Ruth to bring our Savior to the world…she was King David’s great-grandmother.  

God will always have a much better plan than we can imagine; so let us keep our mind fixed on the right kind of things in life….Whatsoever things are True, Honest, Just, Pure, Lovely, of Good Report, Virtuous and Praise-worthy!!