Am I Standing in the Right Place???

Found it Guys!  It was not in the archives, however there is another post from Friday August 20th 2010 where I suggested you refer to this.  Since it was not in the archives, you might want to go back and pull that one up as well to look over tomorrow.  
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All week long we have been going back to basics which has made me reflect as well.  These are things I am pondering and somewhat have experiential knowledge of  through taking action on the knowledge He has made available to us.

God has made it clear to us that we are to stand in the gap:  to show His love -which covers a multitude of sins, to lead and teach Gods word to lost and or struggling people. Essentially, to be a vessel for Him so that His body is in their midst doing whatever He needs to do to rescue and deliver His children.

Today I was listening to Bryan Houston and his sermon was on being fearfully and wonderfully made. I know I am, I believe I am - just as I know and believe this about all of us. This lead me to think about the spirit of Jezebel and how we all think that we know best, how we should look, vocation or whatever else. We basically say to God, "who needs you and by the way what you did was not so hot!" "I want to look like this", "I want to do this... and I can…so that is what I am going to do!"

This lead me into thinking about marriage and how God created us to be a man’s helper. We all want to marry someone that we are the mirror image of in likes dislikes etc. Yet we want the other person to do what we do not want to do (such as laundry, pay the bills, watch the children so we can have more personal time - just sayin' if they are just like us they will not want to do it either!) We want to be attracted to the person physically and we want them to always take care of us in all ways.

If all this happened, we would not have to learn and grow. We would get no ideas about how God functions or what He desires. Why can we not stop thinking about ourselves for more than mere minutes at a time????? Our needs are met; we have a creator that promised that. What He needs is a body to do His will.

Will we keep neglecting God’s instructions? Will we keep telling Him no and our selves Yes?

God tells us that when we have done all to stand, to stand. But what if we are standing in the wrong place and He is simply trying to push us toward another place? If we do not know His will, or why he made us we might believe it is “the enemy” we will fight Him even harder!

So where have we moved beyond fighting the good fight and passed into fighting Him to stay in the wrong place?

There is so much for us to learn, so many areas for Him to speak to us as individuals. He is so interesting to listen to; His ways are higher than our ways. He has the correct answer for all our questions. We simply want his answers to always fit what we want to do – so we go in circles trying to find somewhere to access the agreement with our own understanding. True research looks for “all wise resources” the agreement and the dispute. There is balance for discernment, not weights – which God warns against. He tells us to beware of the false teachers who tickle our ears, the ones that scream peace, peace when there is no peace. We must look for people who are standing in the right place, telling us the righteous things. They may miss it at times or we may misunderstand but at least we will be standing in the right place covered in the love that covers a multitude of sins.

In your journals or on your canvas' write about this as you ponder the questions below: remembering our foundation is God's word.

• What was the first and last thing we knew we had to do based on God's word?
• Did you stand till it was complete?
• Do you listen more to fear and fall - or faith and finish?
• Do you believe God is sovereign?
• Today we are adding to this list based on the above questions: Do you believe that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, for God's purposes?

I love you Lord – my prayer is for our spirits to prosper even as our souls do and for your church to be united and all people to be one, as you and the father are one. We are your people and we are one with you, I pray come Lord Jesus, come…..and the church said "Come".

With the love of our Christ
Kisses,
C

Just for Today......

In our pop culture of self help, there have been many books written on the topic of building the empire of "ME", "Looking out for #1", etc. They all teach how to manipulate others by looking a person in the eye, mirroring their body language, speaking the persons name repeatedly and using empathetic language. The absurd thing is, this works because it is what we should be doing with each other. This is one of the greatest deceptions used to prey on the intrinsic goodness and hope within people. All for what .....more stuff? How did we get this calloused?

I thank God for his truth that shines light on worldly wisdom. I think it is no surprise that all this mirrors the desire of God. He desires to hear us call His name. He desires us to be able to stand face to face with his presence, He desires us to mirror His ways and to receive and show empathy to everyone's situations. Isn't it absurd that we have a hard time doing that?

I pray that we call His name at the start of each day, stand in his presence and ask for the way, mirror His love to all that we see and share of the mercy and grace we receive.

With all my heart to each of you...through Christ our Lord

Candace

Presents Or Presence?

READ: 1 John 2:24-29
In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. —Psalm 16:11

Oswald Chambers once wrote: “It is not God’s promises we need, it is [God] Himself.”

At Christmastime we often say, “God’s presence is more important than presents.” But the amount of time and effort we spend on shopping for gifts may indicate otherwise.
In certain parts of the world, people give gifts on December 6. By doing so, they have the rest of the month to focus on Jesus and the wonder of His birth, God’s perfect gift to us.

When we say we want God’s presence more than presents from others, perhaps we’re being truthful. But how many of us can honestly say that we want God’s presence more than His presents?

Often we want gifts from God more than we want God Himself. We want health, wealth, knowledge, a better job, a better place to live. God may indeed want to give us these things, but we can’t have them apart from Him. As David said, “In Your presence is fullness of joy” (Ps. 16:11). Presents may make us happy for a time; earthly gifts from God may make us happy temporarily, but fullness of joy comes only when we remain in a right relationship with God.
So, what would Christmas be like if we truly celebrated God’s presence? — Julie Ackerman Link

Lord, we want to remember You and Your coming in special ways this Christmas. Give us creativity and thoughtfulness in our planning. Help us to focus on Your presence and not on what we hope to give or receive.

God’s presence with us is one of His greatest presents to us.