The Bible Tells Me So

"Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." (Romans 6:14)

"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature (flesh); rather, serve one another in love."

(Galatians 5:13)

Wow, God is so Good. I was on my knees last night crying out to Jesus letting Him know (ha ha, as if He already doesn't, eh- silly mind) that I could not do Life "my way." It just ain't working. Well wouldn't you know it, this morning when the kid's (Jordan, Elisha, Ezra & Jacob) and I were doing our devotions, the topic, revealed a new ray of Light into my awareness. This gift of Light is bright and when I shine it on past or present struggles of Life, I see the shadows for what they really are instead of what my human mind makes them out to be.

I see in the "tuff stuff" , I flip between a fight(control, dominate) or flight (escape, give up) response and I am learning that when I am managing things in either of these ways I am working in the "flesh" (within myself, my ways, my knowledge(yikes), my resources(yikes again.)) As I learn and grow in Christ I am discovering a new way in which every time I surrender in obedience I find Freedom and Victory.

The cool thing we came across during devotions was Scriptural terms that explained this whole fight or flight thing. Our Bible talks of legalism which I can relate to as fight and license which I see as flight. Legalism (fight) uses good deeds, rigid codes, and restrictive lifestyles to crush people/situations into what they think is right- law- which leads to condemnation and death. License (flight) has no regard for rules and regulations-chaos which leads to condemnation and death. Same result with each path-death.

I can see this pattern when I examine past and present struggles in my Life. I remember the eating disorder, the perfect eating or never eating vs. junk"o"mania or "supersize++." I see it as I struggle with keeping an orderly, clean home-sterilized order vs. tripping over everything because it is all over the floor. I see it also in the areas that hurt the most when I falter and fail. Guiding and training our Kid's- brick wall vs. jellyfish (thanks Barbera Coloroso for those terms) Well I could go on and on with eg. but this is already getting too long-sorry.

I just LOVE it when I learn something in Life and then "all of a sudden" a Bible verse will "simply appear" that deals with that very same issue. He amazes me every time. Scripture was God inspired so many thousands of years ago and yet It Truly is The Living Word- Christ Jesus is "The Word became flesh" and He calls us to Walk in His shoes. How do we do that? "The Bible tells me so."

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

(2 Corinthians 3:17)

Pray To Christ For Freedom From Negative Emotions

At our Church, for woman's nights, we are exploring Stormie Omartian's Power Of A Praying Woman. Tonight we covered the topic of negative emotions. Christ our Lord does not want us living under a cloak of negative emotions. He has Freedom for us.

" Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. " Philippians 4:6-7 (NASB)

Stormie discussed 3 things we need to pray about to get rid of negative emotions:

1. Pray to be delivered from every evil work.

"We are not fighting against humans. We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world." Ephesians 6:12 (CEV)

2. Pray to be set free from negative emotions.

"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." John 8:36 (NIV)

3. Praise God that He is your deliverer.

"who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, " 2 Corinthians 1:10 (NASB)

Here are 7 negative emotions to pray for Freedom from.

1. Be anxious for nothing. (Philippians4:6-7)

2. Refuse to be angry. (Ephesians4:26-27)

3. Refuse to be dissatisfied. (Psalms 84:11)

4. Refuse to be envious. (James4:1-3)

5. Refuse to be depressed. (Lamentations 3:21-25)

6. Refuse to be hopeless. (Romans 15:13)

7. Refuse to live in fear. (2 Timothy 1:7) So lets pray, ask others to pray for us, read the Word of God and spend time in our Lord's presence (quiet time, praise and worship) Then we will walk in the Freedom Jesus has already won for us and we can move ahead into His purpose for our Lives.

Thankful

The Spirit will show you what is true.

John 14:17

Jordan won 67 tickets for today's game from CHRI (99.1fm Christian radio) this week. So that means that Rick, Jordan, Elisha and Ezra all set out for the game at 11am this morning. As much as I do not like being away from them, especially on family day, I think I am on a mini vacation here. Holy Spirit is just blowing my socks off with His quiet whisper. I have got the floor cleared and swept, the kitchen counters, table, and desks almost all cleared, laundry closer to being done than undone, had lunch with Jacob, played a game and read some stories with Jacob, put him for his nap, put on some mint green tea and I am blogging about how our Lord is moving in my Life at this moment before I have to try and remember how Jesus was speaking to me to try and share it with you all. And mostly this time is so very peaceful, quiet and beautiful.

Holy Spirit is showing me all He has blessed me with this week (that is besides that "small" gift of Life, family and purpose in Him) ;~) I have been praying for guidance in how to fit it all in. Today He is simply bringing me to tears of joy as my heart is overflowing with His provision and His Almighty Sovereignty. He is showing me that this week I managed to throw a homemade, curried kale sweet potato squash soup into the crock pot (I have not been cooking homemade due to business-and I had the privilege of sharing some with my neighbour who had given me the lovely gift of homemade chili for my birthday) and we did get a family meal- all of us together on Thursday night (I love sit down at the table family meals) I made it to all of the interesting and teaching outings that I am investing myself in as well as lifegroup (Love you Katie and Gary), got the children's school work looked after, did groceries, even had one on one visit with my precious husband and did a few blog posts. For those people out there who are organized these activities of Life may seem very simple to you but for me it is all a work in progress.

Holy Spirit is pointing out to me that even though these things are not getting done in a perfect routine, like clockwork (which I believe we could benefit if I continue to work towards more organized structure and routine) over the whole week things are getting covered. I did not see that before. All I see in my flesh is all the stuff that is not getting done or not getting done "perfectly."

Is it perfect? NOT. But in this moment He is showing me I am FREE and HE is guiding and growing me for His works. I pray I may hold on to this thought when I get caught up in the human way of handling things again.

Oh precious Lord Christ Jesus no words can describe how I feel when You reveal Yourself in these little, humongous miracles of everyday Life that are Your still small voice.

Well, got to go take advantage of this gift and get some more things done. And start getting things organized for for Church tomorrow-Gospel Sunday woo hoo! Oh and little Jacob just woke up so we get do more stuff together too.

Christ Love to you all.

The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; Your Love, O Lord, endures forever--do not abandon the works of your hands. Psalm 138:8

P U!

My two oldest kids have been struggling this week with getting the cat litter done. Their struggle is also affecting the cats (who wants a dirty toilet) and us as the smell increases. I noticed that they were using their power struggle with each other as an excuse not to do the job at hand. As a parent it was oh so clear to see the problem and what was happening(in this case). Of course I shared my thoughts with them and told them both to go downstairs and I assigned which litter box they were to do (there are two -we have three cats-anyone looking for a cat?) :o) The fact that they were caught up in a "blame and complain" justification pattern struck me with such clarity. It was as plain as can be and I could not believe that they had not realized it because we had discussed not letting what others do determine how we behave.

As they were getting "the job" done the thought came to me, Is this what it is like for God? He sees us and He knows all there is to know. He gives us Scripture to guide us and all we need to do is follow it and the "stench" will not build up in our relationships, interactions, and lives. What really hit me was how easy it was for me to see the problem my kids were struggling with and a solution (get together and go do it together now) but how it is much more difficult to see the struggle in myself. I am smart enough to know that my kids do not just create their own ways of interacting. (yes they do have their own personalities) Often children are simply recorders and mirrors of what they have seen in their environments.(home,school,tv,movies,friends) So I took note of how much and in how many areas of my life am I STILL letting power struggles with the people in my life and with God keep me from His effective, protected, and blessed way of Life? I humbly see that I am still doing this and the hardest thing to see is the fact that I am doing it in the areas of life that are the MOST IMPORTANT to me and to God. It is easy for me to let go of the externals but as I come closer to the core of what is important to me the struggle is much harder to surrender into the FREEDOM of our Lord's ways. I am so thankful we have a Saviour and that we are in a period of Grace but this Scripture reminds me what I am sacrificing by not being obedient NOW in all areas. "God, God, a God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient—so much love, so deeply true—loyal in love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. Still, he doesn't ignore sin. He holds sons and grandsons responsible for a father's sins to the third and even fourth generation."Exodus 34:4-5 (msg).

It hurts so much to realize that I am still letting God down and my husband and my children and that even though we all love each other and are providing grace for each other as best we can as humans that my sin still has an effect and it is such a horrible stench. Forgive me all. I do love you all as best I am able to at this point in my life but God is teaching me how to really Love you all. Holy Spirit help me to realize that I do not have TOMORROW but only TODAY and help me to choose Your Love today while I still have the breath of Life to make a choice.

Balance

I saw this graph on Craig Groeschel sight the other day. He was using it to explore the Church but it reminded me of the balance, or not, in my Life.

When I get legalistic about an issue, a plan can be put in place and I can master "the plan" and things get done. I can remember many times in my life that this was taken to the extreme and I was functioning well in whatever, getting stuff done and things were being looked after but I had no place for socializing or doing anything but the routine of life. Something was missing.

I can also remember times in life where I got caught up in whatever was presenting itself at a given moment. That" living in the moment" without God's Word to ground things, took it's tole on me and my family as well as any long term work for our Lord.

The absolutely cool thing about the moments that I am able to surrender in obedience to the FREEDOM of Holy Spirit's guidance in my Life, He brings me and the circumstance that I am dealing with at that moment to the summit of BALANCE. He just has a way of blending the natural and the Spiritual and uses them both in perfect harmony for His work.

Our God, Jesus Christ, really is an awesome God!

Scripture For Our Heart

This Scripture verse came up at OSB (Ottawa School of the Bible) the other night and it simply took my breath away and filled my eyes with warm tears of joy so I just had to share it with you all today.

The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 4:7-11 (NIV)

Is that an awesome Scripture verse or what!

Essay Time

I will be working on an essay for Ottawa School of the Bible over the next few days so I may not be posting for a bit. If I can or if something is very strong in my Spirit to share I will but other wise be back in a few days. Miss you all but e-see you soon!