1 Kings 8:61 (NLT)
⁶¹ And may you be completely faithful to the Lord our God. May you always obey his decrees and commands, just as you are doing today.”
1 Timothy 1:12 (NLT)
¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him,
Galatians 6:9 (NLT)
⁹ So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
Psalm 37:5 (NLT)
⁵ Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.
Proverbs 16:3 (NLT)
³ Commit your actions to the Lord,  and your plans will succeed.
Philippians 3:13-14 (NLT)
¹³ No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,^[a] but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
Colossians 1:29 (NLT)
²⁹ That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.

Are You Committed?

We are now well into the New Year. This is the time that the gyms and the health clubs, will start to see who’s really committed to reaching their goals and who’s not.

Commitment requires going the distance and hanging in there until the very end.

When it comes to getting healthy, it means rising early to exercise and doing food prep on days when it would be easier to drive through for fast food. It means saying no to the extra cookie, or the extra helping at the dinner table. It means staying true to your commitment until the goal is accomplished, no matter how difficult or how long.

For Unto Us A Child Is Born

 Isaiah 9:6-7
For a child is born to us,  a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulder,  And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor,^[a] Mighty God,  Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ His government and its peace will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!
Matthew 1:18-24 (NLT)
¹⁸ This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement^[a]quietly.²⁰ As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. ²¹ And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus,^[b] for he will save his people from their sins.”²² All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: ²³ “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!  She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel,^[c]  which means ‘God is with us.’”
²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.
John 1:14 (NLT)
¹⁴ So the Word became human^[a] and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.^[b] And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
Philippians 2:6-7 (NLT)
⁶ Though he was God,^[a]  he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
⁷ Instead, he gave up his divine privileges^[b];   he took the humble position of a slave^[c]   and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,^[d]
Luke 1:35 (NLT)
³⁵ The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.

As this Christmas quickly approaches, I have been thinking of the impact that Jesus’s birth had on this world. I am convinced that we will never be able to fully comprehend, or imagine the majestic grandeur that Jesus lovingly chose to leave, to come and dwell among sinners. It is quite mind-blowing to think that Jesus, being divine royalty, left His Father’s side to come to this cruel earth to save a sinful dying world.  He knew that He would be rejected and despised and yet He followed through with the plan anyway. He also knew that to some, His birth and His sacrifice on the cross would mean nothing. Oh, the love He must feel for us, and even for those that He knew would reject Him.

Overwhelmed

Psalm 142:3  (NLT)
³ When I am overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn.
Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me.
Psalm 61:1-2  (NLT)
¹ O God, listen to my cry! Hear my prayer!
² From the ends of the earth,  I cry to you for help
  when my heart is overwhelmed.
Lead me to the towering rock of safety,
Matthew 11:28-30  (NLT)
²⁸ Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Psalm 28:7  (NLT)
⁷ The Lord is my strength and shield.   I trust him with all my heart.
He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy.
 I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by all of the things that you needed to do?  Maybe you are like me and from time to time you take on way too many things, and then become frustrated when there is no spare time to just breathe.

The more that I talk to people, the more I realize that we are living in a world where people are simply over overcommitted and stressed to the max.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the servant of God^[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Matthew 4:4  (NIV)
⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’^[a]”
Romans 15:4-5 (NIV)
⁴ For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
⁵ May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had,
Psalm 119:11-18 (NIV)
¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heart
  that I might not sin against you.
¹² Praise be to you, Lord;  teach me your decrees.
¹³ With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.
¹⁴ I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.
¹⁵ I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
¹⁶ I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
¹⁷ Be good to your servant while I live,  that I may obey your word.
¹⁸ Open my eyes that I may see  wonderful things in your law.

Psalm 100:
4 – Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; 
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Many of us will drive hundreds of miles to Grandma’s house for turkey and all of the trimmings this Thursday, not even to mention some who will run the risk of being stuck in airports for hours with delays and lay overs to fly thousands of miles for one meal. For a minute or two it will be all about the food. But is it really about the food?

Are My Words Acceptable
Psalm 19:14 (KJV)
14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
Colossians 4:6 (NIV)
6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Matthew 15:11  (NIV)
11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
Colossians 3:8-10 (NIV)
8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Ephesians 4:29 (NIV)
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Last week during my quiet time I came across: Psalm 19:14 (KJV)
14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
I have read this scripture many times before, but for some reason the Holy Spirit really helped me to tune in and pay attention to what I was reading on that day.
I was definitely convicted when I read this passage of scripture.

Maybe I felt this way because I know that my words are not always acceptable to God. I realize that I should think before I speak, but I must ashamedly confess that I fall short of this goal at times.

I have noticed that when fatigue sets in due to a long day, or when there have been some unforeseen stresses that have creeped into my day, my attitude and my words can become very short at times, and unintentionally harsh.
I don’t know your struggle. It may be that you are guilty of gossiping, or every now and then you slip a swear or curse word into your conversation. Some of you may struggle with telling the truth, and lying has become a convenient habit for you. It may be that you can’t resist saying negative things or that you are great at making promises but never keep them. Whatever sinful thing you are guilty of committing with your tongue, just know that it does not in any way bring God honor, nor is it acceptable to Him.

Whatever your struggle, I encourage you to take a personal and honest assessment of yourself. From this day forward before you speak, why not ask yourself: will what I am about to say be pleasing and acceptable to God? The Litmus Test is; if you could not say it with God standing beside you, then maybe you should not say it at all. Believe it or not, He is standing right beside you and He does hear every word you say.

Remember God is holy and because we are His children and we carry His name, we must do our best to choose our words wisely, and we must live in a way that will represent Him well before others.

We are His ambassadors and because we are, our character must reflect that of His. We are human and we will not always get it right. We will fall short from time to time, but through prayer and studying God’s word, we will grow closer and closer to Him. The reward of being in His presence is that we start to reflect His character. Through this process, a divine transformation starts to take place. Our desires start to change, and our choice of words will also began to change, and all of this is God at work in our lives.

Praise God for His amazing power to change us from head to toe. With His help we really can change our words, so that they are more pleasing and acceptable to Him. Will you choose to honor Him with your words today? I hope so! It is certainly my goal!

Below I have listed a few scriptures and from these we can see what God’s word has to say about our words.

James 3:9-10 (NIV)
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.
Psalm 141:3 (NIV)
3 Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips

Strengthen Your Spiritual Muscles

1 Corinthians 9:27  (NLT)
²⁷ I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
Hebrews 6:1  (NLT)
6 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding.
Ephesians 6:10-18  (NLT)
¹⁰ A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. ¹² For we^[a] are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
¹³ Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. ¹⁴ Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. ¹⁵ For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.^[b] 16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.^[c] 17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
¹⁸ Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.^[d]
 2 Peter 1:5-8  (NLT)
⁵ In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
⁸ The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:8-11  (NLT)
⁸ Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ ⁹ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.^[a]For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, ¹¹ so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

As most of you know, a little over a year and a half ago I suffered injuries from a really bad fall. I am still in physical therapy but praise God I can walk now without the aid of a cane. Now that my legs are much stronger and the nerves in my back seem to be a bit quieter, things are looking better.

I now realize, how being immobile for so long has weakened the rest of my body. The muscles in my upper back and arms are much weaker than they should be. Therefore my doctor is putting me back into physical therapy to strengthen my upper body as well. Nothing like a great fall to tear your body apart.

I was not excited about more physical therapy but thrilled that God has blessed me to be able to receive the treatments that I need.

Yesterday as I was leaving the doctor’s office, thoughts started to pop into my head regarding our spiritual muscles. Just as our physical muscles can become weak due to the lack of conditioning them, the same thing can happen to our spiritual muscles.

All muscles whether physical or spiritual, become weak if they are not consistently being used. All we have to do is go for a few days without reading our bibles or forget to pray for a day or so, and our muscles start to weaken. We can miss one Sunday at church, and before we know it, a month has gone by, since we stepped inside a worship service. This is the same thing that happens when we miss a day or two at the gym. I think we all can relate to that.

All of a sudden we start to miss our weekly Bible Study, and shortly after, we are alienating ourselves from other Christian sisters and brothers. The very ones who are there to give us emotional and spiritual encouragement, and to support us through difficult times.

I want to encourage you to take a moment, to really evaluate the strength of your spiritual muscles. When is the last time that you spent a good hour alone with God, or when is the last time that you memorized scriptures or meditated on a passage of scripture to give yourself strength for your journey? All of these things build spiritual muscles. Are you spiritually weak?

When we are strong spiritually, (which is only by God’s power working through us) we are not so easily thrown off balance when the enemy throws a blow. Notice I didn’t say if he throws a blow, but when, because it is inevitable. You see when we are spiritually fit, we may rock from the blow, but we won’t fall over in despair.

When God is our focus, we draw strength from being in His presence. He equips us spiritually and emotionally for the journey that he has purposed for us.

Don’t allow your spiritual muscles to become flabby. When we don’t exercise our physical bodies we become flabby and the same thing happens spiritually. So let’s take a look at what it means to be spiritually flabby. To be spiritually flabby is to be:

 Joshua 24:15  (NLT)
¹⁵ But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”

A Surprise In The Sky

Genesis 9:8-17 (NLT)
8 Then God told Noah and his sons, 9 “I hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, 10 and with all the animals that were on the boat with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals—every living creature on earth. 11 Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”
12 Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. 13 I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. 14 When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, 15 and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. 16 When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.” 17 Then God said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.”

This past weekend my husband and I went on a road trip, to visit his two sisters. It takes approximately eight hours by car from our door to theirs.

As my husband was mapping out our route, he realized that a new highway that had been under construction for quite some time had opened up for traffic. He thought that taking this highway would save us quite a bit of travel time.  So we decided to try it out.

The morning that we left it started to rain.  It rained and rained, and after driving for about 7 hours in the rain, we finally saw a bit of sunshine for a brief moment.  We were not that excited about driving for so long in the nonstop rain, but we were very excited about the new highway. It was all interstate, and it was a straight shot to our destination.

When we got to my husband’s hometown, as always we had a great time. After a couple of days of visiting, it was time to head back home.  We got our phone out and got the GPS going again.

Things did not work out so well on our return trip home. Our GPS led us quite a distance from a town that we had planned to drive back through to stop for lunch.  We never found the interstate that we came in on. Our GPS was doing some crazy things. It was leading us everywhere except where we wanted to go.  As you can imagine, it was frustrating!

After going in a complete circle several times as a result of following our not so trusty GPS, my husband just decided to keep driving. He thought that we would eventually pick up the highway that we came in on, at some point further down the road, but it never happened. We ended up on a very curvy country road that was a scenic route.  We drove for over a hundred miles before we could get back to the interstate that would finally lead us home. 

Our daughter had heard that there were tornado warnings out for the area that we would be driving through.  She called concerned as to our location and wondered when we would be arriving home. Shortly after our daughter’s call,  my mother called with the same info. It seemed that everyone was concerned about our safety.  As we got closer to home the clouds started to really darken and we could see a storm up ahead.  As we drove closer it was clear that this was not just a shower but a storm.

We drove in the storm for quite a few minutes, and then all of a sudden we drove completely out of it.  As I looked out of the car window there was an absolutely awesome surprise in the sky. It was by far the most beautiful rainbow that I had ever seen.  The colors were captivating and they were so much more vivid than I had ever seen before. These color were not your regular rainbow pastels. The hues were very intense. It was absolutely beautiful and if that wasn’t enough it was a double rainbow.  It was so perfectly arched across the sky that it was amazing.

I know that some of you that are reading this are thinking that I had never seen a rainbow before.  Trust me, I have seen my fair share of rainbows, but nothing on this side of heaven could ever compare to the beauty that God displayed in the sky that day.  This was no ordinary rainbow. It was as though God took a paintbrush and painted the sky.  As I brought the rainbow to my husband’s attention, tears started to well up in my eyes just at the thought of how awesome our God is and how when we least expect it, He reveals yet once again how powerful He is, and that we can always trust that he keeps His promises.  I was literally crying tears of joy.

I looked at my husband and asked him how could anyone possibly look at the sky that day and believe that there is no God. He is a master artist and His creation confirms how powerful and awesome He is.  It also confirms, without a doubt that God does exist.

My mind went to Noah and the covenant that God made with him,  that He would never destroy the earth with a flood again. My heart could only be grateful as I thought of how faithful our God is to His promises and how the rainbow also speaks to how merciful He is.

I had complained several times to my husband, about how I hoped that we would never make the mistake of coming back home on that little curvy road again.  I was just not enjoying the 35 to 45 mile per hour speed limit at all. When he saw the rainbow he said “see if we hadn’t come this way you would have never seen this rainbow. At that moment I was reminded that God works all things out for good and that there are no coincidences.
During this past weekend, we drove over a thousand miles and 90% of the time we were driving in rain.  I must say that seeing the rainbow at the end of our trip made it all worthwhile.

I was reminded that God is still in control and that when He changes our planned course, He also may be changing the very trajectory of our lives. Maybe we should just trust that there are times when things happen for reasons that we may not understand until later down the road.  There may very well be a blessing in the change.

The next time that you are privileged to witness a rainbow, please don’t take it for granted. It is another one of God’s miracles. As you gaze at its beauty, remember that God is a promise keeper and for this reason along with thousands of others He is so worthy to be praised!  I challenge you today and always to remain in awe of the beautiful things that God does all around us daily. Don’t get so caught up on the next thing to do on your list, that you miss your “Surprise In The Sky”.

Deuteronomy 7:9 (NLT)
9 Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his
covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.
Lamentations 3:22-23 (NLT)
22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends![a]His mercies never cease.
23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.