Being a child

I am tired and I have had a headache all day long. And I am facing a temptation that surely others have also faced. I am tempted to just skip my Bible reading and go straight on to bed. The little voice of temptation whispers that I can make it up later - no one is ever going to know - so what if you skip the blog accountability just this once.

Overcoming temptation, I am reading Numbers 1-2 and 1 Peter 1 tonight.

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. (1 Peter 1: 14)

God sees me as His child. He knows I still have a lot to learn and that I am going to make mistakes.

God expects me to obey him as my heavenly Father. Becoming a child of God marks a change in my life. I stop my old way of living and I learn how to live a new life. The new has come - the old is gone!!

Psalm 36 - Big Love

Tonight's reading: Leviticus 27 and Psalm 35-36

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. (Psalm 36:5-6)

God is unmeasurable. Take the biggest thing you can think of. Like Mt Everest. God is bigger. Look up at the sky, how vast and how wide. God is bigger.

God is loving and he is faithful. Even when I am having a bad day and I'm just not in a mood to feel the love, God still loves me. And I can never outlive his love!

Third Day set these verses to music and I'm glad they did. It always kind of tickles me when I come across scriptures in the Bible that I know from somewhere else. Don't really know why. But I do get a smile and warm fuzzies when that happens.

I know of a few common sayings that have their roots in God's word. Just off the top of my head - let's see what I can come up with...

Treat others like you want to be treated. Biblical
One day at a time. Biblical
Wash Your Hands. Biblical
To everything there is a season. Biblical

I bet there are others. Will have to keep thinking about that.

Accountability

Keeping myself accountable. I will do my Bible reading for today. It's Leviticus 25-26 and Psalm 33.

Psalm 33:13-15 - "From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind: from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth - he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do."

Accountability. Good word. I am part of a small group of women who meet each week to discuss our week, our lives, and our struggles. These women keep me accountable for my actions in a great way. If I can't talk about it in that group, then really it is something that I shouldn't be doing it.

Then there are those moments when temptation just pops up out of nowhere. I tripped over something terribly inappropriate tonight on a website that should not have anything inappropriate posted. For just a moment, there it was - tempting me to take a closer look. No one else is here, no one will ever know. Come on - scroll down - and look.

Truth is, I am never alone. For I am aways accountable to God. And God is always watching. He knows that I will face moments of temptation. God wants to know what I will do with that temptaion. Will I take a bite of the forbidden fruit? Will I take a closer look at tempations or not?

And for the record what I did was close out that website. And I decided that my time would be much better spent getting my daily dose of God's word. And that is a decision that I am okay sharing with God and with my small group!

Psalm 19

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge.

They have no speech, they use no words;

no sound is heard from them.

Yet there voice goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.

(Psalm 19: 1-4)

Want to find God? Go outside and look up. God is so great and so boundless that the very sky itself silently provides daily evidence of his glory.

Monday's thoughts on Sunday

Sunday morning - 2 points

1. Life should be lived wide open - all in and all out for God. God doesn't want half-hearted service. He doesn't want some of my time or part of my attention. He wants whatever I do to be done for Him.

God put me here

to live my life FOR HIM and

to touch the lives of others FOR HIM.

I am changed when I become a part of what God is doing. As I turn more and more of my life over to him, God molds me and prunes me. I am so not the person I was ten years ago. And I know that God is not finish with me yet. I still got a lot of changing to do.



2. Life should be lived with a positive expectation. There are going to be bumps and trials and tests in this earthly life. There are going to be hard times and sad times and bad times. But our hope is on God's promise that this life is not the end. God promises a full life forever.

PUSHED

God pushes me to step outside my comfort zone. I haven't yet become the person God wants me to be.

The process of being changed or pruned isn't always pleasant. I'm too quick to say I can't do that and I can easily come up with a list of all the reasons why I can’t. I complain sometimes. 'I don't want to. I'm just not comfortable doing that. Let someone else do it.'

But ultimately I yield to God. And God has led me to places that I never would have dreamed of going on my own.

That’s how God is. His view of me and who I can be is vastly different from my view.

So God still pushes me. And I have to admit that I feel the closest to God when I'm being pushed.

Being pushed forces me to trust him.
Being pushed forces me to lean on him.
Being pushed forces me to pray harder.

And one thing I pray is that God will never stop pushing me.
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Giving

Exodus 36:5 - The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.

Reading tonight about the building of the tent of the tabernacle. Moses had asked the people to bring gold, silver, yarn, linen, incense, oil, etc. to be used in the construction process.

So these people went to their tents and they gathered their things and they gave it to God. They gave of their own possessions. There was no quick writing a check or running down to Wal-Mart to purchase supplies. The people took what they owned and gave it to God. And they gave so much that the workers had to ask them to stop giving.

What would it be like to give that way today? Can I live my life simpler so that I have more to give to the work of the Lord? I am sure that I can. Am I willing to? Hmmm....
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HOW IT WAS...

Before

Doubt - Confusion - Silence
Wondering - Questioning
Lost - Cold - Outside
Searching for answers
Tired of being lonely
Wanting to be loved
Needing to be needed
Empty - Hungry - Hopeless
Despairing....
No idea of how to make it better.
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