Draw me! We will run after you! The king brings me into his apartments! We will be glad and rejoice in you! We will recall [when we were favored with] your love, more fragrant than wine. The upright [are not offended at your choice, but sincerely] love you. Songs Of Solomon 1:4
Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth. Psalm 105:5
This is titled part one because we are going to go through this title for a while with various subtitles (the subtitle for this is “31 Attributes of God”). The purpose of this is give you a better understanding of God. We hope that this would in some way cause you to be captivated by the nature of God and it would encourage you to seek to develop a deeper understanding of and a reverent fear of God (After all the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom ..Proverbs 9:10).
Below are 31 Attributes of God, if you chose to you could memorise one each day, you would know 31 Attributes of God in a month.
Memorising portions of scripture is Good for your soul, Psalm 119:11 says “Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (How can it be in your heart if it’s not in your head ? I would be interested to see the answers you guys give to this 
) Comment below if you’re up for the challenge of memorising these, one a day isn’t that hard, you could simply write it on a piece of paper and look at it periodically through the day.
I know you’re all extremely intelligent so it should be a breeze. You can chose to subscribe to our mailing list to see what part two of these series would be on or you could just check back regularly (I trust most of you do that anyway ). We pray that you would really get a deeper understanding of who God is through what we would be sharing with you during the coming weeks…Have fun
these attributes where gotten from Journal Junkies.
1. God is accessible: Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
2. God is approachable: Come near to God and he will come near to you. (James 4:8)
3. God is compassionate: The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. (Psalm 145:9)
4. God is divine: For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made. (Romans 1:20)
5. God is eternal: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)
6. God is faithful: For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100:5)
7. God is fatherly: Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? (Hebrews 12:17)
8. God is flawless: Every word of God is flawless. (Psalm 30:5)
9. God is friendly: “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. (James 2:23)
10. God is giving: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
11. God is good: Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)
12. God is gracious: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace. (Romans 3:23,24)
13. God is great: I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. (Psalm 135:5)
14. God is holy: They were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory”. (Isaiah 6:3)
15. God is impartial: For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. (Deuteronomy 10:17)
16. God is Jealous: Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. (Exodus 34:14)
17. God is just: He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. (Deuteronomy 32:4)
18. God is light: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)
19. God is love: But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:8)
20. God is merciful: Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)
21. God is omnipresent: Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? (Psalm 139:7)
22. God is perfect: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)
23. God is personal: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. (Genesis 6:9)
24. God is powerful: Summon your power, O God; show us your strength, O God, as you have done before. (Psalm 68:28)
25. God is righteous: The LORD our God is righteous in everything he does. (Daniel 9:14)
26. God is sovereign: How great you are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with – our own ears. (2 Samuel 7:22)
27. God is steadfast: He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. (Psalm 62:2)
28. God is true: God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? – Does he promise and not fulfil? (Numbers 23:19)
29. God is unchangeable: “I the LORD do not change.” (Malachi 3:6)
30. God is unequalled: “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. (Isaiah 40:25)
31. God is victorious: “He will swallow up death for ever.” (Isaiah 25:8)
All You Need is A Glimpse of God!
God Bless,
Fred.
On January 16, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia lifted off for what was supposed to be a routine flight. Shortly after lift-off a piece of insulating foam from the shuttle’s external fuel tanks broke off and struck Columbia’s left wing. This action was caught on video, but it was presumed that no serious damage had occurred. However, serious damage had occurred. The foam from the fuel tanks punctured the wing’s thermal protection system.
The seriousness of the damage became evident when Columbia reentered the earth’s atmosphere on February 1. The damaged wing was no longer protected from the extreme heat caused during reentry. The shuttle disintegrated in midair killing all seven astronauts. NASA’s failure to correctly assess the damage prevented it from taking action that could have avoided the devastating results.
Mankind faces a similar but even more tragic situation. Shortly after creation, Adam sinned. With Adam as the head, the whole human race fell under God’s condemnation. Sin now rules every unregenerate heart, and if it had its way, it would destroy and damn every soul.
What Does God Think About Your Sin?
If you refuse to see your sin as God does, you cannot escape His eternal judgment. If you want to deny your guilt or hide your own sinfulness, you’ll never discover the cure for sin. And if you try to justify your sin, you’ll forfeit the justification of God. Until you understand how offensive your sin is before God, you can never know Him.
Sin is abominable to God-He hates it (cf. Deuteronomy 12:31). Sin is contrary to His nature (Isaiah 6:3; 1 John 1:5). It stains the soul and degrades humanity’s nobility. Scripture calls sin “filthiness” (Proverbs 30:12; Ezekiel 24:13; James 1:21) and likens it to a putrefying corpse-sinners are the tombs that contain stench and foulness (Matthew 23:27). The ultimate penalty-death-is the consequence of sin (Ezekiel 18:4, 20; Romans 6:3). The human race is in bad shape.
God wants you to understand how bad sin is and how terrifying its consequences are. You dare not take sin lightly or dismiss your own guilt frivolously. Quite the contrary-you should hate sin.
But sin tempts the best of saints, and even the godliest among us commit sin. David was a man who followed after God with all his heart (1 Kings 14:8); and yet he entered into temptation and committed unimaginable sin-adultery, deception, betrayal, and murder. And until God confronted David through the prophet Nathan, David denied his sin. That’s the natural tendency of every fallen sinner.
What Do You Think About Your Sin?
If a man of David’s caliber can fall so terribly, where does that leave you and me? If you’re honest, you’ll admit that you sometimes love your sin, delight in it, and seek opportunities to act it out. You know instinctively you are guilty before a holy God, yet you inevitably attempt to camouflage or disavow your sinfulness. In a word, you deny it, just like David did.
Like the rest of fallen humanity, your denial of sin falls into three general categories: you seek to cover it up, you try to justify yourself, and, most often, you are oblivious to your sin.
First, you try to cover up. That’s what King David tried to do when he sinned against Uriah. He had committed adultery with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. When she became pregnant, David first plotted to make it seem as if Uriah was the father of the baby (2 Samuel 11:5-13). When that didn’t work, he schemed to have Uriah killed (vv. 14-17). That only compounded his sin.
For all the months of Bathsheba’s pregnancy, David continued to cover his sin (2 Samuel 11:27). Later, when David repented, he confessed, “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer” (Psalm 32:3-4).
Second, you attempt to justify yourself. Adam blamed Eve, whom he described as “the woman whom You gave to be with me” (Genesis 3:12, emphasis added). In blaming Eve, Adam was blaming God too. God, he reasoned, was responsible for the woman who victimized him.
You also try to excuse your wrongdoing by saying it’s someone else’s fault. Or you argue that you have a valid reason for sin. You convince yourself that it’s OK to return evil for evil (cf. Proverbs 24:29; 1
Thessalonians 5:15; 1 Peter 3:9). You can call sin a sickness, a mental condition, or a hormone imbalance; you can excuse yourself as a victim; you can even deny what you’ve done is really wrong. Your sinful heart is endlessly creative in finding ways to justify its own evil.
Third, you can be oblivious to your own sin. Whether in ignorance or presumption, you sin, and you sin often. That’s why David prayed, “Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins” (Psalm 19:12-13). It’s those “hidden faults” that God sees in plain daylight, and they are just as offensive to Him as the “presumptuous sins.” Because sin is so pervasive, you naturally tend to be insensitive to your own sin, just as a skunk is impervious to its own odor.
What Are You Going to Do About Your Sin?
Sin is a horrible malignancy for which there is no human cure. It is an incurable leprosy of the soul (Isaiah 1:4-6), and all humanity is sick with it from top to bottom, inside and out.
As a sinner, you cannot improve your own condition. Jeremiah 13:23 says, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” Your tears and sorrow can’t atone for your sin. Your “good” deeds can’t make amends for your wrong against God. Your prayers and personal devotion can’t soften your guilt or cover it in any way.
And don’t buy into the erroneous concept of purgatory-the fires of hell over a million lifetimes could never purify the soul from its own corruption or atone for its own sin. If you are looking for a do-it-yourself solution to the problem of sin, you only shackle yourself all the more securely to your guilt.
But there has to be a solution to our problem; there must be a way God can satisfy His perfect righteousness and still display His rich mercy toward sinners. I’m delighted to tell you that there is a solution to the human sin problem-it’s called the Gospel. The cross of Christ provided the way to God by enabling the only acceptable Sacrifice to atone for human sin once for all.
Our Lord, the sinless One, was the Lamb of God offered as a perfect sacrifice for sin (John 1:29)-it was the very purpose for which He came. “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). Isaiah prophesied, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried…He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him” (Isaiah 53:4-5, emphasis added).
Jesus Christ “offered Himself without blemish to God” to cleanse our consciences (Hebrews 9:14). He paid the penalty to the fullest on our behalf. All the sins of everyone who believes are imputed to Christ, and He died for them. Jesus then rose from the dead to declare His victory over sin and death-”[He] was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25).
Furthermore, God reckons all believers righteous in Christ-He accounts Christ’s righteousness to the believer. That’s the truth taught in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “[God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
God redeems those who believe and makes them new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). If you are a believer, you know what I’m talking about. God gave you an entirely new nature, including a love for righteousness and hatred for sin.
If you’re unsure of your salvation, reading this should bring you to the point of despair. What can you possibly do to change your hopeless condition? Nothing. You are utterly dependent on God’s mercy. But if the cry of your heart is something akin to that of the Philippian jailer who said, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30), take heart-the Spirit of God is already working in you! Here is Jesus’ clear and concise command to the troubled sinner: “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
To repent is to “turn away from all your transgressions” (Ezekiel 18:30). It means confessing and forsaking your iniquities (Proverbs 28:13), and completely hating your sin (2 Corinthians 7:11). If repentance stresses turning away from sin and self, believing emphasizes what to turn toward-”Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31).
You can’t lay hold of Christ while still clinging to your sin. Unless you pry your heart from the passing pleasures of sin, you’ll never see God. God’s salvation from the flames of an eternal hell involves a glorious liberation from the control of sin.
That’s good news! You can be set free from sin’s dominion of your life. Take hold of Christ, and take this gospel offer seriously. It may be your last opportunity!
Deuteronomy 12:31, Isaiah 6:3, 1 John 1:5, Proverbs 24:29
Adapted from The Vanishing Conscience © 1995 by John MacArthur.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Ever imagined what it must be like for a new born baby? Just come into the world, eyes closed, can hear voices. I try to imagine myself in a situation like that, I can sense the love of my mothers arms as she holds me close, i’m a part of her extended to the world, a precious gift from God, that goes beyond anything she or anyone else can understand, it’s love, real love, unconditional love. Not forgetting we are putting ourselves in the position of the baby now, we can probably hear voices and music but our eyes are closed, we can’t really see what’s out there in the world and the truth is, in the position of that child, we would have no idea of what really is out there in the world, we wouldn’t know about things like beauty, words, expressions, anger & love. We wouldn’t know the awesomeness of nature or the beauty of a sunny day and beautiful birds, we wouldn’t know the wonder in watching the sunset or the vast amounts of stars, completely clueless to a whole realm of awesomeness.
We’re no babies, but the truth is, we really do have no idea, How great God is, think about it, what would you do if as you where reading this you saw a great being with wings standing next to you ? it’s clothes and face shining as bright as the sun, would would melt because of the glory? or would it be so awesome you would fall to your knees and say oh please do not destroy me? or would you make it easy on yourself and faint ?
Or what would you do if you found yourself in the position of saul, maybe you have a pet rabbit or a dog and God opens it’s mouth and it talks to you and says, Do You Realise Who God Is ?
I could write 50 Books and still not be able to nearly begin to start explaining how great God is because the truth is regardless of what he has done in my life and what I know, it is nothing compared to what he can still show and teach me, each time I get lost in the wonder of how great he is, he is probably looking down at me and saying child, you have no idea.
I wonder what it must have been for these guys
“By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.” -Exodus 13:21-22
Can you imagine this? Close your eyes for a second and picture yourself walking out of your house tomorrow or even right now and seeing a pillar of fire following you everywhere you go, would you go crazy ? Do you realise that God can still do this today ?
How about this guy
“Elijah answered the captain, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!” Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.” 2 Kings 1:10
At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD -he is God! The LORD -he is God!” – 1 Kings 18:36-39
“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israeliteswent through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. – Exodus 14:21-22“
The most astonishing part of everything above about these people who God used greatly is that, though they saw great works of God as we are still seeing today, they had no idea, they saw a greatness of God, a wonder of God, but where still like babies just coming into the world; because that was just a little bit of the whole lot of things God can do! Yes, God is so great that no one could even begin to comprehend the fullness of who he is, even the greatest of men, who have made such an impact in this world know that their greatest attempt that has been mightily chaining and filled with Gods power was still nothing, because what God could do is beyond our comprehension or thought, we couldn’t even use our minds to imagine the things God could do, where would we start from? would we have imagined the trees first ? or the birds ? or a moon ? or a sun ? or night ? or day ?..I don’t think so!
We have such a small view of God sometimes, sometimes we mould him into an image for ourselves, trying to make a God that conforms to us, and does things our way, we say our God! Well I hope you’re starting to realised or you have already understood the truth that he is LORD, over me, over you, over the news, over all the demons on the earth, over heaven and over hell, he is lord over atheism, he is lord over sickness, he is lord over the skies, he is lord over the weather, he is lord over absolutely everything, and weather we chose to believe him now or not wont change the truth that he really is Lord.
It doesn’t stop there, I want to show you something. The truth is, we see things just as great as these today, and the most amazing part of it all is that, it doesn’t take some ones legs to grow out or fire to fall down from heaven for us to see such greatness, because even in the stillness God is there and his very presence is really is glorious! You say but if you claim there is such a greatness and such glory, then why on earth can’t I see it, if something so amazing is happening then I should be able to see that there is something great taking place, and its because you’re not looking or focusing in the right places, i’ll explain; the human eyes blinks about a million times a year, truth is you’ve probably blinked a lot of times since you started reading this, however if you don’t chose to focus on it and watch your eyes when it blinks you wouldn’t even know you’re blinking even if its before you’re very eyes, its the same thing with God, his glory is everywhere, from the little things to the big things, and if you’re not seeing it, its not because its not there! it’s everywhere, right before you’re very eyes!
“For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” – Romans 1:20
“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 display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” – Psalm 19:1-4
“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”1 Corinthians 1:25
“Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” – Jeremiah 23:29
All I can say now is, give thanks!
PS: Don’t keep this with yourself, share it with some one, God Bless You!
Praise the lord.
How much are you trusting God ? You may want to check out this article (Trusting God for a Peaceful Life
To be a true follower of christ we must daily surrender our lives. This means every thing that we are, our Thoughts, our Time, our Money, our Actions, our Words, our Whole Being. Spirit, Soul & Body!!
We Must continually strive to daily look to him for heavenly transformation, that we may be conformed more to the likeness of his son (For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son. – Romans 8:29). by diligently seeking to hear his righteous, purifying still small voice through daily meditations on the 66 books he has left us that reveal his Supremacy, His Glory, His Majesty, His Splendour & His amazing love for us.
Regardless of how many times we fall (For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again. -Proverbs 24:16) or how we fault he is always there ready to discipline us, and bring us back to his love.
Always Loving, always Kind, always Forgiving & Merciful; he would lift us up and hold us in his arms grooming & Mending us until we are strong again! (Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. – Isaiah 40:31)
There is power in the word of God! How Best Can I express this truth to you by brining you in contact with it yourself!
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. - Hebrews 4:12-13
Here’s what Mathew Henry Had to say about the Above…
The Holy Scriptures are the word of God. When God sets it home by his Spirit, it convinces powerfully, converts powerfully, and comforts powerfully. It makes a soul that has long been proud, to be humble; and a perverse spirit, to be meek and obedient. Sinful habits, that are become as it were natural to the soul, and rooted deeply in it, are separated and cut off by this sword. It will discover to men their thoughts and purposes, the vileness of many, the bad principles they are moved by, the sinful ends they act to. The word will show the sinner all that is in his heart. Let us hold fast the doctrines of Christian faith in our heads, its enlivening principles in our hearts, the open profession of it in our lips, and be subject to it in our lives.
Our God is truley great and he really wants to strenghten us and elevate us to get to new places with him, and thats really exciting! I’ll leave you with this..” The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” - 2 Chronicles 16:9
Remain Blessed!
Has God Touched you heart through this ? Please let us know, Leave a comment
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s a really bad place.
Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.
Funny how everyone wants to go to heaven provided they do not have to believe, think, say, or do anything the Bible says. OR IS IT SCARY?
Funny how someone can say “I believe in God” but still follow Satan (who, by the way, also “believes” in God).
Funny how you can send a thousand ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing & many times don’t want to read it.
Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through the whole world, but the public discussion of Jesus is suppressed in the school and workplace.
FUNNY, ISN’T IT?
Funny how someone can be so fired up for Christ on Sunday, but be an invisible Christian the rest of the week.
ARE YOU LAUGHING?
Funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them.
Funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than what God thinks of me.
ARE YOU THINKING?
NOT FUNNY IS IT?
By Adam.
His Website: Christintech.Org
Life can seem like a journey of Ups & Down’s sometimes, good things happen and bad things also inevitably happen (unfortunately) and a most common question amongst both believers and unbelievers is, why did God let these bad things happen? Is it because we’ve been bad, or to punish us? Well the answer to that is NO.
More often than not, God lets things come into our lives, not to destroy us but to build us up in character and help us become who we where destined before the beginning of time to be. Trials are not meant to put us down they are meant to build us up.
God knew you before the thought of a being like you even emerged on this earth, he knew your before the beginning of the earth, he made you just the way you are for a reason, he says ” Behold, I have carved you on the palms of My hands (Isaiah 49:16)”, he knows us even to tiny details about us, check this out “even the very hairs of your head are all numbered (Matthew 10:30)”, do you have every strand of your hair numbered? I’m guessing the answer to that is an Obvious NO! He knows you better than you know yourself
His plans for you are Far Greater Than Yours Could Ever Be!!
I could write a thousand words about how God’s plan for you is always the best plan, I could tell you stories or even include videos of people whose life God’s plan was made manifest, though that would be extremely helpful, I will not do that in this case, what I want to do now is take you face to face with what God has to say about his plans, I want to drive home just three short points.
Let me take you on a little Journey, Please Come with Me…
1 – He does not think the same way we do!
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9″ – This portion of scripture is marvelous (as so the whole scriptures) let this passage be a mirror for you and remind you that if God’s ways are so vastly different from our ways then we will inevitably not always understand what he is doing, and it may seldom make no sense to us, however if we wait on him and trust him, it will make more sense than we could ever have imagined, we can learn to trust God more by really falling in love with him and having an active relationship with him, think of it like a marriage, would you talk to your wife/husband once a week on a Sunday ? You would talk daily, and as you know him/her better your trust for him/her will increase, when you have an active relationship with God your trust will increase.
2 – He is THE master planner!
He didn’t put you on this earth for nothing, He has a plan specifically for you, Ephesians 1:11 says – “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” – This piece of scripture shows us that God has planned for us, even before our existence and everything that happens in our life is to enable us to be changed more to fit the purpose of his plan.
Romans 8:28 says “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”- There is a valuable lesson to be learned here, God calls us to his purpose, he plans for us, he lets both good and bad things get into our life, so we can be in the best shape to fulfill our Destiny; to do what we have predestined us to do, and because of this any bad things that happen to us is nothing compared to the glory that we will see in heaven, or on earth when we see Gods work coming to a completion in us.
Look at it this way, ever been to the gym? First its hard, and you feel pain afterwards, but after perseverance and consistency you begin the pain begins to go away, you become more confident about it, and before you know it, you see the muscles coming out! its the same concept with trials in our lives, they are not to destroy us, even if they hurt, just like the gym hurts, it would be just for a while
3 – Doe’s it all come down to Love?
In the scripture above (Romans 8:28) The promise there includes this “all things good works for the good of those who love him” not only is loving God a prerequisite to be able to stand on this promise and fully proclaim its promises and any other promise in the bible, it also shows that the Christian life is more of a relationship with God than anything else, again think of it like a marriage, in marriage love doesn’t decrease with time, it increases, through the good times and the bad times together, they get closer. Knowing each other much better than they knew each other when they first fell in love, their love grows stronger. Our love for God grows stronger when we spend more time with him, and meditate on his word, he becomes more of a strong active reality with us, and I tell you friends when God is that real to you, even a multitude of problems can not move the very sole of your feet, the problems of the world become nothing to you, because you live in an active reality of the presence of God, This is my wish and prayer for myself and every one who reads this, that God would become so real to us, and his love would abide so much in us, that we can truly and honestly do what is said in James 1:2 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds”
Thank you very much for coming on this journey with me, Remember that no matter what happens, God’s plan will always prevail, and strive to get closer to him everyday, let his love be real in you, and let his light shine through you, so when the darkness of troubles and trials come (which they will) Your light would be shining so bright it would do nothing but re-enforce the truth that you are a shining light, SHINE TO THE WORLD FRIENDS!
Shalom!
PS: I encourage you to forward this and share this with any friends or family you know that may be going through trials, be a blessing.
Storm clouds gather. Problem is, they’re the wrong kind. We need rain desperately, but those clouds hold no rain. We need refreshment and renewal, a kind of inner relief. Like you feel when a sudden cloud cover blocks the burning rays of the sun and blows a cool breeze across the back of your neck. But the storm clouds I refer to bring no such relief.
These clouds are depressing, not unlike the kind Winston Churchill described in his first (of six) volumes on World War II, which he published in March of 1948 on the heels of that awful conflict. Interestingly, he titled that initial volume, The Gathering Storm. I cannot forget this terse, apt description of those months prior to the Nazi blitzkrieg which ultimately leveled much of London: “the future was heavy with foreboding.” Then, in eloquent brevity, the Prime Minister remembered the Fuhrer’s coming into power: “mighty forces were adrift; the void was open, and into that void after a pause there strode a maniac of ferocious genius, the repository and expression of the most virulent hatreds that have ever corroded the human breast—Corporal Hitler.1
Around the world today, men with similar traits direct their power-hungry dictatorships or uprisings with the same illogical sadism and cruel determination. What will happen next is anybody’s guess, which only darkens the harsh clouds about us.
Storm clouds without rain. War clouds without relief.
Then there’s the ever-present gloom-and-doom economy. News of vast industry cutbacks, rising unemployment rates, and all the exaggerated gossip that swirls around business lunches and nightly telecasts spread an atmosphere of grim pessimism as we focus on our own “foreboding future.”
Such clouds not only cast ominous shadows of uneasiness, they breed pessimism. And unless I miss my guess, many of you are paying more attention to the bad news according to CNN than you are to the good news according to Christ Jesus, our Lord. You’re better students of world geography, public polls, and the Wall Street Journal’s analysis of our times than you are of God’s sovereign hand in world affairs and His prophetic plan.
Lest you forget, He is still in charge. As the prophet Nahum stated so confidently: “The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet” (Nahum 1:3 NIV).
Stop. Read that again, only more slowly this time.
When God is in clear focus, His powerful presence eclipses our fears. The clouds become nothing more than “the dust of His feet.”
Seeing above the clouds won’t just happen, however. Not as long as we keep feeding our minds on daily doses of media madness and political pessimism. We need to release our fears and refresh our souls as we spend time in the quiet presence of the living Lord.
When we do, we are then able to get on with life with a lighter heart, better sight, and calmer spirit. We discover again how beautifully the truth sets us free.
I can’t promise that the clouds will be gone, but I can assure you, you won’t be the same. Gathering storm clouds don’t change overnight . . . but by learning to see above them, you’ll change. And in the final analysis, that’s what counts, isn’t it? Not removing the clouds, but seeing above them.
by Charles R. Swindoll
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”” John 14:6
Have you ever stood in a book store and surveyed the number of books that have a number of ways to do most anything? There’s everything from 8 Minute Workouts to 8 Mindful Steps to Happiness to 7 Principles for Making a Marriage and 7 Days to Whiter Teeth. Remember Steven Covey’s, Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People? He put the words “proactive” and “synergize” on the map.
An edition of U.S. News featured on the front cover “50 Ways to Improve Your Life in 2006.” The inclusive list covered everything from flossing your teeth to enjoying a massage to joining a singing group. It seems that everybody writes or reads books that boil anything down to less than ten precise steps to accomplish any goal.
We live in a scientific and technological culture where people believe that every problem can be solved by applied techniques (six steps to a better whatever). How much has this way of viewing life shaped you?
Christian bookstores are not immune this way of thinking. Notice how much it looks like the self-help section of your local secular bookstore. Whether it’s a better marriage or a stronger prayer life, there are numerous books that offer it in six or seven easy steps.
Pastors run to church growth conferences to hear the latest “formula,” in however many steps the speaker may think it takes to grow their church. It all seems so right, so logical so reasonable. The sell books like 5 Good Minutes to Change Your Spiritual life and 100 Morning Practices to Help You Stay Calm and Focused All Day Long.
As Christians, we often think there is some magic formula out there to dramatically change us and make all of our problems go away overnight. Well, it isn’t quite that easy. A lot of self help, spiritual and otherwise are on the shelves of local book stores. Some contain sound advice and some are marginal, if not outright incorrect. Be careful what you load into your brain and be sure you know the core values of the author and don’t believe that a few steps practiced and applied in your life can remake you.
There is only one way and it is a one step process. Jesus said:, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). I suggest that if you really want to change your life this year, commit yourself to follow Him and read His Word every day.
In a world that tells us to conform, Jesus tells us to transform and to present ourselves as a living sacrifice.
So, for us all, may this be the year of transformation, the year of presentation, the year we surrender all we have to the one who holds the keys to joy, peace and contentment. The path to that goal is daily Bible reading, committed worship, not just in church, but in all we do. May this year be the year we renew our pledge to love God more, to seek His face and His plan for our lives more clearly and to draw close to His Word each and every day.
Right now is our most exciting time ever. Last year is history. Next year lies in the future, but this is the only time we will ever have to live right now. So let’s live it to the fullest, changing our lives and changing the lives of others.
Question: What is a goal that you have for the future, and how can your goal be used to honor God?
by John Grant
(John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney)
