A Scary World

 The world can seem to be a scary place.  Whether or not you participate in the Halloween holiday - the spooks, the skeletons, and the spiders are all around (Plus candy corn and bite size Hershey candies which are evil in their own right :) ;certain cities (New Orleans comes to mind) celebrate Halloween in macabre ways; and then there is the evening news…in whatever city you find yourself living, the news always includes murder, molestation, and mayhem!  A scary place for those who do not belong to the Lord God Almighty!  How blessed we are.  Two assuring Scriptures come to mind.

Romans 8:15-16 (NLT)
¹⁵ So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.

We are members of the royal family and we know that Our Father is Sovereign and all-powerful. We do not have to be afraid of this world we live in.  We see the world around us filled with sin and rebellion against God and this world is paying the price for that rebellion. 

Here’s what is important: we don’t have to be afraid and pessimistic because we know our future glory; we know that God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth….a world that will be free from sin and evil.

In the meantime, with walk with Our Father in this world, not alone but full of His Spirit.

 2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT)
⁷ For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

As believers we are filled with the Holy Spirit and He enables us to face this world we live in with strength and courage NOT with fear, cowardice, and alarm.  How does the Holy Spirit help us today in our sinful, scary, hostile world?  He gives us three gifts:
  The Gift of Power: God gives strength of character and confidence which enables us to face opposition any time we stand firm in God’s truth.  This is not natural but SUPERNATURAL – God takes away our timidity and replaces it with a boldness to speak God’s truth. 
  The Gift of Love: The Holy Spirit fills us with love for those who hear our words…believers and nonbelievers.  We are different from the world around us and what makes us different is our love for others.  Jesus promised, By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35 nkjv).  True Christian love is not selfish, instead the Holy Spirit enables us to sacrifice for others and not be afraid.
  The Gift of Self-Control: The Holy Spirit gives us a sound mind, the ability to think clearly and to be sensible. This kind of thinking is hard for the world to ignore or deny.
God is the giver of such good gifts – they are all we need to live in this world. The choice is ours; we must choose to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit each day and as we do that these gifts are more fully developed in us. 
When we feel afraid, let’s choose to go directly to Scripture:

Joshua 10:25 (ESV) ^And Joshua said to them, “Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and courageous. For thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight.”

2 Corinthians 5:6-7 (NLT) So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. ⁷ For we live by believing and not by seeing.

John 16:33 (NCV)
³³ “I told you these things so that you can have peace in me. In this world you will have trouble, but be brave! I have defeated the world. “

Joyfully,
Yvonne

PRAYER POINTERS

Our ladies' Bible Study this coming Sunday is about praying when you don't know what to pray.  These are some pointers that are given in the Life Application Bible Commentary:

HOW TO PRAY FOR OTHER CHRISTIANS

How many people in your life could be touched if you prayed this way?  Taken from Colossians Chapter One...

-         Be thankful for their faith and changed lives (1:3-4).

-         Ask God to help them know what he wants them to do (1:9).

-         Ask God to give them deep spiritual understanding (1:9).

-         Ask God to help them live for him (1:10).

-         Ask God to give them more knowledge of himself (1:10).

-         Ask God to give them strength to endure (1:11).

-         Ask God to fill them with joy, strength, and thankfulness (1:11).

WHAT A FAMILY

I’m still reading, Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good, by Jan Karon.  This morning I read this line, “the common ground of one-God-made-known-through-Jesus Christ”!  That line made my heart soar with the joy of belonging to the family of God. The very family brought into being by the birth, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus!  I’m a part of that family …. It includes my blood-family relatives; my local church-family relatives; and halleluiah, it includes all those I don’t go to the same church with and don’t even know, but we are bound together as Christ-blood relatives!  WHAT A GREAT GOD WE LOVE!   WHAT A GREAT FAMILY WE BELONG TO! (I know, bad grammar, but good words anyway)

I like pictures. Our living room wall is filled with antique pictures of relatives and our bedroom walls are filled with the “rogues gallery” of our more immediate family. I even have a picture on my wall when I looked good in a bathing suit…of course I was only 7 years old!   I like to look at pictures. They are great reminders of what older members of our family were like and they help to remind me of times when our immediate family  enjoys life together.

Our wonderful Heavenly Father also paints a picture for us of what the Family of God looks like – and it is a beautiful picture! 

The Family Portrait: 

John 1:12-13 (NCV)  But to all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become children of God. ¹³ They did not become his children in any human way—by any human parents or human desire. They were born of God.

·        Becoming a child of God is a sovereign act of God, not an achievement by man.

·        Going to church, being good, being raised in the church or getting baptized seven times won’t make you a child of God.

·        Having Christian parents, uncles and aunts, won’t make you a child of God.

·        Belonging to the same church your parents, uncles and aunts attended will not make you a child of God.

·         Being  Baptist, or Methodist, or Evangelical Bible Believers, or…will not make you a member of the Family of God!

You become a child of God by faith, by responding to the fact that God is calling your name.

THE GROUP PHOTO

Galatians 3:26b,28 (NCV)
…This means that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁸ In Christ, there is no difference between Jew and Greek, slave and free person, male and female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus.

All one in Christ Jesus what a tremendous birthright! This doesn’t mean that our race, or sex, or even position in society is changed at conversion.  IT DOES MEAN…that these things have no value and are never held against us when it comes to our spiritual relationship to God through Christ.  God grace declares ALL believers to be on the same level…so that He might give mercy to us all.(Read Romans 11:25-32)

THE PORTFOLIO POSE

1 John 3:1 (NCV)
¹ The Father has loved us so much that we are called children of God. And we really are his children. ..

Our family name, children of God,  reveals a solid fact. God's children—that is what we are! God gives his people both the title and the reality. When he calls Christians his children, he makes them to be just that. Great as he is, God has brought believers into the loving, intimate relationship of children with their Father.

Dear ones, let us hold fast to our privileged relationship to each other and to our Father God, being loyal, trustworthy, faithful to our Lord God through our personal relationship with Jesus Christ!

Joyfully,

Yvonne

ON HAVING A SCRAMBLED MIND

I’m reading Jan Karon’s book, Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good, and in this book is a quote that expresses how I feel sometimes: His mind was Arctic tundra ---- hither a scrap of stunted moss, yon a dwarf tree..

Have you ever felt that way?  Sort of discombobulated? Feeling as if your mind is stunted and dwarfed?   There are times when right-thinking seems unattainable --- my mind is flying apart and of no use to any one!  What to do? GO TO THE GUIDE BOOK!

Philippians 4:4-7 (NLT)
⁴ Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!
⁵ Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.
⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

AHA! That’s pretty clear isn’t it!  We can take steps to bring clarity of thinking to our minds.  In police work a “disturbing the peace” call is known as a “Signal-22”. (I learned this on TV!)  It is a code that someone is disturbing the general welfare of the community.  In our personal lives I think we can also have “Signal-22” calls…when things “get under our skin” and we lose the ability to think clearly and with peace and understanding.  So, when we have those “signal-22” moments, let’s just remember the formula that Paul gives us in Philippians 4: 6-8.  The formula is P + P + P = P.

First step in the formula :

P – Verse 4 = PRAISE

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!
Can’t think clearly?  Stay cool and relaxed by praising the Lord.  Sing a hymn; read Scripture out loud.  I read a sermon in which the preacher said Praise is a matter of finding God’s hand print on everything!  Praise means rejoicing in the good, the bad, and the ugly!  Praise enables us to remember that no matter how discombobulated (my favorite word of the day!) we may be feeling we know that God is in control and has a wonderful plan for us!

Sing out the traditional “Doxology” by Thomas Ken, PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!

Next step in the formula:

P – Verses 5,6a = POISE

Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything… (NIV)

Poise (composure, balance) comes from a mind that is not anxious…not divided…not confused, and that kind of thinking comes from knowing that the Lord Jesus is near…always close by.  Poise and self-control and self confidence come from the understanding that we know Jesus is in control of our life’s events…nothing happens to us that He doesn’t first approve. Living like that clears our thinking!  It is a relaxed way of facing our abundant life – this gift from Jesus!

Remember:  "Said the Robin to the sparrow,
                      I should really like to know,
                     Why these anxious human beings rush about and hurry so.
                      Said the sparrow to the Robin, Friend, I think that it must be,
                      That they have no Heavenly Father, such as cares for you and me."

Next step in the formula:

P – Verse 6b = PRAYER

but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (NIV)
For me, the prayer that totally connects me to God…to His decisions, His plan… is to pray like Jesus did in Gethsemane:  NOT MY WILL, BUT THY WILL BE DONE!

All the fretting, the burdensome worry is gone.  I am able to rest in His will!

THE ANSWER TO THE FORMULA is PRAISE + POISE + PRAYER = PEACE
Verse 7 - Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Peace that doesn’t makes sense! That’s right. This Peace that results from Praise + Poise + Prayer isn’t like anything this world has to offer.  This Peace that flows from our Lord God erases our discombobulated minds; guards our hearts, our minds, our lives…and nothing can take it away from us!

No more tundra…dwarfed and stunted living!  The Philippian P’s Formula makes for gigantic and powerful living.

Joyfully,

Yvonne

FACE THE TRUTH

This quote is taken from my book, Prodigal Wisdom, (available through Amazon.com).  
  "We had to face the truth and that meant turning away from our concerns about appearances and what our peers would think of us as parents.  We had to face the delusion we were living and look at the reality of the situation.  We had to turn away from the notion that we had some influence and control.  WE HAD TO TURN TOWARD THE LORD..who did have power and control."

Although we were facing our son's addictions, I do believe the principle expressed here applies to many life situations...we have to face the truth , the reality, of our circumstances and turn them over to the Lord.

"And he asked them, ' Why are you so afraid? Do you still not have faith in me?' " Mark 4:40,NLT

GRATITUDE

A friend sent me this quote and I just want to share it with all who will listen....

"In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with  gratitude that life becomes rich" - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Makes me grateful for the internet and being able to Blog!