Forgive Your Neighbor

Remember when that guy cut you off in traffic the other day?  Did you raise your fist in anger?  Or did you forgive him and say Blessings over him?

Most people are in a hurry.  In their hurry, they cut me off in traffic and don’t even realize they did it.  My response to that person should be to forgive them.  In Exodus 34:6, God tells us He is slow to anger and filled with love.  We should strive to be like Him.  I know it is hard to show love when my neighbors are showing hatred to me.

Look at Psalm 32.  David tells us what happens when we don’t forgive someone, ” my body wastes away, and I groan all day long.”  What that means is that it eats away at you.  Your insides feels funny, maybe like you are sick but you are not.  Our God is an awesome God and He forgives us for all our transgressions.

When someone cuts you off in traffic, don’t be angry at them, Bless them.  If you know them and see them later, you can tell them what they did wrong.  But still Bless them.  That anger can attack you.  When you Bless them and they still are mad, the Blessings will come back to you.

How do you react to being cut off in traffic?

Dominion Over Our Planet

When God created man, He gave us dominion over all the fish in the sea and the birds of the air.  See Genesis 1:26-31.  Most people don’t take that seriously.

When you finish drinking your soda pop, do you pitch it?  Where?  In your back seat?  Out the window?  Our environment is filling up with garbage.  Our streets look trashy.  God Blessed up by telling us we can rule over the animals.  We are Blessed with a conscience and a brain although most people don’t use it.

When riding around the country, I notice the trash in a city, maybe because the one I live in doesn’t get much attention.  I know a guy that saw an older man in a parking lot put a plastic bottle on the ground knowing he was going to leave it there as trash.  So, this guy pointed it out to him saying, “mister, you forgot this bottle.”  The older man said that he didn’t want it.  So the guy said, “ok, then take it home with you and put it in the trash.”  The older guy got huffy and took it and threw it in his car and left.

Maybe we should all do something like that.  If we all take care of our trash, maybe our planet will last longer and look nicer.  Don’t throw trash out of your car.  Dispose of it properly.

God didn’t create a planet with trash on it already.  We created our own garbage.  We need to take care of it.  How do you dispose of your trash in your car?

Joy of the Lord

Where do you get your joy from?  Does eating make you happy?  Does shopping make you happy?  Is joy and happiness the same thing?

The Bible says “the joy of the Lord is my strength.”  If I look to the Lord Jesus for my daily strength, I will be lifted up and will feel secure during my day.  If I look to material things, my happiness is temporary.  If I look to the lord for my joy, I get my joy on the inside and no one can take it away.  Determination is my daily goal.  Every day when I get up and stand on the scale, I say, “this is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.”  I look to the Lord and not to the scale.  Eating makes me temporarily happy but not joyful.  I can eat when I’m sad or when I’m happy.  That’s why I said to look inside for your joy.

The same thing works if you like to shop.  Do you get your happiness from making a purchase?  It makes me happy temporarily but that type of joy will not last.

Read your Bible.  Look inside yourself.  Determine that today you will be full the the joy of the Lord.  Happiness is usually outside or external things.  Joy is what we feel deep down inside our spirit.

What makes you happy?  Where do you get your joy from?

Do You Love?

How do you love?  Do you know what love is?  The word love is a small word with BIG meaning.  I need love.  We all do.  But how do you give it?  How do you get it?

Look to the Bible.  What did Jesus do?  How did He give love?  When they were about to stone Mary Magdalen, Jesus loved Her without even looking at her.  He was writing in the sand.  What was He writing?  Love.  Not the word, but the meaning.  Jesus’ heart is full of love.  No matter what we do, He loves us.

Remember when you picked on your little sister or brother?  Remember when you yelled at your kids?  Remember when you passed up someone who needed your help?  Jesus remember, too.  But yet He still loves us.  When He passes that love to us, we should pass it on to others.  Keep the love flowing.  Remember to stop and smell the roses.  Jesus created them.  Thank Him for his love.

How have you shown love today?

Glory and Trust

Glory and Trust are two words that should be at the top of your list.  Your list should show to others what kind of person your are.  Do you give Glory to God?  Do you trust in the Lord?  How do others view your speaking habits?

Do you rattle off all your good qualities or do you humbly relate all you have to the Glory of God?  When you get a bonus like an extra pay check, or a Christmas bonus, or you sell something online or at a flee market, do you give Glory to God or do you say, ‘I worked hard for that?’  All we have is from God.  All the food I have in my refrigerator is from God.  The gasoline in my car is from God.  The joy in my heart is from God.  Whether it is material things or something special in your heat or soul, it is from God.  And God must get the Glory.

When King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and Daniel knew he would be able to answer the King’s questions, he came forward.  See Daniel 2:14-16.  He knew something deep down inside of him.  He knew God was his provider and would provide the answers.  What did he do first?  He called his Godly friends together and asked them to pray.  Is that the first thing you do?  Pray?  God will answer if you put Him first.  Give Him Glory.  Daniel trusted the the Lord would give him the answers to give the King.  And He did.  In verse 27, Daniel explains the King’s dream.  But he is only able to do that because he trusted in the Lord.  Do you?

Trust in the Lord for everything.  Then He will fulfill your desires.  But remember, trust comes first.  How has the Lord helped you today?

Gifts and Talents

It says in the Bible that God gives all of us gifts.  And you know that some people have natural talent.  So is natural talent the same as God given gifts?

If someone is good at cooking, does that mean that their gift is cooking?  In 1 Corinthians 12:7, Paul says that we are given gifts to help each other.  He goes on in this chapter to list the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to us.  He says that we do not all have the same gifts and that we should desire the most helpful gifts.  is cooking the most desirable gift for you?  How can cooking help someone?  Cooking can certainly help a shut-in person who is restricted or limited in movement.  Would you consider that a gift?  It is not listed in that chapter so I guess I’d have to say no.  Cooking is not a gift but a natural talent.

There are many talents which show through when someone is speaking to you.  Do they talk about themselves?  Do they offer to help you in your need?  Paul goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 13 that the greatest gift is love.  Whether you cook for someone or put out their garbage, speaking to them like Christ would is a gift of love.  Let love be you goal.

Natural talents or spiritual gifts?  What do you think?

 

 

The Lifter of My Head

Do you take pride in everything you do?  In your work?  In your car?  In your house?  Are you prideful?  Where should you draw the line between being prideful and taking pride in your work?

When I do a good job, I am proud of my self.  I have accomplished a task.  I have finished that task and I have done a good job.  Does that make me prideful?  Not necessarily.  Did I brag about it to all my coworkers?  Did I call up all my friends and tell them about what I did?  Sometimes we need to tell someone about a job that we did, but it should only be used as a tool.  Are you training someone?  Are you teaching someone?  Using your job as an example to others may not be being prideful.

But if you run around telling every body about what happened just so they will tell you that you did a good job, then that’s bragging.  That’s being prideful, or being full of your self.  Are you the topic of conversion?  You shouldn’t be. A great listener will be welcomed by every one.  If you only brag about yourself, people will avoid you when they see you coming.  In Psalm 3:3, it tells me that God is the one who holds my head high.  He is the one to give me a pat on the back, not my friends after bragging to them.

Every thing you do should be to glorify God.  Let God be the One who brags about you.

Earth Day vs. God’s Day

Do you celebrate Earth Day?  Do you focus on it?  How far do you take it?  Do you tell others what it represents?

If someone gives you a gift, what do you do it?  Do you spend it?  Or do you share it and pass it on?  God created the earth and gave it to us.  Do we spend it and trash everything He gave us or do we share its bountiful uses and pass it on to our kids?

In Genesis 1, God created earth.  He created the land.  He created the sea.  He created the vegetation.  On the sixth day, He created man and gave us all the fruits  to eat.  And after He created, He looked at each one and said, “it was good.”  Can you think of something in your life that is good?  It’s good to have food.  It’s good to have shelter.  It is good to have clean water and clean air. I value my food and value my shelter, my home.  I would not have them except that God gave them to me. 

Be aware of material values. There is an old saying, ‘a home is where you make it.”  A home can be an apartment or a mansion. Value it for what it is, a shelter, a home. It is not the end all.  Don’t live in a place to try and impress people.  Just thank God you have one.

Earth day will not save the planet in one day but it will draw attention.  It will show me how to use less energy.  It will show me how to quit using plastic bags.  It will show me how to recycle.

God created  the earth and He gave it to me.  Everyday should be God’s Day.  What are you passing on?

 

Bread of Life

When Jesus said He was the Bread of Life, He wasn’t talking about filling your stomach.  The Bread of Life is Jesus Himself.  We eat (bread) daily to give us energy and to help us get through the day.  That bread would be our physical bread.  But we also need spiritual bread.  That spiritual Bread is Jesus.

How do you feed yourself, physically and spiritually?  In order to feed yourself physically, you put food in your mouth.  You don’t eat every thing in your kitchen all at once.  You eat a little at a time with variety.  That’s how it should be when you feed yourself spiritually. You need to put food (Bread) into your spirit.  You needto do it a little at a time.  My brain goes into overload and I won’t remember if I read too much at once.  So, I read daily.  I take in a little at a time. I’ll read Psalms one day and then read some of the Gospels.  Then, I think on it, pray about it, and dwell on it the rest of the day.  By reading my Bible a little at a time, I am feeding and growing in my spiritual life a little at a time.

Another way to feed your spirit to listen to Christian music.  There is a great radio station in my areas and it plays uplifting Christian music.  I also have CD’s to pop in my car if I get tired of the radio.  I have CD’s to calm me down and other to get me to jump to the beat.

How do you eat your Bread (the Bread of Jesus)?  How do you feed your spirit?

Write (Right) For Your Life!

Remember your reaction in high school when the teacher asked you to write an essay?  I don’t remember anybody jumping for joy.  I remember moans and groans.  But I did what was required.

Now, as an adult, I volunteeer to write.  What happened?  Did I change?  Did I grow?  Why don’t I moan every time I write for my blog?  I guess it is because I want to write.  And I want it to be right.  The topics you can write on are limitless.  How do you choose a topic?  I pray and ask God to lead me.  Sound silly?  I never turn down help, especially when it is from my Father in heaven.

When I write on a topic, it helps to remind and confirm.  Remember when I read that book in the Bible yesterday that talked about . . .?  Remember when it said this and that happened?  For me, to see words written, words that I wrote, come to life.  Sometimes it is hard to share my views.  But when I write them down, It is as if I am confirming them with myself.  I write this.  I believe this.  Not everybody can talk a mile a minute and express themself and have everybody believe them.

Is it right to write convictions?  Only if it is backed up by the Word of God.  It is right if it is confirmed by God as He wrote it in the Bible.  Write right for your life!