I love to journal. I have filled up many many many journals over the years. I carry my journal with me where ever I go so I can jot down a thought, a revelation, a word from God, scriptures, devotions, notes from church, and an occasional grocery list!
In early June I wrote the following entry:
"If I truly love and trust God. If I truly stand firm on His Word as truth, then I have no other choice then to do all I can to live in the truth and to do all I can to live as God wants (has instructed) me to do. Then I can do the things He has planned for me. THERE IS NO OTHER CHOICE."
I wrote that as I was trying to wrap my mind around what the Bible really is. The Bible...."the truth, the way, and the life.." John 14:6. How many times do we look on the Internet, seek a hobby, make an idol out of something, read self help books, watch talk shows try to find the ANSWER to our life question? When in the word it says Jesus is THE WAY...he is the way to follow...the path to go on....the instructions to seek. He is THE TRUTH...the only truth...the opposite of lies...a promise. He is THE LIFE...life...wow...He gives us life. How many of us feel dead, feel lost, feel lied to? God is saying Jesus is the one to show us the way, to bring us truth, and to give us sustaining life...not just on our good days, but everyday, even the really bad hair days and the "I got up on the wrong side of the bed days", and the days when we are in deep despair. But we have to be active participants to seek His way, to seek His truth, and to find life in Him.
I have read my bible many times. I have read scriptures many times. I have done bible studies. I have worshiped with all I have, but recently God really impressed upon my heart that in order for me to understand who I was in Him and how to live for Him, that I had to start reading my bible with a different perspective. During these moments God had me begin memorizing and start really applying scriptures. The first scripture that God moved me to is Philippians 4:8 "Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable, and right, and pure, and holy, and admirable. Think on things that are excellent and worthy of praise." NLT I wrote this scripture along with 14 others in a small index card spiral. I broke the scripture apart so that each word made sense and each word could be applied to my daily life. If God is asking me to fix my thoughts on what is true...that means Jesus. It doesn't say to just fix my thoughts on one of the things listed but each of them. God uses the word "and" in between each word.
This week I started an online bible study with Beth Moore facilitating it. It is called Me, Myself and Lies by Jennifer Rothschild. Beth had us first go to Psalm 19 and write out what God wanted us to know about why we need to read and understand His Word. I encourage you to read this Psalm, but I will list out what David says. God says His word is perfect, trustworthy, right, clear, pure, true, desireable, sweeter than honey, and a warning. God's word is our instruction, so we need to not just memorize a verse or remember an event in the bible, but really seek God's wisdom on understanding the scripture. I am not talking about the history behind it (although that is good), or the Greek or Hebrew translations of words...but what God is telling us to do. He breathed this book called the bible for a reason. Not just to skim the pages, but to give us instructions and hope and an understanding of His love for us. It is our play book of life.
Also if we go to Psalm 119, the psalmist tells us in v31 "I cling to your laws", in v105 "Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path". In v 106 "I will obey your righteous regulations". In v133 "Guide my steps by your word". Throughout this Psalm it is written "I will delight in your decrees", "I will reflect your decrees", "teach me your decrees" (more than once this is stated), and "I will meditate on your decrees:.
So what I am getting at is, there is no other choice, if we believe what the bible says is true, than to reflect, be taught, delight in, and meditate on His word so that we will know "the truth, the way and the life". There is no other choice than to turn the lamp on by reading his word so that we can see the path that God has so carefully, lovingly, and delightfully given us. There is not other choice than to "fix my thoughts on what is true"...the Word of God. So when we tell ourselves I am not good enough are we "thinking on things that are excellent"? Are we remembering God said that we are a masterpiece?
My challenge, hope, encouragement, support, deep desire is for you (and me) to memorize scripture and at the same time pick it apart. Ask God what it means. Know that God chose those specific words to be breathed on that page...so they are TRUE, they are the WAY, and they are the LIFE. I wish I could be face to face to you right now and share with you my passion for understanding what God's awesome word is saying to you and me. Fall in love with God. Fall in love with his Word. Fall in love with his instructions and decrees. And you will see that they are right, and pure, and holy, and sweet, and trustworthy, and best of all PERFECT!
So I have no other choice to believe "No one hates their own body, but feeds and cares for it as Christ loves the Church." Ephesians 5:29.
I have no other choice than to know and put in to action His Truth.
Make it "no other choice".
In Christ's Love....Teresa
Showing posts with label God's Word is truth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God's Word is truth. Show all posts
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
No Alerations Required
I know I promised photos and more on how my son Jack changed his perspective, but I am going to give that a few days before I post on that. My daughter, Madie, jumped on the band wagon as well and spent yesterday cleaning out her room. There is so many lessons that I can pull out that God placed on my heart over the last few days while "cleaning out" rooms with my kids and talking about changing perspective...but those will have to wait.
God has placed a purpose in my heart. And I know this purpose is not new, but I have finally discovered it. God always knew what it would be since according to His word it says, "Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed." Psalm 139:16 And if that isn't amazing enough on its own it says "How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. The can not be numbered." v17 He still has precious thoughts about me, even though he already knew of all the good and bad (even the VERY bad) that I would be involved in. So, back to the purpose...I can deny it no longer. I can not run from it any longer. I can not hide from it.
One of the reasons I began this blog was to encourage, support, and talk about our identity in Christ. To discuss who God says we are and how our worldly view has changed it so much that we don't always understand it. The world has placed a veil over our eyes as to who we were created to be. Of course I could never just write one blog entry to talk about all I have learned and how I spent more than 98% of my life searching for who I was in everything other than God even when I chose to accept Him as my Savior. So this is just a start. This is just one discussion of many to come.
And in light of Michael Jackson's death, I think we can start with the very first thing that came to my heart when I heard the news. I shared this with my kids and then felt the depth of my life choices...
Michael Jackson spent most of his life trying to alter himself. I do not know all he has done. I don't have any facts, but I will say that we can visually see that he was not happy with what God gave him. Yes, he did some great things and I am not going to sweep that under the rug for his fans, but just for now I want to talk about altering. I am not sure what his actual cause of death will be confirmed as, but so far we have heard he went in to cardiac arrest.
Michael Jackson tried to change the color of his skin. Michael Jackson changed most of his facial features. If you compare his earlier pictures to those of recent, he doesn't even look like the same person. I believe that he spent most of his life trying to make alterations to himself to make him "good enough" for what he thought was "good enough". He was in constant pursuit of making changes to his original form. I thought about this so much last night. We try to alter what God made.
Let's go back to Psalm 139. I know we hear this all the time and sometimes quote it with out really looking at what God meant for us to understand. "You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion. You saw me before I was born." v13-14 It says he made ALL of the delicate parts. It says he KNIT me together. We also know that God does not make mistakes. One day my friends and I were talking about the verse that God wrote about knitting us together. I don't knit, but my friends and one of my daughters do. First you have to carelfully plan out what you are going to knit...you have a pattern. Each stitch (I am sure that is the wrong word) is specific so that the end product is just how they planned, just like the pattern. It takes time to knit. Most people find it relaxing and rewarding. When they are done, they show what they made with pride and people are amazed by it. God took his time, planned out every stitch of our body, and when He was done he was oohing and aweing over each of us.
I have also spent a life time trying to alter my body. The body that God so carefully created for me. The body he spent time knitting together so that each stitch was perfect in his eyes. I spent most of my life in the depths of an eating disorder. I will get more in to that in later blogs and how it all came about, but I tried to alter what God created. The act of the alterations almost took my life last year. The act of alterations made me self centered and lost. The act of alterations pulled me from the gift of a family, of a life, of my purpose...and it could have ended in cardiac arrest. Last year...in June of 2008...my doctor's warned me of this...my prophetic friend warned me of this...cardiac arrest...because I was desperate to change who God created me to be. Because I did not understand my identity in Him. I didn't understand my identity in Him. And I will say it again, I didn't understand my identity in Him. I say it 3 times, because it is of upmost importance that I make that clear. In the bible God repeated himself when he wanted to emphasize something. So I am repeating that so that I can emphasize that we have to understand who God says we are and then BELIEVE it. We have to read scripture in a way that each time we read the words of our Bible we know that God carefully chose those words. He could have placed so many other words on the pages of our Bible, but he chose the ones that are on each page. I am sure many other events happened, many other conversations took place, other people had stories to tell...but God knew exactly what we needed to know to live the life we are living and all we have to do is open the Bible and there it is...our life in black and white...He loves us...He created us...He forgives us...He has plans for us...He redeems and restores us...
We don't have to alter ourselves. The world says we do. The media says we do. The magazines, music, the internet says we do. Who breathed those words? It wasn't our God. Our God breathed the words in the Bible...and it says we are "workmanship", it says we are "wonderfully made". No alterations required. Our identity is in Him. We don't have to change the color of our skin, or the shape of our face or the way our body was made. Our God says No Alterations Required. His word is true...His word is perfect. His word was meant for you and for me and for each of us. You are a workmanship...I am a workmanship...I was wonderfully made...You were wonderfully made....Michael Jackson was wonderfully made...I wish he could have seen the wonderfully made workmanship that he was...and I now see that God knit me together...carefully, wonderfully, and marvelously. I believe that because God wrote that to me in a beautiful love letter called the Bible. He breathed the words on the pages with just as much care as he did when he created you and I.
NO ALTERATIONS REQUIRED...says our God
In love...Teresa
God has placed a purpose in my heart. And I know this purpose is not new, but I have finally discovered it. God always knew what it would be since according to His word it says, "Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed." Psalm 139:16 And if that isn't amazing enough on its own it says "How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. The can not be numbered." v17 He still has precious thoughts about me, even though he already knew of all the good and bad (even the VERY bad) that I would be involved in. So, back to the purpose...I can deny it no longer. I can not run from it any longer. I can not hide from it.
One of the reasons I began this blog was to encourage, support, and talk about our identity in Christ. To discuss who God says we are and how our worldly view has changed it so much that we don't always understand it. The world has placed a veil over our eyes as to who we were created to be. Of course I could never just write one blog entry to talk about all I have learned and how I spent more than 98% of my life searching for who I was in everything other than God even when I chose to accept Him as my Savior. So this is just a start. This is just one discussion of many to come.
And in light of Michael Jackson's death, I think we can start with the very first thing that came to my heart when I heard the news. I shared this with my kids and then felt the depth of my life choices...
Michael Jackson spent most of his life trying to alter himself. I do not know all he has done. I don't have any facts, but I will say that we can visually see that he was not happy with what God gave him. Yes, he did some great things and I am not going to sweep that under the rug for his fans, but just for now I want to talk about altering. I am not sure what his actual cause of death will be confirmed as, but so far we have heard he went in to cardiac arrest.
Michael Jackson tried to change the color of his skin. Michael Jackson changed most of his facial features. If you compare his earlier pictures to those of recent, he doesn't even look like the same person. I believe that he spent most of his life trying to make alterations to himself to make him "good enough" for what he thought was "good enough". He was in constant pursuit of making changes to his original form. I thought about this so much last night. We try to alter what God made.
Let's go back to Psalm 139. I know we hear this all the time and sometimes quote it with out really looking at what God meant for us to understand. "You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion. You saw me before I was born." v13-14 It says he made ALL of the delicate parts. It says he KNIT me together. We also know that God does not make mistakes. One day my friends and I were talking about the verse that God wrote about knitting us together. I don't knit, but my friends and one of my daughters do. First you have to carelfully plan out what you are going to knit...you have a pattern. Each stitch (I am sure that is the wrong word) is specific so that the end product is just how they planned, just like the pattern. It takes time to knit. Most people find it relaxing and rewarding. When they are done, they show what they made with pride and people are amazed by it. God took his time, planned out every stitch of our body, and when He was done he was oohing and aweing over each of us.
I have also spent a life time trying to alter my body. The body that God so carefully created for me. The body he spent time knitting together so that each stitch was perfect in his eyes. I spent most of my life in the depths of an eating disorder. I will get more in to that in later blogs and how it all came about, but I tried to alter what God created. The act of the alterations almost took my life last year. The act of alterations made me self centered and lost. The act of alterations pulled me from the gift of a family, of a life, of my purpose...and it could have ended in cardiac arrest. Last year...in June of 2008...my doctor's warned me of this...my prophetic friend warned me of this...cardiac arrest...because I was desperate to change who God created me to be. Because I did not understand my identity in Him. I didn't understand my identity in Him. And I will say it again, I didn't understand my identity in Him. I say it 3 times, because it is of upmost importance that I make that clear. In the bible God repeated himself when he wanted to emphasize something. So I am repeating that so that I can emphasize that we have to understand who God says we are and then BELIEVE it. We have to read scripture in a way that each time we read the words of our Bible we know that God carefully chose those words. He could have placed so many other words on the pages of our Bible, but he chose the ones that are on each page. I am sure many other events happened, many other conversations took place, other people had stories to tell...but God knew exactly what we needed to know to live the life we are living and all we have to do is open the Bible and there it is...our life in black and white...He loves us...He created us...He forgives us...He has plans for us...He redeems and restores us...
We don't have to alter ourselves. The world says we do. The media says we do. The magazines, music, the internet says we do. Who breathed those words? It wasn't our God. Our God breathed the words in the Bible...and it says we are "workmanship", it says we are "wonderfully made". No alterations required. Our identity is in Him. We don't have to change the color of our skin, or the shape of our face or the way our body was made. Our God says No Alterations Required. His word is true...His word is perfect. His word was meant for you and for me and for each of us. You are a workmanship...I am a workmanship...I was wonderfully made...You were wonderfully made....Michael Jackson was wonderfully made...I wish he could have seen the wonderfully made workmanship that he was...and I now see that God knit me together...carefully, wonderfully, and marvelously. I believe that because God wrote that to me in a beautiful love letter called the Bible. He breathed the words on the pages with just as much care as he did when he created you and I.
NO ALTERATIONS REQUIRED...says our God
In love...Teresa
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