The Truth
November 7, 2010 I have been on a journey of awakening and have discovered the truth for me. **************************************************************************** The following scripture is from the English Standard Version of the Bible: The Truth Will Set You Free – John 8:31f 31So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” **************************************************************************** There are times in our lives when we are prisoners and don’t even realize it – we allow ourselves to be enslaved. I have been in a prison of my own choosing for quite some time. As I have been on this spiritual journey I could not see the truth and I was not free. When I was growing up I would spend time talking with God – I clearly remember standing on a fence at my Grandparents farm looking in the woods and talking with God. I may have been 10 or 12, I don’t recall. I was very happy and peaceful, my life was magical in every way. As I grew older I spent less and less time talking with God. Most of the time I was just living in survival mode not seeing what was missing in my life. Driving down the road recently I asked God to be more involved in my life (as if he had gone anywhere – LOL). “Dear Lord I am hoping that you might make this simple and I won’t have to go through something dreadful to be closer to you, please. Amen” It is humbling to realize that my creator is always in my life, everywhere, in every way, all the time… I stopped thinking that I had all the answers and that I even needed to. I started relying on God for answers and what showed up was this never-ending path of events and things that came my way before I even knew I needed it. Anything that was required for me was given to me before I knew why. One of the most valuable lessons I learned is this, the TRUTH will set you free. Here is a great example of that: I have been working on a new project, it is rather large and has consumed my time almost exclusively for the last two months. To the point that I stopped looking for any new clients to build websites or do publishing or anything that I usually do to make money. I really was not paying much attention to the fact that I didn’t have any money coming in (silly, right?). My accounts receivable dried up, except for some large accounts that are not able to pay me yet due to the economy and I was left with an empty bank account and no quick way to put more in. My car insurance was late and now due and no income to pay it, so I just kept on working on the new project knowing that eventually money would be there from the project. In the mean time my car insurance was canceled, ouch! At first I panicked, this was bad. Then I took a deep breath (remembered my favorite light switch; “be still and know that I am God…” Psalms 46:10 – flipped the switch…) and ask God what I should do about that. The answer was immediate, it is not wrong not to...
Read MoreAsking God for Answers
I have been on a spiritual path for quite a while now. I started down this path by asking God to help me to get closer to Him. I know, kind of scary right?!?! Most of the time we think that will cause us some kind of pain in order to draw nearer to God. My thoughts exactly. Here’s the thing… I can recall a time in my life where I was perfectly at peace and in alignment with God – no separation – no fear – complete PEACE and HARMONY. I was young and I can see it clearly… standing on a fence post (you know the old wooden fences that you could climb up on and sit there) looking into the woods and having a conversation with God – like He was my best friend – like He was right there – listening to me – wrapping His loving arms around me – I was so happy and so free – no worries – no fear – only that moment. I was confident and sure of the world around me, I didn’t look for more than what was right there and how I could please God the most with my service. All that I could ever want or need was supplied to me. There was no desire for more – I had it all! It was probably the closest to living in the garden of Eden that a person could come to. I was visiting my Granny and Grandpa in Louisiana – they lived near a swamp (yeah a real one, the kind with gators, snakes and slime) with flowing water (a river called Dugdemona) and they had a cow, a pony, chickens, ducks, flower garden (Grandpa loved flowers) and a BIG garden. We had fresh purple hull peas (my favorite – I ate them as I shelled them until I got sick , squash, watermelon, tomatoes, greens and who knows what else. There were fish fry’s with friends, playing in the hot sandy soil of the garden, walks on the trails, scouting for arrowheads (and there were plenty), building forts out of anything we could find. My God it was wonderful! My older sister and my younger brother were there too – we had such a great summer there. We all learned how to drive sitting on Grandpa’s lap, steering on the dirt roads (we could all drive by the age 12), laughing and swerving (after all who was it going to hurt, no one on that road for sure) – Grandpa was so patient and laughed right along with us! Life was simple then. Life can be simple now. That is what I asked for – simplicity, love, peace and harmony. These can be found in every day – no matter where you are, what you do. I am there now… Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God....
Read MoreDaily Bible Reading
Okay, I admit that I start this every year – pretty much since I was 20 and while I have read every scripture in the Bible, I have never made it through the year with reading the Bible as planned. So this year I signed up to read the Bible daily with the BibleGateWay.com sending me the scriptures of the day in email. I read email daily so it should work for me. Join me here if you want: http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/readingplans/ So today’s reading caught my attention – Genesis 7:15f Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in. I thought it was cool that the animals came to Noah – I never really got that in the past. Once again Our GOD is an AWESOME God! Now I can really see the movie Noah in action....
Read MoreWhat’s with the thorns?
Have you ever just felt like – ‘that’s it, I’m done – I don’t know what else to do!’ Well that was how I was feeling yesterday when I left for church. I was asking God things like, ‘what do you want from me?,’ what can I do?’ Then I was crying and feeling like nothing was working… I almost did not go to church, then I realized there would be a message there for me, my message… so I went. You are probably wondering what my dilemma is all about and this is where it gets kind of interesting. Do I tell all here and maybe it helps someone else or do I keep it to myself and just elude to things, you know – play it safe. After all we wouldn’t want everyone to know too much about our privates lives, right?!?! I will share, soon… for now my time is short and I want to write about the lesson. We had a different speaker today, Rod – he is great and I really got a lot out of the lesson. The title – What’s with the Thorns? – had to do with 2 Corinthians 12:7-10: (English Standard Version from BibleGateway.com) So(J) to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,[a](K) a thorn was given me in the flesh,(L) a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8(M) Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9But he said to me, (N) ”My grace is sufficient for you, for(O) my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that(P) the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10(Q) For the sake of Christ, then,(R) I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For(S) when I am weak, then I am strong. Rod asked, “how can we benefit by being broken?” “When you are broken, you yield, and when you yield, you are empowered.” Jesus said, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” 2Corinthians 12:9...
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