Who do you serve Christ to please?

This entry is to kinda revisit my last posting. I received a New Testament Bible from a good friend of mine today. It is a New Living Translation. What I love about reading different translations of the bible is that you get a new view of scriptures that you have already read...and they speak to you in a different way.

In getting back to my last posting I talked about how I left my church and all I had built there. So, in God's way of getting us to think about other aspects of the very situation we have been dealing with I came across a scripture in this new bible I received that made me stop and think.

Galatians 1:10
Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant.

I just had to stop and think of just what motivations do I have to do the things I do in Christ's name... am I trying to please people or am I trying to please God? I really believe this is a question that we must ask ourselves continually.... maybe daily. So I ask you....

Who do you serve Christ to please?

Blessings,
Terry

A struggle with what God tells you...

How many times do you question what you feel you are hearing from God is actually from Him? There are times I can feel God's voice in my spirit but it's not really what I want to be hearing. I have been going through a tough time on my path with Christ and thought it would make a great blog entry so maybe someone else who goes through something similar may find strength.

Back last October I began to feel God telling me to leave my church. Now I had been struggling with some things I was seeing in church but leaving was something I just did NOT want to do. I fought this for a span of 3 months but finally just had to obey and step out on faith. I kept hearing that there was something great waiting for me. I was involved with quite a few things in my church. I was part of a drama team, taught Sunday School on occasion, church league softball, short children sermons, and playing guitar for the church. I was supposed to just give up all that and leave? Oh...this was a hard thing to do but I did it anyway on faith.

I visited a couple churches and learned some wonderful things. Each sermon I heard seemed to be connected to what I was going through. As a month or so passed I began to wonder if I did the right thing. I wasn't finding this great thing I was supposed to have. I wasn't feeling a connection to the other churches like I thought I would. I began to think I was deceived in what I was hearing. Thinking that Satan had whispered in my ear to get me out of my church. Then a couple things happened that began to bring me back to my church. One of my sons had an artwork entered in a competition and this happened to be at my old church. Then on another occasion a good friend from my church contacted me to go to a Hillsong United concert with him because he had an extra ticket. In both these cases I felt that was where I needed to be. Back at my church and being with my family from that church.

I began to meditate and pray on this. Should I go back to my old church? This is when I began to have a wonderful outpouring and the Holy Spirit began to speak volumes to me. I want to start with this scripture...

James 2
20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

I was wondering if I was deceived into leaving... now I know that God was testing me to see if I would show my faith by doing what he asked of me similar to Abraham's faith being made complete by his willingness to offer Isaac as a sacrifice knowing God promised to make him the father of nations. It was God's voice I heard and I obeyed. I fought it hard tho....lol, but obeyed in the end. I willfully gave up all I had built and coveted. Now, upon returning to my church I am certain in the Lord that He will reposition me into all I was doing there before and will bless all I do there with great measure. The Lord blessed Abraham in Genesis 22 because he obeyed. I know God isn't looking at what I gave up as a sacrifice to Him but as a seed He gave me. Only by giving it up will He be able to multiply it.

May God bless you all

For Freedom...

Gosh, it's been a while since I made an entry on my blog. I have been doing a course reading the Bible in 90 days and it has taken up quite a bit of my time. I am not a fast reader....lol. I was thinking this morning about how some things take up so much of "us" ... of you.. of me... and often these things are of no real importance to our existance. We still occupy our time with these irrelevant things and they take away from things that are relevant. I have gotten behind in my reading because I have been doing other things... of less importance. Facebook is a big culprit. I spend too much time on this. I have taken time from something that I feel is very important and been using it messing around reading people's status updates and playing silly little games. This thought came to me as I heard a scripture this morning....

Galatians 5:1

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

In a sense, this Facebook has enslaved me. I am often "checking in" on Facebook on my phone while at work when I should be working... spending time in the evening on it when I should be doing my reading. It had restricted me from doing things I want to be doing, enslaving me so to speak... sounds odd doesn't it. As Paul brings out in today's scripture Jesus set us free for us to BE FREE. I thought I had freedom before I came to Christ but I was enslaved with the sin of my existence. Jesus delivered me from myself and gave me such hope for my eternity. But now, while an alien in this world I once felt comfortable in, I find myself getting enslaved again. Legalism in the church is such a slavemaster. Not many Christians realize this. Paul even stated that falling in line with everyone else is not freedom.

"You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from Grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.... The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

So... I strive to now do the things that I feel are essential to my existance. Re-align my priorities and regain the freedom Christ freed me for.

Blessings for all of you...
Terry

All joy...all pain... let me look to YOU!

What a time of the year this has been. Not only for me and my family...but for my friends also. The holiday season is a time for giving thanks....sharing with family and friends...fellowship! But this isn't always the case. This time of the year can be a very difficult time for many people...me included. I do have the most wonderful friends right now....I feel more connected...and closer to my friends now than I ever have at any other time in my life. I care more for these friends than I have ever cared before. As I think about each of my friends I realize that they are all going through different seasons from one another. Some are in a season of great joy....some sorrow....some physical pain....some emotional pain. Some are getting closer to God...while some seem to be drifting away from Him. There are a couple verses that comes to mind for each of my friends....

Psalm 105:4
Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose.

You see...in every situation in life... be it good or bad...happy or sad... always look to the Lord our God because in all things God works for our good. I know that many times we have to wonder what good can come of our situation. I'm here to tell you that you can use the experience of such a hard time to minister to someone else. In both good times and bad times we gain a personal knowledge of the situation that can be used by others. So I say to my friends.... Look to the Lord and his strength in all things because God works for our good according to His purpose! Amen!

May you all be blessed...

A CHALLENGE....

Ok...a couple days ago I decided to try a little experiment. I have the website I like to go to where people post little funny sayings and other will rate them with a little "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down". A lot of these posts are rather 'nasty' in nature. Graphic and explicit. So I decided to go the other direction and post scripture....just to see the response. Most of the posts get a little vote traffic on them. 4 will like...6 will dislike or maybe 7 like...2 dislike. Well as of writing this blog the first scripture I posted is currently 38 like and 164 dislike. The second of these posts is currently at 30 like and 138 dislike. Why do you suppose this is? This site is set up so you can only vote once on a posting. I find this to be rather exciting! What a wonderful field to sow seeds. There was a series of posts following my second one that debated the actual existence of God Himself. WOW! There are so many out there that are under the control of Satan! They are so blind to the Word! They actually try to quote scripture and can't. They say such foul things about our Father...but I really don't find this overly offensive. For as Jesus said as he was crucified

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." ~Luke 23:34

I know that they are under the influence of Satan and they agonize over the Word of God. I am positive that these seeds will come to harvest...someone will seek Jesus. It may not be directly because of these scriptures I post...but they will begin to work inside and allow God to do His work.

The reason I titled this blog "A CHALLENGE..." is that I challenge you to find a forum like the one I found... where you can post scripture and see the feedback from this post. Don't be afraid to defend the Word. It can change someone's life... and it can be good practice to face doubters in real life.

Be Blessed....

Slivers....and thorns

Today at work I was handling some metal support tubes that have been machined...and they sometimes have little metal burrs on them that will get stuck in your hand. Very painful! But they did remind me of a Children's Sermon that I did at our church....and I just feel led to share it with all of you.

This is a story of a lion and a mouse.... One day a lion was walking through the jungle... doing king of the beasts things. When suddenly he stepped on a thorn and it stuck deep in his paw. The lion ROARED with pain. He painfully walked towards home roaring with each step. All the jungle animals stayed clear of the lion because they were very afraid. Unable to get to his home the lion finally laid down on the ground hoping the pain would quit enough for him to continue. As he lay there... a little mouse, searching for food, came up to the lion and saw the big thorn in his paw. Without hesitation, the little mouse grabbed onto the thorn and pulled with all his might. A sharp pain shot through the lion and the he jumped to his feet. Looking around to see who he was about to devour for hurting him...he sees this little mouse standing there holding a thorn. Realizing this mouse just pulled the thorn out of his paw...the lion lifted the little mouse and thanked him. The lion was so happy he could just lick that little mouse. The lion put the little mouse on top of his head and paraded around the jungle telling all he saw what this brave mouse had done.

I had a lot of fun telling this story to all the little people at church... I played the part of the lion. HAHA! So...this leads me to todays related scripture.....

Matthew 25

⁴⁰"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

⁴⁵"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

You see...the little mouse saw that the lion was hurting and knew what to do. The lion passed many other animals as he tried to get home. Only one knew what to do and did it....the little mouse. The mouse didn't know how the thorn got into the lion's paw...and he didn't need to know. The mouse just knew he had to get the thorn out. There are many people out there in the world with a pain, a problem, a concern..."a thorn in their paw". God puts you in certain places at certain times because you may be the only person who can help a person with a "thorn in their paw". You don't need to know how the thorn got there but you will know how to ease the pain. Granted, some people go around roaring like the lion but we must approach them ...and with caution and respect we will be able to ease their pain. For what you do for the least of the people around you...you also do for Jesus. But, what you do not do for the least of the people around you... you do not do for Jesus. I pray that you learn to see these golden opportunities to serve Jesus....to be the little mouse for someone else for God placed you at that place at that time for a purpose. Now, to flip it over...I also pray that if you are hurting...you realize when someone is put before you by God to help you...to be YOUR little mouse. Praise God in both instances!!!

Be Blessed...

Snuggie?...

The subject for today's entry is similar to something I referred to in my very first entry... about coats for dogs! I was assaulted on two fronts with this subject yesterday... 1st was by a friend of mine who happen to send me a picture of a Snuggie for dogs. Now...I find the whole idea of a Snuggie to be very humorous. But to have an actual Snuggie for your dog? hahaha... OK...2nd wave of the assault came from a dear friend of mine who 'suggested' that I write a blog about Snuggies... when I say 'suggested'...I really mean 'demanded'. 8~)
For your enjoyment...I include the picture my friend sent me... hahaha ...thanks Howard!



A Snuggie... for those of you who have never had the pleasure of seeing the wonderful commercials... is basically a blanket with arms. The reason for the arms is so you can stay nice and comfy but yet have the freedom to accomplish things...like read a book, answer the phone, hold a child, etc... without having to struggle to get your hands free from under a regular blanket. I just love the commercials...they crack me up. I try to find reasons to us a Snuggie comment or status update on Facebook. Never fails to get a laugh from somebody. So...I was at work this morning trying to think of a way to use this Snuggie subject in a blog entry that relates to scripture.... Well... as usual, the Spirit of God helped me to understand what a wonderful metaphor this little sleeved blanket is to understanding Him... I will start with a scripture then go on from there...

2 Corinthians 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort

This is such an awesome scripture.... isn't it? ...the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. Praise be to God! You know...no matter what situation you are in...whether you are on top of the world...or hitting rock bottom... God is always there to comfort you. I know that sometimes it doesn't feel like it. Sometimes you may think that you have been abandoned ... forsaken. This is so untrue. If you look to God in every situation you will find His comfort....all because of His compassion and His grace. I personally have been where I thought I was at rock bottom...and He found me there...broken and helpless. It was then that I realized the love of God for all of us. He delivered me from the worst situation that I ever known...but he wouldn't do anything until I sought Him first. After I reached for Him... He put a series of events into motion that can only be described and miraculous. That wasn't the end tho...I learned to seek God in all situations...and praise Him in all situations. I am here to tell you that this single act can bring such comfort to you when you need it most. This comfort and compassion is there 24/7. So how does all this relate to a Snuggie?... Well, I'm glad you asked.... A Snuggie allows you to be comfortable but yet unrestricted. You do not feel like your hands are tied as you do while under a blanket. Have you ever been nestled down under a cozy blanket watching a movie only to have the phone ring? Remember how much you had to struggle to hurry out from under the blanket to get to the phone? God's comfort is very much the same. When you have God's comfort you have the freedom to accomplish anything... to move outside of your self imposed "comfort zone". You can try new ministries knowing that God is there to guide you ... to catch you... to comfort you. Your hands are free to do the work of God. So many Christians want to wrap themselves up in the comfort of God but they are using an old blanket. They find their "comfort zone" and just stay there. God wants us to grow...to expand out horizons in His ministry...to use our hands and reach for others all while being in His comfort. Praise God...for He is the perfect Snuggie!

Be Blessed.....