Friday, April 17, 2009

Think on this

Then Jesus said to them, "As you go throughout the world, proclaim the Good News to all creation. Whoever trusts and is immersed will be saved; whoever does not trust will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who do trust: in My name they will drive out demons, speak with new tongues, not be injured if they handle snakes or drink poison, and heal the sick by laying hands on them.
Mark 16:15-18



Have you ever stopped and thought, I mean really thought on this verse?
Have you ever asked yourself, "why don't we see and experience these things today in our relationship with Christ and in the body of believers that we worship with on a weekly basis?
I was reading this passage of Scripture this past Easter Sunday, pondering what Christ went through and gave for me there upon that cross. And God spoke to my heart and said, this is what my children, you and I, those of us who are in fellowship with Christ, should be doing still today. These scriptures were not just for "back then" they are still very relevant for us today!
why do we not see these signs today? It says here that "these signs will accompany those who do trust". Could it be possible that we say we trust but don't really, fully trust in the full sense of the word? I believe so! How many times have you heard someone say, " I am going through a really hard time right now, but I am trusting God that it is all going to come out okay in the end", but will you pray for me because I am really struggling with worry over this"? Stop and think about that for a moment. Haven't they just contradicted themselves? According to God's Word, yes they have! For if they were trusting they would not be worried!
I believe the reason we don't see these things happening today in our own lives and the lives of others around us is that we don't really trust God. We don't take what He says and believe it is for us and that we have the power through His Holy Spirit to make these things happen!
I believe the reason we don't trust is that we don't take the time to really get to know who God is. Think about this...when you were dating your spouse did you study them and find out what they liked and disliked? Did you make it a priority to know who they are? Most of us would say yes! That is exactly what we should be doing with God. He has provided His Word as our way of knowing who He is. But in order for us to do that we need to be really studying it, as much as we can!
I challenge you today to start digging into the Scriptures with the prayer of your heart being, "Lord, reveal to me who you are as I study your Word. Show me more of you so that I may come into the full knowledge of you and be able to honestly say that I trust you in all things."

oh, the joys of being 4 and creating your own fun!!

I recently received a package and the box was filled with packing peanuts. Now, I DO NOT like these things! They stick to everything, are hard to clean up and fly across my wood floors and end up everywhere!!! I find them months, years and eons later when I am moving furniture to clean!!!
Well, Alannah decided to dump, uhumm, I mean sprinkle them all throughout the main floor of our home. She was creating a path! And then , of course, once we had the path made we had to run upon it! So she ran and ran and ran! And I, when I found out what she had been doing started to say, "Pick those up now! I do not want them all over the house and in smaller pieces than they already are!" But just as these words were about to fly out of my mouth, the Lord spoke to me and said," She is only this age once. She is creating and playing and is not hurting anything." My response was, "you're right and I think I will have her pick them all up too! So I let her continue to run and break them into itty bitty pieces with her new "splash boots"! Once she was done I instructed her to get a bag and pick them all up. She obeyed and tried her best , but after about 10 minutes she came to me frustrated because they wouldn't stay in the bag. "Mama can you help me pick them up?" So I got down and began to instruct her again, but this time we both got frustrated at how those little boogers were sticking to our hands. So I got an idea! I ran my hands under the water, shook off a little of it and went after scooping those pesky things up! And whadayaknow! They scoop up rather easily as long as your hands are dripping with water! So a couple more times of wetting the hands and we had it all cleaned up and had a fun time doing it!






And, yes, you are not dreaming! I have posted on my blog after a 3.5 month break!! The past 3 months I have been busy taking care of some much needed and long overdue home remodel projects, spending time training and teaching my daughter and helping my husband wherever he needs it. I have oftentimes wanted to blog but felt it more important to care for the needs of my family and to do what God has placed before me now. So in the future I hope to blog more often, but it will probably not be every day and sometimes not even every week. But I am feeling the need to be a little more consistent with it!