As the day for the new year approaches, most people like to start working on their New Year’s resolutions. Others feel they do not need to do so. And still others realize that even though they make them, the resolutions will be broken before the end of the month anyway. Today, I watched a pastor on television talk about what we, as Christians, are to be doing here.
This was not a new idea by any means. In fact, it’s a rather old idea but was needed again. He said that about 20% of the church attendees do about 80% to 90% of the money giving and work at the church and for the Lord. Then, 80% of the people give little to no money and do almost nothing to nothing at all. He began to challenge us to decide what we must do to change that.
The first idea and really the only one is to get into your Bible for at least a half hour a day. I doubt that would be too much to ask considering what the Lord has done for you. I agree wholeheartedly that the half hour a day will do more for you than any other possible cure. Included in that half hour would be reading the Bible, meditating on the verse or verses and praying to the Lord about them. If you will do that, you will find yourself in a better mood, find more enlightenment concerning the Bible…things will become clearer to you….and it will be a relaxing time as well. This becomes a de-stressing agent as well.
I have to admit that I do not do as much of the reading and studying that I should. In fact, the last few weeks have been much less than usual due to the holidays that were coming up. How ridiculous can I actually get here???? We were honoring the Lord Jesus’ birth. This is the time to be more in the Bible, more interested in praying, more interested in study. I was less so. Hence the gap in the postings on this blog. I am ashamed of myself and am sorry to my readers who come to see what God has taught us today.
So, in the interest of making a commitment to the Lord, I do resolve to be in the Bible more, studying more, praying more and, therefore, writing more. It is a blessing to be a servant of the Lord!!!! Thank you for reading this blog. I hope to give you more inspirational postings in the future!!
Happy New Year to you all!!!
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For some of us the answer is quite obvious but to others, not so much. Is it about the gifts, shopping? Is it about family get togethers whether we get along or not? Is it about the depression that runs rampant at this time of year? No to all of those. While there is some question about the actual date of the birth of Jesus Christ, it has been decided by some “they” somewhere that the day in December, the 25th, is the official day to celebrate that birth.
The thing is, usually that part gets lost in the shuffle of the gifts, family reunions, the shopping for specific presents and the depression that lingers regardless of what we do because of some loved one who is not with us anymore or the loved one who is alive but gone to other places.
But this birth, above all others, was prophesied and proclaimed by those who understood the significance of the child lying in a manger or in a house after that very important night. There were those who believed that they had come to see a King and brought gifts fitting a King. They somehow knew that this child above all others was more important than they, the wise men who came to honor Him.
Although the wise men and shepherds that did visit were most important visitors, those who lived with the Child and taught Him as He grew up were the ones that had stories to tell as well. Two such stories are these fictional accounts of what could have happened through the eyes of Mary and Joseph, Jesus’ human mother and father. Though we know that these are not the real stories, read them with an idea of putting yourself in the place of the mother or the father of this most precious Child. When you do, please do not forget to thank the Father Who made all this happen!
Merry Christmas to all!
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Yes, it’s that time again. It came so fast that I really did not believe it was about to be Christmas again. What a year this has been. I want to remember a few things here before I talk about the season. My husband knew about blogging in 2006 and tried to convince me that it would be a good thing to do. I disagreed since it was essentially a diary online for everyone to see. In January, I took the plunge and here I am. This blog started up a bit later but here we are.
It seems that at this time of year, the reason for the season is often lost in the race to get the best presents or the best vacation spot. We tend to focus on the material things as well. We get wrapped up in trying to find that special thing for this child or that one. And the kids are looking for Santa to fly across the sky because their parents told them that and they trust the parents not to lie to them.
This is truly the time of year to look at yourself and see what is there. Often, we would rather not do that especially right now because, if we did that, we would be more depressed than ever before. No, I do not suggest that. But if we can look inward to see the One Who has sacrificed Himself for us, then we can find the love He has given so that we can also give that love to someone who desperately needs it. I do not agree with the idea that ONLY now is the time to feed the hungry but I do agree that now IS the time to do so.
Now is the time to spread the love of God to each person that you meet, to show them that God lives in you and that He is love. This is the time to give from your heart to someone who needs that from you. Do you have someone in your life that you have ignored or had a fight with earlier in the year? Take the time today and heal that situation. Bring God into their lives. Show them what it means to be a loving, compassionate Christian.
Please see the actual reason for the season, Jesus Christ, and do the right thing by giving of yourself to those who are in need today. This is the true spirit of Christmas.
Merry Christmas from Topshelf!!!
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Ξ December 10th, 2007 | → Comments Off | ∇ Music, Video|
I think I have loved the songs and videos Carman does since I first found out about him. It was several years ago that I learned about his songs from watching a Christian network on television. I actually cannot remember if I saw him on TBN first or not but I got hooked on his songs right away. Since he aims his ministry at the youth and teens, it was not surprising that this particular video would be aimed the same way. But I do not care how old you are, this video is great!!! This is Carman in Satan Bite the Dust.
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Just a note to tell you that our blog was down over the weekend for a while due to problems beyond our control from the webhosting site. We are now up and running again, hopefully not having the same problems again.
Thank you for waiting for the blog to come back up.
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(Ephesians 5:1-2) Then become imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell. (Literal Translation)
Yesterday, I put up a post that talked about imitating God and walking the path He has for you to walk. The next verse (above) says that we need to walk in love. That can be extremely difficult at times but isn’t it an interesting statement for God to make? First, we are to imitate God and then we are to walk in love but He does not stop there. Remember the rest of it? We are to imitate God like we are children AND walk in love.
This verse is particularly necessary in these days that are becoming more and more evil. The love of others is steadily growing colder and leaving and hatred is becoming the norm. If you do not believe that, just try to be nice to someone who has a bad attitude. They will not thank you many times. They might even attack you for it. Between that and seeing out and out wrong as right are fast being the normal everywhere.
Recently, I was watching videos on a popular free video site. In searching out Christian preachers, I came across one that was getting a large number of comments, mostly bad, so I took a look. Others who profess to be preachers and believers (meaning born again Christians) were criticizing, bashing and otherwise slamming a couple of quite popular television preachers. I have watched both myself and while I did not always agree with everything they said, I was not about to be critical of them. Why? Because they could be anointed preachers of God. He is quite clear about not touching His anointed.
So many that were commenting and professing to be Christian and preachers were making extremely vicious remarks. They were ugly, sometimes filthy comments about how these preachers were acting. I chose to say something about now knowing all of the story since this particular video was about a one minute slice of a much longer video, not seeing all of the video. The target was now me! Vicious, nasty, filthy comments and statements were made to and about me.
What’s the problem here? Cold hearts. A lack of love. With this type of attack, there simply is no love of the Lord. We are told by God specifically, as Christians, to walk in love, AS CHILDREN, being imitators of God. If those who made those statements are Christians, they need to seek God and evaluate their lives because love is not included. I do not evaluate my life every single day, which I certainly should, but I do talk to God about that so that I do not walk off the path. I still find myself going in the wrong directions quite often. We must be diligent to do this and walk in love as well.
We do not have to take everything dished out to us but God does require us to walk in His love. I know that when the love of God is working in my heart, my day is brighter, my attitude is nicer and I care about people. At other times, I can be definitely disgusted with people as a group. Why not try walking in love today, like a child imitating God’s love for us all?
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(Ephesians 5:1) Then become imitators of God, as beloved children (Literal Translation)
God specifically says to imitate Him as little children. This means that He wants us to do the things He does and do them just like He does but do it as if you were a child. As a parent, you are quite aware of how a child will imitate a parent. One day, you will notice that one of the kids is acting just like Daddy or Mommy. That’s not always a good thing, I might add, but most of the time it simply means that they have watched the parent enough to imitate them. Most little girls want to put on makeup just like Mommy. Boys want to shave as soon as they possibly can because Daddy does that. Didn’t you do that when you were growing up? I did.
When you imitate God, He is pleased and you are walking in the path He has for you. It isn’t so hard to imitate God because He gave you us the example of Jesus to go by. The first four books of the New Testament in the Bible show exactly how Jesus handled many situations. In all of those things, He did not sin at all. He did nothing wrong. He shows us that we can live a sin-free life when we take the time to get closer to God. That’s what He did. People who followed Him knew of His habit of going off to pray by Himself often.
Just like when you get to know people well enough to be best friends, God wants you to get to know Him well enough to imitate Him. We cannot imitate if we have not studied the person we choose to imitate. (Isn’t that a tad scary? The kids are imitating the actions of the parent. If you do not like what the kid is doing, make sure it isn’t because they saw you do it.) How do you get to know God better? By taking the time to pray, to study what the Bible (God’s Word) says about Him, to take the time to simply talk to Him as if you were friends.
People will say that you cannot talk to God in that sort of familiar attitude, that it’s not respectful. Why not? If you have a friend, you can certainly be respectful of them but still talk to them in a friendly, familiar manner, can’t you? God wants you to be that friendly and familiar with Him. When you come to the point that you talk everything over with God before you do anything, you are beginning to get the right idea. God wants this type of relationship with you. Why not try it out today. Give God your time and attention. My day is always brighter because of it.
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