I saw a photo post that said ‘Abortion is a personal decision, not a legal debate’. The TRUTH is, “Abortion is a God-involved decision”! Life matters to God, our Creator! He is the Giver of Life!
SCRIPTURE TRUTH says “For YOU formed my inward parts; YOU covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise YOU, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are YOUR works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from YOU when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. YOUR eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in YOUR Book they all were written, the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are YOUR thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!” ~Psalms 139:13 -17
I have been blessed for years to spend time with and connect with children thru my family, church, music classes, school, and community…….. and I always carry in my heart a thank you to parents who have and continue to choose LIFE! Children are Gifts from God! Choose life for them! He did! Allow them to fulfill their God-given purpose in this world! -Sharon Langford John 10:10
Most often it is not a fist hitting us in the face that wounds us, but rather it is words spoken to us by family and friends. The words quickly spoken, without forethought, are among the most potent weapons we use against each other. James chapter 3 says clearly that we are to control our tongue as if it were a rudder on a ship.
My prayer for us all is to stop even one second before we through those firey words out of our mouths. May we learn to respond rather than react.
How often do we feel the need to be rescued? There are so many challenges in the world we live in today. Wars, unrest, families torn apart by so many things and we must make our way through all the parts of our lives.
Lately, I have been crying out to the Lord for his help in keeping my heart focused on Him. It is too easy to be distracted by the events surrounding us. He answers my prayers with a peace that helps me stay stable and firm on His Word. I keep reading and meditating on the Bible, seeking answers to my heart’s questions. What a wonderful Savior he is. Time after time, my heart reaches out to Him, and time after time, He answers. He brings peace, joy in the small things, fellowship with other Christians, hope for tomorrow, and reassurance for my eternal future with Him in Heaven.
Today, if you are needing to be rescued, allow Jesus to be the One who meets that need. He will always answer the cry of His children.
Jeremiah 33:3 New King James Version
3 ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
Psalm 18:3 New King James Version
3 I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.
Psalm 86:7 New King James Version
7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, For You will answer me. May your heart be blessed as you reach out to the One who created you in your mother’s womb.
It is a good time (as it is always) to seek after the Lord through reading the Bible and praying to Him in the Name of His Son, Jesus Christ! Drawing close, and staying close to God provides overcoming strength to keep on “keeping on”.
As a young man, my developmental years were spent in a church with my family that was a “country church”. There were a lot of good people in the church body and more good people in the community where I lived. Many of those people, in addition to my family, spoke into my life and helped me grow in my personal faith. One such person was a man by the name of John Tharp. Brother Tharp was not a typical “worshipper” in the church where I grew up, but, he was a very profound thinker. I do not know who originated the statement, “If God seems far away, who moved” but, it was Brother John Tharp who impressed it upon me. A dear sister from my church created a poster with that message on it and the poster was placed in a shadowbox. As far as I know-over 50 years later-it is still there to remind worshippers of the need to seek after God in order to stay close to Him.
Some messages are enduring for a reason. As Chrisitan believers, our faith is the most precious treasure we have on this earth. If God seems far away from you today, you can find Him in the Scriptures. Faith comes from reading and obeying the Word of God. Faith encourages us to pray, engaging the journey of faith for the glory of the Name of our God and of his Son, Jesus Christ.
I want God to come near to you today. I believe He will as you read His Word, given to all of us, and as you pray to Him about your needs, in the Name of His Son, Jesus Christ.
James 4:8 NIV
8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
If we chose to ignore the shameful, uncomfortable, ignorant, or criminal past, we place ourselves in a vacuum of future failure. We need to acknowledge the past, ask the Lord, how we got ourselves into such a place, then ask Him to help us repent, change our belief systems and grow from the past mistakes.
On the other hand, reminding everyone of their mistakes over and over is just as dangerous. It brings shame and anger alive and causes rifts and bitterness to flourish, where forgiveness and peace need to grow.
We choose both how we deal with our pasts and how we move on into our futures. Will we learn what caused the problems in the first place? Will we ask the hard questions that need godly answers? Will we repent for our part in the problems, asking God and the offended to forgive us?
If we can face the shame and ask God to lead us out of the past failures, into a greater place of communication, caring for each other, getting rid of the selfishness of the “Me” generations, then perhaps our families, cities, and nations will start to mature and grow up into caring individuals looking out for each other.
This horrible blame game and finger-pointing needs to stop! It is so counter-productive to human growth and maturity. It is childish and very selfish. Each person’s view of the past is different and only when we forgive each other, and chose to leave the past in the past, can we move on.
Father God, help our families, our cities, and nations to deal with the past with forgiveness, kindness and allow us to grow to care about each other in a new way. Help us to look to You for guidance. Heal our nations we pray in Jesus’ Name.
2Chronicles 7:14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Daniel 9:19
O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
Mar 11:25,26 TPT
“And whenever you stand praying, if you find that you carry something in your heart against another person, release him and forgive him so that your Father in heaven will also release you and forgive you of your faults. But if you will not release forgiveness, don’t expect your Father in heaven to release you from your misdeeds.”
Luke 6:37 TPT
Jesus said, “Forsake the habit of criticizing and judging others, and then you will not be criticized and judged in return. Don’t look at others and pronounce them guilty, and you will not experience guilty accusations yourself. Forgive over and over and you will be forgiven over and over. “
Luke 17:1-4 TPT
One day Jesus taught his disciples this: “Betrayals are inevitable, but great devastation will come to the one guilty of betraying others. It would be better for him to have a heavy boulder tied around his neck and be hurled into the deepest sea than to face the punishment of betraying one of my dear ones! So be alert to your brother’s condition, and if you see him going the wrong direction, cry out and correct him. If there is true repentance on his part, forgive him. No matter how many times in one day your brother sins against you and says, ‘I’m sorry; I am changing; forgive me,’ you need to forgive him each and every time.”
Matthew 5:43-48
“Your ancestors have also been taught ‘Love your neighbors and hate the one who hates you.’ However, I say to you, love your enemy, bless the one who curses you, do something wonderful for the one who hates you, and respond to the very ones who persecute you by praying for them. For that will reveal your identity as children of your heavenly Father. He is kind to all by bringing the sunrise to warm and rainfall to refresh whether a person does what is good or evil. What reward do you deserve if you only love the loveable? Don’t even the tax collectors do that? How are you any different from others if you limit your kindness only to your friends? Don’t even the ungodly do that? Since you are children of a perfect Father in heaven, you are to be perfect like him.”
38 While Jesus and his followers were traveling, he went into a town, and a woman named Martha let him stay at her house.39 She had a sister named Mary. Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to him teach.40 But her sister Martha was busy doing all the work that had to be done. Martha went in and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are getting worried and upset about too many things.42 Only one thing is important. Mary has made the right choice, and it will never be taken away from her.”
The Lord spoke to my heart this morning. He said we need to have the heart attitude of Mary and lessen Martha’s attitude. Both of these sisters loved Jesus. In reading the passage above, there is an implication that Martha was the oldest of the siblings. If that is the case it would explain a lot of why Martha was so “busy” preparing for Jesus and the apostles’ visit to their home. It was her responsibility to have a meal ready, the home welcoming, and make the guests comfortable. More than likely, Mary would have been helping her in these tasks. On this occasion, Mary was so caught up in the presence of Jesus, she ignored all the usual physical responsibilities to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen.
The one phrase from the Scripture above shows the heart of Martha; “doing all the work that had to be done”. There had to be food prepared, there had to be mats put out for the guests to sit upon, there had to be water to wash their feet upon entrance into the house. Mary ignored all that to sit with Jesus and hear what He had to say. We cannot judge Martha, we can understand her and see where she missed her opportunity to be with Jesus also. She chose to fret about perfecting the home-welcome, instead of welcoming the Lord.
We are in the same place this year. We have been so focused on survival, on doing the best we can to keep our homes, our families, our ministries, etc… going that we have neglected sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing what He has to say. We are missing time with Him, building relationships. May we resist being too busy to be with Him.
