Thursday, September 2, 2010

A little is worth more then riches.

Psalms 38:16 A little that a righteous man hath is better then the riches of many wicked.
This verse always reminds me of the following song.





LITTLE IS MUCH WHEN GOD IS IN IT

by: Kittie J. Suffield

Listen to the tune

1. In the harvest field now ripened,
There's a work for all to do.
Hark, the voice of God is calling,
To the harvest calling you. CHORUS:
Little is much when God is in it.
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There's a crown and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus' name.
2. Does the place you're called to labor
Seem so small and little known?
It is great if God is in it,
And He'll not forget His own.
CHORUS:
3. When the conflict here is ended
And our race on earth is run,
He will say, if we are faithful,
"Welcome home, my child, well done."
CHORUS:

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Another one I will get into deeper at a later date.

I will be posting a comparison of the wisdom and the virtuous women.  Both are more precious then rubies and and with both it is said happy is a man that findeth her.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Just a thought

Just a quick thought that I will elaborate on in the future.
When Jonah was running from God he was causing a tempest to arise in the lives of others.  This was because he was not where he was supposed to be.  He was at the wrong place.
What kind of tempest are we causing in the lives of others.  Are we where we are supposed to be?  Are we where God wants us to be?

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The Lord Directs Our Paths

How many time have you planed out your day and it not turn out the way you thought it would.  How about when you have a speech planned out in your head and you got to speak and you completely say something different then you had planned on.  Sometime this is of our own doing.  Either we make a mistake at the beginning of our day and it changes the outcome for the rest of our day, or sometimes we plan a speech because we want to go talk to someone about something they did to us that hurt us.  In doing so we don't plan on loosing our temper, but we do and say things we never meant to say.  However there are the occasions when God does change our day or our speech for us.  These are the days and the speeches that come out way better then we planned or ever thought they could be.  Yes there are some times things go wrong according to us, but God intends them for good.  Here are some verses that I have had written down in the back of my Bible for some time now and would like to share with concerning this topic
Jeremiah 10:23  O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.   This verse is saying that man doesn't have it in himself to direct his own paths.  He is incapable of it.  So who directs his path for him if he cannot do it himself?  The answer to this is found in Proverbs 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.  You see we do the planing but the Lord leads our steps.  He is the one who shows us where to go when it is time.  Sometimes this means we have to change our plans. Proverbs 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answers of the tongue, is from the Lord.  You see we can set our heart on saying something or doing something, but when it comes time to say, or do it.  The Lord is the one who has final say, He is the one who causes us to change our plans into something that is far better for us then we could ever think of.  Psalms 121:3 He will not suffer they foot to be moved: he that keepeth the will not slumber.  Psalms 37:23-24 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.  Although the Lord changes our plans for us he protects us, he never sleeps and never forgets about us.  He keeps our feet on the path he wants us to take and will not let it slip.   The Lord is the one who orders our steps telling us where to go or how to speak, sometime he allows us to fall, but he does not allow us to be crushed by this falling.  The Lord is still holding onto us and giving us a hand to get back up.  Just like a baby learning to walk the parent will take the baby's hand and will allow the baby to fall.  The parent does not let him get hurt in this fall, because they are still holding the baby's hand.  However they allow the baby to fall so he can learn from his mistake and get back up on their feet and try again.  The same is true of the Lord.  He allows us to fall and make mistakes, but he is right there beside us holding onto us waiting for us to get back up and allow him to direct our steps again.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Friendships

 Proverbs 18:24  A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.  This verse is always brought up when people are wishing they had friends.
What about those people who already have friends?  Friends should be encouraging and not discouraging.  When we are around our friends what do they do for us?  I don't mean, do they give us stuff, but what do they do for us?  Are they true friends.  Do they pray with us when we need it.  Can they tell by taking one look at us that we are in need up prayer, or encouragement or just a shoulder to cry on. Do our friends lift us up or do they drag us down?  What about us?  What do we do for our friends?
Yes in order to have friends we must show ourselves to be friends.  Real friends.  A real friend will not talk bad about other people to each other.  If they talk bad about other people, it could cause the other person to reflect or think badly about those people as well, when previously they had thought highly of those people.   A real friend does not drop all their problems on their friend either.  Sometime they wait until they are asked, and other times even when they are asked, they do not tell what they are going through.  This is because they know that what they are going through could be to much for their friend to bear.  That is what God is for.  God is the one who is suppose to bear those burdens that are to heavy to bear not our closest friends.  We as humans sometime do need someone to talk to. who will talk back, but these people (friends) need to be ones that will help us and lead us to God the one who is the bearer of burdens.
Do our friends encourage us or do they discourage us. Do we encourage or discourage our friends?  We can see encouragement and discouragement on the countenance of a friend. Is this encouragement or discouragement that we see on their faces caused by us?
Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.  We need to ever so careful not to be an discouragement to our friends.  I would hate to be the one who has caused a friend of mine to have the look of discouragement on their face.  I would prefer to sharpen my friend and give them the look of encouragement.
We must also be careful of the friends that we pick, if we have friends that cause us to be discouraged all the time, how can we be an encouragement to others?

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The mirror of man

How many time do we pass a mirror and check our reflection.  Do we go out of the house without looking in a mirror at least once.  What about a bathroom?  Do we ever leave it without looking at a mirror?  Most of us don't leave the house or the bathroom without looking at the mirror first.  What do we see?  The answer is obvious, we see our reflection?  What does that reflection portray?  It portrays what it sees of course.  In the mirror we will always see ourselves look back at us.  We don't see a friend standing right in front of us or anthing else, all we see is ourselves.
What about our heart.   What does it portray?  Do people see us for us or do we pretend to be one person when deep down in our heart we know that what people see isn't the real us.  This pretending goes on for only so long.  Eventually the real us comes out.
I have known people that when they are with Christians they knew how to act like Christians, but when they are with the worldly people they acted just like them.  The real them was coming out at one of these times.  I am not the one to say which one of these times it was, because I do not know the heart, but God does.  God's word very specifically says that just as the water portrays the face that is sees, so does the heart portray the man.

Proverbs 27:19  As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Afraid

When I was a child I would wake up in the middle of the night afraid, whither it was from a storm or a bad dream it did not matter, I would console myself with scripture.  This kind of consoling is found in Psalms 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.  I am not saying that being afraid is a sin, there is a time to be afraid, and at those times being afraid is healthy and good.  I had two main verses that I would console myself with by repeating them over and over until I fell asleep.  These two verses are.  Psalms 56:3  What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. and Proverbs 3:25a  Be not afraid of sudden fear...  These two verses brought me the comfort I needed to get back to sleep.

Such comfort can be found throughout the Bible, for all different aspects of our lives.  If we read the Bible, we can find them, and then if we memorize them we can meditate on them when the time comes.  We will never know when those times will come, whether it will be while awakened in the middle of the night, or early in the morning, or even  while driving home from work.  God's word needs to be hidden in our hearts so we can use it in time of need.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Hot or Cold

Have you ever tasted water that is not hot or cold it is right in the middle.  It is very nasty!  You will most definitely want to spit it out.  This reminds me of Rev 3:15  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

God knows how we feel towards him.  Are we on fire for the Lord or are we cold and indifferent towards him.  He would rather we were one of these.  He does not like for us to be in the middle. We are useless to him if we are in the middle.  It is in the middle, that we are not on fire for the Lord, but we are not cold towards him either, we are just complacent.  We are content with our life, we have no desire to serve the Lord, but we are not cold towards him either.  For when we are cold towards the Lord, we are listening, just not heading, even at this point  he can bring us back toward him.  When we are on fire we have a zeal and desire to please the Lord, it is here that we can be used of him.  However when we are in the middle he cannot reach us, we are no longer listening and we definitely have no zeal for him either.  We think we are just fine where we are at.  We no longer are a help to others either.  We are just going on with the flow of life complacent and content to be who we are.  It is not until we move away from the middle and either get on fire for the Lord or be cold towards him that he can either use us or reach us.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Waiting.....

Waiting, I hate waiting.  I do not like to wait at all and that is what I did April 4,2010.
On April 4, 2010, our three year old girl woke up crying and could not walk on her left leg.  My husband and I along with our five year old boy piled up into the truck and went to the ER.  We checked in around 1:35pm. then we sat in the waiting room until nearly 3:00pm we finally were led to a room to wait some more.  Eventually they looked our daughter and ordered some x-rays.  Then came the waiting period again.  They found no reason for the pain so they gave her to Advil and then we had to wait some more.  The Doctor wanted to see if she could walk on her leg after having some pain medicine.  She was able to hobble around so the Doctor left the room and we waited some more.  Next the nurse came in with our discharge papers.  It was 6:45pm and we were finally going home.  We had spent close to five plus hours in the hospital only to find nothing out.   This kind of waiting does not bother me much.  It is annoying, but it does not bother me. I could see those people were busy.  It was nonstop the whole time with ambulances bringing people in, pregnant ladies coming in.  So all this waiting I could understand.


The waiting that bothers me is waiting for answers. Like waiting for direction from the Lord.  I get anxious when I know the Lord is leading me in a different direction, but I do not know where it is that I am supposed to be going.  I hate that kind of waiting.  The knowing that I am supposed to be doing something else in the near future and not knowing what, where, when, or how.   All I can do is be content with where the Lord has me at the moment. I must also try to learn the lessons I have in my lap during this time.  These lessons I am to learn now will help in the future.  If I do not learn them now, they will keep coming up until I learn whatever it is the Lord wants me learn.
Not waiting can make a person grow weary. Not waiting can also make a person get into a rush and out of the will of God.  It is best to wait and be in the will of God.  This is where we can find delight.  Sometime it is not until our desires matches his desires that he can move us to where it is that he wants us.  It is when we start delighting in him and his word and start growing closer to him when our desires change to meet his desires it is then that he will show us what he wants for us and our life.


 Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Psalm 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

The fruits of our labor will be our reward

Psalms 1:1-6
Psa 1:1  Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
Psa 1:2  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Psa 1:3  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Psa 1:4  The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Psa 1:5  Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
Psa 1:6  For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

When we take counsel from the ungoldly we are like the chaff and are driven back and forth.  We are unstable and our works will perish as do the ungodly.  On the other hand when we seek counsel through the word of God, we will be able to stand firm, and rooted, because we will be drinking from the living water. In order to do this we must meditate on the word of God day, and night.  The fruit of out labors will not be in vain.  The fruit of our labor  may not be seen immediately, however Psalms 1:2 tells us that in its season, meaning when it is time, the fruit of our labor will spring forth.  God says the godly will prosper. We may not see it on earth, but in heaven we will get our reward.  It is then all our works will be put to the test.  This test is mentioned in I Corinthians 3:12-21. In these verses it says that our works will be tried in the fire.  If our works abide, we will receive the reward of gold, silver, and precious stones.  If our works do not abide, then they are wood, hay and stubble and will be burned up in the fire.  This fire will bring forth the type of fruit that we have built up for ourselves in heaven. If they are burned up there will be nothing left and we will suffer loss because our labors were in vain.  If they withstand the fire, we will receive the reward, for our labors were not in vain.  Those that lose their reward are the ones who followed after the wisdom of man.  God sees this wisdom as foolishness, craftiness and vain.  Psalms 1:6  For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.  Who is it that we take our counsel from is it the ungodly, or is it from the word of God?

Friday, April 2, 2010

When I grown up

My five year old is constantly talking about "When I get big....".  What he is trying to say is, when I grown up....
He literally comes up with a whole long list of things just about everyday of what he wants to do "when he gets big".
Today, while waiting in the car, in a parking lot, there parked beside us was a big black truck, and he says, " Momma when I get big I am going to buy that truck and drive it".
His wanting to grow up reminds me of the theme verse that was picked for my high school graduating class.  It was 1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 
As my mind went back to that verse today, I remembered that when this verse was picked out we thought we had arrived.  We thought this is it, we are graduating from High School and we are now adults!  No longer are we children.  Then when I got to my twenties, I thought the same thing all over again, this is it, I am no longer a teenager, now people will notice that I am an adult. The twenties proved to be a difficult time in life.  It is when you are not a teenager, but you really are not considered a adult either. It is very hard to fit in anywhere except with other people that are in their twenties just like you.  Next came the big  thirty, which some people dread, and some people like me, look forward to.  Things start coming into perspective.  No this is not it, no we haven't arrived.  There are always people who are older, and who will look at you as a child.  Well, because to them we are.  They have lived longer and have experienced far more then we have in our short thirty some years of life.
What this verse is talking about doesn't have to do with age at all.  It has to do with maturity.  When we start putting away childish things we start realizing that there are more important things to life.  More important things than owning the newer cars, the name brand clothes, being with the popular people or even being the popular person.  We start realizing that there is far more to life then that.  There are people out there in this world hurting, and longing for someone to just love them for who they are.  There are people, although they dream of owning that newer car, and they work hard, they end up living pay check to pay check, never being able to own that new car.  There are people out there that are dying and going to hell.  Yes there are a lot of childish things to put away.  Maturing is not easy to do and never will be.  With maturity comes loss of friendships, loss jobs, loss of good health.  However that is not all.  With maturity come new friends, new jobs, and although the loss of good health may not come back with maturity we can except it and go on. 
Maturity comes at all ages, it is up to us to decide if we want it, or if we would rather go on being childish and selfish, or mature and selfless

Ruth the Virtuous Women

Ruth 3:11 And now my daughter, fear not: I will do to thee all that thou requirest: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous women.
This is something I came across in my reading the Bible the other day.  What makes a women a virtuous women?  If you think about Ruth she was a women who followed her mother-in-law to a foreign land after their husbands had died.  Ruth's mother-in-law had tried on more then one occasion to convince Ruth to turn around and go back to her people, but she refused.  She followed Naomi to her home land.  It is here that you see the kind of women Ruth was. She did not follow her mother-in-law to her home land and then have no relationship with her.  NO!!!  Contrary to that she lived with her and she talked with her and asked for counsel.  She also listened and followed that counsel without thought or argument about it.  Ruth went out and worked from sun up to sun down.  She provided for the house in which she lived.  She was the one who brought home the food.  She was not lazy by any means.  Ruth did not go around boasting about being a virtuous women. It was told to her that she was a virtuous women, and that the whole city knew she was a virtuous women as well.  When reading the last chapter of Proverbs, we can see just exactly the kind of women that Ruth was.

Provers 31:10 - 31
Pro 31:10  Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
Pro 31:11  The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
Pro 31:12  She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
Pro 31:13  She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
Pro 31:14  She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
Pro 31:15  She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
Pro 31:16  She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
Pro 31:17  She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.
Pro 31:18  She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.
Pro 31:19  She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
Pro 31:20  She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
Pro 31:21  She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
Pro 31:22  She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.
Pro 31:23  Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
Pro 31:24  She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
Pro 31:25  Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.
Pro 31:26  She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
Pro 31:27  She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
Pro 31:28  Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.
Pro 31:29  Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
Pro 31:30  Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.
Pro 31:31  Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.

What does this say about you and I?  Are we virtuous women?  Do others think so or is it just us thinking that we are?  One of the greatest complements a person can give you is to call you a virtuous women or even compare you to Ruth.