Category: Uncategorized

Is Heaven simply on the other side? Maybe. We don’t know for sure where Heaven is-exactly. But I look at this picture, and think…

Forgiveness is a decision.  Through His Son Jesus, God forgives us and so we need to forgive others. And we do.  But forgiving someone is not the always the same as “feeling better”.

Anger that seems justified is hard to work through.  Sometimes someone really hurts us. And it seems unfair, but it doesn’t change the fact that we need to.  Pain and anger take up valuable space in our brain and in our heart.  And they waste our time. They have to go 🙂

And there is something else that pain and anger do to us that is really dangerous:  They can harden our heart!

So what can we do with our hurt feelings when they seem so justified?

I can only share what I do with mine.  I can’t change some of those feelings myself.  I can’t always “make myself feel better”.  So I ask God to change my feelings for me.  Too soften my heart and to give me compassion for the person who hurt me. I ask Jesus to help me and I ask the Holy Spirit to fill my heart. And I ask Mary to pray for me.

And I try to think about the person who hurt me. Perhaps someone hurt them or perhaps it was just a really bad time in their life.  Perhaps they don’t know Jesus yet.  Or perhaps they are suffering themselves.  The list of why good people do bad things is endless…

We’ve all been there and we thank God that Jesus came to Save us from our sins!

Asking God to help us with our feelings works and it’s a prayer that God is happy to answer.  Sometimes it can take a bit, but it always works.

Try it, God will answer. Be the Light ?

Someone once wrote that “you don’t have to Feel forgiven, to BE forgiven”.  And that is such a true  statement!

So often, we ask in Jesus’ Name to be forgiven for something, but we still feel guilty.  And because we still feel so guilty, we feel unforgiven.

But that is just not True.  It’s how we Feel, but it’s not a Fact.

My Dad used to say that “sometimes feeling just lie”.  And he was right.  Feelings often lie.  Think how many times your “feelings” have “told” you that somehow you are not enough.  Not pretty enough, not smart enough, not funny enough, not strong enough….  But it’s not true.  You are enough ?

The same is true with being forgiven.  Our “feelings” may “tell” us that we are not forgiven, but they are lying.  We are forgiven 100% through our relationship with Jesus.

So don’t let anyone tell you different, not even you!  Lol.

We ARE completely forgiven and because we are, we will all go Home to Heaven-together! 🙂

What is the difference between Christians and non-Christians?  The answer to that question is too lengthy to post here, but we can talk about one of the differences.

One difference is simply that we know who to turn to when we do something wrong.

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”-Romans 8:1

It’s not that we don’t sin.   And it’s not that we don’t fail.  Christians do both.  It’s that we know where to go for forgiveness when we do either or both-Jesus.  And we also know where to go for help when we need it ?-  Jesus.

So if we are having a “tough” day, we turn to Jesus, pick ourselves up and begin again.  Because that is what Jesus gives us, a clean slate, a new beginning and the strength to start again.  We just have to accept it.

A word about guilt.  Sometimes it’s far easier to forgive others than it is to forgive ourselves.  We tend to hold onto our guilty “feelings” too long.  When guilty feelings bring us to repentance that is good.  But when guilty feelings weigh us down, it’s not.  Jesus forgives us, but He also wants us to forgive ourselves. We need to give Jesus our guilty feelings as well!

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death”- 2 Cor. 7:10

A last word about guilty “feelings”.  If God has forgiven something, whether it be something that someone else did or something we did, no man (or woman) should refuse to forgive it.  What God has forgiven, let no man hold over anyone for any reason!

“For if God is with us; who can be against us” –Romans 8:31?

So many different words have been used: Believe, Accept, Choose, Saved….

But all refer to our Acceptance of Jesus’ Great Gift of Saving us from our sins and reuniting us with God :). Because of Christ, we get to go Home to Heaven.

Jesus gave us the Greatest Gift we will ever receive. He is with us now and always. And because of His Great Love for us and His Sacrifice, we will one day go home to Heaven forever.

But we do need to, as with any gift, accept His Great Gift, because if we don’t accept it, it is not ours. And if it is not ours, we will not go to Heaven.

And remember, we don’t need “a lot” of faith, the tiniest bit will do:

He (Jesus) replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”-Matthew 17:20

And faith is not being mentally sure of something:

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”-Hebrews 11:1

For those who don’t know one, below is one Salvation Prayer.

A Salvation Prayer: “Dear Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. I believe You died for my sins. Right now, I turn from my sins and open the door of my heart and life. I confess You as my personal Lord and Savior. Amen. 🙂

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”- Matthew 22: 37-39

So we’ve already established that if we believe in Jesus; we need to believe what He says. And if we believe what He says, don’t we also need to act on it?

Loving is a choice, but it is also an action. If we live our lives loving God and our neighbor, our actions in our lives should show that 🙂

Jesus sacrificed so much for us and loves us so much, and He loved us first. Loving Him and loving others is the least we can do.

“Believe what you do believe, or else you will never persuade any one else to believe it”-Charles Spurgeon

So often we say we that believe, but do we? Or does the way that we live our lives show others that we believe?

A great speaker once posed this question. “Why is it we say we believe in Jesus, but we don’t believe what He says?”

She made a great point.

Perhaps it’s because we want God’s Blessings, without any obligations. We want Christ to save us, but we also want to do whatever we feel like.

But it doesn’t work like that…God left us the Roadmap that we need to live our lives in His Holy Bible.

We need to Believe it and Live it, so others can believe it too 🙂

On FB the other day, there was a picture of a girl laying by a pool with sunglasses and a drink with the caption “Me praying to the Holy Spirit over little things…”. And it made me stop and think for a moment…

Many people think that they should only pray when it’s something “big” or “serious”. Some think they should pray over everything. Where is the Love for God on our side if we only seek God when we need something?

Praying really needs to become like breathing. Trust is not built in a day. Waiting for something “big” to happen in order to pray leaves the person praying at great risk. Not because God won’t answer their prayer, but because God’s Peace comes from Trusting Him. Praying over little things more often is better, but what about conversations with God about our day? What about Thanking God for all that He has Blessed us with?

How do we become more like Jesus if we only pray when solutions are needed?

As Christians, our goal needs to be Praying Like Other People Breathe. Become A Friend Of God. Talk with Him every day! Through out the day.

And when tough times do come, and they will, we will be filled with God’s Peace, Peace which is beyond all understanding 🙂

Jesus Prays in Gethsemane

^” Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch^[a] with me.” ³⁹ And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”-Matthew 26:36-39

We see in Matthew that when Jesus Prayed in Gethsemane, He was really sad. “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death”.

There are a lot of bad things happening in our country and many Americans are very sad, and worried. In the Garden, Jesus even asked His Father, “if it be possible, let his cup pass…nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

Personally, I think it is good to pray that our country will turn back to God. Just as I think it is okay to pray for any difficult situation in our life, whether it be our families or our health. But we do have to remember, as Jesus prayed, it’s God’s Will that matters – not our own.

And it’s also okay to be sad if our nation does not turn back to God, or our family situation or health does not improve. God understands. Putting God’s Will first is a decision we make, Trusting that God knows best. But we are allowed to have feelings about it.

And God understands our feelings because He made us. Our Trust in Him is our Gift to God, and it is not diminished because of our feelings.

^“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”-Matthew 22:36-39

^“This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”

Every commandment, all Ten Commandments, fit into Christ’s Great Commandments ?

They are that simple and that hard.  Jesus didn’t say, Love God if you like what He says and lets you do what you want.  He said Love God with your whole heart, soul and mind.

And Jesus didn’t say, love those you agree with.  The truth is-any one can do that!  Jesus said, “Love thy Neighbor”-no matter what ?

These days, that can be more difficult than it seems. The government and media are doing their best to get people to dislike one another, even hate one another.  But we do NOT have to listen to them.

Instead, we can focus on God. And we can spend our lives loving God and loving one another!

It’s not that loving our neighbor is not sometimes a struggle.  I struggle sometimes too.  The news is so terrible these days, and the actions of many seem so unjust.  But this is not Heaven.  It’s a fallen world and it is going to be filled with suffering and actions that are unjust.

But Heaven IS coming and God does love us more than we can even imagine?.  And that is exactly what I hang onto when the day is a difficult one.  No one on this earth can take God or Heaven from me.  No hardship,  no war, no government…For God is more powerful than all of them.

And that is exactly what they are afraid of.  They may deny it, but they know that God Created this world and that we are going Home. And they know that they can not stop us from Loving God and our Neighbors, just as they can not stop us from returning to our Home in Heaven.

Their power is limited and temporary, but God’s Power is forever ?