FollowingJesusUS.com

Great Is God’s Mercy and Love for us :)

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.”-Psalm 103:8-14 KJV

God loves us so much that His Mercy is almost endless. And for those who “fear” Him and follow Jesus, it is endless.

But what does the word “fear” refer to? I don’t think it refers to the type of “fear” that we feel when, for example, a car accident is about to happen. Or the “fear” we feel when we think about a loved one getting Covid 19.

I think it’s the type of “fear” we feel when we do something we know will displease our parents or those who love us greatly. It’s the kind of “fear” that we feel when we truly think about the Power of God. While we don’t always focus on the Power of God, it’s important to think about the Great Power it took to create this world and to create us 🙂

Make no mistake, it is God’s Great Mercy and Love that has ensured our forgiveness and eternity in Heaven. And that forgiveness comes through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

Today, thank our Father for His Great Mercy and Love for us 🙂

The Restoration of a Nation: Isaiah 60

Isaiah 60 opens with, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.”

So clearly, darkness covers the earth and the people of the world. But it does not cover God’s people, and it never will. The Holy Spirit that lives in each believer will see to that ?

After that Isaiah goes on to tell of what a Restoration by God will look like to the people of faith that He restores:

“Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the hip.
Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come…”-Isaiah 60:4-5

“bringing your children from afar, with their silver and gold,
to the honor of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.”-Isaiah 60:9

It sounds a lot like the nation we used to be! And perhaps could be again, tf we return to God and become the “One Nation Under God” that we used to be.

And because God loves and understands us, He ensured that there are two references in Isaiah 60 regarding our children. God knows the joy that having our children with us will give us, because God knows and understands just how much we love our children. And as a Mom, that understanding means more than I can ever say.

Why? Because it means that when I am praying for my children, God understands just how important they are to me. And because He loves both me and my children, He will be with us in all things. And that is a great comfort! ?.

God loves us and our children. Return to God. Pray. Be the Light 🙂

Be The Light :)

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”-John 1:5

There can be no doubt that these are difficult times in which we live. The news that both the President and the First Lady have been diagnosed with Covid 19 is frightening. Especially with the presidential election coming up. As I pray for both of them, I can’t help but be in awe of their courage and sacrifice on behalf of our country. We are indeed Blessed.

And I have to share with you that I feel we are all called to that same courage and sacrifice.

In Isaiah 60:1-2 it says: “rise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.”

Dark times may indeed come, but we are called to share Christ’s light and hope with all God’s people.

Be The Light 🙂

Putting God First :)

What does that really mean? What does that look like in a person’s life? When we see a pastor or a missionary it’s easy to see that they are putting God first. But what about for us regular folk? For we are not all called to be Pastors or Missionaries.

It’s easier than it looks. We can reach out to our neighbor. Talk to the person at the grocery. Hug someone. Be nice even when someone is crabby. Reign in the desire to be right and let someone else be right. Be quiet. Give to the Homeless. Go to work on time. work hard and be nice. Read the Bible and share it with others. The list is endless.

Stand up for Father, for Christ and the Holy Spirit. Pray both privately and publicly. So often we hear that we should only pray in private. But the world needs us to pray in public too. Because there are those in the world that need the encouragement right now of seeing others turn to God :).

And don’t be afraid to share your short-comings. We all have them and knowing we have a few and are still following Christ might encourage another to keep going.

We live in a time where many are falling away from faith. The most important thing we can do right now, is encourage others to keep going. To hold to their faith in Jesus.

Time grows short. we need to help each other as much as we can now!

God’s Love Will Give Us Courage!

“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah”-Psalm 32:7

We live in difficult times. Truly difficult times. And fear is a completely understandable emotion when one looks around the world in which we live. But courage is not the absence of fear, it’s the facing of it.

And that’s exactly what God’s love enables us to do. Have great courage in the face of great fear. Because no matter what happens on this earth, because of Jesus, our future is in Heaven. It’s a fact. And nothing can change that. Nothing.

So when the going gets tough, and it will, remember that and hold on to it. We will not struggle forever. We will dance with joy forever 🙂

Heaven awaits us. God loves us. And nothing can hurt us-not really. For because of Jesus, our joyful triumph is already assured 🙂

The Joy Of The Lord :)

“¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Psalm 51:12, NIV

A friend of mine told me that she was praying this verse, and it got me thinking. What is the joy of our salvation?

And I realized, it’s the way God loves us. It’s different than any earthly love we experience. It’s always there for us, surrounding us, no matter what.

On earth, we’d like to think that love is unconditional-but it’s really not. Imagine cheating on our spouse multiple times? Think they will still love and stay with us? Perhaps not…But when we mess up, God still loves us. And He stays no matter what 🙂 There is no mistake we can make, no amount of failure, no length of time in which we do not honor and love Him as we should that will stop God from loving us. For God is faithful to us, even when we are not.

And there is no time that we can not turn back to Him. Because He loves us and He’s waiting for us with open arms.

So close your eyes for just a moment and imagine this, God lifts you up and twirls you around. And both you and God are laughing with joy. The kind of joy that fills every part of you. Because you are finally home, safe and sound, in God’s arms as you were born to be.

Pray. Don’t wait. Be with God today 🙂

Taking A Stand For God!

Persecution of Christians is Growing, both here and abroad! We need to stand up before it’s too late!

In India for example, the main religion is Hinduism. India is not a country that we usually think of when we think of Christians being persecuted, but it is definitely becoming one! Those who follow Christ or who share their faith are sometimes murdered-simply because they are following Jesus. They are sometimes interrogated and beaten, while the government turns a blind eye to it all. There are 66,194,000 Christians in India. Please pray for them.

In America, we are so Blessed. And yet, how often do we fail to realize just how Blessed we are? In India, a person may lose their life for simply following Jesus. In America, all we really have to do is stand up to peer pressure, and yet how often we fail to do so?

There are many types of “bullying”. There’s the physical bullying as we see in India and there is the emotional bullying that we see in America. But how often did our parents tell us that “sticks and stones may break your bones, but names will never harm you.” We can take a stand now-or wait until the emotional bullying becomes physical.

After all Jesus suffered for us, should we not be willing to stand up to the bullies in our country?

We “were born for such a time as this! It’s our choice, we must pray that we choose wisely. Be the Light!

Take A Stand For Christ!

For those who don’t know, Jim Caviezel played Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ. (This video is well worth watching 🙂 )

Some of his great quotes include:

“Freedom exists not so you can do what you want; freedom exists so you can do what you ought”

As we pray today before the eve of the Prayer Day being held in Washington DC tomorrow, we need to realize that we, each one of us, will need to make a choice and we will need to live with the consequences of those choices.

We will need to choose between God and Satan. Between Good and Evil. Let’s hope as a nation, and as individuals, we choose wisely.

As Jim Caviezel said, “you were not born to fit in; you were born to stand out”. Stand for Christ!

“Be The Light”