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“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” – Luke 11:13

God gives Good Gifts! He gives GREAT Gifts :). First is His overwhelming love for us. For no matter how many times we fall, He helps us up once again and He loves us. And through His Son Jesus, He forgives us. His love is unconditional and forever. We can never loose it 🙂

And He gives us each other! People to love who love us. Family, neighbors, co-workers, friends, and all the people we meet through out our day! And He crosses our paths with fellow believers so that we do not ever walk alone on His Path 🙂

And He gives us Gifts while on earth to strengthen our faith and to help us in our walk with Him. How many times have we seen an unexplained rainbow where there should be none? If we focus, we can let it remind it that God Aways Keeps His Promises!

And how many times have we seen the beauty of a the sky or a flower that makes us catch our breath and smile? Or how many times, when we are down, have we just happened to run into an old friend, or perhaps a new one? Or just met a person with a great smile that just lifted our heart up? God is always looking out for us, because God cares 🙂

Perhaps one of the more important things to remember, is that no matter how old we become, we are still God’s child and He loves us. Always :).

God’s Love for us remains the same whether we are seven or seventy. We can rest in His Hands and we can Trust Him. We will always be His children 🙂

The dictionary defines courage as “doing something that frightens me”. Courage is not the absence of fear; courage is the facing of fear.

We all have fears that we have to face and God can help us face them. Perhaps it is as simple as finding a new job, meeting strangers, being a good parent, driving in a storm… Or perhaps it is even more intense, serving in the armed forces or as a police officer, serving as a firefighter, dieing…

In all of these cases, God can help us face our fears AND conquer them.

The first step to conquering our fear(s) is simply Trusting God. How? We just make a decision. It’s that simple.

And then we do what we need to do 🙂

It is only by stepping out in faith that our Trust in God grows. It’s by seeing that we really are okay, that we learn to trust our Lord.

A word on the outcome of Trusting God. When Jesus was here on earth, He did not promise that life would always be easy. In fact, He told us that in this world we “would have troubles”! But He also said, “I have overcome the world”! Our “outcome” in Trusting God may not always lead to an easy path, but it will Always Lead To A Good One 🙂

A friend sent me a reminder that we can also “do” for Angels and “thank” them for all they do 🙂

So what can we do, as human beings, do for angels? First of all, we can thank them! Second, we can pray fo them. At first glance, Angels seem so Holy, we can’t help but wonder why would they need our prayers? 🙂 But they do!

Pray that God will shower them with special blessings. Pray that God will give them a big hug! And we can ask our Father to let Angel’s know that they are greatly appreciated! 🙂

And We can especially thank our Father for our Guardian Angels! We are so Blessed to have them 🙂

Yes!

An Angel is simply God’s servant.  If He or She appear in our lives, it’s  because God sent them to help us.  Sometimes we see Angels in light; they are amazingly beautiful.  And sometimes we don’t even realize they are an Angel because they look just like us, lol.  Either way, they are God’s gift to us ?

If you see an Angel is light, you will know it.  They can be very large or small.  If you see an Angel, but it looks like us, you may not even realize the Angel is there.  And sometimes, we don’t see the Angel at all, but the Angel is there! 

Some say Pastors have two angels!  One to help them in their lives and one to help them in their service to the Lord ?

Sometimes Angels act as messengers from God.  We see this many times in the Bible, such as when an Angel appeared to Mary.  Some Angels take care of a certain church.  Some Arch Angels look after entire countries!

Angels understand the Bible and believe in our Lord.  They praise God and His Works.  And they obey God!

However, a word about “fallen angels”.  Even fallen angels believe in God, but they do not obey God.  We don’t want to be like that, lol!

A word about Guardian Angels.  The Guardian Angel is assigned by God to protect and guide a certain person, group or nation.  You may wonder then how a person dies with such awesome protection?  A person dies because there is only one way to Heaven.  We must leave this world for the next.  We go to Heaven when God decides.  Not a minute sooner, nor a minute later.  Angel’s are here to help us, but they are not here to circumvent or disobey God’s Will for us.

God’s Word on angels:

“For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” – Psalm 91:11 

“My angel shall go before thee” – Exodus 32:34

“Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so some have unwittingly entertained angels” – Hebrews 13:2

“Are they not all ministering spirits ^ysent out to serve for the sake of those who are to ^zinherit salvation?” – Hebrews 1:14

If we see an angel, perhaps the most important thing to realize is that God sent the angels to us!  It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the amazing beauty of an angel.  But an angel is God’s Gift to us.  It’s important to thank the Giver! ?

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

Hope is so very important. It’s what keeps us going, even when times are tough. And sometimes they can be very tough!

An old definition said it used to be defined as “a feeling of trust”. And it is :).

Many say that hope is a “precursor” to faith. We “hope” that Christ is with us and then we “believe He is! That is true as well 🙂

Our only hope for the future is to put our faith and trust in Jesus. He will not let us down and He WILL bring us to Heaven :). That’s the thing about God’s Promises, God Always Keeps Them! And that is why God created Rainbows: To remind us that this Promise, and all of His Promises, will be kept!

What is the “Holy Spirit’s Temple”?  It’s us ?. 

Charles Spurgeon referred to it as, “ the little temple of a sanctified heart”

First, Growing In The Holy Spirit:  Charles Spurgeon said the first and most important task of the Holy Spirit was to show us “the things of Christ”.  And we know that our Father sent the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter and Friend.  And He is ?

The Holy Spirit will help us to become more like Jesus!

And that is one reason why we want to keep His “Temple” as clean of sin as possible.  And “With God All Things Are Possible” ?.  It can help to think of it as keeping a room empty for the Holy Spirit to fill!  If our hearts are bogged down with sin and all that sin implies, the room for the Holy Spirit to fill us is much smaller!

For example, if we are busy coveting (wanting) things that actually belong to someone else, that takes up room in our hearts that would be so much better filled by the Holy Spirit!

As for Comforting ?.  In the most difficult of circumstances, the Holy Spirit can lift us up and out of the place we are in and fill us with the Joy and Peace that only God can give.  But we have to ask the Holy Spirit and we need to Practice ?

Second, The Holy Spirit And The Lost:  A word about the Holy Spirit and the lost sinner.  Charles Spurgeon once said that the Holy Spirit,  “shows Christ to the sinner, that Christ may be glorified in the sinner’s salvation”.  And Christ is!  How wonderful that the Holy Spirit is there for the lost too!

Third, the Saving Power Of The Holy Spirit:  We all have people that we care about that have not truly accepted Jesus as their Savior.  It is important to remember that while we may share the Joy and Peace we find in Jesus and the Comfort we find in the Holy Spirit and our Gratitude to the Father that is responsible for it all, it is ONLY the Holy Spirit that can bring a person to faith in Jesus Christ.

So plant the seed and then let it go.  We can share what Jesus has done for us, but bringing a person to faith is up to the Holy Spirit-not us!  And Thank God for that!  ?

And remember always, the Holy Spirit loves us too!

A friend sent this, it was so good, just had to share 🙂

“Once upon a time, a teacher told her first graders to draw a picture of something for which they were thankful for. She thought how little these children, who lived in a deteriorating neighborhood, actually had to be thankful for. She knew that most of the class would draw pictures of turkeys or of beautiful Thanksgiving tables. That was what they believed was expected of them. What took the teacher by surprise was one of her students picture. This one had always seemed so abandoned and likely to be found close in her shadow as they went outside for recess. The drawing was simply this: A hand, obviously, but whose hand? The class was captivated by the image. “I think it must be the hand of God that brings us food,” said one student. “A farmer,” said another, “because they grow turkeys.” “It looks more like a policeman, and they protect us.” “I think,” said one little girl, who was always so serious, “that it is supposed to be all the hands that help us, but they could only draw one of them.”

The teacher had almost forgotten about the picture, in her pleasure at finding the class so responsive. When she had the others at work on another project, she bent over their desk and asked whose hand it was. The student mumbled, “It’s yours, Teacher.” Then the teacher recalled that she had taken the student by the hand from time to time; she often did that with the children. But that it should have meant SO much to them. Perhaps, she reflected, this was her Thanksgiving, and everybody’s Thanksgiving — not the material things given unto us, but the small ways that we give to others.

My thoughts and prayers are that you are that Extended Hand of God for others. That you know His Love and Peace, sharing Joy with others, especially in the small ways for needs. That your Heavenly Father takes you by His Hand and you humbly accept His Will and Purpose in your moments granted on earth. That you fervently thank Him for ALL He does – for the hands He sends to help you. In Jesus’ Name. Thy Will be done. Amen. Peace.”

It can be hard in today’s world.  Sometimes it seems as if there is a new problem to face as soon as we deal with yesterday’s problem.  It can feel exhausting! 

But one thing that can help us- is focusing on our final destination-Home.  Heaven! Isaiah 60 really helps to bring that into focus.  It starts with the word “Arise” and ends with a promise from our Lord that He will “hasten” it.

Please use this link to read it, it really is refreshing ?: Isaiah 60

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” – Luke 21:33

There are many descriptions about Heaven in the Bible, for the Bible is simply God’s Word on all that truly matters.

Sometimes, some people look at the Bible as a kind of “rule book”.  And perhaps, in some ways it appears that way.  But the Bible is filled with encouragement for the “rainy day”.  And today, it’s rainy, lol

But in order to be encouraged, we must read it.  God knew these times would come and left His Word to encourage us during them.  Let Him, for God Loves us! And truly God is For us always! ?

There has been much written about the “Ecstasy of the Saints”. We read about it, mostly in Catholic readings because Catholics canonize and write about Catholic Saints.  But the truth is, the Bible says all those who follow Christ are Saints ?

The Catholic church simply recognizes some of their Saints.  And that is good for us, because we can learn from them and read about their great examples in following Christ.  But the truth is, we who Follow Jesus are all Saints, and are loved so much by God!

So what is the Ecstasy of Saints?  How does a Saint receive it? It comes from truly being in the presence of God.  And the only way to receive it – is to ask God for it.  For that type of joy and peace is a gift from God.  And that is truly what “the Ecstasy of Saints is-pure joy and pure peace.  It’s so wonderful, it’s indescribable.  And as the world fades away and only God’s presence surrounds us, we are filled with God’s Peace and Joy 🙂

To be fully in God’s Presence, is the closest we can come to Heaven while here on earth ?