Tag Archives: personal relationship with God

Old People’s Comfort. 031715

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Grandmother and grandchildrenOur friend, the prophet Isaiah, says, “Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.  He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on [trust in] the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”  Isaiah 40:28-31. Continue reading →

VINE and BRANCHES. JOHN 15.030115

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VINE BRANCHES FFRUIT. 030115John 15 1-3 “I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. .  .  .  4 “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with Me.  Continue reading →

WHAT ABOUT WILLFUL SIN? 022815

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Domestic abuse shadow play; family and social issueI’m always talking about how God will take care of you if you’ll just trust Him.  But will He really?  Will He still take care of you even if you do something really bad; something you knew was wrong before you did it, and you did it anyway?  I mean like when you were doing it, you looked God in the eye and said, “I don’t care what you think;  I’m going to do this anyway”  Will God take care of you, even then, even after that? Continue reading →

WHAT’S THE KEY? 022615

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Puzzles and keysPhilippians 4: 6-7:  Tex’s paraphrase: “Don’t worry about anything, but with an attitude of gratitude, tell God what you need, and leave it in His hands.  Then His peace, the peace that gives you comfort and rest, the peace that passes all understanding, will guard and protect your hearts and your thoughts through Christ Jesus.”

“Don’t worry about anything.”  In Matthew 6:34, KJV Jesus says, “Take no thought for the morrow.”  Liberally translated that’d be “Don’t worry”, but Tex’s paraphrase would be “Don’t even think about tomorrow AT ALL.”   That’s what Phil 4:6-7, starts out saying as well, “Don’t worry about anything, don’t even think about it.”  God wants us to turn all our problems over to Him, not even think about them anymore, just let Him take care of them. Continue reading →

CHRISTIANS? 021815

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How can you tell if people are Christians?  There are several things:

1]   They love one another.  2]   They trust God and surrender to Him daily. 3]   They seek God’s will, and His Power, and His direction in their lives. 4]   They bear fruit –     a] Fruits of the Spirit b] Fruits of more disciples 5]   They read, study and memorize the Bible. 6]   They pray for themselves and others, they meditate on God’s Word and they listen for God. 7]   They tell what they’ve seen and heard about what God is doing in their lives and in the lives of others. (They just can’t help it.) 8]   They are ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them. 9]   They know, be, make and teach others to make, disciples (followers) of Jesus. 10] They gather themselves together regularly to worship God and encourage each other.

Might be a good idea to compare ourselves to this list periodically, to see how we’re doing.   None of us are doing all the right things all the time, but it’s God’s will that we continually grow and develop as Christians by the power and the grace of His Holy Spirit.  (Sometimes you run into someone who exhibits the love and peace of Jesus in their personal demeanor, and even though they don’t say it in so many words, you just know they have to be followers of the King.)

Two things to remember: 1] This is not a comprehensive list of things Christians do (LOL); it’s just a good place to start; and 2] What this is really all about is having a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ our Lord, and being more like Him every day.

Have You Made Peace with God? 013015

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All my life I’ve struggled with how to start a conversation with someone about their relationship with God.  I’ve longed to find some way to get started without offending them or making them mad, or driving them away.  It’s a very personal subject, one that many people are uncomfortable talking about.

One time 3-4 years ago, I had a friend named Evelyn, who was dying of pancreatic cancer.  She worked part-time for the same guy I worked for.  She was about my age.  She was in the hospital, fading fast and I went to visit her.  I didn’t know whether she had a relationship with God or not, but I wanted to talk to her about it.  I didn’t know how to start or what to say.

I don’t know if it mattered, but I took her a prayer blanket that had been made by ladies at our church.  They even prayed over it and anointed it with oil, especially for her.  Now that I think about it, maybe God used that prayer blanket to touch Evelyn and me both.

Anyway, I was standing there beside her bed, trying to think of something to say, when God says, “Ask her if she’s made peace with God.”

So I did.  Right out of the blue I said, “Well, have you made peace with God?”

She thought about it a minute and said the most amazing thing, “Since my husband died about 9 years ago, me and God haven’t had much to say to each other.”

After I thought a second I said, “Evelyn, God loves you; and it doesn’t matter what you’ve done or failed to do, He forgives you; and all you have to do to get right with God is to trust Him and accept His forgiveness.”  She said she’d think about it.

She must have done it though, because after she died, her daughter told me that after we talked, she was at peace, happy and thankful; free of all the fear and anxiety she’d had before.

Praise the Lord!

JOINED AT THE HEART. 012315

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What happens when you are really in a bind, you don’t know what to do, and there’s actually nowhere to go?  I guess the right answer is to do what you learned in church, to do what your momma and your daddy taught you about God.  But many questions are subject to interpretation.  There are a lot of gray areas.  In the meantime there’s a lot about what you believe, and who you can trust: God, the church, people who claim to be Christians, and those who really ACT like it.  Often there is nothing you can do except to lean on God, and hope to goodness that all that stuff you said you believed is really true.

So what do you really believe?  Well, I believe in leaning on God, trusting in Him.  Like Solomon said, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding . . .”  (Proverbs 3:5-6) Like the story about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, where they said, right before they were thrown into the fiery furnace, “The God we serve will deliver us, . . . but even if He doesn’t, we’re not going to bow down and worship the image you made.” (Daniel 3:1-30)  Talk about leaning on Jesus.  Whoa!  To get to that level of trust in God, you have to spend a lot of time getting connected to Him, joined at the heart, so when the time comes you’ll be ready.

OOTB8, 061314, A Personal Relationship with God

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               2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My Face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.”  We do lot of seeking God’s Hand instead of His Face.  To me seeking God’s Hand means seeking what God can give us.  Seeking God’s Face has a lot more to do with seeking to know Who God is; with getting to know Him for Himself; with developing a personal relationship with Him.              

               In the Bible it calls Abraham the friend of God; God says, “Shall I not tell Abraham what I am about to do?”  And God allows Abraham to persuade Him not to destroy a city if there are even ten followers of God.  (Genesis 18:22-33)  God told Moses He was going to destroy the Israelites because they worshiped idols; and start over and make a great nation of Moses; and then God let Moses talk Him out of it.  Says so in Exodus 32:1-14.  About David,  God  says he was “a man after God’s own heart.”  (Acts 13:22; 1 Samuel 13:14) God rewarded David in many ways, and many times, and rewarded his descendants for generations because of David.

               Why did God do all these things for these men?  Because they were perfect followers of God? Hardly. (Every one of them broke God’s laws repeatedly during their lives; but God still took care of them.)  Why? Because they all had a personal relationship with God; they trusted Him.  If you want to read about other friends of God, read the 11th chapter of Hebrews.  They all had a personal relationship with God.  They thought, and they acted, as if drawing near to God was the most important thing in their lives.  Why?  Because it is.  As a tool, the idea of seeking God primarily for the purpose of knowing Him for Himself is right up there at the top of the list of factors involved in drawing nearer to God.

What do you think?  .   .   . What do you do?

1] Do you have a personal relationship with the Living God?

2] If not, why do you think that is?

3] Do you feel the urging down in you heart to have a closer, more personal, relationship with Jesus?