Know Your God!

I was challenged deeply this morning in my time with God....hope it can encourage/challenge you all as well.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." Romans 1:17

We cannot make any decision in life without having faith in something or someone. What we do privately and publicly shows who we are putting our faith in.

I think all of us would say that our faith is in God and God alone...is it? When life is going really good, (grades are up, getting married, wife is happy) when life is just awesome do we find ourselves ignoring God? Not a hand in His face ignoring, but we don't acknowledge His hand in our lives as much as when life is not going as well.

If we are not careful we can ignore our God in times of trial. When we have no more answers for why the sickness, disease, agony and pain must continue we can become tired of God. When He seems to be silent and it looks as if our prayers our falling on deaf ears, what then.

So here is the ultimate question in which each of us MUST be completely honest with ourselves when we answer it.

Who is your God?

What do you know about your God. If we put faith in someone it is because we trust them. If a stranger asked for money but promised to return the loan if you just provided your name, number, and home address, you probably aren't going to give the money or the info. But if a close friend or relative asked the same thing you probably wouldn't hesitate to provide the funds. Why? Because you have trust in them and in turn have faith in them. (thanks for the illustration Jim Berg)

We will only have faith in God if we trust Him. We learn to trust Him by getting to know Him. We also learn to trust Him by looking at what He is doing or already has done in our lives.

Take some time today and WRITE down the reasons you have to trust our awesome God. Being in God's Word teaches us about Himself and also teaches more about our amazing relationship with Him.

"...it is much easier to trust someone whom we highly respect since every decision is a trust decision--it reveals whom we trust," ~Jim Berg


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Location:Deering,United States

Wisdom Characteristics

    I am reading through and doing the 1 month study guide to Jim Berg’s “When Trouble Comes” I’m a week in and it has already been challenging to me.
I wanted to share with you all one area that especially challenged me. It comes from James 3…I want to grow in wisdom! It seems that especially since Rand’s heart attack I have been pushed to God like never before. I find myself begging God to give me wisdom which He promises to give (James 1:5) But, as I read James 3 I realized that true and pure wisdom comes with some amazing characteristics that I want to make part of my life. I want these characteristics to be true even with my interaction to those that I don’t necessarily get along with or agree with…with the Lord’s help I can be a man of Wisdom and godly character!

Here are the characteristics from James 3:

Bless Jesus and the Father
Show works in “meekness of wisdom”
Purity
Peaceable
Gentle
Open to reason
Full of mercy
Full of good fruits
Impartial
Sincere
Righteous

God Is The Resurrection-Gospel

The whole point of Easter is that we get … blank.

How would you finish the sentence?

... we get justification.

… we get new life in Christ.

… we get the promise of imperishable physical bodies.

… we get the promise of eternal joy.

For all the right answers we could give, there’s one even more fundamental purpose behind the holy week events, writes John Piper in his book God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself [(Crossway, 2005), 37, 147]:

Until the gospel events of Good Friday and Easter and the gospel promises of justification and eternal life lead you to behold and embrace God himself as your highest joy, you have not embraced the gospel of God. …

The best news of the Christian gospel is that the supremely glorious Creator of the universe has acted in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection to remove every obstacle between us and himself so that we may find everlasting joy in seeing and savoring his infinite beauty.

The saving love of God is his doing whatever must be done, at great cost to himself, and for the least deserving, so that he might enthrall them with what will make them supremely happy forever, namely, himself. Therefore, the gospel of God and the love of God are expressed finally and fully in God’s gift of himself for our everlasting pleasure. “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11).

by Tony Reinke

State of Your Soul

What is the reason that many can talk much and show much knowledge about this world’s matters—but are unconcerned and silent and ignorant about their souls? What is the reason that many can remember everything bad which they meet with—but forget the good? What is the reason that many can hear of others dying, and never look at their own state? What is the reason that many can see death coming near their own doors, and yet neglect to make preparations to receive him? Beloved, these things are astonishing—but are they not true? Man, so wise, so prudent, so thoughtful as he is about the present life, seems a fool in the matter of the world to come. And why? “He has within him a heart deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”

~ J.C. Ryle


http://jcrylequotes.com/2012/04/05/pondering-the-condition-of-your-soul/