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WHAT MAKES US HAPPY??

Welcome to Spiritiual Sunday hosted by Charolette and Ginger. If you would like to visit them and other inspirational blog posts, please click here

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.

As I was dwelling on these verses this morning, I began to think to myself, what is it that makes me happy? What is it that makes most people happy? And is it different from that which I truly delight in?

I think in the world we live in today happiness is something most people assume they were born to experience, and something they feel they deserve to have. So as a result, many spend their lives in the pursuit of this happiness, and do whatever they feel is necessary to gain this sought after emotion. Relationship after relationship sometimes can be the result, as they strive to find the "perfect" mate who will bring them the happiness in life they deserve. Maybe it is their career that they feel is the key, and educate themselves and work diligently to achieve the goals they set forth to bring about the results that will surely lead to a nicer home, a better car, or whatever it is that they are sure will bring them the most pleasure. However the problem is really very obvious it would seem. Nothing is ever really enough, and the pursuit is always allusive.

I think that sometimes even for us Christians as we look for happiness in life, we make the mistake sometimes of thinking that our happiness will come as we read through the scriptures looking for peace of mind and security. But I think as we really read the Bible, and meditate on what it says, we find that God is alot more concerned about holiness than happiness. He is alot more concerned about our hearts, than the state of our feelings. Undoubtedly, the will of God will bring happiness to those who obey, but the most important thing is not how HAPPY we are, but how holy. I think sometimes it might be easy to cultivate a religious joy, without ever cultivating a righteous life.

If a person delights in something, you don’t have to beg them to do it or to like it. They will do it all by themselves. We can measure our delight for the Word of God by how much we hunger for it.

What makes us happy? What gets us excited? This is a good way to see what is important to us. If personal pleasure is the only thing that makes us happy, then we are a selfish, self-centered person. If being with our family or friends delights us, that can be better, but it still falls short. The righteous man finds his delight . . . in the law of the Lord.

The righteous man only has God’s word on his mind two times a day: day and night. That about covers it all!

THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA

Welcome to Spiritual Sunday hosted by Charlotte and Ginger. If you would like to visit other inspirational blogs, please click here

REVELATION 1:8

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Omega is the last...so we "could" say Jesus is the A to Z...He is the Beginning and the End....If Jesus is both the first and the last and the beginning and the end, then it would have to mean He also has authority over everything in-between...This would mean that Jesus does have a plan for all of history, and He directs the path of human events toward His designed fulfillment. Our lives are not given over to blind fate, to random meaninglessness, or to endless cycles with no resolution..Jesus Christ directs all of human history, and so therefore even our individual lives...

Who is, Who was, and who is to come.... Hebrews 13:8 expresses it this way: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The word Almighty translated from the original Greek literally means, "the one who has His hand on everything." It means that Jesus has complete sovereign control over everything, past, present, and future....

I don't know about any of you, but I find GREAT comfort in all of this...that Jesus Christ truly controls all of history, long before I could have even been a thought, to my present life and circumstances right now, to everything that will EVER come...that EVERYTHING lies in His very capable hands and He directs the course of all things....And since we know how everything comes out in the end, we never have anything to fear....I LOVE this verse!!

LOVING OTHERS

We know what real love is because Jesus gave up His life for us. So we ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters... 1 John 3:16

God's love CANNOT be contained. It fills the willing heart to overflowing and the result is we love others as He loves us. Every kindness, every tenderness, every word of encouragement, every smile, every loving act springs from that divine fountain that gushes forth from our souls.

So many people in the this world look for love in all the wrong places. They are sure it is found in the right job, the perfect home, or even in a relationship with someone who is sure to make all their dreams come true. Or at least some of them. But the truth of the matter is real love comes from God, and what He did for us. It comes from accepting what He did for us, and inviting Him to live within us. It comes from Him filling our hearts and souls and minds with His presence in a way that cannot be confined.

I heard an illustration the other day that told about this in a way that explained it well. If you are a man drowning in a lake and another man dives in and says to you, "Boy, it looks like you are having some trouble over there. I feel for you." But he does nothing to actually save you from drowning, how much good did it do you? But if that person dove in the water and sacrificed his own life in order to save yours, we'd feel he'd given everything he had for us. Well, that is just what Jesus did of course. Sacrificed His own life in order to give us eternal life.

After we have accepted God's love and free gift of salvation, we need to give love away freely to others that they might see Him in us. Loving others and giving to them should come naturally if we have filled our hearts with Him. That we should love one another, this basic Christian message has not changed. Perhaps some have thought that because Christians talk about a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” that it is only us and Jesus who matter. But how we treat others - how we love one another - is what really matters before God.

GOD'S WORD STANDS FOREVER..

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The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever...

If there is one thing we can be certain of in this life here on earth, it is that EVERYTHING eventually grows old, fades away, changes, or dies. Nothing ever really remains the same. We can try every method known to man and still the inevitable happens. I love watching each season of the weather as it comes and goes. The bright, hot summer sun and the colorful splashes of blooming flowers give way to the warm golden days of fall, with chilly evenings and promises of the coming holidays. The cold days of winter bring the pleasures of Christmas, and watching snow fall as your snug inside your home in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot coco and a favorite book. But eventually the warm days of spring blow in with rain showers and tiny buds making their way onto all the tress and plants. The seasons come and go and the same is true for all of us. I can't believe how quickly my two new grand babies have gone from slumbering new born's not capable of much more than eating and sleeping, to the active, happy, MOBILE babies they are just 6 months later. The others will head back off to school soon on their journey to adulthood that will be here in nothing more than a blink of an eye. My kids are all grown adults now, and I will celebrate my 55th birthday in September. My mom will be 77 in two days and on and on it goes. But of one other thing we can also be very sure of, God's Word ALWAYS remains the same...It NEVER changes, NEVER comes back to us empty....We can count on it to be true for now and forever more. The word of our God certainly has endured. It has survived centuries of manual transcription, of persecution, of ever changing philosophies, of all kinds of critics, of neglect both in the pulpit and in the pew, of doubt and disbelief - and still, the word of our God stands forever!

“Written on material that perishes, having to be copied and recopied for hundreds of years before the invention of the printing press, did not diminish its style, correctness, nor existence. The Bible, compared with other ancient writings, has more manuscript evidence than any ten pieces of classical literature combined.” (Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict)

Yes, the Word of God will endure unto all generations, and I am filled with a happiness and peace on that knowledge...

OBEDIENT CHILDREN

 Ephesians 6 1 - 3  Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is a first commandment with a promise: that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.  

I have been going through the book of Ephesians recently in my personal devotional time.  It has always been one of my favorite books, and though I have of course read and heard this verse many, many times, I found myself really dwelling on it and wondering why the Lord felt that this particular commandment was SO important that He included with it a promise such as this.  Children, OBEY your parents...sounds simple enough right? Children are to obey their parents.  Pretty basic.  But as I was really thinking about this I began to see that IF a child is to obey, he must first be taught obedience.   Anyone who has ever had a child does not need to be told that you do NOT have to tell that child how to be willful, naughty, or unkind. That all comes built into our sin nature through Adam, and therefore comes very naturally to us all.

Teaching our children obedience is perhaps one of the most important jobs any parent ever faces. From the time our children are old enough to understand a simple command or the word NO, the process begins. We all know of course the purpose behind telling our small children not to run into the street for example. We understand the dangers and possible disasters that lurk there and so we are quite firm in our commands that teach them the necessity of obeying that particular order. I remember very clearly it was THE ONLY TIME I ever had to swat Melody's little bottom when she was growing up. She was definitely old enough to understand what NO meant, stay by me, etc. But she willfully ran away from me and directly into the street. Now there was no car coming and no immediate danger, but that of course was not the point. She chose to disobey me and run into the street and received the immediate consequence of a couple of swats on her little bottom. She did not do that ever again. Now, she learned the consequences of disobedience quickly, unlike her older brothers, haha, but that is not the point I am trying to make. She may not have fully understood all of the horrible things that could have happened to her as a result of her disobedience, but she was able to quickly understand the immediate consequences of not obeying her mother. 

As parents we have the responsibility of teaching our children obedience. They can never understand how to obey God as they grow and mature, if they are not taught this at a very young age. There is always consequences (sooner or later) for sin.

I recently spent some time volunteering in the Kindergarten classroom of my young grandson. Truthfully, I was somewhat horrified at the blatant disobedience of some of the children. Obviously, no one expects a 5 year old to act any older than a 5 year old, but it was very clear to me, that a few of these children were not being taught much of anything at all. The confusion and occasional downright wildness in the classroom made it very apparent that these children were not being taught by their parents (or whoever it is fulfilling that role in their little lives) the importance of obedience. That teacher truly had her hands full as she tried to keep the class in order. How many parents too I wonder would blame this poor woman, or the other children, for the lack of obedience and respect that their own children have failed to learn? I fear for these children and for their parents expectations of their futures. Almost everything that child might ever hope to be or accomplish hinges on their ability to learn to obey.

As we grow into adulthood obviously we no longer owe our parents direct obedience. But we do owe them honor and respect. I know as I got deeper and deeper into my role as a mother, I learned to understand my own mother better, and my respect for all she went through and endured grew into a healthy appreciation for her. Yes, children must obey their parents, and parents must teach their children to obey.  And this all comes with a promise...it will be well for all of us and we will live long here on earth.

As we grow closer to the birth of our Lord, I hope we all our keeping our focus on Him.  I know for me I have found myself caught up a time or two with just the busyness of the season, and have lost my focus and therefore my peace.  How easy it is for me to get off track.  Thank God He understands me, and loves me even when I am busy being a Martha instead of a Mary.  Hope you all have a wonderful week.  To read the other inspirational posts that are being shared this week click HERE...Many thanks to Charlotte and Ginger for hosting this event.

LUKE 11:33

"No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on a lamp stand, that those who come in may see the light.

I am not sure where I heard this story before, but I remember it very well and thought it would be a good one to share.

Several centuries ago in a certain mountain village in Europe (so the story goes) a nobleman wondered what legacy to leave his townspeople. At last, he decided to build them a church. Nobody saw the complete plans until the church was finished. When the church gathered, they marveled at its beauty. But one noticed an incompleteness. "Where are the lamps?" he asked. "How will the church be lighted?" The nobleman smiled and then gave each family a lamp. "Each time you are here the area in which you sit will be lighted. But when you are not here, some part of God's house will be dark."

Today, we live in a world of darkness, dim paths on which even the best secular problem-solvers are beginning to stumble. In spite of our social conscience, all around us is evidence of ignorance, illiteracy, and wicked imaginings. The world is so big, and our lamps are so small. Yes, maybe so, but we CAN light some small part of each day. Look at all the millions of stars in the heavens. How small each star looks in the distance. Yet, put together those tiny jewels can light the darkest night. Each of us is a star (or a lamp if you will). We CAN make this world a brighter place. It is well expressed in this prayer attributed to Michelangelo: "God grant me the desire always to desire to be more than I can accomplish"...

No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on a lamp stand: Just as a lamp should be displayed out in the open, so all can benefit from its light, so the word and work of God should be displayed.