Thursday, May 18, 2006

now playing


i've often wondered what it will be like when God judges us. and sometimes i had a similar vision in my mind of it being done in front of everyone. oy...i hope not. cuz this cartoon is a good illustration of what my reaction would be when my story comes up.

on the good news front, my wife had her graduation ceremony yesterday! she graduated from nursing school with honors and high honors!! i'm very proud of her and happy for her. it's a big accomplishment, especially considering she was a c- student in college. and in the 4 yrs of her going, we've had a miscarriage, a pet passed away (that was like a child to her), she found out she has a heart condition, her mother passed away, we moved, and she had a baby! that's alot to go through and maintain a high grade point average. she had her ceremonies and started working today. she still has to take her state boards in june and should be working as a certified r.n. by july if she passes the state boards (which i'm confident she will).

Monday, May 15, 2006

Little Pilgrim

i think this devotion below could be applied to "older" pilgrams too. i haven't been feeling too "up" the last few days. just strugglin with my walk...with my obedience. it's got me down right now, to be honest. maybe i should print this devotion out and put it somewhere like my fridge. to my legions of readers (sarcasm righ thurr), pray for this bruh. i get so tired of the struggle. when i think of all the years that i've been a believer, i feel like i should be in such a different place in my walk. i could cry right now. don't mean to be a downer, but that's where i'm at right now. and unfortunately, when i'm feeling like this, it manafests itself as anger. usually anger at the world, so i don't wanna talk to anyone, don't even like people looking at me and i look angry, it takes everything in me not to be cold when i'm interacting with people when i feel like this. isn't that terrible? hopefully i'll start to feel better soon. the one thing about feeling like this now, is i realize that i used to be like this ALL THE TIME. well, most of the time anyway. that dark cloud started to leave me when i started trying to get closer to the Lord. like Tonic says in "Closer to You"...

God, I say you're the greatest light of my life
Your cross, the greatest sight of my life
When I believed, the greatest night of my life
Since then, its the greatest fight of my life, to get at You
That's why I'm so glad you dont do it like ... I
Patience and love, you dont do it like ... I
Forgiveness and stuff, you dont do it like ... I


Little Pilgrim
Wednesday, May 3, 2006 by Anabel Gillham
Hi, Pilgrim. You've set out on a fascinating journey with your commitment to Jesus Christ as a new Believer. That means you are my brother or my sister and I love you and am so proud of you. Welcome to God's Forever Family! Now you, with your newfound sainthood and shiny halo may be thinking, "I can do anything! Look out, world. Here I come!" Your enthusiasm knows no bounds. You are ready, willing, and amazingly able! (You think!)

May I exhort you, Little Pilgrim: You are a new-born infant--be careful about volunteering for the front line, putting yourself in battle before you have been trained for battle! Some of us have walked many, many miles with the Lord and it isn't that we are smarter--we have just turned the pages of our Bible more than you have, underlined and memorized a lot of verses, and spent hours with our amazing Father. We have been trained (we never graduate!) and given the challenge of taking care of our younger family members.

If someone were to ask, "What are some of the most important principles of your new walk?" What would you advise a new pilgrim to center on? I believe there are some vital truths you need to know for your welfare. Let me give you five important ones:

1. You are never alone no matter what your circumstances may be:
"Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand" (Isaiah 41:10).

"The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed" (Deuteronomy 31:8).

2. You do not face your battles--He does. He lives in you to face life for you. Read that again, slowly. Again! Again!
"You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf" (2 Chronicles 20:17).

"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).

You may feel lonely and abandoned. You may feel like you have more than you can bear. No. That is not true. It may seem that He has deserted you, but this is never, never, never true. It may seem that the road ahead is too dark, too steep, and too slick--you can't make it. You don't have to "make it." He never intended that you should TRY to "make it." He now lives in you and will face these scary, steep, slick, dark places for you! He tells us, "I want you to trust Me in your times of trouble so I can rescue you and you can give Me glory" (Ps. 50:15b).

3. You are loved--more than you could have ever dreamed of being loved.
"I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness" (Jeremiah 31:3).

"May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God's children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high His love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it" (Ephesians 3:17-19 TLB).

4. You are forgiven--totally--of past, present, and future sins. You stand in His presence, CLEAN! Tell yourself that emphatically!
"When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (Colossians 2:13-14).

"I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins" (Isaiah 43:25).

5. You are a new person because of Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection. You died with Him and you were born again with Him--raised to walk as the new creation He has made you.
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20).

Conclusion? When you feel like saying, "I am so lonely," read #1 five times!

When you feel like saying, "I cannot DO this!" Read #2 ten times!

When you feel like saying, "No one cares about me! Nobody loves me." Read #3 again and again.

When you feel like saying, "How could He love me? I've done so many bad things!" Read #4 over and over again!

When you feel like saying, "I'm not any different! Look at me. I'm the same old insecure, frightened, inferior person I've always been." Read #5 again, and again . . ..

These are His basic truths for facing life. Ron Dunn gave this analogy. When a baby is born, he is equipped with everything he needs for facing his new world; he just has to learn to use all of his appendages. You don't wait until he is ready to walk, take him to the doctor and say, "Screw his legs on--he's ready to walk." The Bible tells us that God has given us everything we need for living in our world--we must learn to use what HE has so graciously given us (2 Peter 1:3).

Now, Little Pilgrim, don't be so audacious as to infer that God is a liar--which we do when we don't believe what He has said to us and refuse to take those words into our heart, making them our compass. These promises refer to you now. You are a Believer--one who believes. Think about these five truths. Set your mind on them. Thank Him for these truths that He has given you that you might be trained to face your world. With these tucked away in your thinking processes you can courageously declare: "Look out world! Here I come."

taken from Lifetime Guarantee