Abraham Lincoln said, "I do not like that man. I must get to know him better." Creyentes (believers) are here to connect with people, enemies included, to introduce them to God and to encourage a growing relationship with Him. Growing in God includes growing in human relationships.
Ephesians 6:15 Amplified Bible says, "And having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace."
All creyentes (believers) have their feet shod in peace to move into relationships and to develop them. Having something is not the same as using it effectively.
Jan Ernst Matzeliger's mom was a black woman from Suriname, South America, and his father was a Dutch person from Holland. Matzeliger eventually left South America and came to the United States of America. After 1877 as he worked in a shoe manufacturing company, he noticed that production was slow because workers had to attach the bottom of shoes to the top by hand. Only 50 shoes could be made by hand daily. So Matzeliger invented a machine to increase production. Matzeliger was a man who clearly had a good mission in life, but many rejected him because of his race.
A Chinese proverb says, "Climbing a tree to seek for fish;" it means "attempting to do the impossible." Embracing people who are different may seem impossible. We may not like the personality, physical characteristics and/or something else about a co-worker, boss, spouse, child, family member, acquaintance or someone else. Our ultimate enemy and adversary, Satan, wants us to believe the lie that it's impossible to form a godly relationship with people, especially people we may not initially like. Satan also speaks various lies to us designed to destroy relationships.
Matzeliger developed more than one machine before he got a patent for the "Lasting Machine" that could rapidly stitch the leather of shoes to their soles. Matzeliger's machine turned out 150 to 700 shoes daily.
God has given creyentes feet with the Gospel of peace, so we can live out things like Acts 10:34 New Living Translation Bible which says, "Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism." God's goodness is for whoever will receive Him.
Anytime is the right time to talk to God. When we find we know the Bible, but we cannot use our feet effectively or any part of the Bible, ask God for the strength to do it.
Where are some amazing places God has strengthened your feet to go?
Showing posts with label Eternal Relationship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eternal Relationship. Show all posts
Monday, April 1, 2013
Sunday, March 31, 2013
El Fuego (The Fire)
A long time before we receive God in relationship, He has been talking to us, but we have given God the cold shoulder.
Saul was an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin and a Pharisee. Yet Saul was cold to Dios (God). Saul did not have a relationship with God and wasn't doing anything according to the will of God. So God put some friction into Saul's life. Romans 9:4-6 Amplified Bible says, "And he fell to the ground. Then he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me [harassing, troubling, and molesting Me]? And Saul said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting. It is dangerous and it will turn out badly for you to keep kicking against the goad [to offer vain and perilous resistance]. Trembling and astonished he asked, Lord, what do You desire me to do? The Lord said to him, But arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
The Chinese invented matches. God is both the match and the flame who creates friction in our lives, so that we catch on Fire. John 6:44 Amplified Bible says, "No one is able to come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me attracts and draws him and gives him the desire to come to Me, and [then] I will raise him up [from the dead] at the last day."
George Washington Carver was an African-American slave who became a leading American educator and agricultural scientist. How did he do it? God put Carver on Fire.
Truly good thoughts and deeds are fueled by God. Is your fuego (fire) from God or someone else?
Saul was an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin and a Pharisee. Yet Saul was cold to Dios (God). Saul did not have a relationship with God and wasn't doing anything according to the will of God. So God put some friction into Saul's life. Romans 9:4-6 Amplified Bible says, "And he fell to the ground. Then he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me [harassing, troubling, and molesting Me]? And Saul said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting. It is dangerous and it will turn out badly for you to keep kicking against the goad [to offer vain and perilous resistance]. Trembling and astonished he asked, Lord, what do You desire me to do? The Lord said to him, But arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
The Chinese invented matches. God is both the match and the flame who creates friction in our lives, so that we catch on Fire. John 6:44 Amplified Bible says, "No one is able to come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me attracts and draws him and gives him the desire to come to Me, and [then] I will raise him up [from the dead] at the last day."
George Washington Carver was an African-American slave who became a leading American educator and agricultural scientist. How did he do it? God put Carver on Fire.
Truly good thoughts and deeds are fueled by God. Is your fuego (fire) from God or someone else?
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Multiplication
"Sadly, many people don't really know true love--that is, God's love for them. I'm talking about a real revelation of His unwavering, unconditional love. This may be an underlying cause of many problems in relationships today. Quite honestly, many people just don't like themselves, and it's mainly due to the lack of a revelation that God, the Creator of the universe, is absolutely crazy about them," writes International Bible Teacher Joyce Meyer in her February 2013 Enjoying Everyday Life magazine.
Booker Taliaferro Washington liked himself even as a boy. People who like themselves seek to improve themselves and other people. Shortly after Washington was freed from African-American slavery as a boy, he was forced into the slavery of child labor. Sometimes he had to go to work starting at 4 a.m. in salt mines and working throughout the day. He also later in his childhood had to work in coal mines. Nevertheless, Washington and his mother schemed together for ways to send him to night school and to home school him. Washington taught himself the English alphabet.
While liking himself, it took some time to get over envy of others who were born into lives with more opportunities. Washington, an educator, speaker, author and Civil Rights Leader who was born into slavery and rose to the top of African-American leadership during Jim Crow segregation, writes in his book, Up From Slavery, about his boyhood, "In those days, and later as a young man, I used to try to picture in my imagination the feelings and ambitions of a white boy with absolutely no limit placed upon his aspirations and activities. I used to envy the white boy who had no obstacles placed in the way of his becoming a Congressman, Governor, Bishop, or President by reason of the accident of his birth or race. I used to picture the way that I would act under such circumstances; how I would begin at the bottom and keep rising until I reached the highest round of success.
In later years, I confess that I do not envy the white boy as I once did. I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. Looked at from this standpoint, I almost reach the conclusion that often the Negro boy's birth and connection with an unpopular race is an advantage, so far as real life is concerned. With few exceptions, the Negro youth must work harder and must perform his tasks even better than a white youth in order to secure recognition. But out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race."
Besides his mother, a multiplicity of people helped Washington to overcome the obstacles of being born into slavery. God never meant for us to live lives of isolation. Proverbs 18:1 Amplified Bible says, "He who willfully separates and estranges himself [from God and man] seeks his own desire and pretext to break out against all wise and sound judgment."
Self-centeredness is stupid and Satanic.
Jesus Christ talks to God the Father shortly before Christ is going to be crucified, killed and resurrected in three days from the dead. One of the things Christ asks God the Father for is that all believers may be one as Christ and the Father are one.
The Complete Jewish Bible says in Psalm 133:1, "Oh, how good, how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in harmony."
Francis Chan writes in his book, multiply disciples making disciples, "Jesus prayed that we would be united. Why? So that the world would believe that Jesus was sent by God, and so that the world would know that God loves us. Isn't it amazing that Jesus believed that the unity of His church would communicate all of this to the world? So often we assume that having right and logical arguments will be enough, but Jesus said the world will be convinced by our unity. And when you think about it, haven't we all heard the objections from unbelievers who point to divisions in the church as a cause for their disbelief?
... Jesus prayed for our unity, which means that we have to focus on loving and serving each other. But we need to be doing this in such a way that the world can see what we are doing and recognize it as a picture of unity."
Let's live in advocacy without atrocity. While there is plenty we will not agree on, disagreement does not give us permission to mistreat people.
Try to understand people. Ask God for revelation about why someone is sinning.
Everyone is a candidate from coming into relationship with Christ. Don't write-off anyone. Naomi Zacharias writes in her book, the scent of water grace for every kind of broken, about women who appear to be choosing prostitution, "Someone's willingness to subject herself to something has never made a harmful act any less exploitive (sic) or relieved the offender of responsibility. If this were so, then neither should we intervene on behalf of the abused wife who chooses to endure beatings or the laborer who willingly goes to work in the sweatshop because he needs an income in order to eat."
The answer for everything in life is God. He knows how to change us, so that we can get along with people and do other good things. Jennifer Salinas sings, "Ven A Cristo" ("Come to Christ;") He is "Incomparable" (Incomparable).
Booker Taliaferro Washington liked himself even as a boy. People who like themselves seek to improve themselves and other people. Shortly after Washington was freed from African-American slavery as a boy, he was forced into the slavery of child labor. Sometimes he had to go to work starting at 4 a.m. in salt mines and working throughout the day. He also later in his childhood had to work in coal mines. Nevertheless, Washington and his mother schemed together for ways to send him to night school and to home school him. Washington taught himself the English alphabet.
While liking himself, it took some time to get over envy of others who were born into lives with more opportunities. Washington, an educator, speaker, author and Civil Rights Leader who was born into slavery and rose to the top of African-American leadership during Jim Crow segregation, writes in his book, Up From Slavery, about his boyhood, "In those days, and later as a young man, I used to try to picture in my imagination the feelings and ambitions of a white boy with absolutely no limit placed upon his aspirations and activities. I used to envy the white boy who had no obstacles placed in the way of his becoming a Congressman, Governor, Bishop, or President by reason of the accident of his birth or race. I used to picture the way that I would act under such circumstances; how I would begin at the bottom and keep rising until I reached the highest round of success.
In later years, I confess that I do not envy the white boy as I once did. I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. Looked at from this standpoint, I almost reach the conclusion that often the Negro boy's birth and connection with an unpopular race is an advantage, so far as real life is concerned. With few exceptions, the Negro youth must work harder and must perform his tasks even better than a white youth in order to secure recognition. But out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race."
Besides his mother, a multiplicity of people helped Washington to overcome the obstacles of being born into slavery. God never meant for us to live lives of isolation. Proverbs 18:1 Amplified Bible says, "He who willfully separates and estranges himself [from God and man] seeks his own desire and pretext to break out against all wise and sound judgment."
Self-centeredness is stupid and Satanic.
Jesus Christ talks to God the Father shortly before Christ is going to be crucified, killed and resurrected in three days from the dead. One of the things Christ asks God the Father for is that all believers may be one as Christ and the Father are one.
The Complete Jewish Bible says in Psalm 133:1, "Oh, how good, how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in harmony."
Francis Chan writes in his book, multiply disciples making disciples, "Jesus prayed that we would be united. Why? So that the world would believe that Jesus was sent by God, and so that the world would know that God loves us. Isn't it amazing that Jesus believed that the unity of His church would communicate all of this to the world? So often we assume that having right and logical arguments will be enough, but Jesus said the world will be convinced by our unity. And when you think about it, haven't we all heard the objections from unbelievers who point to divisions in the church as a cause for their disbelief?
... Jesus prayed for our unity, which means that we have to focus on loving and serving each other. But we need to be doing this in such a way that the world can see what we are doing and recognize it as a picture of unity."
Let's live in advocacy without atrocity. While there is plenty we will not agree on, disagreement does not give us permission to mistreat people.
Try to understand people. Ask God for revelation about why someone is sinning.
Everyone is a candidate from coming into relationship with Christ. Don't write-off anyone. Naomi Zacharias writes in her book, the scent of water grace for every kind of broken, about women who appear to be choosing prostitution, "Someone's willingness to subject herself to something has never made a harmful act any less exploitive (sic) or relieved the offender of responsibility. If this were so, then neither should we intervene on behalf of the abused wife who chooses to endure beatings or the laborer who willingly goes to work in the sweatshop because he needs an income in order to eat."
The answer for everything in life is God. He knows how to change us, so that we can get along with people and do other good things. Jennifer Salinas sings, "Ven A Cristo" ("Come to Christ;") He is "Incomparable" (Incomparable).
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Embrace Disability. Reject Abortion.
Jennifer McKenna Morbelli, a 29-year-old woman 33 weeks pregnant entered the Germantown Reproductive Health Center in Germantown, Maryland, on February 3, 2013. LeRoy Carhart peformed a multi-day abortion procedure where the goal was to induce labor and deliver a dead baby. Instead by February 7 both Jennifer Morbelli and her daughter, Madison Leigh, were dead.
Morbelli, a full-time substitute teacher at the Church Street School in White Plains, New York, may have sought the late-term abortion due to a medical condition of her daughter. Dan Morse in his February 11, 2013, Washington Post article, "Antiabortion activists blame Germantown clinic for woman’s death," writes, "The family of the dead woman, preparing to bury her this week, could not be reached for comment. An online gift registry linked to her and her husband indicated that her pregnancy had been wanted.
In Maryland, late-term abortions — those that occur when the fetus is developed enough to survive — are legal when the life or the health of the mother is at stake or when the baby develops a fetal abnormality."
The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:9 Amplified Bible, "Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the [very] sentence of death, but that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves instead of on God Who raises the dead."
Learning that we have a disabled child to raise may feel like a sentence of death to some.
Did Morbelli have people around her telling her regularly that anything can be overcome?
No matter who we are we need to regularly hear words of encouragement and edification. Proverbs 18:21 the Message Bible says, "Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose." What we say and do comes from what we think which is influenced by what we are hearing.
We need to hear that God still does miracles, and He wants us to ask Him for them. Miracles come in different manners.
Sometimes God can work through fetal surgery to fix a problem. Most ectopic pregnancies occur when new human life grows in mom's too-small fallopian tubes instead of her uterus/womb creating a life-threatening situation for mom and child. Two percent of ectopic pregnancies occur outside the fallopian tubes. Jayne Jones could have had a life-of-the-mother abortion since, her son, Billy, was growing outside her uterus threatening both his and her lives, but she choose to continue her pregnancy. At this time science is not usually sophisticated enough to preserve both the life of the mother and child when an ectopic pregnancy occurs. But Jayne and Billy's story has a happy outcome. Billy was born through a special surgery called a laparotomy on April 19, 2008, weighing 2lb 2oz and breathing on his own at 28 weeks gestation.
We also need to hear that sometimes people make mistakes, and we need to ask God for knowledge, understanding and wisdom. A child diagnosed inside the womb with a medical problem can be born without a medical problem due to a wrong diagnosis.
We also need to hear that a child diagnosed in the womb with a medical problem can be prayed for, and God will supernaturally heal the child.
We also need to hear that sometimes it is God's will for a child to live with a disability.
God meant for us to have an enjoyable life with or without having a disability. In John 10:10 Amplified Bible Jesus Christ says, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
A Chinese proverb says, "To plug the ears while stealing the bell;" it means "to deceive oneself." We are deceived if we think we can have an enjoyable life without the energy of the Holy Spirit. God's idea of joy does not mean that we will not experience pain. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass said, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." Romans 5:3-5 Amplified Bible says, "Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] [joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us."
With a disability and without a disability there are some days and even some years where we just rather not deal with them and/or are not sure where it all is going to end up. But the good thing about being one of God's people is that nothing that happens is without purpose. The Apostle Paul writes about God the Son Jesus Christ in Colossians 1:16-17 Amplified Bible, "For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him. And He Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things consist (cohere, are held together)."
God created people with disabilities and abilities to live and not to be killed by abortion, infanticide, suicide or any other deadly scheme to handle problems.
God wants to spend now and eternity with us. John 17:3 Amplified Bible says, "And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent."
God want us to ask to receive a now and eternal relationship with Him. John 1:12 Amplified Bible says, "But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name."
"I like you very much just as you are," says Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) to Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger) when she lists her faults to him in the romantic comedy Bridget Jones's Diary. God would like for us to do like Bridget, and He'll respond like Mark. We don't have to get ourselves together before seeking a relationship with God. God considers all our faults (sins) forgiven and forgotten because of the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
God accepts us as we are, and He wants us to keep on getting better empowered by His Spirit. God is God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit (1 X 1 X 1 = 1). The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Amplified Bible, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit."
Morbelli, a full-time substitute teacher at the Church Street School in White Plains, New York, may have sought the late-term abortion due to a medical condition of her daughter. Dan Morse in his February 11, 2013, Washington Post article, "Antiabortion activists blame Germantown clinic for woman’s death," writes, "The family of the dead woman, preparing to bury her this week, could not be reached for comment. An online gift registry linked to her and her husband indicated that her pregnancy had been wanted.
In Maryland, late-term abortions — those that occur when the fetus is developed enough to survive — are legal when the life or the health of the mother is at stake or when the baby develops a fetal abnormality."
The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:9 Amplified Bible, "Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the [very] sentence of death, but that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves instead of on God Who raises the dead."
Learning that we have a disabled child to raise may feel like a sentence of death to some.
Did Morbelli have people around her telling her regularly that anything can be overcome?
No matter who we are we need to regularly hear words of encouragement and edification. Proverbs 18:21 the Message Bible says, "Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose." What we say and do comes from what we think which is influenced by what we are hearing.
We need to hear that God still does miracles, and He wants us to ask Him for them. Miracles come in different manners.
Sometimes God can work through fetal surgery to fix a problem. Most ectopic pregnancies occur when new human life grows in mom's too-small fallopian tubes instead of her uterus/womb creating a life-threatening situation for mom and child. Two percent of ectopic pregnancies occur outside the fallopian tubes. Jayne Jones could have had a life-of-the-mother abortion since, her son, Billy, was growing outside her uterus threatening both his and her lives, but she choose to continue her pregnancy. At this time science is not usually sophisticated enough to preserve both the life of the mother and child when an ectopic pregnancy occurs. But Jayne and Billy's story has a happy outcome. Billy was born through a special surgery called a laparotomy on April 19, 2008, weighing 2lb 2oz and breathing on his own at 28 weeks gestation.
We also need to hear that sometimes people make mistakes, and we need to ask God for knowledge, understanding and wisdom. A child diagnosed inside the womb with a medical problem can be born without a medical problem due to a wrong diagnosis.
We also need to hear that a child diagnosed in the womb with a medical problem can be prayed for, and God will supernaturally heal the child.
We also need to hear that sometimes it is God's will for a child to live with a disability.
God meant for us to have an enjoyable life with or without having a disability. In John 10:10 Amplified Bible Jesus Christ says, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
A Chinese proverb says, "To plug the ears while stealing the bell;" it means "to deceive oneself." We are deceived if we think we can have an enjoyable life without the energy of the Holy Spirit. God's idea of joy does not mean that we will not experience pain. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass said, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." Romans 5:3-5 Amplified Bible says, "Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] [joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us."
With a disability and without a disability there are some days and even some years where we just rather not deal with them and/or are not sure where it all is going to end up. But the good thing about being one of God's people is that nothing that happens is without purpose. The Apostle Paul writes about God the Son Jesus Christ in Colossians 1:16-17 Amplified Bible, "For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him. And He Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things consist (cohere, are held together)."
God created people with disabilities and abilities to live and not to be killed by abortion, infanticide, suicide or any other deadly scheme to handle problems.
God wants to spend now and eternity with us. John 17:3 Amplified Bible says, "And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent."
God want us to ask to receive a now and eternal relationship with Him. John 1:12 Amplified Bible says, "But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name."
"I like you very much just as you are," says Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) to Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger) when she lists her faults to him in the romantic comedy Bridget Jones's Diary. God would like for us to do like Bridget, and He'll respond like Mark. We don't have to get ourselves together before seeking a relationship with God. God considers all our faults (sins) forgiven and forgotten because of the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
God accepts us as we are, and He wants us to keep on getting better empowered by His Spirit. God is God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit (1 X 1 X 1 = 1). The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Amplified Bible, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit."
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