Wonderful Words of Life...

Wonderful Words of Life...

When Satan Lies...

I hear women on a regular basis sharing that they just "can't get it right" or that they "are so sinful and how can they ever be useful?" and similar sentiments.

I carefully say that, while it matters a great deal that we are truly walking in repentant faithful obedience to the Lord Jesus, ladies, I so deeply long for us to walk in confidence in Him.

The fact is, if we truly are walking in His footsteps, making Him our everything, then we have all that we need for life and godliness. We can REST, knowing that we will be where we belong each hour of the day that we are choosing His life, and we will say what He calls us to say, do what He calls us to do, and NOT do or say what is not His plan for us to do or say.

We will never ever get it right outside of Jesus Christ. We will never ever be able to make it on our own strength and in our own righteousness, which is as filthy rags.

So my dear friends, let your heart soar with the knowledge that you are loved and given LIFE by our Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Listen to the thots He presses onto your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit which He gifted us to guide us unto all truth.

We have the power in the name of Jesus...satan cannot do anything in our life but try to stop us, unless we let him. He is defeated by the Redeemer of our souls.

Will you join me in standing firm on the Rock of all the Ages? Will you stand with me in the confidence we have in Christ Jesus? Will you choose with me to let our roots go deep into Him and to have us grow upward, bearing much fruit and living His abundant life that He wills for us to have?

Power in the Name of Jesus

Wonderful Words of Life...

Wonderful Words of Life...

Making Disciples...

The subject of making disciples

is very close to my heart,

and I just want to share with you...

Please know that I am very aware that

this is a HUGE subject with many different trails,

and I know and appreciate that

many people are actively engaged in

discipling others.

"Go into all the world and preach the gospel,

baptizing them in the name of the

Father,

and of the Son,

and of the Holy Ghost.

TEACHING THEM

TO OBSERVE ALL THINGS

WHATSOEVER I

HAVE

COMMANDED."

Jesus spoke those words, recorded for us

in Matthew 28:18-19

In the past few  years, I know I've had

my eyes opened in a new way

to how rare a thing it seems to be

that actual discipling is being done

in the churches.

To disciple means

that first of all I need to be a

follower of the One I

am teaching others to follow.

It means that I must have my

eyes fixed on Jesus Christ

so that I can continually

be growing and being changed

by Him...

thus, in turn, will I

have something to offer

the broken who He sends to my

doorstep.

To disciple someone means that

I must be willing to lay my own

life down in order to take the time

it takes to have a relationship with

the one I am discipling.

I put a challenge out for all the

Christians who read this.

Do you really need to take the time

for that expensive hobby?

Is someone lonely or being untended

at the expense of your expensive

and exclusive vacations?

Do we really need all the 'me' time

we think we do?

Or can we take some of that time

to make freezer meals for

the bachelor in our church

who works full time and has

little time or even energy left

to cook himself healthy meals.

Do we take the time to write notes of

encouragement?

There are millions of ways to do

that these days...thanks to the wonderful

invention called the internet. It can even take but

seconds to send someone a message

to say you are thinking of them and hope they

are finding hope and joy in their day.

You never know where those kinds of

gestures will lead you.

From my experience, finding the 'right'

person to disciple doesn't need to be a

chore, nor is it even my job.

That is God's job.

I need only to have a deep and true

relationship with Him,

and a willing heart to be

a reaper in the field He calls me to.

In Psalms it tells us that

God sets the lonely in families.

How well are we as the

hands and feet of Jesus

doing in being those

families to the lonely?

Perhaps that afternoon you

took time to include someone else

in your life will be a means

to helping that person to

find courage to keep walking

this rocky road Home to God.

Maybe that note you send

will be the means of opening a

blocked cave in some struggling

person's heart in ways that

might not have happened

otherwise.

Let's listen to the voice of God

and let Him lead us in

discipling others.

We can't all do it the same way,

but we can do our part with the

same LOVE that sent

Jesus down to earth

to be a ransom for us

and set us free to

be witnesses that He

still changes lives today.

It is not always easy or convenient to disciple others.

BUT do you think that Jesus had ease or

convenience while He ministered those three years

before He died?

He gave up sleep on many occasions

(Nicodemus comes to mind, as well as the wild and scary boat ride

where the disciples roused him from slumber).

He gave up comfort

("but the Son of man has nowhere to lay His head").

He gave up the warmth and comfort of being with

those who loved him wholly

(Think: His friends Lazarus, Mary and Martha)

to go minister to the broken and needy.

He risked His life...

He had to deal with people who were jealous,

needy (who goes on a long journey without food???)

and needed him to bail them out constantly,

and then He was falsely accused and killed

after He had spent all those days and hours

ministering to others.

I doubt that any of us will ever

be as inconvenienced as Jesus was.

I am in awe how He dealt with the crowds

and the individuals that came to Him.

He is a great example to me on how to

relate to those God puts into my life.

So whether it is your children, or young people,

or neighbors, or relatives, or whoever it is,

remember that God plans for you to pass along to

anyone He sends you the Good News of the Gospel.

We lead by example.

We show by our words and our actions just

what the heart of God is.

What message are you giving to others today?

my friend, Heidi Wall, 'discipling' her young ones...

and didn't even know she was encouraging me at the same time!

My life has been incredibly blessed in the reaching

out to others. For me, it has been mostly my children

and young people that God has called me so far to

disciple but there have been a few others as well.

But in the ministering that I have obeyed God in doing,

I have been blessed beyond words with

friendships offered, love given, and

the fruit of eternal life growing in these dear ones.

I will never be the same.

And I don't miss the things I gave up

in order to have the time and resources

to disciple others.

Will you join me?

Eternity is long.

Life is short.

Let's give every day He gives us

back to Him in service.

Love and blessings,

Marcia

Be Ready...

Today, my Farmer came strolling in for lunch 

and I thought he seemed a bit disturbed.

I found out after awhile that I could have

 become a widow today,

or at the very least had a husband in the hospital,

 mangled from

a tangle with a bale wrapper.

When he told me,

I got up from 

the table

and gave him 

a long hug

and said

"I'm never letting

go!!!!"

Deep thankfulness

welled up

inside me

at the protection

and care of

God...

My heart is thrilled that he is alive and well,

and I'd like to think that I would still be

choosing to say

"Blessed be the name of the Lord"

even if my husband wasn't alive or well.

And we ponder...

and plead with any who 

are not prepared to meet God.

He is offering you the opportunity 

of a lifetime to be ready for

eternity with Him.

If you are not ready,

I beg of you to consider your ways

and choose Him.

Because today has taught us again

that when it's time to go,

you won't have a say.

Love and blessings,

Marcia

Blessed Be Your Name

by Robin Mark

This quote grabbed me recently as I pondered the many things I encounter as I deal with life, parenting, and discipling young people who share their hearts with me.

I have often said something similar to this quote. It's of no use to ask 'why' during the trial/difficulty/change of plans/disappointment. It is much, much more valuable to seek God on how to walk thru the circumstance He has ordained/allowed in our lives.

See, we don't need to have a big think tank of knowledge stored up somewhere for every single thing we could possibly encounter in life. We simply need to follow God. Every single step. Every single day. Just follow Christ.

But how do I do that? Let Him change your heart every day. Let HIM live in you while you die to you. He has a specific design in mind. For every single soul who is sincerely seeking His face to walk in His ways, he knows what needs to be done to get rid of distractions and even other loves that are conflicting with wholeheartedness in each one. Let Him have His way.

One thing I've learned is to allow yourself to feel the pain, the heartache, the grief, the loss but don't become morose, sullen or bitter. If you are a child of God, He certainly has His hand over you and will not allow anything that isn't 'right' for you to accomplish a goal He has in mind.

About 5 years ago, God took me through an incredibly painful, lonely, bewildering and troubling wilderness. The winds beat hard against me and howled in the lonely night watches. There seemed to be such a darkness and such confusion and many nights I wept on the floor by the fire while my famiy slept. Oh but the water was abundant in the oasis God created for me in that wilderness. The fellowship with Jesus was so sweet. There came a great calm over my soul and I came to a new place of surrender and commitment to do the work God put in front of me to do.

And the work came. Without my needing to go looking for it. It trickled in here and there, and I found myself sometimes wondering WHAT was God thinking to send as much as He did to me. But I chose to walk in faithful obedience to Him, trusting Him to show me what to do and where to be and how to navigate through those roads. I had to give up some very precious things in order to do that work...but I gave it up, choosing to trust God. In that time, I found some incredibly beautiful moments, and many moments were very hard and perplexing, but still I simply held up my life to God to let it be used as He saw fit.

And a few years later, I walked out of the wilderness into a beautiful meadow where there were many wildflowers and much sunshine and cool breezes. There are waterfalls and delightful songs of Zion played by fellow travelers. There are friendships formed that will last a lifetime because they are founded in God.

I say all this to say that God knows what is best for each season of our lives. It is much better to live with open hands to the heavens, willing to do each thing He bids promptly and joyfully, than to sit in sullen bitterness because life doesn't look the way you wish it would.

As I find myself entering a new season of life, a friend sent the Helen Rice poem to me on the right side of this post. I was so blessed by it.

Are there moments of sadness at a change I did not wish in the details it came to be? Yes. But they are quickly replaced with trust in a God who sovreignly knows that this season's details are carefully planned by His hand. He knows why. He knows what I need to learn. He knows what is next for me. I just know that I close the past season without regret because I lived it with open palms and outstretched hands. That is a good feeling. I want to live the next season that way, too.

How about it, friends? Shall we walk through life with joy and the deep settled peace that comes in knowing that God knows exactly what He is doing and will not allow anything that He doesn't have a plan for? That's how I want to live it.

By His grace.
By His power.
For His glory.

Love and blessings,
~Marcia