Don't Get Discouraged

"Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" Philippians 1:6 NIV

I have been around people who are new to the Lord in years past and have just wanted to shake them upside down, let all the garbage fall out and then turn them over and pour God's word into them like liquid. Then I have wanted to put a remote control on them so I could stop them from doing stupid things!

I am glad that does not work!

Why?

If it was that easy, God would not get the glory and praise for the work in people.

I think about the verse above when I feel discouraged as I work with new Christians. I wonder how many times someone wished they could treat me like a salt or pepper shaker.


The truth is we should never give up on people. When we give up, we have stopped letting God do the work and Satan has won. He would love for us to give up on people, but God says "don't".

We will never grow people in their faith, we may help teach them which path to stay on until they can do it themselves, but they have to walk it and God directs where the path goes. They will stumble and fall, but that is part of the growing, don't get discouraged by it. Remember that new believers are like babies, babies need lots of care!

If you get discouraged, remember that God will complete the work in them right up until Jesus comes back. Let me tell you something...those people you want to give up on are desperately hoping you NEVER give up on them. I was told several times, "Dana, don't give up on me." I always said that I never would.

Think about how Paul in the Bible must have felt working with all those new Christians and he could not be with them all. Slow letter writing was it sometimes. He never gave up and the fruit of that is in my own life. Thank you Paul (for the letters which I grow from now) and thank you Jesus for never giving up on me.

Retreat

I laced up my sneakers and put my ipod on and headed out the door into the breezy air. The tree shaded path to the lake was just a reflection of God all around me. I was alone, a rare thing. (Note: My husband is so awesome and is sensitive to my needs, He tries and finds ways to let me have some alone time often! Thanks Michael.)

I had just read a passage in John about Jesus spending time with His Father, time alone. There is just something about that time that we NEED. We must find times to get away with Jesus. We need to be thinking people and we can think more clearly when we have nothing bombarding our minds.

Even if you can only spend a few minutes alone, do it with the focus on clearing your mind and talking to the Father. I only had the 10 minutes it took me to walk to the lake, but I used it to spend time worshiping and talking to God.

I suppose I could have worried, complained, thought about things that are depressing, but I didn't. Be careful how you spend your time. We have precious little of it.

Here are some highlights of the trip:



This is my sister-in-law's nephew Chris, who joined us for the weekend!



Emily in the sand...she loves it:


Amanda in the water:


Michael and Chris doing "boy things":



More fun:








I was told I had to include this one too:


Happy Retreating!

Inspect your Fruit...of the Spirit

I opened my journal to about 1 year ago to see what God was teaching me at that
time. I make a habit of writing every word down that God impresses on my heart. If God is teaching me something, it is worth writing down!

The FRUIT of the Spirit...love, joy, peace, etc. should be on our minds constantly. I am to be walking by the Spirit not the flesh.

Isn't it true that we can go back and forth so much, even if it is with little things like getting huffy when we are waiting in a line longer than we should or not showing self-control when we eat way more than we are hungry for. How about speaking harsh to our kids or husband instead of being gentle?

Galatians 5:16 says "Walk in the Spirit and you will not carry out the lust of the flesh."

Walk in the Spirit and I will not let my flesh come out?

Could it really be that easy?

I need to pay attention to the battle the Spirit/Flesh have. I choose who wins. I make the choices for my life everyday. Big or little, I choose. I choose either to give into the flesh, which takes little effort usually, or I choose to obey the Spirit of God, which can be slightly harder to do at times.

The joy of obeying naturally outweighs any of the destruction that the flesh brings when we give in to it.

Can you remember a time that you were glad you responded with the flesh? Me neither! Fleshly living (check the list below) only leave you with regret! Always.

I decided to write a list in my journal of the opposite fruits:

Spirit ----------Flesh
Love...or...Hate
Joy...or...Depression
Peace...or...Stress/Chaos
Patience...or...Impatience/Haste
Kindness...or...Inconsiderate/Mean
Goodness...or..Rottenness/Immoral
Faithfulness...or...Unfaithful/Unreliable
Gentleness...or...Harshness
Self-Control...or...Indulging

Be careful to make choices that lead to wise living, spirit living. When we receive Christ Jesus as Savior, we are freed from giving into the urges of the flesh.

We are to master sin (Genesis 4:7) , not let sin master us. Think about this list and see what God may be asking you to do. Let the Fruit of the Spirit grow through fellowship with the Spirit, instead of that nasty rotten fruit of the flesh. No one wants the bad fruit, especially YOU.

Fear Not!

Has fear crept into your heart and mind today?

Is something coming up that you are worried about? Is it consuming your mind?

The Lord says "Fear Not".

Are you disobeying?

Jesus also says to cast all you cares on Him because He cares about you.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Cast those worries. When you cast something, you have to let go of it. Don't go running back to snatch your fears and worried up again. Instead, believe that God means what He says and that He will be faithful.

Have a fearless day!

What a Weekend!

I had a great weekend! My husband and I had a chance to share our testimonies and the salvation message to a dear couple this weekend. We knew them, but only slightly through my sister-in-law.

We really had no expectations. God had to do the work in their hearts. I used to beat myself up if I seemed to have "no impact", but I am just the willing vessel. That is what God is looking for and that is what I want Him to find in me. I left my Bible in the car, but the verses just came out of my mouth anyway. I am terrible at remembering the references, it was all Holy Spirit when He brought each one to mind and out my mouth. Thank you God!

They ended up coming to church with their kids and loving it and then spent the evening with us for dinner and talking.

It is so fantastic to see God at work. My pastor preached one of the most helpful messages that morning. I could not believe it, but on the other hand I could believe it because that is just the way God works. He never ceased to amaze me and He amazed my friend too. When He works, He really works.

Basically, the woman I shared Christ with heard the same verses, the same explanation, and even some of the same examples word for word. God really wanted to get that message across. It was more than neat!

I will be beginning discipling her this week and eagerly await the day she is doing the same thing. God is awesome!

Stay Married!

"For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce..." Malachi 2:16


I heard a funny statement last night. If you think about it, it is true and it is great wisdom for single people.

"Marriage is the leading cause for divorce."

True.

If people don't get married, they can't get divorced. But some of us do get married. Sadly, divorce happens, too easily. Like it's no big deal. At least people act that way.

When my husband (pictured here) and I got married, we committed that no matter what, divorce would never be an option.

We are big proponents for staying married, always. We, along with most people, vowed to stay together through the good and bad, the rich and poor, and all the rest we recited on our wedding day, remember...I have never heard of a list of exceptions at the altar. Til death, means, til death.

Satan has done some things to try and destroy our marriage, but he lost. I have quite a story to tell, but not now. It would take a book to share all that our marriage has gone through, but Michael and I are not quitters. Anyone who knows us, knows that.

If for any reason you are reading this and considering divorce, contact us and we will help.

Speak Positive

After being seating in a restaurant tonight we were greeted with a nice smile and "I will be giving you excellent service tonight."

We eat out fairly regularly when our kids are at my mom & dad's, which they were tonight, and we never know if we will get awful service or excellent service or somewhere in the middle.

Awful service just stinks and those people either had a bad day and need grace or they just should not be serving tables...topic for another day.

Generally, we like to be generous with our tips and bless those who serve us. It is nice that we can do this for genuinely good service so I was glad to at least hear her intentions.

Our service was excellent.

I mentioned to my husband at the table that because she spoke those positive words, she was in a sense holding herself to it. She was telling us what to expect so that it would drive her to do it.

The Word of God tells us that spoken words have power. Sometimes we do not realize that the words we speak have so much power. Think before you speak! We can build up, tear down, give hope, discourage. It really is our choice.

Speak Words that encourage good things. To your kids, husband, friends, and even those in restaurants. Thank you Gloria for your words and service!

I Could Not Believe My Ears!

A few nights ago I was scrolling through the channels while my husband was finishing some computer work. I passed by an infomercial that was hysterical!

You may have seen it. It was cheesy, like most are. My husband could not help but turn his head to see what ridiculousness he was hearing.

The infomercial was for a pair of jeans for women that will change the way they are shaped. The claims were that these jeans will lift the rear-end quite a bit and just make you look like a knock-out. I think they also claimed to flatten the stomach.

The ad only had girls that looked either sickeningly skinny, or like they came out of a pornographic magazine. I just froze on the button to hear what was being said, the message seemed to go against everything God says...that is the world for us. Still it broke my heart.

The sad part?

The message going out to watchers, and I quote, "YOU WILL HAVE MEN LOOKING AT YOU AND OTHER WOMEN WILL BE JEALOUS OF YOU."

That is the message of the world! Women, that is the wrong goal. I have noticed that this mentality has been creeping into the church. More and more girls and women are dressing (at church) as if their main goal is to get men to look at them or have other girls jealous.

If we buy into this we buy into sin. Our body should not be used to breed jealousy, and it should not be what we use to cause men to stumble.

"Now the body is not
for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and
the Lord for the body."
1 Corinthians 6:13b

"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness
with God."
1 Corinthians 3:19

This commercial made it appear that causing jealousy and lust is the goal and prize for a woman. We need to start speaking out against this lie and stand for what it true. We are to focus on clothing ourselves with good works, kindness, and truth, and we are to look out for our brothers in the Lord and help them to keep their minds focused on Christ not our bodies!

Have a good day!

Don't Jump to Conclusions

2 Samuel 10:1-4 "...then David said, 'I will show kindness to Hanun...just as his father showed kindness to me.'"

I read through the Bible chapter by chapter and when I get to some parts of the Old Testament I wonder if I will be able to apply it to my life. When I look to the heart of the people involved I always get a relevant application, people are people, even thousands of years ago.

The passage above is worth the read. King David is trying to show kindness to King Hanun of the Ammonites in response to the kindness that was shown to him by King Hanun's father.

Instead of believing that King David's motives were right, the men in Hanun's land thought that David was secretly sending in spies under the disguise of "kindness". The result...what was meant for kindness could have turned out to be a real blessing to Hanun, instead he took David's messengers for spies, humiliated them, and then were defeated by King David when they went to battle them.

So what did I take away from this? First, that we need to be very careful not to assume people are doing something sneaky with awful motives when in fact they truly mean good towards us. We could easily react with that thought and miss out on a blessing and get trouble in the form of fighting. Ever been there? Secondly, I learned that David was kind. He sought out ways to show his kindness not to get something, but because he was the recipient of kindness.

Kindness is superior, rejecting kindness can be costly.