Living Life for Christ Alone

"One of the teachers of religious law... asked, 'Of all the commandments, which is the most important?' Jesus replied, 'The most important commandment is this: "Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength." The second is equally important: "Love your neighbor as yourself." No other commandment is greater than these.'" (Mark 12:28-31) Have you ever wondered what brings God the most pleasure?   The out-flowing desire of a person who has been redeemed is to know what pleases Him. After all that He did for us in saving us from a life of sin and separation from God, and then eternity in hell still separated from God, it only makes sense to have so much gratitude in your heart that you want to do something for Him.

"How can I rest in You and be at peace when storms keep coming my way, God? It seems like every time I settle down another one comes and I'm on my feet again." That question was one that I asked God this morning. Sometimes, I pull out my journal and instead of closing my eyes to pray, I write a prayer to God. Mainly because it is so hard to find the words when I'm just talking. At the end of the prayer, I closed the journal, opened my bible to Jeremiah and began to read. I began in chapter 16 and read through to 17. A passage grabbed my attention that I had underlined in purple and gold on one or two of my previous read-through's.

As I sit here, preparing to write a post that I know I must write after praying and talking with God, I find that there is no adequate way to begin this. Let me just get to the point... I have been reading in Jeremiah for the past couple of days and this morning was so struck by how hurt God must feel when His beloved people turn from Him to worship other "gods". Stick with me here... I imagine that most of you who call yourselves Christians probably read that sentence and said to yourself, "nope, that's not me. I haven't gone and worshiped another god." But let me keep writing about God's heart to you for a second and then I'll explain...

This morning, I was spending my time alone with the Lord, and asked Him, "where do you want me to spend this time?" I had been meditating on 1 Peter, but for some reason found myself in the first chapter of 2 Peter. I got stuck on verse 3 and couldn't seem to leave it to read the rest. I took out my pen and began to write one phrase at a time... "According as His divine power..."  It is God, not man, that has all the power that we need. It's all about Him and what He can do. His power is divine. Nowhere else but in Him can we find it.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." (Gal. 5: 22-23) I should just leave those verses there and hope that a passerby reader might stop and ponder those words for a few moments. Recently, I was pondering Colossians 1:11 where it says in the middle of a long prayer, "Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness." I had just failed again getting frustrated at a situation that was going on, and went to pray about it when this verse came to mind. One phrase reverberated in my mind: "Patience...with joyfulness." God was telling me,  When your patience is being stretched, you're supposed to be joyful about it... 

As I sit here, getting ready to share with you the biggest thing God has been doing in my life lately, I must start by being real. It is so easy to sit back on a morning when I feel no battles, no struggles and just live like I don't think I need God. Other days its so easy to worry about life and think about every detail of everything and wonder if it's going to be ok. Still other days, I find myself listening to Satan’s lies and believing him even though I know they aren’t true. Do you find yourself doing those things too? Why does Satan lie to us? Why is it that life seems"easy" one day, and then the next is the hardest ever? Let me help you out with this…

Have you ever said that to God? What I am about to write about, I write only because God is telling me to. This is an area that I still have a long way grow in, so as I share, please don't think that I am speaking as one who's already learned it. Understand that I am on this journey too, so as I put some words onto this screen that are going to be somewhat hard to take in, it is for my benefit, as well as yours.

This morning, as I was reading out of the Psalms, I got stuck on Psalm 95. I read it once through and stopped. What in the world had I just read? It was amazing! I read it again. Oh, how I knew it was amazing, but I wanted to let the gravity of what it was saying to sink in. And then I read it again, one phrase at a time... "Come, let us sing to the Lord!"  (v. 1a) ...It was a call to sing to God, and it was no ordinary call. "Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation." (v. 1b) I began to wonder, "what should make you so excited that you could shout?" It must be pretty exciting!

Well hello there, dear readers! After several months of travelling, moving out of our old home, renovating another one, and then finally moving into our new house (this past weekend), I finally have found some time to write. :) Lately God has been reminding me again and again of His promise that "ALL things work together for good to those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) ...Not just some things, ALL things. "Do you believe that, Sandie?" He gently asks me.

This morning, as I spent my time alone with God, I sat in the van, doors shut, sun rising over the horizon, starting to warm up the place where I sat. One question seemed to dominate my thoughts... How do I know I'm useful in God's opinion?  For the past 24 hours, a feeling had been threatening to dominate my actions. "I don't really matter in the bigger scheme of things." That's how I felt, and I knew that there was only one place this lie could melt away. That would be in God's presence. So, here I was, sitting in the car before God, asking Him my question, waiting for an answer.  I knew that whatever God gives me to do is important. Nothing can change that. But, for some reason, I felt unseen, unimportant to everyone else.  As I opened up my bible to search for His answer to my question, my eye fell upon several different verses that talked about Jesus. 

    The cage was old and rickety, but it still served its purpose. An odor of death seemed to penetrate every ounce of air that was in the vicinity. A thick darkness surrounded the cage. Within the cage lay a small, almost lifeless, girl. She was starved and dirty, and if one were to look into her eyes, a hint of despair and hopelessness could be seen there.     Outside the cage sat a cruel old man, guarding the doorway so none could get in or out. He held in his hands a weapon that none could distinguish in our modern world. His eyes lurched to and fro, looking for anyone who would assay to set the girl free.    Suddenly, out of the distance, the girl could hear a cry. At first it was faint, but soon it became louder and clear. The voice was crying for joy, “I’m free! My cage is broken! I don’t have to be trapped in there anymore!”

Hey everyone! Wow! I've gone WAY too long without posting on here, but I'm back. After months of being too busy to get on here, whether because of travelling, Christmas, etc. I'm now back, and hoping to start writing on a more regular basis. Having just returned from Australia several weeks ago, God is constantly reminding me of HIS amazing power, which has the capacity to change lives! I was reading in Colossians this morning, paying close attention to who Jesus is and what He has done, and it is SO amazing how incredibly great HE is! He is the satisfaction of all our needs, the One who completes us, the one who gives us strength and who makes us holy enough to get into God's presence, He is all and in all. His sacrifice on the cross is SO incredibly powerful! I'm so excited to share with all of you more (later... lol) just how amazing He is. Thank you all so much for your patience as I have been away from my computer so long... Looking forward to sharing wit...