My summer is about to take off at super-sonic speed. There are photography jobs lining up, VBS lesson plans for which to prepare, a grandson to watch grow. (His big sister Daisy said just the other day that his blue eyes are as big as dinner-plates. I would have to agree, and I could look at them all day long!) Next month hopefully will be a visit from my mom and sister, a trip to California and a family reunion at Mammoth Lakes - in the Sierra Nevada mountains, just south of the high country of Yosemite, one of my most favorite places in all the outdoor world! (God's creation there is breath-takingly beautiful.) And somewhere in there I have to climb on my roof, tear out my carpeting, finish refacing my kitchen cabinets, and paint my bathroom. So, you can see it leaves little time for the fun stuff, like blogging. I've decided to take a break. My son arrives back from Alaska for a week at the end of September and then Lord-willing, I'm having more special company, so perhaps around mid-October I will get back to it.
In the mean time, watch for the signs and then look for His return, and may the Lord always be your life! (That is a 100% word!)
Overcomer
Daniel
Early Friday morning my cell phone rang at 1:29am. It was my son-in-law. My daughter's water had broken. They would be coming by in about ten minutes to drop my granddaughter Daisy off to stay with Grandpa and pick me up to go to the hospital. As we rushed to the hospital, Annie's contractions were coming hard and just two minutes apart. Annie was scheduled to have a c-section on Tuesday, June 16th, because Daniel was breech. It was apparent that he was not going to wait that long! It was Annie's desire for me to chronicle in pictures this wonderful event. If you click on this link you will be taken to the web album I put together, then click on slideshow. We begin in the triage room where nurses bustled in and out, monitoring Annie's contractions while the doctor was summoned and the OR was being prepared. There are several images of Annie enduring a contraction. She was a real trooper! Only one support person was allowed in the OR. That had to be dad! A nurse took a picture of mom, dad, and baby right after Daniel arrived at 4:46am, on June 12th, four days ahead of his due date, and the date that Gramma predicted! (Aren't the mom's always right?! Well, at least 99.9% of the time!)
Daniel mirrors his father. He has long fingers and big feet! Annie is going to be a wonderful mother. She has not received much sleep since then. I've been at the hospital during the day while my son-in-law takes the night shift as her support. Annie is so tender to Daniel. It's such a delight to watch them interact, to see him searching for the sound of her gentle voice with his eyes as she softly talks to him. His daddy adores him too. That morning has to rank in my top five, of the most joyous days of my life!
Before he was even born, I prayed that the Lord would draw Daniel to Himself. A dear friend wrote after viewing the album that she prayed the same thing for Daniel, that the Lord would bring him into a relationship with Himself at a very young age, avoiding the pitfalls of sin which accompany a youth of rebellion. Rather to walk with the Lord his whole life would be blessing beyond compare...
This truly would be a blessing.
Thank you Lord for sweet, little Daniel, such a precious gift!
When we understand...
...that we were given life to please the heart of God and not our own hearts, we understand the very meaning of life itself. Since God is without sin and loves with purest love, He has the very best interest of His creation in His heart when He calls us to live for Him. When we live for the pleasure of His heart, we place ourselves under His protective custody and authority. To live for His pleasure is to be in the safest place we can be. To live for His pleasure becomes then not a heavy burden to bear but an endeavor of greatest delight.
2 Corinthians 5:15 - "He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf."
2 Corinthians 5:15 - "He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf."
CIRCUMSTANCES
Philippians 1:12 caught my attention the other morning – “Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel…”
Paul’s circumstances were that he now found himself imprisoned. Most of us would probably view that as a negative thing. Paul had become a prisoner for preaching Christ. He ended up in prison simply by fulfilling his calling. But Paul’s imprisonment proved to be no hindrance to spreading the message of salvation. It actually created new opportunities.
The lesson to be learned is that when my circumstances change to what appear at the onset to be for the negative, I need to remember that God is sovereign, overseeing every detail of my life. I need to look for the opportunities in my circumstances to magnify Him. Is there someone He’s about to bring my way with whom I can share Christ? Is there someone about to cross my path that is going to need a word of encouragement? Life is not about my ease and comfort. It’s about loving the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving those around me.
Paul said for him to live is Christ. In every circumstance let’s look for the opportunities to exalt our Greatest Treasure and to show kindness and love to others.
Paul’s circumstances were that he now found himself imprisoned. Most of us would probably view that as a negative thing. Paul had become a prisoner for preaching Christ. He ended up in prison simply by fulfilling his calling. But Paul’s imprisonment proved to be no hindrance to spreading the message of salvation. It actually created new opportunities.
The lesson to be learned is that when my circumstances change to what appear at the onset to be for the negative, I need to remember that God is sovereign, overseeing every detail of my life. I need to look for the opportunities in my circumstances to magnify Him. Is there someone He’s about to bring my way with whom I can share Christ? Is there someone about to cross my path that is going to need a word of encouragement? Life is not about my ease and comfort. It’s about loving the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving those around me.
Paul said for him to live is Christ. In every circumstance let’s look for the opportunities to exalt our Greatest Treasure and to show kindness and love to others.
Overcomer...
...began with all of my articles focusing on end times. You have probably noticed that I have branched out from that theme. The Lord has been opening exciting doors in my life as of late. One is teaching, the other is counseling. I've been reading Elyse Fitzpatrick's book, "Women Counseling Women" and have posted some of her nuggets from that book here at Overcomer. On page forty-eight you will find the goal of the biblical counselor: "to facilitate change in the counselee's life so that her character is changed to conform to the likeness of Christ." The Lord has graciously brought women into my life all along my walk with Him who He used and is using to work Christlike character into my life through His Word.
I love the word justified and I love how Elyse Fitzpatrick defined it. I heard this definition at her "Am I My Sister's Keeper?" conference that was held here in the Northwest in February. Justified means just as if I've never sinned and just as if I'd always obeyed. Our obedience in practice is not perfect but we are not condemned for it because the Lord's perfect obedience is placed to our account. Does this mean we can live life any way we want now? Absolutely not! To do that would be to slap grace in the face. Paul tells us we were buried with Christ through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. We are to consider ourselves now to be dead to sin and alive to God. This is how we are to think.
I've learned that Paul's put off and put on principle in Ephesians 4:22-24 is invaluable and absolutely necessary for our sanctification - that change in which the Holy Spirit takes the Word and uses it to conform us into Christlikeness. Here it is: "that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth."
We are able to walk in newness of life because the power of sin has been broken. How do we deal with sinful thoughts and behaviors? Here are a few Paul named in Ephesians 4 - lying, sinful anger, stealing, unwholesome words, bitterness, wrath, clamor, slander, malice. Here are a few more that I thought of - lust, overeating, gossiping... We deal with these sinful behaviors by remembering that we are dead to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. We recognize our thoughts and actions as being sinful, we confess it, we ask forgiveness, and we repent or turn from it. Here is where we lay it aside, we put it off, seeking to renew our minds by being in the Word, and then put on new habits. The thief stops stealing and begins working. The liar stops lying and speaks the truth. The gossiper stops gossiping and speaks words that bring edification. Gals, if you are in the habit of reading those cheap romance novels instead of delighting in your husband, take them out and burn them and get back to delighting in your husband. Guys, if you are in the habit of sitting in front the computer screen instead of delighting in your wife, take a baseball bat to your monitor and delight only in your wife. As we seek to comply with God's design for our lives, we will be changed! As we walk in obedience the good work God began of conforming us into the image of Christ, He will perfect it until the day of Christ, the day the Lord returns - Philippians 1:6.
Speaking of the day of Christ, Prewrath Rapture Dot Com posted a great article today entitled "The Prewrath Rapture - A Biblical Synthesis." Be sure and check it out!
I love the word justified and I love how Elyse Fitzpatrick defined it. I heard this definition at her "Am I My Sister's Keeper?" conference that was held here in the Northwest in February. Justified means just as if I've never sinned and just as if I'd always obeyed. Our obedience in practice is not perfect but we are not condemned for it because the Lord's perfect obedience is placed to our account. Does this mean we can live life any way we want now? Absolutely not! To do that would be to slap grace in the face. Paul tells us we were buried with Christ through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. We are to consider ourselves now to be dead to sin and alive to God. This is how we are to think.
I've learned that Paul's put off and put on principle in Ephesians 4:22-24 is invaluable and absolutely necessary for our sanctification - that change in which the Holy Spirit takes the Word and uses it to conform us into Christlikeness. Here it is: "that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth."
We are able to walk in newness of life because the power of sin has been broken. How do we deal with sinful thoughts and behaviors? Here are a few Paul named in Ephesians 4 - lying, sinful anger, stealing, unwholesome words, bitterness, wrath, clamor, slander, malice. Here are a few more that I thought of - lust, overeating, gossiping... We deal with these sinful behaviors by remembering that we are dead to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. We recognize our thoughts and actions as being sinful, we confess it, we ask forgiveness, and we repent or turn from it. Here is where we lay it aside, we put it off, seeking to renew our minds by being in the Word, and then put on new habits. The thief stops stealing and begins working. The liar stops lying and speaks the truth. The gossiper stops gossiping and speaks words that bring edification. Gals, if you are in the habit of reading those cheap romance novels instead of delighting in your husband, take them out and burn them and get back to delighting in your husband. Guys, if you are in the habit of sitting in front the computer screen instead of delighting in your wife, take a baseball bat to your monitor and delight only in your wife. As we seek to comply with God's design for our lives, we will be changed! As we walk in obedience the good work God began of conforming us into the image of Christ, He will perfect it until the day of Christ, the day the Lord returns - Philippians 1:6.
Speaking of the day of Christ, Prewrath Rapture Dot Com posted a great article today entitled "The Prewrath Rapture - A Biblical Synthesis." Be sure and check it out!
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