A Christ Follower: The Journey

God: The Creative Genius Another Favorite Scripture of Mine.   We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works that He prepared in advance for us to do . Ephesians 2:10     Yeah, yeah, yeah! I have heard it so many times that I am wondering why we say it so much.  Yes! It is true!  And I praise God Almighty for it:  " For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God NOT OF WORKS to prevent anyone from boasting." Or so Ephesians 2:8-9 is recorded.  And I really do get it: God's glorious salvation is a gift! The faith we have to believe in Him is a gift ... even the wonderful and inconceivably generous grace is a gift! True people of God certainly would do well to celebrate.   However, something seems to get lost as one of the most powerful statements get's left out, which is this another favorite of mine ... Ephesians 2:10.  Here we have God, not only ...

Freedom Faith Statements From Freedom IN Christ Ministries     Before you look these statements over, I would like to share something extremely important with you. Each of us has a running conversation in our heads, and many of us allow ourselves A.N.T.s.  Automatic Negative Thinking.  When we do this, we are doing "stinking thinking" which results in dark feelings or stinking feeling.  When you think such thoughts, you are not believing the truth.  And if you are feeling real low there is a good possibility your A.N.T.s are stinging you.         Below I have copied these Freedom Statements from www.ficm.org  .  If they spoken over and over again throughout the day, they will help set you free by replacing your A.N.T.s.  If you habitually speak these freedom words, promises or thoughts from the Bible out loud, eventually your emotions will be more balanced and you will walk free.    ...

  Maintaining Your Freedom Continues   It is for freedom that Christ has set you free.  Stand firm and do not let yourself be burdened by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1     Did you notice something "sticking out" in this passage? It is a simple piece of information that is providing the means for you and me living out a life changing spiritual practice.  Yes Christ has already set us free, but we have a choice to let freedom reign in our lives or to not let it reign.  We can burden ourselves with a yoke that enslaves us or we can throw of the yoke that enslaves us.    My biggest concern here is where I should start.  For me I think the next place we need to examine is not only what we have discussed, which is actually believing we are free and then start living it.  Then the next thing would be to look at the identities of who we are IN Christ.  Freedom In Christ Ministries www.ficm.org  has volumes a...

The Freedom Verse   It is for freedom that Christ has set you free.  Stand firm then and do not let yourself be burdened by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1     Freedom is a very important word, especially for Christ-Followers. Liberty is truly one of the core values of what we are about. Consider this liberating promise of God given to we the people of God:  Jesus has set us free!  And this freedom is not based on living in a free society nor in circumstances conducive to physical freedom.  As a matter of fact, when the Apostle Paul was inspired to write these words, he was anything but free. From the dank, dark, dismal and debilitating prison cell, Paul could proclaim this Divinely established,  God promised obligation that set him free in the most enslaving of circumstances? He is quite literally a free man who was corporeally bound within prison walls and in chains. You see, Paul knew, that Jesus ha...

    The Other Two Wonderful Spiritual Nuggets of Wisdom Psalm 37:4-6   Delight yourself also in the Lord , And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5  Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. 6  He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday   Picking up where we left off (See last blog before reading this one.), I continue with this passage (Again One of My Favorites) and we sample 2 other  golden nuggets of spirituality that will transform our lives. God wants you and me to commit our lives to Him, and He wants us to trust Him.  Additionally,  He wants us to do so to work another one of those daily miracles in our lives.  However, this is a double barreled miracle of grace.    Committing and Trusting   One of my most difficult challenges in life came when God changed my direction with a sudden jerk....

  I Am Indeed Delighted Another Favorite of Mine Nuggets of Wisdom: Nugget #1   Psalm 37:4-6 Delight yourself also in the Lord , And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5  Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. 6  He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday.       Getting your life on track can be one of the most challenging things you have to do once it "jumps the rails." Life can simply be going along with a sense of normalcy, and then all the sudden life can happen in such a way that things become ... well ... challenging. Our changing culture, our family, our job or navigating through the various ages and stages of life impact us in such a way that we need God's spiritual transformation to move us forward.    This particular passage, and a favorite of mine - Psalm 37:4-6- is one of God's reminders of how we can become t...

Approaching God Another Favorite of Mine   In Him , and through faith in Him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. Ephesians 3:12    As I sit here writing this, I wonder if I really grasp  just how powerful, precious and purpose filled  an opportunity this thing of approaching God really is? In the Old Testament, even the High Priest could find himself in a dangerous situation, if he approached God in the wrong way. As a matter of fact, there were those occasions when a rope of some kind was tied around his ankle just in case he died while going into the presence of God. He may have died approaching God in an inappropriate way. So unlike today, entering into God's presence was not done so in such a casual way. Indeed, the average Jane or Joe did not have the privilege of entering God's presence alone. The ones who did approached with fear and trembling. However , because of our relationship with Jesus – who is the Messiah and great ...