Side Tracked in 1 Peter…

Well this past month I have taken a detour and dug into 1 Peter.  This is a book that deals with relationships with those that are not following Christ for the purpose of drawing them to Christ, Himself. 

It was hugely convicting as I examined situations that were current in my life and my inner attitude had effected my outward actions.  It is so hard to live in a culture where it is the norm and almost expected that you return evil for evil.  It is justifiable to speak badly of those who speak badly of us.  Why would you love those who hate you let alone go out of your way to show that love?

We are to keep ourselves blameless before our God.  Loving everyone in His name so the testimony of our life will bring people to the realization that God is the reason that we have HOPE and endure all of life’s struggles (including relational one’s) with JOY.  Peter state’s a couple of times that we are no different than the world if we do as they do in being nice to those who are nice to us….but if we are nice to those who are not nice to us with a great attitude to boot… we are set apart and can rejoice because we are sharing the same persecution that Jesus endured for His sake.

So then the question I am left to ask myself is do I try to blend in… follow the crowd…. try not to stick out… not go out of my way to stand up for, be kind to, up lift those that do not return the same sentiments?  If we love those who love us back what credit is that to us?  Even non-Christians do that.  If we love those who hate us and go out of their way to make our lives miserable and love them with all that is within us, then we can take that suffering knowing that we have been true to our Saviour and we can be used to our full potential for the work of God’s Kingdom, standing righteous before God. 

I Just Listened to a Sermon on 1 Peter

The sermon was titled 7 Secrets to victorious Living.  I wanted to summarize my notes to hang on my wall.  I used Creative Memories Software and some free downloads that I got on the internet to create a mini poster (8 1/2 x 11) to hang above my desk. 

If you are interested in hearing/watching this 2 part series it was by Bayless Conley.  I was watching a podcast that I had downloaded from May 8 & 15, 2009. 

Feel free to download this poster for yourself as a reminder of the book of the first letter of Peter.

Terrie

Communication Between God and Man– FAILED ATTEMPT of my HUMANNESS!!

Well it has been a long time coming.  It is amazing how I, in my humanness, can get caught up in perfection (that is ironic).  How can any human be perfect?  I read through Genesis in the beginning of January making note of any communication between God and man.  Then I started to analyze what I had learned… God had impressed  on me a specific principle that had been seen in this book but I let my ideals get in the way.

I wanted to do a thorough study of each encounter between God and man.  When I was reading through the biggest things that jumped out at me were so clearly pointed out by the Holy Spirit as what He wanted me to get out of the book of Genesis.  Instead of writing the blog right away and focusing on those items I continued to try to find time to look at every aspect of what I had learned for another month with very little movement or satisfaction.

I felt most days like a huge roadblock had been placed in my way and I was not even able to focus on anything that Genesis had to say at all.  This is frustrating when I just wanted to move on.  Every time I sat down the same idea came to me in big bold headlines across my heart!   I just could not get past my own perfection and ideals that I wanted to exhaust every communication through Genesis. 

It is really foolish to argue with the Holy Spirit or to try to work beyond what He is asking and therefore working in your  own human strength.  So here I am, almost 5 weeks later, and finally admitting my own human limitations, ready to record what the Holy Spirit actually impressed upon me to record here when I first read through Genesis at the beginning of January… how ironic is that!!

More in my next post!

FAITH TREE - First Post

I was at a Ladies Retreat this past fall (September 2010).  It was a great weekend, however it was also a difficult weekend!  God had me right where He wanted me and I had no where to run off to and nothing else to do but listen.  He confronted me on so many issues that I had been avoiding for a long time... hard questions that He had been asking and I had been avoiding giving answers to.  I am not sure how much He paid the speaker that weekend but it was like she was hired by God just to get me past the "pussy-footing-around" thing that I had been doing for so long.  For weeks leading up to the retreat God brought to the forefront so many things and it was like He was saying... you know that you and I are going to have a showdown at that retreat so get ready!  I almost backed out of the retreat just to avoid dealing with my "stuff". 

The questions that I needed to answer either came from the speaker directly or from the Holy Spirit during the sessions while I was taking notes... talking to people after the retreat sometimes I wonder if we were at the same place at the same time.  I will say "remember" and they look kinda confused.  The questions I was being asked that weekend were... Are you willing to surrender to my way?...Are you really passionate?... Do I really trust God?... Am I really ready to trust God with it?... Do I believe God is fully adequate for everything I need?... Am I willing to take the risk and sacrifice God is requiring of me?... Am I really Hungry for God's Spirit and Presence in my life?... Do I really want God to pour out fuel onto my fire?... Am I willing to be flexible enough to do it God's way?... ALL of these QUESTIONS came before the end of the first night and I had a choice to make... ANSWER the questions that God was asking or keep avoiding them.  If I avoided them I knew that it would basically be rebellion and disobedience.  So I needed to examine the questions and really assess the risk involved both directions... each question basically boiled down to two options- I could choose to do it my way or I could choose to rely on God and do it His way.  By the end of that evening I knew that the risk of disobedience and living in sin (which really boils down rebelling against God) was way more than I was willing to gamble and the benefits and blessings of following Him and choosing to trust Him completely were definitely where I wanted to be.  I had to spend time repenting for avoiding doing what God had asked of me for years already.  The rest of the weekend went a lot smoother... I felt led to read through James several times. 

The final day of the retreat God gave me a vision of a tree to declare His works to all that visit our home.  It was a tree with roots and branches and leaves.  The roots were Representative of time in prayer and in the scriptures.  Without a root system a tree will topple over and die.  It is important to spend time with God and just as the roots of tree's go down deep to find water and nourishment, I too have to spend time with God in prayer and searching the scriptures... without this root system, I too will topple over and die.  The leaves on the tree represent answers to prayer and things that God has done.  each leaf has writing on it to tell of a specific answer to prayer or movement of God.  I also saw fruit to represent larger life events that are fruit produced by abiding in the vine. 

Well I came home and I knew I needed to paint this tree in our stairwell.  I started a couple of months later.  Before I could finish the branches or add many leaves I ended up with an upper back injury which has left me unable to work on the tree for more than a couple of minutes at a time since most of the work involves raising my arms.  So it stands, half finished, a reminder that I really have not given everything over yet and there are still some things that I keep in my own hands (a real hero...Eh?).  I am looking forward to when it is finally completed and all that is left is to fill it in with leaves as we see God work more and more.

My Favorite Christmas Present of 2010!