Tuesday, September 29, 2009

I will not conform!

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—
his good,pleasing and perfect will" (Romans 12:2).
I will NOT conform to the pattern of this world! My life is changing and I am hoping it is due to the fact that I am in the Word. I am renewing my mind!! I am praying that God's will will be revealed to me. I pray that I live according to His good, pleasing and perfect will. I want to be His servant. I want to be there for others to love and to serve them. I can do that when I am in the Word! I can be who I was created to be. Thank you, Lord!!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Slow Fade

"Slow Fade" by Casting Crowns

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
It's a slow fade, it's a slow fade


This week I was told by a leader of our church that translations of the Bible are "not black and white" One person asked the question, why does God make it so difficult to discern? But, does he? It is not right with my soul that I am being counted as a member of the ELCA right now. I feel God has made it very clear to me which way I am to go.

Dear Lord, please open our eyes to Your Word! Help us to see clearly. Help us to know and understand that the choices we are making today, come with a price to be paid. Thank you Lord for the price You paid for us already. For giving us Your Son, Jesus. Help us to always "hunger and thirst for righteousness" to desire to be more like You. Lord, Thy will be done.
Amen

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

hmmm...

So, this is the Bible verse I get today from the ELCA....

1 Kings 13:11-25 (NRSV)

Disobeying the word of God

"Now there lived an old prophet in Bethel. One of his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words also that he had spoken to the king, they told to their father. Their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. Then he said to his sons, "Saddle a donkey for me." So they saddled a donkey for him, and he mounted it. He went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak tree. He said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" He answered, "I am." Then he said to him, "Come home with me and eat some food." But he said, "I cannot return with you, or go in with you; nor will I eat food or drink water with you in this place; for it was said to me by the word of the Lord: You shall not eat food or drink water there, or return by the way that you came." Then the other said to him, "I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord: Bring him back with you into your house so that he may eat food and drink water." But he was deceiving him. Then the man of God went back with him, and ate food and drank water in his house.

As they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back; and he proclaimed to the man of God who came from Judah, "Thus says the Lord: Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment that the Lord your God commanded you, but have come back and have eaten food and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, 'Eat no food, and drink no water,' your body shall not come to your ancestral tomb." After the man of God had eaten food and had drunk, they saddled for him a donkey belonging to the prophet who had brought him back. Then as he went away, a lion met him on the road and killed him. His body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body. People passed by and saw the body thrown in the road, with the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the town where the old prophet lived."

....And I wonder, is the ELCA being led astray by false prophets? The word of God says one thing, society says another and the ELCA votes and leans more toward society than the word of God. I'm very concerned about the lion.

Dear Lord, please guide Your followers back to the Bible. Help us to discern where you want us to go. Keep us on the right path so we can avoid the path that leads to being killed by a lion.
In Jesus' name, Amen.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Set Free!

Released from the past
and all that held me captive…
welcoming each day
with my wings spread wide…
Soaring into the future
and all God has for me!

I cried to the LORD,
and He answered
by setting me free.
Psalm 118:5 NIV

We all have something that holds us captive. Praying that whatever it is for you, that you will be released so you may soar into the future and all that God has for you.
And, I'm praying this for myself as well. There are things that hold me back or down...Lord, I want to experience the freedom that is only found in You!
Amen