We must be deliberate!

I am learning daily, and moment by moment, to follow Christ takes being deliberate.  You truly have to put people first so that you do not put yourself first.  Everytime we think about ourselves we open doors for temptation to come.  We must allow God to take care of us as we put others first.  This is not easy because our sinful desires will turn up the heat as they are being starved. Therefore, we must know, even if we stumble, they are losing and releasing the stronghold. I love being deliberate and refuse to allow my thoughts and flesh to guide me.  If they catch me in a moment of weakness I will rely on the Lord to provide a way out.  In these days I not only want to see the way out but I want to be deliberate in running to that refuge the Holy Spirit provides.  My heart is Gods and my thoughts and habits are changing.  I feel the war brewing inside me as the enemy of the Lord is being starved.  Consume me O Lord, allow my thoughts to be yours, I know you love me and I am your Beloved! SELAH!

One of my First and Favorite Poems

My Jesus, My Savior, My Friend

My Refuge and my Fortress
Our Savior and our Friend
All my sins I wish to confess
To enter Heaven in the end

Though he knew in his last hour
That his life was going to perish
He summoned his Father’s power
For our souls he wanted to cherish

Though on the cross is where he passed
He was ascending to Heaven above
His pain shall never be surpassed
That way we experience his infinite love

Jesus desires to have my heart
So my sins to him I have given
Thank you for my brand new start
This means he left nothing unforgiven

With Him we can do all things
I know this to be exactly true
We are protected by his Angel’s wings
My Jesus died for me and you.

Amen

The Joy of knowing!

I have a friend who’s aunt was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  This turns out to be one of the most, if not the most aggressive types of cancers there is.  I happen to know her through work.  Anyways, one of the main concerns of the family was her salvation.  I had been praying for her and man God just placed some of her burden on me.  I mean my heart was hurting for her very deeply.  I just met her this year, but it felt like this was someone I have known for a long time.  I decided through prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit to go and visit her.  I made a few calls to get some advice about how to approach this situation because I have never had to do this before.  I got some great advice and it was what I originally thought I should do, which is listen.  I was praying the whole way up to the hospital.  I was like Lord please just let your word come from my mouth and make it sound so sweet.  I prayed that no one would be there so I would have the time with her to just talk and see how she was doing.  So, I am praying and praying and then I finally arrived at the hospital.  Now, I tried to be slick and I brought a prayer book which had all kinds of prayers in it, including the salvation prayer or the sinners prayer of accepting Christ as Lord and Savior.  Well, I took a sticky note and placed it on the page where that prayer was and my thinking was when she goes to read the book later she will open to that page and Voila, she reads the salvation prayer.  So I get into the room and she is very happy to see me and we exchange hellos and I ask how she is feeling.  First, God answered my first prayer in that no one was there, except for her room buddy and a few nurses.  Then we were just chatting and I was able to ask her about how she was really feeling and what the doctors had said, things of that nature.  The whole time, which was all of five minutes, the Holy Spirit was prompting me to just ask her.  She brought up how thankful she was for the prayers and that she knew a lot of people were praying for her and she sounded so full of faith and hope.  I finally listened and simply asked do you believe in Jesus and what He did for you, and she cut me off before I actually finished and said yes I have accepted Him into my heart.  I believe in Him and I know He is there for me.  WOW!!! the joy of knowing that someone you care about believes in Christ, when your not sure they do, is so unbelievably AWESOME!!!  This was an experience that God had His hand on and there is no doubt that He created that time to happen, but it was in my hands to fulfill that call and go.  I can tell you friends so many thoughts came into my mind that day to not go and why I shouldn’t.  However, in the end of it all, and I knew the truth, they were all lies.  God wanted her to hear what was said and it was so comforting for her to know that someone loves her enough just to come by and say hi.  Well, I got to finish my visit with her by her allowing me to pray for her.  Oh my dear Friends, Jesus’ voice is softer than a whisper, but when He speaks and the Holy Spirit pushes Love is what gets done!!! Selah.. Remember your Life is not about you, its about all those around you! Amen..