596 Days Saved - A Walk with Christ 

-He's Near-

The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles. Psalm 34:17 NIV

As I was picking out items for my mini alter at home, I had to smile. The gentlemen at the store (which was actually a tatoo shop) helping me pick out the incense and censer informed me that I'll have to learn the exact times to meditate and light the incense. I perked up as I saw it as an opportunity to share about the grace our Lord came back to offer us. I quickly shared with him that that is the grace Jesus brought. With Jesus we know that it Doesn't matter what time we say our prayers, light our candles, burn our incense, tap our drum, strum our lyre; For we know our lord is always near anytime we simply call upon His name! 

The Challenge: 

Do you believe you have to say prayers a certain way or light candles at certain times for the Lord to hear your voice? 

595 Days Saved - A Walk with Christ 

-A Sweet Little Alter-

Then I will go to the alter of God, to God, my joy and my delight. Psalm 43:4

Christmas Eve I had a rather momentous thing happen in my life. A very clear message was shared into my life. I'm learning that these things are personal and something not many besides our own hearts can really understand. The Lord speaks to each of us ever so uniquely. This is why it's important to have that intimate relationship with Christ, for it is only then you can hear His whispers upon your life. 

So I cannot share how the message was presented but I can share what I have done with the counsel of the Holy Spirit. 

I have created a little alter in my living room. The Lord does not say this is necessary but if we are lead to it then that's called a conviction. He also does not need anything fancy. On my little alter I have a candle to burn myrrh oil and a censer to burn Frankenscents inside. I have a picture of Jesus and a simple wooden cross. These things identify exactly whom my Lord is. I also have my purple prayer crosses which remind me of people to pray for daily. 

The Challenge: 

The Lord needs nothing special or fancy!  All He wants is your heart and your time. Having a special place in your home will remind you and your family to spend time with Him. You'll start feeling peace in that place. You will then learn how to get that feeling of peace rooted into your mind, for when you go out into the world.   

594 Days Saved - A Walk with Christ 

*Truth with Love*

Love your neighbor as yourself, there is no greater commandment then these. Mark 12:31

Something interesting evolved on social media this morning. I was doing my usual early morning scrolling when I saw a post that agitated my spirit. I was hesitant to respond but then the Lord whispered, "Share me."

The post was a small cartoon which said, "What to do to your ex." It was of cartoon character performing all different ways to kill the other person. 

People laughed and responded but I said, "I do not find this funny! Killing someone is nothing to joke about." The girl who put out the post immediately unfriended me. She did not even know my reasoning behind sharing. 

I took this as a moment to share with her. I private messaged her on the side explaining I know a person who slayed their ex. I then informed her based upon many of her post I could tell she was hurting. I told her I care about her! She immediately said, "Get a life!" Then she said, "Why do you care about me?" I shared I care because Jesus loves her! I went on to share more about our loving and forgiving father. She removed the post of the cartoon killing its ex within the hour. Praise Jesus! 

The Challenge:

Sometimes the coldest sounding people are the ones looking for simple unconditional love! Just because a person is angry seeming doesn't mean it's time to be snarky back, it actually means it's time to show them kindness! Maybe they haven't felt kindness in a long time! Maybe you can be the one to show them love when many others have failed that test!

593 Days Saved - A Walk with Christ 

*Awakened*

Awake my soul! Awake! Psalms 57:8

Last night I had a dream. In this dream it was very dark. Black with a bluish hue all around. I was inside a gigantic mansion of a house and intruders were in the house and coming up the stairs to find me. I sneaked out the top window and was on the roof. It was so dark. I thought about trying to climb down to other levels but was too afraid that they would see me through the windows. Then I noticed an intruder coming up the side of the house. I was trapped on the roof, sitting, clinging to my knees and terribly frightened. I knew it was the end. So I then screamed as loud as I could to Jesus. It was my last effort to survive. I yelled, "In the name of Jesus Christ come Lord, come now and save me." Just then the sky got a tad bit lighter and the intruder slowed down almost stalling and then I awoke! As I came to I remembered the fear I had in my dream. I even snuggled closer to my husband for security. 

The Challenge: 

Did the Lord hear me in my dream and simply wake me up? When we go to heaven will it be like this? The Lord hearing our cries and simply waking us up to the dawn? 

592 Days Saved - A Walk with Christ 

*Bickering Christians*

 And the lords servant must not be quarrelsome  but must be kind to everyone, able to teach not resentful. 2 Timothy 2:24

In this walk I have discovered that Christians often times do not see eye to eye. They often bicker..  Is this pleasing to the Lord? It is when we share honesty with an apology! Let's face it sometimes when we are honest it can be harsh.

There are some Christians that hate the idea of people celebrating Christmas with a tree and visiting Santa Claus. These traditions have been around so long so are they wrong? Possibly, but isn't this why Jesus came back to forgive us of the things we do not understand and love us anyway as long as we love and claim Him king? What I'm wrestling with today. 

The Challenge: 

If us Christians believe Jesus is King why do we get frustrated with all these little petty details? 

591 Days Saved - A Walk with Christ 

-Partnering with God-

Moses said to the Lord, "Since I speak with faltering lips why would pharaoh listen to me?" Exodus 6:30

Im starting the gospel from the beginning. Now that I feel stronger with New Testament and grounded in whom our savior is I'm ready to dig into the Old Testament deeper to understand our God better. 

Something I found fascinating is the relationship God had with Moses. The relationship was more of a partnership then God ordering him around. When God appeared to Moses and told him he will lead the Israelites  out of Egypt, Moses told God he didn't feel he was up to par for the job. ***Side note here (Don't we all feel inadequate to share for the Lord but the Lord assured Moses he was good enough!) God listened to Moses and said I will be with you and give you the strength. Moses was still concerned and shared with God he didn't feel confident enough to be so bold. He thought, "The Israelites barely listen to me so why would pharaoh? Then God said okay Moses then I will have Aaron your brother go along with you. God said, "See I have made you like a God to Pharaoh and your brother Aaron will be your prophet!" Moses then felt more comfortable with this plan God and him put in place together. 

--Tomorrow I'll share another example of this partnership between Moses and God! 

The Challenge: 

Are you God's servant or are you God's partner? 

-I believe it's a good blending of both but what are your thoughts on your relationship status with the Lord? 

590 Days Saved - A Walk with Christ 

-Editing Scripture-

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. (Deuteronomy 4:2)

This week in the news Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church has declared he would like to make changes to the gospel. More specifically the 'Our Father' prayer found in Matthew 6. 

When I heard this red flags went up for me and I'll work here to share why. Pope Francis wants to change the part where the prayer says 'lead me not into temptation.' He feels this suggest God leads us to temptation. He wants to edit it to suggest something more like 'let us not lead ourselves into temptation but deliver us from evil.'

Okay I get it. So you may think this change seems harmless, right? But the truth is is this tiny change is incredibly dangerous. If people (like the pope) feel we can make simple changes then what keeps others from making edits and changes to our precious and complete gospel? This is the cause of many false teachers and religions sculpting and doing what they please to the gospel! If we believe in Jesus Christ we believe the Gospel is complete as is! Our Lord commanded in Deuteronomy 4:2 that we ought not to add or take away from scripture! The way the gospel is is the foundation of our belief system as Christians which editing challenges everything!! DANGEROUS! 

The Challenge: 

Have a deep discussion today with someone about this topic. Do you feel it's okay for the Pope to change simple wording  in the gospel? Why or why not? 

589 Days Saved - A Walk with Christ 

-Cherry Picked Scripture- 

Test the spirits to see whether they are from God. 1 John 4:1

In this journey the Lord works on training me to have bullet proof faith. This prepares me with knowledge of truth for the future battles I will face. I remember early on in my journey, in learning to walk with God, I was called a false teacher. At the time it hurt but now looking back I'm so grateful this happened. I now know being a false teacher is incredibly dangerous. I now know what a false teacher is and continue to work with God on personal flaws and weaknesses to become more like Him and less like the world. 

Something that this journey has showed me is Christians can be very quick to judge a persons connection with God. We are to test the spirit but if the person acknowledges Jesus is God and came, died and rose again for our sins then I do not believe this person is a false teacher. I believe these are simply Christian men and women learning to walk with God and hear His voice just like the rest of us! These kind of people are learning to share about Him in an affective way, correct them if you must but please have grace for them too! 

The Challenge:

When you think someone is a false teacher these are five things to ask yourself! 

1. Does the person pass the testing the spirit test? Test the spirit by asking if they believe Christ is Lord, died and returned in the flesh to forgive us of our sins! 
2. Is the person focused on biblical truth and continuous study of scripture? A teacher never stops reading or studying God's word! 
3. Does this persons teaching align with scripture sharing all parts of our sovereign Lord not just cherry picked scripture? - our Lord is the same God in the old testament and New Testament. He is loving but essential to share the truth which is not all make it to heaven!  
4. Does the person work to please God or man? - Should always be God 
5. What does the person say about salvation and how to get to heaven? - It should include repentance, acceptance of Jesus as Lord and cleansing of spirit through baptism. 

588 Days Saved - A Walk with Christ 

-Hand Up not a Hand Out-

Behold I send you forward as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Matthew 10:16 

I'm gonna be quite real here and share about the experience I had helping the homeless family. After I dropped them off at the hotel I said I would return with some food for them in 10 minutes. A half hour later they never came down to get the food. That night me and my husband didn't sleep much. We were worried about things such as miscellaneous things put on my credit card or the room getting trashed. The next morning I went to check on them and everything was fine. 

This was something the Lord put on my heart to do but it also was a good learning experience. It made me realize that for some this kind of help offered can actually just enable them more to keep in the cycle of addiction and homelessness. Did I just give them a cozy place to do drugs?  We will never know but it's important to always be gentle as a dove but wise as a serpent. 

The Challenge: 

Offer the homeless water, food, education, prayer, guidance and warm clothes. It's important that we don't just give a hand out but instead a hand up! Get them closer to good goals instead of enabling them into possible addictive cycles. 

587 Days Saved - A Walk with Christ 

Purple Cross Mission

Do not pass by a man in need for you may be the hand of God to them. Proverbs 3:27

The homeless population continue to rise. Around my town I have noticed large increase. Knowing what the Bible says about taking care of the disadvantaged it's becoming harder and harder for me to just drive by and not try to lend a hand. 

Tonight I say a family holding. Sign on the corner. It was a husband, wife and they had a three year old little more sleeping in a stroller.  The sun was starting to set and I couldn't stomach the idea of the sweet little boy not having a safe place to sleep. So I bought the family a hotel and dinner for the night. I of course left them with two purple crosses to confirm it was a deed done in Jesus name! 

I share these stories not to get praise but quiet the opposite. I share in order to lead the way so other will step up! If we all do our little part to help those less fortunate lives will be changed! I'm hoping others will be inspired to take the lead and run right on ahead! 

The Challenge: 

Find simple way to help the homeless. One great idea is going to Costco and getting items in bulk to make sac lunches and then write on the bag "lunch on Jesus." Always giving the glory over to our king!