Tag Archives: jesus

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: NOV. 23, 2024

Leave a comment

The topic of obedience needs to continue for my journey. As I was writing in my journal Jesus was pointing out that obedience is only capable of being accomplished when one knows what to be obedient to. One must write out their commitment in details which can be followed. So often I (we) say things like, “I will follow you”, “I will serve you”, “I will do what you lead me to do”, and the list could go on. However, what are the steps of obedience I will agree to in any of these generalized commitments?

As I have my devotions each morning I have my phone with me. Well, it is a deterrent. This morning as I was stewing about this to Jesus, He simply reminded me of what I wrote above. Define the commitment. All I needed to write down was “leave my phone on the kitchen counter” and “text my accountability if I don’t–confess it”. These two simple steps will be my obedience. Simple, but clear.

Satan wants us believing that following Jesus is laborious. On the other hand, following Jesus is joyously easy once we step out of our fleshly driven self. One more lesson on obedience.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: NOV. 17, 2024

Leave a comment

I wrote yesterday about the session in the morning would be the last one for the week re-engaging all of them. The session was with the young men I’ve written about in past using the material titled: Every Man A Pure Warrior. The lesson title was Aggressive Worship. That title bothered me somewhat in that I’ve always seen aggressive as a negative rather than a positive. Doing the lesson ahead of time was enjoyable, but going through the lesson yesterday brought about some awakening I have needed all of my life.

Worship has always been an important time for me. It is easy for me to lose my flesh self momentarily and let my spirit soar praising God and letting His Spirit be mine. A line in the lesson said, “Offer your body and body parts to God as an act of worship and clothe your body with the armor of God.” During the lesson time we discussed the part of clothing oneself with the armor of God as a part of worship. I’ve never once thought of this act as a part of worship until this became a talking point. This morning while journaling I was expressing my question mark to Jesus. It was then He pointed out that when my spirit joins The Holy Spirit and I allow the Holy Spirit to be my spirit I begin the opportunity to do as the phrase above says–offer my body and parts to The Holy Spirit which then allows Him to be my Armor of God. If I have this right, it is in Spirit I find strength of God becoming my own strength. I’ve never found God’s Strength maintained when I approach it in my flesh–my mind. It is when I approach this in my spirit that I find God’s Strength. Good grief, God is Spirit so why has this been such a mystery until now? I’m going to be spending a good deal more time allowing this to manifest itself in me.

Well, the journey does continue!

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: NOV. 11, 2024

Leave a comment

The day has come to return home and reengage in the life of home. I believe each one of us on this trip has profited from being gone these 12 days and God has strengthened an appreciation for family in us. Only in these last few years have I believed that I could be an important member to our family. Realizing that differences in talents and personality are on purpose and not weaknesses is a real awakening for me. God does on purpose what He does in creating you and me.

As I began to read the book of Acts this morning I am reminded how unifying God is with His people. When we allow the Holy Spirit to become our leader we will automatically unify. God has different assignments for each of us, but in doing these assignments, we are not to think someone else’s assignment is of lesser importance. That is our flesh speaking, not The Holy Spirit. We shouldn’t bicker over differences, but work to understand why the differences are important. Unifying our efforts is always critically important.

Keeping our eyes of Jesus and listening to His Gift–The Holy Spirit within us is an everyday, every moment of each day assignment. I never want to forget this.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: OCT. 18, 2024

Leave a comment

Last night’s Celebrate Recovery lesson was “Powerless”. It follows lesson 1 which is Denial. Once we step out of denial and realize the problem we face, the struggle we can’t overcome, etc., we then must realize that within our own selves we are powerless to stop the addiction, struggle, hurt, etc., without the power of God Himself. All of this is good to KNOW, but finding God’s Strength to do all of this is not necessarily easy. Our pride truly gets in the way!

Last night I taught this lesson and it brings back SO many memories of my own need to finally realize how much I thought I needed control of all my hurts and habits so NO ONE would know about them. I had so many fears that I’d lose my job, my church, my friends and family if they knew. Even after my beginning years of counsel I kept in control of who knew my story so that the community, which included our church, wouldn’t know. Even my family didn’t know until I finally had gotten to the place where I was going to write my autobiography which then started this blog. I didn’t want my siblings finding out their brother had written a book which “exposed” them as though they were the problem.

God is so Amazing! Once I stepped into vulnerability letting God take control of my “mess” did this “protected by me” mess turn into a message God uses. Equally amazing is that I found no judgment in people hearing my story. Instead, I would always have ones want to talk because they had their own story which hadn’t been told, but they felt now like they could and should.

Well, stepping out of powerlessness and into obedience to God took me lots of years and even today I need constant reminders to not hide. Always though, God’s gentle voice reminds me, “I’ve got this–do not be afraid!”

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: SEPT. 29, 2024

Leave a comment

A week ago today when I was journaling and asking Jesus what He wanted me to know from Him for today, I heard Him ask me when I was going to listen and obey Him fully? I like to think I do this fairly well, which I have. But, Jesus is not OK with my “fairly well”. He is asking for the “fairly” to be taken out of the equation. He seeks for me to replace fairly with full–full well.

I have written much of late about this process of learning about the significance of God’s Holy Spirit living in me and finding God’s Strength/Power from this residence in me. It is incredible to start putting together all this means. When trust and faith are placed in front of all willfulness/selfishness, one starts on this path of obedience. It is truly taking I Corinthians 10:13 to the test. This verse says, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

When I’m tempted to tell The Holy Spirit, “not now” or something along that line or “I just want to stay with what I’m doing, I can do that later, just remind me.” I am disobeying. I’ve always looked at this verse from the lens of some self-gratification/selfishness. Yes, these are common to man, but just as common to man is ignoring a nudge to do whatever is being done presently. The JOY of the Lord being my strength is never found in my selfishness–only in my obedience. Today, living a week in obedience has given me great JOY as I write this. It is no surprise either that obedience that is “full well” has no sense of one not getting their way. Instead, it is full JOY!