Out of Your Hands

There are times in our lives when life is just out of our hands, and we cannot anticipate, control, or direct the path away from the madness or malaise of life. Our path is out of our hands. We find ourselves lost, focusing on self, independent of God. But it is also the time we realize our dependence upon God is more than a thought or perspective. We are in a synaptic gap, and it is time to jump. How? We knowledge our dependence on our Lord and Savior and begin to focus more on Him than the problems. The jump requires complete faith in God’s outcome, whatever it is. Our dependence causes us to cry out to our Lord, and hand Him our situation, praying for Him to take over and lead us out into the light.

Christ pulling Peter out of the water

It is during these times we can be confident in knowing that God hears our prayers. He knew what we would go through long before He blew breath in our lives. He knew of our challenges, the directions we would take in life, straying off the path, the influences of others, poor choices, being in the wrong place at the wrong times, and thinking we are more than who we are.

In this, you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭1:6-7‬ ‭ESV‬. https://bible.com/bible/59/1pe.1.6-7.ESV

Given His knowledge of our existence, which He created, we should look to Him for love, peace through the storm, direction, and support. His love is greater than the things of this world, and when we begin to see the bigger picture through His lens, we can see hope even when we can barely see a glimmer of light in the distance.

Our Lord always provides directions to bring us and our family members through. These challenges may not evaporate the moment we begin praying, but they are heard, and everything occurs within God’s timing. Sometimes that feels very harsh, but in looking back through the stories in the Bible, we see desperate people in desperate situations come through storms that many cannot imagine. The distortion is so great we cannot see beyond the chaos and confusion.

Biblemessages.com

The truth is, not all of our experiences are bright and cheery. There are seasons of gray, canceling out all of the colors on the color wheel of life. The reality is, that we are in a battle between good and evil, and not all things are bright and cheery. There is loss, devastation, annihilation, and setbacks, and yet we can hold fast because His people always bounce back according to His will and His ways. We survive the odds. He is the master of making ways out of no way. He brings light to darkness and quells the waves that well up in the storm.

“ The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.”

‭‭Lamentations‬ ‭3:19-26‬ ‭NLT‬‬

A False Message Gives False Hope, by Greg Laurie

To promise Heaven and not warn of Hell, to offer forgiveness without repentance, to preach the gospel without the Cross is a false message giving false hope. ~ Greg Laurie.

Visit this site and read the Devotional. We are all guilty of sugar coating the Word from time to time.

https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/a-false-message-gives-false-hope-2/?utm_campaign=daily-devo&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=221592990&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_tG4kqFC_WZZGFfSfzTiK3YLxjcya0cTx8UJpgUfenp8_kDvXkjrRWWyHunwB_cokKIOJzgFWMznY-cWHqIMxvDMd1Cg&utm_source=hs

Stewards of the Earth

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We have been gifted with being stewards of the earth.

~ Lisa Blair

This morning on the BBC News, a story was reported about the effects of Climate change. The guest speaker stated, extreme heat increases mortality. We hear cases where throughout the world older people and people with illnesses often die from the heat intensity brought on by climate change. But the brutality is much greater than that which focuses on human beings. When we experience extreme heat, as we are this year, throughout the world, we experience droughts that reduce the water levels of lakes ponds and rivers. The ground dries and has no moisture needed to nourish living things to grow. Fish, wildlife, and insects begin to die off which creates another level of mortality due to starvation. When fish, wildlife and insects die, their purpose dies. As the heat lasts longer and becomes much more intense plants die, trees die and green life itself begins to pass away. Trees and plants are the filters that help clean our air, keep vegetables healthy, and diseases at bay.

Entrusted to steward the earth and all it offers

God created the earth and provided all of the resources for man to live and prosper. Have we been good stewards of His earth? I think not. But let us look at this a bit differently if we, Christians, are blessed with an earth to live on and sent Christ who in John 4:14 tells us, “Whoever drinks of the water that I (Jesus) will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” Then, doesn’t it stand to reason that our gifts should create a consciousness of stewardship? 1 Corinthians 4:2 calls us to prove faithful.

“Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”

Are you a good steward? Am I a good steward? Are we doing all we can today? How do we impact the cycle of life? “Our stewardship of creation involves the caretaking of the environment and animals as well as our families and communities. Charles Bogg defines stewardship in the Holman Bible Dictionary as “utilizing and managing all resources God provides for the glory of God and the betterment of His creation.”” (Bible verses about Stewardship. Biblestudytools.com. 02/23/2021)

And most importantly, how do you help those in need, not just through provision of things, but in finding Christ? When we become more responsible, the earth will reap the benefits, as will those who are lost.

No Selfish Ambition or Vain Conceit

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As Christians we* should always be alert. Selfish ambition and vain conceit are traps. ~ Lisa Blair

When we focus on others and not ourselves, we are the servants Christ encourages us to be.

The world promotes ‘it’s about you’ in every arena. Everywhere you look the focus is on the individual. The Internet is replete with Instagrams, TikTok, Facebook and many more. We have been indoctrinated by the evil ones ploy to separate us from God pushing the ‘me first’ philosophy.

K-Love, Susie Kalous, Pinterest

God is all knowing and alerts us of the ploy of self righteousness and vain conceit through the inspired writings of Apostle Paul, the author of Philippians 2:3-4. I am inserting various versions to clarify, evil is always lurking and we must stay alert and dedicate our lives to making the world a better place by living like Christ.

“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2:3-4‬ ‭NLT‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/116/php.2.3-4.NLT

“Let nothing be done out of strife or conceit, but in humility let each esteem the other better than himself. Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2:3-4‬ ‭MEV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/1171/php.2.3-4.MEV

“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2:3-4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/114/php.2.3-4.NKJV

Each version is clear – like Christ, we should esteem ourselves as servants. Servitude in this instance is not waiting for instruction by the world, it is knowing that we were created to build our personal and public lives with humility. We don’t have to daily announce our greatness or victories. We possess greatness and victories as part of our DNA.

Our DNA proves we are part of the bloodline of Christ, part of the Trinity. Our DNA began before the beginning of time, before God created the earth and everything on it, including us.

Jeremiah 1:5 and Ephesians 1:3-6 informs us that God made us and therefore knew us before we were born.

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart…”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭1:5‬ ‭NLT‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/116/jer.1.5.NLT

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before Him in love; He predestined us to adoption as sons to Himself through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1:3-6‬ ‭MEV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/1171/eph.1.3-6.MEV

* When I use the plural, we, I always include me. My posts are not written excluding me from the discussion. I am also struggling to live life exuding Christlike behaviors, by applying His attitude as Christians. It is not always an easy path, we are in the battle of good and evil and often find ourselves lured by the bright lights of this world. The scriptures in the Bible is the only thing that can point us to Christ, especially in our weaker moments. The Holy Spirit is the only person that can redirect us, though our Christian friends, as the scripture informs, can pull us aside and talk truth without offense-in short help set us back on the path.

Remember, we are not our own.

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭6:19‬ ‭NLT‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.6.19.NLT

In closing, please know that every time I think about you (my readers), I thank God for you. God knew us before we were born and knows the challenges that lie before us. I pray that He keeps you covered and places a hedge of protection around you.

What will the WITNESSES say?

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Do you live according to the Word? What do those around you see?

~ Lisa Blair

I am sharing a video from Grace for Purpose. It is a great reminder about the path we must travel. As we travel the path, do we exhibit a Christ-like character in all that we do? Will the witnesses report that we faced challenges but throughout it all reflected a Christ-like character?

The witnesses are those in heaven who observe us during our life on earth.

Video – YouTube

Images – Free image, Word Swag app

Scripture – Bible.com