Will God Bring Me Friends?

Mom was lamenting that her nail polish did not match her blouse, after all. The color looked different outside and she was quite annoyed. To quell her unrest, I said that it was okay, that probably no one would notice. 

Throwing up her hands, she said jokingly but seriously, No one notices me anyway. I soothingly replied, People will notice you more when you start going out to more places other than just to the doctor.

Though the Lord can direct a new friend to arrive at wherever we are, it's good to make a habit of getting out. Go to the places that you like and some new places along the lines of what you like to do. If you like to do nothing, go to a place and do nothing. Sit, look and smile. 

Say a simple prayer in faith before you go. Continue to go whether you meet anyone at first or not. Go for your own encouragement and to be ready for the Lord to bring new friends into your path.

The scripture ....we should not stop gathering together with other believers....(Hebrews 10:25 God's Word translation) can also encourage us to go out in the hopes of making friends. If you want a friend, go out and be friendly. If you want to have friends, go out to meet friends.

Trust God to lead wholesome, positive, spirit-filled people into your path. He'll lead Christians to you so that you can receive strength through their strong faith. 

He'll lead non-Christians and babes in Christ to you so that you can be a source of strength to them. How exciting it will be to be giving and receiving strength through new friends.

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Image Credit: Active Rain

God Help Me To Love Myself

The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5), so love does begin within. This scripture can be interpreted several ways. I see one of the interpretations as God's love in our hearts teaches us how to love ourselves.

We often give so much on behalf of others that we don't allow God to work on ourselves with ourselves. Sometimes, we need to be separated from others in various ways and for various periods of time in order for God to work exclusively with us about loving ourselves. 

Of course, God is also doing a work in us as we interact with others. Our Father, however, wants to reveal to us how we are not valuing ourselves as He is. We neglect ourselves because we believe that our confirmation of being in Christ is confirmed through our unceasing, loving activities for others.  

We don't realize that we never learned to unconditionally love ourselves. If the love that we think we have for ourselves is a scam and a sham, a false illusion, then nothing that we do for others proves that we love them. 

How can we love then when we haven't learned to love ourselves? Until we begin healing towards ourselves, our relationships with others will continue to begin and be maintained by our fleshly reaching out.  

Our efforts for others should be a reflection of our inner love for ourselves. As we learn to love ourselves as God loves us, we won't be motivated through ulterior motive, inverted pride, secret goals and selfish orchestration. These are the facts that the Holy Spirit wants to help us to accept. 

Once we begin to see ourselves with the respect, admiration and validation with which God sees us, we come to love ourselves in a way in which we never learned. We did not learn through our families, church members, spouses, friends or through any other person. 

No matter how good they may have seemed, we could not learn to love ourselves through them. Some of them were not good at all, for they took away what love we could have learned to have for ourselves. As we grow in The Lord, we become able to accept the brutal truth. 

Godly love for ourselves comes through acceptance of the truth about our deficiency and personal revelation from God about who we each are. When we start loving ourselves with the spiritual dedication provided for us by the Holy Spirit, then we can act upon a true love for others. This will result in wisdom, circumspection and restraint about what we do on behalf of loving others.  

The God-established love for ourselves is one of the pillars that we must sink into our foundation on the Rock of Jesus Christ. It is what helps us to build a stable Christian life. It is how we exhibit solid and unselfish service to God. We learn to be obedient to God rather than being self-sacrificing busy-bodies. (1 Samuel 15:22)

Why Does My Faith Come And Go?

It is human to sometimes wonder if the info and promises in the Bible are really true. Our walk is designed to be fueled by faith and we are supposed to hold on 'till the end. (Matthew 24:13) That means that there will be many things along the way to challenge our faith.

I have suffered many serious struggles in my life and am still enduring. At times I have wondered does God really love me or how can He love me with this going on or that having happened? I have had so many trials that I have occasionally wondered is He even really there?  

I'm learning how to talk to God about it all, because He already knows. We can't hide from Him when we are depressed, angry, fearful, discouraged and disillusioned with Him. During these times, I am learning to be open, honest and transparent with myself and with Him.

What my honesty does is point me back to His Word. I may occasionally wonder if what I believe is really true, but I DO believe His Word. My faith in His Word is unshakeable. It is the flesh that is weak and that questions. How did my faith in God's Word become strong? By reading and studying it everyday, whether for a short period or a long period.

When I question all of the things that I've learned and believe in, I know it is my flesh that is feeling that. When I'm in the flesh, my focus is off and nothing of God is real to me. At those times, I can't feel my faith alive in me because faith in God is not based on feelings. 

Additionally, the carnal mind is not even subject to the Law of God. (Romans 8:7-8) It can't think and function in agreement with God. Since the flesh is ruled by the carnal mind, it can't recognize and function in the faith of God. It is an enemy of God.

When I get back into my re-born spirit, everything is ok and I know that what I have learned in His Word is all true. I know that he loves me and always has. I know that I've been redeemed and that I will see and live within His Glory when I leave this earth. I have no doubts in my re-born spirit, where I walk by faith, not by sight or feelings.

 

How Can I Be Obedient To God?

We can be obedient in our Christian walk. Scripture says that if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. (Galatians 5:15) Our faithful walk, however, is interrupted daily by the world, the flesh and the devil, the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. 

Despite these challenges, we can reposition ourselves and get back into the Spirit. We can insist on obeying God and going to His Word for fortification. (Psalm 119:105) I don't mean being persistent in trying to obey the Ten Commandments. 

To say that No we can never be obedient, if it was humanly possible then Jesus wouldn't have had to come, refers to fulfillment of the Ten Commandments. It is true that we can never fulfill the requirements in the Ten Commandments, no matter how good we strive to be. God never expected us to. 

The Ten Commandments was given to show up sin, to illuminate it, to show man the truth about the works of the devil. (Romans 7:15-20) We don't have to fear the Ten Commandments, an edict that we can never fulfill. Jesus fulfilled them all on our behalf. That's why He gave His Pure Blood and Unblemished Body on The Cross.

When it comes to daily obedience to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, we can then choose to obey or not. Obedience is always available to us. We can obey every single time that we perceive that God is speaking to us, however He may do it.

What Is Easter Sunrise?

I got up with the birds, and you know they get up before sunrise. I was, therefore, able to have my Easter Sunrise Service looking out of my window. 

This pic is not very good because it is a little cloudy this morning. My camera is not a powerful one either. I'm sharing this image anyway for those who don't have a way to look out and see the sun rising. 

I praised and thanked Jesus for being obedient to Our Father and giving His Pure Blood and His Unblemished Body for the world and for me. I quoted scripture and sang songs about Jesus. 

I was thinking about how happy we are that He Arose, and how people who don't know Him find it hard to believe. People who don't have reborn spirits and who are not empowered to live by faith don't see anything to believe in. 

We know that The Resurrection is true because the Word tells us that He is Our Hope of Glory. He is The Resurrection and the Life. Without Him there is no life. I'm just happy this morning that I was able to get up and do this simple act of faith and remembrance. 

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Matthew 28:5-6 

Palm Sunday 2025

Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025.

Palm Sunday which is the Sunday before Easter Sunday and the start of Holy Week for Christians is a feast day commemorating Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem on a Donkey (symbolizing peace versus a horse which symbolized war).

Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday

The name Palm Sunday comes from the palm branches the crowd scattered on the ground in front of Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem. Many churches today will celebrate the day with other tree branches (Yew, Willow, Olive, and Box) as many climates are unable to grow the Palm tree.

From CalendarDate.com

Grace And Truth Came Through Jesus

The Law Was Given Through Moses, But

Grace And Truth Came Through

Jesus Christ.

John 1:17

This means that we are no longer debtors to the Law but we are now free, delivered and redeemed through the given shed blood and unblemished body of our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ. His sacrifice on Calvary fulfilled the Law of God and destroyed the power of the Law to kill us. 

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, for the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4

This is what Jesus did for us. We can't understand, in the flesh, the magnificence of His obedient and holy gift. We can only catch glimpses of it as we seek God's face.

How Can I Do Better In Life?

Often, we think of the new morning as another day to deal with issues, challenges and difficulties. There's always something in our personal lives, it seems. 

The downward spiral that the world is in, but of which growing Christians are not surprised, does not help. 

Our faith is being fought at every turn. Sometimes we think, I don't feel like getting up. Even so, we have a choice. 

We can choose to see this new day as another chance from God to succeed where we failed, to grow where we have become stagnant, to build hope and faith where we have become frustrated. 

Today is a chance, because once we are gone from this lost and dying world, we won't be able to grow anymore, we won't be able to share anymore, we won't be able to build up riches in Heaven anymore. 

We know that others have left already, many well before what we feel should have been their time. God, Our Father, has given us another day to excel before we leave.

Hallelujah!  

Expect Doors To Open

Learn what makes your heart sing, what makes you truly happy. You can feel it in your emotions and spirit today and you can find traces of it in your childhood. It has to do with if you could have things exactly as you want them, what would you be doing? Where would you be? What would your life look like? 

Fill your life with videos of others who are doing it. Replace as much entertainment with educational videos and podcasts as you can. Commit to lifelong learning about what makes your heart sing. Keep learning from others who are living it and never stop learning from them.

If you think you want to live somewhere else, anywhere else in the world, go ASAP. Go now, not only because money is unsure but because it gets harder as we age. It's never too late to do anything but some things we won't feel like doing later in life. We'll always want to though, and wish that we had.

Limit time, whenever possible, with people who don't support you, who depress you and who don't seem to have your best interest at heart. Be strong, be consistent in this but choose to forgive them. Learn not to buy friendships and don't pay people to like you.

Believe in the impossible, every day, and that it is for you. Expect doors to open.

Save and keep saving while you can, always live within your means, try to live debt-free, try not to pay interest. 

Don't become a miser, reward yourself within reason and enjoy life.

Forgive yourself for everything. God's Holy Spirit will help. Just ask. Believe that Our Heavenly Father is aware of all that has to do with you and He always has your best interest at heart.

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Thus Says The Lord

Thus says the Lord, 

Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, judgement, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight,

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 9:23-24