Happy Sunday: Our Father Is Light

 

God said let there be light and there was light. Genesis 1:3

Our Father is light and in him is no darkness at all. I John 1:5

Those who trust him and have accepted His Dear Son Jesus as their Savior will live in the light of The One True God forever and ever. Revelations 21:23

Happy Sunday!

Freedom In Christ No Fellowship In Bondage

Many Christians make a big deal of things that God is not concerned about. They put the yoke of bondage on other Christians and say that it is God. They don't understand freedom in Christ or they won't accept it. They, therefore, don't want others to receive it. They want other Christians to be bound as they are but they don't call it bondage. They call it particulars of the Christian walk that God Our Father requires.

Walking with God is very personal for those who are on the narrow path and who eat and drink the Holy Word everyday. When each of us understands our own freedom in Christ and we take a stand in it, Christian friends are lost. We have to let them fall away. They can't go to a higher level with us today and maybe they never will be able to. We refuse to return to bondage when we are living in the freedom that Christ paid for. We won't go back and they won't go forward, so there is no fellowship. 

Refuse to return to bondage. Galatians 5:1

Enjoy Each Blessing Fully Poem

ENJOY EACH BLESSING FULLY

 

It seems to me that rarely

Do they come along on time.

We want to get one blessing

So another can align.

 

It seems that life is often

Just a waiting game, you see.

We wait for this to happen,

Then we feel that we can be.

 

But rarely does it happen

That our blessings fall in line,

With what we want to happen

In our fairly finite minds.

 

For God is of the infinite,

The infinite is Him.

And though we may think otherwise,

His plans are not a whim.

 

His plans are not haphazardly

Patched up to make our lives.

The blessings, when they happen,

Are on time and God-devised.

 

Don't try to rearrange them,

Choosing pleasure in just some.

Enjoy each separate blessing

To the fullest, as they come.

(c)Draw Nigh To Hope

Christian Products: Get Well Art - Be Strong

Be Strong Be Healed Be Restored In Jesus' Name!

A Christian get well soon sympathy design to encourage and strengthen anyone enduring illness, injury or discouragement.

Purchase printables of this design at

Draw Nigh To Hope Shop.

You Will Receive 5 (five) JPEGs In A Zip Folder, 300 Dpi Image Files For Crisp Printing

8 x 10" (2550 x 3300px)

11 x 14" (3300 x 4200px)

16 x 20" (4800 x 6000px)

18 x 24" (5400 x 7200px)

24 x 36" (7200 x 10800px)

Watch for printable greeting cards in this design at Draw Nigh To Hope Shop.

Purchase POD products of this design at

Draw Nigh To Hope Shop at Redbubble.

Available on 36 products.

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Fill your life with reminders of Christian living. 

Spend your money on merchandise that glorifies God Our Father and Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior. 

Surround yourself with products that invite in The Holy Spirit, Our Comforter and Guide everyday.

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  As a self-taught designer, crafter, writer and artist, like Lydia in Acts 16, I design and make beautiful things.

 

My creative ability comes from God and I worship the Lord day in and day out. 

In order for God to bless us through our talents, skills and creativity, we have to put our work out there. That's why I share here at Draw Nigh To Hope.

 

 I want Christians, who may not otherwise know about them, to have a chance to buy my products that lift up Christ-centered living.

  
Proverbs 22:29 states:

 

Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings;

he shall not stand before mean men.

 (KJV)

 
  Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings;

He will not stand before unknown men.

 (NKJV)

 

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If you or anyone you know sells handmade products or designs merchandise that glorifies God, let me know so that I can take a look. I may do a feature here.

God Will Defend Us One Way Or Another

God will defend those who believe in his Son. We often don't witness it. Sometimes we do. Whether we experience our vindication in this earthly life or not, we know that all will be vindicated in the end. 

While we are praying to God for vindication against our transgressors, we should remember that someone somewhere is praying to God for vindication against us. Even the person who thinks he/she has led a near perfect life has hurt or offended someone, sometime, somewhere.

Just as Jesus Christ's vindication is coming, be encouraged and strengthened because the vindication of each person who believes is coming also.

The Flesh Tried To Crash My Fast!

I decided to fast from coffee, cakes and cookies that day for spiritual advancement. You know that fasting is a way to connect more deeply with God and we can fast from anything.

I had mackerel that day for dinner. When I finished eating I apologetically thought, Oh wow! I need to eat some cookies to counteract that fish breath! 

When the thought came, I was mentally full steam ahead to the cookies. I felt it was needed and that excused me from slightly breaking my fast. Sometimes, all it takes is a positive reminder, a reminder that the flesh will never give.

The Holy Spirit said, Not so fast. Floss and brush you teeth, sister, and get to your spiritual advancement!

The flesh always wants a way out of rightness and discipline and is there to trip us up and cheat us. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41) God's Holy Spirit is a powerhouse and guides us to success! 

The Holy Spirit is a person, the third person of the Triune/Trinity of God. He has a personality and God sends him to comfort and guide us. The Spirit of God takes up residence in our bodies, His temple, when we accept Jesus as Our Savior. Being filled with The Spirit, however, is a more advanced position that many Christians do not experience but whom anyone can if he/she desires. God does not withhold his goodness from us.

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Grace & Truth Came Through Jesus

 ~ The law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ~

Jesus came and fulfilled all of the requirements of the law because we could not. The law was given to man to show us where we fell short because we were blind to this truth. The Law is a tool. We are born into darkness and can't understand the truth of our condition until God reveals it to us. He used The Law as a bridge to get us to what we must have.

Our blindness and ignorance to the state of our fallen existence doesn't change the fact of our eternal death. We are still in danger of spending eternity, the life when we leave this earth, in separation from God, in desolation. We are still under penalty though we don't understand. 

God, in his perfect love, revealed the truth to man in two parts. Sin is the strength of the law. When God gave man The Ten Commandments, the first part of the revelation, sin in man was revealed to man. Man found that he could not totally perform the law because his thoughts were wicked. 

As we often succeed in being good, our thoughts are consistently breaking The Ten Commandments. God in his mercy showed this to man. Satan wanted man to be ignorant to the truth of their condition. God's plan was for his cherished creation to come into the knowledge of the truth of his condition.

The 2nd part of God's revelation to man was redemption, salvation from the curse of The Ten Commandments, restoration to fellowship with Our Creator. He provided the only sacrifice that could fulfill the requirements to destroy the works of the devil, the shed Blood of Jesus Christ. The Law is man's bridge to Jesus.

Jesus accepted Our Father's request to take the penalty for our condition, for every single human past, present and future. Through Jesus' suffering, death, burial and resurrection, the power of The Law over us was destroyed forever. Jesus became the first to be resurrected from eternal death into eternal life. Because he lives, those who love him will live also. 

Jesus and the Father are one, and separate. God came to earth in the form of His Son, both divine and of the flesh, born of a virgin yet fathered by the will of Our Father. The pure Blood of Jesus and his unblemished Body covers us, when we choose to believe and accept his sacrifice for us. Sin is the strength of The Law and Jesus Christ is the destroyer of the power of sin over us. 

We may fail, but we are covered. We may transgress but we are covered. We may stumble, but we are covered. We can come boldly and respectfully to God because Jesus is on his right hand interceding for us. We can talk with God at any time because Jesus restored our fellowship with Him. We can live in confidence that we have eternal life, that we will live and not die because Jesus is The Resurrection and the Life! 

 ~ The law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ~

How To Be Saved

If you would like to be sure that you are Saved, 

if you would like to be a Christian, say this simple prayer:

Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died for me, that God raised you from the dead and that you are alive today. Save me so that I can live in the light of God. I believe that my sins are forgiven and that I don't have to fear death anymore. I have moved from darkness into the light. Thank you, Jesus, for Eternal Life. 

Now tell someone about what you have done.

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

Witness In Peace

 

Don't stress yourself or press yourself into pressuring others to come to Jesus. There is no one way or perfect way to witness. 

Sharing salvation should flow with your spirit and personality type. God reveals our personality types to us and how we are most inclined to share The Gospel. 

Every person who knows Jesus can witness. It is talking at the appropriate time, to anyone who is receptive, about our relationship with God and what his Son Jesus Christ has done for us. The Holy Spirit reveals to us those who are ready. 

It is not we who bring people to salvation. It is the Holy Spirit. God prepares the heart of a person to receive. If it's not the right time and God's Holy Spirit has not yet prepared that person's heart, then he/she will not accept Jesus.  No amount of cajoling, pressuring, threatening and shaming that person will work. He or she will only become stubborn in spirit and be pushed further from God. 

Be at peace. Work with God, not against him. Let the Holy Spirit do his work and go with God's flow in talking to people about Jesus. Witnessing should always be done in peace.

With God All Things Are Possible

Do you believe or do you need Our Father to increase your faith? 

The Holy Word tells us over and over again...ALL things, not some things, not a few things, but ALL things are possible to him who believes. 

If we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, he hears us. IF we believe that he hears us, then we know that we have what we have asked for, BECAUSE we asked according to HIS will. (I John 5:14-15)

All of the scriptures that encourage us to believe in the impossible, including Matthew 21:21-22, Matthew 17:20, John 15:7 and Mark 9:23, are explicit in stating that ALL things, ANYTHING is possible.

I don't believe that the Bible states things just because they sound good or that it doesn't mean what it is plainly saying. Our problem is that in our fleshly minds we demote The Word.   

Choose to believe today! Ask Our Father to increase your faith today so that you can start promoting The Word to where God intended it to function in your life.

This plaque, Nothing Is Impossible With God, was made by a young lady who presented it to me, many years ago, when I was moving away to a new start in life. She was apologetic because when she made it some of the glaze that she added ran down the front. I assured her that it was beautiful. I cherish it. No matter where I am, I display it so that I can see it.

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