Tag: christian

Books I Recommend

These are a list of books that my family and I either have studied, continued to study or read as daily devotionals. I highly suggest reading these and I will put links in this page so that you can locate them easily.

“My Utmost for His Highest,” This is a daily devotional that we read. The insight that Oswald Chambers was given to past and present day circumstances is amazing.

He has answered many questions that I have long had standing. He was a preacher who followed God with all of his being. Most if not all of his books are wonderful.

Oswald Chambers lived from 1874-1917. He was married to a wonderful women who gave birth to their daughter. He had hardly any money and taught at a bible college for many years as well as doing mission work in Egypt. His wife put in print all of his teachings.

This book is a collection of his teachings at the college put together in the form of a devotional. You will not regret ready this book as it has been a huge perspective changer for me and my family.

“Maidens of Virtue” This is a book that my mom studied with my sisters and I when I was young. We did a scrapbook page for each chapter. This is a really good book for young women.

In the book it talks about virtues of Godly women. Building character, the right man for you may not be the right man for another women, praying for each other, not being materialistic, reasons to avoid things like romance novels.

These topics are good discussions for any age but they are excellent for mothers to do with their daughters. The lessons are timeless and will be helpful for many years to come.

I highly recommend that women do this study together. You can keep color coded journals, scrapbooks, do crafts for each chapter. Whatever you need to do to make the study fun for everyone!

“Morning By Morning” This is written by Charles Spurgeon, a wonderful preacher. He lived from 1834-1892. Some of you may think because he is an old preacher that his words may not hold any weight but he is a very powerful preacher. He preached with such sincerity. I absolutely enjoy all of the preachings of his that I have listened to.

We read this as part of our daily devotional routine. One of the reasons my family likes him so much is because he used the King James Bible for all of his sermons as far as I know. That is the only bible my family reads as many of the others have been changed in the name of “better understanding” and “easier to read”

“Strength for Service to God and Country” This is a daily devotional book that was originally written for people in service. Well written with good perspectives this one has been very helpful to my family.

This book also has many wonderful perspectives. At some point it talked about the thought that if we had spent more time raising good men we wouldn’t have all the problems in the world that we have. That daily devotion I believe was call “Good men on mules or bad men in planes.” I could be wrong but that is the what I remember it being called.

I will add more books later, let us just start with this as I do not want to overwhelm anyone.

take care brothers and sistersin Christ.

Sincerely,

*This Girl*

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Free of Sin?

Yea, shall we ever be free of sin? Is there not a point in Christianity that we sin no more? That we are tempted no more? Nay, I say. For not until our Father descends from the clouds can we say that we are truly free from the influence of sin. It is our ever present persecution to be questioned, taunted, and teased by the world. They wonder why we do not strive for power, riches, and freedom from our Christianly duties. “They are too religious they say.” “They are not like us.” “Why not have some fun, you know you only live once?” Fellow Christians strive for your purity in Christ by letting go of your fleshly desires and giving up to His will. How much more do I have to give up you may ask. Well, this is a question I have been hard pressed in asking myself daily. The answer is, EVERYTHING! You have to let go of it all; Your plans, your career, your desires, your family, your riches, your love, your time. All of it must be released to the heavenly Father in order for Him to guide you in the way He wilt have thee go.

So let go, let God. In the words of Moses…

…Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day:…

Exodus 14:13 KJV

The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

Exodus 14:14 KJV

And in the new testament Jesus says…

…Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me…

Mark 8:34
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Is God the center of your life?

Dear friends,

This is a silent prayer, a request to self examine thyself daily. To ask God this question. “What do you want to do now?” Let Him answer, is it to work on your responses towards other people, your mindset towards someone, your selfish attitude towards what you want instead of what God has for you.

This has been a hard few months for me. The self examination is key to getting closer to God. He cannot fill a cup that is already full. He cannot teach anything to someone who has decided they are fine the way they are. Do not settle for second best. Do not stop at lukewarm. Do not stop being/doing what God has asked of you because of other peoples opinions. We are not to discuss spiritual things with those of the flesh. Do not hold back, follow God when people hurt you, when your friends leave you, when your family shuns you, when humanity turns it’s back on you. For they turned their backs on Him before us. May we band together as brothers and sisters in Christ, may we encourage each other in this time of need; God never said following Him was easy, stay strong and in prayer so that the Father may communicate with you and tell you when it is time to move, Hallelujah, Amen!

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The Power of prayer

This is your sacred duty, as one chosen by Christ himself we should see it as an honor to make time for him in our daily lives. Prayer is where we come to know the Lord and gain understanding; not necessarily in the things we want but in the things the soul needs to continue its journey to the Father. You hear a lot of excuses going around often about prayer and how the average christian is going to carry out their christianly duties before bed by reciting the Lord’s prayer. How dare we take the moments with our Father so lightly. We even go so far as to lie about it saying to our fellow brothers and sisters “oh, well, I will certainly pray for you”; a disgrace, dishonor, a shame. Does your soul not scream in pain when we deprive it of what it needs?

I understand that for some of you the most famous excuse is “but, I do not know how to pray”. How come then you do not get on your knees and tell the Father that? Or do you think your problem too small for the almighty to take his time to help? A shame, is this where our faith has come to? This goes to show how weak the foundation of our current christians belief system is. I say, for those of you who have been with God long enough to understand the true depth and foundation of God; we should be asking God to give us people to disciple so that not only can they grow in the faith through guidance, but we can also grow in our faith through a different perspective. I work for emergency services where I was once told that an EMT could never survive without a Paramedic; but the same was also true for the Paramedic, they could not survive in the field without the EMT. Because the EMT only has the foundational skills to save a persons life so they keep the Paramedic grounded in their thinking and because the Paramedic has much higher training they can do things the EMT cannot accomplish without further training. As a christian we should be praying for a fellow believer to join us on our pilgrimage to God, like Christian had Hopeful and Faithful in the book Pilgrims Progress.

These are hards times for christians, cry out to God. Tell him what you cannot do and then let him fill the gaps. If you truly have no idea how to pray I will leave you with this and I hope that your prayers with God will change your life the way they have with me. I want you to dedicate a moment in every day for you to spend time alone on your knees with your eyes closed before the Lord. You are on your knees to show submission and your eyes are closed so that you may have no physical distractions. Once you are there I want you to say something like this…

Dear God,

I do not know what I am doing, or what this is supposed to look like. I do not know what to say, but I know the Holy Spirit which you gave me knows what to say. So I ask that you teach me how you want me to pray, and that you lead the Spirit inside of me and get the full glory for everything that happens from here on out.

Amen

After that, if you continue to pray and let God lead you will embark on a marvelous journey. But only if you let him lead you on that journey. You cannot have what you want and what he wants in the same life. We cannot serve two masters. Light and darkness cannot occupy the same room. So it is either God or the Devil, Heaven or Hell, light or dark, right or wrong in Gods standards your choice.

I hope that you come to love Him the way my Spirit has lead me to. I will continue to pray that more people see God as an essential part of their life and not just a pass time religion. If you have already embarked on this Journey; please, feel free to share your testimony in the comments box. I love you all brothers and sisters in Christ. Have a wonderful day.

Sincerely,

*This Girl*

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World and Spirit

I had a conversation one time with a good friend of mine. We were trying to talk about levels of sin or rather if there were levels, maybe they were all just as bad as the other. We never got to finish this conversation, but if I could finish that conversation; what I am about to tell you is what I would tell him.

We spend so much of our day trying to compare our current world to the spiritual realm. It does not work. The bible says “flesh warreth against the Spirit.” We try to use things that we can sense with our 5 senses to explain things that cannot be sensed by anything other than the Spirit of God. We equate christianity to things like “Pilgrims Progress” and “Narnia”. We try to describe God as if he is some sort of fleshly king on a throne of gold. He has never even shown his face to anyone less they parish. Even Moses only saw his hind quarters in Exodus 33:17-23 it says…

” And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.”

Spiritually, there are no levels to sin. In that scripture alone it talks about rebellion (which is just doing other then what you have been told) is just as bad as witchcraft or that being stubborn is just as bad as idolatry (which is not being faithful to your spouse). God says in 1 Samuel 15: 23… “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” Worldly, or in the flesh if you prefer there are levels, which is why certain crimes earn you jail and other crimes you just earn a ticket. My friend told me that you could tell there were levels of sin based on the fact that there are multiple consequences. Here on earth we have things like jail, torture, getting a ticket, in old times we had hangings etc. But in the spirit world I realized Hell is the only definite punishment. Sure on earth they have things happen like God taking out Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone (Genesis 19:24-25) or Ananias and his wife ( Acts 5:1-11)who passed away in the church for lying to the man of God. But those happened on earth, they were consequences for our own choices. Whereas the end consequence in the spirit realm is Hell.

Notice that when he compares the sins that are mentioned in 1 Samuel that the two sins are normally not related to each other and completely opposite in there worldly degrees of right and wrong.

Here are some more scriptures that might stand out and assist us in this thought process.

“For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.” Ephesians 5:5-7

“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:” Colossians 3:4-6

Some things we cannot just understand naturally without Gods Spirit showing it to us. Even then, some things are not meant for everyone.

Sincerely,

*This Girl*

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My Side of the Story

I am sitting beside you, do you not feel my presence? I am praying with you, do you not hear my tears hit the floor as I weep beside you? I laugh with you, I speak to you, and yet you think I’m just your conscious. I strive to keep you safe, can you not hear Me telling you that you shouldn’t do the very thing you are laboring so hard to do. I am with you during your car rides, meetings, grocery lines, classes, family discussions, alone time, and even when you are sleeping. I look out for your past, present, and future… do you not see me in it? I created this beautiful place called earth for you.

I have something for you. I hold it in my hand with care, like holding on to a new born babe, it’s the plan that I have for you. With great joy I raced to show you at the beginning stages of your life, so that you can get started right away and miss nothing. But you turn Me away with mutterings that you do not need Me, you can accomplish every thing you ever wanted without me… on your own. So I wait, I wait as a farmer would wait for rain. Some of you come straight forth, claiming your calling and who you are in God. Some of you I have to replant, some need more water, others need more shelter from the storm because they are fragile and need protecting. Some need more soil, or ground covering friends to help them. Some bring forth shade, others fruit, and some beauty. Many will do none of theses things. They shall bring forth thorns and thistles. They shall be a hindrance to there fellows, they will tell them “you can be anything, who needs God!” “He is not there anyway.” “Where is your God now?” “You will never be perfect, why try?” “Who do you think you are?”. They shall try to choke their brethren with their vines, hurt them with their thorns, and steal all their nutrients. They hated Me before you though. Ripped from the earth shall they be, as well as cut down at the root. They will get their just reward, focus on Me.

The point of the matter, or the reason for the story, is do you even want Me? Do you seek Me? I never left you, even though you accuse Me of such a treachery. I am here with you now and always.

Hallelujah, Amen,

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