I Am Holy and Righteous!

Yep! That's me!

I always had this picture in my mind when a person was 'holy and righteous', he was 'perfect', always reverent, quiet. I would see in my mind, a priest or a nun or a person sitting cross-legged and always in prayer. Or maybe he'd be floating, not walking through life.

What is your picture of 'holy and righteous'? I always thought if you thought yourself 'holy and righteous', you were thinking you were 'holier than thou', or 'self-righteous'. Like a person up on this pedestal looking down at people with an evil eye shaking his finger saying "Shame on you!".

Guess what?!? Even though I come way short of being perfect, I found out I am 'holy and righteous'!!

You see 'holy' is belonging to; devoted to God. Hey! I'm that! I've been that since I accepted Jesus. I have been set apart for God. I have a heart for Him. Because now I belong to Him.

The 'righteous' part? That was a gift He gave me as soon as I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. You see 'righteous' or 'righteousness' is 'right standing with God'.

Even though I may need to work on my devotion to God (my holiness), I will always be righteous because that is a gift He gave to me when His son died on the cross. Romans 5:17 "For if, by the trespass of the one man,death reigned through that one man,how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ."

And just so I don't get too cocky about my 'right standing with God'(righteousness), God is always righteous. He does what is right. I don't always do what is right, but I will always be right with God, thanks to the blood of Jesus. Jesus made us right with God through the shedding of His blood. In Jesus, I am righteous. I have to be in Him.

What does it mean to be in Him? Well, in this particular case, when you accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you are automatically transplanted, grafted if you will, into Jesus Christ himself! So now through faith in Him and what He did for you, you are free from feeling like you have to be perfect. You can go before God boldly and talk to Him about anything!

Thank you Jesus!

Can You Grow Righteous?

You can grow in faith and love. But can you grow in righteousness? No. Righteousness (right standing with God) is a gift you received when you were born again and washed in the blood of Jesus. You can grow in the knowledge of your gift of righteousness, but you can never be more or less righteous (in right standing with God) than when you accepted Jesus as you Lord and Savior! Please notice I said 'more or less'. In other words, you do things right and good in your eyes doesn't make you 'righteous'. Neither are you less righteous when you mess up!

From BibleGateway.com. Romans 5:17  For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man,(talking about Adam here), how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

Grace means 'unmerited favor'. So God provides us with abundant grace. God provides us with abundant unmerited favor. Righteousness means 'right standing with God'.  Then through Jesus we got a gift. The gift of being in 'right standing with God'! So we have abundant unmerited favor and we will always be in right standing with God! Now how awesome is that? 

How Can You Get More Faith?

How can you have more faith? Your heart is your spirit. By feeding your spirit (heart) with the Word of God! Lack of God's Word in your heart makes you lack faith. So you say, "How do I feed my spirit?

Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (NKJV from www.Biblegateway.com)

By coming before God and truly listening to what He is saying in His Word, you are feeding your spirit. Which can be hard in this world of chaos sometimes. You can start by confessing God's Word which is basically agreeing with it.  Start with the verse above, repeating it out loud, asking God to give you 'revelation' on it. Pick it apart. Faith comes by hearing. Ok. To get faith, I have to hear. Hear what? The Word of God. Where do I get the Word of God? Of course, the Bible would be it. But don't stop there. There's lots of good inspiring books and videos out there that will help bring out truths and revelations found in the Bible. Read them. Hear them. And you will be hearing God's Word and then faith comes! Ever notice how full of faith you come out with from church sometimes because of what was preached? You were being fed the 'Word of God'. Now don't starve yourself waiting till next Sunday to be fed again!

Where do you keep God's Word?

 Is God's Word coming from your heart (your spirit)? Or is it coming from the soul (mind,will, and emotions)? That's what it means to speak 'spirit filled words' or to have 'God speak through you'. Ask yourself this question. When I quote scripture or speak God's Word to someone, am I doing it in love or judgment? Or just boasting of my head knowledge? God is love, speaks love, so if it's a 'word from God', shouldn't it be spoken 'with love'? So before you speak out in the name of the Lord, ask Him "Is this what You want me to say?"
¹⁴ May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
    be pleasing in your sight,
    Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer (NIV from Biblegateway.com)

"Let my words be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer!"

God Loves You!

"Train a child up in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it."  Proverbs 22:6

 To Whom It May Concern

You know you may leave me for a little while to seek after the things of the world but you'll come back. You'll find out. No love of money or anything can fill that void in you but me. I put that void there to be filled with my love. You will never be complete without me. So I'm sending my ambassadors to you to show you my love. Anyone who gives you a kind word, a word of encouragement, a kind act, remember it is from Me. I am a personal God. I love YOU!

God

(If you so happen to stumble upon this page, know it was not by accident. God sent you here to tell you how much He loves you)

Why Am I Here? What is My Purpose in Life?

Ever wonder that? I have. Sometimes I feel so small and minute. Like I make no impression at all in my family or friends. My life has no direction. I can not control my circumstances or surroundings. I make no difference in my own life, let alone in the ones around me.

So what is my purpose? I think here I have to stop and think where do I look to find my purpose? If I am a Christian, I should be finding that out in God's Word. Why? Because He is our creator. John 1:3 "All things came into being through Him,and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." NASB

I do crafts (sew, knit, crochet, etc.). I even have a blog where I post things I have done. So when I make something, I have someone and something in mind for it. I have a purpose for it. God created us for Him and He has a purpose for us. Even if that purpose to us is menial in our eyes. It's like a huge puzzle and we are a piece of that puzzle. He sees the full picture but we can't. We can only cooperate. He shows us our part in it in His Word. Make no mistake, we are very important to Him!

The devil has a purpose for you and me too. If we do not fill our minds with God's Word so that we know and do His purpose, the devil can lie to us and get away with it because he is a 'lier and the father of lies'. We wouldn't even know it. How could we?? For those of us who don't know God's Word, the devil cons us into doing his purpose.

Getting into the Word has helped me to find out just how important I am to God and the devil can't lie to me and tell me any different. Because now that I know, I can say I am not small and minute. My life does have direction! God is in control of my circumstances and yes, I can make a difference! I am an important piece of the puzzle.

My true purpose. Gods purpose, is everyday, everyday, learning His Word, listening to Him as He tells me how much He loves me, what He wants for me and obeying him in 'minute (small) matters', is in the big scheme of things....

Taking my place in the puzzle.

Soul or Spirit?

Does anybody know the difference between your soul and spirit? As a believer, I didn't for years. There is a difference. When you look up in the dictionary the word 'soul', you find this...
The animating and vital principle in humans, credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an immaterial entity
Your 'thought' is your mind, action would be your 'will', and 'emotion' is just what it says, your 'emotions'. Your soul is your "mind, will, and emotions".

We are made up of three parts. Our physical body, our soul (mind,will, and emotions) and our spirit. Our spirit is that part which is our true life (that force or principle of life that animates the body of living things). This is the life that God breathed into each of us and when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He deposits His 'Holy Spirit' into our 'spirit'.

Knowing the difference between 'soul' and 'spirit' helps a bunch in understanding the Bible and how they work.