Archive for March, 2009
March 2nd, 2009 -- Posted in Vision and Doctrine Statement |
Motto: Proverbs 11:14
Blessing:
1 Corinthians 10:16, Ezekiel 34:26, Psalm 129:8, Titus 2:13.
The blessing of the Lord be upon you, we bless you in the name of the Lord.
The Hand of God
May the new day bring you blessings,
as the light comes filtering through.
May your sunrise be as lovely,
as a morning draped in dew.
May the wind blow forth a promise,
sending sweet bouquets your way.
May life seem a little brighter,
as you rise to greet the day.
May the daybreak render pleasure,
as the birds begin to sing
May the distant roll of thunder,
bring forth a touch of Spring.
May the mist embrace the stillness,
like a firefly in the night.
May an angel walk beside you,
to hold you in the light.
May the rain caress your body
and life drops flood your soul.
May His Spirit come upon you,
to cleanse and make you whole.
May the showers come so softly,
running gently through your hair.
May you touch the living water
and know that He is there.
May the freshness bring you new life,
pushing through the tender sod.
May you pause to pick a flower
and brush the hand of God.
Author Unknown To Me …
Nicene Creed
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Basic Christian doctrine:
Vision Statement:
Ø To help each other understand the bible.
Ø To fellowship with other Christian women.
Ø To share our lives and grow in the Lord.
Ø To have fun but not at the expense of others.
Ø To show the love of the Lord.
Ø Sanctity of family comes first, for family to not be torn down or apart.
Ø To model how to work out problems with Christ and the bible.
Ø For the vision of this ministry to be led by the Lord for divine guidance and inspiration in every step we take. Proverbs 29:18
Ø Prayer and scripture to grow in the Lord.
Ø Women acting mature and handling themselves in such a way when upset that moderation is minimal because they take their problems to the Lord first, the person the conflict is with second and work things out together. If it cant be resolved then mediation for both sides with prayer and love.
Guidelines:
Ø 3 strikes of nasty, rude, or obnoxious behavior and you are out, with moderator consideration.
Ø This is a Christian sight, we don’t apologize for the Christian views, beliefs and materials.
Ø Caution on how beliefs other than Christian are addressed on this sight with moderator discretion.
Ø We are here to grow in our faith in God the Father, Jesus Christ and led by the Holy Spirit.
Ø No spamming or solicitation others. There is a board called businesses for you to put your Avon or whatever business and others may contact you that way.
March 2nd, 2009 -- Posted in Devotions |
Gods love for us and ours for Him Part 3 5-14-04
Have you ever looked at 1 Corinthians 13 as how God loves us and how we can love Him back in our day to day lives?
Looking through the chapter you see how when you do things for the Lord if they are without love they are of little value other than you felt good about yourself and gave your self a pat on the back.
Our love for the Lord endures long but not as long as He has loved us.
Our love for the Lord teaches us to be patient and kind while waiting on Him, while He has the utmost patience and kindness for us while we do what we want till we turn to Him.
Loving others in life is not to be envious nor boil over in jealousy. That can be tough in light of the fact our flesh gets in the way. Our love can be conditional on if we feel the same amount of love back.
Our love of the Lord does not have us boasting as to what we are or can do in the Lord, or seeking glory for ourselves but for the Lord and is not proud.
Its so easy to get caught up in what we are doing for the Lord that it becomes a matter of me, I and its because of the gifts the Lord has given us that we can give Him the glory.
Love is not rude and does not act unbecomingly. This is convicting when we are angry or just not caring of someone that we seek to hurt them or act unbecomingly to the unlovely. Jesus said “Do so unto the least of one of these, so you do unto Me”. A good point I have to remember.
God’s love in us does not insist on its own rights or its own way. This is true to us working with others that we don’t want the situation to be all about us. The greatest glory goes to God when we seek to just accomplish His will in any given situation.
God’s love in us is not self-seeking, touchy, fretful or resentful. That can be hard especially when you are tired, sick, or feeling touchy because you don’t feel appreciated. While it’s a blessing to feel appreciated its not what should have value in how we love others, as how often to we appreciate all the Lord has done for us? Tough thinking about how very much He has blessed us and its gone un-noticed til later down the road.
God’s love in us does not take account of evil done to us. What a tough thing when you look at how you have been wronged by this person or that person in your daily lives, especially from the ones you love the most. Even from the ones that have just been hurtful to you with no love given. Again, take a look at how the Lord loved us when we were yet sinning with out Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. To forgive when evil has been done to us is so hard because our flesh screams out vengeance! In watching the Passion of the Christ I can honestly say if anyone in all time had a reason to scream not fair it was Jesus. A friend of mine said “if life were fair we would all be going to hell with satan”. What an apt way to put it. Jesus knew He was having evil done to Him for us and all people, no matter how many centuries have gone by. The bible tells us we were known before we were in our mother’s womb.
God’s love in us does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but when right and truth prevail. You think back to when you were a child and your brother or sister who could annoy you beyond all belief got a spanking or in trouble you rejoiced. It wasn’t right and we knew it but we felt justice being served not for what they were in trouble for but what we felt had been done to us. When you think on it, if our love is Godly, we know we didn’t have all our sin dealt with as severely as it could have been because of Jesus. To rejoice even when someone does us wrong that they “get what they got coming to them” is to forget what we have been forgiven of ourselves.
Love bears up under anything and everything that comes. How true. Our love of God grows stronger in the hard times because we know Him and seek Him to grow close to Him because He is right there by our side in times even best friends can not always understand. What a blessing!
Love is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything without weakening. How true! No one wants to believe family members are beyond hope, despite how they are leading their lives, it hopes eternal for the salvation of all we know to come to a saving knowledge of Christ. It endures despite how some would try to demean or diminish your love of them.
Love never fails. Despite all the sins the Lord has seen, despite all you or I have ever done, all He asks is of us to come back to Him, repent and seek Him, His word. He is the Father who is standing with open arms ready to party when we come back despite years of prodigal living.
And so faith, hope, love abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
love
alicia
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March 2nd, 2009 -- Posted in Devotions |
Devotions: Gods love for us and ours for Him Part 2 5-12-04
I was thinking on the verse John 3:16 For God so greatly loved and clearly prized the world that He (even) gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. AMP version.
When you think of how much our Lord and Savior gave up for us it logically brings up the subject of what can we ever give the Lord? There is nothing that can equal the value which was given beyond measure from the Lord. Our very relationship with the Lord is a gift from Him.
Certainly obedience. Jesus tells us that to be obedient is showing our love to the Lord. We want to do right by those we love. There are a lot of outward shows of giving to the Lord. When you look at scripture I believe the only way we truly give back to the Lord is when we do it in love and not out of duty or guilt. When we give up ourselves to be more like Him. Give up our sin, our flesh, our things we hold dear and have a hard time letting go of.
Our fruit, which the Lord looks at, is soon to tell if it’s out of love or sense of obligation. You know the times when you have felt the things you have done wrong will be ok if you give back to the Lord to pay for what His Son did for you on the cross. I have been there, silly as it seems when you look back in retrospect that you, one person that the Lord created and fashioned can out give the Maker of the universe. I think the more wise in my growth in the Lord to His ways the more I look at that aspect of my life. Then I think how He must know what I am up to and yet has the grace to pull back and have life show me my eyes and ears have been closed to the truth.
Open your ears and eyes to all the many ways the Lord would have us just love Him and what we are and can become in Him. Through prayer and scripture and just walking day by day and yes, the times when its minute by minute, second by second. His grace and mercy will carry us through even our ability and capacity to love Him.
May the Lord bless you in insights He would have you this day.
love
alicia
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March 2nd, 2009 -- Posted in Devotions |
Gods love for us and ours for Him Part 1 5-11-04
Have you ever stopped and thought about the love the Lord has for you? Have you ever thought about how you love the Lord back?
It’s amazing to look at His love and how encompassing it is. We can’t even fathom a love like His because it’s so pure and it does not love conditionally.
The longer I grow in Christ the more I see how loving discipline is. Proverbs 3:12 tells us that “For whom the Lord loves He corrects, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.” AMP version.
This most of us understand that the Lord disciplines us to guide us in His way. He knows so much more than we do what is best for us.
Have you ever thought of it this way? You have a person in your life you are praying for the Lord to show you how to love them and you feel you are just by forgiving them. Except you don’t ever go to them after prayer with the Lord giving you the right words and lovingly correct them as Matthew 8 tells us to. I have been guilty of this. It’s never easy to forgive those who hurt us, or misuse us in any way. But take this to the next level.
One thing I felt convicted on is those I am close to and love ask why I can tell them when I am concerned and know they are in the wrong and cant those I feel have hurt me in the past. Very good question. I said because I am close to you and love you, desiring what is best in your life. Then after saying that a few times it hit me. I was not truly loving those I was called to love and forgive. To truly love them is to go and say to them hey this is wrong and work it through with them.
I know this is hard. I have not fully worked through this but it rocked my world to realize the Lord wants accountability even to those we have our toughest time forgiving. It’s not to matter if they receive it or not and change it but for us to love them through Christ to go to them in love and give them the truth. I would encourage you to pray for the Lord to bind your mouth and give you the right words to say in this situation so you aren’t repenting and making more of a fun time that this would need to be.
I was reading A Shofar Blew by Francine Rivers and this convicted me even more that by our not saying anything we are letting someone go on in sin by not doing our part. Now don’t get me wrong, they may continue on in sin but at least you loved them enough to give them the truth. Then continue loving them and above all else pray for them.
I pray we all come to the point of loving those around us in this way.
Love in Christ
Alicia
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