The thoughts, experiences and views of the unique person God knows as me
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Showing posts with label rebecca st. james. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rebecca st. james. Show all posts
Have you ever done something so bad that you felt you could never be forgiven? Have you ever committed a private sin that have been made horribly public? Have you ever felt like you've been "caught in the act" by someone?
No matter the level of your sin, or who knows about it, Jesus, our Saviour offer us forgiveness and a new start to any who will repent. We need to look inside ourselves, into our own heart, and recognise all aspects of our lives where we must seeks Christs forgiveness. If we do that, we will be forgiven and urged to, "Go and sin no more" (John 8:11).
No matter how privately or publicly we have failed God, if we "Go and sin no more", our new life will begin.
"Be good" - how many times to we say that to our children or hear others saying that to their children?
Put those words into a different scenario...God telling you to "Be good". God wants us to be like Jesus and that means we must be good and we must do good.
Do you consider yourself to be a "good" person?
If you've answered "yes" to that question, I'd urge you to reconsider your answer! Even if we are nice, law abiding people who do our best in all we do, we are not good enough to get into heaven unless we ask God to forgive us of all our sins.
Jesus said, "I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven." (Matthew 18:3). Once we are willing to change our ways, Jesus said a childlike trust and humility will help us become great people on earth and wonderful citizens of heaven.
Don't think you're good enough, or too good to have to ask God to forgive you. It's easy, just ask God to forgive you, He is waiting and willing you to do so.
Forgive Me Written by Scott Dyer and Rebecca St. James For all the times I’ve failed You, Lord Forgive me For all the ways I’ve fallen short Lord, forgive me now God, I’m so in need of grace I fall upon my face Forgive me
You see the tears fall down my face Forgive me Take my fear, Lord, take my shame Lord, forgive me now Purify me, make me new Like only You can do Forgive me now
Lord, we come to honor You We are forgiven We bring our love and thanks to You We are forgiven now
God we praise You for Your grace Before You we are raised Forgiven God we praise You for Your grace Before You we are raised Forgiven Forgiven
Isn't it great when God sets your heart singing with joy. But how can we keep in tune and not go off-key? One ways of doing this is to realise that a singing heart is a separated heart. Separation in this way does not mean isolation, it simply means separate from sin but will to be friends with sinners.
There is joy in separating ourselves to God. We must stand apart from sin, while still standing up for others, committing ourselves, as Jesus did, to be a friend to those who don't know our Saviour, but still abstaining from activities that Jesus wouldn't take part in if he we here with us today.
We may find when we try to separate ourselves from sin, those we're trying to help, may not understand. However don't let this bring you down, as we will bring joy to the Lord, and that joy will be reflected and experienced in our own hearts.
Phillipians 4:8-9 (The Message) Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
Do you find yourself dwelling in the past and what might have been? I think we're all guilty of that at times. We tend to forget that it's called "the past" for a reason - it's happened, it's over and we can't change any of it. We find ourselves dwelling on things that we feel we have failed at, situations that we which we'd handled differently, or conversations we wish we'd said (or not said) something.
Before we know where we are, we find ourselves focusing in on our failures. Instead of leaving these events in the past and moving on. Just because we've failed at something in the past doesn't mean we will continue to fail - After all they always say, "Practice makes perfect"!
If we let our past failures consume our thoughts and control our emotions we will continue to be a prisoner of our past. God needs/wants us to let go of our past failures, and in doing experience a joy which can only be found through Him.
God is willing to forgive us of all our wrongs, so surely we should be able to forgive ourselves?
Don't live in regret as it will change nothing for the better and will only cause you more pain.
Forgive yourself and move on! Live in the present not the past, and live it in Jesus' name!
August is month full of lots of family birthdays as well as our wedding anniversary (see yesterday's clog post called Love). So today was one of my cousin's 50th birthday!
So this afternoon I got a phone call at work to see whether Sandy and I wanted to go out for dinner with my cousin and all the rest of our family. Unfortunately Sandy did not feel up to going out tonight so I went along without him.
We all went for a lovely Chinese and a good old blether which was good as we don't see each other all that much. It also got to see my cousins grandchild for the first time too, so that was good.
All in all it was a good night with my family, even though Sandy wasn't with us.
Today I'd just like to say thank you to God once again for my family and the love they've all shown me over the years.
I pray too for those estranged from their family, and ask that reconciliation may be found so that they might all become one again. For those with no family, I pray they find someone special to them who they can share their lie with.
Thank you God for the love of family.
I've chosen the same song as yesterday to conclude, but make no apology for it as it is a song full of powerful words...The Power of Your Love, this time by Rebecca St James:
Are you faced with making a difficult decision? Are you faced with making a decision that could dramatically change your life? Scared you will not make the right decision?
Well you're not alone - all these situations/feelings are all perfectly normal. I think if we are all honest, we all get a bit scared/worried when we face difficult decisions or face new situations that are unfamiliar to us. But how can we be sure we are making the right decisions? We can only ever be 100% certain when we involve God's in our decision making. Friends, family and colleagues may all try to give you advice, but ultimately God is the only person who can guide you to the right choice for you.
Talk to God. Listen to what he's saying to you. Trust his leading.
If you follow God's directions He will guide you though. He will give you all you need to do whatever it is he has directed you to do. Trust Him.
I Can Trust You (Rebecca St James)
Yes, I know that You have paved a path for me Yes, I know that You see what I do and don’t need But when it comes to the deepest things I have a hard time relinquishing control Letting go
God, it hurts to give You what I must lay down But when I let go, freedom’s found God, it hurts to give You what I’ve held so dear Because of Your love it’s clear I can trust You with this I can trust You with me I can trust You
Lord, I know that You are worthy of my trust For You have shown me time and time again You’re faithful and yet I’m so scared of letting go of this Afraid of what You might do with it How could I forget who You are like this
Me forsaking Heart is breaking I let go of what I’ve held so tight Freedom’s mine now For the taking I move in faith, not by sight Let Your will be done
Even if we try not to overload ourselves, chances are we still end up carrying a heavy load. Troubles, burdens and stresses are after all, part of everyday life these days.
When you are feeling overloaded and struggling to cope with the pressures of life, how do you cope?
Well for many of us, we try to withdraw to a private place, a place of quietness, where we can be alone with our thoughts. But how would you feel if you tried to have some "alone" time, but someone interrupted your plans, seeking your help?
Well this is exactly what happened to Jesus after He received the news of John the Baptist's murder (Matthew 14:1-12).
Matthew 14:13-14 - The Message When Jesus got the news, he slipped away by boat to an out-of-the-way place by himself. But unsuccessfully—someone saw him and the word got around. Soon a lot of people from the nearby villages walked around the lake to where he was. When he saw them coming, he was overcome with pity and healed their sick.
Jesus was certainly God-focused during this time when He really wanted to have some time by himself. He could so easily have focused purely on himself, but He didn't, He was selfless. That must have been so difficult for Jesus to find the strength and motivation to help others rather than focus on himself.
Jesus accomplished this simply by turning to God for His strength and motivation, as He knew God would give Him the power to do all He needed him to do.
Take heart from this, allow you daily stresses and strains to make you more like Jesus: God-focused. This is how Jesus coped, so if it worked for Him it will definitely work for you and me!
God will help you get through, even when things seem impossible!
So how many of you just came to read this blog because of its title?
Even if it was just the title that got you here, I hope you read on...
I've spent some time in the last few days, rereading some of my previous posts, and found myself focusing on my post entitled DVD Players versus Bibles.
While that post was all about how many DVD players we have in relation to the number of bibles we possess, I got thinking about how much time we spend in prayer.
So, on average, how long do you spend watching the television each day? Now be honest, as I think if you are like me, you might be embarassed about how much time you spend watching the TV!
Have you done your calculations? Are you surprised how much time you send watching the television? I certainly was! I then wondered how many of programmes that are on when you're TV is on, that you actually watch! I know in our house, the TV is often on, but niether of us are actually watching it - it's just there as a noise in the corner!
So where am I going with this? Given the amount of time we spend watching the television, I wonder how that compares with the amount of time we spend in prayer. So, some questions for you to consider:
Do you spend time praying each day? How much time do you spend praying each day? Do you watch the TV more regularly than you pray? How often do you listen to what God is saying to you?
Now I've thrown a number of questions at you, what's your reaction to your answers? I was quite shocked by my answers to the above questions. We spend a lot of time these days watching tv, dvds, playing computer games, using pcs/laptops, but do we spend enough of our time reading our bible and praying?
Because of my own answers to the above questions, I'm re-evaluating how I spend my time, do you need to do that too?
Enjoy the music but also acknowledge the message presented in the following video: "Pray" by Rebecca St James
Philippians 4:6-7 (New Living Translation) Don’t worry about anything: instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
The video which follows features a talented young man called Connor Deal singing the beautiful Rebecca St. James song "A Cradle Prayer". It's a beautiful song with special words, made all the more speacial as Connor Lee Deal died at the age of 12 on Feb 17 this year (2009).
Connor sang this solo as part of the Amarillo South Church Christmas production in December, 2007 when he was 11 years old. I know it's only May just now, but the music and words of this song are special too me, and Connor's performance touched me when I heard it earlier this week, so I make no appologies for featuring a nativity scene in May.
A Cradle Prayer (Music by Charles Garrett & Words by Rebecca St. James)
Jesus I love you my Lord my life Where would I be without you Here in the quiet, the still, the night I am in awe of you Trials may come and friends they may go What really matters is you my Lord Beautiful Savior my God, my friend I am in awe of you Lord I am in awe of you Trials may come and friends they may go What really matters is you my Lord Jesus I love you my Lord my life Where would I be without you Here in the quiet, the still, the night I am in awe of you Why would you, Creator and King Come as a baby for all, for me Beautiful Savior, my God, my friend I am in awe of you I am in awe of you
I'm married to Sandy, we have no children but we do have a cat called Tigger who we've had since he was 6 weeks old (he was a wedding present - we got him on our 1st anniversary).
I'm a christian and have attended the Salvation Army all my life. I play trombone in the Bellshill Salvation Army Band. I'm also the webmaster of the band's website.
