Freedom

Leviticus 26:13 I am your Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your heads held high.

God loved us, sent His son down for us and did that so He could break us from the yokes of slavery once again so that we can walk with our heads held high....Just ponder that for a moment.

You may be thinking to yourself ..but I wasn't a slave...weren't you? or for some of you it would be aren't you? Are you a slave to your own lusts? to your own wants and desires? Do you put them before God? Lets go through this...

Its the time of year for football games...do the games come before your worship to the Lord?
You were supposed to do some service for the Church, but there is a really awesome party...do you back out to go to the party?
You are on a dieting plan to lose weight and get in shape so that your body can be a temple to God...do you make excuses and make it what you want it to be based on your desires?
You are an alcoholic, a drug addict, addicted to sex, food, television, work....whatever it is..do you put those things before God?

If you could answer yes to any of that...you are a slave. You are a slave to those things and the only way out is to give that stuff up to God and accept Jesus as your personal savior.

He can break us from the yokes of slavery so that we can walk with our heads held high....

That is love my friends..that is grace and mercy and forgiveness and joy all wrapped into one pretty beautiful package ...are you going to throw it away?

Sharyl

First Love

Heart thudding, palms sweating, pulse racing, mouth dry...its HIM! Oh wow....you have thought about him, prayed about him..longed for him ...thought of every possible moment that you have spent together. You dream about him, watch for him, count seconds that your apart. You knew the moment you fell in love that your life would never be the same!

Guess what? We have all been there..through that life changing moment where we "fell in love". It just does something to you. It may or may not be "the one" but the emotions and the feelings that it conjures up are the same...but lets think for a moment...about real love.

The Bible says in 1 Cor 13: 4-8  4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails.

and John 15:13 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus died for us on a cross...laid His life down for you and for me...for all the things we do wrong in the name of love. So lets go back for a moment...when we seek after God...when we put him first in our loves..do we get those feelings of love that come over us? We should...we should count the seconds we are apart, we should hold Him in our heart, we should long to be with Him!

He really should be our first love...and our other loves and passions should model THAT behavior. Our families our husbands (or wives if thats the case) Should be modeled after the time we spend with God.

Matt 6:21  21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What does that mean exactly? Well it means that what you spend your time on and thinking about ..thats where your heart is..thats what you value and what you love....

Are you spending your time with your God? Are you spending your time with your family? Or with your video games? your car? ....What are you showing that you love first?

Hard questions in the cold reality of the day....dare you to answer honestly....not to me or to anyone else...just to yourself...and then set it right if its not already. Take those corrective actions to make your love with God your first love. I know I will :)

~ Sharyl

The Voice of Your Heart

Did you know that your heart has a voice? Yup...it can speak to God. Did you further know that the Lord WANTS to hear our voices talk to Him...we do it through prayer.

Alot of people who are new to Christianity and some that aren't get confused by the subject of prayer. They don't feel that they pray well enough. They don't feel that they know the right things to say, that they aren't eloquent enough, that they aren't smart enough, that they are just not capable. Well guess what, WRONG!

First of all I want to say that talking to God is just a conversation, just like you would have with your best friend.
It doesn't have to be eloquent, it doesn't have to be wordy or pretty...just raw heartfelt emotion is fine. God gets it, He is pretty good that way.

In Colossians 1:3-12 it tells us how to pray...lets check it out a little. a quick breakdown

vs 3 says : we always pray for you & we give thanks to God
vs 9 & 10 says: we have not stopped praying for you; we ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdowm and understanding, then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit.
vs 11 & 12 says: We also pray that you will be strengthened with His all glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy always thanking the Father.

So lets break that down further, we should pray to 1) lift up others 2) thank God 3) ask for strength

Ok, so I once was told that you can use the acronym ACTS to pray Found in Colossians, but also in 1 Tim 2:1 I urge then first of all that requests prayers intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone.

A: Adoration - pretty self explanitory
C: Confession -(repent) ask for forgiveness for the things you have done wrong and for strength or help from God
                       to overcome those trials.
T: Thanksgiving - Thank God for all your blessings.
S: Supplication -(requests) Anything that you need help for or with...God knows, and He WANTS to help us.

The next question alot of people ask is...Does prayer reaaaaaaally work? Uhhh, ya ..ya it does. The answer might not always be the one you want to hear, Jesus even had a prayer that He didn't have answered the way He wanted :Matt 26:39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."

So there is a huge point to be made there. Its Gods will, not ours. We can ask, but the answer doesn't have to be yes. Think as a parent how many times your children asked you for something...a dog? a horse? a jet? to go to an unchaperoned party? the list is endless...and just as we have to tell them that wonderful two letter word NO sometimes, as does God with us. We don't know what the reasons are but we don't have to...I can hear in the back of my head "Because I said so!"

So, last note here...The Bible says...1 Thess 5:17 pray continually.

Wow, ok really? How do I pray CONTINUALLY?!?? I mean that must mean that I can do nothing but pray all the time day and night right? Well yes, and no...remember when I said that prayer is just a conversation that you have with God. So lets follow this along, I talk to my children continually, now they dont really listen, but I do talk to them..we get up in the morning and talk, I call during the day, they call me, we text and in the evening we talk, and then we all go to bed....a continual stream of communication. So when you pray continually to God...its a continual stream of conversation

7a Hey God its me, thanks for the wonderful day, please let all go well
730a Hey God just wanted to say that sunrise! Wow, good work there!
745 Hey God, its me again, please help my temper driving through rush hour and help me get there safely, I know my temper can get set off in this traffic
8a: Hey God, its me again, please bless this food thank you for providing it

and so forth and so on...

I pray for you all, for strengh, wisdom, growth, health and joy in Jesus name. amen

Sharyl

All In

Hello Poker fans we are sitting at a table of......Oh wait...thats not what I wanted to talk about but the term comes from there..."All In"
In poker we watch players raise and lower their bets based on their hands, and if they have a really good hand, or a really good bluff you may
see them go "ALL IN" Which can be exciting to watch...So lets use that as our jumping point.

In life we watch a lot of people live life on the sidelines, not participating but just going through the motions. Well our walk as Christians can
be much the same. Alot of people, myself included in the past, tend to show up for services and consider that their raised bets, because hey
they showed up! So lets give this some though shall we?

What if...God had created the world and called it done?
What if...Jesus came to earth and decided ..Hey I showed up, good enough!
What if...He had never died for our sins.
What if...He let the devil tempt him as we are so want to do?

The answer...we would all be dead spiritually.

God gave us His son...gave Him to us so that we could still have a way back to Him! Pretty impressive huh?

So I would say if we were using that poker terminology that the stakes are pretty darn high right? We have a good hand being
dealt now that we are Christians...Wouldn't this be the time to go "all in" not just toss in a token bet?

So with that being said. I am going ALL IN. I am not just betting here, I know that with God I have life everlasting...its a sure bet, the easiest
one to make.

What are you waiting for? Come on...push all your chips to the middle and live your life for HIM!

Sharyl

Twenty One!

Did you know that it takes 3 weeks, or 21 days, or 504 hours or 30240 minutes or ....oh well you get the idea... to make something a habit? So it strikes me as we continue with week 2 of our fast that we are fasting for 3 weeks. Well what does this mean exactly?

It means that we are putting God first in our hearts and minds for 3 weeks. We are rethinking how we think about food, and when we struggle we are asking God to help us through. We are becoming better Christians through this walk....and not just for the short term, because as we struggle through these 3 weeks, we are setting the bar higher! When it becomes a habit to put God first in these 3 weeks, it is easier to carry that over to after because its already our new routine.

So the question is then...then what? What will you do to continue to raise that bar? To strive to become better and better in your walk with God?

Sharyl

Distracted much?

This week while fasting, I was doing ten things at once and called to order dinner while I was at work. I wasn't paying attention and ordered Steak of all things....I was talking on the phone on the way home and realized what I had done and called and canceled...but still, the thought crosses my mind that I can't believe I forgot for even just a minute. But there we have it...I was distracted and things just slipped away. Now, I did remember before I even picked up the food, canceled and changed my plan, but it could have gone completely differently.

It taught me something that I really needed to think about, and maybe so do you..only you can answer that...Do distractions often take us away from our walk with our Father? Do we get so focused on work, the house, bills, children, friends and THINGS that we forget our true purpose is to seek Him?

I have to admit...I am guilty of that sometimes...I forget to listen for His call, I forget to put Him first. I have been doing so much better about that lately and it is a concentrated effort. Why would we think a relationship with our Heavenly Father is different than any other relationship? We have to put time and effort into it and do things to make Him happy. Now obviously I can't bring Him flowers, I can't buy Him chocolates....but what I can do is keep Him in my heart, follow the things He would have me to do, donate my time and energy to Him and to bringing others to Him.

So, be mindful as you are going about your day...be thoughtful, prayerful...I know I need to be.

What about you? What distractions do you need to be mindful of?

Sharyl

Its a love story...just say yes!

Once upon a time there was a little girl and all she dreamed about was growing up and finding her one true love.....but as she got to be older she realized that Prince Charming wasn't as charming as she was led to believe...and the fairy tales came crashing down. With no one to believe in but herself she spiraled ...all she wanted was the perfect love story, the kind that the love songs like Taylor Swift sings about in Its a Love Story talk about...Hmmm..

Sound familiar to you ladies out there? Guys..how bout you...the princess in your life not as sweet as Snow White? Love not going where you thought it would?

Guess what...love is a verb, its an action not a feeling. You have to give it to get it back, and just like the infomercials say..But wait! There's more...tell us about it!

We all have the love of our father. Now, I am not just talking about your Earthly father, I am talking about our Heavenly Father. He loved us so much that he sent His son down here...ya I know you know that already right? But I heard an interesting thing on Klove yesterday...and it really hit home for me..so let me share..

A Father is out in the yard and he is letting his son climb the trees. He tells his son, never ever climb the tree's without me here because you could fall and hurt yourself. Of course what happened? The son was climbing the tree when his father was inside and fell and hurt himself. His father hearing the screams coming from outside did what?....well lets think about that a minute...did he say, oh no, not going out there...i told him not to do that! On top of that his room isnt clean! he didnt eat his vegetables! He didnt feed the dog! No, the father ran out the door and took care of his child because he loves him.

So, why do we think that God wont respond to us if we cry out in pain and agony? We are His children..and even though we screw up, when we hurt...He WANTS us to turn toward Him. He uses our adversity to bring us closer to Him. He WANTS to have a relationship with us....amazing...simply amazing!

So once upon a time there was a girl, and she fell in love... Her Father God will always be there, He will never let her down..He is faithful and awesome and to beautiful beyond description. It truly is the greatest love story known to man. We just have to say yes and it can be OUR love story...

So how about it? Are you ready to have the greatest love of your life?

Sharyl