Developing the mind of Christ

Three stages of developing the Mind of Christ according to the study are:

1) Set your mind

2) Renew your mind

3) Gird up your mind

1- Set your Mind

    Give God your will

     Decide your focus daily

    Stay focus on the LORD

    Choose to obey

    Take every though captive

    Say yes Lord

    Obey

  2-Renew your mind

    Be transformed

    by renewing mind

    constantly growing

    washing cleansing changing

    like flowing rivers of

    living water

    New insights

    Spiritual growth

3-Gird up your mind

    Be ready for action

    Be prepared

    Mentally ready

    Stay Alert

    Study, Pray 

    Meditate

   on the Word

    read up

    fessed up

    prayed up

    Qualified for service

     

So, Jesus is our example 

We must set our mind 

Stay focused on Jesus

Like a flowing river

 of living water

constantly renewing

 changing and growing. 

Then we can be prepared

 for service for Him

The best part- God

 gives us the will to have

"The Mind of Christ"

Then He enables us 

He will complete the work

Our job is to stay focused 

on Jesus the Author and 

perfecter of our faith.

He is our example

    

    

      

      

Judges and Job

Saturday I finished Judges with some of the hardest reading in the bible.  It finished with these words, " In those days there was no King; every man did whatever was right in his own  eyes." Judges 21:25

Does this sound familiar. This is what happens with out God. Lord,  forgive our  nation, humble us and drive us back to you.  The way for evil to win,  is for good to not take a stand for righteousness.

Sunday, we did a lot of riding.  So, I tackled Job, which is next according to my bible chart and  is what our  Sunday School lessons are on  this month. Job is hard to read.  So much sadness and unanswered questions.  But the lesson suggested we read it and take notes on what Job's friends did that was helpful and what they said that was hurtful and to use it to learn more about dealing with suffering people.

I read chapters one through thirteen and these are some of the things I noted.

What the friends did that helped
They came
to comfort
cried with him
sat speechless
for 7 days

THEN, they opened there mouths and it went down hill from there.

Eliphaz started on a positive note
"your words have helped many"
"you told many to trust God"
"you have encouraged the weak"
"BUT now, when it touches you, you are broken and dismayed
Where is your confidence and faith in God now
Where is your integrity now
I know the truth
God takes care of  good and sends misery for sins sown.
Take my advise; confess sin and do not despise His wrath
My experience says man is mortal and we all die
confess and your sons  will be great"

This my paraphrase of what he said.
 The last statement  is an especially cruel for  a man who has just lost family.

Bildad went right to the point, a very cruel point.
"your children sinned and God punished them
"If your are really good,  God will protect you"

When my youngest son was facing open heart surgery,
 I was told, that if  I prayed and my faith was strong enough,
 he would be healed.
Some advice does more harm than good

Zophor accuses Job of being guilty and  just told him to repent

With friends like that.......
Job had asked for help and instead was being hurt. Tired of defending himself, he finally said.
"Oh, that you would have kept silent, that would have shown more wisdom" Job 12:5

We can not explain why bad things happen to good people.  So, we might as well not try.
Instead, just love them, pray for them, sit with them. cry with them, write a note, call, invited them, do practical things that help,  but please do not try to explain why.... it does not help.

God's Garbage Girl

"We are the garbage girls
we were our hair in curls
we wear our dungarees
way up above our knees
we never play with toys
we just adore the boys
La La La LA La La
La La La LA La La"

That is the song that we pre-teenagers sang as we rode on the back of the truck to the dumpster with Mr. Hamilton at Dekle Beach. That was  a long time ago.

I am much older now
my hair is still curly
I wear my dungarees
way down below my knees
I now play with toys
I just adore my Mark

Well, it doesn't rhyme but you get the point.

We took a long walk on our first morning in Kentucky around a nice neighborhood near our hotel.  We past a ditch that was full of trash that had fallen out.  I thought to myself, what a shame, some one should clean that up.  To which I heard a voice say,"why not you?"  My response was that I did not have a bag.  About 100 yards from there I saw a bag on the ground.  Oh well, too late maybe next time and kept walking with out picking up the bag. Again I felt in my spirit " Learn to obey Me in little things if you plan to  obey  Me in big  things." I had  heard a sermon earlier that day that said." just do the next thing".   OBEY.

 I started hearing  the song, " This is my Fathers World" in my mind.  When was the last time I even thought about that song? I may be slow,  but,  I got the point.   I started picking up pieces of trash as we walked.  Mark asked me if I was the garbage girl.   I told him that God told me that this was his world and that He  did not like it messy.  So we continued our walk, picking up trash as we walked, (By the way- great  exercise). Our hands were getting very full when I found a nice big ice bag and filled it up and took it to the dumpster near the hotel.

  Mark and I love nature and always leave campgrounds and work stations cleaner than we find them.  That is just being a good steward.  But I think maybe I should start carrying a bag in my pocket when we walk.  Mark said that it is kind of like the star fish story....we may not be able to save them all, and we can not pick up all the trash. But,  we can pick up stuff as we travel around this beautiful country selling stuff.

Mountain Top Experience

We just got back from another wonderful Beth Moore conference.  Mountain Top experiences are great, but what do we do when we get back home.

Lord, "I need you here-now-daily."
          "I needed you direction"

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet  and a light unto my path"
"I will never leave you or forsake you"

TIME is so important and to precious to be wasted.
Time is God's gift to me, what I do with time is my gift to God.

I started a new June prayer journal.
This time I do not want to just make a list of wants and needs
I need and want a relationship with my Father in Heaven.
One that is constant, real and growing
I want to learn:  to listen and obey
                         to study and learn and grow
                         to love you more and more

I spend a lot of time looking at baby picture on facebook posted by moms and grand-mamas. I love it.
I can not stop writing the word precious (the name that I  often call Olivia).
You have to agree with me that these pictures are precious.
Beth Moore showed pictures of her sweet darling grand babies.
Then she related it to God looking down on His children
saying,"That's my baby girl, she is a precious treasure to me."

Today, spend time with the one who thinks you are precious.

between the verses

Isaiah is a very long Book  with some familiar verses. Some  people remember Isaiah 40:8 and most remember Isaiah 40:31. They are two of our favorite bible drill verses.  Today I read the verses in between and found  wonderful verses  reminding us to praise God.

Isaiah 40:8 " The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever"

Climb up on a High Mountain and lift up your voice with all your strength.  Shout louder the Good News. Behold your God is coming.  Have you not heard? The Lord is the every-lasting God, The creator of all the world.  He never faints or grows weary.  His understanding is unsearchable.  He gives power to the weary and strength  to the weak.  Even the young grow weary and fall.

Isaiah 40:31 " But they who wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary,they shall walk and not faint."

Praise the Lord

Our Ministry

You do not have to be a minster to have a ministry.  I feel like our ministry is to love God, love others and to obey his word.  To be a channel of God's love daily

Paul describes ministry in 2 Corinthians chapters 2-5

1- Triumphant Ministry
Thanks be to God who causes us to triumph in Christ. For through Christ, He uses us to spread the Gospel like a sweet perfume.

2- A Commended Ministry
We are confident through Christ. Not that we are competent or confident in ourselves. Nor can we claim credit.  But, we are confident in God who makes us competent.  We trust God to help us know what to say through His Holy Spirit.

3- A Ministry of Splendor
How could you  expect the ministry of the Spirit to be anything but glorious? The Lord is that Spirit. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Since we have this hope, we can be very bold.  Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being changed into His likeness and become like a mirror that brightly reflects His glory. ......Think Matthew 5:16... "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

4- An Honest Ministry
It is God himself, in His mercy, who has given us this wonderful work of telling His good news to others. So, we never give up.  We know that we stand in the presence of God as we speak,  so we  tell the truth.

5- A Tried Ministry
We have this  treasure of  light and power that now shines in this earthen vessel. We go through trials  for your sake so that His grace will extend to more people. The more that  come know  Him, the more there are to thank Him for his great kindness, the more He  is  glorified.  That is why we never give up.

6- A Courageous Ministry
It is God who prepared for us a new body. He  gives us everlasting life through Christ Jesus and has given us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee.  This gives us confidence and courage to do what He tells us to do.   For we walk by faith and not sight and make our aim to please Him.

7- A Reconciling Ministry
It is because of the reverence and love  for God,  that we works so hard.  He knows our heart is pure and His love controls us.  He reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.  We are ambassadors for Christ to plead with you to receive the love He offers to everyone.

8- A Suffering Ministry
Do not toss this message of God's great grace aside in vain.
GRACE
G-ods
R-ighteousness
A-t
C-hrist
E-xpence
The suffering Servant = Christ

Paul suffered greatly during his ministry.  He endured afflictions, hardships, calamities, beating, prison, turmoil, hard labor, sleepless nights, hunger, evil reports, deceivers, punishments, dishonor, bad reputation and lies told about him. He continued with a pure open heart through knowledge, long-suffering,  love, kindness, the word of truth, the armor of righteousness and the help of the Holy Spirit.

He had a huge ministry as a missionary and a letter writer. Those letters  makes up most of the New Testament.  He considered himself the least of all of the Followers of Jesus because he started out by persecuting Christians until Christ turned him around......He finished well.

We all have things in our past that we had rather forget. But, we too,  can finish well and have a ministry that will cause our Heavenly Father to say," well done,good and faithful servant."

The older I get, the more I realize:
Time is short
Today is the day

Back to Sweetwater Tennessee

We left Moultrie at 11:00 and plan to travel until 7:00- 7:30 to get us close to Lafayette to set up early  for our show tomorrow.

 Around 5:00, we realized we were near Sweetwater Tennessee with one of our favorite hotels with nice hiking through the country,  an indoor pool and a spa at a great price.  Two summers ago we spent a lot of time in this area,  near the longest flea market in the world and an Antique and collectible store.  It was really too early to stop, so we filled up with gas  and plan to keep going.

 Mark heard a funny noise and had me drive slow so he could walk along side and listen.  That is when he realized that  we were down to 3 lugs keeping the tire in place.  The good news is, we did not loose a tire and control of the suburban full of glass pulling a trailer full of tables on the interstate for six hours.

We found a place that will be able to fix our tire in the morning.  So, here we are at our favorite hotel.  We ate a quick supper from our freezer, took a one hour hike,  to the pool for swimming and water  aerobics.  Changed and  walked around the empty  flea market area  at sunset and enjoyed the view.

Tomorrow, we will deal with the tire issue and go to work. Our exercise will be unloading boxes and setting up tables.  But tonight, we enjoyed our little adventure.  We are also thanking God, that once again, He was looking after us as we travel.....a  God Wink...