Walk Boldly With Jesus

Things Not Yet Seen

Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.  By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.”

My friend Louise was leading prayer group on Thursday and she did a teaching on Hebrews 11.  As she was talking I felt like the Holy Spirit was showing me several different things in this chapter.  I felt like this would be a good chapter to spend some time in as it shows several different examples of faith in several different circumstances.  Each day this week I will take a different verse from this chapter and we will look at the circumstances the people find themselves in and how their faith grows because of these circumstances.  

In today’s verse we have Noah.  In case you are listening to this and you don’t know the story of Noah, let me take a minute to explain.  The people who lived when Noah lived were not a God fearing people.  They worshipped other gods, they participated in child sacrifice and were a perverse nation.  God wanted to destroy the earth and start over again.  However, there was one righteous family.  Noah &  his wife and they had a few sons.  God asked Noah to build an arc that would keep his family safe from the flood that he intended to send.  He gave his very specific directions and dimensions for this arc.  He wanted Noah to build an arc that would not only keep his family safe, but he wanted him to also bring on board at least one female and one male of every land animal on earth.  

At the time that God told Noah this, the place where Noah lived had not gotten rain in a very long time.  There was no earthly reason why Noah would need to build an arc.  It definitely didn’t make sense to him or to his family.  However, Noah built the arc and saved his family and all the animals.  The verse above says, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.”  That first part is the first kind of example I want to talk to you about this week.  It says, “By faith, when warned about things not yet seen.”  When have you been asked to have this type of faith?  When has God warned you about something that was coming but you didn’t see it yet? When has he asked you to do something and yet you really don’t understand why?  Has this happened to you before?  Have you felt like God wanted you to do something and yet it didn’t seem to make any sense to you?  

This can happen to us in big ways and small ways.  You might feel like God is asking you to call someone or pray for someone and yet you don’t understand why.  You might be asked to give someone money, or loan them your car and yet they didn’t even ask you for it.  You might feel God is asking you to quit your job and move back home, and yet it doesn’t make sense to you. You don’t understand it because this request came out of left field.  In all of these circumstances you feel God is asking you to do something before you see the need for it.  It would be easier to understand if you saw the need.  It would be easier to understand  if you saw the why first.  If you had someone come and ask you for money then it would be easier for you to understand why God was asking you to give them money.  If you saw that someone was without a car then you could understand why you felt led to let them borrow your car.  And yet, that isn’t how God works sometimes.  

What just occurred to me, thank you Holy Spirit, is that sometimes God does it this way because then the Glory is His.  If we walk up to someone and ask them if they need a car, when they do, but we had no way of knowing that, then it points them to God.  When someone needs $50 for gas and someone else gives the  exactly $50  without them even asking, it points them to God.  If they asked if we had money and we gave them money, that would be nice of us and it would be a good thing, and yet it wouldn’t necessarily point them to God.  Even with them getting exactly what they needed  without asking, sometimes it doesn’t point them to God.  Sometimes they chalk it up to a coincidence.  However, if they get enough coincidences, they will start to look for something bigger behind it all and they will find God.  

Back to Noah, he can be a great example of how to live out this kind of faith.  He didn’t understand, it didn’t make any sense from an earthly view and yet he did it anyway.  The verse says he built the arc out of a holy fear.  This doesn’t mean that he was so scared of God that he built this arc because he didn’t feel like he had any other choice.  It doesn’t mean that he built he arc out of fear of consequences from God for him or his family.  Holy fear is a fear that comes from love.  It is less of a fear and more of an awe or reverence toward God.  Noah was in awe of God and I am sure he was grateful that God was willing to spare him and his family.  That is a pretty big honor, especially since they were the only family saved.  

I know it can seem like God is asking more from you than you are capable of doing. I know that you feel like God maybe has a little too much faith in you at times.  They say God will never give us more than we can handle and we wonder if God over estimates us at times.  I heard someone say that quote a bit differently.  They said, “God never gives us more than He can handle.”  That feels a bit more accurate at times because there is nothing God can’t handle.  When you feel overwhelmed, when you feel like God has asked you to do more than you can handle, take a moment to think of all that God asked Noah to do.

God asked Noah, when he was 500 years old to build and arc and it took over 100 years to build this arc.  I have trouble finding the energy to wash my dishes some days and Noah was over 450 years older than I am.  After building this arc, he needed to fill it with at least one female and one male animal of each kind.  I cannot imagine it was easy to get all those animals on the arc with out them eating each other.  Imagine taking care of all those animals for 150 days while the earth was flooded.  I mean, how do you clean out the stalls of lions?  

God asked a lot of Noah when he asked him to build this arc.  He asked a lot of Noah and his whole family when he gave them the task of repopulating the entire world.  God asked a lot from them and yet he didn’t leave them alone.  He gave them the strength they needed to accomplish all he set before them and He will do the same for you. All God needed from Noah was his “yes” and God can do the rest.  All God needs from you is your “yes” too! He is asking for your yes, even when you don’t understand.  He is asking for your yes, even when it doesn’t make sense.  He is asking for your yes even when others might say you are crazy.  He is asking for your yes even when you feel it is too much.  All He needs is your yes and he will give you all you need to accomplish all He has asked you to do.  Will you say yes?  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, please help us to say yes even when we don’t understand why.  Help us to act even when you are asking us to prepare for things not yet seen.  Help us to have faith in you Lord.  Help us to trust that if you are asking there is a good reason.  Give us the strength and the grace to say yes even if we don’t feel we are good enough. Help us to say yes even when we feel we can’t do it.  Lord, we love you and we thank you for trusting us even though we don’t deserve it. Thank you for using us in your plan even though we aren’t worthy!  We are so grateful and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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I Will Take Refuge In The Shadow Of His Wings

Psalms 57:1 “Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.”

What struck me about this passage when I first read it was the last line.  “I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.”  The thought that came to my mind was, “Wouldn't it be nice to just rest in God’s shadow until the disaster has passed?”  I thought about all the people I know right now who are in situations that feel like they are a disaster.  I have a friend who is in a legal battle with a family member over money.  Tony has a co-worker who is in intensive care fighting for his life.  I have a family member who just found out she has cancer.  Another friend’s husband found out he is going blind.  I got a text from a friend today who asked for prayers for her brother who went to the ER today because he was having seizures.  I could go on and on.  It seems to be never ending.  

When I think of all of them, I can see how this verse applies to them.  The beginning says, have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge.  I can see them crying this out to the Lord.  I am crying it out for them in my prayers.  I am begging God to have mercy on them.  I am begging God to please not let Tony’s co-worker pass away.  Please have mercy on him.  Please don’t leave his kids without a dad and his wife without a husband.  Please let my family member’s cancer be stage one and easily removable.  Please have mercy on my friend’s husband and miraculously cure his eye sight.  Please stop the seizures my friend’s brother is having and please heal any damage that might be a result of the seizures.  Please God, have mercy on me and my loved ones.  Please God, have mercy on them and their loved ones.  

The verse says, “For in you I take refuge.”  To take refuge means to go to a safe place.  When we are struggling, as so many of us are today, we can go the Lord, He can be our safe place.  He can be the place we go to and we rest.  The ending of the verse says, “I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.”  When I hear this I get two images.  The first one is of a giant eagle.  This eagle is taller than any person, but not so giant that we are tiny in comparison.  This eagle is standing up tall and proud and we are there tucked under his giant eagle wing.  It is as if he is hugging us and we feel warm and safe there.  The second image is us just falling asleep under the protection of His wings until the disaster has passed.  

When something awful is happening in our lives a lot of times we want to pretend it isn’t happening.  Life is easier that way.  We wish we could just stay in bed until the bad parts of our lives are over.  Technically we could do this, some people do this, and yet, I don’t think any of us would be happy with those results.  Unfortunately, avoiding the disaster and trying to sleep it away will not change the fact there you are going through something really hard right now.  I have a friend who is really struggling because her daughter is not talking to her and her daughter is about to turn 18.  Her daughter is going to graduate and she doesn’t get to watch her walk across that stage.  My friend does not even want to get out of bed in the morning some mornings, and who can blame her, I wouldn’t either. However, my friend does get up and she does still do the things that are required of her.  Not because she wants to and not because she has to, but because she has taken refuge in the Lord.  She knows where her strength comes from and no one can take that away from her.  She is strong and she knows she is a beloved daughter of God and that makes all the difference in the world.  

When we are going through really difficult time we can take refuge in God.  We can hide under his wings and He will protect us.  I like the image I get when I hear this verse because we are asleep in the Father’s arms/wings and He is just holding us there until the disaster goes away.  How great would that be.  How great would it be to just hide away in a safe place until all this mess was over?  While we can’t literally hide until the mess goes away, we can place our troubles in the hands of our Lord and then give Him permission to take care of them for us.  We can hide in His shadow while we wait for the miracle that He has planned for us and for our loved ones.  

We just have to hold on.  We just have to turn towards the Lord instead of away from him when we need him.  We just need to rest in his shadow and continue to say, “Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me.” If you are going through a disaster right now, I want you to know you are not alone.  There are so many of us who are struggling right now.  I also want you to know that I am praying for you and your family.  I am praying God has mercy on you and your loved ones.  I am praying you are able to find refuge in God our Savior.  I am holding onto hope for you.  Take refuge in the shadow of His wings until the disaster has passed.  This disaster will pass, I promise you that.  You will make it through this.  God is there with you, even when you can’t feel Him.  He is there, right there with you.  Rest in Him!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to rest in you, please help us.  Lord, have mercy on us and on our loved ones.  Please do this miracle for us.  The one we keep asking for, the one we really, really, need right now.  Yep, that one, the one that seems impossible.  We know you are God of this impossible.  We know you are the Way-maker and you make a way where there isn’t one.  We know these miracle would be simple for you and so we are begging for your mercy Lord, please help us.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to meeting you hear again on Monday.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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God Is In The Practical Things Too!

James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

I read this one and I really liked it because I think wisdom is something that we might not think to request from God.  I think we all feel pretty comfortable praying to God when we are sick or when a loved one is sick.  I don’t know if it is because we know God can heal people or if it is because we know there is nothing we can do and so we hope God can do something.  I think we tend to go to God as a last resort.  We try to solve things on our own and then if we can’t we turn to God.  Why do we save him for last?

God can do anything.  He created this whole Universe, he can surely help us with whatever it is we need help with.  Yet, we don’t always think to ask him unless it is something we know we can’t do ourselves, like heal a sickness.  It’s interesting because when you have to rely on God for more, you see him more.  My husband and my boys didn’t really see a lot of miracles from God when our kids were growing up.  Luckily my husband had a great job and he is really good with money.  We never really struggled with money and my kids never lacked anything with regards to food, clothing, roof over their heads.  We always had great medical insurance.  We were blessed with being able to live in other countries and travel to see things.  I am grateful that we didn’t have to struggle with those things.  

I am grateful and yet at times I wished we did have to struggle.  I know that probably sounds strange and I understand why it sounds strange.  Why would anyone want to have to struggle?  I don’t think I truly wanted to struggle, I did want the faith that comes with having to struggle though.  I wanted my kids to be able to see that God will always provide for us.  I wanted them to know that God would always be there to take care of their needs.  My parents struggled when I was growing up.  I mean they had 11 kids to take care of and my dad had a great job and yet money only goes so far.  Imagine paying the mortgage, electric, and heating bills for a house that fits that many children.  Imagine the food bill and then the clothing and the shoes.  Think about how much it costs for you to have one child play a sport, do dancing, or theatre and then multiply that by 11.  

My parents sacrificed a lot to have all of us kids.  There were months when they had to decide which bill they were going to pay and which one could wait until next month.  My mom was constantly on the phone with the bill collectors telling them she could send $5 a month or whatever it was she had.  I know it was hard on them and I don’t wish that on anyone.  And yet, I do wish everyone could have the faith that they have that God would take care of what they needed.  The knew without a doubt that they could call on Him for big things and small things.  They knew He would help with practical things, like food and a car, just as much as he would heal my sister of a mysterious illness.  

I know, and God knows, that I didn’t really want to experience the pain of not having enough, but I did want to the faith that comes with it.  I feel the Holy Spirit is pointing out to me that although I did not have to worry about resources like food, shelter or clothing, I did have to struggle.  My boys were pretty difficult at times and I did learn how to trust that God would be there in all the different ways.  I had to trust that God would save my child from being hit by a car when he would run down the middle of the street.  I had to trust that God would save my children from each other when they were at their worst.  I had to learn to trust that God would not let my children take their own lives.  I did have plenty of ways to build my trust, and you do too.

Maybe you don’t have such drastic things in your lives, but we are all struggling with something.  What causes you the most struggles and how can it help you trust God more?  Has your faith grown because of those struggles?  Can you look back at the past few years and see how God was there for you in the struggles?  For me, I can look back and see that God places the perfect people in my life at each and every base where we were stationed.  I was never alone.  I may have felt alone in my house, but I always had really good friends that would listen to me, they would build me up and they would support me.  They would also take the boys when I needed a break, or they would take me away for the weekend and Tony would keep the boys.  God also provided me with a strong Catholic Woman’s group, or the strength to start one if there wasn’t already one.  If you are not part of a Christian woman’s group or men’s group, you should find one.  I cannot tell you the strength you get from seeing other’s living their faith.  It is incredible.  

God can use your struggles to help build your faith, you just have to let Him.  If you look closely over your struggles you will see Him there.  You will see He has always been there and He will always be there! Getting back to this verse in particular, it says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” I wanted to share with you a quick story of a time when my dad really needed some wisdom and he got it!  My dad got a call from work one day from my mom.  She told him that one of their neighbors was upset with him because my dad had talked to his girlfriend about going back to church again.  Once she started going back to church she decided she couldn’t be with her boyfriend anymore.  I am not sure the exact circumstances for the breakup but that is why the man was mad at my dad.  My mom told my dad that the man said he was coming over tonight as soon as my dad got home from work to beat my dad up.  When my dad drove up to the house, he saw the man waiting for him in our front yard and all the neighborhood kids, including my siblings, standing around to watch the fight.  

As my dad got out of the car he started praying to God for wisdom for this situation.  He prayed that God would tell him what to say.  He prayed God would give him the words, and He did!  He walked up to the man and said, “I know you want to punch me and I understand why.  I know how much you are hurting inside and if punching me will take that hurt away then I will gladly accept that pain.” Or something to that affect.  Then he closed his eyes, bracing for the punch.  Instead the man started crying, my dad gave him a hug and they went inside and talked for a few hours.  My dad knows there is no way he would have come up with that on his own.  He asked God and God came through, just like He always does! I wish we all stopped to ask God what we should say before we said it.  Imagine what a kinder place this world would be if we all just stopped and asked God what we should say, or if we should even say anything, before we said it?  

If you take one thing away from this episode I hope it is that God is in the practical.  You can ask God for wisdom.  You can ask God for help making your decisions.  You can ask God to find you a new place to live.  You can ask God for the huge healing miracle you need.  You can ask God for food or for money to pay your bills.  You can ask God for anything. It doesn’t have to be big, it doesn’t have to be something you can’t do on your own.  God isn’t just for last resort types of prayers.  He wants to be in everything with you! Invite him in to the ordinary of your day.  Ask Him for the practical things you need and you will be surprised how He shows up.  Look for Him and you will find Him!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to look back and have the Holy Spirit open our eyes so we can where you were through all of our struggles.  Help us to see that you were there the whole time.  Help us to give you permission to use our struggles to build our faith.  Help us to turn to you, not just for the impossible things, but for the practical things as well.  We love you Lord, you are so incredible.  You are there for the big and the small.  Help us to see this Lord.  Help us to truly know this and help us come to you more.  Help us to remember to consult you when we have a difficult situation and we don’t know the words to say.  We are so grateful to have you on our side Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!  

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I. Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click here.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I. Have a blessed day!

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Stand Firm In Your Freedom

Galatians 5:1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

We have been talking a lot about freedom this quarter in my Encounter Ministries class. This quarter was on inner healing and I learned so much.  I learned things I didn’t even know I needed to learn.  It was amazing. I had heard that this quarter would probably be the most transformational because as we learn these various tools to set people free, we practice using these tools on each other.  So, instead of just getting the book knowledge of how the tools work, we got first hand knowledge and began the hard work of healing our inner selves.  Although the amazing thing with these tools is that it isn’t really hard work because we let the Holy Spirit lead us and we go where he wants us to go.  It is not a lot of hard work on our part to try and figure everything out.  It is a process of asking the Holy Spirit, Jesus or our Lord the questions and letting them answer them for us.  It is pretty remarkable.

This verse goes so well with the theme for this quarter.  Inner Healing is all about freedom.  It is freedom from our chains that keep holding us down. It is freedom from all the memories that keep us stuck in our past.  There could also be people that we have unhealthy attachments to that could be keeping us stuck.  All of these things can be barriers for the freedom that Christ wants for us.  The verse above says that Freedom is why Christ has set us free.  Christ died on the cross to set us free from our sins and yet we still aren’t free when we let all this other stuff weigh us down and trap us.  

There are so many ways in which we can let ourselves be burdened by the yoke of slavery.  Some ways we bring upon ourselves and some we don’t.  We may not even be aware of many things that have to do with inner healing. Many times when something happens to us, we create lies about that situation.  We are not aware of these lies, the are formed in our unconscious.  These lies start to influence our thinking and our actions even though we aren’t aware of them.  I heard an example of this woman who told her mom something about her day when she was younger and her mom yelled at her.  The girl didn’t do anything wrong and the mom apologized later.  Her mom was having a really bad day and the young girl caught her at a bad time.  Even though the mom apologized later and the girl understood that her mom didn’t mean to yell, her daughter’s brain still told herself a lie that “my mom doesn’t want to hear about my day.” Without even realizing it she started to believe this lie and stopped trying to talk to her mom about her day. Do you see how sneaky the enemy is.  He just comes in and whispers these lies to us and we start to believe them.  

That would be an example of something that happened and we were’t really aware that it had happened.  Another example of this would be soul ties.  A soul tie is an inordinate attachment we create with another person that limits our freedom.  Whenever we give our heart to someone that does not deserve it, that person receives authority over us and we become tied to that person.  This could be in a romantic relationship or a friendship, it could also be with a family member.  Did you ever feel like you just could not stop thinking about someone, even though you knew they were bad for you?  You probably formed a soul time with that person.  The good news is that through the power of the name of Jesus, we can break the bonds of our soul times and the Lord can restore authority over our lives.  This is another way we can gain freedom.

The past few examples were ways that we might have become burdened by the yoke of slavery without even knowing it.  There are also several ways we can knowingly become burdened.  One big one of these for me is the stupid television.  I would love to say I was free to turn the TV off anytime I want to.  However, I don’t think this is true.  In theory I can but in reality, I get sucked into the show I am watching and I can’t turn it off.  I tell myself I will turn it off after one episode and then I sit there for hours and watch it even though I really want to be doing something else.  That is not the freedom that Jesus died on a cross for.  

Another way were burden ourselves is by doing something we know could be addictive.  The only time you really have a choice if you will use drugs or alcohol or not is at the very beginning.  After that you are addicted and you no longer have the freedom to say no.  You body needs it, it craves it and although you don’t want to do it anymore you don’t feel you have a choice.  

Another example of when we are choosing to give up our freedom is when we choose to indulge in the desires of our flesh.  This could be a wide variety of things from eating all the cake we have ever wanted to having an affair.  When we choose to do this we are not choosing to live in the freedom that Jesus earned for us.  The verse says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  We are told to stand firm in our freedom.  This means when we can, we need to choose freedom.  Jesus didn’t die for our sins so we could continue to be held captive.  

Take a look at your life, all aspects of your life.  Are there ways you are allowing yourself to become burdened by the yoke of slavery?  What areas of your life have more control over you than you have over them?  Does you calendar run your life?  Does the TV schedule have more control over you than you would like?  Do your children have control over you?  Are addictions running your life?  I think it is important to look at our lives and see where we are allowing things other than God to be in charge of our life.  If we do find areas where we are not free we need to turn these areas over to God and allow Him to come in and take control.  I know some of these will be easier than others.  I know if you are suffering with an addiction it may seem like there is not able to get control and with your own power, you aren’t.  However, with the power of the Holy Spirt you can do all things.  

We need to remind ourselves that we are more powerful than our wants and desires.  Just because we want something doesn’t mean we have to have it.  Just because we feel a strong desire to sit and watch TV doesn’t mean we have to.  We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us and that means we have a power that is beyond any power the enemy has to tempt us.  We just have to come into agreement with that power and start using it.  The enemy wants us to think we are weak and we have to give into our desires and yet it knows we are stronger than that.  The enemy knows the power we have inside of us, and yet it just keeps acting as if we don’t have any power at all and we tend to come into agreement with that lie instead of relying on the immense power we have.  We are strong and Jesus died so we would be able to live in freedom.  Let’s learn to live in that Freedom Jesus wanted for us.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to live in the freedom you want for us.  Help bring into light any areas in our life where were are not free.  Show us how to become free in those areas.  Show us what things need to change in our lives so we can be free and live a free life.  We love you Lord and we are grateful you sacrificed you son for our freedom.  We are sorry we don’t always live in that freedom.  Help us to live that way more and more each day. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.  

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Remember Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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We Are All Part Of The Communion Of Saints

1 Corinthians 12:26 “ If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it."

I am listening to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) podcast with Father Mike this year.  The last two years I did the Bible in a Year and this year when he started this one I thought it would be a good one to listen to.  The Catechism is basically a rule book for the Catholic Church and I am definitely a rule follower.  Also, I have a lot of friends that are not Catholic and they wonder why we do a lot of the things we do, or why we believe a lot of the things we believe.  I don’t want to have to say, that is a good question, I have no idea.  I love to learn why we believe what we believe.  I did not really expect it to be too interesting.  I mean, if you read the terms and conditions booklets of any of your appliances you wouldn’t think that was interesting reading. However, I was wrong, I am loving listening to the CCC. It’s not just a list of rules, it explains exactly what we believe and why we believe it.  I am learning so much from it.  It really is beautiful.  

I came across this verse the other day when listening to the CCC and knew I wanted to share it with you.  I am sure I have heard this verse before.  I agree with this statement.  If one person in your family is suffering, you all suffer together.  If one person is honored you all rejoice together.  This makes sense.  I can see how this is true.  Think about a time when someone in your family was suffering.  Did your whole family suffer with them?  What about when they were honored, did the whole family rejoice?  I know this is how our family works.  Not too long ago my sister sent a text message that her son was accepted into one of the top High Schools in the United States, and we all rejoiced with her.  Another sister found out she is having medical problems and we all suffered with her.  I am sure you will be able to think of many examples in your own family as well.  

I learned from listening to the CCC that we are all part of the communion of saints.  We are all members of the body of Christ.  We are members of the communion of saints and that means that what we do is for everyone, it's not just for us.  The CCC says, “In this solidarity with all men, whether living or dead, founded on the communion of saints, the least of our acts done in charity redounds to the profit of all.”  Whenever we do something good, it is not just for our grace, it’s not just for our good, it is for the good of the whole communion of saints, for the whole body of Christ.  Father Mike put it like this, “Every good thing we do, even the smallest thing is for the community. If you're homebound right now, if you do nothing in the sense that the world would say that's productive or that's important, if you simply unite your prayers and your heart to Jesus and your suffering to Jesus that doesn't just help you and purify your heart it helps the entire body. If you just offer that suffering up in love and say, “Jesus use the suffering, take my suffering and use my suffering that doesn't just make you holy or sanctify you, it helps everyone.  There is no such thing as private virtue or grace, it belongs to all of us.  

This was really inspiring for me to hear.  What are your thoughts on it?  The reason I think it is so inspiring is two fold I think.  First, it lets me know that I am part of something bigger than myself.  I am part of a community, we all are.  Sometimes the world can feel like a scary and lonely place.  Knowing we are part of a communion of saints can help us feel less alone.  The second part of it is that it helps me see what I do matters.  It matters if I pray because my prayers, as small as they may be, are building up the whole body.  My good deeds, are not just my good deeds they help everyone.  It makes me realize I am not just part of a community but I also have a responsibility to do my share in that community.

As inspiring as I thought this first part was, the CCC goes onto say in the very next line something that is  pretty convicting.  It is something that really makes you think.  It says, “Every sin harms this communion.” This is not as inspiring and yet makes you stop and think.  It makes sense.  If we are part of a communion of saints and everything good thing we do builds up this communion, then it would make sense that every bad thing we do tears down the communion of saints.  It makes sense and yet it is not really something we want to think about.  We like think about how much our good deeds help everyone else out because it makes us feel good and yet thinking about how our sins affect others is not something that makes us feel good.  

Father Mike said there is no such thing as private sin.  There is personal sin, sin that I have done on my own, but there is no such thing as private sin because our sin belongs to everyone.  In the same way that our good deeds build up the church, our sins tear down the church.  Our sins weaken the entire communion of saints.  Wow, that seems like a lot of pressure.  I think it does us good to know this information though.  I think knowledge can be powerful at times.  I feel as if knowing that every good thing I do, doesn’t just purify my heart, but it helps to purify everyone’s hearts, will encourage me to do more good things.  I also feel as though knowing my sin isn’t just my sin but that it affects the entire community, may encourage me to sin less, or at least try harder.  

It’s an interesting fact I have been learning over these last few years about people.  Often times we will show up for others in a way we won’t for ourselves.  For example, you say you will work out each day but then you hit snooze and don’t get up.  However, if you set a time to meet someone at the gym, you will show up more consistently because you don’t want to let the other person down.  I am not sure why we do this, but we do.  Knowing this about people, I think the information above could help us.  If we can’t manage to sin less for ourselves, maybe knowing that our sins are affecting others will be just the thing we need to motivate us to try to sin less.  Also, if we are struggling to pray, or do acts of service, maybe knowing others benefit from our good work will be just the motivation we need. How about you, does knowing this information change anything for you?

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to spend some time thinking about this concept today.  All of our good deeds build up the whole body of Christ and all of our sins damage the body of Christ.  We can either see that as a lot of pressure, or we can see it as the motivation we needed to try and live a good live.  We can think of this every time we do something kind or something to build our faith.  We can also remind ourselves before we sin, that it is not just us we have to worry about, we are part of something bigger.  Also Lord, help those who struggle with feeling alone know that they are not alone, they are part of the communion of saints.  We are never alone.  Lord, we thank you and we love you.  You are truly amazing.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

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Our Children Need A Personal Encounter With Jesus

2 Peter 1:12-15 “Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder,  since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.”

This week we have been talking about this whole section of 2 Peter 1. We have covered 2 Peter 1:3-15. To give you a quick summary of the previous verses, God has given us everything we need for life and godliness through His divine power.  Then Peter tells us we need to supplement our faith with a list of qualities, these are listed in 2 Peter 1:5-7 which says, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,  and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” Then yesterday we learned that these are the qualities that keep us from being unfruitful or ineffective with our knowledge of the Lord.  Those who lack these qualities are nearsighted and blind and have forgotten that they were cleansed from their former sin.  If you would like to explore these verses more, please go back and listen to the previous episodes #489, 490 & 492.  

I think today’s verse is a beautiful example of how Peter took care of his fellow followers.  Peter knew these qualities were important. He knew if his brothers lacked these qualities they would be nearsighted and blind and he didn’t want that for them.  I also love that he is encouraging them.  He explains to them that he knows they already have these qualities and they are already grounded in the truth.  He goes on to say that as long as he is alive he will keep reminding them of how to live so that when he is no longer around they will remember.  I am sure they were learning so much at the beginning.  Everything Jesus was telling them was new to them. Jesus was giving them a renewal of the mind and this is important for all of us.  

Peter could see how important it was to hear things over and over again.  We don’t usually remember things after hearing them the first time.  We learn best through repetition.  Also, it was good that Peter could prepare them for the day when he was no longer among them.  I am sure it was a lot for Peter to think about how they were going to do without him there.  I remember reading about when Jesus knew His time was coming to an end He would get frustrated with the disciples and ask them, “How long will I be here with you?” (Matthew 17:17) It sounds like Peter was worried as well that they might not remember all they had learned after he left.  This is a concern I think we all have.

Peter’s concern might be on a greater scale as he was in charge of shepherding the entire Catholic Church and yet we still worry that those we are in charge of will forget all we have taught them.  We don’t even wait until we are about to die to worry, we worry they will forget when we are still alive and yet not living with them.  We are afraid when they go out into the world they will forget all we taught them.  We worry for them.  Even when they are adults, we worry for them.  My oldest is barely an adult, so I don’t have a lot of experience in this area but I have talked with a lot of other moms who have grown children and they say we never stop worrying about them.  

I think Peter shows us a great way to shepherd our children in this verse.  He reminds them of what is important and then explains why it is important.  He also encourages them and lets them know they are already doing a great job.  I think it is ok to remind our kids of the important things we want them to remember and yet I also think it is important to not remind them too often.  We absorb so much when we are children.  The things you felt were important for your children to do when they were growing up, they will remember.  My kids don’t always have the best manners at home, however, they have great manners when they go out because we emphasized that when they were young.  As much as I think it is good to remind our kids of things, I think we also have to be careful we don’t do it so often that we make them feel like they are doing it wrong or that they don’t remember how to do it.  I think we need to have a little faith that we were actually good parents and they did hear the things we said, even if it didn’t seem like they did.  

One difference between the brothers that Peter is talking to and our children is that the brothers Peter is talking with are eager to grow closer to God, they are eager to learn all they can about God, many times, our children are not.  If this is the case, I feel we need to tread lightly.  We want our kids to carry on the faith when we pass away and yet they seem to have no interest.  In this case, it wouldn’t be beneficial to constantly be reminding them of all the things you have taught them over the years.  You have taught them, they heard you and yet they don’t want to access that information right now because they don’t see how it affects their lives in any way.  I think if we want to reach our children, young or old, the best way will be through a personal encounter with Jesus.  This is not something we can orchestrate for them, however, this can give us something specific to pray for them.  When they are going through a hard time, we can ask for God to use their difficult time as an opportunity for them to encounter Jesus in a personal way.  

If we constantly remind our kids of everything we have taught them over and over again they will feel as though we don’t think they learned anything.  They will think we don’t think they are smart enough to remember it.  It’t not that I think we shouldn’t mention God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit to our children, I definitely think we should.  However, I think if we are constantly nagging them our our beliefs they might close a door to God because they are tired of hearing about him.  I know God is capable of overcoming any obstacles and I also know it would be easier if their hearts weren’t hardened to Him because we shoved our beliefs on them over and over again.  I think there is a happy medium somewhere and we can stay at that happy medium until God answers are prayers for that personal encounter with Jesus for them.  I think the important thing to remember is to never give up hope that they will come back to God.  He is a miraculous God and He won’t let your kids be lost.  He will leave the 99 to go and find them!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help those we are responsible for teaching to have an open heart and an open mind when we are teaching them.  Help them to understand that when we are reminding them of things it is because we love them and we want them to remember them.  We love our children Lord and we ask that you help each and every one of them to have a personal encounter with Jesus.  We know you will save our children Lord, we know you will leave the 99 to bring them home.  We ask you to give us patience and perseverance as we wait for your timing Lord.  We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you again on Monday.  Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I.  Have a blessed weekend!


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Am I Nearsighted and Blind?

2 Peter 1:8-11 “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Today is day three where we are talking about the same section of scripture.  I didn’t intend to spend the whole week on this one section, but the more I read the more I liked it and when I started to talk about it there wasn’t enough time in one episode to cover all the important things to say.  Today I will talk about 2 Peter 1:8-11 and then tomorrow I will finish this section off with 1 Peter 1:12-15.  If you are tuning in today and you haven’t listened to the rest of the week, I would suggest you go back and listen to Monday’s and Tuesdays episodes because then you will have a little more context.  

To give you a quick summary of the previous verses, God has given us everything we need for life and godliness through His divine power.  Then Peter tells us we need to supplement our faith with list of qualities, these are listed in 2 Peter 1:5-7 which says, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,  and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” Right after this is where today’s verse picks up.  

Today’s verse begins with “For these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Peter is telling us that these qualities are ours if we want them, and that they are increasing.  Peter is calling us to do all we can to add these virtues into our daily lives.  He knows we won’t do it perfectly and that is ok, we don’t need to be perfect, we just need to do our best.  Peter is telling us that these qualities will keep us from being ineffective and unfruitful in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I think what we have learned over these past two days is that God has given us all we need and yet He doesn’t want us to just sit back and rely on Him to do everything.  The article we have been using this week talks about this sort of tension.  We don’t grown on our own, we grow by relying on the resources that God makes available to us and yet we also don’t just sit back and do nothing.  We need to do all we can to add virtue into our lives, and to stake small steps forward to grow.  He goes on to say that we grow by relying on Jesus and by working hard.  It is not one or the other.  Either we do it ourselves or we rely on Jesus.  We can do both, rely on Jesus and at the same time, we keep moving forward.  

The next line says, “For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” This is an interesting way to look at this as we can all blind to this at times.  I think we have all forgotten at some point that we were cleansed from our former sin.  Or maybe we didn’t forget, maybe we just find it hard to believe.  I mean don’t we all have some sins that we struggle to believe God will forgive? We know He can do anything and yet we still feel like this thing we did was too bad to be forgiven.  Actually what just popped into my mind when I was writing that is not that the sin won’t be forgiven, it’s more that we question our worthiness of being forgiven.  We don’t feel like we deserve to be forgiven.  When we do this though we are saying that we are not sure that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was enough.  Jesus died on the cross for our sins, all of our sins.  His sacrifice was enough to cover whatever we have done.  It is not a question of whether we worthy of His forgiveness or not.  We certainly are not and yet Jesus died for us anyway.  He died for our sins even though we were still sinners.  That just amazes me.  I feel like if it were me I would want the people to get it together before I sacrificed for them.  I would want some sort of assurance that this was not going to happen again, and yet Jesus freely chose to die for us even though he knew we were not done sinning yet, not by a long shot.  

The verse ends with, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.” Wow, that seems like a pretty big statement Peter just made.  “If you practice these qualities you will never fall.”  Imagine what it would be like to never fall?  I have no idea if that is even possible and yet I think striving to practice these qualities is definitely worth the possibility of never falling.  Next he says, “For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Yes please!  I would literally like nothing more than to be provided an entrance into the eternal kingdom of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Can you imagine spending eternity with Jesus, that would be so amazing.  The Holy Spirit seems to be reminding me that we don’t earn our way into heaven.  It is not as if these qualities are a checklist and if we do them, we get to go to heaven and if we don’t, or if we miss one then we don’t get to go to heaven.  

These qualities are ways that we can grow closer to God, we can grow in our knowledge of God.  They will help change us and change our hearts.  When we begin to practice these qualities they will help strengthen us and help us to do the right thing more and the wrong thing less.  This is what happens when we grow closer to God, we automatically want to be better people, we automatically want to sin less.  Unfortunately growing closer to God doesn’t mean we will never sin again, however, it does make us want to sin less.  The analogy that is coming to mind is when you have a teacher in school that you really like versus one you don’t know.  If you don’t really know a teacher, if you don’t have a bond with that teacher, you don’t really feel an obligation to do any work or to go above and beyond for them.  You probably aren’t volunteering much in class and the class participation isn’t great.  However, if you really like your teacher, if you know them well and you both have a relationship, then you go out of your way to help that teacher.  You raise your hand, you offer to help out in class, you do the work that is assigned.  This is because you don’t want to let that teacher down, you don’t want to do anything to break that connection you both have.  

This is the same with God.  Once you have a personal connection with Him, once you feel close to Him, you don’t want to do anything to mess that up.  You find yourself wanting to pray more, even when prayer used to be a struggle. You find yourself wanting to spend time with Him.  I think this might be why Peter is telling us to practice these qualities, they change us and they bring us closer to God.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to want to be close to you.  You are calling us to come closer, please open our ears and let us hear that call.  Lord, help us to accept your forgiveness of our sins and be open to your love.  Give us a desire in our hearts to practice these qualities and also the strength and persistence to keep practicing them, even when it’s hard.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  This week we have been focusing on this one section of 2 Peter 1.  Tomorrow I will finish up with this section.  I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I!  Have a blessed day!

Article: Created To Grow by Daryl Dash

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We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click here.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I. Have a blessed day!

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How Can I Be More Fruitful & Effective

2 Peter 1:5-7 “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,  and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

I choses this verse today because it is the verse that follows yesterday’s verse.  This is a continuation or a part 2 from yesterday.  We are still in 2nd letter of Peter and he is talking about what qualities keep us from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We talked about the verses right before this yesterday and one of the things we talked about is how we are granted the divine power through our knowledge of God.  Today we talk about what qualities keep us from being ineffective and unfruitful.  Who wants to be ineffective and unfruitful?  I know I don’t.  I love verses like this because although I know I don’t have to do anything for God to love me and I know I don’t have to earn my place in heaven I still like to learn how I can grow closer to the Lord.  I love to learn various ways I can become more like Jesus.  I like to learn how I can become more effective and more fruitful.  If I am loving this then I am sure I am not the only one.  This is why when I read verses like this, I get so excited to share them.  I love helping to figure out how the can grow in holiness too!

Let’s take a look at what this verse says.  The verse begins by saying, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,  and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”  Peter is giving us a list of qualities that will help us to grow.  Right at the start he says, “make every effort.” Peter is not telling us we have to do this, he is not telling us to stress out about this, he is not telling us we have to be perfect at this, he is telling us to try hard to do it.  He is telling us to do our best, to make every effort, to do these things.  

The next few lines I will quote directly from yesterday’s article as I feel Daryl Dash gives a good explanation as to what Peter meant by supplementing our faith.  “Peter says we’re to supplement our faith. What he means is this: If we really are depending on God’s power to give us everything we need, then this must work itself out in some very practical ways. We must rely on God’s resources if we’re going to grow. And when we rely on these resources, we’ll take some steps to grow.”  So, how do we grow?  Peter lists some of these steps in this verse. He asks us to supplement the first thing with the second thing in this list.  

First, he says to supplement our faith, which is trusting God, which is where it all begins; with Virtue which is moral excellence, which means that we change from the inside out. Yes, we need to have faith in God, we need to trust God and we also need to have virtue.  We need to strive for moral excellence.  We need to not just say we trust God and then sit back and watch as He does all the work.  We need to do our part too.  We can begin with supplementing our faith with developing more virtue.  Second he says, supplement virtue, again, this morale excellence, with knowledge, which is growth in our knowledge of God. Now that we are growing in virtue we also need to grow in our knowledge of God.  These two can actually go hand and hand.  As you grow in virtue you will want to grow in your knowledge of God and as you grow in your knowledge of God you will grow in virtue.  

Third Peter says, supplement knowledge with self control, which is the ability to restrain ourselves from sinful desires. If I had to pick one that would probably be the hardest for me, I think I would pick this one.  I love to grow in my knowledge of God, where I would find it hard is supplementing that with self control.  I struggle with self control a lot.  I am wondering if it is because I am trying to do it with my own power instead of with the divine power we were given?  That is probably exactly the problem.  I think most times when we can’t figure out what the problem is, it is most likely us trying to do things in our own strength or on our own time or in our own way.  God is asking to grow in our knowledge of Him and at the same time, grow in our self control.  Why is this so hard for us?  Why do we struggle so much with doing what is wrong instead of what is right?  

The fourth thing on Peter’s list is to supplement self control with steadfastness, which is to stay faithful not just for a short time, but over the long haul.  This is another hard one.  We are a pretty fickle people.  We like something or someone one day and then the wind shifts and we no longer like that thing or that person.  I can see how these two can go hand and hand though.  If you are steadfast with your commitments, if you show up and do them day in and day out, whether you want to or not, you will grow in your self control.  At the same time, you will struggle with being steadfast if you don’t have any self control.  The rely on each other and they help each other grow.  When you grow in one you will grow in the other.

Next the verse says to supplement steadfastness with godliness, which is living a godly life. Remember when I said that self control would be the hardest for me, well, I think I may have to take that back as they seem to keep getting harder the further down the list we go.  Living a godly life is definitely not easy.  Although I guess it is easier if you are being steadfast and you are growing in your self discipline.  I think it is interesting that these are all so interconnected.  I just looked up “what does it mean to live a godly life?” as I wasn’t really sure and I found what I think is a great way to explain it.  This quote is from Pastor Colon Smith and I will place a link to his article “What’s the Secret to Living a Godly Life” in the show notes in case you are wondering what the secret is.  Here is the quote I really liked, “Godliness, a God-centered life, is not a set of disciplines or a system. It is a person. The mystery of a godly life lies in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ who appeared in a body and was vindicated by the Spirit.  Jesus Christ is godliness in the flesh. He has lived the God-centered life, and our hope of living a godly life is in him. Jesus Christ is the object of our faith and Jesus Christ is the source of our life.” Isn’t that beautiful?  If we want to grow in our godliness we need to look to Jesus, not just as our example of how to live, but as our source of strength to live that way.  

Peter goes on to say we should supplement godliness with brotherly love, which is the affection of a family that comes with long familiarity and deep bonds. One definition went on to say, yes you will fight, you will bicker, but if someone tries to bully your family member the brotherly love will show a very powerful side to it.  I can see how this could come after godliness as I am pretty sure Peter is not just talking about our families here.  I think he is wanting us to treat everyone we meet with this brotherly love.  If this is the case it makes sense why it would come after godliness.  First we need to look to Jesus and ask Him to help us live the way He lived, and this means loving our neighbors in this familiar way.  We definitely need His help to do this as not everyone seems lovable to us.  We definitely don’t want to rush to the defense of everyone we meet.  We don’t even want to talk to some people we meet and yet those are probably the ones that need our love the most.

Lastly, Peter goes on to say we should supplement our brotherly love with love, which is the virtue that sums up all other virtues.  Love is defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a. "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.” I can see why this would come after brotherly love, that is hard enough and then we supplement it with love.  We use the word love a lot in our culture.  We don’t usually differentiate what type of love either.  We say we love pizza, we love ice cream, we love our family and we love God.  There is just one word that has many different meanings, or maybe not different meanings but different levels.  I think we would all agree that we don’t love pizza as much as we love God, although with my husband it may be close as he loves pizza.  If we can start by loving our neighbors with a brotherly love then maybe with the help of Jesus we can start to love others with the kind of love that it talks about in 1 Corinthians.  

Imagine what a different world it would be if were patient and kind to all we met?  What if we were not envious or boastful?  What is we were not arrogant or rude?  Imagine how great it would be to not insist we were right all the time, to not be irritable or restful?  Imagine if we didn’t rejoice in the wrongdoing of others but we rejoiced in the truth?  Imagine if we were able to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things?  Can you even imagine how different our lives would be.  Just asking those questions has got me wondering how I can do that?  What do I need to do to be that person that embodies “love”?  What came to mind when I started to wonder how I could do this is to just start with one of these qualities and focus on it.  Then when I was doing better with that one, I could move on to the next one.  For instance, I could just focus on being more patient and kind for a whole month.  Then I could focus on not being envious or boastful and so on.  I think I will divide these up into 12 months and then focus on one each month.  If you would like to join me, I will give this some more thought on how we can do this and I will include my thoughts in my newsletter.    My thought is we could just assign each one to a month of the year and remind ourselves each day that is what you are focusing on for that month.  I am excited to see the difference in a year from now if we intentionally focus on loving others better.  I hope you will join me and I hope you will check in with me and let me know how it is going? If you would like more info on this it will be in my newsletter.  If you are not already receiving my newsletter their will be a link for it in the show notes or you can go to walkboldlywithjesus.com and click on the link for the audio training about how to invite Jesus into your every day activities and that will add you to my newsletter list.  

I know this episode is on the longer side and I apologize for that.  However, I hope it is giving you lots of great ideas of how to be more effective and fruitful in getting to know the Lord. I had intended to go over the next two verses today as well, but I have kept you long enough.  I promise to cover the next two verses on Thursday.  Stay tuned…

Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we are so grateful you gave us such wonderful fathers of the church to teach us.  We thank you for St. Peter and all his wisdom.  Lord, we ask you to help us grow in all of these virtues.  We ask that you show us the way and give us the strength, wisdom and knowledge.  We ask that you give us a hunger to live the life you want us to live, not the one we want to live.  Lord you are amazing and we love you so much.  Lord, for all of those who want to join me in my quest to love others better, to live out the definition of love that you gave us in 1 Corinthians, I pray that you give us the ability to be steadfast with our efforts and to grow in our self control.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Tomorrow’s witness is my new friend Megan. Megan has an amazing witness as to how God worked up stream in ways she had no idea He was working.  It’s awesome how God does that, He arranges all things for our good.  It is nice when we read that in scripture and yet it is even more real when we see how He does that in our own lives.  You will not want to miss her witness tomorrow.  I can’t wait to share it with you.  Remember Jesus loves you and so do I!  Have a blessed day!

Article: Created To Grow by Daryl Dash

Article: What’s The Secret to Living a Godly Life?

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