Repentance.Salvation.Restoration

Psalm 51
1Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
4Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
5Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
16For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
18Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
19Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.


The LORD recently let me walk through something that really really humbled me. He does that sometimes, I think, so that I don't forget that we are all human, and that we are all His.
Sometimes I was judging people. Sometimes I was feeling high and mighty. But He is Faithful in so many ways.
He is so intimate. And He is so Wise. He is also the Most Loving One I have ever experienced in my Life.
O, How I love You, LORD! You are more than a Father to me; You are my Friend, my Saviour, my Trusted Companion, My Confidant, My Teacher.
I love You, Lord. ~

Thoughts on Thoughts

I just read my post... and I also just read postsecret. (One of the blogs I follow- I recommend checking it out, just for thought) I really get inspired when people get free, even if its just by sending in postcards of "secrets" that they keep.

It made me also think... who are we hiding from? And why do we hide?

We hide from each other- because we judge each other- we condemn each other. We criticize each other and we hurt each other.

But I don't wanna hide anymore- and I don't wanna judge or condemn or criticize or hurt people anymore!

I'm over trying to be perfect for people- we are not here to please each other anyway!

We are here to please God!

And I am not your judge anyway- and your not mine!

God is the judge- Jesus said the Father judges no one- but has left all judgement to the Son- but ya know what else he said from His very lips was "judge no one-lest ye be judged, condemn no one, or you will be condemned- for how you judge you will be judged..."

You know, if we could just get real with ourselves and not be afraid of what other people think... I think we'd be much better off, maybe even happy !

Some people live thier lives in so much fear of what others think it stops them from living thier lives!!! Theyre afraid of others judgments!

How would u feel if you found out you were making someone feel like they were too afraid to do something or be what they want to be because they didnt want you to judge them!!??

Proverbs 29:25

Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD will be kept safe.

Some people would rather make other people happy and get "praise from men" rather than take a stand and make God happy and forget what men think.

You know what? At the end, the only one that's gonna be there with you is God. The Lord. Those people that praise you and butter you up and flatter you and make you feel like something special are not gonna be there for you. Nope. I think the "Enemy" sends people just like that into our lives to puff us up- and we get blinded from the truth by our own ego- or by impressing other people and thinking we're something were not!

It's one of the oldest tricks satan has used.

My pastor often says there's nothing good in us. I think there is good in us, but that it comes from God.

I tend to think a lot differently that most preachers I hear - but thats ok, I understand that maybe they are on another level than me. I do not lift myself up- we all have our place. No body is perfect in and of ourselves! That is for sure!

But we have the Lord.

The other thing I want to remind people is that we are going to mess up. We can try to pretend like we're perfect, or like everytime we sin it's ok because the blood of Jesus covers us- and it does- if we repent. But we will not walk through this life sinless. No one is sinless except Jesus. He is our perfect example. If we were sinless, we would not have needed Jesus. I also get the feeling sometimes that people think once saved always saved. I think yes,once saved always saved - but how saved do you want to be? How much life do you want to live? I don't think we should be messing up all the time and asking for Jesus when we are capable of being good. We need to desire righteousness- the Word says the heart of man is desperatly wicked- so why don't you pray for a clean heart?

God can make you clean.

I am just here to tell you that.

Not teaching you anything.

Just giving you a message.

God is more than an idea.

Love is more than a feeling.

Life is more than what we see.

OR think.

I said once, the only limits you have are the ones you place on yourself.

People are capable of AMAZING things!

Read Bear Grilz's testimony. (From man vs. wild)

And we are ALL created in God's image.

I believe we are all an expression of the Creator- and do you ever think - we are here at the same time. I'm not here sitting with william shakespear, and I don't live in Germany. No. I'm right here- right now.

And so are you.

God.

My soul is so moved right now...... I wish people would realize.... what we hav been given. I wish people would just give in and love- and trust and believe in love.

4Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
5It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
6It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
7Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
8Love never fails

People say they are Christians.

What did Christ ask us to do?

What did He say makes us His friend?

To keep His commandments. To love one another.

Is His Word in you? Are you in Him?

I am.

I pray for you to be in Him - and His Word be in you. And in us- Forevermore.

Yes, LORD.

Happy Sunday!

Hi everybody! How are y'all? Good I hope :)
I went to church this morning, and it was very good. My great pastor preached on 1 Corinthians 15:51-58. But one part (that popped out at him) also pops out to me. Verses 55 & 56:
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

I read this - yet I think on Jesus. If we live according to His Way- (He is THE WAY) - then the law is love.
See, my pastor preached on death. And my pastor is an awesome preacher, I love him to pieces. But I was about ready to preach today myself!
My pastor saidwhenhe was preaching- do we have power to resist sin? Can we resisit sin in our flesh- on the earth.
He looked at me.
I spoke and said-we can if we have the Anointing.
He asked me if I had the anointing.
I said yes.
He then asked me if I had ever sinned under the anointing-
I didn't speak because I know my pastor well enough to know that he always goes back to that we all need a Saviour. (trust me, I know this about the man! I'm pretty sure that is where he was going!)
But during the service I kept thinking as he was preaching...
about covetness, about envy (never being satisfied with our blessings or maybe not even recognizing how blessed we are!) and lust and adultery.
And all I kept thinking was how if people were grateful for the blessings they have.... they wouldn't want ... and if people were not afraid or jealous or faithful, they wouldn't be envious. And if men and women would love thier husbands and wives and see the ministry in thier marriages, and realize that God gave them to them for them (can ya catch that?) then they would always love and be loved and thier marriages would be so fulfilling they wouldn't lust or commit adultery ......
it just makes sense to me.
People always preaching but are they praying?
We want a difference but can we make a difference?
We were raised to be self- gratifying. W are raised self- centered by our society but that isn't a good way to be.
At least I don't think so.
I am grateful for what I have been given, and I'm not saying my pastor or anybody I know is anyof these ways, but I am just like everybody and I know that we all have our own walk with the Lord and we all have growing to do.
It doesn't matter how old you are or how much you've lived or how long you go to church.
I heard Joyce Meyer the other night on tv say how many years she and her husband went to church in anger and would put on a happy face as soon as they got on the premisis to make it seem like everything was a-ok, but in the truth they were always fighting at home.
I talked to my grandpa today and he and my grandma have been going to church for the past year, and he told me how he was raised in a church where he didn't really get taught the Word or God and how nobody ever taught him how to read the Word and understand it but that now he goes to a church where the pastor breaks down the meaning and teaches it to him so he can recieve it.
So, it just goes to show you that it doesn't matter how old you are or how long you go to church or what position you are in church we all have growing to do and we all truly need the Lord, and each other.
I love you all so very veyr much, and from the least to the greatest to the known and the unknown I hope with all my heart that through my writing I can inspire and encourage and comfort someone- even if it's just one!
Because I know sometimes it's hard to talk to people about what goes on inside us, sometimes we don't even understand- but we have to learn to trust- to trust the Lord and His love for us- He truly does love us. And we have to somehow learn to trust ourselves- like we have to learn to respect ourselves, and we have to learn to respect others. It's all part of life....
this gift we have been given by God!
What a gift it is!
I praise Him for it!
<3LOVE<3

Overcome and Find the Way!

I have been thinking about being an overcomer. I have been thinking about what it means to have overcome some things in my life. And how I have felt about it (at the time of victory), how I feel about it when I talk to others, and how I feel about overcoming obstacles in my life - like, in the Big Picture.
I think some people overcome a thing and stop right there. I think they think it's enough to have overcome something, or that maybe it was just like a problem that needed to be solved. Like quitting smoking- or quitting drugs - or overcoming being overweight. I think we, in our struggles, become blinded by the real purpose of why we need to overcome the obstacle (whether its addiction, sin, or self)- and when we overcome, we think it's over, and we stop right there.
But I want to let you know today that the end of one thing is just the beginning of another!
Like they say, "when God closes one door, He opens another!
There was and is a reason "why" we need to overcome certain "obstacles" in our lives. Not just to be sober or thin, or clear-minded, or clean.

The real reason we overcome is because God has a Purpose and Plan for your life.
He cannot take you where He wants you in the way you're in. So He has to wait on you to clean up your act. If that means get clean from drugs or alchohol, or losing 150 pounds, or getting an education, or what. You fill inthe blank.

See, it doesn't stop at the point when you give up the addiction and gain the victory over it in your life - no, that is only the beginning. That is when God can show you that He has a better life for you. That He has a specific plan for your life, that He thought of before you were even formed in your mother's womb!
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in sin or addictions or cares of this life or our own selfishness and neediness that we almost completely forget that GOD created each and everyone of us with a specific plan and purpose for HIS unique design!
We need to realize that overcoming drugs or alchohol or getting out of a bad relationship is not the end in and of itself- it is the beginning of your journey~ it is a step in the right direction, it is ride you've been waiting for, my friends!

~ Don't get all puffed up when you think you have accomplished a big thing by getting off drugs or staying sexually pure or saving your money or losing the weight - yes, getting free from all that is GREAT! Let me not take your joy by anymeans - but if we try to make ourselves seem big by what we used to do or used to "be" - that is "glorying in our shame". We shall not glory in our shame. There are probably other people who have done worse things and overcome them or people who never even thought about doing the stuf some of us have done who are successful in thier lives and just thankful for not even having been through the horrors of drugs or abuse or sexual impurities - so let's not be proud in who we think we are or were. That is not wise.

We should not even want to be associated with what we used to do or be or how we used to think - I mean, we're trying to stay as far away from being those ways as possible, right???

So, then, we need to leave those things which are behind us IN THE PAST and press on towards the HIGH CALLING of our LORD JESUS CHRIST!

The Prize is INCOMPARABLE to what we can think dream or imagine! The Bible says so!!!
So we should be ever so glad to be free from our sin, we should stand firm on our deliverance, our "overcoming" obstacles - sin, addiction, selfishness- and then we should SEEK GOD with all of our hearts. And have Him help us find our Way!
Because there's a reason we have overcome!
Let's find our purposes in Him and fulfill them, shall we?? :)
LOVE

For we overcome by the word of our testimony and by the Blood of the Lamb!
~Revelations
Thank You Jesus!

Mario Mopar

story~
I was at Dunkin Donuts last night by my lonesome, I was kindof in distress thinkin' maybe if I went there to chill out I would feel better. I was trying to write one of my friends an email but no words were coming to me, I actually wrote one then deleted it because it didn't make much good sense in my sight. So, all the while here was an old man sitting across a table away from me and in the moments of my near dispair I would look up and look his way- and he was an older man older than older but not quite old- he had a full white beard, well groomed but not wiry and perfectly round like some- it was softer looking and some parts of the sides turned out ward instead of around.... he had white hair on his head but the very top was bald... and I knew he had seen me and was probably wondering what I was doing- and I was reaching certain emotional places where I search for something more--- like David when he says his eyes fail, my eyes were failing- as I was searching for my God... looking here and there- it wasn't so dramatic I was trying to keep it together in up in DD' - but I was having a bit of a moment... so I closed my yahoo email and something on the next screen said some names of people who I know are bold and I looked at the old man again and by now we had made eye contact one or twice and so he was looking down at his magazine in front of him and I finally just said, "hey, What's your name?"

he looked up..
"What's your name?" I said again
"Mario- what's your's?"
"Ashleigh"
"OH, Ashleigh! " Smile. Warm, gentle, sweet.
I searched my soul and kept trying to search for the Lord thinking maybe this guy was sent by God to speak to me of (Him) the Lord. So... I asked him if he believed in God.
"Of course..." he said. I could see in his eyes when he said that like he thought of God in his life- like in a second. (yet eternally)
I tried to see if I could think of what to say about my delimma or what could I ask advice on or how can I get the answer I'm looking for from him...
after some short talk and I was becoming less feeling like I needed to ask him of anything regarding my personal life, (because you never know when you will meet an angel on the streets)
I asked him what he was looking at and he had already told me he was down here from up north for a car auction, andthen he told me he was looking at a car magazine. not autotrader (i dont think)
So, we talked about hot rods and cars and he told me a story about some kid that goes to his shop for his subaru and how the kid thinks his sub is great (the old guy deals mostly with cudas and Dodges and Pontiacs from the 60's and 70's - big fast cars) and then I started to leave and he was still telling me the story, and as I had got up to go and I was standing near his table listening to him finish and he really wanted to show me the trucks that one of the guys that goes to his shop likes (a friend of the kid with the Subaru) ~ we spent like 15 minutes looking at old hot rod cars, bonding over colors and prices andsuch things. simple, yes. but who knows...

Maybe I needed that connection, to remember that I am not alone. Maybe I needed that older guy, Mario, to be there at that very time , so that he and I could talk about Mustangs and cudas and 190, 000 dollar cars and if they're worth it or not, to keep my mind free ~
Who Knows!?
<3
God knows what we need, When we need it!
And sometimes we don't get what we think we need, but what He knows we need~