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Tag Archive - Faith

Believe: The Proclamation Of Faith… Then What? (Part 1)

May 2, 2012 in Peace Love & Unity with 10 Comments

Open the faucet and let the living water of love flow from your heart!

A personal goal for 2012 is to focus on the word believe. Why? It’s one of the most important words in the Bible…

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

I’ve heard that when it’s all said and done that God will be looking to us for two things… Faith… and a heart.

Both show up in believe.

Here’s what I believe God will be looking for:

Book Review: “Close Enough To Hear God Breathe” by Greg Paul

October 15, 2011 in Odds & Ends with 1 Comment

“Close enough to hear God breathe, the great story of divine intimacy” is a beautifully flowing book that I found to be inspiring and thought-provoking. Divided into 5 sections… The Heart Of The Matter, Creation, The Fall, Redemption, and Consummation, the book gave me several ideas on layout for my own books.

Paul’s work centers around everyday tales… ones that I can easily relate to my world and experiences. The book’s title certainly made me think over-the-edge elevator pitch… and it delivered as it did make me feel closer to God as I progressed through the flowing work.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

“Two things are necessary for me to be able to hear someone breathing: I must be quiet and I must be close. Paul is telling me that when I learn to hear God breathing in Scripture, it will be rest to my soul. Not merely an academic exercise or a dogmatic wrangle. And I will know that God is very near, perhaps particularly when I’m stumped by a mystery I cannot penetrate. Amazingly, I find that when I listen carefully enough to the sound of that breathing in Scripture, it echoes also through the stories of my own life.”

The book fit perfectly with my New Year’s resolution for 2011 (yep, I’m still working this!): ”If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.” Exodus 33:13

“Close Enough To Hear God Breathe” is a worthwhile book for anyone interested in basking in the love story that God wants to share with each of us.

Is there a book you’ve read that has drawn you closer to God?

Happy Monday… Everyday!

October 10, 2011 in Soul Food with 2 Comments

Making change, the crisp $2 and The New Happy Everyday

Happy Monday has been the weekly lead here forever now, so I thought it would be a good time for a change.

I’m making the Monday change as I want to try some other material with Soul Food, the category for inspiration here at I’m Just Thinkin’. Soul Food has been the closest fit with Happy Monday (yep, thisclose).

Super excited to see where He leads as I am bonzo-wingin’ it and acting completely in faith… without a definite plan at the moment…

yep yep yep…

So Soul Food can now show up anytime (and more likely all the time!)

Here’s the best news of all: life happens…

and, with faith, it will be more awesome than imaginable…

so don’t let it, like a crisp 2-dollar bill, pass you by…

just follow His lead, be patient and you’ll find Puddles of Blessings…

and Happy Monday…

Everyday

“do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9b

Leaving The Door Open

October 3, 2011 in Soul Food with 0 Comments

Leaving The Door Open is having an open and receptive heart to hearing and following God’s lead.

God looks at our hearts as well as our deeds… that which is seen and unseen… and He works in wonderful ways… we never know what the next miracle is that God will work in our world.

The story of King David was one of Leaving The Door Open. When God instructed Samuel to anoint David, He was looking at David’s faith and character…

“The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7.

David showed his faith and character when he followed God’s lead…. he displayed an open and receptive heart, and completely trusted in God to make the situation right with Saul… and his people. David displayed incredible courage, not cowardice, in doing what he knew was right… and Leaving The Door Open.

If my heart is right with God, then my relationships with other people are right too. If I feel a relationship isn’t right with someone I should go to them and attempt to make it right. If I can’t then I know that I have tried… and that I am always Leaving The Door Open… and that I have an open and receptive heart to hearing and following God’s lead.

How do you feel about Leaving The Door Open?

The Vision To See How The World Could Be

September 19, 2011 in Soul Food with 2 Comments

Reading through Hebrews Chapters 10 through 12 helped me put my arms around “The Vision To See How The World Could Be” … and why there is always hope and love blossoming and thriving in our imperfect world.

Striving for perfection, or the ideal… knowing good and well that I will never make it in this world without Jesus… and through the power of Jesus’ resurrection we were made perfect in God’s sight…

while at the same time…

accepting that we live in an imperfect world… filled with people who are all gifted, different and imperfect… people who are like me… so while we’re all unique… we’re also all the same, in manner of speaking… we all still need to grow… and that He is not finished with us.

“because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” Hebrews 10:14.

a finished work… and at the same time… a work in progress.

and in Chapter 11… “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (11:1) … to this, the promise: that He is who He says He is, and that He is going to do everything that He says He is going to do.

Chapter 11 goes on to list the “cloud of witnesses” … the great ones… our examples of those who lived by faith… Abraham, Moses, Noah, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, to name a few…

and on into Chapter 12 … “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

This passage to me is how we can have “The Vision To See How The World Could Be” …

how important that vision and our witness really are…

fixing our eyes on Jesus…

enduring…

persevering…

I want to be a part of that legacy…

I know that I need to keep working at it…

I will keep working at it.

What one thing could you do today to help improve on the vision of our imperfect world, to keep moving in the right direction?

What I’m Learning From My Man Cub

July 1, 2011 in Breathing Deep with 1 Comment

one of Nolan's funny faces

He’s sort of my Man Cub… he’s my grandson!

I am in love with that little dude… and I’m learning a lot from him…

Life through a child’s eyes is absolutely precious… and Epic Adventure!

Here’s some of what he’s teaching me:

Unconditional Love: I maybe sort of get this one… but Nolan gets it more than me. A child’s heart is still very pure and innocent. (He Loves Me… ~~He Loves Me Not~~… He Loves Me)

Trust and Faith: He knows even when I drop him off at Waumba Land at Church that I’ll be back, he knows through Trust and Faith.

Joy: I can just think about my irresistibly squeezy Man Cub and be overwhelmed with JOY!!!

Dependence: I believe this is the most important quality that we can learn from children… that we need to be less independent and more dependent… on God. When Nolan is with me he knows he can count on me. He knows that I’m there for him, looking out for him, and that he can without a doubt depend on me. If he is uncertain about a situation or other person he knows he can cling to me and that I’ve got his back…

What else are you learning from the children in your life?

Digging Deep

June 6, 2011 in Soul Food with 0 Comments

I dug deep this past week…

praying to find out more…

about peace, love and unity…

God delivered on a new level.

Digging deep in running is where we found out what we were really made of. In high school cross country, it usually happened around the 2 mile mark in the 3 mile race… it was a lot of perseverance.

In life, it’s kind of the same thing. Finding out who (and Whos) we really are… what’s really important… what, or who, we’re really serving.

This past week I dug really deep….

and God delivered!

Here’s what He gave me to share…

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians:

“I pray that out of His glorious riches He my strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Ephesians 3: 16-21.

Happy Monday