God Knows Us

In my Oswald Chambers dailey reading, I came across a phrase that has really struck me.

“No human being knows human beings like God does.”

Think about that. No matter how much you know someone, or even how much you know yourself, God knows you better. He knows your weaknesses, your pains, your joys, your hard trials, and your life more then even you know yourself. Isn’t that amazing? God is a caring God, who knows your worst fears and your secret hopes, and He loves you, even when you sin and fall short of the mark.

What a wonderful God we serve!

Victoria

My Utmost for His Highest

Ok, for a book club I am currently doing, we have been reading Oswald Chambers book My Utmost for His Highest. It is a daily devotional that is really amazing. If you really sit down and put time into it (and by time I mean 3 to 5 minutes, the material is only a few paragraphs long) and think about what you have read, you can take a lot from it. Check it out here: My Utmost for His Highest

Cursed is…

So, after writing my last post on Blessed is the Man, I thought I might go to the opposite side of the scale.  There might not be as many verses to chose from as there are when you look for blessings, but these still contain potent words of what we are not to do.  So, a sampling of the verses I found:

Leviticus 20:9
‘For everyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother. His blood shall be upon him.
 

Deuteronomy 27:15
‘Cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image, an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ “And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen!’
 

Deuteronomy 27:16
‘Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
 

Deuteronomy 27:17
‘Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
 

Deuteronomy 27:18
‘Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
 

Deuteronomy 27:19
‘Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
 

Deuteronomy 27:21
‘Cursed is the one who lies with any kind of animal.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
 

Deuteronomy 27:24
‘Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
 

Deuteronomy 27:25
‘Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
 

Jeremiah 17:5
Thus says the LORD: “ Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD.

Blessed is the Man…

While reading my bible, I realized that I often come across the phrase “Blessed is the man” and other phrases like it.  I decided to look them up, and found that they were great verses with loads of instruction on how we should live.   The verses may be short, but they are filled with some good words that we could all learn from, so I decided to post them here. There are many more verses like this, and I encourage everyone to do some studying of their own.  So here goes!

Psalm 1:2
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 
 

Psalm 32:2
Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,And in whose spirit there is no deceit.
 

Psalm 40:4
Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust,And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
 

Psalm 41:1
 Blessed is he who considers the poor;The LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.
 

Psalm 84:5
Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.
 

Psalm 94:12
Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O LORD,And teach out of Your law,
 

Psalm 106:3
Blessed are those who keep justice,And he who does righteousness at all times!
 

Psalm 112:1
Praise the LORD!Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who delights greatly in His commandments.
 

 Psalm 119:1
Blessed are the undefiled in the way,Who walk in the law of the LORD!
 

Psalm 119:2
Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,Who seek Him with the whole heart!
 

Psalm 128:1
Blessed is every one who fears the LORD,Who walks in His ways.
 

Proverbs 8:32
“ Now therefore, listen to me, my children, For blessed are those who keep my ways.
 

Proverbs 8:34
Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors.

Isaiah 56:2
Blessed is the man who does this, And the son of man who lays hold on it; Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
 

Jeremiah 17:7
“ Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD.
 

Matthew 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
 

Matthew 5:7
Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.
 

Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
 

Matthew 5:9
Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.
  

Matthew 5:10
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
 

Matthew 11:6
And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”
 

James 1:12
 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Diligence vs. Laziness

I don’t know about any of you, but I am a major procrastinator. (which might be why this is my first blog post in a loooong while. My apologies for that). For instance, I could go get to school, or I could sit here and read another chapter in my new book. Unfortunately, I tend to choose the later option, and after one chapter, I decide to read another, and maybe another, until the day slips by and my school is no where near done.

Proverbs 12:27
27 The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting,
But diligence is man’s precious possession.

Romans 12:6 & 8
6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;
8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

God obviously believes that diligence is important. In Proverbs look how it is called a precious possession, and in Romans look how diligence is listed for a leader.

1 Timothy 5:9-10
9 Do not let a widow under sixty years old be taken into the number, and not unless she has been the wife of one man,
10 well reported for good works: if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work.

 

Notice also that when giving orders about widows being brought into the church, how they too are required to have diligence.

There are consequences when we are lazy and procrastinate. I used school as an example above, and I can tell you I’m feeling the extent of my putting it off. This summer I still will be doing school; chemistry, spelling and vocabulary, to be exact. It is not only taking up my summer, but taking up time that I could be spending with my family or relaxing.

But there can be worse consequences. God is not a God of laziness. He says in His word:

Proverbs 19:15
15 Laziness casts one into a deep sleep,
And an idle person will suffer hunger.

 

Ecclesiastes 10:18
18 Because of laziness the building decays,
And through idleness of hands the house leaks.

 

Proverbs 24:30-34
30 I went by the field of the lazy man,
And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;
31 And there it was, all overgrown with thorns;
Its surface was covered with nettles;
Its stone wall was broken down.
32 When I saw it, I considered it well;
I looked on it and received instruction:
33 A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest;
34 So shall your poverty come like a prowler,
And your need like an armed man.

 

 It is not a pretty picture that the Bible paints for a lazy man, especially when laziness is compared to diligence

 

Proverbs 12:24

24 The hand of the diligent will rule,
But the lazy man will be put to forced labor.

 

Proverbs 13:4

4 The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing;
But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.Laziness does not glorify the Lord, yet “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Therefore, when we are lazy, we go against a command given to us in scripture, and therefore we are in sin.

Since laziness is a sin, and diligence is a virtue, we need to stop being lazy and start being diligent. But how? For me, I tackle it head on best. Just make yourself stop being lazy. Set down your book and get to work. Force yourself to be diligent. It’s hard, but the rewards of doing it will greatly outweigh the consequences of you not doing it. It’s something I have been struggling with for a long time, but I think, with work, we can all overcome it.

God Bless,

Victoria

Can we pray like this?

Hey everyone, I have something I would like to add to my last post.  During some prayer time today my mom pointed out how Daniel prayed for his country.  It is a wonderful example that I think we can follow, so here it is.  I know it is long, but please read it, if there is anything we need to be praying right now it is this prayer

Daniel 9:3-19

³ Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

⁴ And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments,

⁵ we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.

⁶ Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.

⁷ O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.
⁸ “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.

⁹ To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.

¹⁰ We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets.

¹¹ Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.

¹² And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.

¹³ “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth.

¹⁴ Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.

¹⁵ And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!

¹⁶ “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us.

¹⁷ Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.

¹⁸ O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.

¹⁹ O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

National Day of Prayer

Hey everyone, please remember to pray for our country today, and that it would come back to God.  Please pray for forgiveness not only for your own sins but that of our nation.  Please pray that our President and other leaders in our country come to realize that Jesus is ”The Way, the Truth and the Light,” and that their hearts will change.  Pray for the salvation of the unsaved in our country, that their would be a deep transformation, nut just a short lived shallow one.  Pray for a revival, and for God’s people to turn back to Him.  Pray for the many issues in our country like Abortion and Homosexuality to end, and that He will forgive us for letting such things reside in this country.  Pray for Christians to be filled with the truth of the Holy Spirit, and to get out and fight the wrongs in the world.  And please pray that the Glory of God would sweep over our country, bringing us all closer to Him.

To God be the Glory,

Victoria

Easter Sunday

To tell you the truth, I’m not sure how this post will turn out, for this simple reason: I still don’t fully understand the death and resurrection of Christ.  Oh, I’ve read it several times, heard sermons on it, just like every other Christian probably has.  But I still don’t fully understand it, and truthfully, I don’t think most of us can.

We’re human, we’re selfish, we’re sinful.  How can we, with all our faults, understand the sovereign, selfless, and sinless character of Christ?  How can we understand His willingness to go to the cross, the most torturous way to die, to save people like us, who sin, who rebel, who even reject Him and His sacrifice?

How can we understand that or get our mind around it?  I can’t fully.  I have vague ideas, impressions, and until I stand with Christ no longer in this world, I don’t think I have a chance of understanding.

Does anyone else feel this way?  Can we truly understand the glory of God, and the willingness to give His Son?  It’s greater then anything we could ever dream of.

Compare all of this to what the world wants to give us for Easter.  Bunnies, candy, and fun.  All of which center on our selfishness.  Compare to God’s plan.  He gave His son, He gave us salvation, He was selfless.

I’ll be the first to admit I like chocolate, but compared to God’s plan, it is nothing.

Have a happy Easter everyone.

Victoria

P.S. If everyone could keep my mom in their prayers that would be great.  Her back is giving her a lot of pain right now.  It hasn’t happened for over a year, but somehow it did again.  It’s nothing serious, usually inflicted by eating too much potatoes and other things in that botanical family, but if you could pray for a quick healing that would be great.

Giveaway

Hey everyone! I wanted to inform you of a giveaway happening here. It is for a movie that is now available called Come What May.  The movie is about a young man who decides to take a stand on abortion.  It looks really good.  I encourage everyone to take a look at it.

Thanks,
Victoria

A Speech I Once Gave

Ok, I am a bad blogger.  I haven’t posted in so long… I must apologize readers.  However, I was digging deep into my old writings, and found this speech I wrote in Co-op last year.  It is one of two that I wrote.  Maybe I will post the other sometime.

Speed
It’s happened again. They asked you to help out at the bake sale this week. You really don’t have the time, with music lessons getting done right at the time the bake sale starts and the dinner you told your friends you would go to starts right at the time the bake sale ends. But since you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings – and because they really need your help – you agree to help out. Besides, you can fit it in. Now, when your whole schedule starts to look like this, which, if you’re like me, it tends to do every now and then, you have a serious problem.
What problem, you ask? Well I take it back, you don’t have a problem, you have several problems. In the next few minutes, I will try to show you what these problems look like and how they effect each of us.
First, you have a priority problem. Well, what is a priority? A priority is something of “highest or higher importance, rank, privilege, etc.” You are putting all the things you are running around for before your family, and more importantly before God.
When you are putting activities before your family, do you tend to snap at them and get angry? Do you have time to talk out problems or just to have some family time together? When you put activities before God, does your time with Him starts to get shorter and shorter and shorter every day?
In my personal experience, when I start to run around like the world is going to end tomorrow, I can get really cranky. Just ask some members of my family what I am like when I am really tired. It’s not the best mood to find me in. I often start reading the shortest chapter in the Bible every night for several nights in a row. For those of you who are wondering, that would be Psalms 117, which conveniently has only two short verses in it. My prayers also tend to get a little shorter. After a while, these things can become a regular habit, which I can begin to do even I am not busy.
How about you? Does your commitment to prayers and Bible studying lessen as it can so easily do? Does being worn down and busy take your thoughts away from God? How you ask? When you are really busy, do you take the time to admire the wonderful creation around you? Or do you not have the time to do so, because you are constantly moving from one event to another?
Colossians 3:2 says: Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. We are to let all our thoughts center on the Lord. Do we do this when we are running everywhere, or are these thoughts pushed aside while we think things like “I wish everyone would quiet down! Can’t they see I’m trying to concentrate!? I need to done because I have to leave soon.” etc. etc.? These thoughts are not God honoring. They are worldly, selfish thoughts.
So, I hope you know see why over-activeness is a problem. The more that time goes on, it seems the more we push the gas pedal down and add more stuff to our list of things to do. I am willing to bet, that fixing this problem we have created, isn’t going to be easy. It is going to take more then just slamming the brakes.
But if we don’t hit the breaks what are we to do? We obviously cannot keep running around.
Before I answer this, first here is a question some of you might be asking yourselves; “Why not slam the breaks?” If over-activeness is so bad don’t we need to stop, and stop now?” There are two problems I find with skidding to a halt.
First, people are depending on you for the things you told them you would do. Whether it be helping at a bake sale or going to a dinner, you have given your word that you will go and you need to follow through with it. How would you feel if someone you were counting on suddenly pulled out, leaving you stranded? I know I wouldn’t want to be around some of you if it happened. Obviously we cannot suddenly go back on our word.
Second, if you suddenly had nothing to do, you would be amazingly bored. You might like having little to do for a day or two, or maybe even a week or so while you rested and got some home projects done. But after that life on the slow track would be tiresome.
We have all tasted this last one in our lives. You go on a long vacation for a week or two, and though you wish you could still be on vacation, you are glad to get home. But when time rolls ‘round again you ready to go somewhere else, whether it is a camping trip in the mountains or a tour of Europe, you are ready for an adventure or just to get out of the house. So to end things gradually is probably better.
No, you shouldn’t to drop everything. You don’t need to disappear from the world. The problem is being overly busy; having work to do is good. You just have to decide what you need to keep and what you need to let go of. I cannot tell you the answer to this; everyone is different and has different needs. I can tell you this, unfortunately, math and science are important; you can’t drop these no matter how much you want to. So are church, and the rest of your school work. I think that is kind of obvious. These are good things that prepare you for your life. The rest you have to figure out for yourselves. You should do this through studying the Bible and prayer.
I have one last point to make. Moderation. If you have too much of some things, even good things, they can turn into something bad. When I think of myself in this, I think of reading. It is a good thing, usually, but it can all too readily take power over my life. In a day, I can easily spend hours reading a book and neglect the work I need to be doing, like quilting or school work. Don’t most of us have this problem? TV, computer games, reading, or just lounging around are all snares we have to watch out for and avoid using to much. Don’t we all say to ourselves sometimes “One more chapter” or “Just a few more minutes”? But we all know how that usually ends. One chapter becomes 5 chapters, and ‘a few more minutes’ becomes an hour. We need to practice self control in these areas, so that we can gain control over our lives.
I hope I have shown you how we could all manage our time more wisely. I know I need to work more at it, and that probably some of you do too. Whether it is that you have too much speed, or need a little more moderation, I hope this speech will help you to be able to get these areas better in your life. It is something we have to constantly work at, lest we fall back into our old habits and sinful ways. I would like to close by reminding you what it says in 1 Corinthians 10:31. Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Whatever we do, let it always be for God’s glory.