Faith Without Deeds

 

 

 

"Faith without deeds is useless."

James 2:20

 

 

The definition of the word useless is defined as: not fulfilling or not expected to achieve the intended purpose or desired outcome.

 

When I read the definition of the word "useless" and then reread the above verse, I paused as if I had just been scolded and put in "timeout."  I'm not sure about you, but I don't want to exist only to be useless.

"not expected to achieve"

What would the KING have you achieve?  What intended purpose does he have for you? What desired outcome is he looking for? 

I used to believe that my faith would be enough.  And although it is enough for my salvation, is it enough to make a difference?  I want to make a difference.  I want to be used.  I want my abilities and talents to be shared.  After all, He equipped me with them to begin with!

We can go about our days keeping all of our gifts to ourselves; or we can make a vow to never live a useless existence and start looking for ways to share good deeds.  Imagine what kind of example we could be if we have our faith and deeds working together!!

Strive to be useful!



Proverbs 31 Day 2 (Donna Partow)

 Day 2 ~ Commit Yourself to Time Alone with God

Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.  Mark 1:35

Key Points

*The Proverbs 31 woman got up while it was still dark.

* The reason Proverbs 31 woman's husband could have full confidence in her is because she had full confidence in God.

*Confidence in a relationship comes from investing time in that relationship. If we want to have something valuable to offer the world, we must first have something valuable to offer.

*We can rush out the door first thing in the morning in pursuit of stuff to buy and give to our loved ones, but the things of this world are fleeting and have no lasting value. Instead, let's invest our time seeking heavenly treasures, like spiritual insight, knowledge of Scripture, the power to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit, and the ability to carry the presence of God with us wherever we go.

*If we want to be an inspiration to everyone you meet, meet with God first.

Affirmation: I commit myself to time alone with God.

My Thoughts

It is not easy to get out of bed earlier than needed.  I admit, a few extra minutes of sleep are always very tempting. What I have noticed is that getting a few extra minutes of sleep rarely keeps me focused throughout the day.  But when I get myself out of bed at least a half an hour earlier to spend with the King, I feel recharged.  What many of us fail to realize is that the God of all things, wants to meet with us.  Wherever we are.  Not only does he want to spend time with us, He also wants to give us the guidance we need to face our days.  He IS a father ready and willing to meet with his children.  The time he wants to invest in us as a parent, is worth the quality time set aside for him.  When I think of all we miss when we are not taking advantage of that relationship, it almost takes my breath away.  The knowledge, the wisdom, the comfort, the encouragement and the love that we can receive from Christ, is like a glass of iced water.  Refreshing and very much needed.

Commit to sharing quality time with your Creator.

2 Peter 3:9

 

 

 

 "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

I know many people who are up in age who have not accepted Jesus yet.  I always think about this verse, hoping and praying they will have enough time to accept salvation in Christ.  This verse demonstrates the Lord's love and patience.  How blessed we are to have the God of all things patient with humanity.

 

Proverbs 31 Day 1 (Donna Partow)

 

Below, is the book I'll be discussing for the next 90 days (I may or may not write about each day).  Donna Partow's, Becoming the Woman God Wants Me to Be, is a 90 day guide through Proverbs 31.  This book has been both inspirational and motivational. 

 

 

 

Partow encourages readers to start a daily planner/organizer as a tool to be used with the book. Here is mine.  A tablet would be another great way to organize your notes, affirmations, scriptures and other projects. I am "old school" when it comes to planning and note keeping.

 

 

 

Let's begin!

 

A wife of noble character who can find?

She is worth far more than rubies.

Her husband has full confidence in her

and lacks nothing of value.

                                      Proverbs 31:10-11 

Key points for Day 1

*To be noble means to be dignified and gracious. (character traits) "capable, intelligent, and virtuous"

*God wants us to stand out as women who know we have something valuable to offer the    world...we  inspire full confidence in those who rely on us most, whether our husband, children, employer or co-worker.

*The people around us can have full confidence in us because we have full confidence in God.

*You may or may not have an earthly husband, but you do have a heavenly Husband.  Married or single, God wants you to be his wife of noble character.

Affirmation: I place my full confidence in God. He has a good purpose for my life.

My Thoughts:

(10) A wife of noble character, who can find?
A wife with nobility and sound character is hard to come by. Look around you and you will find more and more women making wrong choices in how they conduct themselves. A wife who is noble in character is a rare find, therefore she is worth far more than rubies.
(11) Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. Does your earthly husband have full confidence in you?  Can he rely on you to keep the house orderly (laundry, cleanliness, stocked refrigerator, meals, guidance with the children, financial restraint, hospitality,  etc.)? These things are of great value to a husband. In addition to these, intimacy would most definitely be at the top of that list.  All husbands are different.  You might have a list that looks completely different from this.  If you're not certain, discuss with your husband what he views valuable.

Matthew 6:33; James 4:8

 

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
Matt 6:33

"Come near to God and he will come near to you." James 4:8

Feeling Ambitious

I woke feeling ambitious this morning.  A real bonus, since that is not always the case.  Since it was wet and somewhat rainy and humid, I opted to walk on the treadmill. I love getting that out of the way first thing!

Like most mornings, I prepare to read my Bible, when a certain book runs through my mind. Then another one. Then another.  So comes the ambition!

Since I enjoy reading and enjoy learning, I plan on doing a lot of it!  By the way, I have read all of these books already, however, there are a few that I haven't exactly finished, like Marriage on the Rock and A Woman of Moderation.  But you know how it is with a good book; worthy of another read.  And since I feel this would be a good place to share some great little nuggets of revelations, I want to reread these inspiring books and share them with you!
So there's my ambition for the next few weeks!

If you would like to read any of the above books, but don't have the time or really don't like to read, check here for some excerpts.  If I find something worth sharing, I will put it here.

On to today's revelation:

If you read yesterday's post, you read this verse:

Be very careful, then how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." Ephesians 5:15-17

What stood out to me yesterday was "making the most of every opportunity." Today though, this part of the verse demanded my attention, "live--not as unwise but as wise."  Do you ever go about your day making stupid decisions.  For example, eating something that has no nutritional value whatsoever and then wonder why your jeans are getting tighter?! Or maybe you spend well over your intended budget when you go to Kohl's or Hobby Lobby :/. There are so many decisions we make throughout the day that could really be classified as unwise.  Maybe you belittled your spouse or your child.  Maybe while spending some time with a girlfriend, your friendly conversation turned into gossiping.  Or perhaps that annoying addiction of yours won you over because of your unwise choice to surrender to it.

We all tend to make unwise decisions.  This verse warns us to be careful.  Not just careful, but very careful. We are also told that the days are evil.  This is what that means to me.  Our adversary, Satan, wants us to make foolish decisions.  One foolish decision leads to another and another; keeping us in the same cycle that we are trying to break. Every day is a battle for many of us.  Your struggle may look different from mine, but the similarity is this, Satan wants you in bondage to it.

The last part of the verse: "do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." We should understand that the Lord's will is always for us to be wise--to live with wisdom.  That really is his will!  It's mentioned right there in the beginning of the verse.  If we become wise with our decisions, think about how much more we can "make the most of every opportunity"!!
 
If you need a daily inspiration verse, let it be this one!  Write it down on a Post-it or index card.  Keep it with you throughout the day.  When you are close to making an unwise decision, whatever it may be, meditate on this verse.  Break it up into little pieces and pray about each one!!

Okay, so I know I could have broke this up into two posts, but that is how the cookie crumbles sometimes.  Too many things floating around in my brain that I just feel the need to share!


Have a great and very wise day!!!

A Real Mess

 

 

A Real Mess

           Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. Psalms 147:5



That title couldn't have said it any better. A few weeks ago we had a power outage. I should point out that we get power outages a LOT! For the past ten years or so of power outages, nothing has really gone terribly wrong. Besides the one winter where power was out for fourteen hours and the temperature in the house dropped to 54 degrees! Yeah, that was the night we all piled up into our bed to sleep.  So, not a comfortable night of sleep.  I love my family, but I'm sorry, the only person I want to share my bed with, is my hubby. Anyway...

We lost power again for about six hours.  It was storming pretty heavily. But life went on as usual and days passed.  We would soon be getting ready to leave for Tennessee for a week long vacation (posting about that later).  The day before, my husband crawls into the crawl space for something and discovers that we flooded!  Are you kidding me?  The power outage kept the sump from pumping and we flooded. But you see, that power outage was about a week ago!  We were leaving the next day (for a week)! We couldn't tackle the project then and there.  So we agreed that we would take care of it when we got back.  The crawl space wasn't flooded at the time. The water that did pool, maybe two inches according to water lines on boxes, had already receded. Aye, aye, aye.

When we returned, I (only me) could smell a bit of mildew.  Ewww! I hate that smell. When we finally had a window of time to work on it, well, let me just say, it was a real pain. Thankfully we had two rolls of carpet padding and boxes to soak up a lot of the water which kept if from spreading. Because of that, all of the wood remained bone dry.  Always looking at a half-full glass!

The job was awful.  Poor Hubby hauled out most everything by himself.  He didn't let me help much at all, unless it was a light bag of trash. He can be so stubborn sometimes, but a gentleman always. I don't know if I mentioned how much I like books.  I'm a bit of book nerd, and, well you probably see where I'm going with this.  I have several plastic bins of books.  Heavy bins of books! I don't know how my husband didn't complain about the heavy book bins. But he didn't. He complained about most everything else, though, if I'm gonna be honest. lol!

This job was awful.  I know I said that already, but it was soooo awful. I lost many Christmas decorations; which didn't really bother me. I'm ready for some new stuff anyway. :) But then...my husband handed me a bag of our daughter's baby clothes. I know you are probably wondering why they were not in a plastic bin like all those stupid books.  Well this plastic bag was one of those heavy duty thick plastic ones. But stupid me, the bottom of the bag had a seam that was not airtight. I opened the bag, stuck my nose in it and walked into my laundry room and cried (people, I'm really not a big crier. So for my eyes to brim over with tears, means my heart is really breaking). Nothing else mattered to me. All my plans of handing over those little treasures to my daughter died.  Her first ever denim jacket, first swimsuit, her 'take home from the hospital outfit,' her Christmas dress, Valentine dress, nightgown, bonnets, and so many others. As I pulled each little memory out of the bag, I noticed that they were all in pristine condition. No green mold or anything growing on them.  Just a mildew smell.  What the heck. I'm gonna give it a try. I threw them in the washer with a cup full of Tide and a cup full of vinegar and I prayed. You know I'm not kidding. I really prayed. When the wash cycle was done, I pulled out item after item and buried my nose in each one, taking in the fresh scent...and then I cried some more! Happy tears! Oh, thank you Jesus, tears!. Our little treasures were saved!!!

Life is a lot like that. Tragedies come to find you. Not just a little flooding, but real life tragedies. Broken marriages, sickness, financial ruin, addictions, mama blues and a plethora of other things.  We get to a breaking point and want to give up. Life, for the most part, will have its messes. You can take notice of it right away and do something about it. Or you can put it off and find that it will most likely get worse. No matter where you are, those messes can be cleaned up.  Those messes can be put back together.  Those messes can be washed away, leaving a fresh scent of newness! A lot of times, it takes just a simple prayer. "Lord, help me with this mess!" It may involve some tears. Tears of sorrow. Tears of brokenness. But after the "storm" has passed, you can count on tears of joy! Once the mess is swept away and the ugly ruined junk is thrown in the dumpster, and the stank is no longer in the air, life gets better.

I wondered why we had this crawl space flooding after ten years of power outages. I looked at this mess this morning....

....and thought about what a daunting task it would be to get it all cleaned up. And then it dawned on me that this mess was a perfect example of life.  It's going to take picking up each piece one by one. Saving what can be saved; marriage, family, self, etc.. And dumping what needs dumping; addictions, worry, depression, self, etc..  It will take time. It will take patience. It will take prayer. But eventually, the pieces will find their way. And a new start will begin!

Tina