How much do you owe?

Hello everyone,

Sorry about the last few days... I was trying to catch up on some rest. :)

There is a parable I love. In Luke 7: 41-43, Jesus speaks a parable to Simon about the woman with the alabaster box. They were saying thing about her and was making a big deal that she was a sinner and that he was wasting his time trying to help her. He replied to Simon this:

"There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him the most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave the most. And he [Jesus] said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged."

See God doesn't look at our faults. He looks at our hearts. Our past doesn't shock God. He sees our potential from our past and leads us into our future. I think this verse is so profound because I struggle alot of times with feeling like less than others because of my past but God proves here that he uses people with a past. I love how he makes it a point to explain to Simon that the people who have made the biggest mistakes appreciate his forgiveness most.

I guess the best way to describe this would be if you had one man who had lied and one who had committed a  murder, and both were in the same courtroom. The judge says to both of them that their charges had been dropped. Who do you think would be most thankful? A no brainer huh? the one who was probably facing a life sentence behind bars! He will always remember what that judge did for him and how things could have been different. This is how we should be. We should remember how God has forgiven us for so much and never forget that without him, we would have been given a life sentence.

What do you owe?
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Fear Over Nothing

Hello friends,

    FEAR:
           An aversion to a person, place, activity, event, or object that causes emotional distress and often avoidance behavior whether the threat is real or imagined.

            When I was deciding on what to write about today, I began to think about my sister. She is deathly afraid of bee's! Not wasps, not hornets, not the usual ones that attack.....BEE's! I can remember her as a little girl playing in the yard, and I heard this scream! Not this- I'm mad, a little afraid, I'm hurt scream.....no, this ear piercing scream at the top of her lungs that only a young girl can manage to do. I dropped everything and began to run as fast as I could to find her and whatever horrible thing that had to have happened... I finally found her in the back yard running wide open screaming! I tried as I was running toward her to assess the situation....there was really nothing i could see. At that moment she saw me and made a "B" line to where I was. I ask her, "whats wrong!!!!!??" in the most panicking tone you have ever heard. You see,  Lori was a child who never cried. Y'all, she chased kittens through briar's and came out with bloody legs and never shed a tear! We actually thought something was wrong with her because she never cried. But this time, it was a terrified scream. She replied to me "a bee was after me!" A little confused I asked her where he had stung her and she replied..."he didn't. I just thought he might". To this day, that child is terrified of bee's. Not because they "will' sting her but because they "might" sting her.
This was a perfect example of what fear will do to us in life. It will stop of from enjoying the things God has given us to enjoy. It will stop us from having peace in our life. It causes us to build up walls in our heart that keep us from accomplishing those thing that matter. You see, sometimes we don't even have to be "stung" to become afraid....all we have to do it have a little ounce of fear that we "might" be and we change our path.
In relationships we can allow this fear to take over and make us lose sight of the good things we were once enjoying. It can cause us to begin running around, screaming for nothing. Now ladies, I'm not saying completely trust those men in your life, cause Lord knows they can push our buttons sometimes, but what I am saying is trust God.
Fear can also cause us to miss out on opportunities and future plans that God has for us. I think of the story of Moses when God called him to go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. Moses replied to God "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children out of Egypt?" (Exodus 3:11) Those fears of not being qualified enough or being to this or to that... yea, excuses. In Exodus 4:10 he also says "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before or since You have spoken to Your servant: but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue".  All of what he can't do because of Fear!  What a powerful tool. It can be used for good or it can be used to stop you from your purpose.
My friends, don't allow fear to stop you from what God has planned for you. Like Lori, we have fear for no reason sometimes. The bee never stung her ...she was just allowing fear to take over. This plan may be a great husband, a great job, or it could be anything. Don't act like Lori with the bee and run. Stop. Face it. Trust God to protect you.Pray and ask God to show you why you are afraid of it and ask him to help you overcome it and live out your purpose with joy.

How has fear made you afraid for no reason? Please post comments below. Thank everyone and I am enjoying doing life with y'all. Keep coming back daily! :) Much love.

Never Compromise Your Character for Anything or Anyone

Hello friends!!

Character:
          The qualities that form the individual nature of a person or thing..
   
There are times when we feel so strongly about something  or someone we lose tract of who we are and begin to focus everything on that thing. We will drop everything when that opportunity comes around or that someone pays us some attention. Sometimes that thing is good, and other times it causes us to change who we are...our character. Sometimes in trying to change to fit inside or near this new "box", we begin to change our shape. Alot of times we allow this thing to become our priority and take control of our lives. These things begin to prey on our hearts and cause us to lose sight of the things that make us happy and give us joy and peace in our lives. In youth, I think we called this "peer pressure" but now our label as adults for it is "stress". Its the things that cause us to take our eyes off God and focus on something else...which, as we were told as teenagers, can cause serious consequences.
I once had a relationship with a guy who was the center of my world. He was my "everything"...my white house with the picket fence, 3 children, 2 dogs and beautiful yard...guy. I loved this guy. I saw my word starting to make sense with him and my existence to have a purpose. You see, I had longed for the love I felt this guy could offer me and the "life" things he would surely give me... I began making myself into what I thought he would want and began changing the core of who I was and what I believed in. Because I became soo needy for him and desiring his love, I became a person I didn't recognise when I  looked in the mirror. The broken places began to add up. I was placing all my focus on him. I wanted him to fill those broken, deep down places in my heart. I wanted him to look at me and tell me I was beautiful or that I was important...I would do anything he wanted just to keep him in my life. I was longing for the places I had been robbed of as a little girl to be fixed and it was important enough to me... to change my character....to allow myself to change in any way...to be that girl he would want and love. Well, down the road, my life had changed so much that I was miserable because I wasn't who I wanted to be, I wasn't who he wanted, I didn't want anyone else and I couldn't see the way out anymore. What a place to be in! What I thought would make me happy had in turn made me a person I didn't even know. All that changing got me no closer to this guy, didn't make hm love me anymore, didn't give me that wholeness or "life" I was looking for.....no, all it gave me was alot of broken, empty space. Had I just been myself, this relationship probably would have came to the same outcome... just alot sooner because we would have know right away we didn't match and his dreams weren't my dreams...AND MY DREAMS DEFINITELY WEREN'T HIS DREAMS. I am thankful now that this relationship didn't work.
You see, we are all different shaped keys and only one key really fits OUR heart and GOD holds that key. Keep him as your focus. Then He will open the door for whoever he wants to allow in your heart. Do not change your character to please people or for success... rely on God to use His keys to unlock the doors and then you will be right were you are meant to be with joy and peace...doing exactly what you were meant to be doing! :)

Love doing life with ya... keep coming back daily!

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Faith Facts

Wow,
As I was reading today, I came across what I have decided to call, Faith Facts.

Hebrews 11:1-3 says:
     "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtain a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."

Throughout the rest of the chapter, we read many examples of what faith was and is capable of doing and the outcomes of what having faith is capable of!

Sometimes it's hard to have faith in something we cant see...
 
This reminds me of a time in my life when I wanted soo bad to graduate high school. You see, I wasn't the "star student" and I had alot of problems in school. I made some really bad choices and chose to do everything except school. The weeks went by and I was enjoying everything about my senior year EXCEPT that I had to go to school! One day, the principal called me into his office and told me.. "there is no way you will graduate this year". I realized at that moment I had made a huge mistake. I began to reason with him about ways I could make up my time and "fix" the problem in a microwavable approach. I wanted to fix what had been done over a years time in five minutes. Impossible, or so we thought. A few days later and I was being called back into the principals office again. He looked me dead in the eyes and said, "although you don't believe, or even see a reason to care if you graduate...I do.. and you will!" You see this was a human perspective of faith. He believed in me even when he didn't see a way. With alot of help (ie..Saturday school and every other minute the doors were open.. I was required to be there) I began to see his faith at work. He met me getting off the bus, walked me to each class, waited on me when class was over only to escort me to another and then at the end of the day escort me onto the bus to go home! He was determined I was going to graduate. I didn't like the fact that I wasn't getting to do it how I wanted and when I wanted...especially thinking there was no way I would graduate anyway. Well, the last semester came and I needed two English and only one was offered in the level I was academically. The other was a Honors English, three levels ahead of me....once again I felt defeated but he signed me up for that class. I tried hard. The day before graduation came and I was waiting to find out if I would graduate. Finally the phone rang and it was my principal. He said "Danielle, I really have no idea how you did this but you will walk tomorrow!"  Looking back, now I realize he had FAITH in me ....the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen... Amazingly, that faith has led me to even bigger accomplishments and greater joys. He could have seen defeat... He could have gave up, but he didn't.

That's what FAITH does... It trusts no matter how big the obstacle is.

I recently read a quote that said "Courage is not the absence of fear, but instead the presence of faith"

God ask's us for this kind of faith. Trust in him no matter what we feel, see, think or whatever. Just to completely trust him with our lives and walk in faith.

Has there been times when your faith was tested or when you could have had a greater measure of faith?
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How Far Is It Between Heaven and Hell?

This is a TRUE story:
There were two boys who had become orphans at a very early age of two and three. They were in homes of all sorts and when they got seventeen and eighteen they decided they wanted to leave and have a life of their own. They bought themeselves a trailor across from an old white church. They were the talk of the town.  "Those boys are wild and will never amount to anything" they would say. Everyone talked about them so bad, so they began to become what everyone said..."Wild". One day the pastor of the church across the street saw them outside and invited them to church. They decided to go one Sunday and they sat on the very back pew. Every Sunday they came back and always sat on the very same pew. The pastor would preach what God gave him and God would begin to convict those boys hearts, but they continued to sit there. One Sunday, as church let out the pastor stopped the boys and asked "why?"..."Why didn't you allow God into your life?" He knew the conviction was there! The boys replied, "I have stuff I have to take care of first" and they went on about there way across the street home. One of the boys ran back across the street with a curious look on his face. "How far is it between Heaven and Hell?" he asked. The preacher pondered on it but said he didn't really know and the boy went on his way.
Early that Tuesday morning, the phone rang at the preachers house and it was the deacon of the church. The deacon began to tell the preacher that there was an accident and that he shoud come to the church as soon as possible. The whole way there the preacher prayed that it wasn't those two boys. When he arrived, he saw their trailor had burnt to ashes and the boys had died in it. The two boys had their funneral and were burried. After the funneral, the preacher went to the steps of the burnt trailor and began to count each step he took until he got to the alter....1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10................61. It was only 61 steps . 61 steps between Heaven and Hell!