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Archive for the ‘Resolutions’ Category

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A New Year’s Thought – Living the Righteous Life

In Lifestyle, New Year’s Resolutions, Resolutions, Righteous Living, Righteousness on December 27, 2022 at 10:07 am

For the next month, we will forgo our regular blog study of Proverbs to pursue postings that center around Christmas and New Year’s.

If you get the blog entries via email you will receive each entry as it is posted without delay. If you go to the site to read each entry there will be no further notices of those entries, but the following titles will be released between now and the new year.

A Candymaker’s Witness – November 26th

An Old Man’s Christmas – December 3rd

Precious Baby /Christmas Star Lecture – December 11th

Merry Christmas / Christ for Christmas – December 20th

A New Year’s Thought / Living the Righteous Life – December 27th

A New Year’s Thought – Living the Righteous Life

Before you take action to make all those resolutions about what you are going to do or not do, who you are going to be or not be, take a moment and reflect on God’s method of change.

Read the thoughts of a young woman desiring honest change in her life, and my response to her.

Quote = “When I pray and read the Word and worship as I have been recently, i am experiencing more of a closeness and a love… like i am coming back to my first love. I do not think I am explaining it well but I want to live a righteous life and spend time with my Father becuase I love Him and want to, not because there is this list of "do’s and don’ts" to follow.” = End Quote.

You need not worry sister…you are not going to live a “righteous life” without it being a manifestation of God’s grace in your life. Any desire you have for God is a manifestation of God’s grace in your life.

Some thoughts…

A ship is not going to move along steady by being propped from the outside. In order for a ship to be balanced, it must have ballast within the ship in order for the ship to move along steadily. The same is true for us as God’s children. Nothing on the outside of us is ever going to make our lives steady and balanced. It is only through and by the grace of God that our lives ever become consistent, steady, and balance. All three of which God wants for us and all three of which He is more than willing to shed out His grace in service to perform.

Therefore, God’s grace becomes our ballast. Ballast being:

bal·last

1. stabilizing heavy weights: heavy material carried in the hold of a ship, especially one that has no cargo, in the keel of a sailing boat, or in the gondola of a balloon, to give the craft increased stability

2. something that gives bulk or stability: anything that serves no particular purpose except to give bulk or weight to something or that provides additional stability

3. foundation material: stones or gravel when used as a foundation for a road or railroad track

4. industry gravel used in making concrete: gravel used in making concrete and in earthworks

5. electrical engineering circuit limiting current flow: a circuit that limits the current flow in a fluorescent lamp

Encarta ® World English Dictionary

A play on the definitions and a connection to God’s grace.

1 – God is the weight that holds us steady when life blows and blows; only He and His grace provide us stability.

2 – Grace is simply there to bring stability to our souls, our spirits, and our lives.

3 – Grace is the foundation of our relationship with our Savior Jesus.

4 – The endless grace of God turns our liquid hearts and jelly backbones into faith stronger than concrete.

5 – God’s grace is always poured out in just the right dose at just the right time so that we might not become overwhelmed spiritually.

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GOD Growth in COVID-19 / Individual Growth

In Attitude, Biblical Principles, Christian Lifestyle, Christian Living, Coronavirus, Coronavirus/COVID-19, COVID-19, Godliness, Godly Counsel, New Year’s Resolutions, Renewal, Repentance, Resolutions, Revelation, Revival, Righteous Living, Righteousness, Spiritual Fruit, Spirituality, Uncategorized, Wisdom on March 7, 2021 at 4:10 pm

Though people have played up the loss and problems of COVID-19, which there have been many of course, much loss and much grief, nevertheless, I mentioned in my last post that we would tackle the other side of the coin and explore the growth that has occurred and the good things that have come out of going through this pandemic.

Over the next few post we will take a look at the GOD growth in individuals, families, and couples during the pandemic. I use the term GOD growth because God wants to bring about change in people that draws them closer to Him and that causes them to implement His Principles regardless of whether or not they have come to trust in Him for their salvation as of yet or not. God is about seeing His Will and His Principles come about in our society, in our homes, and in us personally before and after we enter that personal relationship with Him.

Individual growth will be the topic here. As stated in the last posting, “There has also been more time for individuals to take a good look at themselves, to explore their own inner spiritual person, come to terms with, and perhaps do something in response to, what they discovered during the isolation that God has allowed in their life.”

Crisis pushes crisis, meaning a societal crisis usually produces a personal crisis for people. When confronted with mass alterations in the societal landscape a person finds their personal life altered in many capacities, and underneath those alterations they find their inner life altered as well.

During this pandemic people’s movements have been greatly restricted causing them a loss in what many people use to escape seeing themselves clearly, “distraction[s]” of every type and usually in multiple degrees or quantities. People often search for anything that can help them avoid dealing with what is inside of them. During the isolation of this pandemic that just has not been possible thus resulting horribly for some people in despair and giving up, but for other people in self-reflection and growth.

It is extremely hard to be alone with one’s self, yet it is extremely healthy. Many very spiritual and godly people over the course of history have heralded the importance of a time of personal spiritual retreat with God to reflect, recharge, and seek growth in God. It is during the aloneness that God’s voice is heard most clearly by the majority of people, when most people’s insight and understanding is opened up the most. In the aloneness we find whether or not we like ourselves (or if we should like ourselves), and if not, we learn from God what to do about what we do not like.

From what I have understood from people living in relative isolation during the pandemic, that isolation has also brought with it a quietness of life, a slowing of their pace, a peeling back of the daily stresses of life and thus resulted for many individuals in an embracement of a quieter simpler less stressful life.

The isolation of the pandemic for individuals has not been all bad, it has produced personal growth, reordering of priorities, and recharging of one’s stress coping batteries.

I want to close each of this series of postings with a quote from the original post, “COVID-19 – God and Man at Work.”

“Blessings from God are not just material or financial more often the greater ones (blessings) are intangible such as growth and change.”

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A New Year’s Thought – Living the Righteous Life

In Attitude, Bible, Bible Study, Biblical Principles, Chrisitan Lifestyle, Christian Living, Christianity, Lifestyle, New Year’s Resolutions, Resolutions, Righteous Living, Righteousness on December 31, 2020 at 11:13 am

A New Year’s Thought – Living the Righteous Life

Before you take action to make all those resolutions about what you are going to do or not do, who you are going to be or not be, take a moment and reflect on God’s method of change.

Read the thoughts of a young woman desiring honest change in her life, and my response to her.

Quote = “When I pray and read the Word and worship as I have been recently, i am experiencing more of a closeness and a love… like i am coming back to my first love. I do not think I am explaining it well but I want to live a righteous life and spend time with my Father becuase I love Him and want to, not because there is this list of "do’s and don’ts" to follow.” = End Quote.

You need not worry sister…you are not going to live a “righteous life” without it being a manifestation of God’s grace in your life. Any desire you have for God is a manifestation of God’s grace in your life.

Some thoughts…

A ship is not going to move along steady by being propped from the outside. In order for a ship to be balanced, it must have ballast within the ship in order for the ship to move along steadily. The same is true for us as God’s children. Nothing on the outside of us is ever going to make our lives steady and balanced. It is only through and by the grace of God that our lives ever become consistent, steady, and balance. All three of which God wants for us and all three of which He is more than willing to shed out His grace in service to perform.

Therefore, God’s grace becomes our ballast. Ballast being:

bal·last

1. stabilizing heavy weights: heavy material carried in the hold of a ship, especially one that has no cargo, in the keel of a sailing boat, or in the gondola of a balloon, to give the craft increased stability

2. something that gives bulk or stability: anything that serves no particular purpose except to give bulk or weight to something or that provides additional stability

3. foundation material: stones or gravel when used as a foundation for a road or railroad track

4. industry gravel used in making concrete: gravel used in making concrete and in earthworks

5. electrical engineering circuit limiting current flow: a circuit that limits the current flow in a fluorescent lamp

Encarta ® World English Dictionary

A play on the definitions and a connection to God’s grace.

1 – God is the weight that holds us steady when life blows and blows; only He and His grace provide us stability.

2 – Grace is simply there to bring stability to our souls, our spirits, and our lives.

3 – Grace is the foundation of our relationship with our Savior Jesus.

4 – The endless grace of God turns our liquid hearts and jelly backbones into faith stronger than concrete.

5 – God’s grace is always poured out in just the right dose at just the right time so that we might not become overwhelmed spiritually.