This and That

~If we would put our energy into Bible reading and Soul-winning imagine what you could do with your life.

~Make this book (the Bible) the most important thing in your life.

~With Jesus in your life DON"T hide HIM!!

~There is no greater Joy than the Joy of faithfulness.

~A decision made in the pew won't last, but the decision made at the alter will stay. Bro G Nofsinger (my Dad)

~Everything rises and falls on Leadership. Dr Lee Roberson

~Learn to shut your mouth about things and people that you don't know what your speaking of.

~The man who walks with God always reaches his destination.

~Go to the end of your life, then back up and look to see if you're where you wanted to be.

Thankful Thursday

Ephesians 5:20 "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ:"

What are you thankful for?
Just something to think on.... We everyone now and than sit around as a family and list the things we're thankful for.

Have a great day All!!
This is the day that the Lord hath made I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Wise Wednesday

Wisdom - thinking Gods way.

Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding."

I love the Proverbs because of the fact they are full of wisdom!
Wisdom on fearing God.
Wisdom on how to rear our children.
Just wisdom is throughout the whole book of Proverbs!!!

One of things I love to do is going to the older people I know and learn from them, and gain their wisdom. The elders of the church have so much to offer that when i get to talk with them I learn.

Have a great day in the Lord!

Truthful Tuesday

Truthfulness - describing facts, figures and circumstances correctly.

Zachariah 8:16 "These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgement of truth and peace in your gates."

My son saw this an ask, "Why do you have today as truthful Tuesday?" I told him as we learn a verse a wk with a character trait I was doing a daily character trait on my blog. His next response I absolutely loved. "But Mom, aren't we suppose to be truthful on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday?" I replied to him yes we are but this is just for my blog.

I have sat here a little bit thinking about what Samuel asked me. You know how many of us actually feel we only need to truthful on certain days?! Samuel has the right idea, and I'm so thankful that he realizes that truthfulness is important no matter what day it is.

In dealing with one of my other children yesterday on sarcasm, truthfulness, and other things I was wondering. Does he see me being truthful daily? Is the reason he's acting this way, is because he sees Mom and Dad not always doing right? Now we all know we're human and we all know we make mistakes my question though, is:
1. When your talking on facebook, the phone, texting, instant message are you really truthful?
2. When you are telling your husband the events of the day do you tell him the whole truth or do you sugar coat it?
3. Are we Mrs/Ms truthful at church and at home lie about everything?

Truthfulness is so very important, as I've trained my children you may get in trouble when you tell the truth but you'll feel better about it in the long run. Why? You lie about this, then you have to cover that lie with another lie, and another lie to cover the first 2 lies and it just get bigger and bigger and the guilt grows until once the truth does come out. People have a hard time believing you.

So why don't we all, children and adults decided today not to truthful just when we feel like it but ALL the time!
Zachariah 8:16 "These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgement of truth and peace in your gates."

Meek Monday

Meekness - being patient without being angry.

Psalm 37:11 "But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."

How Meek are we?
Do we let anger step in and forget about being meek?
Just a few thoughts for us to ponder. I hope you Monday is a meek and mild Monday.

I will answer thee

Jeremiah 33:3 "Call unto me and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."

We don't' have because we don't ask. Why is it we complain about what we don't have when the Bible clearly states: "Call unto me and I will answer thee...." I remember when I was a little girl I would ask my daddy for something, you know he usually answered either with what I asked for or a why don't we wait. You know it was hard to wait but I learned sometimes what I wanted wasn't always good for me at that time.

Jesus is the same way, he sometimes gives us our request almost immediately. Other times he makes us wait. However when we get that wait do we cont to ask and look for great things he may shew us. OR do we go out and get (whatever it is) on our own; not waiting for Jesus to supply that need.

"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches his glory by Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19 Notice it doesn't say needs but rather need! I've often wondered why the "s" wasn"t added to need. God sees ALL our needs as a NEED! Isn't that fantastic?!

So if we ask of him, he will supply ALL your need. What an awesome thought. What can you think of that God supplied for you?
1. Salvation - I got the assurance of my salvation May 30, 1988
2. Parents - I can say that without a doubt my parents love me and raised me to the best of ability. I was taught good work ethics, I was taught how to listen and how to help. Not to be selfish and want just for myself.
3. A Pastor - A man of God that loves the Lord, his church, his people. I have no doubt in my mind that I have a Pastor who cares.
4. My Husband! The MAN that when I said I do it was forEVER!!!
5. Our children - God gave us 5 wonderful children. Our oldest, and our only daughter is now in college training to serve God wherever he may lead!! 4 Awesome boys!!!

This is just t drop in the bucket of what I've asked for and God gave! Why did he give because I asked through prayer and he supplied a NEED as well as wants :)

Faith but Doubt

Daniel 3:16-18 "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliever us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set us."

I have always enjoyed the book of Daniel and I love the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. In reading it this morning I was reminded how we can faith but still doubt. If you noticed I italized parts of vrs 17 and 18. In vr 17 they say God will deliver us. They are having the faith that God, the true and living God will save them.
However they turn right around in vr 18 and say, BUT if he doesn't we'll not bow to your gods and images. They were a little doubtful there, wondering if God would save them.

We today are that way. We believe God will take care of us BUT we doubt it also. Why is that?
Well, we are human and we do have the sin nature w/in us.
If God calls you to do something have the faith that he will guide you, lead you, supply the need, be there for you. Yes, at times doubt will arise but the reason for doubt could be that we aren't walking close enough to our Lord. It could be that we know God is there but maybe our fellowship w/God is strained because of our doubt. We allow our doubt to overcome the faith we have.

I'm going to use a personal example here: I have faith that God will supply our need, but as a human I have a tendency to doubt that the money we make will go far enough. Just this wk I'm looking at our bills, looking at what we need andI'm thinking God there's no way!!! Oh ye (me) of little faith. Do I believe and have faith in God to care for us? Yes I do but sometimes that faith is tested.
Now I could list all things we need and I mean need but I don't want anyone reading this feeling sorry for Paula NO that isn't the reason for this. I want to now share how even though (and I'm not bragging just trying to help someone maybe understand how having faith is the way to go) I looked at our finances and said, "there's no way!" I however still pd everything that was to be pd.
Just yesterday morning, the morning after our paycheck , I go into a store to pick up something when the manager comes to me and says, "Could you use some bread?" Well, yes I can, he precedes to give me 2 loaves of bread, juice and other things. These were things I was able to mark off my shopping list and I got them for FREE!!!
I pd tithe, I pd our bills that were due, and had a little money for groceries. God blessed what we did and provided a portion of my groceries.
It's ok to doubt but let your faith be stronger. Do as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego don't bow to the world have faith that God will save you from the wiels of Satan. Cont. to serve God and do what you know he wants you to do no matter what. God will bless you and give you the faith needed to cont on.

There hath no temptation....

I Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

I sure had to look an study this verse early this morning! Not so much because of temptation but in that we aren't given anything that we can't bear! One of my wonderful boys has really been testing with sarcasm and talking back. I so wanted to smart off to him and tell him what for the way one of his piers would of done. I had to step back and re think how I was going to reply to him.

He knows, "Children obey your parents in the Lord!"
After I decided that God gave me this child and I was had to raise him in the way a child should go. I was then able to correct him. An as God said "...that ye may be able to bear it."

You know we can apply this in our lives no matter what. God has given us no temptation, illness, car trouble, financial trouble without a way of escape.
When we have a temptation we have to choose will I all this to affect me wrong or rightly.
When illness comes into our lives and we feel that no matter what we'll never get well. Remember that God has a plan for us and if we are focused on his Word and in prayer he will give us a way to bear it.
We can take an apply to this to ANYTHING that comes our way.

God is simply amazing how he knew we would need a way of escape for our lives. He knew that we would need grace to bear our burdens especially in those times when we try to do it all on our own. BUT we put God in the situation and he WILL, HAS, and DOES give us a way to bear it.

I pray you have a great day an that you'll give your day to Jesus and let him have control of your day.

Love God enough....

Good Morning everyone! I pray that today is a wonderful day for you. Mondays can be hard because many of us don't really rest on the weekend and why is this....

Because We Love God enough to Love what He loves!!
1. We love the sinner enough that we want them to have what we have. Jesus Christ as their Saviour.
2. We love the bus kid enough that we go out all day Saturdays to invite them to church.
3. We love the bus kids enough to get up early on Sunday. Then we go get on a bus and ride it many hours on Sunday. Why? So that they can come to church hear the preaching and receive the Love from people who LOVE them!!!

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

We can say (your name) so loved (your city) that you gave up your Saturday and Sunday to bring the lost to Christ!

Do we Love God enough to give up things that we KNOW God doesn't love??
1. TV
2. Our music (I'm talking music that IS NOT Christ honoring)
3. Movies YES I said movies!!! Please don't turn me off here. We watch videos at home BUT my husband and I pre-approve them and we do EVERYTHING we can to not have the cursing, the rock music, the nudity, yes the sexual contents out of it!!! You say well that cuts out ALL I watch GOOD you don't need to go to the theatre or bring into your home.
4. Books we need to be careful our reading is what God would love. Again that cutes OUT A LOT reading!

Lets just remember in our daily walk, in our daily lives, in our fellowship, in our conversation, in our activities alone and with others should be: Love God enough to Love what God loves. If you can't say this video would be something God would watch then maybe you shouldn't watch it.
If you can't say God would sit beside me to watch this tv show then maybe you need to turn off the tv.

I know that I'm going to have people disagree with me, however we NEED to make sure that we Love God enough to Love what he loves!

I pray in some small way this will be a help to someone!!

Thou art worthy...

Revelation 4:11 "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. "

God is so Worthy of our praise and honour!! So, why is it that as Christians we just push God to the side, not bothering to read our Bibles or pray?!

He created us in his image.
He created us for his pleasure.
He created us so he could love us.
He created us and we should LOVE HIM, we should PRAISE HIM, we should HONOUR HIM, and so on and so forth. So why don't we do these things?

We are human and we have a sin nature. However as Christians who's to be first in our daily routine? GOD!
Have you ever noticed when you leave out God that the day isn't as smooth; we can not go on our own.

How can we praise God? (I'm only listing a few there are many many more ways to Praise God)
1. Praise Him in prayer
2. Praise Him through song (as a family we will choose a song for the day/wk) I personally choose a scripture song for myself.
3. Praise Him simply by living right and keeping Christ first.

How can we Honour God?
1. Honour him through our actions.
2. Honour him by what we say.

So as you go through your day, you can Praise him for so much, we can ALWAYS be Honouring God in our actions. If our children see that we take this verse to heart then they will want (prayerfully) to do the same.
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

Faith

Do we will have faith in God? Do we really have faith that God will provide our every need as he says?

I've asked myself that question and wondered do I truly put my faith in God to take care of me. We know that God is there, we know that he will take care of us how do we know the Bible, the preaching of God's word. The true test is do we really live by it.

Romans 1: 17 the later part of the verse: "...The just shall live by faith."
We are to live by faith as Christians.... Today I will say I've not been doing real well w/that. When you only have x amount of money and all the bills that are due are over $100 each and they are pd, tithe of course is pd and it leaves next to nothing to live on for a wk what do you do?! Now please as you read this realize I'm not complaining at all. God has provided for us through the yrs. I'm just applying this to living by faith. I could say NO we're not paying the phone bill and go buy groceries, or I could say forget tithe I can use that money and really buy groceries. Or maybe I could say who needs insurance I've only had one accident in 22 yrs of driving.... I can't let it lapse for a month... Would that be right? No it wouldn't; actually none of these "Solutions" would be right. So what do I do I go to my Heavenly Father and tell him (which he knows) but I tell him the situation. So that I can see what God will do for our family.

Romans 12:3 again the last part of the verse: "...according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."
God gives each of us the grace, the faith, the strength or whatever it maybe to make it!
If you as so many in today's economy are struggling.... God gives you the faith to make it through.
If you are having health problems, God gives us the strength you need to make it through your day.
If you are having other problems, God gives us the grace needed to make it.

I Just love the fact that our Heavenly Father knows EXACTLY what you, or you, or you, or even I need to make it through our daily walk here on earth. You can also have that peace that God will give you the grace, strength and faith to cont on. If you have never accepted Christ as your personal Saviour I would love to share w/you how you can know for sure that you will go to Heaven.

Right here is simply act of Faith trusting in a God you can't see but that you know Loves you and letting him become Lord of your life.

The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
That simply means that you and I are sinners, the difference is I'm a sinner Saved by Grace and you too and have that same title. A sinner saved by grace!"

There's a payment for our sin and you can pay it or you accept the payment that has already been made: Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death; BUT the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
You see God paid for our sins when he died on the Cross. BUT it didn't end there he rose again and has provided a gift, a FREE gift of eternal life!!

Can you imagine loving someone so much you would die for them? Well, that's exactly what Jesus did for you and me!! Romans 5:8 "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Now finally Romans 10:9-13 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

All you need is believe, have Faith, that Jesus will save you!
Now if you would read this simple prayer and believe in your heart that God WILL forgive you of your sins and wants you to be one of his own You will be saved. (Now understand reading the prayer won't save you, it's believing in our Lord Jesus Christ that you will be saved)

Dear Lord,
I want to thank you for first for dieing on the cross for me a sinner. Lord, I'm asking that you forgive me of my sins and accept me as your son/daughter. I Love you Lord and believe that only you can forgive me of my sins and accept me as your own.
Thank you Lord for saving me a sinner!
Amen

If you prayed this prayer and accepted Christ as your Saviour I would LOVE to know about it and talk a little more w/you. Please send me an e-mail. Your sister in Christ Paula

Building our Lives on Eternal Things

I Thessalonians 5:16 - 23
16. Rejoice evermore.
17. Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Quench no the Spirit.
Despise not prophesying.
Prove all things: hold fast that which is good.
Abstain from all appearance of evil.
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

vr. 17 Prayer is something we should be very familiar with.
vr 19. Don't quench the Spirit of God, and his influence in your life.
vr 20 We should enjoy preaching! LOVE IT God puts our Pastor in our lives because he's the man of God that we're lead to be under his influence and guidance.
vr 22 Be careful in all things cause evil can come to us in many disguises. As Christians we need to be very careful to avoid all appearance of evil....
vr 23 God gives us peace in our lives! Through prayer and Bible reading we will receive the peace we need to go through life and to make it through the trials that come into our lives.

A Friend Loveth....

Proverbs 17:17a "A friend loveth at all times...."

Are you a friend who loves at all times or do you love as long as it's going your way? I asked myself that the other day. I was having a rough day, and to be honest thought no body cared nobody really wanted to know what Paula was going through.
UNTIL.... a friendcall me and asked how my day was going? Now I started to tell her EVERYTHING then I said, No, I'll be honest but not whine and complain. You know before the conversation was over without my complaining I was feeling better and I knew God had her call for a reason. He was just showing me that through a friend he loved me!! GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!

I watch children as they play and literally in a 5 min period they are best friends and enemies. I laugh cause we as adults do the same. We let our feelings, Satan, get into our minds and play games w/us. We need to focus on the fact that God never leaves us and He's always there no matter what. On earth he gives us those friends who loves at all times. Praise the Lord for true friends.

I could list all kinds of people that are friends, but I don't want to forget anyone. So w/out saying names there's one person whom I've known for some time now. If I ever need a laugh, a shoulder to cry on, or a listening ear I can depend on her! I pray that I'm that kind of friend to all who call me friend.

So I ask you, Are you a friend that loveth at all times?
OR are you the friend who one minute you love then next you're their enemy?