Daily Devotional Day & Night

HAPPY THURSDAY!

I pray all is well with everyone, and you're enjoying another Friday eve. I'm doing well, TGIF (for me anyway). I cannot wait until 8pm; it's been a long day. I'm falling behind because we got a little busy today. I like when it's busy, it makes the time go by faster. I'm looking forward to the weekend, because my Church is having a Yard/Bake/BBQ sale on Saturday. If you're in the area and would like to come out, it's Fairfax Christian Church. It starts at 8am and ends at 12pm I think. They'll have wonderful homemade goodies, and festivities for the children. I'm looking forward to it, I'll be making banana bread, and my famous stuffed burgers, you should come through to experience those. I pray you have a wonderful evening, and weekend.

Today's scriptures are about keeping our word to God. Being a Christian is more than a title. I see people walk around with religious tattoos, and even quoting scripture, claiming to be children of God, but they don't display that in their actions. We could love God, and still unconsciously sin, however, out of love for God, we need to do our best to avoid sin. Jesus should be our main role model, we should study His life, to be able to model our actions like His. We could also learn a lot by studying his followers too, try reading the book of Acts. Don't forget about faithful Job, in the Old Testament. The bible is our handbook on life, if we study it, we will know exactly how to show God and our neighbors love, just as we're commanded. When we accepted Jesus as our Savior, it wasn't solely to receive. We entered into a relationship with God, through Jesus. In any relationship, we need to show our love to our partner. God is our Heavenly Father, but He also calls us friends! We want to keep our commitment to Him, and stay open to Him. We should do what we could to strengthen His kingdom. When interacting with people they should be able to know right away that we're children of God. Smiles are contagious, you never know how much a smile, at a person that looks down, could brighten there day. Saying hello to someone and asking how they're doing, and really wanting to know the answer, is showing God love. Giving change to a homeless person, or helping someone with his or her bags, that look like their struggling, is showing God love. After all He did command us to love our neighbors as your love ourselves. Another rule of thumb is doing unto others, as you would have them do unto you. I am guilty of wanting things from others, that I'm not willing to give myself. I'm selfish; I'm not going to sugarcoat it. However, some people look at me from the outside, and always comment on how I am, but I don' t think I do enough. I know me, and I sometimes get caught up in wanting to be everything to everyone, I guess that's the Spirit of God working in me. I look at people and don't want to see them hurt. I'm very compassionate and concerned about the well being of others. I can't say that I've always been like that, to this magnitude anyway. In today's world, things are moving so fast, people barely slow down to enjoy life. I have so much going on, where I don't have time to concentrate or other things sometimes. I haven't visited my family in weeks, because I'm too busy doing what I want and/or need to do. I always say, there aren’t enough hours in the day, but I have to make time to give back, because God does so much for me. I use my life as an example, because I know most of you could relate. We all suffer from similar things. My specific story may not be the same as yours, but I'm sure you could relate. We tend to gravitate to people we could relate too. I think that's why God chose most of the people that are written about in the bible. Jesus was a carpenter, he wasn't rich, and didn't live a glamorous life; most of us could relate to that. Paul, he was a sinner, who killed Christians at one time, because he had so much hatred in his heart, I'm sure some people could relate to Paul in some ways. I'm urging you to pick up the bible, and when you study, invite your Holy Spirit along to help you understand what God is trying to tell you. As children of God, we need to live our lives pleasing to Him. Everything we do, we should ask ourselves if we're uplifting the kingdom. Do you keep your word, and help others in need out of love for God? Do you want to see others happy before yourself? Would you give up your last dollar to feed your brother who's hungry? How many people do you share Jesus' story with per day? Evaluate your answers to these questions, this is who we should be aspiring to become, unselfish, loving, caring, and trustworthy human beings. God is molding us into the likeness of Jesus Christ, but we could hinder our growth through sin. It's important for us to be aware of our actions, and glorify God in everything we do. If you're not a Christian, these things are very hard for you, because you don't have the help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is a prayer away, if you need a prayer partner, please let me know. My favorite verse today is: Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17)

ENJOY! http://www.bible.com/scripture-detail.php?juli=2454952&dtype=Scripture
http://www.intouch.org/site/pp.aspx?c=cnKBIPNuEoG&b=4943197
http://www.intouch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=cnKBIPNuEoG&b=4949629&ct=6866037

I love you!