Daily Devotional Day & Night

HAPPY MONDAY!

I pray all is well with everyone, and you're enjoying the beginning of another workweek. I'm doing great, well rested, and looking forward to a week filled with hard work, and food! I'm so excited about getting started on the festivities. I put my Kailua Pork in the oven this morning, it'll slow cook all day, and then I'll put together my Kailua Pork Spring rolls tonight. I'll hopefully have the beef patties, and empanadas done by the weeks end. These are things that'll come straight from the freezer to the oven fairly easily on Sunday. The biggest challenge is getting to the gym at least 3 nights this week, so I won't be thrown off, we'll see how it goes. Please pray for my strength, focus, and determination. God has blessed me with a truly special give, and I’m grateful for it. Have a wonderful day!

Today's scriptures are about staying in righteousness. Jesus is due to return to the earth, to receive all of God's children and take us to Heaven for all eternity, any day now. We will never know when, but we know He will. Through Him we're saved, but we still need to maintain a level of righteousness here on earth. We need to refrain from sin, to receive our blessings, and to live a peaceful life. Once we accept Jesus, we make a commitment to become a new creature, and we must put off the old things, and strive toward creating a new attitude toward life. This should be an attitude of living to please God. We must step outside of ourselves, and the pleasing our flesh, and commit to pleasing Him first. He has a way of doing things, and He has predestined our lives, and each of us is put here to complete a certain task. Righteousness is a way of life, we must take on the fruits of the Spirit: …love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law (Galatians 5:22). Read those words individually, and ask yourself what they mean. If need be, go to www.dictionary.com and look them up. These are the characteristics of Jesus, and we’re supposed to be “like-Christ”. What's most important to you in life? Most of us will answer, my children, my husband, building a good career, helping others, family, etc. God wants to be the MOST important thing in our lives. There's nothing more important than completing His will. When we're focusing on Him, everything else will fall into place. Our relationships, career, children, etc. will all be the best they could possibly be, because He will never let the righteous fall. He warns us to separate ourselves from sin, and anything that my cause us to sin. There will be times when our souls may feel disturbed, and we'll lose our peace. At these times we should sit back and wonder what's going on. Some people call it stress and some call it depression. These are the times we need to evaluate our lives, because more often than not, the problem is some unresolved sin. We must work on bringing our flesh into submission, because there is a price for everything. We reap what we sow, and cannot have true, undisturbed peace, while in sin. The bible is full of warnings for us to flee from sin, because it is the number one reason we disconnect from God. Paul sums up what I'm trying to say in Ephesians 5:8-14: For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: “ Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” Wow, this is a very simple passage to live by. When we think of it like this, it makes sense. You can’t put ice cream in the oven, and expect it to come out the same, because some things just don’t mix. As Christians, we cannot mingle with darkness, because we’ve been brought into the light; there will be a major disconnect somewhere. The first step to take is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Once you do that, the refining process starts. Don't forget you don't have to do it alone, you have the Holy Spirit helping you along the way, and you can always pray without ceasing in Jesus name. Don't let another day slip by without Jesus, because you don't know the day, nor the hour when He will return, don't you want Him to say, "well done good and faithful servant" to you? My favorite verses today are: Little children, abide in him that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him (1 John 2:28-29).

ENJOY! http://www.bible.com/scripture-detail.php?juli=2454963&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=5131179&ct=6959641

I love you!