I D i e D a i l y

"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." Romans 6:12

We have seen how the people of this world live for pleasure, fame and wealth. They only care about living for theirself. They are out to "live it up" and have a good time.

It is a shame to say that a lot of Christians are living according to the worlds standards instead of following the Word of God.

When you become a child of God, you are no longer free to do as you wish. Yes, you can but you will never grow and have a close fellowship with the Lord. And also if you truely are saved you will not be able to live in sin.

We all have fleshly and carnal desires, even after we are saved. We are still human and we all have the temptation to fill these desires.
How are you handling these desires? Do you give into the flesh? Or do you let the Spirit have control?

You see every one of us makes a decision every single day to either feed our flesh or to feed the Spirit. The one that you feed the most is the one that is controling your life. The only way we can and will say, "No" to the flesh is by dying daily. We have to read our Bible and pray. The Lord is the only one who can help you have the victory! 

We have to be determined to wake up every morning with our mind set on living for God.
Lord, these are Your hands, and feet, and eyes, and mouth, and this is Your mind. I want these insruments to be used for Your glory. NOT for me and my fleshly wants or desires.

"Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto God." Romans 6:13

When you allow yourself to please what the flesh wants, you are killing yourself spiritually. Do you want to live or die?

"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

To stay spritually alive we must die to self!

A Heart of Bitterness

"Acrid bitterness inevitably seeps into the lives of people who harbor grudges and suppress anger, bitterness is always a poison. It keeps your pain alive instead of letting you deal with it and get beyond it. Bitterness sentences you to relive the hurt over and over." Lee Strobel

For a long while I had been very bitter and angry toward someone in my life. The person nor the reason for my heart hardening over this person is not important as to what I am writing about.
I am ashamed to say that I came to the point of almost hating this person. I didn't want a relationship with the person. I didn't want to be around them. I didn't want to talk, look or have anything whatsoever to do with this person. I would cringe at the sound of someone saying their name. When the person would talk to me I would automatically shut them off.
I use to blame this person for the way I felt toward them. I thought I had a right to feel the way I did and to hold a grudge because I felt as if I had been done wrong by the person.
But the Lord showed me different.
Ephesians 4:30-31 says,
"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with malice:
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
This is the very reason why forgiveness is so vitally important in our spiritual walk with the Lord. When we don't forgive someone, even if they don't ask, then we are hurting ourselves spiritually. When we don't forgive we begin to think on the wrong that was done toward us, and instead we linger and dwell on the situation and then it turns into bitterness.
Bitterness is a sign of being focused on self and not trusting God's sovereignty in your life.
As a Christian we are commanded to be kind to others and to forgive as Christ has forgiven us. If we were to stop and think about how we have treated our Saviour and how ungodly and wicked we are, then we would not be so quick to be unforgiving, and mean and hateful to those who are mean and hateful to us.
The Lord is always forgiving us  repeatedly for the same sins in our life. He doesn't hate us or hold grudges or beat us over the head, although He very well could. Instead He forgives us over and over again and He loves us as if we had never sinned against Him.
If you are saved and have trusted Jesus as your personal Saviour, but you feel distant from Him, could it be because you are blatantly refusing to let go of your animosity toward another person?
Remember to be careful, for the things you dwell on will become rooted in your heart.

The Greatness of the Lord

Today I was thinking about how great God has been to me. I am always amazed at how God can do so much for me every single day. Although I am unworthy and other people may criticize me, my Saviour loves me and guides me.
I wrote a poem today that reflects how my heart feels about only some of the things the Lord has done and continues to do for me daily.

"Yet My People Have Forgotten"

"Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?
Yet my people have forgotten me
days without number."
Jeremiah 2:32

In the Old Testament of the Bible, the children of Isereal were constantly forgetting God. They forgot God and all that He had done for them.

Jeremiah 2:6-7
"Neither said they, where is the LORD that brought us up out of Eygpt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?
And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine herritage an abomination."

As you see in these verses, the Lord had blessed the children of Isereal. He gave them everything they could ask for. He even deliverd them and supplied their needs. Then in return they forgot the Lord and all he had done.
You say oh wow that is just a terrible thing that the children of Isreal had forgotten the Lord after all he did for them. You may even say, "I would never turn my back on the Lord".
But Christians are doing the same thing in 2013 that the children of Isreal were doing way back in the OT.

We seem to have time for everything and everyone in our lives, except for God.
We wouldn't DARE miss the football game on Saturday, but we forget church on Sunday.
We WON'T miss the dinner plans we have with our friends, but we don't have time to spend with the Lord everyday.
We CAN'T cancel our doctor appointment, but it's ok to not talk to the Lord today. He understands.
I HAVE to clean my house today, but I can't memorize any scripture because it's just too hard.
Our family HAS to spend time together, but we are too tired to be involved with the church.
Does this sound familar to you?
We let our life get so busy that we don't have time with God.
Or is the real problem just simply, we don't want to make time for God?
My papa says, "People will do what they want to do". That statement is so very true! We make time in our lives, every single day to do what we want to do. If the truth be told, we just don't want to. We would rather do other things than spend time with the Lord.
If you are a true Christian who has been washed in the blood of The Lamb, you have so much to be thankful for! The Lord has never forsaken you or forgotten you.
He shed His precious blood for you on Calvary and saved your lost soul from Hell! And as if that isn't enough on it's own, He feeds you, He gives you a place to sleep and clothes to wear. He continues to bless you every day, even though you have forgotten Him days without number.
Do you understand what that means? It means that even after all the Lord has done for you, you have forgotten Him too many days to count!
Is this the kind of fellowship you want to have with your heveanly Father? I should hope not!
You CAN have fellowship with the Lord everyday, even in the midst of all the other things going on in your life. But God should be number one! Not anyone or anything!
If we were to ask God about your fellowship with the Lord today what would He say? Would He have to reply with the same answer that He did with the children of Isereal?...yet __ __ (your name) has forgotten me days without number?
Don't allow yourself to become this kind of Christian!
I encourage you to not forget about the Lord and to always put Him first in the start of every single day!

Reason for Reflecting

Hello everyone,
I am sorry I have been behind on posting anything new for a month or so. In the past few weeks, I have went to visit family in South Carolina and then in Florida. Then my sister, Maria and I, moved from North Carolina to Albany, Georgia. And now I am currently in the proccess of finding a job and getting sittuated in the new area.
Although my life has been busy, I have taken the time to reflect on some things that I have come to both learn and realize in the past months of living on my own.
Seeing as I had never lived on my own, it was very different for me. I spent almost twenty-four years living with my parents.
I had always wondered at the thought of what it would be like to live in a place of my own where I had no one to answer to, no parents to nag me of the things I needed to get accomplished or things I needed to finish; a place to just fully relax and completely be...me. I quickly came to the relization that it was a lot harder than I had expected.
Sure I enjoyed coming and going as I pleased, spending money buying the food and things that I desired, staying up as late as I wanted, sleeping in as long as I wanted and having friends stay over.
But after a while I grew very lonely and I would bet bored very easily.
In the past I would come home after a long day of work, sit on the couch, and rattle off about everything that was in my head about the day to my mom. She would listen intently and I enjoyed talking to her because it was my way of venting.
It didn't take me long to start missing those long talks. I also began to realize there were a lot of things I had taken for granted. Things that I didn't use to have to do on a regular basis because I had relied on mama to take care of them for me. Of course I would ocasionally thank her on a special holiday, such as Mother's Day. But I had never quite understood all the hard, loving work she had done for me.
Another thing I came to realize was how much my parents love and care for me.
Sure I had friends in North Carolina. We hung out and had a lot of fun together. But I began to notice that no one I hung out with or talked to or spent time with, loved me the way my mama and daddy does. No one has sacrificed as much for me, or listened to me with as much of their heart, or taken as much time, or has prayed as many prayers for me, or taught me more about God and the Bible, or have been a better example to and for me than any other person on the earth.
I have tried praying and searching all over for a true, godly friend. The Lord has shown me that, yes I will have friends through life, but no one can ever be a better friend to me than the ones God has placed in my life. I know it is not a popular thing in todays world, to call your parents your best friend. But I have to say that besides Jesus, I do not have any greater friends than my mama and daddy!

You Attract What You Are

There have been times in my life that I have had different "kinds" of friends. Some good and some bad. One thing I have found to be true about each period of friendship is I became exactly like them!

This is why it is so very important for us to be Christ-like. When we let down our gaurd and become more accustomed to what the flesh wants, we are allowing an oppertunity for the devil to use a bad influence in our life. A bad influence such as a friend.

When you begin to chase after ungodliness, you are bound to reap ungodly friends!
If you are wanting to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord, you must be aware of who you hang around. Wether we notice it or not people have a big impact on how we respond and make decisions in our life. Make sure the people you are spending your time with are good godly influences in your life.

These are just a few things that are different in a godly and ungodly persons life:

A Godly Friend

*encourages

*uplifts

*lives a seperated life

*goes to church

*reads and studies the Bible

*prays

*helps you spiritually

A Ungodly Friend

*downgrades

*talks dirty

*hateful

*parties

*lives a conformed | worldly life

*disrespectful

If you want to determine the kind of person you are becoming a good way to reflect is by observing your friends and those who have the biggest impact in your life.

Faithful to Forgive

I have sinned against God so many times. I have forsaken Him and pushed Him out of my life time and time again. I have turned my back on Him and there have been times I have forgotten or just simply ignored Him.

My mind has been so overwhelmed with the forgiveness of God! Time and again the Lord has faithfully forgiven me for things in my life.

While this never ceases to amaze me, it is hard for me to comprehend how He continues to forgive me repeatedly for the same things. When I struggle with a sin in my life He doesn't kick me to the curb. Instead He forgives me and patiently helps me to overcome those things.

He forgives me even when I don't pray or live for Him. He forgives me when I deliberately disobey His word.
I am so unworthy, yet He loves me!

Lord, my heavy heart is weighing on my mind
Cause I have let You down one more time.
While my broken hearted eyes are filling up with tears
We both know the reason why I'm here.

When I confess my failures
You've been faithful to forgive
Each guilty stain, one by one
You have cleansed
So I bow my heavy heart before You again
For You have been faithful
Ever faithful to forgive.

Oh, what needless pain I've suffered on my own
Oh the sleepless nights I've faced alone.
All because I fail to run to Your river of mercy
Let Your healing waters cleanse my soul.