God’s Promise Of Eternal Freedom

January 22, 2020 Gracie

God’s Promise

God's Promise Of Eternal Freedom

Dear Christians,

All of those painful things in your life – the emotional hurts and the physical hardships – they will one day disappear.

You will be free . . . in Heaven!

You and I will have the ultimate, “perfect” peace.

Perfect Peace means Eternal Freedom.

Eternal Freedom

No more pain

No more grief

In the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John was granted the divine privilege of writing to the seven churches of Asia Minor to issue a warning about what was to come at the End of the Age. This is a time of final judgment and the world is plunged into darkness.

How can anyone not see how our world is advancing rapidly towards that time? There is so much evil around us, but we have Jesus on our side.

He is coming back and, on that future day, the Righteous will shine forth “as the sun.”

⁴and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” – Revelation 21:4, (NASB).¹

Notice that Scripture says “He will wipe away every tear”, without exception.

See how much He cares for the brokenhearted!

Knowing Him as our Savior in this life, and walking with Jesus in our eternal life – there will be no greater joy.

Eternal Freedom

As Christians, we long for the day of our eternal freedom when we’ll finally be Home.

In her poem, “Imagine Heaven”, fellow Christian writer Helene Torres issues an encouraging reminder to all of us to set our eyes on the glory promised to us in Heaven!

IMAGINE HEAVEN
by Helene Torres
10/03/08

I imagine this life not mattering,
as I walk towards the Lord.
Every question will have faded.
All my past ignored.

As I stand in Your glory
and all I see is You.
Will I recall this life at all
and all that I’ve been through?

When I am in eternity
and know the perfect love.
What will I think of how I behaved
and how I showed Your love?

For this time is but a fleeting second,
in the years of eternity,
Don’t let me regret that second,
for all of infinity.

For this life will not matter,
apart from what I’ve done.
Let me hear the words “good job”
as I walk towards the Son.

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²Poetry shared, courtesy of Helene Torres, from FaithWriters url: https://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=185177.

What If We’re Not Perfect?

January 15, 2020 Gracie

Got A Minute?

What if we're not perfect

Please take a few minutes and think about a friend in your life, one whom you hold especially dear.

Even though that treasured friend may live thousands of miles away, the distance doesn’t matter, does it?

All you have to do is pick up your cellphone and call that special person.

God has blessed us with amazing technology, hasn’t He?

Fortunately, we don’t need a cellphone to talk with God.

No iPhone required

Special apps? No

Cell towers? No way

The signal strength and connectivity are buried deep within your heart.

Do you want to thank God for His blessings, or talk about problems in your life?

He will hear you right away.

How fast do our prayers travel up to Heaven?

Faster than the human mind can even measure.

What if we’re not perfect?

We’re absolutely not “perfect,” so why would God want to hear anything we have to say?

He owes you and me nothing.

There was only one “perfect” person on earth.

Jesus Christ – fully God and fully Man – sent to us by God as our redeeming Savior.

Son of the living God

For God so loved

So why would God even consider us, wretched sinners who often fail Him?

Because He loves us.

Delight in the Lord.

Make your life count for Him!

What is God looking for? He is looking for men and women whose hearts are His — completely. That means there are no locked closets. Nothing’s been swept under the rugs. That means that when you do wrong, you admit it and come to terms with it. You long to please Him in your actions. You care deeply about the motivations behind your actions. God is not looking for magnificent specimens of humanity. He’s looking for deeply spiritual, genuinely humble, honest-to-the-core servants who have integrity. – Chuck Swindoll, Christian pastor, author and educator. ²

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² Chuck Swindoll quotation, courtesy of Insight For Living, “Becoming a Man or a Woman after God’s Own Heart,” Insights (April 1997). para. 4. Web. Accessed 4 January, 2020. Copyright © 1997 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

Our Exceptional God

Be Still And Know

January 7, 2020 Gracie

What Does It Mean to “Be Still and Know?”

Be still and know

We can find the answer in Psalm 46.

YHWH speaks through His Word to His covenant people throughout the ages.

With Christ as Our Savior and, by His death and resurrection, we are now His covenant people.

Here’s just a portion of this beautiful psalm of peace and praise written for the younger sons of Korah.

Psalm 46

We can have peace knowing that God is our fortress and that He is “with us.”

The God who moves mountains

Who created the smallest and the largest living organisms

The God who created you and me

No problem, whether emotional, physical, or spiritual, is too big for our God. If we will learn to take refuge in Him and lean on Him alone for strength, then with the psalmist we can face the most extreme crises with quiet confidence, because God is with us and He is sufficient. – Steven J. Cole, author and theologian.²

God allows troubles, frustrations, and hardships in our lives.

Don't lose heart

Minor molehills to sky-high mountains.

But we have to trust and take our refuge in Him.

“Quiet confidence”

“Be still”

That’s hard sometimes, isn’t it?

In our quiet moments of prayer, we want everything fixed in our timing.

We may seek out Christian friends, perhaps a Christian counselor – all of whom can be helpful and supportive through the rocky journeys we may be experiencing, but ultimately, God is our strength.

Don’t Lose Heart – We Will See Eternal Restoration

Referencing Isaiah 40, Pastor Mike Fabarez reminds us that some day, at the appointed time, the Glory of the Lord will be revealed. He is the Restorer of all things.

Keeper of promises

No matter where in the world we are at that time, we will all see it.

That should give us confidence that our Lord is a keeper of promises and everything wrong going on will be made right.

Count on Him!

“Have you read the news? Things are not as they ought to be – in the world, in the country, in our state, in our county, probably not in your home and certainly not in our lives. It’s broken and it’s painful and it’s frustrating, and I recognize that. But, as Christians, we don’t lose heart because the mouth of the Lord has spoken, and we understand what He says and we believe what He says and we have confidence in what He says and He’s proved that He can do what He has promised. As a matter of fact, when we study the gospels, we recognize that Jesus assures us of an absolute permanent fix to all things, an eternal restoration of all things.”– Dr. Mike Fabarez, pastor and teaching minister.³

Be Still and Know That I Am God

If you haven’t yet heard Steven Curtis Chapman sing “Be Still and Know”, you’re in for a real treat.

It’s simply beautiful.

This is the song I listen to before I start my Bible study every day.

I hope it blesses you as much as it blesses me.

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²Steven J. Cole quotation, courtesy of bible.org, from the series “Psalms.” n.d. 1993. para. 9. Web. Accessed 3 January, 2020. Retrieved from https://bible.org/seriespage/psalm-46-our-sufficient-god.

Our Exceptional God

Happy New Year 2020

December 30, 2019 Gracie

Happy New Year 2020

Wishing You A Happy New Year 2020

Is it me, or did the month of December just speed by like a freight train?

Phew!

Are you ready for the new year?

I need to start remembering to write “2020” now.

That might take about a week.

Looking Back on Challenges From Last Year

challenges

Looking back over the year 2019, I can honestly say that we have never been hit with so many challenges.

These were both emotional and physical challenges that packed a wallop.

It was surreal because they came without warning, in rapid succession, seemingly out of left field.

We got through it all by holding onto our faith, but that doesn’t mean it was easy.

And, the challenges weren’t just happening to us.

It seemed like most of our friends were dealing with major difficulties during the topsy-turvy year that was 2019.

A Close Call For Someone We Love

There’s something on my heart, and I have to share it.

I’d like to encourage you to pray for God’s protection over all of the dear ones in your life, both now and for their futures.

I believe this is crucial to add to your prayer lists.

You know as well as I do that this is a dangerous world that is getting even worse.

There are hostile people, in need of a Savior, who are running around unrestrained and hell-bent on hurting others, whether through words or deeds.

Recently, and as delicately as I can put it, we almost lost a shining light in our lives in the midst of a horrific crime.

It was that close.

We praise God for His hedge of protection over this situation.

Physical injuries can heal, but emotional wounds take much, much longer.

Comfort from God’s Word, our prayers, and the support from loved ones is vital when life deals a blow.

Honestly, I don’t know how people can get through this life without a strong faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Beauty Of Grace

I‘m grateful that God places certain people in our lives whom we can mutually love and support, pray with, and pray for. There’s nothing sweeter in my eyes than to have someone put their arms around you and pray right then and there for a situation, or to hear the sweet voice of a friend on the phone as he or she prays for you. Prayers are not shackled by distance in the eyes of our Heavenly Father.

In the following passage from Scripture, the Apostle Paul is talking about the sufficiency of believers being found in Jesus Christ. We can often see His grace most clearly in the valleys of our sufferings.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, NASB.

See The Miracle

Every day is a gift.

Cherish those in your life who love you back, and pray for those who don’t.

We have our mission.

the Christian life

Happy New Year 2020

Make it count!

the new year 2020

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²Francis August Schaeffer, (1912-1984), evangelical Christian and theologian. Schaeffer quotation, courtesy of AZquotes.com. “The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian view of the church.” Accessed 22 December, 2019.

Our Exceptional God

Christmas 2019

December 23, 2019 Gracie

Creator of the Heavens and the Earth

^{23 “}Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” – Matthew 1:23, NASB.

Reverence For King Jesus

If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: ‘God with us.’ We tend to focus our attention at Christmas on the infancy of Christ. The greater truth of the holiday is His deity. More astonishing than a baby in the manger is the truth that this promised baby is the Omnipotent Creator of the heavens and the earth!¹ – John MacArthur, Pastor and Bible Teacher, Grace To You.

On a Personal Note

Thank you for finding this blog post

in the midst of a

very busy holiday season.

I know your time is valuable and I appreciate your being here.

May we delight in God forever.

Merry Christmas 2019 to you and yours

Christmas 2019

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²John MacArthur quotation, courtesy of Christian quotes.info. Accessed 12 December, 2019.

Our Exceptional God

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