Category: Revittalizen.your.health

What I am going to share with you seemed pretty profound to me.  I am sure it is nothing new and that others have already thought of and written about it.  But for me it was a new thought that was a blessing and I want to share it with you and I pray that it will be a blessing to you as well.

A couple of days ago as I was doing social study’s with my daughter, we read about the pilgrims coming across the great sea to the New World.  We all know the story.

As we were reading, a story from the Bible came to me, the story of the Children of Israel.  They were in bondage, as slaves in the land of Egypt.  They were not allowed to worship their God.  Therefore many lost sight of Him.  God came through Moses and brought them out of the land of bondage.  They journeyed through the desert.  It took them a very long time, many hardships, and many deaths.  Then they came to the Promised Land, Canaan.  They had to fight many battles but they had success because God was with them.  God had given them the land.  They were in a land flowing with milk and honey.  They had everything they could possibly want, most of all freedom.  But as time went by many forgot what God had really done for them.  They chose a path of idol worship, corruption, and many evil things.  God’s protection was slowly removed and they were taken captive more than one time by different countries.  And when the Savior, Jesus Christ, came they did not even recognize Him.  They rejected Him and crucified Him.

Now fast forward many years to the pilgrims.  They were in bondage in England.  They did not have the freedom to worship God because of this many lost sight of the true worship of God.  But there were those few that did not.  They sought freedom.  Eventually there was a group that was led by God to make the long and dangerous journey to the Promised Land, the New World, America.  They journeyed through the ocean waters and there were many hardships and many died in the journey and after they arrived.  They finally made it and as time passed there were battles to secure their freedom in the New World, to escape the bondage of England.  But finally this nation was separated from England and they were free.  But as time has passed, this nation has forgotten the leading of God.  Evil and corruption reign.  Slowly God is pulling His protection from this nation.  There are many that are in the captivity of sin.  Evil abounds everywhere and soon there will be an end.

This leads me to another correlation, the Christian life.  As a Christian, we have been rescued from the bondage of sin.  There have been many battles to fight along the journey and there will be many more but God is with us.  As time goes on in our journey it seems that Christians are losing their way.  There are evils that are creeping into our lives.  We may be doing things that we never thought we would ever do or go back to.  God has called us out to be a different people, to not fit into the things of this world, for He has a better place planned for us.  The question is, are we going to recognize Him when He comes?  Or are we going to reject Him just as Israel did?  We don’t have a lot of time left to decide and this time there will be no other chance, it will be over.  As we forget our past history, we forget how God has led.  We need to wake up and take notice, only the Lord can help us.  Let us not repeat history in our own lives.

There are many, I will call them conspiracy theorist, which want to take God out of history.  And this is not just worldly people; this is within the Christian community as well.  As soon as we start taking God out of history we cannot see how God has led, we only see what is being told, the conspiracy theories, because it seems to make sense.  God led the Children of Israel from Egypt and God led the pilgrims and the establishment of this country.  No matter what others may say God is still in charge and He is leading.  Stop looking at the news, the newspapers, Facebook, the web, or Christian speakers for your theories.  God’s Word is our safeguard and we are told that God is the one that is in control, He places kings and takes down kings and He is going to finish the story and we do not know what that is but we can trust Him.  Let’s just make sure that we are following the right story.

Dear Father,

Thank You that You have led us, our country, and our lives.  We can choose our own way and some of us have, this corruption has come into our country as well as our lives.  Help us to see as You see and empty the corruption out of our own lives so that we will be ready when You come.  Thank You for Your patience and Your leading not only in our lives individually but also in the history of this world.  Help us not to forget.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

As God has led us from bondage, let us live in freedom by surrendering to Him every area of our lives each day.

Love you all.

What area of your life have you seen the hand of God that helped you to know that God was there leading you, even when you may not have even known Him yet?  I have heard stories where, when someone has finally found God, they can look back on their life, even while living in a life of sin, can see His leading.  I would love to hear your story.

Who do you love, is a hard question.  It is easy to love those that love us, but what about those people who irritate us?  There are some people who just seem to have it out for us.  It doesn’t matter what you do you can never please them and it seems that their one goal in life is to make your life miserable.

The next question would be, “On the day of your funeral, as you lie there in your casket, is anything going to bother you anymore?”  You may be thinking right now, “What kind of question is that?  This lady is crazy.  Of course I am not going to care because I am dead.”

I want to propose to you that the only way we can follow God’s command to “Love our enemies”, is to be dead.  This kind of death is not a physical death but a death to self.  A death to self is a very hard death.  We may think that we are dead but just have one person cross us or say something mean about us or one of our family members, self will appear.  We could be 100% right but self still has to stay dead.

I know of only One Person who was 100% right and that was Jesus Christ.  When He walked this earth He was perfect.  He had every right to defend Himself but He never did.  He is our example.  He deserved none of the evil treatment that He received.  We are not perfect and there are times we deserve what is coming to us but we still feel it is unfair and we feel sorry for ourselves and fight against it.  He didn’t deserve any of it and He took it without complaint.  And He still loved the people who did it to Him.  He was dead to self.  For us to be dead to self we cannot do it on our own.  We need the power of God in our lives.  We need to be surrendered to Him daily, moment by moment.

We are told that we should “rejoice always”.  Why has God asked us to do this and how can we possibly do it?  “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” James 1 2-4 The reason we can rejoice is that all these things come to our lives for a purpose.  We are like a stone that needs to have “hewers” to refine us into the image of God so that we can fit perfectly into His Kingdom.  The trials and temptations that come to us are the “hewers” that God uses to form us to fit in His Kingdom.  Only the love of God can help us to love our enemies or those that treat us unjustly.  Some of our best refiners can be our own family.  Some of our family may be hard to get a long with but through the power and grace of God we can use these circumstances to refine our characters.

There is only one way we can love as Jesus loves and that is to get to know Him.  As we get to know Him we come to realize He loves us with such love despite our shortcomings and we should do the same for others.  It is a moment-by-moment walk with His power that can keep self dead.

Dear Father,

We need you.  Thank You for the trials and temptations that you allow so that our characters can be refined.  It is not easy to rejoice in all things but I know that as we do this Your perfect work will be preformed in us.  Thank You for loving us.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Are you wondering how you can rejoice in the work the Lord is doing in your life?  It isn’t easy, I know, but I have found that as I speak words of gratefulness my attitude starts to change and I grow.  If we resist we will not grow.  Embrace God’s “hewers” and with His strength You will overcome.

Love you all!

Is there a time that God has allowed a “hewer” in your life and as you trusted Him through it, miracles happened?  I would love to hear how God has worked in your life.

When we think of idols we often think of a graven image made of wood, gold, or silver, but the reality is that it goes much deep than that.  So the question is, do you have an idol?

Here are a couple of dictionary definitions of idol:  1.  An image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.  2.  A person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered.

We may look at these definitions and think, “I don’t really have that problem”, but do we.  I recently ran across a definition that hit me between the eyes.  “When we expect from things what only God can give, such as security, joy, and freedom, we turn things into idols.”  Wow!  Now to me that is profound.  How many times have we put our security in money or people, which is making them an idol?  What about expecting the things that surround us to give us joy, idol.  How do we respond if those around us don’t love us?  Is that our idol?  There is only one kind of true freedom and if we do not have freedom in Christ then we have another idol.  You may think I am crazy.

I do want to make it clear here that I am talking about a person who is of accountable age.  A child who is not to accountability yet should be able to have security, joy, freedom, and love from their parents.  We are in the place of God to them but we should be leading them to change their reliance over to God as they grow in maturity.  And I do want to make clear that this could be even a new believer.  They are young in the faith and they to need to grow in maturity and we should help them grow beyond relying on others, to putting their total reliance on God for all these things.  If we do not lead them beyond the point of relying on us we may have made their reliance on us an idol.  It can feel good and maybe even look good to others and give us glory as we look so giving and helpful to others.  But we could be keeping them from maturing.

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusted in Thee.”  Isaiah 26:3 True peace, joy, freedom, and security come from having that full trust in God.  Having the trust that nothing comes into our lives that are not for our good.  And we can still have peace and joy through it all as we rely on Him.  We tend to start relying on ourselves and things instead of God.  So reality is we can become our own idol.  We think WE are going to fix this, WE are going to solve that, and WE are going to make everything happen the way WE think it should go.

God is the only one that can bring us true security, joy, freedom, and love and if we are trying to get it anywhere else or from anyone else we will be insecure, in bondage, not have a real joy or feel truly loved.

Dear Father,

We so often only think of idols as tangible but there are so many idols we can have that we have a hard time seeing.  Lord, help us to see what things that we are holding up in the place of You.  It can be good things but they are in the wrong position in our lives.  Show us and give us strength to make a change because we are weak.  Thank You for always being there for us and for having such patience with us.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Go to God He will show you if there is anything that you have put above Him.  He will give you the strength to put everything in the right position in your life.

Love you all.

Have you ever realized that you had an idol?  What brought you to the realization and how did God help you change it?

I am sure that you have been in a situation where you are trying to get something to work.  You have limited time.  The harder you try the more it fails.  The frustration can get so high, you may even get angry at God.

I have needed to get some color copies and since I don’t have that capability I needed to go into to town to do it.  I have been so busy working I have not had time to run into town.  Then I remembered that there is one of the places in town where you can order copies online and then go pick it up.  I went to the sight and tried to log into my account.  That is when the trouble began.  It told me I wasn’t me.  No matter how many times I checked what I had typed in to make sure I had typed it right, it reject my info.  So I clicked forgot password.  I was sent a link and then I changed my password and tried to log in.  Same problem, I didn’t exist.  I finally went to bed.

The next morning, I was finally able to log in.  I electronically uploaded what I wanted printed, made all the choices I wanted, put in a discount that was available and submitted my order, at least I tried.  Again I had problems it wouldn’t let me choose my store location and when I finally got that to work I hit the submit button and it did nothing.  Talk about frustration I was frustrated.  I kept saying, “Lord, please make this work, why aren’t you allowing this to work?”  It seemed that I was being told, “You don’t want it to work” but I was ignoring that, I was so desperate.  I finally gave up and went to work.

I learned a couple of days ago that I was getting close to my 40 hours at work and we are not supposed to do any overtime.  So I was able to get off work early.  I went into town to the store that I had been trying to make copies online through.  They were the least expensive I could find.  I went to the self-serve copy machine and proceeded to make my copies.  I started with just making one color copy so I could make sure it was okay.  When the copy came out I could not be believe my eyes, it was terrible quality.  I can’t describe how I felt at that moment.  Earlier in the week I had gone and got a sample done at one place.  They were more expensive but the quality was good.  So I ended up going back to where I had been before and got better quality.  The fact is, you get what you pay for.

What really hit me is the fact that I had spent more than an hour, collectively, trying to order the copies online and it was not working.  I realized that God was preventing me from making that mistake.  God is so merciful and gracious.  I was really frustrated that He was not answering my prayer.  Here He knew how desperately I needed these done but He was not helping.  When in reality He was but I just couldn’t see it until later.  Gratefully, God is a God of forgiveness.

Why is it so difficult for us to trust God?  He knows the end from the beginning so He would know more than we can possibly know.  When we let Him have control we have to let go of control and it is a difficult thing to do.  Somehow we feel we can’t make it unless we are in control of everything.  I have learned some valuable lessons through this experience.  One thing I have learned is that God is a God of love.  We may make a mistake but He is not standing over our heads saying, “I told you so!”  He just wants to reconnect with us.  Instead of wallowing in self-pity I just asked the Lord to forgive me and moved on.  And I pray that next time I will be more willing to listen.

Dear Father,

Forgive me for no trusting Your ways.  Thank You for Your love and forgiveness.  Thank You for stopping me even though I persisted in my own way.  You were so gracious.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Remember to listen to the still small voice.  Let God lead and don’t get frustrated.  But if you fail remember God is a forgiving and loving God.

Love you all.

Have you ever had an experience where you listened or did not listen to God’s still small voice?  What was the outcome?  I would love to hear your story.

A lot of times we can put walls around ourselves to protect us from things around us.  But no matter what measures we take we are going to be hurt sometime through our lives.

I remember when my two youngest children were going to stay with Grandma for the day.  She let them know that they could not go climbing up the mountain or do anything outside that they could possibly get hurt, like climb a tree.  She didn’t want them getting hurt while they were with her.  Later on in the day I ended up getting a phone call.  My son had run down the hallway, tripped going into Grandma’s bedroom, and hit the edge of her dressing.  He had a pretty bad spot on his head but Grandma wasn’t sure if it was bad enough to go to the doctor.  It was a head wound but wasn’t bleeding profusely, like head wounds usually do.

I finally decided to have them bring him into town and I would meet them at the urgent care.  As it turned out it was a cut that need stitches but it didn’t bleed very much because it was an impact cut.  So much for my mom trying to keep him from getting hurt by not allowing him to do things more dangerous.  It doesn’t really matter where they are if you have a kid that is accident prone they are going to get hurt.

Sometimes we has Christians can try to be too protective of new believers.  We think somehow we have the wisdom to know what is best for them.  Now I am not saying we should not be watchful for them.  But what I am saying is that God reads the heart.  God knows what He needs to allow into a person’s life in order to refine their character for heaven.  We also need to realize that God is a God of power.  He has the protective power that we don’t even process.

I remember when I was a kid and my parents were witnessing to a lady.  She was interested in becoming a Christian.  She came to some meetings at our church and was really enjoying what she was hearing.  Then there was a speaker that was sharing some things that were not good and my parents were cringing.  They didn’t say anything until later.  They asked her what she thought of the meeting.  She said it was great.  When they asked her about what was great she shared and what she had heard was different from what the speaker had said.  God has a thousand ways to deal with issues but we think we are smarter.  No, we don’t consciously say that but we live that way.  We need to remember God can handle it all.  We need to love these people but give God room to work.  Our major role is to love them, pray for them, and be there for them.

Dear Father,

Help us to be the kind of witnesses You would have us be without getting in the way of Your workings.  Prompt us with Your guiding hand.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Let’s make sure we are in tune with Jesus voice so that we can help those around us and not hinder them in their growth.

Love you all.

Do you have a story?  Maybe you have been too protective of someone whether physically or spiritually, what was the outcome?

Maybe you have been the one that has been protected what is your story?

I love to hear the testimonies of others.

We all have experienced rough roads, whether it is driving a road that is not well maintained, driving a dirt road, or hiking.  It may not seem so bad at first but after a while it gets rather tiring.

A couple of days ago our family went for a hike.  I had not intended on going far.  When we got to the location that we were headed to I asked my son, “Isn’t that the top of the mountain?”  He said, “Yes.”  I was thinking, “That isn’t that far and when we get to the top there is a road we can hike on and that will be so easy.”  So we went to the top.

It was great once we got to the top.  We were now on the road and although it would be a long hike back home, it would be easy because we were on a mountain road.  It would have been except for one small detail.  There was family that wanted to take a “shortcut”.  Now it may have been a short cut but it was rough going.  We were going down the mountain strewn with layers of pine needles that were slippery, through bushes, over logs, and across streams of water.  Not what I call very pleasant.  I have to say, though, that when we broke through and we could look into the valley it was beautiful.  If we had taken the easy road we would have missed the beauty.  It may have been easier but the outcome would not have been the same.

It made me think of the Christian walk.  There is the easy road that would be a lot easier to travel.  This road is really no different from the world.  The only real difference is that we claim to be Christians and we go to church.  We give a false appearance.  The road is easy, there is no resistance or any significant bumps in the road.  We are going a long with the mainstream.  It is really easy because we don’t really need to make any changes in our lives.  We just show up to church once a week and we’re great.  We think that this easy road is leading us Home but sad to say, when we get to the end the Beauty is not going to be there.

If we choose to surrender our all to God, the road is going to be rough.  We are not going to be following mainstream Christianity.  We are not going to fit in.  We are going to be stumbling over rocks and boulders that the devil puts in our pathway.  The path is going to be strewn with “pine needles”, with the intention to cause us to fall, which at times we do.  But we keep getting up and continuing the journey Home.  The journey is rough and tiring but when we break through and we see the beauty of what God has planned for us, it will be worth it all.

How can we stay on this rough journey and stay away from the easy road?

1. Spend time with God each day.  Your time with God is so important.  Don’t allow any thing to distracted you from it.
2. Spend much time in prayer.  Ask God to stay close to you and keep you from slipping on the rough road.
3. Memorize scripture.  Being able to claim promises during times of hardships and temptations is so necessary to overcome.
4. Surrender your life, each day, to God.  You need to surrender your life each day to God.  Even throughout the day, you will need to keep surrendering to God each time there is a rough place in the road.  When you are tempted to take the easy road out claim His promises.
5. Be grateful.  When you are grateful no matter what comes to you, it makes the road seem less bumpy.

Dear Father,

Thank You for Your unfailing love.  Thank You that when the road is rough, You are there to help us, if we just reach out our hand to You.  Give us courage to keep on the journey.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

No matter how rough the road, don’t give up.  Stay surrendered to the One that gave all for you.

Love you all.

We all have experienced rough roads.  What have you experienced and how has the Lord seen you through?  I would love to hear your story.

When you were a kid, was there something you wanted really bad but your dad or mom said a definite no?  You can probably feel the frustration that you had at that time, right now, as you think about it.

I remember when I was a kid, one day a stray dog showed up.  My mom, brother, and I really wanted to take it in.  The dog was really matted looking and really dirty.  Our hearts went out to the dog.  But my dad said a definite no.

Our neighbor came by and I don’t really remember what he said to my dad but he convinced him to take it in.  So he went cautiously to catch it.  He took her to our tub to clean her up.  She was a mess.  She was matted, dirty, and had big bruises.

The next day my mom took her to get groomed.  When she went to pick her up she told the lady it was not her dog, she looked so different.  She was so beautiful.  She was a Cockapoo and had silvery/grey/black hair.

She was the best dog that we ever had.  She was so loving.  We did not have her long, I don’t remember the time frame, maybe a couple three years.  She ended up getting cancer, which probably came from her injuries.  But I am telling you it was worth all the time we had with her.  We were grateful my dad finally said yes and he would agree.

It made me think about how we look at people.  When we see people do we see them as “matted and dirty”?  Or do we look passed the surface?  A lot of people are a mess.  They are matted and dirty with sin.  They maybe bruised physically, emotionally, spiritually and financially.  How do we respond to them?  Do we draw them to us or do we say absolutely no?  I don’t want to be bothered.

Just like stray dogs there are a lot of stray people.  The question is how can we reach out to them.  Just like a stray dog can be dangerous and bite you, people can be dangerous as well, even more dangerous.  So how can we reach the people?

Here are some steps that I would recommend.  There can be many answers to these questions but I am just going to give you a few ideas.

1. Seek wisdom from God. We are all individuals and I don’t think that any of us can tell someone else how to reach out to people.  God is the One with the wisdom.  He is the one that can guide and protect.
2. Ask God for divine appointments.  God can lead you to the ones that He wants you to minister to.
3. Ask for God’s love.  People can sense our disgust or love.  The atmosphere we carry around us is felt.  If they sense our love it can be a wonderful thing for them and we haven’t even said a word.
4. Smile!  It is amazing what a smile can do for a person.
5. Qualify whom you reach out to.  I think a good rule of thumb is to reach out to your own gender.  Men reach out to men and women to women.  That can be a safer thing to do.
6. If they walk into church don’t shun them.  We don’t need to know the motive of why they are there, it may be a selfish one, but that is not our job.  We need to show love.  And we need to be in tune with God.

Dear Father,

This can be such a hard thing to do, to reach out to the unlovely.  We ask for Your wisdom.  We know that You love all.  You love the sinner but hate the sin.  For us we struggle with separating the two, please help us.  Thank You for the love You have shown us and help us to remember where You have brought us from.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

We need to draw so close to God that when people are struggling they can feel His love through us.

Love you all.

What divine appointments has God given you and how did He help you?

Maybe you are someone who was in a bad place and someone reached out to you.  Tell us how God used a person in your life.

I would love to hear the testimonies.

My daughter had an eye appointment yesterday. The thing that she dislikes the most is when they put drops in her eyes so that they dilate. It stings when they put them in. On top of that, after a little bit things become blurry. Now when you’re all done, if you have not brought your own sunglasses, they give you some “cool” looking ones to wear temporarily. No one really wants to be caught wearing those, so you always try to remember to bring your own. The reason for the sunglasses is because when you get into the sunlight, especially on a very bright day, it really hurts your eyes.
I couldn’t help but think about our everyday lives. We can have things that are in our lives that keep our spiritual eyesight blurry. Every time we get in contact with the Son it makes our spiritual eyes painful. The unfortunate part is a lot of times we put “sunglasses” on because it is painful. And if we don’t put our own on the devil is sure to give us some. But we usually like to wear our own because we want it to be disguised. The devils “glasses” are more visible to those around us. Either we don’t know how to make things different or we don’t want to. The solution is different but the solution to both involves you and me as Christians.
For those of us as Christians, it is a matter of choosing. Now that is easier said than done when self wants its way. We need to ask God to “…Anoint my eyes with eye salve, that I may see.” See Revelation 3:18. If we go to God with a willing heart He will show us what is getting in the way of spiritual growth. As we read His Word, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, our eyes will begin to open. We will only see a little at a time and as we follow through with what God is telling us He will reveal more and more. There may be times that we will need to agonize with God in prayer. Self can be so tough to cut across. But God is more powerful if we give Him full control.
There may be someone out there that is struggling but they really don’t know what to do or where to find the answers. That is where we can be of help in sharing our experiences. We can help restore a brother or sister. “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Galatians 6:1
There are also those out there that may know there is a God but don’t know anything about reaching out to Him for help. We should become a friend and as the Lord leads we can share with them the answers that we have discovered. It is very important that they feel your love and not condemnation. We are all sinners, make mistakes, and need the mercy and grace of God. Love is an important key.
Dear Father,
Wash our eyes so that we can see the wonderful things that You have for us. When our eyes are blurry we cannot discern Your love. We tend to look at Your ways as restrictive. That is what the devil wants us to think but truly Your ways are freedom. We need You. Guard us against Satan’s tactics. Thank You for Your unfailing love.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
Remember God loves you beyond human imagination. No matter what anyone is telling you, it is never too late to come to God. Satan wants to keep you in the trap of feeling unworthy to come. God loved you so much He sent His only Son to die just for you. He wants you to come to Him no matter what you have done or what has been done to you.
Love you all.
Have you had something in your life that made your spiritual eyes blurry? How did God help you to see? I would love to hear how God helped you or used someone else in your life to help you.
What kind of crazy things have you had happen when you have had your eyes dilated? I would love to hear your story.