Valentine's Day-What is love?

Hello Everyone!  Happy Valentine's Day to you!  I hope that everyone is geared up and has spoiled their significant other with wonderful pleasantries and expressions of love today.  Valentine's day is a great and wonderful day set apart for "Love."  However, this got me to thinking, what is true love all about?  We immediately think of love as being that deep down warm fuzzy feeling that we get when we see our significant other or we get that box of chocolates or gift from them.  Love though is more than just a feeling, it goes much deeper than that.

 I go back to 1 Corinthians Chapter 13:4-8, better known as the Love chapter to get the meaning of love.  It goes like this.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
What an amazing picture of Love.  Now the REAL challenge....Substitute the word love with your name and that will bring it all the way home.  These are questions that I ask myself all the time...Is Joe patient, is Joe kind, is Joe not jealous or boastful, is Joe not proud or rude?  Is Joe not demanding of my own way (in other words...A Cry baby!) is Joe not irritable, (Sometimes tough after a long day of work), is Joe not keeping a record of wrongs, is Joe rejoicing about the injustices,  or is Joe rejoicing when truth wins out?   Will I never give up, never loose faith, always be hopeful and endure through EVERY circumstance?  Now that is "True Love!"  Challenging isn't it?  Are you up for it? 

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Moving Forward

Hello everyone!
Have you ever done something that you regret?  Have you ever said something that you wish you could take back?  I think we all have including myself.  The real question is what are you doing or going to do after the fact?  Are you going to let your past mistakes haunt you for many days and years to come?  What is the right thing to do?  I think we have to move past them and move forward, not dwell on them.  We should not let our past mistakes, words or deeds control us.  We need to move forward.

You might be saying..."Wait a minute!"  You don't know what I've done or said.  Maybe not, but I do know this, we server a mighty and merciful God who DOES NOT remember the past!  It is covered under the blood of His son Jesus!  The Bible says in Lamentations 3:22-23 "The faithful love of the Lord never ends!  His mercies never cease.  GREAT is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning!"  The Bible also says that “In Him [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us” (Ephesians 1:7-8).   We can also be assured that our sins are thrown as far as the east is from the west according to Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far He removed our transgressions from us”   2 Corinthians 5:17 says this "This means that ANYONE who belongs to Christ has become a NEW person.  The OLD life is GONE; a NEW life has begun!"
So I just want to encourage you today, if you have been struggling with forgiving yourself of things in the past, or if you have been or are currently thinking I can't get past this, YES YOU CAN!  There is a song that rings out in my heart every time I hear it and it just reminds me that I'm not going back, but moving forward...I'm moving forward, what about you? Here are the lyrics to the chorus.

I'm not going back
I'm moving ahead
Here to declare to you
My past is over in You
All things are made new
Surrendered my life to Christ
I'm moving moving forward

Cling to this song and I pray that you decide to move forward and not look back!  Let today be the day that you move one and declare that your past is over and that ALL things are made new!  God Bless!

Lessons Learned

Hello everyone!  I'm back!  After taking a month long break from blogging, I am back.  This post will be longer than most of my previous post but hopefully you will read on. 

During the month of January, like most everyone, we all like to make New years resolution to better ourselves and our situations.  Yes I did make some, but I would like to look at them more so as goals not resolutions.  I believe that we need not just one area of our lives to "resolve" to get better or to change, but make it a total make over.  Every area of our lives.  So this is what I decided to do, I decided to make my resolutions or I now like to say "My goals" for the year in all areas of my life.

• Physical
• Mental
• Spiritual

Here is what I plan on doing, yes I am announcing it to the world so I can also be accountable to what I say and do.  So here it is...

• Physical-My goal is to loose 60 pounds this year!  That seems like a lot but if you take it in little chunks it equals out to 5 pounds per month.  I am trying to get into an exercise routine and be more active and eat healthier.  It is all for the good.  I am also proud to report that I not only made my monthly goal but exceeded it!  I am very happy for that!  I have lost 6.5 pounds during January!  So I am on my way! 
  
  What about you?  What are you doing to better yourself physically?
• Mental- There is an old saying that goes like this..."A mind is a teribble thing to waste."  I agree.  We have to keep challenging ourselves not only physically but mentally as well.  I believe you never stop learning.  This year, I set the goal of reading at least one book a month that will help better myself, my relationships, my spiritual life, my job.  I have also set the goal of listening to various motivational speakers through their podcasts.  Keeping my mind sharp. 
  
  What are you doing to stay sharp mentally?
• Spiritual-  This is one area of my life that I hold dear to me.  My faith.  I have been challenged this year to pray harder than I ever have before, draw and seek God more than I ever have.  I have resolved to do the following to help me in my pursuit of drawing closer to God.  I have made it a goal to read through the entire Bible in a year.  I have also made it a goal not to let a day go by that I am not in prayer.  Begin and end my day with prayer.  Keeping a journal for all the requests.  I have also been attending a weekly prayer meeting that our church has for our men every Monday night.  I believe that through the reading of God's word and seeking God through prayer that my spiritual goals for myself and my family will be made!
  
  What are you doing for your spiritual life?  What keeps your spirit man charged up?  Don't let your tank get on empty!

So through this past month of January, it has been a real big challeng for me.  I am expecting great and wonderful things to come for the year of 2012.  Not only for myself, and my  immediate family, but also for my extended and church family as well.  Greater things are yet to come!  I believe, I'm praying, I expect!  I Cor 2:9 says “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”