A CELL PHONE IS WHAT????

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A CELL PHONE IS WHAT???
 
How would you describe a cell phone?  Necessity…necessary evil…lifeline…convenient…
 
What happens when you leave home without it or lose it?  Many are lost and some panicked until they have it back in their possession.
 
It is indeed a necessity for some and a necessary evil for others. There are those that are addicted to it so in a way it is their lifeline. It is definitely a convenience, well, most of the time.
 
The cell phone can also be used as a spiritual growth tool!  Here are several ways to grow spiritually using the cell phone! I love the last one!
 
Download the whole Bible on your cell phone.  Some Bible apps have many different versions of the Bible within one app. There are also daily, weekly, yearly, or topical devotionals in these apps.  Verses can be highlighted and notes can be made for future reference.  Your Bible is always in the palm of your hand!
 
Download a Bible verse memory app.  You put in whatever verses you want and study them with the flash card method or listen to them. They can also be heard by connecting your phone to the car or home stereo. 
 
If you are on Facebook, sign up to have daily devotional and news articles sent from your favorite authors.  I have Chuck Swindoll, Max Lucado and Franklin Graham sent to mine. Having daily devotionals sent to your email is another option.  In Touch magazine with Charles Stanley’s devotional is in my email every morning. Keep prayer needs current with email. Our Pastor sends emails with the latest prayer requests and other information concerning the church and events through the email. Connecting with International and Home Missionaries through email and Facebook is another great way to keep their prayer needs before you.
 
My latest most exciting endeavor with the cell phone is to set an alarm every hour on the hour (of course not during church or other meetings and family times.)  This alarm is to remind me to talk to God for at least a couple of minutes every hour.  When the alarm goes off my 4 year old granddaughter says, “Mammie, it’s time to talk to God.”  It has become a wonderful series of mini talks with God throughout the day! 
 
Where am I when that alarm goes off? Maybe I am in God’s beautiful outdoors or in a storm (a life storm or a weather storm). Sometimes I am shopping and there is a mom close by who is struggling with little ones.  Sometimes I am driving and hear sirens or I am in traffic. Sometimes I am just at peace and thanking God for the blessing of the last hour or asking for help for myself or someone else for the next hour. 
There is always something to talk to God about for a minute or two.  But, I find often it goes well beyond a minute or two.  Sometimes I listen for God to talk to me.  No matter what the point of conversation is at the top of the hour it definitely keeps me aware of the Presence of God in my life!  
 
So what is a cell phone?  A great spiritual growth tool!
 
Jeremiah 33:3 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
3 Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

A REPEAT POST

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This is a re-post from before I connected to Facebook..  I thought I would send it again.

A SHOUT OUT TO MY GRANDSONS!

I am thinking of my grandsons today! I have five grandsons and one great-grandson.  Why grandsons?  Well, they are young, vulnerable, easily influenced by their peers and early in life they set lifelong patterns for living, as we all do!

With that in mind I want to WARN my young grandsons of the dangers of pornography.

Early in your lives you will be exposed to this in one way or another, possibly as simple as something you see on a TV commercial or program you shouldn’t be watching.  It could be introduced to you by a friend who assures you there is no harm in looking.  There are numerous ways IT WILL come across your path in life.

They key to resisting is to FLEE, LOOK AWAY, and ask God to give you strength to never look again.  If it remains a temptation to you, find an adult you can trust and talk to them about it. Explain to them what you are thinking, feeling, and wanting to do. Ask them to help you to know how to handle this and be accountable to them in this area.

It is extremely important to never begin the habit of looking at porn. You will always want more and more until it consumes your mind and life.  It is a path to a very dark pit that leads to a dead end addiction and even death itself.

 JAMES 1: 14-15 CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH VERSION (CEV)

14 We are tempted by our own desires that drag us off and trap us. 15 Our desires make us sin, and when sin is finished with us, it leaves us dead.

This is from an earlier post:

Every thought, decision or action has a consequence.  One thing leads to another.  A thought becomes an attitude and an attitude becomes an action, an action becomes a habit and a habit becomes a stronghold! Good or bad, positive or negative, right or wrong.

Everything begins with a thought!

Proverbs 4:23  Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.       Good News Translation

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

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WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

I have talked to a lot of defeated and discouraged people in the past week. It’s often been said that life is hard even on a good day.  But here are questions for those of you who are defeated, discouraged, overwhelmed with whatever you are facing in life —

What are you focusing on? Are you looking at the circumstances or God?

How big is your God? What is He able to do?

What or who do you hope in or do you have any hope? If you don’t have any hope do you know where to get it?

As believers, we have hope in our Awesome God because He gave His only Son, Jesus, who bled and died for us and when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior we become children of God and co-heirs with Jesus.  What does that mean?

Jesus won victory over sin because He did not stay dead.  He arose and is alive in heaven today with the Father interceding for us and preparing us a heavenly home.  What does that mean?

We have an advocate in heaven.  When Satan comes saying, “look at him he is guilty, he got it all wrong again”. Jesus tells the Father that we are one of His followers and we are not guilty because our sins are covered, actually, washed away with His death and resurrection.  What does that mean?

We are not guilty because of Jesus death on the cross.  Yes we sin but we confess to God and agree with Him that what we did or thought was wrong.  We do it immediately when we know we have sinned and we repent.  What does that mean?

When we repent we turn away from our sin and go God’s way, walking in obedience to the direction He leads us as we pray and study His Word.

What does it all mean?

God loves us more than we will ever comprehend and we are His children.

We have total access to God and His power, protection and peace.  The Presence of God is actually with us all the time through the Holy Spirit living in us!  We are never without God! We never will be!

God’s Word, the Bible gives us hope and direction as well as comfort and peace.  We get to know who God is and what He is like when we read His Word.

We have the hope of heaven when we die and the hope of joy in the midst of difficult circumstance today because God is with us! We can rise above the circumstances and live victoriously!

Our God is an awesome God who created everything by just speaking words! Look around at nature and be amazed how God has orchestrated life and seasons down to the tiniest detail.  Look at the newborn baby and see the wonder of how life begins.

We as believers know God’s love.  We can see the power of God in nature, in birth, and in our everyday lives.

We must put our focus on God and His power not on the circumstances. Look to God. He is your refuge and hope!  Believers have hope!

Luke 1:37 King James Version (KJV)

37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

Philippians 4:13 New Living Translation (NLT)

13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Psalm 46:1 King James Version (KJV)

46 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

And one of my favorites:

Zephaniah 3:17 New International Version (NIV)

17 The Lord your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you;
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.”

DON’T LOOK BACK

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DON’T LOOK BACK
 
Don’t look back over the years or even yesterday!  I have been doing a lot of looking back lately.  Not because I want to but thoughts just come into my mind and sad to say sometimes I linger on the wrong ones a little too long.
 
What I know for sure is we can’t change the past.  All those what if I had done it this way or what if I hadn’t done this or that or I wish I would have made this choice instead … or If only I had or … The list goes on and on but the fact is what’s done is done.  We can regret it.  We can stress over it and feel guilty about it. We can let it make us miserable and affect our everyday life. We can even let it take us into depression.
 
BUT
 
As a child of God there is no need for me to do any of the above.  I simply just need to trust God and believe His Word because He knows every day of my life from beginning to end.  None of my decisions have taken Him off guard or surprised Him.  He is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega.  He is in complete control and whenever I get it wrong God works it out for good as He weaves every decision of my life into the plan He has just for me.  He does this for every believer as He works out the plan He has for each of them.
 
Don’t look back, look up to God and talk to Him. 
Thank Him for new beginnings and fresh starts.  Thank Him for being in control and for loving you unconditionally. Thank Him for being all powerful and able to cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Don’t look back, look in the Bible and get to know God and His ways.  See how God sees you:
Zephaniah 3:17 New International Version (NIV)
17 The Lord your God is with you,
    he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you;
    he will quiet you with his love,
    he will rejoice over you with singing.”
Don’t look back, but look and see the way to have peace that passes understanding:  
Philippians 4:6-8 New Living Translation (NLT)
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

PRACTICE

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The P’s

God’s Plan

God’s Purpose

God has a plan and purpose for each of us.  We can see them woven throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

God’s Protection

God’s Provision

God is our Protector and Provider.  We do not need to fear, fret or worry!

God’s Power

God’s Presence

God’s Peace

God’s Power, Presence and Peace are with us and in us.  God never changes but we do and that’s when we may not see His Power or sense His Presence or know His peace.

God’s Promises

God’s Promises are true and we can trust them. God is always faithful and He never fails.

Praise

Psalm 9 NLT

          I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.

Pray

1 Thessalonians 5:17 KJV

       Pray without ceasing.

Patience

         Galatians 5:22-23 NLT

        22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,                    faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

Practice

Praise, Prayer, Patience and the Presence of God

 AS YOU GO THROUGH EACH DAY

AND YOU WILL KNOW PEACE

A SIMPLE THOUGHT

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A SIMPLE THOUGHT

It is a beautiful bright sunny day today but it is also cold, snowy, icy and dangerous.  I am thankful God has provided in many ways so that I do not have to go out.

God has given me a wonderful dedicated husband who willingly goes out in all this day after day to do the work God has given him.  Not only has God given him stable work with a great company, He has also gifted Andy in areas needed to get the job done.  Andy has the uncanny ability to remember and know how to use the knowledge he has gained from all of the on the job experiences over the years.  This knowledge helps him each day as challenges mount.  His alertness to minute details in the big picture gives him a jump on the obstacles to come.  Even when his health wavers with this current gruesome deadline schedule, God gives him periods of rest at odd times of the day so he has strength to carry on and rise above the circumstances.

God has also provided me with children close by who are willing to help when things need to be taken care of that I cannot do myself.  Their nearness is a blessing to me but those that are far away keep in touch and it warms my heart when I hear their voices on the phone or get a text or email.  Even though they are not with me God blesses me through contact with them.  My children whether near or far away encourage me and are there for me in more ways than I can explain.

I want for nothing.  I have more than I need.  I am blessed abundantly with peace, joy, love and hope because of God’s unconditional love for me (love), Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for me (hope) and the Holy Spirit’s constant Presence with me and within me (peace and joy)!

All of this came to me this morning with a simple thought that I wrote in my journal:

Thank you, Lord, for your peace and joy and love and hope.

 Psalm 118:23-24 New Living Translation (NLT)

23 This is the Lord’s doing,
and it is wonderful to see.
24 This is the day the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 103:1 King James Version (KJV)

103 Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

A BLESSING FOR EVERY TRIAL

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A Blessing for Every Trial
 
It’s the end of February already.  The first half of the month I spent working through the passing of my young niece.  The second half, I have had one of my roughest bouts with common cold ever!
 
Yes it was a short and difficult month but God was with me every day in every way.
 
There is the heartache of losing my special and young dear niece.
 
There is the blessing of knowing she is with the Lord.
 
There was the traveling to Ohio under the emotional turmoil I felt and then the traveling home in the blinding snow storm.
 
There was the blessing of God’s protective hand on me; I was never out of His sight or His reach. His Presence was and is with me always!
 
There was in the midst of my own grief the need to be strong for my family.
 
There was the blessing of knowing that friends and family back home were praying for me and for those hurting with me.  God gave us all strength and comfort and peace!
 
There have been days of fatigue and weakness due to my cold.
The blessing is that God has given me time to get much needed sleep, quiet rest and time with Him.
 
There were the unplanned expenses of the travel and oh yes, the underground water pump for the well that needed to be replaced early in the month!
 
The blessing has been that God has abundantly provided for every need this month!
 
The promise of eternal security – spiritual need
 
The promise of strength, comfort and peace in the emotional storm –spiritual, emotional and physical needs
 
The promise of His constant Presence and protection in the midst of the storms of life – spiritual and physical needs
 
The promise of His on time provision for financial needs planned or unplanned – material needs
 
Praise God for He has indeed BLESSED AND ABUNDANTLY provided for EVERY need!
 
Philippians  4:19 KJV
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
 

Philippians 4:19New Living Translation (NLT)

19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needsfrom his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
 

ALWAYS

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ALWAYS

Whatever you are thinking, feeling or experiencing today, KNOW these things:

God is in control….ALWAYS

God loves you….ALWAYS

God is with you…ALWAYS

God works all things for your good and His glory….ALWAYS

Now personalize it just for you!

God is in control….ALWAYS

God loves me….ALWAYS

God is with me…ALWAYS

God works all things for my good and His glory….ALWAYS

When the hard times come REMEMBER!

God is in control….ALWAYS

Psalm 103:19 New Living Translation (NLT)

19 The Lord has made the heavens his throne;
from there he rules over everything.

God loves you….ALWAYS

1 Thessalonians 1:4 New Living Translation (NLT)

4 We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people.

God is with you…ALWAYS

Joshua 1:9 New Living Translation (NLT)

9 This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

God works all things for your good and His glory….ALWAYS

Romans 8:28 New Living Translation (NLT)

28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

 

 

WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?

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WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?

What is your biggest problem today?  And I did say problem, not issue!

Let me list a few and let you pick one.

A broken vehicle

A past due bill with no money to pay it

A mountain of grief you can’t seem to deal with

A medical diagnosis you hoped you would never hear

A spouse that is just not who you thought they were

An ex that gives you trouble over every little thing

A boss who is never satisfied no matter how hard you try

A child or grandchild that will just not listen or cooperate all day – that would be mine for today.

So what must we do to get through these problems? Get with God!

  1. Know He does not see things the way we do. His perspective is eternal not temporal. We must see things from God’s perspective.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

  1. Read the Bible, read it some more. Think on it. Apply it.

Psalm 119:105  Your word is a lamp to my feet  And a light to my path.

  1. Trust that He is with us at all times though all things.

Joshua 1:9   Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

  1. Know He wants the best for us and we will be stronger because of the trial.

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Philippians 4:19  But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

  1. Know that He is our strength and our refuge.

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

It all comes back to God.  He must be in the center of our lives and our thoughts.

God is our Provider… God is the Peacemaker… God is our constant Companion through the Holy Spirit…God is our Healer…God is the one who helps us love the unlovely…God is the one who calms our tempers and fears and gives us wisdom and calmness in the storms of life

It is God; the answer is God.  He is our only Hope!  Get in touch with Him today.  Talk to Him.  Tell Him how you feel, what you need, even what you want then listen for His still small voice and obey His direction!

Psalm 46:10a  Be still, and know that I am God

Get to know God! He IS our only HOPE!

Romans 15:13

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.