What kind of friend are you?

You probably thought this would be one of those crazy quizzes that is suppose to tell you your personality, huh?

It's not. This is just some thoughts the Lord laid on my heart today.

What kind of friend are you?

Job 2:11-13

11Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him and to comfort him.
12And when they were lift up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.
13So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

This scripture really spoke to me. They way his friends cared so deeply for him. Job had lost everything at this point; his oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels, servants, children, and even his wife. On top of losing all those things, he was smote with sore boils all over his body. His three closest friends made arrangements together to go meet with him and just be their for him. They met before they went to him and the Bible says they "lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle". I fully believe they prayed for him. They worshipped God and trusted Him in all that was going on in their dear friends life. And when they got to him, they never said one word. For seven days and seven nights they sat on the ground with him. Not one word was spoken. They gave up an entire week just to sit on the ground and not say a word. They showed him they were there for him no matter what. How many of us would give up even a whole day just to sit on the ground and not say a word, let alone seven days and seven nights. I know we would all love to say, "YES! I would do that! I would be there for my dearest friend!" But let's be honest with ourselves. That's an entire week. We have jobs and responsibilities and prior obligations. It's highly unlikely any of us would last a whole week. But Job's friends did. And I believe with my whole heart they only made it that long through the love of God.

In order to be the friend that our friends need us to be, we must be all that we can be in God. We must give him complete and utter control of lives. It is so important to give Him EVERYTHING! I know friendships may seem so minor compared to all the other things we must depend on God for and intrust to Him, but they are every bit as important as anything else! You're friends are one of the most important decisions in your life. If you aren't friends with people who lift you up in God and encourage you to be all you can be, why be friends? I don't mean to sound harsh, you should always love everyone and treat everyone with God's love. But a true friendship is so precious to God. The Bible says David and Jonathan were knit at the heart. He values the friends we have. And I truly believe He places the right people in your path and brings you to the right people He wants you to be around. Always treasure your friendships and thank God everyday for them!!



Just my thoughts from the day...
<3


(And I must give a shout out to my three very best friends, Jenny, Scott, and Caleb. They are all just awesome and I am SO thankful for the way the Lord has brought us all together!)

Let it Burn

GENESIS 19

17And it came to pass, when they had brought forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain: escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

18And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so my Lord: 

19Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die:

20Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.

21And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken.

22Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. 

23The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered unto Zoar.

24Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;

25And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

26But his wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt.

Have you ever to stopped to think what would've happened if Lot would have just obeyed what the Lord said from the beginning, 100%? I wonder what Lot's life would've ended up like it did if he would've just fled to the mountains like he was told. I wonder if his wife would've still looked back and became a pillar of salt. I wonder if his daughters still would've committed the same sin we read about later on in the chapter. 

I wonder if God would've used him in a mightier way? 

Ya know, a lot of us (myself included) have the tendency to do as Lot did. When the Lord tells us to go here or go there we say "But Lord, this place is closer, this place seems safer to me.." We always have our plan that we want the Lord to use. But what we don't realize is that God has His own PERFECT plan for each of us. No matter what we face and no matter what we go through, as long as we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and obey Him, EVERYTHING IS GONNA BE JUST FINE!

Romans 8:28 says "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

Matthew 6:25-26 says "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more that meat, and the body more than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?"

Those two verses are two of my favorites. God cares for us! Each and every one of us! He knows how many hairs are on our head each day! 

He has a plan and a purpose for each one of His children. And, trust me, He knows far better than we could ever hope to know. All that is required of us is a little bit of trust and a lot of obedience. 

This life is not an easy life. It takes prayer and fasting and dedication and time reading His precious Word.

Luke 17:32 says "Remember Lot's wife."

We must never look back to what we've left behind us. We must keep moving forward in Christ and continually grow in Him. We just have to let Him burn out everything we back behind. Don't look back. And surely don't GO back! Christ paid too high a price. And not only that, but it's far too late in this game to be playing around with sin. Jesus is coming soon!!! 

Burdened Burdened Burdened...

My heart is so heavy tonight.

There are so many lost souls out in this world. So many people who daily refuse to accept the love of Christ. People who think that preaching the truth about Jesus and the whole story of salvation is nothing but negativity. But let me tell you, Jesus being beaten and tortured and forsaken by His Father and mocked and rejected is NOT negativity.

That, my dear friends, is LOVE.

That is true love. A love that will never fail. A love that will never leave us. A perfect love. A love that we will never feel from anyone else.

"For He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." -Isaiah 53:2-7

If that isn't love then I don't know what is! To read of everything my Jesus suffered for me just so I might live and not have to suffer the torments of hell is heart breaking! I did NOTHING to deserve this. He did it all out of LOVE.

Not only are we saved from the pits of hell because of what He suffered, but we are HEALED by His stripes!! I've never looked at this verse the way the Lord just showed it to me. I've always looked at as more of a promise of healing. But tonight, I see it differently. Jesus was beaten almost endlessly so that we might me healed. He suffered because He wanted to be able to heal us. It's not that we are healed because He suffered but the opposite. He suffered so that we might be healed. Pretty amazing stuff, huh?

But, ya wanna know what's even MORE amazing??

Throughout all of this. Being beaten and mocked and spit upon and hated, He NEVER opened His mouth in complaint. He never called on the angels to save Him. He never told God He was unable to go on. He just kept pressing through the pain and torture. He did it for me. For you. For EVERYONE! He did out of pure LOVE. He knew that even after all of this, there would be people who would still reject Him, but He kept on going.



Oh how He amazes me!!!

♪♪ I could sing of His love forever, I could sing of His love forever.♫♫

On Time God

"I believe I'll testify, God's been good to me, through every test and trial, I've won the victory!"

The past couple weeks have been extremely difficult for me. I been faced with many tests and trials, and they haven't been easy. Not in the slightest. But the pas two days it seems like everything I've needed has fallen in place and all my prayers have been answered. God has fought my battles for me and everything has turned out PERFECT.

And then, it hit me!

God was has been dealing with me to trust in Him more and to have patience with Him. It's not an easy lesson, and Lord knows I haven't finished learning. But it really is amazing how things work out when you just take a deep breath, allow yourself to step away, completely give it to God and TRUST HIM!

I've just been in awe of His grace and beauty and timing and love and friendship and I could go on and on and on.. He's just been SO good to me!! I won't ever be able to think Him enough. 

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." -Isaiah 26:3

That verse could not be more true!! When you trust in the Lord the peace you will feel is indescribable, amazing, wonderful. 

AHHHHHHH! :) I just want to shout on the roof tops! I wish I could go into detail about everything He worked out for me, but I just don't feel I should share it all. I will tell you, His timing is PERFECT! He is never too late or too early, He is an ON TIME God!!

Well, I wish I had time to write more, but I need to go read and get to bed! Gotta work a double tomorrow! :) 

<3

Skills, Submission, and No Distraction

"And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding." Daniel 9:22


We're in revival at my church this week. Bro. James Scott has been preaching for us, and he is doing a GREAT job! Tonight he preached on letting God teach us the skill of being anointed. He talked about how the devil likes to trick us and sneak up on us and work his way in where he doesn't belong. How, if we're not careful, our whole relationship with God can be pulled out from under us. And it got me to thinking....

That's what I did. I didn't let God teach my the skill. I allowed the devil to trick me and deceive me the first chance he got. And it ruined me. I lost my whole relationship with God. For a while, I still had the "religion" but I didn't have the true relationship. Eventually, I even lost the "religion". I wasted a year and a half of my life on what? nothing. That was precious time I could have spent with God, time I could have dedicated to Him and grew in Him. And I hate it so bad. But I know that what's done is done. All I can do now is learn from it and move on. Remember how the devil tricked me the first time and beware and not let him do it again. I just have to "let it go" and keep on pressin' on.

I long for the relationship I with Him before. For the closeness and the daily fellowship I had. I am so very thankful He is giving me a second third fourth fifth chance. And I promise with everything inside me I am going to take this chance and give my EVERYTHING to Him! No distractions this time. Nothing is getting in my way. I know the devil is gonna fight me and I know it won't be easy, but Jesus is on my side and He can NOT be stopped!!!

"Ye are of God, little children. and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." 1 John 4:4

So now, I'm doing what James 4:7 says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

I just can't contain my joy and excitement for what the Lord is doing and is going to do in me!!


I AM SOOO EXCITED!!


=D

Uplift

The weekend before last a friend of mine introduced me to what we call "Uplift".  Uplift is a series of motivational text messages, we receive one per day, done by Hart Ramsey. These messages are amazing. It seems that they always come right on time! I am beyond thankful that she introduced me to these awesome, inspiring messages.

Here lately I've been trying to figure out so many things. Like where to live, where to work, what I"m going to do when I start school in the spring, ect, ect..... all things that I really should be leaving up to the Lord. I'm stressing majorly. I mean, I know He is going to work it all out in His time, it's just sooo hard not to stress about it.

Well, yesterday, I thought I had everything figured out, and today everything fell apart. I just wanted to cry. And at the very peak of everything going wrong today I receive this text message:

UPLIFT: Only discerning people can see that behind some of the most profound personal struggles is a great man/woman of God in the making. -Hart Ramsey

Isn't it amazing???

There I was standing in the middle of the server alley at work about to lose it and it's like God just said "Hey, I got this, I'm just making you a woman of God." 

It might not seem like much to anyone else, but to me it was all I needed! It truly amazes me how God is always right there pushing you along and reminding you that His promise is still strong, "..I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5) 

That verse is become one of my favorites. I'm learning to cling on it. I'm just so thankful for all that He has done for me!! Words can not even begin to describe it. I just want to draw closer to Him and become all that He wants me to be. 

I just want to shout from the roof tops how wonderful and amazing He is!! I really don't see how I made it one day without Him before I let Him take back over my life... 



"I will praise You in the storm, and I will lift my hands, for You are who You are and I am where I am.."

Praise God :)

I feel that with my new beginning in the Lord, I need to start a new blog. It's a bittersweet moment for me. I came to love "This Joy is Contagious", but I know that, with the Lord's help, "A New Beginning" will be just a wonderful. :)

I am SOO thankful for the Lord and all that He does!! I just don't feel like I can praise Him or thank Him enough! He has brought me out of the miry clay and He is doing a work in me that I can't even begin to describe! And Lord knows I don't deserve it. But I am SOO thankful for His saving grace! He never gave up on me.

Hebrews 13:5 says "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

And ohhh how true that is!! When I was running from Him and turning my back on Him not a day went by when I didn't feel His Holy Ghost convicting my heart. He was always right there begging me to come back to Him. And how happy I am that I finally listened!!

PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!


He has completely restored my joy and my love for Him. All I want is to be with Him and follow His will for my life, whatever that might be. I got out of His will once before and I don't EVER want to go there again. It was the most miserable year of my life and it made me, ultimately, backslide. But it's made me have a greater love for Him. A deeper longing. And if I learned anything from it, I learned that the stupid devil will use anything and anyone to distract you. he will turn your desires into something that will ruin your relationship with God if you're not careful. The devil can make anything look good and appealing but he doesn't show you the pain and the heartache that comes along with it. It you stay full of the Holy Ghost and keep a close relationship with God and never slack in praying, He will lead you where He wants you to go and He will give you the strength the follow Him!!