Illustrations

Two illustrations that God showed me today:

1- I heated up soup and it was really hot and yet I still kinda put my tongue on it. I knew it was gonna be hot / potentially burn me but I was like: instant gratification lol. I see this applies to other things too (ie: sin).  

2 - I was watching my dad play Angry Birds & he put the bird in the slingshot and pulled the slingshot back and then it launched the bird forward. Sometimes, we no we are about to be launched and we feel guilty when we feel like we've gone backwards but when something gets shot out of the slingshot / the bow, it goes back before going forward.  We need discernment to know whether we truly are going back (and it's our sinful nature / fault) or if we are just getting ready for God to launch us into our destiny.

<3

Amazing how God just showers His love on me.  Just to give a few examples from today:

- I was walking to church and my feet were so hurting and uncomfortable.  For some reason my boots just did not feel right today and I kept tripping and I was getting really annoyed.  As I was walking I was like, "God I dont know how I'm gonna get home with these boots."  I kinda forgot about them and was even running around with a little girl (in fact even how I got to be there was a whole other story, another miracle from God) but then I took them off so I could run faster lol and all of a sudden someone comes and says "hey I want you to try these boots on for me to see if they fit you."  I'm thinking, "this is weird."  I had forgotten that my feet were bothering me lol.  And there was someone else there but she didn't like boots.  I tried them on and they were actually a great fit.  Nice and cozy.  The LORD literally gave me a new pair of boots.  He saw my need and He provided.  Amazing.  

- A little while before I got my new boots, I was hanging around.  I had just gotten there (we were in the lower level of the church) and I wasn't sure how long I was going to stay - I was hungry.  All of a sudden, my Pastora came with pastelillos and asked if I had had one, which I hadn't because I'm trying to save money and I thought I'd be home soon but I was really hungry.  She didn't know that but she asked and I said no and she ended up giving me one.  It was really good too :) CHICKEN!  I've never had a chicken pastelillo.  And it filled me up which was great because I ended up just getting home a little while ago.  

And I just pray for all of you that you would begin to experience the favor of God and that you would give Him glory when He takes care of you.  Look for the little ways as well as the big ways that He showers you. He loves you and so do I!

Be encouraged!

God is awesome.  Even the "little things" are "miraculous" to me.  Like this morning I was wondering what to eat for breakfast and I kinda had a craving for waffles.  I haven't had them in ages!  I look in the freezer and there happened to be ONE waffle left!!!  I didn't even know it was there!  I heated it up, put some syrup on and guess what that one blueberry waffle filled me up until lunch time!!!  Incredible!!!  I thank You God for these "little things" that just make my day.  Truly this was a butterfly kiss from the Father to His little girl :,) <3

Was reading the Word and I ran into Matthew 27:15-18.  And it hit me: What if Jesus had been released?  What if Pilate had said something differently or stood his ground and overruled the people?  What if he hadn't washed his hands of the Jesus situation?  Then later, Pilate's wife even tried to tell him to not give Jesus over to be crucified.  Again, he wouldn't listen.  Then later, the people were saying 'If you're the Son of God then deliver yourself' and what if He had?!  If HE had delivered Himself, if He had given up, if the Father had taken the cup from Him as requested. If things were different than I would NOT be alive today. I would not have been set free to love God. The veil would not be torn, I would still be behind it. I would be scared to approach God or I wouldn't even know how. Thank You Jesus for Your sacrifice.  Thank You God that You allowed the people to be hardened...Amazing...it confirms what You say in Your Word that You give Egypt for my ransom, Cush and Seba in my stead" (Isaiah 43).  So, you allowed the current people and even your Son to suffer because You loved me and those that were yet to come so much.  And I hesitate to say this because people may think: Well why would God kill people?  Or Why would God harden their hearts? So then they didn't have a choice? But, first of all, they did have a choice and they repeatedly chose to have Jesus crucified. And second of all, God is not us. We are not God. You create the universe, you create heaven and earth and even hell, you create people and cause weather to happen and THEN MAYBE we'll talk about what God should have done...except that you can't do any of that.  So why should you judge God?  Just thank Him for the opportunity because even if you don't believe Him you still have an opportunity to repent and believe.  The bible says in Romans 10: “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”^d that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”^e 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”^f

14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”^g

Sometimes the only One who can/will make you feel beautiful is the only One that has seen you in your ugliest.  I'm told a lot that I'm beautiful/pretty.  And I am not very self-conscious of late...then they sometimes add about how I'm beautiful on the inside.  And I'm like: UMMM.... I know that I have a good heart and good intentions.  God always reminds me who I am but sometimes I just feel so ugly inside and I'm like: if you would know my thoughts or what's REALLY going on or if you saw those skeletons in the closet you'd be like: EW!  And nobody really sees that part of me so I can see why they call me beautiful but then GOD Himself will speak directly to me and tell me that I'm beautiful and it just blows me away!  Kuz, see, GOD is the ONLY ONE who sees all of that but HE is the ONLY ONE that makes me beautiful - in Him.  Through the Blood of the Lamb.  He doesn't see me in my sin, He sees me how He made me.  I am the work of His hands, His masterpiece...*sigh*.  I'm so undeserving but He's so merciful and I so appreciate that He loves me so much and reminds me who I am.  And I love that He'll even use my mistakes/sins to show me who I am - and not to just pound me over the head and tell me I'm awful.  On the contrary.  He's like: I still love you.  You're gonna get through this.  Your beauty is not based on outward things or even circumstances.  I have made you beautiful.  I make you beautiful.

Why do we think that sin draws us away from God. Well, actually, it can lead us away but let me put it another way. Why do we think that sin causes God to stop loving us? Jesus died for my sins so when I think about my sin I should immediately see the cross and realize how much He loves me.  That's the ONLY reason He would've gone to the cross for me.  Because He loved me.  Kuz I didn't deserve it.  And He didn't deserve to die.  I should've been the one to be crucified and He knew that and He stepped in because He loved me and He took away the dirt and shame and guilt...I just need to really receive that......

<sup>Be encouraged today: "God is love" (1 John 4:8) so therefore, "God is patient. God is kind. He does not envy, He does not boast, He is not proud. He does not dishonor others, He is not self-seeking, He is not easily angered, He keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).  No matter what we do, God still loves us.  He is merciful in that He doesn't give us what we deserve.  Jesus took the punishment and the turned back that we deserved.  Because of Him, God will never leave us or forsake us.  Because of Him, God is preparing a place for us to be with Him for all eternity.  Oh if we only believed and understood this, we would think very differently and live very differently.  The things that seem so big to us are sometimes so little in the grand scheme of things.  

We wouldn't have to be so afraid...

though that does not mean that we can just act out all the time because of Grace etc.  I was thinking about this: God but I sin so much. I don't want to sin. If I sin I am not obeying and I still won't make it to heaven...that kinda thinking.  So I went to the Word.  Romans 6 clarified it so well.  I need to embrace it.

I'm just gonna copy the whole thing in fact because all of it, I feel, is relevant and encouraging.</sup>

1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,^a that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in^b Christ Jesus our Lord.