Parenting

Parenting is an awesome responsibility! God allows us to have and raise children seemingly with no instruction. That is not true.

We have an instruction manual for our entire life. The Bible.
Yes I know it sounds unrealistic to live by such strict rules but how in the world can we expect our children to live by our rules if we can not live by our Father's rules. Sure we have grace but we are going to have to answer for a lot of things we did while we were here, I'm sure of it.

All we have to do is stop looking to see what everyone else considers "OK" for our kids and look at the word. God does not care about the stupid little things like computers and cell phones. He wants us to love each other and care for one another. Help each other out when needed and celebrate with each other.

As for raising our children, We are to raise them to fear the lord. Give them strict guidelines to adhere to and learn to respect their parents and elders. They do not have to be afraid and we are not frustrate them. We can listen to them but we are the boss and what we say goes.

There must be firm lines that can not be crossed and if they get crossed we must be firm and adhere to the punishment. If we do not hold them accountable for their own actions then they will will never learn to be accountable and grow up to blame everything on everyone else.

We have to remember, yes we feel bad because we had to cancel plans because we have to hold our child accountable, but in the end they will understand that we are true to our word and expect them to behave in a way that is pleasing to us and God. We have to hold them to high standards because the world keeps lowering theirs.

God's standards never change! Sin is sin and believe me, We as parents are going to be held responsible for our children in the end. I would rather my child was upset for a few days then have to go to heaven and explain why I did not raise my child in the way they should go. And all I have to say to defend myself is "That's how all my friends did it".

After Thought

I love that God uses me to encourage other people. God always seems to be there when I need Him to encourage others and I rarely need uplifting. I tend to look at the bright side...mostly.
I used to be one of those people that judged, gossiped, griped and complained about everything. Like "why does God do this to me?" or "can you believe what we just saw?" oh and "Oh my goodness, what was she thinking?". Yeah...one of those. I thank God for opening my eyes. What a terrible way to live, getting joy from others pain, or worse yet, causing said pain.
A long time ago a preacher said "write down everyone who wronged you then forgive them. Man that was hard enough but then I wrote a list of all the people I had wronged "and it was longer" Then I called the ones I could to ask them to forgive me and to tell the others I had forgiven them, the ones I could not for one reason or another IE: death, could not locate, etc... I have to believe God knows my heart and that I am forgiven.
While speaking to every person I could feel the presence of the Lord with me. It made me strong. I was able to call many people and reconnect on a new level with some who are very close to my heart. Funny though most of them did not even care what I had done. They seemed to not remember or really were not influenced at all by my behavior 15, 20 years ago or they had already forgiven me. And a few of them were grateful that I had forgiven them. As for the one I could not get ahole of "he died before I made my list" I forgave him and I actally felt bad for wishing him dead all those years ago. "I hope he knew Jesus when He died."
What was nice was I realized while writing the list of people I needed to forgive that it would only be right to write one for the people that I felt needed to know I had truly changed.
I thank God for that. I swallowed a lot of humble pie that week, even choked on some of it but in the end my conscience was clear. After doing all that It was reveled to me that it was not nessasary for me to do that. God had already forgiven me.
Now God uses me as an encourager for those suffering and discouraged with life and complaining about decisions made and blaming God. One thing I realized is God did not do it! We do it and then ask him why our life turned out a certain way. We choose our path, He can help correct it "If we ask" but we usually don't until we messed everything up so bad He is our only out.
We need to recognise God is in Control. I know that sounds like so "Christianise" but He is. He knows every hair on our head. It does not and will not matter what it looks like to anyone but Him after all is said and done.
At the beginning of this post I said "I mostly look on the bright side." Not always. I do get discouraged and when I do I go to my father and ask Him to reveal the positive in this situation and he does.
I think He allows us to have bad or sad things happen to regain our focus or to point out an area of weakness so he can mold us and shape us into what He originally planned, After all He is a jealous God. If we did not need Him He would have no reason to exist in our lives. We need to recognise God every day. He has given us everything including his own blood the least we lowly humans can do is acknowledge Him every day if only for a moment.
We are not worthy as a people of His awesome sacrifice yet He thinks we are. He wants us. He gave us an out. Jesus is the answer (corny but true). Jesus died so we could be free. We should be grateful and joyful when we come to him. We have no need to feel guilty because when we repent He forgets because He loves us...God is Love!

Wisdom

God gives us what we ask for if He knows it is our hearts desire. I pray for wisdom frequently and then am surprised to have it. Along with the wisdom comes occasion to put it to good use. I love when I am presented with a question or situation or when someone asks my advice and Holy Spirit jumps in and answers.
Today I was approached and asked a certain question and because I am known for being honest this person knew I would not try to skirt the answer. I answered the question and even though I could see that the answer would cause some bad feelings I had to tell the truth. Added to that truth came wisdom.
I once read in the bible that if you have a question meant for a particular person you should go to that person and ask it. If they will not be open and honest with you then go to that person with two or three more people and get to the root of the problem. I felt like this person should go to the person or people he has a question about and ask them if their fears are true.
I can not help but feel like they need a mediator but am no expert in the area being spoke about. I do have certain talents that have yet to be revealed because of fear or some other irrational feeling, and I also know that because of certain circumstances the fears of the second person may be due to an unwillingness to let go.
"Man this is hard for me to talk about without getting emotionally involved".
Tho I had noticed some of the things being talked about I am sure none of it was on purpose. Perhaps the third party just needs to hear the concerns of the second party and this can all be resolved in a few minuets.
To anyone with a problem with anyone...Seek out that person, ask them face to face whats up or discuss your feelings and why and perhaps it was all a big misunderstanding.
Personally it has happened to me a few times. Someone says that I said such and such about so and so...you get it right. When it got so bad so and so would not answer my calls I found her and asked her point blank "what have you heard?" Needless to say most of what she had heard was either taken out of context or was simply embellished stories by the gossip crew and in the end we did not become friends but at least I was able to put out the fire.
Now the second party on the first part of my story was not bashing anyone, just concerned. I told them I could see they where feeling bad and that maybe they should bring it up to the third party. I hope this is just a misunderstanding.

Be a Witness

Last night I had an opportunity to witness to some people. They asked the question "Why was God so hard on Adam and Eve but now Christians only have to ask forgiveness?" To me the answer was easy...JESUS.
McKinly and I explained how Jesus came to earth to take the punishment for all our sin and because of that we no longer get punished. We need only to repent and turn from our sin and God will forgive us.
Needless to say that only led to more questions. I was impressed by my sons answers. He does have a good hold on what it means to be saved and to live for Christ. As for the gentleman asking all the questions I do not know what he thought, but I do know some new seed was planted. We only need to let them be and God will grow them in his spirit.
It was not a debate but good conversation about God, forgiveness, and unconditional love.
God knew we needed a way out. He figured out we are so imperfect that He had to do something drastic. So being three in one he came as Christ to walk among us and go through all we go through, resisting the same sin we fight with every day giving Him a true feeling about what we feel and why we make the decisions we make sometimes. The difference is He knew what His end would be like.
As Jesus He chose to Let them beat him and hang him on the cross because he knew what we all tend to forget. God loves us. There is nothing we can do to earn Gods love because he already loves us all so much. After God as Christ died and the veil was torn we were granted audience with God whenever we choose. God just wants us to hang out with Him and acknowledge Him in our lives.
I guess we as people have a hard time understanding that concept. We tend to have agendas for everything, (If I do this, then I'll get that) In our human mind we tend to believe you don't get something for nothing.
God's forgiveness is free. Repent and turn from Satan and see what God will do for you. He loves you even in your sin. Acknowledge Him. Recognise what he did for you even tho you were a sinner so you could be saved. When that happens you won't have a choice. You will know He is God.

BUZZ!!!

Man I hope you know God is all over this. The buzz is ROCK Church and God doing something BIG! Double serviceses, we better be ready because if God told PB to go double Then we are gonna be busy. Preparing for this Sunday has had it's challenges but with the excitement building who could be discouraged. Imagine A chance to Show God we really are a church for the people of our city and the world. I think we have one of the most genuine pastors out there. Pastor B really does care about our city and really does pray for God to help us, Show us, how to do what He wants us to do. My faith grows more the longer I work with Pastor B. I am always amazed when it seems like he has been reading my journal. God has a hold of him and Pastor Bryan has a hold on God. I know you may think because I work @ ROCK Church I am biased but let me tell you. God has placed me here. I believe in the vision @ ROCK Church. I am growing spiritually, and God won't let us get too comfortable with ourselves before he starts moving again. All I got to say is GET READY Wilmington. God is moving.