The Only Thing That Counts..... (correction)

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Galatians 5:6

Dear Sisters and Brothers,                April 3, 2012
I love His Word! My desire is to read it, believe it and live it. My frustration is the length of time it takes to progress from the believing it, to the living it. I want to love Him perfectly, now! I want to serve Him and put a smile on His face. I want my life to shout  to all, who He is! “ He is good and He is love and He is Holy. But when I go ahead with my plan to bring Him glory, working with great effort to serve Him, things inevitably go awry. I sputter to a bumpy stop. He gently reveals a truth I was going too fast to hear, that it is ‘me’  working 'my' will, forgetting Philippians 2:13, that it is He who works in me both to will and work for His good pleasure. Waiting is a test of faith; a test I have often failed. Too many times I have not waited for Him to show me His will.
Me, I like lists. It pleases me to check off many items before the sun gives way to night. The more check marks, the more pleased I am with myself, I judged I did well that day, when one day, unexpectedly everything changed! The Lord asked: ‘Arlene, where is the love?’ I quickly responded back with a question, “What do You mean, Lord?” He took me to Galatians 5:6 'The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love' and the impact of this verse challenged and changed me. I will never be the same. pleasure.“

This is preceded with verses on surrender every knee bowing before Christ. Circumcision is mentioned here as a reference to religiosity with it’s rules and traditions. If our faith is in what we do or in anything except Jesus death and resurrection, it is not true faith. Even the devil believes and trembles, but it won’t save him. Religious works, acts of kindness or giving money for some need, can be done one of two ways: by the power of the Holy Spirit or in our own strength. One is eternal, one is temporary. Man’s great need is to be loved. We are called to walk in Love. Jesus said “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

 
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Galatians 5:6

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Measure all you have said and done this week with these eleven words. Consider letting these words define you all you do and say. How can we live this love? I cannot! Until the Holy Spirit fills me with God’s love and creates in me a hunger for this divine love and I will not be satisfied with just being saved, but am moved to humbly seek Him, taking up my Cross to follow in obedience, for I am called to His love. A Love that brings unity, for true love, loves all people. (impossible for me) Nothing less can be called God’s love. This love is like a fire: I know no fire like the fire of God, a fire of everlasting love that consumed the sacrifice on Calvary. This is the baptism of Love that I desperately need; it causes me to burn with a need to repent. On my face before Him I confess my lack of love.

“Lord, let love from Heaven flow  down into my heart. I am giving up my life to pray and live as one who has given himself up for the everlasting love to dwell in and fill him.” a.m.
God is Love. I John 4:8    The fruit of the Spirit is Love. Galatians 5:22

Consider this thought: ‘And have we degraded the Holy Spirit into a mere power by which we have to do our work! God forgive us! Oh that the Holy Spirit might be held in honor as a power to fill us with the very life and nature of God and of Christ!” a.m.


  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God...  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.  I John 4:7, 10-13

This scripture combined with Galations 5:6 calls my heart to love. This is HUGE! It is Christ loving through me! God delights to do this and in this way, He is glorified. Only then will His love touch not only the lost, but our hurting brothers and sisters. The greatest gift we are given, to serve Him, is not our abilities; but the gift of His Love. This sets my feet to dancing, knowing He delights to share Himself with us.

Living Love, Eternal and Almighty, Love that will not let me go, fill my heart with faith to believe that You truly want to pour out your love and shed it abroad in my heart. By faith I accept this Truth. I am incredibly and eternally loved by Love itself. And I am purposed to give it away. I confess I have lacked love again and again. How little I have understood Your great love and I ask You to teach me. Keep me mindful of this Truth:  ‘The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love!’ How incredible this statement.  O Lord, how deficient your church is in this love, revive us dear Sacrifice of Love. Your nature is mercy and Your identity is love. These are not just bits and pieces of You, but it is who You are! Come have your way in my heart today, tomorrow, and forever. Amen in the Name of Love, Jesus. 
 He is Risen!!!!!!    love az
          

The focus this Easter week is on Jesus – in His divine condescension He took the form of a man so that he could bear the punishment for all the wrong done in the world by each person for all time. See His goodness and mercy. Stand in awe of Him. Seek to please Him in reverent, humble obedience. Let Him work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Then you can join... in the joy of His salvation.  (Vantage Point)

Set Apart Christ as LORD

But in your hearts set apart (sanctify) Christ as Lord.  I Peter 3:15   

Greetings Brethren, you who are precious to our Lord,

How often am I deaf to what I read? What does ‘set apart Christ as Lord in my heart’ really mean? Warren Wiersbe defines it this way: “It means to turn everything over to Him, and to live only to please Him and glorify Him. It means to fear displeasing Him rather than fear what men might do to us. How wonderfully this approach simplifies our lives!  It is Matthew 6:33 and Romans 12:1-2 combined into a daily attitude of faith, that obeys God’s Word, in spite of consequences. It means satisfied with nothing less than the will of God in our lives. (John 4:31-34). One evidence that Jesus Christ is Lord in our lives is the readiness with which we witness to others about Him and seek to win them to Christ.”

When ‘self’ acts correctly in difficult circumstances, it is the outflow of my pride, resulting in the sin of self-righteousness. (OUCH!) To have Christ’s righteousness flow through me, the Holy Spirit must hold my old sin nature in the place of death, at the Cross on which I died. I am crucified with Christ, dead to sin, buried, and risen with Christ, covered in His righteousness. Hallelujah!

Compassionate One, help me understand how to reckon myself crucified with You. Bolster me in Your Truth. Teach me to accustom myself, in everything that happens, big or small, as seeing it from Your hand, before I fix my focus on a person. Let me first recognize and surrender to Your will in it. Oh how far I am from living this Truth…change me. Teach me to be still and remember who You are, the Sovereign LORD. Impress on my heart and mind it is You who have allowed this trial to test my faith. And how amazing that as I trust You I bring You glory. Turn my eyes from man and circumstance, to You, for then even suffering unfairly is much easier. I rejoice knowing my sorrows are never wasted when I trust You. Thank You for being such an amazing God. I love You Daddy. I pray in Jesus most powerful, eternal name, amen

But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but [set apart] sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. I Peter 3: 14-17

Remember: Jesus suffered as the sinless One for the sinful. Now, my part each day is to ‘put off’ the old man, (Eph 4:22) and put on the new man (Eph 4:24). Daily, each moment, we are to live as crucified with Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit freedom to apply the finished work of the Cross to our life. (Rom 6:11) Realize the flesh is not necessarily repulsive or blatantly sinful, indeed it can be very nice, even adapting to church and good deeds. But it is alien and always will be alien, to new life in Christ. It belongs to another race and is not related to the life of the Lord Jesus. Read this amazing scripture and let it give you understanding:

 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Galatians 5:16-17

I remember striving to live this way for may years, until I realized it was only possible to walk in the Spirit as I reckoned myself dead, crucified with Christ. The Holy Spirit will render inoperative anything that is a hindrance to the life of Christ in me. I am called to cooperate with Him in this by ‘reckoning’, for only then will His life be manifested in and through me! This sets my feet to dancing and is creating in me a hunger to glorify Him

  If

If I cannot give You glory, I have nothing to write!

If I cannot give You glory, I have nothing to say…

If I cannot give You glory, I know nothing of life’s purpose,

If I cannot give You glory, I am empty and without hope

O that people would hunger for You, love You, seek You,

Because of what I write, what I say, what I do…

For what is life without You?

I live to bring You glory

As I glory in Your Name.

az

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A Life of Praise

                                                                           March 20. 2012        

 Deliver me….  O God, the God of my salvation;
Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise. Psalm 51:14-15

 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the risen Savior,

“Singing along with the radio, LORD, I lift my voice in praise to You. My hands are open, my palms up, a gesture of surrender.”

Suddenly, I stopped singing, and focused on my hands. Were they posturing a mock surrender?  How easily I lift my hands and sing praise, but ‘Lord do I live praise? Does my life praise You? Such as when I am driving; what is my attitude toward drivers that annoy me, like tailgaters? Does my life praise You in my choices of music and movies? Does my life sing your praise when I do not get my own way?  Do I stay inwardly sweet when dealing with self-centered people? Or do I defend myself? Do I express a grateful spirit regardless of circumstances or give in to irritability? Do I share the Gospel for Your glory and praise? Do I ‘die daily’ as Paul states in I Cor 15:31?  Lord, help me deny myself and take up my cross and follow You. This is Your requirement! Only then can I love by Your Spirit loving through me.’ Give me a heart like Paul in Phil 1:21

For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

I find it is so easy to sing Your praise in the privacy of my house, but I want my life to sing everywhere I am, 24-7!  I want to offer each note a sacrifice of praise, a dying to my flesh, that by my life-song the world may know You are God and that there is Hope. This thought sets my feet to dancing, hands lifted high!

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. Hebrews 13:15

O Love of God, Do this for me,

Maintain a constant victory! ac

“Everything You do O Lord, is done in love, to the praise of the glory of Your grace, which You freely bestow on me in Christ. Forgiveness, redemption, grace, wisdom, deliverance and abundant mercy, are lavished on me. Lord, restore to me the joy of my salvation and renew a right spirit within me, a willing spirit to fill me, for then my mouth declares Your praise in word and deed and song! “

It’s not my grip of Christ, But Christ’s grip of me! Unkown

You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 118:28-29

My Deliverer, You who forgive my sins and wash me clean in Your shed blood, I bow and give thee thanks, Lord, You are my song. Thank You I am in your grasp and no one can pluck me from Your hand. How tender Your love. Thank You for defusing my sin and throwing it into the deepest ocean, forever gone! You paid in full, dealing with my sins, large, small and everything in between. All so I could respond and embrace Your love. How can it be that You died for me? How I long to love You perfectly, but I don’t. Even with great effort, I can’t.  Enable me to find ways to remember your great goodness and live praise, today and forever. I pray in Jesus name, who is my life and Truth. I love you Daddy… amen

My prayer for you all is to live a life of praise!!

az

To Heal or Not to Heal?

Be still my soul! The LORD is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain; leave to thy God to order and provide; in every change He faithful will remain. Be still my soul! Thy best, thy heavenly friend, thro’ thorny ways leads to a joyful end. kvs

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the faith,

They missed it! They watched and prayed and still missed it. Messiah. Their preconceived ideas caused their blindness. They wanted a reigning Messiah who would come in and crush Rome. But God sent His own Son… a ‘suffering Messiah’ had no appeal to oppressed Jews. They wanted relief. As I contemplated sickness and suffering I thought we are basically no different. We demand healing and refuse suffering.

God can and does heal instantly. God can and does heal through doctors over a period of time. For many of us we have decided it must be healing in Jesus name of else! I wrestled with the obvious Truth that God has great purpose in suffering. And I had to ask could God not be more glorified in the suffering than in the healing?

God cannot be pressured to heal, by striving to believe that something shall be, thinking that if we believe hard enough, it will be. That may be positive thinking but it is not Biblical faith. Remember the flesh always demands healing. I find great comfort in knowing my Savior is teaching me dependence upon Himself when he says no and faith is required every step of the way. God delights to increase the faith of His children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hand as a means. I say and say it deliberately- trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith. Mueller

My Mother had surgery scheduled to remove a hard, palpable tumor. That morning they re-examined her, confirming the previous diagnosis and she went into surgery. When the doctor came to talk to us post-op, he stumbled to find words to explain the unexplainable… there was no tumor. We had asked God, in faith, to heal her and do what would bring His name the most glory. He did.  In contrast, she was not healed years later from the cancer that took her home.

God does not always heal. His purposes are greater than what our small minds can grasp and His ways higher than the heavens! Question: ”Does it take more faith to receive a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ to prayer for healing? Does it take active faith to live day after day, even year after year, in pain and infirmity? Can God be trusted to do what is right and good, even if it remains a mystery to us? Humans would never choose the very suffering, that He uses to produces our need of Him.

Amy Carmichael has enriched believers with her writing, bringing hope and encouragement. She was set aside for God’s purposes as she spent the last 35 years of her life bed-ridden and in constant pain. Those who loved her gathered after fasting to pray for her healing, claiming it in Jesus name. God said no. She received it and endured with joy day after day, year after year. Great faith.

Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

And naked I shall return there.

The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.

Blessed be the name of the LORD.”

Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.  Job 1:20-22

Paul had infirmities not healed.  “you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time; and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself. Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.“ Galatians 4:13-15

And Miletus: Erastus remained at Corinth, but Trophimus I left sick at Miletus.

We must be cautious not to throw around the Holy Name of Jesus, as though it were magic and push our quarter prayer into this divine vending machine and get what we choose at our pleasure, as though we were not foolish, shortsighted and afflicted with our selves. His name is not a holy incantation to be applied over every difficulty and to call down curses on those who irritate us.

The times I have been healed instantly have not taught me the powerful lessons, of Love and Grace, which suffering and infirmity, have rendered. My healing resulted in rejoicing with awe and thanksgiving…  the ‘no’ to healing, proved Him faithful and filled my cup with grace. He invited me near to ‘know’ Him intimately and take up my cross, resulted in worship…. Like Job: Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. (1:20) This is great faith.

Father of life, thank you for sending Your Son to suffer. On Him your mighty vengeance fell, that would have sunk the world to hell. Thank You Jesus chose to suffer. Thank You for grace to bear my sufferings with strength and faith, to believe You are using trials for Your glory. I bless Your Name great Sufferer. The world quickly tires of one’s suffering and so I find great comfort in knowing You understand my every tear and pain. You will never leave me nor forsake me. I praise You in Jesus Name

 praying for each one of you,

az