As the followers of my blog know, I’ve had ALS for twenty-two years, I’m completely paralyzed and unable to speak. I use an eye-tracking computer to communicate and I am totally reliant on Mary to take care of me. Chipping away at my pride I remember when I first started having to rely on others […]
GRACE ~
I sat down to write out an idea on a fresh piece of paper and the first word I wrote was a mistake. I was thinking of one word and wrote a different one, and there it sat in ink.
My first reaction was to tear out the page and start over as if it had never happened. Then the guilt set in. In my mind was the tree that was chopped down for my writing pleasure and the remaining blue lines that would forever be blank in a landfill. They would never know the joy of bearing the burden of someone’s thought. So, in guilt I kept the page and crossed out the word. That did not help. It bothered me that the page was no longer fresh and organized, but I had decided to go ahead and use it anyway even though the word was now glaring at…
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I’ve joked for many years that I feel like a caveman. Unfortunately, ALS has turned me into somewhat of a recluse; the weaker I get, the more reclusive I’ve become. As most of you know, I cannot speak or move. I use an eye-tracking computer to type and “speak.” Light affects the camera tracking my […]
What does it mean to walk full circle with God?
A walk with God begins with faith in His Son Jesus and this walk becomes how we conduct our life, how we live. It begins with an agreement. The desire to know Him, hear His voice, and share our heart with Him becomes our life’s focus. We seek to please Him in all we do as we begin a life in fellowship with Him. God loves us so much and he desires our fellowship with Him. He comes down to us and invites us to walk with Him.
Come, let us agree to walk together as we begin a full circle walk with God.
“Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” Amos 3:3
These words offered such refreshment and a stark reminder that not only our prayers but our daily praise protects us from the schemes of Satan. Praise Him.
One . . . Two . . . Three . . .
© Jeanne E Webster All Rights Reserved
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Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. — Psalm 150:6
One bitterly cold January morning I peered out my dining room window and glimpsed the neighborhood birds gobbling down the tasty seeds from the freshly filled bird feeder. A petite chickadee perched on a tree sprig close to the window quickly caught my attention as it waited patiently for the traffic to clear at the feeder. Its perky acrobatic maneuvers exuded a cocky, high-spirited cheerfulness. Enthralled, I inched closer to the window as my spirit was transformed from the winter blues of a dark frigid morning to a light-heartedness I sorely needed.
Suddenly this cheery, comedic creature thrust its breast forward, threw its head upwards to the sky and babbled out a crisp “chick-a-dee-dee-dee!” It was at that moment I spotted a…
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The Christmas season is always a time of reflection and a time for remembering all of our family and friends. “Philos” is the Greek word for friend and it means someone dearly loved; someone dearly prized in a personal and intimate way, a trusted confident, held dear, in a close bond of personal affection. A friend of God was so special that God only spoke of and named two – Moses and Abraham. (Exodus 33:11, James 2:23). For Jesus, obedience to love is a requirement for His friendship and this call of friendship it’s not a simple warm and fuzzy feeling but a call to obedience – a high call to friendship is what Jesus commands, so it’s not surprising that God only names two friends.
As I reflect in this Christmas season and the events of the past year, especially in America and around the world, I was searching for what was missing. At first, the word “civility” came to mind and that would be true, and then the words “honor” and “respect” came to mind and both those words are true. America has been deficit in civility, honor, and respect for a very long time. It reflects in the events of the past year, the hostile interactions among people, perhaps even in our own families, individually and among each other. But the thing that is missing runs much deeper than civility, honor, or respect, those are merely the symptoms. What’s missing is love – genuine and authentic love and since God is love it can only be concluded that what is missing is God and the friendship of His love – God’s life-giving love.
Recently, I ran across this study and cannot claim it as my own but it states this perfectly. The reason Christmas is a time of reflection and a time for remembering all of our family and friends is because it is the time that God sent his one and only Son into the world to bring us all this life giving love. In the gospel of John, John the beloved disciple tells us that God is the source of all love (4:7-8); God models what genuine love is (4:9-10); and God commands us to love each other (4:11-12). We move from the assertion that God is love to the command that we are to love each other. We can trace the relationship between God’s love and human love, and show how human love flows from God’s own love. God is the source of love. Like the electricity running through electrical wires, love comes from God to us, and then flows through us to others in the community. When John exhorts his readers, let us love one another, he is encouraging them to allow God’s love to flow through them. For because God is love, love must characterize those who claim to be born of God or to know God (John 4:7, 3:10, 14, 4:20-21). Those who claim to be doing the will of God and reflecting God’s activity in the world will be known by the love they manifest for God and for each other.
What do you think? Who do you know among your circle of friends expressing this type of love? For me, this love was clearly expressed in Miss Bertie Mae Dalton. Miss Bertie Mae went home on July 7, 2016, this past year, but Miss Bertie Mae was a friend of mine. And I am thinking of her this Christmas season and she is dearly missed. She became a fast friend simply by reflecting the obedience and love of God as it showed up brightly in the character of her life. I am sure that Jesus now calls Miss Bertie Mae his friend. I know I do. Merry Christmas ~ (John 3:16)
As a Christian I am not a religion. I have put on the greatest honor of the name of Christ and I am fully clothed in His identity. I do not deserve this honor and I am humbled each and every day that He has offered me His Grace. I am not worthy and the only thing that allows me worthiness of declaring I am Christian is His Grace, great sacrifice, and indwelling presence. This was a costly gift therefore it is not it is not to be taken for granted and it is definitely not about me. It is all about Christ. He has graciously brought me to this knowledge and the end of my “self” and for that I have the deepest of gratitude and thankfulness, and all I want to do is to know and imitate all that He is in the fulfillment of His great purpose and tell others.
This makes me a follower of Christ and endues the desire to be an imitator of all that He is. I know this within my spirit because it agrees with His spirit that dwells within me as they talk with each other. He has generously gifted His Spirit and His Word, and with the help of these gifts I can learn how to imitate Him. In imitating Him I want to please Him, and to please Him I desire only what He desires. He has revealed Himself in many ways but clearly in His Word as it expresses what He desires and commands as Lord.
Love the Lord with all my heart, mind, soul and strength; walk humbly
Love my neighbor as myself; show mercy, do what’s right and care about people
and make more disciples as this experience is shared with others in what I have come to know and experience about Him.
Christ instructs all His followers to go and this does not mean that I have to take a trip. It means that each and every day no matter where I am, what I do, or my circumstance, I am called and compelled to talk about Him and walk like Him in all that I say and do. This is the challenge and my daily cross because of the nature of my flesh and He provides help with this also as I remain focused and devoted to Him, through His Word, by staying in prayer, and spending time with others who mutually desire this same Christ likeness and fellowship, support, and encouragement in Christian love and forgiveness because we are building upon what He calls His church, which by the way is not about a building although we are grateful in support because we do meet there and He is there also. It’s really more about “a building upon” and it’s all about living out the life in His spirit because of His sacrifice and to His great glory.
In other words, when speaking individually it is about Christ living in me, operating through me, as me, as I clothe myself in His identity as a Christian, in honor of His great name in demonstration and devotion and by telling others. Amen: Y
(Galatians 2:20)
Since the beginning of time humanity has doubted the authority of God and His Word. Satan first sowed the seed of doubt with Eve when he presented the question of God’s authority in the Garden. (Genesis 3:1) Unfortunately, Eve took the bait and humanity has been in turmoil ever since but even then God has a plan for the redemption of sinful man. (Genesis 3:15) With that said, God has provided man with every provision needed and countless reasons to believe in the authority, authenticity, and divine inspiration of His Word; yet man still has only two reasons to object ,or not believe, and sadly these reasons have not changed. As noted, since there are countless reasons to believe, seven of those reasons can find witness in one significant verse and provide testimony to the inspirational authority of God and His voice in the divinely inspired words of scripture in the Bible. Even though there are many significant proofs for each reason mankind can only object with two choices and these have not changed since the beginning of time.
God himself provides witness and testimony to scripture when he declares that: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16) Therefore, since Scripture declares it so and since Scripture is God Breathe; God declares it so. Furthermore, God declares it through His Son Jesus and in eyewitness account through the Disciples, the prophetic Word, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Prophets, the Disciples and the very eyewitness account of His son Christ’s glory as we are given a most inclusive and conclusive truth in inspired scripture:
“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses to his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory. “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was every produced by the will of man, but man spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:16-21)
This scripture alone provides substantial reasons to believe in the inspiration of the Bible but there is also the miracle of the Word itself, in prophesy, in history and the proof of numerous authenticated historical and archaeological accounts, eyewitness accounts, in Christ Himself in His fulfilment of His birth, death, burial and resurrection, in His uncounted told and untold miracles, both documented and undocumented, and in Moses and the Law which Christ has also fulfilled. There are overwhelming reasons to believe in the authority of God, the authority and inspiration of the Bible. The angels proclaim it and the even the demons know and yet there are remain reasons for objection in unbelief and rejection which was recognized and experienced by Jesus and unfortunately still exists today. (Luke 2:10, Luke 4:41, Acts 19:15, Matthew 8:28-34)
“Though he had done so many signs before them, the still did not believe in him.”
(John 12:37)
“So Jesus said to him, unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
(John 4:48)
“Jesus said to him, “Go, your son will live. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.” (John 4:50)
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
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