Forgiveness!!

Good morning everyone!!! I hope this is a wonderful day in the Lord Jesus Christ for you!! God is good, all the time, all the time God is good!!

This is the time of year, ONCE every year, when peace, love, and kindness come into people's heart. It should be "Christmas" 365 days per year....this should be in our heart always.

"Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful." Luke 6:16

Forgiveness is difficult. Being frail, fallible, imperfect human beings, we are quick to anger, quick to blame, slow to forgive, and even slower to forget.

As Christians, we are commanded to forgive others, just as we, too, have been forgiven. So even when forgiveness is difficult, we must ask God to help us move beyond the spiritual stumbling blocks of bitterness and hate.

If you hold ANYTHING against ANYONE, forgive, FORGIVE! If you are angry at yourself for something in the past..FORGIVE yourself. And as we have talked about the last 2 weeks, do not be a prisoner of the past.

"ALL BITTERNESS, ANGER AND WRATH, INSULT AND SLANDER MUST BE REMOVED FROM YOU, ALONG WITH ALL WICKEDNESS. AND BE KIND AND COMPASSIONATE TO ONE ANOTHER, FORGIVING ONE ANOTHER, JUST AS GOD ALSO FORGAVE YOU IN CHRIST."
Ephesians 4:31-32

Thank you for reading with me today. After the salutation is something my daughter Christy sent about 3 things. Very good! Love you all! "Blessed are the merciful, because they will be shown mercy." Matthew 5:7


In Christ's Love and Grace

Johnny


Three things in life that, once gone, never come back:

1. Time
2. Words
3. Opportunity


Three things in life that can destroy a person:

1. Anger
2. Pride
3. Unforgiveness


Three things in life that you should never lose:

1. Hope
2. Peace
3. Honesty



Three things in life that are most valuable:

1. Love
2. Family & Friends
3. Kindness


Three things in life that are never certain:

1. Fortune
2. Success
3. Dreams



Three things that make a person:

1. Commitment
2. Sincerity
3. Hard work

Three things that are truly constant -

Father - Son - Holy Spirit

Are you locked in pessimism??

Good morning everyone!! I hope this is a wonderful day for you. May Christ be at the head of all you do. Tell someone about Jesus. When confronted will you: a. be silent b. agree c. deny or
d. humbly, yet boldly stand up for Jesus

I looked up the scripture and I believe J. David Hoke says it very well. Today and tomorrow will finish up part of the study of this scripture. We will finish Philippians 3:13-14 next week.


We must not only develop a divine amnesia in terms of forgetting the past; but also engage in a deliberate activity in the present. Listen to the words of the Apostle, "One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead." In order to deal with the past effectively, we must live in the present actively.

One of the keys to living in the present is the need for replacing pessimism of the past with optimism. It’s very hard to face failure in your own personal life and come away with an optimistic attitude. Pessimism seems to reign.

Most pessimism is unhealthy. It creates a cycle of despair. Many times, we become locked into pessimistic ways of thinking, and we end up bound mentally by these patterns of thought. Past failures may suggest to us that we will never succeed. After all, we have tried and failed. But often that is not the reality of the situation. There was an experiment done with the Great Northern Pike where the fish was placed into a tank with its favorite food, minnows. The problem was that a glass divider was inserted into the tank between the Pike and the minnows. Every time the Pike went for the minnows, he bumped his nose into this glass divider. Finally, convinced that the minnows were beyond reach, he gave up. When the divider was removed, the Great Northern Pike did not go for even one minnow. Sometimes, we are like that Pike. We’ve been convinced that we could never break free from the patterns of defeat and failure that have bound us. But that is not true.

God is an optimist. Thank you for reading. Tomorrow – the optimist and our role. Love you all.

In Christ’s Love and Grace

Johnny

Are you blameless??? Cause others to stumble??

Good morning everyone!!! What a great day to be alive in Jesus!! God is good all the time; all the time God is good!!! How God cares for us and all we have to do is give God a little respect and honor. Isn't it grand that God does not require us to be 'perfect' all the time. None of us would be successful. Thank you for being a loving and forgiving God. We are accountable one to another. In our daily walk we should not cause one of our brothers to stumble, however, if we do we should be held accountable for our actions, go to that person and ask for forgiveness. Have you had this happen?? Lately?? Well, 2 Corinthians 6:3 has been talking to me the last 4 or 5 days. Is my ministry blameless? I have been feeling a burden.
Romans 14:13 "So let's stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall."
Both strong and weak Christians can cause their brothers and sisters to stumble. The strong but insensitive Christian may flaunt his or her freedom and intentionally offend others consciences. The scrupulous but weak Christianmay try to fence others in with petty rules and regulations causing dissension. Paul wants his readers to be strong in the faith and sensitive to others' needs. We are all strong in some areas and weak in others, we must constantly monitor our behavior and its effects on others.
The stumbling and falling may be not in his or her faith, but bringing doubt on us, our faith, our belief. We need to have someone hold us accountable. In this case my accountable partner is David. Last week when I made a off the top of the head, "humorous" comment it did bring about some questions. David visited with me about it, I was wrong, and according to scripture I apologized, asked forgiveness-which was accepted, God forgave me and the burden is gone.
I say all this to say, "How many times have we made statements which were insensitive and brought into question our faith? I now have a new prayer, not only for wisdom and knowledge, but to be aware of what I say and do. Wisdom and knowledge will tell me whether to speak or not, self discipline and listening to God will regulate what to say.
Thank you God for sending us angels in the form of friends. Fear not to visit with a fellow Christian about his/her actions. Thank you for reading, listening, and understanding. Love you all.
In Christ's Love and Grace
Johnny

Lord's Prayer

Good morning everyone!!! I hope this is a great day for all of you!!! God is good all the time, all the time God is good!!!! Well, this has been an interesting week. Please allow me to bore you with family "stuff" for a moment. My granddaughter's softball team went to the state playoffs this week. They lost their first game of a 2 game elimination tournament. Sooooooooooooo, to make it to the championship they cannot lose any more games. Weeeeeeeeelllllllllll, they played 3 games a day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to win the state championship. Yea!!! Hard on parents and grandparents too. Okay, enough!!
God wants us to find a quiet place to pray, have our Bible, let His will be done, and follow His will. Jesus taught his disciples to pray and this is what He said. Matthew 6:9 "Pray like this "Our Father in heaven, may youname be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don't let us yield to temptaion, but rescue us from the evil on. If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins."
vs 9 - praise our Father in heaven
vs10 - God's spiritual reign, God's will (not ours) be done
vs11 - God gives us sustance and is our provider
vs12 - forgive others as He forgives us
vs13 - pray to be delivered from temptation
vs14,15-if we refuse to forgive others, God will not forgive us
You all know this, but sometimes a refresher is worthwhile. Thank you for indulging me and reading. Love you all.
In Christ's Love and Grace
Johnny

Be ye kind one to another

Good morning.....hope this is a great weekend for you all. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!!!
Ephesians 4:32 "AND BE YE KIND ONE TO ANOTHER, TENDERHEARTED, FORGIVING ONE ANOTHER, EVEN AS GOD FOR CHRIST'S SAKE HATH FORGIVEN YOU."
Life Application Study Bible ""INSTEAD, BE KIND TO EACH OTHER, TENDERHEARTED, FORGIVING ONE ANOTHER, JUST AS GOD THROUGH CHRIST HAS FORGIVEN YOU."
Okay, 'be ye kind'- well disposed, useful, benevolet, gracious and gentle mannered.
Tenderhearted- merciful compassionate, pitiful, a willingness to be understanding and patient with the faults and failures of others.
Forgiving one another- forgive -Gr. charizomai- is built on the same root as the word grace and means to bestow favor unconditionally. This means that a Christian will always treat the offending party graciously, letting the wrong go without any claim for punishment or reparation. Pardoning the guilty person instead of displaying resentment or exercising retaliation.
Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you - we are to forgive others just as God forgave us. We are to exhibit the life of Christ in and through us, thus giving evidenve of having been made partakers of the divine nature.
God's forgiveness is free, full and final. When God forgives, He forgets, so must we......Do You??????
Thank you for reading. Love you all.
In Christ's Love and Grace
Johnny