Journey into Forever

  Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.                                                             Galatians 1:10           She loses 10 pounds because her husband mentioned her weight.  She gains it back within a month.  He works instead of attending his son's soccer game because he knows his boss will notice and approve.  Resentment builds.  She goes to the movie all her friends are wanting to see .  The language and sexual content bother her, but her friends are happy she is with them. She feels guilty. He lies to his football buddies about his relationship with his girlfriend because he knows the other guys will think he's cool.  His lies weigh heavily on his mind.      How many times have we done things in our lives to gain approval of others?  Personally, I can't count the times I have done this.  I do it now, maybe in diffe

      Whew!  I guess maybe I didn't realize exactly what I was getting into with this holiness thing.  It sounds easy on the surface....just do what the Word tells you to do.  But there is so much more to it than that.  This will no doubt be a lifelong journey.       I want to share some of the scriptures that are there to help us understand God's expectations of holiness.  I am also delving into the application part of those scriptures, but this is obviously something I need more time for before I share it with anyone.  So for the time being, look at some of these scriptures, not just the individual reference, but in context with the rest of the chapter.  Give some thought and devote some prayer time to the understanding of what God is teaching us through each passage.  And I will study and learn and share more with you next time.  Anyway, what better post could I write than simply pointing our thoughts to God's Word?   Leviticus 11:45     I am the L ORD , who brough

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."                                      -Matthew 5:8      I began a journey with a teacher/singer named Gwen Smith this summer.  She challenged us to read through the Psalms in 30 days....5 psalms a day.  Well, I didn't even remotely make it in 30 days....here it is October and I just finished Psalm 115.  I have learned a lot by doing this though.  Much about praise, about remembering our history with God, about seeking Him first.  David wrote many of them as you know, and he was a lot like us.  Heading in the right direction, getting distracted and veering off of the path God makes for us, returning and starting again.  When I first started reading them, I was not excited about it.  The Psalms always seemed somewhat redundant to me. Ah.....but they're not.  I don't think we can consider praising our God redundant when He deserves it every moment. And there is so much more here than just praise.  So much mor

"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."                                            - 1John 3:2 "The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit."                                          - Proverbs 18:21  This journey I'm taking on holiness is turning out to be many faceted.  There are bumps, turns, twists in the road that I never even considered.  But it's a fascinating road to be on, and I have so much to learn.      I'm discovering that holiness means so much more than I thought it did.  I, too,had this vision of someone pious, who never had any fun, looking down her nose at others who struggled. I am finding that those who are honest about a search for holiness know all too well their own inability to sustain it.  My greatest attempts at holiness are piteously ina