Phi 4:1 Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
Phi 4:2 I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.

Pauls attitude towards the people in v. 1 is the attitude Christ had towards us. He had a true love and sincerity for the people. Then in v. 2 you see that he beseech’s (to ask or pray with urgency) two women who have a variance with each other. Lord help us to be of one mind with each other-

1Pe 3:8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:

2Pe 3:13  But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
2Pe 3:14  Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

This winter has been a season where I have seen first hand the blemishes of my nature. In seeing these things the need for God has in my life has been amplified. When I am in this season it is so easy to get complacent  or to think that since I cant feel the Lord like I used to that I am doing something wrong. Just like a tree in the winter loses its leaves you see the naked tree and all its blemishes. Now instead of producing leaves all the energy the tree has goes to the root of tree. This time is so important because the roots are being strengthened. So in this winter season may all the energy be focused on the inner man, the purity of character. At these times 2 thing can happen. One you stay with the Lord and get stronger or two you disconnect and go farther away from the Lord. So in this season let the roots go deeper than they ever have before. His strength produces Joy. One definition for Joy is Calm Delight. May that calm delight be the fruit of your life-

Neh 8:10b for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
To you I give my life, not just the parts I want to
To you I sacrifice these dreams that I hold on to

Your thoughts are higher than mine
Your words are deeper than mine
Your love is stronger than mine
This is no sacrifice
Here’s my life

To you I give the gifts
Your love has given me
How can I hoard the treasures that you’ve designed for free?

To you I give my future
As long as it may last
To you I give my present
To you I give my past

Because

Your thoughts are higher than mine
Your words are deeper than mine
Your love is staronger than mine
This is no sacrifice
Here’s my life

I have been praying lately that the Lord would shine a light into the areas of my life that I need to work on. Well the light shined last week. At work the sales rep who does the best gets “rep of the quarter” (the quarter is a 3 month sales cycle that we go by) All quarter I was doing well and I was a shoe in for the award. I had won this award before and didnt even really care (or so I thought, you dont care about winning until you are losing). Well the numbers came out last Tuesday and some guy on my team won the award. I came in @ 127.07% and he came in @ 127.23% When I heard it I got mad. That award was MINE! There must be a mistake I was killing the numbers! I demand a recount! My Pride came out! I couldnt believe it. It ruined my whole morning. The pride of life was exposed. So I started asking myself questions about my pride:

• What hidden pride is there in me?

• What spiritual pride is in me?

• Whats the websters 1828 distionary Definition of pride?

PridePRIDE, n. 1. Inordinate self-esteem; an unreasonable conceit of one’s own superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, accomplishments, rank or elevation in office, which manifests itself in lofty airs, distance, reserve, and often in contempt of others.

• Pride that dines on vanity, sups on contempt.
• Those that walk in pride he is able to abase. Dan 4.

2. That of which men are proud; that which excites boasting.

• I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. Zec 9. Zep 3.

Dealing with the hidden things in our life is hard. Thank you Lord for bringing the secret things out.

Psa 51:6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

The bondage of busy-ness….. I have been slammed at work. This overwhelming feeling has been overshadowing my whole life. Today it ended. I was still just as busy but I made up my mind to not care. ahhh the sweet freedom of not caring! Actually I stopped worrying about my workload and just dealt with it. I read Deut 8 this morning and I just read it again. Thats about all  I read but I really read it slow tonight. Got some very good thoughts out of it, more to come on that… This is the thought that has been running thru my mind for the past two days: Abrahams name means “Father of the Multitude”. When God changed Abrahams name to Abraham he didnt have any children and his wife was barren. He couldnt see the things God had for him at that very moment. What plans cant  I see that the Lord has for me? Am I walkining in the Trust that Abraham walked in? The word says that I am a child of promise like he is! What holding me back?!

Gal 4:26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

1Jo 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

1Jo 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

1Jo 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

1Jo 5:4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith. Yesterday started out really good. Then it progressively got worse. I was so depressed yesterday. When there is division between  you and your friends it is awful thing. I felt far away from the Lord also. This morning I got up at about 6am and prayed and felt totally separated from God. I kept on pressing thru. Well around 10am or so thru some songs and reading 1John the burden lifted a bit. Depression is a terrible feeling. I am learning to be rooted in Christ. I am learning to love like Jesus loved and it isnt easy sometimes. Learning to Love my brother as I Love myself.  

1Jo 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

1Jo 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

I want to try to write something everyday. I really like the way David Brainerd journaled. He just wrote his experiences in a raw format. So here goes.

 The week of Thanksgiving was pretty hard for me. Work has been insane busy and I have so many accounts that it is impossible to keep up. A few people have gotten mad at me because I didnt turn around their software quotes quick enough (I sell sofware and hardware for a PC company). Well Monday some people got upset with me and I gave it right back to them. During the conversations I got convicted and i changed my tone with the customers after i had been a jerk to them. Tuesday the same thing happened but i recognized and didnt get angry with the people. It is awesome when you can recognize something before it happens. The Greek word for repent is:

G3340 μετανοέω metanoeōmet-an-o-eh’-oFrom G3326 and G3539; to think differently or afterwards, that is, reconsider (morally to feel compunction): – repent.

compunction:  A pricking of heart; poignant grief or remorse proceeding from a consciousness of guilt; the pain of sorrow or regret for having offended God, and incurred his wrath; the sting of conscience proceeding from a conviction of having violated a moral duty.

 I always want to have repentive spirit. To think differently or afterwards, that is, reconsider with a pure heart.

My friend has a daughter who is 5 years old. Every morning he wakes up and goes to the kitchen. He gets out two bowls, two spoons, the Corn Pops, and the milk. He goes to the table and sets the bowls out pours the cereal and waits for his daughter to get up. When she gets up she comes to the table and her Father pours the milk for her cereal. Everything is prepared for her all she has to do is eat and enjoy the company of the person that loves her with all his heart.

Psa 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

I have really been getting into the book of 1John the past few days. The theme has been loving your brother and pouring out your life for someone else. I heard this message on it from Zac Poonen and he brought out a really cool comparision in scripture. He brought out the similiarities in  John 3:16 and 1John 3:16. After hearing this I thought of Gal 2:20. take a look at the pattern of giving in these 3 scriptures (God Gave, Jesus Gave, We Give).

GOD giving allJoh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus giving allGal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Man giving all

Looking into these scriptures makes me automatically think of the great Love and sacrifice that has been made for me. Now to be a living example of the Love that drove Christ to the cross-

1Jn 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

 I had some thoughts on the lady with the Alabaster box last week and wanted to journal them. There has been a lot of buzz on creeping worldliness lately, the internal and the external. Pharisee’s where all about the external this lady with the alabastar box was all about the internal. We need to find ourselves poured out at the feet of Jesus then time goes by and we can find ourselves in the Pharisee’s shoes. Our thoughts within get off center. We start focusing on certain things and forget about sacrificial love. Here are some thoughts I had on this part of Luke Chapter 7 –

Luk 7:36  And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat.

Luk 7:37  And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, She brought all that she had and all that was in her and laid it at the feet of Jesus!!

Luk 7:38  And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

It is interesting that she is standing behind Jesus and not in front of Jesus. She took all the external dirt on Jesus’ feet and wiped it way with her tears and dried them. Her tears come from a internal feeling of brokenness and the manifestation on the outside are her tears. If we stay in this state “poured out” then someday we will be in front of Jesus casting our Crown at his feet!

Luk 7:39  Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. The key here is “he spake within himself” his thoughts, his internal state was corrupt everything was right on the outside, tithes, etc… But on the inside he was corrupt.

Luk 7:40  And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.

Luk 7:41  There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.

Luk 7:42  And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?

Luk 7:43  Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. This is huge! This man although black as sin on the inside can Judge a situation correctly? How many times do I judge a situation correctly but with the wrong spirit?

Luk 7:44  And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Luk 7:45  Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. Luk 7:46  My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Luk 7:47  Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

Here we have a lady that yielded it all and we have a Pharisee who thought he knew it all about religion. We as followers of Christ find ourselves in both of these positions. I am the woman that pours it all out and some time goes by and I forget and become a Pharisee. Help us Lord find the poured out road and walk  in humbleness, gratitude, and Love, MUCH LOVE -

Luk 7:48  And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.

Luk 7:49  And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also?

Luk 7:50  And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.