-H. Blankenship-

If you have asked Jesus into your heart, you have the most awesome gift you could ever receive – salvation. There is not a single person who has ever been born but Jesus that is perfect and has never made a mistake.

Even the best of people were born into a life of sin and could never achieve being any better without the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.

Jesus died especially for YOUR sin so that you could spend eternal life in heaven. He has an awesome plan for your life and always wants the very best for you, but you must get in on His way of doing things.

That means loving God with all your “heart, soul, and mind” and making the decision to live your life that way. No, God will hardly ever do things in the way that you might imagine, but most of the time they turn out better than expected when you are able to look back after a few months or years.

It seems that today God is pictured as being a God of hatred, bitterness, and one who delights in inflicting harm upon people.

The Israelites did eventually get judged and taken away from their land, but it was only after years of neglect and falling away from God – then when they were judged it was not even close to being as harsh as they deserved. They had chosen to go in the opposite direction by putting their own desires first. They only suffered the consequences after several warnings from different prophets and preachers who told them over and over again that they should repent or suffer the consequences of their actions.

God had an awesome life waiting for them, but they chose to settle for much less than the very best; in fact, they settled for mediocre, and had to live many years in bondage because of their decisions.

I think many people feel that if they fully surrender their life to God He will force them to do something they might hate and the rest of their life they will be in a miserable state trying to carry out what God has told them to do. They don’t take into account the fact that God will change their heart and make them so that they don’t want to do anything else but be in the center of his will.

God had an extraordinary life of blessing planned for the Israelites, but they settled for a life of bondage and misery for many years.

Yes, God does want you to surrender everything in your life to Him, but in exchange He wants to give you His very best, whatever that is for you personally.

It may not seem like the best in your eyes at the time, but He loves you far more than any other person ever could. A good father would never want to give bad gifts to his children, but would always want the best for them in every way.

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Sometimes you have an eery feeling that you are walking into a trap, but you just continue on with what you are doing hoping it won’t lead to disaster.

When you feel your conscience telling you something isn’t right, do the following if you are a Christian:

Stop what you are doing

Pray about the situation

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the truth in the matter

Open your mind, ears, and heart to really hear the truth, instead of trying to justify what you are doing.

This last sentence  reminds me of a particular part in the movie Passion of the Christ.  The Pharisees were trying to get Jesus out of the way because they had a lot of power and were well respected among the Jewish people. The people were burdened down with a huge amount of laws, though.

When Jesus started teaching them His truths, it was like a huge burden being lifted off the shoulders of each person who followed Him. Naturally the Jewish hierarchy didn’t appreciate losing their influence among the people, so they plotted to get rid of him permanently.

They had him brought before the court. Because the Romans could not find Him guilty of doing anything to break their laws, they shuffled Him back and forth not wanting to deal with a religious battle that might make the people angry with them.

Jesus finally ended up in the court of Pilate, who detested being at this Jewish post, but didn’t want to rock the boat too much hoping that he could eventually be advanced to a better position. He was in a dilemma as to how to handle the situation. Even though Jesus hadn’t done anything wrong, the people demanded He be crucified like a common criminal.

The night before Pilate was to make his decision, his wife had a dream that Jesus was the real Savior the Jews had been seeking for so many years and that Pilate should not deal with Him harshly. She told her husband about the dream and tried to get him to do the right thing, but he was a politician and knew it might kill his political chances for advancement if he took her advice.

When his wife knew he would not hear the truth, she said these words to him in the movie:

“If you will not hear the truth, you will never know it.”

If you are in the position of the cat in the above picture, you have to make the decision to get rid of your pride and truly hear and obey truth. If not you will continue to walk blindly along the fence right into certain disaster.

From now on when the Holy Spirit pricks your conscience to let you know that something is not right, stop what you are doing and find out immediately what you need to do to change the situation. You will definitely be glad you did!

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living – Practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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1. Sin can make you fall into a trap quicker than you think!

Ask God to help you see others the way He sees them. When you can see the other person’s point-of-view, it is much easier to understand them, even if you don’t agree with their thoughts and values. If they think you really care, then God might be able to use you to change their thoughts and heart in certain areas.

When you are open to God’s leading, you never know how He will use you in the life of another person.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A GIANT?

After dinner, the children turned to Jacob and asked if he would tell them a story.

“A story about what?” asked Jacob.

“About a giant,” squealed the children.

Jacob smiled, leaned against the warm stones at the side of the fireplace, and his voice turned softly inward.

“Once there was a boy who asked his father to take him to see the great parade that passed through the village. The father, remembering the parade from when he was a boy, quickly agreed, and the next morning the boy and his father set out together.

“As they approached the parade route, people started to push in from all sides, and the crowd grew thick. When the people along the way became almost a wall; the father lifted his son and placed him on his shoulders.

“Soon the parade began and as it passed, the boy kept telling his father how wonderful it was and how spectacular were the colors and images. The boy, in fact, grew so prideful of what he saw that he mocked those who saw less saying, even to his father, ‘If only you could see what I see.’”

“But,” said Jacob staring straight in the faces of the children, “what the boy did not look at was why he could see. What the boy forgot was that once his father, too, could see.”

Then as if he had finished the story, Jacob stopped speaking.

“Is that it?” said a disappointed girl. “We thought you were going to tell us a story about a giant.”

“But I did,” said Jacob. “I told you a story about a boy who could have been a giant.”

“How?” squealed the children.

“A giant,” said Jacob, “is anyone who remembers we are all sitting on someone else’s shoulders.”

“And what does it make us if we don’t remember?” asked the boy.

“A burden,” answered Jacob.

today’sTHOT============================

Give so much time to the improvement of yourself you have no time to criticize others.

(This is another story from Mikey’s Funnies)

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living - Practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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