How Much Can You Forgive?

17 " 'Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.
18 " 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:17 & 18 (NIV)

"O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes," he said, "then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance." Exodus 34:9 (NIV)

21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
22Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.[a] Matthew 18:21 &22 (NIV)

This afternoon, I watched a brief video concerning the Muslims population. Then, I thought about a message from a pastor who had worked in a Muslim country. He said, "Once a nation arrives at a 70% Muslim population they publicly execute Christians who refuse to bow to "Allah." After that, I thought about a friend of mine at school who told me she was afraid to renounce "Allah" as her god. She was afraid of being beaten, or even killed.

What kind of religion kills people for non belief or abandonment? Certainly not a loving or free willed one. Why does anyone even consider that kind of faith? My God is loving and merciful. Yet He created the heavens and the earth. He seeks love from His people on a free will basis.

I am really struggling with the fact that we may see public executions and this country and that America may be a Muslim nation before I die. Do you know what and why you believe? Is your faith worth dying for? Jesus Christ gave His life freely for me. I'll gladly live and die for him, but I am not without sin. Jesus knew no sin. He became the ultimate sacrifice for any sinner who would invite Him to be their Savior and Lord.

Will I be able to forgive others if they kill my friends and family in Christ? That's one I'll have to pray about, because it's hard to forgive others who harm my loved ones. How do you feel about this question?

Are You Ready for Life's Finals?

" Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened." 15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,"

1Peter 3:13-18 (NIV)

"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." Romans 6:8-14 (NIV)

A few weeks ago our pastor told a joke about an elderly lady who was in a nursing home about to die. Her grand daughter came in while she was reading her bible. After the grand daughter sat patiently waiting for her dear grandmother to finish, she noticed that she was reading from chapter to chapter. The granddaughter's a lotted time she could spend talking to her grandmother was quickly slipping away. So gently the lady asked, "Grandmother, what are you doing?"

To which the Grandmother replied, "I'm cramming for finals dear!"

Many of us are in our last two weeks before Summer finals at school. Everything is quickly coming to an end in our present classes. It's so ironic that when they started I was so up tight I failed all my first tests. A math teacher looked at me and said, "What happened? I know you know this stuff." I was so tense I figured out the the problems, but coordinated the wrong answer to most of the problems.

Life can be like that, can't it? We know the right thing to do, but left on our own guidance, we choose the wrong solution. Then it seems we'll never find our way back, but somehow God always takes us back.

As my math teacher pointed out, we need to relax and just take it one step at a time, slowly and methodically, knowing God is in control. "It's a test-not a matter of life and death!" If we fail God will probably make us go back through the same thing until we get it right with Him. Things really do go better with Jesus-not Coke a Cola.

So Many Things to be Thankful for!

(This is Hurricane Shoals in February. Friday I rode a tube from the falls down stream! What a blast, thankfully God gave me the strength and wisdom to dodge, and bounce off the rocks! You can't imagine the Zeal and Joy it is, unless you do it yourself! At 48 it's quite a thrill. No, there's not this much water there now, it's actually more of an adventure with less water!)


Be ye Glad, be ye glad Jesus is the best friend we've ever had!





I have so many things to be thankful for, many more than ever take the time to count each day. Most of you know I was suppose to be dead many years ago, yet I'm not only alive, but doing well! If fate calls my number today and I enter eternity in less than a Nano second, again I come up on the winning end. Because Christ is my Savior and friend, I simply reside at the best address given-heaven.





Friday, I had the joyous privilege of tubing down a small water fall not far from my house. Honestly, I felt like squealing like a happy little kid as the tube roared over the falls, down stream. It's so hard to imagine less than 3 summers ago I was facing the possibility of not walking any more, before an extensive surgery with lots of pain and lots of mesh. Dr. Linn at Emory hospital cut and sewed for over six long intensive hours putting this body back together again. Had he not took the time and skill I would be setting in a wheel chair today. (My stomach muscles had ripped apart almost all the way around to my spinal cord. Had they reached the spinal cord, I would have been paralyzed from my waist down for the rest of my life.)





Not only am I connected but I'm actually sore from tubing on Friday-but what a great pain to know it comes from using muscles that could have easily been disconnected and non functioning had they not been repaired. God is so good, we never know exactly how or what He will do in this life time. Sometimes we run, sometimes we're forced to slow down and walk. Sometimes we are so weak we have to crawl, but one thing we must never do is give up. Why should we the author and perfecter of our faith is still in control! Do what you must, just never give up!





Thank God for all the Good , Bad and Ugly. It's at all those times He shows us who and what we are, His children in the struggle of living, loving and hopefully growing in Him! Hail Him who saves you by His grace.





Thanksgiving and Prayer





"We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.



For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."


Colossians 1:3-14 (NIV)


No matter what happens today or any day, I hope you can say with me, "Life has been good and God has been an an awesome God who has Always loved and took such good care of me!"