Worship Leads To . . .

Oct12

Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Psalms 96:2 NASB

“Proclaim good tidings”, good news, “of His salvation”. How good are we at doing that? Do we proclaim the gospel “from day to day”?

If we are honest many of us have never even shared the gospel. We trust the church to do that so we invite people to church.

Could there be a missing link as to why we don’t share?

“Sing to the Lord, bless His name”.

🌹How is your prayer life? Where is your main focus directed throughout your day? Is worship of God a priority in your life? Do you have a personal, intimate, real relationship with Almighty God?

Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
Psalms 100:4 NASB

If you do you will experience Him and be filled up with His Holy Spirit. Under the Holy Spirit’s guidance you can’t help but proclaim Jesus Christ.

🌹How is your relationship with God. He calls us to proclaim His gospel.

And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
Luke 10:2; Matthew 9:37-38 NASB

You might want to read Psalm 71 while contemplating the connection of the worship of God leading to proclaiming salvation to the lost.

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

Have You Ever Had One of Those Days?

Oct9

Have you ever had one of those days when everything went perfectly? A day of abundant living? A day when your heart is overflowing with joy?

Well let me tell you that I was blessed tremendously today. Rewind . . .

A few days earlier.  . .

I was feeling down, stagnant in my relationship with God. Things were going well. God was moving through me in a number of lives and I was blessed to watch Him and participate in His work.

Well this morning I awoke at 2:30am and laid there a couple minutes then started to pray. I don’t know when I fell back to sleep but when the alarm went off at 5am I just wanted to hit the snooze button. But, I didn’t.

This morning’s time with God was extra special. I can’t tell you why except that God was at work in me. My usual exalting of His Holy name. My confession of sin. Praying for family,  friends, Pastor, church and anyone God places on my heart. But I noticed that I remembered to pray for a couple people who needed prayer specifically for today. Sometimes I beat myself up because I forget. But not today!!!! My heart was so filled with joy that it was overflowing into praise and thankfulness after prayer that I could hardly contain myself.

As I headed out the door to go to my daughter’s a couple hours later my heart was still overflowing with joy and thankfulness. On my drive there, about 20 minutes, the Lord blesses me with minimal traffic and mostly green lights. Smooth sailing. The scenery was beyond beautiful as I thanked and praised God for the colorful changes in the trees on my drive and the blue skies. When on the freeway,  I turned on praise music and just sang uninhibited to my awesome, loving God who filled my heart with joy overflowing, thankfulness for His revealing His abounding love for me and for opening my eyes to see the beautiful day He was giving me.

The next six hours were spent with my daughter and three granddaughters enjoying their company filled with giggles, stories, snuggles, kisses, playing, exploring and a lot of fun. Speaking of God, singing songs about Jesus.

Then met up with Papa and explored Bass Pro looking at fish and animals. Pretty much exhausted we had dinner with all including Daddy and an uncle.

On the way home thinking over my day and thanking God for giving me such an awesome day and singing praises in worship again, I realize I am truly a very blessed wife, mother, mother-in-law, Gigi and child of God.

Thank You, God for being the beginning, middle and end of my perfect day.

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

Where is Your Treasure?

Oct9

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
John 6:63 NASB

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?Matthew 6:25 NASB

Where is your focus?

The Spirit is life. Walking in God is life. Seeking God is life. Loving God is life. All the cares of this world will one day mean absolutely nothing. What will matter are the things eternal.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:33 NASB

🌹 Again. Where is Your focus?

for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:21 NASB

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

Elijah, Prophet of God

Oct8

Elijah, a prophet sent by God, to warn and restore the Isaraelites devotion to God instead of Baal. In 1 Kings 18 is the testimony of the two altars where the priests of Baal, 450, and Elijah, the lone prophet of God, met to sacrifice to their respective God/god to reveal who was truly God.

One of my favorite stories. You should read if you are not familiar with it.

After this event . . .

Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.”
1 Kings 19:1‭-‬4 NASB

This great revelation of God in Elijah’s life, to see the power and faithfulness of God, was overshadowed by fear of what Jezebel promised to do to him.

Haven’t we been there? We let the events of the world, the fear for our own livelihood overshadow the work of God and the Holy Spirit through us. God calls all His children to be the voice piece of His gospel. When called we must stand firm in the hope and power of our God.

Well, God also will not allow us to wallow long in our disobedience- running from His calling to share the gospel – before He gets our attention.

Through an angel God provided Elijah with the necessary strength to go on a journey to meet with God.

Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
1 Kings 19:9 NASB

Have you heard this before? A simple question. “What are you doing here?”

Elijah had his excuse all ready:

He said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
1 Kings 19:10 NASB

He wasn’t really listening to God. His fear for his life was greater than his fear of God.

But God was about to get his attention.

So He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.
1 Kings 19:11‭-‬12 NASB

God sent a mighty wind, an earthquake and fire. When God had Elijah’s attention He then spoke in a gentle whisper (blowing).

Aren’t we just like Elijah? Look around you.  Are you living in fear or in the safety of your obedience to God?

🌹Is He trying to get our attention so we can hear His gentle whisper?

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

In Jesus Only

Oct7

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;
John 5:39 NASB

From Genesis to Revelation is the testimony  and revelation of Jesus Christ. He was in the beginning at the creation. He is present in all the Scriptures revealing His character, His plan, His redemptive power, the revelation of His manifestation as a man walking the earth. His death, resurrection and return one day to usher His saints into eternity.

In Jesus Christ alone is salvation and eternal life.

🌹Do you want to know Him? Do you want a deep personal walk with Jesus, walk in His footsteps? Open the word of God and search the Scriptures for they testify of Him.

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

God’s Requirements

Oct6

“Now, Israel (God’s people), what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? Deuteronomy 10:12-13 NASB

So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of Lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. Deuteronomy 10:16‭-‬17 NASB

You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name. He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen. Deuteronomy 10:20‭-‬21 NASB

But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 1 Timothy 1:5 NASB

🌹So how is your walk going?

P. S. I guess there was a reason for my writer’s block this morning. My devotions are written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This morning my quiet time did not go as it usually does. As I read Deuteronomy 10:20 again, I realized the power of the Holy Spirit when I cling to Him. My quiet time is of utmost importance to fulfill His will and His way. When we walk with God on a daily basis He is always there for us, with us, revealing Himself for His purpose and His will. He is my praise and He is my God.

Hope you have a blessed day in the Lord.

Sharon

Less of Me; More of God

Oct5

Jesus is the good, righteousness, and holiness in me. If there be any good, righteousness or holiness at all it is Jesus in me.

I can’t do anything.

John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.
John 3:27 NASB

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
John 15:5 NASB

Want to make an impact on the world?

Abide with God. God in you.

I must be less so He can be more.

He must increase, but I must decrease.
John 3:30 NASB

🌹 All for God’s will, purpose and glory!

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

The Holiness in Me

Oct2

Do I have any holiness in me?

For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.'”
Leviticus 11:45 NASB

We are to be holy as God is holy. So how does that happen? Can I just be holy because God is holy?

In the Old Testament Holy God resided in the temple. In the Holy of Holies. It was a sanctified, cleansed, holy area of the temple.

In the New Testament we are the temple where the Holy God resides now. In the heart where God has cleansed us by the blood of Christ, is sanctifying us everyday, where holiness, His holiness resides.

How can you receive this holiness?

Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:38 NASB

A repentant heart baptized in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin is the necessary step to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Mark 1:8 NASB

And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
John 20:22 NASB

and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Ephesians 4:24 NASB

🌹 Jesus is the holiness in me.

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

The Righteousness in Me

Oct1

Do I have any righteousness in me?

Then he (Abraham) believed in the Lord ; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:6 NASB

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Romans 4:3 NASB

It takes belief in the One true God to have any righteousness at all. As stated above,  “Abraham believed and it was credited as righteousness”.

The good news is:

If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. Romans 8:10 NASB

Christ’s righteousness in you. Him in you makes your spirit alive. Now that is good news!

having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:11 NASB

and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, Philippians 3:9 NASB

How’s your faith? Faith in Christ means you are righteous in Him.

🌹 God is the righteousness in me.

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon

The Good in Me

Sep30

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,” They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good. Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. Psalms 53:1‭, ‬3 NASB

The one who says there is no God will not do good. There is no good in our flesh.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. Romans 7:18 NASB

Good in me does not come naturally since my nature is to sin. I may be willing to do good but the accomplishment of good is beyond my capabilities. Good in me is only accomplished by the One who lives in me.

And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matthew 19:17 NASB

Does He live in you?

🌹God is the good in me.

Continually Seeking Him,

Sharon