A Gift from God.

What would you consider to be the best gift God could give you?  I am sure everyone's answer would probably be different.  I couldn't even begin to enumerate the things they would want God to give them it would be so varied.  I was thinking that I would like to write about something that would help me and give me something to look forward to, and the thought came to me, 'how about something encouraging?"  That rang a bell with a winning sound, so what would be encouraging to me?  At my age, and with my experience I could think of nothing better than Eternal Life with Jesus forever more.  I so want to be ready when He comes and I am sure I will go to my grave before that happens but if not that's OK too.

In John 10:27-30, it says, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.  I and My Father are one."  Isn't that the greatest promise on this subject?  He gives us eternal life and no one, not anyone is able to take us away from Him.  We are the only ones that can cause us to leave Him, it is our personal choice whether we stay in His presence or not.  No one else can do anything about that.  I think that is wonderful to think about and talk about encouraging, that is encouraging.

Did you know that Jesus prayed for you, yes you?  He did in John 17:20,21  "I do not pray for these alone, (meaning His disciples) but also for those who will believe in Me through their words; That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me."

Does the world see Jesus in You?  Do you glorify His name with your life?  He has a place for you, all prepared  in His kingdom and eternal life with Him forever.  What better gift could He give us then life eternally with Him, He says He is preparing mansions for us in John 14:2,3  "In My Father's house are many mansions.  If it were not so I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am there you may be also.

Do you want to occupy one of those mansions?  Me too.  I am looking forward to that day and hope you are too.  I would love to be your neighbor there, how about it?  Grandma Joan

Trust Me More.

I know, my worship the other morning was on trusting God, but this morning I asked for help in my great need and the title of this blog came to mind.  "Trust Me More".   I thought I was but evidently not as much as He wants me to.  I tend to lean on my own understanding of what He would want me to do instead of asking Him for guidance. Do any of you try to do that and then you get all frustrated because things are not going the way you think they ought to go.  I am so sorry that He had to remind me to trust Him more, I know that I had it coming but didn't realize the depth of my not trusting Him.  I should have entitled this, 'He always comes through' because He does if we ask.  He certainly enlightens my mind to my own needs and thus the reason for my sharing with you, I am sure that out of all those that read this, someone is in the same boat as I am in.

I am going back to Proverbs 3:5  "Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not on YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING."  I emphasized the words that hit me the most, with ALL my heart and MY OWN UNDERSTANDING.  How easy it is for me to trust my own understanding and not even realize that I am doing it.  How wonderful it would be if I could just let go of my own ideas and let God have His way, I know I would be so much happier.  I can't even imagine life without concerns, but I know that if God is leading it would all be His concerns.

Then I read Psalms 32:10  "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, But he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him."  I would love to have God's mercy surround me all the time, it only seems right that that's the
way it ought to be.  What do you think?  I think God wants us to trust Him with all our hearts all of the time and then His mercy would surround us all the time.  I don't think this means we won't have trials, but He is in charge of the trials and I know that He won't let anything come to us that we can't handle through His power and strength.  What a relief this would be, I am going to make sure that I surrender ALL my life to Him and lean not on my own understanding. That is where I fail, I guess I think that I know everything and really I don't know anything when it comes to His will for me.

I can see when He said, 'trust Me more' just what He meant now and my goal is to do just that.  How about you?  Grandma Joan

God never fails.

I was seeking something that I needed this morning and God never fails to bring something important to my attention.  Today is no exception.  What was brought to my attention was humility,  I guess for a long time I have been struggling with being humble.  You know you can have a fault and never realize it is a fault until you ask God to help you see yourself as He sees you.  Sometimes it is quite shocking what He places before you.

The text that came to my mind first was Micah 6:8  "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, To love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."  The next text was James 4:10 says:  "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up."

I asked the question, 'how do you humble yourself?'  The answer I received from the Lord was, 'always put others before yourself.'  I can't think of a better way to humble yourself, can you?  Putting others first would be walking humbly with our God, don't you think?   Here is the verse, Titus 3:2  "to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men."  Putting all people first.

Here is the promise to the humble.  Isaiah 57:15  "For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit,, To revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."  Contrite means repentant ones.  That is a great promise and I pray earnestly that He will dwell with me and that I will always put others first and be repentant of my false humility.

Another great study and now I am ready to face another day and see how He works in my life, how about you?  Let His love overwhelm you!!!!!!!  Grandma Joan

In All Your Ways.

Have you ever wondered just how to be blessed by God with all the blessings He has to bestow.  I have and I believe I have found at least part of the answer.

In Psalms 3 we find some of the answers to that question.
My question to you is - What causes us to have long life and peace?  You will find the answer in Palms 3:1,2.  "My son do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you."

Question: How do we find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man?  Answer:  Verses 3,4.   "Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck,  Write them on the tablet of your heart and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man."

Question:  How can we be sure that He will direct our paths?  Answer:  Verses 5,6.  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding:  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."

Question:  How can we make sure that we are healthy?  Answer:  Verses 7,8.  "Fear the Lord and depart from evil, It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones."

Question:  Do you want your purse to be full and not be in want?  Answer:  Verses 9,10.  "Honor the Lord with your possessions, And with the first fruits of all your increase; So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine."

This was such a good little study, it has helped me so much, I hope it has helped you as much.  In all my ways acknowledge Him, in ALL my ways.  In everything put God first and foremost and He will bless us abundantly, that's what I received from this study.  Will you acknowledge Him in all your ways?  Have a great day acknowledging God in all your ways.  Grandma Joan

More Glory to Him.

I would like to continue my thoughts of yesterday if it is alright with you.  I realize that we do not glorify God in the manner that we should and so have read some more texts and thoughts to help us do the job well.

Matthew 5:16    "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."  Jesus is saying 'do good works so others will encounter the goodness of God in you and glorify Him.
Philippians 1:11  " Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

We cannot do good works that glorify God of ourselves, it is impossible, because all of our good intentions and good works are self-centered and tainted with 'see what I have done'.

Ephesians 2:8-10  "For by grace are ye saved through faith; not of works lest any man should boast; for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
We are saved by grace through faith, we cannot earn salvation by our good works, because if we could then we would have something to boast about.  When He saves us from our selfish selves then He can work in us  to do the good works that bring glory to His name.  We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, we are not saved by our good works, we are saved to do good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

This has been a hard one for me, I always thought that I had to do good works to be saved but now I find out that when I am saved by grace through faith in Christ, I will do the good works that glorify Him.  What a blessed thought and it takes all the hard work out of salvation.  We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works so we will glorify Him.  In other words when we are saved by grace through faith, He does the work in us and through us as we stay in His presence day by day and hour by hour and sometimes minute by minute.

I truly hope this has blessed you as it has me. It is the blessed assurance of salvation to us.  Do you see how it works?  I hope so.  Please stay in His presence and let Him do the work in you and through you to glorify Him in all that you are and do.   Grandma Joan

Give Him Glory.

Remember when Jesus was born how the Angels sang, 'Glory to God in the highest'?  I was thinking that  the Angels sang Glory to God, why shouldn't we glorify His name?  So how do we glorify His name?  Well, we can praise Him as we have studied before but there is another way

In John 15:7,8 it tells how the Father is glorified. "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified that you bear much fruit; so you will be my disciples."  If we abide in His presence and His words abide in our hearts, we may ask Him for the desires of our heart and it will be done for us.  If our asking is according to His will we will bear fruit to His glory.

What is fruit?  Galatians 5:22,23  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, gentleness, self-control.  Against such there is no law."  Can you see how much these fruits would glorify the Father, so why not ask God for these beautiful fruits of His Spirit that He is so willing to give that we may glorify His name?

I am going to ask Him right now to endow me with these fruits so that I may glorify Him and people will know that we belong to Him by the fruit we bear in our lives, day by day.  How about you, don't you want to bear fruit unto Him?  Remember the promise that  'if we ask, it shall be done for us' so what is keeping us from asking? You can answer that.  I have no idea what it could be, but I know my heart and a little self-examination will tell you what is keeping you from asking.  So until tomorrow, Ask and it shall be given.
Grandma Joan

Literally, absolutely yours.

Do you have anything that is literally, absolutely yours?  I am pretty sure that you do although if you have a spouse, then maybe not, but surely something is literally absolutely yours. No one likes to get into my purse because it is literally, absolutely mine and since my husbands passing, everything we had is literally, absolutely mine to do with as I want or see fit.

The Scriptures are literally, absolutely yours, you can count on them and the following verse tells us that "His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path."  Psalms 119:105.  And in Matthew 24:35 it says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."  Isaiah 40:8 says, "The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever."

His words are yours to literally, absolutely trust but we must ask according to His will and not play games with God's word ,in other words we must not be presumptuous in asking for things that we know is not according to His will or His word.  The Bible is literally, absolutely yours to hold and cherish and let it speak to your heart truths that maybe you never saw before, it is wonderful to dig in and find treasures that will last for eternity.  May God bless you as you seek to do His will and may He bless you more and more as you follow on to know Him better and better.  Grandma Joan

HELP! ! ! ! !

Are you a sinner, I hope you answered yes, because Romans 3:23 says, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  What do we do when we acknowledge that we are sinners?  Probably look for a way to remedy the situation.   That's what I have done, would you like to join me in finding the remedy?  Let's find out what we can do.

Psalms 119:11 says, "Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You."  So the first thing we need to do is turn to the word of God and let His word penetrate our hearts and even memorize some of them that seem most helpful to us.

Romans 8:1,2  "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk in the flesh, (our sinful nature) but walk in the Spirit, (our spiritual nature).

It appears to me that if we hide His word in our hearts that we will walk in the Spirit and not in our sinful nature.  There is no condemnation to those who walk in the Spirit.  That is a wonderful promise and I want to walk in His Spirit, how about you?  I need help though as I am sure everyone does.

So for the help we need we need to hide His word in our hearts and stay in His presence as it says in John 15:4 "Abide in Me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in  Me.  Does that sound like we need to stay in His presence?  It does to me and I hope with all my heart that I am abiding day by day in His presence.  This is where our victory over sin lies.

So my friend what do you think?  Is abiding in Christ where you want to be?  I hope so, there are so many promises of help in the Bible, we need not be afraid to claim them and to live by them.  This is my prayer for you this day.  Grandma Joan

Are you guilty? I am.

Psalms 113:3  "From the rising of the sun to its going down, The Lord's name is to be praised."  I am not afraid to say 'thank you' but to just out and out praise the Lord, yes, I am guilty, how about you?  I think of that verse that I just memorized recently, Psalms 103:3  "Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy Name."  I like to repeat these verses 1-5 before I go to sleep at night but other than that I forget to praise His holy name.  I am ashamed to say it and He was very kind to remind me of that this time as I am writing my blog.  I am so sorry I am so forgetful of praising Him.

There is so much to praise Him for, I made a list, I guess I have done it several times of all the things to praise Him for and the list goes on and on.  Home, food, clothing, heat, water, fresh air and oh so many things to mention.  I need to make another list, it is good to be reminded of all the things God gives us that we don't even ask for let alone the answers to prayer we receive.  Read Psalms 104, it is really a praise Psalm.

Well, I've been convicted, how about you?  I really am going to try my best and even ask Him to remind me to praise Him more.  I know that He appreciates every thankful heart that breathes a thank you to Him and then on top of that praise Him for all His wonderful works for His children here on earth.  I am so unworthy of His benefits but I am so grateful for them and need to tell Him so.

Will you join me in praising God for ALL His benefits towards us?  I believe He appreciates every little thank you and praise that we utter and hopefully we will learn to praise Him more and more for all the things He does for us.  Why not have a little praise service even if its all by yourself, it will mean so much to Him.  I am going to, right now.  Until next time keep praising Him.  Grandma Joan

Pardon me.

What kind of Instrument are you?

There are all kinds of instruments, stringed, wind, drums etc. Instruments can vary in different ways, some can be flat, some sharp, some off key, some beautiful tones like they were made to make.  My favorite is the organ, I love to play the organ, it is such a smooth sounding instrument and can offer the best in music, I think.  But when you come down to it, I love music, all kinds, I should say most kinds.  I don't like loud, harsh tones, tones that clash and crash and make no sense.

We are God's instruments, instruments of love, joy, peace or we can be Satan's instruments of hate, unhappiness, and unsettled, so what kind of instrument are we?  Do we put out beautiful tones of highest quality that soothe, strengthen and help others or are we putting out just the opposite?  It is very important that we are God's instruments of love, joy and peace.

Romans 6:13  "And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God."

I bet you are wondering what ever brought up this subject, well there is a reason and you guessed it, it is something that I needed to learn and so what I learn I share with you.  I learned that I am God's instrument and I want to be but I have to be a humble instrument that He can use and speak through and not take any credit to myself and I am very willing to do that, but have to be very careful that no glory goes to me.  So the lesson learned is that in order to be God's instrument, it takes being humble and willing to share whatever He puts on my heart that I need and then to share it with you.  That's is what I am trying to do by God's grace.

Do you want to be His instrument too?  Then take to heart what He is teaching me and let Him make you His humble instrument to His glory and honor.  May we all be His humble instruments today.  Grandma Joan
Have a great day in the Lord.

All Things.

Spiritual darkness is a tragedy this day and age and it is all around us.  No matter who we meet or where we go it is there in some form or another.  It comes to us in thoughts, it comes to us by others hurting us, sometimes we bring it about ourselves by slipping out of God's presence so what is the remedy?  By now you can probably answer that question but I have some verses that will help you a lot.

2 Peter 1:3  "According as His divine power hath given unto us 'All Things' that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who has called us to glory and virtue."

'All Things' that pertain to life and godliness. That means a lot, think about it, our whole life with godliness on top of it.  Is there any darkness in glory and virtue, I think not.  We need to keep the darkness away but we can't do it on our own..

Philippians 4::13 "I can do 'All Things' through Christ which strengthens me."  Keep in mind who it is that gives us the strength to do 'All Things'

Romans 8:32  "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us 'All Things'."  His sacrifice in our behalf was given so that we could be the participant in the 'All Things' that pertain to life and godliness.

Mark 9:23  "Jesus said unto him, 'If thou canst believe, 'All Things' are possible to him that believeth."
Belief is a hard thing to conjure up but we don't even have to do that but we do have to do something and it is found in Romans 10:17  "So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God."  So our belief comes by reading the word of God or listening to it this day and age on your ipod.  The more time we spend in the word, the more our belief in God will grow.  And the darkness will disappear.  You could say that the depression will disappear.

Mark 10:27  last part "For with God 'All Things' are possible."

With God we can stay in His presence and we can spend time in His word and build ourselves up in our most holy faith and with God 'All Things' are possible.  Drive the darkness in your life away with God's word and by staying in His presence this day, we only have one day at a time to live and that makes it a lot more simple than trying to live our life time on our own.  "For without faith it is impossible to please Him."
So stay in His presence and keep in His word each day and the darkness that haunts you will flee away.  I really believe that because I have experienced it.  Grandma Joan

PS.  I really needed this one today, and it did help tremendously and I hope it will help you as much as it has helped me.  God bless you.

Accomplishing nothing?

Do you ever feel like you are accomplishing nothing?  Do you like to worry about things?   Does it help you when you worry about it?  Most of the time it makes things worse.  Because things aren't working out like you thought they should you start wondering what is happening in your life and you can get all depressed and feeling blue and that isn't good either.

Because I tend to be a worry wort and need some help, I am going to pass on what I am learning to you.  It doesn't pay to worry.  I know that from experience but it is such a common thing to do when we do not stay in Christ's presence.  I have found the help that I need.

In Matthew 6:31-34  "Therefore do not worry , saying, 'What shall we eat? or 'What shall we drink?' or What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.
Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

What are we to do to not have to worry about these things that He knows we need?  Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.  I believe that is the key to stop worrying.
I don't worry a lot anymore, but I do have a tendency to worry if things just don't happen when I think they should.  Sometimes I just call it concern, but it really is a cover up for what I am really doing.

I have found that when I practice what I 'preach'  and stay in His presence all day, I have less tendency to worry or to even think about things to worry about.  I am really stuck on staying in His presence all the time.
When I feel that I am wandering outside of His presence, I just pray, 'please keep me in Your presence' and things are much better.

You will probably get tired of me slipping in this subject every day but it really is the secret to a much happier life and God does provide the solutions when we provide the conditions and the condition to worrying is seeking Him first, I would say seek His presence first thing in the morning and then seek to stay there all through the day.  Happy seeking and then stay there.  Grandma Joan

No Good Thing.

Do you like good things to happen to you?  I do, I get all excited when things turn out well and even better than I thought.  Sometimes it is a surprise and we are overwhelmed with the way things happen.  

What if no good thing ever happened to you, how would you feel?  It would be so disappointing to always looking forward to something and it turned out that it wasn't good at all.  I have been in both situations and know what disappointments feel like and I also know when a good thing happens what it feels like to be elated over it.  The good things are what keeps us going and when bad things happen we tend to get down in the dumps so to speak.  It is not a good feeling.

My verse today is a good one as usual,  found in Psalms 84:11  "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly."  No good thing will He withhold, but there is a condition for this promise, what is it?
From them that walk uprightly.  If you are staying in His presence, you are walking uprightly.  I have found that when something happens to upset me, I just ask the Lord to 'keep me in His presence' and the thing whatever it was becomes insignificant and doesn't bother me anymore.  We can do that with bad thoughts, or mistakes that we make and we can stay in His presence all day long and then we are walking uprightly.

Then it is that 'no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly'.  I love this verse, it really meant a lot to me when I read it this morning.  I hope it helps you to walk closer to God and receive of His promises.  This particular promise is a wonderful promise, but it is not a frivolous promise, it has meaning to the one who is walking with God. So stay in His presence and walk close to Him this day so that He can pour out His good things in your life.

I hope that you are enjoying my worship times that I am sharing with you each day.  They are sure helping me to have a closer walk with God and the promises that I am sharing are bringing new meaning to my life, I hope they are doing the same for you.  May God bless you as you walk with Him.  Grandma Joan

In All the Wrong Places.

Have you ever gone searching for something and discovered that you did all your searching in all the wrong places?  I have and then when you find what you are looking for, you discover that it was just exactly where you put it.  Sometimes it is just laid down without thinking and it is in the wrong place.

I have discovered when searching for truth, the only place to find it is in the Scriptures.  We can search all our lives in the wrong places for peace, joy and love and all the other fruits of the Spirit and never find what really fills the heart up to overflowing, until we decide to go to the Scriptures for the help we need and then all of a sudden we see what we have been missing.  It was misplaced on a shelf, on the coffee table for decoration or to make people think we read it and we are Christians and we have to dust it off and bring it out to read and study to find those things we have been searching for in all the wrong places.

We are told to "Seek the Lord while He may be found and to call upon Him while He is near."  Isaiah 55:6.
It sounds like we may not always have this blessed privilege.  Also in Matthew 7:7 it says, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you."  A beautiful promise is found in 2 Chronicles 7:14 which says, "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, Then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

The trouble with us as God's people is, "For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus."

The world really has nothing to offer us as far as the heart goes.  Only Christ can fill the heart with heavenly attributes and He is willing to do that IF we will humble ourselves and pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways.  Then He will hear us and heal us of our deformities.

As we have been learning to come into His presence and now while we are in His presence, seek His face and not our own things, we will find what we have been looking for in all the wrong places.  The right place to search for what is missing in our lives is God's book, it is a letter of love to us who live in this dark world of sin.  So my friends, seek Him while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near and stay in His presence throughout this day, it works wonders in our lives.  I can testify to that.  Grandma Joan

Are your fears overwhelming at times?

Yes, fears can be overwhelming at times.  I have had several experiences through life that have caused me to fear and be afraid.  Most of the time it has been people that have tried to hurt me that has caused most of my fear.  And then the fear grows into something that is overwhelming and uncontrollable until you fear just about anything.  It isn't fun at all and it ruins life's greatest pleasures.  It can ruin our relationship with God and cause us to fear Him.  Satan loves to knock us down and try to keep us there, doesn't he?

I got to the place where I couldn't speak in front of people without shaking and my voice quivering and one time I even burst into tears.  And then we isolate ourselves because of circumstances unavoidable and that doesn't help at all.  Then you fear making friends, going places where there are people and like I just said it can ruin life's greatest pleasures which mostly involve people.

So this morning I am going to try and help my fears dissolve, are you with me?  These promises will help us overcome these prison house fears.

Psalms 34:4  "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears."

Isaiah 41:13  "For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee."

Hebrews 13:5  "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."

Isaiah 44:8  "Fear ye not, neither be afraid."

These are great promises are they not?  Why do we fear when we have a great God that says He will be with us and help us.  Then there are two more verses that will really help us.

1 John 4:18  "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment.  He that feareth is not made perfect in love."  Isn't that the truth, the Bible always points us to things right where we need it most.  Fear has torment, that is so very, very true.  If we are filled with fear we cannot be made perfect in love.

2 Timothy 1:7  "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love, and of a sound mind."

This is what we need, a spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.  Wouldn't you agree with that?

This is our promise for today, so wipe away all your fears and let God give you power, love and a sound mind.  These things come from above and are a great blessing.  I am going to contemplate this today as I stay in His presence as we have been learning and pray that He will cast out all my fears and fill me with 

power, love and a sound mind.  How about you?  God bless you as you stay in His presence today and let Him wipe away all your fears.  Grandma Joan

Joy in His Presence

Have you found a little more joy in your heart since yesterday.  I have.  I have had more peace and more joy than I have had for a while.  I kept in His presence all day as I contemplated the things I had to do and what I had studied yesterday morning.  Remember the text:  Psalms 16:11  "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."?

In Exodus 33:14 God told Moses "My presence will go with you."  That's the promise that we need and want.  We want His presence to go with us wherever we go or whatever we do.  It is a vital concern of mine to have His presence with me.

In Psalms 140:13 "Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; The upright shall dwell in Your presence."  So, again, we need to dwell in His presence.  It is really not hard to do, it sounds like it could be but if you think of it this way, as you go about your day and your duties, just offer up a little prayer now and then asking Him to keep you in His presence and He always keeps His promises.  Your day will be so much smoother and really joy starts filling your heart just being in His presence.

Here's the promise.  Acts 2:28  "You have made known to me the ways of life;  You will make me full of joy in Your presence."  Can you find a better promise than that?  As far as joy goes and being in His presence.
He will make us full of joy in His presence.  I love that promise.

Do you need joy?  I know I do, it is no joy  living without His fullness, no joy at all.  I am talking about the joy of being filled with His fullness.  Read Ephesians 3:14 - 21 again and see how to be filled with the fullness of God.  Don't worry about whether you are deserving or not, none of us are really deserving of the gifts of God, but that is why Jesus gave up His life for us because He was deserving and when we accept Him we accept His worthiness as ours.

Be filled with joy today in His presence and be blessed with abundant joy.  Grandma Joan

Fullness of Joy

How many of us find ourselves empty of real joy?  I think I would be safe to say that there are not many that have that real deep abiding joy in their hearts.  And for good reason, sometimes life hits us pretty hard and it is hard to be joyful.  Believe me, I know it by experience.  I thought all the joy of living went out the window when my husband passed away.  Yet here I am a Christian of some sort and not much joy, so this morning I felt I needed joy and lots of it so maybe you are in that situation too.  Let's see if we can do something about it.

In Psalms 16:11 it says, "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy;  At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Is this the reason there is not much joy in this world?  Because we do not keep ourselves in His presence?
I thought I was doing that but lately I have seen that I am not what He really wants me to be.  If I were I am sure that I would find that joy that it is speaking of in Psalms 16.  And it also says that at His right hand are pleasures forevermore.

I am sure of one thing, and that is, it is not speaking of giddiness or funny jokes and that sort of thing, it is speaking of real deep down joy in the heart, joy of living for Him, joy in serving others, joy in just loving others and bringing joy to their heart.  That has been hard for me since my husband passed away, but now I see that I need to keep in His presence every minute of every day.  What a revelation to me, how about you?

I said to the Lord this morning, why do you want me to study joy when I don't have any, what in the world would I say?  Well, you can see how He answered that prayer for me and I am pleased to know that in His presence I can find fullness of joy.  How about you, will you try this good biblical  advice.  Thank you for listening and letting me share my worship time with you.  Grandma Joan

For My Name's Glory.

Have you ever wondered how you might honor someone in a special way?  Sometimes they have done us a very special favor and we wish to honor them for their kindness.  Sometimes their kindness is so over powering that it is almost impossible to let them know how much you appreciate it.

That's the way it is with trying to honor God for all His goodness and blessings He passes on to us day by day, but I found a way. Would you like to know  how to make God happy and know that He appreciates your efforts to do so.

John 15:7,8  "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be my disciples."

These are Jesus words to us and He is telling us that when we abide in Him and He abides in us, we can ask for things that will glorify His Father, and it will be done for us.  What can we ask for?  Anything that will glorify God and be a blessing to others.

If we are abiding in Christ, we will be living for Him and doing His will and if He is abiding in us, He will be living His life in us doing the Father's will and of course that will glorify His name before others that they may see we serve a living God who cares and blesses us day by day.

What a world we could be living in if everyone practiced abiding in Christ day by day and letting Him abide in us and make us like Him as He dwells in us.  We know we can't change the world but we can change our own lives and by doing this we can change the atmosphere around us and make our homes a little heaven on earth and bless those in our homes.

Let us honor God and glorify His name with our lives this day and make our dwelling places a little heaven on  earth to glorify His name.  We can do it, by His grace we can.  Grandma Joan

Why not ask?

Is it hard to ask a favor of someone, like a friend, family member or even an acquaintance, some maybe harder than the other?  We can be so independent that it is really hard to depend on someone else for a favor.  Or it may be that we fear a rejection of what ever the favor is that we are asking.  I am one of those that fear rejection and so it has been hard for me to ask for help with anything.  A poor place to be for sure.

I know that I love to give favors and why I fear to ask is something that I cannot figure out but some day I am sure I will understand my fears.  All my children love to give and I am so thankful for that, but even then they may have the same fears that I have, I have never asked them.

In my study this morning I am going to talk about asking and without fear. In James 4:2 it says in the last part of the verse that "you do not have because you do not ask."  And in verse 3 it says, "you ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures."  So we need not fear if what we are asking for is something that He has promised to give.

Would you ask a friend or family member for something that was frivolous just to have fun with or something nonsensical?  You might because of our worldly nature but again you might fear to ask, depending on who
you are asking.

Well, we need not fear when we come to God for favors, but it says not to ask for something to just spend upon our pleasures.  It is not that God doesn't want us to have a good time, I am sure He does, but what is the good time that we are asking for.

Some conditions to our asking:  We must ask in His name.  John 16:23.  We must ask not only in His name but we must ask for things that glorify the Father and the other condition is that we keep His commandments, John 14:13-15.  And James 1:6 we must "ask in faith"  We may ask for wisdom, James 1:5, we may ask for forgiveness, 1John 1:9,  We may ask for the Holy Spirit which is the best gift God can give us, Matthew 7:11.

I have an assignment for you this day.  Get out your Bible concordance and see how many things you can ask for that God has promised to give.  You will be blessed beyond belief.  So ask Him and without fear that you will be rejected, He has promised that "He who comes to me I will in no wise cast out."  John 6:37.  He may not give us exactly what we are asking for but many times it is something better and then sometimes we have to patiently wait awhile until it is the best time to answer our request.  Remember we are dealing with an all knowing God who knows what is best for us at the time of our request and we must  let patience have it's perfect work that we may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."  James 1:4.

So don't be afraid to be asking God for the blessings of a lifetime, He will answer in time, so be patient and remember to come before Him without fear of asking.  He loves us to come and ask.  See how many promises you can find today that you can ask for. Send me your list on the comments.  I would love to hear from you.  Grandma Joan

More Promises to strengthen your faith.

I hope the promises that I posted yesterday have helped you in your walk with the Lord. I have some really good ones for today that have really meant a lot to me.  I hope they do the same for you.

I am going to start with my husbands favorite verse.  It is found in the book of Jude which only has one chapter and it is verse 24.  "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy."  One of the nurses at the nursing home where he was memorized it so she could  say it to him each  day.  I thought that was sweet of her.  It kept his destiny before him each day.

Ephesians 2:8 says, "For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."  God's gift to us is His grace which  was given to us at the cross, so that all may be saved in His kingdom if they so wish.

1 Thessalonians 5: 23,24  "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it."  Notice that it is God Himself that sanctifies us and preserves us blameless at His coming.  It is really a choice that we make whether we want to be a follower of His and let Him cleanse us from sin or whether we decide to go our own way.

Colossians 1:13,14  "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sins."  He is the One who delivers us from darkness into His kingdom through Christ's death for us on the cross.

Philippians 4:13  "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  There is nothing we can't do with His strength, He says in another verse that  "His strength is made perfect in our weakness."  That is found in 2 Corinthians 12:9,10.  In light of these verses, what is our excuse for not living for Him each hour of the day?  Really, there is no excuse.
 "
Philippians 4:19 "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
Another verse that gives us no excuse for not living the Christian life.

Philippians 2:13  "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."  So who does the work in us, is it us? or is it God?  How easy can it get if we just surrender to Him all our troubles and sins.

I think I have given you plenty of verses of victory for today, now just apply them to your life and live for Him.  May the God that works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, work in your life the same way and may you be blessed abundantly.  Grandma Joan

Favorite Promises

My very favorite promise is 2 Peter 1:2-4  "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

The reason this is my very favorite is because it shows us how to become a partaker of His divine nature and to escape the corruption in the world.  I think this is a very vital text of Scripture.  And the promise is sure

James 4;7  "Therefore submit to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you."
James 4:8  "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."
James 1:3  "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him."

Ephesians 3:14-21  "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations."

Just these promises that I have shared with you tonight are enough to put you on the path to heaven if you earnestly desire to have a close relationship with Christ.  And I sincerely hope that you do and will strive with all your might to walk with Him today and every day.  Tomorrow I will share more but I don't want to weigh you down too heavy.  If you will take the time to memorize them then when you are brought into dire places you have a weapon against the devil to cause him to flee from you.  This is my prayer for you tonight.
Grandma Joan

Promises from the Scriptures

I love to hunt down promises from the Bible, because that is how we become partakers of the Divine Nature.  And it is true, if you read the promises and even memorize them it helps you be so much more contented and happy because as 2 Peter 1:4 says, 'God has given us these exceeding, great and precious promises so that we may become partakers of His Divine Nature.  

I know it is hard for some people to believe in something they can't see, actually most people have a hard time believing something they can't touch or see.  It takes faith in a power outside and above ourselves and it takes the power of God to work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure so that we can actually claim the promises of God for ourselves.

I always like the illustration of driving across a bridge and the fact that it does take faith to cross a bridge, we just had a bridge collapse here in Washington and two cars went into the river, so glad no one was really injured, but thinking about that tonight, I wonder if it doesn't take a little more faith now than it did before it collapsed.  I would be a little bit skeptical about crossing there if it were me, after seeing what happened.

But if you keep reading the promises of God and try memorizing them, I know your faith will grow and the promises will become personal to you and you will grow in your walk with God.  It is almost a proven fact that the more time we spend in the scriptures, the more our faith will grow and the closer our relationship will become with God.  Try talking to God about His promises and taking them personally.

God's promises are His gift to us in this sin ridden world and we can have them free of charge and rely on them.  For example in 1 John 1:9 He promises to forgive us, we can rely on that when we ask.  Another promise is for comfort in Psalms 23:4.  Tomorrow I will try to share some special promises that I really like.

So until then, trust in God He really is all that we can really count on.  Grandma Joan