You are Ephesians.
Which book of the Bible are you?
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Month: June 2003
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You're the loving smile,the one that is entirely
devoted to others,especially that one
person.You really can't get them out of your
head,but then,you don't really want to.What Kind of Smile are You?
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What Finding Nemo Character are You?
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cuddle and a kiss on the forehead - you like to be
close to your special someone and feel warm,
comfortable, and needed
What Sign of Affection Are You?
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Humility
well now for me.... that is a difficult topic to actually nail down.
There is a fine line between humility and poor self esteem, and I have not
mastered the difference yet. The dictionary definition of humility is
meekness, modesty, lower yourself, to lower your self esteem, and worth.
Yet, to do so to the extreme can be detrimental to one's self. If your self
esteem is too low, you will not be able to function properly, and actually
lead to self hate at time. This, is not humility. I think, from what I
have learned so far, that humility is to not consider yourself better than
others and to love others. Then, if you are on an equal plane with others,
you will not be prideful, and you will not have self esteem problems. -
Taking a break from caring for very sick children in the PICU station, I leaned over the desk, just chatting with the other nurses sitting there. It was shift change and I was waiting to give report to the oncoming nurse. On the desk, someone had left us a basket of tootsie rolls. I, having a severe craving for chocolate, took one, and slowly unwrapped it as I turned around to glace at the monitor of my patient who had only 3 hours earlier been brought back from surgery. I put the candy into my mouth and started chewing on that very soft and sticky candy. I turned back around to say something to one of the nurses and realized that the once delightful candy was now caught in my throat and on the way to being the weapon of my death. I quickly put my hands up to my neck in the universal sign for choking, everyone else being engrossed in report by now, didn't notice my plight. What was I to do. I was quite panicky by now, as I couldn't breathe. I started hitting the desk hoping that someone would notice me. Finally, as my lips were surely turning a dark shade of blue, one of my coworkers noticed me. She quickly came over and performed the Heimlich maneuver on me, the once satisfying little chunk flew out of my mouth and hit the floor with a silent plunk. No one else really noticed the situation, and continued on with report. To this day, I do not eat tootsie rolls, no matter what that owl says on the TV!
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~from 2/24/03 (Monday)
THE BATTLE OF THE MIND
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . . There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 7:25; 8:1).
Romans 7:22, 23, pinpoints the battleground for the contest between me and sin: "For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members."
Where does my desire to do what's right reside? Paul uses the phrase "the inner man," referring to my new self where my spirit and God's Spirit are in union. This is the eternal part of me. And where does sin wage its war to keep me from doing what I really want to do? In the physical members of my body (James 4:1). Sin operates through my flesh, that learned independence that continues to promote rebellion against God. This is the temporal part of me. Where then do these two opponents wage war (Galatians 5:17)? The battleground is my mind. That's why it is
so important that we learn how to renew our minds (Romans 12:2) and to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Paul concluded his description of the contest between sin and the new self with the exclamation: "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24). Notice that he didn't say, "Sinful man that I am !" Wretched means miserable, and there is no one more miserable than the person who has allowed sin to reign in his mortal body. If we use our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness, we give the devil an
opportunity in our lives, and he brings only misery.
The good news is that Romans 7:24 is followed by Romans 7:25 and Romans 8:1: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." The battle for the mind is a winnable war.
Thank You, Jesus, for knowing me, understanding me, and providing for me a way of escape for every possible temptation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
how do we win that war? How, by taking every thought captive? I also always thought wretched meant horrible, worthless etc... I didn't know that it meant miserable. I can relate to that, I thought it was saying that we are worthless. Goodness... was I wrong. He didn't say he was even a sinful man, he said he was miserable because of the sin in him..... I need to think of it that way, not the other way.
I am finding that I am having a battle of the mind so much more in the last couple days, is that because I am fighting the negative thoughts rather than giving in to them and actually leaning on them? Or is the devil fighting harder for my mind than it was? Or could it be a combination of both? I did give in for a bit today when I felt like all I ever do is wrong things. I did do something wrong and I need to learn to not do those things... but it didn't make me a bad person because of it right? That is what I felt... that I was bad and horrible and not worthy of anything good... that I was evil and don't even deserve to live.... I let those things float in my mind a bit, but then I discussed some of what I was thinking with my "onsite technician" and he helped me to see the light.... and since then I have been working at thinking positive thoughts... it is hard when it is something new for me... not that thinking positively is hard, but thinking positively about me is hard. I am scared to think positively about my situation with Eli and his visitations though because I am scared that my hopes will be dashed one more time and I don't know that I can take that again.... it has happened way to many times.... Eli and I never win when it comes to the court things...
Please continue to pray for the situation and also for my positive thoughts about myself so that I can help Eli to heal and think good things about himself.~ actually from 2/24/03 (Monday)
When we are honest with ourselves, something that can be very difficult
sometimes, we begin to grasp the full scope of God's love and mercy towards
us. Over and over again our actions merit our calling out to God like the
psalmist, declaring "I have sinned against You", and because of this humble
"integrity" God will hear and respond. Through the prophet Isaiah God tells
us that the sins of the past that we have burdened Him with He "remembers no
more" when we confess them and ask for forgiveness. He does this "for My own
sake" so that man will glorify Him instead of glorifying himself and
becoming puffed up with pride. St.Paul reminds us that our God is true to
His promises, He will never say "No" to a soul that approaches Him with
humble faith. Our God is pure and perfect love, He is a God of action who
has "sealed us and given us the Spirit" as a sign of His love and fidelity
towards us. St.Mark also gives us a story that shows us how powerful God's
love and mercy is. Somehow or someway these men in today's Gospel find a way
to present their crippled friend to Jesus. Amazed at their faith and
perseverance Jesus is moved to action and He forgives the man's sins. The
indignant scribes immediately take offense because Jesus is doing something
that only God can do. Knowing their hearts and wishing to tear down the
barrier of pride that separates them Jesus offers them two courses of
action. Certainly it would be easy to "say" your sins are forgiven, anyone
could say that, but to actually have the power to do it had to be an act of
God. To prove He possessed that kind of power Jesus picks the harder of the
two tasks and heals the man of his physical brokenness. Stunned and amazed
the crowd soon realizes what they have just witnessed and give glory and
praise to God, the only sacrifice He wants from us. When we go to God with
our weaknesses He heals a little bit of us each day. We may not have to
break through rooftops to approach Him, but we all have barriers that keep
us away. The only ones that can are the ones we refuse to tear down, and
today's readings encourage us to do just that. Fear of the truth about
ourselves is the biggest barrier that keeps us away, and only when we tear
away those "roof tiles" can we take up our mats and go home!
God bless you,
In Jesus - Pat
Again... forgiveness of our sins.... fear of the truth about ourselves is the biggest barrier that keeps us away, so true, so true. This is something I need to do also... to remove the roof tiles so that I can take up my mat and go home... I am not ready to go home yet... God is still working on me perfecting me. Although I have been wanting to die, I really am not ready to meet God yet, even though I want to. I have way to many sins and problems in my life that God wants to perfect in me before I come home. I need to face these problems head on and confess my sins, admit them and then confess them to God and then be filled with His grace so that I may continue on.
~ this is something from 2/23/03 (Sunday)
A STRUGGLING SAINT
I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the
very thing I hate (Romans 7:15).
Perhaps the most vivid description of the contest with sin which
goes on in the life of the believer is found in Romans 7:15-25.
In verses 15 and 16, Paul describes the problem: "For that which
I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I
would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I
do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law,
confessing that it is good."
Notice that there is only one player in these two verses--the
"I," mentioned nine times. Notice also that this person has a
good heart; he agrees with the law of God. But this good-hearted
Christian has a behavior problem. He knows what he should be
doing but, for some reason, he can't do it. He agrees with God
but ends up doing the very things he hates.
Verses 17-21 uncover the reason for this behavior problem: "So
now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me.
. . . If I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer
the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me." How many players
are involved now? Two: sin and me. But sin is clearly not me;
it's only dwelling in me. Sin is preventing me from doing what I
want to do.
Do these verses say that I am no good, that I am evil, or that I
am sin? Absolutely not. They say that I have something dwelling
in me which is no good, evil, and sinful, but it's not me. If I
have a sliver in my finger, I could say that I have something in
me which is no good. But it's not me who's no good. I'm not the
sliver. The sliver which is stuck in my finger is no good. I am
not sin and I am not a sinner. I am a saint struggling with sin
which causes me to do what I don't want to do.
Romans 6:12 informs us that it is our responsibility not to allow
sin to reign in our lives. Sin will reign if we use our bodies as
instruments of unrighteousness (Romans 6:13). We must renounce
every such use and submit our bodies to God as instruments of
righteousness.
Thank You, Lord, that I don't have to sin. You made it possible
for me to control sin's power over me. You delivered me from the
wages of sin and blessed me with the gift of eternal life in
Christ.
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wow!
this is amazing.... see now my thinking was that I am bad and I am worthless because I AM a sinner, that sin is in me, how can God look on me as a sinner, how can I even be what He would want me to be. This just hit me straight between the eyes..... sin is like a sliver and it needs to be removed and doesn't make me a bad person, doesn't make me worthless....
So when I do things that I miss the mark on so to speak, I am not bad or worthless, this is my cop out per se, it is my way of saying I can't do this, I am not worth trying, and it gives me a way to not work on things.... I am not going to do that any more.... I am going to keep working and get the sin out of me. I will be confessing my sins more often than what I have been. This way I will be clean and worthy of Christ in me and I will receive the grace that will help me grow closer to God and to be the person that God wants me to be and help me meet the mark more often.
Please keep me accountable to do this.... I need to remember that although there are bad things in me, they need to be removed so that I may be closer to God and not so focused on the bad stuff.
I think I will be talking to Eli about this tonight to try and help him see that he isn't a bad child maybe the sliver analogy will help him too, it is simple and it is effective
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