God's Preperation.

Don't you love it when God does something in your life and you have no idea why until something happens and you were like "oh, God was preparing me for that, and I didn't even know it." For example. On Christmas Eve I had planned on relaxing and getting prepped for my sermon at church. I was planning on going out to run a couple of errands and grab some lunch. I went to put on my shoes and.......instead of putting on my slip on shoes, I put on my gym shoes. I thought to myself, "this is weird. I have no idea why I did that." Definitely not normal for me. I never put those shoes on unless I am going to be on my feet for a very long time, or working out. Both which I hadn't planned on doing that day. It was supposed to be a quick run out and back. Well God had other plans for me that afternoon. We have swing doors on our fence, kind of like barn doors that swing open to get access to our back yard. The wind storm that blew in the night before, broke the board that we had holding the gate closed. So the doors where standing wide open. Without my knowledge. I proceeded to let our dog out before going to do my errands. When she didn't come back in right away, I stepped out onto our back deck and saw that the gate was wide open. You guessed it, the dog was gone. Panic settled in as what I should do. I got in the van and drove around looking for her. No luck. Then I set out on foot. For over an hour. I came to realize that after everything was over and our dog was home safe, that God prepared me for all the walking I was going to do looking for the dog, by having me put on my gym shoes. So all I could do was to thank God for bringing the dog home safe (answered prayer) and give Him praise for having me put on the correct shoes for what I was about to do. Thank You Jesus!!

John 10:10

Ha ha Satan. I have my ministry credentials for 2016. You tried to dissuade me several times since last year's renewal. You tried to make me give up or quit the ministry. You kept knocking me down by saying that God doesn't have a use for me. He doesn't have a job for me anywhere. My credentials are just going to waste. Several times I almost listened to you. I was on the verge or edge of just giving in and saying you win. I'm sure glad that I listened to that still small voice of God. He told me that He still has a use for me. He still values me as a minister of His word. He is not finished with me yet, and for that I am thankful. You Satan, tried to steal my joy, kill my enthusiasm and destroy me and my ministry. Jesus on the other hand came to give me life, abundant life! You will not beat me devil. I have God on my side. If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phillipians 4:13

Toe Nails

Interesting title don't you think? Kind of gross to some people. But it's what got me thinking about this post. I was trimming my toe nails the other night and I started thinking, this is kind of cool. You trim your nails and in time they grow back again. Then you do the whole process over again. I started thinking about how we grow in The Lord. We start out as a baby Christian when we first believe, and then grow in our faith as we mature. Then God proceeds to prune us so we can grow some more. Isn't that how it is supposed to be. We are never supposed to stop growing in our faith. God will trim us, knock things off of us, chip away at us, so that we will continue to mature. It says in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 3:2New Living Translation (NLT) 2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready. God doesn't want us to survive on milk alone. He doesn't want us to continue to be an immature Christian. He wants to nourish us with His word so that we continue to grow to be able to move onto more solid food. So He continues to prune, trim, remove things from our lives that we depend on, so that we depend solely on Him. So that we grow into spiritual maturity. The things I think about while cutting my nails. To God be the Glory!!