"CHOOSE LIFE"

This morning, I was thinking not talking to God...just reliving Christmas and revisiting some decisions I made and going about doing a few things around the house.

 God always uses visual things to make a point to me and when I least expect it.

.... God has told me many times that, I trust in me doing everything right, more than I trust "HIM". He proves this to me daily.... I had two choices put before me....we have choices to make everyday. And if you are anything like me, your choices sometimes will bring guilt. I'm thinking, I know I should do this but I want to do this....it's that "I place before you life and death" verse (Deut.30:18-20), I always hear at times like this. I know I should choose life but sometimes I just don't...at least that's what Satan screams at me. Look at what you just chose to do..now is that what a good Christian would have done..."NO"...absolutely not..he will say. Then I fall into the guilty hole and start having thoughts of all the bad that is probably going to happen because I chose wrong. Does this ever happen to you...I'm always trying to improve on my choices...come on Connie, make the right decision...do what you know you're supposed to do. "Trusting in me doing all the right things".

 I am not blessed because of me...I am blessed because of Jesus..period. 

 Trusting in me brings death...trusting in Jesus brings Life

 Trusting in me is based on me doing everything right... Trusting in Jesus is based on His finished work on the cross...

 Listen to the Word...Romans 8:3-6 Amp. For God has done what the law could not do,(it's power) being weakened by the flesh, (the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit). Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin,(God) condemned sin in the flesh (subdued, overcame, deprived it of it's power over all who except that sacrifice)

 4) so that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit (our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit).

 5)For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by it's unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and seek after those things which gratify the (Holy) Spirit.

 6)Now the mind of the flesh (which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit) is death (death that comprises all the miseries, arising from sin both here and hereafter). But the mind of the (Holy) Spirit is life and (soul) peace, (both now and forever).

 Does this shine fresh light on..."I set before you Life and death".."blessing and cursing"..."choose Life"

 Self (flesh) (me doing everything right)....death..curse

 Father God..Christ Jesus..Holy Spirit..The Word..The Promise..(He did everything right)....Life..Blessing

 I can do nothing but fall in holes by trying to do everything right...again, this is the life and death verse. I hear this verse all the time, Satan will use the Word against us, he used it against Jesus...Who by the way is The Word.

 Recently, I made a choice....fell into that hole but this time God spoke to me or maybe this time I actually heard Him...I'm sure He is always speaking to me. I'm just not always listening. He said, "your own heart is condemning you"...then, He said, "there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus"...yes, this is His actual Word...will find the scripture and write it at the end. 1 John 3:20-21 and Romans 8:1

 There's more...I had my TV on Joyce Meyer, wasn't really watching but I walked through the room just as she was saying, "sin has no power over you"...she proceeded to say, "this doesn't mean you will never sin again but it has lost it's power over you". (Romans 8:3). I know this, at least I thought I knew. There is so much we think we know and yet we don't have a clue.

 Knowledge isn't power......sometimes we know without "knowing"

 The Ten Commandments condemn us of our sin...Jesus saved us from this condemnation. This is HUGE..

If we are in condemnation, we are in the...got to do everything right. We will never overcome sin by doing everything right because we are never going to do everything right. Jesus overcame sin for us..He took it's power to condemn us away. As long as our hearts are condemning us we can be sure, we are depending on our own goodness.

 Sin, sickness, death, everything named in the curse loses it's power when we by faith receive the finished work of Jesus. Believe you are who Jesus says you are...don't try to become who He says you are. We cannot do, be or become by trying...."as He is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17)...by faith we believe His Word.

 Oh, I wanted to tell you about what happened this morning. I opened my freezer and the first thing I saw was the light, it was so bright...it was almost like, I had not seen it before. My freezer had been soooo full of stuff, I could not see the light that was in there. It had been there every time I opened the door but I only saw the stuff, couldn't see the light.

 God is soooo good to me...He uses small things to make a point. He said, you're like that, you get so overcrowded with what you call life that you lose site of the "Light" in you. I thought, wow, You are right...I do.

 I love the wow moments but sometimes, I treat them too lightly. I think "wow" but then just go on. 

 Well, I did that morning....I got caught up in my thoughts again, I wasn't talking to God, I was just thinking. I was thinking about my children, my grandchildren, my whole family actually. I had this overwhelming feeling of needing them to know how much "I" love them...I..I..I..I..just can't get away from me.

 Never forget when Jesus said, "I will be with you always" (Matt. 28:20)(Hebrews 13:5)(Gen. 28:15), He meant it.....so many times, I think I am just having a conversation with myself but, I am never alone...He is with me always. As soon as, I said that to myself, I heard..."I know what you mean", "I feel the same way", "I need all of you to know how much I love you"...John 3:16 "for God so loved"

 Thank you Jesus.....

 ........................."GOD IS LOVE"....................(1 John 4:8 & 16)

 Humility is not putting your self down....it is letting go of your self completely and trusting God with all, in all.

 Remember....choosing life or death isn't just based on the choices we make every day....it's based on whether we are trusting in our self (what we see, hear or feel)

 or the Word of God (the Way, the Truth, the Life)....

 For instance...your body feels sick, the doctor says it is sick (flesh)(curse)(death)

 The Word of God says, "by Jesus stripes you are healed"
 also says, "He bore all your sickness and disease" (Spirit)(Blessing)(Life) (Is. 53:4-6) (Psalm 103:2-4) (1 Peter 2:24) 1 Peter says, "were healed"

You might say, how can I say I'm not sick when I am......we have to on purpose choose to speak healing words. Hey, remember your mama telling you, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Do that, if you can't speak healing then don't speak at all. God shut Zacharias mouth so he could speak no unbelief over Elisabeth and did not open it until John was born. (Luke 2:20)

The Word of God says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Heb. 11:1) (Rom. 4:17) "and calleth those things which be not as though they were"

 The Word also says, "Life and death is in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21)

 Watch what you say, only speak words of Life over yourself and others.

 Mark 9:22-24...Have faith in God....whosoever shall say....not doubt in his heart but believe....shall have whatsoever he says.. Look this up, read the Word of God every day.

 "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17)

                                      Adding this to this post today:  Jan. 2, 2012....

As the Word says, (John 16:13), His Holy Spirit will guide us into all Truth: He gave me just this morning another key to "choosing Life"

Where is my faith:

...........is it in my love for God.........or.........is it in His love for me..........

Peter was so sure of his love for Jesus.......Matt. 26:33-35/Mark 14:29-31/Luke 23:31-34/John 13:36-38
John was so sure of Jesus's love for him......John 13:23/John 19:26/John 20:2/John 21:7/John 21:20

Law....Grace
Works....Mercy

 Connie