Hey! I've moved!!

Thanks for dropping by on this site, but I'm no longer adding new posts to this blog. To read the latest posts click here! I'm really pleased how the new one is working. I'm sure you'll be blessed.

Blessings!

Jeanette

5 Steps to our Work Being Establish

I've been thinking about the word "establish". So I checked out the meaning of the word and I discovered that there were 5 elements in something being established.

1. The Planning

2. The Preparation for the future event

3. The Presentation of the finished product

4. The Pleasure others enjoy

5. The Personal Satisfaction and SUCCESS!

As an example, you look at those five steps in the preparation of a meal.

We plan ahead, get the recipe and buy the ingedients.
We prepare the meal.
We present the meal to the family.
Hopefully, they will enjoy it.
Then the SATISFACTION of providing a good meal, knowing that all were well fed and the meal was enjoyable..... hence a SUCCESS!!

So, for something to be established, it means that the end result is satisfaction and success!!

As I was thinking about that, I realised, in the past, how often I'd only got as far as step three, and not steps 4 and 5. Maybe because the works were done in my own strength. When we do that, we are prone to not seeing the thing succeed..

'Thus says the LORD:
"Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,^[a]
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit." (Jeremiah 17:5-8, ESV)

So when we pray that prayer, we are praying for the WHOLE process, down to the satisfaction and SUCCESS!! But that success is not for our own glory, but for God's. That IS the success in it, that God has been glorified.

Here's another verse to support that:

"Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed." (Proverbs 16:3, Amp)

And Jesus said:

"In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father." (Matthew 5:16, NLT)

"We must work the works of Him Who sent Me and be busy with His business while it is daylight; night is coming on, when no man can work." (John 9:4, Amp)

To say it all very simply, if we want to succeed in what we do, find out what God wants us to do, and then do it HIS way!! We don't do it FOR HIM, in order to get His approval! Instead, we can do it THROUGH HIM, because we have His approval!!... remembering:

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Phil 4:13, NKJ)

God's Beauty seen in His Creative Ones

As I've meditated on this prayer for the past day or so, my thoughts go particularly to God's creative people. I'm reminded that when He created the world, He made everything good and beautiful. There was nothing in the world that was not perfect. As Genesis says, "God saw all He had made and it was very good." (Gen 1:31a, NIV)

However, because of man's sin, we all know it didn't stay that way. The world became a twisted place, and beauty began to vanish. When God made man, He made him in His own image.... and that too has become tainted. Man became ugly, and no longer reflected God's beauty.

Yet God calls His people, those who have been recreated in Christ, to be mirrors of His glory and of His beauty. Through Christ, we have been recreated in His own image.

We all have many different gifts and talents, and in each of them we display something of the Father's image. However, here, I wish to share with those who are blessed with the creative gifts, displaying that side of God, our creator. It is our place to bring back some beauty to this dark, twisted and ugly world.

We are the beautiful ones!!... and we see the beauty around us!! So let us share that beauty with those who do not see what we see.

"Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16, NIV)

First Prayer for 2007!

"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us,
Yes, establish the work of our hands."
(Psalm 90:17, NKJ)

This is what I read this morning, and I felt I really needed it to make an impression on me, so I did this. It is also my prayer for you for the coming year. May you, firstly, know what the Lord would have you do, and then, may the Lord's blessing over all that you do.

"For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus. [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live]." (Ephesians 2:10, Amp)

NEW YEAR - NEW BLOG!

I've change my blogsite for 2007. For the latest entries go to - http://jeanetteb1.wordpress.com/.

May God bless you in the coming year, and may you know and walk in His way!

My New Year Prayer!

"For You are great and work wonders! You alone are God.
"Teach me You way, O Lord, that I may walk and live in Your truth; direct and unite my heart [solely, reverently] to fear and honor Your name.
"I will confess and praise You, O Lord my God, with my whole (united) heart; and I will glorify Your name forevermore." (Psalm 86:10-12, Amp.)

This is my prayer for 2007, as I seek the Lord's direction. I face this year with many unknowns and wonderings what the Lord wants me to do.

It will be a year of new beginnings, with many new challenges, many new adventures, many new opportunities. There are so many good directions one could go, but knowing the RIGHT one, is what I find a challenge. Oh, how easy it would be to head off down the wrong road, only to find it comes to a dead end!

So I guess what I need is wisdom to make the RIGHT choice. This reminds me of what it says in James:

"If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.
"Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge of the sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind.
"For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord, [for being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides]." (James 1:5-8, Amp.)

May I not and may none of us, be double minded. But let us pray that God will direct and unite our heart to fear and honor His name. And we will confess and praise God with our whole and united heart, and not be tossed about by a double-mind!

Quietly waiting!!

I'm impressed by the patience of a frog... also the patience of a fisherman... and the patience of a wild cat in stalking it's prey! We can sure learn a lot from them... well at least I know I can!!

Quietly waiting for the right moment... perfect precision timing!! By being too quick or too slow would mean missing the catch... and in some cases dinner!!

It sure speaks volumes to those of us who tend to be impetuous in nature, rushing in before thinking! Also for those of us who are too slow and hesitant to grasp the opportunities as they come .... thinking TOO much. There is a fine balance between seizing the moment and patiently waiting for that moment.

This got me thinking about our waiting on God and His timing. Looking at history, it is evident time and time again, of how God choose the precise moment to intervene into our chaotic world. We see this particularly in the birth of Jesus.

"When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." (Galatians 4:4, NKJ)

The moment was right, the stage was set. Take for instance, Bethlehem! How amazingly God arranged for Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem for a census, right at the time Jesus was due to be born! And this fulfilled the prophecies that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Also see how God even used the plans of an earthly, heathen king to bring about His divine purposes.

And this is only one instance of how God steps into our world at just the right moment. Nothing too soon... nothing too late!!

This brings me back to think about us, and where we fit into His divine purpose. How can we learn... how can we know when to go and when to wait. It can only be through quietly waiting on Him.

"Truly my soul silently waits for God; from Him comes my salvation." (Psalm 62:1, NKJ)
"My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him." (Psalm 62:5, NKJ)

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
do not fret—it only causes harm.
For evildoers shall be cut off;
But those who wait on the Lord,
they shall inherit the earth." (Psalm 37:7-9, NKJ)

"It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." (Lam 3:26, NKJ)

Remember when Jesus was on earth? Everyday He would get alone with His Father, and pray... talking about the day! He only did what His Father instructed Him to do. He quietly waited to know what the Father wanted... and THEN He went about His Father's business.

“I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work." (John 9:4, NKJ)

This is also what He has called us to do. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10, NKJ)

So the answer to walking in God's timing is simply this: JUST KEEP IN STEP!!

"Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." (Galatians 5:25, NIV)