Thought for the day...

Very happy to hear of your progress Woodwhore! Keep up the good work!

 

Excellent job jtstromsburg! You even mentioned your woodstove and your enthusiasm for it during your message!

 

Thanks for posting jtstromsburg! I will give it a watch when I can. Looking forward to it

 

Thanks for sharing your testimony. We all have one, because none of us are perfect. God has a plan for you

 

February 10, 2020
Verse of the Day
And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV

 

Lasting Love Extends Grace
By Rick Warren — February 9, 2020


“Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love” (Ephesians 4:2 NLT).

No relationship will survive without grace. You’ve got to cut people some slack! You’ve got to let things go.

The Bible says, “Love patiently accepts all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7 NCV). In the original Greek, this literally means “covered with a roof.” Would you buy a house without a roof? Of course not. You’d have no protection from wind and rain. A roof covers and protects your home.

In the same way, biblical love covers a relationship and lets some things slide. It doesn’t haul people into account for every mistake they make. You need a roof on your relationship because people damage pretty easily, and we need the kind of love that extends grace.

Why is grace essential to relationships?

The Bible says in Romans 3:10 that no one always does what is right. Nobody gets it right 100 percent of the time. It’s never just one person’s fault. There’s always a responsibility on both sides. It takes two people to disagree!

We have to learn to extend grace to each other, because forgiveness is a two-way street. We cannot receive what we’re unwilling to give to other people.

You build strong relationships by treating other people the way God treats you. Romans 15:7 says, “Accept each other just as Christ has accepted you” (NLT). When you accept others as they are, looking past their faults for the sake of love, that’s extending grace

 

February 12, 2020
Verse of the Day
Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.
Psalms 105:1-2 NIV

 

Wrestling with God
By Jason Nelson
“So Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until dawn. When the man saw that he could not win against Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that it was dislocated as they wrestled. Then the man said, ‘Let me go; it’s almost dawn.’ But Jacob answered, ‘I won’t let you go until you bless me’” (Genesis 32:24-26 GW).

Jacob was having a restless night before a high stakes meeting with his brother, Esau. Years earlier, Jacob defrauded Esau out of the family birthright, and they hadn’t seen each other since. They were finally going to meet up. Two estranged brothers would engage in a stare down at dawn. Jacob didn’t know if the meeting would result in a warm embrace or violent conflict. Should he even go through with it? God came between them and wrestled with Jacob.

God kept trying to escape Jacob’s hold on him. Why would God push anyone away at the turning point of a crisis? To show us we have the courage to see it through. In every crisis, we struggle with ourselves, other people, and God himself. Holding on to the Almighty for all we are worth is the only way to get through it. God pushes back so that we grab on to him more tightly. God pushes back so that we strengthen our grip. God inflicts a little short-term pain on us so that we rejoice in the blessed relief of an answer to our prayers.

Sometimes you have to wrestle with God to get a blessing.

 

February 13, 2020
Verse of the Day
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Philippians 2:5 NIV

 

Dishonest scales
By Jason Nelson
When I step on the bathroom scale, I generally don’t like the readout. I’ve tried pulling myself up a little with the towel bar to get a better number. But that’s cheating.

“The LORD detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him” (Proverbs 11:1). God hates any kind of fraud. Fraudulent practices have been around since he rebooted human history after he booted Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. Merchants cheated people by putting their fingers on the payload side of a balance scale so they could charge more money for less product. Now cheaters try to institutionalize their advantage. Politicians gerrymander congressional districts so their voters will outnumber voters from the opposition party. They must think we won’t notice.

Justice is supposed to be blind, and any kind of scale is supposed to be fairly balanced. But our commerce and politics are out of whack. We take dishonest scales for granted. We might even think treating others fairly puts us at a disadvantage.

God saw that people cheat and asked himself, “Shall I acquit someone with dishonest scales?” (Micah 6:11). He answered yes and unbalanced his own standards of justice for our benefit. He placed our sin and shame on Jesus like he deserved it and we didn’t. That’s how “he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what GOD is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor” (Micah 6:8 MSG)

 

February 14, 2020
Verse of the Day
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
1 Corinthians 13:4 NIV

 

Scared of being convicted by the HOLY SPIRIT, I guess.