This SO encouraged me today.  You can read the chapter in it's entirety in your Bible.  I just pulled out the phrases that were personal to me.  I am so glad that God gets personal!!  After all if it's not personal, what is it??

Happy Easter one and all!

Isaiah 43

New King James Version (NKJV)

43 But now, thus says the Lord, who created you…
And He who formed you….

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.

² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

³ For I am the Lord your God,……your Savior;

⁴ Since you were precious in My sight,
You have been honored,
And I have loved you;

⁵ Fear not, for I am with you;

I have formed him, yes, I have made him.”

That you may know and believe Me,
And understand that I am He.

Before Me there was no God formed,
Nor shall there be after Me.
¹¹ I, even I, am the Lord,

Says the Lord, “that I am God.
¹³ Indeed before the day was, I am He;

¹⁵ I am the Lord, your Holy One,
The Creator of Israel, your King.”

²⁵ “I, even I, am He who blots out your

transgressions for My own sake;

Good Morning!

I ran across this quote when I was reading some notes I had made years ago.  Here it is!!  Are you ready??

Reconcile means that our "bank account" was overdrawn with sin and Jesus balanced it with His blood.  Not only balanced it but filled it to overflowing for everything we need for life.*

Now that is really good news!!  If this seems way too good to be true, here is evidence that substantiates that we our "account" (our life) can be reconcilled to Christ. 

2 Corinthians 5:18  (MSG)
 Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!

All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins.

God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ Himself now:

Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.

It is the finished work of the cross.  Jesus Christ went to the cross and shed His blood so that we might become a friend with God.  Isn't that truly amazing??

This friendship....this relationship with God......is yours for the taking!!  You "account" could be reconcilled today!!  Read on!

Jesus’ arms are wide open to you.  They were opened at the cross because of His overwhelming love for you.  (John 3:16)   Right now He is calling you unto Himself.  If you have never accepted this wonderful life that Jesus has prepared for you, today is your day!

Today you can be reconcilled to Christ.  He's waiting just for you!

Jesus died for your personally--as if you were the only one.  His arms are outstretched to you right now.  He's wants you to come there and find rest for your soul.  He wants you to put your head upon His chest and hear the beating of His heart of love for you.

This is your time to come!!  You are not reading this by accident.  God is calling you to come right now!

Take a few minutes and meet Him at these verses below.  Let Him speak to you through them.

We are all sinners:

Romans 3: 10, 23,    Romans 5:8,     Romans 6:23

We can ask God to forgive us:

Romans 10:13,    Acts 3: 19

We can put out trust in Jesus and become His child:

John 1:12

We can confess that Jesus is our Lord:

Romans 10: 9-10

As you ask forgiveness of your sins and express your desire to live for Him, you will enter the family a friendship with God.

It’s time to pray.  Let me help you.

Prayer:

Father, I understand that Jesus Christ went to the cross and shed His blood for me.  I also understand by the scriptures that I am a sinner.  Jesus, forgive me for all my sins.

 (Let them come to mind.  Then see yourself giving them to Him.  As soon as they are in His hands, they disappear forever!!  Amazing!!)

Be my Lord and my Savior.  I commit my whole life into Your capable hands.  Father, help me to hear Your instruction and direction,  and help me to live for You all the days of my life.  Thank You.  Amen.

If you prayed that prayer from your heart, you have entered into a completely fresh and new relationship with God.  I would love to hear from you so that I can rejoice with you.  I know just how it feels because 30 years ago in my emptiness, I prayed a prayer very similar to this one.

Now--before I close, let's go back to the original quote:    "Not only balanced it (our account--our life) but filled it to overflowing for everything we need for life."  Here's the evidence for that: 

 I Peter 2:3.

God bless you and remember......You can get there from here!!

Love, Karol


*(Taken from Breaking The Enemy's Grip by Eddie Smith.)

Day 223 No Way!!-----Yes Way!!!!

Matthew 19:26  NIV

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

When we look at a circumstance and say, “There is NO WAY,” God looks at that same circumstance and says, “YES WAY!”

We know that Jesus is THE WAY and He made A WAY for us by dying on the cross.  He came to destroy the works of the enemy.  So why do we look around and see all these “works” still going on??

It’s because God wants us to get on board with Him.  He says, “yes” and He wants us to agree with Him by saying the “amen.”

2 Corinthians 1:20   (NIV1984)

20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

I think the problem lies in the fact that we don’t know what His promises are and then it’s difficult to say, “amen.”  We see more of the devil’s work going on and we might even catch ourselves saying,  “This must be the way God wants it.”

Again, I encourage you as God has encouraged me:  Go back to the Word of God.  The Bible is our plumb line.  Our lives are meant to be measured by God’s Word.

As you are reading the Word, if you come across something you don’t understand, ask God a question and write that question down in your journal.  Tomorrow when you wake up, if you don’t already have an answer, ask Him again.

(By the way, let me know when the answer comes!)

Begin to formulate a list of things that you know God has promised.  If you need help, you can go to:http://www.scripturepromises.com/

If the promise seems too good to be true, then write the reference down in your journal and beside it write:  “Did you really mean it, God?”

(I want some feedback on that, too!!!)

God is like a father who promises his child something….He wants his child to believe it and be happy about it—not to look around and forumulate doubt in his heart.

EnJOY your time with God today!

GPS  (Directions From God’s Word)

• John 14:6
• II Peter 1:3-4
• Luke 1:37

Prayer Focus:

Did you really mean it, God?

Kisses From A Good God

I am reading this great book by Paul Manwaring.  It's the story of his journey through prostate cancer.  The story has a happy ending but it's the process that is so enlightening.  It's the author's journey into the love of God and it applies to anyone going through anything. 

Get ready.....God will take you by the hand (no matter what your age), and lead you and guide you and talk to you each and every day.  As you read, you will expect a "kiss" from God on a regular basis--as often as you need it.

You can purchase this book here:

http://www.paulmanwaring.com/

or here:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_18?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=kisses+from+a+good+god&sprefix=Kisses+from+a+good%2Caps%2C255

Here's a quote to whet your appetite:

“A real life in relationship with a real God who is so utterly good, that He brought Paul through every one of those tests and trails and shipwrecks and disasters, and at the end of it, Paul could still write, “For I am convinced that neither death, not life….will be able to separate us from the love of God….”  (Romans 8:38-39)

EnJOY!!

Day 222  God Loves Us Lavishly

Hosea 14:4-8  The Message (MSG)

I will love them lavishly. My anger is played out.
I will make a fresh start with Israel.

God’s anger was played out the day Jesus was crucified on the cross.  The cross is the ultimate display of God’s love for us. 

Can you even imagine watching your son be crucified.  I cannot!  But God in His mercy and His love for us sent His Son to the cross to die for us—each of us!

We as Christians cut our teeth on John 3:16.  Here it is in paraphrased in The Message Bible:

John 3:16   The Message (MSG)

 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

The entire Old Testament points us to this day.  This is the day that God’s love was poured out for us!

All we have to do is come to Him and lay the broken pieces of our life before Him and say,  “I cannot do this my way any longer.  I give my heart and my life to You, Jesus.  Do what You want with it.  I am Yours from now on.”

What joy in the courts of God when each of us comes with the broken pieces in our hands.

GPS  (Direction From God’s Word)

·         Luke 15:11-24

·         Hosea 14: 1-9

·         Luke 15:10

Prayer Focus:

Here I am, Lord, ready to accept Your love that was poured out for me….ready to live for You.

Maybe we should be like this little three year old who is expressing her thanks to God for healing her!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXGb2JNwpkc

Don't you know God just loves this!! 

Let's thank God that He has a plan....He has always had a plan....and He wants us to connect with Him so we can know the plan!!  And lets thank Him for "do- overs" so we can reconnect with His good plan!

God bless your day,

Karol

Day 221  A Divine “Do-Over”

2 Samuel 22: 25  The Message (MSG)

God  rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to His eyes.

A “do-over” is what kids proclaim when they make a mistake playing a game and they want another chance.  They say, “I want a do-over!”  I am so glad that God is the author of “do-overs,” because I certainly have needed those over the years and I will continue to need them!

My major “do-over” is explained on Day 220.  After that event, I still made mistakes….I still sinned.  I didn’t do it on purpose because I love the Lord, but now I know when I do sin, I can go to Him and ask for His forgiveness.  The Bible says that as soon as I do that He wipes my slate clean.

Remember those little clipboard-type thing we had with the piece of flexible mylar on them.  We could draw something on the clear mylar and then when we lifted the mylar up, it wiped away every mark that we had made.

That’s all it takes with God.  He wants us to come to Him with a repentant heart and ask Him to forgive you.  He is the One who will remove every sin from our hearts.

In this day and age, we do not want to say that three letter word---SIN.  We think if we say it, it will become more real.  Yes, it will!!  And when it becomes a reality to each of us, our hearts will be saddened and we can go quickly to God and it is there that we experience His love and His mercy and His forgiveness.

God wants to rewrite the text of our lives.  He wants to take us on a journey into wholeness with Him.  That’s our wonderful God!!

GPS  (Directions from God’s Word)

• I John 1: 8-9
• Psalms 103:12
• II Corinthians 5:17

Prayer Focus:

Please forgive me for…..