I Thought ,but I Was Wrong

I thought being popular would bring happiness --wrong!

  I thought being skilled at something would bring happiness --wrong! 

 I thought making money would bring happiness -- only temporarily 

 I thought being loved by others would bring happiness --only temporarily!

 I thought living painfree would bring happiness --wrong! 

 I thought being trouble free would bring happiness --wrong! 

 I thought controling all my circumstances would bring happiness --wrong!

  I thought being left alone would bring happiness --wrong! 

 I thought gaining more education and being wise would bring happiness --only temporarily!

  I thought being in love would bring happiness --it does help some! 

 I thought being a Christian would bring happiness -- it does help, at least there is peace!

  So what does bring happiness? Happiness comes from loving others.

Happiness comes from serving. 

Happiness comes from commitment (staying faithful thru hardship)

Happiness comes from humbling yourself. 

Happiness comes from forgiving (with God's help). 

Happiness comes from yielding anger and revenge into God's hands. 

Happiness comes from mourning our sin and receiving forgiveness. 

Happiness comes from an intimate walk with God. 

Seek not to be loved, but to love, and let love return to you. 

Love will not always be returned, but happiness will come from loving , even if it's only given.

Battling with Forgiveness and Betrayal

X is having a difficult time forgiving his wife for cheating on him a couple of years ago. He wants to forgive her & go on in their marriage but he feels so betrayed & trust has been broken. He tries to forgive her one day but then the emotions & details come back to haunt him. It plays over & over in his mind. It's like a battle raging within his mental & emotional being.

I believe it is a battle. Satan is playing his emotions & thoughts, pulling him back from forgiveness & pushing him to punish his wife for stabbing him in the back. Even though he realizes he has been tempted himself, he questions whether he can ever trust her again. Is confession really enough? Is repentance complete? Or will it happen again? Forgiveness can be a lot harder than we ever realized. Resentment is hard to overcome. It's not fair.

Yet Jesus said"If you do not forgive others for their sins, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins." Forgiveness is required. We may not be able to forget but we must forgive & keep moving forward. We may not be able to trust until trust is built back up again , but we cannot move forward, or even stand still, if we refuse to forgive.

We will begin to regress & move backward. That's why Satan is battling the mind & replaying the tapes of resentment & the unfairness.

"LORD please help X to see that when he cannot forgive, he is thinking of himself. He's not thinking of his children, or his grieving wife, or his influence in the church or community.

He's not seeing that unforgivness will eventually ruin his soul.

He could divorce his wife for adultery & find a new life & try to go on but it would be a downhill slide because it would be stemming from pride.

Nothing wounds a man's spirit worse than being disrespected.

For women love is the most important need, but for men it's respect.

If you want to test a man to his very core, it's respect & pride that is to be tested.

If we let You cut us down & trim us,& shave off our edges You will make us into an even more useful vessel. Then You cover us w/ gold & place us as part of Your tabernacle."

An Unbroken Continual Fellowship

I want to be Like Brother Lawrence & experience the presence of God all the time, no matter where I am.

Help me to have an unbroken continual fellowship w/ You all the time.
I know You never leave me or forsake me according to the scriptures but I want to never leave You.

I want to have my mind attentive to You & focused on You, abiding in You always.

Help me to praise You even when things are going wrong or my attitude is flat or negative.

If things are going badly it's a greater sacrifice to praise You anyway, in spite of the circumstances.

Madame Guyan said to believe that every time of prayer & Bible study is as God intended it to be ; even if distracted, tempted, confused, or questioning.

Even if it's just going over a prayer list. Rest in the fact that NOW is as God wants it to be.

If God wanted He could transform the now & flood me with love.

Faith must submit to the now ,& trust the future to be changed by God.

Rest in Him now. Thank Him for the good. Praise Him in spite of the bad. It's worship that pleases His heart.

Sometimes I have to look up to You & say "LORD my heart is praising You" because it's not really coming from me but only thru me from somewhere else.

Please help me to be a channel of Your love.

Disagreement with the Calvinist Teaching

I finished a book by a Calvinist teacher. I don't agree w/ some of his doctrine but I understand why he believes as he does.

He feels salvation is from God , & man does nothing to earn it (true) ;therefore he feels once God saves (imputes salvation) someone they can never be unsaved.

He believes we are sealed and could lose our fellowship w/ God but never lose our salvation.

I disagree.

The Armenian doctrine teaches, that physical birth & spiritual birth are significantly different.

Although God doesn't give up on us ; we can turn our back on God even after being saved, and forfeit our salvation if we remain in a disobedient obstinate state.

Since God created us as free moral individuals, & because a person has to choose to become saved.

We do not choose our physical birth, but we do choose our spiritual birth.

Salvation comes only after conviction of sin & being called by the Holy Spirit.

I also believe a backslider (someone who turned away from God) does not become born again a second time but is reclaimed and begins again w/ God from where they left off & forsook God. That explains why some people can't get the emotional experience they seek when coming back to God's fellowship.

They are hoping to experience the same emotional assurance they had when they were born again.

What they must do is go back to where they left off & repent of their backslidding & sin and accept salvation again by faith.

God will restore and reclaim them. Often it must be done entirely on faith for a while without feelings.

I also struggle w/ the doctrine of predestination.

Calvinist's believe people are predestined to be lost or saved.

I believe according to scripture that the saved are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ but not predestined to be lost or saved.

Since God is all-knowing (omniscient) he probably does know who will choose to become saved .

I must agree with the Calvinist when he says that God in His infinite wisdom chose a plan before the world began that somehow incorporated man's free will and His own sovereign will.

God did not force Judas to betray Jesus but He knew that Judas would.

Yet we should continue to pray for the salvation of our loved ones.

God put us here to intercede & pray so that our loved ones would change their mind, choose Christ, & be saved

Baptism of Suffering

Today I read an article by Mark Galli entitled "Baptism & Fire". He speaks of God calling us to suffer in order to build our character.
If God the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the desert to face hard temptations, just after being acknowledged as the Beloved Son, by the Father, then we can expect to be tested too.
He compares it to the hazing and mistreatment poured out on a new recruit in a fire dept.
Rookies are raked over the coals, like a soldier, to see if they can stand the pressure of viewing burnt bodies,& grieving families, & still risk their lives in a burning building.
God sometimes leaves us in the desert of temptation, or pulls us thru the fire of false accusation, or leaves us in a disappointing relationship , to build our character.
Often it's not just to build us into a better person but to prepare us to minister to some other needy individual.
"The God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction" 2Cor.1:3-4
It's not always about us. Suffering builds character muscle for various reasons,God only knows why.

"Lord you know what a wimp I am. Help me to trust You and know that You are allowing suffering for a purpose"

From What We Were To What We Are Titus 3:3-6

Verse 3 is a good description of what we were before Jesus saved us.

Foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by passions & pleasures.

Verse 5 describes God's grace (favor).

He saved us not because of righteous things we have done but because of his mercy & love.

How? By the washing of rebirth & renewal by the Holy Spirit , poured out generously thru Jesus.

"Lord thank you for loving me enough to open my eyes to the deceit I was foolishly believing , then calling me to be washed by a rebirth of the Holy Spirit.

You delivered me from enslavement to passions & pleasures. You renewed me w/ holy desires.

It's only because of Your mercy that I have inherited a heavenly estate."