The Secret To Be Content In EVERYTHING.......

Take time and read this Bible verse above and meditate on it.  I am going to break down each verse and explain what it is saying.  Paul wrote Philippians and this book is a MUST read.  While Paul wrote this verse he was in chains in jail and in the worst situation.  Would have joy and strength if you were chained to other prisoners?  The secret in this verse is that he has LEARNED TO BE CONTENT IN WHATEVER THE CIRCUMSTANCE.

How was he able to be content? If he was cold and hungry in jail how was he still content?  It is because he had the Joy of the Lord!!  The bible says "The Joy of the Lord, is my Strength."  Paul knew how to live FOR Christ, instead of for Himself.  How many times do we live for ourselves???  How many times are we only thinking of ourselves?  If I could put a percentage on it, I would say that we think about ourselves 99% of the time.  We have a selfish sinful nature that dominates over us.  We need to learn this lesson from Paul, and apply this to our lives.  We cannot let "things" or "people" dictate whether we are content or not!!  As you can see this will not happen overnight.  Paul says "I have LEARNED this."  When you are to learn something, it means that it is a Process and the maturity will develop over time.  If you were to learn a foreign language it would take time to develop.  You wouldn't wake up the next day and speak fluently.  You would have to spend time studying and perfecting the material.  What do we need to study so we can learn this wonderful concept?  The Bible is what we study.  We need to read His Word and meditate on it and let it change us from the inside.  The real change happens from the inside out, and it starts with the heart.  It is easy to temporarily change on the outside but within time we would slowly fade back into our old ways.  For a change to stay permanent, it needs to be from the inside, and God  prefers it this way.  So I am going to paint a picture on how you can learn to apply this verse.

I am trying to do good and something bad happens to me.  I lose my job, my car breaks down, I can't keep a relationship, etc.  When things start to happen to us we cannot prevent these types of things from happening.  So when things like this happen we have to remember the most important step and that is what happens after these things happen.  The next step we have 100% control over.  It is our thinking!!  We can choose to let the situation or circumstance take over us and fill us with fear and anxiety, or we can CHOOSE to speak Gods Word and speak life.  When you are a follower of Christ and obedient to His will you understand that it is not YOU who lives, but Christ who lives Through you.  So this means you are here on earth for HIM and to glorify HIS name!!  Now we have learned already that Jesus Christ has already overcome the ENTIRE World and he has even conquered death.  We know that he is greater in us then he that is in the world.  So when things start to happen we already know that Jesus overcame it already.  We can rest in him and say "God I WILL not let this job loss take over me, I know you have something better for me."  We can say " God I will not have anxiety about my car breaking down because you are my provider and I rest in you."  We can say "God, I know you have the perfect person designed for me, and I will rest in you and in your timing and wait for when it glorifies you."  So many times we want God to FULLY explain everything to us and the truth is that he doesn't need to.  He is ALL KNOWING!! God created the entire world without our help, I am sure that he can handle whatever you are going through.

So when you start experiencing stress or troubles, learn how to be content NO MATTER WHAT!!  Instead of focusing on what you do not have or what just happened, focus on what you DO have.  When something bad happens, throw up your hands and start praising God in the middle of the storm and focus on what you do have.  Here is an example below:

Something happens where it starts to steal my peace:

Throw up my hands and say:

Heavenly Father I thank you that you have overcome this already and I rest in you because you see everything and you take care of your children.  I thank you for the breathe of life and for another day.  I thank you that I am healthy and alive today.  I thank you that my family is alive and well.  I thank you for a roof over my head.  I thank you for food in the fridge.  I thank you for a car today.  I thank you for having a job today.  I thank you for water and electricity.  I thank you for dying for me, so that I could come to know you and be saved.  I thank you for your mercy.  I thank you for my husband and my children.  I thank you for our church family.  I thank you for always have a plan and provision over my life. 

As you can see the list can go ON and ON because he is SO Good and Every good and perfect gift comes down from HIM above.

Countryside Christian Center....

I wanted to take the time and write about my church.  This is the church that my family attends and this is the place we call Home!  I have been going to Countryside Christian Center for 7 years now, and my Husband has been going for over 3 years now.  I was first introduced to this church with a friend that I worked with.  I came a few times, and something about the place kept drawing me back in.  I made some powerful connections with some of the Pastors and Elders.  I fell in love with the vision of the Church and the messages every Sunday.  I introduced my Husband to this church and he fell in love with it as well.  My husband and I attended a Pre-Marital Conference and one of the Pastors married us.  My husband and I got baptized together, and my Husband was lead to the Lord at Countryside Christian Center.  We attend Wednesday Nights for Bible Study and attend Service on Sunday.  My Husband and I taught a class on Sundays for close to two years.  We are now starting to serve in other areas that we feel the Lord is leading us to. We also have lead a Marriage Conference at the church.  We only have amazing things to say about this church.  We know the Pastors well, and the Staff well.  You will feel like family when you walk in this church.  People genuinly care about one another here, and you will form lasting relationships.  We could share story after story of how amazing this church is.  I have never been to another church that has even come close to this one.  If you are in the area, I encourage you to come and check it out.  I pray that you have the most amazing experience when checking out this church.  The Church has amazing things planned for 2014!! This is a place that my Husband and I can honestly call Home, and our children will learn about the Lord here.  In this church you can expect to be discipled, and have an in-depth understanding of the Bible.  The things you learn at this church you can apply to your everyday life.  I will put a copy of the church website below and you can read further about this amazing church.

                               countrysidechristiancenter.com

How Do You Handle Changes?

How do you handle changes?  Are you the type that starts to experience anxiety when you lose control?  Are you able to fully trust God when things start happening around you?  Many times the enemy likes to throw us off guard with changing our circumstances and situations.  Many times it is never in our favor and I believe that God uses these times to see if we actually apply his word.  It is very easy to read the Word when things are going good and when nothing is happening.  It is fun to highlight verses and circle them in our bibles, but do we actually apply the verses in times of trouble?  What good does it do if we highlight and circle things, if we don't actually apply them to our lives?  The Bible is Gods living word that comes to life right off of the pages.  There is no other book in the world that can do this, so this is a  powerful concept to grasp.  The amazing thing about reading the Bible is that you can read the same verse several times and God will reveal something different to you, each time you read it.  So I am going to ask the question again: How do you handle changes?  Do you feel your blood pressure start to rise?  Do you speak Gods Word out loud over what you feel?  I am going to say it again:  Do you speak Gods Word out loud over what you feel?  Many times we let our feelings dictate us, and we ride those emotions from feeling to feeling and this is very risky.  One moment we can be calm, and the next moment we can be so angry that we just want to hurt others with our words.  When you start to feel yourself get out of control, how do you handle it?  You should know yourself well enough to know when you start to get out of control.  If you can catch it at level 2 before it gets to level 10, then it is much easier to stay calm and catch yourself before you get out of control. It is our job to hold ourselves accountable and to make sure we get better each time we slip up.  We cannot get so upset at ourselves when we make mistakes.  It shouldn't surprise us when we make mistakes because we already know that we are sinners and that we needed Jesus to die for us so we can be saved through his sacrifice.  The enemy loves to try and give us condemnation and make us feel guilty and stop us from growing in our faith with Christ.  We know that there is NO CONDEMNATION for those IN CHRIST JESUS!! Do you confess this out loud?  So what are you going through at the moment that is challenging you to step out and trust God boldly?  How many times do you seek God out throughout the day and read his word?  Maybe you haven't been believing that God can do anything.  Today can be a brand new day to where you start trusting him and taking him at HIS WORD.  Remember that he puts his own word above his name.

Our Family Rules....

1) Pray Often    We make sure to always thank God each day for each breathe.  We make sure to do it daily, because we need to connect with Our Heavenly Father for each day.

2)    Find Your Identity In Christ    This is something that my husband and I need to separate and each person spend alone time with God, to where we can develop an intimate relationship with God.  We need to understand individually that Christ died for each of us and what he died for us to have.

3)    Show The Same Grace to Others As God Has Shown You    In order to represent Jesus we need to model the same what he did for us.  He gave us grace freely, so we need to do the same to others.  We remind one another that we need to show grace and mercy toward each person we come in contact with.

4)    Encourage Others, Love Others    We know that Life and Death are in the power of the Tongue and that we can give others Blessings or Cursing.  We make sure to watch what comes out of our mouths and we make it a point to love others on purpose.

5)    Laugh and Laugh Hard    This is something that we have perfected.  We spend family time together and play with one another and be silly and laugh.  I remember one night we spent time chasing the kids around the house and did this for close to 40 minutes.  We were all running around the house laughing and chasing each other.  

6)    Be Kind.  Listen- No Yelling or Elbowing    We understand that we are Gods gift to each other so we want to treat each other with kindness.  We made a promise that we would never yell infront of the kids because we don't want them to feel uncomfortable or unloved.  We never want our kids to grow up in a house where they remember yelling and arguing.  

7)    Be First To Say Sorry    This is something that we are working on, and have come really far with this one.  We listen to each other talk and get our feelings out in the open then our end goal is.. Peace.  We know that one or the other has to take the first step to make peace. If my husband doesn't do it, then I do it.

8)    Slow Dance In The Kitchen    This is something we do quite often and our Son always stares at us weirdly and then runs in the middle of us and dances with us.  :)

9)    Always Be Looking For Ways To Serve Others    We are very busy with our schedules but we always make sure to serve others and find the time to do so.  

10)    Be Thankful    We are so humbled because we understand that every good and perfect gift comes from God above.  God has had his entire hand on our family and blessed us with so much.  We are so blessed and thankful for everything he has done for us.  

11)    Fill The House With Music, Worship    This is something we learned back in the day.  We ALWAYS have worship music playing 24/7.  We have it playing in both of the kids rooms and even when we leave the house, we make sure to leave the worship music playing.  We know that Worship Music is a form of Spiritual Warfare, and we have faith in it.

12)    Hug One Another, Daily    We are always hugging one another and hugging the kids.  We understand that we aren't promised another day, so we make sure to make each day count.

13)    Consider it Pure Joy, When You Face Trials    My husband models this verse in our home and I follow after him.  My husband is always thanking God for each trial because he knows that God thought of him enough so that he could go through it.  This is something that I struggle with, but I am able to follow my husband because he leads by example.  

God in Slow Motion....

This book was very interesting because the author breaks down several verses and explains them in depth.  The title of the book "Slow Motion" really describes how the author breaks down Gods Word and explains it to the reader.  In our society we tend to rush through life and speed things up, and the truth is that Jesus never was in a hurry when he was here on earth.  He explains in detail on why we can trust God with our lives and that he wants us to enjoy our lives as well.  I would highly recommend this book for new believers in Christ Jesus because it gives scripture but then breaks the scripture down into terms that people can understand.  For new believers, the Bible can overwhelm them because it is so big and they do not know where to start.  I would recommend reading this book because you will read scripture and be able to start applying it to you everyday lives.

Unrealistic Expectations........

Why do we have unrealistic expectations for ourselves and for one another?  We expect too much from ourselves and one another.  We set unrealistic goals, and experience huge disappointments when others can't meet up to these expectations.  Now why did we need Jesus to come down to earth and give his life for us?  Because we are ALL sinners, and no matter how great we try to do things, we STILL fall short.  Where do we get off thinking we are better than others, or that there are different categories?  There are two categories we can place people into:  People that HAVE Jesus and People that DO NOT HAVE Jesus.  Did you notice anything about those two categories?  It is all about JESUS, and not ourselves!!!  This is why scripture says we cannot brag or boast, because it is not our doing, but HIS doing!!!  To put it in simple terms, if everyone was put into one great big boat, there wouldn't be sections of "college degree graduates/high school graduates/dropouts/ have a career/ unemployed/ owns a home/ rents a home/ etc."  God doesn't look at each of us and measure up to see what we did or what we have.  If you don't  have Jesus, he sees EVERYONE in the boat as Sinners.  God cannot look at Sin because he is perfect and this is why when Jesus took our sins on the cross, God had to turn away.  At that moment, Jesus had the weight of the worlds sins on his back, and his own Father had to turn away.  So since we know it is what Jesus did, then why do we get in our flesh and start thinking we are better than others?  This is a lie from the pit of hell, and many have fallen into Satan's trap.  What Satan wants to do is to have us so focused and driven on Earth here that we are constantly chasing after each goal and then when it is our time to die, everything we have worked for had NO EFFECT in Eternity.  So many people chase after riches and collect all of their treasures and then when they are no longer here, they leave EVERYTHING behind.  The biggest regret that people have on their death bed isn't "Wow, I wish I would of gotten that materialist possession."  There biggest regret is "Why didn't I spend more time with my loved ones, Why did I waste so much time working instead of spending time with my family?"  This is a sad reality that many will experience, and my heart aches for them.  Grab a hold of God and read his word and don't fall into Satan's trap.  Whenever you hear that little voice in your head that starts speaking to you and saying you have to have the next best thing, or you need to work more, etc.  You speak Gods Word and you take authority over the devil!!  We need to humble ourselves daily, which means we need to make things simple.  Do not conform to this world, do not try and fit in with this culture.  Remember that we are IN this world, not OF this world!!!

Beginning of 2014!!

Happy New Years everyone!!! I hope everyone had a great New Years, and has had a great start in 2014!!!  What is your resolution?  Many people make a resolution because a new year means a brand new start.  We are able to learn from the previous year and reflect on what we can do to improve next year. So what is yours?  Did you even make one?  I remember in my past my resolution was always to lose weight.  I have always wanted to improve myself physically and be strong, so that was a resolution that always repeated itself.  I can honestly say that my resolution this year is one that my Husband and I made together.  We have decided to read Gods Word together each night and discuss what we read.  In the past we have done this before but this is something that we would do on a nightly basis.  There are many nights to where we both read the Bible, but we are in different places.  We have really enjoyed doing this because we read the same passage and then we discuss it out loud.  I want to encourage you if you are married to start reading with your spouse, there really is something powerful about it when you both come together as one and submit yourselves to God and seek him in one accord.  On New Years Eve my family and I were all in bed way before midnight.  I could hear all of the fireworks go off at midnight, so I knew it was the start of a New Year!

I wanted to give some insight to everyone who is reading this.  Whatever your resolution is, ask yourself if it is eternal or temporal?  Many times we focus on things that only matter in "this world" and we know that everything will pass away.  So why do we spend so much time focusing on the "Now" and now "Eternity?"  I can tell you why..... because the devil keeps us busy and he keeps us deceived.  He shoves so much in our face, that we are constantly moving our heads and our eyes to keep up.  It can distract us, and if we are not careful we can slowly adapt to this culture.  We can slowly start to walk away from God and have our head in every other direction but up.  So it is the start of a brand new year, what are you believing God for?  We serve a God that can do ANYTHING and loves to show himself!  Take time each day and give God thanks and praise, for all that he has blessed you with.  We need to remind ourselves that it isn't our work, it is Gods work and it gives glory to him!!!

So I want to encourage everyone to take some time and reflect and see where you heart is at.  If you could work on one thing on the inside, what would it be?  Do you have a short temper?  Are you judgmental? Are you prideful? Stubborn?  These are fleshly traits that are in all of us, but if we seek God and submit these areas to him.  We need to expose these areas to him and repent so Gods light can shine on these dark areas and they can finally surface.  Happy New Years to you!!!! I pray blessing upon you and your loved ones and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ shines throughout the entire world this year like never before!!