Offended?

Hi..

We sometimes tend to get offended when people we love hurt us, people we trust betray our trust, when people misunderstand us or we  misunderstand someone good motives.

In this stressful world one gets offended so....easily.

Today we see a rise in the number of suicides among children and teenagers.

It's sad some of them wanted to end their life because they were offended at the way they were treated or could not take discipline or even good advice.

People who do a good job, have  a good intentions are also taken in offense!

Mark 6:3
"Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.
When we let offense take over our spirit, we end up loosing our joy and peace.
It's better to let go of all hurt feelings.forgive people who offend us and ask forgiveness when we offend people.

One of the devil's beatitudes is,

 Blessed are those who are easily offended 

for they will soon get angry and quit.    
       But we are not quitters but more than conquerors.

Romans 8: 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us

Let us continue to shine for JESUS.
Let's be 'stars' that reflect the Glory of God.
Let's not let rude people steal our joy...
Be blessed this day,
 ~Julie~
          

We cannot stop the storm..but sure can learn to survive it.....!

Hi.......

Have you sometimes wondered...

"Why do bad things happen to good people?" and 
"Good things to bad people?"

As believers, we too face storms in our life and some storms are really fierce.

One thing I've learned,

We can't stop the storm but can learn how to survive it!

How we react to the storm and handle it matters.

Instead of asking, "Why Lord?" We can ask,"Lord how can I handle this, show me ways to survive this?"

Characters of a storm...

• Storms will come.
• It will come suddenly ( Illness, accident, loss of finance etc happens all of a sudden)
• It may be severe.
• It may last for a long time sometimes.

So we see that  storms are a reality....!

Dear child of God, are you going through trials, pain, losses, delays, prolonged illness....??

Feel like giving up...?

Please hold on....For the storm will pass by....!

Remember our redeemer lives and He said,"I'll never leave you or forsake you."

So you are not alone in the storm.

Your saviour who promised He will never leave you is with you even if you are right in the middle of the storm....

Just the thought Jesus is with you  is YOUR ANCHOR OF HOPE!

He will comfort you, intervene in your problems BUT IN HIS TIME & HIS WAY!

HE IS IN CHARGE OF THE WAVES THAT TRY TO TOSS THE SHIP(Your life)....REMEMBER THE WAVES ( YOUR PROBLEMS) ARE UNDER HIS FEET!

Isn't that comforting?

How we respond to the storm matters... !

If when we face problems we say'" I won't read the Bible" "Won't go to Church" etc we will only mess up things.

We got to continue to hold on to our faith 

and walk with faith!

We should keep our focus on Jesus and not on the storm that rages around us.

Once our focus shifts to the storm we start to sink.

Matthew 14: 28"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."
 29 "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"

Are you walking through a fierce storm? Is the pain too much to bear?...

Is your burden too heavy?

Look up to Jesus ..He's right beside you...

Tell Him you love Him , Praise Him in midst of your pain....!

He knows your pain , He has suffered more pain that that and so understands...

Just love Him and surrender your all to Him...

Rest in His arms and let the storm rage...As long as your eyes are fixed on His face that's all that matters....

Daniel's 3 friends said that they will not bow to that idol even the Lord didn't save them.

DANIEL 3:17,18

~~"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.

18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."~~

Habakkuk 3:17,18

~~" Though the fig tree does not bud & there is no grapes on the wines...though the olive crops fail, YET I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD I WILL BE JOYFUL IN GOD MY SAVIOUR!"~~

Today even in the midst of the storm can we praise HIM?

I trust and pray some one out here is blessed and encouraged.

YSIC,

Julia

~Story for the day~

LIFE'S STRUGGLES

A man found a cocoon of an emperor butterfly,
He took it home so that he
could watch the butterfly come out of the cocoon.
On the day a small opening
appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force the body through that little hole. The butterfly seemed to be stuck and appeared to have stopped making progress.
It seemed as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.
The man, in his kindness, decided to help the butterfly; so he took a pair of scissors
and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged
easily.But its body was swollen and small,

its wings wrinkled and shriveled.
The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that,
at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to and able to support the body, which would contract in time.Neither happened!

In fact, the little butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a small, swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
The man in his kindness and haste did not understand that the struggle required
for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening was necessary to force fluid from the body into its wings so that it would be ready for flight upon achieving its freedom from the cocoon.
Freedom and flight would only come after the struggle.
By depriving the butterfly of a struggle, he deprived the butterfly of health.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were to go through
our life without any obstacles, we would be crippled.We would not be as strong as what we could have been.
Give every opportunity a chance, leave no room for regrets, and don't forget the power in the struggle.

~Unknown~

LOVE dies because of EGO....

Hi...

Greetings...

"EGO" is a big spoil sport in ruining relationships.

As humans its sometimes difficult to love someone who is rude to you, forgive someone who repeatedly hurts you and say sorry when you hurt someone (your ego and pride stands in your way at times.)

• Sometimes a relationship is hard to carry on with but do not give up on vital relationships and people for God NEVER GIVES UP ON YOU!!

Keep loving,forgiving, giving, serving and praying for even the most difficult relationships in your lives.

Give your best to them.

Matthew 6:14-15 " If you forgive others for the wrongs they do to you, your Father in heaven will forgive you.
But if you don't forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins."

Each of us fall, falter, stumble, fail, err in but we have to rise up and seek forgiveness and help if needed to keep this vital relationships going.

Our God is a God of restoration. Seek His face and help of fellow believers when there's trouble relating to family and loved ones.

Need to put to death all that's not from God.

Colossians 3:5, "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry." 

Need to put to death EGO too!

EGO makes a person think he is higher and better than the one he offends, so will not bend down to say "Sorry".

But God's word says..

^{Deuteronomy 17:19} It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees ²⁰ and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left.

This 'EGO" encourages pride. But the Word of God teaches us to be humble.

Philippians 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Let's learn to forgive and forget when we are hurt,

And be quick to say 'sorry' when we hurt others.

All this comes easy if God's love rules and reigns in our hearts. 

Have a blessed day..

Julia

Live simply. Love generously.
Care deeply. Speak kindly.
Leave the rest to God !

Love And Ego

Once upon a time there was an island, where all the feelings lived together .

One day there was a storm in the sea and the island was about to get drowned.

Every feeling was scared but Love made a boat to escape.

Every feeling boarded the boat.

 Only 1 feeling was left.
Love got down to  see who it was...

It was EGO.

Love tried and tried but ego wasn't moving also the water was rising.

Every one asked love to leave him and come in the boat, but love was made to love.
At last all the feelings escape and Love dies with ego on the island.LOVE Dies because of EGO 
So, Kill EGO and Save LOVE!

Life's Journey...

Hi ...

Our life on earth is a journey and there are just 2 roads, a broad road that has a broad gate and and the other a narrow road and narrow gate and  just 2 destinations, Heaven or Hell.

Matthew 7: 13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

As we know the wide road leads to hell and destruction and we all as pilgrims have walked this path knowingly or unknowingly before we met our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
But at some point in our life's journey the Holy Spirit does encounter us and we realize that the path we walk on leads to Hell and eternal destruction and we are given a choice to switch roads.

Jesus Christ is the one who is our turning point and when we choose Him we are on the narrow road that leads to life.

JOHN 14:6, "Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

After we start our walk on this narrow path, we will struggle, slip, falter, fall but our Lord who called us is faithful and will pick us up if we fall when we call out to Him, steady our faltering steps.

MATTHEW 13:5, "... because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

The enemy is always prowling around us to lure us back to the path that leads to destruction. That's why the Bible says in..

1 Peter 5:8 "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."

And sometimes we may stray away back to our old neighborhood  We need to get back on course if we have knowingly or unknowingly strayed into the enemy's camp.

Let's beware of deliberate sinning.

Hebrew 10:26  If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." 3 1It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

In this journey God gives also gives us Relationships and Responsibilities and expects us to be faithful in all. But I found that all the relationships we are involved in are not picture perfect.

Be it child-parent, sisters-brothers, wife-husband, parents-kids or be it with relationship with in-laws, friends, co-workers, neighbors and fellow brothers 

and sisters in Christ.

Some of these relationships are beautiful, some difficult, some hard and some easy.

But if God connects us to people in this life's journey I believe He has a plan and purpose behind it.Some may love us and some may drive us to the edge and some may hate us too but Jesus gives us strength to carry on. So even when sometimes these relationships and responsibilities are hard, we need to just hold on, for if God brings us to it, He'll see us through it.

2 Thessalonians 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

Revelation 3:11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.

There will come times in this life's journey we'll feel like it's too difficult to carry on with a responsibility or will face times when we find it hard relating to some people we meet or will want to quit praying for situations we've prayed for long and don't see a change.

But instead of calling it quits we can cry out in desperation to our Lord Jesus and He sure will steps in.

When we are in the midst of the storm He will remind us to hold on for the storm will pass.

When people forsake us He will remind us of His love that never fails or changes.

He reminds us of all that has to be done in the Kingdom.

He reminds us of the visions, dreams and promises we received from His Word.

He will always give us hope, assurance of restoration and healing.

He'll make a way where there seems to be no way.

But sometimes it will not be the way we expect or want but still have to trust Him because His ways are always better.

Isaiah 55:  ⁸ "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
       neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. ⁹ "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
       so are my ways higher than your ways
       and my thoughts than your thoughts.
And above all He gives strength to carry on. 

Pray the LORD will help us be 'more than conquerors'.

Let's give our best to our Lord who loved us with an everlasting love and do all we are called to do in the Kingdom faithfully.

Let's give our best to our families, spouse, kids,friends, loved ones, brothers and sisters in Christ. Let's not grow weary in doing good. 

YSIC,

Julia

I refuse to be Discouraged...

Hi .....

Life as a Christian is sure not a bed of roses, it's not easy to say."I refuse to be discouraged.." but we can choose to say that in spite of discouraging things we hear, see and face because of Jesus, who walks with us.

So often we face discouraging and painful situations that we feel so...hurt and lost.

Well our Heavenly Father never promised a life free of trials and tears.

But He did promise to be with us and He does keep a record of our every tear drop.

PSALM 56:8 Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll — are they not in your record?

Even through difficult times He will not leave us. 

ISAIAH 43: 2 When you pass through the waters,
       I will be with you;
       and when you pass through the rivers,
       they will not sweep over you.
       When you walk through the fire,
       you will not be burned;
       the flames will not set you ablaze.

May be a loved one has hurt us and we feel no one cares. May be people fail to see our hearts

But let this not discourage us for we have with us, Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior who will never leave us no matter what, so let's look to HIM.

May be we are facing with financial problems and people refuse to help us out in our time of need.

But let this not discourage us for we have a God who is the Jehovah Jirah and He says He will meet every need of ours and satisfy us.

So instead of looking to people around us, let's look up to our Heavenly Provider.

Isaiah 58:11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

May be doctor has given us a bad report about our health or the health of a loved one and has said there's no hope.

But let this not discourage us for we have Jesus Christ our Lord and the Healer who says that by His stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

So let's look up to HIM.

Sometimes the going is really tough and we may feel we just can't move ahead. Sometimes we cry out.." O Lord when will your deliverance come, when will you meet my need, when will you heal me.."

Sometimes we feel the Lord does not see us or hear us.....

But He is still there and it's He who carries us through tough situations.

Our deliverance comes from Him, in His time.

1 Samuel 2:1 Then Hannah prayed and said: "My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.

There were times in the past I just felt defeated and wanted to quit this spiritual walk but it was my Lord who helped me every single time...

He had restored

~my failures to success..

~my sorrows to joy...

~my loss to gain...

~my sickness to good health..

~my tears to smiles..

~If He did it yesterday He'll do it today...

~If He did it for me, He will do it for you.

FOR HE'S THE SAME YESTERDAY,TODAY & FOREVER.

Above all we have the Holy Spirit who abides with us and He brings peace and comfort in midst of the storm.

JOHN 14:16, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;"

So let's wipe our tears and be encouraged in the Lord for HE is with us even if we are His children.

He listens to our cry and encourages us.

Psalm 10:17 You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,

We too need to encourage others who go through rough waters.

1 Thessalonians 4:18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
1 Thessalonians 5:14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

Here below is a poem that blessed me...

Be Blessed,

YSIC,

Julia

 "I Refuse To Be Discouraged"

I refuse to be discouraged,
To be sad, or to cry;
I refuse to be downhearted,
and here's the reason why . . .

I have a God who's mighty,
Who's sovereign and supreme;
I have a God who loves me,
and I am on His team.

He is all wise and powerful,
Jesus is His name;
Though everything is changeable,
My God remains the same.

My God knows all that's happening;
Beginning to the end,
His presence is my comfort,
He is my dearest friend.

When sickness comes to weaken me,
To bring my head down low,
I call upon my mighty God;
Into His arms I go.

When circumstances threaten
to rob me from my peace;
He draws me close unto His breast,
Where all my striving cease.

And when my heart melts within me,
and weakness takes control;
He gathers me into His arms,
He soothes my heart and soul.

The great "I AM" is with me,
My life is in His hand,
The "Son of the Lord" is my hope,
It's in His strength I stand.

I refuse to be defeated,
My eyes are on my God;
He has promised to be with me,
as through this life I trod.

I'm looking past all my circumstances,
To Heaven's throne above;
My prayers have reached the heart of God,
I'm resting in His love.

I give God thanks in everything,
My eyes are on His face;
The battle's His, the victory is mine;
He'll help me win the race.

(Unknown)

Building relationships: Building bridges and reaching out to parents.

Hi...

Relationships are so...important.

We need to walk an extra mile to build strong, lasting relationships with people in our life and people who we interact with on daily basis.

Today we'll take time to appreciate our parents because parents aren't around forever!

The Bible warns children will be disobedient to parents in the last days.

2 Timothy 3:2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

But still God's word teaches us to 'obey our parents in the Lord.'

Ephesians 6:1

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Matthew 19:19

Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Ephesians 6:2

"Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise—

Exodus 20:12
"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Some of you may have bad memories but still it's time to forgive, forget and move on holding no bitterness.If our parents are there, let's take time today to love, appreciate, forgive them if they have hurt us and ask for forgiveness if we have hurt them.

We need to treasure them while they are!

Let's not return their love with cold indifference.

Let's wipe their tears, see their sigh, meet their needs, show them we love and care for them, when they are with us. What use will it be if after they take their last breath, we shed tears, speak volumes appreciating them ...they can't see or hear what we do and say...

Today when they are with us, let's treasure them & give them our best.

It's time to reach out to them & tell them we love them & show them we care.

Maybe some of you have painful memories of childhood. But it's time to reach out in love & let go of all negative feelings. You need to forgive and forget the past and love your parents for that's what God expects you to do.

My dad passed away in 2002. My mom lives in Coonoor (near Ooty) the least I can do now is call her once daily and talk to her. She feels so...happy to talk.

The 1st question I ask her is, "Amma how are you..?"

Do miss seeing her, but blessed to talk to her!!

Thank God for mobiles, telephone and Internet too!!

Parents are God's gift to us...

Julia