Intentional Living...Part Three...My Faith

At long last I am going to finish my Intentional Living posts.  You might remember that I started back in February with the first about exercising and the second one about making some intentional decisions about how I spend my time.  This last one is about my faith life...and yes, I have intentionally taken a lot of time to ponder on what I want to say because it might matter to someone else and I don't want to mislead anyone. My faith life is a serious matter to me and as I get older I realize that I am more broken than I thought and that God is more grace-filled than I ever knew. So my purpose is not to educate or justify or rationalize or judge. It is simply to say...He did this for me...and He did it for you too.

Last night Katelyn arrived home from her three day grad night trip to Orlando...exhausted.  After a pronouncement of "Had lots of fun!"  She went up to bed.  Today she had to work and as she was heading out the door she mentioned "I have to take snack tonight to the Israel meeting..."  I'll make cupcakes I told her.  "Oh and I am also doing the devotional, could you pull out some of your books so I can look through them when I get home?" 

So, after getting the cupcakes in the oven I walked through the house and gathered up devotional books (you never know when you might need one ...so they are everywhere).  I glanced at them and settled on three for her to look at...my very first devotional book purchased back in the day...Oswald Chambers'  My Utmost for His Highest, next was To Live Is Christ Day by Day , a devotional by one of my all-time favorites Beth Moore, and my newest devotional discovery Jesus Calling, Enjoying Peace In His Presence, by Sarah Young.

With this mission accomplished I took a couple of books back to the study and then my eye caught this book...an old, old friend of a book that I have read many times over the years, but have not read in many years!

With the book in hand I went outside, thinking I would page through it for a few minutes.  But as I turned each page, I read each word. I know this story well, I love this story...more than any other in the bible...

And while Max Lucado has a way with words and can weave a good story, and acquire beautiful artwork...it is no match for the bible (and I am certain that he doesn't view himself that way). 

As I sit and read the accounts in the gospels I am spellbound and speechless and I cannot miss the voice inside me saying you love this story, you know this story, remember you are to live the truth of this story.

Humbling... 

I am going to take this week off from all things blogging-related and am going to focus on the amazing journey that my Saviour took that final week of his life.  It is a story like no other and even though I've read it again and again...I am reading it again; this time with the hopeful anticipation that He will reveal something new to me...because isn't that how it works?  

From the Word of God...the Truth of God...

Psalm 103:12~ "as far as the east is from the west,
so great is his love for those who fear him"

John 3:16~ "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life"

John 8:36~ "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed"

Romans 8:38~ "And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't.  The angels can't, and the demons can't.  Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away." 

2 Corinthians 5:17~ "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

Ephesians 2:8-9~ "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast."

Revelation3:20~ "Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me"

~Peace be with you~