Necessities of Life

The best thing about winter is we get to enjoy being inside a little more. That is unless you have to scoop each time it snows, take the dogs out for exercise and necessities and do all the little chores that are needed each day. But, none the less, I find that in the dead cold of winter, I have more time to spend with my Lord.

But wait, let me explain. At the beginning of 2023, as I listened to Curtis Bowers’ Agenda Weekly, I accepted his challenge to pray more, focus on serving Christ more, read more, and less social media and T.V. With that said, I love reading the Bible so have started in Genesis again this year and will continue to the last book by the end of 2023, Lord willing.

Which is why I am here. I want to encourage you! If you are using “Faithful Promises of God” to read through the Word, and you are finding that you can’t read the recommended reading each day, may I suggest that you use two days to do the reading before moving on to the next day. Sure, it will take a little longer but that OK. Keep pressing on! You can do it!

In your daily readings, what jumped out at you this past week? For myself, early in the week, when I read Exodus 1:8, it talked about the new Egyptian king that “knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done.” So as a result, the king feared the Israelites, their numbers were enormous. This king thought it would be a good idea to make the Israelites do slave labor, making bricks.

What struck me is that this king didn’t know the past history of his own country or why (and how) the Israelites were there in Egypt…he didn’t know what Joseph had done for Egypt.

Ignorance will get you nowhere and possibly can get you killed!

Remember this when you see what is happening in our world around us. Many people don’t know American history much less world history and as a result, are leaning towards repeating the mistakes of the past. Much of what our country is pushing towards is the exact same mistakes that other countries have made. Why? Because we are no longer students of history. We think we know of a better way but nothing is new under the sun—nothing!

Will we be like the king in Egypt who was so hard hearted that it brings our destruction?

As in Exodus 6, are we suffering because we have chosen not to obey Him. How much more pain do we have to experience before we (individually or as a nation) surrender our lives to the Lord?

As we journey through Exodus, we see over and over God’s protection and provisions for the Israelites. Every so often He tested the people of “their faithfulness to Him.” What do you think, does He test us to see if we are faithful to Him?

Do we only look to the Lord when things are not going so well and we come to Him as spoiled, whining children? Or are we steadily looking to Him and choosing to obey all the time?

Remember, He fights the battle as we surrender with uplifted hands (as a child reaches out to his father). Our enemies will be remembered no more.

He made a conditional covenant with Israel, “If you will…I will…”. Today we serve Him because of our love for Him, not what He can do for us. For He’s already given us the best gift of all.

Should we not tremble before the Lord as the Israelites did in Exodus 20? Do we show Him respect and reverence or are we walking our own path in arrogance, thinking we don’t need Him? That is, unless things don’t go well, then we are back begging Him to make things better.

And so we continue reading, following the greatest story ever told. I would love hearing from you. Share how He is guiding you on our walk together. Until next week, may God watch over you and keep you focused on Him.

2023 A Year to Be Intentional

2 Thessalonians 3:6-10 “And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from those who live idle lives and don’t follow the tradition they received from us. For you know that you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you. We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow. Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”

How are you doing with reading through the Bible. We started 8 days ago. The Book of Genesis is exciting! It lays the groundwork for the rest of the Bible. What has caught my eye this year and has me pondering? What has caught your eye and has you pondering? I long to have a discussion with each of you so that we may grow in our walk with Jesus.

“Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw it was good.” Gen 1:12b

God created vegetation, seed-bearing plants, trees and fruit. I am wondering why this hasn’t been good enough for those experimenting with hybrid seeds and plants, or more recently GMO seeds and plants? It seems to me that all this modernization of what God created is trying to improve on something already “good”.

But of course, there is a whole lot going on in the name of science today that is doing just that, they want to make something already “good” into something better. Truly, they want to become like God.

Again, we can look no further than Genesis 3 to see that evil entered and wanted to convince Adam and Eve that they could be just like God. And because Adam and Eve fell into sin, they cursed all generations. Not only that, but they were quick to blame each other for this sin and even pointed the finger at God…He caused them to sin. In my opinion, that is probably the height of stupidity but it didn’t stop there. We see people everyday who blame someone else for the sin they commit rather than take responsibility for their actions.

That, my friend, is why we need Jesus so much in our lives. That is also why we need to read the Bible daily, to take what we have read and apply it to our lives.

When we sin, we should automatically feel shame. Shame in this instance is not a bad thing but a good emotion to draw us back to our Heavenly Father in repentance. Instead, we continue on with Adam and Eve’s blame game and have an excuse. Is our conscience so seared that we cannot name our sin and ask God to forgive us? To ask Him to help us to never do that particular sin again? Or do we see this shame as a challenge to be covered with more sin and the cycle continues?

Next, I want to touch a bit upon the Tower of Babel. When a group of people, who spoke one language, set a goal to build a tower to become like God. One language does make a group of people strong; they can unite on all fronts and at some point, pride rears its ugly head. They think they can outsmart God, become like God, be gods. Thus, the more languages the less creative, the less productive and so on. They destroy themselves. It’s happened in the past (in just the first few chapters of Genesis) and it continues to this day and will happen in the future.

We also learn in these early chapters of Genesis that God protects His own. Abram seemed to take things into his own hands often, as did Isaac and Jacob, but God protected them, punishing those who laid a hand on them. What is the secret of God protecting? Recognizing our sin, asking God to forgive and be intentional in not repeating that sin again.

So we can see that nothing is too hard for our Lord! Nothing!!

The last thing I wrote down for these first 8 days of reading is Genesis 31: 19, 30-32. We must be so careful not to favor one person over another. When we do (and we do), the favored one can sin right in front of us and we won’t see it. Or we make excuses for their sin. Be careful! Whether it’s your children, your friends, or any other relationship, be aware that you can be blinded and ask God to give you insight and that you will accept this insight.

No matter where you are in reading the Bible, keep going! Ask God each and every time you sit down to read to give you insight of what He wants you to learn that day. After you are finished with your reading, pray that He will help you to live a changed life.

And before we go, I want to challenge you to be intentional in your daily living. We all waste too much time on social media, the computer and TV so take that first step of turning away from whatever it is that is robbing your time. Is there a book that you’ve been wanting to read but never got around to it? 2023 is the year to read it along with many more. Is there a hobby that you have wanted to start? 2023 is the year!

For myself, I have found a blog that I wrote when I was in Russia and am taking some of those stories and adding them to my third book. It is going to be published this year. I am not sure how or where but it is!

And my newest undertaking is starting to develop. I have been doing some watercolor painting for the last five years, usually in the form of note cards and then just giving them away. Well, I am stretching my abilities and am going to start reproducing the newest cards that I’ve been painting. That means I hope that you might be interested in buying some of my cards as they are available. Everyone likes to get real snail mail and sending a card with a short note from you is a perfect way to get started.

Meanwhile, I look forward to hearing from you. You can always let me know how I can encourage you on face book (A Fae Original page) or you can send me an email (manager@afaeoriginal.com). Have a blessed week!

Joshua’s Farewell to the People

The Israelites were in the Promised Land but their work was not finished. “Therefore, be very courageous to keep and do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or the left, and lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you.” (Josh 2: 6&7a NKJV)

Today people want to claim the promises of God without obeying the Bible or going forth to do what God expects of them. In the name of tolerance, we have accepted what should not be done…all you have to do is read Genesis to understand that. If you need a New Testament reference to grasp what a stench to the Lord this is, read Romans 1. We rub elbows with foreigners and accept their gods as we reject the One True God of the Universe. Joshua 23:11, “Therefore take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God.” Can it be anymore clear?

If God would destroy His own people, will He not get rid of the evil of today? “When you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you and you shall perish quickly from the good land which He has given you.” (Joshua 23:16)

It seems many want to only focus on the love of God without obeying and they don’t obey because they have never read the whole Word of God. Even Jesus showed rath and anger against those who sinned against God. We go through trials in life but God calls us to persevere because these trials test our faith and produce patience (see James 1:2-3) Many lack wisdom and question how we are to gain wisdom. There is only one source for true wisdom and that is God, and God alone! We pray for answers and direction from God. His response is the written Word of God, the Bible. We must read the Bible daily to receive direction and yes, even wisdom concerning how we are to live.