Things to Remember

Beauty is-- Not what you are but what you will become

Learning is -- Not how much you know but what you comprehend

Knowing is -- Not just having something in your mind, but in your heart.

Courage is -- Not the absence of fear but the faith and love to over come it

Being is -- Not just existing but Living life to the fullest

Talking is-- Not just commenting about the weather, but what brought you through the storms and how you've grown through them.

Silence is -- Not the absence of noise, but the loudness of the still small voice

Listening is -- not just hearing, but understanding.

Growing is -- not become two inches taller but growing deeper in you faith (thanks Angela)

Loving is -- Not a feeling, but an action you live out every day. (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8)

Winning is -- Not where you place but how you played (giving it your all)

Maturing is -- Experiencing the unknown and dealing wisely and honestly with what life brings you.

Burning is -- Not a just a single flame, but an All Consuming FIRE..

Becoming is -- Not looking at the past, but looking to the future.

It is also -- Not outward, but it starts in the heart.

Falling is -- Dangerous, but at the right time totally worth it.

Breaking is -- Not the end of the world.. but the beginning of a wiser you.

Liking is --  not complicated, its simple.. I LIKE!! (wuv you Pendo ).

Missing someone is -- Not something small, but a hole in your heart and life..

Asking is -- not just stating a question but requiring an answer

Prayer is -- not listing your problems but conversing with your Father

These are things to remember... And of which I need to be reminded of daily!

-MiniMug

His plan... Not Mine

He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
-1 Thessalonians 5:24
You know, some how I always think that I've got this one. And every time I think I've got it down I wind up falling on my face. Wow, how graceful. Thank God that he is full of grace and does not kick me out into the street for being a selfish idiot. I'm humbled by the fact that I'm not perfect...
It happened any recently, I tried to take control of my life and mold it into my plan... And again I was disappointed with the result. I started asking God why things weren't working out for me, and then that quite voice said "Your trying to drive your life without a license..." That usually is a problem and accidents almost always happen with inexperienced drivers. The verse here in 1 Thessalonians 5:24 doesn't say that when you call your self he is faithful, but HE who calls you is faithful.
Hmmmm... That's right he does the calling... there is another slight laps in memory that led to a week of frustration and bad attitude. Wow, thanks God for jogging my memory...

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
-Rom 8:28

But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles
-Gal 1:15-16

'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
-Jer 29:11

Habits only stay Habits if you make a Habit of doing them

So sometimes I forget that even if you have good study habits... habits are only habits as long as you keep them up. It takes many times to build a habit but only one time to break one.

So here is the thing.. I think I forgot this term that you have to keep up the study habits if you want to keep on succeeding. I've been struggling with finding a balance between school, play, God and reaching out. I think I forgot that I'm not just at this school by chance. I'm here for a reason, I'm here to be taught but also to teach. The more time I spend tutoring and mentoring people. The more I'm convinced that its going to have a permanent place in my life.  But recently I've gotten so caught up in the teaching and reaching out, I forgot about the learning.

Today I was reading my devo's and this was a little reminder to me.
2 Timothy 2:15
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

Now the way I saw it today was:
Minimug, be diligent to present yourself approved to me!
First thought that comes to mind is diligence, I have not been employing diligence in my life. I'm been doing a lot of unnecessary things that were not needed in the lest.
Second thought, I haven't "presented" myself to God in the longest time. In fact I think I've been doing a lot of hiding from him.
3rd thought, I don't think he'd approve of a lot of things that I've been doing.. For the past week and a half I have been a grump.... G-R-U-M-P Grump and extremely irritable. (So much so, I find it hard to believe my friends still hang around me!). This needs to change, NOW.
So Next part of the verse:
As a Workman who is need not be ashamed.
Not much to be said here but in the past few weeks I've been ashamed. And that feeling has done nothing for my self esteem or poise. I feel like crap all the time, and not that it should but it causes me to treat other people like crap as well. (Oh, grace and mercy please).
Lastly,
Accurately dividing the word of truth.
I don't think I've done a good job of this lately. Actually I think I've done a pretty sucky one.

In short I've realized again that you have to do the work to get the grade. And I am rightly corrected, and humbly chastened. So this is me going home to study for my test tomorrow and read some of that Good Book that is the word of Truth.

Be diligent and be Blessed!
-MiniMug
 
Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth.
2 Tim 2:15

Is God big enough or is he BIG ENOUGH!

So we all know that God is big... He is almighty, omnipotent, all powerful, and well He's GOD.
But do you  know it.. In your time of need is it obvious to you. Is it more than head knowledge that you can trust him in any situation, at any time. Is trusting God habit, second nature, your immediate response? 

We all know that with this life comes trials and rough times, but we are never told by Jesus that we should be depressed and subdued by these things. In fact he tells us the exact opposite, that we are to be undaunted, of good cheer (happy), and CONFIDENT in his authority over the world.

John 16:33
I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world.

Lets rewind and read that again.... "I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]" The world and all its trials and hardships are CONQUERED through JESUS CHRIST!! God does not lie and faith expects God to act on his word. Faith expects God to be who he says he is and do what he says he'll do.

Has he come through for you before? Does he change?

Malachi 3:6
For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed

James 1:17
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent;
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

If he came through before... Why wouldn't he come through again? Is he not looking to do good things for his children???

Psalm 35:27
Let those who favor my righteous cause and have pleasure in my uprightness shout for joy and be glad and say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, Who takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.

Isaiah 30:18
And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship]!

Psalm 68:19
Blessed be the Lord,
Who daily loads us with benefits,
The God of our salvation!  Selah

Lamentations 3:22-23
Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassion's fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

I can't say that I serve a God that is all powerful and good,  if he makes the sun rise every morning but can't solve my finance problems, or my broken relationships. (Now we understand that many of our problems have to do with our fleshly desires and passions. It was that the devil that made you go max out your 10 credit cards on Coach shoes, or Bears Tickets, when you have no way of paying them. That was you yielding to the lust of your flesh...  God works with us and in us to solve many of these problems in our life.)

God is Bigger than your problems believe me..

Job 26:7-14He it is Who spreads out the northern skies over emptiness and hangs the earth upon or over nothing.
⁸He holds the waters bound in His clouds [which otherwise would spill on earth all at once], and the cloud is not rent under them.
 ⁹He covers the face of His throne and spreads over it His cloud.
¹⁰He has placed an enclosing limit [the horizon] upon the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
¹¹The pillars of the heavens tremble and are astonished at His rebuke.
¹²He stills or stirs up the sea by His power, and by His understanding He smites proud Rahab.
 ¹³By His breath the heavens are garnished; His hand pierced the [swiftly] fleeing serpent.
¹⁴Yet these are but [a small part of His doings] the outskirts of His ways or the mere fringes of His force, the faintest whisper of His voice! Who dares contemplate or who can understand the thunders of His full, magnificent power?
Do you need money??? My god owns the cattle on a thousand hills!!

Psalm 50:10-12
¹⁰ For every beast of the forest is Mine,
         And the cattle on a thousand hills.
 ¹¹ I know all the birds of the mountains,
         And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. 
 ¹² “If I were hungry, I would not tell you;
         For the world is Mine, and all its fullness

Do you need Comfort? I serve the GOD of All Comfort!

2 Cor. 1:3-7 "Blessed be God, even the Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and The God Of All Comfort;
Ps. 23:4 "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.

Do you need Grace? His mercies are new every morning!

Lamentations 3:22:23
Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
²³ They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

Chosen to OBEY

so this is a slight side thought from the Armor of God... but It's what I've been thinking about lately.

1 Peter 1:1-2 (New American Standard Bible)

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.ok so first I dont have much to say about this so I'll just post some verses. and a few comments...

1 Peter 2:11 (Amplified Bible)

Beloved, I implore you as aliens and strangers and exiles [in this world] to abstain from the sensual urges (the evil desires, the passions of the flesh, your lower nature) that wage war against the soul.

you are an alien... that means you dont live like the people in this world... we are not called to fitt in we are called to standout... not only that but we are called to ABSTAIN!!! I'm not a huge fan of the word but there it is... in the bible... defiantly a bible term.. Abstainace is the only guaranteed way to stay clean from sin...

secondly...
We are chosen to OBEY.... interesting isn't it... I'll be back on this topic later... but let me know what you think it means??? cause I'm pretty sure that God is going to have to do clearing on the fact...
In Christ
-MiniMug

Preparation of the Gospel of Truth

and I can't seem to keep on the weekly thing can I???
so.. Here we are at the Preparation of the Gospel of Truth

Ephesians 6:15 (Amplified Bible)

And having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace.

Now I believe that this has a two fold meaning.
ONE... We need to have our feet shod to face the enemy. We need to be ready to judge anything that might come before us. And also to combat the devils scams, Jesus did this when he was tempted (Check out Matt 4:1-11). Notice that is didn't save him that he was the son of God but that he KNEW the truth (the word of God) and that the fact that he KNEW that word it set him free.

John 8:32 (Amplified Bible)

32And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.

2 Timothy 2:15 (New King James Version)

15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Psalm 16:8 (Amplified Bible)

8I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

TWO... We need to be ready to give an answer. We need to be ready to share the word with anyone who ask us about Jesus. When someone ask you about your God, you don't want to have to say “wait come back in a week and we'll talk about it then”. Ummm I think that might be a bad Idea.. the opportunity may never come again.. that maybe a soul lost because I didn't study the word of God..

1 Peter 3:15 (New King James Version)

15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

2 Timothy 4:2 (New King James Version)

2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and teaching.

Side note: Hopefully I will be blogging every week now that I am back at school.. I hope you will all see me a little more often.
God bless you all,
-MiniMug

The Breastplate of Righteousness

It's been awhile.. and I have no excuses to offer..

Lets look at our scripture again..

Ephesians 6:11-18 (Amplified Bible)
Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins and having put on the breastplate of integrity and of moral rectitude and right standing with God.
What is Righteousness-
Righteousness is right standing with God. Being able to stand before God pure and blameless in his sight.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (New American Standard Bible)
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Righteousness is given to us when we are saved but we must maintain this righteousness by acting on the commandments that God has given us.. In other words we have FAITH that we are made righteousness but we know that Faith without works is dead.

James 2:26 (New American Standard Bible)
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Thus, we act according to the righteousness bestowed on us, and bare the fruit of righteousness in our lives. Righteousness is not what we do, but rather who we are influencing what we do...
For example... Abraham...

Genesis 15:5-9 (Amplified Bible)
And he [Abram] believed in (trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness (right standing with God).

Abram not only believed but to show that he believed God's promises he left his family and moved to the WILDERNESS... the desert.. now if that is not Faith and dedication I don't know what is. But the point is that he not only had faith, but Abram had actions to match that faith. He didn't just talk the talk... He also walked the talk...

Now a breastplate was a piece of amour that was worn as protection or an item of status..

So lets look at protection first.

Now directly underneath the breastplate is the heart. We all know that physically, the heart is a vital organ, without the heart the body can not survive. The quickest way to kill a man is to stop his heart from beating. Its the same for the spiritual heart, When we become spiritually dead because of sin our heart stops its communication with God. Thus the quickest way for the devil to spiritually “poison” a person is through the heart.. Because of this God warns us to take up protection.

Proverbs 4:23 (New American Standard Bible)
Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.

Righteousness is a way to avoid having sin enter our lives. Following the commandments that God has given us guards us from the sin that so easily entangles us. Righteousness is not a one time deal, its an everyday sort of thing... like putting on you clothes.

Ephesians 4:22-24 (Amplified Bible)
Strip yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion;
And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude],
And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness.
Constantly being renewed... Constantly means again and again.. not just once.

Now as to the Item of Status...

Righteousness is your Item of Status... It declares that you are a child of the King.. The bible says that they will know them by what they do..

Matthew 7:11-19 (New American Standard Bible)
"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
Thus by putting on Righteousness you are showing to others that you are a part of the body of Christ.

1 Peter 2:8-10 (Amplified Bible)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God's] own [a]purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

God bless you all
-MiniMug