II Timothy 2:21 -

Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.

Isaiah 55:7

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Strong

Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong; they are weak, but he is strong Anna B Warner wrote the song in 1860. It teaches children Jesus loves them, which is a great thing. I learned those lines when I was young. However, now that I am older, I have to rethink one of the lines I learned. Does Jesus want His children to be weak?

Yes, Jesus loves me I know. I read it in the Bible, but I also read He wants me to be strong. Joshua 1:9 tells us to be strong and courageous because God is with us wherever we go. Zechariah 10:12 tells us He will make us strong in His power and we will go wherever we wish by His authority. The Lord said so! Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, God our Father makes us strong!

 

Good Faith

We often hear I bought it in “good faith.” You bought, believing even though you hadn’t seen it, it was what you hoped it would be. Sometime what we end up with is not at all what we had hoped for. Faith is not always good faith. If our faith says things are this way and are going to always be this way, if we buy into that idea, it is not good.. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. Evidence is defined as something visible that gives grounds for believing in the existence of something, to assure the certainty or validity of. So if our evidence of things not seen only gives us grounds to believe the certainty or validity of our situation remaining the same, that is what we will end up with. The power of life and death are in the tongue. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Speak life. Speak abundance. Evidence will validate with assured certainty that things you haven’t seen and are hoping for, are only good things. Have only good faith.

 

The Good Dishes

A preacher and his wife were invited to Sunday dinner with a new family that joined their congregation. The invitation was accepted. As every one sat down to eat the youngest member of the family asked, "Mommy when are the special guests coming who you are saving the good dishes for?"

We all have things that we save and use for special guests. We want some to have the very best of what we have to offer. Have you ever invited God to use you? If you have, He most likely accepted the invitation.  Sometimes we are surprised at the seemingly mundane things God asks us to do. Sometime we think God can surely use us for something better than this. Perhaps if we worked on making these containers more useable, more presentable to God, He would use us for more special things. We each need to work on becoming the good dishes, the best container, that God can use to present His special gift to others.

Abundantly Pardoned

Have you ever been asked to forgive someone and your response was that you would have to think about it? Is it sometime hard for you to forgive? Aren’t you glad God isn’t like that? He is quick to forgive.  We turn, change our ways, ask God, and He forgives all the wicked things we have done. As Christians we are called to be Christ-like. We are called to forgive others as Christ forgives us. Be merciful. Forgive those who have said or done wicked things to you. By being a forgiving Christ-like example, we can lead others to turn to a forgiving merciful God who abundantly pardons through the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. Also remember being a forgiver helps you as much or more than it does the person you are forgiving. When you forgive abundantly, a weight from the past is lifted and new hope is found for the future.