January 12

Today in my devotional I read from both the old and the new testaments, Deuteronomy and Matthew. In Deuteronomy we read about the law God gave to Israel. In Matthew we read Jesus' sermon on the mount. Both pertain to God's Law. I know that we are incapable of living a life that follows all of God's laws. Rom 3:23  "for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;". So why does God give us a law that we are incapable of following. For one it provides the opportunity for us to realize the wonderful mercy of God. My devotional reading put it like this; We use a tape measure to measure a person's height. The tape measure tells us if the person has grown or not. The tape measure however does not promote growth. So the law is for us, it is God's example of what are lives should be like. The law in itself does not promote spiritual growth, only the grace of God at work in our lives can do that. So are we to sit back and say okay God I am sitting here waiting for you to change me? No, we have to do what is commanded of us. I had a conversation about this yesterday. It can be misunderstood that what I am saying is we are to just sit and do nothing and let God do everything for us. Well it doesn't work that way. We are to do everything we can and not worry about the results, we are to leave those up to God. When Jesus was talking about the birds and how God took care of them. God did not allow them to sit in their nest and him bring them food. They had to go out, look for it and God provided for them. The same goes for us we are to go out and do everything we can and then trust in God that he will provide the results he wants.

January 11

Today in my bible study I read a verse, "Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?"  (Gal_3:2-3) I read this in my daily devotional. It got me to thinking, It did not matter what I did there was no way to justify myself. Only through Christ am I justified. OK so we all know about that and agree with that right? Often times I find myself only paying attention to the first part of that verse, but as I looked today I realized something entirely new. No matter how hard I work at it I can come no closer to being like Christ no matter what I do. WHAT!! You say. I know, I thought the same thing. But as I thought on it more and more I realized that yes I am supposed to do what I am commanded to do read God's word, pray, go to church and all that. But to be more like Christ only God can do that in my life, he will make the change, I cannot. So to bring this to a close, I am commanded to do certain things and leave the rest up to God. I need to get out of my own way and let God take over.

Love all of you in Christ

Back To School

First day back after Christmas break. The kiddos were a little wild today, but all in all it was a good day. I love teaching.

Happy New Year!

The new year has begun, and I am truly excited to see what this year brings. At church this morning our pastor memorized the entire sermon on the mount. It was pretty amazing to me. But it also got me to thinking about my life and my dedication to the Lord. I began thinking am I living the way Jesus would have me to. I know that Jesus is my savior and have accepted him, but do I let him have complete control of my life. Or do I try to hold on and keep control of parts of it. I found that depending on the situation I often would say hang on I think I can handle this without you,, and those are generally the times I mess up or things just do not go right. I made a commitment this morning to work on allowing Jesus to take complete control of my life.