My Purpose on Earth

This morning as I was reading my Bible, I read across the scripture John 4, where Jesus had been ministering to the woman at the well. When he was finished, his disciples told Him to eat. But, Jesus says, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish His work." In the next verse He explains what is on His heart..."look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." As I was contemplating this, I was reminded of the message that Pastor Baker gave Sunday about how important our perception of our purpose in this life is. We are to be a revelation of Jesus Christ on this earth. His purpose should be our purpose. If His heart, purpose, and what gives Him more satisfaction than food itself, is to see lost and hurting people ministered to and offered salvation, then this should be our passion, our purpose also. Is our purpose on this earth daily, to do the will of the Father and finish His work in this world? As I thought about how to do this in a practical sense, I went back to what Jesus was doing. He went to the well to rest, because He was tired from His journey. When the Samaritan woman came to the well, He asked her for a drink. This very simple act, led to an opportunity to minister to this woman's spiritual need. " In my daily life, Lord, help me to be sensitive to the needs of those around me and to offer them living water. Help me to place myself in places deliberately, where there are opportunities to minister to people the love of Jesus and be an example of You in this earth. Help me to do the will of Him who sent me, and finish His work."

John 4:34, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work."

Tips for Memorizing Scripture

I'm not going to give up! Today I'm going to start (again) working on memorizing scripture. I've been reading the book (again) "Before You Hit the Wall" by Danny Lehmann. It's about establishing spiritual disciplines in your life. The chapter I read this morning was on the importance of the commitment to memorize God's Word. So, in my effort to begin a discipline of memorizing the Bible (again), I googled tips for memorizing scripture and this web page had some good tips: Grace Community Church of Glen Rose, TX - Tips for Memorizing Scripture so I thought I'd put it on my blog as a reminder to myself and maybe it will motivate someone else at the same time to start hiding God's word in your heart.
Does anyone else have any tips to share?

Changed Lives

Today, I'm talking, again, about how the Word of God changes us. Last Friday night my husband and I attended a graduation banquet for Teen/Life Challenge graduates. Teen/Life Challenge is a faith based program to change the lives of those suffering from life controlling issues/addictions. It was started by David Wilkerson. You may have seen the movie or read the book, "The Cross and the Switchblade". It's the story of how it started. This program has the highest success rate of any drug rehab program. One thing I know about T/L Challenge, is that they drill the scriptures into these people. They also have each man choose a life scripture to stand on. One pastor who was at the banquet told how God had changed his life through life challenge. He also said that after the many years of being out and pastoring, he still remembered and stood on "his" scripture. I loved sitting and listening to man after man come up and give his testimony of how God had changed and restored his life. As we left, I said to my husband, "Some of these men may choose to return to their former lifestyle when they leave, but they'll never be able to get away from the Word of God that's been instilled in them." The last song that the mens choir sang that night was, "He's Still God!"

Psalm 119:11 "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."

Changing the Way You Think

When I was a young(er) woman, it used to amaze me how the older christian woman could make a spiritual lesson out of everything. The simplest, everyday moments of life, brought to mind a scripture, song, or spiritual analogy. I used to wonder how they did this. Well, if you read my post yesterday, you might see that I tend to do the same thing now. As God brought this comb analogy to my mind, I thought,"I'm that older woman now. How did this happen?" I then thought about the many years that I've been reading, and listening to the Word of God, and how powerful it truly is. Without even realizing it was happening, it has become a part of who I am and the way that I think. I ran across a message by John McArthur on the Internet, recently, entitled "Adding to Your Faith". He says, "I discovered by doing a study of the human brain that although everything we hear, see, or experience is stored in cells in our brain, whenever you recall and relearn something, you expand the brains storage capacity. So, the more you hear and apply something you learned, it occupies a greater part of your thinking process. As you hear and respond to God's word, it takes over a larger portion of your thinking process. Repetition expands our capacity of recall. Recovering spiritual truth demands repetition and use. The more you hear, think through, and apply spiritual truth, the more it begins to dominate your thinking." Good stuff, hugh?!
I also mentioned yesterday the need for a transformed mind. Well, this is how you do it. By letting the Word of God become a part of who you are.

Romans 12:2 "And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,and acceptable, and perfect will of God."

Deut. 11:18-19 "Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when you walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."

Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is quick , and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

Psalms 19:7-10, says the word of the Lord is perfect, converts, is sure, makes wise, makes the heart rejoice, is pure, enlightens, is clean, endures forever, is true and righteous, is to be desired more than gold, and is sweeter than honey. So, get in the Word today. Read it, study it, memorize it, sing it, listen to it being taught, talk about it, apply it. Remember, repetition will cause it to dominate your thinking, changing who you are. And ask yourself, "Do I really desire it more than gold? Do my activities and priorities reflect this?".