Sunday, September 9, 2012

Great Are You Lord

You know that feeling when you're reassured? . . . Reassured in Christ, that because you are His child, He won't let you down. That feeling when someone reassures you that, hey! just live for God and his wonderful will and then you will know that He has great plans for you and you need only give yourself fully to Him. . . Yes, I love that feeling! Another feeling I love is when I go to church to hear my paster preach his heart out for us. He is so gifted in the area of explaining the Bible so well that you understand so clearly what God commands us to do and how to live for Him. How to live a godly life that is pleasing to the Lord. Also, he is not afraid to teach on sin. I find that a lot of churches these days really don't want to teach on that topic because they might loose/scare off people... So the fact that he is not ashamed to preach truth just excites me! . . . I took as many notes as I could to share with y'all. 

He was teaching on the Book of Habakkah ( I will admit that I haven't read that book of the bible before, but once he started teaching on it, I was like, "wow! I was missing out" ) . .  He taught on  6 discourses... Here we go :)

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1.) The theme of Habakkah is "To live by faith in God's sovereignty even if we don't understand." . . .  I know there were many times where I would not fully understand why God would allow bad things to happen to me. I know I am a child of God.. He said He would take care of me. But I realized that I have to put all my faith in God, even when I have no clue where things are going in my life. I can't live by the standards of things or people of this world but live by Faith. I may not understand His will right now for my life, but He does and has great plans for me... And this goes for anyone who is a true believer in Jesus Christ. And that leads us to the next part. 

2.) "It is okay to ask God questions but He is not obligated to answer them" - Oh, this one definitely hit home for me. I am sure we have all asked God many questions. But we can't expect God to answer any of our questions right after we ask. Because we can be asking something that He is not obligated to answer because he might have a better answer for you in another area .That is why it is very important that when we ask God questions, we have to always ask it according to His will. I have asked God questions before that I thought He would answer because I figured that God would answer in the way I wanted, but I was wrong. I did not ask it according to His will and I was only thinking of myself. I think another reason why He didn't answer that question was because He wanted to humble me. But I do believe that He is going to answer that prayer/question but it will be according to His will and it will be WAY better than what I was asking for first.  

3.) "Trust that God is working even when we can't see" - As Christians, we definitely have to have this mindset. We can not be discouraged. When we can't really see God working in our lives, that is when Satan creeps in and wants us to think that God doesn't care about our problems and isn't worried about us. We need to flee those thoughts and continue to tell each other that God, right now, is working in and through each and every one of our lives. 

4.) "Trust that God will judge sin in His timing" - My paster explained this so well. If someone claims to be saved and sins (here are some examples : does bad by someone, hurts others with words, does things secretly to hurt others, lies ) then their sin will find them out. They are not hiding it from God. "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." (James 4:17)   God sees and hears all. I mean, if you are a true believer, you wont want to do those things. So if you aren't saved ( or you may think you are but truly haven't given your life to Christ ) and keep sinning, God will bring justice to those who commit the sins. They will be found out either here on earth or on judgment day. But they will be judged. So when someone continues to try and hurt me, I keep reassuring myself that God will have his justice in His timing. I am relying on His timing for everything. Because His timing is PERECT! 

5.) "Are you broken?" - Are we truly broken and humble for the Lord? Are we offering ourselves fully to God? No strings attached to this world. Willing to do anything for Him..No going in half way. We need to be willing to fully rely on God. We need to be fully submissive to Him. Giving our everything to glorify Him.  

6.) - "Are you living in sin?" - Something that we need to do every day is examine ourselves. Say, "Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours". . .  I continue to say "Lord, if what I am doing is going against what you called me to do, take it away, throw it out. If it does not glorify you, break it away and cleanse me with your love" . . . I urge you to really ask yourself if your lifestyle or how you act is God honoring and Christ like. Because soon and very soon, the Lord is coming back to take all His children up into the clouds. I would hate to see anyone be left here when I had a chance to tell them about God and His gracious ways. How He can save you from an eternal life of misery. That there is hope in Jesus Christ. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) . . . He died on that cross for whoever would believe in Him. It is never too late. Don't let anything, not even pride get in the way of acknowledging and confessing our sins. Do right to others, help each other out. Continue to ask yourself "would I do this if Jesus were standing right here in this room" but again, we forget sometimes that God sees and hears everything we do. . .


Until next time my dear followers, I'll leave y'all with a very beautiful song. 

God bless y'all!
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We sang this song this morning. 
One thing I love is to worship my God with songs of praise!









10 comments:

  1. Some great stuff! Love when my pastor reveals something new or just in a new light. That's what its all about. Love PCD to. My favorite song by them Your Grace Still Amazes Me.

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  2. Some great stuff! Love when my pastor reveals something new or just in a new light. That's what its all about. Love PCD to. My favorite song by them Your Grace Still Amazes Me.

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    1. Thank you for taking the time to read it. And yes, I love to get my fill of the Word of God. To hear new things about what He teaches and commands..Church is a great place to get that. ;)
      Thanks again!

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  3. Amazing post! Yes, that sermon this morning was powerful! It spoke to me on several areas, just praying it spoke to the hearts of many others in the church this morning. Thanks for posting this, and yes we do have same notes...lol ;-)

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    1. Thanks Katey! It was super powerful. I do pray that many felt it's power and spoke to them also. Love you! <3

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  4. Miss rachel :) I always find much pleasure reading your thoughts and in this case your sunday service notes... I have also noticed that sometimes when I have asked God for answers I was putting a time frame on Him.. For example.. When I ask him something very important to me I often consider an answer that isn't there right away a "no" but lately I have come to realize that it is a very very big possibility that God has been thinking yes but not yet... How else us he going to teach us patience and longsuffering... Or as you mentioned he will teach us huge lessons in forgiving and loving those who wrong us if he allows us to be mistreated for a short period in the present time... Funny that your blog post deals with this issue because that is one of the topics made much clearer to me as I took time for me and my God... Pleading with him to know his will with ultimate clarity . I realized that I could ask but that I believe a "not yet" answer may have been exactly what I need as a necessary tool for the character God intends for me.. Thanks Rachel for another well written timely and appropriate blog post :) God is using you as your sphere of influence I believe is even more effective than mine :D timothy

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    1. Mr. Timothy, thank you for typing such a long commit. They mean a lot. :) I do truly love to hear how people take my posts and what their thoughts are on them. . . What you said there, "When I ask Him something very important to me I often consider an answer that isn't there right away a "no" but lately I have come to realize that it is a very very big possibility that God has been thinking yes but not yet..." . . I have asked God for things that I wanted in my timing and not in HIS. He has showed me that He will answer my questions and prayers in His perfect timing. And it may not be the way we imagined it would, but it will be even better. :) But I do believe that God knows the desires of our hearts and will answer our prayers. . . I have to disagree w/ you on someone though. Your posts have inspired not just me but others as well and have encouraged and challenged me to become a better Christian. So no, my posts are not more affective than yours. ;) We are both being used by God to work in different peoples lives. :)

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  5. Miss rachel... Are you ever going to let me outdo you in comfort, encouragement, and love... Always being there I thank God for your kindness.... Timothy

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  6. This is so refreshing to read, because I'm in the military it's been hard for me to have a set time to actually sit down and meditate on te word, I've loss alot of motivation because of that, but reading this has def uplifted my spurts, and will be staring up again :) thank you for what you are doing.

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    1. Like you said, being in the military, it must be hard to time set aside for alone time with the Lord, but Just keeping your thoughts as much as you can on God and pray every chance helps a lot. To have that comforting presence of Christ is amazing. :) I am thrilled that my posts are motivational for you! Thanks you lots!! And your service to our county will never go unnoticed.

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