a Sister2Sister ministry Online Radio | BlogTalkRadio

a Sister2Sister ministry Online Radio | BlogTalkRadio

Communication with God is a Two-way Street

Healthy relationships require communication.  Prayer is an essential part of your communication with your heavenly father.  Communication is a two-way street.  Let's first look at the talking part of it.  Just like a relationship with a friend or loved one, we must talk to the Lord.  That is commonly called prayer.  We talk with our friends or loved ones to get our point across, to explain things, to make our wishes known, to share information.  Now, if we have a friendship with someone and we never talk with that someone, how are we supposed to know things about them?  How do we deepen the friendship?  We talk.  How do you know what their favorite color is unless you have had that conversation?  How do you know that they are sick? Or maybe that they have just gotten their dream job?  We talk; by phone, via text or face-to-face. 

The other part of this essential element called communication is listening.  It is much more simple to speak, but it takes practice to listen.  Effectively listen.  Listening ensures the other party that you are sincerely engaged and invested in the conversation.  Listening takes practice!  I know that for myself, I am easily distracted by thinking about what to say next or by what I have to do when I get home, etc.  Notice how much of the distraction is because of ME!  I have to purpose to listen, to put aside MYSELF for a few minutes to invest in a relationship. The same thing goes for when you are communicating with our Lord.  Not only can we freely talk to Him about our struggles or the needs of others, but He speaks to us.  A still, small voice.  We must LISTEN!  The closer your relationship with the Lord, the easier it is to recognize His voice, His prompting. 

God is so good!  He will never leave or forsake us. He listens and He speaks.  How often do you talk to the Lord?  Do you listen for His voice?

Are you willing to let go of your Isaac?

The sacrifice of Isaac put Abraham to his most agonizing test, a trial which he passed completely because of his total faith in God.  I dare to even imagine God asking me to slay my daughter!  The faith of Abraham is incredible.  It is easy for anyone to say what they would or wouldn't do until they are in the heat of the moment and must make the decision.  I would love to think that I am willing to do whatever it is that God asks of me, when he asks.  I know for myself that I can say that is not the case. 

Are you willing to let go of your Isaac?  Self-examination-time... what IS your Isaac?  What are the things that you adore the most?  What if God asked you to let go of it/them?  Is He asking you to give up something that you refuse to give up?  That is a lot to think about. 

Abraham walked in faith and obedience to God.  Obedience.  I can't help but wonder what must have gone through Abraham's mind as he drew closer and closer to the location he was directed to in order to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Wait a minute.  The ultimate sacrifice?  This is a picture of what God did for us!  He DID give the ultimate sacrifice! God sent his one and only son...to be sacrificed for the atonement of our sins.  God asked nothing more of Abraham than what He eventually did for us. 

So, setting self aside...is there anything that God could ask of you that costs you too much?  Are you willing to let go of your Isaac?

Listen to the podcast on this topic:  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/asister2sisterministry/2013/11/03/are-you-wiling-to-let-go-of-your-isaac-episode-4

Magnificant Metamorphosis

Butterflies are beautiful creatures. I recently visited the Butterfly Rainforest in Gainesville, Florida allowing me the opportunity to see many different species of butterflies up close and personal.

 

Consider the process a butterfly endures to reach the beautiful stage.  They all began as some sort of wormy thing (caterpillar).  Then there is the cocoon stage (pupae), which eventually produces the beautiful thing.  The butterfly. 

 

Before we were children of God, we were the ugly wormy thing, ugly with sin.  Then there was the process of being redeemed through Jesus Christ, which begins the change in us from the inside out.  Just like the cocoon stage.  As we mature in Christ, the butterfly appears, the disciple after God's own heart.  A new creature in Him.

 

 

Listen to the podcast on this topic by following this link:  Butterfly: Episode #3

 

The show airs live every Sunday at 6pm.  Follow us at www.blogtalkradio.com/asister2sisterministry

 

Where are your prints?

God is miraculous and marvelous.  He created each of us with a unique set of fingerprints.  No two people have the same fingerprints.  Even identical twins, have different fingerprints while sharing similar DNA markers.  Think about this a minute.  How many people are alive right now on the planet? No two fingerprints are alike.  How many people have already lived and are no longer here on earth?  No two fingerprints are alike.  Consider that...GOD IS SO AWESOME!  It's God's very own trademark on each individual human being.  GOD IS SO AWESOME!

So where do you leave your fingerprints?  When God begins to process your life for your prints, where will He find them?

 

For those of you who do not know me, I am in the Criminal Justice field.  Therefore, I work with, look for and deal with fingerprints on a regular basis.  Evidence.  Fingerprint "evidence" discovered at a location confirms the presence of an individual.  Where would God find your prints right now if he were to conduct a "crime-scene-investigation" on your life?  Would they be on the choir stand pew?  How about the broom handle in the church closet?  Or the Nursery door?  What about on the telephone?  from calling a sick and shut in or from gossiping with a friend?  Would they be on the door of a night club? Or perhaps a magazine of questionable content?  Would they be found on your bible?

Take a few minutes right now and analyze your life.  Think about today, even moments before reading this blog.  What have you done to help someone else or  to allow someone to see Jesus in you?  Where will your prints be found?

Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we've touched.  What type of touches have they been?  Good?  Bad?  What impression are you making in this world today?

Where will He find YOUR prints?

It's All Good

Daily we are tested in every area of our lives.  Romans 8:28 says "And we know that ALL things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." KJV (Emphasis mine)  It is hard to believe, but ALL things, not just SOME things work together for our good.  ALL things!  We must trust God.  It's all good!

I know that many times, I have questioned the happenings in my life and their relativity to my "good".  I think it's human nature for us to question things.  But as followers of Christ, we are different.  We are children of the most high.  We are in the world and not of the world.  Therefore, things are different for us than those who have not yet chosen the same path. 

At the age of 10 or 11, my sisters and I were helping mom do some cleaning in the yard.  We were picking up pine cones and limbs and other debris from the yard.  We had a small fire in a hole at the back of the property where we were burning the trash.  My sisters and I, as we filled the wheelbarrow with trash would go to the back of the property and dump the new load onto the fire.  Well, on this particular trip, my middle sister and I were tending the fire and raking things up onto the fire.  I heard a hissing sound coming from inside the fire as I continued to rake things up into the flames.  Then, BAM! or BOOM! or something, I don't particularly recall which.  There was an explosion that encapsulated me and my sister, who was standing behind me at that moment.  We ran to the front yard yelling and screaming for mom.  A can of PVC pipe glue had gotten thrown away with the yard debris and had exploded under the pressure of the heat from the fire.  I was wearing cut-off jean shorts and a tank top.  I caught the brunt of the blast, suffering burns on my face, arms and legs.  My sister also was burned on her face, arms and legs although not as severely.  I was sent to the Shriner's Burn Institute in Galveston, Texas for treatment after my sister and I had received initial care at the local hospital.  I am alive and well and virtually scar-free.  Thanks to my God.  There was a lot of pain involved in the recovery.  Skin debridement, bandage changes and whirlpool baths became something I loathed.  I can say that through all of that, I know that it all worked together for my good.  I know that I can say without a doubt that my God is a healer!  I know that I can say without a doubt that my God works miracles! AMEN!

You may be in a valley today, or a trial tomorrow, God knows.  He will be there with you in it and through it.  Sometimes we may not feel Him or hear from Him, but He is there.  We must trust Him and know that ALL things are working together for our good.

What is love?

Love is a very complex concept.

 

For most of my life I believed that love was a feeling, an emotion.  That feeling of adoration of another person or thing.  That ooey, gooey feeling you get when you really care about someone.  Love for a child, a spouse, or friends.  But as I began to grow in my relationship with the Lord, I learned that love is not just an emotion, but that it is actually much more than that.  Love is an action word.  Love is shown through our actions toward one another.  John authored some of the most profound scripture concerning love:

 

John 13:34 KJV A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

 

When is the last time we as followers of Christ one-anothered one-another!  God sent us the perfect example to follow...Jesus, His Son.

 

John 13:35 KJV By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

 

  John 15:12 KJV This is my commandment that ye love one another, as I have loved you.

 

John 15:17 KVJ These things I command you, that ye love one another.

 

 

Love is a fruit of the Spirit, as found in Galations 5:22,23 KJV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.  Fruit is the evidence of your relationship with God.  Your fruit will reflect the true status of your commune with God.  So let's do a little self-examination...  How much fruit am I bearing?  Be honest with yourself, because God already knows the truth!



 

The bible further describes the meaning of love in 2 Corinthians chapter 13:

 



 

Again, to reiterate, LOVE is evidence of your relationship with God.  The characteristics as noted in the photo above will be quite evident in how you handle your daily life encounters. 

 



Recently, God began to deal with me concerning the topic of love.  I knew that He was trying to tell me that LOVE is multi-faceted.  He revealed that it is an emotion and an action, but I still felt that He was trying to tell me that there was more.  Then finally, I got it.  He gave me the true meaning of love.  He gave me the answer I had been searching for!  GOD IS LOVE!  AMEN!!!  How much more complex can you be?  Yet the answer is so simple. 

 

God is love.  God IS love, the most pure love that you have ever known.  And, for some of you, the purest love you have yet to know.  Do you KNOW God? or do you just know about Him?  If you do, then you have experienced love in it's purest form.  If you don't know Him, you can.  Oh taste and see that the Lord is good, AMEN!  You CAN know Him right now!  Surrender yourself completely to Him right now.  Maybe you haven't experienced that love in a while.  He hasn't left you, He's right here with you right now as you are reading the words on this screen.  Open yourself up to Him and he will be everything you will ever need or hope or desire.

 

Jesus wept, he felt emotion.  God's greatest demonstration of love was sending His son to die for the propitiation of our sins.  Now THAT is an action of love.  And finally, the most beautiful facet of love is found in 1 John 4:8 KJV He that love not knoweth not God; for God is love.