Love is a Verb!

“Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.” 1 John 3:18 New Living Translation

It is time for the body of Christ to live this verse. I remember that song we use to sing at camp, “They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” Do people know that we are Christians just by observing our actions?

God has really been focusing in on me concerning my love walk. I have heard about it and learned about it for years from Joyce Meyer’s ministry, Joel Osteen’s ministry and from various pastors at Living Word Christian Center. However, I have never felt a tug from the Holy Spirit so intense about getting my love walk straightened out.

I am convinced that many people are turned off to Christianity because they see us not living this verse. Yes, words are powerful. To say “I love you” is powerful, but doing something that says “I love you” speaks even louder than the words. Now as Christians, of course, we are not perfect because we are still humans, and we live in a sinful world. However, we can purpose to see love as a verb. Wasn't there a DC Talk song about this?

Today I am purposing to see love as a verb. What can I do for my neighbors, my friends, my family, and anyone I come into contact with to show them the love of God?

Please comment and let me know what you did to show the love of God, who you did it for, and what their reaction was. I love forward to hearing from you!

Walk Uprightly

“For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see His face.” Psalm 11:7

Today's Word from Joel and Victoria

Our God is a god of justice! He loves truth, and He loves what is right. The Bible promises that if we follow His plan and walk uprightly before Him, we will see His face. And God wants you to see His face. He wants to reveal Himself to you in ways you never imagined. Walking uprightly simply means following the Word of God with a humble heart. It means you have a heart to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. In this day and age, people have so many different ideas of what they think is right, but God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and His standard, the Word of God, will never change. The Bible also says in Psalm 84, that no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. God longs to pour His blessing and goodness on your life. Choose to follow His Word and allow Him to work His purposes on the inside of you. As you do, you will walk uprightly and see His face and experience His hand of blessing in every area of your life!

A Prayer for Today

Father in heaven, today I submit myself to Your ways. I choose to walk uprightly before You because I long to see Your face. Thank You for guiding and blessing every area of my life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

My Birth Verse

"He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes." Deuteronomy 10:21 NIV

To find out your birth verse, visit http://www.birthverse.com/mybirthverse.cfm.

Have a wonderful day in the Lord!

Managing Conflict God's Way

This was a devotional I received the other morning via email, and I wanted to share it with everyone. Be prepared to be touched & changed by the Word of God!!!

The Gentle Art of Confrontation

But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ. Ephesians 4:15

No family is without conflicts, and when we let conflicts simmer without confrontation, they have a habit of boiling over and affecting our spiritual lives. William Wordsworth said: "He who has a good friend needs no mirror." Family members can learn to be each other's best friend by learning the gentle art of confrontation. Blessed is the marriage where both spouses feel the other is a good friend - one who will listen, reflect back, understand and work through whatever needs to be dealt with. Occasionally all this requires loving confrontation.

Of course, we must face the fact that some of us don't want to be confronted. Some people would rather be comfortable than Christlike. Many of Barbara's best statements to me are the ones that hurt a bit, but I need to hear them because they keep me on the right track.

Learning loving confrontation starts with love. As 1 Corinthians 13 points out, love expects the best of others. There's no way to confront someone else productively if you expect the worst or have a chip on your shoulder.

Loving confrontation is not nagging. It states its position without dragging it out for days. Being nagged at is no fun. Someone has said it's like being nibbled to death by a duck. Christian confrontation doesn't accuse; it focuses on "I" language, with my saying plainly how I feel. It avoids "You" language, which inevitably sounds condemning. There's a world of difference between saying, "I really don't like arriving at church late - can I do something to help?" and "You always make us late!"

Also, keep in mind that the people you love, but need to confront, are not your enemies. Your mate is never your enemy. Christian confrontation requires that you speak the truth - but always in love.


Discuss: Areas of agitation you try to suppress in order to keep a smooth relationship. Are you being honest with yourself or those you love? When should you bring up a problem issue?

Pray: For the courage to confront lovingly and also for the wisdom to know how to speak the truth in love.
---
Excerpted from "Moments Together for Couples" by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Copyright 1995 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. All rights reserved. To purchase the book, visit http://www.familylife.com/1-800-358-6329/detail.asp?id=1170

Today's Word with Joel & Victoria

To receive this daily in your own email box (because I won't post them every day), visit www.joelosteen.com.

A Blameless Heart

Today's Scripture

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9 AMP).

Today's Word from Joel and Victoria

Do you need God to move in your life today? The Bible says that God is actually looking to show Himself strong in the earth. He is looking for those who have a blameless heart toward Him. When you open your heart to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you and cleanse you by His blood, then He gives you a blameless heart — then you are the person the Lord is looking to work through! When you understand the fact that God longs to work in your life, your faith will increase. Your hope will increase. And God’s work in your life will increase! Have confidence in this scripture today. Begin to thank God for giving you a clean and blameless heart. Thank Him for choosing to work in your life. As you thank and praise Him, look for His goodness and strength in your life. As you do, you will see God move in unexpected ways today and every day!

A Prayer for Today

Heavenly Father, thank You for the blood of Jesus which cleanses my sins and gives me a blameless heart. Search my heart today and remove anything that isn’t pleasing to You. I open my heart to You and invite You to work in every area of my life. I bless You and thank You for Your faithfulness. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Today's Word with Joel & Victoria

Hello everyone! I receive this in an email from Joel Osteen's website. It was SO good that I absolutely HAD to share it. If you are interested in receiving Today's Word with Joel & Victoria visit their ministry's website at www.joelosteen.com.

Set Your Hope

Today's Scripture

“Set your hope wholly and unchangeablely on the grace (divine favor) that is coming to you when Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is revealed.” (I Peter 1:13)

Today's Word from Joel and Victoria

Is your hope set on God’s divine favor in your life today? One translation of this verse says, “Look forward to more and more of God’s favor.” That’s God’s dream — to pour out His goodness and grace upon you. He wants to help you get ahead in this life. He wants to lead you to the right job. He wants to lead you to the right relationship. But here’s the key: we have to be on the lookout for more of God’s favor. That tells me that we can’t get stagnant. Don’t ever think that you can’t rise any higher. God wants to do more than you can even ask or think. It says in Ephesians, He wants to show us the immeasurable, limitless, surpassing greatness of His free favor. In other words, God wants to go far and above what we’re used to! He wants to show you favor in unusual and extraordinary ways. Set your hopes higher today. Increase your expectations of what God will do in your life. As you open your heart and mind to His unlimited favor, you will experience the abundance He has in store for you!

A Prayer for Today

Father, thank You for your increase in every area of my life today. I choose to set my hope in You knowing that You want to do more in my life than I can ever imagine. Teach me to be a vessel used by You today. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Believing that your faith will be increased through this message and that you will experience more and more of God's favor. When you see God's favor at work in your life, simply say out loud, "That is the favor of God." I think that I heard Jesse Duplantis talk about doing this because it made him aware of all that God was doing in his life. I have been doing this and it not only increases my faith in what God has done, but it also encourages me to stretch my faith to believe God's word and causes me to increase my expectations of what God will do in my life!

Do You Have Mountain Moving Faith?

This was sent to me in the Fresh Manna emails that I receive from a pastor at our church. Enjoy!



Mark 11:23-24 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

Mountain Moving Faith Author Unknown

A small congregation in the foothills of the Great Smokies built a new sanctuary on a piece of land willed to them by a church member. Ten days before the new church was to open, the local building inspector informed the pastor that the parking lot was inadequate for the size of the building. Until the church doubled the size of the parking lot, they would not be able to use the new sanctuary. Unfortunately, the church with its undersized lot had used every inch of their land except for the mountain against which it had been built.

In order to build more parking spaces, they would have to move the mountain out of the back yard. Undaunted, the pastor announced the next Sunday morning that he would meet that evening with all members who had "mountain moving faith." They would hold a prayer session asking God to remove the mountain from the back yard and to somehow provide enough money to have it paved and painted before the scheduled opening dedication service the following week.

At the appointed time, 24 of the congregation's 300 members assembled for prayer. They prayed for nearly three hours. At ten o'clock the pastor said the final "Amen".
"We'll open next Sunday as scheduled," he assured everyone. "God has never let us down before, and I believe He will be faithful this time too." The next morning as he was working in his study there came a loud knock at his door.

When he called "come in", a rough looking construction foreman appeared, removing his hard hat as he entered. "Excuse me, Reverend. I'm from Acme Construction Company over in the next county. We're building a huge shopping mall. We need some fill dirt. Would you be willing to sell us a chunk of that mountain behind the church? We'll pay you for the dirt we remove and pave all the exposed area free of charge if we can have it right away. We can't do anything else until we get the dirt in and allow it to settle properly."

The little church was dedicated the next Sunday as originally planned and there were far more members with "mountain moving faith" on opening Sunday than there had been the previous week.

Revive Us, Oh Lord!

"Many also of those who were now believers came making full confession and thoroughly exposing their [former deceptive and evil] practices. And many of those who had practiced curious, magical arts collected their books and [throwing them, book after book, on the pile] burned them in the sight of everybody. When they counted the value of them, they found it amounted to 50,000 pieces of silver (about $9,300). Thus the Word of the Lord [concerning the attainment through Christ of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God] grew and spread and intensified, prevailing mightily." Acts 19:18-20 Amplified Bible

This is my fresh manna verse for this morning (focusing more on verse 20), but the next part I am about to share wouldn't have made senses without verses 18 and 19. This was shared in Pastor Lynne Hammond and Ray Kelly's prayer session yesterday morning: "The people threw their books about magic on the fire. What is it that we need to throw on the fire today? What is in the way of revival taking place in the church? Revival starts with us individually. If we are not moved to do anything different, how will revival take place in the church? "

This is a very striking question that I will have to bring before the Lord and really listen to my spirit to hear what he has to say. I know that in recent years the Lord has really been dealing with me about the type of television programming and movies I watch. I use to watch soap operas thinking that it wasn't that big of a deal. However, before I knew it, I was sucked in and was spending three hours a day on the couch watching television, ignoring my son, and ignoring what I needed to do around the house. While I must admit that I watched some of them on Friday (because I wasn't feeling good and laying in bed), I can also freely admit that my time could have been better spent. Fortunately for me, the bondage has been broken because before if I had watched them on one day when I was sick, I would continue to watch them. I didn't watch them yesterday and do not have any plans or intentions to watch them this week. God has MUCH BIGGER things for me to do with my time!

Now listen, I am not saying that you cannot watch television. Trust me, I still watch television and movies. I am simply a lot more selective with what I put in my eyes and ears because these are the gateways to our spirit. I just know what the Holy Ghost has spoken to my heart regarding what I watch, hear, and who I hang out with, so I can continue to grow in the Lord and be fruitful in my walk with Him. We must each listen to the Holy Ghost regarding areas of our lives where there is not clear direction in the Bible. This is how we grow up in God!!!

What do you individually need to throw on the fire so you can experience revival in your life: your walk with God, your marriage, your relationships, your ministry? Please share in the comments section if you feel comfortable. Otherwise, if you would like to share, but don't want everyone to see it, please send it to me via email at gulland@wh-link.net.

I love you all and am glad that we are on our journey with Jesus together!

Deck of Cards

Psalms 27:3 “Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.”

Deck of Cards

It was quiet that day, the guns and the mortars, and land mines for some reason hadn't been heard. The young soldier knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of the week. As he was sitting there, he got out an old deck of cards and laid them out across his bunk.

Just then an army sergeant came in and said, "Why aren't you with the rest of the Platoon?" The soldier replied, "I thought I would stay behind and spend some time with the Lord." The sergeant said, "Looks to me like you're going to play cards." The soldier said, No, sir. You see, since we are not allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in this country. I've decided to talk to the Lord by studying this deck of cards." The sergeant asked in disbelief, "How will you do that?"

"You see the Ace, Sergeant? It reminds me that there is only one God....
The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments.
The Three represents the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.
The Four stands for the Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
The Five is for the five virgins there were ten but only five of them were glorified.
The Six is for the six days it took God to create the Heavens and Earth.
The Seven is for the day God rested after making His Creation...
The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives - the eight people God spared from the flood that destroyed the Earth.
The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy. He cleansed ten, but nine never thanked Him.
The Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.
The Jack is a reminder of Satan, one of God's first angels, but he got kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked ways and is now the joker of eternal hell.
The Queen stands for the Virgin Mary.
The King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of all kings.
When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, one for every day of the year. There are a total of 52 cards in a deck; each is a week - 52 weeks in a year.
The four suits represent the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.
Each suit has thirteen cards - there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter.

So when I want to talk to God and thank Him, I just pull out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for."

The sergeant just stood there. After a minute, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said, "Soldier, can I borrow that deck of cards?"

Please let this be a reminder and take time to pray for all of our soldiers who are being sent away, putting their lives on the line fighting.

I received this in my Fresh Manna email from Pastor Tim at my church. If you are interested in receiving the fresh manna email or want more information regarding fresh manna, please visit www.freshmanna.org.

Words to Live By

My friend passed these along to me this morning. It is a paraphrase of all the things Romans 12:1-2 and 9-21 in the New Living Translation says that we need to do and not to do to set ourselves apart for the Lord and make a difference in this world. Determine to make a difference today and shine your light for Jesus!

• Give your bodies to God to be a living sacrifice.
• Love others.
• Hate what is wrong.
• Honor each other delightfully.
• Serve the Lord enthusiastically.
• Rejoice in hope confidently.
• Be patient in troubles.
• Keep on praying.
• Help God’s people in need.
• Practice hospitality eagerly.
• Bless those who persecute you.
• Be happy with those who are happy and weep with those who weep.
• Live in harmony with others.
• Enjoy the company of ordinary people.
• Don’t be too proud.
• Don’t think you know it all.
• Remain honorable.
• Don’t pay back evil with evil.
• Live in peace with everyone.
• Never take revenge.
• Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

What is Fresh Manna?

I received the following from a class I took at church taught by Pastor Daniel.

What is Manna and what is it not?

• Manna is scripture. It is the Word of God found in the Bible. Old Testament or New Testament, it is all profitable.
• Manna is not a nicely written devotional, poem, or prophecy.

What does Manna look like?

• Manna is a verse, part of a verse, or a few verses long. It is a promise or thought that can sum up your time in the Word. You should be able to commit it somewhat to memory and share it with someone in a few minutes.
• Manna is not a chapter or two of scripture.
• Manna typically focuses on a promise. What has He done for you? What is He saying He will do for you? Who are you in Him? What can you expect in faith from what you've read?

How do I find Manna?

• Reading the Word. You condense what you've read down to a verse or two. Sometimes Manna just jumps right off the page!
• You may spend hours in the Word or you may only have time to spend a few minutes. In either case, take a verse as your manna.

What do I do with my Manna?

• Meditate on it. To do this, you must remember it --- so you may want to write it down and carry it with you.
• Confess it. Say it.
• Pray it --- over yourself, your family, your situation.
• Share it. Your manna is meant to be a word in season for someone who is weary.
• Journal it. (optional)

Fresh Manna is a concept that one of the pastors at our church came up with. It is based on the story of the Israelites where God gave them manna from heaven to eat. He told them to only collect what they would need for that day. If they collected more than they needed, it became rotten. Just as the Israelites needed manna from heaven each day to sustain them physically, we need manna from heaven each day to sustain us spiritually. We MUST feed our spirit man. For more information, please visit www.freshmanna.org.