Sunday is Coming!

EditIt’s Good Friday.

Why do they call it Good Friday? Nothing about it is good when you think about it. Christ was nailed to a cross, taking on our sins. He suffered an excruciating death. And all of it was for us! I guess that’s where the good comes from. He saved us from dying a sinful death.

I don’t know about you but every time I think about how Christ took my sin upon his shoulders, I get chills. Who am I that Jesus would die for me? I mean it, who am I?

Well, without Christ, I am nothing. Without Christ, life is meaningless.

But WITH Christ, I am FREE! God loved you and me SO much that He sent His ONLY Son to the earth to die a horrible death so that we wouldn’t spend eternity in Hell.

Today we remember the day Christ was crucified for our sins. He was beaten, mocked, tortured. It was a horrible day.

“It Is Finished” were Christ’s last words. But what many didn’t know was that in 3 days, Christ was going to rise again and prove to the world He is who He says He is!

Take a moment to listen to this song by the Gaithers. It’s such a powerful song!

There’s a line that is drawn through the ages
On that line stands an old rugged cross
On that cross, a battle is raging
To gain a man’s soul or it’s loss

On one side, march the forces of evil
All the demons, all the devils of hell
On the other, the angels of glory
And they meet on Golgotha’s hill

The earth shakes with the force of the conflict
And the sun refuses to shine
For there hangs God’s son, in the balance
And then through the darkness, he cries

It is finished, the battle is over
It is finished, there’ll be no more war
It is finished, the end of the conflict
It is finished and Jesus is Lord

Yet in my heart, the battle was still raging
Not all prisoners of war had come home
These were battlefields of my own making
I didn’t know that the war had been won

Oh, but then I heard the king of the ages
Had fought all the battles for me
And that victory was mine for the claiming
And now praise his name, I am free

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But Sunday is coming, you guys!

Sunday is coming! Christ rose up from the dead!

He conquered death and we are FREE!

Praise His Name, I AM FREE!

 

 

Finding Peace In a Troubled World

Another school shooting took place today in Maryland.

Another bomb went off in Texas today.

What is this world coming to?

I came across a booklet I had received from the Discovery Series about finding peace in a world filled with violence and hardships.

Today, news of events around our ever-shrinking global community bombard us in an unsettling, unceasing drumbeat of violence, danger, hate, and destruction. As the stories multiply, we feel the weight of the fear and desperation.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

John 14:1 tells us “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.”

John 16:33 says “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world!”

As long as we live in this world we are going to endure hardships. Bad things are going to take place. We live in an evil-filled world.  The Bible tells us this.

So how do we find peace in this hate-filled world?

Jesus gave his disciples a starting point for peace–trust. “He challenged them to allow their confidence in Him to overcome their fear and despair.”

Swimming in their fear, these words were a lifeboat. Words that offered rescue and safety.

His promise of peace is directly linked to our trust in Him and His ability to bring us through.

Jesus will NEVER fail us. We may fail in life but Jesus never will and we can take comfort in that. Anxiety will try to take over our thoughts but Paul tells us Philippians 4:6-7 to “be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses ALL understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Prayer allows us to access our greatest resource–the God of the universe–who is more than sufficient for any of the trials we wrestle with.

How can we be so sure of this? How can we be certain that Jesus is the answer?

The Prince of Peace has gone to the cross and defeated the grave to make it so.

In the words of Vivian Kretz’s classic hymn:

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on Thee.
When the shadows come and darkness falls,
He giveth inward peace.
O He is the only perfect resting place,
He giveth perfect peace!
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on Thee.

 

 

 

 

Madness to Sadness

My beloved Tar Heels lost in the round of 32 yesterday! 😦

Our dreams of a repeat championship have died.

The madness has turned to sadness for some people.

But MAN, has this year’s tournament been insane! UVA screwed up EVERY SINGLE BRACKET in the nation by losing to UMBC. It finally happened! A #1 seed lost to a #16 seed. 

So who am I rooting for now that my Heels are out? Well, for starters, I hope Michigan CRUSHES Texas A&M in the Sweet 16. (That’s the team that we lost to yesterday) And as long as Duke doesn’t win, I’m fine with whoever wins the championship.

This has been an insane tournament this year. So many upsets!

If you are following the tournament, who are you rooting for?

 

Let the Madness Begin!

*Disclaimer* For the next few weeks, my blog posts will most likely be basketball related as it is that time of year! And it will just be random thoughts I have throughout the tourney.

March Madness is officially underway.

My bracket is already busted. LOL.

That’s the beauty of March Madness though! I love it! This is my absolute favorite time of year! Basketball is on all day long!

The Tar Heels entered the tournament as a #2 Seed and will play Lipscomb, the #15 seed tomorrow at 2:45. I’m pumped! GO HEELS!

I have us advancing to the Final Four.

I’m currently watching the Villanova/Radford game. I have Villanova advancing in my bracket and so far they look good. 🙂

Why do I like basketball so much? I just love the passion involved and the competitiveness of it all.  It’s just a fun sport for me to watch!

I’ve been going back and forth between games all afternoon. Loyola-Chicago busted my bracket by beating Miami but that’s okay. This is their first tournament win since 1985! Pretty cool.

I tend to like the underdogs. There is just something about a no-name team coming from behind and beating the big guys that gets me excited! (Unless the big guy is my Tar Heels, then not so much, lol)

If you’ve made it this far in the post, you are to be congratulated. My thoughts are literally all over the place.

I promise to be back with more inspiring posts, lol. March just has me crazy!

It’s the madness, I tell you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m Back! (Sort of)

I’m still having issues with my fibromyalgia and other health issues but wanted to pop in and say hey to you all! I hope you’re doing well!

I’ve got a lot of blogs to catch up on so I’m going to do a little bit of that before the big game tonight: Tar Heels are playing Virginia for the ACC Tournament Championship! Oh, how I love the month of March!

Not much meat to this blog post but just wanted to assure you all that I’m still alive! Just haven’t had the energy to post. I’m slowly but surely getting some energy back. 🙂

Exhausted

Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash

It’s been a couple of days since I wrote. Sorry, guys and gals!

 

I did a lot on Saturday and it caused my fibromyalgia to flare up again. On top of that, both of my knees have been giving me what for and I’ve been alternating between ice and heat.

I’m still not feeling that great today so I’ve been lounging on the couch, watching Gilmore Girls with mom.

Just wanted to update you all and let you know why I’ve been so quiet on here. I just haven’t really had the energy to do much of anything. 😦 I still don’t, to be honest.

I will try to catch up on all of your posts as I can.

Seeking God

¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13

I grew up in church. I participated in church functions. But I never searched after God. I never actively read my Bible as a teenager. I THOUGHT I was a Christian because I went to church and participated in events.

I was just going through the motions, however. And when I was 19 years old I finally found God. We had an evangelist come and speak at our church and it was a statement he made that got my attention and made me realize I was not who I thought I was. He told us, “You can be 99% sure about salvation but you’re still 100% lost. Right then, I realized I had all the head knowledge of God but no heart knowledge. And on March 16, 2003, I gave my life to Christ. I sought after God.

It will be 15 years on March 16th that I gave my life to the Lord. My spiritual birthday.

I’ve had my moments of weakness, however, and did stray from the Lord for some time in these past 15 years but last July I finally got serious and finally realized it was time to stop playing church. It was time to get serious about following the Lord.

God doesn’t hide from us! He wants to have a close relationship with us if we would just seek Him. And if we seek Him with all our heart and soul, we will find Him!

⁹ But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 4:29

And so I rededicated my life to the Lord and have been in His Word ever since. The thought of living a life separate from God absolutely terrifies me. I don’t want to be anywhere where God isn’t.

Y’all….God is so awesome! I fall in love with Him every day. He has ways of showing Himself to me that just make me stand in awe of Him.

I want to be in God’s will. And I know that I must pick up my cross daily. I must deny myself and follow after Him. I know that I will have struggles. I’m currently in the midst of a struggle but I know without a doubt that the Lord is right here beside me and is in control.

Jesus is becoming my best friend. He is my Protector, my Prince of Peace, my All in all. He’s my Shepherd, my Comforter. He’s the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is worthy to be praised! He is my GOD!

Who is Jesus to you? 

 

Is Honesty Always the Best Policy?

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

My 13-year-old nephew is writing an essay for school and the topic is “Is Honesty Always the Best Policy?” He asked me for help and as I was giving him some advice on why it IS the best policy, it got me to thinking about what the Bible says about honesty.

 

As Christians, we are called to live a life of integrity and honesty. We are to live like Christ! We are not to be of the world but of Christ!

Romans 12:2 states “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Ephesians 4:25 says:

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor for we are all members of one body.

Proverbs 10:9:

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.

Proverbs 12:22:

The Lord detests lying lips but he delights in people who are trustworthy.

2 Timothy 2:15:

Do your best to present yourselves to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Honesty is definitely the best policy! Why? Well, the Bible commands it! We are called to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. Lying and being deceitful are definitely not Christ like attributes.

But what’s the harm in a little white lie, you may ask! Well, because it may seem little at the time but one lie turns into another and then it will end up snowballing out of control. Before you know it, you’re so far into the lie that you can’t even see the truth!

Being an honest person shows great character!

Being honest is in the 10 Commandments! Exodus 20:16 says:

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor!

And in the end? The truth ALWAYS comes out in the end. It may take some time but the truth always reveals itself in the end and now you’ve got a situation that you possibly wouldn’t even be in had you just told the truth in the beginning.

 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:8-9