DAILY DEVO...are you thirsty?

I've learned another great Truth today as I continue to study the book of Proverbs...THIRST for knowledge!


"Above all and before all, do this: Get wisdom! Write this at the top of your list: Get understanding! Throw your arms around her-believe me, you won't regret it; never let her go-she'll make your life glorious." -Proverbs 4:7 (MSG)

King Solomon, the wisest man, spent three chapters in the book of Proverbs stressing the importance of not only getting wisdom but obtaining understanding, so we don't fall to be a fool.


It reminds me of the classic salty fry technique: McDonalds puts so much salt on their fries so that we buy a supersize drink. Fries alone may taste good, but it also makes us thirsty, it whet's our appetite for more!


Solomon can give us all kinds of great wise sayings, but there is so much more to learn from Proverbs. Solomon is just whetting our appetite for more for more wisdom and for more knowledge.
Unfortunately, when it comes to wisdom and knowledge, sometimes we order off of the value menu. We allow things like disunity, negativity and sour attitudes to alter our clear mindset on what we understand to be true.


We must turn our eyes back to the big tall glass of water in our spirits and let God whet our appetite for more of Him and more of His wisdom and more of His knowledge!


Christians are to be the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13), so how thirsty for God are those around you?

Daily Devo...The icing on the cake

There's nothing like walking into a house and smelling a cake baking.

"Ohh something smells good! Is that chocolate cake?"

No matter how good it smells though, a cake isn't a cake until you break out the frosting! My kids use to wait for the cake to be frosted so they could lick the bowl but mainly because they knew the cake was ready to eat!

Whenever we put the finishing touches on something, we say, "the icing on the cake", which means, something good has been added to something that is already good.

A cake is good by itself, but how much more amazing is it when the icing is added?

"And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." -Colossians 3:14

Paul is telling the Christians of Colossae the essential elements of living a victorious life: put on the spiritual graces of mercy, kindness, meekness, long suffering, forbearance and forgiveness. Because they were quarreling, fussing and stepping on each other, Paul was saying put off the old and put on the new.

Everything Paul was saying to live a victorious life was good, however, the icing on the cake was when he said to even make it better, add charity, or love.

Even God said "love" is the cream of the crop or the icing on the cake..."and now abideth faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor. 13:13)

Without love, we are nothing. Without love we are just making noise, our deeds are meaningless, our mountains have no value. To say we are a Christian but yet do not love others is simply just a cake with no icing!

Saying you are a Christian is good, but genuinely sharing the love of Christ is making a good thing even better. It's the icing on the cake!

 

LACED WITH GRACE...got power?

TODAY I shared the following devotion with the readers of LACED WITH GRACE. www.lacedwithgrace.com

Winter is here!






No doubt, wherever you live, you have felt the effects of Mr. Freeze. Cold temperatures. Snow. And ice. Normally, living in the south means we can count on one hand the wintry storm advisory’s we get, this week has been one of those times.






This transplanted southern girl knows a thing or two about winter, growing up in Green Bay, Wisconsin or what we called “The Frozen Tundra”, I’ve seen my share of snow blizzards. But you haven’t seen anything until you experience a good olé ice storm in the south.






Solid ice everywhere. On the streets, hanging from the trees and weighing down rooftops. Ice is powerful. It is thick. It is slippery. And it is heavy. I’ve seen rooftops cave because of it, I’ve seen schools and businesses close down because of it and I’ve seen power lines snap causing city-wide blackouts because of it.






The longest we went without power in an ice storm was 8 days. That was a few years ago. Can you imagine: single digit temperatures with no electricity, no heat, no stove to cook on, food spoiling in refrigerator and no way to charge your cell phone except in the running car! Without power, we are so restricted and we are lost!






As hard as it was to survive 8 days without power, I cannot imagine how people think they can manage one day without the power of God!

“Who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.” -1 Peter 1:5

Story has it that the apostle Peter lived all his life in the power of God, from Pentecost to his death. That alone is remarkable to me, for many of us, the Christian life is up one minute and down the next. Through all of Peters ups and downs, he continued to walk in the power of God, all the way until the end.






The above mentioned scripture I believe is a key to being able to stay in the right place with God and His power. Think about it, the Apostles were men of power. They were KEPT by the power of God.


What can “keep” us in the power today? FAITH!






Believing keeps us in the power of God. This was Peter’s secret, he believed. Without power, we are limited. Not just physically, but spiritually. You and I cannot survive, we will not finish the race, unless we have the power of Jesus Christ in our lives.






I do not want to get caught in a storm without power. How about you… are you feeling restricted or lost or do you have His power to weather your storm?






PRAYER: “Dear Lord, help me today to receive Your power and walk boldly in faith today, tomorrow and the rest of the days of my life. Days will come that will feel like a storm, but Your power WILL see me thru. By the power of God, thank You for keeping me!” AMEN

Daily Devo...common sense

Most people are born with common sense, however, it appears that some people are born with MORE sense than others!

You can see this by looking at your own children or even your siblings. Even when two or more grow up under the same roof, there will always be that one who chooses to learn the hard way.

I had one or two offsprings like that. They wanted to do things their way. In their time. They didn't believe it would hurt until they felt the pain. They didn't see the danger until they felt the fear. They had common sense, but had a need to push it to the limits.

Often we saw this common sense kick in when we would go on camping trips with our kids. There is something about getting in the woods, getting back to the basics, that would elevate common sense.

(Common sense said "don't get too close to the campfire". Common sense said "Don't stand up in the rowboat".)

Spiritually speaking, some people have lost their common sense. They have gotten away from the basics of Christianity. They are walking close to the edge.

Job was given sound instruction...

"But ask the animals what they think - let them teach you; let the birds tell you what's going on. Put your ear to the earth -learn the basics." -Job 12:7 MSG

The same common sense remains for us - learn the basics and watch God elevate your walk with Him.

DAILY DEVO...Is it enough?

If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times, "There's nothing to eat!" My kids had a way of standing in front of a full refrigerator and see nothing to eat!


Oh there was plenty to eat, but they didn't want to wait for it they wanted something to eat NOW!

That same "quick fix" follows us into adulthood if we aren't careful. We don't want to wait for anything. When we get into debt, we look for a "quick" way to make money or when we need to lose a few pounds, we look to the newest and "quickest" diet. None of us want to wait. And then when our "quick fix" doesn't work, we complain there isn't enough.


There isn't enough food. There isn't enough money. We don't have enough friends. We don't have enough time.


Jesus' disciples were with Him as He fed 5,000 with only 5 loaves and 2 fish, but yet, alittle while later they complained the 7 loaves that they had for 4,000 was not enough.


How "quickly" we forget the miracles God performs in our lives. We only see what is right in front of us and we complain it is not enough, but God is more than enough!


Tomorrow is Valentines Day and someone is bound to be forgotten or perhaps you will receive less of a token of love than you think you deserve. You may say, "Is THIS it?" or "it's not enough", but remember that true love comes from above, it first came in way of the cross and IT is ALWAYS enough!


"My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." -2 Corinthians 12:9
God's Grace is enough.


HAPPY VALENTINES.

DAILY DEVO...do not forget!

Can you imagine what it was like for the Israelites to walk thru the parted waters? Wow what an incredible story to tell! How could anyone forget a story like that?

They surely had a story to tell and did not want to forget. In fact, to ensure no one would forget, the Israelites were instructed to make a memorial immediately. They didn't wait a week or even a month, but as soon as they got to the other side.


Why do you suppose they did this? I would imagine it is similar to why we make memorials today; because we tend to forget the good stuff!


It's not that we even forget the events (though sometimes we do), but we often forget how God worked! For instance: we can never forget about a loved one being sick and the long battle of recovery but after some time passes and our loved one is well again, we tend to lose sight of the prayers that we prayed, we forget how God sustained us.


In the moment, we know it is God, but as time goes on, we forget just who God is. We forget what all God has done and we begin to worry again; we focus on our problems and lose sight of the answer. We misplace God in our memory with the "what if's" and the "woe is me."


After passing thru the Jordan, The Lord told Joshua...

"take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place the Priests feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight." -Joshua 4:1

What has God done for you? You may want to take a stone and set it into place so that you will not forget. Reflecting on the good He has done in the past propels us to remember if He did it once, He can do it again.


God is all-powerful, loving, forgiving, merciful and never changing. Please do not forget!

How can we raise godly daughters in a sexually sinful world?

I’m about to embark on a topic that is seldom written about, but yet is inundated within our society today, and it is stealing our children right from under our noses, especially our daughters!

I want to address the question, “How can we raise godly daughters in a sexually sinful world?” Even though, the sin twisted mind of society is attacking our sons too, I want to specifically address the dangers of our daughters growing up in a sexually minded generation. (I may address our sons in another sitting).

As a mother of a 19 year old daughter and a Pastors Wife that has worked with teen agers for many years, I can assure you, our teens of today have sexual immorality in their face DAILY! They can’t escape it, it can be found on the television sitcoms, it is on the movie screens, it is sung about on the radio and it is all up and down your teens school hallway and on their social media!

Teen sexuality is no longer a topic that we can sweep under the rug and not talk about. Last year a survey was conducted among U.S. high school students:

• nearly 50% surveyed had already been sexually active.

• 34% of those had been active within the past 3 months.

• and 40% of those being active sexually did not use protection the last time they had sex.

• 15% of those surveyed have had sexual intercourse with 4 or more partners already.

As a mother of a teen girl, these statistics are heart wrenching. The statistics of the consequences of such behavior is just as startling…

• An estimated 8,300 young people between the ages of 13-24 have reported to be HIV positive in the previous year. (in the U.S.)

• Nearly half of the 19 million reporting NEW sexually transmitted diseases (STD) are among young people ages 15-24 years old.

• More than 400,000 teen girls aged 15-19 years old gave birth last year.

With numbers like these, (that are steadily going up), it is no longer acceptable to hand our daughters a pamphlet and hope for the best. We must get in their world, get in their face and tell them the dangers of living in a sexually immoral world.

It use to be that we could protect our girls from the dangers of sexual sin by keeping them under lock and key. Monitoring who she spends time with and only allowing friends to come over when you or an adult were present. That is not enough anymore! Because as soon as you walk out of the room or send her to her bedroom, the allure and temptation of teen sexuality is at her fingertips, it is called her “smartphone”. Technology has made it easy for our daughters to become victims of sexual sins:

SEXTING… if your daughter has a smart phone with a camera, she has the ability to send provocative pictures of herself to others, usually boys and sometimes grown men. And males can send her naked pictures of themselves as well, all without your approval or knowledge. Sending sexually explicit pictures via your phone is called “sexting” and about 40% of today’s teens have sent sexually suggestive messages to others. Statistics show that 17% of those whom receive a sexting message will share it with others, and 55% of those will share it with more than one person. Sexting is no longer a topic that parents can ignore. Our daughters are being exploited right under our noses!

SNAPCHAT…If your daughter is taking a lot of “selfies”, no doubt she has a SNAPCHAT account. Snapchat is a social media trend that allows you to share a picture with someone for just a few seconds and then it disappears. Sending funny faces is not all that this is used for. Teens are sending naked pictures to one another with the thought that it can only be viewed for a few seconds. Our daughters may be pulled into the thrill of this, to send a sexy picture of herself, so to feel accepted or wanted. However, 3 dangers of this that she may not be aware of...

 #1. The sensual pictures that she snaps to a boy is a turn on to him, it starts his engine and he will come back for more. The wrong message sent will in turn have porn links sent to your daughter. (I personally know “church” boys who have done this)

#2. The sexy picture your daughter has sent may only be viewed for a couple seconds, however, the receiver has the ability to do a “screenshot”, which then saves the picture on their phone or computer.

#3. Snapshot administrators have the right to any of your pictures, even though the picture disappears after a few seconds, they have it in their master file. *Nothing shared on the web is private, keep that in mind.

Some snapchat stats to consider:

• 400 million snaps are sent a day.

• 2% of all college students use snapchat to specifically send “sexts”.

• 4.6 million snapshot users had their personal info leaked to the internet in 2014.

OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA…” Sexting” and “Snapchat” is just a couple ways that the immoral sexual society is snagging our daughters. Your daughters are also being bullied and manipulated on other social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Scout, Tinder, Vine, Kik and Fling. All of these media’s are pulling our daughters away from the value and respect that God intended for our little girls.

So what can we do?

First of all, we must lead by example. If you want your daughter to dress modestly, you dress modestly. If you don’t want your daughter to watch shows with sexual suggestions, you don’t watch it.

Secondly, we must teach our daughters to have self respect and self worth. She is bombarded with a world that says eat this, wear that, become this, stay away from that. We must teach our girls that it is not about the outer appearance but the inner that counts. God looks at the heart and His approval is the one she needs. Self worth cannot be found in looks, or accomplishment or whom you date, self worth can only be found in Christ!

Thirdly, it is imperative that we offer our daughters an alternative to the world’s view of sexuality. Refute myths about sex with the truth. We, as mothers, must be the primary source of information about sexuality. Offer a lot of accurate information, refute the common myths such as “everyone is doing it”, “it’s not sex if you don’t go all the way” or “it is alright when you love each other”. Don’t be afraid to share the scary statistics and most important, show her what the Bible says about being pure and that God designed sex to be between one man and one woman when they become married. Today’s society has stripped away the beauty that God designed sex to be. We must teach our daughters that God will reward them for being pure with their bodies. God knew the heartache that would come if we would give pieces of our heart away instead of preserving our whole heart for that one that He designed for us.

It is difficult to raise godly daughters in this sinful world, but when we speak up and take a stand, I believe that our godly daughters can change their generations thinking of what is acceptable and what is not.

But, we must first educate them and also educate ourselves.

“Training us to renounce ungodliness and wordly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.’ –Titus 2:12

 

**If you are concerned about your teen’s activity on her social media or smartphone, there are guardian apps that you can get to monitor her texts, pictures and social media. Check out www.teensafe.com or www.mobile-spy.com .