Lent Week 3 Day 16

Psalm 34:3, O magnify the Lord with me,
And let us lift up His name together.

Let’s praise God and honor Him. Speak of all the ways God is good and holy. And even though we are sinful God made a way for us to fellowship through Jesus. We should be praising and raising His name up everyday, everywhere. God, help me remember everyday Your grace toward me. Help me share with others the wonderous things you are doing in my life.

Trail to the Tree

Day 16 Waiting

The scripture is about when Jesus was buried in a borrowed tomb and the two Mary’s were waiting outside the tomb.

Ann says: Today, wait. Sit at the tomb and wait on the Lord. Trust when all is dark. Believe when the stone is rolled in and sealed. Carry a stone in your pocket and remember: there is hope. Wait and have faith in the coming Resurrection, glorious light erupting on black horizon.

When our sins are ever before us, meaning when we come to realize we are sinners then we find ourselves waiting to see what will happen next. Where do we go from here? We need God to rescue us. I experienced this but at the time I didn’t realize what was happening. Before my salvation experience I was aware of my sinfulness and I knew I didn’t deserve anything that I had. I thanked God for everything and this was the beginning of my salvation. It was over a period of a month or two that this happened. I was led to read the Bible and then had an urge to know more about Jesus. I watched The Gospel of John and realized Jesus was choosing me to follow Him. I repented and asked for forgiveness and fell in love with Him. He made His presence known to me in this moment. I had new life! Salvation isn’t something we can “make” happen, it’s the power of the Holy Spirit that raises us from “the dead” in spirit to new life. The same power that raised Jesus is the same power that raises us. When things look dark just wait and the light will come bursting through!

Day 1- Get your thinking straight and be in God’s presence

Day 2- Be reading the Bible and trust God

Day 3- Reverence, worship and praise God and Jesus for who God is and what Jesus has done.

Day 4- Be faithful to Him and He will be faithful to fill you. Look to Jesus with gratitude and prayer.

Day 5- Notice the miserable and suffering, ask God to reveal them so I can tell them the Good News that there is hope and there is a Savior, His name is Jesus!

Day 6- Stay close to God with a repented heart. He will bring life out of the mundane if I trust Him to do it.

Day 7- Relationship means dependence. Depend on your relationship with Jesus to do God’s will and bring Him joy and joy to yourself.

Day 8- Don’t hesitate to ask God for help out of all temptations, trials, distresses and troubles. Keep God on your mind, always.

Day 9- Being thankful and having faith for the presence of God in my life will prompt miracles.

Day 10- Let my heart stay vulnerable so God can multiply His love through me.

Day 11- God helps us through the words of Jesus.

Day 12- Surrender and live a new life

Day 13- Receive and give thanks for God’s grace and live holy

Day 14- Remember grace through Jesus to stay awake

Day 15- Pray for the Holy Spirit’s presence to stay out of darkness, repent when necessary

Day 16- Praise, Honor and Glorify God and Jesus and wait to see what He does!

 

 

I Honor You, Native Americans

Thanksgiving is a sad day for Native Americans. The Friday after Thanksgiving is their day of honor, not some shopping day. I read that Thanksgiving was their Last Supper. What they teach in school is wrong and a mockery. I feel for them, always have, maybe because I have Creek Indian ancestry. I don’t know, maybe it’s just the real love that God represents that I feel. This year for the first time I see what it really stands for and it isn’t an alliance between two types of people, it was a self vain glory of a people who didn’t need to come to America. I just watched Saints and Strangers on National Geographic and the second part is tonight. What I saw is pretty accurate because I did some research after watching it and read two articles by Native Americans and it has brought tears to my eyes. I don’t know why God has opened this up to me or why He is allowing me to feel their pain but I am. I got connected to them about a month ago through some Native American chant music. I researched the Creek Indians because they are the ones my Dad told me we come from. His great grandmother was an Indian from the Creek Nation. Anyway,  the pilgrims were saying they were coming to establish a place where they could worship God freely and escape persecution but look at what they did! They were not representing God, they were representing their own agenda, their own glory and that is a sin. They wanted for themselves. One part in the film Saints and Strangers, the pilgrims said to the Indians, Welcome to our village. When Squanto translated this to one of the Chiefs the chief said how can they welcome us to our own land. I thought that was a good line. Just shows how the pilgrims assumed ownership from the start and none of it belonged to them in the first place. It showed how they left everything to come here even their children. No land would draw me away from what I already have, what God has already provided. I especially would not leave my children. I find it hard to believe they came in the name of God. It was in themselves that they came. Isn’t this the same attitude today? They wanted MORE! When will we learn that MORE is never enough! Today these descendants are still looking for more of what they think they need or don’t have when actually everything they need was provided already. God is all we need or should want. He should be FIRST. Even though Native Americans didn’t know Christ, they honored God and the earth that God provided. Maybe the pilgrims could have come with the thought of revealing Christ to these people instead of driving them to extinction. They didn’t show love to them as God would have intended. They became greedy and when greed sets in the heart nothing stops evil from penetrating and destroying life.

I honor all Native Americans this day, I stand with you in the taking of your land. We can’t undo what has been done but know that there is one person who sees and realizes the truth about what happened and I will never forget. You are not forgotten.

Here is the two links to the articles I read that speak the truth.

http://www.alternet.org/story/4391/thanksgiving%3A_a_native_american_view

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-w-zotigh/do-american-indians-celebrate-thanksgiving_b_2160786.html

I will not say I celebrate Thanksgiving, but that I have a dinner honoring the Native Americans, that they gave and shared when they could have killed. They are the true representation of Jesus. They had compassion and love and we slaughtered them in return, how is that Christ-like? I urge you all to watch the show tonight on National Geographic and get enlightened to the truth!