Be Still! Know me! Know that I am God!

                                Be Still! Know me! Know that I am God!

Be still! Know me! Know that I am God!  Be patient, I will renew your strength!
I do have a  plan for you! I will give you hope and a future!  I will prosper you, in my time.
You are never alone, I will never leave you!  Just wait on me.  Be hopeful!  Hope in me, for
I am hope!  Wait and see, I will give you wings like the eagle!  You will soar in my strength.
When you seek me with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind you will find me.
In me you will find joy, full and complete!  Bring me all your plans and I will align them with
my purpose.  Give me the desires of your heart and I will fulfill them according to my great mercies!
Show me your dreams and I will compassionately give them life!  Put your trust in me and you
will have enough hope for each day!  For my love is unfailing!  It never ceases, never dies!

Be still! Know me! Know that I am God! Be patient! Know that I love you!  Know that I
have chosen you out of all the peoples on the earth to be my treasured possession!  Be still!
I will fight for you!  I know your enemies!  I know your fears and doubts!  None of these scare
me!  They cannot stop me!  I overcame death for you!  I have promised you life!  Live it abundantly!
Put your hand in mine!  Trust in me!  Hope is yours for I am hope!  Success is yours, at times I
will carry you!  I was broken for you, I bled for you.  My blood covers your sins!  You are forgiven!
In me, there is no condemnation against you!  You will fall, but I will pick you up!  You are made
in my image!  I am mighty to save!  Be strong and courageous!  I sing love songs over you!  I rejoice
over you!  I adore you!  How deep, how wide is my love for you!

Be still!  Know me!  Know that I am God!  Be patient!  Just wait!  Your wings are coming!
Your strength renewed!  My gracious, exciting plan for you revealed!  Trust me!  Be hopeful!
Live in the joy of your salvation!  Laugh, be silly!  Choose life!  Rest peacefully in my grace and
mercy!  I've blessed you with a unique gift.  Seek it!  Embrace it!  Thank me for your gift!
It makes you who you are!  You are mine!  Crafted by my hand inside your mother's womb!
Fearfully and wonderfully made!  A shining star you are!  My sunshine!  My child!
You my love, are a gift to me from my Father, who reigns in heaven; the creator of all things good!
Never forget, that nothing you do will ever make me stop loving you!

Be still!  Know me!  Know that I am God!

Truly and forever yours,
Jesus!

Stephanie Goode  © 4/25/2014

SLAVERY! WHO IS YOUR MASTER???

Stripes, lashes upon anyone's back is unthinkable and disgusting and wrong!  What is the worth of a lash upon the back of a man, a woman, or child? Black or white? What is it's purpose?  None!  There is no good purpose except for a man to boast of his control or lack there of!  To take advantage of a man's freedom, to be a master! The law gives such a right!  To master over another human in any way he sees fit and that human is commanded to submit! Even God's word says to submit to your master. And I say with a loud voice, the voice as of a preacher behind the pulpit having great conviction and disparity, that I would make a terrible slave under the law!  A slave that in times passed and of current I'm sure, was/is beaten! A woman slave who was and surely still today is used for a man's own pleasure!  Sickening! I have a rebellious spirit and a stubborn countenance! I would rather die! Yes, all these things still happen today!  It enrages me!  It saddens me!  All this stirs such tremendous, confusing, feelings within me!
Honestly, I hate watching movies about slavery because it evokes such contradicting feelings like hatred, love, compassion, rebellion, and murderous emotions.  I have just watched 12 Years A Slave!  If I were to act upon what I feel, I might go on a murderous rampage, but the sufferings of Jesus bring my wild thoughts and emotions in check.  There was and is only one set of stripes, one lashing that has meaning and purpose!  If it were not for the stripes on Jesus' back, I would not have the freedom I so often abuse today!  So take courage if you are in someway a slave to man's inadequacies be it physical lashings or not.  For in this way, if we are humble and obedient as Jesus was, we are like him!  Jesus received his stripes under the cursed law and because of this we now have a new law, which I live under today!  The difference is He brought with him the law of grace, mercy and freedom which no other law can claim! God didn't give us grace because he had to or so we could continue in sin, but because he loves us and he knew we would need it.  Slavery has been around for over 2000 years!  God's word instructs us in Ephesians 6:5-9 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.  Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.  Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving The Lord, not men, because you know that The Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.  And masters, treat your slaves in the same way.  Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.  Sounds simple right?  Truth is, we live in a fallen world, a cursed land.  Man will always be bound to some kind of slavery whether by another man or of his own stronghold.  As loudly as I shout "no man will ever enslave me and I will never bow to him", I also have just as quietly and secretly bowed to my own enslavement!  Huh? Makes no sense!  I have been mastered by sin! It has beaten me down, nearly to death!  I have been pressed down under loads forced upon me as well as loads I've chosen to carry! We all either still are or have been a slave in some way!  I give a resounding BUT...WE HAVE BEEN OFFERED FREEDOM!  THE DEBT HAS ALREADY BEEN PAID! Here's where I get so frustrated, with myself as well as others.   Why do I get so feverishly mad about this physical slavery and want to commit acts of justice/revenge, but yet when enslaved by my own shortcomings after a while I just give in?  I decide to just do whatever sin tells me to do!  I decide it's not worth it to fight!  Have any of you ever done this? Let me tell you, that's who I used to be, but thank God because of his everlasting patience and continuously unfailing love I have fought the fight! With Jesus I have overcome and I want nothing more than to help others grab hold of this confidence and strength I have found in Jesus and overcome too!  I hate seeing another brother or sister drowning in life's sorrow!  I hate to see an unbeliever without hope!  Being used as tools of Satan!  In case you aren't hearing me right now let me remind you that I am not saying any of this with a soft spoken voice!  I am shouting, screaming at you! Pounding my fist upon a table and stomping my feet till I am weary!  It's time to get angry at sin in our lives!  It's time for justice!  It's time to abolish slavery!  Let the only chains that bind you be the chains of freedom because of your slavery to God alone and even that is not slavery as we know it nor are the chains really chains!  You can only serve one master, sin or the Savior! If you are a wounded slave to sin the key to your freedom lies at the foot of the cross!  If you are a slave only to God then remember that the ways of this world, the things you used to be are gone! You are not to pick them back up and become a slave again!  This does not mean you won't sin or mess up, it means that you should not again return to that lifestyle and continue in it, turning your back on the gift God gave you!
2 Peter 2:19-22.  Friends, do not let the suffering of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ be in vain!  Do not waste another day in chains when you have been offered FREEDOM!  DO NOT! Dear Christian, be entangled again in your sin and be mastered by it!  Do not let your hearts be hardened!  Satan would love nothing more than to welcome you back! The banner's already hung, he's just awaiting your arrival!  For those who have not yet given your life over to the Master, God, Satan doesn't want to lose you, he still has plans to use you against God and His children!  You decide! What will you fight for?  Who or what will you be a slave to?  Galatians 5:1 It is for FREEDOM that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery! Now I say this in a soft voice, full of love for you and me, that Christ died for us, unselfishly, not because he wanted to bear our painful sins, but out of obedience to his Father and sheer love for us, in order that we might be set free!  He has broken the chains of sin and death! He became the curse so that we would not have to live under the curse of the law, but instead, so we can live by faith in Jesus Christ under the law of Grace!  Start a rebellion in your life! A rebellion against sin!  Get others to join you!  If you were being freed physically as a slave wouldn't you want to take the others with you? Be a #lawbreaker not a #slavemaker!

I hate slavery! Period! Been there, done that! Have no intention of doing it again!  I am a free woman in Jesus Christ!  Thank you God for your Grace, thank you Jesus for your blood that cleanses me!

Ok, church is over! You can resume your daily activities! LOL! #gottapreach

Stephanie G. © 4/26/2014

Normal! What's that?

Have you ever been in a time or place in your life when things just didn't seem normal? When you're not on a high? When you feel low? But what is normal really? And according to whom?
Let's define normal according to the dictionary: Usual, regular, common, typical; constituting a standard.  Conforming to the conventions of one's group.  Normal is not a place most of are used to.  Let's also go ahead and look and high and low.  High: Above; having a relatively great elevation.  Of great importance! Lofty or exalted in quality or character; Euphoria.  Low: Rising only slightly above surrounding surfaces. Lacking strength or vigor; weak. Humble in status or character. A low level, position, or degree.
There is a worldly and Godly level of  high, normal and low. Unfortunately as humans we tend to define ourselves with a worldly view! It' s hard not to sometimes.  Truth is, although we seek to be normal whether it be worldly or Godly or maybe both, most of are not used to normal.  I'm not used to normal!  In a world of performers we are told that if we aren't doing it big and always on that "high", then we aren't right! We aren't normal! In our desperateness to be "normal"  our "highs" become "I's".   Somehow though, we still don't measure up! Pitiful, we are! We then visit the "lows".  They're very hospitable, but so depressing! The world says, "take some me time, it's all about you"! So our "lows" become about "me".  Pitiful, pitiful me! "I just want to be normal", we cry! The world says, "well now that's a pitiful place to be!" There's not much glory there! So common, so usual. It's so confusing for it's views are so tangible!
A Godly view is just the opposite of the worldly view.  I think we seek normalcy in God too! Is it normal to be "high" all the time? Should we ever be "low"? Is there a "normal" with God?  Yes, yes and yes! I believe that being normal constitutes all three of these things.  Being a christian  is wonderful and hard all at the same time. I believe we can be "high" all the time! It is in our spirit that we find our "highs" and our "lows".  Truly the state of our spirit dictates how we live and how we perceive. Here's the problem; when things seem "normal" we think something's wrong.  Here's how God see's "high"...when we are on our knees. When we are praising HIM, thanking HIM, glorifying HIM.  When our "I's" are not our "highs".  Beautiful, are we! Oh, but our "lows" they seem so low, below the knee.  That's because our "lows" are about the wrong "me". God says, "When you are lowly in spirit become even lower and humble yourselves before "ME" and "I" will lift you up! Let your "high" be only from your face so that it is "ME" you seek! Your Savior, your Friend, your King! Don't look at "me", see only "ME"!"  God see's normal as extraordinary, for it is in those times when things seem the toughest.  Not because He makes them tough, but because we have the wrong perception.  If being normal feels wrong, it's then that we need to do as it says in Psalms 139:23-24 & Psalm 51:10  Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.   Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. In fact, what a great way to start each day!  Start each day with an "extraordinary, normal, lowly high"! Don't make your "normal" times longer or harder than they need to be. Trust in His daily convictions and affirmations! Don't miss out on a blessing because you have confused a worldly and a Godly view and spun yourself into a web of turmoil during a "normal" time.  A time when God wants you to be still while he prepares you for what's ahead or is maybe even protecting from what's ahead! God has a purpose for each life and your resistance or your insistence on pushing ahead of him will not thwart his plan! It may; however, cause you to do something outside of his will or ahead of his will.  And now, we find ourselves asking Him to clean up our mess while we go through "if only", "I'm so stupid", "such and idiot", "I've ruined it", "He'll never use me again", and so on and so on! This my friend is condemnation straight from your worldly adversary, the devil! In Christ there is no more condemnation, but a sorrowful, repentant heart is of great worth!
There is a message here! Do you hear it? Be still, be still, be still! And know that He is God! Be still and let Him be your "high", your "low", and your "normal"! Let God grow you, mature you, and perfect you until the time in which He is ready to use you! The world is full of temptations of exalted "I's" and overly glorified "me's" and conforming "normals". Be no longer conformed to the world and let God create your "normal" with the right balance of knee bending and face lifting! So come down from that cloud of "I", get up out of that grave of "me" and finally, rest in the arms of Jesus, be still in "normalcy"!

GOD! He is the Norm!

Stephanie G. © 4/23/2014