Grumbling or Gratitude, A New Scripture Stick and Evening Enjoyment
Good evening to our sisters in Christ!
Praise God, the other night brother Jim was sharing some scripture verses that he was using in an article and an elderly man heard, walked over and started talking. Brother Jim gave him the gospel and as usual, warned him about the lies of man made religion. Be diligent and you never know how the Lord will work in your life and shine the light of His truth to others!
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
I looked up a dent and bent (discount grocery) store in the town we are staying so we stopped in to see what they have. I'm going to confess that I had a brief moment of grumbling in my mind because upon first impression, I was not impressed. I immediately compared it to the big, bright, clean, well laid out stores we are used to, but I chastised myself and repented of my sin. I thanked the Lord for allowing us the opportunity to see if there was anything of use for us in there. Turns out, once we got past the doorway and around the corner, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Although the selection was slim in some areas, we did find a few good deals on some organic / natural foods.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
I looked up a dent and bent (discount grocery) store in the town we are staying so we stopped in to see what they have. I'm going to confess that I had a brief moment of grumbling in my mind because upon first impression, I was not impressed. I immediately compared it to the big, bright, clean, well laid out stores we are used to, but I chastised myself and repented of my sin. I thanked the Lord for allowing us the opportunity to see if there was anything of use for us in there. Turns out, once we got past the doorway and around the corner, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Although the selection was slim in some areas, we did find a few good deals on some organic / natural foods.
Because I was aware of myself and what I was thinking, I was able to quickly turn my grumbling into gratitude. This comes from taking every thought captive:
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ
(2 Corinthians 10:5)
We also had to go to a hardware store because brother Jim was going to make a scripture stick for another brother. (It's a walking stick with scripture on it.) I snapped this picture of us walking out with it...
As we were in the store getting the materials for it, a young man said to brother Jim...
"Oh, a rod of discipline. I sure need that sometimes!"
Of course it led to him getting a gospel card and encouragement to test himself. Another man in the store helped us find other materials and after Jim gave him a gospel card, he said that he just testified to someone. He said 'I didn't get saved by the Word, I got saved by taking a step." He then began to share a strange story about meeting Jesus after stepping out a door...it was rather confusing. Brother Jim warned him about running off experiences and that the truth is known by the Word, not what happens in our life. The interesting thing is that the night before, we were just talking about the 'so called Jesus' dreams that the Musims are having and people think it's a good thing and all of God. We will (soon) have an article on that in the discernment blog about the truth of such mystical occurrences and how people don't come to the saving gospel through them, we come through the Word. That guy, on his own, said 'I didn't get saved by the Word.' We find it interesting how timely these events are:-)
That night we happened to be up very late (early morning actually) and were talking about things. We ended up laughing about something and brother Jim looked out the window and right by the van was a man collecting garbage.
It made us laugh harder because it seemed funny to us that we are sleeping (or supposed to be by that time) and the garbage guy was right there. (We have a strange life....I guess it's one of those 'You had to be there moments' :-)
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Proverbs 17:22
A big gratitude moment we had today was finding a nice laundry mat!!!! That's rare when you're on the road.
It had a nice area outside, the whole place was clean and they accepted coins instead of making you buy a laundry card and load money onto it. The last laundrymat we were at was, to say the least, a bit unnerving because it was in a questionable side of town. It was not someplace we wanted to be after dark and it seemed to take forever to get our clothes done so we could leave. (We could tell the people there didn't want us in the area.) A nice place to wash clothes is such a blessing, as I'm sure some of you will agree, and I was so grateful for it today!!!
Late this afternoon we happened to be someplace that we weren't planning and a man walked up to our van to talk about the things of God. He said he had a tract ministry (giving out gospel tracts) but when brother Jim asked to see one, he didn't have any. It wasn't long and he left, angry, trying to defend Christ-mass. There were many other issues that came up during the conversation but Christ-mass was the one that he drew the line on and took off. The awesome thing is, God used me to put us in that spot in order to have that man walking right by.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
Praise God, the Word is going out in many different ways! Remember that as you're living your life, God uses everything to His glory and if you are an obedient daughter of the most High, He will be using you as well.
Amen!
I pray you all are doing well, standing strong and not wavering to the ways of this world and the trickery from satan to lead you astray. I pray for strength and peace.
Love in Christ,
Sister Deb
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ
(2 Corinthians 10:5)
We also had to go to a hardware store because brother Jim was going to make a scripture stick for another brother. (It's a walking stick with scripture on it.) I snapped this picture of us walking out with it...
As we were in the store getting the materials for it, a young man said to brother Jim...
"Oh, a rod of discipline. I sure need that sometimes!"
Of course it led to him getting a gospel card and encouragement to test himself. Another man in the store helped us find other materials and after Jim gave him a gospel card, he said that he just testified to someone. He said 'I didn't get saved by the Word, I got saved by taking a step." He then began to share a strange story about meeting Jesus after stepping out a door...it was rather confusing. Brother Jim warned him about running off experiences and that the truth is known by the Word, not what happens in our life. The interesting thing is that the night before, we were just talking about the 'so called Jesus' dreams that the Musims are having and people think it's a good thing and all of God. We will (soon) have an article on that in the discernment blog about the truth of such mystical occurrences and how people don't come to the saving gospel through them, we come through the Word. That guy, on his own, said 'I didn't get saved by the Word.' We find it interesting how timely these events are:-)
That night we happened to be up very late (early morning actually) and were talking about things. We ended up laughing about something and brother Jim looked out the window and right by the van was a man collecting garbage.
It made us laugh harder because it seemed funny to us that we are sleeping (or supposed to be by that time) and the garbage guy was right there. (We have a strange life....I guess it's one of those 'You had to be there moments' :-)
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Proverbs 17:22
A big gratitude moment we had today was finding a nice laundry mat!!!! That's rare when you're on the road.
It had a nice area outside, the whole place was clean and they accepted coins instead of making you buy a laundry card and load money onto it. The last laundrymat we were at was, to say the least, a bit unnerving because it was in a questionable side of town. It was not someplace we wanted to be after dark and it seemed to take forever to get our clothes done so we could leave. (We could tell the people there didn't want us in the area.) A nice place to wash clothes is such a blessing, as I'm sure some of you will agree, and I was so grateful for it today!!!
Late this afternoon we happened to be someplace that we weren't planning and a man walked up to our van to talk about the things of God. He said he had a tract ministry (giving out gospel tracts) but when brother Jim asked to see one, he didn't have any. It wasn't long and he left, angry, trying to defend Christ-mass. There were many other issues that came up during the conversation but Christ-mass was the one that he drew the line on and took off. The awesome thing is, God used me to put us in that spot in order to have that man walking right by.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
Praise God, the Word is going out in many different ways! Remember that as you're living your life, God uses everything to His glory and if you are an obedient daughter of the most High, He will be using you as well.
Amen!
I pray you all are doing well, standing strong and not wavering to the ways of this world and the trickery from satan to lead you astray. I pray for strength and peace.
Love in Christ,
Sister Deb
The biblical gospel...