Old Paths

New Thoughts for a New Year

2010-01-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

I think God is trying to show me something this year. I think that I try way too hard. I'm always to fix things and solve problems. Well, I'm at the point where I give up. Really, I think so. I have been pretty depressed about it lately. But I'm not now.

So what I think God is trying to show me is that He will take care of things if I seek Him. He can take care of things a lot better than I ever will. And for that, I'm very thankful. I don't think walking with Jesus should be such a struggle. I know that worrying is not God's will either. So, I think I will seek Jesus, praise Him, and believe His promises. And let Him take care of the rest.

Here's some verses I've been thinking about:

Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints!
There is no want to those who fear Him.
The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
But those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing

Psalm 34:9-10 (New King James)

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you

Matthew 6:33

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30

I hope you all have a blessed year!

Weathering the Storm

2009-12-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

There are so many Christians that are in "storms" in their lives. And while it is true that things are going to come against us, I cannot believe that it is God's will for us to be so depressed and destroyed by these storms. I think I found something in the Bible that will help us during the storms of life.

"Therefore whosever hears these sayings of Mine, (this is Jesus speaking) and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock." Matthew 7:25

So we have a storm coming against us. Here is the answer: Hear Jesus' saying and do them. It's not enough to hear the Word. We have to obey it also. Because we have His Word in our heart, we have a firm foundation. We can stand against the storms of life. They will not destroy us. They will not cause us to fall.

"And everyone that hears these sayings of Mine, and does them not, shall be likened to a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house: and it fell: and great was the fall of it. Matthew 7:26-27

Same storm, completely different results. The difference is obeying the Word. I pray we can all understand how important the Bible is for us. And that we will study and it apply it to our lives.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2009-11-25T15:27:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It is such a wonderful opportunity to be thankful for all our blessings. I'm praying to have a more thankful heart this coming up year. Here are some of my favorite verses about thanksgiving:

I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are called in one body; and be you thankful. Colossians 3:15

To the end that my glory may sing praise to You, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You for ever. Psalm 30:12

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful to Him, and bless His name. Psalm 100:4

It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High: Psalm 92:1

May you all have a blessed thanksgiving.

Help from the Lord

2009-11-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

I will lift up my eyes to the hills from where comes my help.

My help comes from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to be moved: He that keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, he that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper: the Lord is your shade upon your right hand.

The sun shall not smite you by day nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve you from all evil: He shall preserve your soul.

The Lord shall preserve your going out and coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Psalm 121

How to Have Peace

2009-11-11T17:14:00.000-08:00

We often pray for each other to have the peace of God. I don't think that is a bad thing to do but it is not really a command in the Bible. The only scripture I could find about praying for peace is Psalm 122:6 "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love you."

A lot of scriptures tell us how we can obtain the peace that Jesus has already given us. Here is a few of theses verses:

My son, forget not my law; but let your heart keep my commandments: For length of days and long life, and peace, shall they add to you. Proverbs 3: 1-2

You (God) will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You: because he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:3

And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. Isaiah 32:17

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6 carnal mind= death spiritual mind=life and peace!

Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 2 Peter 1:2 We have peace through knowledge!

I am so thankful that we can have peace. We don't have to wait or just hope that we will have it today. We can have it everyday because Jesus has already given it to us. And we have God's Word to tell us how to obtain those promises.

Why we shouldn't worry

2009-11-07T15:09:00.000-08:00

* Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 (NKJV)

* But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19

* But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:33-34 (NKJV)

* He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. Psalm 112:7

God gave us strength

2009-11-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

* The Lord is their strength, and He is the saving strength of His anointed. Psalm 28:8

* The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace. Psalm 29:11

* Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have You ordained strength because of Your enemies, that You might still the enemy and the avenger. Psalm 8:2

* He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increases strength. Isaiah 40:29

* Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy to our Lord: neither be you sorry: for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10

God's Promises

2009-11-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

My daughter and I have been reading through a book called "The Bible Promise Book." It has been such a blessing. Simply reading God's Word has brought encouragement as well as conviction. It has also made me rethink how I want to write blogs. I think at least for a while, I would just like to write blogs full of God's Word. No commentary from me is necessary. God's Word doesn't it.

Not that I think writing or talking about beliefs is wrong. I love a good discussion about the Word.

However for the next few blogs i just want to share God's Word. I pray it will be a blessing to you.

Who's a Christian?

2009-05-13T16:55:00.000-07:00

And hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

He that saith, I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked.

1John 2:3-6

These verses are hard for me to understand in light of modern christian doctrine. So many people appear to love the Lord. They talk about how much they love God, they enjoy praise and worship and prayer. Yet when you get to know them you see alot of things in their lives don't line up with the word of God. And sadly, when you talk to them you often find that they don't really care what the Bible says at all.

I don't want to judge people. In many ways they seem to love God but they don't obey His word. I want to believe that they are christians but what about these verses?

I'm afraid these people are deceived into thinking they are saved when they are not.

I remember believing I was a christian because I prayed "the sinner's prayer" and went to church. I even read my Bible sometimes. But there was no real change in my life. I wasn't keeping God's commandments. Yet no one noticed or ever questioned my faith. ( If they did, they didn't ask me about it)

I'm so glad that I listen to God seven years ago and came to true salvation.

I wonder how many people are deceived like I was?

So should we let them continue on in their deception because we are afraid of judging them? What is the right way to handle this? How do we speak the truth in love? Do we really love people if we let them believe a lie? These are the questions I am praying about.

Double minded??

2008-07-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded James 4:8

It seems that there is a lot of double minded talk in Christians today. A couple of days ago I was listening to a radio talk show. The host was answering a caller's question about women wearing pants. He said that teaching that women couldn't wear pants was legalism. It doesn't matter what we wear.

Later in the show, he was discussing a minister that was conducting his services wearing a pro-wrestling tee shirt. He said the minister had also gotten a number of tattoos since he had been saved. He also talked about some other things that this man is saying.

While I agree with the host that this minister is not in line with the Bible, what was he saying about an hour earlier in the show?

He said that it didn't matter what Christians wear. We can't have it both ways.

Yes, the Bible teaches not to tattoo ourselves. (Leviticus 19: 28)
The Bible also teaches us how we should dress as Christians. (1 Timothy 2:9-10) (1 Peter 3: 1-4)(Deuteronomy 22:5) These are some of the verses.

We can't just pick and choose which parts of Scripture that we like. Neither can we say it is OK for one group of Christians(women) to dress however they want (even if this goes against the Bible) and then condemn another christian because he wears whatever he wants to to minister to people. Wouldn't this make us hypocrites?

"How can you believe?"

2008-03-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

"How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" John 5:44

I've been trying to believe God more. When I read this verse it really made me think.
I know that belief in God's Word is a key to seeing God's power manifested in my life. (John 14:12,) (Mark 16:17-18)
In context John 5:44 is speaking of salvation. But I think it also applies to me because it tells me that I can't believe if I'm worried about pleasing people.
I think it can apply to many situations. Maybe God has told you to pray for someone and you were afraid to pray the way God directed you because they might get mad at you. Or you could pray really quiet like I do. (I think maybe that is cheating.) Or maybe God has directed you life in a way that's not deemed socially acceptable. Let's look at some examples:

* A young man or women who doesn't believe you have to go to college to have a sucessful life.
* A young women whose calling is to get married and have a family instead of a career.
* Any women who doesn't believe she can (or is suppose to) do everything a man can do. She believes that she is suppose to be her husband's help meet, not his partner.
* You believe that a women should not dress like a man.
* Maybe the person you feel called to marry is younger/ or older than you. Doesn't have a wonderful job, ect. (Here's a good place to put in the disclaimer: God will not call you to go against His Word no matter what you feel called to do!!!!)

But if you've prayed and rightly divided the Word, (2 Timothy 2:15) you might still have a hard time.
Sadly, I've found that it is often christians who may give us the hardest time. Church is more like the world than ever. In many ways we've accepted the same values as the world.
Are we going to let people keep us from fulfilling God's call in our lives or moving forward in God? I hope not. I have to get to the place where I desire God's praise more than man's praise.
(John 12:43)
I don't want to answer to God one day and have to explain why I didn't do what He wanted me to do. I really don't want to have to say that I didn't live my convictions because of what my friends said or believed.
This is what God has put on my heart today. Please pray that I can get past people's opinions and move forward in what God has for me.

Yay!! My first blog

2008-03-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

Well, here goes my first blog!! I'm looking forward to writing about things that God puts on my heart. I love discussing the scriptures. I welcome comments and opposing views. Please back your opinions up with Bible. I'm not too interested in man's opinion. I want to know the heart of God.

I'm OK with opposing views, though. I believe that friends don't have to agree on everything. I have to believe that or I wouldn't have any friends :) Well, maybe one or two.

So, I may be a bit of a fanatic. That's because I'm really excited about Jesus and all the wonderful things He has done in my life.

Hopefully, I'll be writing more soon. Check back with me.

Blessings to everyone,
Christie