CHOSEN PATHS

Each one of us is one of a kind. My path is mine, yours is yours.

Proverbs 4:26 Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established.

Psalms 27:11 And lead me in a smooth path.

Psalms 16:11 You will show me the path of life.

Each one of us has a path to travel in life. Human nature being what it is there are times the paths we choose are not always good. It would be nice if we could click on UNDO or backspace in life. Alas that is not possible. It is easy to look back and see were we should have gone right instead of left. Wrong turns, green pastures that turned into swamps; rocks that caused us to trip causing unwanted bruises and pain.

Though we don’t always travel alone, it is our own path. God is there at all times whether we are aware of it or not. There are times when friends, family and at times even strangers walk our path with us. Still it is our path.

If you haven’t been down my path you cannot know why I am as I am. Wait! I am not saying you cannot try to understand, have compassion or empathy for someone that is possible. You cannot though know how they feel. Two individuals can go through the same thing, and both have different experiences. This is life, it is reality.

We can share our beliefs, opinions; agree to disagree; comfort. We can be there for each other in many ways. That is a good thing.
How many times have we said I’ve been there, done that and it didn’t work for someone else. They continue going forward and all we can do is watch and pray. They are on their own path not ours. Try as hard as we can, we cannot make our path someone else’s any more then theirs can became ours.

I say all this to say: be there for others, but remember you can only change yourself. Let God lead you in the way you should go, and pray for others to be lead by Him also. Do not take it personal when someone decides to travel their path.

God Bless
Recj/LJG

John Chapter 9.

While I was reading this chapter a couple of things jumped out at me.

When asked who had sinned, the boy or the parents. Jesus said neither. He was born blind so the works of the One who sent Him could be manifested through Him. We must work while there is still light, but the night cometh when no man can work. As long as Jesus is in the world there is light. After saying all (verses 1 – 5), He spit on the ground and with the spittle and the clay He anointed the eyes of the man born blind from birth. Then Jesus told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam (which means “Sent”). After doing as he was instructed, he came back seeing. Some said it was him but yet others said it was somebody who looked like him. But he said it is I. The people wanted to know who was this man? The one who was blind but now can see said, “He is called Jesus.” Then of course they wanted to know where this man called Jesus was. The man said he didn’t know. So they just had to take the once blind man to the Pharisees so that once again he could repeat the story of how he was healed and who healed him. (verses 6-13)

Now wouldn’t you know that it was the Sabbath on which Jesus healed this man. So therefore He couldn’t be a man of God because He didn’t keep the Sabbath. As usual in all things they were divided, some believed and some didn’t. Well, they didn’t believe the healed man, so they went to his parents house. Yes, they confirmed that he was their son and he was of age so they should ask him. So, back to the used be blind man they went. They wanted him to tell them again who and how he was healed. He reply that he had told them once and they didn’t hear him. He was told to give God the praise cause the One who healed him was a sinner. The man didn’t care that they reviled him and told him they were Moses’ disciples and they didn’t even know where the Healer was. What a marvelous thing that they didn’t know where He was or where He came from. In all the teaching from the beginning of time NO ONE had ever had blind eyes healed. He continued to tell them that if He wasn’t from God, then wouldn’t hear Him. (verses 13-33)

When Jesus heard about his ordeal, He came to him and asked him if he believed on the Son of God. The man replied to show him where He was and he would believe. Jesus told him, “Thou hast both seen him, and it is He that talketh with thee.” That man said ‘I believe and worshiped Him.

The things that jumped out at me are verses 22 and 34. His parents were afraid of the Jews and of being thrown out of the synagogue (22) and the Pharisees got mad cause the healed one was teaching them so they threw him out of the synagogue (34).

Doesn’t that remind you of a lot of us today? We are so afraid of saying the wrong thing, like admitting that we are a child of God, to those around us because they won’t have anything else to do with us and throw us away. We want to take the easy way and be accepted here on earth. That leaves heaven out for a bunch of folks.

If we will remain blind to all the earthly going on, we will see the Kingdom of God.

Which is more important to you? The earth, things and people’s approval or only seeing Jesus and His approval?

God’s blessing to each of you,

LJG/rECj


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Acts 13:21b-22a “and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe
of Benjamin, who ruled forty years. After removing Saul…”

Saul ruled for 40 years, but ran into the Amalekite problem. During the time Israel came up out of Egypt the Amalekites were a particularly nasty people. As the Israelites wandered through the desert, the Amalekites would sneak up behind them and attack the weakest of their people (Deuteronomy 25:18). Now, many years later, God tells Saul to completely annihilate the Amalekites, to not leave anyone alive (man, woman or child), and destroy all of their possessions (1 Samuel 15:3). Saul did what God told him to do with a couple of exceptions, the first is he spared the Amalekite king Agag as a trophy, and second he kept the best of the sheep and cattle (purportedly to use as a sacrifice to the Lord). Of course the Lord knew what Saul had done and spoke to Samuel, “I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.”

After Saul tried to make excuses for not doing exactly what the Lord told him to do, the Lord spoke through Samuel, (1 Samuel 15:22) “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams,” and (1 Samuel 15:28) “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors — to one better than you. He who is the Glory of Israel [speaking of God] does not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man, that He should change His mind.” Samuel then told Saul to bring him Agag, king of the Amalekites and Samuel killed him on the spot.

There are a lot of interesting things going on here and lessons to be learned which we don’t have time to go through in detail (for example the way Samuel deals with Agag illustrates how we must deal with sin — immediately and without hesitation). However, I think the main point Paul is making here is this: when the Lord gives an instruction, do exactly what the Lord tells you to do. Saul died in a battle many years later and ironically, guess who killed him? An Amalekite! (2 Samuel 1:6-10) Why? Because Saul didn’t kill every single one of them as God had instructed him to do. Sin is just like that. God tells us to remove something from our lives. We do it for the most part, but hang on to some remnant, perhaps (like Saul) as a trophy to our victory. But sin is like a cancer that goes untreated; it eventually grows and ultimately destroys life.

What sin has God told you to get rid of? Have you dealt with it thoroughly or have you held on to some small piece of it? Do you falsely think you have that sin under control when in truth it is only waiting beneath the surface to eventually destroy you? What is God telling you to do about that sin right now? Will you obey God, and completely turn away from that sin? Some sins are hard to eradicate from our lives. Share your struggles with a few men you trust and ask them to help you fight off this sin.

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TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
“...The LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless”
(Psalm 84:11, NIV)

TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria
Favor is a part of your inheritance! You don’t have to beg God for it; as a believer in Jesus, you are in covenant with Him. That means that everything He has is yours!

The way you tap into that favor, or activate it, is by thanking Him for it. Say, “Father, thank You for Your favor today. Thank You that Your favor is causing me to be at the right place at the right time. Thank You that Your favor is causing people to want to be good to me.” See, you don’t have to pray about something that you already have, just receive it by thanking Him.

Before I speak each week, I never say, “God, please give me Your favor. Please give me Your anointing.” No, I simply say, “God, thank You for Your anointing. Thank You for Your favor on my life. Thank You for equipping and empowering me.” See, I know that it’s all part of my inheritance. So I just act like it’s true.

Today, activate His promises by faith. Praise and thank Him for His goodness and for blessing your life. Receive His Word as truth and hold it in your heart because He has already given His favor and blessing to you!

A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your favor and blessing in my life. Thank You for cleansing me and making me new. Your Word says that You will withhold no good thing from me because I walk blamelessly before You by the blood of Jesus. I receive it by faith and thank You for Your goodness. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

— Joel & Victoria Osteen