Devotionals for the Heart: Ginger's thoughts about God's Temple

Temple of God

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." ~1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (ESV)

I started a new way of eating today. It’s not a diet. Diets are temporary. I plan to make this a way of life. But it’s hard. I haven’t even made it through one whole day yet, and I want to quit.

I am very overweight. I need to lose 75 lbs to be on the top side of my “supposed” height/weight bracket. I weigh over 100 lbs more than when I got pregnant with my first child and 50 lbs more than I did 9 months pregnant with ANY child. But that was seven kids and 25+ years ago. And yet that’s no excuse.

I need to take responsibility for my bad eating habits. Today. Not tomorrow. I’ve put it off until tomorrow for the last 12+ years. Tomorrow has come.

I’m ashamed of how I’ve let my temple fall apart. I haven’t done my best. I’ve been lazy, kind of like the sluggard in Proverbs 13:4 (NIV), “A sluggard's appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.”

Or Proverbs 26:15 (NIV), “A sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.” Except I brought it back to my mouth, repeatedly. Full of cookies, candies, soda, and every other kind of thing that “tasted” good. I didn’t care if it was good for me.

So now I’m making a choice to change. It’s not a diet. It’s a new way of life, a new way of eating. I MAY be able to bring back a few of the items I truly enjoy, but that’s a long way down the road.

I’ve made choices for most of my life to glorify God in my words, in my books, in my online presence, in my family, at my church, but my eating...not so much.

And today, I’m making a choice to honor God’s sacrifice. I’m choosing to glorify God in my body by making it the healthiest I can.

Let me be clear. I am not judging whatever you do. This choice is about me. It is between God and me. I don’t have any stake in your choices – good, bad, or somewhere in between – whether in regard to eating or anything else in your life.

It is time for me to change. To be as healthy as I can be. That’s all. And if you find a bit of encouragement in my struggle, then that’s all the better.

And along with the reminder that my body is God’s, I remember what Paul said to the Philippians 4:13 (ESV), “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

What is one choice or change that you’ve made that seemed insurmountable, but you persevered and accomplished your goal? I (and probably others) need the encouragement.

~*~
Author Bio: 

Ginger Solomon is a Christian, a wife, a mother to seven, and a writer—in that order (mostly). 

She writes or reads inspirational romance of any genre, and if she’s busy homeschooling, doing laundry, or fixing dinner, books are on her mind.

She’s a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, president of her local writing group, and blogs regularly for InspyRomance.com and at gingersolomon.com.

A Thought for Thanksgiving Day

A Habit of Praise
A Thanksgiving Day thought from Savanna Kaiser

First of all, I want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! I also want to thank Alexis for inviting me to stop by today. I know you’re all probably busy with family festivities, so I’ll keep this short.

I’ve been reading lately the Sermons on the Miracles by Charles Spurgeon. Every book of his I’ve ever read has blessed me in countless ways and this one is no exception.

The recent chapter I read covered the miracle of Jesus where He healed the 10 lepers and only one returned to thank and praise Him. “Where are the nine?” Jesus asked the healed and humbled one at his feet, but the Samaritan man had no answer for him. He was too busy worshiping the true Physician.

I loved the picture of this meager man made whole. His heart overflowed with gratitude and his simple actions left a legacy for all of us to mirror. If only worship – and less of the world – filled more of our hearts.

Spurgeon writes, “The Lord gives us blessings, new every morning, and fresh every evening, great is His faithfulness; and yet we let the years roll round, and seldom observe a day of praise. Sad is it to see God all goodness and man all ingratitude!”

Today is Thanksgiving and it’s a wonderful time to thank the Lord for His many mercies, but too often I’ve been guilty of letting gratitude slip away all too quickly. Jesus deserves so much more.

Spurgeon adds, “Most of us pray more than we praise…Prayer is not so heavenly an exercise as praise: prayer is for a time, but praise is for eternity.”

I’m so thankful Jesus invites us to come to Him at all times. After studying this miracle in Luke 17, I realized just how important it is for me to come to Him, not just in times of need, but in times of praise. I want it to be a habit of my life. He deserves more praise than I could ever give, but I want to chase after it all the same.

Spurgeon continues, “From the healed leper, we see his humility. “This man fell down at Jesus’ feet; he did not feel perfectly in his place until he was lying there. ‘I am nobody, Lord,’ he seemed to say, and therefore he fell on his face… There is no place so honorable as down at the feet of Jesus. Ah, to lie there always, and just love him wholly, and let self die out! Oh, to have Christ standing over you as the one figure overshadowing your life henceforth and for ever! True thankfulness lies low before the Lord. Added to this there was worship. He fell down at Jesus’ feet, glorifying God, and giving thanks unto him. Let us worship our Savior. We shall never cease to adore him who has delivered us from the leprosy of sin.”

That’s what I want my life to be about. Something my Mom and I do to seek this continual spirit of thankfulness is by writing down notes of blessing throughout the year. We get together close to Thanksgiving Day and read our notes aloud. We’re blessed all over again to see the Lord’s hand in every area of our lives. Memories we cherished and moments we forgot are all recorded on sticky notes. Laughter and tears usually follow.

We look forward to this every year. It never ceases to amaze me of the variety and creativity of answered prayers and God’s many surprises. I encourage you today – and every day – to watch for God’s delights and tokens of His grace. Praying He opens our eyes to see more of Jesus at work in our lives. He’s always there, friends. Sovereign and strong.

Allow me to conclude my thoughts with this quote from the great Charles Spurgeon:

“Let us learn from all this to put praise in a high place. 
Let us hold praise-meetings…Let us pay our praise to Christ himself. 
Personal praise to a personal Savior must be our life’s object.”

Wishing you all a life of Thanksgiving!

~*~
Author bio: 

Savanna Kaiser is a freelance writer of over 50 magazine articles, web designer, blogger, and gardener from the Missouri Ozarks. 

She also serves as the president for her local ACFW group. 

When she and her husband aren't chasing their one-year-old daughter around, they love to hike, kayak, and explore Civil War battlefields. 

Connect with Savanna:
Website ~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Instagram

Devotional by Laura Thomas: Running the Race that God Marked Out for You

Spiritual Fat
A devotional written by Laura Thomas

How do you feel about running? We tend to fall into one of two camps: the enthusiastic, marathon-goal, effortless gazelles, or the eye-rolling, couch-preferring, pretty-much-exhausted plodders. Personally, I think I’m somewhere in the middle, I love the IDEA of running. Unfortunately, my body is not always agreeable.

Running an actual race is a whole other thing. That gets most of us skittish. Yet here we are, each one of us running the “race marked out for us”, the race of our lives. Some shuffle, some struggle, some bound with effortless energy toward the goal. Those “effortless energy” types have one thing in common—they are all in really good shape. They shed the pounds and got rid of any hindrances.

“Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”~Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)

The previous chapter in Hebrews lists the greats of the Old Testament—such ancients as Abraham, Joseph, and Moses. They are our “great cloud of witnesses” recorded to encourage us. None of them lived perfect lives on easy street. In fact, they were all presented with seemingly insurmountable hurdles throughout their races. But they chose to dig in, shed the “pounds” of sin that might slow them in their endeavor to follow God, and they persevered in spite of all the odds.

What is it that weighs us down in our pursuit of living a Christ-filled life? It’s so easy to be drowned by worry, enslaved by fear, consumed by work, distracted by the sparkly things in life, or simply disillusioned. When we carry these extra pounds of sin—and that could be absolutely anything that takes our focus from the Lord—the race is decidedly harder. It’s like running through bog mud in the pouring rain. The journey is miserable, the blessings to others and ourselves are dampened, and we are tangled miserably in our hindrances.

“Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in.” 

~Hebrews 12:1b-2 (The Message)

We need to slim down by shedding our spiritual fat!

Just as a focused runner prepares for a marathon by losing the extra weight to run lean and keen, so we need to “throw off’ the excess baggage weighing us down. Not flippantly disregarding our sin, but rather laying it down before the One who bears our every burden. Sometimes it can be a painful process, but once that metaphorical Band-Aid is stripped off, we heal and move much more easily. And then we can joyfully and energetically run the “race marked out for us”.

David, one of the Old Testament late greats, cried out, “Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.”~Psalm 54:4 (NIV)

We aren’t in this race alone. God so desires for us to live joy-filled, Christ-glorifying lives, and He WILL sustain our every step. The faltering foot, the confident stride, the desperate dash, the persistent plod, the weakest limp… He will never leave us to run alone. Never.

It’s healthy to reflect once in a while on how our walk/run is progressing and to keep a check on what’s weighing us down. All of us have some spiritual slimming to do in order to run effectively; it’s an on-going process, isn’t it?

Surely, we should want the race to be more like an energizing sprint on a perfectly sunny day with the end in sight, pulse racing, a feeling of joy and contentment in our every step. We all know there will be hurdles and pitfalls en route, but with God as our Sustainer, we can strive to strip off our sin, shed the spiritual fat, focus on Him, and “run the race with perseverance” all the way to the finish line.

Transforming hindering pounds to limitless bounds and spiritual fat to fit!

~*~
Author bio: 

Laura is a published Christian author with a heart for inspiring and encouraging readers of all ages. 

She is truly multi-genre—with a published Christian teen fiction trilogy, marriage book, children’s stories, devotionals for Union Gospel Press, musings on her blog, and she now has a literary agent representing her Christian romantic suspense novel. 

Laura is English and Canadian, married to her high school sweetheart, mom of three, passionate about faith and family…and chocolate. 
~*~
Connect with Laura:
Website - www.laurathomasauthor.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Laura-Thomas-183771121724664/?ref=hl
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Laura_Thomas_
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lauracthomas/
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/lauracthomas/

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Introducing Laura Thomas, devotional writer with food for thought

Let's welcome Laura Thomas to the blog! She's an author, wife, mother and all around awesome person! Laura's agreed to share a devotional that she wrote for every first Wednesday of the month starting this Jan. 4, 2017.

I'm going to let Laura introduce herself to you, in her own words. After you read her introduction post, please leave a welcome message for Laura in the comment section toward the end of this blog post.

God bless you! :)

Now, here's Laura...

I am rather a late bloomer in the world of writing. Growing up in England, I was a total bookworm as a child, and had a secret dream of being an author one day—a secret I kept under wraps for about 25 years! My husband finally unearthed my writing dream over coffee one day, and encouraged me to pursue my passion. What? I was homeschooling my kids at the time, worship director at church, and had zero room for anything else—but I felt a stirring in my heart, and eventually completed a couple of correspondence courses with the Institute of Children’s Literature, which set me on the path to being a “real” writer!

It didn’t take me long to discover my love for writing in many genres—I honestly thought I would be a children’s author initially, and had many stories and articles published in children’s magazines. I always had a strong desire to put good morals and Biblical principals into my work, and was thrilled when Dancing With Bear Publishing published my Christian teen fiction trilogy: Tears to Dancing, Tears of a Princess and Tears, Fears, and Fame. They were closely followed by my middle grade fiction book, The Candle Maker, set in Victorian England.

So what about the grown-ups? I’ve been blogging since 2012, and thoroughly enjoy writing my thoughts and sharing my faith with my readers. In 2014, my daughter got married, and Pearls for the Bride was published—a book for brides-to-be and newlyweds from a mother’s perspective. It was such a joy to dig into the Word and draw from my own marriage to offer some “pearls of wisdom”, along with a good dose of humor (a necessity in any marriage). This past summer, I wrote Diamond Devos 31—a FREE e-book devotional featuring 31 days in Proverbs 31 as a source of encouragement to my sisters of all ages. I hope you’ll check it out on my website! Did I mention it’s free?

Writing devotionals is a passion and a privilege to me. As well as writing for my own blog and several Christian magazines and websites, I’ve been honored to write almost 60 devotionals for Union Gospel Press for children, teens, and adults. For me it’s a win-win because I get to share what God has laid on my heart from His Word, which hopefully encourages and inspires the reader, while preaching to myself.

I have much to learn, and being teachable is key, especially as a devo writer. I have been journaling my own daily quiet times with the Lord for several years (mainly because I have a horrible memory so have write it down), and this has become a beautiful source of inspiration for me. When Alexis asked me to write here once-a-month for her monthly devotional slot, I was more than happy to agree. I hope you’ll join us here on the first Wednesday of each month, and I pray that the “food” for thought (my devotionals) will be nourishment for your soul.

Blessings and joy,

Laura

Words of Faith: Ada's story

Faith Is A Decision

A Words of Faith story written by Ada Brownell

I wasn’t surprised when atheists responded to tweets about my book Facts, Faith & Propaganda.

They usually want to argue. I always tell them “argument only proves who is best at debate.”

In several of my books that speak about faith and in all my writing I emphasize we decide what we believe. You can’t prove whether God exists, and atheists can’t show he doesn’t. There’s a reason for this—faith in necessary for salvation. We can’t please God if we don’t have faith. The Bible says, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6 KJV).

I met a woman from Sweden in the airport and we discussed faith after my husband told her I’m a writer and gave her my card and a bookmark.

“I don’t worry about whether I believe in God, and I’m letting my children grow up and make their own decisions,” she said. “I’m a good person, and that’s all that’s necessary.”

She was nice, but as her daughter lay nearby reading I explained, “Belief in God is a decision. As he traveled the world, Billy Graham called people to the altars to ‘make a decision for Christ.’ If you ignore God, you decided not to accept His sacrifice for sin so that you could live forever. It’s the choice you already made.”

I talked to her about evidence for faith and the need to choose Jesus as Savior.

She smiled. “You’re messing with my head. I’ll need to think about this.”

Here are some facts about faith:

What is faith? “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and confident of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1 NIV).

God has given each person a measure of faith (Romans 12:3 KJV). Often people who don’t think they believe cry for God’s help spontaneously in crises.

Faith comes through hearing the Word—the gospel (Romans 10:17 KJV). Because faith is necessary to be redeemed from sin and to have our name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, God “breathed” truth into writers He chose to pen His love message to humankind. It is through that love letter—the Bible—we gain knowledge of Him and why He allows us (anybody) to accept it and love and obey Him (2 Timothy 3:15-16 NIV).

We must voice our belief. “For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation” (Romans 10:10 NIV).

Our brains may be made to believe in God. In a CNN report by A. Chris Gajilan on April 4, 2007, Dr. Andrew Newberg, neuroscientist and author of "Why We Believe What We Believe," says the human brain is affected during prayer and meditation. He suggests brain scans may prove our brains are built to believe in God. Because of this God-shaped place within, nearly every person worships something, even if they create it themselves.

Faith comes through the will. We decide whether to believe God’s Word, a false religion, or atheism (everything about who we are, why we are here and where we are going takes faith). Yet it takes a leap—a decision:“...Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” (Joshua 24:15 KJV) Read John 3:16 KJV which says,“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Jesus is our only hope. “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 KJV).

Salvation is a Gift we receive: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ his Son” (Romans 6:23 KJV).

Don’t wait to decide what you’ll believe. Remember much of what atheists and agnostics think they chose to believe, is based on propaganda. If you would like evidence of that, read my book Facts, Faith, and Propaganda which can purchased online at this address, https://www.amazon.com/author/adabrownell

Read the first chapter free. A review says the book provides information from both sides without preaching. Just the facts. Remember, however, Peter wrote “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables” (2 Peter 1:16).
~*~
Author bio:

Ada Brownell, a devoted Bible student, has written for Christian publications since age 15 and spent much of her life as a reporter for The Pueblo Chieftain in Colorado. She also is a veteran youth Christian education teacher.

After moving to Missouri in her retirement, she continues to write books, freelance for Sunday school papers, Christian magazines, write op-ed pieces for newspapers, and blogs with stick-to-your-soul encouragement.

She is the author of six books. She is a member of Ozarks Chapter of American Christian Writers and American Christian Fiction Writers. She and her husband have five children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Her historical romance, The Lady Fugitive, is a 2015 finalist for the Clash of the Titles Laurel Award.

~*~
Connect with Ada:
Amazon Author page - http://amzn.to/1OZWrRq
Blog - http://inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com