You be perfect, or your life be perfect?

I have been sitting on this for a long time now. Much prayer, bible research and consulting with fellow believers have happened in regards to this subject and I do feel I have come to a conclusion on the matter.

Let us start with this scripture in Matthew 5:48 (NIV):
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Now, this scripture can be quoted, but sometimes it leads into "......and so must your life be perfect, or else you are not trusting in God enough." So with this mindset, if something comes into my life, let's just use Cancer as an example here, then if I am diagnosed with Cancer it is my fault somehow that this is happening to me. That I don't trust God enough. Please note that this is the same type of talk that Job's friends laid out on him and God was displeased with them. God even had Job pray and make sacrifices on their behalf because they were wrong, and were just feeding Job lies and deception.

This mindset can also set people up for disappointment. They think that their life here should be perfect, so when something happens (like a car accident, sickness, etc.) they condemn themselves that they weren't good enough for God. Or worse, they could even blame God.

But this leads me to another scripture, one that Jesus spoke, in John 16:33 (NIV)
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

We can have peace and confidence in God no matter what we are going through. God looks at our heart, and wants us to make the right choices while we are here in this life. Jesus tells us that this world, the fallen creation, will give us trouble. But He has given us peace to go through it. His grace is sufficient.

So after much prayer, I have come to the solid conclusion that the "PERFECT" scripture simply means what it says. It means for me to be perfect. Period. How I handle things, decisions I am to make, how I am living my life, etc. Those are things that I am able to control and have a choice about. I am to live my life with the guidance of God's Holy Spirit and to love and trust in God with my whole heart. To allow God's peace to overcome my anxiety, depression, fears, etc.

Jesus did not have a perfect life here on Earth. But he handled His life perfectly. Even though he was falsely imprisoned, ridiculed, beaten, betrayed and crucified, He handled it perfectly. He did not curse God, denounce God, choose sin or any of the like. It wasn't WHAT He was going through, but HOW He was going through it that made Him perfect.

Now, let us back up to another scripture that is right before that first one I quoted. Go to Matthew 5:45 (NIV):
He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

This tells us right here that blessings (God's sun) can fall on the righteous believer AND ALSO the non-believer. And the opposite is true that cursings (God's rain) can fall on both, too. So while we are in this world, under the new covenant, it does not matter what comes our way in this life. What does matter, is our heart. How are we living our life and going through our circumstances? With His peace? With a trusting heart? With faith? With Him?

There are many other scriptures that can turn this into a novel. Just a few of them that you can research yourself are:
2Timothy 2:8-10
1Peter 1:6 and
1Peter 4:12-13
This is just three (out of many) examples of the early believers not having a perfect life,
but they were perfect in God's sight.

The disciples lives were not perfect when judging only their circumstances. They were stoned, beaten, murdered, imprisoned, etc. Jesus' life was not perfect either if you based it solely on WHAT He was going through. So what gave us the idea that we are to have better lives than they did? We can all be perfect in HOW we handle our circumstances, but to say that we will be immune to any nose sniffle, stubbed toe or flat tire is living in a mindset that needs to broken.

...Yes, I was throwing out some sarcasm there about the stubbed toe stuff, but if one thinks that NOTHING bad should happen in their life, then that includes EVERYTHING that isn't good. So a stubbed toe, getting the flu, spraining an ankle, etc. wouldn't ever be classified as good stuff, right? So where is the line drawn if you have that mindset? Cancer, bad. Stuffy nose, good. Broken bone, bad. Sprained ankle, good. This is very dangerous ground to be walking on, thinking like a self-righteous judge. So here I will bring it to a close.

Recommended readings on this subject:
Frank Viola / The Untold Story of the New Testament
--the disciples went through trials
William Young / The Shack
--we live in a fallen world

Recommended songs:
Don Francisco / Give Your Heart A Home
--God can help your heart no matter what you are going through
Keith Green / Create In Me A Clean Heart
--It is a matter of our heart, that is where our choice for heaven is

God has a bum rap

God is real, and so is Satan. Jesus had said that Satan is the prince and ruler of the land. His ways are; lying, deceit, anger, bitterness, etc, etc. We are all born into learning the ways of Satan before we learn the ways of God.

That is where the phrase 'born-again' comes from. Since we are physically born into Satans ways, we need to spiritually be born into Gods ways in order to enter Heaven.

What I don't understand is when something bad happens to people, why is God the one immediately blamed for it? The scriptures say that Satan comes to rob us, steal from us and destroy us. When these things happen, why do people blame God for it and not Satan?

If someone dabbles in witchcraft, occult ways, ouija boards, tarot cards, psychics, etc. (all part of Satans domain) then why is God to blame when something wrong happens in their life? Those aren't things of God. People who choose to do those things are not choosing to have God in their life, so how can God bless them and protect them?

I pray that God's bum rap will be revoked, and the proper blame will be placed on the father of all lies and deceit: Satan.

-JOHN 10:10
-JOHN 8:44

A sacrifice

Jesus sacrificed His life so that we may enter Heaven through Him (there is no other way to get into Heaven). That is such a powerful sacrifice; He set aside His diety to be flesh on Earth, and without doing any wrong, He was killed and His blood was shed for us.

What sacrifice are we now required to make?

"Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name." - Hebrews 13:15 NLT

Can we do this? It actually sounds simple: Praise and thank God throughout my day. However, when my day is filled with emotions, fear, discord, busy-ness, etc. I do not always stop and make that sacrifice.

My goal throughout the rest of my life: To thank and praise God in the midst of my days, regardless of what I am going through.

I am reminded of a saying, "It is not WHAT we go through, but HOW we go through it." It is a matter of our heart.

Be Free, Be Clean, and Trust Him

At times in our spiritual lives

we can be like this heavy laden tree

The ice and snow piled up so much

that the weight of it is too heavy

The tree needs to wait for the warmth of the sun

and the light that will shine through the cold and dark

In the meanwhile, surrounded by many upright trees

that show forth strength in spite of the weight on its bark

In times of trials we can easily get weighed down

allowing the weight to overtake us, squelching our Spirit inside

We need to quickly turn to the Lord in all His glory and light

to thaw out and diminish all our burdens, even the ones that hide

He will surround us with those who can encourage and help us through

People that have the strength and prayer we need to overcome it all

The weight wants us to hibernate, telling us that we are all alone

but God will break through our thoughts and pick us up from our fall

So it seems that the only difference between us and this tree is choice

The tree is subject to nature, but we are not subject to the world around us

Through Jesus we have the choice to overcome whatever storm comes our way

To be freed up from the burden, cleaned off from the heaviness, and in Him we trust

-PSALM 91

Clean Hands - Pure Heart

In this post, I will let the scriptures speak for themselves. Please take your time with the post and even print it out if needed. Much power resides in God's word, and should be taken seriously. I pray this helps each one who reads it.


He who has clean hands and a pure heart will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Savior. They are those who will ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place. -PSALM 24:3-5

Wash your hands you sinners and
purify your hearts you double-minded. -JAMES 4:8

Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say: We have sinned and rebelled -LAM 3:41-42


CLEAN HANDS-
According to the cleanness of my hands, God rewarded me -PSALM 18:20-24

Lift up holy hands in prayer without anger or disputing -1TIM 2:8

The righteous will hold to their ways and those with clean hands will grow stronger -JOB 17:9

Dont work on your own, that will give you dirty hands. Work with God. He will do it all, that is a gift to you, just trust Him. And do not boast afterwards that you did it on your own
-refer to EPH 2 and ROMANS 4


PURE HEART-
It is with one heart that you believe and are justified and with your mouth that you confess and are saved -ROMANS 10:10

It is with your heart and mouth that you may glorify God -ROMANS 15:6

Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God -MATT 5:8

If you have doubts hidden in your belief, then you are double-minded and unstable. Out of the abundance of your heart, your mouth will speak.
-refer to JAMES 1:6-8 and LUKE 6:45

Clean hands? Pure heart?

That is our goal.

I am ....yes, I AM!

In John, Jesus spoke out all that He is. He said "I AM" over 50 times to tell all who had ears to hear (even His ears heard!) who He is. Speak out loud so your ears hear who you are....

All that Jesus is, I AM.
I have authority over thoughts, foolish impulses & feelings.
I have wisdom to quickly recognize an attack of the enemy.
I am the spotless bride.
I am beautiful, wise, virtuous and dignified.
My Husband abounds me with His love.
I cannot take my eyes off of Him, for if I did I would have to rely on my own power and might.
He loves me and He protects me no matter where I am.
If a bag of burden is handed to me, I let my Husband carry it for me since it is His desire to.
I encourage Him and long to converse with Him.
He is always there to talk to, to love on, to encourage and to thank.
My Husband is maker of all things, above all things, and before all things.
I am blessed with every spiritual blessing.
I have holy hands.
I can lay hands on anyone who is sick and incomplete because of who is in me.
He abides in me because I abide in Him.
I am a soldier in an army that has already won!
I am God's General that uses faith as my shield and the Word as my sword.
I am not afraid to stand and fight, I bless myself by surrounding myself with enemies of God and feast on it.
I fear no man, what can mere man do to me? Look who is in me!
I have a light, I have the equipment and I have the directions for the lost. Follow me!
I AM BIGGER THAN I EVER IMAGINED MYSELF TO BE.
I AM ALL THAT JESUS IS.
I AM.


In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him], because as He is, so are we in this world.
-1John 4:17 (AMP)

Fishing, His way

This is one of my first revelations that God gave me. It is in reference to Mark 1:17, Then Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men."

I am ready to hold my pole
Help me with the bait
Give me wisdom where to cast
Strength and patience to reel in
And love to capture

The fish are in a swamp choking on cloudy water, getting stuck in the seaweed and dying. God has an ocean of fresh water for them to live in. We are the 'in-between' helping them out of the swamp (worlds way) into the ocean (Gods way). What the fish do from there is between them and God.


For Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were fishers and still continue to fish (through their writings). They are very distinct individuals and use their own techniques. The intent is the same and so is the end result but each have their own special and unique relationship with the Lord.