Speak Jesus

March 22, 2022March 23, 2022 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Lent devotional 18

I will speak Jesus and the devil will flee because he knows that name and what it means for him.
Darkness is inevitable, there will always be darkness in this world because it is dying. People cling desperately to things that don’t matter, trying to make it feel like they aren’t about to be consumed. But there is a name the darkness knows and flees from. Speak Jesus. The devil will lie to you. He will try to make you feel lost, left behind, confused, worthless. Speak Jesus. He will show you that you are found, accepted, loved, wanted, valued. Jesus is coming back to take us home. The darkness of this world will not haunt us in the presence of Jesus. Where Jesus is there is no fear. He is light. Brilliant light. When this world dies we won’t be with it. Imagine seeing Jesus coming and picking us up in his arms and laughing and smiling, holding us close and saying, ‘come on precious, let’s go home.’
Jesus drives away darkness, present darkness and eternal darkness.

Devotional · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent · Love

Fear no darkness

March 20, 2022March 20, 2022 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Lent devotional 17

There will always be people who want to stomp on your light and squash it out. But remember that -like a glow stick- when stepped on, part of your light will stick to them as they walk away. Even when they hurt you, because your light scares their darkness, God can use that moment to stick a bit of Himself to them so that eventually they find Him and their darkness fades with His glory. Don’t be afraid of the negative moments that you have with people, because if you show yourself a true believer and respond by turning the other cheek it will scare the negative people off, because they don’t know how to deal with that. And you never know what God has done through you in that moment.

Devotional · Jesus · lent · Love · True Joy

Oranges

March 20, 2022March 23, 2022 carriedinthecross1 Comment

Lent devotional 16

Never forget the imortance of oranges. They are sweet and full of vitamins. You can use every part except the stem in food, they are a bright pop of color annnnnnd, they didn’t need to exist. The world and every animal or insect that eats oranges would have been fine eating a different fruit, in fact, the world only requires 1 fruit that has the same nutrients as oranges or grapefruit or any of the other fruit in that catagory. That’s why they are so important, because the world doesn’t need them, God simply chose to make them. It pleased Him to create them because He knew we would enjoy eating them. God cares about the little things that make us smile. He takes of the big stuff too, but He also likes to give good gifts to His children, sweet things that are unnecessary, like oranges.

Devotional · Jesus · lent

St.Patrick, the true story

March 18, 2022March 18, 2022 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Lent devotional 15

Patrick

In the midst of human sacrifices and superstitious fear the voice of a mother holding a sick child cried out, “with all the gods we serve is there no god of mercy?”
In the same area, out in the fields with his flock, cried another voice, “as a slave in the land of my captivity I have found freedom in you God.” That was the beginning of Patrick’s mission to Ireland, he wasn’t even Irish, but he was a Christian. As a boy his father’s religous pious irritated him, but as a captive in a new land, brought as a slave by Marauders, he found that his mind traveled back to God. Alone with his sheep Patrick prayed about everything, and found God near and ready to answer. After God caused Patrick’s sheep to be the only healthy livestock after a year of drought, the man was then brought before the clan chief. Patrick gave all the credit to the one true God who saw him in his weakness and helped him. This caused the chief’s wife to ask Patrick to pray for her son. After God healed the bed ridden child the clan’s priest devised to have Patrick killed, but our loving Father made a way for his servant to Escape and find his way by boat back home. Then after troubling dreams Patrick returned to Ireland twenty years later to find the human sacrifies to have gotten considerably worse, as had the famine and disease. The priest of the clan ,after seeing Patrick had returned, demanded the man walk the ‘trial of fire’ to prove his God true. Patrick agreed to walk fire laced walkway to the pyre for sacrifies but said that the priest of the pegan gods had to walk with him. Without looking back to see if the pegan priest followed, Patrick strode to the fire and prayed to God in his heart, we don’t know what he prayed but I suspect it went something along the lines of ‘but even if you don’t God, my trust is in you.’ Patrick had ash and flame fall all around him, but like the three Hebrew boys in Nebuchadnezzar’s day, no flame touched him; the clothes of the other man, however, lit on fire and he ran away.
After that Patrick and the son of the chief went through Ireland spreading the gospel and telling people, ‘yes, there is a God of hope and mercy, His name is Jesus.’
The true story of Patrick makes you realize why he was so important to so many people, because he was just one more reminder of what happens when God is in control.

Disclaimer
This story rendition is taken from the story done on St. Patrick by the Christian History Institute. If anything doesn’t seem possible or accurate to you in this story please take it up with them. For me, I started to realize that God makes the impossible possible a long time ago, as for accurate, I have to believe that the people who have degrees in historical study know what they are talking about.

Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent

Sit on your spot and don’t move, ‘kay God?

March 17, 2022March 17, 2022 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Lent devotional 14

I don’t want Jesus to simply have a place in my life, I want Him to have my whole life.

There are times when I feel like I am telling God to wait His turn. I’m busy right now God, give me a second to finish this please. Will He wait? Yes. Should He have to? No. It’s like I’ve put God into a spot in my life and He gets His time but has to stay put. Remember when we were kids and we sat in Children’s Church or Kindergarten and we had a mat to sit on? That was our spot and the floor was lava so we had to stay on our spot as the teacher read. There are days when I feel like I have given God a listening mat to sit on and that’s where I tell Him to stay. But as Stormie Omartan said once, I had let God into a room in my heart and had locked the door. That was where He supposed to be. But He kept knocking on the door to the next room until I opened it. Then the next one. And the next. Until I threw open all the doors d simply said ‘here God, I am yours’. That’s us. God doesn’t want a mat or a room, He wants all of us. He desreves all of us. What area of your life have you locked God out of? Pray, and ask Him to give you the courage to open the door and let Him in to every area of your life.

Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · guidance · Jesus · lent · searching

Sheltered by sin?

March 16, 2022March 16, 2022 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Lent devotional 13

The black haron circles it’s wings around it’s body and makes a canopy to imitate shelter and create shade. This way fish swim under it, thinking it is safe, when really it’s a trap.
The devil is like the black haron. He creates things, places and people that look safe, they look like a shelter, but in truth they are a trap to draw you in. The common lie the devil uses is the lie of acceptance. Christians are becoming more and more accepting; not of people, accepting people is not a new thing, Jesus has always required and encouraged that, but of accepting sin. We do the ‘I have to accept their sin to accept them’ dance, and all we end up doing is opening ourselves to cause the same sins. The people are not their sin, we are not our sin, Jesus accepts us with open arms and a heart full of love, but He does not accept our sin to come with us. He doesn’t accept the sin, He accepts us despite the sin. We do not have to accept the sin to accept the person, we do not have to act like the sin is okay to love the sinner. Saying that the sin in okay is simply a way to not be faced with the anger of a person who doesn’t want to stop sinning but does want to go to Heaven, you can’t have both. We are all sinners and people who fall short of Christ, but we repent of our sins- sometimes we repent of the same sin a thousand times a day- but we acknowledge that it is wrong, we ask for forgiveness and we try to not do it again. You can not cling to sin and claim it as okay and be a Christian, but the devil wants us to fall into being tolerant so that we let darkness slip in without realizing it. Be tolerant of the person yes, but not of the sin that binds them. If we became tolerant of the sin that binds us we would not be a new creation in Christ, our lives would not be changed, we would be the same person we were before we accepted Jesus into our lives and what point would there be in that? Now, coming to Jesus will not immidiately change you so your sin is no longer pestering you, and we may even fall back into that sin after coming to God. Sin looks like a safe place sometimes. It’s the devil trying to hold us down and keep us back from God, and he doesn’t want to give up his hold on us, so don’t be discouraged if you find yourself in a battle against your sin and don’t seem to be winning, hang in there, persistance will drive the devil away. If everytime you sin you choose to confess it to God the devil will get uncomfortable, if everytime you feel like you are about to sin and start to pray you will defeat the devil’s hold in your life. We all sin. Everyday. The differnence is when we confess our sins and start new with Jesus, each time, no matter how many times that is. We cannot be tolerant to sin and say it’s okay because that is like saying the devil is okay, but we must always be loving and accepting of the people, because those people are us too. Turn away from the sin chains that hold you down and know that Jesus loves you, He sees that you are trying, and doing your best- even when you fall back and have to try again- and He is fighting with you, and He always loves you. He doesn’t love our sin, He can’t, but He always loves us.

Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · guidance · Jesus · lent

Know my heart?

March 15, 2022 carriedinthecross1 Comment

Lent devotional 12

Psalm 139: 23
Search me oh God and know my heart.

This is a a scary verse. I know people quote it like it’s something soothing or peaceful, but it’s scary. We are literally asking God to search us, to test us, we are putting ourselves into His hands and saying ‘come on in God and de-clutter as you see fit.’ That’s scary. You don’t know what God will want to throw away from your life that He doesn’t like, it may be something of great value to you, and suddenly it’s gone. This is a verse of complete surrender. You do not say this verse lightly. Being rid of things that God does not want in your life is always a good thing, but that doesn’t make it easy. But when God is your ultimate, when He is your everything, your life will have a new direction, you will become more steadfast, you will have greater peace. Don’t say this verse if you don’t mean it, and if you say it and do mean it then be ready for God to do some throwing away, and have Faith that the end result will be worth the loss.

Christianity · Devotional · guidance · Jesus · lent

In the end

March 13, 2022March 13, 2022 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

Lent devotional 12

In the last days we need to come together as Christians, Jews and Gentiles together in one community. Then later we will all gather together with God in Heaven. -Dr. David Jeremiah

We need the strength of our fellow Christians as we watch the world fall apart. Not everyone will stay as the Church feels the pain of the end coming, but don’t be afraid when people leave, just know that you belong to God and keep on holding onto Him. Even if it is a frayed string on the end of His robe DON’T LET GO, EVER!

Christianity · dreams do come true · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent

Just a rock

March 13, 2022 carriedinthecross1 Comment

Lent devotional 11

What if I look deep inside and find no gems? What of I’m just a rock? -Whisper of the heart

We all want to be someone special; we all want to be a woman or man whose name is written in the stars, and most of us fear the same thing, we fear that after a lifetime of searching for gems deep inside we will discover that we are just rocks. Plain. Boring. Not special at all.
That fear can manifest itself in our forcing ourselves into a tallent that we don’t really possess. For years I have tried to teach myself how to draw and, as like all things you work at, I have gotten steadily better. I could never make a career of being a painter or drawer, that’s not my talent, but I wanted to see if I could improve myself because I wanted to. But what if I decided that drawing was my special gem inside myself, even though I was not gifted in this type of art? I could spend a lifetime trying to hone a gem that was not there and end up looking back at my life with discouragement. We fear being just a rock when so many others shine so brightly. We don’t want to feel like nothing. But being a bright and shining star doesn’t make those people better than you, just because they get more applause and have the spotlight. Don’t forget, stars are mostly helium and hydrogen, beautiful hot air. Guess what rocks are made out of? Most rocks are made out of microscopic, fused together, crystals. Even a stone slab covered in grafitti on the side of a bridge is filled with gems, they are just too small to see, but they make up the stone’s substance. Don’t fight your whole life trying to become a gemstone in fear of only being a rock, all rocks are gemstones in some way. Be yourself. Be who God created you to be. If He made you a singer then sing, even if it’s only for the Church worship team. If God made you a painter, paint, even if it’s ceilings in a hotel loby. If God made you fast, then run, who knows? You might win the Olympics. Don’t doubt the value of being a rock, and don’t work to written in the stars, just work to be written in God’s book.

Blog · Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent · searching

Breathing

March 12, 2022March 12, 2022 carriedinthecrossLeave a comment

In….out…..in

Breathing. Have you ever considered breathing? I don’t mean doing it, that’s required, I mean the action of breathing. Breathing is one of the few things that absolutely everything alive does. Bugs breathe, plants and flowers breathe, animals breathe, fire breathes, we breathe, I have heard it said that water breathes- though don’t ask me how. Everything-that is alive-breathes. Why? No idea. There is no reason that the human body should require air to breathe except the fact that God decided that that was how it should work. Truly. Scientists say:

“Breathing is part of a process called respiration. During respiration, a living thing takes in oxygen from the air and gives out carbon dioxide. This process gives animals and plants the energy to eat, grow, and live life!” -10 interesting facts about air-NASA

That is correct, obviously, but that doesn’t explain why that is necessary. Why do we need a respiratory system? Why does the body need to take in oxygen to produce energy? Why not make it produce energy without air? ( Let’s not get into the energy produced by the sun or this post will be too long.) You may ask my point for this line of questioning, here it is. What is the most constantly ignored and taken for granted function of life, until it is gone? Breathing. God made a complex and masterful design when creating the living organism and we need to remember just how amazing our bodies are. So how about right now we sit for 10 seconds and focus on breathing, and just how amazing breathing is.