My husband and I have been married almost 36 years. After a year of separation (he was in Kansas completing his leadership training, I was in California at school), my family drove me out to meet him and we were married a couple of days later on July 16, 1981. We barely knew each other. And we both soon discovered that we were very different people.
Give with Simplicity
In my early days of fellowship with my heavenly Father, I didn’t have a lot of financial or material resources. When I first learned from God’s Word about giving, I thought, “That sounds easy to do, I will give it a try!”
Who Needs It?
All your bills are paid, all your needs are met, and you’ve got some extra money that you would be blessed to share with somebody else. Now the exciting part begins!
One Saturday, as I wrote out our bi-weekly check for a certain percentage of our income to put in the church offering as I had for many years, I thought, “Sherry, are you even thinking about what you’re giving and to whom and why?” I realized it had become just a habit, and I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t really giving with purpose.
You are a unique individual, a bundle of body-soul-spirit, with all your God-given abilities, gifts, strengths,and potential strengths (OK, weaknesses too). You’ve entered the great adventure of life, an odyssey of learning, experience, and achievement to attain the lofty goal of loving God first by following in the steps of your Lord Jesus Christ.
What If the Offender Refuses to Repent?
The Strength to Forgive
After 18 hours of flight on three airplanes, 9 hours waiting in airport terminals,and a 1-1/2 hour train ride, we finally arrived in downtown Melbourne, Australia. Jumping quickly off the tram, each of us with two bulgingly full suitcases in hand, Gene and I began the mile-long trudge back to the gym.
God tells us, His kids, to pray always. But in my early years as a believer, busy with family, job, school, friends, fellowship, traveling, and all those things that seem to keep us busy, I neglected my prayer time with God. Troubles would come up and I’d get serious about it for a while until I received God’s deliverance, then back to busy.
Last October, Gene and I moved away from a small, rural community where we had been living for eleven years.
In Branded by God, Part 1, we established that keeping the unity of the spirit, “…starts with recognizing that each and every born again believer is a member of the body of Christ,” and “no individual believer is any ‘better’ than another, and none is of less value.” That is the essence of the lowliness and meekness toward God and one another that we need to keep the unity of the spirit.