Cleansing

Can I ask a personal question? When was the last time you showered?

If someone told you he hadn't showered in a week, you would be pretty grossed out right? In fact, you would have known beforehand... the stench would have been the tell all. 

When is the last time you read your Bible? Prayed? Repented? Worshipped? Don't take your spiritual shower only on Sundays or you will stink spiritually. As the saying going, "Going to church won't make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car". Just as we shower daily to cleanse ourselves, we must take our spiritual shower daily by spending time alone with God. 

Allow God to cleanse you, to make you whiter than snow as you confess your sins to Him daily, as you spend time with Him in His Word and in prayer, and then, put His Word into practice.

Photo credit: Google

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

- Psalm 51:7

Scripture Reading:

1 John 1:9

Isaiah 1:18

Ezekiel 36:25

Autumn Leaves

Don't you just love the color of the leaves changing in the fall?

As I sat outside one morning, praying, enjoying the cool breeze, admiring the paints God had chosen for the leaves, He brought my mind back to a quote I read the night before. It read, "It's funny how beautiful autumn is when everything is dying".

Allow the green leaves represent the unsaved and the autumn leaves represent the saved. 

As Christians, we are to die to ourselves and live for Him. Just as the leaves are most beautiful as they are dying, we are the most beautiful to God when we die to ourselves.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

- Galatians 2:20 NIV

What's one way you can die to yourself today?

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To read more Bible Verses on dying to self, living for Him, hover over the below Scripture references:

Ephesians 4:22-24

Luke 9:23

John 3:10

Photo credit: Memogram, instawrite

He's Waiting for You

God devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from Him.

- 2 Samuel 14:14d NLT 

How amazing is this? When we are separated from God because of sin, He is in Heaven making plans to bring you back to Him. I mean, seriously, think about that. When you've messed up, while you're beating yourself up, thinking about how you missed it (when you need to just repent, turn from it, and RETURN TO HIM)... God is considering how He can win you back. It may be with that still small voice He uses to speak to you. It may be a song, a sermon, a friend or family member that brings you back to Him. How beautiful it is that He relentlessly pursues us because He is crazy in love with us.

So.. If you've walked away from God, willfully or ignorantly, run back into His Presence right now. Repent. Then let the rays of His glorious presence make you whole. What are you waiting for? He's waiting for you....

Rachel Marie

God is Calling You to Himself

Faithful is He who is calling you [to Himself] and utterly trustworthy, and He will also do it [fulfill His call by hallowing and keeping you].
- 1 Thessalonians 5:24 (AMP)

Wow. Just let that sink in for a moment. God is calling YOU to Himself.

Maybe you've turned your back on God. Maybe you have never come to Him at all. Maybe you think you have messed up too bad, done too much wrong. Maybe you've been rejected and abandoned by so many people, you can't imagine why a holy, flawless God would want you.

But He does. God did not create one single person He did not want a personal relationship with. Let me reiterate: Faithful is He Who is calling you to Himself. Yes, you!

Maybe you're thinking.. "What if I'm addicted to drugs? Porn? Gambling?.... What if I've committed adultery? Been divorced? Had sex outside of marriage? Practiced homosexuality? Prostitution?"

Allow me to let you in on a little secret: No matter what you've done, if you come to God, He will make you whiter than snow. Yes, all of the above are sins. The wages of sin is death (hell- see Romans 6:23). BUT GOD.. sent His son Jesus.. to condemn sin in the flesh... to pay the price once and for all for your sins so that YOU might be saved. You can come to Him, repent, and turn from your sin today and start a new life. You don't have to clean your life up BEFORE you come to Jesus. Come to Jesus as you are and He will help you clean your life up. Without sin, we wouldn't be in need of a Savior. Fact is, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Without Jesus, every single one of us would be headed straight to hell, myself included. Jesus has the power to set you free from any and all of the sins listed above, and any of the ones I failed to mention.

"Come now, let's settle this," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool."
-- Isaiah 1:18 (NLT)

Jesus was questioned by the "religious people" of His day for hanging out with the drunks, the tax collectors, the "especially wicked sinners (AMP)". His reply was that, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick" (Matt. 9:12). Jesus came for people exactly like this to bring salvation.

Guess who anointed Jesus with her alabaster box? A sinful woman. Because of her repentance, her many sins were forgiven. She had such a beautiful, unbridled worship of our Lord Jesus, as she washed His feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. I imagine that out of gratefulness, she lived a life filled with dedication to Jesus, after this encounter. Jesus said, "Whoever is forgiven little loves little (Luke 7:37b)". We know that this woman was forgiven much and loved much.

Jesus deliberately went through Samaria In John 4 to meet the woman at the well. Her background? Previously, she had 5 husbands and at the time of her encounter with Jesus, she was shacking up. He sought out this woman to save her and set her free. Through her testimony, many others came to hear Him and were saved.

Paul killed Christians prior to His encounter with Jesus. He ended up leading many to Christ, as well as writing 13 books of the Bible. Clayton Jennings puts it like this: "I serve the same God who turned a killer into an Apostle". This same God is calling on you today.

Jesus already paid the price for your salvation. The only question is: Are you willing to accept it?

10) And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and [especially wicked] sinners came and sat (reclined) with Him and His disciples. 

11) And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and those [preeminently] sinful? 

12) But when Jesus heard it, He replied, Those who are strong and well (healthy) have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick. 

13) Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy [that is, readiness to help those in trouble] and not sacrifice and sacrificial victims. For I came not to call and invite [to repentance] the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with God), but sinners (the erring ones and all those not free from sin).

- Matthew 9:10-13 (AMP)