Book Review: Change of Heart Page Lee Elliston

Copyright 2005

Book One Montana Skies

Megan is on top of the world with a sucessful ranch, a husband that loves her, it seems like she is living the picture perfect life, but when tragedy strikes and her husband dies unexpectedly it feels as if her world is unravelling. She buries herself in the work of her ranch to kind of numb the pain, but eventually she is going to have to face her life, and she will discover that perhaps her heart can love again, when she is faced with two men who like her. Will she love again?

I recomend this book, because though short, at two hundred and thirty pages, it has a lot of good messages in it. Happy Reading!

Michelle R Kidwell

Transforming Change

What is it about change that so often frightens us? Change does not always represent the bad, but so often we find ourselves fearing change. What is new to us can be overwhelming, but change is a necessary part of life.

In the introduction to Joyce Meyers book The Love Revolution she says this:

"Nothing will change in our lives unless each one of us is willing to change."

We all need to do our parts if we want things to really change. I mean really change not some outward change, but a transforming change that goes from the inside and out.

The moment I gave my Heart to Christ something inside me began to change, the emptiness slowly became filled, and I began to see that the true change occurred when I thought less of my wants and needs and found time to care for others as well. We are of course supposed to take care of ourselves, but we do not have to become totally selfish.

Remember what we learned as children "It is better to give than to receive." I remember that, but living that can be hard at first though in time it gets remarkably easier.

"We shall live for others and learn that wonderful secret that what we gives away come back to us many times over." Joyce Meyers The Love Revolution

Part of our calling as Christians is to share the good news with others, and to serve others as Christ served. We are to preach the good news of course, but we are called to do more than just that.

Luke 4:18-19 (New International Version)

 ¹⁸"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
      because he has anointed me
      to preach good news to the poor.
   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
      and recovery of sight for the blind,
   to release the oppressed,
    ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."^[a]

Perhaps now more than ever it is important that we help others. We live in a dark and scary times, and his truth, his love needs to come out in the lives we live. As Christians, we cannot continue to sit idly by, doing nothing.
It is time that we make that transforming change.

 

Hebrews 13:5 (New International Version)

⁵Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
   "Never will I leave you;
      never will I forsake you."

It is time that we stop letting the things of the world, stop us from living in God's will, we have a choice on how we use these things, and I believe it is time we start using them for his glory…

Michelle R Kidwell

May.11.2010

 

Words Can Be A Powerful Weapon and A Healing Gift

"Before saying anything, pass it through three sieves: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?" ~ Amy Carmichael

 

Have you ever said anything and immediately wished you could take the words back, or have been hurt by words yourself? Has anyone said something that made you feel like you were two inches tall? I think we all have been the giver of this kind of pain as well as the giver, after all we are all human right? We are going to make mistakes, we are not perfect, that is Christ and Christ alone who is perfect. As humans we are going to make mistakes, we are not going to always say the right thing, but there are times when we can really mess up, when we can look back and realize that we really messed up, we really hurt someone with our words, or someone hurt us.

 

Some say that actions speak louder than words, and sometimes that can be true, but when words have a negative impact they speak plenty loud enough, and they can really hurt, whenever someone tells you, you are not pretty, you are not smart, or that they simply do not care about you and what you are feeling, then the words speak plenty loud enough.

 

"Yet we must say something when those who are saying the most, say nothing." Augustine Confessions

 

For those of us who write we know the power of words, and the same can be said for those of us who read, are very aware of the power of words, we know that words are a gift from the Lord above and that for those of us who are called to write, we are given a very special gift, we are called to write, and it is up to us how we decide to use that gift.

 

I am sure that some are born to write as trees are born to bear leaves: for these, writing is a necessary mode of their own development. If the impulse to write survives the hope of success, then one is among these. If not, then the impulse was at best only pardonable vanity, and it will certainly disappear when the hope is withdrawn." CS Lewis, Letters from CS Lewis to Arthur Greeves

How are you going to use your words today? Are they going to be a tool to build someone up, or break them down? What do you think Jesus would have you do?

 

 

pe is withdrawn. - C.S. Lewis, Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves

I Won the Sunshine Award

Fellow blogger/Author and Friend Delia Latham has passed on the Sunshine award to me, and I am going to do the same to some of those whose blogs have touchecd me...





Deliah Latham The Melody Within


Lisa Buffaloe Lisa Buffaloes Blog


Tricia Goyer Real Life Inspired

Michelle Sutton Edgy Inspirational Author Blog

Lori Laws: Nothing but the Truth

Persevere...

Miralee Ferrell Novel Journey

What Do You Choose?

Dictionary.com says this about Victory

1 a success or triumph over an enemy in battle or war.

2.

an engagement ending in such triumph: American victories in the Pacific were won at great cost.

3.

the ultimate and decisive superiority in any battle or contest: The new vaccine effected a victory over poliomyelitis.

4.

a success or superior position achieved against any opponent, opposition, difficulty, etc.: a moral victory.

 

We can choose to live a life of victory or we can wallow in self pity, letting every obstacle we face stand in our way. I am not going to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves, or we can wake up and give God the glory… The fact is it is up to us to choose whether we are going to allow our lives to be that of victory or that of defeat.

Living with a disability does not mean we have to live a life of defeat, and the some of us certainly is not defined by our physical abilities, or lack thereof, it is our souls that are more important than our bodies anyway, these bodies are only temporal vessels our souls are going to be part of us even when we die. Our bodies return to the dust from which they were created our souls do not.

1 Peter 1

 ¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
      To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, ²who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:
      Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Praise to God for a Living Hope

 ³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, ⁵who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

 ¹⁰Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, ¹¹trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. ¹²It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

Be Holy

 ¹³Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. ¹⁴As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."^[a]

 ¹⁷Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. ¹⁸For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. ²¹Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

 ²²Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.^[b]
23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴For,
   "All men are like grass,
      and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
   the grass withers and the flowers fall,
    ²⁵but the word of the Lord stands forever."^[c] And this is the word that was preached to you.

Living in victory to me is not necessarily about winning the race, but competing in it, the race we call life, is not about taking what we can out of it, but giving of ourselves, and we can find the victory in that, no matter what our disabilities, no matter what our differences, the choice is ours, we can live our lives for Christ, or we can let the obstacles in our lives drag us down, and let us loose that faith. The choice is ours, I pray I always choose victory over defeat.

 

 

Have We Become Closet Christians?

Whatever happened to being true Christians in every aspect of our lives? Now mind you I am not talking about everyone, but it seems sometimes we have become closet Christians? We will use faith when it suits us, and deny it when it doesn't. A relationship with Jesus should not be something we should just turn on and off, only to use when it suits us, we need to speak for Christ in all aspects of our lives, not just when it suits us, and that includes in our friendships, and everyday relationships. We do not just turn off faith when it seems like it will better suite us, because believe me, it never does. We will eventually pay for our actions, for denying Christ, just because our so called friends are doing that, we can use all the excuses we want, but the fact of the matter is we need to get with the program, and open our eyes to who Christ really is, and live like we love him, not like he was just some kind of fairy tale figure, because Christ is as real as you and I.

Romans 1:18-22

 ¹⁸The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

 ²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

I have learned that we can try and hide from God all we want, we can try to hide our faith all we want, but pretending to be something we are not is not going to work, and God will call us out on it. He is going to make sure we do not put ourselves in place that will ultimately destroy our faith, and if our faith is destroyed, that is on us, our choices our decisions, blaming God isn't going to change anything. We need to stand up, and stop pretending, (those of us) who have become closet Christians. I feel it is time we wore our faith proudly, and stopped trying to fit in simply for the sake of fitting in.

A large part of our nation have become Christian in name only, it is time we stop being Closet Christians, and started wearing our faith proudly.

Don’t You Think God Gets Tired of Our Excuses?

Ephesians 4:13-15 (New International Version)

¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

 ¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

Why is it that so often we do not allow ourselves to grow in Christ, that we become frozen at some point in our walk with Christ, we let hurdles stand in our way, because we cannot see beyond the obstacles that lay in front of us, but in order to grow in faith, we need to move forward, we need to make mistakes, and learn from them, not make mistakes and sulk over them. Or we let them become stumbling blocks to our Faith, we think we can't move forward because we don't allow ourselves to move forward.

Romans 8:28-31 (New International Version)

More Than Conquerors

 ²⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,^[a] who^[b] have been called according to his purpose.
²⁹For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

 ³¹What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

How often do we get mad at a situation and blame God, or get mad at a mistake we made, and blame God? I mean really, who are we to blame God for every little mistake we make? We were given free will, but that does not mean we are not the ones making the mistakes, it often means we are not listening to the Lord speaking to our hearts.

Don't get me wrong I know there are times that things happen that we don't deserve, but every bad thing is not some kind of punishment from God, that we are going through something because we did something wrong, when often that is not the case.

The fact is bad things happen, no matter how good we try to be, and it is up to us how we react to them. We can either let this get us down, or we can use these trials to draw us nearer to the Lord, and stop spending every minute blaming God for every wrong thing in our lives.

I know there are times when we genuinely cry out, when we genuinely don't understand and the Lord is there to listen to us, but we are not being punished every time we stub or toe, or break a finger nail.

We can be secure in God's love for us, even when bad things happen we can see God's love.

I often find myself wondering why so many people fall away when times are tough, either that or go to the other extreme and only pray when they need something instead of taking the time to thank God every day.

Don't you think God gets tired of our excuses when we say we are too busy to pray, to read the word, to fellowship in anyway?

Don't you think he wonders when we can spend hours a day at the computer playing games on different networking sites, but goodness we are just too busy for Church, for prayer, for the Bible.