A Little Fun…

The lunar New Year started on the 25th. Completed this update a few days late due to lugging boxes out of storage wore me out each day.

Have a great year!

Love, Dawn and Buddy

PS. Have a Gouda year!

Handling Criticism: Who’s Holding Your Hand? Jude 1:24

Buddy Looking Upward From The Other Side

Buddy is looking through the screen door at my previous home, requesting entrance. As a dog, he isn’t wondering about what the future holds: He is focused on getting into his home from the outside.

As pop culture continues to encourage people to abandon God, Christians are increasingly subjected to open mockery and legal persecution. Recent information shows that 70% of children who are raised in the Church are abandoning Jesus when they get to college. Atheism, though illogical, continues to dominate so-called critical thinking.

Please remember: When someone mocks you for your Christian beliefs, to remember that your ultimate destination is Heaven, which is so wonderful that both the apostles Paul and John were incapable of fully describing Heaven when given a glimpse.

When you leave this current life you will “stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.”–Jude 1:24

It’s not easy to always remember to keep your focus on a future blessing when you’re suffering now. It’s easy to allow your self-defense mechanisms kick into autopilot, becoming silent, angry or argumentative in response. But I challenge you to condsider this:

On Judgment Day, is that person or persons who is mistreating you going be holding your hand and defending you before the Lord?

Obviously not. They’re not going to give you a single thought because all they’re going to be focused on and worrying about is the great Lord on His mighty throne, surrounded by lightning bolts and a rainbow while they tremble in fear.

The only One Who will be holding your hand, even thinking about you at all, will be the Lord Jesus, Our Advocate before the Father’s throne. (1 John 2:1)

Instead, have mercy on the one who is condemning you, because they have no clue about the terror they are going to experience on Judgment Day when God separates the sheep from the goats and casts out those who reject Him.

As Apostle Paul stated to the Philippians that we are not to be “in no way alarmed by your opponents–which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you…” (Philippians 1:28)

I don’t claim to be perfect in this regard, but I’m trying with God’s help. I hope it helps you to maintain your joy as you walk through life.

Have a blessed evening.

Love from Dawn and Buddy

***

Jesus stated that the path to eternal punishment was broad (Matthew 7:13); it is the path most people will follow. But you don’t have to follow the culture. Join the true CounterCulture and yield your life to Jesus.

Because God is perfect and holy, He is a just God who punishes evil. However, because He loves us, He sent Jesus Christ to earth to be punished for our sins instead. All you have to do is confess that you are a sinner, deserving of judgment, and ask Jesus to enter your life and heart and be Your Lord. That means that you want to repent and start following God and His ways written down in the Bible instead of listening to what the culture says is right and wrong. Please confess and ask Him to be your Lord and God. And that you believe that Jesus was crucified to pay for your sins and was resurrected bodily to prove that He was God in the flesh, Immanuel (Matthew 1:23). If you did pray, please find a Bible-based church to learn about God and to fellowship with other believers, who can encourage you to stay the course on the “narrow path that leads to life” (Matthew 7:14).

And everlasting joy!

It’s Hard Not To Fret! Hebrews 1:11

I am progressively moving boxes out of my storage unit into my condo. I am not a strong person so I don’t want to transport and carry the boxes up the stairwell into my home in one day, so am doing it a few at a time till my intended move-out date.

Buddy insists on coming with me in the car and particularly enjoys visiting my storage unit. I have no idea why he enjoys it but he seems to like to observe what I am doing.

I don’t want Buddy to get knocked on the head, so I usually rope him to the adjacent unit, leaving my keys nearby for him to guard. This time, I also left my cellphone next to him. Usually I don’t bring my phone with me and but usually leave it in the car, but I thought, “What if I get locked in down there (my unit is in the basement) and need to call for help?” So I took it along.

After removing several boxes and setting them onto my cart, I locked the unit and then untied Buddy. I was preoccupied with Buddy and forgot my phone on the cement floor.

Later that night, I wanted to make a phone call and realized that I did not have my phone. I looked everywhere. By then it was dark and I had to use a flashlight to investigate the ground around my condo; I looked several times everywhere that I had walked Buddy with no luck. It was nowhere in my car nor my condo.

After searching for a few hours, I got confused and couldn’t recall where I’d last held or seen the phone. I kept praying and asking God about it.

This verse came to mind while praying: “Do not be anxious about anything,…”. Apostle Paul admonished the Philippians in his letter, verse 4:6, not to worry but to trust God.

I asked the Lord to give me a new idea of where to look as I’d run out of ideas and He knew where it was. The image of my cell phone on the floor by my storage unit came to mind. I’d thought I’d picked it up but as I’d said above, confusion had already set in, particularly as I was tired from being anxious.

I pictured Jesus in the boat, sleeping peacefully and trusting God even though the boat was being swamped with water because of an unusually severe storm on the lake. That is how I should have slept, nice and peaceful trusting that the situation was in God’s hands.

But I didn’t sleep peacefully, trusting in God.

You see, I was worrying about all the photos of my adorable Buddy on my phone that I had not yet downloaded and may never see again. And the cost of purchasing a new phone when I wanted to wait for Apple to upgrade their current phone to the G5 network.

I was worrying, even though I knew I shouldn’t.

Hebrews 11:1 defines what faith is:

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

One of my favorite verses in Psalms is 57:2:

“I will cry to God Most High, to God Who accomplishes all things for me.”

As I was praying, God had already reassured me not to worry and had given me an image of where the phone was. But because I could NOT SEE the phone in my hot little hand, I lacked faith that all was well. Unlike Jesus, I fretted and didn’t sleep well. As a result, I woke up the next day exhausted and not able to accomplish the task I’d set myself for the day before attending an evening class.

Thank goodness that God is forgiving when we confess our sins (1 John 1:9). I confessed my lack of faith, knowing that Jesus had already taken the punishment for my sin on the cross. God was not going to punish me for my lack of faith.

I had punished myself by fretting.

And, yes, the next morning, after the storage unit had reopened for the day, I found my cell phone exactly where the Holy Spirit had already revealed it was to me during prayer. No one had picked it up and made off with it.

You can bet that I started downloading my Buddy photos that same night.

Please remember that God accomplishes all things for those who love Him. He loves His children and helps them in times of trouble. He never promised a problem free life but to assist us when trouble comes.

God bless you this year in 2020.

Love from Dawn and Buddy

***

God loves and helps His children. But the Apostle John makes it clear in the gospel of John, verses 1:12-13:

“But as many as received Him (Christ Jesus), to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born…of God.”

Every human being is a creation of God, but not a child of God. Therefore, if you are not born again (John 3:1-3), ie. do not believe in Christ, you cannot claim God’s promises in the Bible. Because God is loving, He does a lot of good for people who do not know or love Him, but God’s revealed promises in the Bible cannot be claimed.

Why not start the New Year with a new 2020 vision of your future by praying the below prayer of faith:

Dear Father, I confess that I have sinned and fallen short of your righteous standards. I deserve Your judgment. But Jesus, God in the flesh, died on the Cross to take the punishment for my sin that I deserve. Please forgive my sin and make me a new creation in Christ by circumcising my heart by the Holy Spirit. I want to be born again.

If you are truly repentant, the Holy Spirit will abide in you and make you complete in Christ, connecting you to God. Please find a godly, Bible-based church to learn about, and grow, in Christ. I also recommend the radio and TV ministries of Charles Stanley (InTouch.org), Michael Youssef (LTW.org), and Basic Gospel (BasicGospel.net).

Have a great year as a new believer!