You're Not Guilty Anymore! - A Dose of Encouragement

Two years ago I was asked to pray for someone I had never met.

Someone who was depressed and although I was not given much information on this person I was told that they did not think they were "good enough".

Now you may immediately think that we need to know in what way they feel like this to be able to pray for them but that is not so.  Even though we may not have details, God knows them and understands them better than anyone else ever can.

I prayed for this girl and prayed for the person who I knew would have most contact with her because they would need to know God's guidance in this situation.

I knew that I really could not do much more than pray for this person but I longed to be able to reach out in some other way so I prayed about that also.

Each morning Fred & I would pray about this situation after breakfast and then about a month later one day we were driving along in the car listening to some music when suddenly we heard a song that we had never listened to before but instantly it drew my attention.

There was something about the tune that was special but really it was the words that captured me.

The song was called "Not Guilty Anymore"  by Aaron Keyes.

I just kept clicking back to the start of the song so that we heard it over and over again.

Most of the worship songs we sing are of our feelings towards God but this was a song more like God talking to us.

It's a song that seeks to help us get out of the negative thinking and into that positive realm of realising just exactly what God has done for us and what it means to be on the receiving end of His great mercy.

Do you know how God views you?

We need to know how He sees us because of His Mercy to us through Jesus.

If you are a child of God, you have already received His mercy so believe and trust in that because you are not guilty anymore through the blood of Jesus.

If you have not repented of your sins and accepted God's forgiven and salvation then He still wants you to know that His mercy and salvation is offered to you.  He wants you to come to the place in your life where He can tell you that you're not guilty anymore.

You're not guilty anymore - Mercy of God!

I felt that God had given me this song at this time to be able to pass it on to this person we had been praying for to let her know how special she was to God.  So I looked up Aaron Keyes on YouTube and got the link for the song and passed it on not a hard thing to do but a difference was made.

I'd like to pass it on to you here as an encouragement especially for you because YOU are special to God too.

I had also been asked to speak at a ladies meeting later that year and had felt God impressing Mercy on me as my topic so I'm sure you can guess that I ended with this song that evening too.


If you are interested to know more about God's Plan of Salvation please watch the short 3-2-1 Video in the sidebar on the right.

Happiness, Happiness. - A Dose of Encouragement

If you are in the UK and can remember back quite a few years you may be able to remember a song called "Happiness"

It was recorded in the 60s but was extremely well-known for many years.

I was in the bathroom running a bath last Thursday afternoon when suddenly I started to sing this old song.  Now I was headed out later in the day for a doctor's appointment and if anyone had asked me if I was happy I probably would have thought I wasn't really so why was I singing this song?

Well here is the reason

In a post last year I talked about 5 Little Touches I had used to make the bathroom of this house mine as opposed to just being the bathroom I ended up with from the previous owners of the house.

One of these things was my bath pillow which I got new because my old one was too well worn.

I had noticed this one in a bargain shop called B&M  which I love to browse round any time I am near it.  I knew it would match the decor and it just made me smile to look at it.  It is also extremely soft.

So obviously as I was preparing my bath I had subconsciously noticed the bath pillow and the chorus of that song just popped into my head.

I had some time to think about those words and how I felt while singing them as I soaked in my nice, long, hot bubble bath.

I have been blessed with a lot of happiness as well as joy.

I am often happy about little things that may seem silly to others I just love to have a laugh at some of the silly things that made me happy.

And I am very thankful to God for being like that and finding happiness in little things.

But it was the first sentence that I really started to dwell on as I lay in that bath.

Yes I could say that God had gifted me with things to make me happy or even say He had gifted me with Happiness although it is not the greatest thing that He has given me.

But what about the fact that happiness is something we can help to give to others.

We can give various things to others but do we give them something to make them happy?

What about those little letters and cards we talked about 2 weeks ago in the post Tears over a Little Letter?

Of course making someone happy does not always involve giving them an actual physical object.

We can bring happiness into someone's life in many other ways.

Maybe we can help them out with a task that they can't do for themselves or just give them some support like in I Had Plans a post from last year.

I have another object in my bathroom that reminds me of something else.

What about helping someone to come to know the saving grace of the Lord Jesus so that they can know His forgiveness of their sin and become a child of God?

Share with them the knowledge of the greatest gift God has for them.

Yes, Happiness is not the greatest gift God has given me because here is the greatest gift in this verse, the gift of Salvation.  

The words of that song may not be completely true but they did nudge me into thinking about happiness, and I do thank God that I am blessed with happiness and also the deep joy of knowing Him.

So let's be encouraged to go and share some happiness with others.

Perhaps then some day you will be able to share the Bible verse with them as well.

I Love Salvation - It's God's Love #17

This is just a simple, short post each week
consisting of a Bible Verse around the topic of
God's Love and I would be very pleased if you
would join me each Sunday.

I Love

Salvation

because

it is

the outpouring of God's Love,

Mercy and Grace on me

even though I did not deserve it

but I was free to reach out

and receive it

and say

"Forgive me Lord"

Even if we had never 

loved God

He still had sent Jesus

to pay our ransom.

If you want to know more about Salvation you might want to have a look at this video

I Love the Name of Jesus - It's God's Love #16

This is just a simple, short post each week

consisting of a Bible Verse around the topic of
God's Love and I would be very pleased if you
would join me each Sunday.

I Love

the Name of Jesus

because

His Name

 is the

most powerful name.

His Name 

is the

most beautiful name.

His Name 

is greater 

than any other name.

His Name 

is the only name 

we can call on for Salvation.

God 

loves us

so much that He gave us

Eternal Life through Jesus.

Do you have this Life through Jesus?Have you called on the Name of Jesus to be saved?If not, you can do so today.

You can call on the Name of the Lord Jesus whenever you can call on no other.

He will never turn you away.

Who's the Bestest Boy in the World? - A Dose of Encouragement

Okay!  I know there is no such word as "bestest". 

 I even knew that before my spell checker 
told me so.

We have 2 boys and a girl in that order.

JONATHAN  was born 5 years after we married and was named for Jonathan in the Bible because we felt God telling us to do this as Jonathan had been the right friend for David.

DANIEL was born 2 years later (well just 2 weeks short of 2 years) and was named for Daniel in the Bible because we felt God telling us to do this on the morning shortly before he arrived.

LINDA was born 3 years and 3 months later and was not named for anyone at all, we simply only felt led to this one girl's name.

JONATHAN  means  GIFT of GOD

DANIEL  means  GOD is my JUDGE

LINDA  means  BEAUTIFUL

You could not imagine the number of times Linda has said  

"How come the boys got Bible names and I didn't?"  

but more often than that she has been happy with her name and what it means.  

When Jonathan was still a small baby I started to say  

"Who's the bestest boy in the world" 

and lift up his two arms above his head and say 

"Jonathan is"

It always got a smile from him and soon he was able to lift his hands by himself as soon as he would hear me say the familiar phrase.

So when Daniel was born we did exactly the same thing with him and got the same reaction of 

"Daniel is"

while Jonathan would shout 

"me too"

and eventually we had two small boys running around reacting to the phrase together. 

 Never really with any queries about how the two of them 
could both be the best.

Then when Linda arrived, we naturally had to make a slight change and say 

"Who's the bestest Girl in the World".

It was simply a little "in phrase" that was special to the five of us.

But at the same time it was something that I sort of secretly hoped would show them how much we believed in them and inspire them to believe that they were of great worth.

       

Did it work?

    Well one thing I have always been so happy about in our family is that there was never any competition between the children, they all accepted that we thought they were all the bestest in the world and they seemed to have thought that about each other too.  They are each proud and supportive of what the others have done in the past and are doing at present.

    All three are unique individuals with some very similar interests but also some very different interests and always have been.
  

Jonathan is a Pastor, also working on his Phd in Theology and lives in Leeds in England at present.

Daniel is the manager of a Church/Charity based Cafe and the Sound Engineer in his church.  He is now married and living in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Linda is an aspiring writer, has written a novel (unpublished) and working on a novella but also teaching English as a foreign language in Gangneung, South Korea at the moment.

All three of them are saved, love worship music and play the guitar, as do Fred and I but it has to be admitted that the 3 guys are better on the guitar than us girls.

All three of them love babies; I know most people do but they go to the extent of having to take many pics & videos of their cousin's little boy and share them with us all.

Were we telling them the truth when we used that phrase with them for years?

Strictly speaking - possibly no!

But to us parents, YES.  

We thought of each of them as being the best because we loved each of them the same.

They were good children but probably not the best children in the whole world.
And also who are we to judge who is better than anyone else.
But this phrase meant a lot to us and to them and I do believe that it made them feel loved and happy and accepted and contented all those years ago.

At the Grand Canyon while we were living in the US over 20 years ago

Of course that phrase is not the only thing that would have led them to grow up with love and acceptance but then there are always a lot of factors in the formation of anything.


All I know is we loved them greatly and they knew they were loved and they loved us and each other.  Then later they grew to know about God and the salvation he has offered us through His Son Jesus and they each acknowledged that they needed to ask God's forgiveness and accept this gift from God.


Who inspires you?

I would like to think that if our children had been asked this question when they were young they would have included Fred & I in the answer.

If you ask me that same question today my answer would have to be, my 3 children Jonathan, Daniel & Linda for the people they have turned out to be, not dependent on us, not intimidated by others and taking a stand for God. 

What more could parents want in the lives of their children?

I am thankful to God for the husband and children He has given me.