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Blessings and Strength Dispensed by God’s Word

Feb11

In my previous post, I shared with my readers links to Verse by Verse International. In particular the study of the book of Revelation as taught by the late Stephen Armstrong. As I delve into this study once again, I am reminded of the blessings discovered there. I’d like to share a few of those.

Remember the reference I included about the blessings that were promised by God for those who took part in the book of Revelation? So, it’s some of those blessings I want to make mention of in this post.

In examining Revelation, one of its most outstanding aspects to me was God’s attention to details. Details that aren’t revealed by a casual reading. It is in the cross referencing verses from other sections of Scripture that shed light on what is contained in Revelation. Stephen Armstrong’s approach was simple but profound in its application. The imagery and symbols, throughout this book, are difficult to understand. However, according to S.A., “We never need to guess at the meaning of important symbols because the answers are in the Bible somewhere.” And you know what? He was right! In this study I was introduced to the Golden Rule of Interpretation, “…it says that when the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, we seek no other sense.” In other words, there is no need speculate as to what the text might mean. So armed with these rules, I waded into the water.

Now back to the blessings. Recalling the impact my 2020 study had, I anticipated this refresher course would bring the same results. Therefore, the enemy’s plan to sidetrack my efforts were foiled. For I knew that God’s attention to detail was provided with the intention of helping me understand. Knowing God is in charge of my future, I have no reason to fear or worry. Not just for me but for anyone who is His child. For the Bible is rich in verses that assures us about such things. For instance, God promises us that he keeps His word to keep the covenant He made with us in our salvation.

Yet, I am a human being. And as long as I live on this earth my self-centered self-serving sin nature will be susceptible to temptation. The only way for it not to rule my thoughts and influence my attitudes, (therefore my actions) (FD, p.28) is to submit those thoughts to a force greater than myself. That force, of course, is the indwelling Spirit of Jesus Christ. But that spirit must be nurtured to grow in strength. I accomplish this by absorbing with consistency Truth thoughts from God’s word. The more I absorb the more my wisdom and strength increase.

Focusing on Our Blessings!

Nov23

Watching tv!

Our family experienced a unique Thanksgiving this year.  Since my husband and I plan to visit our missionary son soon, our daughters decided to celebrate Christmas and our family fall festival, plus Thanksgiving all in three days!  Therefore our schedule looked something like the following:

Day One – Hayride and Cookout

Day Two – Christmas

Day Three – Thanksgiving

We crammed a bunch of memories in those 3 too short days but the effort was well worth making.  God blessed us with comfortably cool days so, when we didn’t have them otherwise occupied, our young grandchildren were laughing, exploring, imagining; just cramming as much memory making as they could in the short time they were together.

Oh, it was a lovely, chaotic, noisy, busy, draining, and all together wonderful way to celebrate the holidays.  Two of my daughters even came up with two creative titles for the week: 1) Thankmas or 2) Christgiving!  A blend of Thanksgiving and Christmas!

And even our missionary son got to be a part of the celebration b/c today we video chatted with him so ALL the family got to share Thanksgiving together.  Now this is a pretty big deal, b/c one of our daughters traveled about 16 hours to get here, and our daughter-in-law had just given birth to our little grandson!  So there we were, all our daughters, their husbands, their children, my mom, my husband’s mom, our son, daughter-in-law, and newborn grandson, sharing the day together!  So-o-o much to be thankful for!

But now the house is quiet (stone cold quiet), and I have sat down to watch a little tv (trying not to focus on how quiet it is). And here come the fiery darts! ugh!  The sole purpose of these trouble making thoughts is to influence me to focus on my loses instead of my blessings so that I will become lonely and depressed!  And you know what?  That’s exactly what would happen if I gave in to such thinking!

BUT THAT WON’T HAPPEN!

Know how?

I WILL FOCUS ON MY BLESSINGS!

God showered His blessings on our family this week.  I mean He abundantly showered us! (He does that a lot for His kids).  Sure it’s hard for my family to do what it does that’s just the plain truth of it.  BUT our blessings far outnumber (above and beyond) any of the hard things!

So, if after your celebration, you get blasted by fiery darts–remember:

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS–AND LET THAT BE YOUR FOCUS!

That my friends will cause those fiery darts of loneliness and depression to fizzle in no time flat.  They won’t have enough force to rule your thoughts and thereby define your actions.  You’ll be free of their negative influence and peace will guard your heart and mind.  After all, that’s just what God promised in Philippians 4:67:

Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.