January 10, 2014 - My Smile Passages

Good morning and happy Friday. I am excited to have some down time for the next couple of days. 2013 ended with a fury and 2014 started that way, so I am intentionally pulling down the throttle. I am completing this round of edits on my devotional cookbook and hopefully it will be ready for distribution by mid spring. YEA! I tell you, sometimes I cannot believe this is happening. I have given this project and my travel schedule to the Lord and am waiting for my following set of instructions. Thanks for your kind words and prayers. "I'm available, God!" This morning, as you are well aware, our coffee time this week has been centered around having the truth from God's Word encourage our soul. There are many people who can speak into my life during times when I need to be steadied. How about you? But NOTHING stabilizes my soul like the power and truth that comes from reading the Bible. Sometimes people feel they cannot connect with certain facets of God's character and what they fail to do is view the entire Bible and see Who God really is. We can never make God be who we need - He is who HE IS. Yes, there are passages that seem scary or firm, but the Word is filled with redemption and God's desire to include us in His plan. It's not His intention to keep us in the dark or uninformed. Why? T his often breeds fear. But God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love, and a sound mind. Then He included this truth in His Word so that those of us, like me, who are visual learners could read and re-read to reconnect with that truth when the storms of life try to grab our peace. The following passage is one of my smile passages. Do you have those? There are certain verses that cause me to lift my head, hands, and heart and say again, "thank you, Father God." If you simply read 1-3 perhaps you might be fearful. But that picture is God giving a glimpse into the eternal plan IN ORDER THAT we are NOT in fear. But my smile passage comes in verses 4-11. Can you actually read that and not smile? God is declaring who we are and promising that when the world is suffering, we will be drawn to His side. LOVE that! Be encouraged as this week ends to find your smile passages and write them out for those times when you need to stand firm then. Let's have coffee Monday. PK 1 Thessalonians 5 (NIV) The Day of the Lord 1 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.