To follow JESUS! COME!

Have you ever wondered why we carry the deep longing to be known and accepted? Have you ever felt the need to belong? 
Everyone wants to be loved. And everybody at some point in life wants to belong.
The trouble with some people is they want to be the focus of everyone around. Their biggest need is to be appreciated by all.
When we know we are loved and we are, for John 3.16 says it, then we know we are accepted. And there is no need for someone else to accredit me. I know I am approved by the Almighty God.

God loves you and me. We are created in His image and likeness.

REMEMBER there is no one else like you. You are no accident. You are approved by the Almighty God. 

REMEMBER-REMEMBER, You are His masterpiece. 


When one has to write on someone they love, what do they say, how do the words come of?

I can sit with Jesus and gaze for hours. And Jesus' words, amaze my heart and with each passing day, I know I want to be more like Him.
Each time it is wonderful. His presence immediately touches my heart and I am at ease. Jesus is my heart, my passion, my whole world of love.
He is simple. He is love and understanding.
Jesus lives with a complete submission to the will of His Father.
His heart is compassionate to people who approach Him. He forgives with the words, ‘sin no more’.

His simplicity is the words He speaks, as a person is cured, He says, ‘Your faith has healed you’. He moves me. 

Jesus’s approach is gentle and kind.

His humility to wait in a shape of a Host is most astounding. Jesus-Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, He waits for you and me. He makes it easy for us to approach Him. This is an endearing part of Jesus. A love so humble a love so true.
Jesus died and rose. Jesus feeds us with His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, in order to strengthen us. No greater love a man can have, than that He die to save His friends. He calls us friends.
Jesus is BOLD. His boldness thrills and captivates my heart.
Jesus has set my heart on fire with His love.
His forgiving nature is evident with His dying on the Cross for us. Even more so in the first and second of the 7 last words. His mercy flows especially in the throes of death.
My heart is forever Yours my Beloved. And You are forever mine! My sweet Jesus, You are my every desire.

THE FIRST WORD
“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” 
Luke 23:34 
THE SECOND WORD
“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:43 
THE THIRD WORD
Jesus said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”
John 19:26-27 
THE FOURTH WORD
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” 
Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 
THE FIFTH WORD
“I thirst.”
John 19:28 
THE SIXTH WORD
“It is finished”; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
John 19:30 
THE SEVENTH WORD
Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!”
Luke 23:46 

God gave His Son Jesus as the complete expression of His love for us, thus revealing His kindness, compassion, and mercy. Look at Jesus and we see the Father’s love for us. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 

Jesus, came to drive darkness away from our lives. Through His obedience, our relationship with God was restored, reversing death’s curse forever. In His light, we have life, and the darkness cannot overcome it.

A scribe came and said to Jesus, Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go. Our Lord tells him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath no where to lay his head. Matthew 8:20

To follow Jesus means to forsake all. But do we? Before Covid-19 and the lockdown, people had forgotten what it means to be at home. Dining in restaurants, having and conducting parties and yes travelling the world was a thing to do. It is called living the dream.
To follow Jesus, can be difficult, but when you say you love Jesus, could you possibly think of being a help to someone who is in need and could do with a little help from you. If you try, you will learn. Look to help. 
From the cross, Jesus would return to Heaven. During His stay on Earth, Jesus owned nothing. He was buried in a borrowed grave. 

Jesus said that we do not belong to the world, even as He did not belong to the world.

Jesus's statement reveals His poverty from an earthly viewpoint; and yet “we through His poverty are made rich” 2 Corinthians 8:9.

A person who makes a commitment to follow Jesus to the ends of the Earth, must be willing to die to selfish ambition and vain conceits and follow in the humility of Christ. 
We cannot love the world and the things of the world (all the glitter and the glamour) and love God at the same time because the values of the world are not compatible with the values of the kingdom of God.

If God takes everything away from you, just like God allowed with Job, would you love Him? Would you in your deepest time of trial, trust in Him?
When faced with trials-tribulations, it is even more difficult to do what Jesus did. It is difficult to deny oneself and so easy to give in to the lures of the world. It is difficult to follow Jesus. To love someone especially when the hurt is the most. To love at all-when wounded like Jesus, it is not easy.

Not having anywhere to lay His head - (in the way as Jesus did) means that you have to endure a certain hardship. If you want to follow Me, says Jesus, you have to be prepared for hardship. We are bound to suffer in the course of discipleship. To follow Jesus means to share in His persecutions. And he said to all, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23

Being a Christian means we will be persecuted one way or another. Persecution-trials are a Cross that we must carry with love. Being a Christian then is to burn your bridges behind you. There is no turning back. Paul says, ‘Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.’ Philippians 3:13-14 As Paul says, I have made the decision to serve the Lord. I don’t look back. I look ahead with a singular dedication to the task.

To follow Jesus is tough, but it is worth it because it means to be with God. 

Salvation requires belief in JESUS as the Son of God!
This is the key. This is our Faith.

REMEMBER: The foxes and birds, all the animals of creation have a place, but the Son of Man does not. 

Jesus, comes to the world because God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son so that all should have life. 

This is Perfect Love! 

Delight in GOD!

To delight myself in the Lord means to exalt Him highly and to pursue Him above everything. Our delight, in the Lord, must be our top priority. 

True delight in God causes us to take our sights off-of what we want in order to long for what He desires.

To have true delight in God implies that we have no will of our own. It implies that the soul regards God as infinitely wise and good and feels the fullest satisfaction.

To have delight in obedience to God implies that we desire eternal union with Him, this is all we ask and we could lack nothing.

When one delights himself in God, his heart will be set on what he is drawn to, by the Spirit of God.

The soul that delights itself in God, has no will of its own and therefore cannot be disappointed. Such a person is cheerful, rejoices in everything, prays without ceasing and in everything gives thanks.

When the mind has God, it has enough.

When a mind seeks union with God, God sets His heart on that soul.

When we find ourselves strongly drawn to God, God is infinitely drawn towards us.

When, for any reason God withholds the light of His countenance, it is impossible for any soul, then, to be happy. 

David tried to cheer up his soul, Psalm 42:11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.

An individual, that falls into this state of mind in which he mourns, his mourning will be submissive. It cannot be rebellious and it is not joyful.
The joy which the soul, finds in God, is like no other joy in the world. The whole being is so satisfied in God.  

He that will be content with God, may have as much of God as he will. 

Psalm 37:23-The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.

Increase our FAITH!

On the mountain, Jesus revealed His divine glory to Peter, James, and John.

The four had just re-joined the rest of the disciples and the present crowd, when a desperate father threw himself before Jesus and pleaded, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” Matthew 17:15–16

Jesus’s response must have caught everyone off-guard:

“O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” Matthew 17:17

Tough words!

Who was Jesus calling faithless and twisted? Let’s just keep it simple, we are in the count. But from Matthew's point of view, were the disciples faithless? They did try to cast out the demon. Wasn’t that faith? Perhaps. But whatever faith was present, it didn’t produce any results. Jesus didn’t commend their effort; instead He rebuked their failure.

Later, when the disciples privately asked Jesus why they had failed: “Because of your little faith” Matthew 17:20. Jesus put the blame on their little faith.

But like all of Jesus’s rebukes to His disciples, His rebuke is not intended to condemn but to urge us to press in further. If we at this moment, have little faith, it is possible for us to have more faith. If we failed yesterday, we don’t have to continue to fail today. 

For this is what Jesus followed it up with:

“For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible to you.” Matthew 17:20

“nothing will be impossible to you.” Those are not empty words. How would you live differently if you really believed that nothing would be impossible for you?

We are meant to move mountains — to see the impossible occur through our exercise of faith in the promises of an Omnipotent God. If we are not seeing mountains move then we have not yet begun to live the life of faith. 

If we recognize that we have little faith, let us join the apostles with a pleading to God, “Increase our faith” Luke 17:5, and not let God go until He blesses us with an answer. It is a request that He loves to grant.

Jesus really does mean for us to move mountains. He wants us to live in the bold joy of knowing that nothing will be impossible for us.

Never give up no matter what you are through,

For there’s always a TODAY,

And a chance to start anew.

What FAITH can do...

My People,
This is my way of saying, ‘Hold on, Don’t give up!’ With Jesus we will make it through. 

What Faith Can Do? 

There is a trial that awaits everyone,

It is a road that is least liked.
Life is difficult,
But yet it is beautiful.
You could have your heart broken.

Walk towards the light!

No matter how strong we are, we fall.
But in time we will rise,
The Sun will soon be shining,
in time we will see a silver lining.

Don’t give up now!
Walk towards the light!

Faith can move mountains.
Hope will never quit.
It doesn't matter what you've heard,
Impossible is not the word.

And when you take that step,
Just remember to keep believing,
In TIME you will, overcome the odds;
You will dare to dream.
That's what faith can do.
And you will find a whole new world,
With people like me and you.

THE BIBLE SAYS
Faith can move mountains!
I believe, Love can cross the ocean.
Things are not always what they seem,
Mark 9:23. Nothing is impossible to the man with dreams.

Jesus says; “All things are possible to him who believes.” Mark 9:23 

With all my Love,

AnitA.

An Easter Message...

The Bend in the Road

Sometimes we come to life's crossroads

And we view what we think is the end.
But God has a much wider vision
And He knows that it's only a bend-

The road will go on and get smoother
And after we've stopped for a rest,
The path that lies hidden beyond us
Is often the path that is best.

So rest and relax and grow stronger,
Let go and let God share your load
And have faith in a brighter tomorrow-
You've just come to a bend in the road.

 

Poet: Helen Steiner Rice