Enroll

Studying for me lately has been taking a word and digging deeper with it…connecting that word to a spiritual truth. While browsing through blog posts last night there is this thing called daily word promts on The Daily Post…to get your blog more attention, or to help you think of something to write about.

So the prompt yesterday was enroll, at first I was just curious to read, not really write, but after reading a few I decide I would give this promt a try… if I write I will always try and make sure it connects to the truth! Hence all of the Bible verses at the end! The truth has been very powerful to me in my life…hence my blog name… So anyways if you have any questions please do ask! My writing is only inspired by the truth, but to change your life you must not read only what I have to say, but the word of God can only give the the true and real TRUTH, I hope you too may desire it too! God bless ❤️

Enroll:

By: Beverly Murdock

The book of life,
Have you enrolled yourself?

Maybe your there but…someone else enrolled you so your not really there…

The book of life, the word,
We study, to receive the knowledge,
To receive the life.

They were destroyed for their lack of knowledge,
Not because of an unrighteous judge,
But because they chose not to Desire life,

Not to Desire the book of life
Not to Desire the word,
The word of truth,
The truth that brings forth knowledge
Knowledge of peace,
Knowledge of understanding,
Knowledge of truth,
Wisdom.

Instead they chose to enroll in the book of self righteousness,
The book of fighting this,
The book of confusion,
The book of losing,
The book of I don’t knows,
Highs and lows,
Sorrows.

Wanting to find that happiness
But not wanting to give up that one thing,
That can change it all,
And that is yourself!

I don’t believe it they say,
Who, what, where, when, why?
I mean your telling me I have to die,
That seems like a lie,
But they didn’t even try.

Maybe they took a look in the book
But they gave up
as soon as it got tough.

You know that part where you must die,
In order to receive life,
Makes no sense,
So I will just live my life on the fence,
Of this truth,
Because it probably just a spoof,
I deal with this pain,
Instead of use it for a gain,
Of of love that has overcome,
This thing called death,
To give life, love, peace,
Wisdom, knowledge, and truth.

And the only thing that separates you,
Is you.
and what (lie)s within you.

take away the lies replace them with truth,
The truth of the one who died for you.
don’t look around and ask yourself who’s with you,
don’t say hey what about you,
this salvation is only for you,
what you don’t know is that God see’s all,
he has it covered, but his only concern is you.
are you covered?

covered with, shame, blame,
or covered with a NAME.

 

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Hebrews 10:19-25

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 1 John 5:1-12

Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the Lord,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
“For you will go out with joy
And be led forth with peace;
The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,
And all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55: 6-12

To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ Revelation 3:1-6

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “ It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” Revelation 20:1-9

how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. Hebrews 2:3-4

Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;
And their honorable men are famished,
And their multitude is parched with thirst.
Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure;
And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it. Isaiah 5:13-14

 

Living Hope

From time to time I may share on here thoughts from my husband, but before I do I want to share little bit about him. Joe is his name, we have been married for 11 years this coming March, it has been a blessing to grow with him. We have learned so much together getting us to this point in our lives.

Our marriage is something I really cherish, having someone beside you to love and support, and share good times and bad with is truly what I believe God designed marriage to be for (helpers) Genesis 2:18. Someone, who, not only is there for the love that we all long to have in our lives, but also someone, who knows you, who is committed to you, and who wants to help you grow to be the best that you can be.

Who is honest with you about your flaws, but gives you grace, forgiveness and support when you do make mistakes.

Who is patient that you are growing, and understands that they are growing to.

Someone who can help you by praying for you. Seeing how they can better themselves and motivates you also to do better.

That is this man for me. My husband ❤️😍

Im very blessed, but I don’t say this to boast because I believe we all have something special, God really has blessed us all, I don’t believe the Bible would be so universal if I didn’t really believe in that.

It is so important that we dont get focused on others, but we look to our lives and what God has given us and work with that, because each of us has something that is very special, whether it is something about you, your spouse, your family, friends, life….anything… we can not focus on what we dont have but rather what we do.

so as I count my blessings I’m very thankful for my husband, who I can as his wife honestly say that, he doesn’t do this stuff part time, he truly does practice what he preaches, and that is evident in our home and I am so grateful, but on the same token we are still human and we are like I said before

growing,

trying each day and may make mistakes along the way.

Our prayer is this, that we…

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:18

So here is something from my best friend, partner in life, my husband and Im sure you will see more from him in my future posts as well.

LIVING HOPE

BY: JOE MURDOCK

It has been said that the Gospel writer John is the apostle of love and Paul is the apostle of faith and Peter is the apostle of hope. Peter specifically talks about a living hope. I find this to be an interesting idea since hope only seems to be a word that means waiting for something. But is that all that this hope means? Let us examine this living hope that Peter mentions in 1 Peter.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a LIVING HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 1 Peter 1:3-5

So my initial thought is, how does one live out hope? I think it is important to first understand how hope is defined scripturally. Biblical hope means much more than what man has mindlessly limited it down to or has over zealously used it. In some instances hope today is used as no more than wishing and in other cases has be made to seem so far beyond our comprehension that it is impossible to understand. Yet Peter tells the first century Christians and us to have a living hope! Hope according to the Strong’s concordance is to anticipate usually with pleasure, expectation or confidence-faith hope. Isn’t that interesting a faithful hope. Just like everything in Scripture, faith is always going to be connected to the words that are pleasing to God.

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Ephesians 4:4-6

Since we now understand what hope is biblically and Peter mentions a living hope, a question I have is with a living hope is there a dead hope? Guy N Woods in his commentary on 1 Peter writes when He (Christ) allowed himself to fall into the hands of the Romans and to die on the cross, the hope of the disciples was blasted and their faith failed. Peter with his faith gone, returned to his nets John 21:3. Sadly for too many when things start to get tough, they will give up. This attitude or mindset must be defeated. But without a proper understanding of what we hope in, our hope can easily die and we go back to doing what we did before we had hope in Christ. Friends that only leads to empty promises and a life full of sadness. Remember what Paul said in Ephesians

“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:6-10

Empty words come from those who have a dead hope which is no hope at all! We must continue to press onward towards the goal that is set before us and not allow the snares of this world to trip us up.

Finally as we have defined hope the way God would have us to understand it, let us now live it out. That is what God would have us to do and what Peter means when he says to have a living hope. A hope that is not dead but one that is thriving and producing fruit in ourselves and in others. What an encouragement it is, to be able to share in a living hope with our church family.

“For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.” Romans 8:24-25

Are we willing to eagerly wait for the coming of Christ? Not idly but full of faithful anticipation and excitement for the time when we are redeemed!

“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.” 1 Peter 4:12-14

Waiting…

Tomorrow I will….

You fill in the blank….

What are you struggling with right now that you have put off until tomorrow?

It doesn’t even need to be tomorrow, maybe it’s just “later”

say for instance it is the ever popular in need to….Read my Bible…

“I need to read my Bible”

“I need to be better about praying”

What about committing to Christ, going to church, being a better steward of your time….

I want to talk about waiting, something that I have been and at times still can be guilty of…

This type of waiting is not “patiently” waiting as in

“I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.”  Psalms 130:5-6

this is the “procrastination” waiting.

From verywellmind.com I found an article Tips for overcoming procrastination, that said this about procrastinating…

As I read this I definitely see so much truth in these statements, there was a time in my life that I would actually call myself a procrastinator, I would prefer not to label myself that way anymore because I used to admit to it not seeing any problem with it, because somehow, someway, I would seem to get things done…. (but I “sold” so much time for this lifestyle, and no to mention, health and sanity as well)

sticky notes on rustic wood background concept for time management procrastination
sticky notes on rustic wood background concept for time management procrastination

Gods word has helped me overcome so many of my old, harmful habits, and still continues to do so, I take steps forward each day that I choose to, follow, seek, and depend upon it and Jesus.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew‬ ‭5:6‬

Let’s just take a second and break down what this is telling us….

Blessed: happy, joyful, and truly thankful.

Are those: those who do what this says👇

Who hunger and thirst: what do we do when we are hungry and or thirsty, we start thinking of what we want to eat, drink, and we eat and drink.

It’s rare to say that we would call ourselves hungry and sit in front of food or water, and let ourselves starve, or thirst.

We don’t say I’m hungry, and thirsty, tomorrow I will eat, unless we are trying to fast, or don’t have the means to do it.

“And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.” Revelation 21:6

God will satisfy the needs of the hungry and thirsty but we must choose to:

1. understand our need for it

2. choose to take it, just as much as we choose to eat or drink, to fulfill our physical needs, we also have spiritual needs.

For righteousness: to be morally right, or justified, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, seek to be morally right, not just right, as in have the right answers but right as in their actions proves them right, and not right to ourselves, or the world but to the One God who created us, and that makes a fruitful Christian.

For they shall be satisfied: seeking to do the right thing, the answers can be found in Gods Word, the living waters…is not just a “good read” but when applied to our moral character and actions it is truly satisfying to the soul….

So….

What are you waiting for,

What harm is waiting doing to you?

Why do we wait until we are spiritually deprived and starving before we will spiritually feed on the bread of life! Waiting to make positive changes until it is a convenient time, is most likely only going to pull you further away making the time that would be convenient, less, and less convenient.

Don’t get fixated on tomorrow, tomorrow you will most likely regret something you didn’t do today,

Don’t wait to be perfect before you try to make a change, we only kid ourselves when we think this way…circumstances will probably look ugly when you realize you need to change. Right now if you see an area in your life that you should be better in it, my advise would be start, no matter how difficult, scary, or impossible it may seem.

One important detail about change that we must understand is that it isn’t always easy, the process can be hard, changing habits, and lifestyles that were hard on us can be just as grueling as the pain we faced because of this issue, if not even more…

My last post I wrote was on honesty, and this is a very important quality that we must have as we make changes.  Its so important to surround ourselves with honest people, be an honest person, and have an honest heart when reading or hearing the word of God, as much as we possibly can, because there will be times where we will want to give up, or look back, remember the good and not the bad that comes with damaging habits, and we will lie to ourselves and say again, it’s not so bad, to give in, give up, or set some important things aside to indulge ourselves in harmful habits again….

I think this is a major reason why we may procrastinate certain things in our lives because we know that some things, some changes that we know we need to make are just plain difficult.

So how do we do all of this? How do we stop procrastinating, or waiting for the perfect moments to be and do better, and how do we push through, when it gets difficult?

And just so you know there are many, many stories in the Bible of these very patterns of human behaviors that you can look too and see what happens you give in to yourself and of give up on God rather than push through…

Let me just say there will be times that It gets worse before it gets better, but the better is worth the worse, we must see the end goal, we must have hope, faith… and understand the greatest act of love that taught us how to start fresh….

Jesus

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized—” John 3:1-23

Baptism into Christ places you in the the kingdom of God, there are so many benifits to being in His kingdom it would take me blogs and blogs to tell you all about it which Im sure you will continue to hear about it from me… but for now let’s just say one of the greatest benefits of that is the hope of  heaven, eternal peace, surrounded by the purest LOVE…

I think we all have some sort of grasp on Love, in some way or another, we either have it, have known it, want to know about it, or we long to grow in it…

What’s stopping us from reaching that love and it’s full potential is ourselves…the thought of tomorrow I will take care of that, or I’m going to wait until I feel better, I’m not good enough for any sort of Love, I fear what I might need to do, change or give up, to be in a better place.

let me ask you…

What are some important changes that you will put off?

What are things you often give up on when they get difficult?

I ask myself…

why do I fear difficult circumstances, so I wait, or avoid change.

I tend to fear uncomfortable, vulnerability, and the lack of my own self sufficiency, I don’t want anyone else to know that this life is hard,  and I need help at times, every single one of us needs help actually.

And that is why God had given us, Jesus, each other i.e. the Church and His word to guide us into all understanding of the truth, that is why it was so important to Jesus that He teach his disciples of this.

Teach each other, help each other, and Love each other, are some of His core teachings.

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

If we wait too long on trusting God, we will become self reliant (to the extent that we can) and not now how to be reliant on God when we really need Him, it is best to make that change right now, rely on Gods help…Just face the fears, whatever they may be,  YOU CAN TRUST that God will be right there by your side even through the difficult stages, that are bound to show up.

When you make a commitment to start working out, are the days always easy? no, are there set backs? yes, and are there going to be times where you have to push through? absolutely, but with and end goal in mind, we can start.

Don’t wait to start, with an end goal like heaven,

it’s so worth the process, for, that hope makes every challenge we face worth it.  But even so the change of life style here on this earth and being a part of the spiritual kingdom of the Church of Christ, has many benefits too (you can read about this unity and love, and christian walk in Ephesians 4) …. waiting just gives us more time to doubt and delay… and I’m afraid waiting only makes it harder to commit in the future.

Proverbs chapter 24 is where the thought of this Post came from, I hope it encourages you as much as it did me, to stop waiting, to be strong, push through when it gets tough, to get back up when you fall, not giving up but always trying and be better.  Thank you so much for reading, Please as always let me know if you have any questions.  May God Bless you, and may you desire to know and seek His word, His Truth.

“A wise man is strong, And a man of knowledge increases power. For by wise guidance you will wage war, And in abundance of counselors there is victory. Wisdom is too exalted for a fool, He does not open his mouth in the gate. One who plans to do evil, Men will call a schemer. The devising of folly is sin, And the scoffer is an abomination to men. If you are slack in the day of distress, Your strength is limited. Deliver those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back. If you say, “See, we did not know this,” Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work? My son, eat honey, for it is good, Yes, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste; Know that wisdom is thus for your soul; If you find it, then there will be a future, And your hope will not be cut off.”  Proverbs 24:5-14

“Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; Do not plunder his resting place; For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; Lest the LORD see it, and it displease Him, And He turn away His wrath from him. Do not fret because of evildoers, Nor be envious of the wicked; For there will be no prospect for the evil man; The lamp of the wicked will be put out. My son, fear the LORD and the king; Do not associate with those given to change; For their calamity will rise suddenly, And who knows the ruin those two can bring?” Proverbs 24:15-22

I went by the field of the lazy man, And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding; And there it was, all overgrown with thorns; Its surface was covered with nettles; Its stone wall was broken down. When I saw it, I considered it well; I looked on it and received instruction:

A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest; So shall your poverty come like a prowler, And your need like an armed man. Proverbs 24:30-34

Irritated young woman putting her alarm clock off in the morning with soft morning light. Relaxing concept.