Christian Paradigm Shifts

  The New Year brings about New Year goals.   I have several goals for 2013.   Here they are: Read the entire Bible using the ESV One Year Bible . Journal my discoveries using the something old, something new, and something to do format . Do 3 Bible studies. The first one is The Fine Art of Female Friendships . Memorize Scripture with the 2013 Siesta Bible Memory Team . Spiritual journey of discovery of who I am in relationship to God and others. Spend more time connecting with family and friends. Read two new  books per month and blog about it. Try one new recipe per week and blog about it. Keep my house more organized. I am a slob and I need to come clean . LOL. What are your goals for the new year? Please share - either here or on my facebook page . Iron sharpens iron, so we sharpen one another. Blessings, Regina  

Wishing all my blog readers a very Merry Christmas!! It's the birthday of our King!!   

    Christmas Eve....   Anticipation....   Waiting for the arrival....   Of the Prince of Peace...   He gives us His peace....   A peace which surpasses all understanding guards our hearts and minds...   He keeps us in perfect peace when our minds are on him....   We have peace with God.....   Because of Him we can live peaceably with all.....   He Himself is our peace...   He gives us peace at all times and in everyway....     

Photo Credit     This week we rejoice because of all that God has done for us in sending His Son.   We are told in Scripture that we are to rejoice in the Lord always. And again we are told to rejoice.   While this is a season on joy, we as a nation have experienced tragedy.   Many lives were lost last Friday.   Lives of full of future and promise.   Such sorrow for the parents, the community, New England, and the nation at large.   How can we have joy amidst such tragedy?   Only in Christ can we find the answer.   The following is from Concordia Lutheran Church  [listen here ] -   I am with you when you suffer, for I suffer for you. I am with you when you die, for I died for you. I am with you in the grave, for I lay in the grave for you. I am with you when you weep, for I weep for you. I am with you when mourn, for I mourn for you. I am with you for I am one of you. I speak to you a better word than justice, a better word tha

    Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. Jeremiah 31:13   During the middle of advent season tragedy has struck one again.   In stead of love, hope and joy there has been hate, despair and sadness.   But in the midst of all of this tragedy, we have an anchor we can hold onto.   That anchor is Jesus Christ.   In him we find refuge, comfort, peace, and strength.   He understand our sufferings for He too suffered.   He will bind up our wounds.   He will shelter us under his might wings.   He will give us peace which passes understanding.   His joy will be our strength.   He is all you need.     

Photo Credit  Love...self sacrificing love....   God gave the ultimate sacrifice of love by sending his One and Only Son.   But Mary and Joseph also showed self sacrificing love. Mary, a young unmarried woman, called to carry and give birth to the Messiah. She must have considered the cost to herself,  her relationship with Joseph, and her community's reaction.When Gabriel appeared to Mary, she willingly gave herself to the service of the Lord. In Luke 1:38 Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Joseph, engaged to marry Mary, hears that she is pregnant. The thoughts that must have run through his mind. He even contemplated to divorce her secretly. But again an angel intervened and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife [Matthew 1:20]. His fears subsided and he marries her but had no relations with Mary until her Son was born. Are we willing to offer self sacrificing love? Are we willing to lov

Photo Credit  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son.....[John 3:16 ESV]   This week of  Advent is about love. The focus is the love that God has for us.   We must remember that this was the plan from before the foundation of the world. [Ephesians 1:4]   He has loved us with an everlasting love because he has continued his faithfulness to us. [Jeremiah 31:3]   By God's love and grace he has given us eternal encouragement and good hope. [2nd Thessalonians 2:16]   God showed his love among us by sending His Son that we might live through Him. [1 John 4:9]   Ultimately, this is love - not that we loved God - but that God loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. [ 1John 4:10]   Love has come....    

This week has been about hope. Not a wishy-washy kind of hope. Hope that is full of expectation that God keeps his promises. For many, many years He foretold through the prophets that a Savior would come. The book of Hebrews says it like this - "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,  but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world." It is in the Son that we have hope. 1 Timothy 1:1 says that Christ Jesus is our hope. It is Christ in us, the hope of glory [Colossians 1:27]. There are many things that Christ has given us hope for: We have forgiveness of sins [Ephesians 1:7] We are put in right relationship to the Father [2nd Corinthians 5:18-20] We have the power to do what is right and good [Philippians 4:13] We are delivered from the fear of death [Hebrews 2:14-15] I've always loved this song by Michael Card. It is from his alb

  In response to Elizabeth's praise of her, Mary begins to praise the One who is most worthy of praise. She place her hope in the One who provides mercy to those who see their need. During this week of hope, let us worship and praise God for all that he has done for us. I am thankful for all that he has done for me. He took me out of the miry clay and set my feet on a rock.   The Magnificat   “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.   He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good

  Today's post is on Jesus being the Desire of  All Nations. The book of Haggai says:   "For thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Once more, it is a little while, I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations , and I will fill this temple with glory,' says the Lord of hosts. 'The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,' says the Lord of hosts.'The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,' says the Lord of hosts. 'And in this place I will give peace,' says the Lord of hosts ."( Haggai 2:6-9 )   The Blue Letter Bible commentary on this verse:   This portion of scripture makes several specific predictions. The Lord is going to shake heaven and earth. All the nations will come to the "Desire of All Nations," an idiom for the Messiah. God would fill "this temple," i.e. the Second Temple with glory. The

Tuesday       Romans 15:12-13 And again Isaiah says, “ The root of Jesse will come , and the one who rises to rule over the Gentiles , in him will the Gentiles hope .”   Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him,   so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Hope, Hope, Hope.... Three times this verse mentions hope. On Monday I mentioned that this kind of hope is the expectation that God fulfills His promises. On Tuesday, I mentioned the genealogical fulfillment of those promises. Today I want to discuss that the Gentiles now have hope in God because of the birth of Jesus Christ. Gentiles were strangers to the covenants of Israel. Ephesians 2:12 states, "... remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." The covenants of Israel are the Abrahamic, Mosaic

Monday I have done genealogical work on my family line. It is interesting to find out where my ancestors lived, there occupation, and special events in their lives. It gives me a connection to them. I understand who I am and where I come from. Today's post is all about genealogy and its importance in regards to God keeping his promises. Biblical genealogies are sometimes skipped over because they seem boring. Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23 - 38 seem to be unimportant to the grand scheme of the Bible. Why do I need to know who was the son of so and so? What impact will it have on my life by knowing this information? In both of the passages mentioned above, Jesus genealogy is given to prove that he is a descendant of King David. The King who was promised that a Son of his would sit on hit throne forever. The genealogy also mentioned that Jesus is a descendant of Abraham who was promised that all nations would be blessed through his Seed. According to the ESV study Bible note

  Today is the First Sunday of Advent.   This week's focus is hope.   We are given the first promise of hope in Genesis 3:15 -   And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.   This is the first announcement of the coming Savior.   What does it mean to have hope?   The  biblical definition of hope is quite different from the modern definition of hope. The modern definition of hope is “a feeling that what is wanted will happen.” [Holman Bible Dictionary]. The biblical definition is "trustful expectation, particularly with reference to the fulfillment of God's promises." [Holman Bible Dictionary]   The season we are expecting the fulfillment of God's promise of the Messiah who will rescue us from our sins. The one who was born to be a sacrifice. The One who is the Light of the world. Come, Thou long expected Jesus.