Hey ya'all!

I know its been over a year since I last posted on this blog, but I see that some of you still follow it. The Lord led me to stop posting here because it was just too much for me to keep up with. I started my own personal blog {Country Girl} and this week I, along with some other blog friends started a new devotional blog all things lovely! I hope that you will all take a look! AND if you are interested, I am looking for some guest posters too! =)

Love without Dissimulation

Let love be without dissimulation.

Abhor that which is evil;

cleave to that which is good.

Romans 12:9

Let LOVE be without DISSIMULATION.

DISSIMULATION, n. L., to make like; like. The act of dissembling; a hiding under a false appearance; a feigning; false pretension; hypocrisy. Dissimulation may be simply concealment of the opinions, sentiments or purpose; but it includes also the assuming of a false or counterfeit appearance which conceals the real opinions or purpose. Dissimulation among statesmen is sometimes regarded as a necessary vice, or as no vice at all.

~from Websters Dictionary

So basically, if we break this definition apart, dissimulation is hypocrisy. It is hiding something, or under something false.

          Don’t be a hypocrite… in other words… love. Don’t love conditionally… that’s hypocritical… love no matter what…

          Jesus didn’t love conditionally. He loved us so much that he actually died for us… He didn’t stop loving his disciples when they betrayed/deserted him.

So… if you are gonna love, do it right… don’t not love people because they are different from you, or because they have done something wrong…

Does the Lord really have our hearts?

He answered and said unto them,

Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written,

This people honoureth me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me.

Mark 7:6

Do we just say what God wants to hear? Or do we really mean it in our hearts? Is what comes out what is really in our heart?

We may be able to fake living for God, but not for long. Eventually whether or not God holds our heart will become very apparent. Have we been hypocrites? Or have we really been serious?

God knows. He really does.

We say the right things, but do we mean them? We do the right things, but do we mean it? Are we living our lives to please God, or to please others?

Are we more worried about what the people around us think? Or what God thinks?

Does Jesus hold our hearts? If he does, what others think WILL NOT matter. Pleasing others won’t be our priority.  

Does HE really, truly hold our hearts? Are we willing to do WHATEVER he asks of us? Or are we only willing to do it if it is in our comfort zone?
Do we leave our options open, or do we “give God certain limits”?

I once heard a story of a man who was called to be a missionary to Africa, I believe. He was married with 3 little boys. When they got over to Africa, his wife started to worry about the deadly snakes. In fact, she became so inconsolable, that he decided to return to the States. So, they came back, and moved into a mobile home somewhere down south, in the middle of nowhere.

One day 2 of his little boys were playing under their mobile home, and discovered a rattlesnake nest. They did not realize the danger they were in until they were bitten. The man got his 2 little boys to their vehicle and rushed them to the hospital. His youngest  son was playing in the driveway, and as he backed up, he unknowingly ran him over{killing him}. His wife was watching everything from the house, and rushed out to get her youngest son… As she was carrying him back into the house, she had a heart attack and died.

The other 2 boys died either on the way, or at the hospital.

That day, this man lost his whole family… Why? Because God asked him to go someplace, and he disobeyed, because he was worried about his safety…He didn’t want to step outside his comfort zone, even though God wanted him there. In the end he lost 2 of his sons to the same thing he had come home for….Probably if he had stayed there, everyone would have been fine, because Africa was where God wanted him to be.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me:

and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:37

Does God hold your heart? If he does, then doing His will/serving Him will be the focus of our life. Does something else hold your heart, like friends, guys{or girls, if you are a guy}, books, movies, internet? It will be easy to tell, because these other things will be the most important to you.

God should be the focus of our life, and he won’t be unless you give him your heart…

All things work together...

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,

 to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

I have heard some people take this verse and try to use it to get their way. They may not be doing what God wants them to, but they are a Christian, and they go to church, so they think that God should make everything work for them.

It wont work out if you aren’t living in Gods will.

Sometimes we think that we know what Gods will is, but do we really? If we are really open to what Gods will is, and really in his will, then HE will work things out the way HE wants!

The Virgins and the Bridegroom

Matthew 25:1-10  Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

The ten virgins are 10 people… The bridegroom is Jesus… The virgins are waiting for Christ’s return…

And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

Five of them were wise and received the gift of Salvation... the foolish were unsaved…

They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:

They hadn’t received Christ into their hearts…

 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

The oil is like Salvation. The wise realized that they needed Christ’s gift of eternal Salvation, and accepted it...

While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

No one knows when the Lord will return… We should not let that keep us from serving the Lord RIGHT now. We must live for the LORD now, later it will be to late.

 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

Christ is returning.

Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

All of us need work… was always need work… we need to trim ourselves… trim what is excess, what doesn’t belong…

 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. 

The foolish were unprepared…

But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

You can’t get saved, or make decisions for anyone else… Everyone MUST make their own decision.

 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

If we aren’t saved before Christ returns, there will NOT be time when HE comes back!

Chastisement?

Chastisement is hard. I seem to have a habit of getting into more than my share of trouble, so I know exactly how hard it can get.

Chastisement can be as simple as your parents giving you a reminder. Or it can be as big as God having to deal with you.

I’ve been both places. I’ve had my parents discipline me until they were almost ready to give up.

God had to deal with me when I wouldn’t listen to my parents…

It wasn’t fun. I was sick for almost 3 years straight. He also “took away” pretty much all of my friends.

But it was what I deserved, and it was what it took to get my life back on track.

Hebrews 12:5-8, says

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children,

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons;

for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous:

nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness

unto them which are exercised thereby.

Chastisement from the LORD means that we are really children of God. At times I have doubted my salvation. I would think “how could I have been saved and done that?”

Then God showed me these verses. A light bulb came on.

So that’s why I’ve been sick.

I’m glad that I was chastened! It means that I really was saved!

*Please do not misunderstand me. I DO NOT think that everyone who is sick is being chastised… Sometimes God uses sickness for other reasons: to help people grow, or perhaps to help someone else to get saved. Sickness was just what God used for me.

Pray for your Government leaders!

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions,

and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 

For kings, and for all that are in authority;

that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

1 Timothy 2:1-2

In the United States, our government is leading our country into debt, and ultimately into bondage. We do not have good leaders in our government. There are a few who we “thought” were good, but we have seen in recent days that even they have not fulfilled their “promises”.

We need to pray for these men{and women}. Sometimes we want to get mad at them, but you know what? God put them there. God allowed them to be elected, and that’s who is supposed to be there right now. True, it probably isn’t Gods perfect will, but its what happened.

Pray for our leaders. It is they who will decide which way our country goes.