Gifts By Grace - With Joel & Victoria Osteen

So as I read this, it ministered to me- hope it does the same to you!

Blessings!!

Today's Scripture:

" We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us..." (Romans 12:6, NIV).

Today's Word:

God has given each of us gifts, and He’s given us the grace, the supernatural power to operate in those gifts. In other words, if God has called you to do something, He has equipped you by His grace.

Scripture says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. That means when we are doing what we are called to do, when we are operating in our gift, there will be an “easiness” about it. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any opposition. It doesn’t mean there won’t be obstacles or that it won’t take effort on your part. But what it does mean is that you will have a supernatural empowerment to do it. It will just come naturally and flow out of you.

If you are doing something that always seems hard, always seems heavy and drains the energy out of you, you might want to spend some time in prayer before God and see if that’s really what He has for you. Just because it’s a “good” thing doesn’t mean it’s a “God” thing. But when it is God, you’ll know it. You’ll feel His supernatural grace empowering you and refreshing you every step of the way.

Prayer for Today:

Father God, thank You for empowering me to live by Your grace. Help me to discern what You have for me and let go of anything that isn’t Your best for my life. I love You and honor You in all that I do. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Joel & Victoria Osteen

Write Everyday Down - Birthday Blog

I'm happy to tell you that God is still the same yesterday, today, and forever! He has never changed-- and never will. Part of me wanting to write this down is to simply put my heart in here.

As I was cleaning up after a nice festive evening with family and friends. The melody for this song came to my head- "Write Everyday Down" by Jason Upton. Its a special song-- in many ways, but especially because it causes a reminder to live everyday for what it is-- today, one day at a time. :) Work was great today, but coming home to see people who got together and took some time-- to write a little piece of their time- into mine. Thank God.

My heart always seems to be stirred a lot particularly every September on the fourth day! I always have a very close and personal reflection with God-- and always seem to get a bit more perspective and insight from the LORD at this time every year. I don't know why, but it seems like my heart looks back at the years-- and I always have a spirit of gratitude that begins to stir.

What I am truly excited about is, His love. It never fails nor does it faint. And as I do get older every year--thankfully, I realize more so that He is truly God. His sovereignty is absolute.

Psalm 135:6

"The LORD does whatever pleases him,

in the heavens and on the earth,

in the seas and all their depths."

So I thank God for all that He has done--and all that He will do. It also feels great to have little reminders of how His love continues to reach to me-- daily. That being said, I am glad and grateful for all those who reached out to say Happy Birthday today! Thank you. Whether many people do or not, the point is that it counts every bit. Even earlier--as I read some of the facebook posts. I was in awe and felt blessed.:)

And I'm also happy to tell ya, I did have a nice cup of coffee and cake ealrier!! Sweetness baby!!!

Much Love people,

Write Every Day Down.

Blessings,

Daniel C.

AKA "Black Hawk" at work. Ha.

THE PROBLEM-SOLVER--Morris & Theresa Cerullo

This is a devo with Morris & Theresa Cerullo. I kinda happened to stumble into this and thought it was very good. So here it is. Also meditate on Isaiah 26:3

"You will keep in perfect peace

him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you."

THE PROBLEM-SOLVER

Do you have a problem on your mind tonight? Is it weighing so heavily that you cannot relax enough to sleep? Has the enemy convinced you that there is no solution? Nonsense! There is no problem made by man or devil that God cannot solve on your behalf.

Get your eyes off the bigness of your problem and focus them on the bigness of your God!

If you keep your eyes on your problem, the devil will use your circumstances to defeat you. Determine that this problem will be a doorway to new growth in your life, that somehow God will turn the situation around to glorify Himself. Determine that not only will your needs be met, but that you will find the character of God blossoming forth in you because this difficult experience has driven you closer to Him.

Remember that when you give your problem to the Lord, just because you don’t see an immediate change it doesn’t mean that God is not in control. There may be people He is dealing with and situations that must transpire before you see His behind-the-scenes handiwork revealed.

God has an answer to every problem, no matter how great the struggle or how deep the pain. Cry out to Him in your need and know that His help is on the way even this very night.

The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles (Psalm 34:17)..

http://tinyurl.com/25da9el

New Year 2010

I don't really claim to know everything. Even though at 4 years old--I went up to my mother and told her---"mom, I think I already know everything--uh, except how to multiply and divide." Ha--what? --that was prolly what she was thinking. It sounds pretty funny now--but I think I actually really felt that way....I guess we can sometimes think we are somewhere that we are not--and keep on living that way. Its more of a fantasy than a reality. Maybe that is why the Bible says to us to "be ye sober" in everything. It's like saying, don't really live in the twilight---as it seems to be the popularity of our culture. The New year, comes with so much promise--it can be scary at times.

My thing is really to be free. Maybe its part of my DNA/personaltity, but mainly I feel---if my life is no longer mine, but to the One--God--I gave it to. When the Bible declares that "it is for freedom that Christ has set us free" I want to say that is exactly how I want to live then. For freedom's sake, not to be enslaved in bondage with fear, anxiety, or anything else. So yah, then, He will handle it all. It's like--we are in for a wild ride--and its all to be enjoyed as we go after it. After---the new year, the promises, the resolutions, go after....what? Well--go after it means to go whole-heartedly after what the LORD has placed in front of us. Its like a race, a course that He has set out--and its up to us to go live it out. To me, I think is brilliant. The Master Craftsman--has created a course that is charted out for us---meaning this New Year--a year full of new epsisodes, new adventures, new life lessons to be learned, etc. Its like the course gets more and more interesting as we're on it.

Ok, so maybe I'm babbling on...but I thought that was the point of a blog. Perhaps---one should take a scripture of the Bible and stand on it. We say, well resolutions don't really work, yareyareyare----true. But on the other hand--a Word from the LORD surely does. Take Ps. 65:11--what an amazing scripture. It goes like this---

"You crown the year with your bounty,

and your carts overflow with abundance."

And then, begin to stand on it. So in other words--it is God whom shall pour out and release with power His blessing and His glory to fill the whole earth. It is in His interest to make sure that His own are taken care of. It shall be so---we can just rest assured that it will happen.

=) I'm all smiles, because of the goodness of the LORD> This year shall our best year yet!! We will be more effective with our ministry, we will succeed in everything we set out mind to do and do it as unto the LORD> we will proclaim with more boldness the Gospel--and this year will be different. This will be the year of the LORD!! 2010--here we come!!!