Yesterday was a good day. I did make it to my 7AM workout and my trainer and I had a great chat as I worked out. He taught me some stretching exercises for my legs that will help keep them strong. Now to keep doing them so that they will remain strong! Stopped at the grocery store on my way home and picked up a lot of things. Should have gotten sugar and flour but thought I had more. Well, I guess I did, until I came home and baked. Oh well. Yeah, I came home and started baking.... made my cranberry pumpkin nut bread, then made a new recipe called Colonial Pumpkin Bars... but it came out more like cake since I didn't have a larger pan. Then I made the cheesecake cookie that I had made the week before and it was such a hit. And today, I will be taking a large portion of each to Needles of Hope today in order to share and to get rid of it. I love baking, but I love more giving it away. A granddaughter brought over banana bread that she and our great-granddaughter had made together later last night... we'll be eating some of it for breakfast today!
I have just used a week of my vacation time... and other than taking the days for our Jailbreak Getaway... I really haven't gotten much done - and yet I have - the past two days. This bed still has 'things' on it. Some are Christmas gifts that I need to find a box and start putting them in it until I'm ready to start wrapping. May start early in December - put the tree up and then can get the gifts under it. And I've told everyone, I think, it is going to be much smaller than in previous years. No one believes me. But I have to. Besides, no one needs anything. I'll be contacting my children soon enough to get them to ask their children what they are wanting for Christmas... but usually those are things the parents want to get for them. I don't like giving gift cards, but ... without much contact with the majority of the grandchildren, what else does one do? I've made them all afghans; twin quilts.... don't know of anything else I could make for them. Oh well, still have a couple months to think about it.
My little sister wanted me to get a book by David Jeremiah called After the Rapture and I did... and started reading it last night. The book itself has confused me somewhat as it appears he is writing it 'after the rapture'.... and yet.... well, he goes in to each of the 7 scrolls that Jesus opens in Revelations, and the things that are going on. He talks about the Antichrist who he says is already here... and he is slowly rising to power. Peace will be made with Israel and all the Islamic countries, which will last for 3.5 years, and then the Antichrist turns on Israel... and the real tribulations will come. Christians will be persecuted (worse than they are now) and killed and right now I'm in the part of the 'mark of the beast' on the forehead or the right hand. If you don't have that, you can not buy not sell anything, not even groceries. The prices of groceries will be outrageous (and with what little I bought yesterday and spent almost $200 I agree!)..... It will be a horrific time, for sure. I text'd my sister and asked if she had actually READ the book ... and she had skimmed through it. I told her to read it! She is big on the end times... I'm not... do I really want to know what is going to happen? I'm praying I'm taken up in the Rapture - and pray that my children and their children and their children will be as well!
Revelations 3:20 (NKJV): "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."
Jesus is saying the above scripture to today's churches, to you, and to me. So many churches have great programs, they have grown quite large, they have great orators, they have all these things and they do great things.... but they have lost their first love for Jesus. They've allowed programs and preaching and things to get in the way of a true relationship with Him.
Jesus is telling us that He is standing at the door, knocking. If we want to know Him, we must open that door and be totally committed to Him - not as a fan (read Kyle Idleman's book not a fan and you will understand more of the difference between a fan and a follower)... but as a follower. Jesus doesn't want us to just go to church and sit and visit with others, and perhaps LEARN how to live for Him... He wants us to go out in to the world and actually LIVE for Him. Does that make sense?
If we are not living for Jesus, we are living for the devil. That may sound like a harsh statement. Jesus isn't a cruel taskmaster, He loves us and He wants only the best for us. But if Jesus came back right now, today..... would you be left in this world with all its suffering... or would you rise in the sky with Him? All the 'good books' on how to live will not benefit us if we don't live for Jesus. All the 'do good' acts that we do will mean nothing, if we don't know Jesus. And if we refuse Jesus in our lives, oh the agony we will have when He comes and perhaps takes our parents, our children, our siblings.... and leave us here. Can a good God allow that to happen? Yes. He has warned us time and again in His Word of what can happen if we choose to follow the world and do life our own way.
Read the Bible, you will see all the times God warned His people to have no other gods but Him. We can't worship our spouses, our siblings, our children, our money, our possessions, our jobs...... and have Jesus as #1. He must be #1 = and He will give you these things.... but He must be the One you follow.
Life is hard without Jesus... why would one want to live that way? No matter if we have no money. No matter if we lose it all. If we have Jesus and lean in to Him, we have all that we need.
He's knocking at your door.... will you listen and open the door to Jesus?
Blessings!
