A Confession and a Blessing

You want to know what I have to confess? Well, its not a funny confession nor one that I have taken light hearted. Rather it is a struggle that I am sure each Christian has in their walk with the Lord. So I wrote this post to let you know (if you are also struggling in this area) that you aren't the only one and I pray that it encourages you in your own walk with the Lord to remain steadfast and joyful, with excitement and determination to have it grow more and more.

The Confession: 
So, here's my confession. I've haven't spent the time I should have with my Lord! Wondering what I mean? Well, lately I have had a tough time continuing in my daily walk with the Lord as far as devotions go. Doesn't seem that big does it! It has been big to me though, because instead of setting aside time in the word alone, I thought of other things to do, when I was about to do it at night I decided I should go to sleep and do it in the morning then when it was the next morning I said 'well I'll just do it tonight'. It starts out as a small excuse but quickly grows. As the days go by and I see my life getting harder to understand and my other struggles increasing, I ask myself why is this happening. Then realize, its because my compass or hand hold on the world and on who I am in that world, has weakened and I have started (with a horrible sense of direction) trying to figure it out in my own power. It continues to be a struggle for me which means I must put all the more effort and determination into it, but often I neglect to. The reason I decided to write a post about this today is because this morning when I made the silent agreement with myself that I would put even more effort into it than I had in the past week and pleaded with God that He would help me, I came upon another realization.

The Blessing: 
When I sat down and started to read out of Romans I was instantly asking myself why I hadn't done it earlier. It wasn't that difficult (as I knew it really wouldn't be) and I was yet again amazed at how the verses applied to my life in different areas and was encouraged that God was still speaking to me through them. A few minutes later when I found out I had to stop to get ready for the day I was slightly disappointed, because I when I read those verses the joy was revitalized within me and my grip grew all the more tighter. It was similar to the feeling that you get while you are rock climbing with a harness on and your hands slip making you put all your weight back in that harness that holds you up, and the realization as that happens, that you aren't on your own. That the trust you put in that person holding the rope below you is not unfounded and the stress leaves your body as this idea comes to your awareness. Its a rather odd example but one that came to my mind as I was writing this, because that was honestly what I felt. Joy, hope, courage, excitement, gratitude, and awe. Awe, that even though I had strayed from God and had put Him to the side and others in His place He still wanted me back and was there with open arms when I did.

In reading all this though, it is important to know that Satan will be fighting you all the way. Not wanting those feeling of joy and that faith put back in God. This was also the other lesson that was not new but I was reminded of yet again today. Because I knew that it was spiritual warfare that was the answer to my question earlier. The question of why I had not just sat down and read it sooner. Satan doesn't generally fight us visibly, instead he uses all sorts of different tactics, and one of his best attacks is the deceptive one you don't realize is there. The one he plays on the battlefield of your mind. Enticing and encouraging thoughts that not only distract but discourage you from growing in your relationship with the Lord. The only way to battle him back is to do the very thing he doesn't want you to. For it is there that you find the strength and reinforcement to continue in the battle.

I have to head off to bed now but I hope what I wrote encouraged you, and while there might be nothing in this post that is new to you. I know there are plenty of things in the bible that will be. So I hope and pray that it encourages you to go back to that bible and find something that is new.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in  psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 

- Colossians 3:16

God Bless!

-Hosanna

Hey Everyone

So it has really been a long time since my last post! I have been wanting to post for a long time but every time I get back to it I think about how much I have to say. Its this terrible disease I have for a need to have a full update. Haha, I am forcing myself to make this post and I must tell you it really isn't a full update at all, but I hope you enjoy it.

The family is doing great! Life is going on, all of us kids are back in school. Zeb is working on his tests, Jos is still going to community college Rayni and I are back at highschool trying to get caught up in areas the we got behind and Jed, Keziah and Malachi are all working with mom and getting a lot done. Malachi is working on reading and doing really well.

The Latest News (which comes in a list of blessings):

1.) Family The week before Christmas our whole family headed off to Colorado we eventually got there after a little bit of delay from the snow. To sum it all up, it was amazing, fun, and well worth it. We stayed at our Aunt Millie and Uncle Gail's house most of the time and went around visiting everyone. We had some kind of family get together almost every day and it was an awesome time to spend Christmas. At one point when we were about to have dinner we all gathered around to pray and as everyone bowed their head I glanced around and realized what an amazing blessing our extended family is. I've talked, known, and heard of people with broken families sometimes not even talking with each other because of something or other. But here I was standing in a circle of family all bowing our heads to praise God. There were 6 kids in my dads family. From that came twenty-eight grandkids (one of which I am one of them) and so far forty-three great grandkids. A big get-together, amazing fun, and a huge blessing. We got back the 3rd of January and it was nice to be home.

2. Friends My dad had his 50th birthday on Christmas eve of this year. Before we left we had a surprise Birthday Party for him (and yes, it did turn out to be a surprise...he didn't figure it out until after about three different families arrived haha). A lot of people ended up coming and it was pretty cool getting to see everyone. We have had a lot of amazing times and have been blessed by the families the Lord has put in our lives. I was talking with a good friend and talking about some of the fun times we had about 8 years earlier. I wish I could remember everything all of those fun times. We also had a surprise when we came back from Colorado, because someone had fixed our window that had been broken (for 2 years) and we're still not sure who it is.

3. Time As I'm getting older and the years are passing by faster and faster I am more and more realizing the blessing of time. The fact that we have time is a blessing in many ways. Most of them obvious, no time means well...no time. The fact that we have limited time makes us value, treasure, and hopefully use it all the more, along with making us look forward to the time we'll have in heaven. So exciting!!!

All this we have because, well...God gave it to us. How amazing He is. I've been reading some of the Old Testament prophet books. I don't know if you have ever heard someone say that the Old Testament God is a God of hate while the New Testament God is a God of love, but I was struck by how wrong that is. Yes, He disciplined His people, but my parents discipline me. Do I draw the conclusion that because they discipline me they hate me? No, all the more I see the love they have because they are taking the time to train me up in the way I should go...and every time I mess up and realize it, they let me back into their loving arms. God did the exact same thing with His people constantly letting them come back and always loving them. I was getting quite frustrated with the Israelites, why on earth do they keep making the same mistake, and why on earth does God keep letting them? Then I think about it, and have one of those "oh duh" moments and realized how much I do it and how God still puts up with me...not only that but LOVES me. Pretty crazy thought.


Well, its lunch time so I better go. I hope you're year is amazing!

-Hosanna  

1 John

I'm really excited some of you decided to do this. And I pray we all get more than we ever imagined out of it, as well as it staying with us for the rest of our lives. I'm hoping to be able to post some of the thoughts and insights that may come as I am memorizing this. I would love to hear what you have gotten out of it as well, either through a comment, post on your blog, email or even a guest post on here. I started memorizing today (well I have to admit I memorized a bit yesterday but I was officially starting today) and got through the first 10 verses. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it.

To start let me give you a little bid of information and background on the book of 1 John.

Author: John the son of Zebedee (wrote the Gospel of John and Revelation)
Date Written: Between A.D.85-95
Recipient: To all believers, probably a circular letter.

The recipients of this letter at the time were being confronted with a new form of Gnostic teaching.
The main belief in Gnosticism was that the spirit is entirely good and matter is entirely evil. From this five main messages came
1. The human body, since made of matter, is evil.
2. Salvation is really escape from the body achieved by special knowledge (not by faith).
3. Christs true humanity was denied in two ways a. some said that Christ only seemed to have a body, a view called Docetism and b. others said that the divine Christ joined the man Jesus at baptism and left before he died, a view called Cerinthianism.
4. Since the body was considered evil, it was to be treated harshly
5. And at times this dualism gave way to no moral standard and with people ignoring any legal restraint. In this view, since matter was evil and not breaking the law, then breaking God's law was of no moral consequence/

Because of this it seems John wrote the letter for two main reasons the first was to expose false teachers (2:26) and the second was to give believers assurance of salvation (5:13).  Through those two reasons John covers quite a bit in this book but most of the content in this book is really focused towards what the Christian walk should be like and why.

Now that you've gotten a little bit of an over view
Here are the first ten verses (also the first chapter) of 1 John.
 ¹ That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— ² the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— ³ that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowshipis with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.


⁵ This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.


I love the predicament John puts us in with that last verse. Either we are sinners, or we are calling Jesus a liar and in that refusing Him and what He said. We are sinners, but verse 7 and 9 sums it up, if we walk in the light there is way out for us. Walking in the light, John says it later in a different way "if we confess our sins" walking in the light means the we are out in the open for all to see, we are accepting that we are what we are and in this case we are asking for a new body and new life in Christ. One aspect of this that struck me was the fact that walking in the light is not just a quick step out then back in so we can say we did it, but a continual journey.
For me that means I should be continually accepting that I'm not perfect but instead a sinner, someone who has done something and been something that crossed Gods standard of holiness and I can neither fix it, nor hide from it, but instead say yes to the person who loves me and cries out for me to accept Him and let Him cover over me and conquer it and create me anew.
Am I striving in my life to walk in the light, am I on that journey? Are you?


What are your thoughts? I would love comments on what you are thinking.


-Hosanna

Why the Challenge?

Earlier I made a challenge to anyone reading this blog, I'm really excited that some people have taken it up and are doing it with me. When my dad came home today he asked me why the challenge and memorizing so like I said earlier I'm going to explain, and maybe it will convince you to do it (if you haven't decided to yet).

The very first reason has been a lesson I have been learning just recently. One of my biggest prayers in my life is that my relationship with God would grow larger, stronger, and deeper everyday, and that my desire for Him and to serve Him would be my one and only. A little while ago I was going through a rough time in my walk with God and just cried out to Him, "God, why can't my relationship just stay firm all the time? Why do I go through these rough spots? Why can't I just figure it out?" There were definitely a few different lessons I learned that night, and one in particular has kept coming back. Last night I was flipping through my bible, trying to find a spot to read. I finally decided on first John and started going there when I stopped for a second and read a verse. I couldn't find it again after I had flipped past it but as I read it I was hit with the fact that if we don't seek, we won't find. In the past I've found when my relationship was strongest with God I was spending a lot of time with Him, constantly trying to put Him first. But when I stopped or slowed down it all began to slowly fall apart. So my first reason for doing this is to simply put God first and seek Him.

The Second reason was simply God's command  "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads" (Deut. 11:18). Know them inside and out. Why???? Because God knew that it would be able to help us in day to day life.

The third is that it is there to teach me, and gives me a hope. For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Romans 15:4

The fourth comes with Psalms 19:7-8, put simply tt revives the soul, gives wisdom, brings joy to the heart, is radiant and gives light to the eyes. The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. Psalms 19:7-8


In this world there is so much sin, a lot of it hard to detect and so comes the fifth reason. For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

The six came when I was talking with a cousin when I went to Colorado. We were talking about purity and came up with an analogy of a glass or container. You fill it with bad stuff, and there isn't much if any room for the good stuff. I the same way you fill it with good thoughts and motives there is no room for the bad thoughts and motives.  "...whatever is true, whatever noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things" (Phil. 4:8). Memorizing 1 John fills your heart with more content that is true, noble, right and pure.

The seventh is simply put in 1st Peter 3:15 Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. There is so much amazing content in the bible, I only wish I could retain it all. Sadly I can't but I can at least get part of it, in memorization. Then it will always be with me, and when anyone asks I'll have those words hidden in my heart.

I could go on for quite a bit longer, but I'll stop boring you and give you the last few quickly. I've always wanted to memorize a book of the bible, and since I'm not in Awana over the summer and not doing any other scripture memorization this is one way I can do it. It should be lots of fun, a good challenge, and an awesome time. I pray I'll learn lots and be able to get many lessons from this. If you aren't able to do it, but are doing some other memorization or something similar I would love to hear it and you can still be included you can even just read 1 John and learn from it while we are memorizing it. I would love to hear that you are doing, just leave a comment or email me!

-Hosanna

A Challenge!!!!!

More details on why I took this challenges is going to come later, but this morning I decided I would memorize 1 John. Its 105 verses and I'm going to try and get it all memorized in 11 days. Thats roughly 10 verses a day.

Now onto the the challenge, Its not the most difficult challenge but it will definitely take work, and I'm not going to say it will be easy, but the reward will be amazing.....will you do it with me?  

 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.