COURAGE

Joshua 1:9

New International Version (NIV)

⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

The greatest example of courage is what Jesus Christ modeled for us. To lay down ones life for another. Sacrifice, the denial of self.

1

: an act of offering to a deity something precious; especially : the killing of a victim on an altar

2

: something offered in sacrifice

3

a : destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else

b : something given up or lost <the sacrifices made by parents>

John 10:18

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

As Jesus talks about His life purpose I realize this is the calling, everything centers here. All of the mysteries of life find its purpose here in one laying down their life for another.

John 12:24

New International Version (NIV)

²⁴ Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Think about this, when you plant a seed, it actually dies before it produces life. This is the ministry and call of Jesus and from Him to us.

Matthew 10:39

New International Version (NIV)

³⁹ Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

This apply s to everything, think about when you get discouraged or feel like a failure and you have internal battles in your heart about what is right and what is wrong, and what you should do to change the results of your choices.Those feeling are connected to the flesh by the spirit producing conviction. The spirit knows it ‘s goal and will work on your heart until you submit to the spirit. The flesh desires pride and ownership of our hearts. the flesh wants to be first, the flesh is selfish, self righteous, greedy. The lust of self-will. The path of holiness is found by offering your life to Christ. allowing the spiritual seed of your body to die so that it will find it’s life in Christ. One day our physical bodies will die and if we die in Christ He says the dead seed of our bodies will produce life eternal. The seed of a sinful mans body glorified by God in death.

John 3

New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit^[b] gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You^[c] must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”^[d]

Flesh and spirit do not go together, one must replace the other. The flesh must die for the spirit to live. This is what Jesus modeled. This is why we love and respect Him above anything else. An all powerful King of the universe humbled himself, died to Himself, came to earth as a defenseless baby, so that we would know how wide, how deep His love is for us! Courage, His name is Courage, and I pray this very morning that we together will find courage to walk in love, dieing to ourselves that we might find life!

Proverbs 21:21

New International Version (NIV)

²¹ Whoever pursues righteousness and love
finds life, prosperity^[a] and honor.

May the Lord fill your spirit with truth and your heart with divine love. May He stamp your heart with courage.

Courage can be purchased at our store www. fullofrosesinspirationals.com

SHINE

Isaiah 60

Expanded Bible

Jerusalem Will Be Great

60 “Jerusalem, ·get up [arise] and shine, because your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord shines on you.
² [^LLook; ^TBehold] Darkness ·now covers [or will cover] the earth;
    deep darkness covers ·her people [the nations].
But the Lord shines on you,
    and people see his glory [^Chis manifest presence] ·around [upon] you.
³ Nations will come to your light;
    kings will come to ·the brightness of your sunrise [or your radiance].

Isaiah had a powerful message to give to the people of God which I believe stands even more today! There are messages all through the bible telling us to shine and I think we read it and at the moment think how powerful but never light the fire. If we do light the fire most of the time we have the shade over the light. I believe this happens for many reasons. First I think most Christians do not really know what it means to SHINE! How do we SHINE?

shine

v. shone  or shined, shin·ing, shines

 

To emit light.

 To reflect light; glint or glisten.

 To distinguish oneself in an activity or a field; excel.

 To be immediately apparent: Delight shone in her eyes.

 To aim or cast the beam or glow of (a light).

 past tense and past participle shined To make glossy or bright by polishing.

 Brightness from a source of light; radiance.

Brightness from reflected light; luster.

Excellence in quality or appearance; splendor.

To reflect light! We are to reflect the light of Christ. Again how do we do it? First we have to understand what we are using to reflect the light. We use our hearts to reflect the light of Christ. We must position our hearts in such a way that His light reflects from our heart. So first our hearts have to be positioned towards Him. Getting our hearts into focus, think about it, have you ever tried to reflect the sun with a magnify glass to burn a piece of paper? You have to get it into perfect focus and then it begins to smoke and then burn. His word is the magnify glass, our hearts are the paper. We need to get our hearts smoking in Gods word. Do you remember the two men that were walking on the road when Jesus resurrected? After Jesus left them, one of them  said, didn’t His words burn in our hearts? His word needs to smoke in our hearts to begin to burn.

1. To aim or cast the beam or glow of (a light). Once you have your heart smoking and burning in His love and truth, you have to refocus the light. Intentionally aim the light. How do we aim the light? Wherever the light is shinning on your heart you aim it. So for example the word of God brings conviction in a certain area in your life, you intentionally refocus the light on that area bringing even more light to it, which can be done by confessing your sin and acknowledging it. Repenting causing the sin to burn away by Gods truth. Then casting the beam or glow from your spirit that is now free from the heavy burden. Now shown on your face from your smile and the sparkling of your eyes because His spirit will emanate from your eyes the more you reflect His light (His Truth).

Removing the shade from your light is very important. Many people struggle doing this. Removing the shade means you have to share your light (His Light). Sharing can be difficult for many of us. Sharing is the greatest act of love and love is light. I have found that giving simple testimony to people causes my light to reflect Him. I aim His light towards others especially if I have walked through something very difficult with God and through that time God did so many things inside my heart that I now have something to give. What I now have to give is a talent and the word of God says not to bury our talents. If you overcome a stronghold you now have a talent in that area that reflects Gods light and Glory. Give your light away by reflecting His love to others.

This can also be done in your marriage, for example lets say your marriage is struggling and Gods light ( Gods Word) Causes the pride in your heart to burn. You refocus His light to your spouse with Humility and you aim His light ( His Love) at your spouse and once again your marriage begins to SHINE! Isaiah was and is telling us to emit light. Excellence in quality or appearance; splendor.

God bless you and may your heart smoke and burn the light and love of Christ. May God bless you and SHINE upon you!

SHINE can be purchased at our store www.fullofrosesinspirationals.com

WAITING WITH AN EMPTY NET (PART TWO) THE ALTER OF DREAMS

Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish

John:21 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee.^[a] It happened this way: ² Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus^[b]), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ³ “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

⁴ Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

⁵ He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”

“No,” they answered.

“No,” they answered. Is this how you feel? I know it is how I feel some of the time. I have all of these dreams and hopes, most of them come from visions God has placed in my heart. I am a risk taker, I live by faith. There are times I get disappointed by God. Things He has done to direct my path that I know I am suppose to be doing, yet, they don’t work out as I thought they would.  I know what it is like to fish all night only to come up empty. Are my dreams to unrealistic? Are they to big for God? I don’t think so. I want you to think of His words to peter and other disciples.

⁵ He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”

Is there a chance Jesus is asking you and I this same question? If so what can we do? First look at the definition of disciple.

Disciple: One who excepts and assists in spreading the teachings of another.

We must be discipled before we can disciple. So lets look at Gods word and see His plans for us.

Jeremiah 29:11

New International Version (NIV)

A Letter to the Exiles

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.^[b] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

His plan is to prosper us. Bless us! So what happened next with peter and the disciples?

John 21: ⁶ He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”

He said to change the direction. Meaning try something else. So I will tell you where Jesus led me.

Ecclesiastes 1:12

New International Version (NIV)

¹² I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! ¹⁴ I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Son of David, King Solomon says all is vanity, meaningless! So could it mean that God isn’t filling our nets because it could be harmful to us. Could there be a lesson from Jesus to you and I, His students? Could the something else be surrendering our dreams, our will to His? I believe so! I believe deep work needs to take place in us before God can do His greatest works in us. Character comes before blessing. Maturity before responsibility.

Matthew 10:³⁷

³⁷ “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Saints here is what I did today. I went to a quiet place in my room. I got down on my hands and knees, closed my eyes and built an alter before the Lord. I imagined all of my dreams and hopes as I placed them in the invisible bowl in front of me. It was a very intimate moment. I felt the loss of each thing I place in the bowl. I felt incredible humility. Surrendering to the will of my Lord Jesus Christ. Dieing to myself and my dreams as I picked up the bowl and raised it above my head and gave it all to him. I believe I was casting the net to the other side, off of my side over to His. I then placed the bowl back on the ground and asked Him to fill it with His will. I picked up the bowl once again, this time I drank it.

Saints may the Lord bless you! If you choose to cast your nets to the other side I pray your teacher Christ will bless you deeply. Be encouraged and may your life be meaningful.

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ROYALTY

This poem has probably the most fascinating story of them all. When I first came up with the idea to put pictures to my poetry, I searched the internet for pictures with no prevail due to copy-writes. I started looking for photographers and realized they were going to cost more than It would be worth. I spoke to a friend of mine who had a similar camera to mine. He said he had some pictures from Hawaii he could send me and he did. The pictures were beautiful! That Is when I decided to take some pictures of my own. My first effort was of a cloud with the sun. I took about 75 shots and then sat down and went through them. What I saw was amazing! All of the pictures had a beam from the sun shining down to the cloud like a sword. As I looked deeper and closer I noticed In one picture a dove spreading It’s wings over the cloud. So I wrote a poem about It called heaven’s dove. I will share it in another post.

A few weeks later I was taking a picture of a white rose. I took about ten pictures and did the same thing. I went and looked through the pictures and to my amazement a second time, something showed up in one picture only, this time a Bee or so I thought. Knowing this just doesn’t happen I took attention. I started listening and looking to God for what He was saying to me by this.

I looked up Bee mythology and this is what I found.

Bee symbolism:

As the workers of the hive, bees are symbol of an industrious and prosperous community governed by the queen Bee. They have therefore symbolized all that is royal and imperial , in France and in ancient Egypt (associated with Râ, the Sun God). Three hundred gold bees were discovered in the tomb of Childeric I (on the year 481), which showed that the hive was the model of an absolute menarchy. Napoleon I used bees as a motif on all his carpets, as well as on his coronation robes.
As organizers of the universe between earth and sky, bees symbolize all vital principles, and embody the soul . In the Greek religion, the bee was sometimes identified with Demeter, the goddess of the earth and crops, who represented the soul sent to hell. The bee also symbolizes the soul that flies away from the body in the Siberian, Central Asian, and South American Indian traditions.
Bees also symbolize eloquence , speech, and intelligence . In Hebrew, the word for bee, Dbure, has its origins in the word Dbr, speech. They settled on the mouth of the child, Plato, ” announcing the sweetness of his enchanting soul ” (Pliny) and also settled also on the lips of Saint Ambrose, the patron-saint of beekeepers. According to Virgil, they have a grain of divine intelligence and the famous Pythia, the priestess of Apollo, was called “the bee of Delphi”. In some texts from India, the bee represents the spirit becoming intoxicated with the pollen of knowledge.

Because of its honey and its sting, the Bee is considered to be an emblem of Christ : it represents his mildness and mercy on one side and his justice on the other.

They symbolize all that is royal and imperial,and embody the soul,the spirit becoming intoxicated with the pollen of knowledge and Because of its honey and its sting, the Bee is considered to be an emblem of Christ : It represents his mildness and mercy on one side and his justice on the other.

I was In awe of what God was saying to me. Now when I looked at the Bee I saw Christ. Roses have also been a big part of my life because of the second poem Full Of Roses and its meaning. Notice the rose in this picture has already been planted, the old and wilted have already been removed. What is the Bee-Christ doing? The Bee is about to pollinate the rose which symbolizes something taking place in the spirit. Once the Bee is finished then comes the honey. Milk and honey flow like a stream through the promised land.

I began to look even closer at the Bee and I realized I had never seen a Bee quite like this one. I began searching the internet for this Bee. I could not find it anywhere, it was driving me crazy. I spoke to a friend of mine and he began to help me find it. I finally found it and to my disappointment it wasn’t a Bee at all, It was a Mimic Bee, an insect that disguises itself for survival.

I was upset and talking to my friend and his wife asked, “why is he upset?” and he explained as they laughed,” he is upset because it isn’t a real Bee.” I was down for a few days, I did not understand why God had me believe it was a Bee. Then one morning I was out front and unexpected the holly spirit came from behind me saying “Mimic Me, Mimic Me” I then understood Why He wanted me to see the Bee as Him originally.

In the parable of the talents Matthew 25:14 It talks about using your talents and if you don’t, what you have will be taken away and given to someone who already has. I believe God gave me a new talent that wasn’t being used in photography.

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