Thoughts ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZONPRTOFF dateof comment Look Inside Data Conditions:Order: Dateof Comment 05/17/2024 Rush Limbaugh use to drive the Liberals nuts because he would say "I have talent on loan from God." It is funny because it did drive them nuts. But it is also true. God has given us talents to be used to further his Kingdom. It has only been in the last 5 years that my King has been putting all the things he had me learn from the time I left high school to complete his plan. That has been a long time for me. I can do some amazing things with computers to further Gods plan. But check out me compared to who our King is: Ecclesiastes 11:5 (New International Version) As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. He definitely has me beat on this one. It gets worse as we read on. Romans 11:33-36 NIV 33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” 36 For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. Definitely not much of a comparison to our God who gave me everything from my talents to my finances. Everything is his already. Even though verse 35 says "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?", I still believe in: Malachi 3:10 NIV 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. Let us close by remembering: "For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. 10/29/2023 Refining our Walk to Look Like Jesus God has been having me collect silver for what he is about to do. When we are born, we are just like silver that has been just mined. The silver that he has me collect is 0.999 which is much more valuable than plain silver which has not been refined. To purify silver, you need to heat it hot to burn off the impurities. Many times, it has to be done more than seven times to get the impurities out. When we serve Christ, we have to have things in our life removed just like Isaiah said: Isaiah 48:10 I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering. Another thing I learned about silver is that it cannot be automated very well. Each pass has to be watched by the silversmith. The same thing happens with God. He is watching every trial that occurs in our lives. When the silver is refined enough the silversmith will see his reflection in the silver. The same thing happens to us when God sees the reflection of Jesus Christ forming in our own lives. The silversmith also knows that the furnace temperature has to be controlled to keep from damaging the silver which than has to be thrown away. God watches the furnace of suffering in our lives. He never lets us be tempted beyond our control. If he was not there to watch our furnace of suffering, we would fail. We need God to handle the big things in life, both physical and spiritual, that come against us. Only God can turn the heat down. When God gets through with us, we will become like what God told Zechariah: Zechariah 13:9 I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure. I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’” We all know God is purer than the purest silver and so are his promises that come after the furnace of suffering. Psalm 12:6 The Lord’s promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over.
