One Upped By God!

This morning God has been speaking so much to me about His faithfulness!

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20 & 21

I was reading a Facebook post this morning that I wrote a year ago.  It was when I announced that I was going to be making the "big" move from California to Florida.  What struck me most about this post, was how I had written down very specific prayer requests.  This led me to search and find two emails that I wrote around the same time.  These emails where also full of prayer requests for my move.  And as I read all these requests to God, I started to laugh.

Why would I laugh you ask?  Because my prayers and God's answers to them, for the most part, were so different from one another.

This weekend Pastor Seth preached on prayer and several members of our church came up and shared their experiences with us.  One of the things that I have always believed and is that God's ways are not our own.  We can't even begin to understand His reasoning behind the way He answers prayers.  This fact has been very obvious to me in my life! Even when I pray very specifically God almost always finds a way to "one up" me.

One of our members, shared a story of faithfulness to us that really touched my heart.  She, like so many of us "creatives" out there, dictates out her prayer requests in a journal. Because of this fact, she was able to share a beautiful story of God's faithfulness through the answered prayer for a friend of hers.  Part of the beauty of her having written down her prayers, was that she was able to share them with her friend in a way that truly gave God praise and honor!  Today I am reminded of this story and see so much more the importance of writing out prayers and events of God's faithful answer.

His faithfulness and love shines in the prayers and answers below:

• I asked God specifically for a 2 bedroom apartment close to church in Winter Springs...I ended up with a 3 bedroom house in Oviedo that is an 8 minute drive from church!  
• I asked God for $5000 to move...He gave me $7300!  
• I asked God for 20 full-time (60 minute weekly sessions) voice students...He gave me 18 students so far that fit in that category but 135 at One School of The Arts that also fit that category but are taught in groups.  LOL  

Yes God definitely has a sense of humor!  He loves to bless His children above and beyond what they ask for! "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think..."

At times, we can look at the above testimony and think...well why be so specific in prayer?  Just ask for God's will to be done, it's obviously way better than our own!  But I think the reason we are to ask, is just that!

We are to ask so that we can physically see that God's ways are better than our own.  If we don't ask, God doesn't have to opportunity to bless us and we don't have a measuring point to see... 

 "that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:18 &19

God loves surprise blessings!  For those of you who are parents...when your child asks you for something, don't you, most of the time, want to do what ever you can to provide it for them? And when that heart behind their request is humble and pure...don't you want to bless them all the more?  

God loves to see us smile; He loves to hear the praises and gratitude of His children.  

"So I say to you ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." Jesus in Luke 1: 9 & 10. 

Give God the opportunity to "one up" you!   Trust me, it blesses Him just as much as it does you!

Part 1: Faith In Action: My Life

Excerpts from James 2: 14 -26: 

Another Way to Look at Faith and Works

Part 1:

Faith in Action: My Life

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?...You see that his(Abraham's) faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did...As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

My summary:

If faith without works is dead...than in fact we must take steps of faith for it to be alive. And with each step of faith we take, God confirms His faithfulness. Jesus took the first step when He died for us, as we were still sinners. So we must in turn trust our savior and take the next seemly "first step" of faith, which is in fact just a step of reaction to His faith in us...

This is a broad and profound statement, so let's take a deeper look...

Let's start with Jesus? 

Jesus took a huge step of faith when He died on the cross for us.  We were still sinners; lost and blind and yet He still chose to die for us.  He knew full well that we all would have the choice to believe whether His death was justified or not.  Whether His sacrifice was indeed for us and whether we wanted to accept it. This seems so obvious...but lets put it into perspective for a minute.  

Let us say that you see a little boy playing basket ball in the street.  There is a truck coming full speed right at him and you choose to push him out of the way and get hit instead of him.  Later on after your death, the little boy decides to believe that you didn't do what you did to save him.  That you pushed him because you wanted glory, or because you were crazy, or for no reason at all, it was just a work of life, a random act.  No reason, no meaning, the little boy just now lives, while you are dead.  

This may seem like a silly comparison, yet this is what so many of us in the world think about Jesus.  

Christians know and believe that Jesus died on the cross so that we could live and be free from the power of sin and darkness in the world.  So that we could have relationship with Him and share that love with the world. We know it was no a random act.  Yet so many in the world see it as just that.  A random part of history.  A crazy man put to death.

Jesus knew all of this. 

He knew many would deny Him, mock Him, and hate Him.  Yet he chose to die for them anyway.  He took a step of faith, believing that though many would choose to deny Him, others would choose to believe.  Other's would choose to walk by faith just as He did.  

Now let's look at Abraham:

Abraham was asked to take many steps of faith in his life.  The first being to leave his home and go the place God told him.  With every step of faith that Abraham took, the more He saw God's faithfulness. 

We must understand that if Abraham had not taken the steps of faith that he did, he would never have seen God's ability to follow through.  And if he had never seen God's ability to follow through, He would never have come to know God's character.  And if he had never come to know God's character, he would never have been able to trust God when He was asked to sacrifice his son.  You see because this request of faith was not the first that Abraham had been asked by God to do, Abraham knew that even though the request seemed crazy, scary and extreme; God's character was faithful, just and good.  

Now let's look at us:

The things that God asks us to step out in faith around, can also seem very scary.  We do not pretend that what we are being asked of in this day and age is anything compared to what Jesus or even Abraham went through. And although in some parts of this world, Christians are being asked to deny their faith or die daily, this does not discredit the challenges we face everyday.  It merely gives us perspective.  

Faith walks have many levels and we all face them differently depending on our season and circumstances. 

For some their walk may be unemployment and homelessness.  
For other's it could be addiction, abuse, and fighting a life predestined by the birth of their circumstances.  
For others still, the walk maybe a big move or a career change.
It could be inviting a stranger to church or talking to the homeless man on the street. 

All have their own challenges and can be scary in different ways.  

All of them cause us to look out into an unknown: An unknown that can appear as a raging ocean of waves and winds or perhaps a black hole, sucking us into darkness.   

But whatever the picture is that lies ahead, it does not change the fact that we must take a step of faith if we want our faith to become alive.  

And the longer we stare at our ocean or black hole, the bigger and scarier it becomes.  BUT the more steps we take towards it, the more God reveals His faithfulness. And the more God reveals His faithfulness the more we begin to know and trust His character  

That...
With each step He will calm the waters. 
With each step, He will tame the winds. 
With each step, He will shine light in the darkness.  
With each step, He will reveal the unknown.  

And with each revealing step we take, the more we start to see the truth of the cross.  The truth of our relationship with God.  The truth in His promises: 

God does love us. God does care for us.  And God will make a way!

You see, Jesus and Abraham both knew God's character. They both understood the big picture and they both had taken steps of faith in their life to prove God's character to be trustworthy and good.

Faith with out works is dead; but faith through action brings faith to life and reminds us that Jesus is still alive through us!

Part 2: Faith in Action: Evangelism coming soon!

Resolve: Who Does God Say I Am?

It’s the eve of a New Year and I don’t know about you but I always feel this overwhelming pressure to figure out what I did wrong in the past year and quickly remedy it with what I can do better in the New Year.  Now there is nothing wrong with bettering yourself, or following your dreams, but why do we always have to wait until a new year to have a fresh start?

With Jesus, we can always have a fresh start!  We can begin again, or resolve to be “better” at anytime.  In fact I think waiting for the new year, or waiting for Monday, or next month or after the holidays, is just another excuse we give ourselves so that we can have more time doing exactly what we have been doing,…which is exactly what we don’t want to be doing!  Now how crazy is that!? 

Now before you get all funky on me and stop reading this post, know that I say this because I do it all the time!  And I’m sick of it!  The only time we have to work with is right now!  Not tomorrow, not next week, next month, next year…we have right now!  So put down the donut, get off your couch, walk out the door, put down the bottle (just to name a few) and start changing your life right now! 

Why do we care so much about things that are so unimportant?  We have a misplaced value system in this world that needs to change.  We put value in things of little importance yet fail to value priceless things such as our minds, bodies and most importantly our souls!

So if we really need to make a new years resolution, here is what I feel let to share, as a healthy way of doing it. 

1. Reflect back on all this year has been.  Walk through each defining moment.   The good, the bad,     the sad, and even the ugly.  But don’t sit there and beat yourself up.  It so easy to reflect and focus only on what you did wrong.  Make sure you dwell and encourage yourself for the moments you did well, even if they didn’t last as long as you would have liked them to. 

2. Respond to how it makes you feel, what it makes you think, and what it makes you do.  You may need to cringe, cry, laugh, smile, or even scream. Don’t dwell here to long.  But allowing yourself to feel is very important. Because then you can let it go!

3. Regroup…. meaning forgive yourself and remember that what really defines you is God.  Set your heart and mind on His truth.  Resolve to walk in a attitude of Godliness.  Remind yourself of your true worth and meditate on the things that God has called all His children to be and do.  Pray and ask God to reveal to you, if He has not already, what He has specifically called for you.  Ask His Spirit to guide you through what next steps you need to take to make sure you are walking in the footsteps God has laid before you to follow.

4. Resolve.  But instead of looking to what the world says you should resolve to be…i.e. thinner, prettier, successful, and talented, ask yourself what has God ask me to resolve to be? And more importantly, who does God say I already am simply because I am His? 

We have a power that comes simply from being called children of God and because of that power we have the authority to simply walk away from our addictions and shame and never look back.  Let us stop allowing satan to hold us captive in lies, temptation and guilt.  In fact if we must have resolutions, let it be a resolve to not long allow ourselves to be held captive in chains that are no longer upon us.  Let us resolve to walk in truth, freedom and grace and let us resolve to believe the truth!  We are free in Jesus name! 

Happy New Year!  God Bless you all!!

A Work In Progress

There is a big difference between being free of sin and being free from sin.  

No one is free of sin.  Only Jesus had that gift.  We are all caught in a web of sin from birth and the only difference we as Christians have from others around us is..JESUS.  Because Jesus chose to walk the Earth and bring a message of salvation and reconciliation to the world, die and then rise again...we are not free of sin...but free from sin.  

You see, to be free of sin insinuates that we are no longer tempted, no longer drawn too, and no longer suffer from it.  But even Jesus was tempted to sin; the only difference between Him and us is, that He chose to walk away.  

We are NOT free of sin.  

It still tempts us, draws us, and cause us to suffer from time to time.  

But we ARE free from sin.  

Meaning we are no longer a slave to it.  It no longer takes away our access to heaven and God.  

Now this doesn't mean we can just do whatever we want and still get into heaven.  We will each have a day where we will stand before our judge to give an account for our actions.  But what it does mean is that we don't have to be a slave to it.  We have the ability to walk away and be forgiven.  We can be washed clean and start again.  

When we give our lives to Jesus, our problems don't just disappear.  Our lives and the situations around us are the same.  

But what is different is us!  

We now have the spirit of God inside us to guide and remind us of what is right and wrong.  A spirit that intercedes for us in prayer when we don't know what to say.  We have Jesus interceding and praying for us to the Father.  And the biggest difference of all...We have a direct relationship with our Father God in heaven.  We are all His children and we are now apart of His family forever.  

We have help!  Supernatural and all powerful love and help. 

So that when the boy or girlfriend that we have been sleeping and living with asks us why we are moving out and moving on...we can tell them it's because we have supernatural and all powerful love and help!

When our friends that we usually party with are texting us asking why we aren't going out to night, we can say because we have supernatural and all powerful love and help!

When our dealer is calling us wondering why we haven't needed a fix, we can change our number and move away knowing that we have supernatural and all powerful love and help!

When we want to hide away in pornography or go bed with someone we've just met, just to have a moment to forget and feel loved, we can install guards on our media and walk away because we have supernatural and all powerful love and help!

When we want to have another drink, we can stay away from the bar and remember we have supernatural and all powerful love and help!

When we walk away from an abusive person in our life, we can stay strong and move on knowing we have supernatural and all powerful love and help!

And the best part... 

When we slip up and take a drink, get in bed, get a fix or watch a show, we can get up, get out and keep moving forward because we have supernatural and all powerful love and help...AND bothers and sisters in Christ who understand, guide and help us stay accountable.     

So that when our light begins to shine so bright that the people around us begin to ask what has changed, we can tell them from experience and with full testimony that we have supernatural and all powerful love and help....and they can have it too!

We have all been given the same opportunity to walk out a new life and new direction free from lies of shame, guilt and entrapment. To take off the filthy cloak of deceit that satan has placed on us and walk in to the redemptive and loving arms of Jesus. He will meet us all exactly where were are in that moment and help us to rise up into the child of God He has called us too be. 

Beautiful, strong, free and redeemed!

We are all a work in progress, none of us are perfect. But God meets us exactly where we are at and only through His supernatural and all powerful love can we daily shine His light and free ourselves from the sin that is always around us. 

Let's stop beating ourselves up trying to be perfect and let God's supernatural and all powerful love help us start shining!

God Wants To Help Us Bear Our Burdens Daily!

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our savior, who daily bears our burdens." (Psalm 68:19)

If God daily bears our burdens...then why are we still baring them?

Jesus not only bore our burdens that day on the cross, the word says He daily bears them!  Yet we have this unnecessary tendency to go through everything in our lives alone.  It's so easy in a world that is constantly telling us to "Be strong!" and "The only person we can truly rely on is ourselves."  So, we don't believe anyone should have to share in our daily burdens or past regrets.  But the truth of the mater is, whether we like it or not Jesus does share in it all.

We don't get to decide what Jesus bears with us and what He does not, because He is our absolute savior; He bears it all!  

Therefore, we should stop trying to live our lives alone!  Welcome our savior daily with open arms, thanking and praising Him for His presence that is always here to walk out our struggles with us this day and everyday.  That He is here to help us carry the load.

The words says in Mathew 11:28-30, 

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

God wants us to come to Him with our burdens and heavy souls.  It is not a burden for Him.  He invites us!

He longs to replace our weary and heavy lives with rest, easiness and light.  He wants to release us from the weight of the world we so easily place on our shoulders.  He wants to help us!

We all to easily fall in to satan's biggest trap, his LIES!  He wants us to believe that we are a burden to God, that we are not worthy of God's attention or time. That we should be able to take all our struggles and burdens on by ourselves.  He will whisper that God is testing us and if we ask him for help we have failed Him.  He will try and tell us to bare it on our own.

But remember, these statements are not true.  No where does God say we must bare are burdens alone to be tested.  

Jesus, when he was tempted in the desert was not alone, don't let satan trick you into thinking He defeated Satan's temptations and lies on His own word or motivation.  The word of God was within Jesus and so was His loving father through His word.

We have all we need in God's word, to assure us that God does NOT want us to go through our trials alone.  This is one of the reason why it is so important to memorize scripture and have it planted and accessible deep in our hearts.  Not so that we can impress those around us with out biblical knowledge, or righteousness.  But so that we can actively access it in our time of need.  So that when satan is whispering in out ear to go at it alone, we can fight back with words of truth!

The words says in James 4:7 to 

"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." 

It also says in Ephesians 6:13 to 

"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."  

And we know that part of the armor of God is our sword of truth, which is the word of God!  

So if we are standing now in the full armor of God, and dwelling in the truth, we can stand in this truth!

We can give all your burdens big and small over to your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They are no longer ours to bear! He alone can make our way easy, and make our load light.  He alone is our help in time of need and He longs to carry the load for us!  We are never alone!

Hallelujah!

If/Then: Are Our Desires God's Desires?

"Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4)

All of us have experienced having desires in this life, and most of us are still waiting on at least one of those desires or dreams to come to life.  Some of us have even had glimpses or visions from God confirming certain desires.  Others have thought for sure that a certain dream was about to come true...only to find that it was lost again in but a moment.

So many thoughts and questions come to mind, when thinking about our hearts desires.  But here are what I believe are the two most prominent:

1. How can we know that our desires are God's desire as well?
2. How can we trust that God will give us what we desire?

Let's approach each of these questions one by one starting with the first.

How can we know that our desire are God's desire as well?

It can be a challenge to believe God for something, when years and years have gone by and still...that desire or dream is just that...a dream.  But if we look at the scripture above as an if/than statement than we know for sure one thing.

IF we are taking delight in the Lord, then He is giving us the desires of our heart.

So what does it mean to delight in the Lord exactly and what does it mean for Him to give us a desire?

I love looking up the definition of words.  It always presents a new and unique and most of the time solid explanation. 

To delight in something, or in this case in God, by definition means to receive great pleasure from, be charmed by, or find joy in.  But he foundational word for delight, in our literal history actually means to be charmed, and charmed in it's foundation term means to be influenced, therefore if we are daily influenced by the Lord, THEN the Lord will give or freely transfer to us our desires.  

So re-writing we could say the above scripture as such:

IF we are acting under the influence of the Lord THEN He will freely transfer from His heart to ours, our desires.

So now more fully understanding the above scripture, we can trust that if we are living under God's influence and power than the desires that are planted in our heart ARE planted there by God.  

The second question is a bit harder to answer because it's foundation is harder to obtain.  TRUST!

How can we trust that God will give us what we desire?

Well lets start by asking ourselves, what does it mean to trust?

Defined trust means to have a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something, in this case being our God.  So if we take each of these words and find scripture to back them up...I believe we can't do anything but trust our God.  SO here goes:

RELIABILITY:

"Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago." Isaiah 25:1

Time and time again in the bible we see acts of God's faithfulness and reliability.  

“And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.” (Genesis 21:1) 

God told Abraham that He would have decedents as many as the stars and we well know...HE DID!

Our God is faithful and therefore reliable.

TRUTH:

Is God truly there? (This is a very loaded question, which I will answer simply and if you are interested in knowing more please do not hesitate to contact me and ask.)  We know that the bible is truth and the stories of history that are written in it have been historically proven and backed up, SO if we know that the bible is truth and that our God is real, then we can believe this scripture that says:

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." (2Timothy 3:16)

ABILITY:

"Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us."(Ephesians 3:20)

I love this scripture!  God is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, if that doesn't speak to God's ability I don't know what does!

STRENGTH:

Is our God strong?

“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you." (Jeremiah 32:17)

We serve a strong and able God.  A God who formed the universe and all that is with in it.  Our God is STRONG!

So after reading the above scriptures, I hope that you can stand with me and believe that we serve an all powerful God that we can rightly put our hope and trust in.   But if you are still struggling, it may help to take each of these words and define times in your life where God has specifically shown each of these characteristics to you personally.  For what we read and what we experience are two very different things and if we can remember times in our own lives that God has shown His faithfulness, our ability to trust Him is strengthened.  

"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.(Jeremiah 29:11)

But remember, 

"In his heart a man plans His course, but the Lord determines His steps." (Proverbs 16:9)

So many times God shows us a dream, or a desire for our life and for the sake of this analogy I would like you to imagine that your dream or desire is like a living deer. Rarely are we allowed to run full speed ahead and grab at a deer with out a struggle or a chase.  Timing and approach are everything. So is that in life. We must always wait on God's timing. Why?

Because God knows that even if we run at our dream, grab it and manage to catch it, when it is not ready...just as a deer would, we will find the dream struggling, and bucking against us! It is only when we wait in peace and stillness for God to allow the deer or dream to come towards us, that we can willingly and in God's good grace embrace it fully, without resistance or struggle.

So my brothers and sisters, trust, believe and wait on the Lord.  Knowing that if you are walking in His influence then the desires that He is giving you, are His own and you can TRUST that He will see them through in His right and perfect time!

But As For Me And My House: We Will Serve The LORD!

"For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything." (Hebrews 3:4)

What are you building your house with? 

What is your house's foundation? Where is your safety? God reminded me this morning of a moment I had as a nanny, where a little girl asked me about heaven. She wanted to know what it would look like, who would be there and what we would do. As I began to tell her of all of what I thought were heavens glorious wonders, I looked over and noticed she was crying. As I asked her why she was crying she proceeded to asked two questions.

1) "Will we sleep in heaven?" 

I replied that I imagined that we wouldn't need to rest in heaven because we would never be tired.

She cried harder..."but I love sleep so much!" she wailed out.  Next question...

2) "Will I have my toys?"

I explained how the things of this world will fade away and that we take nothing with us but our souls.

At this point she was wailing..."but I'll be soooooo bored!" she is heaving.

At this point I am sure most of you are chuckling a little bit and honestly I was trying very hard not to laugh a bit myself.  But what you have to realize is a bit of subtext.

What seems so silly for some of us, was very serious to this little girl. We have to remember not all of us have Godly examples in our lives.

We are all caught in a web of satan's design from birth and it is up to the rest of us to appropriately step in when and where we can. 

But parents have the main responsibility.

This little girl had parents who did not know and fear the Lord, worked full days and often asked me, the nanny, to go to special events instead of them. 

The two times this little girl was actually with her parents were...

1) When they would buy, do, and go whatever and wherever she pleased and

2) Bedtime.

So, to this little girl bedtime was very special; the things her parents bought her were very special. It is no wonder that her toys and sleep were where she held her value; they were the only ways and times in her life that she felt love from the two most important people in her life.

Now in case you are wondering, the little girl did eventually calm down. I prayed with her and told her she could talk to God about if she wanted too; that He would listen and hear her. And after about an hour of listening to her crying and talking to God in her room she came out. But honestly that is not the point of this story. The point is...

What are we building our houses with?  What are we teaching our children to put value in?  How are you showing them love?

God calls us as parents and caregivers to guide our children in a Godly way.  

If we are treating our children like accessories or worse yet burdens what are we teaching them about God's view of us? 

If we buy them whatever they want and let them do whatever they want; what are we teaching them about God's law? 

If we ignore, hurt, and belittle them; what are we teaching them about God's grace and love? 

But I am not just talking to parents here,  What if we asked the above question in  a different way:

If we are treating our NEIGHBORS, FRIENDS, CO-WORKERS like accessories or worse yet burdens what are we teaching them about God's view of THEM? 

If we LET OUR NEIGHBORS, FRIENDS, CO-WORKERS do whatever they want both TO US and TO OTHERS; what are we teaching them about God's law? 

If we ignore, hurt, and belittle our NEIGHBORS, FRIENDS, CO-WORKERS ; what are we teaching them about God's grace and love? 

We have a responsibility to be like Jesus to our children AND all the people God places in and around our lives. 

Children of God we are held to a different standard. Don't let the ways of this technology and money driven world get in the way of what is really important. Your children look too YOU; the world looks to YOU. What kind of example are we setting? What are we building our houses with? Where are we getting our worth? How are we spending our time? What are we storing up?   Our children will inevitably follow and so will the rest of the world.  So remember...

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Mathew 16:26)

It all will fade away...all that will be left is our soul? 

So I ask you...is your house build on the Lord?  What can you be doing more and more of everyday to ensure it is?  

We are not called to be perfect, but we are called to follow God's law and strive to be like Jesus the best we can every day! 

So let us: LOVE, SACRIFICE, SHEPHERD, SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS, STAND ON THE WORD OF GOD, SAVE,  PROTECT, SERVE, TEACH, SHOW PATIENCE, SHOW GRACE, PRAY, SEEK GOD's WILL, WALK IN PEACE, WALK IN THE SPIRIT, WALK IN TRUTH, and GIVE through the grace and help of God everyday!

Amen!