Author Archives: Marie

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About Marie

Happily married to the same awesome guy for many years. Love God, reading, cats, and travel. Avid crafter especially counted cross stitch and crochet.

Praying the Jesus Way

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In Matthew 6 Jesus gives us a model for our prayers and a few pointers on the how to do it.  In verses 5-8 He wants His followers to pray in a way that draws them close to God the Father without making a show of it like the hypocrites.  Then He gives the ideal place for it to happen, a place that is secluded.  By shutting the door He shows that there should be no outside influence.  He also said don’t be constantly repeating your words and going on and on.  You see God already knows what we’re praying for so keep it short and focused.

The perfect model is then given in verses 9-13:

the-lords-prayer

Each of the 6 points of this prayer lead us to total focus on the One who hears and answers.

  1. Focus on God and praise Him–Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name.  
  2. Focus on God’s plan and purpose–Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done
  3. Focus on what you need–Give us this day our daily bread
  4. Focus on forgiveness for yourself and for others–Forgive us our debts (trespasses/sins) and we forgive our debtors (those who trespass/sin against us).
  5. Focus on God’s guidance in daily challenges
  6. Focus on giving God total control–For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory

Verses 14-15 are extremely important!  We must forgive others if we expect to be forgiven by God.  It’s pretty clear isn’t it?

Blessings to you and yours!

Marie

Common

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common

Such an interesting word.  So many applications.

Common ground — when we are in agreement on an issue

Common sense–the ability to use what you know is right

Common law–personal actions over time leading to common ‘ownership’

Common cold–a health condition

Common chord–musical term

Common property–those items that are shared by 2 or more parties

Common denominator–mathematical term

Common noun–that which is not a proper noun

Common core–academic standards defining what a student should know

In common–a sense of mutual agreement

I am joining Kate Motaung and an incredibly talented group of writers for Five Minute Friday. One word prompt. Five minutes. No editing. Just writing!

Blessings to you and yours!

Marie

JOURNEY

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When I saw today’s Five Minute Friday word, JOURNEY, this poem came to mind.

the-road-not-taken

Throughout this journey I have often chosen to take ‘the one less traveled by’ and it has certainly made a difference.

The decisions we make as we journey through life are like a tree as it grows its branches.  If you can imagine with me the start of the tree, just a little sapling, no branches yet. Then as the years go by growth allows branches to grow on branches from the original sapling.  As this tree of life, if you will, grows year after year, there is new life from the old.  Sometimes winter takes it’s toll and a few branches fall off.  Spring and summer storms may remove a few branches here and there.  The tree continues to withstand the buffeting of wind, maybe a few lightening strikes, perhaps a few children climb and play in it…  The journey continues…

My journey has been much like the tree.  Each new branch has been a fork in the road, a life change or decision has presented itself.  I’ve often chosen ‘the one less traveled’ and yes, it has made all the difference.

Blessings to you and yours!

Marie

10 Ways To Build Strong Friendships

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10-ways-to-build-strong-friendships

When I was in my younger years I often wondered if I would have Best Friends later on in life. Guess what? I do. I have incredible friends in a range of friendships from bare acquaintances to BFF’s.

Have you ever met someone and immediately said to them you’re going to be my best friend.  Of course not!  Being a friend is a deliberate process.  It’s about spending time together. Getting to know one another. Sharing ups and downs and in-betweens.  Supporting them, praying for them, sharing with them, accepting them… That’s what grows strong friendships.

It’s nice to have friends that share interests and hobbies.  However, if we surround ourselves with exact copies of ourselves it gets really boring.  One of my BFF’s shares few commonalities with me, except a desire to grow closer to our Jesus.

In building strong, lasting friendships there are a few things that really don’t matter.  Age is one of them.  Yes, people of our own age share similar likes and experiences but those of other age groups have much to teach us.  Friendships cross many boundaries. Things like status, education, marriage, distance, can be overcome when two people say let’s be friends.

There’s a beautiful contemporary Christian song that points to the fact that God gives us our friends.  God Gave Me You by Dave Barnes really says it all.  Check out these lyrics:

God gave me you for the ups and downs

God gave me you for the days of doubt

For when I think I’ve lost my way

There are no words here left to say, it’s true

God gave me you.

What does God say about friendship? Check these verses out:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:12-14

Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses. Proverbs 27:5-6

There’s a Kroger commercial that ends with a woman saying, “My momma always said if you want to have a friend be one.” Nothing more needs to be said, does it?

Blessings to you and yours!
Marie

499th Anniversary

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499th Anniversary of what, you might ask?  On October 31st Protestants around the world will celebrate The Reformation.  Some of you may be saying and what is that?  In a nutshell, on that day in 1517, Martin Luther nailed a list of 95 points that the Church was ‘out in left field’ on, to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Germany.  I’ll include some of them below, but most importantly it launched the evangelical church as we know it.  In the years since the Resurrection, it is probably the most important and far-reaching event in Christian history.

Luther's theses are engraved into the door of All Saints' Church, Wittenberg. The Latin inscription above informs the reader that the original door was destroyed by a fire, and that in 1857, King Frederick William IV of Prussia ordered a replacement be made.

Luther’s theses are engraved into the door of All Saints’ Church, Wittenberg. The Latin inscription above informs the reader that the original door was destroyed by a fire, and that in 1857, King Frederick William IV of Prussia ordered a replacement be made.

There were some interesting practices in the Church during that time period.  And Luther’s 95 Thesis address them.  I’ve included some of the most interesting and applicable to my belief’s below.  If you want to read them all, in modern English, Check them out here. 

2. Only God can give salvation – – not a priest.

4. Sin will always remain until we enter Heaven.

37. Any Christian – dead or alive – can gain the benefit and love of Christ without an indulgence.  Indulgences are prayers and pay-offs to the Church for the person who has died.  The belief is that a person can be paid or prayed into Heaven.  Several of the Thesis Points cover this concept but I think 46 sums it up…  A Christian should buy what is necessary for life not waste money on an indulgence.

62. The main treasure of the church should be the Gospels and the grace of God.

94. Christians must follow Christ at all cost.

What is most interesting to me is that the Word of God then, and now, is interpreted in ways that benefit those who are ‘in leadership’.  Check out Paul’s words in 2 Peter 3:16

His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Some will choose to distort the scripture to meet their own objectives and get others to do what they want or to believe as they do.  This is not acceptable in any way and Peter clearly says it will lead ‘to their own destruction’.  If our ‘treasure’ is truly ‘in the Gospel’ (see #62) then we have all we need when we know and keep ‘His Word in our heart’ (Psalm 119:11).

I truly hope that all of my readers understand that we cannot buy our way into Heaven through indulgences and the prayers of others. (see #37)  Eternal life is secured by our belief in Jesus, the One and Only Son of God.  And that is all that matters!

Blessings to you and yours!

Marie