I hope you don't mind if I personalise part of Isaiah 14v12
If you compare yourself with others, you will either think that you are inferior than them, and get depressed, or (worse), that you will think that you are superior than them and that they are inferior to you. Both these feelings take you away from God. God is a loving Father, who loves his children. He is not an efficiency expert or a super-computer. As a Father, the first steps of His baby delight Him just as much as a son or daughter who wins a gold medal. Do not be influenced by ungodly people. Compare yourself with Jesus…Do you delight in every little thing about yourself, in the same way as He delights in you. Have you as much hope, faith and love of yourself as your Saviour, Lord and God? The whole thing that Jesus is here for is to change our hearts. This means that when we want anything that is BAD, (and, make no mistake - we (you) do actually want it), we can resist the devil and he will flee from us, and then we will not want the bad thing . But, make no mistake....From time to time you will want bad things. If you give into them, you will wish you hadn't for they will destroy you.
This quote is from Momof9’s Place – web site. (Isn’t it lovely?) The above statement is lovely, and true, but....How does a wife cope with an impractical husband who is a little bit selfish. If she is down-to-earth and practical, and is taking the weights of the family and her husband is in an unreal world, is selfish and wants to be the 'head of the house' ? Our hearts go out to all you women - - Something about being perfected by the things we suffer - - and sharing in the sufferings of God. I know that you will get the reward you so richly deserve, but in the mean-time - - People are like sheep without a shepherd. they are not crazy madmen, as the movies would have us to believe. We need to find the words of GOD to speak to them. God can change their lives in one sentence. Here in Britain we talk about 50% representation by women in Parliament, where half of the Members of Parliament are women, and half are men. We talk about it as a fact, as if it has already happened. But there has never been 20% representation by women in Parliament - - - in the whole history of the human race. Make no mistake about it - The whole aim of God, and the desire of the whole host of heaven, is to change your life so that you do two things. (1) Love the Lord your God, as your God and your Lord, with all of your heart and soul and strength and might and (2) Where you love your neighbour as much as you love yourself. As He takes you out of your first birth, and of wanting the things of this world, at times it will be painful, because you will want these old things, and yet realise that you need the new. You will inch your way forward, (pushed by a lot of excited angels), into the ways of love, of hope and of a sound mind. You will lose the strengths of your first birth as you come into the spiritual land where everything is pure love. You will hold Him with a trembling hand as he disciplines you, and encourages you and takes you into places that you only dreamed of. It is God’s intention to make you sinless and it is very important to him. You will, often through heartache, choose not to sin because you will see it will destroy you. There are people who are not Christians, and are sinless, (if we compare them to other people). We have to admire them. We have to say that goodness is goodness, and admire it, even in non-Christians. Jesus came to save us from our sins. If a person is free from all known sins, if he overcomes the devil by the blood of the lamb and the word of his testimony, it does not mean that he is incapable of sinning. The New Testament talks to Christians about "the sins that so easily beset us". And it is true. The sinless person can sin in an unguarded moment. Repentance
"GO FOR SOULS , AND GO FOR THE WORST" If you treat a teenager as an inferior, he will treat you as an inferior. Don't do what you can do. Do what you can't do.
I know an illness will teach you a great deal, and it will improve your soul enormously, but if an Angel of God came down to you and said he would heal you if you wanted it, would you refuse? I bet you would not.
How has thou fallen from my Heaven oh ‘Shining One’, ‘Son of the Dawn’. Hewn down to the earth oh crusher of my nations. Yet thou did say in thy heart, "Your Heavens will I ascend. Above your God will I lift up my throne that I might sit in the Mount of Assembly, in the recesses of the North: I will mount on the hills of the clouds." - -
When I see thee now, upon thee I do gaze. Upon thee I thoughtfully muse, "Is this the devil who startled my earth? Who terrified my kingdoms? Who made my world like a desert and my cities break down? But now thou art "flung out from thy grave like an outcast, detested".
"The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman. For I have accepted God's idea of me, and my whole life is an offering back to Him of all that I am and all that He wants me to be. E.E. "
They are waiting for these right words. They really are.
They want God, they really do.
In whatever country you care to name - - - in whatever age you can think of - - - Never.
In times, or countries quite un-related to each other they have always been governed by men.
(You would have thought there would have been ONE society that has been governed by women, but there hasn’t). The most that you get in Parliament, Senate or group of Elders has been 15%, which is what you get today. Somehow I can’t believe that it has been because us men have kept you women down, and it certainly isn’t because we have done the hunting. There must be some other reason.
But I have got to say that I think that this earth is a poorer place because you women have not been there. - - But God rules. He is Lord.
He must have had a lot of faith to make us the head - - or is it because women's jobs are more important ?
Wear a smile.
They think you are a bore…..(correctly).
Relax
Be happy.
Radiate the joy of God.
Be a holy fool.
Supposing a woman marries a man and finds out that he is very, very selfish. She will wish that she had not married him, but carries on with him because she is loyal, and because she enjoys the good times with him. But there comes a time when she will not like the good times. When she does not want the good times, she has REPENTED from marrying him. So it is with people who repent. THEY DO NOT WANT THE GOOD TIMES. Until a person does not want the good times they have not repented.
Said this - on his last public address, at the Albert Hall, London.
While little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight;
While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, I'll fight;
While there yet remains one dark soul without the light of God,
I'll fight - I'll fight to the very end!"
William Booth
If you treat a teenager as an equal, he will treat you as superior. (G.W.North)
It is much more fun.
You will only see your own gifts if you do what you can do.
If you do what you can't do....You will see GOD's gifts.
Learn........EXPAND your heart......Claim your mountain......Enter in.
Ask GOD if you can 'Get out of the boat and walk on the water'
If God says YES - - - are you going to do it ?
How are you going to get to know GOD if you keep within your own limits
How is your learning curve?....If it terrifies you now it will raise you tomorrow.
You will not be an expert but God WILL give you what you need.
You WILL see GOD move.
I had a kind of daytime thought / vision. God came to me, and with great love, he asked me if there was anything I wanted, so He could give it to me. I replied "WHAT ? - - You tell me where to go and I will go there. You tell me what to say and I will say it. You are supposed to tell me what I want and I will want it..... God looked me in the eye, and I saw all the love that He had for me. He said "I don't want a puppet. I don't want a machine". It broke me, and tears filled my eyes, as I added "Yes...You don't want a Zombie..."
God wants a son....a red blooded, mistake making, son, with a beating heart.
If you have committed a bad crime.....if you have damaged someone's life.....if you have killed your baby, then you probably sense that God will judge and condemn you.YOU ARE RIGHT. He will.
Do you want another person to give you sympathy, and give you nothing else - - Endless heartache. For there is a loving GOD that kills you off - - and resurrects you - - as a new creation with a NEW HEART and a NEW LIFE
Men spend their money on the things that they love. If you want to know what a man loves look at what he spends his money on. (G.W.North) ALL MEN have one of three weaknesses. Either it is SEX, which can include pornography, or it is MONEY, which can include ambition in his job, or it is DRINK, which can include drugs. One of these things will rule all men until they realise that they can be destroyed by it and learn to control the weakness. Dr James Dobson, (a Christian medical doctor), wrote some books in the 1970s which are recommended and are just as much needed today as they were then. In one of them he points out that men have a physiological need to get rid of the sperm. The body continually makes sperm and most of us men have to get rid of it, either in sex or masturbation. Although there is another side to this theory, it is, non the less, very true. The Bible says that ‘it is better to marry than to burn (with lust)’, and anyone who is troubled by lust, if he can, should marry, and direct this in the way God intended. Masturbation is, however a great heartache in almost all young men.
But you can take part in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. ( Do look at the page on this web-site 'The Gospel'
The Gospel). If you claim the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ then everything about you, apart from your body, will die, and you will be resurrected as a New Creation. You will get a New Life.
When the New Life comes in, it is just like you are a different person. Everything that you have done, and everything that has been done to you has DIED. You go to school, University or work with a new heart. It is like you are newly married to your wife or husband. You will look back on your past life with confusion. You know that it was you, but it isn't. It has GONE.You will love God and love the people around you. It has cost you everything, but you have gained everything. You no longer destroy yourself. You are pure and spotless, just as Jesus said.
If, at the end of the day, you end up as God wants you to be, who cares how you got there. If you get to heaven and meet the person you damaged or the baby you aborted, (who is happy and cared for by the loving Father), you will both dance before the throne of God, and sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.