WELCOME TO SUMMER!!

As I was studying through John chapter 20: Thomas, who has been dubbed doubting Thomas, has heard from the disciples that they have seen Jesus. He makes a bold declaration.

So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

John 20:25

Thomas sees Jesus and believes. But when we believe without seeing Jesus said this.

²⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

John 20:29

Blessedness is a place of position where God is pleased. We feel joy or excitement but that is not all that is in blessing. It is the pleasure of God over you. WOW!

I had a moment of realization:

I see this word realization like this (real eyes – ation – meaning action or process)

Real Eyes SEE and Move!

We think that maybe studying the fullness of our emotion or the faculties of our minds will help us realize. Maybe if we study the earth and its ways, becoming one with the earth or learning to live off the land and if that doesn’t work when we are bored maybe we fall into the dark side of life and explore drugs and sex or maybe journey the world’s religions of spiritual things like wicca, buddha, or Taoism, yin and yang and all that. Trying anything to find a peace that alludes us. But what I have found as I have travelled through this world for 46 years. Is all those things make us assimilate to what they are but to study and seek Jesus you find integration. Chaos becomes unity. Just as Jesus said…

²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

John 17:21-23

The way God speaks to me:

I had been dealing with something that was frustrating and close to my heart, so it also hurt. I picked up a friend (unrelated to the matter) and as we rounded the corner from her house, I saw this little bear and I just noticed it. But then we rounded another corner and I saw out of the corner of my eye what looked to be a big bear. LOL I giggled as I looked because it was a stack of tires. I told my friend about it in the car. Then we met up with some other ladies and one of them had said the word bear and it came up twice. So this friend, mentioned that it was funny that the word bear had come up so many times in such a short amount of time.

Next day I struggled to sleep and ended up getting up at 4am to study about humility for an upcoming message. Later, I again, picked up this friend, and as we rounded the corner, I saw the first bear. I said, “I know where that bear word started!” I pointed out the little bear statue. Then she said the one thing that lit up the car with knowing. She said, “When I hear or see the same thing repeating like that, I usually start asking what God is trying to say.” And before she got the whole sentence out of her mouth, I knew exactly what God was trying to say. He was saying directly from the message that I wrote that morning and in conjunction with the situation that was frustrating and close to my heart that hurt me that I was to BEAR with the injury.

It is hard when we get hurt. Most of the time we try to blow it off, end up venting, and then get bitter about it. But bearing, forgiving, and doing good is a whole different thing. It is a supernatural thing that the Holy Spirit does in and through us as we follow His leading.

Colossians 3:12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Colossians 3:12-14

Thanks for Listening,

Starla