Faith Filled Fridays From Croley’s Corner of Chicklit Power

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Welcome to Faith Filled Friday’s Coffee Hour. Today’s blog may seem simple yet for certain we are always in need of a reminder that our words are powerful in that they can bring life or death. Grab your favorite beverage, journal and join me for a moment as we look into God’s word together.
Proverbs 18:21 teaches us that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Our words have a tremendous ability to heal and bring peace or to destroy and hurt others. We also find in Matthew 12:34–35 Jesus reminds us that the words we speak are actually the overflow of our hearts.
I have five amazingly talented, gifted, beautiful grandchildren, I guess I’m a bit partial, then again, what Grandma or Grandpa wouldn’t be? We have three girls and two boys, the ages ranging from 12 to 7. The two boys are 7. Now mind you, I love them dearly; however when they are together, it seems like there’s an army of them…literally! They seem to multiply right before my eyes! I find it funny that the boys seem to emulate one another more so than the girls, maybe because of their ages, yet I’m not convinced, (girls do as well; however, we’ll leave that for another time of blogging.)
One thing for sure what one boy does the other will soon follow, repeat or even act out. I recently bought them some Lego’s. Soon after they opened their packages they began comparing each item, one was better, bigger, more pieces, and had more men. As we watched them interact you could sense the atmosphere changing and quickly a verbal argument broke out. Of course at this young age the worst word one could hear was, at least from our grand boys, was ”That’s stupid,” and I’m keeping the name confidential for the sake of privacy. :)
He quickly turned and looked at us, to see if we were going to react. He definitely had a look of ‘uh oh’ I’ve just said something that wasn’t nice. Immediately you could see the reaction on the other boy’s face. He, too, was surprised, hurt and then angry. Yet within a few minutes the offender said, "I’m sorry". He recognized he brought brokenness between the both of them. Even at the age of 7, they recognize that their words can harm one another and bring improper actions.
The power of our words can actually rescind one’s spirit. It could have been a whole lot worse; however, I was thankful for the tender-heartedness of our grandson to ask for forgiveness and yes the other grandson responded…. “I forgive you.” They hugged and played on.
We find in Ephesians 4: 29 that Paul warns us “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Here Paul is emphasizing the positive over the negative. The Greek word translated “unwholesome” and means “rotten” or “foul.” It originally referred to rotten fruit and vegetables. Yet another blog for another day!
Although Paul was speaking to a mature church, we find that it’s not impossible to be equipped and empowered by what is good, acceptable by the power of our words... at any age, for that matter. How blessed are we when we use our tongue to lift up and encourage the people around us. Simple as that!!!
Prayer: Father continue to show us in your Word that our mouth would be a means of grace… a tool that would bring You glory and that the hearer will know that our words are covered with Your love. Help us to be reminded whose got their eyes on us that they would find we are able to control our actions, our words that may feel like it requires us to respond in a corrupt way. We recognize that the fight for purity of mouth starts in the heart… in that we should emulate the example of Jesus whose words were so filled with grace that the multitudes were even amazed. Amen!!
Have a wonderful weekend… and keep Him close to your heart.
Love,

Deb

Seven Sacrifices of Joy

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Oh, happy day to you! Thanks for joining me for more of this series on our search for joy! Grab your coffee and your Red SOF (Strand of Faith) and come on in. We’ve got some knots to tie in our SOF so let’s get back to a great communicator who shares his gift of communication, koinonia!
We have been given another great example of someone who valued communication; he was actually an amazing communicator and spoke not only from his knowledge, which he was rich in, but his heart! He could have “coined” koinonia and koinonio for as much as he spoke about it and lived it. Can you guess who I’m talking about? Give up?
Paul! Koinonia was his favorite subject and one of the things he talked about the most in the letters he penned during some of his most difficult times, times where all he had was the gift of communication. Oh, what a great example of Romans 8:28, using Paul’s incarcerations to His glory and our benefit!
In 1^st Corinthians 1:9 Paul reminds us that God is the one who has called us into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. I don’t know about you, but oftentimes, it is hard for me to allow that truth to sink in, that God desires koinonio with the likes of me, but He does! He chose to communicate with us before we ever chose Him, and He proves it by pursuing us relentlessly. Romans 8:1 keeps coming to mind where Paul shares with struggling Christians who wrestle with not feeling good enough: He says that there is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. Now, I don’t know about you, but in my first years as a Christian, if I felt I wasn’t behaving appropriately, or felt like I wasn’t measuring up, I usually stayed away until I had earned my way back. Have you ever felt like you shouldn’t show up until you cleaned up?
Coffee Hour friend, can I share with you how wonderful it is to truly understand these words of “no condemnation”? See, no condemnation is a three-prong promise that keeps the line of communication open: This means He’s not angry with us; He will not reject us, and He’s not going to punish us – despite us thinking that He’s a cause and effect kind of God. But – yes, there’s a “but” -- :) we must allow His Spirit to guide us and not our flesh to overtake us. Here’s another way to sort of simplify the whole no condemnation and living by the Spirit concept: I can’t; He can; here’s how!
Show up daily to communicate with Him. If that sounds really foreign to you, begin with just ten minutes … a tithe of your day. Start by thanking Him for at least three things that often we take for granted. Trust me when I say that when you make this a habit, three will turn into four, five, six … Maybe listen to one or two worship songs to soften your heart and align your focus. After you thank Him, mentally press the rewind on the events of the day before and be still, seeking to understand if there was an attitude, an action or anything that was out of line, missing the mark. He will be faithful to reveal so you can then ask Him to forgive and to heal you.
See when we acknowledge it, we will be more aware of it. When we become more aware of where/how we miss the mark, then we can avoid the detours that take us there to where we shouldn’t be.
This ten minutes you take to give Him will wake up His Spirit within you, helping you to be guided by His Spirit and not overcome by your flesh.
It takes thirty days to make a habit and only one day to break it! This is a Sacrifice of Communication!
Join me tomorrow for Debbie’s Faith Filled Fridays. ..
Love,

Evinda

Faith-Filled Friday from Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Happy day to you and thanks for joining me for another Faith-Filled Friday! I know I said we’d share coffee in Cabo this Friday, but I decided to save that until after I was back as a way of savoring the memories created! Grab your coffee and come on in!

Last Friday we acknowledged that even the “bad” things that we do and/or the sin heaped upon us are actually part of our testimony, and this is certainly true of the “elders” acknowledged in the Hall of Faith.

Verse 3 has a lot of yummy meat, some potatoes, and definitely some good-for-you vegetables! Hopefully I can serve all of it to you in one blog! I’ll try.  “By faith we understand –STOP! See, that first part of verse 3 again reiterates what I’ve said from the beginning of this series: faith unlocks the door to understanding. Without it, we are unable to allow the things of God to wrap around our minds, let alone root in our heart. Creation is one of those things that we definitely need faith to understand!

Okay. So, “By faith, we understand that the worlds — oops, sorry, but do you see anything in that word “worlds” that causes your eyebrows to go up into your forehead? Well, I do, so please, bear with me.

Hmm, interesting! It translates to “alon” and means age, or time; always and on, being. Both in the singular and plural, it signifies eternity! Bingo! That’s why it says plural “worlds”!

Okay. Moving on through the verse, and I promise, no more interruptions. “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”

“… framed by the ‘word’ of God” deserves another honorable mention. See, in the beginning, as in Genesis 1:1-31, our invisible God demonstrated all of the senses by first speaking light into the darkness over the surface of the deep.

Those without faith cannot grasp the depth of this truth of creation, but with faith we can celebrate the creativity of our Creator who though invisible experienced the senses of sight, touch, and smell. Read the first chapter and see if your faith helps you see what was/is not seen.

Faith-ing through the journey,

Evinda