December 30, 2017

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”

Hebrews 10: 19-23 ESV

This scripture made me feel it was a great way to start off the new year. It’s really spoke to my heart of God‘s promises.
Our assurance lives in our Savior and if our confession remains truthful to that belief then our New Year should be a good one. No matter what happens around us God is faithful to His promises.

So let us draw near to to Him as He draws near to us. Amen!

Father, as a rule I do not make resolutions, but if there was one resolution for 2018 that I would make it would be to hold truth, love, and conviction of faith close to my heart.

I pray that all that read this will take the promise of Hebrews 10: 19-23 to heart and not only this promise, but all of His promises. He is a loving and faithful God!

In Jesus name! Amen!

Decisions

“For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars."”

2 Chronicles 16:9 NASB

This scripture made me think about how my decisions can either be pro or con. 

Did I act foolishly? Did I ask God for His advice first? Did I jump when I should of stood?

I don't want to be the one who ends up in needless conflicts because I did not put my full trust in God. 

Father,

I want my heart to be totally yours. 

I want to know that my decisions are supported by You. 

Thank you for the Holy Spirit who can nudge me when I start to go off in a wrong direction.

In Jesus name.

Amen

Time Well Spent

“Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!”

Psalms 95:1-2 ESV

When I read this today it was like getting hit with a two by four! This is how I should be starting off my day. 

Somehow I allow every other little thing to get in the way of what is most important. It isn't like I don't talk with Him through out the day. Still it isn't the same as just setting aside time to really be in His awesome present and give Him the time He deserves. 

He deserves my undivided attention with no interruptions and my expressions of love just for Him and Him alone. 

He gave His all for me so I should at least be able to set a portion of my time aside for Him.

Forgive me Jesus when all I do is start off my day and not to put You at the forefront. Forgive when I don't set aside a time for just You and me. It is inexcusable! Even in this I will need You to spur me on. Give me a swift kick to what is most important and that is spending time with You. 

Amen.

If in Distress...

"From my distress I called upon the Lord;

The Lord answered me and set me in a large place."

(Psalm 118: 5 NASB)

When we find our selves in dire needs are we to call upon those in the world to help us? 

Those in the world may mean well, but will usually let us down. God will never let us down. 

The psalmist continues in verse 6 to say, "The Lord is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me?"

We can see here that man himself was not a help, but in this case an enemy of the psalmist. 

Jumping to verses 8 and 9 he stated that it was better to put your trust in the Lord and rely on Him for your protection rather than trusting in man or princes.

So now whom do we call upon when we find ourselves in insurmountable problems? We call upon the Lord!

Thank You Lord for always being just a shout away. Thank you for always knowing our every need before we even present it to you. You are so faithful. We love you. Amen.

Jeremiah 23

I was reading Jeremiah 23 today where God was warning the people not to listen to those that called themselves 'prophets', as they were not sent by Him. These were men that were leading the people away from God rather than towards Him.

I started thinking about how many disguises false prophets come in besides the obvious of palm readers, fortunetellers, and the big one psychics. I mean even the devil himself came camouflaged as an 'angel of light'.

What about teachers? That one is scary! It only takes one teacher to draw a student away and that student will draw another student and then another student and then a snowball effect takes place.

What about a priest/minister? Is he speaking biblical truth or traditional feel good, go in peace sermons?

How observant are we to what is really happening around us?

Please don't think I am putting prophets, teachers, or ministers down. Far from it! What I am saying is that we need to be in tune with the spirit and to recognize God's voice in all situations. We are not to assume something is correct just because it sounds plausible. We need to know it, unequivocally, in our spirit. We must know that it lines up with God's word. Amen.

Bless you,

Shifra

Shalom My Friends

I am sure you are curious why you haven't seen anything from me recently. I have gone through a lot, but as always God has been right at my side through it all. 

Even with all the upheaval of a non-evasive brain surgery for a aneurism and my mom's passing God still helped me to complete and publish another book. It is called "The Willow Bay Series." You can find it at Barnes & Noble, Book-A-Million and Amazon. I'm sure you can find it at Christian bookstores too. It can also be found as an ebook.

I also want to invite you to follow my Facebook page called Shifra's Books. You can follow me on my journey. I am now trying to write my own story. It isn't easy. You would think writing about yourself would be easy, but it is the opposite. Trying to decide what is important and what isn't comes into question and wording things so people can understand it is another issue. I went through it, but it is a whole different thing trying to put it into words.

I tried writing this for about a week, but then found out I needed to update the app. The old app kept knocking me out. 

Anyway, I am so glad I finally got a chance to hit base with you. I will try to get back with you again shortly, in the meantime, be safe and be blessed in the name of our Lord and Savior Yeshua.

Shifra