Increase Our Faith

Increase Our Faith????
                                       

                                                                                    Return to Main Menu

                                                 To follow A Daily Thought click>>>

Romans 12:3

3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

As it states above, Faith is a gift of God and it is amazing how our faith does not need to be increased or "super-sized".  My strong mustard seed of faith is just fine.  Oh, over my years, at times I thought I wanted more faith, but I have learned that Trusting the faith God has measured out (given) to me was all I really needed to do.  A baseball size faith is of little consequence if  we do not fully and completely Trust Him.

The Romans 12:3* verse about how our faith is measured out to us from God has not bothered me for most of my years and always; as I studied this verse, it gave me abundant hope. But what has bothered me is when people, especially preachers, talk about us "growing our faith".  Simply stated, talk of "increasing"* our faith bothers me and goes against what Jesus taught (Luke 17:5,6*).  As people, how can we increase the faith God has given us.  In His perfection, our imperfection shines bright when we think we can improve on the blessings and gifts God gives us.  Today, I still see and feel we cannot grow, super-size, or "increase our faith" (Luke 17:5*) by ourselves  because
                      God measures out to us our faith.  And,
I am old enough and experienced enough to know and understand that--
     In His Perfection, what God gives us is sufficient for our needs! 

I have learned that
  in using our faith,
      in depending on our faith daily, and
            in holding on to our dependence on Him forever,
                     especially in our low times,
then
      in and by our Trusting God and Jesus
              we change not the size of our faith,
but rather,
      we  change 
because
      He leads us to be and to feel stronger in our Relationship with Him and
therefore,
      We trust God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and our faith even more.

 Mainly, we just have to be prepared
     to Trust His results and His answers to our faith, our Relationship with Him.

Faith- our Relationship with God is similar to a muscle in our body.  It is there and in the beginning it is weak, but with exercise the muscle gets stronger.  Similarly, when we exercise our faith, our God-desired Relationship with Him likewise gets stronger.  Then, if we cease to exercise, it shrinks, and can return to its earlier weakness. Now, I understand that a muscle gets bigger, but it is just as plants in "my" garden.  In my garden, after I have nourished the soil, planted the seed, and kept out the sin (weeds) in my garden, it is God that grows the plants and its fruit, and it is the same way our muscles may get bigger, but it is God who grows them.  If we withdraw the water and allow the weeds (sin) to flourish, the plants will die, and in the same way our muscles and faith will wither.  Stronger strengthened faith is a God activity in our lives due to our exercise, and a stronger Relationship with Him develops as long as we exercise the faith seed He gives us.  Just remember, it is Holy Scripture, Luke 17:5,6* that explains we do not need more faith and it is our exercising our faith that makes that seed of faith stronger.

Truly in our low times of trusting God,
      we feel renewed and strengthened
            in the faith God has measured out to us.  


Sometimes gifts of God come in unexpected ways.  Recently in some low troubling times of my heart, I found in some simple work at church involving small, unexpected challenges that surfaced, and some troubling thoughts were displaced for awhile and I was lead to write this Testimony.

    The Glory of life's low times is that in Faith- our Relationship with Him,
 we can look up and know the Good times are ahead and better understand the Glory in our Faith as it, our faith, is strengthened. .

The Glory of FAITH:
 In life we all face Trials.
      In our Trials,
            they become just a Test or
            perhaps even a Temptation;
but

      In Trusting our God given Faith,

           the troubling temptation is silenced,
           the Test is conquered and
           the trial becomes a victorious Triumph,
     then
           in triumph we are driven to Testimony, and
              in Testimony we strive and thrive in sharing our Faith--
                  our Relationship with God, and
                     of His Glorious work in and through our lives.

 The more we daily Trust The Six T's in Faithful Living
   the stronger our faith becomes.

Thanks be to God.

blessings

lonnie

John 14:   Jesus talking to the Apostles:
  1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled.
          Trust in God. Trust also in me."
Luke 17:5,6

5 And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." 

6 So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. 

© lonnie coggins

Please Join 'A Daily Thought Group' on Facebook.  
It is designed to be an uncluttered library of only ‘A Daily Thought’ postings.  

 Thanks and God Bless.

Click Here to go to  "A DAILY THOUGHT GROUP"   

EMAIL?  If you would like to receive an email notification when add a new post to Facebook, about twice a week, send me your email to adailythought@yahoo.com and I will add you to the list in a blind copy.  It will only be used to send you the links to what I publish.

Return to Main Menu

==============================

Sharing these messages

Trusting Faith is a great resource to living a faithful life.  But, do you really need a "super-sized" faith?  Here are some thoughts.

 You are welcome to share these messages.  You can send the links to your friends,  copy and insert the link on FB or you can print the message and share it with your friends.

You can print the message including this sharing message only for your friends and for non-profit.  You MUST copy and paste the message to a word processing document.   After you copy and paste add the following at the end of the message:

© Lonnie Coggins        source- Facebook "A Daily Thought Group"

ldcoggins@gmail.com              www.adailythought.NET

If you desire to use any of these messages in a For-Profit manner you must contact me (email) for permission.  Typically, I will most likely give permission.

Please email me if you find any broken links in this message.

lonnie

Publication  0219


intro

 Our Faith, our "Divine Persuasion" of a Loving God gives us Hope regardless of our troubled times.  We have faith in many things, but have you allowed "Divine persuasion" to fill your life in a Relationship with God. Or, do you just want your faith "supersized"?  Here are some thoughts.
 Please share the message on your Fb page as you like, and if you like, click the FB 'Follow' button to have notifications of these publications.  For other messages like this, visit my FB page, or on FB visit-"A Daily Thought Group".

http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2016/09/increase-our-faith.html

Jesus' Leadership- The Triumphal Entry

Jesus' Leadership- The Triumphal Entry
                                       

                                                                                         Return to Main Menu

                                                           To follow A Daily Thought click>>>

One of the great features of the Inspired Scriptures we call the Bible is that we can read it many times and still find new meaning as we learn more about the scripture and the times in which it was written.

Jesus was the greatest leader that ever walked the earth and we learn from His behaviors great important leadership skills that benefit us if we follow them in our team-player roles.  The Triumphal entry scripture in the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke show us much about His human leadership skills.

In the Triumphal Entry, Jesus shows great evidence of
Superior Leadership Skills we can learn from.  

    He shows 

      He is The Great Communicator, 

      He Uses His Great Resources Wisely, and 

      He is The Perfect Planner. 

   to the necessary detail to accomplish His mission. 

It is the leadership skills Jesus shows in this event that is the focus of this message.

These are just three skills great leaders do, it is what we all can do if we just make the effort to Trust The Example of Jesus and walk with confidence in His ways allowing Him to change our lives.

A Bit of Historical Signifiance

First we have to understand the nature of this controlled event and the history Jesus used to make His Entry into Jerusalem noticed, important, and show He was in control of the final events of His life.

1-  In His Triumphal Entry(*1) Jesus in this shows what He always lived- He always used His Godly power to help people and teach of His coming glory but never for himself personally to make things easy for himself.  There is no doubt that Jesus had planned this event for a long time, perhaps years.

2- The Jews and their Temple leaders recognize, know, and understand clearly that by riding this colt He is symbolically declaring and communicating Himself to be the Messiah.

     Jesus in this Triumphal Entry is satisfying prophecy from Zechariah 9:9 as quoted by Matthew:

The Coming of Zion's King

9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
3-  "Entry processions were important occasions.  Whether a general, governor, official, or emperor, they displayed Roman political military power." (*2)   But, in this entry, Jesus is changing what the Jews wanted and were looking for to throw off the Roman occupation of Judea.  Instead of coming in on a big horse as a conquering  hero, He comes in on a colt, a King of peace as a servant leader to His followers.

Discussion

In His Divine ways but with human Leadership skills, we have to know this event and nearly every event just before and during the week after was  Perfectly Planned and carefully orchestrated  Jesus.  In using His Great Resources from what we call the Old Testament (Zechariah 9:9), Jesus knew very well what He was doing and was doing it just as God meets our needs, at just the most Perfect time.   We have to believe He planned this to satisfy prophecy and there by was very outwardly and most overtly being very obvious in communicating His Messiahship. Divine thoughts, with human Perfect Planning that included using just the perfect colt, planned with just the perfect follower, and with just the Perfectly Planned Password.  This was not so much a Divine miracle, just Jesus showing great human everyday leadership skills for us to learn from.  Clearly, Jesus had the power to make this event happen with the snap of His fingers or with just His powerful thoughts.  But, that does not seem the way Jesus did things.  The way the Gospels present it, the events certainly appears to be a Divinely and Perfectly Planned event.  And, something we can learn from.  Jesus was the consummate teacher using every event to teach us our daily living skills.

Even either side of this event has great moments that are created by Jesus to finally and purposely draw attention to himself, again moments of planning-the Entry and resourcefully using events (the raising Lazarus (*3)) to His advantage, to communicate His Messiahship.

The event coming first is the raising of Lazarus from the dead and then  afterward the cleansing and clearing of the Temple (*4) of the peddlers and money changers.  Both of these events were greatly noticed by all Jews and caused fearfulness in the Temple leaders. 

The first raised the hopes of the Jews and the latter causing grave concerns to the Temple leaders.   Whereas in all the times before, when He moved about Galilee, Judea, and especially Jerusalem He tried to keep His amazing works quiet, now he was sounding the call, rallying the troops, and charging the status quo saying, "I am here, I am in control of events, it is my time to be Glorified.  You Temple leaders, you may think you are in control, but it is I who is in control and it is time for you to do what you have wanted to do for years."  

It was Jesus' time to Obediently change the world and there was nothing anybody could do to stop the coming Theological Earthquake- His Death and Resurrection.

Finally

How perfect it was what Jesus did to plan, communicate, and use His Resources to Perfectly Initiate His time to be Glorified.  It is to our benefit that He showed leadership skills we learn from.    

Even in His absolute worst times, 

   He is teaching 

       Leadership Skills, 

      absolute dedication to complete His mission, and

      complete obedience and submission to God's will. 

How can you not love Jesus and what He has done for you!

If you have not accepted the Saving Grace of Jesus, Read the Bible, learn, pray, accept Jesus, accept the Holy Spirit into your life, and watch how Jesus will not just change you, but fill you with hope and confidence for your future in Him.

Jesus changed people 2000 years ago and ever since.  

We Must Remember-
 There is No Christmas without The Cross, and
    likewise
     Without the Cross there would be 
         no Resurrection to Glorify Jesus, His Deeds and His words.

Thanks be to God for sending us Jesus.

© lonnie coggins

Please Join 'A Daily Thought Group' on Facebook.  
It is designed to be an uncluttered library of only ‘A Daily Thought’ postings.  

 Thanks and God Bless.

Click Here to go to  "A DAILY THOUGHT GROUP"   

EMAIL?  If you would like to receive an email notification when add a new post to Facebook, about twice a week, send me your email to adailythought@yahoo.com and I will add you to the list in a blind copy.  It will only be used to send the links to what I publish.

Return to Main Menu

==============================

REFERENCES

*1

The Triumphal Entry

Matthew 21:1-9pp --           Mk 11:1-10; Lk 19:29-38 21:4-9pp -- Jn 12:12-15

1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,

2saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me.

3If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away."

4This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

5"Say to the Daughter of Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.' "

6The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.

7They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them.

Luke 19:29-38pp --             Mt 21:1-9; Mk 11:1-10 19:35-38pp -- Jn 12:12-15

28After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

29As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them,

30"Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.

31If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it.' "

32Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them.

33As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?"

34They replied, "The Lord needs it."

35They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it.

<< Luke 19:24Luke 19:25-35Luke 19:36 >>

Read Luke 19View in parallelCompare Translations

*2
The NIB Interperter's Study Bible, Abingdon, 2003, Nashville TN, p1783, bottom right column

*3
From the Gospel of John 11:

The Death of Lazarus

1Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.2This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.3So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."4When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."5Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.6Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

<< John 10:42John 11:1-6John 11:7 >>

Read John 11View in parallelCompare Translations

Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead

from John 11

38Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.39"Take away the stone," he said. "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."40Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me.42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."43When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"44The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

*4

Jesus at the Temple

from Matthew

21:12-16pp -- Mk 11:15-18; Lk 19:45-47

12Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.13"It is written," he said to them, " 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.' "14The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.15But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant.16"Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, " 'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise' ?"17And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

==============================

                                      

                                                                                         Return to Main Menu

                                                           To follow A Daily Thought click>>>

Sharing these messages

You are welcome to share these messages.  You can send the links to your friends,  copy and insert the link on FB or you can print the message and share it with your friends.

You can print the message including this sharing message only for your friends and for non-profit.  You MUST copy and paste the message to a word processing document.   After you copy and paste add the following at the end of the message:

© Lonnie Coggins        source- Facebook "A Daily Thought Group"
ldcoggins@gmail.com              www.adailythought.NET

If you desire to use any of these messages in a For-Profit manner you must contact me (email) for permission.  Typically, I will most likely give permission.

Please email me if you find any broken links in this message.

lonnie

Publication  0188

intro
JESUS, IN HIS TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM last week of His life, Jesus was showing leadership skills we all can learn from.  Even in His hardest of times, He was still teaching and doing God's will.  Click for more on everyman's everyday leadership skills in which Jesus was the master.  Share on your fb page as you are lead to do so. Please share the message on your Fb page as you like, and if you like, click the FB 'Follow' button to have notifications of these publications.  For other messages like this, visit my FB page, or on FB visit-"A Daily Thought Group".
http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2013/12/jesuss-leadership-triumphal-entry.html

Giving Thanks in All Circumstances, Part 2

Give Thanks in                                   

All Circumstances?   Part 2

                                                                          Return to Main Menu

                                                                 To follow A Daily Thought click>>>


Click Here for Part 1 on Giving Thanks

Please read Part 1 before you read this part.

1 Thessalonians 5:

17  Pray continually

18  give thanks in all circumstances,       

      for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Thankfulness in all Circumstances?

For the longest time after realizing these words from Paul, I had a difficult time with "give thanks in all circumstances...".  He even says it is the will of God we do so.  You may be having similar thoughts I had as you have just read these words.  "How can this be?" "How could I give thanks when I saw my sons' foot after a lawnmower blade damaged and mangled it so badly?"  "How could I be thankful about losing friends in Vietnam?"

A great part of reading a scripture passage over and over and over is learning to understand what a passage says, and very importantly, what it does not really mean. 

The passage "be thankful in all circumstances...."
does NOT say that
we should be thankful for the circumstances,
it says
be thankful "in" our circumstances.

To understand scripture, sometimes Reading and Rereading many times a difficult Bible passage is one of the greatest of lessons I have learned concerning Bible study.  Only then, if necessary, consult a commentary. Then, pray for greater understanding and more wonderful lessons do come out of the passage.  In doing this, it is totally understandable that Jesus and Paul wants us to be thankful in all situations we find ourselves.  Why?  It is good for us!  It keeps us sane!

Being thankful and living in constant thankfulness is so very good for us for it helps us survive our circumstances, especially our difficult circumstances.  Often thankfulness comes most rapidly through prayer. 

I have a good friend in the Philippines, a school teacher.  She was kidnapped out of her classroom, taken far away from her home, and in the next weeks ransomed and brain washed to convert to another faith.  In times private with her kidnapped co-worker they remembered Bible verses, quietly sang songs with the other, prayed, and truly sought God's Kingdom for their lives.  She was not thankful for the situation she was in, but she learned to give thanks in the circumstance for the God that provided her comfort, love, and care during those days.  She was released with no ransom paid after her captivity of exactly 40 days!  She lived this verse 18.  But, more than that, to her credit and to God's Glory, she survived through feeling His comfort, care and love.

It was to her good that she and her co-worker followed what Jesus desires of us.  God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit do not require anything of us where, through Them, we will fail to feel Their comfort.  Everything God requires of us is good for us, and everything good for us is God's blessings. 

Finally, in accepting the Bible as the inspired word of God means we do not ignore passages we do not understand but seek to find God's will in them.   In time, in rereading scripture, prayer, and with patience the meaning will come.  And in that attitude with this passage, we come to understand that we can be thankful in all circumstances but we just do not have to be thankful for the circumstances.

Having the feeling of thankfulness in all circumstances is exceptionally good for us.  Pray daily for this and come to understand this scripture in our ordinary little things of life so that during the hard times, we can better see the blessing of joy we can have and the thankfulness we can feel in all the times of our life.

Thanks be to God

lonnie(c)

© lonnie coggins

Follow 25 people are following Lonnie Coggins. Be the first of your friends.

                                                      Return to Main Menu

==============================

Sharing these messages

You are welcome to share these messages.  You can send the links to your friends,  copy and insert the link on FB or Christian.com or you can print the message and share it with your friends.

You can print the message including this sharing message only for your friends and for non-profit.  You will have to copy and paste the message to a word processing document.   After you copy and paste add the following at the end of the message:

© Lonnie Coggins

ldcoggins@gmail.com

If you desire to use any of these messages in a For-Profit manner you must contact me (email) for permission.  Typically, I will most likely give permission.

Please email me if you find any broken links in this message.

lonnie 


Publication 0182

It is hard th think about being thankful in our circumstance.  But, It is good advice when we truly understand what it means to do so.  Click the link for more on this.

http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2013/01/giving-thanks-in-return-to-main-menu.html




Public