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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Seven Thoughts on Prayer

Seven Thoughts on Prayer            
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Matthew 14:23 NIV

After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,...

Luke 18:1 NIV

[The Parable of the Persistent Widow] Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

Praying is truly good for us and Jesus gave us great examples on how to pray, when to pray, and where to pray.  Without communications to friends we lose touch, so to it is with God.  We should pray, and pray, and pray, everyday.  It is good for the heart, the brain, but most of all, our eternal life.

1.    Instead of counting sheep when your bedtime is restlessness, pray, and especially pray for others.  Sleep can come much faster.  In addition, counting your blessings in prayer is always better than enumerating your problems in restlessness.  The latter is uselessness; the former, God's will.
…


2.  We must understand the difference between our wants and our needs when we pray.  Just as with parents and their children, parents and God often just will say “no” to our wants but will supply needs and supply them in abundance.  There is much glory in our wants not being supplied.  It teaches us patience;  with our parents it teaches understanding of circumstances; and it makes us realize that often our wants are not good for us.

 One of the great mistakes parents make is when they supply too many of their children's wants under the guise of "trying to make a life better for their children".  

 In teaching middle school and high school I saw such folly when parents give in to their children and defend every wrong they did.  One "child" in the ninth grade wore the latest in everything, had no respect for authority, thought she could leave the room without asking, and basically was given nearly every want by her mother except values.  This "child" had two children of her own before the 10th grade.

 In aggressively giving children their desires, parents are not serving the best interest of the child.  All of us must learn patience and it starts with good parents teaching such to their children.
…


3.  I have heard that there are people who think that God does not hear their prayers.  Often, I wonder if their problem is do they stop talking long enough to listen.  God wants us to listen for His answers more than we talk.  If He wanted us to talk more than we listen, He would have given us two mouths and one ear.
…


4.  I have heard there are people who think God does not answer their prayers.  Maybe, they received the answer, but it was not what they wanted, and kept listening, or worse, quit praying.  Often, especially in prayers for our wants, the answer is “no” or “Be patient and wait”.   In all things for God, pray in patience, and do "not give up".  It is to God's Glory we patiently wait.
…


5.  God does answer our prayers in due time, in accordance to his time, and at just the right time.  If He seems slow with answers,  it may be that He has important desires to teach us to be patient.  However, when we get answers, because we do not like the answers to our prayers does not mean they are not answered.  If you get an answer you do not like (such as “no”), again, pray for patience.  There may be something better coming than what you asked for or what you asked for was, perhaps, not good for you.  Patience in praying for our needs is of paramount importance in our righteous relationship with God.
…


6.  Praying “Not my will but your will be done” and truly accepting that as Jesus did is difficult because it demands clear and total submission to God.  This is made supremely difficult by the society we live in.  Our society teaches us to be, dress, seek, and live like people around you; to be accepted by people and do as society and government wants.  Living God’s way sets you apart and makes you different and open to ridicule.   It can be a difficult path to walk but the rewards are great.
... 
7.  Humble, submissive prayer as in the example of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is truly so important to our righteous relationship with God.  How else are we to truly know what God plans for us unless we talk to Him and then in patience listen.

…
Thanks be to God

  

© lonnie coggins

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lonnie




intro
PRAYER CHANGES THINGS, MOST OFTEN  the people doing the praying.  Praying rarely changes our circumstances immediately but does change the vision of our situations that we can make better Spirit guided decisions about our future.  Click the link below for more thoughts on prayer in our lives.  Jesus prayed often, He sat the example, we should follow.
 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/2013/01/more-thoughts-on-prayer.html





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Friday, January 11, 2013

The Gift of Being Thankful


The Gift of Being Thankful
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1 Thessalonians 5:
17  Pray continually
18  give thanks in all circumstances,       
      for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.



In June, 1970 I drove out my parents' driveway in tears.  I was 22 years old and I was headed to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.  I was crying because I realized that I would never again live in my parents' house as a resident but only as a visitor, but it would always be a home I could come back to.  For a moment, my thought was a man should not be crying at a time like this, but that idea was soon replaced in thankfulness that I had a home to cry about.

For the 99% of those last 22 years including most of the time attending college, living in that house had been a great time of love.  I realized then and there I was thankful in being who I had become but understanding change was coming in who I was to be.  No longer would my daddy be around to discuss my problems, but rather and mistakenly thinking, I would have to work most things out for myself.  Oh, as times went by I would talk to my father, but in time I would learn more about the importance of talking to a greater Father.  A Daddy Father that was waiting to hear from me, and He, in the near years after that, would teach me much greater understandings about patience, prayer, love, and giving thanks.  In that moment, I was so thankful that thankfulness came to mind.

Remembering my first reading of the scripture listed above is impossible, but in recent years it has become a favorite.  This scripture is difficult just like some others, especially the scripture of Jesus' last prayer in the Garden, "Not my will but Your will be done."

However, as difficult as Verse 18 is to accept, when we come to understand the nature of what the verse does not say, then what it means to us becomes most powerful.  It is most important to understand these scriptures in our good times before the sorrowful times tread upon our hearts.  Otherwise, these scriptures can be very hurtful and meaningless.

So, how can we be thankful in the death of a loved one, how do we give thanks as we see a life of love and dedication slip away from us or see a child seriously injured.

There is always thankfulness to be had in our relationship with God, most especially during our sorrows.   Some people often do not feel this during their sorrows often blaming God for letting this or that happen or for allowing a horrible event occur to someone.  It is all about learning to know and understand what God has and does for us.  We must trust and learn what sometimes seem opposite and counter to what society teaches us.

Just as a good parent will lovingly comfort a child when hurt, so too will God provide comfort to us.  But the reason the child feels comforted by a parent is based on the love and loving relationship the parent has established with the child.  This is why one of the first commands of Jesus is so important to us, in His comments to us about 'do not worry', Jesus commands us, "Seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness..." (Matthew 6:25-34).  

God created us and loves us like the ultimate loving parent, and just as our children must do with us, we must learn that about God.  Children of good parents, because of the loving relationship set forth by the parents, learn what it means to be loved and comforted.  God gives us that love in abundance and we must seek The relationship with Him to learn and feel how great that love truly is.  We do that just like children with their parents, in communications with them, in our talking, and in sharing our feelings.  With God, our communication is through prayer, and in our prayers come feelings.  To feel the guidance of the Holy Spirit in your heart and to understand to the depths of our soul the love that God has for us, "we must pray.... and pray.... and pray....everyday."

When we come to feel the greatness of the love God has for us, then we begin to understand the thankfulness He gives us in all circumstances.  In His comfort and having His kingdom in our heart we can feel thankfulness in His love for us, regardless of our circumstances.

Click for Part 2 to learn more about being thankful in all circumstances and especially to learn about what the scripture does not say.  Reading and re-reading scripture often teaches us much about what the scripture does not mean and much as revealing new meaning for our lives.  As we we read scripture over and over and when we are accepting in attitude of His goodness, God reveals to us more of His Word for our lives.

Click Here for Part 2- on Giving Thanks in All Circumstances   and what this does not mean.
Thanks be to God

lonnie


© 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"   

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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





Intro

The Great Theologian Apostle Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians tells us to be thankful in all circumstances.  This can be tough theology for most people as it is hard to think about being thankful in all and every one of our circumstances.  But, It is good advice when we truly understand what scripture means and what it does not mean.  Click the link for more on this.
 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/2013/01/giving-thanks-in-return-to-main-menu.html



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Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Who Is Your Own Worst Enemy?


Who is                                                    
Your Own Worst Enemy? 
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Galatians 5:22 NIV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Mothers are a great example of patience.  A few years ago when I was three, my mother was painting my room, and I thought painting was really neat.  According to my mother who loved telling this story, I started asking, "Mama, I want to paint."  

Of course, the answer was no, "but mama I can do it, I know I can."
I was really persistent with mother's patience.  We went back and forth, as her patience wore thin, and with my insistence getting stronger, the telephone rang.  Of course, I was too young to answer the phone so she wiped her brush off a bit and answered the phone....and started talking... and then, sat down.  Bad thing!

I am sure of my thinking was along the lines of, "I will show her I am a big boy and can help her paint."  So, I dipped the brush in the paint and started painting.  About 45 minutes later she hung up the phone and came back to 'her' painting.  "He was so proud,"  she would tell people years later, "He painted Everything in sight, at his height.  He started with the walls, the window, the closet, the dresser, the bed, the headboard, the back of the headboard, the bed, the bed covering..... literally.   If it were at my height and it didn't move, it was painted.

When we lack patience, we often make a mess of things just like I did in my room.  Since I do not have a memory of this event, it is unlikely that my mother did much in the way of 'teaching' corrective action (aka punishment).  I think she showed extreme patience as she washed the paint off of me and the other things in the room.  

Teaching middle school and being a Boy Scout leader took and taught me much in the way of patience, and I had learned well from my mother.  In searching the NIV Bible translation, we find 17 uses and mostly definitional information about having patience with ourselves and others.  Those references are listed below and give us great learning and teaching tools..

I especially learned the value of patience in teaching keyboarding skills.  I also taught many students to be patient with themselves.  As I taught students to type without looking at their fingers, so many of them would really resist.  All I could do is tell them, "This is new and it is hard, but like many things you have to be patient with yourself."  Just as they learned to do the typing skill  and nearly all of them came to be very happy in typing without looking at your fingers, perhaps the most important behavior and skill I taught was being patient with themselves.

In a like manner, we need to learn to be patient with ourselves.  It is difficult to be patient with others, if we cannot be patient with ourselves.   Jesus did not talk about or refer to patience in His sermons, talks, and lessons.  He talked about many behaviors we should have, but never about patience.    He did not define patience as that would make it too easy for us.  He knows what is good for us and wants us to see real patience, His patience in the example He sets for us to follow.  As He taught us to show mercy because God is merciful, so too, we should show patience with others because God is constantly patient with us as we seek to be like Jesus in our walk with Him.

It is in our patience we work better with others and in our patience we more easily forgive our enemies.  As He is with us, in patience we show love, for it is in our patience we better learn to do God's will; and, in our patience and prayers, we come to know God's timing in our work for Him and His will for us in our daily living.

In your prayers, pray for having patience in all elements of your life, but especially pray for God through the Holy Spirit to give you the gift to have patience for yourself.  If not, you could be your own worst enemy.


Thanks be to God.
lonnie
(c) 2013

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Source:
http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?q=patience&c=&t=niv&ps=20&s=Bibles
                                                                                
© lonnie coggins



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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

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Monday, January 7, 2013

Extraordinary Encounters of the Closest Kind, Part 2 of 2

Extraordinary Encounters                       Return to Main Menu
of The Closest Kind ©    Part 2             

If you have not read Part 1, please do so:
                             Click Here>> for Part 1

 Continued from part 1:

 In Ethan's case there could be any number of reasons for his silence.  Maybe the root of his sickness was the drywall in his house that came from China with all the toxins that were allowed in the product.  The contractor building the house took the cheap way out and used this kind of drywall.  The illness could be caused by a combination of allergies such as reactions to soaps or additives in our foods. All of these problems may not be the problem with Ethan, but something like this is likely to be contributory to his illness.

As we talked about these things of God’s will, she wanted to know if the book was available and where to buy it if possible.  I told her that the book had been in continuous printing since 1943.  Just go online to Amazon and you will find it.

As we talked, I could see the change coming over her.  In her taking this model of God's Will into her thinking processes she could better understand and with that the flow of tears stopped and she begin to smile.

As Christians we are ministers, we must call upon the Holy Sprit to help us help other people when we see and feel the need.  We must be bold like Peter in meeting the needs of others but have the calm of Mother Theresa.  In the words I spoke with her I know it was not my words, but it was the Holy Spirit using me as as His instrument to minister to this lady.  I claim no credit for helping her.  I was prepared to help her because I pray continuously for God to make me an instrument of His will.

In the time after the crucifixion of Jesus, the disciples totally forgot their training.  When Jesus came to them in the upper room, the first thing He did was to anoint them with the Holy Spirit, John 20:21-22.  In one moment, they were as frightened "little boys" and in the next they totally understood His mission and ready to follow what Jesus had taught.

Within weeks, they were out preaching the Faith on the Temple grounds and getting into trouble with the Jews of Jerusalem.  Not long after the coming of the Spirit, Peter was before the Temple rulers, the Sanhedrin.  In Acts 4:8 we find powerful words:  "And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit..." tells the Sanhedrin, the very people who were responsible for Christ's death, in so may words, "You just do not get it, you idiots put the Son of God to death,  you will pay for this sin ......"  There is only one event that could cause the disciples change of attitude and the strength of Peter’s certainty; the resurrection of Jesus and His anoiting of the Holy Spirit on the desciples.

Because of God’s Grace, we have the Holy Spirit available to us so we can better minister to people we find around us.  Just like the lady I met, when the Truth is spoken in the proper manner, it rings true.  This is why we believe in a risen Jesus; "Because he lives, we can face tomorrow" and because He lives, we have the Holy Sprit to guide us and be with us.  We must pray, pray and pray..... everyday for the continued presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  In our American society, if something does not work, we throw it away.  Our God is not a throw away god. God Works, His promises are being fulfilled, and the promises of Jesus and the Holy Spirit have never been disproven and continue to this day.

As this lady at the hospital and I ended our conversation, she was dry eyed and smiling.  She told me as she started to shake my hand, hesitated, and then embraced me a "total stranger" saying, "You have made me smile and stop crying, and you have been a blessing to my life."  It was then I knew, but failed to tell her, "No, you have been a greater blessing to me."  Releasing the focus on myself and ministering to this lady became a great blessing in my own mother’s tragedy.  I regret this omission.  My hope is to one day be able to tell her of her blessing to me.   As I have shared this moment with others, my blessing, that “good” continues.

This moment in my life was truly a blessing to me.  I am sorry to say that I had never done this before.  It was only recently that I truly understood the "filling" of the Holy Sprit and how to keep it coming.  Now, I can look back over my life and see the Holy Spirit at work through me.  In fact, all the great achievements of my life were preceded by prayer.  As my pastor spoke in January, 2009, "To have the Holy Spirit in our lives we must pray, pray, and pray some more.... everyday."  Reviewing my life, I recognized the facts the Truth in her sermon.  God has been nudging me for a long time, nearly forty (40) years.  Somehow, I have come to feel maybe it was His will for this to happen exactly the way it has.  I have learned much over my life to share with others.

Through the Holy Spirit and my prayers to be filled by the Holy Spirit as I have the need, the Holy Spirit through me was able to minister to this lady and help her through this storm in her life.  Maybe this lady was not talking to a "total stranger", maybe she subconsciously felt the presence of the Holy Spirit through the words spoken by me but inspired by the Holy Spirit.  This event clearly demonstrated to me the importance of lay ministry.  Ministry is too important to be left to the professionals.

Pray, pray, and pray, “without ceasing” for the Holy Spirit to be in your life so that you too can be nudged and have that "Extraordinary Encounter of The Closest Kind".

Thanks Be to God

© lonnie coggins
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Sharing these messages

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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

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