Let’s Read Scripture together…

Here’s first blog

Today’s offered scripture!! Let’s view Together!

Yes you can read and discern scripture. Read on my fellow friends in Christ

Be ready to be edified by The Holy Spirit as he’ll help us hear well this scripture

Romans:11:

17 If some of the branches

have been broken off,

and you,

though a wild olive shoot,

have been grafted in

among the others

and now share in

the nourishing sap

from the olive root,

18 do not consider yourself

to be superior

to those other branches.

If you do, consider this:

You do not support the root,

but the root supports you.

19 You will say then,

“Branches were broken off

so that I could be grafted in.”

20 Granted.

But they were broken off

because of unbelief,

and you stand by faith.

Do not be arrogant,

but tremble.

21 For if God

did not

spare the natural branches,

he will not spare

you either.

/////

Ok. Ready? Let’s begin.

We gentiles

are the grafted in branches.

We are not to be arrogant

about it as if we are more deserving

Than those discarded.

But ever thankful-fearful- reverent-for the grafting in-approval of God!

Why were we approved?

Grafted into the branches-God’s family?

Our faith. It’s only by our faith-our obedience to God’s salvation plan that we are grafted in.

A caution. We too can be removed by unbelief.

Yes follow in blind obedience not knowing everything-not understanding everything (which is the true definition of faith).

We can’t know the unknowable God .

But we can try to know by what he reveals to us.

Stand blindly in faith that his word is truth.

Question: define arrogant.

(an insulting way of thinking or behaving that comes from believing that you are better, smarter, or more important than other people)

We today see areagance by:

To name a few…

*Reinterpreting scripture to fit an unholy situation… rewriting scripture’s intent. It’s purpose (which is corrective in nature.-to help us stay grafted in)

*Making decisions contrary to the word and expecting to stay grafted in! Think in holiness. Walk in holiness.

* expecting God to bless us when we clearly aren’t standing in faith.

*when treating God like a human. He’s God. He created humans. He’s perfection. We are imperfection.

Arrogant people aren’t able to stay grafted in friends.

When we think we can undo

what God has gone to the trouble to do

because of our elevated sense of worth

we are among all people-

fools.

Repent before the vine dresser gathers you up and tosses you on the burn pile.

(We are to be like sheep to God. To follow the shepherd. Sheep don’t lead the shepherd-the shepherd leads his sheep. )

Lastly in today’s discernment:

21 For if God

did not

spare the natural branches,

he will not spare

you either.

Listen. Shape up. Stand in the faith God presents. Not one you invent .

God bless all.

LORD. Help us to be strengthened to stand obediently

not arrogantly misled into

Being removed from thy branches. Let us feast upon thy root.

In Christ amen.

Called to do Pastoral Art

After Retiring from full time ministry as a Methodist Elder-Pastor, I was praying and asking what God wanted me to do as I was still healthy and able. Then to my mind God spoke “Pastoral Art”. (Theophany)

So that’s the very beginning of this journey into a leap of faith. This card company’s start..

I threw myself into this call with gusto. Ask anyone who knows me! I began to paint, paint and paint. As I tried to discern what Pastoral Art was to be for me. As it turned out I found many opportunities to do pastoral art.

The outcome of it all was this site. My daughter Heather Wiley and I formed a corporation, Rev Joy Art LLC and began to seek to begin presenting Christian Cards to help people in their walk in faith. A mother daughter team. Truly, I need Heather for so many reasons in this journey. I am not very tech savvy…. She’s younger! She brings a different generation perspective to our company.

Our cards are about faith. They are to be about our walk with God in holiness. About being able to paint and present God’s word in a way to help people grasp God and God’s love.

I have done lots of beautiful flowers! People! Landscapes! And more. All with the Glory of God in mind. I am playful over the painting as I paint I know I have a long way to go in fulfilling this call, but I am willingly and happily going!

I accept this challenge as I have accept past challenges. It’s amazing what God presents us to do if we will just follow his guidance to us. It’s my testimony that we never have it all worked out when we begin. This card company is evidence of that!

A invitation to you! Join us in this journey of faith and be a part of it.

I do some prophetic art. Some of the cards are marked that way. Right now I am working on a watercolor painting of God tossing us Christmas Wreaths! My mind has been hounded to paint this for a few days as I am try to imagine it. So here I go today, beginning. It’s always a journey. Look for the card in the near future. It will be the one with lots of wreaths.

Prayer: LORD bless everyone reading these blogs with much strong faith for the journey ahead of them and us. We trust you and seek Thy face O LORD. Strengthen our faith. Grant us a strong ability to stand.

In the name of Christ Jesus amen.

Talking to God

Sept. 11/23

Talking to God is suppose to be part of our daily bread I believe.  For me it’s been that way since I was a child.  I can’t speak for others, but for me as I was raised I talked to God by myself.  I took to heart that we were to go into our closet and pray and that’s when I spoke with God.  Perhaps we each have that experience to share!

As I grew it was easy to just talk to God when needful. 

Friends don’t waste another moment refraining from speaking with God.  Expect God to answer directly sometime, as well.  We call it a theophany when we actually hear God’s voice.

Be aware that if you leave your day open to hearing from God, I think these experiences can happen more often. 

To witness more:

Sometimes God shares what’s coming so that I am prepared for it.  I suppose I will handle it better that way and perhaps not be even able to handle it otherwise.

I am thinking of a lady in particular in saying that, as God spoke to me one day, she was going to pass on, die, as I was leaving a prayer session. I’d been daily going to at her home to pray with her in her fight against cancer.

Therefore, let us know that God can and will foretell circumstances to our sometimes.

More testimony:

God has asked me to go and pray on many occasions when the person was pretty far removed from my flock.  One example was of a girl from another state who had been in a wreck and who was the girlfriend of someone’s son…

On the way I was (complaining, unfortunately as I had a busy day ahead) and God answered my question of “Why me? Why did I have to go?” 

God said “Because you will.” 

Well I recall saying “Yes sir.” And went on to do my pastoral visit.

Her condition was—She’d not had enough meat on her ankle to do surgery. Many people were praying for her not just me!

Anyway, I went and knocked on her door and said “The Lord sent me to pray over you.” Her response was immediate and was “I have been waiting for you.”

She got the surgery the next morning as a miracle did happen and her ankle had enough meat. Many praying is key to so many miracles I believe. I was part of that witnessing.

Friends, just go when God calls upon you to go.

It’s always good. And for some reason needful. Needful to them and to you.

We really aren’t to question God. I seldom do and mainly from this very experience from many years ago. Because that word from God was, I knew in my heart (about complaining) a reprimand

But God is so gracious to teach us. I do not think God repeats God’s self. So listen the first time. Let my testimony be a lesson learned.

Never forget to pray first. Please learn by my witness that God is God and to be fearful of God for his might.  Not that we go about trembling, but we should be mightily aware of His Power and Might. Maybe I should say “Respect it.” Respect God’s what I call God’s All-ness”. For God is All Things in All Ways at All Times.

I think I will stop at this point.  More on this topic later. As there is always so many stories of God.

LORD we thank Thee for Thee. We love Thee. We hope in Thee. We BLess Thee and Thy Holy Name. In Christ we present ourselves and this prayer of praise. Amen.

Blessings to all.  Rev Joy M. Richards

Following Christ

Following Christ is definitely a choice that each individual faces in this lifetime. TO follow or Not to follow, yes that’s the question!

TO make that decision based on tv or other’s actions may not be your best choice. The Bible is the best way to know about Christ and the stories of the testimonies of real people who knew him.

Yes, the Bible is actually a book of teachings, about Christ but also it’s a testimony made by so many people who witnessed his teachings and thus his resurrection from the DEAD.

Trust in the Bible.

Prayer is our open doorway to God. We each can cry out to God through Christ Jesus name, and learn to know the living God.

Believing is a way of life, an interaction with Christ life. when we ask to be forgiven of our sin and repent of the sin; turning away from the sin; we are grafted into the family of God and then we follow the teachings Jesus taught in the scriptures.

Yes, in my view we can fall away.

We can turn back and keep going in our sin. This is not a good place to be according to scripture. The faith calls us to worship and to pray.

Paul tells us to keep the journey. To be faithful to the end.

IT is our belief that Jesus will say he knows us if we have a relationship with him. IF we follow the faith in believing in his sonship, as the very son of God.

It is a choice. Please make thy choice wisely as thy eternal destiny hinges upon that choice.

Jesus came that we could also inherit the Kingdom of God. That we could be reconciled to God, made one with God through him.

In the name of Jesus Christ may each soul reading this blog take seriously their eternal destination. May each soul, repent of their sin turning away from it and stay the journey of faith till the end. May each reader be redeemed and saved through the salvation of Jesus Christ our LORD. May we each know Jesus personally, through prayer and worship of God. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.