Nancy Decker

None of us can judge another's marriage or failures in marriage for it is a matter for God as He only knows the hearts of both and the whole story. The ones I know who are divorced do not want divorce in their lives, but for various reasons or happenings did divorce. It seems they want to be understood and made to feel they were doing the best they could and felt their reasons were valid. So the only thing I know to do, is to listen, understand what I can, pray for them and the children affected by all of this, and support the one who is a friend to me...I really cannot know and do not want to know the truth behind the divorce, but I do know God is forgiving and will help them make good come out of even a divorce if they ask Him to help them do so. Unfortunately many divorced persons I know jump right into another relationship, before healing has taken place, which to me is risky...and the shoulder they cry on may not be able to handle the situation with the wisdom and love of God's kind....which would be healing. The only way I know to help them is to love them as they are and help them if they need me, and to support them emotionally by listening and praying with them and just be a friend to them...in His love.

If a large inheritance was in my future, I do not think it would affect my life style before I got it, but I do think I would enjoy thinking of how to spend it or give it away to those in great need. For there are so many needs in this world, choosing a few might be quite a challenge. If I had any special needs at the time of receiving the fortune, they could be met, and some type of investment for future needs might be thought out for me and my family, and the opportunity to help others would be the greatest joy of having it to happen...and the Lord would certainly get His tithe foremost. In regards to our future inheritance, and knowing we will share it with all our fellow Christians we know here... I think we should make a true effort to fulfill HIs first command to us....to Love him with all our hearts, minds, and strength, and then to love others as ourselves, and ourselves....for we want to be united in LOVE with God who is Love, and to practice now will help prepare us for eternity.

Reply Today our hope is in Jesus Christ's victory over death which gives us His Life forever as well as HIS inheritance from His Father, and we will share in HIs Glory! Our Hope is eternal as is our life...with Jesus as His Bride ....with our heavenly Father in His Kingdom....completely fulfilled and made ONE in HIm as Jesus was ONE with His Father... For me the hope we have now is with expectancy for the fulfillment of all of our prayers that are said in His will. It means I am to persevere in prayers of faith, watching for His fruits or harvest given me for encouragement to keep on walking in faith until my hope becomes reality in the lives of those I pray for. Those who do not know our Lord have no hope at all in this life for heaven....or eternal life. Their pride gives them hope in themselves....which is hopelessness.

Though I was never the kind of sinner that anyone else realized my sinful heart, for I was saved at a very young age...about 5 years of age. I always wanted to know Jesus as soon as I heard the little song...Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so....and my heart yearned deeply to be loved, for my mother did not want me or like me much less love me. So my search for Love was a goal from early life. However, I was in bondage to my sinful nature, and enjoyed sinning in various ways which just mostly was self serving types of sins....selfishness, and self-centeredness primarily which did not lean to LOVING God as He commanded nor others, and certainly not myself. I did not love myself in the right way at all, and though I was a believer, I had not been taught His Word well, and it was when I was about 33 years old, I truly committed my life to HIM and started studying and searching His face and life and love and ways. It was then I began to CHANGE, for I realized I was a sinner and repented and changed in many ways. I am deaf, and was sheltered from the world even after I married, so I was not exposed to worldliness to a great degree, but sin is sin, and without Jesus in my life, knowing my personality and curiosity, I am SURE I would have followed the crowd if I had been exposed to them to some degree. However I was fearful, as my mother taught me fear early, so I probably would not have done something drastic but I can almost bet I would have tried drugs, in the form of alcohol....for I loved my daddy so much and he was an alcoholic. I also think I would have been easy prey for boys to seduce, for I liked boys and they liked me, but God, Bless Him, kept me so sheltered from all opportunities to even date boys that I was protected from myself. I think many young girls who are seeking to be loved, and confuse sex with love, get in trouble easily when immature and ignorant...like I was. There is no future for any of us without the redeeming blood of Jesus covering us, and keeping us in His way. His Holy Spirit is inside us, fulfulling all of our needs . In HIm who is my All in All, I am being sanctified, and with HIm I can do all things...and can please Him. I am now a Senior citizen so life is still a challenge and sins still are in my nature, but the Lord has many promises to help me finish this race in life to win His prize of eternal life...and there is Faith Hope and Charity in Him...and the greatest is His Love..smile

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The word adoption is extremely meaningful in God' relationship with His chosen people because the source of His desire to adopt us is because of His great love for us....so much that He wants to include, protect, take care of, give of Himself and ALL THAT HE IS AND HAS to each one of us. It means He believes we will honor His Name and bring great joy and pleasure to Himself and that He looks forward to our relating with Him with great and intense love back to Him. He believes we will honor, praise, and glorify His name by our ownership as sons and daughters in His family. God is our Father in this sense who desires to extend ALL He is and has to increase His opportunities to have such an intimate relationship with us, that He can enjoy reciprocative affection and love forever in our relationship. Like a Good Father, He is proud of His created and adopted family that gives Him such close satisfaction. And He KNOWS He can provide for and to us ALL OUR HEARTS desires and be satisfied....smile. Adoption is very encouraging to us, for we KnoW we are safe, loved, and will never lack for anything because God our Father has bestowed upon us the exact same heritage He has given to His ONLY Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. We will never never be disowned, and the desire to BELONG will be complete in our hearts....forever.

To be Holy like God is Holy is a process of sanctification as to our perfection of purity and lack of blemish...wholeness without fault...worthiness to be called perfect. This is a state of becoming to us now, and to fulfillment in reality in our future. Our perspective is more like being separated from this world unto Him and His Will, where our wills become more and more exactly alike, so that we are able to walk in Christ, in Faith, in His Spirit more completely, blameless before God in HIs judgment at that time when we stand before HIM. It is totally impossible for any of us to say now that we have arrived at this "Holy and Blameless " position in reality. It is our responsibility to submit our wills to His in our minds...to have the MIND of Christ;....in our bodies.... as a living sacrifice unto Him; in our spirits.....to submit humbly to His Spirit within us for molding and changing of our life styles; and in our soul, we will become TRUE sons of God, adopted, but recreated to be in the Image of Jesus Christ....HOLY AND BLAMELESS. From God's perspective, He cannot look upon sin, so it is our privilege to be standing in front of His HOly Eyes now, COMPLETELY COVERED AND CLOTHED IN THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF JESUS CHRIST, WHOSE BLOOD WAS SHED TO WASH AWAY ALL THE STAINS OF MY SINFULNESS...FOREVER.. Our perspective is more like being separated from this world unto Him and His Will, where our wills become more and more exactly alike, so that we are able to walk in Christ, in Faith, in His Spirit more completely, blameless before God in HIs judgment at that time when we stand before HIM. It is totally impossible for any of us to say now that we have arrived at this "Holy and Blameless " position in reality. It is our responsibility to submit our wills to His in our minds...to have the MIND of Christ;....in our bodies.... as a living sacrifice unto Him; in our spirits.....to submit humbly to His Spirit within us for molding and changing of our life styles; and in our soul, we will become TRUE sons of God, adopted, but recreated to be in the Image of Jesus Christ....HOLY AND BLAMELESS. From God's perspective, He cannot look upon sin, so it is our privilege to be standing in front of His HOly Eyes now, COMPLETELY COVERED AND CLOTHED IN THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF JESUS CHRIST, WHOSE BLOOD WAS SHED TO WASH AWAY ALL THE STAINS OF MY SINFULNESS...FOREVER.

Predestination is a mystery in many ways. but I think God wants us to KNOW He is Soverign and all knowing and all powerful, and that He is in control.....NOW AND FOREVER AND HAS NEVER BEEN OUT OF CONTROL OR KNOWLEDGE OR WITHOUT POWER TO BRING HIS WILL TO FRUITION. No one knows His complete plan or will, but to walk in FAITH is part of His plan and He also wants us to LOVE HIM. So to bring about His will and plan in our lives, requires much patience on His part for sure...smile..and since He predestined and planned and knows, we are chosen in a way that suits His purpose...which I cannot understand... It is a comfort to me for I am saved already by His Grace and Love and Sacrifice through Jesus Christ. The fact that some are not chosen, for whatever reason along with their sinful wills rejecting Jesus's forgiveness, would scare me, but for those who do not KNOW HIM OR WANT HIM OR SEEK HIM, perhaps they are too blinded by their own ways to even be scared? I do not know. For a Christian, it is upsetting to see a loved one reject their precious Lord and Savior, so it stirs us up to making our lives glorify HIm to draw them to Him.

To be IN Christ, is the position given to me by my Father in heaven as one of His adopted children. The privileges given to me as a part of His Body and Blood through His sacrificial life, death and resurrection is so deep I can only learn of them as I submit myself to Himself each day of my life. My life IN HIM is so contagious to HIS whole BODY that the santification process is vital to the health and life of His Body on earth. The responsibility I have as a part of His Body, His Life, His Glory, His character, is like the reflection of HIMSELF which is my witness to others, which is called the FRUITS OF HIS HOLY SPIRIT. These fruits are for the edification, nourishment, and delight of those who know me which is a kind of "drawing" unto HIMSELF for those with eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to love HIM. We are to be a LIGHT unto others, that will warm their hearts and inspire them to seek this same Jesus Christ whose Name I use and live inside. It is a great responsibility to live in Christ, for it is HIS MIND that controls the Body, and if I am not is submission with like mindedness, my presence inside Jesus Christ' Body will not bring wholeness or a completely healthy cell into His PRESENCE which could contaminate or influence other "cells" and cause a "cancer" or an unhealthy part inside His Body. I think God's pruning of the branches to produce more fruit in our lives is personal with each of us, for the benefit of me personally AND the whole Body of Christ ......called the church. Even though we are IN CHRIST in theory and position, we are in the PROCESS OF BEING MADE COMPLETE IN HIM...AS WE HAVE NOT BEEN FINISHED OR COMPLETELY INCORPORATED.....at such time when we are MARRIED AND MADE COMPLETELY ONE IN HIM in heaven. Therefore, our influence is still earthly primarily, leaning towards heavenly results....in all of us, for we truly are affected by close relationships in the here and now.

God's basic Spiritual Law is that we are to LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR HEARTS , MINDS AND SOULS, AND TO LOVE OTHERS AS OURSELVES, AND TO LOVE OURSELVES ALSO FOLLOWS.... If we truly love God, and others, judgment will not enter into our relationships of loving others due to their different ways of worship or believing or traditions. If we want to be accepted and loved as we are and not because we believe a certain way, we must respect this in others, and love them as they are without judging their ways or beliefs. We all grow spiritually in different degrees and our understanding of God's Words is not the same, and God is the Judge of our hearts and abilities and minds, not us. A person's faith and beliefs are unique because of their background and culture, and the truth in each heart is only known by God. If another is in error of the basic gospel, we as their brothers and sisters in Christ are told to help our "weaker" Christians, but only to edify their faith, not tear it down. Some people consider those not in their own denomination or those who do not totally conform to their own beliefs to not be true Christians, and therefore do not HAVE TO LOVE THEM, or even respect them in their "unbelief". Predjudice is easily discerned by the words they speak of others and their attitudes toward them. Personally I feel God's remnant is probably inside almost all denominations, and perhaps this remnant is just not readied yet to move on higher. In my own life, I have moved from other denominations as my spiritual understanding grew and knew what the Bible's "doctrine" is, and God seems to be able to feed my spirit wherever I am in life daily.

Holy Communion is the partaking of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ as He commanded all believers to do in order to honor Him and HIs perfect sacrifice for our sins. We cannot be forgiven, unless we are repentent and confess our sins to Him. He has said that our remembrance of His Death and Passion, and Life given sacrificially for us be practiced regularly. I feel sure we all NEED this remembrance and to come often so we will face our sinfulness and repent and be forgiven, instead of letting our sins build up into a mountain of burden in us.... for we tend to cover our own minds to our own sinfulness and lacks. The Bible also warns us that taking the HOly Communion must not be taken lightly, for if we do not repent, and do not change, we are bringing upon ourselves the curse of our sins, instead of being forgiven...and says "many are sick" when they do take communion unworthily...in other words without true repentance. It also says if we refuse to forgive others for their sins against us, that our Father will not forgive us our sins....so forgiveness is vital to making our communion holy and acceptable to Him and for us.

Since God's plans for His World required His people to be holy like Jesus, He knew He had to supply the means for our Salvation. The bible says He delights in His people, so if he feels that way while we are still sinners, imagine what his desire is to experience in relationship with us when we are finished work and made holy like Jesus? So His Sacrifice was on our behalf, so we can also enjoy our relationship with Him and learn of him even now, and more later, but it is also because He truly loves us and wants an intimate relationship with us now and eternally. His Holy Spirit is already within us, to empower us to become changed into the likeness of Christ, and our relationship now is intimate, but somehow I think it will be so enhanced when we are face to face with Him it will be unbelievable and so wonderful....it will be worth all the pain and sufferings we suffer now, and evidently he felt it was worth the pain Jesus suffered...This is AMAZING GRACE UNTO US FROM GOD OUR FATHER...

The encouragement given me by the deep love of Jesus Christ in His Sacrifice for my sins is to believe He must really love me in spite of how unlovable I can be . It shames me to consider how unworthy I am to receive the Grace of God in Christ....but oh how THANKFUL I AM TO BE ONE OF HIS SHEEP. He is my Shepherd and Lord, and Savior and my all in all, and it is necessary for me to be encouraged to live up to His Word the best I can so as to please and Glorify His Name. It is only being His child can I find any self worth in myself, for I KNOW without Him in my heart and soul, I would never be able to be saved from my sinfulness. His life is the Gift of Great Price in my life, unlike the treasure some men seek for their own glory, their treasures cannot possibly be measured beside the treasure of having Jesus in your heart and life and mind and soul for eternity....Such Love as this is beyond all measurements ...no depth, no height, no width can measure God's love for us, and neither can we discern His perfect Being to any degree of reality, for He is too ALMIGHTY. So I seek to learn how to love HIm more, for I know my love is too small.

To me it seems Paul emphasized the Body of Christ so that we as human beings with painful sufferings in our own lives can identify with Jesus's bodily physical pain in His sacrifice on the cross.. It would be hard to believe His suffering as God would actually feel like human pain...not just the pain of bearing our sins which I think would be psychological and mental and emotional primarily. We are so physical when we think of the bodily pain Jesus must have suffered being hung on that cross, that we can barely identify with that pain, much less the horrible burden of SIN He bore for all of humanity...when we can barely suffer of our own little or big sins. Our ability to grasp the suffering of Jesus on the cross is limited to me, and I am thankful for what I do feel as it is about all I can bear to feel. My own heart wants to avoid suffering pain of all kinds, so when I consider His painful suffering and identify it as what He did for me, it humbles me, helps me appreciate my Lord more, and helps me WANT to avoid sinning more..in true repentance, and helps me believe He REALLY loves me personally. To contemplate all of this is too deep for me during the short service of communion and I cannot express my tears of repentance at that time, nor my thankfulness to be able to be a part of the precious BODY OF CHRIST. Indeed, we should be able to rejoice in our sufferings here for as James says...they are for creating our good fruit of His Spirit, which He desires us to have in our lives in abundance.

The HOly Sacrifice of His Life's blood symbolized through our partaking of Holy Communion reminds us of how our sins were the reason for the NEED for our Lord to die for us. Our sinfulness is our part of the sacrifice of His Body and Blood, and the remembrance of our NEED for being saved from ourselves, brings us to the Cross of repentance and lifts our spirits up to our Lord Jesus with THANKFULNESS AND PRAISE TO HIM for His Mercy towards us. It has been said we are to partake of His Glory and Sufferings in our lives, which I think means we will also be honored by Him in some way even here on earth, and the sufferings in our lives are part of our participation or sharing in the same kind of sufferings Jesus had. It is not that I believe my suffering compares with His suffering, but that somehow all of this earthly Body of Christ combined has participated in His suffering....and that somehow it is to His Glory. I am not sure how, but since we are His family and Jesus is our Head and the Holy Spirit is in all of us, we are intimately connected in all areas of our lives. My responsibility in sharing of His Body and Blood must be with a consciousness of how much He loves me, and how much more I need to learn to love HIM....He is my Lord.