King of Kings

Once again I am participating in the A to Z challenge. It's krazy. It's kreative. It's kaotic. Today's letter is: K and my word for K is King.

A to Z Challenge

King – a Sovereign, a ruler. The one who has the authority over a kingdom.

The Bible clearly points to Jesus as the king of heaven and earth. In ‘J’,  I propose that what we do with Jesus can make all the difference in the world in our lives.

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate *said to Him, “What is truth?” John 18:36-38 (NASB) 

 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen. 

1 Timothy 6:13-16 (NASB)

This song, written by Jeremy Camp, is called “King Jesus.” Enjoy. 

Here are two additional ‘K’ websites to help you to know and keep believing in Jesus, the King of Kings.

Knowing Jesus 

Keep Believing

JESUS

A to Z Challenge

Jesus – The historical person who Christians accept as the second person of the Trinitarian God on whose birth, Dionysius, a monk who lived in the 5^th century, based the center point of the current calendar. Though his calculations may have been incorrect, the point is that the birth and life of Jesus is accepted by most of the world from a calendar perspective as the center of human history.

I believe it was C.S. Lewis who first said, Jesus must be viewed as a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. You see, Jesus claimed to be God and the Messiah. Here are just three of the many examples.

“I and the Father are one.” 

John 10:30

“Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” 

John 14:6

“And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!” 

Matthew 14:33 (He never denied His deity when others worshipped HIM.)

Someone who claims to be God is either seeking to deceive or is crazy. He can’t be a good teacher or just a prophet with the claim being among His proclamations. The third possibility is that He is who He says He is. When I examine the evidence: the eye witness accounts of His life and His miracles, the changed lives then and throughout history, the archeological and forensic evidence of the validity of the Biblical accounts, I can’t help but come away with a conviction that Jesus is who He says He is. 

If He is who He says He is, what you decide about Jesus makes all the difference in your life. Here are a few "J" websites to help you consider Him further.

Jesus Online Ministries

Jesus

Who is Jesus Really?

God bless, Maria

Identity

A to Z Challenge

Identity – How I define myself, who I am, where I find my value and meaning.

Where do I find my identity? Is it in my job, in my roles as wife or mother, child, sister, friend? As a Christian, my identity is  something that is not limited by the constraints of this world or by my success in a role. I know that I have value as a sacred creation of God, and as a child of God, that I am loved and precious to Him. Pretty awesome for all those who accept God's invitation to be in His family through faith in Jesus Christ.

  

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:27

Yet to all who received [Jesus], to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. 

John 1:12

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:27-28

Here are some websites to explore what it means to find one's identity in Christ.

Who we REALLY are - Our identity in Christ 

My identitiy in Jesus

Who Am I?

Heirs of the Kingdom of God

A to Z Challenge

Heir – Someone destined to receive an inheritance.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Romans 8:16-17

Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

Galatians 4:1-7

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:5-7

The first two recommendations today are bloggers worth a visit who give their perspective on what it means to be an heir of the kingdom of God. I hope you find all three expand your understanding of the Biblical promise of becoming a child of God, an heir of the kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ.

Hired Servants and Heirs of the Kingdom

Heirs of the Kingdom

Heirs of God

Glory

A to Z Challenge

Glory: What is Glory? John Piper puts it like this:

“I believe the glory of God is the going public of His infinite worth. I define the holiness of God as the infinite value of God, the infinite intrinsic worth of God. And when that goes public in creation, the heavens are telling the glory of God, and human beings are manifesting His glory, because we're created in His image, and we're trusting His promises so that we make Him look gloriously trustworthy.

The public display of the infinite beauty and worth of God is what I mean by "glory," and I base that partly on Isaiah 6, where the seraphim say, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of his—" and you would expect them to say "holiness" and they say "glory." They're ascribing "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of His—" and when that goes public in the earth and fills it, you call it "glory."

So God's glory is the radiance of His holiness, the radiance of His manifold, infinitely worthy and valuable perfections.” 

Other websites to help unfold God’s glory and His grace:

Giving Glory to God

Grace to You

What is the glory of God?

FAMILY

A to Z Challenge

Family: Traditionally the family unit would be defined as a husband and wife with the possibility of children produced by said union. It would also extend to the father and mother of said husband and wife, so grandparents, and aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews and so on. The word family has come to include a whole host of different unions today.

In our Sunday school recently, we considered what a Biblical family looks like and what the idea of a Christian family should look like. If you look in the Bible at families, it doesn’t pull any punches in identifying an assortment of dysfunctional families. So we are left with the question, “what would God want from family and in family relationships?”

It is my belief that God wants a family to be the source of learning about Him, the place where we find strength, refuge, character, among other empowering and good things.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ...

Matthew 5:43-48 (NASB)

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:5-8 (NASB)

Clearly God wants us to be loving and kind to reflect what it means to be a member of the family of God. To find out more about living as a Christian in family visit:

http://www.familyrenewal.org

http://www.focusonthefamily.com

http://www.cftministry.org 

This is another “F” website I came across in my search with some excellent short clips on living as a follower of Jesus Christ in the family of God..

https://flannel.org/store/films/nooma

Equip

A to Z Challenge

Equip – the preparation and providing of what is necessary and essential to perform a certain work.

He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 

Ephesians 4:10-13 (NASB)

All Scripture is [a]inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for [b]training in righteousness; 

2 Timothy 3:16 (NASB)

The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 

2 Timothy 2:2 (NASB) 

There are many sights, some provided in earlier posts, which can provide the essentials for equipping the Christian to understand and give an apologia for one’s faith. There are also plenty of websites that you can find which attempt to equip against the Christian faith. 

As a Christian, I want to be equipped to be an effective Ambassador for Jesus Christ, to examine and be prepared to explain the essentials of the faith and represent the kingdom of Heaven to those with whom I interact.

Here are a few websites which help equip Christians to do just that, to be Ambassadors for Jesus Christ and the kingdom of Heaven.

http://www.equip.org/about/

http://www.iequip.org/news/equip-at-a-glance/

http://evangelismexplosion.org

Doubt

A to Z Challenge

Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith. Paul Tillich

We all have doubts. What we do with them is the question. I prefer to examine and weigh the evidence, using critical thinking to come to the best conclusion. Still doubts may resurface simply because we are constantly bombarded with a cacophony of conflicting, confusing communication which stirs up uncertainty. So I go back to the examining and weighing of evidence, using critical thinking which generally strengthens my faith, because doubt is one element of faith. 

Here are a few web posts dealing with the issue of doubt.

http://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/if-i-believe-why-do-i-doubt/

http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/doubt,-dealing-with

https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-31-dealing-doubt-luke-718-35

Maria

Christian Worldview

A to Z Challenge

A worldview is the comprehensive way we make sense of and relate to the world, touching every area and aspect of life. We all have one, but many of us don’t live a consistent worldview that is in line with who we say we are and what we say we believe.

What is a Christian Worldview? A Christian worldview would be the way a Christian should relate to and make sense of the world if he is living as a true follower of Jesus Christ and son of God through faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, if I am a Christian, am I walking the walk not just talking the talk?

Here are  a few websites that delve a little deeper into  Christian Worldview. Of course there are many others, but these are a few I have found reliable that start with 'C'.

http://www.christianworldview.net

http://thechristianworldview.com/

http://www.compellingtruth.org/

Maria

Biblical Studies

A to Z Challenge

What was once a staple of our learning in the USA, the Bible, has become more misunderstood and misinterpreted than studied today. I am not talking about the academic discipline pursued at the college level. What I mean is the daily intake of Biblical truth that was taught in homes and schools from before this nation’s beginnings.  

Yes the Bible may be the “Christian’s” book, where we believe the revealed Word of God can be found to answer the basic questions of life, but it also holds wisdom, culture, and history that has served mankind throughout the centuries. It is a sorry state of affairs that humanity at large has become so Biblically illiterate.

So here are a few websites where you can explore the Bible and also find answers to some of those questions which may be causing you some misunderstanding. Of course there are many others, but these are a few I have found reliable that start with 'B'.

https://www.biblegateway.com

https://www.biblicaltraining.org/

http://www.biblestudytools.com

https://bible.org/

Happy studying!  Maria

Apologetics

From the Greek word, apologia, apologetics is the disciplined defense of a position and is the word used for being able to give reasons for one's faith. In the Bible, 1 Peter 3:15 says:

 "but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;"

Answers in Genesis is a website offering a reasoned rationale for a Biblical Worldview from the very beginning. For the open-minded thoughtful Christian, this is a good place to start, especially if you want some clarity about foundations.

The website Apologetics 315 was a recent delightful discovery in my quest for growing my faith. I have found the podcasts and articles not only illuminating in themselves, but they lead me to other very helpful resources which further stretch.

Delighting in A to Z 2015

I signed up a little late for the A to Z Challenge this year and haven't blogged since last November, and my blog visiting has slacked off lately, but I decided it was too much fun to not jump back in. So here I am, last minute, but here. Since I literally just added my blog on the last day of March, I'm not prepared this year. That will certainly make the challenge more of a challenge, but I have no doubt it will stretch me in a good way.

I believe that we are meant to be always stretching, always learning. As a Christian, I want to be always growing in my faith, testing it, confirming it, deepening it. I want to be able to share it meaningfully, truthfully, lovingly. So in that pursuit, I hope to complete my A to Z with resources that will do that, stretch, and in the stretching, grow faith, and in the growing, share.

I look forward to once again visiting old A to Z friends and making new ones. Thank you to Arlee Bird and all the A to Z team for this blogging adventure. It's time to relearn blogging for me. I have so much to learn and relearn and I will delight in the journey.

                                                                                                                               Maria

Blog Blitz 2.0 is Here

     I can't believe how long it has been since I checked into my blog. It is so easy to let the months roll by since time is a limited commodity. I find myself stretched thin during the school year as a homeschool mom even with only one child left under my tutelage. Since the computer can easily distract me from my top priorities, so I try to relegate blogging to the bottom of the to-do list.
     Today, however, I'm back to recommit to the "Blog Blitz 2.0."

                                      

                                    

     In March 2013 DL Hammons started the blog blitz as "a tool for focusing blogosphere energy for fun" and encouraging bloggers. It is fun. It's a simple way to meet other bloggers, to expose oneself to new blogs, and to be part of that positive blogosphere energy. 
     I haven't been blitzed yet, and honestly, I hope I am not anytime soon, because I am not spending the time on my blog that I would like to at the moment, so I don't really deserve or desire a blitz. However I like to hop aboard the blitz of others whenever I can, keeping my hand and head in the blogosphere a little bit. Though I can't do it every time, it is a little pleasure for me to be a blessing to a fellow blogger in this small way when I can.
     I do hope when I am more regularly blogging to one day wake up and have some extra visitors who might like what they see but for now, I'll be a blitzer. If you are a blogger or if you aren't, this is a fun and worthwhile  blog hop to be a part of. So hop on over to DL Hammons blog and sign on to the blog blitz 2.0. You'll be glad you did.
     
                               Have a delight filled day!  God bless, Maria 
 

Midlife Collage Writing Contest

How fun to discover writing contests in the blogosphere that are actually simple enough for me to understand and participate in.  In the last post I mentioned Write Club.  DL Hammon also runs another blog hop called Blog Blitz.  And you can sign on too.

What's Blog Blitz?   On a intermittent though semi-regular basis, someone is selected to received a visit from the rest of the group.  Since there are nearly 500 bloggers on the list, and growing, even if everyone can't participate, the blitzee still receives a spike in comments.  What a nice treat for a blogger.  Thanks DL for coming up with this great idea.  It's been a pleasure to participate in this wonderful blogging community of blitzers.  

Through the Blog Blitz I have been introduced some fabulous bloggers and other contests out there as well.  One of those I came across through this week's Blog Blitz of Kim Van Sickler who wrote a entry piece called Towpath Trail Adventures for the weekly Midlife Collage writing competition.  It's a free writing competition, but does offer monetary compensation to the winners.  You can check out the website for all the particulars.   What I like about it is how clear and easy to understand submissions are and how fun it is to read the entries even if you aren't ready to participate yourself.  I added both Kim and the Midlife Collage to my blog role because I found both worth a follow. 

Midlife Collage Writing Contest

Again, Thanks DL.   You are helping us all to delight in the journey.  
                                                                 God bless, Maria

Write Club: Don't Miss It

Write Club

If you haven't yet checked out the write club competition, get on over there and take a ring side seat.  Each week, for 16 weeks two 500 word pieces are posted.  Selected from an initial pool of 500 in various genres, these pairing square off for a vote from us the audience.  The winners of each week are then chosen based on audience input to compete in the finals and semi finals.  

You can read the previous weeks winners and participate in selecting in the current bout.  It's oodles of fun and may inspire you to compete in next year's competition.  Check out Write Club here.   I know you will enjoy the experience.
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I want to thank Jerry Beuterbaugh for mentioning my blog as a site to see over at As the Crackerhead Crumble.  I am humbled an honored to be mentioned.  Jerry has some other great recommendations as well.  Another blog worth checking out if you haven't yet discovered it.

                                     Delighting in the journey.  God bless, Maria 

Join us for Call2Fall

The Call2Fall is nothing fancy.  It is simple.  On Sunday, June 29, 2014, let's get on our knees and faces before the Lord in repentant prayer, pleading with God to reshape our lives, renew our land, and send times of refreshing (See 2 Chronicles 7:14; Acts 3:19).

Join us in living out the Call2Fall Declaration and preparing our hearts for Sunday, June 29th.   

You can find out more on the Call2Fall Website.  Can we ever pray enough for our nation?  Spread the word.

Call2Fall

  

Call2Fall