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Real Life
Done for the Momma O’s Challenge found here: https://oscraps.com/community/threads/vicki-stegall-designs-momma-os-february-2023-challenge.36943/
Journaling
reads: When I think about “real life”
and what that looks like to me, or should look like to me, I have to view it
from God’s perspective. You see, since
becoming a child of God, a Christian, my life is no longer mine to do with as I
please. My life now belongs to Him,
lock, stock, and barrel! So when I have
God in the center of my life, as He should be, when I read “in Him we live, and
move, and have our being” I believe that covers everything I do, everything I
say, every place I go, my every thought, everything I look at, everything I
touch. There should be no part of my
life that He is not a part of – the center of.
And the word of God, the Bible, is my daily guide book. So, when someone asks me, “Why do you go to
church?” I have a clear answer…..Hebrews
10:25 tells me to not forsake the assembling of myself together (with other
believers)…..go to church, in other words.
When someone asks me why I pray before my meals…..1 Thessalonians 5:18
tells me to give thanks in everything, because it is God’s will for me (and
you). When your enemy hates you, what do
you do? Matthew 5:43-45 Jesus says, “you’ve heard you should love
your neighbor and hate your enemy, But I’m telling you the opposite…..love your
enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for
those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
Why? Because you are the children
of God and even He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends
rain on the just and the unjust people!
Our sinful nature wants revenge, but God says, “Vengeance is Mine…..I
will repay!” Romans 12:19. Is it
easy? Not on your life!
I
understand that not everyone believes in God.
Not everyone believes that Jesus Christ died to save people of their
sins. Not everyone believes that Jesus
rose from the dead. Not everyone
believes there is a heaven and hell. Not
everyone believes that the Bible is God’s word.
I cannot convince anyone. I
believe that is the job of the Holy Spirit.
My job is to share what I believe and let God do the convincing. And I believe that we are all sinners. I believe that God sent Jesus from heaven to
earth to be born miraculously of a virgin so He could live a perfectly sinless
life (sin is passed to us through our fathers, not our mothers) that I could
not live, and then die a death that I could not die…..one that paid for my sins
– a sacrificial death, dying in my stead.
I believe He arose from the dead and ascended into heaven to live
forever more so I, as a believer, can live in heaven with Him forever after I die. But, until that time, I try (unsuccessfully
most of the time) to live a life that is pleasing to God; a life that is an
example to everyone I come in contact with – a life that is different because
He made the difference in me!
Acts 17:22-31
Then Paul stood in the midst of
Mars' hill, and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are
too superstitious. For as I passed by,
and beheld your devotions (idols), I found an altar with this inscription, To the
Unknown God. Whom therefore you ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto
you. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in
temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He
needed anything, seeing He gives to all life, and breath, and all things; and
has made of one blood (race) all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and has determined the times before appointed (predetermined), and the
bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might
feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our
being; as certain also of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of
God, we ought not to think that the Godhead (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) is like
unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device (idols). And the times of this ignorance God winked
at; but now commands all men everywhere to repent: because He has appointed a day, in which He
will judge the world in righteousness by that Man (His Son, Jesus Christ) whom
He has ordained; whereof He has given assurance unto all men, in that He has
raised Him (Jesus Christ) from the dead.”
Credits list
All by Vicki Stegall (Jan. 2023 Color Play)
Sentimental
Me Solid Papers by Vicki Stegall
Sentimental
Me Pattern Papers by Vicki Stegall
Sentimental
Me Kit by Vicki Stegall
Fonts are Arial Narrow and Andrila Bonus Regular
