F O R G I V E N
A Public Journal
This “
WebBlog” was created to be all about my Savior, Redeemer and
Lord; it is replete with personal poetry and added inspiration from
many writers of today and yesteryear who loved and served the Lord
with the wonderful gifts God gave us to ENJOY HIM with and IN
HIS GRACE bring greater glory to the beautiful Name of THE LORD
JESUS. Today, may you be found anew in His most awesome peace
and joy and love. Actually, I (
not the frog) started this journal on AOL
(back in August 2007) forgetting it until I got an email saying they
were shutting down their journal section at the end of October (2008)
so I grabbed what was there, added a few new things, some pictures
and moved it here; MAY YOU BE RICHLY BLESSED,
JEFFPOLLOCK
IN CHRIST my HOPE & JOYRecent Entries
8/17/07
Encouragement8/17/07
Trust In The World8/17/07
Insight for TodayFriday, August 17, 2007
Encouragement
Be upon us Holy Spirit,
Let Your WISDOM, live in us;
Teach us, find within us that place
IN OUR MINDS
That by all means needs Jesus.
Be upon us Holy Spirit,
Let Your PEACE, live in us;
Search us, find within us that place
IN OUR HEARTS
That by all means needs Jesus.
Be upon us Holy Spirit,
Let Your JOY, live in us;
Encourage us, find within us that place
IN OUR SOULS
That by all means needs Jesus.
Be upon us Holy Spirit,
Let Your LOVE, live in us;
Help us, find within us that place
IN OUR LIVES
That by all means still needs Jesus.
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Jeffrey E. Pollock
Copyright © 2007
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"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son,
That whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,
But to save the world through Him." -- JOHN 3:16-17
Trust In The World
Trust in the world with all your heart,
And lean not on the Lord Jesus at all;
You will be in darkness never to rise,
Never to know unblemished Sonshine.
Trust in the world with all your mind,
And turn not from its empty promises;
You will sit alone in fear and worry,
Never experiencing peace w/o hurry.
Trust in the world with all your soul,
And learn not the truth of God's Word;
You will stay ignorant of perfect love,
Never surrendering to the Lord Jesus.
Trust in the world with all your strength,
And leave not the selfish ways of youth;
You will grow old distraught by regret,
Never accepting the grace our God sent.
Trust in the Lord with all of your being,
and Do not depend on your own understanding;
You'll begin to comprehend how your life should be,
As you trust in the world Christ alone keeps you free.
J. E. Pollock
AUG. 2007
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The Path to Straight
Margaret Manning
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your ownunderstanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5 were some of the first Scripture verses Imemorized as a child. For some reason, the words seemed to bounce withjoy, energy, and a sense of lightness as I learned them. For me, thesewere very "happy" verses in Scripture-verses that seemed to indicate God's direct guidance for all his children down happy, straight pathways. I inferred that trusting in God's guidance would be the result of seeing the wonderful, straight pathways laid out before me that I wouldwillingly and gladly walk on towards all my goals, desires, and dreams.While these are still precious Scripture verses to me, I have come to understand them differently as an adult. I recognize now that trustingthe Lord was easy when everything was going my way! I didn't rely on my own understanding because I didn't have to! But, when dreams began to die, life-goals went unmet, and desires dried up, I realized the challenge these verses really offer; they offered me the opportunity to learn thereal meaning of "trust." "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding" took on new meaning in the face of absence, want, and unfulfillment. Real trust in the Lord is only forged out of the fires of testing--testing that reveals whether we truly trust in the Lord or in what we want the Lord to give us. In other words, do we trust the Provider, or the Provider's provisions? In my own life, when it seemed that God withdrew the "provisions" and things stopped going my way, my plans failed, or my goals and dreams didn't materialize, I began to realize that my trust was in my own understanding of what was necessary to make my paths straight. So, as God had abandoned my plans, my test of trust began. C.S. Lewis once wrote in his marvelous book The Screwtape Letters that in order for the believer to mature in faith and trust, God must withdraw "all the supports and incentives" and "leave the creature to stand up on its own legs--to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish." He continues this thought through the character of Uncle Screwtape, the senior demon coaching his nephew Wormwood on the skills of devilry: "It is during such trough periods, much more thanduring the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He[God] wants it to be. Only then, when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's [God's] will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."(1) You see, when our paths are crooked we are tempted to place our trust in the things God provides. As God withdraws those supports we have the challenge of leaning on our own understanding (grasping for things), or allowing true trust in the Lord to develop and bloom (grasping for God). As we trust God even while feeling lost and abandoned to crooked, twisting, and unsafe paths, paths that we thought would lead us to our plans, dreams, and desires, only then can we follow the ever-straightening path to our heart's desire found in God alone. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight." As you find yourself wandering down crooked paths of disappointment, may you find God leading you to place your trust in Him alone. As your trust grows, may you see straight paths of rest and contentment unfold before you. As you release your own understanding, may you find the Lord to be your heart's desire. --
Margaret Manning is associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.(1) C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York: Harper-Collins,2001), 40. Copyright (c) 2007 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM)
http://www.rzim.org/ ________________________________________________________________
Devotional MP3s:
This week's devotional thought...
Guilt and Grace by Max Lucado
Sometime ago I read a story of a youngster who was shooting rocks with a slingshot. He could never hit his target. As he returned to Grandma’s backyard, he spied her pet duck. On impulse he took aim and let fly. The stone hit, and the duck was dead. The boy panicked and hid the bird in the woodpile, only to look up and see his sister watching. After lunch that day, Grandma told Sally to help with the dishes. Sally responded, “Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you Johnny?” And she whispered to him, “Remember the duck!” So, Johnny did the dishes.What choice did he have? For the next several weeks he was at the sink often. Sometimes for his duty, sometimes for his sin. “Remember the duck,” Sally’d whisper when he objected. So weary of the chore, he decided that any punishment would be better than washing more dishes, so he confessed to killing the duck. “I know, Johnny,” his grandma said, giving him a hug. “I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. I wondered how long you would let Sally make a slave out of you.” (Steven Cole, “Forgiveness,” Leadership Magazine, 1983, 86.) He’d been pardoned, but he thought he was guilty. Why? He had listened to the words of his accuser. You have been accused as well. You have been accused of dishonesty. You’ve been accused of immorality. You’ve been accused of greed, anger, and arrogance. Every moment of your life, your accuser is filing charges against you. Even his name, Diabolos, means “slanderer.” Who is he? The devil. As he speaks, you hang your head. You have no defense. His charges are fair. “I plead guilty, your honor,” you mumble. The sentence?” Satan asks. “The wages of sin is death,” explains the judge, “but in this case the death has already occurred. For this one died with Christ.” Satan is suddenly silent. And you are suddenly jubilant. You realize that Satan cannot accuse you. No one can accuse you! Fingers may point and voices may demand, but the charges glance off like arrows hitting a shield. No more dirty dishwater. No more penance. No more nagging sisters. You have stood before the judge and heard him declare, “Not guilty.” From
In the Grip of Grace Copyright (W Publishing Group, 1996) Max Lucado
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Insight for Today
Subject: Insight for Today
August 17, 2007
THE IMPORTANCE OF ATTITUDE
by Charles R. Swindoll-Philippians 2:3-5
This may shock you, but I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think of me, or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. The attitude I choose keeps me going or cripples my progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitudes are right, there’s no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me. Yet we must admit that we spend more of our time concentrating and fretting over the things that can’t be changed than we do giving attention to the one that we can change, our choice of attitude. Stop and think about some of the things that suck up our attention and energy, all of them inescapable: the weather, the wind, people’s action and criticisms, who won or lost the game, delays at airports or waiting rooms, x-ray results, gas and food costs. Quit wasting energy fighting the inescapable and turn your energy to keeping the right attitude. Those things we can’t do anything about shouldn’t even come up in our minds; the alternative is ulcers, cancer, sourness, depression. Let’s choose each day and every day to keep an attitude of faith
and joy and belief and compassion. Take charge of your own mind!
Taken from Charles R. Swindoll, Day by Day with Charles Swindoll
(Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2000). Copyright © 2000
by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.insight.org/Sign up for the devotion
NEW WINGS
2 Corinthians 5:17
"If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature:
old things are passed away."
NEW WINGS
Old hearts hold us down
Old habits will spin us around
Old hurts breed resentment in us
Old wings have no freedom to love
New wings carry us through each day
New hurts give us reasons to pray
New habits will allow us to love
New hearts always lift us up
JEFFREE!
NOV2008
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A Daily Devotional
By Dr. Bill Bright
November 2008
Today's Promise:
He Gives the Victory
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57, KJV).
In our busy lives, yours and mine, there are days when victory
seems an impossibility. Heartaches, trials, burdens, or just the
ordinary cares of the day, all seem foreign to the idea of being
victorious. And yet the fact remains that we are "more than
conquerors" even when we do not feel like it. God graciously
allows His children to be human and to express our doubts
and fears when suffering and pain and testing and trial
seem to overwhelm us.
"I have to be very honest," confessed Joyce Landorf,
well-known Christian author and speaker, during a long
period of illness. "One of the things I have learned from
severe pain is that I have felt totally abandoned by God.
I didn't think he'd let that happen to me, but He has. "
And maybe the feeling of abandonment when pain is at
its writhing best.. maybe that's what makes it so sweet
after the pain goes and the Lord says,
'I was here all the time.
I haven't left you. I will never forsake you.'
Now those words get sweeter to me because I know
what it has felt like to not feel His presence." We do
not have all the answers, but we know one who does.
And that is where our victory begins - acknowledging
(1) that God is a God of love, one who never makes a
mistake, and (2) he will never leave us or forsake us.
Bible Reading: Romans 7:18-25
TODAY'S ACTION POINT:
I will consider myself a victor, whatever may
transpire, because I serve the victorious one.
