God's grace

Reflections From Roxanna~God's Grace and Mercy

6:00 AM


“The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.” (Ps. 145:9)

The Bible tells us that God is good, true, and His mercy great and everlasting. And in His goodness He is, "Compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin" (Ex. 34:6-7) Romans 2:4 instructs us that such goodness and mercy should lead us to have hearts of repentance. “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” (Rom. 2:4)

What does it mean that God is merciful? Augustus Hopkins Strong is quoted as saying, “Mercy is that eternal principle which leads Him to seek the temporal good and eternal salvation of those who have opposed themselves to His will, even at the cost of the infinite self-sacrifice.”

In His goodness, God not only shows mercy, but He bestows upon us His many forms of grace. they include:

Saving Grace- the supernatural gift of the undeserved and unmerited favor of God given to believers through Christ by Faith 

Living Grace- the supernatural ability to live each day in God's will, allowing us to both endure and conquer sin

Suffering Grace- the the supernatural strength provided by God to endure any and all suffering.

Giving Grace- the supernatural desire to share what God has given to you with his Church  and his people.

Dying Grace- the supernatural comfort that God gives to His saints

The One true God is good, and great are His mercies!

Blessings, 
Roxanna

God is Faithful

Reflections from Roxanna ~ Gratitude

2:00 AM


Good morning, Girls!


GOD IS SO GOOD!

He knew us from our creation. He choose us from the start to love Him and give Him Praise!

We all are sinners, but God loves us and decided we are to be the ones to Glorify Him.  We are the ones who will stand in the throne room in Heaven! We are the ones who will Praise His Goodness for all eternity! Just imagine!

HE IS AMAZING!

The love He has shown for us is evident in the countless blessings we have received in our lives.

He brings us both joy and troubles...troubles to walk through to know Him so much more. Remind yourself..."Every day of my life I will love my God.  He loves me and He has forgiven me!"

He went to the cross beaten beyond recognition and proclaimed, "It is finished."

He won the battle for our souls and He is greatly to be praised.

May you be filled with joy, sanctified and redeemed by His great hand!

Blessings,

Roxanna

2 Corinthians

Refelctions from Roxanna ~ Contentment

4:00 AM



Reading ~  2 Corinthians 1:4-11

My mother would start every phone call with, "I am content with Jesus and the life He has given me." Even when things were hard for her. She had osteoporosis and her bones would break easily when Dad would move her to wheelchair.

She had a very sweet spirit that could have an immediate audience with God. When she was in the nursing home people would come to her to ask her to pray for their needs.

I too, am content.

Life has many ups and downs but God has got this always. I lean on His mercy and trust in His faithfulness always. Still, I can’t wait for Him to break open the sky and take us home where we belong...but not my will, yours God. Your timing, The Lord is always faithful.

Their are still many who need to know and love Him. God loves us so much they need to know that He sent His son to die and rise again to wipe our sins away so we can live with Him in paradise. God planned this from the beginning, wanting our Alleluias and our great love and sweet savor to rise to Him and our tears to fill the golden bowl.

I remember when my oldest son was burned by a fire on over 40% of his body. I was crying and praying while Greg was driving fast to get to hospital. Suddenly a sweet, soft voice whispered, "It is going to take awhile."

God whispered and I heard and I knew then my son would live. God made me promise that I would help Chris get his joy back.

I called him today and in our conversation he said he had spent morning fishing with Jesus. He was well in his Soul.

What a great and faithful God we love!

Roxanna

heart

Words By Roxanna ~ How to Refresh Your Mind, Heart and Soul

9:03 AM

The former televangelist, Jim Bakker, in his autobiography I Was Wrong, tells the story of his descent into ignominy, impoverishment and imprisonment. He lost his freedom, his sanity, his dignity, his confidence in his faith, and eventually even his wife. Inmate 07407-058, one-time confidant to presidents, had hit rock bottom.

At his very lowest point, a prison official came to him and said, ‘Billy Graham is here to see you!’ He thought, ‘Billy Graham has come here ... to this place ... to see me.’ When he walked into the room Billy Graham turned towards him and opened his arms wide.
He said at that moment he felt total acceptance and love. ‘I will never forget that the man who had just been voted one of the most influential men in the world and who has ministered to millions of people took time out of his busy schedule to come minister to one prisoner.’ He describes how in the midst of his depression, flu, filth and hopelessness, Billy Graham’s visit refreshed his heart and boosted his spirit. ‘I felt as though Jesus Himself had come to visit me.’
Refreshment means restoring strength, energy and vigor. A light snack is sometimes referred to as a ‘refreshment’. Physical refreshment can also come, for example, from sleep, rest, or exercise.
Paul tells Philemon that he has ‘refreshed the hearts of the saints’ (Philemon 7). Later on in the letter, Paul asks him to ‘refresh my heart in Christ’ (v.20). But how do we refresh our minds, hearts and souls?
Blessings Roxanna

Jesus is The Key

Words By Roxanna ~ Jesus is The Key

9:08 AM

  • Madonna said, ‘When I was growing up I was religious in a passionate way. Jesus Christ was like a movie star, my favourite idol of all.’
  • Novelist H.G. Wells said, ‘I am an historian, I am not a believer. But this penniless preacher from Galilee is irresistibly the centre of history.’
  • Napoleon Bonaparte said, ‘I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man.’
Even people who would not describe themselves as followers of Jesus recognise that there is something extraordinary about him.

The key to life is Jesus. The key to understanding the Bible is Jesus. The key to understanding God’s character is Jesus. The key to getting our lives sorted out is Jesus. No one, not even angels, can compare to Jesus (Hebrews 1:1–14).
If we want to know what God is like, we need to look at Jesus. He said, ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’ (John 14:9). Everything we read and understand about God through the Bible needs to be read through the lens of Jesus. He is the ultimate revelation of God.
Blessings Roxanna

Commitment

Words By Roxanna ~ Commit-Trust-Shine

8:57 AM

While God’s heart is most definitely for our sanctification and holiness, his perspective is far different than what I just described. You see, God knows that sanctification doesn’t come about through our efforts. I can in no way sanctify myself because in and of myself I have no holiness. The truth God has for us today is simply this: sanctification comes about by true relationship with our heavenly Father alone. Holiness is the direct result of openly and continually encountering the nature of a perfect, loving, and available God.
If we are going to experience the fruit of righteousness, we must learn to trust God in his plan for our sanctification. We must learn to trust that in encountering him we will experience freedom from our sin and healing for the wounds that drive us to the things of the world.

Psalm 37:5-6 says, “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” When we trust God to bring about our righteousness by simply committing our way to him and trusting in him, we engage in a process of sanctification founded on encounters with his loving grace.
Sanctification is not meant to be this heady process of turmoil and striving that we so often experience. While it may be difficult, it is designed to be filled with the continually forgiving and loving heart of our good Father. It is designed to be based on experiencing Jesus that we might become more like him.
Spend time today seeking the heart of your heavenly Father. Commit your ways to him and trust in him. Ask him to reveal his heart for your righteousness. Ask him to guide you into a process of sanctification marked by his grace, love, and nearness. Stop seeing the process of sanctification as a never-ending timeline and instead center it wholly around relationship with your heavenly Father. May you experience righteousness and holiness today as you encounter the perfect nature of Jesus. May your day be marked by peace as you commit your spiritual development to the hands of the Potter. And may you be transformed into the image of Jesus as you engage in the process of sanctification based on relationship with a good, near God.

good deeds

Doing Good ~ Words by Roxanna

10:00 AM


There are some people in our church community who never seem to stop doing good. Whenever I see them, they are serving or washing up, praying for someone, encouraging others, offering to take food to the sick, or doing some other kind act. They give generously to the work of the church. They do all these things with such grace and enthusiasm. I am always encouraged and challenged by their example.
They never seem to tire of doing good. They seem to base their whole lives on those words of John Wesley that we looked at earlier in the year. They do all the good they can, by all the means they can, in all the ways they can, in all the places they can, at all the times they can, to all the people they can, as long as ever they can.
In our society, the term ‘do-gooder’ has become pejorative; it is used as an insult. But doing good should not be seen in this way. Jesus, we are told, ‘went around doing good’ (Acts 10:38).
St Paul writes to Titus, ‘Remind the people … to be ready to do whatever is good’ (Titus 3:1). His desire is that those who have trusted in God ‘devote themselves to doing what is good’ (vv.8,14).
Blessing Roxanna

Bible

Words By Roxanna ~ God Speaks Through the Bible

10:30 AM


Fyodor was a wild young man. His life revolved around eating, drinking, talking, music, theatre and the company of women. He dreamt of fame. He was caught up in a movement for political and social reform in Russia during the repressive reign of Tsar Nicholas I. He was arrested, tried and condemned initially to be executed.
On a bitterly cold morning, the prisoners were taken out to be shot. The prison guards raised their muskets to their shoulders and took aim. At the last moment, a white flag was raised to announce that the Tsar had commuted their sentence to life imprisonment in Siberia.
On his arrival in Siberia on Christmas Eve 1849, at the age of twenty-eight, two women slipped him a New Testament. When the guard turned away momentarily, they suggested he should search the pages thoroughly. He did.
While in prison, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the great Russian novelist, read the New Testament from cover to cover and learnt much of it by heart. He wrote, ‘I believe that there is no one lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic and more perfect than Jesus. I say to myself with jealous love not only is there no one else like him, but there never could be anyone like him.’ It was through the Bible that he had encountered Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul describes all Scripture as ‘God-breathed’ (2 Timothy 3:16). The Bible is not just inspired in the way that artists, poets, composers and musical performers can be said to be inspired. It actually has God’s breath, his Spirit, in it. The Bible is one of the main ways in which God speaks to us.
 
 Blessings,
Roxanna

hard times

Words By Roxanna ~ Hard Times

10:30 AM






Smith Wigglesworth was born on 8 June 1859 to an impoverished family in Yorkshire. As a small child, he worked in the fields pulling turnips alongside his mother. He was illiterate until, at the age of twenty-three, he married Polly, who taught him to read. He often said that the Bible was the only book he ever read.
He was a plumber by trade. But had to abandon it after he became too busy with an amazing ministry of preaching and healing. There are even accounts of people being raised from the dead through his ministry. Yet he said on one occasion that he would rather see one person saved through his preaching than 10,000 healed.
Life was not always easy for Smith Wigglesworth. He went through some very hard times. He wrote, ‘Great faith is a product of great fights. Great testimonies are the outcome of great tests. Great triumphs can only come out of great trials.’
The Bible is very realistic. We live in a fallen world. Everyone goes through hard times and some people find themselves in circumstances that make life hard all of the time.
 Blessings,
Roxanna

Pray

Words By, Roxanna~ Varieties of Prayer

10:30 AM


Prayer is the most important activity of your life. It is the main way in which you develop a relationship with our Father in heaven. If you love someone, naturally you will want to spend time in their presence communicating with them. Like any relationship, communication can take many different forms. Lancelot Andrewes (1555–1626), one of the great theologians and preachers of his day, wrote two lists in his Private Devotions:
First, he wrote a list of times of prayer in the Bible:
‘Always ...
Without ceasing ...
At all times ...
Three times a day ...
Evening, and morning, and at noon ...
Seven times a day ...
In the morning, a great while before day ...
At daybreak ...
The third hour of the day ...
About the sixth hour ...
The hour of prayer, the ninth ...
The evening ...
By night ...
At midnight ... ’.
Next, he wrote a list of places of prayer in the Bible:
‘In the assembly ... and in the congregation ...
Your closet ...
An upper room ...
A housetop ...
The temple ...
On the shore ...
A garden ...
On their beds ...
A desert place ...
In every place ... ’.
There is no limit to the times, places and different ways in which you can pray.
 
Blessings, 
Roxanna 

Faith

Words by Roxanna~ Faith: Love and Freedom

1:22 PM



In early February 1974 I was facing the biggest decision of my life. I was convinced through reading the New Testament that Jesus really was the Son of God. But I did not want to be a Christian as I feared that I would lose my freedom. The last things that I associated with faith were love and freedom. In fact, the opposite was the case. I associated faith with losing my freedom. I thought that God would want me to stop doing all the things that were fun and that I enjoyed.
 
For many people today, freedom and love are the last things in the world that they associate with faith. In fact, I have discovered over the last 40 years, and as we see in today’s passages, that true faith leads to freedom and love. Love, faith and freedom are inextricably entwined.

Blessings,
Roxanna

C.S. Lewis

Words by Roxanna ~ Surprised by Joy

12:45 PM


‘Surprised by joy’ is how C. S. Lewis described his conversion from atheism to faith in Jesus Christ. He had never expected that there was any connection between God and joy. If anything, he had thought it would be the opposite: ‘For all I knew, the total rejection of what I called Joy might be one of the demands.’
Convinced that it was true, Lewis ‘admitted that God was God’. At that moment, he was ‘the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England’. To his great surprise he found that following Jesus was the very opposite to what he expected. He experienced great joy through his new-found faith. He discovered that ‘the heart of reality’ is to be found in a Person. He was surprised by joy.
Many people confuse pleasure, contentment and joy. ‘Pleasure’ can come from a good holiday, a pay rise or a box of chocolates. People can become pleasure addicts – always seeking the next fix. But these experiences of pleasure come and go.
‘Contentment’ is longer term – being satisfied with your life, your home, your job and your relationships.
But there is another kind of happiness that we call ‘joy’. It is not an emotion. It is a way of being and a state of mind that is available to everybody. It is not found in things, but in a Person. 

Blessings!Roxanna

armor

Words from Roxanna - Saul's Armor

10:30 AM

Saul hears David’s reasons for why he thinks he can slay Goliath, and the king says: “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
But then he recognizes David’s appearance, and Saul develops an instant case of buyer’s remorse, “Kid, I know you killed some wild animals, but you can’t go out there looking like that. You at least have to look the part.”

Saul dresses David up in his own tunic and armor. The king’s wardrobe and armory would be the best available in their entire nation. Imagine trading in your 2003 Honda for the King’s Rolls Royce or a fickle old push mower for a zero-turn, four-foot-wide riding one.
David walks around in his glorious new outfit…and rejects it.
“I’m not used to these.”
There was nothing wrong with Saul’s armor; the king could’ve learned to trust God in it. But the living fabric of David’s relationship with the Lord was woven with the staff and sling, not golden tunics. David knew victory didn’t depend on weapons and armor, but on trusting the proven character of God. 
There are tragic ironies in much of our thinking about the David & Goliath story. While we preach on the underdog, we determine our vision and direction using “Goliath” measurements and values. Bigger spears! Larger shields! 
Because of that, too often we chase after the best “armor” out there and miss where we could truly know God in the present moment with what we’ve already been given. I believe the Kingdom of God would be much more attractive to a lost and addicted world if we learned to celebrate the simplicity of the staff in our own hands, rather than scrambling for Saul’s Armor in a culture that already oozes envy, greed, and lustful discontentment.
I’m not advocating the removal of any kind of ambition; I’m arguing that our preeminent ambition in any endeavor prompted by our faith should be to know and serve God in the action, no matter how simple or common. Serve God with your staff and sling, your cheese and bread, and if God ever has need for your particular set of Giant Removal skills, you’ll be ready. But if He doesn’t, you still have the joy of finding Jesus in the everyday.
God isn’t asking you to kill Goliath or to be David…or Beth Moore or Jim Elliot… God is asking you to be the first YOU!
Blessings, Roxanna

Blessed

The Pure in Heart

10:53 AM


I grew up in an era of Christian obsession with the End Times. Preachers painstakingly predicted the imminent return of the Savior and born-again believers debated the details of things called the Rapture, the Tribulation, and the Millennium.
Against such a backdrop, it became easy for me to imagine Jesus returning and calling to Himself the faithful followers who were working with orphans, serving in soup kitchens, or washing the feet of widows. Meanwhile, the people Jesus didn’t choose were free to continue burning down church buildings or kicking puppies or whatever awful thing He caught them doing at the moment of His Second Coming…
But when Jesus describes His return in Matthew 24, we find the one caught up with Jesus and the one left behind both engaged in the exact same activities. The scenarios He shares are of two men working in a field and two women grinding grain at a mill. Two simple everyday activities straight out of the Just Ordinary Life Manual.
Yes, serving in soup kitchens can be great, and no, you shouldn’t burn down church buildings, but for a moment, let it seep into your soul what Jesus is saying about His return… People will be doing ordinary things. And there are ways to do ordinary things that are pleasing to God and ways that are not.
I have no idea if the man left behind in the field had some awful hidden sin or if the woman taken to the Lord’s side fed a thousand homeless people every week, but I do know that Jesus didn’t describe a dramatic human scene for His return, but a couple of common ones.
We, like Samuel at David’s anointing, can look at others who seem so amazing and say: “Surely, this is the Lord’s anointed…” and forget where the eyes of the Lord really are: “I do not look at the things you humans look at…I look at the heart.” No matter where we are or what we do, from the simple to the sensational; in wheat fields or soccer fields, from mills for grinding, to malls for shopping, our hearts can respond in worship to the Lord.
More than the activities themselves, God is looking at the why of what we do. Jesus, help me today to focus on the attitude of my heart in the midst of my actions. Bless each ordinary moment as an opportunity to worship an extraordinary God.

Blessings,
Roxanna

give thanks

Thanksgiving

10:47 AM

Jean Smith told me her story. She was in her mid-sixties. She came from Cwmbran in Wales. She had been blind for sixteen years. She had a white stick, and a guide dog named Tina. An infection had eaten away at the retinas and mirrors behind her eyes – they could not be replaced. She was in constant pain.
Jean went on a local Alpha Course. They had a day away to focus on the work of the Holy Spirit. During this time, the pain left. She went to church the following Sunday to thank God. The minister anointed her with oil. As she wiped the oil away she could see the communion table. God had miraculously healed Jean.
She had not seen her husband for sixteen years. She was surprised at how white his beard was! Jean had never even seen her daughter-in-law before. Her six-and-a-half-year-old grandson used to guide her around the puddles to avoid her getting her feet wet.
He said to her, ‘Who done that Gran?’
She replied, ‘Jesus made me better.’
‘I hope you said thank you, Gran.’
‘I will never stop saying thank you,’ she answered.
Yesterday I read Paul’s encouragement: ‘In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God’ (Philippians 4:6). Today we see him putting his own instructions into practice. Like Jean, Paul was also constantly giving thanks to God.
Praise is giving glory to God for who he is. Thanksgiving is giving glory to God for what he has done for us. It is the lens through which to view our entire life. Ultimately, as we see in today’s passages, the world can be divided into two categories: those who acknowledge God and give thanks to him, and those who don’t.
Blessings,
Roxanna

ambition

Ambition

10:30 AM




Chuck Colson was a self-made man. As a student, he arrogantly turned down a scholarship to Harvard. He joined the Marines, set up his own law firm and entered politics. By the age of forty he had become one of President Nixon’s closest advisers. Later he described himself as ‘a young ambitious political king maker’. He was known as Nixon’s ‘hatchet-man’.
He pleaded guilty to his part in the Watergate cover-up scandal and was sent to prison. By then he had encountered Jesus. When he left the court after hearing the sentence he said, ‘What happened in court today ... was the court’s will and the Lord’s will – I have committed my life to Jesus Christ and I can work for Him in prison as well as out.’
Colson did just that. After his release he set up Prison Fellowship and has since been directly or indirectly responsible for leading thousands to Christ. I once heard him say on the radio, ‘I was ambitious, and I am ambitious today, but I hope it is not for Chuck Colson (though I struggle quite a lot as a matter of fact). But I am ambitious for Christ.’
Ambition has been defined as the ‘desire to succeed’. There are ultimately only two controlling ambitions to which all others may be reduced: one is our own glory, and the other is God’s glory.
Blessings,
Roxanna

God's unique thoughts

The Victorious Power of the Lord

12:00 PM


For many years, Bruce Streather was an atheistic lawyer. He never went to church, even though his family did. Most weekends he played golf. Eventually, as a result of considerable persuasion from his wife and three teenage daughters, he came on Alpha. He was extremely argumentative and hostile. None of the sessions had any impact on him until, towards the end of the course, he heard the talk ‘How Can I Resist Evil?’ Afterwards he came up to me and said, ‘In my work as a lawyer, I have seen so much evil. I have always believed in the power of evil. Tonight it struck me that, if there is a power of evil, it makes sense to believe that there is also a power of good.’ That night Bruce became a Christian. Ever since, he has been a committed member of the church with a very powerful and effective ministry affecting the lives of hundreds of people.
We struggle with the global evils of terrorism, the rise of ISIS, events in the Ukraine, the deadly Ebola virus, starvation, poverty, the destruction of the environment, corrupt governments and countless other domestic, local and international issues. We also face struggles against evil in our own lives – temptation, sin and addiction.
The Bible is realistic about this struggle. In the Old Testament, we read about physical battles against the forces of evil. In the New Testament, the struggle is more often described as a spiritual battle. As St Paul puts it, ‘Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms’ (Ephesians 6:12).
The Power of thinking about the Cross helps us battle sin.

Blessings,
Roxanna

bounce

Bounce It Back Up!

12:00 PM


It was one of the most moving and powerful testimonies I have ever encountered. A former sex worker, drug addict and dealer described how she had reached a point at which, in her own words, she was ‘dead’. She said her ‘blood was black’ and her ‘heart was black’. She described how she came on Alpha and heard that Jesus loved her so much that he died for her. She described how this had broken the concrete of her heart. She experienced God’s love for her for the first time. She is now filled with love for everyone, forgiving those who abused her, and radiating the love of Christ.
After she had given her testimony to a stunned congregation, I went up to thank her and said how extraordinarily powerful it had been. She replied, ‘I need to bounce it back up!’ I didn’t understand what she meant, so I asked her to explain. She said, ‘It’s all his grace. I need to bounce the glory back to him.’ She has a profound understanding of grace, glory and what it means to be Christ-like.
Blessing Roxanna

cry

Cry Freedom

12:00 PM

He had no one to help him become a lawyer or a politician. He was not interested in the army. He had no desire to be a doctor. Therefore, the only obvious career move in those days for a man of his background was to become a clergyman in the Church of England.
He tried to make himself acceptable to God by keeping the whole law, inwardly and outwardly. He got up early. He prayed. He denied himself. He tried to earn forgiveness and peace by increased effort. But he ‘groaned under a heavy yoke’.
On 24 May, 1738 at 8.45am he heard someone reading a book by the great reformer, Martin Luther. He later recalled, ‘While he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given [to] me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.’
John Wesley became one of the greatest preachers ever, preaching over 40,000 sermons centered on freedom through faith in Jesus Christ. He had, as he put it, ‘exchanged the faith of a servant for the faith of a son’.
Jesus Christ is the supreme liberator, and becoming a Christian is the supreme act of liberation. ‘Freedom’ is the word that best sums up the Christian life.

difference

What Difference Does Jesus Make?

12:00 PM


  • ‘My life has completely changed. I now look at the world through different eyes ... I feel love for everyone and an inner peace that I never imagined could exist.’
  • ‘I had been living my life in a dark hole, I was carrying a great weight on my shoulders ... that burden has gone ... and I am filled with great hope, joy, excitement and love, and all I want to do is to serve Christ in whatever form he chooses.’
  •  ‘I feel like I have found love and conquered death in one day.’
I have interviewed hundreds of people around the world who have come to faith in Jesus. The question I ask over and over again is, ‘What difference has Jesus made?’ and the genuine answers above are typical. the difference Jesus makes is massive, eternal, and impossible to comprehend fully.

Blessings, 

Roxanna