Birthday Bash - What could I win?

Enter to win ALL 8 PRIZES:

http://fantasysteampunk.weebly.com

 

Here are the December Prizes offered here at Fat Free Faith:

December 1 - Need a little help with last minute shopping? Or have your eye on some Kindle books, but your holiday purse strings are a little tight? Well the prize for December 1st is a $20 Amazon Gift Card.

December 2 - The Paperback Copy of Found Adrift: 40 Days of Recovering Grace and a Boat Charm Bookmark.

December 3 - Paperback Copy of The Clockwork Dragon and Gold Dragon Charm bookmark designed by Donita K. Paul.

December 4 - Hardcover Copy of Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball, signed by Donita K. Paul and a Christmas Charm necklace.

December 5 - A e-copy of Winter Fae: Prologue to Armored Hearts ~ Fantasy Steampunk  and a Steampunk Inspired Charm Cluster Necklace (Owl, Heart, Key, Gear, and more).

Sunday #Devotional - How much are you Worth? - #tworship

Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.  (Matthew 10:29-31 NKJV)

The Old Testament is full of assurances of our creation and God’s love for us, particularly in the Psalms, but Jesus said this in the New Testament. In this small snippet of Scripture, Jesus assured us of many things.

 First, Jesus called God your Father.  This means that God is my Father, not just Jesus’ Father alone, but mine, too.  If God is my Father, than He would care about the intimate details of my daily life, just like my earthly father did.

Second, notice that your hairs are numbered.  I don’t know about you, but every day I shed hairs. This would mean that God cares enough to know how many hairs are on my head today, because the number is different than yesterday!

Third, He tells me not to fear.  This means that Jesus wants us to understand that worry is fear.  It is fear that God doesn’t care, and that we are responsible for our own lives.  If we are not to worry or fear, than Jesus is telling us that God does care, and that we are not responsible for our lives, but are to take the responsibilities to God.

In this Scripture, Jesus is expressing the idea that God is not some distant, far-away, absentee father. No, He is present, He cares, and He doesn’t want you to worry.

~*~

Prayer Thought: What are you worried about? Do you believe that God cares for you? Take your heart’s struggle and fears to Him right now and voice them.

Birthday Bash!

My co-author and friend Melissa Turner Lee and I are giving away PRIZES GALORE between her birthday and mine. Starting November 28 we're giving away a prize/day until December 5 ~ In honor of our joint FANTASY STEAMPUNK project: Armored Hearts.

For November's Giveaways - see Melissa Turner Lee's Blog

Here's December Raffle Copters to Enter:
This Prize will be given away on December 1 -
a Rafflecopter giveaway

This Prize will be given away on December 2 -
a Rafflecopter giveaway

December 3's Prize -
a Rafflecopter giveaway

December 4's Prize -
a Rafflecopter giveaway

December 5's Prize -
a Rafflecopter giveaway

GOOD LUCK!!

#Bible Devotional - How Easily Offended Should a #Christian Be? #tworship

Not a picture of the graffiti mentioned.

Great peace have they who love your law; nothing shall offend them or make them stumble.  (Psalm 119:165 AMP)

The day before Halloween last year, some of the punk kids in the neighborhood thought it would be funny to redecorate our church with spray cans.  They painted the handicapped signs, other church signs, and the area around the dumpster as well as the back doors of the sanctuary.  They wrote things that were juvenile, and would easily offend the delicate sensitivities of those with high moral value.

But, my question is: Are Christians supposed to have delicate sensitivities?  In movies and TV, the person displayed as the most easily offended at parties and in workplaces seems to be the Christian.  How much truth is there to that?  

Too much.  I remember once that someone at my church was “offended” that people weren’t cutting the grass often enough because dandelions showed up on Sunday mornings to greet the parishioners.  What causes church split ups except that one group becomes offended by the other’s song choice, dress, seating arrangement, or when communion is taken?

If Christians were not so easily offended would the punk neighborhood kids have found it as fun to poke at their sensitivities?  If instead they could expect the church to forgive them and believe the best for them wouldn’t it take away their fun?

And then many will be offended and repelled and will begin to distrust and desert Him whom they ought to trust and obey and will stumble and fall away and betray one another and pursue another with hatred. (Matthew 24:11 AMP)

Because one person in the church becomes so easily offended, they turn their back on the church. Then this same person will turn their back on Jesus.  These are the last days.  We’re living in them.  Because so many in the church don’t read the Bible for themselves, many don’t know and love God’s law. This is the reason we become easily offended.   

How do we become offended?
Synonyms for Offended are: Insulted, snubbed, affronted.  One definition of offend is: to break a commonly accepted rule or principle, causing insult, upset, annoyance, or resent.  And there we have the problem.  When we come to God we are to dispel all our pre-conceived notions of what is commonly accepted and believe the best of everyone. 

This is Love:
Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything without weakening. (1 Corinthians 13:7 AMP)

If we truly believe the best and endure without weakening in all circumstances, then we would become hard to offend.  So let us not let Satan have this foothold in our lives. It used to be that of someone felt offended, they’d be rewarded with a “get over it.” Today we live in a society where being offended punishes the offender with an accusation of intolerance whether they had malicious intent or not or whether the party who felt offended had the right to feel that way. 

Dear Lord,
Help me to remember today that, as a Christian, it is my duty to “get over it.” I need to be willing to take on the offense of another and bear it up.  My first calling is to love and in order to do that, I need to endure whatever insult comes my way and believe the best of the one who insulted me.  Help me do this Lord, because I cannot do it on my own. In Jesus Name, Amen.

21 Ways to Celebrate Gratitude - Guest #Blog by Shelley Hitz

Thanksgiving season is soon approaching and this year, I encourage you to take the opportunity to celebrate gratitude. In the midst of the hustle and bustle of this holiday season, take a moment (or two) to celebrate gratitude.

Don’t forget to check out the free book giveaway below.
 

Idea #8:  Create a journal of thanks.  Buy a blank journal and pass it around the table for each family member to write something they are thankful for.  Include the year and consider making it a tradition.  You can use the same journal each year and even look back on years past and be reminded of your blessings.

See all 21 ways to celebrate gratitude this Thanksgiving at Shelley’s website: http://www.bodyandsoulpublishing.com/21-ways-to-celebrate-gratitude-during-thanksgiving-this-holiday-season/

 

 

Free Gratitude Resource:

 

On November 14, 15 and 16^th, 2012 you can download a FREE Kindle copy of the book, “21 Stories of Gratitude:  The Power of Living Life With a Grateful Heart.”  

 

Get your copy here:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009YWM3WI

 

 

Book Description:

Are you living life to the fullest? Or are you merely surviving from day to day?

 

One way to live life to the fullest is to live each day with a grateful heart. In this book, we share 21 stories of gratitude to give you encouragement and hope in your own journey. Gratitude is possible! Even though many times we cannot change our circumstances, we can change the way we see them. We can ask God to empower us to change our thoughts.

 

Our prayer for you is that you find encouragement within these pages. And we pray that you will ask God for His strength to renew your mind with His truth and the hope He offers each one of us every day. It is only through Christ renewing our minds that we can truly live each day with a grateful heart.

 

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2 (NKJV)

 

 

Other Gratitude Resources:

 

·         21 Days of Gratitude Challenge:   Take the 21 days of gratitude challenge to celebrate Thanksgiving this year.  You can do this by yourself or as a family.

 

·         21 Prayers of Gratitude:  Read a prayer of gratitude for 21 days to focus your heart on God and all He has given us.

 

 

About the Author:

 

Shelley Hitz has been writing and publishing books since 2008. She is also the author of the website, FindYourTrueBeauty.com, that reaches thousands of girls each month around the world. Her openness and vulnerability as she shares her own story of hope and healing will inspire and encourage you.

 

Shelley has been ministering to teens since 1998 alongside her husband, CJ. They currently travel and speak to teens and adults around the country. Shelley’s main passion is to share God’s truth and the freedom in Christ she has found with others. She does this through her books, websites and speaking engagements.

 

You can find more about Shelley at www.ShelleyHitz.com or invite her to speak at your event here: www.ChristianSpeakers.tv

#Bible Devotional - Who is in Control? #tworship

Therefore keep a watch upon your spirit, that it may be controlled by My spirit, that you deal not treacherously and faithlessly. (Malachi 2:16 NKJV)

I have a recurring nightmare.  I’m driving along in my car, usually downhill, when I find myself careening toward the back end of another car.  I apply my brakes, and nothing happens.  I press harder, with all my might, and still I continue to move forward fast to my impending doom.  By this time, I usually wake up, my heart beating a mile a minute.

I have since found that this dream sequence is a common one among people who fear loss of control in their lives.  Though I’ve never really thought of myself as a control freak, I have to analyze my actions and let them speak for themselves.  Let’s look at what behaviors define a control freak:

Do I get upset when things don’t go the way that I plan?

Do I get impatient when my agenda for the day gets foiled by someone else?

If things aren’t where I last put them, do I want get angry at who moved them?

When I let someone borrow something of mine, do I obsess over how they take care of it, or whether they will return it soon?

Unfortunately I can pretty much answer yes to all of these questions, because at least at some point in my life I have been guilty of them all.  But are these the responses that God wants us to have?  

The plain fact is that the reason that the Israelites stayed in the desert for 40 years is because they wanted God to do things their way.  They wanted CONTROL, and when things didn’t go the way they planned or wanted, they grumbled, complained, and wanted to return to Egypt.  So God taught them how to rely on Him, to relinquish control to Him, and to trust Him to know what was best. If we sow patience and humility in each of these situations, we grow closer to God as we give Him control, just as we should.  

If we are controlled by the Spirit, we will find that we live by the Spirit.  Our life will bear fruit.  But if we give into those feelings of impatience, upset, and anger, we’ll be controlled by our flesh and seek its gratification: 

For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:5 NKJV)

Isn’t this really a matter of Pride vs. Humility?  
The Proud man can take care of himself.  He’s got things under control.  He can find the solutions to all his problems.  He doesn’t need anyone’s help.

The Humble man lets God lead.  He understands that he is not God, and that God is the one in control.  He realizes that he cannot solve his own problems and looks to God for help.

Oh Lord,
Which am I? Am I humble or am I proud? I know Lord that I am pround, and I’m ready to let go of the control that I’ve been trying to keep. Today, help me find where You want me to relinquish control, and help be ready to change my attitude when things go wrong.  We are not strong enough to solve all our own problems much less everyone else’s.  Lord, that we would realize that we’re only human! In Jesus name, Amen.