Let go of past wrongs

Devotion: "Moreover brethren, I declare to you the gospel which i preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which i preached to you- unless you believed in vain. 1 Corinthians 15: 1-2. Yesterday at church the teaching was on the Gospel and that fact that the Gospel mean that God loves us and accepts us and there is noth

ing that we can do to earn his approval because we are already approved!. I have to admit that I am one of those who have operated under the need to seek God's approval, always scared that if I don't do the right thing I won't get into heaven. I think a lot of us struggle with that issue and we tend to lose sight of the basic fact that while we are to do the right thing because it's expected of us, that is not what's going to get us into heaven. What I must do is love God with my whole heart, with my entire being. We can do that by 'plunging' whole-heartedly into the word of God not just being luke-warm about it. The more we learn about God, the more we love him and the more we are transformed by him. Living the word of God and loving God are the keys to living an abundant life here on earth for we have already been saved by the blood of Christ. We were given the definition yesterday that Saved meant "full deliverance, full restoration and life in God." The one thing that struck me was when my pastor said that the interpretation of the bible shows that the word save shows that the gospel is not in the past tense but that the Gospel SAVES us, that means that the Gospel even now continues to save us, its present and working. It's life affirming, life saving, and life-giving and life-sustaining. I am so thankful and grateful that the Gospel is alive and working everyday in my life and yours; I am filled with gratitude that we have the life sustaining word of God to fill our hearts and and give us life every day.

What does the Gospel mean to you today?

 So you’ve heard me talking about taking the bus to work for the last few months. Prior to that I was driving the 20+ miles (one way) to work and back daily, however, I don’t have parking at work and there is an approximately 4 year wait before I will be able to get a parking spot through my job. When deciding to switch jobs last year that was one of the considerations I had to

ponder, giving up my parking at my prior job was hard since both positions are in the middle of the downtown area . When I learned about the option of taking the bus in to work at first I was very resistant; I didn’t want to give up control of driving myself around, of having my car at my disposal. Even though when I got to work my car would remain parked for the entire day, to me that was not the point, I knew that it was there and I had access to it and that gave me comfort. When I made the decision to start using the “park and ride” I discovered that the bus would drop me of right in front of my building and I only had to walk one block over in the evening to catch the northbound bus home; I didn’t have to worry about road rage; I didn’t have to worry about driving in traffic, I could turn all that over to someone else and all I had to do was lean my seat back, relax and enjoy the ride. I was AMAZED at home much I loved the change, at how much i loved no longer having to worry about driving in traffic and finding parking every single day. 

What if we turn over control of our lives to God in that same manner? That’s not saying that we won’t have to do anything and just be complacent. I have to buy my bus ticket every month, I have to get myself to the ‘park and ride’ in the morning and to the bus stop in the evenings on time in order to make it work on time and catch my bus home on time. Even when we give control to God, we just can’t sit back and do nothing, we have to keep praying, we have to listen to what God is instructing us to do; we have to obey and follow his instructions; we must read his Word daily so that we can be renewed, rejuvenated by his promises. Sometimes I think we confuse giving control to God with becoming useless lumps, when in fact the opposite is true.

When we give control to God, THAT is when the true work begins, that is when the transformation within us can truly start because we are willing to hear and obey God. But just as it feels great to no longer be in the driver seat of my car daily, if we really think about it, giving up control to God means we won't be in the driver seat of our lives daily, we won't be rushing around, worrying constantly, fearing daily about the who, what, when, how and why things are happening in our lives. We will trust that God knows best, that the driver of our lives will get us to our destination safely, as long as we do our part each day and get our bus ticket (believe and trust), get our selves to the station on time (pray daily and communicate with God), and enjoy the ride - Enjoy God's transformation of our lives. 

  it's a great day to be alive for the simple fact that God has been gracious to us and allowed us to live to see yet another day. Don't ever take for granted the precious gift of life and the fact that God has each one of us here for a reason. Sometimes things in life gets in the way of seeing God's purpose for our lives and those are the times that we must go to God and

 seek his word for clarity. We must never allow the world to define who and what we are or the path we are to take, only God has that right and he will be very clear to us if and when we take the time listen and then obey. It's easy for the pressures and distresses of the world to bring us down and suck the joy and happiness out of our soul; today, lets talk to God about finding the strength and courage inside to keep his Word lighting our path, feeding our soul and engaging our hearts daily. 

 At church on Sunday, we got to see 8 people dedicate their lives to God by being baptized. I love that with baptism we are reminded that it's a death to sin and a rebirth in God. It doesn't mean we are not going to mess up, it means that we have accepted Jesus as our savior and we will be trying our best to live a life looking forward to God's work in our lives and not backward to the mistakes that have been forgiven and forgotten in our past. We welcome all the new believers and pray that they always remember that God is at their side no matter what

  1 Corinthians 6:12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything." We should not allow anything to have control over us but God. 

That is easier said than done because we have so many things around us bombarding us with information, “don’t do this, do this, this is bad, this is good” that we tend to go to either one extreme or the other. Each of us has to pray to God for the strength and courage to release anything that has a hold on us and is taking over consuming us and our thoughts that is not of God. We can enjoy many things throughout our journey here on earth without obsessing or being consumed by it but we need the strength of God within us to help us. 

In your journal –
a. What thing/activity/person are you obsessing over or have you so consumed so that God is secondary or even lower?
b. What tools do you need in order to start discerning whether this is right and/or pleasing to God?
c. How can you implement those tools on a daily basis so that your relationship with God takes priority.

  Read and pour over “Stop drinking only water and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illness.” 1 Timothy 5:23 Sometimes we get so consumed with sticking to one way of doing things that we don’t see that it may ultimately be detrimental to our health. Maintaining our physical health is a vital part of spiritual health because we are the Temple within which the Holy Spirit dwells. 
a. In your journal, describe whether or not you are doing a good job at taking care o yourself physically. 
b. What do YOU see as the relationship between your physical and spiritual health?

Saturday I went shoe shopping for some new running shoes and ended up getting these Nike Flex shoes. Love the bright neon colors. NIKE FLEX, I tried to get the UA ones but apparently people with size 11W feet are not meant to wear those shoes :). Anyway, I ended up going to Kohls and finding these shoes, some sandals for work, plus a workout outfit, alto

gether for only $18 more than Academy was asking, thanks to coupons and sales!! Score!!! Love the bright color, they sure are going to see me coming when I go running early in the mornings :):); plus it's incredibly light, which I love

.

It was also Grocery shopping day so I could make my prep meals on Sunday  I got a couple of new things to share in another picture. But for the upcoming week I have fresh corn, zucchini, watermelon, coconut water, falafel, feta cheese, PB2, tomato, pear, cauliflower, fruit chips, organic brow

n rice, avocado, shrimp, cucumber, smoked salmon, turkey bacon, grapes, cherries, black berries, biscoti spread, bell peppers (for baking), almond milk, frozen veggies, and broccoli, Organic Mango Jam, and organic cashews

So the new finds at my local Grocery Store this week: The PB2 which is just now being carried/introduced to the store and I decided to give it a second chance after I realized that the first time I tried the chocolate version of the PB2 and

 didn't like it (since I don't like chocolate); Falafel, first time trying this, but I plan on taking it for my snacks, Variety Pack of Hummus, it has olives, jalapeno, natural and roasted pepper samples in the variety pack; snack pack of blue berry :) Feta cheese with roasted tomatoes - for some recipe that I will think of soon :) and Biscoff spread, its a allegedly an all natural alternative to PB from Europe, mainly for my daughter but of course I have to give it a try and see what it tastes like. Also all natural mango jam, I have the same brand in the fig recipe and it's not to bad, I use it for cooking as well (to make sauces); So these are my finds this week

. 

Meal Prep:
 Turkey and Feta basil burgers, 
Mango Masala grilled chicken breasts and kabobs (with squash and zucchini),
 2 stuffed bell peppers with couscous, quinoa, and veggies, 1 red bell pepper stuffed with organic brown rice, lentil, zucchini, and mushrooms; 
1 Salmon-spinach and feta pinwheel, 
1 salmon burger,
 and plain boiled organic brown rice. 

 I decided to try something new this week, I prepped all my main lunches ahead of time and they are going into the freezer until I need them. That way all I have to do is get my snacks ready and I should be good to go. I try to mix and matc

h days of just veggies and protein, some days I have the rice or quinoa and couscous in the stuffed peppers. Never hurts to try something new and see what works. If it works this week then I am probably going to be doing this on Sunday's as well. Planning ahead for the week as far as my meals has been such a great way of keeping me on track!

Lunch and snacks for 8-20: 
5.9 oz chicken,
 2 cups Green Giant Healthy Blend vegetables (carrots, snap peas, cauliflower, mushrooms),
 2 cups watermelon,
 4 stone wheat Central market crackers, 
2 tbs Hummus with jalapeno,
 1 package black berries, 
1 babybel cheese!. 

 Breakfast, 
1 feta-basil turkey burger, 
1/2 cucumber, 
1/2 avocado,
2 tsp mango chutney, 
1 cup lemon water.

Lunch:
5.9 oz Mango and Marsala chicken breast kabobs with zucchini and squash, 
2 cups Hearty vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, snap peas and mushrooms)

 Dinner: 
1/2 hatch chili salmon burger, 
1/3 cup lentils, 
1/3 plantain,
 2 cup spinach

My workout this morning, it was a cool morning and it felt good to get in a great run outside.  I also did an evening workout; 

My evening workout just completed. 
Part #1
5 rounds (using my barbell with 20lbs on each end)

5 Front Squats 
5 shoulder press 
5 Summo deadlift high Pull 
5 Box jumps 

Part 2 (also using the barbell) 

2 rounds, the first round doing burpees and the second round situps)

20 Thrusters
20 Sumo Deadlift Highpulls
20 Over head Squat
20 Front Squats

***But every minute complete 4 burpees
Then second round
Tabata Sit ups

Burned 354 calories during this workout and it took me just at 40 minutes to complete.