Change = Pain

I was cleaning the kitchen when Chuck Swindoll came on the radio.  His topic was from Romans 14 which deals with Christian liberty.  The first night he was talking about those "gray" areas in our life which doesn't come under a chapter and verse in the Bible.  Your convictions, the ones that scripture tells us in Romans to work out in our own minds.

He talked about Christians who are controllers and com-parers.  The controllers think that there is no other way than their way and do not give others the grace to work things.  They might be mature Christians who know better on some things; but don't allow others the liberty of finding out what works for them.  He said that we need to give people space and grace.  I'm not going into detail; but when your prayer has been, "Lord, change me" and then the Spirit places a mirror in front of your soul that shows you exactly an area to be surrendered; it can be painful.  (I know...one big run on sentence)

Now when the Spirit reveals things..that's not the end of it.  We are to be doers of the Word which means we have to continuously deal with issues until they are settled.  But we don't have to do this on our own.  The Spirit doesn't reveal things and then take off.  He stays; helping us work through the changes that need to be made.

Also, in the same chapter of Romans it tells us that if our actions are a stumbling block to others--then out of love for them, we need to abstain from it.  The focus of our lives should not be us--but others.

Starting back work, school, ect. today; finally after a 2 1/2 week break.  It's going to be a good day no matter what it brings.  Homemade bean soup & 1/2 sandwich for lunch today and lasagna for dinner tonight.  Looked at my syllabus last night for my class and of course did not understand a word of it.  I never do until I slowly start peeling back the layers of what is expected.