SUNDAYS WITH JOYCE

CONFESSION

Confess Jesus is Lord     Romans 10: 9   That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved

Confess sins, God forgives    Proverbs 28:13, 1 John 1: 9    He that covereth his sins shall not prosper:  but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Confess sins to each other     James 5: 16    Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer  of a righteous man availeth much.

Fasting and confession of sin     1 Samuel 7: 6    And they gathered together to Miz'-peh, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord, and Samuel judged the children of Israel in Miz'-peh

Notable confessions     Matthew 16: 16, John 1: 49; 4: 29; 6: 69; 11: 27; 20; 28, 29

And Simon Peter answered and said , Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. 

Na-than'-a-el answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the Son of Israel

Come, see a man, which told me all things that I ever did:  is not this the Christ?

And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

She saith unto him, Yea, Lord:  I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

And Thomas answered and said unto him, my Lord and my God.  Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed:  blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

PARDONING LOVE

The sinner bowed before the throne,
With tears and sorrow on his face,
"I am not worthy to be called Thy son,
Thy law of love, I have disgraced."

"Oh Lord, I’ve done so many things,
I’ve killed, I’ve stolen from the poor,
I’ve persecuted the ones that love Thy law,
And now, my punishment is death, I’m sure."

"My family and friends,
I’ve hurt beyond repair,
Have mercy on me oh Lord,"
The sinner cried in deep despair.

"Forgiveness, peace and love,
I long to obtain from Thee,
For you alone can do this work,
To save and pardon me."

"My words are too feeble,
My strength is almost gone,
Have mercy on me, o Son of David,
Have mercy on me, o Holy One."

Tears streaming down his face,
His eyes are sunken to the ground,
And then a hand has touched his brow,
"Arise my son, for in thee favor I have found."

The sinner looked unto the Savior
"I pledge my life and all that I have to Thee,
For I want the world to know it,
I serve the One who gave His life because of me.

Nothing is more precious than to serve Him,
The One who died for you and me,
For love is only spelled in blood,
On the hill of Golgotha, the cross of Calvary.

By: Adina Paul
New Rochelle, NY





“Faith is confirmed by the heart, confessed by the tongue, and acted upon by the body”

*Invitation to : Soul Sisters Of Sappho

Hello all and Welcome,

There lives within each of us a poet, artist, activist, mother, and lover. Soul Sistas of Sappho is a Multiply online community. It is an empowering community for lesbian wommin of color, that embraces and is dedicated to nurturing artistic, political, and spirit

We want to extend a gracious invitation to other Lesbian sistas and their supporters. Come and experience true sistahood, friendship and networking. Celebrate with us the arts, poetry, music, commentary, plain ol fun and fellowship.

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We invite you to join us at the ~soulsistasofsappho~



*Let me know so I can send you an invite, as it is a private group

SUNDAYS WITH JOYCE (Sorry so late)

WORRY

Anxious heart weighs us down     Proverbs 12: 25     Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.

 

Banish anxiety from your heart     Ecclesiastes 11: 10     Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh

 

Cast all anxiety on God     1 Peter 5: 7     Casting all your cares upon Him, for he careth for you.

 

Do not be anxious about anything     Phillipians 4: 6     Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known unto God.

 

 

God consoles us     Psalm 94: 19     In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul

 

 

 

 

God said: When you get tense, you worry. When you worry, you get tense. Cast off worry and tension both. They are tightness. They hold onto fear. Worry and tenseness act as if you can control all of life. You can influence, but not control. Fear not. In any case, life will play itself out. What has been started will take its course. What has been started will finish.

Be easy with life rather than fretting about what has happened or might happen. Imagine yourself in a hammock with Me. Let's have a conversation. Let's look up at the tree above and beyond that to the sky and beyond that to an image of Heaven so serene that you, too, can only be serene. Why would anyone choose worry over serenity? But is that not what you have done and perhaps are doing right now?

Be at peace with life. Be at peace with your life. You do not own your life on Earth, beloveds. It is yours only for a little while. Making the most of it means to enjoy it. You do not own your life, and you certainly don't own another's life.

When you go fishing, you let the line you cast be loose. Can you not do the same with your life? Can you let go of it and just see what happens? I say this in contrast to your being fraught with life. You don't have to pick life up and shake it. You don't have to carve it out. You don't have to bone it. Just live it. Let life be what it is and not mind it so much. Govern yourself but not your life so much. If you would change your life, change how you react to it. If your teeth are clenched and your fists are clenched, what are you doing to yourself? Open your arms to life instead.

Instead of fearing, think about the good that is to come. Think about goodness. You don't have to think about mercy. Thinking about mercy means you are thinking about a difficult scenario. Be merciful to yourself and know that you do not have to pander to life. You do not have to beg for mercy. Anticipate good wherever you go. Conjure it up. Draw in your heart the picture of all of life greeting you in a friendly fashion, welcoming your presence, sitting down beside you and holding your hand.

What if that which you fear turns out to be a friend? Compose yourself differently, Make friends with life instead of worrying about it. You have guests coming to stay with you that you have not yet met. Roll out the red carpet. Prepare good meals. Set the table. Perhaps the king and queen of life are coming to visit you. Perhaps they are coming laden with gifts. Do not think that life is coming to rob you. Consider how you will welcome it with a warm heart.

And if a difficult guest of life arrives, you can still give great courtesy, and you may find that the guest is not so difficult as you at first thought. You can engage with even difficult guests in life. They do not stay forever, and you may even find that your good nature changes events.

You do not know ahead of time what gifts wanted or unwanted guests in life will bring. You can know you will greet what life brings equally and with great courtesy. You can know the ease and gifts you will give.

SUNDAYS WITH JOYCE

WORD FOR TODAY

Regeneration
1. God creates a clean heart    Psalms 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me

2. God creates tender hearts    Ezekiel 11:19    And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh:

3. Jesus gives living water   John 4:10    Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knowest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink: thou wouldest have asked, and he would have given thee living water

4. New birth    1 Peter 1:23    Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever 

5. God writes law on hearts    Jeremiah 31:33    But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.









God said:

Because you cannot see does not mean that there is nothing to see. On a cloudy night, the stars are not visible, but what has visibility to do with the stars? And so is it with your life.

The fulfillment of your greatest desires could be an inch away, and you could be feeling that you have been abandoned by the universe.

You put yourself through so many unnecessary things. You panic that you will not find the entry door while you are already inside. Or you fear you will not find the exit door while you are already outside.

If there is anything to be abandoned, it is your fear thoughts. Predict other things. Predict the enlightenment of the world. Predict good fortune. Feel it rushing toward you and everywhere. Feel blessings landing on you, pinning your shoulders to the mat of good fortune.

The three little pigs in the story went out with little knapsacks to seek their fortune. They knew what they were seeking. You are doing the same, if only you knew. You think you are looking for this thing and that thing, and you may have forgotten what you are really after. Remember now.

Beloveds, you have been sidetracked. What you are truly seeking cannot be found in department stores. What you are seeking is already within, and yet, other people, ordinary people, will usher you to the seat of your fulfillment. Looking within does not mean to absent yourself from other people. Nor are other people the answer to your quest. Yet other people will give you clues, for, of course, there really are not other people. Every single person you meet is connected to you, and they are before you for a purpose, just as you are before them for a purpose. Think of your meeting, not as a lesson, but rather an opportunity to love. Does not every meeting provide that opportunity? The more torrid the meeting, the more you are called on to love.

In the fairy tales, sometimes it is the most unlikely person who gives the seeker the wisdom he is seeking. The most unlikely person knows the way to the palace and knows the ways to get past all the guards. Perhaps there are unlikely people in your life who have messages for you. Listen and love, listen and appreciate, listen and accept, listen and listen. Listen to all the clues, beloved. The universe has a lot to say to you.

Each person before you bears a gift.

In fairy tales, the first person you meet is the one you are to marry. This means to marry in understanding. And, so, if you meet the toad, accept the grace of understanding and do not be daunted. Be undaunted. Before the tale is over, the toad has become a prince. And you a princess.

From every encounter, come away with something. Not with disgruntlement. Come away with something you did not have before. Make this your intention.

Getting your way is not a good enough intention any more. Getting your own way is not worth much, beloveds. Come away with something more. Come away with greater comprehension of what you are to another, and what another is to you.

Consider that you each take two ends of a blanket you are folding, and as you come together in the folding, you meet. As you come together, you meet Me.

Someone is going to introduce you to Me today in a surprising way.

Greet everyone. Welcome everyone to your consciousness, and you will find out who is bringing Me to you. Be ready, beloveds. Be ready

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SUNDAYS WITH JOYCE

Necessity of Christ's Incarnation

Came as sacrifice to sin....Hebrews 10:8-14    Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein, which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right side of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Came to become our High Priest....Hebrews 5:1,2     For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity

Came to destroy works of devil....1 John 3:8     he that hath commiteth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Came to fulfill Davidic Covenant ....Luke 1:31-33     And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end

Came to give an example of living....1 Peter 2:21-23     For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us,leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:

Came to reveal God....John 1:18     No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him

 

INCARNATION

When the Holy One stepped from endless order
into the chaos of our days, it was winter.
Weather blew everywhere. Time itself was dying.
The squirrel, with a tail soft as breath,
curled inside the maple trunk.

The cold stayed. Five-fingered leaves pressed the ground,
their stems perpendicular, thin wrists above each flame-tipped palm.
Cataclysm scanned the days; like any future, like our own.
The Holy One took face and voice,

beginning with an infant cry,
took food and sleep, nestled in arms not unlike yours.

He listened to the dropping rain, watched it bead the naked twigs,
saw it polish stones and faces, stood once under this lift of sky
and still, in a word, understands.

~Author Unknown~

 

My heart bursts with joy and wonder
At that magnificus event
When our Father, with sinners in mind
Decreed His Son be sent

Yet with no reluctance whatever
The Word said "Father, I'll go;
To become a man a humbling thing,
But no other way, We know."

Such in mind, our Savior
Blessed sinners such indeed
Though beautiful Babe in Bethlehem
At Calvary He must bleed

That's why I've a song in my heart

~Unknown~