The QUESTION????

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the “yesterdays” of life, but what is God doing in your heart today? Is your relationship with the Lord stagnate? Have you heard from Him today? What did He tell you? Where is He leading you?

DO YOU TRUST HIM?

Life is FULL of questions, but it is amazing to find that the answer to many of these questions are found in the question itself. God never calls us to something because we are able to accomplish it; He calls us to the impossible. If God is asking you to do something that you think you can handle or accomplish, God is most likely not the One doing the calling. You see, it is not in our ability that God can use us, it is in our inability. There is an amazing peace, joy and comfort that comes when we realize this simple but profound truth…but the question is how does this all work!?

A verse that the Lord has had me meditating on over and over again gives a stunning answer to so many of our perplexing questions in life, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) In every question there is usually an underlying question, “How can I get this done?” God’s intention is not to make a better ME; God’s purpose in ALL things is to magnify His Son who was selfless.

In Watcman Nee’s book called “The Normal Christian Life”, he makes this incredibly inspired statement that echoes this thought, “In all his (God’s) dealings with us he works by taking us out of the way and substituting Christ in our place.” Oh that I would come to realize that it is not about the dead Nate Paine and his dead abilities, but it IS about the resurrected Jesus Christ and Him with LIVING POWER!!!  I heard one very wise person state something to this affect, “Those who prepare to die learn how to live, and those who hold on to life have nothing to live for.”; is this true in your life?

Are WE so concerned about OUR question getting answered that WE completely inhibit God from answering it?

So here is the real question that might just help to answer all of our questions, “Am I standing in the way of GOD answering me? “ If God is the Answer, what is our question? If God is the Solution, what is our problem?

“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”

John 15:7-8

"Yesterday"

"You shall not go out with haste,…for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard." 

Isaiah 52:12

"Security from Yesterday. “…God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.

Security for Tomorrow. “…the Lord will go before you….” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.

Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste….” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him."

(Copied from Oswald Chambers December 31^st Devotional in My Utmost for His Highest.)     

This morning as I read this, I could not help but think on all that has transpired over this last year. I truly have to stop and thank the Lord that He IS the beginning and ending of ALL and that I can trust Him. He is faithful to complete that which He has begun; we need only to rest in this fact.

So as this year closes out and a new one approaches, the words of King David the Psalmist echo in my mind,

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.”

~ Psalm 23 ~

It is the most amazing thing to know that we (the Body of Christ) are in Christ; therefore we do not need to fear ANYTHING. Whether there are past failures, current struggles or possible future battles, if we are in Christ and Christ is within us, there is nothing to fear for He is the past, the present and the future. Oh what an AWESOME God we serve Who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly ABOVE what we could ever ask or think! Praise the Lord!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

CHRISTmas is around the corner...

I am so proud of my sister-in-law Erin Bates (Paine) who just finished her third music CD!!! Congrats Erin!!! Love you all!

(See more details on Chad and Erin Paine's website: 

http://chadsperspective.blogspot.com/2015/11/comfort-joy.html )

I am thankful...

…for FAMILY!

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”

Psalm 133:1

I cannot express the gratitude that I have in my heart to God for my family. They are invaluable to me and a treasure which I will ALWAYS cherish.

In many ways, while being away from my family has been one of the hardest challenges that I have experienced in moving to Florida, it has been one of the best things that I have experienced. Why? I have found that it is when something has been taken from you that you come to find its true value. I can quickly take for granted what I always have available to me and therefore underestimate its worth.

As I spent time with the family over Thanksgiving, I was AMAZED at how much unity and love there was that drew us all together. For one, most commonly in family circles it is a feat alone just to get everyone together for family reunions, but it is a whole other thing to keep them together without constantly bickering and fighting with one another. As I thought about this over the past weekend, it dawned on me why our family was so unified…

You see, Jesus Christ was the central theme of our family reunion. It was His Spirit that drew us together and it is His Spirit that keeps us together. There is no such thing as unity without CHRIST! Christ is the central part that brings all things together to represent Himself and His awesome nature.

So in short, I am not only thankful for my family but also for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who made it possible for me to enjoy my family and to fellowship with them in a harmony that reflects Him and His Heavenly Father!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Here are some pictures of the fall season and time with family. As you look at them, REMEMBER HIS FAITHFULNESS…

Thanksgiving with Family...

The Fading of Summer...

Ok, so I don’t really know where the summer went!!! God has been doing so much and it is hard to keep track of it all. It seems that daily I am coming to know God in a deeper way and am able to witness His blessings at so many different levels and in so many different people’s lives…GOD IS SO GOOD!

So yes, I am still doing prison ministry in the state of Florida. God has been teaching me so much over the last several months. It seems like once I get what He is trying to teach me, He moves me on to another area of my life that needs work. I honestly wonder at times why God has me ministering to others when I have so many problems and short comings of my own…God is SO merciful to me!

I can definitely say the last several months have been by far the most challenging, but at the same time the most rewarding. I have been finding that the greater the trial or test, the more of an opportunity I am given to experience a level of God’s grace I have never known. This fills me with joy and excitement, knowing that no matter the situation I face,  I have an opportunity from God right before me to intimately know Him in a way that I have never before.

 When God takes you to a deeper level in your walk with Him, it seems as though you start all over again. But if you take a closer look, you will find that the truth is actually quite the opposite. With every time that you “start over”, the “basics” of Christianity (trusting in the Lord, waiting upon Him, having faith, abiding and meditating in the Word, prayer etc.) become more and more the core of who you are and they eventually determine the way you handle everything in life, no matter how great or small it is. We must never get away from these simple but foundational truths which KEEP a relationship with the Lord growing.

So as the summer comes to a close and autumn moves on to the horizon, my prayer is that I would decrease and that Christ would increase. It’s not how much I can get done for God that counts, that is secondary. God desires that I at all times fully surrender my all to Him that He may be ALL in and through me. Yes, this is easier said than done, but it is the only way that God will be able to accomplish His perfect will in me… “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27b).

Here are some pictures from the summer…

God's AWESOME Creation..

Summer FUN... :)

Time with Family and Friends...

Carson and Me!!!

Joey

Johnny

Grandpa and Grandma Toedt and I

Brandon Keilen's Wedding

!FLORIDA!