{"id":1413,"date":"2017-08-31T10:00:12","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T15:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/?p=1413"},"modified":"2017-08-31T10:00:12","modified_gmt":"2017-08-31T15:00:12","slug":"could-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/31\/could-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Could You"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do you view your life?<\/h5>\n
Is your life exciting with new adventures coming to you each and every day? Are you so excited about your life that you can\u2019t wait to rise in the morning to see what new things you will encounter?<\/h5>\n
Or is your life ho-hum. Same ole thing day-in and day-out? Are you just starting out, or are you\u00a0merely ending up?<\/h5>\n
If you could tell me in one sentence about your life,\u00a0what would you say?<\/h5>\n
When I was a little girl life was different. I\u2019m not going to tell you all about it but after sixty-three years, I can tell you there have been major changes to my world.<\/h5>\n
Looking back, imagine how the world has changed in 80,\u00a090,\u00a0100 years. Now think about 2000 years ago, and how\u00a0it has changed.<\/h5>\n
It\u2019s mind boggling.<\/h5>\n
From chariots with horses, to Maserati\u2019s and F-22 Raptor\u2019s, a really awesome plane\u2026<\/h5>\n
From thank you, your welcome, and please<\/em>, to, get out of face\u00a0and ugly\u00a0four letter words<\/em>, to,\u00a0well, you know what I’m talking about. Scroll down most threads on Facebook, watch the media,\u00a0and you\u00a0will see\u00a0the moral decline in our society and the lack of respect towards people\u2026it\u2019s sad really. When faith in God is replaced with \u2018self\u2019 as god\u2026it is the downfall of mankind.<\/h5>\n
If the Lord tarries, think what another ten, twenty, or a hundred years\u00a0will look like\u2026.Now that, is mind boggling\u2026.It would be interesting to be around to see what the world will be like in a hundred years\u2026<\/h5>\n
If you are a Child of Jesus, the King of Glory\u2026and Jesus has returned and set up the New Jerusalem here on earth, you very well could be around then\u2026just say\u2019n\u2026(I know there are many opinions regarding this.)<\/h5>\n
The thing is, what does your life look like right now?<\/h5>\n
I’ve been pondering about this lately…<\/h5>\n
Like peace\u2026does anyone have true peace<\/em> in their lives right now?<\/h5>\n
Do you have real love, real joy? Do you believe these are even possible anymore?<\/h5>\n
Is your life totally out of control? Do you think to yourself that there is no love, no\u00a0peace, no joy, nothing to be happy about or look forward to\u2026? Are you numb, comatose, and without a\u00a0purpose…? Do you wear the play actor’s face…the smile that hides the hurt and pain, so that\u00a0no one sees what your life is really like?<\/h5>\n
Yes even “Christians.”<\/h5>\n
You know? I\u2019ve read history and I\u2019ve read the Bible and it describes the early Christians as full of\u00a0love,\u00a0joy and peace. They helped one another, loved each other and prayed continuously\u2026but you know what\u2026on the outside their lives were far from peaceful\u2026they were killed for their faith\u2026flogged and tortured for preaching in public\u2026but this did not stop them from living their lives in peace, it did not stop them from proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord. They loved their enemies and prayed for them.<\/h5>\n
They sang when imprisoned\u2026they prayed when set on fire\u2026they said, \u201cFather forgive them,\u201d when they were crucified and they rejoiced in persecutions\u2026they walked for miles on dusty roads, just to share their faith with non-believers and tell them about Jesus and Him Crucified\u2026let me ask you this, could we as \u201cModern American Christians\u201d endure such hardships if we were arrested, beaten, thrown in jail for our faith, and convicted, then sentenced to death. Would our faith stand up in that kind of persecution? Or would we deny knowing Jesus. Would we look the other way and say, “that doesn’t concern me.”<\/em><\/h5>\n
You are probably\u00a0thinking that couldn\u2019t happen in America, right? Maybe, but history tells a different story. I\u2019m not trying to scare anyone or talk gloom and doom\u2026but let\u2019s just say the Bible is true and what it says, has and will come to pass\u2026have you read the book?<\/h5>\n
For those Christians who are simply card-carrying members, but don\u2019t live their faith\u2026those who show up in church on holidays and special events only as a duty\u2026those who simply know God as a fair-weather-friend\u2026let me tell you something\u2026God loves you, he has never given up on you and he is calling you to come deeper<\/em><\/strong>\u2026He\u2019s calling you to get serious and to search your heart and give Him one hundred percent of your heart and mind, to love him as much as he loves you, that\u2019s a lot\u2026Because trials will come, persecutions are already here, He wants you to be ready, so that when those trials come, when those persecutions come, you will be able to stand and say with all your heart, I am a child of Jesus Christ.<\/h5>\n
You may think, why would anyone want to do that?<\/em> I’ll tell you. Because the life you have with Jesus is real. There is\u00a0a peace the world does not have and cannot give.\u00a0His love goes beyond anything you could think\u00a0or imagine. His joy lasts it is not fleeting.\u00a0And it is not only in this life but when the body dies…the soul lives on with Him in that same condition. It’s\u00a0a love that doesn’t grow stale, a love that gives without restraint. His love endures all things and hopes all things and it overcomes hate and death. It is a love to die for, to live for. Because He is Love, and His love satisfies! Praise the Lord Jesus Christ!<\/h6>\n
Then he said to them all: <\/em>\u201cWhoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.<\/em> For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Luke 9:23-26<\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n
There is no greater love than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13<\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n
~Marla Shaw O’Neill August 31, 2017<\/h5>\n
Let’s pray:<\/em><\/h5>\n
Lord Jesus save me give me your love, joy and peace. Let me walk in your grace and mercy. Let me be an example of you to everyone I meet. Let my life be lived to glorify you and if the world survives let my legacy live on to the future generations that in a hundred years from now there will be a trail of souls that said yes to you because I loved you and served you and\u00a0passed you on to others that became thousands of souls, because I chose to love you now. Amen!<\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you view your life? Is your life exciting with new adventures coming to you each and every day? Are you so excited about your life that you can\u2019t wait to rise in the morning to see what new things you will encounter? Or is your life ho-hum. Same ole thing day-in and day-out?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8aPxH-mN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1415,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413\/revisions\/1415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}