the Puzzle

Life has many pieces the question is how and where do they all fit?

Many years ago I was thinking about puzzles and how time consuming, fulfilling and frustratting they are to put together. I also found it amazing the comparison of our lives to a "puzzle."

• the box

The box represents so many things. First of all it represents how the picture is supposed to look. On the very front of the box is a picture of what the puzzle is supposed to look like after it is completed. I mean don't we all have a "what it's suppose to look like picture" of our life or maybe at least some scenario of our life. If not, you can rest assured others do. The box is also what contains the pieces. I mean the box contains what it takes to make the picture and complete the puzzle. But sometimes the pieces just don't fit. Sometimes it just doesn't make sense. Sometimes you wonder if one is missing. You question did they miss cut one of the pieces. When this frustration happens is when you start to force the pieces and try to make it fit yourself. Make it work. Trying to put pieces where they weren't meant to be by forcing the pieces and bending the corners while ruining the picture. If you would have only been patient and waited the picture would have been clearer and smoother laying flatter and fitting together so much better. But nonetheless the picture is clear and the pieces all fit somehow? - "It amazes me the comparison of our lives to a puzzle"...

• the pieces

The pieces vary in size and quantity. Some puzzles have just a few pieces while other puzzles have literally thousands of pieces. Some of the pieces are small and some of the pieces are larger. Some pieces have an obvious shape and fit while other pieces don't seem to fit at all. The pieces all have signifigance. There are some pieces that give meaning to the puzzle. They are the pieces that are flat and straght on one edge. These are the border pieces. These are the pieces that all the other pieces have to fit within. We all need boundaries. We all have to have those borders that support and edge all the areas and pieces of life even those odd shaped small pieces that don't make since and at times don't seem to fit. The pieces that don't seem to fit anywhere are the pieces that we leave on the outside until we get enough pieces of the picture together and then all of a sudden it becomes clear that it fit too. They help make the picture complete. All the pieces are significant. - 'It amazes me the comparison of our lives to a puzzle"...

• the age appropriateness

The age appropriateness is interesting too. A child's puzzle has just a few big pieces, while an adult puzzle can have several thousand tiny pieces. A child's puzzle is pretty simple. It usully even has a board to lay the pieces on inside a border that is already painted on the board where you lay the few big pieces. The picture is pretty clear and can ususally be put together with in minutes. An adult puzzle on the other hand has no border and no backboard to start with. You just dump the pieces out and start trying to make sense of where they all may go to complete the puzzle and reveal the picture. It's amazing because it can take several adults, several hours, days, and even weeks to put together a complex puzzle. Let's not forget there are also complex 3D puzzles. And they have to be able to stand alone. There are puzzles that range from 1D to 3D. Several pieces to few pieces. There are puzzles with backboard and painted borders to no backboard or painted border. Just like life it seems the more complex things are the more pieces there are to try and fit together. - "It amazes me the comparison of our lives to a puzzle"...

• the picture

The picture is where it all begins. The picture was before the pieces ever exsisted. The pieces were cut out of the picture to be reconnected to one another so that the picture could be seen again. We are taking the pieces and trying to recreate the original picture or scene. We use the picture as our guide. When we have trouble finding out where the pieces fit we look at the picture. You get the picture, don't you? (no pun inteneded) The Bible tells us, "we are His creation, His wormanship created beforehand for good works." It says, "that He created us in His own image." It says, "He knew us before we were." We go through the frustrations of trying to fit the pieces together and create the picture we want. Or to create the picture we have in our minds of how it is supposed to be. Or to put the pieces where and how others are trying to tell us how and where they think they should go or fit together. We must look at the picture. When we see the "BIG" picture we see how the pieces are supposed to fit. Look to the author and finisher the "originator" of the "picture." When you look at the picture it gives you the reality that all the pieces do fit together and they create something that is whole and complete. The picture is just pieces that have been patiently and properly put together to create what was cut apart to be put back together again. The pieces all fit. They are all sinificant in creating the picture. - "It amazes me the comparison of our lives to a puzzle"...

• the originator

The originator is the one who saw the picture and made the puzzle. The picture had to be seen, painted, created, or taken by someone. Then someone saw the picture the way it was before the pieces were ever cut out to recreate it. The picture was taken or painted as one piece on one canvas. Then the puzzle cutter cut the pictures into pieces to be put back together by you, me or someone. Putting puzzles together is both fulfilling and frustating. It is fulfilling when the pieces all fit and make sense but it is frustrating when the pieces don't fit and seem misplaced. God is the originator. He saw your life picture before anyone else did. He sees the beginning from the end. He sees where the pieces fit. He saw the picture of your life and mine before it began. Take the pieces out of the box. Put the pieces on the table. Take your hands off and allow Him to put the pieces together. Allow Him to place the pieces where they belong. Step back. Take a look. See the pieces? See the picture? See His hands? Feel the peace? It all makes sense now doesn't it? That's where that piece fit. That's what the picture is supposed to look like. That's what fulfillment and peace feel like. - "It amazes me the comparison of our lives to a puzzle"...

robert alan collins

http://www.robertalancollins.com/

“Gratitude” – an Attitude of Thanksgiving.

I believe Gratitude is an attitude of gratefulness that is based on being thankful. I also believe we will never truly be grateful until we are first thankful. The Bible says in I Thessalonians, “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” If we look long and hard enough we will find something we can be thankful for. It doesn't matter how good or how bad it is, how little or how much we have, we can find something to be thankful for. In Matthew 14 we read a story of a little lad who had a small lunch; He had two fish and five small loaves of bread. There was a hungry crowd of five thousand there that day. The disciples brought the little lad's lunch to Jesus because that was all the food they could find in the crowd that day. When they brought what they had to Jesus the passage tells us that "He looked up and Blessed it..." Take note He didn't look down, He looked up, He didn't curse He blessed. The word Bless is the Greek word - eulogeo: which means "to bless", "to be thankful for” and “to speak well of.” It is the word that we derive our English word Eulogy. We can learn so much from this little verse (19) of Matthew chapter 14:

WE CAN LEARN FROM WHAT JESUS DID.

1. He looked up... He didn't look down. He didn't look at what He lacked. He didn't look at others disbelief. He looked UP and He Blessed it. He was thankful for, and spoke well of what He had.

When Jesus received the bread He didn't say, "is that all you have?" He didn't say, "you have got to be kidding me." He didn't even sarcastically say, "this will make a nice snack...for me." He received it, looked up and blessed it. Jesus knew that what He was willing to be thankful for and speak well of, God was willing to bless and multiply. We serve a God of more than enough. Don't underestimate anything, remember, "little is much if God is in it!"

2. He thanked God for what He had... not what He needed. Jesus didn't say, I need 7,237 fish sandwiches; 4,213 on white, the rest on rye. He just received, looked up and blessed what He had been given. God knew what He needed and He multiplied what Jesus lifted up and blessed.

Jesus thanked God for what He had although it was not enough. He needed enough to feed five thousand people, but He had two fish and five small loaves. God knows what we need, maybe He is waiting for us to thankful for what we have before He gives us what we need. When we begin to look up and bless what we already have God will begin to multiply the things in our lives.

3. He took what He had and He “blessed it.” To bless means "to bless", "to be thankful for" and "to speak well of." Jesus didn't look down at it, He looked up with it. He didn't curse it, He blessed it. He didn't speak bad of it, He spoke well of it.

What if we would start looking up instead of looking down? What if we started blessing and stopped cursing? What if we started speaking well of those things in our life instead of speaking bad of those things in our life. Things like our God, our self, our family, our finances, our health, our relationships, our home, our job, our mind, our possessions, our attitudes, the Church, our past, our present and our future.We should be thankful for what we have before it is gone. We should be thankful for what we have even if it is not what we want. We should be thankful for what we have because it was given by God.

We should do like Jesus did. We should Look Up, Be Thankful and Speak Well Of those things we look at as being insignificant or menial. Remember little is much if God is in it and "Gratitude" is an attitude of thanksgiving.

Begin today developing an attitude of thanksgiving... 1. Look up Don't look Down, 2. Thank God for what you have, 3. Take what you have and bless it, that is, Be thankful for it, and Speak well of it.

Robisms | Author: Rob Collins

Robisms Author: Rob Collins

Who He Is – He is I am!
Isaiah 45:22 / Isaiah 46:9 *(Acts 4:24)
“We are talking about how it should be – who it should be –why it should be… we are talking about when it should be – how it could be and where it should be… we are talking about everything but Him! Who He is – He is I am – He is the Lord God who created all things and knows everything! We are talking about the wrong things! We need to talk about who He is. He is God”!

1. He is Unchanging
2. He is All Powerful
3. He is All Knowing
4. He is Everything
5. He is Everywhere
6. He is Everlasting
7. He is Holy
8. He is Just
9. He is Love
10. He is Kindness
11. He is Mercy
12. He is Grace
13. He is Salvation
14. He is Healing
15. He is Strength
16. He is Comfort
17. He is a Refuge
18. He is Peace
19. He is Hope
20. He is the Word
21. He is Life
22. He is Victory
23. He is Faithful
24. He is More than Enough
25. He is the Beginning and End and Everything in Between
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Obeying the Commandments of God
Duet. 4:1-9 / Duet. 6:1-9



I. What are the 10 Commandments?


I am the Lord thy God...

1. Thou shall have no other gods before me.

2. Thou shall not make unto thee any graven images.

3. Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

5. Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long.

6. Thou shall not kill.

7. Thou shall not commit adultery.
8. Thou shall not steal.

9. Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
10. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house.


II. What happens when we obey the commands of the lord?

1. We honor God.
2. We gain God’s favor.
3. We live in peace & wholeness.
4. We put ourselves in position to be blessed.
5. We benefit and everyone & everything is blessed.
6. We possess the Land.
7. We experience “Generational Blessings”.

III. Why don’t we possess the land and experience the “Blessings”?

1. People Don’t love God with all their heart, soul and mind…
2. People Don’t obey God’s commands.
3. People Don’t pray – repent and seek.
*Here’s what will happen if we do: Isaiah 48:17-18 / Duet. 28:1-14
* Here’s what we have to do: II Chronicles 7:14
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The Success of Failure For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. Prov 24:16

*“Failure is the tuition we pay for success” Walter Brunell
*“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly” Robert F. Kennedy
*“Can you imagine when learning to walk if we said well that’s that, I gave that a try”
*”Those who succeed greatly aren’t afraid to fail”
*One of the greatest basketball players of all time said, “I have missed over nine thousand shots in my career. I’ve lost almost three hundred games. Twenty six times I was trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I have failed over and over and over. And that’s why I succeed!” Michael Jordan
*”Sampson failed in life, but yet conquered more in his death than in all his life”
*Peter exemplifies the “fail often” principle of life. We can all relate to Peter because he had great intentions but often messed up in dramatic fashion: (1) he offered advice to Jesus on how He shouldn’t give up his life and Jesus called him Satan? (2) Another time he hopped out of the boat and walked on water before losing focus and faith, then sank like a ‘rock’. (3) There was the time we he bravely defended Jesus and cut off the guy’s ear. (4) Then Peter failed the mother of all failures when he denied Jesus three times. The full impact of these lessons didn’t fully sink in until after the resurrection when Jesus forgave and restored Peter to the position of CEO of what would become the church as we know it! That’s not the way we reward failure, but God is different. Peter’s life consisted of trying, failing, learning, adjusting and trying again. His “failing forward” is probably what contributed to God’s decision to choose Peter as guest speaker on the “Day of Pentecost.” Peter failed greatly he learned from his mistakes and tried again. Then he preached and led three thousand people to Christ and helped birth the Church!
* What Jesus did with his life and ministry was probably viewed as failing, until the RESSURECTION!
7 Things That Will Help Us See Success in Failure:
1. We must turn our fear to faith.
2. We must create a culture that allows failures
3. We must learn to “Fail Forward” [learn what worked and didn’t work and go forward]
4. We must realize what appears to be a “bad deal” could turn out to be a “blessing.”
5. We must believe the greatest way to succeed is to try again.
6. We must realize failure is an event, not a person.
7। We must understand that everything bad that happens is not always the devil.
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Identity Theft – Identity Crisis
Matthew 16:13-19
*The disciples were listening to the people’s voice - Peter was listening to God’s voice
Society and popular would say are identity is found in:
1. By What we do.
2. By What we have.
3. By What we achieve.
4. By What others expectations are.
Societal Identity is found through Comparisons - True Identity is found in Christ!
Here’s how – through realizing:
1. He loves you – yet he knows you.
2. He sees who you are – but knows who and what you can become.
3. He has expectations for you but his love is unconditional.
How can we begin to take our true identity back?

1. By striving to become disciples and follow Christ.
2. By living to influence others for Christ instead of them influencing you.
3. By becoming satisfied from obeying God.
4. By Separating your identity from what you have, do and achieve.
5. By striving for God’s approval and not man’s.
6. By focusing on personal spiritual growth.
7. By understanding that everything belongs to God.
8. By prioritizing prayer and the Word.
9. By loving and appreciating who you are, what you have and where you are.
10. By making Jesus your best friend!

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