LET MY WORDS BE FEW

1. CHRIST IS HEAD OF THE CHURCH.  Nothing has changed.  God is still your Leader, follow Him.  Either you have followed a man, or you have followed Christ.  Choose this day whom you will serve, as for me and my house, we will follow the Lord Jesus. 
2. ACCEPT THE FACT THAT ANYONE CAN REJECT CHRIST AND THEN, MOVE ON  Just because a person carries a title of minister, pastor, teacher, etc,  doesn't mean they will remain faithful or committed.  Stop asking "Why?" Or "How could this happen?", and accept it. Denying the facts only delays your healing.  Anyone can choose to walk away at anytime.  No one is exempt.  Acceptance paves the way for forgiveness. 
3. FORGIVENESS BRINGS LIFE TO YOU.  You will have a tendency to want to hate or be angry.  All this does is put you in a position to painfully and vainly follow the one who betrayed you.  Through forgiveness, you release them to God for His righteous judgment and let go of your rights to be right.  Their sin, although causing many innocent ones pain, is still sin against God and God alone (Psalm 51).  God will not be mocked and as a man sows, so he will reap.  Vengeance is the Lord's, so lay down yours.  Those who have been forgiven much, love much.  
4. LOVE ANYWAY.  Remember Christ, He is your example.  There is nothing you have experienced that Jesus didn't experience.  There is no pain that He cannot sympathize with.  On the day He died for every sin, He saw this day would come into your life, and He paid the highest price.  You may be surprised, but He is not.  Jesus, as your example, was betrayed with a kiss by the closest of friends, for a few pieces of silver.  He was mocked, beaten, laughed at and publicly exposed.   But no matter what it physically and emotionally cost Him personally, he loved them anyway.  He laid down his life willingly.  No one took his life from him.  It was a gift.  Undeserved and trampled underfoot, but nevertheless, a gift of God's grace.  You will never be able to scrape together what it will take to forgive and love the one who betrayed you.  That love is heavenly minded and can only come from the Spirit within you.  When you release them into God's hands, you let yourself go free.  Forgiveness doesn't mean they get a "get out of jail free card"; it does means you do.  Unforgiveness and bitterness is the worst kind of prison.  As you forgive others so God forgives you.  Love covers a multitude of sin.  Love never fails.  
5. DON'T LOOK BACK; YOU AREN'T GOING THAT WAY.  Regret is not your friend.  Stop rehearsing the past and move forward.  God knows the plans he has for you: plans to bless and prosper you; plans to give you a future and a hope.  No one can thwart God's plans for your future.  He is an expert at making all things work together for your good because you love Him and you walk according to His ways.  He will withhold no good thing from those who love him and walk uprightly.  You will see the salvation of the Lord because His banner over you is love.  There is nothing too hard for the Lord.  Grieving may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.  There is a time to grieve and there is a time to put away grieving.  The joy of the Lord is your strength.  Have a confident expectation of something good to come.  God is not a man that He would lie.  He will never leave you or forsake you.  With men, this is impossible but with God, all things are possible.  Man will fail you.  Man will leave you.  Man will forsake you.  But God will remain faithful.  His love endures.  Your story is still being written.   God holds the pen.  Trust Christ. 

What's on my mind? I'm on a personal quest.  Here's somethings I'm learning.
1.  We tend to treat our homes better, the cars we drive, better and other people better than we treat our body GOD designed for His glory.  Our body is the only vehicle through which we can experience life and life experiences and is the only vehicle we will ever have to express what's in our soul and spirit.
2.  Science places a value of about 85 Billion Dollars on a human body. God says our bodies are the temple for His Holy Spirit to indwell.  I call that priceless.
3. There are some common beliefs/lies within many of us that says,
1. "Taking care of myself means I am selfish".
2. "If I spend time taking care of me, that will somehow take away from those I love, or cause them pain".
3.  "If I take care of everyone else first, there will still be left over energy to care for myself".
4. "My physical value to God is inferior to others value to God".

The Truth is:
1.  I am not selfish for taking care of me.  The most important thing I can to for God is to love and take care of myself. A healthy mind and body gives me more strength to minister to others.
2.  Spending time wisely taking care of myself is not going to diminish another person's well-being or take away from them in any way.  It will not cause them unnecessary pain.
3. If I take care of everyone else's needs first, there will never be any energy left over to care for me.
4. My physical value to God is just as priceless as everyone else's in my world.  God does not birth "step-children".

Something to Ponder:
How much more time will I let evaporate before I recognize that this life, in this body, is the only one I will ever be given, on this earth, for God's ultimate glory?
My days are ultimately numbered, and the greatest gift I can give to God and my family is to live each moment, consciously making valuable deposits into my physical, spiritual and mental well-being.  Today is the day that counts.  Tomorrow is never promised.
Commitment:
Begin to "tithe" 10% of each waking day into my own well-being.

What's on my mind? I'm on a personal quest.  Here's somethings I'm learning.
1.  We tend to treat our homes better, the cars we drive, better and other people better than we treat our body GOD designed for His glory.  Our body is the only vehicle through which we can experience life and life experiences and is the only vehicle we will ever have to express what's in our soul and spirit.
2.  Science places a value of about 85 Billion Dollars on a human body. God says our bodies are the temple for His Holy Spirit to indwell.  I call that priceless.
3. There are some common beliefs/lies within many of us that says,
1. "Taking care of myself means I am selfish".
2. "If I spend time taking care of me, that will somehow take away from those I love, or cause them pain".
3.  "If I take care of everyone else first, there will still be left over energy to care for myself".
4. "My physical value to God is inferior to others value to God".

The Truth is:
1.  I am not selfish for taking care of me.  The most important thing I can to for God is to love and take care of myself. A healthy mind and body gives me more strength to minister to others.
2.  Spending time wisely taking care of myself is not going to diminish another person's well-being or take away from them in any way.  It will not cause them unnecessary pain.
3. If I take care of everyone else's needs first, there will never be any energy left over to care for me.
4. My physical value to God is just as priceless as everyone else's in my world.  God does not birth "step-children".

When the usher noticed a man stretched across three seats in the movie theater, he walked over and whispered "Sorry sir, but you are allowed only one seat." The man moaned but didn't budge. "Sir," the usher said more loudly, "if you don't move, I'll have to call the manager." The man moaned again but stayed where he was. The usher left and returned with the manager, who, after several attempts at dislodging the fellow, called the police. The cop looked at the reclining man and said, "All right, what's your name, joker?" "Joe", he mumbled. "And where are you from, Joe?" Joe responds painfully, "The balcony!"
Things aren't always as they appear. Have you ever been misjudged by appearances? I have.  You can be doing everything right and honorably and someone will walk onto the scene in the middle or end of your "This is My Life episode" and view it from their incomplete perspective.  Sometimes I feel like my 6 Word Memoir would be called, "A Cross-Stitched Life Viewed From The Underside".  Don't you sometimes feel the same way? Like all the public can see is all the knots and mistakes, but rarely the tapestry God is stitching together for good?   Probably my favorite love quote is from 1st Corinthians: "Love always believes the best". Today, you and I will have several opportunities to judge a scene and the actors in it.   Just remember, we don't know the whole story.  We only know a part.  And the part we know is just a short clip from the entire movie.
I'm praying over you right now that you will keep a discerning spirit about you and use wisdom as you speak into and about others lives; think the best, not the worst, about every person today.  You never know - you may be able to rescue someone who has just "fallen from the balcony".
Love Never Fails, Leeanna Trosclair Porter

Forgiveness does not mean you can have hope that one day all the past will be gone or that the terrible thing done to you will never have happened.  That's Hollywood, not reality.  It happened.  That's a fact that cannot be undone no matter how much time passes you by.  Bitterness and unforgiveness don't have the power to change your past painful experiences for the better.  Forgiveness is realizing that God alone earned the right to blot out sin and change your future.  Lay down your right to be right.  What good purpose does that serve you or anyone you love? Instead of saying, "I can't forgive him", say the truth instead: "I choose to be bitter. I choose to remain unforgiven for my own sin".  Why would I choose to do that?  Because I believe the lie that holding unforgiveness somehow only hurts my offender and not me.  I am self deceived.   Put out of your life all these things: bad feelings about other people, anger, temper, loud talk, bad talk which hurts other people, and bad feelings which hurt other people. You must be kind to each other. Think of the other person. Forgive other people just as God forgave you because of Christ’s death on the cross. Your heavenly Father will forgive you if you forgive those who sin against you; but if you refuse to forgive them, he will not forgive you. Unforgiveness won't determine their future with Christ but it will determine yours.  JESUS said our Father will forgive us "just as" we have forgiven others.  The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even when we have rebelled against him.  He is faithful and just to forgive us when we sin.  Confess your sin of unforgiveness and he will forgive you and remember your sin no more.
(Eph 4:31-32; Matt 6:13-15)
I'm praying for you right now and I hear God singing over you His songs of deliverance.
❤️Love Never FAILS, Leeanna Trosclair Porter

I often think how undeserving I am of the precious blood of Jesus. I think of the woman caught in adultery and how every person encircling her had a stone in his hand ready to condemn her...except Jesus: "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone", He said. They all dropped their weapon and walked away- beginning with the oldest to the youngest. The longer I live the more aware I am of how much Jesus paid on the cross for me:  More than i deserve.  The truth is, He died for me over 2000 years before I committed even one of
the sins credited to my account.  He wrote my name in the Lamb's Book of Life, before the foundation of the earth. He knew all I would ever do to offend God and how many times I would ask
Him to forgive me. He knew it all and yet still chose me.  And then, he chose to keep his nail-scarred hands along with his perfect, resurrected body, so He would remember what
he did for me, on the cross, on the very day I would ask him forgiveness, for the 490th time.  He would look at his hands and remember and say, "I have engraved you on the palms of my hands, how could I ever forget about you?"  And, "Though your mother and father might forsake you, I Will never forsake you". Why? Because my debt was
PAID in full and it was not dependent on my works or my good behaviour or my trying harder but based solely on God's Grace and the work Jesus did alone on that cross.  For I was dead in my trespasses and sins and it pleased Him to raise me up from the dead and put His life in me.  If I could be good enough to earn his forgiveness, then I could brag.  But in God's economy, only He gets to brag. For salvation is not by works, lest anyone should boast.  One day there will be many who will say, Lord, Lord, I did this and that
In your name! And He will say depart from Me for I NEVER knew you. Who did He never know?  The one who tried to make it to the Father based on their own good works and merit and not totally in the work of Christ alone.  Yes, I'm humbled at the scope and length and width and breath and depth of his love.  Nothing I have can compare with Him.

I just heard a good teaching and wanted to share the parts I believe apply to those who have been called to work Plexus as a business.  When I first began taking Plexus I said I would never "work" this as a business.  I had no heart for it nor was I looking for a job.  I was already investing 30-50 hours a week in Breakthrough Ministries, teaching and writing Bible studies, discipling women and investing in my marriage, children and grandchildren.  I had no margin in my schedule for a "real job".  Well, as I have learned through hard knocks in this walk with God, never tell God you won't do something.  When Brandy asked me, "Leeanna, didn't you say Plexus was an answer to your prayers? What if Plexus is an answer to your friends prayers too?  Wouldn't you want to share it if so?"   So the answer was, "Yes".  I began to share with my FB friends and with my friends in person and all over the USA.  Guess what happened?  All of a sudden I realized I had a "real job"!  In fact, I very timidly told my husband "I am SO sorry, but I think I have a business and I didn't mean for it to happen!"   He laughed!  And eventually with the downturn in the oil and gas economy, he began to tell me with a smile, "Work it, Baby!"  
By God's grace, He's given me a passion for this "work".  I now have a team of
Hundreds, an amazing full time income and still have been able to invest 30-50 hours a week in ministry!
This brings me to the teaching I heard today that made me think of
you!  Faith Works.  God will give us an idea, a direction, a warning, an opportunity BUT He will never work that idea FOR us.  He will work within us and He will inspire us but He will never do the work FOR us.  It's our job to work out that idea.  Faith without works is dead or useless or unfruitful.  Just like when Noah built the Ark.  God told Noah to build the Ark.  God did not build the Ark FOR Noah.  Noah built as the people around him laughed and mocked him.  For about 100 years, Noah built as people mocked.  They had never seen a drop of rain so they didn't understand his "foolishness" in building a place of future refuge.  Have you been falsely seen as a fool?  What has God given YOU the faith to build?  Stop asking GOD to build it for you!  He has given you the faith and the tools and the grace to build it, but
please don't expect Him to do it for you.   If God gave you the inspiration, then He has also given you everything you need to finish the work.  Are people mocking you as you build? You will not be put to shame!   Keep building.  Keep working.  God is going to send the "rain".  One day you will look back and see the safety God created for you and your family because you didn't give up and you didn't give in to peer pressure or naysayers or mockers.  Keep you eyes on Christ.  Keep your eyes on the prize!  Build what God has told you to build and stop listening to those who don't understand and who don't follow you.  Stop looking to the right or the left and run your own race.  Noah survived the flood with only his wife, three sons and their wives.  That's it.  The rest who mocked and ignored Noah's faith and work and preaching,
perished.  Stay focused.  Build your "Ark".   Be blessed!   I am cheering you on! Love Never Fails, Leeanna.