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Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth

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  How can a young person maintain a pure life? By guarding it according to your instructions! With all my heart I seek you. Do not allow me to stray from your commands! In my heart I store up your words, so I might not sin against you.   Psalm 119:9-11  How do we Abide in Christ and live a godly life that bears His fruit? By living out what we learn in His Word. It seems like such a simple question with such a simple answer, and yet, none of it is simple! The advice the psalmist gives here is to a young person. While it is important, critical even, for young people to begin their life this way, establishing good patterns that become grooves of good habits in their mind, it’s just as important for old folks like me! In fact, if I remember correctly, I first encountered these verses as a young person and took them to heart, beginning to study and memorize God’s Word. Now it’s not as much of a struggle to make it a part of my day because that pattern, that expectation, is...
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The Truth Shall Set You Free

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Then Jesus said to those Judeans who had believed him, ‘If you continue to follow my teaching, you are really my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’  John 8:31-32  In the days that Jesus walked the earth, slavery was a known institution. People could see it clearly around them every day. You looked at someone and knew they were a slave. You never wanted to be a slave. There was an "us" and a "them." Many, if not most, people in the world today are either unaware or less aware of slavery, but it is no less prevalent. In fact, according to recent estimates, there are nearly 50 million people living in slavery in our world today! If you look at the top 10 countries in the world by population of slaves, you might be shocked to find the United States among them. Isn't slavery illegal here? Yes, but so is murder, and yet it still happens.   Most of us don't know any slaves personally, and yet we are still a part of the cycl...
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Six Ways to Save with Capital One Shopping

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  Shopping is more fun when you do it with someone. When I was a teenager, we used to go to the mall. Yes, in person, shocking I know! We'd hang out, get a pretzel in the food court, wander aimlessly through stores and never buy anything. And it was fun! These days I do 90+% of my shopping online, even for groceries. And you know what, my friends just haven't hit me up for a zoom call to shop together. I'm not sure why! Not gonna lie, I have considered livestreaming my Prime Day shopping, but I'm just not sure who would watch 🤪. So, I settle for talking about it on my blog here at Salty Zebra. Sometimes I talk about it at Bible study too and I get the biggest kick when my friend pulls out her journal to take notes!   One of the things I have enjoyed in the vacuum of shopping without friends is my AI friends filling in the gap. No, they don't share what's going on with their families or pray with me, but there is kibitzing! Yep, I had to look up the word " ...
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Lost in the Wilderness

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  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.   John 15:7-8  Do you ever have thoughts, doubts, even fears that you’re afraid to voice, even to God? Are you ashamed of them or worried that they will make it seem like you don’t believe, or you don’t have faith? I do. And today I am not going to let them win. Today, I am going to step out into my doubt with faith. That seems a little confusing, doesn’t it? But let me paint a word picture for you.   I’m standing, in my mind, on the edge of a dark forest. Outside of the forest there is sunshine and warm breezes, but inside the forest the canopy of trees blocks the light out until you can hardly see at all. I’m standing on a clearly marked path that I’ve been following for some time, but at the edge of the forest the path seems to dissipate into overgrowth and brambles. I ca...
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The Fruit of the Spirit's Not a Coconut!

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  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Galatians 5:22-23 The fruit of the Spirit’s not a coconut The fruit of the Spirit’s not a coconut If you wanna be a coconut you might as well hear it – You can’t be a fruit of the Spirit!  My kid grew up in AWANA and I can’t study the fruit of the Spirit without getting this song stuck in my head! From the beginning of my walk with Jesus, I’ve heard about the fruit of the Spirit. For a long time, I felt stress and pressure when I heard about it because I knew I didn’t measure up, no matter how hard I tried. Thankfully, God granted me freedom from that, and I’d love to share it with you today too! LMK in the comments if you get this one 😂  You see, while it is good to be more loving, kind and patient, these are not things that we can “will” ourselves to do. It’s not just a matter of putting your...
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(Financial) Wellness Wednesday - Again!

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  I am an Amazon Associate and when you purchase something through links in this post I will receive a small bonus. I will also receive a bonus if you sign up for an Amex card. This does not change your price at all, it just helps support what I'm doing on the Salty Zebra Blog.  Ok, so I started multiples posts for today, but none of them thrilled me. Nothing got me excited. Nothing made me want to write more and more and more. I prayed about it and then went about my business, messing around on my computer, learning more about points and miles, and then, BAM!!!! I got a super duper awesome opportunity and I want to share it with you too!   I've been learning this week about Amazon's Shop With Points program. It allows you to use your credit card points as cash on Amazon to purchase items sold and shipped directly by Amazon (not third party vendors). Now, normally I would never do this, except with my Prime Visa Amazon points because that's exactly what they're for...
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The Gift that Keeps on Giving

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   I was shocked and thrilled when I learned a few years ago about Norwegian's Shareholder Benefits program. This is not something that is widely advertised, so just in case you hadn't heard about it either, I thought I ought to let you know!   The way this program works is that if you hold at least 100 shares of Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) stock, you can apply for an onboard credit for every  cruise you take with Norwegian, Oceania or Regent cruise lines. Don't own 100 shares of NCL? If you cruise with them regularly, maybe you should! In March of 2020, I made my first stock purchase recommendation to my husband. I had read several articles that really resonated with me regarding how solid NCL was in their savings and assets and predicted that they would be the most likely cruise line to weather the Covid storm. We jumped in and were fortunate to be able to purchase stock at $11.11 per share. I was simply investing in a company that I appreciated and had good ...
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