Tag Archives: Christ

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Moving Forward Through Adversity

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Job 23:10-11
“But He knows the way that I take [He has concern for it, appreciates and pays attention to it]. When He has tried me, I shall come for the as refined gold [pure and luminous]. My foot has held fast to His steps, His ways have I kept and not turned aside.”

Poor Job. There his is minding his own business, being a witness, doing good, praying for his kids…and then the enemy enters the scene. With God’s permission! His world tumbles down around him, literally. He is tried and refined in a way that most of us wouldn’t wish on our worst enemies.

Why did God allow it? (He is even the one who pointed out Job to the enemy to begin with!) Job figured it out. After self pity, after anger, after getting rotten advice and false counsel from three so-called-friends.

Only the fire can refine precious metal. Only great pressure can make a precious stone.

We go through what feels like Hell. There is a saying, that I particularly like, and have quoted, “You may have to walk through the valley of death, but you don’t have to set up camp there!”

What would “setting up camp” entail? Self pity, anger at God, SITTING DOWN, or just plain giving up. Don’t drive in a single tent stake. Job said he stayed on the path, that means he kept moving forward. Command your feet to hold fast to HIS path. It leads to life, to righteousness, to Love. Don’t let Satan distract you. I know, Job went through big stuff! But ultimately it was all just meant for a distraction. He was trying to force Job to take his eyes off of God, and put them on his circumstances.

We live in a fallen world, with a real enemy seeking who he may devour. Bad stuff happens to good people. But continue with Jobs story. His ending was better than his beginning. He came out better! Stronger! And he came out Praising God!

When you come out of the other side, when the valley is behind you, tell someone!

Are you going through something hard?
Here are some resources I found helpful (after the bible)
“What To Do When Everything Falls Apart” by Van Crouch
“Throw Yourself a Party” by David Duell
“The In-Between” by Jeff Goins

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The Awesomeness of God

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“Sheol (the place of the dead) is naked before God, and Abaddon (the place of destruction) has no covering [from His eyes]. He it is Who spreads out the northern skies over emptiness and hangs the earth upon or over nothing. He holds the waters bound in His clouds [which otherwise would spill on earth all at once], and the cloud is not rent under them. He covers the face of His throne and spreads over it His cloud. He has placed an enclosing limit [the horizon] upon the waters at the boundary between light and darkness. The pillars of the heavens tremble and are astonished at His rebuke. He stills or stirs up the sea by His power, and by His understanding He smites proud Rahab. By His breath the heavens are garnished; His hand pierced the [swiftly] fleeing serpent. Yet these are but [a small part of His doings] the outskirts of His ways or the mere fringes of His force, the faintest whisper of His voice! Who dares contemplate or who can understand the thunders of His full, magnificent power?” Job 26:6-14

Yep, God is awesome. Read Job, He even tells us in His own words how great He is! How can we be anything less than humble when we realize how magnificent He really is. So why do we, at times, think He can’t perform what He promised? Why do we put the God of the Universe in a puny box and say our problems are too big for Him? Abraham was given a promise that could never take place in the natural. He said, “Is anything too hard or too wonderful for the Lord?” (Gen 18:14a).

Numbers 23:19
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
God is able and willing to perform what He has promised. Look at Exodus 14. Moses had the people at the edge of the Red Sea, this was part of God’s plan. Pharaoh and his army of chariots were thundering down on the escaped slaves. Naturally they panicked. Moses told them in verse 14, “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” How many times have we heard that one quoted as “Be still and see the power of God” and truly He does deliver in His mercy as we sometimes rest, but lets move on to verse 15-16. God corrects what Moses has just told the people. “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.” His plan wasn’t for them to be still, but to ACT! Moses knew that God would deliver them, but God wanted them to act on that belief. That’s faith, putting actions to out belief and our hope.

God is awesome! He is also our Father. When your father is God, what can stop you?

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Prayer To My Father

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Dear Father (Father of my heart, love, life, peace, salvation, hope, dreams, provision, health, and family),
I love God! My heart is full of love for you. I am thankful and grateful that you adopted me! You’ve cleansed me from all my unrighteous acts, delivered me from every curse and every yoke of bondage, those of my own making and those that came with my family ties. You have set me free from the law. You have made me an heir and a joint heir with Christ. I am seated with Him in heavenly places, because of my acceptance in the beloved. Because you are a loving Father, Faithful and Trustworthy, because Your Word is true, You watch over it to perform it in my life. you have sent your angels, your ministering spirits, to minister according to your perfect will, the plans and the purposes, you have for my life. You have placed a hedge of protection around me, your angels guard round about me, day and night. Because I am your child, no weapon formed against me will prosper, and every tongue raised against me, to accuse me or curse me, is already condemned! Even what the devil has planned and prepared for my harm you, in your grace and mercy, have turned it around for my good. Who is like you, Oh God? There is none other. Only you have creative power. Only you can save. Only you can change our hearts and minds and conform us into the image of Christ. You alone are worthy of all praise, honor and glory… and you are my Father. You call me your child. Let my life glorify you.
In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.

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Book Review for “Breaking Free”- Christian Woman’s Non-fiction

This was a wonderful Woman’s Bible Study! I think everywoman should read it. Beth Moore gives insight into some of the common problems that women have gone through from infancy and how to break free from your past. I give the book 5 stars. The writing is simple, yet in depth. This book will change the way you think. Great for individual study or for a group study. I highly recommend this book. Appropriate for high school age and up.

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The Foundation of Hope

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We all hope in something. Some of us place it in fate, in our abilities, our jobs, our education, in the government, or maybe our family and friends around us. Maybe all of the above. A lack of hope or hope that doesn’t come to an expected in can get us down and depressed. God says in Proverbs 13:12 “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” We have all expected something, hoped for it and then when the outcome was delayed or didn’t come to pass, were heartbroken over it. Maybe you prayed for your marriage, only to see it come to a divorce, or prayed for your child, only to see them walk down the wrong path. There are so many letdowns in this life, not getting that promotion or that raise, no tax return, no weight loss, no publishers sweepstakes, etc. That is why it is so important that we place our hope in God. All the other places aren’t able to give us what we hope for. They will come through part of the time, or part of the way, at best. But they will never give us our hearts desire. (Psalm 37:4).

“But I have placed my hope in God, and I still got passed over for that promotion, my child is still in jail, and the government kept my money and I didn’t get a return.” Sound familiar? I’ve heard it, thought it, and (surprise) even said it.In Hebrews 11, verse one says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We tend to hope, but leave out faith. We hope for it, that is the foundation of our faith. Faith only comes when we first have hope. We hope for better, then we ask God for it, next we stand in faith, in His promises, and believe He will do it. It may not be in our timeframe, or exactly how we envisioned it, but it will come. I waited twenty three years for the miracle in my marriage. I had “hope deferred” and a sick heart. But God came through. I honestly think it would have happened so much faster had we both cooperated more and whined less.

Maybe you are facing the hardest battle in your life up until now, cancer, betrayal, death of a loved one, financial ruin… Let’s take a look at Job. We all know his story. Satan accused God of too much protection and favor, when God pointed out His righteous servant Job. (Yep, God called attention to him.) Satan in his love for suffering asked God to take His hand of protection off of Job and promised God that Job would curse Him. Job lost everything, and I mean everything. All he had left was a wife, who told him to “curse God and die” after Satan was given permission to inflict his body, but not take his life. In Chapter 17 he seemingly loses hope, “where then is my hope—who can see any hope for me?” But later in Chapter 19, versed 25-26 Job responds in hope, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” Finally in Chapter 33 Job not only gets more than he started with concerning his possessions, God grants him seven more children. “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so Job died, an old man and full of years.” (verses 16-17).

Hope in the wrong source is worthless. Hope in God without faith is useless. Get to know Him, and you will trust Him more. Hope makes us stronger and stronger. Hope is the only foundation for faith. Romans 8:24 says,
“For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?” We hope for things we do not already possess. Then true faith is the evidence that we are hoping for it. If there is no faith, then there isn’t a true hope. No true trust in the one who is able to perform for us. (Hebrews 10:23).

Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”