Category: encouragement

Where Faith may fail
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Where Faith may fail

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Where faith may fail

Do you ever feel as though your faith has failed?
Ya, me too.
You build yourself up with courageous words and scripture verses to make your heart feel okay, but deep down you still feel faithless. A nagging voice says, ‘you know God doesn’t operate like that anymore! You know that those kinds of miracles ended before the 20th century began. So why pray for it? Why run after something that you will never catch? You’ll just end up looking silly for trying so hard. Give up. Faith has no ground.’
Wow. Say ‘hello Devil, when did you get here?’ because that’s the voice I hear when I hear such words. It is clearly the Devil saying such things; eating away at your Faith like a monster devouring flesh, but that doesn’t stop us from believing such wicked and common lies. We hit a wall where our Faith feels powerless and we just can’t fight through. I realized something the other day. Why do we fight with our Faith? Faith isn’t a weapon. It’s a shield. The Holy Spirit is the weapon! Our Faith feels battered because we are using it to beat down our enemy. We drop our sword, take our shield in both hands and smack our enemy with it with all our strength! And we get knocked back on our belt of hard truth. The truth is that with our own strength we can’t do anything. But if we attack our enemy with the sword of the Spirit the enemy will fall! Because we are using God’s strength to win! Our Faith gets battered because we wield it as a weapon. Which it isn’t. But as a shield, as our defense, our Faith is unmatched in power because our Faith is in the unmatched, powerful God. Whose name is Jesus.

So then, put on the full armor of God-Ephesians 6:10

Prayer blocks
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Prayer blocks

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Do you ever get ‘prayer’s-block’? Me too.
It’s hard isn’t it? To have your mind over taken by every-single-possible-thing you could think of and the one thing you can’t think of is your praying. When that happens to me I whine at God about not being able to concentrate and say things like, ‘if only you were easier to focus on.’ And, ‘if your presence was more clear right now I could do this better.’ Guess what? That never helps me focus. Sometimes I try God meditation. I put on soothing instrumental music and sit on the floor so my brain isn’t telling me to go to sleep like it does when I am on the couch trying to concentrate, and sometimes that helps. Sometimes lighting a candle or starting a fire, (in a pit preferably outside) helps. Or watching my horse graze. Or staring at the sky. Something that doesn’t take much effort but reminds me of how awesome God is. When none of the above works I switch tactics and I worship. Because I can always put on music and listen to the words about how awesome God is. I even found a radio station that plays worship time. It is literally a musician who is doing a guided worship for those of us struggling to concentrate. It’s called ‘power of worship radio’ for those of you who would like to try it.
Just remember. God loves you for your trying. Even if you are struggling to see Him and focus on Him, He sees your attempt and it makes Him happy.

Do you understand this God?
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Do you understand this God?

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I have often heard it said that God can’t relate to pain of romance. That is an interesting point of view. I have a question. What is the most painful thing that can happen in the search for ‘love’?
Rejection! You got it on the first try right?
You may then say that the Jesus being rejected situation is different. You’re right. It is.
But God sends out His whole heart full of love to us every single day. He wants a commitment, a relationship, our trust and our love. If God is the lover of our soul and the soul is what He seeks then He is being rejected by the one He is in love with. So He gets it. He is rejected by many people each day, He feels sorrow at that. Is sorrow to proper of a word?
Then how about agony? Grief? Heartbreak? Longing? He longs to have us come to Him. He feels EVERYTHING we feel.
Never think God doesn’t get it.

Spiraling or climbing?
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Spiraling or climbing?

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Downward spiral .vs. upward climb

Have you ever noticed how it is a spiral? Spiral indicates fast, generally out of control and of course spinning.
It sounds like a bad ride at an amusement park, you know, the one your friends dare you to go on and then you feel too sick to do anything else for the next 2 days. 10 years later you have the confidence to laugh about it with someone. Spiral.

And upward CLIMB. With this one I visualize a mountain. I love hiking and exploring. If you let me go with my dog and spend the day someplace hiking and exploring, there is a chance we will be gone that whole day. Generally the moment we feel like…..I am sorry, I feel like, he could go on forever……when I feel like turning around is the moment I hit a steep incline. Usually it is my powerhouse Jack Russell who keeps me moving, he is probably 1/6th of my weight and yet he is the one who pulls me to the top and we stand (and I gasp for air) and he starts to head down the next trail, dragging me behind and I feel this wave of achievement. We made it to the top! Oh Ya! And look! Another hill…… I wonder what the top of that one looks like?

To hit rock bottom takes a simple ‘yes’ or a small give in your normal perspective. It happens fast, it is generally a little sickening and it takes a long time to recover.
To hit the summit takes a lot of hard work, motivation, and sometimes someone else pulling on your lead to keep you going, and you find acheivement in the end.

To climb back up from the bottom is a massive struggle and you can NOT do it without God, but you CAN do it.

Verification?
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Verification?

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Always trust the words of God. I once heard a pastor say that to truly know that it is God speaking verify it. Check it with the Bible. It is easy to hear a thought in our minds and think it is God, sometimes it is God, sometimes it is our own thought.
So verify. Check that what you heard aligns with the Bible. You can’t always do this, I understand that, but prayer and time with the speaker of the words you think you are hearing will help you know your direction. Don’t doubt God’s words, but if you need to, verify.
When Jonah heard God’s word he denied it was God and ran away. God hunted him down, and he became one of the most well known stories (and one of the best speakers) in the Bible.
When it is God He doesn’t just use you a little, He uses you unbelievably so. Even if Jonah had saved only one person he would have listened to God and done something amazing, for that one person.
If God says go to Zambia on a missions trip and you go,
‘No that wasn’t God, and I don’t want to go.’ and you end up reading Jonah, or hearing a sermon on following the prompting of God, or a song on traveling the uncertain road, take it as a conformation. If God wants you to go then He will prompt you and prompt you until you get the message.
Trust God’s word, and He will verify that word for you.

What do we bring?
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What do we bring?

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What gifts do we bring Him?

The Shepherds brought their time.
The Magi brought their riches.
The disciples brought their lives.
His parents brought their faith and obedience.
So what do we bring Jesus?
He gave us everything we have. Hope, joy, healing, sustenance, peace, grace, love. He gave His dignity and His relationship to God. His pain is ours to unwrap, His grief and suffering, His sorrow. We can untie the bows on His glory and goodness. We can shake the box full of His kingdom and receive all He has given us. So, what are we giving Him?

What part of us does He ask for? All of us. Our heart, soul and mind, right? It can be a difficult request to fill, but isn’t that what He brought us? His heart, His soul, His mind. Ask and you shall receive, so maybe what we should ask for is the will and ability to be like our Savior. If we are more like Jesus then perhaps we will be able to bring Jesus more.

Love you all!

May your season and year be filled with Christ’s peace, His hope, His love, and His joy!

Merry Christmas

When all the lights go out
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When all the lights go out

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When all the lights go out

Crunch, crunch, crunch. Each footfall leaves another indent in the snow, a small trace that you were once there. A tiny blaze is nestled close to your chest as you carry a candle for just a little added light. There are other lights around you, barely visible, just a flicker, like woodland sprites dancing among the trees. The lights make their way softly through the woods and into the town. There, in a single window, is a candle; like the one you carry except for the meaning behind it. Your candle is for light, this candle is for hope. Inside the house you know you will find others like you, Christian worshippers gathering secretly to praise Jesus. You blow out your candle and step inside.
This story you have entered feels like it happened a lifetime ago to someone you will never know; But even today Christian families are having to hide from those who would seek to harm them. I wonder how many are gathering tonight? Slipping through the streets with candles to light their way?
Surprisingly I found many different opinions on the origin of lights on Christmas trees, but the one that I like the best is the one that says that Christians used to come and gather in the woods, to worship in secret because the Government wanted one religion and Christianity was not it. They would put lights deep in the branches of a tree so that the glow would be muted but visible. Even if that is not the origin I wouldn’t be surprised if it did happen. Maybe that is why lights on the Christmas tree feel so warm and homey. I would go so far as to say they make one feel secure.
On this Advent Sunday I want to send out a simple feeling. Gratitude. I am grateful for the Christian people who are faithful to the point of meeting under the cover of a midnight sky, maybe even outside in the cold, so they can keep the candles of Faith burning. Isn’t that the first place Jesus was worshiped? A cold manger stall, the only light probably a candle. Think of that as you feel warmed by your Christmas tree lights and let it fill you with a sense of wonder.

Open heart
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Open heart

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Open heart

We all have a seed inside our hearts. A part of us that is undiscovered and trying to grow. A potential. A dream left to the wear of time and long since forgotten. Deep down in your heart, however, that dream left a seed. We all have someone we want to be. A chef, a weatherwoman, an accountant, a movie star. But to fulfill a dream takes hard work, good people, and a bull dog drive. Stats say that over 90% of people give up on their dreams instead of seeing them fulfilled. I think that is very sad. A dream is something important to us, and things that are important to us should be things we fight for. Sometimes we dream of being something that other people say we can’t be. An artist who can’t draw, or a musician who doesn’t know how to play. It is possible that maybe that means your true seed is growing into something else. Perhaps a music teacher or an art studio director. Don’t drop your dreams where you stand and move on. Sometimes the true dream is a vine of the original one. Fight for your dreams and water them. See what your seed grows. Like buying a surprise packaged of flower seeds at the plant store. All you can do is scatter them in the dirt and care for them. You know you want a flower, but what that flower looks like is entirely up to the seed. So you care for it and as it grows you love it more and get more excited to see what it will be.

Let your seed grow, and never give up on it.

Getting back up
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Getting back up

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We don’t always spring back up, sometimes we need to kneel first and that’s okay too.

When we fall, to get back up, first we have to get onto our knees. Sometimes on those knees is all we can do until someone comes and offers us a hand to lift us back onto our feet.
When we fall in life and spiritually, first we must climb to our knees and turn it all over to Jesus in prayer. Sometimes it takes a long time of prayer and kneeling before we see an answer, but that is waiting in God’s timing. As my Poppa says, ‘in the waiting we gain sustenance from the knowledge that God is doing something.’
Eventually we will look up from our folded hands to see Jesus reaching down an open hand and smiling brilliantly as He lifts us to our feet.

Soldiers
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Soldiers

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Soldiers

Home is behind, the world is ahead, (J.R.R. Tolkien). I usually see this phrase of this song as a sentence of awe and thrill. Images of camping and wooded trails, tall mountains and pounding waterfalls overtake my mind and I breathe deeply. However that was not the scene around this statement. In the Lord of The Rings masterpiece epic, ( I mean the novels) Pipin sings a song of what would seem to be great adventure, in fact it is a song of war. They left their homes behind and took to war. Trenches and hill tops and beaches. Skies, oceans and forests. Deserts and mountains and jungles. Comfort left behind, loving arms and gentle words long forgotten as feet ache in heavy boots and backs sweat under heavy packs. You almost don’t dare make friends because you don’t know how long you will get to hold to these people around you, but you become family. Our soldiers learned the line Jesus said about true friends, and what Paul said, Rare for a person to lay down their life even for a righteous person; perhaps for a good man one would dare to die for.-Paul ( this is not a direct quote)
Our soldiers dared to die for those they never met. War is UGLY! Suffering and death happen and it is awful! But freedom doesn’t come by hoping for it. We should always honor those who suffered and died, AND those who suffered and live, because our freedom came from their blood. Hate war always, hate our soldiers NEVER! They did not ask for the wars they fought and fight in, but they saw the suffering of the innocent and had the courage to stand up and do something about it. God bless our soldiers! Semper Fi.

I found the cover image on the internet and hope that it is okay that I used it because it is so powerful. My uncle was in Vietnam and this painting reminded me of the few stories that he was able to tell when he got back.