Tag Archives: encouragement

The Root Connection

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Moments with My Father ~

 

I am so thankful for my connection with Jesus today!  He is so vital to my life and my well being and as I reflect upon the Apostle Paul’s writing today, I see that it is through our connection with Jesus that each one of us can have a great healthy connection with each other as well!  As I ponder this, I am reminded of Aspen tree forests.  It is amazing that a forest of Aspen trees is in reality one tree.  The Aspen tree forest has developed as a result of the efforts of one parent tree.  It is from this parent tree source that Aspen trees have life and draw nourishment as they are all connected in their root to the parent tree.  Aspen trees are known to be able to survive and spring back after forest fires well because their roots are connected deep down underneath the surface and it is there that their source of life is protected from damage and destruction.  I am seeing that these facts about Aspen trees is similar to what Paul is saying in his writing to the church in Corinth.  Paul understood that Jesus was one who was connected in heart or root to His Father just like a parent Aspen tree.  Jesus was able to survive the forest fire of taking on the sins of the whole world on the cross because of His deep down connection to His Father and it was through His Father’s strength that He had eternal life.  He understands the heat of life trials because He personally experienced it and He can sympathize with each one of us.  Because His heart or root is connected to the heart of the parent root, His Father, who is the God of all love, compassion and comfort, He is able to extend out of His compassion for us, His love and comfort to you and to me.  As a result of each one of us being connected to Jesus and being nourished through the sap of His love, compassion and comfort, we are then able to extend that on to others that we have connection with and they in turn can do the same and it goes on and on and on just like an Aspen forest that adds so much beauty to our Father’s world! Despite trials in his life, Paul is one who poured nourishment or encouragement into the lives of others to comfort them and help them have everlasting life in connection with his Father.  This is because deep down in his heart, he drew his nourishment through his root connection with Jesus in the hard things or forest fires he faced in life and hence, he was able to escape destruction and persevere in living life,  Wow!  If we each are all connected to Jesus as our root source, then we as our Father’s kids in this world are capable of having well being and unity, being one in connection to our Father.  Now that thought just gets my heart sap flowing! Oh,  I so love the thought of having everlasting connection with you all!    May we all feel His love flowing to us today!

2 Co 1:3-11

Endless Encouragement

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Moments with My Father ~

 

I am a sister so thankful to be going through life with all of you dear brothers and sisters in Jesus!  My heart just wants to encourage you all today that we are all dearly loved by our Lord and He longs to help us in life!  From the very beginning, He had a grand plan by His grace to save us from sin’s consequences that would separate us from Him for all eternity, to instead give us eternal hope, encouragement and a share in the glory of Jesus.  Now how cool is that!   Our Father’s heart is that we always be encouraged and never lose hope!  He longs to encourage our hearts and give us strength to help us keep going in life, right down to every good deed and word!  He is faithful to strengthen us and save us from the evil one.  We just need to believe in Him!  It worked for Jesus.  Jesus was at a place in His life that was very difficult to face and He knew His hope of getting through it would be turning to His Father in prayer.  Can you imagine persevering through the cross? Yikes and ouch!!! Jesus could have looked at what was before Him as the end of Him, but His Father had a grand plan and He strengthened and encouraged Jesus as He prayed.  As a result, Jesus made it through His trial of the cross because of the encouragement of eternal hope in His Father that He knew He could not lose.  He knew His Father held the victory!  Wherever we are, whatever we are going through, we can be encouraged as we pray and believe in our Father to help us and He always will because His heart to strengthen and encourage us knows no end.  He is the same God yesterday as He is today as He will be tomorrow – our Father who has chosen to loves us forever!  As I step out into this new day, I’m hoping in Him on and on and on with all of ya.  His love to you!

2 Th 2:13 – 3:5; He 11:24-27, 12:2-3, 13:5-8; Ge 3; Jn 3:16; Mk 14:32-42;

Greener Pasture

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Moments with My Father ~

 

Have you ever heard it said that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence in life?  So often we as our Father’s kids can look at our struggling lives with gloom and despair and long for a different life and because we can’t have that different life, we let discouragement control us.  Yikes!!!  That is so not the heart of our Father who desires us to be filled with His joy!  He longs for us to be encouraged and feel His love in life.  We all live in a sinful, fallen world with the affects of sin in us and all around us.  Life can be hard!  Often people are told “Give your life to Jesus and you will never have any problems again.”  That is so not true and to tell someone that is to set them up for great disappointment when they find themselves after making a decision to trust Christ right smack in the midst of a trial that our Father allows to help them grow in life. Our Father desires to help conform us all to the image of His Son because He loves us too much to leave us where we are at when there is a much better place for us to be in our spiritual growth.  Any good parent desires to teach their children and help them be their best.  Our Father is no different with us, but where the grass is greener on His side of the fence over the side of the fence that can be full of weeds of discouragement, gloom and despair that we can let grow there is that our Father gives us hope in the midst of the trials of life.  When we climb over the fence to be in His presence and graze on His Words of hope and encouragement, trusting Him to continue to care for us and grow us, we find ourselves well fed and much more satisfied in life, filled with His joy and zeal!  In fact, you often see His kids, His sheep in the midst of trials on His side of the fence running and kicking up their heels, having fun despite the trials around them. Now how cool is that?  I agree with the Psalmist who wrote “Why are you downcast, oh my soul, put your hope in the Lord!”  Oh, I just love my Father’s green pasture of life.   I am definitely most content to stay grazing on His side of the fence as I await the day when He moves us all to the ultimate of green pastures, the place called Heaven where we will all be like Him and where He will wipe away every tear from every eye, there will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain or sin!  Woohoo! While I so look forward to that day, until then, I’m happy in the pasture He has me in, knowing it is His best for me now as I hope in Him!  Much love to you all!

 

Ps 42:5; Ro 8:28-29; Jn 15:1-17; Ja 1:2-4; Ro 12:2; 1 Co 15:49; 2 Co 3:18; Rev 21:1-5

 

 

Pass it On!

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Moments with My Father ~

 

It is on my heart this morning what a gift it is to have brothers and sisters in the Lord.  My heart agrees with the Apostle Paul when he wrote how he longed to see the saints in Rome that they together might encourage each other through their faith.  He also wrote that the righteous live by faith.  Faith in our Father is everything in life as it affects our view of who we are, what our purpose is, it gives us hope, it gives us the True source of wisdom in making decisions for a successful life and it determines our life after this life.  Paul understood how key faith is to life and when you understand that and you love people, encouragement is something that your heart just longs to do and if you have ever been encouraged, you know what a big difference it makes in your life.  It is of our Father’s heart for us to love one another and encourage one another daily as long as it is day.  It is amazing what a difference faith makes in the lives of people when you look back at the saints in the Bible.  In the world there are troubles and our enemy Satan is always on the prowl like a roaring lion wanting to destroy us all and discourage us, so that is why it is so important to share our faith with each other.  If you need encouragement, seek out a brother or sister to talk to about it.  Got a faith story?  Please share it.  Paul said he thanked his God for the Roman saints because there was report of their faith all over the world.  Because the saints of yesterday shared their faith, we are encouraged to have faith today!  So the moral of this story is do we have faith? If so, let’s share it.  We just might change the world for many in doing so!  Now how cool is that? I’m going in faith with ya all!

 

Ro 1:8-12, 17, 12:1-2; Heb 10:19-25, 11; Mt 5:14-16; Jn 3:16; Ps 42:5, 139:13-14; Jer 29:11; 1 Pe 5:8-11

Lighten the Load

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Moments with My Father ~

 

One of my favorite performances is the song “Man of Constant Sorrows”  by The Soggy Bottom Boys from the movie “O, Brother, Where Art Thou?”  While the lyrics of the song itself talks about someone with many sorrows in life that can be rather discouraging, how they sang through it just makes me smile!   I reflect on this song today as I read in my Father’s Word how Jesus was prophesied to live as a man of sorrows and to be very familiar with suffering in His life on earth.  We all live in a sinful, fallen world with trouble all around us and Jesus can sympathize with us as to how hard that can be.   The Old Testament talks about how the Lord saw the misery of His people when they were in Egypt and His Word says that He heard them crying out and was concerned about their suffering. He had a plan and He went to work on rescuing them and they were eventually delivered from out of their trouble of being in slavery to the Egyptians. Oh how this speaks to my heart of how caring our Father is!  In the New Testament, Jesus told His disciples that in this world they would have trouble, but to take heart for He had overcome the world. He understood the difficulties that they would face in life, but He also knew the big picture plan that was about to unfold to deliver them!  Jesus understands what it is like to have troubles in life as He took upon Himself all the troubles or sins of the world and as He persevered through those heavy steps, He made it to His eternal place next to His Father in His Kingdom, where He now intercedes for each of us to our Father concerning the troubles we face in life.  Our Father’s Word tells us to keep our eyes fixed on the example Jesus sets for us in how He persevered by being focused on the joy that would come at the end of His perseverance of enduring the cross to relieve the troubles or sins of all the world.   He tells us this so that we do not become weary and give up.  He is our biggest cheerleader saying “keep going!”  I hear my Father’s voice speak to me this morning through this to do as Jesus did and does – to persevere through the steps of troubles around me and seek to do what I can to lighten the trouble of others.  Paul was a man who knew trouble as well.  He looked at his life and seeing that death and entrance into Heaven would be of better gain than the life he was presently going through, he purposely chose to keep going in his life on earth because he saw that it was better for him to stay and help lighten the trouble for others.  Because of that decision, we have his writings and the writings of others he encouraged in the Bible that so blesses us and helps us all to keep going in this troubled world today.  Praise the Lord that neither Jesus nor Paul gave up!  They persevered through the troubles of their life to the very end and along the way, they lightened the load of others.  Despite troubles, they brought joy and found joy in helping others!  Now that is the kind of gal I want to be!  Whatever difficulties you might be going through where you are, your sister encourages you to keep going!  Don’t give up!  Your example and efforts of perseverance can greatly bless others and we will all be so happy in the end that we kept going when we are all delivered from this life of troubles and see how good it was we kept taking the right steps to get there.  We’re all in this life together and we can all be assured our Father sees us, cares about us and is working out good plans for us!  Much love to you all!

Gen 3; Ex 3:7-10; Is 53; Heb 4:15-16, 7:25, Ro 8:18-39; Php 1:18-26;Jn 3:16-17, 16:33; Rev 21:1-4; Pr 11:25

 

 

The Spiritual Vitamin

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Moments with My Father ~

 

It’s Monday and I’m off to a start with a prayer and a peek inside of our Father’s Word – the Holy Bible.  Daily doses of His Word is kind of like taking a spiritual vitamin for good health.  My Father confirms that to me today and shares these benefits with me to being filled with the knowledge of His good, pleasing and perfect will found in His Word, having His spiritual wisdom and understanding:

1) It enables us to live lives worthy of our Lord in every way which blesses and pleases Him and oh, I so want to please my Father for His great love for me!

2) That we will bear fruit in every good work.  I greatly desire my life to count for good.

3)  His Word helps us to grow.  I’m all for getting better all the time!

4)  His Word enables us to be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might.  My Father’s Word certainly can give me lots of strength -  makes me feel like superwoman when He pours into me!

5)  It helps us to endure – It is important to keep going in life to carry out our Father’s good purpose for us!

6)  It helps us to have patience.  Patience is a good thing – it helps keep one’s blood pressure down and makes for much better relationships with others!

7)  It helps us joyfully give thanks to our Father.  Our Father’s Word helps us have good attitudes and be thankful in life!

8)  My Father’s Word encourages my heart that He has a great plan for us all.  Did you know that He sees us as qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light?  He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us or given us a place in the kingdom of the Son whom He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  Good news! Now how cool is that?

Why, with all of these great benefits to reading my Bible, I just can’t get enough of it.  I think I’ll read some more tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day and so on and so on and so on……I’m working at being healthy – how about you?

Ro 12:2; Col 1:9-14

 

 

 

 

Hardened Clay

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Moments with My Father ~

 

I’m thinking back to the days when as a child and even as I have worked with children in my adult years, how play dough or clay was so soft and workable to be shaped into all kinds of great creations.  Often when we were done with it, we would put it back inside its container and put the lid on it so that it wasn’t left exposed to the air and thus become hardened and no longer workable.  This memory comes to my mind as I read the reminder in our Father’s Word of the importance of encouraging others in our faith in the Lord.  Our Father says to encourage one another daily as long as it is called Today, so that none are hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.  Life can be so challenging and we like clay, when left exposed to the air (error) of the world, our hearts can become sinful, unbelieving and turned away from the living God.  Yet if we are faithful to do as our Father tells us to as Christians, to encourage one another daily in the Lord, then it helps each of us to have faith that is contained (protected) and a lid is put on sin’s deceitfulness which guards our hearts from being hardened.  So with these thoughts in mind, please join with your sister in encouraging those around you so that we can all have hearts of faith that are soft and workable for our Father to use to shape and create great works with us.  He is the potter and we are the clay and together we can add such beauty to the world if we just keep trusting in Him who has the Master plan in mind.  We are each valuable to Him and He desires to work good with each of us!  Be encouraged.  His love and peace be with you!

Heb 3:12-13; Ro 12:1-2; Ro 8:28-29; Is 29:13-16; Jer 29:11; Pr 3:5-6

Picking Up Again

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Moments with My Father ~

 

Happy New Year!  It is a time for new beginnings, putting the old behind and starting again fresh.  What interesting timing that our Father has  laid it upon my heart this morning that Peter whom Jesus knew would have his battle with the enemy, fear of public opinion and lack of faith would begin again from those experiences and have something new to strengthen others with.  What encouragement that is to us when we feel we have failed!  Jesus did not give up on Peter in his weakness, but spurred him on to feed His sheep out of love for Him – to not only to be fed himself by the Lord, but to actually share or feed others.  It was far beyond Peter’s heart to fail his Lord.  He told the Lord at one point “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”  We all know that Peter fell short of carrying out that heart desire when he denied the Lord three times before the rooster crowed just as Jesus knew would happen.  The same good news for Peter is also our good news when we fall short of our desire to stand firm for the Lord.  Our Father’s mercies are new each morning!  He promises that when we confess our failures to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  In doing so, He fills us up with His Holy Spirit and enables us to pick up again in joining Him in the work He desires to carry out through us in the world that so needs all of His good news. Can you imagine feeling like a failure without the encouragement of the Lord?  Yikes!!!  I’ve heard it said that you only fail when you remain down.  With all of this in mind, I encourage you as I am also encouraged to turn back from feelings of failure, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and hit the trail once more.  The Lord still has good plans for us all!  Happy trails to ya!

Lk 22:31-32; Mt 26:33-35, 69-75; Jn 21:15-19; 1 Jn 1:8-10; La 3:22-23;

 

Builders

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Moments with My Father ~

 

Happy new day to you all!  I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a great time celebrating the gift of our Lord.  Christmas is such a fun-filled, busy time of year.  It is down right exciting, but for many, the days following Christmas can seem rather lonely and uneventful in comparison to the grandiose celebration of the birth of our Savior.  Many may find themselves a little depressed and left asking the question “so what’s next,”  or ”what do I have to look forward to now?”  The answer to these questions is there is much to look forward to!  This morning, my Father’s Word points out the importance of “building ourselves up in our most holy faith and to pray in the Holy Spirit.”  As I take the time to sit with our Father and take in the gift of my relationship with Him made possible through the birth of Jesus, He speaks to me through His Word and He reminds me that we all have His return, heaven and eternity with Him to look forward to and in the time between this past Christmas of Jesus entering our world and the time when He returns, there is much building up to do to prepare for that blessed day!  Woohoo!  So many need us to continue to put forth our efforts, time, gifts, talents and resources to bless others with the gift of salvation, hope and encouragement so they are ready to celebrate Christ’s return with us!  It could be any day!  Oh, what a blessed day it will be when Jesus returns to take us to be with Him in our new eternal heavenly home.  He is coming back soon, so this cowgirl is thinking I need to stay busy preparing for that blessed day!  I want to bless the socks off as many as possible and in so doing, bless my Jesus for all He has done to bless me.  With these thoughts in mind, I’m persevering to share the spirit of Christmas this day and each day ahead to make His return celebration the best it can possibly be!  Oh, each day is gonna be so fun and exciting – an adventure as we build towards the big day to come!  God bless ya in all ya do!

Jude 20-21; Rev 22:12; Mt 9:35-38; 16:27; Ro 12:1-2; 1 Cor 3:10-15; Jn 3:16; 1 Pe 4:10; Ps 42:5; Lk 12:35-40

Lifesavers

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Moments with My Father ~

 

I don’t know about you all, but this December day finds me in the thoughts of what to give as Christmas gifts to those my Father has called me to give to.  With these thoughts in the back of my mind, my Father gives me these ideas in terms of gift giving:  We all know that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ – the gift from our Father of our Savior who rescues us from sin and gives us eternal life. Looking inside His Word today, it stands out to me the importance of the relationship that Joseph had with our Father.  Joseph was called by the Lord to give something to Jesus. I never saw this before that even Joseph gave to Jesus at His birth.  It always amazes me how you can read and read our Father’s Word and it speaks afresh each time you study it.  It is so devine!  What Joseph was personally to give to Him was the name of Jesus, which is the Greek form of the name Joshua, meaning the Lord saves.  Like Joseph, our Father desires to have a personal relationship with each one of us as Christians and has ideas for each one of us as to what He would have each of us give personally.  The idea that He has given to me today is that Jesus is our “life saver.”  We have been given a special book (the Bible) with this special life-saving message in it.  This reminds me that my son-in-law loves the Christmas “lifesaver” books that you can buy in the candy sections of many stores this time of year.  As I remember this, I realize what a perfect opportunity the giving of a gift of ”lifesavers” candy can be to share the message that Jesus is our life saver from sin. Only God knows, but perhaps this gift just might save someone’s life in sharing it with someone this Christmas as it is presented with His message of salvation.   I love being able to give gifts that convey a special message of salvation, hope and encouragement.  I am thinking ”lifesavers” is a gift my Father would have me share with a few this year along with the message of His gift of a Savior that enables us to have eternal life with Him.    I can’t think of a more sweeter gift than the gift of Jesus in my life.  It is a gift I am so thankful to have received.  How about you?  Let’s be a life saver this Christmas – share Jesus!  His love to you all!

Mt 1:18-21; Ps 34:8, Ro 10:17-18; Jn 3:16

Love For God

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Moments with My Father ~

 

Good morning, family!  It is a new day for all of us and as we step out into this day, each one of us has a whole world of people around us as our Father designed our lives to be. When you are in the world, you discover that people are so interesting!  There are so many different kinds and no two are alike.  In life, there are those that are easy for us to interact with and those that are challenging and this is true of all – everyone has their strengths and everyone has their weaknesses.  As I reflect upon this, my Father reminds me that the best way to interact with all is to do so as He does, to imitate Him who loves us as His dearly loved children and to live a life of love just as He did, giving ourselves up or denying our self to love others, knowing it is a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  While we were yet sinners, Christ sacrificed Himself when He died to show us His love. I bear this in mind as I see the reality that our love for others may not be noticed or even appreciated by some people, but our Father sure sees and loves it!  He is not unjust and He says that He will not forget our work and the love that we have shown Him as we step out to help His people and continue to help them.   He tells us as His children to spur one another on to love and good deeds, so I’m a gal with spurs on today as I share these thoughts with you to encourage your heart today.  The world can leave us feeling pretty beat up and it is important that we have the right mindset that our Father is the one to please and He just loves it when we step out to love others, even those difficult to love.  So, let’s keep going for Him!  You are not alone in your efforts.  Bless you for all you do for others!

Eph 5:1-2, Ro 5:8, Heb 10:24

The Merry Go Round

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 Moments with My Father

 

Good Friday morning dear family!  I want to ask you today, did you ever ride a merry-go-round as a kid? I remember doing so as a little girl and I remember being greatly enamoured by the brightly colored ponies, bright lights, mirrors, and pretty music. I was always excited about riding it, but there was an aspect of it that made me feel vulnerable and fearful. I remember that the ponies that I wanted to ride had a pole that ran through them that kept them secure in their place as they went up and down as the merry-go-round that they were on went around. I remember I felt secure enough to ride if I could hold on to that pole and if I could have the belt around me that was attached to the pony to help me stay securely seated for the ride. Otherwise, I was fearful of getting hurt. Likewise, as our Father’s kid, this world has so much to be enamoured with and when I heed Paul’s advice to stand firm and hang on to what the Bible teaches, whether taught through someone or if I read it myself, I feel more secure about the ride of life I’m on as the earth spins around and life has its ups and downs. Without God’s Word in my life that shows me what to hang on to give me security, hope and encouragement to ride through this life and hope into eternity, I would feel vulnerable and scared. There are many things about this world that can hurt me. His Word is like the merry-go-round pole and strap that makes me feel secure enough to step up and ride through every up and down of life, every good deed and word.  I’ve found Paul is correct in that our Father’s Word can certainly provide our needed encouragement – the merry to go round to enjoy this ride of life.  I’m having fun and hanging on with ya!
 
2 Th 2:15-17, 3:3; Ro 8:28-29, Pr 28:26, 29:25

Linked Hearts

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Moments with My Father

 

Good morning, family! I am so thankful for you, my brothers and sisters in Christ and for the gift that we have to be able to share or link our hearts together with each other, to be real with each other – not pretending to have it all together and not being all clammed up to ourselves in fear of being discovered for being what we are not compared to what we think we should be or being afraid to open up and let God use us to help others. Our Father sets the example for us, in that He didn’t keep Himself to Himself, but chose to share His heart with us and He desires to have a relationship with us.  He knows our hearts and He desires that we know His heart and that is why we have His written Word – it is His love letter to us written from His heart! It is said that David had a heart after God’s own heart.   He wouldn’t have know what God’s heart was if God hadn’t revealed it to him through His Word.   Speaking of His Word, in it,  He tells us He desires that we care not only about His heart, but also that we have hearts that care for one another.  Here are some reasons why having linked hearts with one another is a wonderful thing: 1)When we have a close relationship in our lives with someone who shares with us their struggles and also what God is doing in their life, their stories of faith, how He is working in them to will and act according to His good purpose and how they are loving people for our Father, it encourages us in our own walk to step out or keep going for Him. Paul understood this. He was very appreciative that the Philippians understood his situation and because they did, they gave support to him.  He told the Philippians “It was good for you to share in my troubles” and he told the Colossians that he and Timothy thanked God when they prayed for them.  The reason they thanked God for them is because they had heard of the faith of the Colossians and of the love they had for all the saints – this faith and love that came from their hope stored up in Heaven for them that they had heard about in the Word of Truth.  The fact that they had faith and had love for the saints greatly encouraged Paul and Timothy to the point they gave thanks to the Father.  2)When others share with us that they have struggles as we do as well, it is an encouragement to know we are not alone in having struggles and challenges in life. While we don’t desire for other people to struggle, to hear we are not alone in this fight squelches the devil, the father of lies, who likes to tell us that we are abnormal, while others seem to be all with it. He also likes to tell us God is forsaking us and that is why we have troubles.  We need to not listen to him because he’s a liar, liar –  his pants are on fire – if not yet, someday soon!  3)Sometimes in sharing our struggles in life with each other, we can obtain new insight in how to deal with the issues we are facing.  I always love it when I am struggling along in life and some one loves me enough to share the honest truth with me.  Not to do that is for them to withhold love from me.  Ouch!  That so hurts me to think that they don’t care enough or they worry about themselves too much to tell me what I need to grow and be helped to have victory in life.  4)It is also wonderful to be able to share our excitement about the victories in life with others! To hear about the victories of others gives us hope in seeing that God is working and is faithful in caring for us.  5)When we share our hearts with each other, it helps us identify with each other more and better understand how to love and encourage one another.  We learn what discourages others and what blesses others when they tell us about themselves and as they share their hearts, we can then know “I think this would bless my friend!”         6)When we share with each other how God is working in us to strengthen us, grow us and work through us to help others know Him, it encourages us to keep going as vessels through whom our Father can and does work for His Kingdom.  It is encouraging to know He works through normal, ordinary, human just like me types.  We have read that our Father’s Word tells us to encourage one another as long as it is day (this present age before His return to earth).  To encourage someone can sometimes be listening to someone share their heart, sharing God’s Word (His heart) with them, praying our heart to our Father’s heart for them or sharing our heart with them.  If we as two people seek our Father’s heart in our midst and share our hearts with each other and then we share our hearts and a listening heart to others next to us, pretty soon we have a big long link of hearts all united together in Him.  Now how cool is that!  As a kid, did you ever fold up paper and cut out a heart shape in such a way that when you were done, you could open it up and have a whole long string of hearts linked together.  Spiritually, this is what I visualize with all of us as brothers and sisters united in Him and being connected with each other in heart.  Our Father is telling me that in doing so, it is important to be led by His Holy Spirit.  His discretion in it all is a good thing. Having each other linked together in heart is a gift.  It is a very special closeness between us as His kids.  Our Father’s heart added to the center of us makes it priceless.  I so cherish that in life.  Whoohoo – this excites me enough to skip to Kalamazoo!  Where’s is that?  Forget that and just know I’m so glad we are connected!  Love to ya’s ~

Php 1:3-7, 2:13, 4:14; Col 1:1-5; Heb 3:13, 13:5; Pr 2:11, Ro 8:28-29, 15:5-6; 1 Pe 1:22, 4:12-13; 1 Co 10:13; Jn 8:44-45;   1 Sa 13:14; 1 Ki 8:39; Jer 15:16; Rev 20:10

The Best Way

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Moments with My Father

 

I’m thanking my Father that it’s Friday – a new gift of opportunity to us all! One opportunity that I rejoice in is that I have the privilege of hearing my Father’s voice as He speaks through His Word to me. There is nothing like the power of His voice to do amazing things within my heart. What a delight He is in my life! This morning’s message I heard during my time with Him is based upon what Paul said “Whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” Have you ever found yourself headed in one direction in life and the next thing you know you are going the opposite or a different direction? You are going along full speed ahead and all of a sudden you hear our Father’s voice that changes your mind about the direction you are going and you immediately flip a “U” turn and go full speed ahead the opposite direction. I’ve been chuckling as a cartoon image fills my mind of someone running on a horse as fast as they can in a direction on a road, running past people who are scattered along the side when all of a sudden lo and behold, here they come running full speed back the other way. I imagine these folks along the road saying “What’s up with that?” Well, the Apostle Paul had this experience on the road of his life. He was full speed ahead in killing Christians – he was extremely zealous in doing that and then all of a sudden, he’s in chains in prison for his zeal in telling people how wonderful Jesus was! It could confuse an onlooker! One thing Paul was real good about doing and he loved to do was to explain to people what happened in his world that caused the change. In his own way, he basically told people like “Well, ya see, I was headed this direction and Christ told me this, so I turned around and now I’m going the other direction! The same thing can happen to us in a few different ways. 1) Our Father can will one thing for us in life for a time and then we can find out His will for what He wants us to do down the road has changed to something different. 2) We can be wrong in our interpretation of how God is leading us and when He reveals that to us, we change our direction. This happened in Paul’s life. 3) We can be running down the road of life, self-centered and aimed our own way for our own perceived profit somehow. Jesus then speaks to us about it and the next moment we become Christ centered and find ourselves turned around. In any of these ways, once the sake of Christ becomes the greater issue, we will find ourselves turned around. What we once saw as for our profit or gain becomes of little or not of value. I’m looking at this in my mind and asking my Father to show me if there is an area in my life where I’m heading in a direction that I need to turn around in and head the other direction. I am also asking is there something greater in my life that I see as more profitable or gain over Him? Yikes!! If so, I need to ask our Father to help me to view it as loss compared to Him and change my direction. Depending on the circumstances, it could be embarrassing as ya have to run past all those along the road that have observed ya before. It isn’t necessarily embarrassing that we are heading in a Godly direction now into the future, but that we were heading in the wrong direction before. I find encouragement in that our Father who is the greater observer is an understanding and forgiving observer and the great rewarder for new found obedience. To go the direction He desires is worth riding past all other onlookers. Who knows, seeing you run by them going the different direction just may cause them to follow along! Yeehaw! I’m seeking to ride His way through this day ‘cuz it’s the right way to run and it will get me to where I’m suppose to be going!

Php 2:3, 3:7; Acts 3:19, 9:1-30, 11:21; Jer 29:11; Pr 16:9; Eph 6:19-20; 1 Jn 1:9; 1 Co 3:10-15; Ro 10:2; Gal 4:18; Heb 4:15-16; Ro 12:2

 

 

Keeping the Faith by Sheila and Dad

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It’s Saturday and it’s a good day! I’m thankful for many things. Inside the Word today, Jesus and His disciples are leaving the temple when the disciples take note of the massive stones that make up the magnificent building. My Bible notes that some of them were 37-feet long, 12-feet high and 18-feet wide. I imagine the disciples saying something like “Wow! Would you look at the size of those pebbles. Those are impressive! I bet you can’t lift one of those over your head for exercise.” Jesus saw their interest in the stones as an opportunity to tell the disciples that before the coming of the end of the age when the Son of Man would be seen coming in the clouds, many difficult times would be experienced, including all the massive stones of the temple being thrown down. He said there would not be one stone on top of another left. To hear of such hard times and to experience hard times in one’s life can be a “downcast” experience alright. David understood this when he wrote “Why are you downcast, oh my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” Jesus who comforts the downcast, gave these Words of encouragement to His disciples: “He who stands firm to the end will be saved.” This means perseverance in faith will be the evidence of their salvation. Jesus was saying the key to getting through the tough times was to keep the faith! Even David when downcast concluded that he needed to put his hope in the Lord. The author of Hebrews writes that God is not unjust and He will not forget what we have done for Him. He encourages us to show diligence to the end to make our hope sure and to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what was promised. After waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. He was da man! When in a trial, we can usually always look around us and see someone worse off than we are that lends to being thankful we don’t have it worse and Dad’s Word says to keep our eyes fixed on one such as that – Jesus. Jesus endured the cross (Yikes!!!) for the joy set before Him. What joy is in that? The answer is the end promise. Dad said fixing our eyes on Jesus would help us to not grow weary and lose heart. So, what is the end promise? Jesus says He is coming to earth again and bringing His reward with Him. There is a day coming when the dwelling of God will be with His people and He will live with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away. Everything will be new!” But one thing won’t be – Dad’s Word. He has given us His Word and He will keep it to the very end! John, in the book of Revelation was told to “Write this down, for these Words are trustworthy and true.” In other words, they are set stones! Dad said “He who overcomes will inherit all this and He will be our God and we will be His sons and daughters.” Now to that promise, I’m keeping the faith to the end! Are ya with me?
Mk 13:1-31, He 6:10-12, 15, 12:2-3; Ps 42:5; 2 Co 7:6; Rev 21:3-7, 22:12; Php 4:6-8

Zooming in by Sheila and Dad

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Dear Family ~ I hope you all had a great weekend! Monday is here with the gift of another day of new opportunity. As always, I want to begin this day by listening for my Father. Our brother Mark is telling the story today of when the disciples and Jesus went to Jericho and as they were leaving with a large crowd, a blind man sitting on the roadside begging, hears that Jesus was near. How about that? It seems he had his listening ears on, too! He knew Jesus offered hope to his life and he began to shout “Jesus, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and basically told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more – Son of David, have mercy on me!” This man, as it is for many of us today, had those who voice opposition and seek to squelch our pursuit of Jesus. I find it admirable that this man didn’t listen to them and he was determined not to miss out on the blessing of seeking Jesus for His life! Hee, hee! I have to snicker here because I can imagine that if I was there, I’d be encouraging him “keep going for Jesus, dude!!!” I’m so glad he did! Well, what happens next sure blesses this cowgirl. Marks says Jesus stopped. In other words, when one who has faith in Jesus calls out to Him, He stops and zooms in to listen to His child. I don’t know about you, but that comforts me as one of His children to know He listens when He hears my voice! “Call him,” he said to those with Him. So the people following Jesus said to the blind man “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you!” Just like this man, when we have determination in seeking Jesus, we receive cheer and encouragement to stand and sometimes that cheer and encouragement is spoken to us through others who follow Him. Also, just as Jesus called him, each of us are called by Jesus. When you hear the call on your life, it is a precious gift and mine made me react the same way as this blind man did, in that once he received his call and his mind zoomed in on pursuing Jesus, he threw his cloak aside. He didn’t just set it aside, he THREW it aside meaning he had enthusiasm in the choice of doing so! Ya know, some things that are once valuable before the call of Christ lose their importance after Christ’s call. Jesus’ Words can be real life changers and we see this here as Jesus asked the man: What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man had a heart that wanted the vision for his life that Jesus could give Him and he told Jesus his desire when he said “Rabbi, I want to see!” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you!” The blind man not only received his physical sight as a result of his faith to seek Jesus, but he also received the vision for the direction he was to take in life. Mark says that immediately (without delay) he received sight and followed Jesus along the road. I’m so proud of this man for choosing to follow Jesus along the road of life instead of going his own direction. I have to smile here as I can visualize myself along the side of this man as we dance and clap our hands down the road along with our other brothers and sisters, all following Jesus and singing “I see the light, I see the light, no more darkness, no more night. Now I’m so happy, no sorrow in sight – praise the Lord, I see the light! Whoohoo!!! It’s such a gift to be on the same road of Jesus with ya! It sure makes for a great day! Much love to ya’ll ~
Mk 10:46-52; Php 3:8; He 3:13

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"Let it go!"

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>”Let it go!” by Todd Pierce

Philippians 3:12-14 says “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do – forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

For the past several years, I have used this passage to recalibrate my direction in life. I believe it is a principle that we should apply on a continual basis. But I also believe that at the beginning of the new year, we should especially consider what this looks like. When I read chapter three, I hear the heart of Paul as a man who knows his own human weakness, but has such a revelation of the Kingdom, that he pleads us to keep moving forward. Paul, as a man, needs to fight the tendency to look at past fears and failures and successes. Although we are told to reflect on the promises and faithfulness of our Father, we are not to allow our past to dictate our future. My prayer for everyone who reads this is that you will get a revelation on this truth.

I have stressed the importance of forgiveness many times, but I want to ask you to apply it to this season. When you forgive, you release. In order for you to take hold of what 2012 holds for you, you must let go of things that are in your past. The Holy Spirit is showing you things that are weighing you down, things that you need to release. Some of it is bad circumstances and relationships, but some of it may be great blessings you need to release. We are created to have blessings flow through us, not to contain them. So I say, “Let it go!” Whatever is on your heart right now, let it go. Get in the habit of quieting yourself before our Father and have his Spirit search your heart and show you what you need to release so you can move forward. Give it away. Whether it is guilt, money, shame, encouragement, anger, wisdom, bitterness or gifting. If it is a weight, release it to Jesus and thank him for new beginnings. If it is something He has given you, thank Him for the gift and look for how you can use it to serve someone. This is a new year so get in the present. Anticipate the great things our Father is going to trust you with and walk in wisdom on how to use it to build others up. I am excited to be a part of your life this year and look forward to all that we can share in.

In service of the King, Todd Pierce

www.ridinghighministries.org