Test
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5 Women With a Connection…Part 3
Have you ever left your home and family to move to a place you had never been? Perhaps even a foreign country? That’s what Ruth did. Maybe you are familiar with her story, maybe not. Let’s back up and talk about her mother-in-law Naomi. She, along with her husband Elimelech and sons Mahlon and Chilion, moved from Jerusalem to Moab (a godless nation) due to the famine in Israel. This was a time period of the Judges in Israel and the famine was devastating. In Moab, the sons married Moabite women. Eventually, her husband and sons died leaving Naomi, and her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, widows. In that day…
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5 Women With A Connection…Part 2
Have you ever done something that you think eliminates you from being used by God for Kingdom purpose? The is the second in a series so please click this category to read part 1 if you missed the intro. The woman in scripture we will look at today is Rahab. First, think about the things you already know about her, if you know her at all from Joshua 2. One word that normally describes her is her occupation: prostitute. We don’t know if she was without any support at all for her daily needs, or if she actually supported her family with this trade. One thing we do know, at…
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5 Women With a Connection…Part 1
Let’s start this post by asking a question. How do you think God uses you, personally? Why does He use you this way? Even right now, with the story you have lived in the past, and are currently living, whether smooth or bumpy? This post starts a series on 5 women in scripture who are connected to each other even though living in different biblical time periods. So, start by thinking of what you know about being a woman in the middle eastern ancient world. What challenges did they have? How would you navigate life if you had lived there in that time frame? Let’s take a look at Tamar first.…
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2022 Beach Lesson
So after years of hearing from the Lord when I’m at the beach (just click the “Beach Lessons” category for evidence!), I don’t always hear “new” things, but sometimes I hear old things in a new way. This year that happened. I heard something I know, but with a fresh visual. It came to me in a variety of ways: through a couple of books I was reading, and by watching the shoreline. Life has had lots of twists and turns this year, mostly unexpected ones. Some painful. Some just a nuisance. But even as I’ve waited for resolution and healing, I’ve known that God was in control and had…
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My Soul’s Longing
Something occurred to me recently regarding why I want others to know Jesus and why my heart for discipleship has been a calling now for about 40 years or so. Because it was quite a few years between my salvation and the first time someone personally discipled me and showed me how to grow in Christ, I do not want that to be the story for other new believers. Some days, even during difficult seasons, my time with the Lord just causes my soul to soar and all I can think is, “I so want others to experience this satisfying joy.” A joy that transcends earthly concerns and pain. The…
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Lessons from #MoDawg
Listening has been the theme of some recent posts, today is another. You may know that our 12 year old Yorkie Mo has been blind for about 2 years. Today we took him kayaking, which he loves, and also for a walk in the park. In the past, we let him off the leash to run his legs off. Then he went blind. He still loves the freedom to run. Although we let him off his leash occasionally in an open field, he’s much slower than before, more cautious, and he depends on our voice commands to guide him safely, and so he can locate us. Today as we watched…
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Treasures
I started this train of thought last week in When It Makes No Sense. Today, I want to share 7 follow up treasures He has given me, and how I am getting those insights. I do not like waiting for answers…just ask my former co-workers! I’m just not good at waiting. And right now…waiting is where I am. But in the waiting, the Lord ALWAYS shows up. These things occurred (and this time I was listening!) in a weeks time. And even though resolution has not yet appeared, He has shown up, every single day! 1 I read the phrase “don’t hurry through the heartache” alongside Romans 8:28, “We know…
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When It Makes No Sense
It was one of those days. I’d been dealing with something heavy on my heart. Something that just isn’t how things should be. This led me to look at others and wonder why my situation couldn’t be fixed like their situations seem to be. This day, as He does often, God spoke in various ways as I spent time with Him on my deck. I started with the song, Sovereign Over Us, one I listen to especially when I just need the reminder of His sovereignty over EVERYTHING. Take a listen. My Bible reading then took me to John 21 and the conversation Jesus had with Peter, after He told…
- Beach Lessons, Leadership Lessons, Lessons, Spiritual Growth, Test, The Cost of Leadership Series, Trial
The Cost of Leadership Part 7
Please start with the first 6 posts in this series if you haven’t already. The seventh aspect in the cost of going deeper is battles. Followers of Christ have an adversary, and his name is Satan. His desire is to keep us from knowing, serving, and trusting Christ as we walk with Him. At times we will carry scars from the battles with him. Ultimately Christ has won the war, but this side of heaven the enemy still has influence on earth that we will face continually. It may come through painful relationships, failure, criticism from others, health…any number of situations in which we face spiritual warfare. Even when we…
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Two Book Recommendations
I recently finished reading two amazing books I want to recommend to my readers. The first is When Strivings Cease by Ruth Chou Simons. My D-group did a slow walk through this book. I wrote one post on it in Perfect? For Who? since I am a recovering perfectionist! Ruth takes us from a “self help” mentality to a grace mentality as she reminds us of who Christ is and what He has done for us. Because of His grace we can walk in confidence in His image and stop striving to work our way through self-help methods. Yes, there are things we do to become disciplined disciples, but even those things…
