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About Tamar

Tamar Knochel at your service! From sewing and crafting to words of encouragement when you need them most. I'm here for you. ❤️

500

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Tamar


Genesis 6:1-11:9

“And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” Genesis 11:6

I’m feeling rather hopeless at the moment. Not that I should be, I have no reason to be hopeless. You see, for the last four weeks I’ve been working on starting a preschool, Grace University. It’s been a dream of mine for many years now and God has just given me the “go ahead” on it. I’ve been going like gang busters this whole time, nothing Satan threw in front of me could stop me or keep me from believing that getting this preschool started by September 3rd was possible, until this weekend.

I received an email from the pastor of the church where we have been hoping to hold the preschool. They need $500 up front to cover their insurance costs, which I completely understand, except I don’t have $500. And I’m coming to realize that had they asked for 500 signatures, or 500 waffles or 500 monkeys I probably wouldn’t have batted an eyelash at them and just said, “OK, let me go take care of that for you, I’ll be right back.” But as soon as you throw a dollar sign in front of that 500 I become suddenly paralyzed. Monkeys I can find, money, well that’s much harder.

I know it sounds silly, but it’s true! At least that’s the way things seem to be working in my head anyway. I have apparently been so brainwashed by Satan to think that $500 appearing in the next seven days is just too impossible for me. Oh sure God can provide it for someone else, but give it to me in order to do what He’s asked me to do, no way. I’m not sure where the hang up has come from, or why I have it. But one thing is for sure! I want to get rid of it forever!

I have had more financial miracles happen to me than I know how to count, yet when it comes time for me to need another one all I do is pout and doubt. It makes no sense! But I guess I’m in good company seeing as how that’s exactly what the Israelites did. God parted the largest body of water around so that they could walk across on dry ground. Yet three days later they’re thirsty in the desert and suddenly they forget who they’re following, you know, the God who just parted the waters. “Maybe if we ask nicely He will give us some water. Nah, we’ll just moan and complain and talk about life being better in slavery, that’ll work.” Yeah right! Where DO we get This feeling of hopelessness in the sight of the giver of Hope Himself?

I feel like Hagar after she had been cast out of Abraham’s house (again) and she was sitting near a well dying of thirst. I know the well is near, yet I’ve refused to drink from it, why? Sadly, I don’t know the answers, only more questions. But I know the answer giver, He’s my friend.

Speaking of friends, I was sharing a bit of my angst with my friend Tracy yesterday and she asked me, “Stand firm on what you know to be true.” And it made me think, what do I know to be true? I know that this preschool is definitely part of God’s plan for me, He told me so years and years and years ago. I know that now is the time for it to happen because He told me that too. So I’m taking these two Truths and holding them up to the circumstances around me that seem to be telling me something different and now I have to decide, which one do I believe? The two truths that God told me, or the things that are contradicting them? I’m going to choose to believe the Truth from God and allow Him to deal with the things that are standing in my way to making those two truths become a reality in my life.

I also know that Satan would do ANYTHING to stop this preschool from happening. He knows what kind of a school we’ve dreamed for It to be and he knows that we’ll do everything we can to make it just that. Grace University.

Categories: 365 Life, Genesis, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

What Kind of Father is God?

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Tamar


Genesis 1:26-5:32

“But the LORD called to the man” Genesis 3:9

Yesterday I talked about my fear that when I sinned God would turn away from Me, that He would stop talking to me. Today God has provided me with the perfect examples of how He DOESN’T do that.

There are a lot of things I have learned in my eleven years of being a parent. One of them is the astounding wisdom that comes with being a parent. Well, at least it astounds my children anyway. You know what I mean right? All the times when you can “see” what they’re doing even when you’re not in the same room with them. Case in point, just last night the kids were supposed to be getting ready for bed. Anna was completely ready and back in the living room ready to do our night time devotional, Gabe on the other hand, who is usually the first one ready, was still in his room. And without even getting up from his chair in the living room Sean said, “Gabe, put your Legos down, get your pajamas on and get in here!”

At no point could we hear him sifting through his Legos, did Anna tattle on him, nor did either one of us get up to look and see what he was doing. Yet we both knew exactly what he was doing that was keeping him from doing what he was supposed to be doing at that moment.

I mean honestly, how many times have you heard the saying “Moms have eyes in the back of their heads”. It’s because we know our children so well that we don’t have to be in the same room with them to know what they’re doing. The same is true, only more so, with God. He knows His children well enough that He knew exactly what was happening before He even entered the garden that day. But like any other dad He has to go through the whole conversation with them and hash out what happened.

“But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’ Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'” Genesis 3:9-13

Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough conversations like this with kids that to me I can just see little Adam and little Eve pointing their fingers down the line blaming the one next to them. I can see the mess of fig leaves all over the ground the core of the forbidden fruit cast aside in shame of what they’d done. I can see their big round eyes shiny with guilty tears and the fear of having been caught knowing that there would be a consequence. Yes, this scene is all too familiar to me because I’ve seen it play out before me many times in the last eleven years. But before that it wasn’t a scene that played out before me, it’s the scene I played.

The guilty party hiding behind another tree in shame of what I’d done, knowing that it was wrong but having done it anyway. Afraid of what God would say when He “found out”. You seriously can’t tell me He didn’t already know what had just happened in the garden, He’s GOD ALMIGHTY, He knew. He knew before He ever created them.

But here’s my point. Would any good parent know their child has done something like this and just walk away? If the child you carried for 9+ months in your womb walked out into a busy street would you turn your back and say nothing because they had sinned against you by not obeying your rule about not going in the street? As a parent, that would be the stupidest thing you could ever do. And you wouldn’t do it because it makes no sense what=so-ever. Your child would die if you were silent. So as a good parent you wouldn’t remain silent would you? You wouldn’t turn your back and walk away from your child who has put themselves in devastating danger now would you? So why is it that we think God does?

If you’re walking right into sin, through it even, and covering yourself with the fig leaves of shame, what makes you think that God is going to be silent about it? What makes you think that He will turn His back on you and leave you in that dangerous situation? Is He not a good parent, better than any kind of parent we could ever be?

Right here in scripture, in today’s reading, we find it not once but twice that He is precisely that kind of parent. When Adam and Eve fall into sin, God comes and confronts them with their sin immediately before they can do any more damage. Then again when Cain kills Abel God immediately calls him into accountability. In neither situation did God remain silent and walk away from His beloved child. In both cases He walked TO them and talked TO them.

For far too long God has been painted as a vengeful God acting only in wrath and justice toward his children. But that is never the kind of parent He has been. Not ever. When I read these passages, I see my dad with me. I see my husband with my children. The kind of father that comes in and sees the mess they’ve made and says, “This is not acceptable behavior. Now clean up the mess you’ve made.” And if the mess is bigger than they are, or dangerous for them to clean up (broken glass/lives) then He helps them repair the damage and then they all move on with life because forgiveness has taken place as well.

God isn’t vengeful, He is love. His anger isn’t directed toward you, it’s directed toward the mess you’ve made for yourself and the danger you’ve put yourself in. Why? Because HE LOVES YOU! He loves you enough to correct you when you’re going the wrong way, when you’re wasting your time doing the wrong things. Your time is the most precious commodity you have on this planet. It is the ONLY thing that you have that once gone there will never be more. So we’ve got to make sure that we’re spending it wisely. And I can tell you from my own experience lately, God won’t let you go too far down the wrong road before He stops you and tells you to turn back around and head a different direction. He is so good that way!

Are you like I was? Did you see God as the kind of God that would stop talking to you and stop blessing you if you did something wrong? Did today’s reading change the way you saw God as a father? How has it changed your thinking? Food for thought at least isn’t it.

Categories: 365 Life, Genesis, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

The Gospel Truth

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Tamar


Galatians 3:1-6:18 & Genesis 1:1-25

“For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” Galatians 6:15

I particularly love that God had us end Galatians with this scripture about the importance of realizing that we have been made new through Christ, then follows that with what else but the creation story! It’s poetry!

There is a key truth hidden amongst all the gospels and many of the letters of the New Testament that took me years to realize. “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14 Tell me my friend, if you don’t love yourself, how then will you ever be able to love your neighbor? And how can you love yourself if you only ever see the things in yourself that you don’t love?

You know that’s what we do, especially we women! We nitpick every single little thing about our bodies and about our personalities. Very often we hate ourselves.

God took me through a season in my life where I was extremely legalistic. I paid so much attention to myself and what I was doing and what I was thinking and mentally scolding myself for every single little thing that I became completely wrapped up in my sin. It became the only thing I could think about. And because we can always see the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye better than we can see the log in our own eyes, my sin wasn’t the only sin I was focusing on!

I was one of the most judgmental, critical, condemning people I knew. And I hated myself. I hated that no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t obey the law. I couldn’t keep from being angry with others and calling them things in my head. I couldn’t keep from seeing every single little thing they were doing and thinking of how they were sinning and should be repenting and asking for forgiveness. You know, they should be just like me, constantly begging God to forgive the little sinner girl who can’t do anything but sin.

Then slowly, bit by bit, God began revealing His radical Grace to me with questions. I was introduced to this man who had experienced the same type of legalistic season in his life. His attention had been constantly trained to look for sin in order to flush it out of his life. He was desperately in love with God and was fearful of God’s wrath in his life if he didn’t constantly ask for forgiveness for every little thing he had done or thought. As he told his story I felt so connected to him, because I felt the same way! I was acting in the same manner and I didn’t like the way that it felt, but I didn’t know any other way. It’s what I had always been taught, relationship through religion.

But little did I know that relationship with God doesn’t come through religion, works of the flesh, the things that we DO. Relationship with God comes through faith in the One and Only Jesus Christ. Through being introduced to this man and his testimony I began to question my methods. Was I focusing too much on myself? Could there be any other way? A way where instead of focusing on myself and my sin I could focus on Jesus and His sacrifice and Grace and count on that to save me from the wrath of God? It took a lot to convince me, but the Holy Spirit finally won me over! I finally came to believe in the radical Grace of Jesus. It’s a kind of grace that covers all of our sins once and for all so completely that there are no sins left to confess! You know, because He took them all at the cross.

It’s kind of hard to pay off a debt when it’s already been paid. And even if you’re trying to keep making payments, an honest company will start sending your checks back to you! And that’s what God did for me. I kept asking Him for forgiveness and He kept asking me, “Why are you asking Me to do something I’ve already done? I forgave you at the cross for that, remember?” I kept thinking, “there’s no way that God could be ‘that good’, that He could forgive me that completely that I don’t even have to ask Him to forgive me when I sin.” But little by little, because the LORD is so amazingly patient with us, He kept sending me messages. A dream about His goodness, a message during church from the Holy Spirit, but the one that made all the rest of the messages sink in was the message through my daughter and her pink polka dot kitty. God finally convinced me that He really could be so good as to forgive me so completely that I don’t have to keep asking for forgiveness in order to have fellowship with Him. I just need to keep thanking Him for the cross and the empty grave. I just need to keep remembering that I HAVE been forgiven, that I HAVE been made new, and that I HAVE been given a new heart and a new spirit that will guide me into all truth.

I believed a lot of lies for a very long time. If someone told me something from the pulpit, I believed it hook, line and sinker, just because they looked like they knew what they were talking about. No longer! I’ve taken my religion and my relationship into my own hands. I don’t believe everything that everyone tells me any more. I believe what the Holy Spirit tells me through His Word the Bible. I read it for myself now instead of letting other people read it for me and tell me what it says. And I highly recommend that you do the same!

Don’t just read what I have to say and skip the daily readings in your Bible. If you’re doing that then you’re no better than what I was. You’re letting me have a relationship with God for you and living vicariously instead of having the relationship with Him for yourself. I can tell you from experience that it is certainly not the same. In a million years, for a bazillion dollars I would never, no not ever trade what I have with Jesus right now. I know HIM. I know Him through His Word the Bible. And His Spirit teaches me the Truth of His Grace. He teaches me the Truth of His love for ME. And I know that I’m not the only one that He loves like this. But often times I feel like I’m the only one who really understands it. And that makes me sad.

The result of coming to understand His Grace towards me, is that I have come to understand that if He can forgive me that completely. Then that means that He has forgiven everyone that completely. And if He has forgiven everyone else that completely, then shouldn’t I then too forgive them? No matter what they’ve done or said.

Coming to the point where I understood the blood of the lamb of Christ smeared on the doorposts of my heart has changed me so completely that there is no way I could ever be the same. Not ever. I’ve seen too much, I know too much, I could never go back to the way things were before where I was counting on my own good behavior to find favor in God’s eyes. Yeah, I can tell you that will never work. That’s WHY Jesus died; because He knew it would never work. So He made a way for us so that we could have eternal favor in God’s eyes no matter what we’re doing. We need only to trust in Jesus and His love for us.

Jesus loves YOU, no matter what you’ve done, no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve said, Jesus will always love YOU. And that my friends, is the Gospel Truth.

If you would like to read the whole story of The Pink Polka dot Kitty, click here to be redirected to my website where you can order your own copy.

Categories: 365 Life, Galatians, Genesis, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

Plan A

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Tamar


Ezra 9:1-10:44 & Galatians 1:1-2:21

“Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, ‘It is so; we must do as you have said. But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain; we cannot stand in the open. Nor is this a task for one day or for two, for we have greatly transgressed in this matter.” Ezra 10:12-13

God has plans for us. He tells us so in His book, over and over again. His plans for us are perfect just like He is, but we being human aren’t perfect. We’re not good at perfectly following perfect plans.

Once upon a time I was talking to God about His plans for us and He pointed something out to me. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD,” (Jeremiah 29:11) He has more than one plan for us. Meaning He has a Plan A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, O, P… And depending on how many times we choose our plans over His plans determines what letter plan we fall on. I mean, He’s God, He KNOWS what we’re going to choose to do before we choose to do it. So doesn’t it just make sense that He has also factored that into His plans?

So after He pointed out the “s” in plans I asked God how many people have ever accomplished His Plan A for their lives. You won’t be surprised at His answer.

“One.”

Only one man in all of history has ever walked through an entire life on this planet and ALWAYS chosen God’s will over his own, Jesus. And Oh how wonderful is it that he did! Jesus lived out God’s Plan A for his life so that when we are on God’s Plan ZZZ for our lives, it will still turn out in our favor, for our good with a hope and a future and prosperity instead of despair.

ONLY JESUS!

Thank You LORD for sending Jesus so that as long as we choose Jesus, our other choices, no matter how stupid or far away from your Plan A, somehow all supernaturally re-direct us to Your Plan A destination in the end. Your Grace and wisdom astounds me LORD. Thank You!

Categories: 365 Life, Ezra, Galatians, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | 1 Comment

I Was There

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Tamar


Ezra 5:1-8:36

You know, the Word of God never ceases to amaze me. I mean, here I am reading the book of Ezra, whose events took place around 538 BC and the things that I’ve been reading about have been directly applying to my own life today! While they’re re-building a temple, I’m building a preschool. While their enemies are trying to stop them, my Enemy is trying to stop me.

Some people may ask how an ancient book can apply to my life today, and the best answer I can give them is, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wrote the book in the first place, through the hand of Ezra. And the Holy Spirit sits with me every morning guiding me through His Words and pointing out the things that I need to hear.

In the beginning “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2) I believe the same to be true today, that the Spirit of God hovers over the face of the Living Water of His Word. Hovering over them just waiting for you to open the pages and read. And like a Holy Highlighter as you read with Him He magnifies certain words and phrases, sometimes entire paragraphs, pages and even entire books. I have been relating so strongly with Ezra himself and the builders of the temple. The opposition, the disappointment they must have felt with each road block, the joy they then felt when they received the decree to continue the building with not only the king’s permission, but his support! It had to have been tremendous!

For the last four years I have been typing alone at this computer, sending these words out into cyberspace, unsure if anyone ever really reads them. And if they read them, does it change them, help them, hurt them? For the last four years I have attempted church program after church program after church program with no success. I have spoken to completely empty rooms many many times. Each time I fe1t strongly like I had been called by God to work on that particular program only to have no one show up. Well, I usually ended in a pool of tears and a world of hurt. But each time, I would pick myself back up off the floor of my pity party, dust myself off, and move on to the next thing the LORD called me to do. I never gave up. Honestly, I couldn’t give up. I love Him too much to stop trying and stop working toward the direction He is pointing me in. I stood, when all I wanted to do was sit and cry. I sat and prayed when all I wanted to do was stand and work. Each step of the way harder than the last, yet in some strange supernatural way made possible only through the Grace of God I kept stepping, kept going, kept trying, kept believing that maybe THIS time would be different than the last.

There’s a modern proverb, “stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.” You know, if it’s stupid to keep believing that God will do what He says He will do even when everything that I’ve ever tried has failed, well then, OK I’m stupid.

Last night I was crocheting on the couch watching a sermon by Joseph Prince on David. And he said something about David I’d never thought of. Before he was king of Israel, before he was a musician for Saul, before he was anointed king even, he was shepherd of sheep. And he would sit out there alone on those pasturelands and sing to the sheep and God heard him.

I don’t know what Joseph said after that, because that’s when I lost it. In that moment when I pictured good ole David out there perched up on a big rock, his feet tucked under him, elbows resting on his knees just singing his heart out to an audience of no one but those beloved stupid sheep. And the Holy Spirit replaced that image with an image of me in a room full of empty chairs and silence, perched on a barren stage preaching my little heart out, giving the message God had put on my heart in that moment. And He said,

“I was there”.

“I was there in all those empty rooms filled with silence and ME. I was there with you all those times when you thought you were so completely alone and scared and mad because no one else cared enough to show up; I did. I was there. You couldn’t see me through your anger and hurt, but I was there all the same. I was there, even when you couldn’t feel Me holding you or hear Me soothing you, I was there. I was there because I CARE ABOUT YOU. I care about what you care about; I love what you love, although I love you a lot more than you dare to love yourself.

All those times when you did what I told you to do even when it was hard and you weren’t very happy about it, I was there. I saw your pain, I saw your anger and I saw your frustration, yet you obeyed anyway. You were faithful in a little and that’s a BIG deal. You were faithful when it was hard and you didn’t want to do what I had told you to do, yet you did it anyway. That makes Me proud of you and the YOU you’ve become My darling.

Your years of struggling have made you stronger than you know. They’ve shown you the courage I can give when the hope of help seems so very far away. They’ve shown you that you really CAN do all things through Jesus who strengthens you. They’ve shown you that I really DO love YOU and not what you can do for Me. Your years of struggling and frustrated pain have NOT been for nothing! They have been a boot camp of sorts. A training ground to prepare you for the real task at hand, the salvation of many lives. To be given something big, you must first be faithful in the little things. Trust is built, not given. You’re number one strength is your trust in Me. Your trust in My love, in My forgiveness, in My power, in My Grace and My salvation in times of trouble. If you are not strong in your Trust of Me, then you are not ready to move on and you will remain where you are until a new level of Trust is reached.

Have I EVER proven Myself unfaithful to you? No, I’m not a genie in a bottle that grants your wishes regardless of how selfish or destructive they are. Not answering 100% of your prayers exactly the way that you pray them is not being unfaithful, it’s proving My sovereignty and My goodness. You have no idea how many times you have prayed things that if answered the way you prayed them they would have caused utter havoc in the world around you, more than what you were experiencing at the time. My “no’s” are never out of wrath or hatred or anger with you. Not ever.

My “no’s” are there to protect you and keep you on the path I have chosen for you. They are an opportunity for you to TRUST ME and to let go of your plans in order to make room for My bigger and better plans for you. I ALWAYS have your best interest at heart My love. Always. TRUST THAT, it’s the Truth. You might not always be the smartest sheep in the flock, but you’re My sheep and that’s what truly matters to Me.

Following My lead is never stupid, even if it may look that way to the others on the outside looking in at you and I sitting in a pain-filled empty room. I don’t think you’re stupid. Because you’re not. You’re mine, nothing else matters! Nothing else matters.

Categories: 365 Life, Ezra, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | 4 Comments

Fight for Your New Foundations

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Tamar


Ezra 1:1-4:24

New day, new book! Yippee! 😀

It’s always exciting to start something new isn’t it? And today that was part of our reading. In the beginning of Ezra the exiles of Jerusalem are heading home and beginning to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the temple of God. It had to have been an exciting homecoming for sure! Yet when the foundation of the temple was laid, there were some who “wept with a loud voice”. It doesn’t explain why they wept, just shares with us that they did. And I have to wonder if perhaps it was because they felt as though the splendor of the second temple wasn’t quite up to par with the first. Or perhaps because they had seen the first destroyed and this new foundation caused them to remember that moment. Either way, there were loud shouts over this temple foundation, most of them joy.

This is what strikes me today, new foundations. Over this last month I have been pouring one of my own, working toward building a new school in Sheridan with a solid foundation of THE Rock of Jesus and the story of His everlasting Grace.

It has not been easy, but I have had a holy ease about it all. There is SO very much to do still, and every day the list gets longer, yet it has been good and productive and right. That’s the holy ease; when you’re working on something that just works.

But then demons report back to Satan about the work that you’re doing, the new foundations that you’re building, and the road blocks begin to spring up. Distraction has been my number one road block this month. With school starting back up for my kids, and friends wanting to spend time with me or at least call and talk (which ends up lasting for hours), I feel like things are starting to slip. I’m down to the wire at the moment. My school starts on September 3rd, I have thirteen days left for the concrete of my foundation to dry and cure. I hope pray that’s enough!

This is not any ordinary school. This will be a school that opened WILL cause Satan some serious trouble!

In today’s reading, the adversaries of Jerusalem went to the king of Persia and alerted him to this pending danger of the great city of Jerusalem being rebuilt. And the rebuilding process was ceased in Jerusalem almost immediately after. This, my friends, is precisely what Satan does. He does everything he can to make sure that any time you are laying a foundation that God has chosen to form; he is going to do everything in his power to stop it. And sometimes he succeeds.

My friends, we can’t let him. We can not let the Enemy of God stop us from doing what we know is right and good; which is what he is trying to do for all of us today.

Don’t let him stop you today. Whatever you do, fight Satan with everything you have in you.

Categories: 365 Life, Ezra, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

Take a Day Off

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Tamar


Ezekiel 45:13-48:35

“It shall be the prince’s duty to furnish the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the feats, the new moons, and the Sabbaths, all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel: he shall provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to make atonement on behalf of the house of Israel.” Ezekiel 45:17

God says we need to get outside and enjoy this beautiful day!

Categories: 365 Life, Ezekiel, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

Without Blemish

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Tamar


Ezekiel 42:1-45:12

After I finished my reading this morning, I whisked myself off to the kitchen to make myself a nice healthy breakfast next to cream-laden coffee. At the stroke of seven I flicked on the CD player and started up song eleven. Mandisa’s “Good Morning” blared through our house as I stood in waiting outside my children’s doors to pop my head in at them and sing at just the right line in the song.

I was not greeted with smiles.

I was greeted with groans of disapproval and dismay at the night being over and another day of school laying in wait for my children like a lion ready to pounce and devour. They may love school, but they do not love getting up for it.

As I bustled them along we magically managed to get both children bathed, dressed, fed, lunches packed and on the bus in THIRTY MINUTES! And I was practically strutting back into the house as they waved to me from the bus. Well, I pretend they wave back to me anyway, even if I can’t see them doing it. It’s too bad the “hate” school so much.

Yup. I was feeling like quite the awesome mom this morning. I was peppy and upbeat, kind and loving AND on time which is a hard one for me. I was walking tall and proud. (Can you hear the heavenly trumpets playing a victory song for me? Cause I’m pretty sure they did.)

I should have known.

I sat down at my desk full of vim and vigor from the successful send off this morning, ready to face another day of Preschool preparations and plans. As I started checking my calendar for the day and making some important phone calls, I found it. (bum bum BUM!)

Anna’s first homework assignment for first grade, and it WAS due Friday. It had gotten buried on my desk and I had completely forgotten about it.

POP! Mom confidence deflated in 0.2 seconds. Sigh… it was fun while it lasted…

You know, that feeling like you’re on top of the world and in charge and in control; and everything is handled. It feels great. But then something crosses your path that makes you feel about an inch tall, if you’re lucky. And you feel horrible for letting your family down.

Bad mom, bad!

You mentally strike yourself for not being perfect. Your record of mom success has been blemished and it will never be the same.

But what on earth makes us think that we should hold ourselves to that kind of standard anyway? I mean seriously, where do we get that drive to feel like we have to be perfect ALL the time otherwise we feel like a bad mom in need of punishment.

Who ever said that you were supposed to be perfect anyway?

And then I remembered it. The phrase I had underlined multiple times in my Bible this morning:

“without blemish” Ezekiel 43:23&25

Ezekiel was detailing the form of sacrifice that was acceptable to the LORD. Each time he said the phrase “without blemish” I underlined it, because it struck a chord in my heart. Jesus, so very unlike me, is the perfect sacrifice; He is without blemish or stain.

The Law requires perfection. Period. And while the Law is perfect in every possible way, WE AREN’T. We never have been and we never will be. We’re human, plain and simple and perfectly imperfect in every way. And that’s OK! You know why, because if we were perfect, then we wouldn’t need a perfect Savior.

If I were the perfect mom every second of every day then I would have no occasion to ask God to help me, to lead me, to say the things that my kids need to hear and do the things that my kids need for me to do.

My imperfections lead me to Jesus, the perfect sacrifice. In the Old Covenant when someone sinned and fell short of the glory of God they would choose the most perfect lamb from their flock and take it to the tabernacle to be sacrificed in order to justify them before our Perfect God.

Today when we sin and fall short of the glory of God, we need only to go to our Bible and hold out the perfect Lamb of God – Jesus.

He has justified us completely from all our sins for all time. He is the perfect sacrifice, offered up once and for all for the justification of one and all. Yes, even YOU.

No. ESPECIALLY YOU!

You have been justified by His Grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus! Don’t let your one failure ruin your otherwise perfect day! Pick yourself, dust yourself off, and keep moving forward.

I could let this one missed homework assignment haunt me for days with Mommy Guilt, but I’m not going to. While I may not be the Perfect Mom, I am the perfect mom for my kids. No amount of missed homework assignments can change that.

Thank God! Because I’m SURE there will be more!

Categories: 365 Life, Ezekiel, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

Derby Day!

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Tamar

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Ezekiel 39:1-41:26

Well my friends, today is another Derby Day! So I will not be writing in the reading, but instead I’d like for you to join in prayer with me for the derby.

Father God we come before You today and we thank You so much for the beautiful day that You’ve given us to spend outside with You and each other. Thank You Father God for the arena at the Indiana State Fair in which to perform and glorify You. We thank You for the ministry that You have given us to shine a light & we pray that we will do it to the best of our abilities. Lord I ask for special protective angels to come and stay at the State Fair today, especially over the drivers, over the audience, & over the officials. Lord I lift up the Bible table to you. I pray that you will have many many people walk past, see it, and stop to take Your word of life into their lives today. I pray that You touch their eyes to see You. That You would open their ears to hear You, that You would open their minds to understand Your Word and open their hearts to receive Your love for them today. I pray that You would show them Your love through us in wonderous ways today. And Lord, I pray selfishly that 7 x 70 will win the Derby.
In Jesus Name, Amen.

Categories: 365 Life, Ezekiel, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

He is for YOU

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Tamar


Ezekiel 35:1-38:23

“behold, I am for you,” Ezekiel 35:9

I don’t know if you have noticed in the last few weeks, but God seems to say, “You shall know that I am the LORD”, a lot. And it seems to always come after He has said that He would do something. Take 35:4 for example. God has just pronounced desolation and waste over Mount Seir and then finished the pronouncement with “and you shall know that I am the LORD.”

Then again in 35:15, “As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so I will deal with you; you shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, all of it. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

I find it interesting to look at the subjects of this verse. Look carefully and you find two. There are the people to whom He is speaking, Mount Seir and all Edom. But then there are also, “they that will know that He is the LORD.” And according to this verse, who do you suppose this “they” is referring to? Israel of course; they’re the ones that Mount Seir and all Edom mocked. In this passage of prophecy God is proclaiming over the enemies of Israel, certain destruction. And that destruction of the enemies of Israel will prove to Israel and their enemies that He is Yahweh.

Every time that this phrase has been spoken by our creator in the past few weeks I have marveled at it. I will sit there and just stare at it for a few moments. You see, there’s this thing we call faith. It’s defined in Hebrews 11:1 as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is where we read a promise that God makes in His word, like, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5) and then choosing to believe that it is the truth because our God Yahweh said it.

But then there’s this time that we come upon, where the Truth feels like it’s not the truth. Where the promise feels like it’s been forgotten. And doubt begins to creep in. We think: “God’s Word says that He is always with me, but it certainly doesn’t feel like He is with me right now. In fact it certainly feels like I’ve been forsaken and forgotten.” You have to know that that is how the Israelites felt at this point. They’ve been scattered from their homeland, their Promised Land. They’ve become the neighborhood laughing stock and everyone is talking and evil gossiping about them. They certainly don’t feel like Yahweh is with them let alone for them.

But He is. They are His people; He adores them, no matter how many stupid things they do. But more importantly than that, He is Yahweh, a God of His Word. He is the one that says “I have spoken and I will do it”. (Ezekiel 37:14)

Do you feel like you’ve been abandoned by God? Have you stood up for Him and are now getting persecuted for it? Are people saying things about you or your ministry that just simply aren’t true, but they sound good to itchy ears? Guess what. He is Yahweh. He has PROMISED never to leave you or forsake you, no matter how many stupid things you do. He is Yahweh, God of His Word. He has spoken and will do what He speaks, because He is Yahweh. He IS with YOU, He has not forsaken you, so fear not. While things may feel “fallen apart” at the moment, they aren’t. He sees what they’ve done to you. He has heard what they are saying about you. And He WILL defend you. He is for you and not against you. Fear not dear one, Yahweh LOVES YOU. And the time WILL come when everyone will see the favor of God Almighty resting on your shoulders like a laurel wreath of victory. Until then, hang tight, stand tall and firm in your faith that His word is Truth.

“If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” (Isaiah 7:9)

Categories: 365 Life, Ezekiel, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | 2 Comments

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