You know that I never double post unless it’s an accident. Today is no accident! Last night I dreamt that I was sitting in church and when the offering plate came around I looked in my purse to give and there was a really old savings bond for $100 that had NOT been there before! Then when I woke up the tune only for the old hymn “Blessed Assurance” was going through my mind and wouldn’t stop until I remembered enough of the words to be able to look it up on you tube. I have already sung it through twice and once i’m finished sending you the link I will be singing it over and over again!
My friends we have such a wonderful blessed assurance in Christ, celebrate that today on this glorious day the LORD had made! Bask in His presence, get lost in His love! Get so lost in His love for you that you can never find your way out…not that you would want to.
Author Archives: Tamar
Blessed assurance
The Hallway
Today’s Reading: Hebrews 2:9-7:17
You are standing at the end of a long white hallway with a single door at the end of it. Walking down the hallway you notice that the door has something written on it, a label describing what lies behind the door, “Salvation”. You go to push the door open but it doesn’t budge so you turn to Jesus and the Holy Spirit who have been walking behind you on this journey and ask them why it won’t open. As a wordless answer to your question with a sparkle in His eyes Jesus hands you something, the key to unlocking the door. And as you stare down intently into the palm of your hand you find the tiniest of things, a single grain of mustard seed. You look to Him questioningly again; this is going to open the door? And like a refreshing summer breeze in the heat of the day flowing through your heart you hear the Holy Spirit’s words “For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed you will say to this mountain ‘move from here to there’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20) Suddenly, in your hand, the grain of mustard shifts into a mustard yellow key with the word “FAITH” engraved in it. Not surprisingly, it fits the door perfectly and as you turn the key the door springs open as if it had been anxiously awaiting. You take one hesitant step forward and enter through the door of salvation as you remove the key from the lock and it swings gently shut once more. The room you stand in is filled with a light that you simply can’t describe, perhaps because it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before in your life. You can’t quite seem to find the source of the light, nothing is hanging from the ceiling, no lamps on the tables that you can see until your gaze falls behind you once more and you realize that the Light is streaming from Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
(To be continued…)
Haggai & Hebrews
Today’s Reading: Haggai 1:1-2:23 & Hebrews 1:1-2:8
I apologize for all the delayed readings; I’m trying to get my house and kids ready to start school. Next week should be a bit better… I hope!!!
Mustard Seed Faith
Today’s Reading: Habakkuk 1:1-3:19
Here I sit today under the tulip tree in our front yard, sunlight dappled upon the pages of the book I’m reading when the author quotes the story from Matthew (17:14-21) of the father bring his demon-possessed son to the disciples and they can’t cast it out. So the father brings his child to Jesus. He is able to immediately cast out the demon and the child is instantly healed. Later the disciples question Jesus why they couldn’t do it and He says to them: “Because of your little faith. 
Truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.”
I can’t even begin to count how many times I have read this verse or heard this verse, and never caught the message like I did today. Jesus wasn’t rebuking their faith in Him! He was rebuking their faith in themselves!!! Look at the situation, the disciple’s faith was in Jesus and His ability to heal the boy, that’s why they brought the boy to Him. But whose faith was in the disciples? Jesus and the father’s. The father brought his son to the disciples for healing, he trusted these men to heal his son because they had done it for others. But in that moment they were unable to perform the miracle, why? Most likely for many reasons, but I propose that perhaps Jesus wasn’t talking about the demon that possessed the boy, rather the Doubt that hindered his friends. You see they didn’t doubt in His ability to perform the miracle, they doubted in their own ability to be part of it. Why? Perhaps they were really doubting how much Jesus loved them. They hadn’t been chosen to go up the mountain like Peter, James and John and perhaps they were a little hurt by that. Perhaps that was the foothold the Enemy used to get into their heads and totally psyche them out of their God-given ability to heal in His name.
Satan did the same thing to me last summer with swimming. It had been so long since I had been swimming in a real pool that I became afraid of going into the deep end of the pool without a floatation device. It took me all summer to work up the nerve to jump off the stinkin’ diving board for Pete’s sake! My dad was a swim instructor, I grew up in the water and here I was suddenly afraid of it for no reason! Ridiculous! I doubted my own ability to swim, something I had always been able to do. The disciples doubted their ability to perform miracles, we believed the Lie.
I want you to pay close attention to the words Jesus uses to finish His lesson on faith: “Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Woah, woah, woah, hold the phones, hang on, what!?! For who? We started this story yesterday hearing from an angel who had seen so many of the wondrous things that God is capable of that we could never even begin to imagine them all and he’s telling us with a laugh “nothing is impossible with God.” Yet here stands God in flesh saying to us that nothing will be impossible for us! When we hold fast to our faith; our faith in our mighty God AND our faith in our ability to do what God made us to do, to be who God made us to be – then NOTHING will be impossible for us. NOTHING! I pray that your ears hear this word for you today, THE Father believes in you – His friend, His child. He believes in your ability to do what He has called you and made you to do. He has placed hopes and dreams deep within your heart, don’t lose sight of those dreams, they are from Him, they are His call on your life don’t you dare give up on them. 
“For still the vision awaits its appointed time, it hastens to the end – it will not lie. If It seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” (Habakkuk 2:3) He is faithful. 
“Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” (Joshua 21:45) Nothing, nope, nothing is impossible. Not for God, and not for you. Keep on believing my friend, your miracle is right around the corner. He is faithful because He loves you!!!
NOTHING
Today’s Reading: Genesis 45:16-47:31
For the last three years I have had an 8×10 of this picture 
on my desk. “For nothing is impossible with God” Luke 1:37 It got put there as inspiration, to begin with, because I was living through an impossible marriage – but nothing is impossible with God and He changed that impossible marriage in thirty short days. I went from constantly being furious and unhappy with my husband and our relationship, to fulfilled and blissfully aware of our newfound intimacy. We recount that 30-day adventure in “True Intimacy” where I open the story with this very verse; for nothing is impossible with God, including an impossible marriage.
I find the story it is found in even more inspiring however; maybe because it is the story of Jesus’ conception through the Holy Spirit. You see the angel Gabriel has just come and announced to Mary that she will bear the Messiah; that she, little insignificant Mary has been chosen to be the woman to rear the God-head in human form. And she says to Gabriel “Ummm… I’ve never been with a man before, how is it that I am pregnant? I mean, I know I’m young and all, but I do know enough to know how these things work. I know that it takes a man AND a woman to make a baby so… how is this going to work… exactly?”
It makes me think of Sarah when the angels came to visit Abraham and told him that in a year from now they would have a child; and Sarah laughed. Why did she laugh? Because she was old and the “way of women” had stopped in her body. And on top of that Abraham had dried up! In other words they had stopped doing that dance a long time ago. So Sarah laughed because any natural way of conceiving was beyond them at this point.
While Sarah laughed, Mary asked “how can this be?” and this time God’s messenger Gabriel is the one who laughs. “Ha! You don’t know God very well do you? Nothing is impossible with Him! He’s GOD. He holds this planet in space, He keeps your little world spinning in motion, He tossed the stars in the sky and He knows the name of every single one of them, is anything too hard for Him? And yet you ask how He will do for you what He has said He would do? Nothing is impossible with God.” Just think, such a phrase as “nothing is impossible with God” was used to confirm to Mary that she need not concern herself with the “how”, but merely with the truth that God had chosen her to be His mother and His partner in His plan to save the world from guilt and condemnation.
This picture stood watch over me in my struggles to seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness so that I might receive the gift that God had chosen for me, intimacy in my marriage. This picture verse stood watch over me as I struggled to write that journey down so that others could find that gift as well. I had a dream of people actually reading what I had written and even when they weren’t, this picture stood watch over me reminding me that even this impossible dream could come true too if only I kept believing and seeking His face. And through it all Satan has been there shoving his lies in my face, trying to distract me from God’s goodness and promises with his half-truths his twisted thoughts and trying situations, and through it all God has ALWAYS pulled me back to His truth with one word, “nothing”. What is impossible for my God? NOTHING! What is it that God can not do for me His child? NOTHING!!!
This month, with a gift to the ministry you will receive:
Any amount – 4×6 greeting card.
$15 – Unframed 8×10 of Luke 1:37
$25 – Framed 8×10 of Luke 1:37 OR True Intimacy printed format (please designate which you would like to receive)
$45 or more – True Intimacy printed format, a framed 8×10 of Luke 1:37 & a framed True Intimacy contract
Contact me (tamarknochel@gmail.com) to donate, I’m working on some e-options at the moment but they’re not quite ready yet.
Surprise!
Today’s reading: Genesis 42:18-45:15
The other day I was driving in my car praying and asking God why He wasn’t giving me the sign I had asked for that what I had been believing him for would happen. Gideon got his sign, why not me? Then a story came on the radio that perfectly answered my question.
They were talking about how this Olympics had been the Twitter Olympics, if you’re plugged into the internet during the day you generally know the results of the competitions before they show them at night on TV. One DJ was sharing about his kids and how they had been watching the games the night before until midnight, sitting on the edges of their seats anxiously awaiting to see what would happen, who would win. Then they would jump up and down and scream when the US would win…just like their father knew they would. He had seen the results online already. And the other DJ asked him “you didn’t tell them who won?” He responded “No way! I wanted them to go through it and be surprised!”
Are you believing God for something? Don’t you want to be surprised? Can you just imagine God sitting up in heaven watching you, waiting for your own response to His plan and how it will all unfold so perfectly. Waiting to jump up in celebration with you when it does work out. Perfectly.
As much as I want to know how He is going to work things out for me, like He always does, if He wants me to be surprised, then I want to be surprised too. The anticipation may about kill me, but I know it will be worth it. And sooooooo much more exciting when it does happen.
God is good, all the time.
Gold Medals
Today’s Reading: Genesis 39:11-42:17
I’m on an Olympics kick this week, anybody else there with me? It’s so exciting to see these athletes represent our country by doing something that most of us would never even dream of being able to do. I mean, I was in gymnastics when I was in elementary school, but I could never do a back handspring on the balance beam or fly from one uneven bar to another. Yet here we’re watching these girls almost half my age, do just that and much more!
Earlier this week I watched the women’s gymnastics team win the gold medal; which was very exciting. I watched as the last Russian gymnast missed an element in her tumbling pass. The weight of that possible gold medal for her team and her country was so heavy on her shoulders that her poor little feet couldn’t hold it all up. So while the Russian team held back their disappointed sobs the American team was holding back their grins. The Americans then went on to do something I pray that I never forget. Because the pressure of needing to be perfect broke the Russians chances at gold, that same pressure was now off the American shoulders as well. They no longer had to be perfect in their routines, so those girls went out there and just had FUN; which resulted in nearly perfect performances.
Yesterday I talked about how looking to Jesus made shaking the “cling-ons” off my shoulders so much easier. This story is the perfect example of how that works. You see, Jesus has already won the gold medal for us. He was the perfect sacrifice so that we don’t have to be. Because He went through every day perfectly sinless, we don’t have to. All we have to do is go out there and have fun. Now, I need to make sure that you understand here that “fun” doesn’t include murder, or adultery or anything crazy like that. I’m simply saying that we don’t need to concern ourselves with being perfect. There is no way that we can be perfectly sinless, believe me I’ve almost killed myself trying. But that’s OK because we don’t have to be. There are going to be times when we fall short of the glory of God, like every day, and that’s OK, because we have been justified by His grace as a GIFT. The Enemy wants us to focus on the falling short part and make us completely miss the FACT that we HAVE BEEN justified. (Not are being, have been justified.) He wants us to forget that we’ve already won the gold and that all we have to do is go out and have fun in the performance of a lifetime.
The weight of your sins (past present and future) was taken off your shoulders and placed on Jesus at the cross. You no longer bear even a hint of that sin, so go out there and dance like you’ve already won the gold medal… because He has already won it for you.
Keep Running
Today’s Reading: Genesis 36:9-39:10
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been watching the Olympics in the evenings before bed this week. And I’ve been so touched by the roar of the crowds. Every time I hear those crowds cheering for the athletes they are supporting I can’t help but think about Hebrews 11 &12. In chapter eleven the author of Hebrews recounts the stories of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Moses, and many many others expounding on the fact that the reason each of their stories is important is because they acted “by faith” in each of their circumstances. Then at the end of this chapter long list of historic figureheads of faith Hebrews chapter twelve begins with 
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame , and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
This is the verse that I just can’t help but think of every time I hear those crowds cheering; once upon a time I was meditating on this very verse when God showed me the reality of what it means.
I was running on a standard running track, with lane markings for other competitors, though there were none. And above me the stands were FILLED with each of those people listed in Hebrews chapter eleven along with so many countless more that are not listed in any catalogs of history, but rather listed in that ever precious book in heaven, the Lamb’s book of Life. And as I ran and looked around at each of those faces watching me run this race of life, hopefully with perseverance, they were cheering as loudly as they could… all for me. My grandmother, my great-grandmother, my uncle and others that have passed on before me, some I recognized and some I didn’t but all were cheering for me. As I turned my head back to the track I could see the finish line and there was Jesus, crouched down as though I were a small child running towards Him, with His arms open wide just waiting to receive me into them and embrace me in a big bear hug. But then as I ran, these little black creatures began jumping onto my hands and shoulders trying to slow me down from reaching Jesus. At first it was hard to shake them off, they just wouldn’t budge. The more I looked at them and feared that I might never get them off, because they were slowing me down, the less I was able to effectively remove them. However, when I turned and looked into Jesus’ eyes, His loving pose of waiting to embrace and the creatures simply fell off with a simple flick of my arm, and they were gone. With nothing hindering me I ran with a speed I didn’t have before and as I strode across the finish line I collapsed into the arms of the lover of my soul. His arms wrapped completely around me squeezing me with a strength that I was all too familiar with… it was the strength that I had been running with.
These Olympians have been training for this event their entire lives, as Christians we look forward to that moment of embrace our entire lives; the moment we cross the line between this world and the next and fall into the arms of Jesus, the lover of our soul. But the beauty of it all is that we don’t have to wait until that moment to fall into His arms. Because He is always with us, His arms are always wrapped around us. He is always there to scare away the demons, to shine the light of His perfect love into the darkness of our fears and make our doubts and hesitations flee. To run the rat race of life most effectively, we focus on the author and perfecter of our faith… and everything that hinders just melts away in the heat of the mid day Son.
Keep running my friends, we’re not in this alone we are surrounded by a GREAT cloud of witnesses, both in heavenly realms and right here before our very eyes. Can you hear us? We’re cheering for you right now. Listen for the crowd, sometimes distant in the rain on the roof or leaves in a summer breeze. Sometimes the crowd roars in the wind of a raging storm, the Father’s clap of approval in the thunder, the flash of His lightning as He throws His fists up in a shout of victory. “You did it!!!!!”
Keep running my friend. Keep running.
God is with you
Today’s reading: Genesis 32:22-36:8
Today has been a day filled with blessings! It started with a dream of Jesus and I hanging out on the beach drinking the Holy Spirit together until we were as drunk as skunks. Followed by a much needed meeting of the minds at the local park, I love my sisters in Christ! Lunch at a PACKED Chick-fil-a and then finishing the day with our booth at the local Farmer’s Market. Where we sold several cards, a copy of The Pink Polka dot Kitty and gave away FIVE BIBLES!!!!!!! Then to cap off the day, for dinner we had pepperoni mostacholi that I didn’t even have to make or pay for! But honestly, none of that was the best part of the day. The best part was that while I was doing all those things I knew with out a shadow of a doubt that I was doing it all with God. There is such tremendous peace in that.
In today’s reading God tells Jacob to go back to that spot where he saw the angels going up and down from heaven. And what is it that Jacob tells his family that they’re going? “Let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”
My friend, no matter where your feet have taken you today, God was with you. No matter where your feet take you tomorrow, God will be with you. If it’s a day of distress, God will be with you and He will answer you. If it is a day of joy, God will be with you.
He is faithful, and He will do it.
God Saw
Today’s reading: Genesis 31:14-32:21
In today’s reading, Genesis 31:42, we read that God saw Jacob’s affliction and the labor of his hands.
Have you felt lately like you have been laboring for something in vain? Like you’ve been believing for something and pouring yourself out for God and He hasn’t seen it. Fear not my friend, like Jacob, you may have crossed the Jordan with only a staff in your hand, but you will return to it with two camps! (Genesis 32:10) God is not blind. He has witnessed your efforts, He has seen your faith, He has been with you and will be with you always. He is your refuge and strength, an EVER PRESENT HELP IN TROUBLE. His arm is not too short to save nor His ear too dull to hear.
Keep the faith my friend, help is on the way. Sooner than you think.
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