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

Tamar’s 2nd Psalm

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Tamar

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him all creatures here below! Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts! Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost! Amen.” The Doxology (A Methodist Hymn – as far as I know, do other denominations sing this too?)

The LORD on high is my God. To You I raise my voice, to You YHWH I shout my praise. You O LORD are mighty to save and worthy of praise! You are the LORD my God, of whom shall I be afraid. For Lord, if You are with me then who can be against me? If You are fighting with me then I need only to be still and know that You are God. You are my rock and my salvation my fortress when I am weak of whom shall I fear? For Your rod and Your staff they comfort me. You’ve led me beside still waters in times of turmoil and unrest. You have placed me in green pastures and fields of plenty in times of want. When others around me fall prey to the Hunter’s snare, You hold me safe in the palm of Your hand. You protect me when I am weak, You are my strength. You are my GOD of whom shall I fear?

When I am in want You are my plenty, when I am thirsty You fill my cup. When I am hungry You bring me bread. When I feel alone You are my companion. When I am sad, You lift me up. When I am weak, You are my strength. My hope when I am hopeless, You are my defense when I am defenseless. Like a lost sheep crying out in the wilderness You rescue me and carry me home on Your broad shoulders. You hold up the whole world and yet never do I slip through Your fingers. You watch over the entire creation, and yet never forget to look at me. Lord, You hold me and comfort me, You love me with a love that has no abandon or limit. Your love is an ocean and I want to swim to the deepest depths. Your love is a tidal wave, let it wash over me with a strength that knocks me to my knees in praise of You! Lord, I have seen with my own eyes the physical financial bounty that You have poured out on others around me. Your goodness in the land of the living. I have seen the miracles You’ve done in my own house and I praise You for them because You are mighty to save and worthy of praise.

“O eternal  God, light surpassing all other light because all light comes from You! O fire surpassing every fire because You alone are the fire that burns without consuming! You consume whatever sin and selfishness You find in the soul. Yet Your consuming does not distress the soul but fattens her with insatiable love, for though You satisfy her she is never sated but longs for You constantly. The more she possesses of You the more she seeks You and the more she seeks and desires You the more she finds and enjoys You.” *

Lord, You are the God of hope and You fill me with all joy and peace as I place my trust in You alone. My heart overflows with excited hope and anticipation through the power of the Holy Spirit. “With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our fathers; You crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish. It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was YOUR right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, for You loved them. You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. Through You we push back our enemies; through Your name we trample our foes. I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but You give us victory over our enemies, You put our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise Your name forever.” Psalm 44:2-8

Pray this prayer with/for your family today: “Lord, God Almighty, holy is Your name. We the __________ family place our trust in You and You alone. We believe in Your promises that they are true and that You are who You say You are. Lord, the _________ Family believes that You will do for us what You’ve told us that You will do. We believe that we are who YOU say we are – Your beloved children, no longer slaves to Sin, Fear, Doubt, or even Hesitation. We the ______________’s believe that Your word IS alive and that it is active in us. We the __________________’s believe that together we CAN do all things through Christ who gives us strength! We’re no longer just believing IN You Lord; today, we’re believing YOU! In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

* Quote from Women of Faith Study Bible, New International Version. 2001. Zondervan. Catherine of Siena. P. 428

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Categories: The Crazy Mom Blog | Tags: , , , , , ,

Don’t Hold Back

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Tamar

“For whoever touches you touches the apple of [the LORD’S] eye.” Zechariah 2:8b

Yesterday a man came up to me without a word, handed me an empty bag, turned and walked away. I looked at the bag to find there was a note on the outside that said: “This bag contains everything you or anyone else around you will ever need. But remember this, the things from the bag are only good for one day, at the end of the day anything left in the bag will disappear.” Well, as you can imagine I was somewhat skeptical, but I kept the bag because hey, it was cute and it matched my shoes.

This morning when I grabbed the bag to move it out-of-the-way, I couldn’t! Because it was FULL! I opened it to find my Bible, money, paper, a pen, a new outfit, four tickets to the Colts game tonight, food for our entire family of four, a video lesson on symbols in scripture, time (24 hours to be exact), pictures of my friends and even some faces I’d never seen before, my phone and computer, a bottle of laundry detergent, and a whole bunch of other things. I gasped as I saw the abundance laid out before me! I praised God thanking Him for filling my bag with the things I needed and He reminded me “These things are for today, and not all of them are for you. Some of these things are for the people around you too. I’ve simply put them into your hands first in order to bless you both, instead of just them. Now, don’t forget, all these things are for today, so don’t hold back in using them and giving them away because there will be more here in the morning for tomorrow. Just like the manna in the desert was for that day, so it is with this bag, its contents are for TODAY. Some of them may last a few days, a month or two or even a lifetime and they are all necessary to fulfilling the calling on your life. But the MOST important thing to remember is to not hold anything back, because that shows your fear of the unknown tomorrow. It shows Me that you don’t trust Me to fill your bag back up tomorrow. When you feel Me nudging you to give something away, you need to do it. When you feel Me telling you to spend money on something – no matter how ridiculous – you do it. Maybe I’m having you buy it for later, maybe I’m having you buy it for someone else but either way you need to lean, not on your own worldly understanding of how things work, but rather lean on Me and My understanding of how MY world works, how My economy works, how MY blessings work. You need to stop agreeing with the world’s view of your circumstances and start agreeing with MY view of your circumstances. When you ask Me about Your situation, I will tell you what to do and when you obey Me, I will deliver you. Maybe not in the way you expect or desire, but in the way that you need to be delivered. I may not snatch you from the situation but rather walk with you through it – shielding you from the blows.

Don’t hold back in your relationship with Me, and I won’t hold back in My blessing of you. I have been chasing you down with this bag for so long, but you were so busy chasing after the things in the bag that you’ve been running away from Me. I’m so glad that you chose to turn around and allow my blessings to catch up to you so that I could tackle you with My love! Thank you for believing Me today for the provision I’ve been trying to give you for so long. I love you so much, I’m so glad you stopped running away from My loving arms!” “Lord,” I questioned Him, “will the bag ever stop being filled every morning?” “Only when you stop expecting Me to fill it. If you stop putting your faith in Me to provide and start taking matters into your own hands – going your own way – then yes, I will stop filling it and you’ll have to do it on your own. That’s what happened to Adam. He decided to trust in his own strength and not Mine and look where it got him. By the sweat of his brow and the toil of his hands he earns his own daily wage. The same will happen to you if you stop trusting, listening and obeying Me. But if you continue to trust, listen and obey My commands – My gentle nudges, then I will bless the work of your hands instead of curse it. I will bless your going in and coming out, I will bless the ground your feet will walk on, and I will curse those who curse you and bless those who bless you. You are the apple of My eye and the fruit of My garden when you obey Me. When you obey Me, you will be in the Garden of God where you will want for nothing because you will have everything you need. Oh how I love you, My Beloved Bride! And if all this isn’t enough for you, you need only ask, believe and then wait and I will give it to you.”

“And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will be it’s glory within.’” Zechariah 2:5

“’Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,’ declares the LORD.” Zechariah 2:10

“All these blessing will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:” Deuteronomy 28:2

“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set  before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now CHOOSE LIFE, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the LORD is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” Deuteronomy 30:19-20 emphasis mine.

“I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.” 2 Samuel 12:8

God is WILLING to give us more than what we could possibly imagine, but are we willing to believe Him when He tells us these things? Or are we too comfortable in our bondage, too afraid to take that leap of faith, so scared to fail that we let the opportunity to succeed pass us by? I pray that today we ALL choose to believe God and that His promises are not just for the people of the Bible, but for us as well. David, although a man after God’s own heart, was still just a man. Human, just like the rest of us. If God was willing to bless David with “even more” than the abundance that He had already blessed him with, then wouldn’t He be willing to do that for us too? God is no respecter of persons. He loves us all enough to die for us.

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Wonderfully Made

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Tamar

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”  Psalm 139:14 KJV

What is it about youth that we are so obsessed with? Why is it that we even want to look younger than we really are? Think about every year of your life so far. Have some of them been really great? And some of them really hard? During those hard years, what about them was so difficult? What did you do about it? During that time in your life where you were being shaken where did you look for help? Did you look to the problem or God? And now in the aftermath of that situation, looking back, what did you learn from that shaking? Did you draw closer to God through it? Did you learn something about yourself? Him? Someone else?

For every wrinkle or silver hair on our bodies, there is a corresponding event. For every scar there is a story, every broken bone, and new strong point (they heal stronger than they were to begin with). Every single tear that we shed God collects (Psalm 56:8). He CARES about our hurts and He never wastes a single one. He USES them to teach us, to mold and shape us and help us grow to help us heal. So then why, oh please someone tell me why is our culture so ready and willing to cover all that up; to hide the help that God provided us in our time of need? If every silver hair equals a lesson well learned, why dye it back to the way it was before and cancel out your wisdom? Pretending it never happened? How do you think God feels about that? I mean He’s the one who painted that hair silver in the first place isn’t He? If He’s going to take the time to count how many are on your head (Matthew 10:30) I’m pretty sure He’s got them all labeled with a color too!

When my husband and I were dating we used to always talk about growing old together, what we’d do when we retired, and how we would spend eternity together. Now, keep in mind, this is when we were young teenagers! And now, every single silver hair on my head is a reminder to me how I am now getting to live out some of those dreams with my husband, and that I am one silver hair closer to that final dream of eternity with my husbands – both of them! So now, tell me, WHY would I want to try to hide the fact that I am literally living out my dream of life with the man I love?

The same is true of my spiritual husband Jesus, think about it; He numbers every hair, collects every tear, and counts every footstep. Does it sound like these things matter to Him? Then shouldn’t they matter to us? Every morning women get up and paint over the face that God painted first. His fingers traced those laugh lines around your mouth, “Aren’t they beautiful?” He says. His brush painted that stretch mark iridescent, “Aren’t those children wonderful?” He asks. Those spider veins are His handiwork too! Your royal purple blood shining through your fleshy exterior. “Oh, you are so beautiful!” He exclaims proudly, “I did such a work on you, and that’s just on the outside! You should see what all I’ve painted on the inside!”

She who has eyes let her see! We may think a child’s skin is beautiful because it is flawless, but really it’s because it’s still blank! God hasn’t painted anything on it yet. But you! You’re a half-finished work of art, painted by the Master himself. THE Master! Better than Picasso, or Rembrandt or hey, even Andy Warhol! This Master is the One who painted them! And He’s painting you too!

You may not like the way you look in the mirror, but God loves it! He doesn’t make mistakes (Deuteronomy 32:4) so why question His judgment on how low your breasts sag or how wide your hips are? And really, what’s the point? I mean where does it get you other than losing money on beauty “aids” and a huge loss of self-confidence in the beautiful woman God’s creating in you. No, He’s not done yet, that takes a lifetime, but look how far He’s come with you! Step by step He’s led you down life’s road, right by your side (whether you recognized Him or not) He was there the whole time. He is ever so fond of you, and loves you so desperately, will you choose to believe Him today? Will you choose to cling to His promise never to leave you, to never let go. Will you choose to believe Him when He tells you that you are fearfully and wonderfully made? If you do, it might just change your entire perspective on the world. Remember God doesn’t make mistakes, He makes miracles – that’s you sister!

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Made to Fly!

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Tamar

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

I was born on October 25, 1979 as Tyra Tamar Bosworth. For as long as I can remember I have been a Christian. I’ve always gone to church regularly, Vacation Bible School, I even went to church camp in the summers, you name it, I did it. In the fifth or sixth grade I was baptized and have since then grown up following Christ. And I really honestly thought I knew Him. In high school and college when life got tough I always pulled out my Bible to seek comfort. I was never much into praying that often to be honest, but occasionally I would. After I had our youngest child and we decided it was best for me to stay home with the kids full-time I started attending Bible studies. And honestly that’s when things really started changing for me. I started seeking a relationship with the God of my religion, taking Him off the shelf of my life and turning Him into the shelf on which everything else in my life now sits.

There were several big milestone moments along the way that really changed me. The first was when I made the realization that God is in control. (1 Peter 3:21b-22) There are no such things as coincidences in the life of a believer, because Jesus has complete authority! Well, this really changed my perspective on life a LOT. No coincidences in my life means that everything that has ever happened to me or ever will happen to me has a purpose. Everything! Which made me start thinking back… everything Lord? Everything? Hmmmmm…..

Then there was the day that changed my life forever and I’ll never forget it as long as I live. The day God spoke to me. ME! Well, more accurately, it was the day that I recognized my Shepherd’s voice for what it was. I was sitting at my dining room table doing my Bible study and I couldn’t get my friend Jill out of my head. She had, at the time, three rowdy boys and she was in a state of frustration with them, she needed a break! So I started praying for her and crying out for God to send someone to lighten her load for a while. And I kid you not, clear as day I heard (not with my ears, but with my heart in my head) “Well, YOU could take her kids for her!” I prayed something like “Hey, yeah, I COULD do that… wait a minute! Who said that???” It was then, in that moment that God finally came to life for me. You see, He’d always been there, had always been active, had always been talking to me, but I wasn’t listening for His voice and He wasn’t REAL to me. He was some guy up in heaven unreachable on His throne. Someone I could send messages to and read about, but know Him, like I know my husband? No, that wasn’t the God I had learned about my entire life. But that day, I realized that all those things I’ve read about in the Bible, they’re real too! They’re not just stories, they’re the Truth. And the things that God was willing to do for all of them… He’s willing to do for me too! For YOU! Yaweh sent Jesus so that we could have LIFE, and LIFE lived out to the fullest through a relationship with Him – made possible by the Holy Spirit. It’s through the Holy Spirit that two-way communication with God is possible. The Holy Spirit can only speak what Yaweh tells Him – He is the internet cable between God and humanity.

About a year ago I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and I now speak in a language that my brain doesn’t know. Yet my spirit, my tongue and the rest of my body sure do. I was having trouble writing that morning and a friend of mine came by to drop off some note cards she had for me. She asked if she could pray for me and the book. So I sat down at my desk and she laid her hands on my shoulders to pray, but she couldn’t think of any words to say. She didn’t know what to pray. So she asked if I would mind if she prayed in tongues. Now, up to that very moment I thought that was something reserved for Bible times, I had no idea it was even still possible today! I said “sure” in absolute amazement and she started praying. The most beautiful sounds just poured out of her lips like a gentle rain, quiet and peaceful and a little like bells. It was a language my ears had never heard before, but my spirit sure had and it responded! It knew and understood every word she spoke even though neither one of us had any clue what she was saying! When she finished, my whole person felt tingle-y and peaceful, like I’d been touched by an angel or something it was amazing. A little later that day she called me about some off the wall thing and the conversation turned to her prayer and how awesome it was to hear her pray in the Spirit (Romans 8:26-27 “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”) And she said “You know, you can pray like that too.” “WHAT!?! Really? How?” “You just ask Him.” (Luke 11:13 “If then you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”)

You see, everything God gave the apostles, He wants to give to us too. The apostles needed the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to tell the world (including those who spoke other languages) about the good news that an intimate relationship with God Almighty is possible! You see, it’s not ALL about heaven. Sure that’s a big part, but it’s not everything, there’s MORE! God doesn’t just want to talk to us when we get to heaven, He wants to talk to us NOW! He wants a relationship with us NOW! When Jesus died on the cross, He “gave up His Spirit” (Matthew 27:50) essentially releasing the Holy Spirit to come and dwell literally within our bodies. But only when we desperately want Him to. God doesn’t force us to have a relationship with Him, it’s all up to us. When you’re baptized in the Holy Spirit it’s like going from a dial-up internet connection to high-speed! It’s not really all about the speaking in a different language, that’s just simply giving the Spirit a voice. No, being Baptized in the Holy Spirit is a whole new level of complete-surrender and intimacy. You become much more sensitive to God’s gentle nudging and to His voice. And with practice listening and obeying it just keeps getting louder.

I didn’t just want to be Baptized in the Holy Spirit, I needed to be! As someone called to public ministry, I needed to surrender my mouth (especially) and my whole body to God. But I couldn’t reach my promised land by crawling on the ground like a caterpillar. No, just like a caterpillar isn’t made to roam on the ground his entire life, I, just like every other human on earth, was made to fly! We can only get to our promised calling by surrendering our lives and our bodies to the One who made them in the first place. So just like a caterpillar wraps itself up into a cocoon I asked the Holy Spirit to come and wrap me up in His love. To change me from the inside out and make me into what He intended me to be. And when I started to emerge from His tender hands, I just wasn’t the same anymore. Just like the caterpillar, my transformation took a lifetime, 31 years to be exact. 31 years of learning and growing until the time came when God called and said “You’ve been a caterpillar bound to the ground your entire life… How would you like for me to teach you how to fly?”

Siiiiiiigh….. and now, I am!

— Tamar Knochel: The Butterfly 🙂

“I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” Ezekiel 36:26-27

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Matthew 3:11

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The Light

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Tamar

“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:3-4) “You are my lamp, O LORD; the LORD turns my darkness into light. With Your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.” (2 Samuel 22:29-30) “Let the light of Your face shine upon us, O LORD. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” (Psalm 4:6b-8) “When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” (John 8:12)

We have a 55-gallon fish tank in the middle of our living room. It’s had one light bulb burnt out for probably a year or more. So at least half of the tank is always dark. And when life gets busy and I get behind on cleaning it, I will often times forget to even turn the one working light on, because, why turn it on to see how yucky the tank is? That’s the way it’s been for the last… well… the summer to be honest. Until TODAY! I broke down and spent some bucks on the fishies, and bought TWO new lights for the tank. I put them in and was AMAZED at the difference! I hadn’t cleaned the tank, the glass, anything, the ONLY thing I did was turn a new light on into the darkness and suddenly EVERYTHING in the tank looked new! The plants, gravel and the glass all looked cleaner and even the fish had colors that I’d never seen in them before! All because I was seeing them in a new light… literally! Suddenly I realized that that’s exactly what happens to US when we choose a relationship with Christ. He takes our old burned-out light out and replaces it with the supernatural light of the Holy Spirit. And then amazing things start to happen! Even though we’re not spotlessly clean (“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23-24) His amazing light shining through us makes us look cleaner than we have been in months! His love brings out colors we never even knew we had! Strengths where there used to be weaknesses, confidence where there used to be fear, success where there used to be struggle. It’s through our relationship with Jesus that we can begin to experience life to the fullest degree possible. Not when we enter religion, but rather, when we enter into a relationship. There is a HUGE difference between the two.

God has really been stretching me on this concept. The concept of a real relationship with God Almighty and what that looks like, feels like, acts like, prays like. It’s been very different from religion. Religion is based on rules or the Law, right and wrong, black and white, traditions. But relationship is simply based on relation. How we relate to God and the world around us, filled with less black and white and rather color and depth, height and width. To go from the black and white two-dimensional world of religion and enter into the Technicolor high-definition world of relationship where NOTHING is simply black and white has made me feel a bit like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz! I’ve stepped into the place where everything I’ve ever thought I’ve know about God now has HIS light shining on it instead of my own dim bulb and there are colors and things that I’ve never seen before, concepts I’ve always just blindly accepted assuming they were correct and finding myself questioning them and testing them to see if they would hold up under this new light.

Something that is really blowing my mind today is that God knows everything. OK, I already knew that, but I mean He KNOWS EVERYTHING! Past, present and future, He knows it ALL. You see, that’s a big deal to me because I am a people pleaser, I care DESPERATELY about how God feels about me. Is He angry with me? Is He frustrated with me? Or is He disappointed in me? This last one is the worst one for me. I try SO hard to please Him ALL the time. But through all of this effort of trying to please Him I was missing something huge. God knows everything. Even everything about me! Like, He knows if I’m going to trip over one of my kids’ toys and speak harshly to them. He knows if I’m going to be bold and say “God bless you” to a complete stranger today. He knows it all. And since He knows it all, He’s not surprised by any of it, but rather He expected it.

As a mother I know my kids. I know that when I take my kids to the store at 7pm and they’re tired and hungry, things probably aren’t going to go too smoothly. I go into the store expecting them to struggle with maintaining their good manners. I’m also not surprised or disappointed with them when they start to melt down either. And why should I be? I’m the one that took them there in that condition in the first place!

My point is this, God knows when we’re tired of our circumstances and we’re ready to move on and He’s expecting a melt-down any second, He’s not angry or disappointed about it. He’s God. He knows everything! So what does He do? He hands us a cookie He had stashed in His purse for JUST such a time as this. Tells us to hang on just a little while longer. We’re almost done shopping there are just a few more things on His list and then we’ll move on.

Yes, it’s amazing what a new light can show you about the world that you carry around inside you. Things you never knew before.

Jesus, thank You for dying and giving up Your Spirit so that You could share it with us and shine Your beautiful light into our hearts and out through our lives! We are so blessed to be called not just children of God, but Your friends as well. Thank You for continuing to chase us down with the blessing of a RELATIONSHIP with You, the creator of everything bright and beautiful. We love You YAWEH! Thank You for loving us more than we can ever comprehend! I look forward to an eternity of getting to know You… but if You don’t mind Lord, I’d like to start TODAY… if that’s OK with You.

AMEN!

Categories: The Crazy Mom Blog | Tags: , , ,

Church

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Tamar

“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.” Proverbs 31:10

So often, as women, we hear people talk about “the wife of noble character” of Proverbs 31:10 and how as women we should strive to be wives like her. Which is true. But, I’m noticing that God rarely, maybe never, says or does anything for only one single purpose or meaning. Which makes me want to take a look at Proverbs 31 a little differently than normal today. This acrostic poem speaks of a wife of noble character, and as the Church we all, men and women alike, are Christ’s bride which then also means that the Church should be striving to be a wife of noble character. So lets dive into this and see what characteristics the Church should be striving to posses to please our husband Christ.

“A wife of noble character who can find?” We also find this phrase “noble character” in Ruth 3:11 where she has come to Boaz on the threshing flor and asked him to be her kinsman redeemer and he replies to her, “And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character.” So what made Ruth noble? She sacrificed everything she knew, everything she had, everyone she’d ever known to do the right thing and stay with Naomi. And even after they got to their new town and Naomi was stuck in her grief, Ruth kept doing the right thing and she went out into the fields everyday and worked so hard that people, important people noticed. Because of that, she was able to bring a wealth of food home to Naomi. So, if we as the Church are supposed to mimic Ruth, how do we do it? First, we stand by our man Christ! We don’t abandon Him at the altar Sunday afternoon as we walk out of church. We bring Him with us. Way too often as Christians we spend Sunday morning getting our bodies dressed, our bellies fed and feet out the door in a rush of yelling to each other down the hall “Hurry up! We’re going to be late!” We’re so focused on getting our bodies dressed and ready that we leave the house in our spiritual jammies! Church should be like going on a date with God. Something we anticipate, something we prepare for.

“While man looks at the outward appearance, God sees the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7) Now, if you’re spending all your time and energy getting your outward appearance ready for church… who are you really preparing to see? Is that who we’re supposed to be preparing to see? So how do we prepare our spirits for a date with God? We “get dressed” in the Spirit! How, may you ask, do we get dressed in the Spirit? We put on the Holy Spirit of course! Through prayer, praise and relationship with Him. BEFORE we ever get to a church building.

But really, what’s worse? Showing up for our date in our pajamas or eating and leaving and not taking our husbands home with us? I have to be completely honest, I did this today. All of it. I can not tell you what the sermon this morning was even on! I was so incredibly distracted during the service this morning because I had failed to properly prepare myself for the service. I woke up later than I should have, because at the moment my sleep seemed to be more important to me than my prayer time with the Lord. Then the kids woke up and the rat race began for the day. I didn’t even open my Bible or sing a single song before we left. And even though there was praise music playing along on the radio in the car on the way there I didn’t sing along then either, or pray for that matter. You see I had AMPLE time and opportunity to spend some private time with God before church, it takes us 30 minutes to get there now due to summer construction and road closings. Yet I still failed to do it. Then when the time came and I actually HAD the opportunity to WORSHIP Him in His house with my fellow believers, I couldn’t do it fully because I wasn’t “in the mood” still yet.

OH! But on the weeks when I HAVE prepared for our date… WOW! The Holy Spirit has moved me in ways that I never expected. Shared things that sent me to my knees in an instant. Spoken truths and revelations over me that I’d been praying for and waiting for. Yes, when I have come prepared, I have left that place filled and ALIVE with the Spirit of Jesus within my bones. His seed within me, ready to sow it into the lives of countless others throughout the week. It’s amazing to me what God can do with a little bit of preparation. What’s the old saying? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? I think that may apply here too! Just that little bit of heart prevention is worth so much more than an ounce; to God, it means everything! Because then we’re not showing up unprepared and embarrassing Him! Our efforts beforehand show God and ourselves how much He means to us, that He isn’t just a flash in the pan date, but that He’s a lasting relationship, our HUSBAND! The one that we want to spend the rest of our lives with, the one that we want to wake up to every morning and go to sleep with every night. Yeah, He’s that kind of God with that kind of love, you know, that forever kind of love.

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If you have been touched by the LORD through our publication of TODAY, please consider giving a gift of love to Tamar Ministries.

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Life Happens

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Tamar

“So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.” At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, “why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me – a foreigner?” Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband – how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” Ruth 2:8-12

When God blew the breath of life into Adam He was giving him LIFE. Not just a physical temporary life but a LIFE that was intended, created, fashioned specifically for an intimate, one-on-one spiritual relationship with its Creator. We are not humans with a spirit, we are spirit with a temporary body! From day ONE, God created LIFE for humanity as a gift to us. But Eve’s bite from the fruit spoiled that gift. Hallelujah that’s the beginning of the story and not the end! God, crushed at the thought of losing that intimate friendship with humanity sought to resolve the situation. Jesus threw Himself at the Father’s feet and begged to take the punishment we deserve so that the relationship could be restored and life could become a gift again instead of the curse sin had turned it into. Today, when we choose to have a relationship with Christ, we are choosing LIFE.

So many times we say things like “well, that’s life” as if to mean that bad things happen, or, well, that life isn’t a gift.  Every time we say something negative about life itself or any of the things or people within the creation that God gave us as a gift we are literally rejecting His gift to us, shoving it back in His face and telling Him it’s not good enough.

Lord, I don’t know how many times I personally have done this to you, but I know it’s a lot! Lord, I am so sorry, please forgive me for pushing your gift of life back across the table to You. I didn’t mean it! But Lord, the cursed life that I’ve been living, I do reject that. I know that it is not Your intent for us to live in bondage to sin, shame, fear addiction, prejudice, or malice. And instead, through the perfect blood of the Lamb, I claim the LIFE You made me for. The LIFE filled with hope, happiness, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control! The LIFE where I am filled with YOU! Lord, I know that I am a sinner, I am not perfect, but with Your help I can be closer to it. Please Lord Jesus, come and fill me with Your Spirit, please come and fill me with Your fire so that I may know You more. Lord, I want that intimate relationship with You, where I am Your bride and You are my beloved husband. The relationship where I can walk every step of my life in confidence because You are walking with me, through me! Lord, I don’t want to take another single step without You holding my hand and growing old with me, because the best is yet to be! Lord, the best part of getting and being married is knowing this person is going to walk with me for the rest of my life, that they are going to be with me, not just for the big moments when celebrations are in order, but for the everyday moments. For the stolen kisses in the kitchen when no-one is looking. For the moments when the kids are just being cute and you look at each other just to smile and laugh together. Lord, I want THAT kind of intimacy with You. I want those moments where I see a smiley-face in the soap bubbles of a soaking dish and know that it’s You smiling at me. I want those moments where I see a beautiful landscape and can feel You squeezing my hand as I look at it, as if to say, “I made this for you Baby”. I want that with YOU! I want to laugh with You over the silly things that I see in the world around me. I want to enjoy mourning, knowing that this is the only time in my eternal life that I will be doing it, because once we get back home that emotion won’t exist anymore. So I will “take joy” in it now while it lasts, but I promise not to linger in it. So please help me know how long is too long. Lord thank You for such a range of human emotion and how quickly we can swing from one to the next and experience everything in-between! Our human bodies are amazing and I thank You for mine because I am fearfully and wonderfully made!

Oh God how I love You! Thank You for being my LIFE partner and being here with me through it all. The joy and the pain, it truly is all a gift… even if it might not feel like it at the time. Yaweh, I praise Your holy name.

AMEN!

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Life: Stacia’s Story

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Tamar

“A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance.” John 10:10 KJV

I have to say that this is one of my FAVORITE verses, right now, because it reminds us that Jesus didn’t die JUST to make sure that we could spend eternity in heaven with Him, which is huge! But He came to give us LIFE! This weekend I fell in love… with a dog. His name is Rumpke – like the dumpster company. Well, as I was perusing the Hamilton County Humane Society website to try and find more information on him I came across the story of another dog. Her name is Stacia. Please take a minute and click here to watch the video of her story.

If you can’t get the link to work, this is Stacia’s story: Stacia, a pit bull, was left at the shelter by her original family, adopted and then shortly thereafter her new family came home one day to find her paralyzed from the waist down. They didn’t have the money to get her treated so they took her back to the Humane Society of Noblesville (a no-kill shelter) where they immediately rushed her over to the vet who did emergency surgery on her ruptured disk. She is currently recovering and undergoing water therapy to try and get the feeling back into her legs and paws so that she’ll be able to walk on all fours again, instead of two legs and two wheels!

In the video, the shelter representative explains how some people have questioned, why spend so much money (aprox. $3,500) on a dog in a shelter? A pit bull in a shelter no less? The first time I watched the video, I didn’t get to hear her response, because I was tearfully responding for her, “BECAUSE IT’S A LIFE!!!!” To so many people, Stacia is just a dog, but to God she’s a LIFE, part of His beautiful creation, and He loves her! Luke 12:6-7 says so: “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” Yet not one of them is forgotten by God, He doesn’t forget the animals. Watching that video really said so much to me about us as humans and the lengths that some of us are willing to go to help someone or something that could never repay us for our kindnesses. Luke 14:12-14 tells us “Then Jesus said to His host, ‘When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.'” The kindness that all the people at the Humane Society (and her previous owners by surrendering her instead of just giving up on her and letting her die) showed Stacia tremendous kindness, kindnesses that she will never be able to repay to them. But God can! Do everything in love, no matter who, or what, it’s for because God sees what is done in secret as well as what is done in public view and has the ability to bless you greatly for it. Take these people as an example! If they are willing to go to such great lengths to give a pit bull in a shelter a second chance at life, then aren’t we just as able to give our fellow human beings a second chance of any kind? God does it for us everyday!

P.S. More good news! Stacia has just been adopted!!!!!!! 😀

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Seeking Him

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Tamar

“Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33-34)

It’s been a rough week for me; a struggle simply getting back into writing daily. I’ve managed to remember how much I enjoy it and that this is a huge part of what God made me to do. But I was doing it out of a “have-to” attitude which wasn’t working. I’ve learned along life’s path that it’s always best to do the things that God has called you to do (like publishing daily). But I was coming at it from the totally wrong angle! You see God HAS created me to write, but He has not forced me to write. Just like He has created all women to have children, but He never forces them to actually have them (or keep them for that matter). I choose if I want to live out what I have been created to do. I get to choose if I want to be who I was created to be.

I was created to be, among other things, a wife, mother, teacher and writer. And there ARE times when I can manage to successfully do all four at the same time, but it’s not easy. There are times when one of my “hats” has to get taken off and put on a shelf for a while. It doesn’t mean that I don’t still bring my experiences from one area of my life into the others though. In fact, it’s quite the opposite! No, when I put down my pen and pick up a pan I don’t stop being the writer, the thinker, or the lover of Christ. It’s still a critical part of who I am. And when I put down the pans and pick the pen and Bible back up I don’t stop being the mother of my children or the lover of my husband. I’m simply changing my function while still being wholly and completely me. To completely set aside my family to write would be to deny half of myself, and vice versa. It would be impossible for Tamar to exist, because I would then become someone else entirely.

This week my struggle has been finding a good balance between the two halves of myself. And it’s been HARD. I have felt the pressure of the Potter’s hands this week and have tried my hardest to yield willingly to it… sort of. All summer long I’ve been forsaking my God-given gift of writing, as occupation, therapy and relationship with My Lord. I’ve been focusing on my kids and enjoying the summer with them. Which is fine, to a point. But God made it clear to me, that starting August 1st, it was time to stop playing and get back to “work”. And I have… begrudgingly. Like I said, I was coming at it all from the wrong angle; a grumpy and untrusting one.

The first few days I stayed up until REALLY late in the night to write. Then I would end up sleeping half the day away. With two kids at home, that wasn’t working. And then the Holy Spirit stepped in and made me realize that I was staying up late to write because I wasn’t trusting myself or God to A) help me get up early enough to write long enough to get something “worthy” of sending out into cyberspace. B) Or that I was ABLE to even write still – it’s been almost a year since I’ve written anything for others to read. (Remember the pool story from Monday? That was part of it! A fear of writing again.) c) I wasn’t trusting God to watch over my kids while I write. Despite the fact that I normally write while they’re sleeping because that’s when it’s the quietest and I can think.

So, with God’s help I got through all those things and could move on to my next set of issues… my attitude while I was writing. Or rather, I suppose, who I was writing for. I had been writing with the mentality “they’re counting on me to do this.” As if, for some reason your world would stop turning if I failed to get this devotional into your hands first thing in the morning. I have no idea where THAT concept came from! But it probably came from my pride which is rooted in my insecurity. My writing was no longer a gift or an honor; it was my job, my work. And that’s never how God intended our callings to be! Yes, He created us to do work, but not for it to be work. We’re to do everything as if we were doing it for Him. It should never be that we HAVE to work, but rather that we GET to work. (Right Beth?) We don’t HAVE to be parents, we GET to be parents! I don’t have to be a writer, I get to be a writer – EVERY DAY!

But even after all that, my trajectory was still a little off. And the way that God pointed it out to me really got my attention. I have a friend on Facebook that I have never met in person. But in many ways I’m just as close to her as many of the people I see all the time. Simply, because she is my sister-in-Christ and that in itself is an unbreakable bond. One of the things she said recently really struck me. She has been fasting, not to seek God’s will, or His favor or even to repent but to seek HIM.  And it made me question, what is THAT? What IS seeking Him? What do you do? What do you say? How do you go about seeking HIM? And when I prayed about it, that’s when it hit me! THAT’S what TODAY is all about! Not me writing for myself, not me writing for you, but me writing for HIM! Writing down the things that I question and discover along my journey of seeking HIM! FINALLY my trajectory is correct! Or… at least close enough to it to move on.

So, I guess I wrote all that (partially) to tell you this. I am a visual learner and writing things out helps me think because then I can see them. Also, the best way to really learn something is to teach it. So, TODAY is really just my ramblings to try to understand and get to know God more fully, all while you get to read about where God is taking me and what He is teaching me and saying to me. And if you benefit from it, great! And if not, then so be it. From my perspective right now, you all are my accountability group for seeking Him while it is called TODAY (Hebrews 3:13)! J I love you all so desperately! Thank you for allowing God to use you to keep me on track!

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If you have been touched by the LORD through our publication of TODAY, please consider giving a gift of love to Tamar Ministries by clicking here.

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My Hero

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Tamar

“I love You, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.” (Psalm 18)

O Most Holy and Loving Father God,

I just love this Psalm, the story of how You save me from my enemies. How You set the captives free. Lord, You love me with such an unfailing love, nothing can compare… and yet I try to fill the hole that was made for Your love, with anything and everything but You. Lord, You are my strength, and yet I try to be strong on my own and fail every time, and then wonder why it didn’t work out for me. You are my rock solid foundation and yet so often I don’t build things on Your kingdom or according to Your plans, and I end up watching them crumble at my feet. Lord, You are my fortress and my deliverer and yet so often when I am in trouble I fail to run to the safety of Your arms and run away from You instead. I hide and try to fix things on my own, usually making them worse. Oh, but Lord, when I DO call to You in my time of need, when I do take refuge in the safety of Your arms, when I do praise You in my times of trial and difficulty… I am saved!

The cords of death can entangle me, the torrents of destruction can be overwhelming me, the cords of the grave can be coiled around me, the snares of death confronting me. But when I’m in distress I can call to my Yaweh. And when I cry to YOU MY God FOR help, OH! From your temple on high You hear MY voice; MY cry comes before You, into Your ears. And what do You do?

Woo! The earth TREMBLES and QUAKES, the foundations of the mountains SHAKE, they all TREMBLE because You are angry! Smoke comes from Your nostrils; consuming fire from Your mouth, burning coals blaze out of it. You’re not just angry, Your hopping mad, all for MY sake! And You’re going to do something about it! All on my behalf! I PRAISE YOU MY GOD! Thank You!

You PART THE HEAVENS and come down; dark clouds are under Your feet. You mount the cherubim and FLY; You SOAR on the wings of the wind. You make darkness Your covering, a canopy around You to protect us from Your glory. Out of the brightness of Your presence clouds advance, with HAILSTONES and BOLTS OF LIGHTNING. You, Yaweh THUNDER FROM HEAVEN, the voice of MY God the Most High resounding. You shoot arrows and SCATTER MY ENEMIES, great bolts of lightning scare them away! The valleys of the sea are exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare, all at Your rebuke, O Yaweh, all at a blast of breath from Your nostrils.

You reach down from on high and take hold of ME, drawing me out of the deep waters that I am in. YOU RESCUE ME from my powerful Enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but You, Yaweh, are my support. You brought me out into a spacious place; You rescued me because YOU DELIGHT IN ME.

You’ve dealt with me not according to my own righteousness, but according to Christ’s, according to the cleanness of His hands and it is a reward to me. Although my fathers and I have tried to keep Your ways, we have done evil by turning from You over and over again. Although all of Your laws are before me, I have still turned away from Your decrees. I have not been blameless before You and have not kept myself from sin. And yet You still reward me! All according to His righteousness and the cleanness of His hands in Your sight.

To the faithful You show Yourself faithful, to the blameless You show Yourself blameless, to the pure You show Yourself pure, but oh, to the crooked You show Yourself shrewd. You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty. YOU, O YAWEH, KEEP MY FIRE FOR YOU BRIGHT. My God turns my darkness into LIGHT! With Your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. As for You, Your way is PERFECT; You Word is FLAWLESS. You are a shield for all who take refuge in You. For who is god besides Yaweh? And who is the Rock except our God? It is YOU who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. You make my feet like the feet of a deer; YOU enable me to stand on the heights. YOU train my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. YOU give me Your shield of VICTORY! And Your right hand sustains me; You stoop down to make ME great. In treacherous times, YOU intervene in the situation, so that my faith doesn’t turn away from You, my great and loving God. Because of You I am able to PURSUE my Enemies and OVERTAKE THEM! I will not turn back until they are destroyed. Because of You, I am able to crush them so that they can not rise up against me again. They instead fall beneath my feet. Because YOU armed me with strength for the battle; YOU made my adversaries bow low at my feet. YOU made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I was able to destroy my foes because of YOU. They cried for help, but there was no one to save them but YOU… and You do not answer them. Because of YOU, I am able to beat them as fine as dust borne on the wind; and pour them out like mud in the street.

YOU have delivered me from the attacks of the people and demons, YOU have made me the head of nations; people I do not know are subject to me. As soon as they hear me, they obey me; foreigners cringe before me. They all lose heart; they come trembling from their own strongholds, afraid of YOU and Your might. YAWEH LIVES! Praise be to MY ROCK! EXALTED BE GOD MY SAVIOR! YOU are the God who avenges me, who subdues nations under me, who saves me from my enemies. You exalt me above my foes; from violent men YOU RESCUE ME. Therefore I will praise YOU among the nations, O LORD! I will sing praises to YOUR name. You give Your people great victories; You show UNFAILING KINDNESS to Your anointed, to me and my descendants forever.

AMEN!!!!!!

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