2 Chronicles

You Can Have New Roots

Posted on June 29, 2013 by Tamar


2 Chronicles 28:22-31:21

Today’s reading starts with the end of Ahaz’s story and the beginning of Hezekiah’s. I find this interesting this morning as we’re starting a new book for our devotional reading we’re doing the same in our Bible reading. We’re closing the door on Ahaz, the evil king. And we’re opening the door to Hezekiah the good king. I found it interesting that his mother was the daughter of Zechariah. I wonder if it’s THE Zechariah. Ya, know, the one that wrote the book of Zechariah. I’m pretty sure it was, mostly because of what happened next.

Generally the way these family histories go, when one king is evil and his son takes the throne he is evil too unless he has had some sort of godly influence on his life. You know, like maybe being raised by a prophet’s daughter. I could see how that *might* sway you away from the dark side. (Not to mention a HUGE testimony for motherly influence I might add!)

In Ahaz’s distress he turned from the LORD to false gods. His thinking was, “‘Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.’ But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.” (2 Chronicles 28:23) So Ahaz gathered up all the sacred items of the house of God, cut them up, and “shut the doors of the house of the LORD”. (2 Chronicles 28:24)

Now normally I wouldn’t think too terribly much about this, it’s a common theme in the Bible. But as God would have it, yesterday during my Sabbath rest, I just happened to watch several sermons on breaking generational curses. It became almost like a game for me as I picked one random recording after another, three sermons, three different pastors, all three on breaking generational curses. Do you think God was trying to tell me something?

So then I pick up my Bible this morning and here we have a reading that just “happens” to be about an evil father that shut the doors to the LORD’S house and a son who opens them back up (2 Chronicles 29:3). It just made me smile. Yup. God’s just awesome like that. Hezekiah was a son that broke a generational curse (probably with a lot of help from his mom).

So, in one of the sermons it was emphasizing our power over these curses. When we choose to accept Christ’s gift of becoming children of God, we are grafted into HIS bloodline. [John 1:12, Romans 8:16, Romans 11:11-24, 1 John 3:1]

For example, when the branch of a red apple tree is grafted into the trunk of a green apple tree, it is cut away from the original red apple tree and connected to the new green apple tree.

*The sap that flows through the original tree’s veins no longer flows through the grafted branch because it now receives its provision of nourishment from a new source, the roots of the new green apple tree.

We are officially no longer a member of the human bloodlines we were born into. With that comes liberation from any and all generational curses. However, it’s up to us to take hold and claim that liberation. If we choose to just sit back and say, “Well, my father was always hot tempered, so I will be too”, then that’s all that will ever happen. However, if at any point we choose to remember that we are no longer part of their human lineage, but rather the lineage of Christ – the picture of patience. Then that generational cycle of anger is broken and will no longer be passed down to the next generation.

Anyway, back to Ahaz and Hezekiah, my point is this. According to the scripture seeking false gods was “the ruin of [Ahaz] and of all Israel.” 2 Chronicles 28:23) The evil intentions of one man ended in the ruin of all of Israel. Yet, the good intentions of one man, Hezekiah, ended in the restoral of all Israel and the celebration of the first Passover to be remembered in generations!

You. Yes you.

Your decisions have the power to affect millions of lives throughout the rest of history. Today I set before you life and death, blessing and curses. Which do you choose to pick up and claim for yourself; the life and blessings of Christ or the death and curses of the world? Remember the choice is completely up to you… as are the results.

*A huge thank you to www.TimelessTruths.org for their picture of the grafted trees! I highly recommend visiting their site, it’s wonderful! If you click on the picture of the trees it will take you to the story the picture came from, which just “happens” to be directly related to what I’ve shared with you this morning. You know, because God’s just that awesome!

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Impossible Dream

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Tamar

2 Chronicles 24:20-28:21

“The LORD is able to give you much more than this.” 2 Chronicles 25:9

One day when I was in Kindergarten, or there abouts, my mom said something to me that would stick with me forever. She said, “Honey, I think you’d make a really good teacher someday.” I can’t remember exactly how old I was at the time, but I remember how it made me feel when she said it. It felt like I’d been hit by a lightning bolt of revelation. I certainly wouldn’t have described it that way at the time mind you, I was like, 6. But more than anything I remember that feeling coming from deep inside me that she had said something deep and right. In that moment I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. And from that moment on that’s all I’ve ever wanted to be. But at the time that this dream of teaching was born “I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.” (1 Corinthians 13:11) I was a child in elementary school, surrounded with women who taught elementary school and seemed to really love me for me. At the time that was all the higher I was able to dream because I didn’t know any differently.

As I grew the dream to be an elementary teacher solidified and become firm in my mind. I was going to be an elementary teacher. Period. When I got to high school all my friends knew that I wanted to teach elementary school. One of my friends went so far as to tease me that I should work with the Kindergarteners because they would be the only ones I could teach that would be shorter than me and take me seriously. (I’m 5 foot 2… on a good day.) I hated his taunt and vowed to *never* teach little kids.

Once I made it to college and I was studying at Purdue to be an elementary teacher, when something interesting started happening. There was this desire birthed inside me that was different from the original dream. I remember the classroom, the teacher, the other students in the room when the revelation started. I realized that I wanted to teach the building blocks of life. I wanted to teach them how to take a good test, how to be a good friend, how to survive in life. I wanted to teach so much more than what they were offering me to teach. I wanted to teach about LIFE more than math or reading or spelling.

So while I was still on my path to be the awesome elementary teacher I had always dreamed of being, there was disquiet in my soul about it now. Without my realizing it, the dream had changed. While I still desperately wanted to teach, I wasn’t exactly sure that elementary school was the right place for me anymore. But I was a semester or two from graduating, and I still wanted to teach so I carried on with my studies and graduated.

Just before graduation September 11th hit and changed our world forever. My husband and I had been married just over a year at that point and were considering having a baby. Then the towers fell and world was suddenly plunged into a darkness we had never experienced before. And the only thought in my head was, “how can we bring a child into a world like this?” But then God countered with, “If people like you never bring children of light into this world it will always be dark.” And by the time I walked across the stage at graduation I was fully pregnant. We moved back home to be close to our parents and I applied for a job at the local elementary school where they all knew and loved me. I got an interview fairly easily. But then the unthinkable happened. I was admitted into the hospital at 33 weeks gestation for pre-ecclampsia (high blood pressure). I was there for about a week before our son Gabriel was born.

He was born the day before my interview. I didn’t get the only job they had available to me. The door to that particular dream had officially shut. And really, I was OK with it. Mostly because at the time I was still battling for my life! But I’ll have to tell you more about that part later.

Gabe was about six months old when a daycare center opened up the next town over. We needed extra income and it was the ONLY thing for a teacher in the area. I applied and the owner thought she had died and gone to heaven. She couldn’t believe I wanted a job there instead of at the elementary school. I explained that there was nothing for me there and she snatched me up like a hot pancake fresh off the griddle. I was promoted to daycare director within a month of working there. And I LOVED it. Here I had been swearing I would NEVER work with little kids and now I was working with toddlers every day and thinking it was the best thing since sliced bread.

Shortly after settling into my role as director we moved again. This time, to Glendale Heights, a suburb of Chicago, so that my husband could go back to school to be a mechanic. While there I tried my best to get a subbing job at the school that was located in our back yard but they weren’t hiring at the time. Imagine that. But I did manage to get a job in a local daycare center as a floating substitute. Except two weeks before I was set to start they had 15 kids enroll, this is absolutely unheard of. So they needed to open up a new classroom and guess who got to teach it. ME! I was in heaven. For the first time I had my own classroom, my own students, I was a real teacher. I was in love.

For the next five years I taught in three different preschool daycares and loved almost every second of it. I didn’t stay at that first one very long though because it was a corporate daycare and I could feel God calling me to a church daycare down the street.

There I was teaching children the true building blocks of life; both the physical ones and the spiritual ones. I was living the dream. But it wasn’t anything like the dream I had first started dreaming. It had grown and changed as I grew and changed and learned more about myself and who God was calling me to be.

Eventually I risked death once more in order to have our baby girl and my husband and I both could feel the Holy Spirit nudging us to take the financial plunge and have me stay home with the kids.

And this is where things really started changing. That first year home with a newborn was one of the hardest in my life. We had a new house, a new baby, I had a new job, it was crazy to say the least. But I had one salvation; our local women’s Bible study. That weekly meeting kept me sane through the chaos. But more than that, it was through that Bible study that God awakened something new in me. While I had always loved the LORD and had a relationship with Him; it was time to kick the teaching dream into real high gear. So He reawakened my dream and love for writing. A dream so dead in my life that I had completely forgotten I had had it in the first place. When I announced on Facebook that I was writing a book about God and sex (True Intimacy) I had a friend from middle school tell me that she still had all my short stories from that time. Stories I didn’t even remember writing she had kept for over ten years!

Even before I met my husband, I had dreamt of being a writer, a good one. It was a dream that I hardly even entertained because at that point it didn’t fit with my larger and longer lived dream of being an elementary teacher. I was still a child thinking like a child at that point. I was literally incapable of thinking any larger than the box I was currently in. Honestly, because I was dreaming up to the sides of the box… but never past what I could see as possibly achievable.

But then I started writing True Intimacy and everything changed. I was still teaching that dream has never died and I doubt it ever will. I was born to teach. I’ve come to the point where I’ve realized that I can teach just about anybody just about anything depending on the circumstance. When I was a child my dream was to be like those teachers I loved when I was in their classrooms. My dream is so different now, and yet completely the same. The Holy Spirit is my teacher; I’m an eternal student in His classroom of Life. And I want to be a teacher like Him in whatever classroom He chooses to place me in. Right now that classroom is my website, my books and my newspaper article. I’m also teaching social media classes at the local library. When I was a child my largest and grandest dream was to have my very own classroom that I could decorate any way that I chose and to teach whatever I felt appropriate. And while I no longer dream of an elementary classroom filled with construction paper decorations that fade in the sunlight, I do dream of souls saved by the Son light. I pray God uses me to bring His marvelous light into their lives. My classroom is the world.

At last count my website has been viewed by people in over seventy countries. My articles are in over a thousand homes in the area weekly with the numbers steadily rising. My deepest desire is no longer to teach children how to take a good test; it’s so much bigger than that. My dream is to teach the children of God how to pass the tests of life when they seem oh so impossible. I want to bring hope to the hopeless through the Word of Christ, because how can they believe if no one ever shares things with them? How will they hear if no one ever tells them? I have a heart for the lost children of God who think they have Him and know Him when in reality all they have is the dry bones of religion and nothing more. How will they know there is more
to the abundant life if someone doesn’t tell them?

Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to Me and I will answer you and I will tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” I have lived this more times in the last thirty-three years than I can count! God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or imagine through the power found in Christ Jesus, (Ephesians 3:20) if we would only believe in Him. God has challenged me over the years to “dream big” and I feel like I have. Yet I know that my dreams still pale in comparison to the plans that He has for me.

He has plans for my welfare and not for evil, to give me a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11) “For now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) When I was a child, I dreamt a possible dream. Now as an adult I have chosen to dream an impossible dream. It’s a dream that I can’t possibly achieve on my own, not ever. But God has placed it in my heart none-the-less. It’s a dream where I write the books the world reads because they’re hungry for the bread from heaven. It’s a dream where I stand on a stage before thousands of people and lead them through a prayer of salvation followed by a worship and praise that they’ve been holding in their entire lives. I dream for people to KNOW Him like Adam knew Eve, intimately and beyond all shame because they’ve been eternally forgiven and not condemned. None of that is possible without God. Apart from God we can do nothing, but a part of Him we can do everything!

So often I feel like Mary in Luke chapter 1 when the angel Gabriel comes to her and tells her that she has been chosen to birth the Christ child and she says, “how can this be?” And the angel replies, “Nothing is impossible with God”.

Often I find myself praying and thanking God for using me for this or for that and I will say, “Lord, you could have used anybody to do that, but you used me. Thank You!” Do you know what He said the last time I prayed that, “No. I couldn’t have used just anybody. I could only use you.” And I knew that He had a point.

We are all made so uniquely that we all have a unique purpose in this world. We were created to perform certain jobs and functions that only we can do. And if we’re not doing them then who will get them done? If we’re not doing the job that we were created for then that job isn’t getting done correctly.

I was created to be a teacher. A teacher of the Word of God. I know that now. I NEVER in a million years would have known that in Kindergarten. I couldn’t dream that high. I still have trouble dreaming that high. But I know that as long as I keep following the Man with the plans I’ll get there. Somehow. Someday. In His way. Until then, I’ll keep dreaming the impossible dream that the God of all hope gave me to dream. He is a good God who fulfills His promises. No matter how impossible they may seem to us.

What’s your impossible dream?

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Victory in Christ

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Tamar

2 Chronicles 20:24-24:19


Victories these days look a little different than they used to. It used to be that if your team had the most people still alive at the end of the battle you won. If you were the last one to call “Uncle”, you won. Today the battle isn’t fought on a huge field with swords and chariots. It’s fought in your mind and in your heart with words and faith. The words that win the battle, are the words found in your Bible. Romans 10:17 tells us that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” What is the word of Christ? The BIBLE! All of it! How can you know the words that will defeat the Enemy if you never read your Bible for yourself? How will you have the faith to slay the giant if you never hear the words of Christ? Still not convinced that it’s imperative to read your Bible daily? Check out Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible to please Him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” This is a hard verse for me to share, but I promised you and God both that “what my God says, that I will speak”. (2 Chronicles 18:13) This is the Word of God, it is the truth, without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. What brings God pleasure? Your faith in Him! Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Although the LORD is not a God that you can see sitting on a shelf, do you believe that He exists? That brings Him pleasure!

Are you seeking His presence? That brings Him pleasure!

Do you believe that He rewards those who seek Him? That brings Him pleasure!

Personally, the first two are easy. Does He exist? I’ve experienced too much to believe otherwise. Do I seek Him? LOL! I’ve experience too much to do otherwise! Do I believe that He rewards those who seek Him? Sure! Do I believe that applies to me personally? That part is a lot harder for me to accept. I know who I am and what I’ve done. I know the thoughts I’ve thought and the things I’ve done or not done. Plus who am I that He would reward ME? I admit it’s an extremely hard pill to swallow. The Enemy has worked my entire life to keep me from taking this Truth and applying it to my life. The other day the Holy Spirit gave me a perfect visual of salvation that I think really applies to everything in the kingdom.

Jesus died to save the WHOLE WORLD, not just the Jews and not just those that were present at that time, but everyone in all of time. His death was a sacrifice that He offered on our behalf effectively paying our price of admission to heaven and onto the lap of God the Father as His child. You are His CHILD and everything that that implies. This sacrifice of the cross was given to us as a gift.

You don’t pay for gifts, you just accept them. But here’s the picture that God gave me the other day. I can give you the gift of a bar of soap, but just because I give it to you doesn’t mean that you will accept it, and it doesn’t mean that you will choose to use it. Those things are completely up to you.

Just because Jesus’ death has been given to us as a gift from the LORD, who adores us, doesn’t mean that we will accept that gift. Or that we will use it to declare ourselves righteous through Christ and eligible for receiving rewards from Him. (Romans 3:22) Those things only happen through faith. And faith comes through hearing. And hearing comes through the Word of Christ.

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My Battle or God’s?

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Tamar

2 Chronicles 16:1-20:23

I think this first half of chapter 20 is one of my all time favorite stories. Maybe because I can relate so personally with it, I’m not sure, I just know that I love it. Here’s Jehoshaphat, a relatively good king, and he is informed that a “great multitude” is headed their way. Eep! And the Word says that he was afraid. But he didn’t panic and he didn’t scramble around like a crazy person in terror, he didn’t even call together all his wise men for advice. Nope. The Bible says that he “set his face to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.” And then the entire country gathered together to pray and see what the LORD would answer them. In Jehoshaphat’s prayer he points out to God that He had promised this land to this people. That this horde that was heading their way was the same group that God wouldn’t let them drive out of the land in previous years and now they’re coming after Judah to drive them out instead! He even goes so far as to say to God, “If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence or famine, we will stand before this house and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.” (2 Chronicles 20:9) But this is the statement that Jehoshaphat makes that I feel we can relate the best with, “For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 Chronicles 20:12)

[Baby Inch Worm on a Blanket – that’s powerless]

How often have we all been in those situations where we truly feel powerless to turn the tides? We have no idea what to do to change the circumstances we’re in. Yet we are not powerless because we have the all powerful living and breathing within ourselves. The Spirit of the Almighty God dwells in YOU, therefore you are not without hope or power. You see, when our hope is in HIM our situations are anything but hopeless. When our strength is found in HIM we are anything but powerless!

What was the LORD’s response to Jehoshaphat’s plea for help?

“Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde for the battle is not yours, but God’s… You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the LORD will be with you.” (2 Chronicles 20:15&17)

Don’t be afraid. Why? Because this isn’t your fight! Yesterday we talked about the importance of knowing your enemy. And that the Word tells us that we don’t fight against other people, we fight against the dark spirits of this world. They are our enemy, not the humans being held hostage by them. Today God is reminding us that we MUST remember who the Enemy really is, because that then reminds us of whose battle it really is. How can we fight what we can’t see? How can we command what we can’t name? How can we know the unknown? Only through Christ.

I think it is so funny that I searched high and low for this very scripture yesterday. I wanted so desperately to remind you that this wasn’t OUR battle to fight because it’s His. But He kept me from finding this verse. I even put it out there on Facebook and no one responded! But God knew that it was just one page flip away and He wanted me to focus on it today rather than just throw it into the message yesterday.

This great horde that you’re facing today; a mountain of debt that you’re powerless to pay, a multitude of cancer cells that you’re helpless to fight, a death of a loved one that your unable to bring back, it feels hopeless…. but it’s not! Because when our hope is in the LORD we are never hopeless! He is the Almighty! He is ALWAYS faithful. And while He may not bring the victory in the way that we desire or long for, I can guarantee you with 100% certainty that you have been given a victory in Christ that is beyond all compare!

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Spinach

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Tamar

2 Chronicles 10:1-15:19

“And when Judah looked, behold, the battle was in front of and behind them. And they cried to the LORD, and the priests blew the trumpets. Then the men of Judah raised the battle shout. And when the men of Judah shouted, God defeated Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.” 2 Chronicles 14:14-15

Have you ever been there? I’m sure you have. You know, that place where you look up and the battle isn’t just in front of you, it’s behind you too. You’re surrounded, and trapped and helpless. There is a choice to make in that moment, keep fighting or surrender. And it is in that moment where it is key to know your opponent! Who is it exactly that you’re fighting?

Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

We aren’t fighting other people. We’re not in a battle with the attorneys, or against the bank, or against our spouse. We are batting with the spiritual forces behind the attorneys, the bank, our spouse. These people are the hostages held up between us and the true Enemy. And the longer you battle the flesh and blood problem and not the spirit behind it, the longer that Spirit will continue pushing you further back.

Right now, if you’re having trouble with your finances, and it seems like money is running through your fingers faster than sand, you’re not struggling with money. You’re struggling with Greed. Fight Greed not money and you’ll win every time.

If you’re struggling with your weight and it just doesn’t seem to want to come off. You’re not fighting the battle of the bulge; you’re fighting the spirit of Indulgence.

In both instances the world will tell you to tell yourself, “No, I don’t need that new pair of shoes. These work just fine.” Or, “No, a second cupcake is too much.” But you’re not fighting you! The battle isn’t against flesh and blood; it’s against the spirit that has been influencing your flesh and blood. Yes, you still need to say “no” to those things. But you’re not telling you “no”, you’re telling the Spirit-monkey on your back “no”!

Let’s say it, just for fun. Say, “NO!” as loud as you can! In James 4 verses 7 & 8 God reveals to us the secret of victory. “Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” There’s a formula here that I want you to see:

  1. Submit yourself to God: Submit yourself to His leadership in the battle, to His authority over you (AND the spirits you battle) and to His amazingly abundant love for YOU. He wants to see you saved from this light and momentary trouble even more than you do! Submit to Him and He will be your shelter. Not just a storm shelter, your home shelter. Your place of refuge, comfort and REST from the battle that rages outside that door.

  2. Resist the Devil: He is doing everything he can to cause you to trip and fall and screw things up. Ignore his temptations! God has made the POWER of His Holy Spirit available to all who believe in the name of Jesus and call on Him for salvation (“Jesus save me”) and power to defeat this Enemy (“Holy Spirit of Jesus, I welcome you into my heart. Please guide me into all truth and away from this father of lies! In Jesus Name! Amen!”)*

  3. He will flee from you: This is an ongoing battle. We push the Enemy back, he retaliates. It’s a cycle, but it’s a diminishing cycle! The more ground we win the less ground he has to stand on. The more we resist his temptations the more ground we gain and the less ground he has. Every temptation we cave to is allowing Satan to gain our territory. So every time you stab your fork into a spinach salad instead of cake you can picture yourself piercing the heart of the spirit of Indulgence and gaining lost territory. The longer you do it, the better you will get until it’s not even a battle anymore. He just turns into a pesky fly that you smack and kill.

  4. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you: I have been harping on this a lot this week and I’m going to keep doing it (a) because the Holy Spirit is leading me to and (b) because I know it’s important. You’ve got to read a portion of your Bible daily! God has blessed me with a reading plan that is simple and quick. 30 minutes a day is NOT a lot! There are 1,440 minutes in your day, spending 30 reading your Bible leaves you with 1,410. See, it hardly leaves a dent! But the impact that those 30 concentrated minutes with God can have on your life is immeasurable!

    The words that you read in those 30 minutes will stick with you all day long. God will use them to give you the strength and hope to keep going when all you want to do is quit! Those 2 ½ pages of reading are like spinach to Popeye, they will make you strong to the finish, because you ate your spinach!

    And it will make it possible for you to say, “O Satan, do not fight against the LORD, MY GOD, for you can not succeed!” (adapted from 2 Chronicles 14:12)

    * If you prayed this prayer please email me (tamarknochel at gmail dot com) and let me know so my team and I can pray for you by NAME! We love you and want to do everything we can to support you!

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Breathless

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Tamar


2 Chronicles 6:1-9:31

“And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, and their clothing, his cupbearers, and their clothing, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more breath in her.” 2 Chronicles 9:3-4

My friends, can I just say, I love my new church! In the last seven days I have met with them three times and each time I have felt the LORD’s presence like never before in a public setting. I have never experienced “church” this way before. I have always been sensitive to the Holy Spirit and His direction, I haven’t always obeyed but I have always heard. Anyway, In the last few years while spending purposeful time in His word I’ve gotten even more sensitive to His movements.

Issachar church is blessed! They long for the presence of the LORD to be in their midst as much as He longs for them and He doesn’t disappoint them by not showing up! It’s been amazing to me how I’ve had experiences with the Holy Spirit on my own, but never with a group of people!

I feel like the Queen of Sheba today, breathless, having gone through the house of God and lost myself in the art of praise. I am breathless at the Grace that God bestows and how wonderful it is to fall INTO Grace.

I am desperately in love with Him for the way He “makes us lie down in green pastures” Psalm 23:2 in those times when we need to rest but don’t feel like we can give ourselves permission to. Time with Jesus isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity! He is Life and breath and bread, without time in His presence we perish; both in the spiritual and the physical.

[it’s a matter of life and death]

It doesn’t have to be just going to church. Actually, church is a supplement to our nourishment. God told me once during church that we should be feeding ourselves spiritually with the Bible at home daily; the message on Sunday is just like going out to eat instead of fixing dinner. If you only ate one meal, one day a week your body would be skinny and devastatingly malnourished barely able to function properly. The same is true with your spirit. If the only thing you’re doing is going to church and thinking that’s enough Jesus for the week then you are sadly mistaken. There is a reason He referred to Himself as the DAILY bread. It’s because He is to be eaten DAILY.

For some of you, this may be me preaching to the choir. At least I hope so anyway. But I’ve learned that there is a difference between reading a scripture here and there throughout the day, and making the time to sit down for a solid 30 minutes to read a daily portion of the Bible. In both instances you’re “in the word daily”, but one is purposeful and distinct while the other is sporadic and much easier to forsake when life gets hectic. And you know that it will! Because it ALWAYS does.

I could stand around and say that I “don’t have time” to read for 30 minutes every day. But I would be lying to you. Because if I have time to watch a 30 minute show on TV, or sit and talk to a friend for 30 minutes, then I do have the time. I’m just not putting it toward something that’s going to sustain me for the rest of my day.

God has taken my daily time in His word and shown me things that I never could have imagined on my own. He’s used His Word to speak Life into a situation that I thought was dead in the water. How? Because He is LIFE! He is everything we could ever need and until we figure that out, we’re lost.

There are a LOT of things that you could do with your time, but none of them will compare to spending purposeful time in the presence of God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth! Make the decision today to set aside 30 minutes of your day, every day, at any time of the day, to spend time reading the Bible. I challenge you to try it for 7 days. Just one week. That’s not that big of a commitment right? That’s not such a big deal. But I promise you that if you do it, in that week God will reveal Himself to you in a way you’ve never experienced before and it will knock your socks off! You will get a taste of what He is, and you will see that He is GOOD. Are you willing to give God 30 minutes of your life for seven days to take your breath away? If you are, please let me know, I would LOVE to pray for you!

Categories: 2 Chronicles, 365 Life, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Stillness

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Tamar

Sing: Everlasting God by Lincoln Brewster

Pray:
Come Holy Spirit, fill me with Your fire so that I can be more like You; help me, I trust You. Father open my eyes so that I may see clearly, open my ears so that I may hear soundly, open my mind so that I may understand fully, open my heart so that I may love more, open my hands so that I may give generously and receive humbly, in Jesus‘ name, Amen.

Read: 2 Chronicles 12:1-16:14

Behold, God is with us at our head, and His priests with their battle trumpets to sound the call to battle against you. O sons of Israel, do not fight against the LORD, the God of your fathers, for you cannot succeed. 2 Chronicles 13:12

When the alarm rang this morning there was a moment of hesitation in my body, “is it really time to get up already?“ Sigh… But then my spirit reminded my body of why the alarm was ringing at five am, “Body, we get to spent time with the LORD now“. “Oh right!“ my body shouted and was up in a flash and headed for the coffee pot for the hot water and tea bags! As the steam rose from my fresh cup of Cinnamon Apple tea and I pulled the daisy blanket over my knees I clutched my Bible to my chest with all my might as if it were the Word of God Himself just for me… Oh wait, it IS!

His word and its application on my life never ceases to amaze me. Yet I am still surprised by how He seems to make all things work together for my good. This weekend was so wonderful with our family and our church. But last night as I sat down on my bed with the journal that my husband and I write to each other in every night the one thing that kept coming back to me over and over again was the friendship that we share, just like the journal. You know, there are some days when you go out and you do things just as a couple. We like to go to amusement parks and ride roller coasters together. For our anniversary last year we enlisted the grandparents to care for our children and the two of us ran away to Cedar Point together for some alone time. Those times are so critical in a marriage, they put a nice big fat log on the fires of love to fuel them and keep them burning for a long time. But then there are the everyday moments in marriage that are so much more crucial to keeping the fire alive. They‘re the kindling kind of moments, if you will, where you just spend time together as a family. It‘s not a romantic time, or a steamy love scene, it‘s those kinds of moments where you‘re not necessarily doing anything special, but you‘re doing it together and that‘s what is really important. Yesterday wasn‘t any big grand party or spectacle for the celebration of Christ‘s resurrection, we got up and did an Easter scavenger hunt to find our goodies. Then we almost begrudgingly stopped playing with our new things long enough to get dressed and ready for church, we ended up being late as always, it‘s almost a Knochel tradition at this point! Then after church was over we made our customary hugs and well wishes for the holiday before we hopped back into the car to head for Grandma‘s house ninety minutes north for lunch and an Easter egg hunt with cousins. At the end of the day we got back in the car and drove home full of Easter ham, deviled eggs and more sugar than any one person should eat in one day. See, like I said, nothing super spectacular or terribly exciting, and yet it was!

You see as much as I love writing and having my nose buried into a computer screen all day, time with my family is precious. It always has been, but now that I don‘t get as much of it as I used to, it‘s even more precious. Yesterday I got to spend three hours sitting elbow to elbow with my husband in our car, talking about the things going on in our life part of the time, and the other part of the time just simply being still with one another. In the last few weeks I have really come to, not just learn about the power of stillness, but I have seen the power of stillness in my life. And you know what I‘ve seen; God is in the stillnesses of our life. He‘s there in those moments where we aren‘t saying or doing anything and we‘re just still and listening to His small yet power-filled voice. There is so much power in just being still. I am overwhelmed with it at times. On the trip home from Grandma‘s house, we didn‘t really talk much; we kept to ourselves and our own activities we had brought along. The kids colored, I read Little Women on my Kindle and Sean was driving. Yet it was there in that stillness where none of us were trying to get the other‘s attention, no one was fighting (thank God), and no one was voicing their concerns of “what are we going to do about this situation“ that God came and spoke with each of us in His own way. During that time, the others might have been seeking His wisdom, but I know that I wasn‘t. I was simply trying to enjoy my resting time and the book that God had been pointing me to for the last week. And as much as we felt like a family as we were doing things with one another all day long, it was in that time of stillness that I felt the most like we were a family. Like we were all so secure in our place as a family that there was no need for words to be spoken between us, just love filtering in through the car like the sunlight through the windshield.

Psalm 131 talks about being like a weaned child in its mothers arms.


The Holy Spirit has whispered this verse to me often times when I‘m struggling with something. I carry it around like a student carrying a back pack filled to bursting-seams with heavy books, seemingly oblivious to the weight it is adding until I finally go to put it down and realize just how heavy the burden truly was.

God is our Father, and like a weaned child in its mothers arms we need to climb into His lap and unburden ourselves on Him. We need to cast our anxieties on Him because He cares for us. There is no need for us to stay up all night worrying when He‘s already going to be up all night taking care of whatever it is that is worrying us. So why not allow Him to do what He does best, take care of our burdens and comfort us in His arms allowing us the freedom to be content where we are.



In Hebrews 1:3 it tells us that after Jesus provided purification for sins He sat down at the right hand of God. Tell me, if there is still work to be done, do you sit down? If dinner is completely finished and there‘s nothing left to do, do you keep cooking? No! You sit back and you enjoy your finished work! When I am finished writing (granted I do write sitting down), I don‘t keep writing, I stop. Then I go back to the top and read to enjoy the work that God has used me to create. Whatever you‘re going through today, happy, sad, painful, joyful, God is working. He is not dead, His arm is not too short to save or His ear too dull to hear, He is alive and active and working in your life right now! He is working so that you don‘t have to be. Too many cooks in the kitchen equal a mess, so get out of the kitchen! Let the master chef do what He does best and get out of His way. When you are still you are remembering that HE is God, that He knows what He‘s doing and will do what is best for everyone involved.

Categories: 2 Chronicles, Writing Through the Bible in a Year

In the Garden

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Tamar

Pray:
Come Holy Spirit, fill me with Your fire so that I can be more like You; help me, I trust You. Father open my eyes so that I may see clearly, open my ears so that I may hear soundly, open my mind so that I may understand fully, open my heart so that I may love more, open my hands so that I may give generously and receive humbly, in Jesus‘ name, Amen.

Read: 2 Chronicles 8:1-11:23

Thus was accomplished all the work of Solomon from the day the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was completed. 2 Chronicles 8:16

It just keeps amazing me how we can be reading in 2 Chronicles and yet there are still scriptures that are lining up perfectly, not just with what‘s happening in my own life but also with the events of the season as well! And as much as I want to write a piece on how the disciples felt during this day in history; the day after their Lord‘s death and before His resurrection where they had to have felt so alone an abandoned and fearful for their own lives. Yet that‘s not what God wants me to write about today. And I know that because those two sentences are all I can get out onto the screen! He keeps saying to me “Rest in My finished work“ and then reminding me of a piece I wrote several months ago that I absolutely love. I keep telling Him that it really would fit tomorrow more than today, but He is insistent so I‘ve got to go with His plan and not my own understanding. I‘m guessing that it‘s because He wants us all to take the day off tomorrow and fully celebrate His Son‘s resurrection to our fullest ability. So that‘s what I will do! J Enjoy one of my favorite pieces today (Reposted from August 4th) and then take the day off tomorrow to celebrate the family that God has blessed you with!

I love you my friends!!!

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.“ (John 15:1)

Go with me to the garden for a moment. It‘s first thing Sunday morning. The sun has just broken over the eastern horizon, the dew is still on the roses, the birds are singing their morning praise songs and we are crunching along the cold stone path to Jesus‘ grave to anoint His body properly. It was a holiday weekend, the biggest there is, but it certainly didn‘t feel like a holiday weekend! None of the food tasted any good; it was filled with tears of mourning. Everything we had ever hoped for dreamed of, talked about, loved… died on Friday afternoon. We HAVE nothing to celebrate right now. But, as much as we dislike it, life goes on, and there are things to be done; dishes to wash, laundry to fold. But there is one small bright spot to our day this Monday. We get to go visit Jesus‘ body one last time. Touch His hands and His feet – anoint Him. So here we are on the path in the garden on what is by far the most beautiful morning we‘ve seen in ages. Everything seems alive and vibrant and fresh today, I wonder why. I turn to you in concern, “Oh no! How are we going to roll that huge stone away from the tomb? There‘s no way we‘ll be strong enough to do it! Those are next to impossible to move!“ But you reply, “God will make a way for us. Have faith.“
“Just like Mary,“ I think to myself, “always faithful. God bless her, she‘s right, God will bless us in our efforts, He will make a way for us to honor His son and anoint Him.“ But then we see it! His tomb, it‘s already open! “Wow! God REALLY made a way!“ But as we approach we start to sense something amiss, where‘s Jesus‘ body!?! As we become a flurry of confusion and grief and anger and voices, two men with clothes like lightning appear standing next to us, startling us to silence and immediate prostrate positions of humility with our faces to the ground. (It was either that or faint I think!) The angels questioned us, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He‘s not here! He is risen!…” As an unexplainable joy floods our souls and brings us back to the living, the angels remind us of Jesus‘ words “…crucified and on the third day be raised again.“ Oh how could we have forgotten? We run the entire way back to the house where the disciples are, the birds‘ songs cheering us on, urging our feet to move faster. When we arrive our excitement streams through our lips as fast as we all can speak, causing dazed, shocked, confused, angry and hopeful looks on everyone‘s faces. None of them know what to think, could it really be true? Can our hopes still be alive? What is happening? Was it thievery or a miracle? Can it really be true? Peter, not wanting to be left out of the action I‘m sure, returned to the tomb to investigate, running the entire way. Breathing heavily he entered the tomb to find all the wrappings of death discarded carelessly, and the napkin from His head folded carefully, signifying that He was not finished and that he would return. Not quite knowing how to deal with all this extraordinary information Simon Peter went away to think and pray, but you, Mary, you stayed. You couldn‘t bear to leave could you? Your grief and confusion is so complete so consuming that you simply couldn‘t leave the last known residence of your Lord and love Jesus of Nazareth. He saved you from a horrible life of torment didn‘t He? Those demons had plagued you night and day, filled your head with criticisms and self-doubt, fears and pain unimaginable. But then Jesus came along didn‘t He? He freed you from all of it! The pain, the shame, the torment, the fear, all gone the instant He touched you. It must have been amazing! Obviously it was because you haven‘t left His side since, even in death, you‘re still here at His grave – waiting. Crying because you don‘t know what‘s happening. But more than that, because you don‘t know where He is. All you know is that He‘s not with you and the pain that that is causing you is worse than anything the demons ever did. Your love for Jesus is so pure that nothing can stop you from wanting Him; His presence in your life, His love in your life, His grace in your life. You miss Him like nothing you‘ve ever known. And as you‘re standing there wailing beside the tomb, you just have to look upon His last resting place one more time. But this time there are two angels sitting there. But right now you are too grieved to care that there are two supernatural beings speaking to you. “Woman, why are you crying?“ they ask. You sob, “They have taken my Lord away, and I don‘t know where they have put Him!“

Mary, when everyone else left Him, you stayed. When everyone else pondered, you grieved. Maybe you didn‘t understand what was really happening, or maybe you understood better than anyone else. Either way, I can‘t imagine what it felt like to be there that morning. In that new day air, with your eyes brimming with tears saw a man standing near Jesus‘ grave. “Maybe he knows where Jesus is.“ Perhaps that‘s what you thought when you asked Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him and I will get Him.“ Perhaps, at that moment in the garden, Jesus looked so much like His father that that‘s why you mistook Him for the gardener. Oh, but no tears or choking sobs of grief could disguise His voice from you could it? No. Just as the sheep know their shepherd‘s voice, all it took was for Him to say one precious word, your name. “Mary“. And reality came crashing through your tears. He is HERE! He is ALIVE! He is speaking YOUR name! He knows your grief, He knows your pain and He came to you first to end that anguish in your soul and replace it with joy and hope and fire. All with a single word, your name. Because He knows your name, it‘s written on the palm of His hand.

Oh how desperately you wanted to cling to Him, to talk to Him, to hang on His every word and bask in His luminous personality. But alas, just as you could not hang onto your grief this morning because you had word to do, that same is true now. You can not hang onto your joy because there is work to do. OH! But the work that there is to do! It too is joyful. “You Mary“, Jesus explains, “have to tell the others. You must spread the good news! You must tell everyone that I am alive, you have seen me, and that I am returning to My Father and your Father, to my God and your God. No Mary, you may not stay longer here with Me, I know you want to, but there will be plenty of time for that later. Right now, people need to know what has happened and what will happen. I will come again, and we will be together, so be patient. Until that time, tell everyone the good things I have done for you for My glory. O blessed one.“


 

Categories: 2 Chronicles, Writing Through the Bible in a Year

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