365 Life

Jeremiah 19:1-22:30

“But if I say I’ll never mention the LORD or speak His name, His word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it! The LORD stands beside me like a great warrior. Before Him my persecutors will stumble. They cannot defeat me.” Jeremiah 20:9&11

I can not think of a verse that speaks more truth about my life and ministry than these two verses right here! I can’t remember a day when I didn’t have a Bible in my room reading it. I’ve always been connected to the Word of God. It’s always been an umbilical cord connecting me to the lifeblood of my Savior. It has ALWAYS been a constant guide and source of comfort for me. On THE worst days of my life I knew that no matter how horrible life was at that moment I would find solace between those covers of love. I knew that even when the friends outside those pages weren’t proving very reliable, the friend inside those pages would never leave me, forsake me, or call me names that hurt.

Throughout my life I’ve had two constant passions, a passion for teaching and my friend Jesus. Strangely enough, it wasn’t until the last five years that those two passions collided to form what we now know and love as Tamar Ministries (aka TamarKnochel.com). And the way that God made that happen is such a wonder to me! In the Spring of 2009 a long-dormant hunger for writing re-awakened in me. It didn’t matter if it was a list for groceries or a note to a teacher I was hungry to write like I’d never been before and I couldn’t explain it or tame it. Nor did I wish to, I wanted to use it! The opportunity presented itself most brilliantly through one of the most difficult moments of my life followed by one of the longest months in history! A month that I FILLED with research and journaling that later became the book of my birth as an author and our family into ministry: True Intimacy Challenge.

That one day changed my entire life forever. That day that was so difficult turned into something more beautiful than I EVER could have imagined at that very moment. I suddenly had a direction for that writing itch to take and I took it! At the tip of a pen I took that itch and I’ve been scratching it ever since. God’s Word flows through me like ink flows through a pen, and when I try to stop it up and hold it in it burns like fire in my bones! I can’t do it! I can’t stop, nor do I want to. This fire inside me burns with an insatiable passion to get the word out that Jesus loves YOU. It drives me and directs me in ways that I never expected. Ways that haven’t always been pleasant, but have always been good… eventually.

To date we have created 21 printed and digital materials for purchase, all focused on teaching people to know Jesus more through His Word. Why? Well, I tell people that one of the best ways to get to know me is to read what I write because it is where I am the most honest, vulnerable and open. I put my heart; beating, bleeding, wounded and worn, right out there on the page for all to see. Would the same not also be true about God? He is the true author of all 66 of those books in the Bible, reading them helps us know Him better. And if I can encourage people to peek between those covers, even for the briefest of moments, so that they too might glimpse the naked beauty of a Creator Savior then I’m going to do whatever I can to make that happen for them; even if that means forever recording my life in ink.

Jeremiah 15:10-18:23

“LORD, You know what’s happening to me. Please step in and help me.” Jeremiah 15:15

I have a friend who is very down at the moment as she sits on pins and needles in a hospital waiting room to hear more news of her mother’s health (or lack thereof). I’ve been praying for her all day long today and I can’t seem to get her off my mind to write, so I’m including her in this post. It’s dedicated to her today, but I have the feeling that some of you all may find comfort in its words today too. I’m going to keep it simple and just include uplifting sections from today’s Word of the Day. God’s good that way isn’t He. I love His reading plan! It ALWAYS fits.

The LORD replied, “I will take care of you, Jeremiah. Your enemies will ask you to plead on their behalf in times of trouble and distress. (15:11) They will fight against you like an attacking army, but I will make you as secure as a fortified wall of bronze. They will not conquer you, for I am with you to protect and rescue you. I, the LORD, have spoken! Yes, I will certainly keep you safe from these wicked me. I will rescue you from their cruel hands.” (15:20-21)

Jeremiah said, “LORD, you are my strength and fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble!” (16:19)

The LORD responded, “Now I will show them My power; now I will show them My might. At last they will know and understand that I am the LORD.” (16:21) “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the LORD. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land. But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.” (17:5-8)

“LORD, if You heal me, I will be truly healed; if you save me, I will be truly saved. My praises are for You alone! People scoff at me and say, ‘What is this message from the LORD you talk about? Why don’t your predictions come true?’ LORD, I have not abandoned my job as a shepherd for Your people. I have not urged You to send disaster, You have heard everything I’ve said. LORD don’t terrorize me! You alone are my hope in the day of disaster.” (17:14-17)

He alone is our only hope in the day of disaster, let us say together with Jeremiah today, “LORD, if You heal me, I will be truly healed; if You save me, I will be truly saved. My praises are for You alone!”

Jeremiah 8:18-11:23

“When He speaks in the thunder, the heavens roar with rain. He causes the clouds to rise over the earth. He sends the lightning with the rain and releases the wind from His storehouses.” Jeremiah 10:13

I. Love. Thunderstorms! I have loved the rain for as long as I can remember. When I was younger and still living with my parents we had a sliding glass door in the dining room and when it was storming we would pull the dining room chairs up to the glass and sit and watch the storm and applaud God’s handiwork just the way we would applaud the fireworks on the Fourth of July. In more recent years I’ve developed a love of writing during thunderstorms because I’ve noticed that God seems to speak to me in the falling rain. It’s like each tap of these keys seems to echo the tapping of the rain on the windowsill. The way the thunder rolls, it fills my soul with the depth of its reverberations. Yes, I love the rain. I love the God that I see in the rain. I love the God who sends the rain.

Jeremiah 3:15-5:31

“Only in the LORD our God will Israel ever find salvation. ” Jeremiah 3:23

An unexpected field trip to the zoo with my daughter!

A new bird friend at our feeder that proved next to impossible to photograph! A white breasted nut hatch. 😀

Fall break selfies at the theater where we watched Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I wouldn’t be surprised if this movie was based on Romans 8:28 that’s certainly the message behind it! P.S. the movie was GREAT!

Jeremiah 1:1-3:14

So, what are you afraid of? Is something holding you back from the best God has to offer? It’s highly likely that Fear is either driving you where you shouldn’t be going or holding you back from where you want to be. And it’s high time you identify that Fear and trade it in for TRUST!

You might not be able to trust the government, money, health, your spouse, your friends or maybe even me, but you can ALWAYS trust God to do what is in your best interest. Even, if it doesn’t always look like that’s what’s happening.

In the words of *Beth Moore, from So Long, Insecurity You’ve Been a Bad Friend to Us (page 323), “Fear consumes massive amounts of energy and focus and can chew a hole through our intestines, our relationships, and countless great opportunities. At the risk of oversimplifying, the kind of fear we’re talking about is a colossal waste of time.”

Seriously, if I can’t count on God, who can I count on? Certainly not myself!!!

Isaiah 33:6 NET says that “[God] is our constant source of stability.” The NLT version says that God “will be your sure foundation, providing a rich store of salvation, wisdom and knowledge.”

In other words, you can trust God, He’s not going to move or change an inch causing everything you’ve built on Him to fall. He is a solid foundation upon which to put your hope, your trust and your life. Those things that cause you to fear and ruffle the feathers of your insecurities have no power over you when you’ve given them to the LORD to handle.

Harry S. Truman had a sign on his desk that said, “The Buck Stops Here“. Ultimately meaning that anything that happened during his presidency he was prepared to take responsibility for because he was the one in charge and making the decisions. When we hand our fears over to God, that’s the sign He puts on His desk. “I am in charge of this thing you’re afraid of. And I will take care of it in the best way possible.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.”

In Beth Moore’s book, she details a conversation she had with the LORD where He completely addressed and nullified her worst fears by playing them ALL the way out. And I’d like for us to do that too in order to allow the LORD to completely address and nullify our worst fears as well. All you have to do is answer two simple questions:

1. What’s the thing you’re most afraid of right now?
2. Now let’s say that thing actually happens. Then what?

I’ll go first.

1. What’s the thing you’re most afraid of right now?

   Not becoming the author/speaker that I dream of becoming. And although God has shown me countless visions and told me, “Thus saith the LORD, I have called you to be My prophet and speak My word to My people around the world.” I’m still afraid that I have the ability and power to screw that up somehow and maybe not become everything He created me to be. This would cause me to disappoint Him – which would kill me. The last thing I want to do is disappoint the One who died to save my soul from eternal damnation.

2. Now let’s say that thing happens. Then what?

   If I don’t become the famous author/speaker that I dream of, then I stay where I am. I’ll write on the blog that sends emails out to 36 people daily and has been viewed over 8,830 times from over 107 countries around the world since February 25^th, 2012. I’ll work a day job where the people I serve adore me and thank me for brightening their day. I’ll stay in the house I’ve been working on personalizing for the last seven years and finally have it just the way I like it. I’ll stay where my family lives, breathes and loves. I’ll keep writing the bi-weekly articles for our county paper and occasionally have complete strangers come up to me just to say, “I love your articles!”

And while Fear is trying to tell me that I have the power to undo what God has proclaimed over me, the Truth is that I actually have the power to undo Fear itself! Fear is doing his best to distract me from the Truth that no matter how far along I am in the building process, my blueprints still say, “Skyscraper: Mightily Anointed Child of the One True King.”

And as far as disappointing my Daddy God; how can you disappoint someone whose already seen how it all turns out? How can you disappoint the One who MADE the plans? He knows your very nature because He created it to be weak and fragile and susceptible to temptation in order that you would reach out for Someone strong and solid and completely insusceptible to temptation – God. No matter how hard you try you don’t have the power and authority to wreck God’s plans for you and your future. If you did, what kind of all-knowing God would He be?

Hallelujah! I’ve got to say that again because you KNOW it’s the TRUTH!

No matter how hard you try, you don’t have the power and authority to wreck God’s plans for you and your future. If you did, what kind of all-knowing God would He be?

Be still my Beloved Friend. Be still and know that HE is God! (Psalm 46:10) Not you. Not me. HE is God.

“That’s right, and it means that I am watching and I will certainly carry out all My plans.” Jeremiah 1:12

* Moore, Beth. So Long, Insecurity You’ve Been a Bad Friend to Us. 2010. Tyndale House Publishers.