Writing Through the Bible in a Year

“Is That a Siren?” with Guest Writer Dalialah Hepburn

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Tamar


Amos 5:1-9:15

I am so pleased as punch to introduce today’s guest writer, my friend and fellow blogger, Dalialah Hepburn. Click here if you would like to visit her “Transparenme” blog or here if you would like to visit her “Not so Empty Nest” blog.

Let’s give a warm welcome to Dalialah, she fought all day long for this message!

*thunderous round of applause*

Yesterday was very eventful for me! I worked a full day at my new job, my son (20 yrs old) picked me up from work (how crazy is that!) and we had one of the few warm and muggy days on the day of a church block party! Woo! But none of those was even the beginning of the highlight of my night! That came when I entered a small tent with a woman already sitting there. She was another prayer warrior who had volunteered to pray at this event. We met, we had small talk and before we could even pray over our time there, the mad dash was on. We immediately had someone come over for prayer and that is where God began to put the missing pieces of my past and everything I had been through in perspective.

The first lady had a 16 yr old daughter/ granddaughter. I’m doing time with my 16 yr old daughter and all her friends, attitude, rebellion, disrespect, disregard for others, etc. I’m sure some of you can relate to these so called friends I speak of.

As the night went on, I met pieces of me at different times of my life and prayed fervent and warring prayers over these women. Even at the end, I prayed over my new friend, who apparently knew my mom, and her need of healing. I came home semi exhausted but nothing prepared me for what was next.

I woke up the next morning after what appeared to be a long restless sleep (I don’t remember) and felt like a MACK TRUCK had not just ran over me but backed up two or three times to make sure the job was done!! It was only then and through crying out and prayer that I realized exactly what is in this text. We are at war and God is sounding the alarm.

In the beginning chapter, 5, what drew me in was the text, “seek me and live,” at the end of verse 4 and then at the beginning of verse 6 again, “seek the LORD, and live…”. Throughout these chapters that’s what I kept seeing. That’s what I keep hearing. That’s what God keeps on saying to us. How simple is that? “Seek me and live.” No jumping through hoops, no endless working, no sweat and blood to give, just seeking Him.

The other thing God drew my attention to is the alarm that was sounded. All through the text, its like God was saying, “Okay, y’all are not doing as I said. You better get it together because I don’t want to do this but I will to get my glory.” It’s interesting how the times have not really changed. We still have our idols, our false worship, our watered down sermons, our… okay I’m done. What I hear in this text is YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN YOUR FIRST LOVE!!! How soon we forget that we serve a Sovereign God just as much as we serve a jealous One. And at the end of the 9th chapter, haha!

Have you ever had your child act a plum fool in the store? I mean the crying and screaming, the fit on the floor and tearing down things and kicking as if you were a kidnapper trying to abduct this very violent little person? And all the way through the store and to the car you just keep saying, “Oh you are in for it!! Just wait until we get to that car! I am gonna wear your butt out!” And then you get to the car with a much quieter child only to realize that your baby, the one who just morphed into a creature from far away, is smiling and hugging you. They’re calm. That’s God with us. At the end of this text, I love this, He simply says,” ‘I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,’ says the LORD your God.”

While He has every right, all the power to discipline us and would if necessary, what He desires is to commune with us and bless us. What a mighty God we serve!!

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

“The Lion has Roared!” with Guest Writer Jennifer Adams

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Tamar


Amos 1:1-4:13

Today’s guest writer is my dear friend Jennifer Adams!

*Thunderous applause*

If you would like to learn more about Jennifer and her children’s book (For I AM Always With You: Valerie’s True Fairy Tale) click here to visit her website. I HIGHLY recommend it! And now without further ado, I’ll hand the keyboard over to Jennifer!

 

“Before the Lord God does anything, He tells His servants the prophets. The Lion has roared! Who wouldn’t be afraid? The Lord God has spoken, and I must prophesy.” ~Amos 3:7&8

To be a prophet of God is an awesome responsibility, because you are appointed by God himself. It is a divine honor, but it is also a burden, as identified in Amos’ name which means “burden bearer”.

As for an Old Testament prophet, his name did carry its full weight. He was given the “burden” to declare to Israel the wrath that they were about to receive from God for all their sin and transgressions. Therefore, when we hear the word burden, it takes on a negative connotation.

Through the message God gave to Amos, the Lord was showing Himself as the one attacking Israel, rather than protecting her. Up to this point, He was her shepherd, but three transgressions plus one more equals destruction. Amos listed the sin of Israel’s enemies, then the sins of her allies, and then finally Israel’s list was adding all the sins to herself. God was accusing Israel to be the worst of all the nations. Why would God say this?

Because Israel was the apple of His eye, therefore her disobedience hurt Him the most. ” …to whom much has been given, much will be required.” ~Luke 12:48 God had given the Hebrews the law. They knew that their actions were defiant of the one true God. If only His people would repent. God knew that He could no longer forgive the inequities; His only choice was judgment. He made it clear to them that only a few would be snatched from the Lion’s mouth. God did not want them to mistake His anger as an idle threat.

As human nature would have it, it takes a Lion’s roar to gain our attention. Most of us need to become afraid to reach out for a savior. I believe that is what God has done here. He became the Lion so that he could send the Lamb. He knew that His children would never be able to uphold the law, but rather, He shed the blood of His son to cover all iniquity. Now when Jesus invites us to take His yoke, the burden has been redeemed.

Paul writes to the Galatians, that every man shall bear his own burden, expressing to the individual that each one of us has a specific task that God has assigned only to them.

This is impelling to me! I am awe struck with the knowledge that the Creator of the universe thought of me and what He wants me to be before I was ever born. Not only that, but HE has the confidence in ME to fulfill that purpose to help complete His kingdom. That right there should compel every one of us to fall on our faces and declare to Him we are truly humbled and willing to do anything that He ordains of us.

I admit, I was once afraid that I would be unable to do what He expected. I was like most of us who are scared that He may demand too much, or He may require something that I was not willing to do. However, Jesus reassures us that His burden is light. ~Matthew 11:30

He is not going to ask us to do anything that He has not equipped us to do. But you ask, how does He equip us? Jesus Christ dwells in those who have been baptized by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is His strength, His abilities that allow us to do what He asks. He is doing the work, yet He allows us to share in the glory! In the Old Testament, the prophets were called servants. With the New Testament Covenant, Jesus has called us friends. We each have the opportunity to be a prophet for the King of the Universe… Will you answer the Roar?

Categories: 365 Life, Amos, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | 3 Comments

“Shipwrecked” with Guest Writer Mark Trietsch

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Tamar

Word of the DayActs 25:13-28:31

Good morning all! So yesterday I finished the post, Take a Break! And then headed off to church and lo and behold wouldn’t you know it that the message God had waiting there for me to receive was that I should…take a break! Imagine that! LOL. So, just as THE doctor has directed I am taking this week off from posting. I will still be reading all the readings and writing about them, just none of you will ever get to see them. Instead, we will all be blessed to receive offerings from several friends of mine that have so graciously agreed to submit a story, or picture or video, whatever God leads them to share with us.

So without further ado, I present to you today’s guest writer, Mark Trietsch! Let’s give him a warm welcome.

*round of thunderous applause*

At our church Sunday, we had a very interesting guest speaker. His name is Douglas Carmel, (I hope I have his last name spelled correctly), and he is a Christ believing Jew. We have been studying the Passion of the Christ in my Sunday school class of middle-schoolers. So, I had Doug come in to speak to the class, as clearly, he would have more knowledge of Jewish history than I would.

One of the topics I asked Doug to address was the Roman-Jewish relationship. It struck me, the dynamic that presents itself so clearly, in both the case of Jesus and why Paul was sent to Agrippa. Doug explained to the class that the Romans didn’t really have a problem with Christianity, at least early on. They didn’t have a problem, because they didn’t really care. As explained by Doug, the Romans had their own gods, the gods of Olympus, so another religion wasn’t a huge concern for them. They were more interested in taxes. Worship anything you want, just keep the tax money rolling in. Sounds a lot like our government today, but that is another story.

The similarity in both cases is uncanny. The Jewish leaders, who knew the Old Testament, and therefore should have recognized the truth in the ministries of Jesus and Paul wanted them to be shut up by any means possible. This meant appealing to the very Romans, which they themselves hated, to do the dirty work for them. Meanwhile, the Romans, who knew little to nothing about Moses and the prophets, in both cases found the accused guilty of nothing.

Makes me think about how often times it is the people who should know better that are the hardest to reach with the Gospel. People who perhaps went to church as a child, attended vacation Bible school and heard all the stories, yet that is all they are to them, stories, People who can recite the Christmas story front to back, sing about the Silent Night but deny the very words they are singing. They may be the very definition of a “good person”, but ultimately they refuse to live for Jesus. They have head knowledge, but not heart knowledge. I marvel at the stories and testimonies of the drug addict or the alcoholic, with very little going for them, that they will receive the message of Christ openly, while the “normal” person shuts out the truth.

The other main thought I had while reading these chapters was that Paul never lost sight of his goal, his mission. Whether standing before a Roman ruler or an island dweller, Paul continued to present the Gospel message. He never let his circumstances change his mission.

It makes me cringe to think how often I let my daily surroundings determine my mood. If things are going bad at work, does that give me a valid reason to blow up, lose my cool, and act like a loon? Sitting in my living room, the answer is a very clear “of course not”. Yet how often do we let small things take us away from our ultimate mission. How many times do we let work situations, or the behavior of our kids, determine whether we publically show Christ’s love to others today? Or, will we get mad at our temporary hardship and focus on our need, and how we are being “cheated”? Through chains, prison, house arrest and shipwrecks, Paul saw every situation not as reason to throw up his hands and quit, but as a new stage to present the Word of God. Paul looked to make the best of every situation and circumstance.

Makes one want to lower their heads a little. Most likely we will never find ourselves lost at sea, or shipwrecked, or stand in chains before those which could kill us. Yet we can almost look for reasons not to be a witness for Jesus, to decide to “turn it off” if we feel like it. May we strive to be more like Paul, to see the opportunity in whatever God presents us with and to carry our witness for Him wherever we find ourselves.

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

Take a Break

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Tamar

Acts 21:37-25:12

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TRUST in the LORD with all your heart and lean not in your own understanding!

“What shall I do LORD?” Acts 22:10

Is that not the question of the century or what! What’s shall I do Lord? For many of us true rest and stillness is a very difficult concept to master. For me, it is because I love feeling productive. I love the feeling of having accomplished something, or better yet many things. It makes me feel useful, valuable… important. If I’m not DOING something i feel less valuable.
Did I seriously just say that? Just looking at that sentence make me shake my head! How! How in the world can my physical activity affect my value? I mean, if a car isn’t driving me somewhere does that decrease it’s a value or ability to do so later? No. Actually, most cars are worth more if they haven’t been driven extensively and essentially worn out. Or my children. If they’re sitting and watching TV or sleeping rather than cleaning does that make them less valuable to me? What about my coffee maker? It’s job is to make coffee when I want it. I did does just that. So during those times when it’s not making coffee does it lose its value? Nope. So where in the world do we get the idea that if we’re talking a break of any length that we lose our value? Or that we’re not useful? If my coffee maker is not being used at the moment does that mean it has ceased to be a useful tool for my kitchen? If my car isn’t being driven at the moment has its ceast from being a useful way for me to get to the grocery store? Oh! Or what if it even ran out of gas which is totally happened! Has it ceased to be useful to me? By no means! Was it the car’s fault it ran out of gas, or mine?
Why do we feel so guilty about running out of gas physically or spiritually or emotionally? Why is it so hard to allow ourselves to be humans in need of a break? Why do we refuse to rest? Why do neglect to fill up our gas tanks or our water reservoir and then get angry when they run out and we’re forced to stop our movement and take a break and pray?
Prayer is our fuel and time in the word is our living water. The Lord is my strength, an ever present help in times of trouble.

Categories: 365 Life, Acts, Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Tags: , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Wake Up!

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Tamar

Acts 19:1-21:36

“Be alert” Acts 20:27

Yesterday, as I was driving home from the vet’s office with the kids and dog in the backseat I had a strange thought run through my head, “Since you’re such an important person in the kingdom of God you should drive your car off the road into that tree and prove it.” Now, at the time I was driving at no slow speed so of COURSE the thought frightened me and I immediately pushed it aside. So while I didn’t obey it, I didn’t stop to think where a thought like that could be coming from either. I simply pushed it out of my mind and kept driving. And I didn’t think about it again until this morning at 3:22am when I woke up from a dream with a start. I can’t remember any of the dream except driving my car off the road into a tree!

Now while some may say a dream like that is straight from the devil I will strongly disagree with them, because that dream woke me up! It alerted me to the demonic activity that had been so surrounding me during the day that I had ceased to realize their efforts to destroy me. I had failed to remain alert to their ploys. I had not been taking EVERY thought CAPTIVE.

“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-6

You see, those thoughts of running my car into a tree, they weren’t my thoughts. Yet I was still allowing them to tromp their way through my head instead of capturing them and punishing them for invading my space. Our minds are the battlefield of spiritual warfare because as a man thinks, so he is. And out of the overflow of his heart a man speaks, (Matthew 12:34, Luke 6:45) and those words contain the power of life and death (James 3) to all who hear them including the speaker.

When I awoke from my dream I simultaneously awoke from my spiritual slumber as well. I had been renting out space in my head to the Liar himself and it was high-time I kicked him out! So right then and there I opened my mouth and spoke, “Spirit of Suicide, in Jesus’ name, report to Jesus immediately for sentencing.” On and on I went, Self-harm, Self-destruction, Indifference, Lack, Depression, Fear, Self-reliance… capturing them by the ear by calling our their name and punishing them the best way I know how. I sent them to The Judge for eternal punishment. For an HOUR I lay in bed quietly and calmly calling out the names of my former tormentors, telling them where to go and then asking the Holy Spirit to come and fill the space they had occupied with His beautiful fruity self: “Come Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Goodness, Gentleness, Kindness, Faithfulness and Self-Control!” I praised God for opening my eyes to the bonds that had been hindering me from fully praising Him and fully appreciating His love for me.

In that very car on the way TO the vet’s office I had been sobbing for God to help me, to free me from this unknown and un-named prison I seemed to be in. A prison I knew I couldn’t get out of on my own. Right then the scale tipped back toward my favor and the Enemy knew he had been defeated because I had run into THE tree!

THANK YOU JESUS!

I feel like a completely different person today without all those “cling-ons”!

HALLELUJAH!

See what just one short week of daily Bible reading can do for you!?! I certainly have missed it! Oh my friends, the best is yet to come, won’t you join me!?!

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

Sabbath!

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Tamar

No reading today! We’ll pick back up where we left off tomorrow.

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Closed Doors Opened

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Tamar

Acts 15:36-18:28

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.” Acts 16:25-26

Many of us are in different spiritual prisons. Sometimes more than one at a time! However, that is where I pray this blog comes into play. When I write I usually write from or about a prison I’ve been in whether Fear, or Doubt, Uncertainty, Condemnation, Complacency, Confusion, you name it! And I pray that my prayers and “songs” shake the foundations of your prisons!

If we look at this scripture we find what happens when foundations are shaken; doors open and bonds are unfastened! That’s the power of the Word of God!

Earlier in Acts 16 we find Paul, Silas and Timothy facing closed door (verse 6: Asia) after closed door (verse 7: Bithynia). I can only imagine how frustrated they were at this. Here the Spirit of God has empowered them with boldness and a passion to spread the gospel but He keeps telling them, “not here”.

I’ve been in that hallway of locked doors with God before and it’s frustrating and discouraging as you knock on door after door and they simply remain closed to you. So you walk farther down the hall and knock on more doors and they stay closed causing more feelings of rejection and disappointment and doubt of your calling. But these doors are not a rejection of you nor are they a confirmation of your doubts; they’re arrows pointing you in the direction God wants you to go. They’re like those signs in the bank when a teller window is closed, “next teller please”.

God,

Please infuse us with the patience of Your Spirit as we continue down our hall of closed doors in search of the door of opportunity that was made just for us. Heal our knuckles that have been bruised and bloodied from knocking. There are so many hurts that accompany closed doors; we give those hurts to You our great and mighty healer. Lord, we give You our prison-stays. And we will praise Your name in every circumstance that shakes us because we know that we have been given an unshakable kingdom (Hebrews 12:18-29) where Christ is our unbreakable foundation. We pray that we may be deeply rooted and grounded in Your love for us and that we may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that we may be FILLED with ALL the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19)

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

Letter from God

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Tamar

Acts 13:1-15:35

Beloved,

I can’t fit in a box and neither can you. You have to be who I made you to be or you’ll never be happy with yourself. You’ve got to do what I made you to do. Say what I made you to say. Look the way I made you to look. Live the way I made you to live. Act the way I made you to act. I made you to be you, a unique and special individual unlike anyone else in all of creation, why would you want to be just like someone else? Just be yourself, it’s who I made you to be. And I think you’re pretty spectacular if I do say so myself! 😉 I love you. The you I made you to be. Stop trying to copy other people, it’s not worth your time and effort, because no matter how hard you try, you can’t be them and they can’t be you. My world doesn’t work that way. It only works if you be you and let them be them. They’re a foot and you’re an eye. They can’t see and you can’t walk so get over it and move on to do the function I created you to perform. Be an “I”, the most beautiful “I” you can be, the “I”, I made you to be. You’ll never be sorry you did.

Love ALWAYS,

God

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Beautiful YOU

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Tamar


Acts 9:23-12:25

Yesterday I posted a picture of my disheveled little self and challenged you to share pictures of your beautiful selves with me. (TamarKnochel@gmail.com – let me know if I can share them, I won’t unless I have permission.) When the first one came in I was so struck by the Spirit at how beautiful He feels we are. And then He started singing:

“You are so beautiful, to Me.

Can’t you see?

You’re everything I hoped for,

You’re everything I need.

You are so beautiful, to Me!”

He wasn’t just singing to me in my brokenness or even to the beauty whose picture I was beholding, it was, no IS, His song to all of us. To YOU personally. In today’s scripture God told Peter, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” Acts 10:15

In the early days of the Bible God pulled Abram aside and told him he was special, that God wanted to make a holy nation through Abram. And Abram believed Him. That very nation grew rapidly and became more numerous than the sand at the sea or the stars in the sky. When Christ died on the cross He died for ALL mankind. His blood cleanses EVERY heart that believes; which brings them into the family of God.

God has made you clean. He has declared you as holy and set apart for His good purposes, don’t you dare consider yourself common! You have the blood of JESUS covering your nakedness, cleansing your wounded-ness, filling in your imperfections, declaring you pure, righteous and beautiful in His sight. And there is NOTHING common or ordinary about that!

You are so beautiful to Him.

Receive this gift of Truth from Him today.

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Who am I Living to Please?

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Tamar

Word of the Day: Acts 7:1-9:22

So, I had a whole other post half-heartedly written in my head and when I started writing it down and it just didn’t feel right.  I put down my pen, picked up my Bible and said through tears,  “LORD, what is Your message for ME today?”
I have spent so much time taking down and delivering messages for other people lately. And right now I’m the one hurting.  Much more than I expected I would.  My Grandpa just died yesterday and it’s hitting me with more force than I expected.  Every little thing seems to bring me to tears right now. And the people asking me, “how are you doing?” is annoying me. They may not intend it, but they all seem to be asking me if I’m staying strong and holding it all together.  Well, I guess the answer is, “no I’m not”. But really, should I be?  Should I be holding the sadness in so that it can swallow me whole later? Should I stay strong so that others aren’t made uncomfortable?
For so long I’ve lived my life for others, for their pleasure and satisfaction. Why? What good does that do me? And even though I’ve tried living for Christ (in the way others told me I should) that didn’t seem to ever work out either. So I wonder if perhaps I should start living for me instead. Start living to please His Holy Spirit inside me so that when I stand in heaven and look back on my life I can say I loved me. So that I can say I loved seeing Him in me coming out in ways I never expected or could have hoped.
This morning when I asked God what His message for ME was today He pointed to Acts 7:20 “Beautiful in God’s sight”.
Today, right now, when I’m trying so hard to write and be faithful and do His will.  Right now when I’m stinky and frumpy with my trusty Purdue sweatshirt from college, yoga pants,  crazy hair, no make up and even unbrushed teeth. Right now when I’m broken to bits and hurting and weeping constantly. That’s when I am truly beautiful in His sight. When I’m leaning on Him with everything I have because I recognize how weak I really am, how desperately I need His help because I simply can’t do this on my own. That is when I’m the most beautiful to Him.

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(He made me take and post this picture)

Ok, I shared mine, what was your personal message from God through His Word today? If you’re brave enough, take a picture of your beautiful self and share it with us!

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

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