Word of the Day: “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. (1:3)
“No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you.” (1:5-7) “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (1:9)
“The LORD your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.” (1:14) “Be strong and courageous.” (1:18) “Truly, the LORD has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.” (2:24) “you have not passed this way before.” (3:4) “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” (3:5) “When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.” (3:8)
“Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites…. when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.” (3:10, 12-13)
There is a way that we can KNOW that the living God is among us and that He will without fail do what He says He will do. He makes a way where there is no way. He calls things to be that once were nothing. For nothing is impossible with Him. There is something in your life, some river that needs crossing, and there is currently no bridge over which to cross it. The river is too high and too wide to swim across, and there are too many of you to take a boat. But soon and very soon you will no longer need a bridge, or a boat because that river will stand up in one heap as the LORD your God holds those raging waters back so that the soles of your feet can walk across on DRY ground and take claim on that promise you’ve been waiting for!
Be strong and courageous my friend, because it’s big and it’s coming!
Word of the Day: And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?” Jonah 4:4
Oh Jesus how I need to feel Your arms wrapped around me right now! The Enemy wants me afraid, tormented, and paralyzed. But you want me free, content and mobilized. Papa, help me reach out! Out of myself, out of Fear, out of bondage to the past. This is my year, it is my time and it is Your plan for me to do all these things You’ve set before me.
Lord, I parade my friends before You and pronounce blessing over each one. Jesus please help them trust You more. Help them realize how strong and mighty You are. Help them SEE your faithfulness to them. Lord, infuse them with the strength they lack. Help them to have faith even when it’s hard. Bless them with the strength to endure the race set out for them.
Lord, what am I afraid of? Why do I rebel against Your authority? I want what You have for me because I know that if it’s from you it is good for me.
Word of the Day: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life – the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us – that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son JESUS Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” 1 John 1:1-4
“If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” (1 John 1:6)
Walking in darkness is the condemnation and judgment of others and ourselves. By doing these things we are not practicing the truth that we ALL have been redeemed. Granted, we all may not have accepted that redemption yet, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been forgiven and are no longer judged by their own actions. Rather we will all be judged by the actions of Christ – because He took our place! Hallelujah!
1 John 1:7 calls us to “walk in the light”. When we have fellowship with Him, we remember what He has done for each and every one of us and it helps us to see ourselves and others through His eyes. He remembers our sins and transgressions no more because they have been separated from us as far as the east is from the west. What He sees when we disobey is someone who isn’t looking at Him.
“The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from ALL sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:7-8) Our sin is a constant reminder of our forgiven state. It is NOT there to remind us of our sinfulness but rather to remind us of our REDEMPTION from sin! Our sins shouldn’t make us focus more on us; they should make us focus more on HIM!!!
Word of the Day: “I find no guilt in Him,” John 18: 38, 4 & 19:6
Pilate was completely stuck between a rock and a hard place! Here he proclaims to the Jews three times, “I find no guilt in Him.” It’s so incredibly obvious that Pilate believes that this bloody mass of a man before him really is someone of significance. And then when he hears that Jesus has “made Himself the Son of God” (John 19:7), Pilate suddenly realizes the true seriousness of his own situation. The Jews are forcing him to kill the Son of God! His wife even had a dream about Jesus and told him to “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of Him today in a dream” (Matthew 27:19). Pilate tried, he really did, but it had to be done. And thank God it was done!
Can you imagine the horror of still having to slaughter animals to atone for sin… only to realize their blood doesn’t last, doesn’t cover, doesn’t truly atone; it only satisfies briefly in order to maintain civility. Ahhhh… but the blood of Jesus, now that’s an altogether different story! The blood of Jesus fully satisfies for eternity the penalty that is due to us! His blood does what the blood of bulls and goats and sheep never could. While their blood only covered up the sin, masking it briefly only for it to come back up again like a stain in the carpet. The blood of Jesus erases our sin completely, never to return again! On the cross, Jesus called all our sins (through all the ages) down upon Himself. Like Luke Skywalker calls his light saber or Thor calls his hammer, Jesus calls the entirety of our sin to Himself to be crucified on the cross with Him. But that’s not the end of the story. Hallelujah there’s more.
When a man commits a crime he goes to prison and stays there for a certain amount of time to “pay” for that particular crime. When his time is up his crime has been atoned for and he walks out of prison a free man. Oh, this is good! Jesus took every crime of humanity upon Himself, from anger to murder, and with Him each of them died on the cross; that was the judgment. Then He went to the prison of death where He stayed until every crime was fully paid for. Then He rose from the dead and emerged from the tomb of death to walk again among the living, proving that our sins have been fully paid for through HIS death!
So as many of you know, and some of you don’t, one Sunday afternoon (March 11th 2012 to be exact) I was attempting to nap after church and just as I was beginning to fully relax into my bed the Holy Spirit spoke life-changing words into my spirit: “Write through the Bible in a year”. I literally sprang from my bed and went straight to my computer to update my blog (www.tamarknochel.com). I’ll admit, there have been times when this challenge has been…well… a challenge! But the rewards that I have reaped have far outweighed the cost. That afternoon as I tapped away on the keys to my computer, updating my “followers” of the news, I had no idea the true changes that God had in store for me within this challenge. His Holy Spirit truly is the best teacher any of us could ever have, and asking Him to come and teach us as individual children of God is the best choice we could ever make in this life after choosing Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
I am praying that this simple little Bible Study will help you grow and learn about the love of God through Christ Jesus. It has been through reading the Word of God daily and writing about it that I have been able to see God’s hand at work in my life like never before. I pray that this journal does the same for you!
Here’s how it works…
Every day we hold our Bibles to our chest (like they’re Jesus Himself greeting us before sitting down with us to chat) as we pray:
“Come Holy Spirit, fill me with Your fire so that I may be more like You. Father Open my eyes so that I may see You clearly. Open my ears so that I may hear You soundly. Open my mind so that I may know You more. Open my heart so that I may love You more. Open my mouth so that You may fill it with good things. Open my hands so that I may give generously and receive humbly. Come Holy Spirit, fill me with Your fire so that I may be more like You. Help me Jesus – I trust You.” (Click here for a printable card.)
While praying this prayer picture the Holy Spirit coming and opening these things up like French doors to let in a spring breeze – you may even feel the breeze enter your heart as you pray! The Holy Spirit has taught me this prayer over the years and it is so near and dear to my heart as EVERY time that I pray it I can feel my heart burning within me in acknowledgement to His fiery presence.
Next we open our Bibles to that day’s reading and read the entire selection. Now, I know that some of you may have trouble doing this, BUT, I am giving you permission to… *gasp*… write in your Bible. Yes, really. It is a book with pages of paper and words written in ink just like any other textbook. The pages and the ink are not holy or sacred, THE WORDS themselves are. We are doing this as a study of His words so act like a student. Highlight those pages, mark them up with your own ink, dog-ear the pages and fill them with bookmarks and sticky notes! Make this book your own; special and unique just like you. By the time you’re done with this study in about a year, (or more if you’re like me) when you flip through these pages a rainbow of color and life will greet your eyes and make you smile, it’s a very beautiful thing! If you would like a new Bible to mark up for less than $5 click here! Or email me and I’ll do what I can to get you one for free, you may just have to wait a bit longer for it.
After reading for the day go back over the verses you highlighted, which one(s) speak to you the most? That verse is your very own “Word of the Day” straight from God Himself just for you. Write it down (we have created a companion journal just for this purpose if you would like one click here). As you are writing picture yourself writing with a supernatural pen that writes the words straight onto your heart. Where nothing can erase them or blot them out because God’s words are alive and as powerful as a double-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12) and they never return to Him void, they always accomplish the purpose for which He sent them out. (Isaiah 55:11)
Lastly there are the notes. I will share mine here and I encourage you to do your own; write down any insights that you have gained from your reading, anything that really struck you or changed you. I encourage you to write down your prayers and thoughts toward the LORD. I have been amazed at the things that God has told me through my own writing and I pray for the revelations that He will show you through your writing! The main purpose of me being here in this place is to help others build a RELATIONSHIP with the Almighty, not just a religion. This blog is a place for us to meet and fellowship with one another and I encourage you to leave comments, talk to one another, ask questions, interact with each other and me but most of all HIM. He is here, with us in this place, let us rejoice and be glad in it!!!
In Revelation 12:10-11 tells us that the Accuser is defeated by the blood of the Lamb AND the word of OUR testimony! I want this to be a place where the Enemy can not tread because it is so filled with our testimonies of how the Lamb of God has been working in our everyday lives!!! Let’s fill this place up with so many testimonies of how Jesus conquered the Enemy in our lives that EVERYONE will come just to see what all the fuss is about. This blog isn’t about me, and it’s not about you, it’s about HIM. So lets do that shall we? But I can’t do it alone, I need your help, your input, your participation. Even if you’re just reading what I write and commenting, that’s great. But the REAL power will come from reading His word for yourselves and allowing His voice to come to the forefront of your mind.
Happy Reading & Writing! Here’s the Intro video to the series, enjoy! (There is an outline below the video if you would like to use one.) Please please please let me know if the video doesn’t work for you, this YouTube thing is still very new for me!!!
This is the outline for the video if you’d like to use it to follow along. You can also click here for a printable version if you would prefer.
Masks of Perfection Introduction Video Guide
-This Bible Study is all about getting into the W______ of God daily, letting it sink into your l______ and shut out all the outside v______ to focus on H____.
-The benefit is in taking off the M______ of P______ and allowing people to see your:
s______
how you’re f______
w______ you really are.
-We as Christians, women, mothers, friends, wives and as daughters of Christ need to allow ourselves to s______ so that the p______ around us can see the effects that they have on us.
–We are justified! We are j______ as if I’d n______ s______ . We are justified!
-The Mask of Perfection says, “I d______ s______, I’m perfect!” Taking that mask off allows others to see that we’re h______ and gives us something to t______ about.
-The Bible is the W______ of the Word .
-The Water of the Word washes away the dirt and grime that builds up while we’re l______ l______ and being human.
-As they build up in our hearts, the Words of God become part of w______ we are!
-When we get married to Christ we become o___ f______!
-The Spirit of God lives in m__!
-I am a p______ child of God.
-2 Corinthians 12:9-10 “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
-We need to look at God and say to Him, “You are e______ for me.”
-I don’t have to be p______ because HE IS!
After the video:
(Feel free to answer these questions in the comment section below!!!! 😀
My daughter Anna came down with a fever on Sunday night and was complaining of her stomach hurting, so this week started with me spending a night on the couch tossing and turning with motherly alertness. In the morning when she woke up she was burning up with fever and looked so miserable that I gave her a fever reducer. Hours later her nose started bleeding profusely and didn’t stop for thirty minutes! I was exhausted but not too terribly worried. She looked good, the fever was low (due to the Advil) and she was in good spirits watching her favorite day time cartoons. And then an hour later she got the second nose bleed, just like the first profuse and long lasting. And then another, and another, and another!
In twelve hours she had had five nose bleeds. And as I sat on the edge of the bed with Anna between her father and I switching back and forth between tissues on her nose I was spent. I had been dealing with this blood all day long. I was tired and scared and done fighting this fight. And I prayed, “Lord, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t go on.” Yet there sat the daughter that I love, bleeding and scared and so much more exhausted than I was. As I looked at her I remembered that while God doesn’t keep us from all the fires in life; He is always in them with us. He gives us the strength to take just one more step, and then another and another, and another. Until we find ourselves out of the fire, unbound and not even smelling like smoke. (Read Daniel 3.) God wasn’t delivering me from the fire of this moment, but He was in it with me. And because He was there, is here, with me I know I can face whatever life throws my way.
I looked at my daughter, blood still flowing, took a deep breath and sat up a little taller because I knew that no matter what the rest of the night held I could and would face it. A few minutes later the bleeding stopped and we slept; all night long.
Come to find out, the very thing I gave her to make her feel better, is what caused the bleeding. By me trying to remove my daughter from the thing that was making her uncomfortable, I caused her so much more discomfort. Sometimes, God keeps us away from circumstances that will cause us pain. But sometimes we need to go through the fire in order to burn off things that may be hindering us. It is through these fires that we cling to the Truth that He will never leave us or forsake us. That in those times of burning and pain He is right there with us, giving us the strength to keep going.
At this moment she has only had one more nose bleed that was light and very brief, under 5 minutes. And it was only because she picked her nose; unlike before where she would merely swallow or cough and everything would break loose again. She still has the fever, but it’s still not bad. We all slept VERY well last night, all night long Praise God!!! Thank you all so very very much for all your prayers! I would be surprised if she ever has another nose bleed again!!! J In Jesus’ name!
We need prayer!!!!! My daughter stayed home from school yesterday with a fever, not that big of a deal right. Around noon yesterday her nose started bleeding profusely. I could hardly get a new tissue up to her nose before the first one was full of blood. And it took a good 30-40 minutes to stop. In the last 19 hours she has had SIX nose bleeds just like that. This last one didn’t fill very many tissues but it did fill her stomach to the point of vomiting blood.That’s a sight no mother wants to see! Any and all prayers for Anna’s complete and total healing would be GREATLY appreciated! As well as prayers for strength and wisdom for her father and I, this has been very difficult for both of us.
Hee hee hee!!! I am so excited that I get to blog today! I feels like forever that I’ve been able to come on here and talk to you all!!! I have been SOOO busy getting this next Bible Study up and running and ready. There has been so much going on here behind the scenes and I am seriously on pins and needles waiting to unveil it to you! You’re gonna LOVE it! It seriously is all I can do to contain my glee in this moment, deep breath… It won’t be too much longer, I hope.
I can give you this little peek behind the curtain, the new book/Bible Study cover and title:
Ahhhh… there’s nothing like waiting on a Bible Study about waiting right? You know you love me!
Yup, the writing is finished, the proof copy has been sent to the editor, the front cover is done, it’s so close I can almost taste it! I love being able to see the finish line don’t you!
On Fridays I go to the school to have lunch with the kids. Today, as I was walking up to the school I was wondering if Anna would, for the third week in a row, forget that I was coming and bringing her forgotten lunch and get another one before I got there ending up with three lunches for the two of us. And it just made me think of all the times when we forget that our heavenly Father is bringing something into our lives. He’s coming with something big and exciting and we forget so we work on and worry about that very same thing only to see Him coming around the corner with His version of what we’ve been working on… and it’s SO MUCH BETTER than what we did that our version pales in comparison and we just want to hide it behind our backs.
Every time I have walked into the cafeteria carrying a lunch for my daughter that I know she will love and actually eat, and see her walking to the table with a tray filled with food that I know that she will not eat, God has tapped me on the shoulder and said, “you know you do that too right?” Siiiigh…
Why do we worry and sweat over things that He’s got under control? So often we think, “Oh! This and such doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere God must need me to do something about it. Maybe He needs my help…” No. He doesn’t need your help. He needs your TRUST. He needs for you to believe in Him to do what needs to be done that you can’t do. He needs for us to be still, silent, quiet, peaceful, calm, motionless, carefree, and know that HE is God, that He has it all under control and that when it is time for us to DO something He WILL let us know it.
Once upon a time… OK, all the time, I was worrying over my sins, I was worrying over whether or not I was doing the right thing and God stopped me and said, “I am a good Father, if you’re doing something wrong, I will tell you.”
Oh! He IS a good Father! And He DOES tell us when we’re doing something wrong or when we’re doing something right! We just have to be still enough to be able to hear Him!
Oh how I love being on this phase of writing! There’s nothing like being at the end of a season and looking back over the whole thing and seeing how it all unfolded right before your eyes but couldn’t see it until now. My season of “waiting” is over, I know it, I can feel it down to my bones. God is opening my eyes to so many things right now and it’s amazing. Time is rushing by like a freight train and the rush of wind as it passes is taking my breath away. All I can do right now is laugh. Laugh at God’s sense of humor and irony. Laugh at how perfectly it has all fit together. Laugh at how wonderful He really truly is, and know that I’ve only BARELY scratched the surface.
God’s got my back. I don’t have to worry or fear the future, because I know the One who holds it in the palm of His eternally merciful hand and He loves me enough to die for me. I am so blessed to know this God whose word always proves true. This God who proves His faithfulness to His people in so many abundant ways. This God who fills the earth with so many colors of His love that there is no way to count them all! Yes! This is MY God. This is MY Father who brings me the best lunch I could imagine, so I don’t need to worry about getting my own lunch because I know that His will be so much better in every way!
Our current blog site has become a bit crowded lately! It can’t seem to house everything that’s going on around here, so we’re expanding our virtual territory! It’s been on the horizon for quite some time now, and God finally gave me the omph to make the move. So, without further ado, here is the link to the new blog site Walk of Ages, where ALL of my daily writing will be housed. God has made it clear to me that the “365 Life” (or the Alphabetical Bible in a Year Plan,) is our foundation. It’s what keeps me grounded and you too! If you’d like to join me in His challenge make sure to subscribe to that blog.
I have discovered that while we can shower our bodies every day, there is simply nothing that compares to being washed in the water of word daily. And then on top of that the act of writing about it just seems to be the towel that dries and the clothes that dress. He had me create a journal to go along with the reading plan, 365 Life, available here for $5.99.
In addition to the 365 Life site, I am also working on a site that will feature all the books I’ve written and published to date. As you can see, I’ve got my hands full at the moment!!!
Now for those of you that are following this site, don’t get discouraged, we’re not going anywhere! I will still be posting my newspaper articles and pictures here, as well as an upcoming series from my latest book “Food for Thought: 30 Meditations on the Last Supper“. Which will be featured on Amazon’s Kindle as a FREE e-book starting Tuesday Feb 12th until Saturday February 16th, so make sure to check that out here. After the sale ends on the 16th the e-book version of Food for Thought will still only be $0.99.
As you can see, I could really use some prayers for strength and stamina! The ministry is certainly kicking into high gear around here, we are blessed beyond measure! Which is wonderful… but it comes with consequence as well. I have been praying for those folks that God has ordained to join me in this ministry, although I may not know all their names and faces and job descriptions yet, God does! So prayers for them would be appreciated as well! I am so honored and blessed to do what I do, just the other day I received the most wonderful email from a new friend that made everything come into focus. Never forsaking the fellowship of believers doesn’t always have to mean going to church regularly, it means what it says, making sure that you spend time in the company of other believers as often as possible. And with the technology that is present today, physical proximity to those believers is of little consequence. Our words have tremendous power in this world, more tremendous than I think we will ever be able to fathom this side of heaven. And i want to make sure that my words empower believers to walk closer to God every day, and to each other.
My friend, I strongly urge you to prayerfully consider doing this 365 Life plan with me. It may be new, or scary, or intimidating. It may even be something that you would never do because it’s alphabetical instead of chronological or from cover to cover, but that’s where the beauty lies in this reading plan. It is 20-30 minutes of reading a day maximum! And those minutes don’t have to be spent all at the same time. They can be chopped up into little bite sized chunks throughout the day even, and then you can write in your journal at the end of the day. Simple as that. The important thing is that you read and allow the Holy Spirit the chance to be your teacher. God has really opened me up to His grace after 32 years of walking in the dark, He showed me His marvelous Light and He did it through reading His word daily.
Honestly, if I can do this with two kids, a crazy schedule of writing and teaching and 3 websites, then surely you can do it too!!! I want you to have the gift of time with God, it’s the greatest gift any of us can ever have, and it’s so easy all you have to do is open a book and pray!
I’ve been reminded lately of Joseph and his struggles through life. His brothers threw him in a pit and planned to leave him there to die, only to then sell him into slavery. But after years of struggling, look where he ended up, the second in command of all of Egypt where he saved them from starvation! And when his brothers came to him fearing his wrath against them his response was “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” (Genesis 50:20)
Romans 8:28 tells us that “God works all things for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose”. All things? Really?
What if his brothers had never thrown Joseph into that pit, what would have happened to all those people in Egypt during the famine? The evil deed that Joseph’s brothers performed out of jealousy and anger is the very thing that God used to get Joseph headed in the right direction. It placed him precisely where he needed to be at precisely the time he needed to be there. If there had been no pit, no sale to slavery, then there would have been no trip to Potiphar’s house. If Joseph hadn’t been in Potiphar’s house and been accused of molesting Potiphar’s wife, he never would have been in that prison to meet Pharaoh’s cup bearer. And if he hadn’t ever met the cup bearer and shared his talent for dream interpretation then Pharoah’s dream would have gone un-interpreted and the prophesy of the famine would have fallen on deaf ears causing all of Egypt to suffer. Sure, God could have used someone else to save them, but He wanted Joseph to be that person. He had chosen Joseph for that position of honor.
My point is this, so often we bemoan the rough moments in life without realizing that it is precisely those moments that are taking us to where God wants for us to be. That pit took Joseph to Egypt. And your pit can take you to where you need to be too. The thing about Joseph is, he didn’t let it get him down; he used it to lift him up. He continued to serve God even in those rough patches where life kicked him while he was already down. He believed that God would do what He said He would do for Joseph.
“Let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me.” John 14:1
