Promises Fulfilled

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Tamar


Exodus 21:17-25:9

“There will be no miscarriages or infertility in your land and I will give you long full lives.” Exodus 23:26

When I read that verse this morning I was instantly taken back to a post I wrote last year. I had to look it up. On April 23rd 2013 I wrote Healed, a post detailing a season in my life where I felt like I was surrounded by infant tragedies, and then found this phrase. The reason this verse stuck out to me so much this morning was its amazing timing! The first time I read the phrase (in 2 Kings) a friend of mine had just miscarried her twins; babies we had been praying for for YEARS. To say we were all devastated would be an understatement. And, as God would have it, the very next time I would read this phrase (from Exodus) it would be the very same week that that friend delivered her beautifully healthy little baby girl into the world!!!!! THANK YOU JESUS!!!

We have SO MUCH to be thankful for friends! So much! And yet all too often we get so lost in the few things that Satan is poking us with (I am SO talking to myself here right now)! Tonight as I was waiting for my computer to start up I started flipping through my 365 Life Daily Planner

and looking back at all the things that I have written down over the last few months. The appointments that I’ve been to, the verses that I’ve focused on, the to-do list items I’ve crossed off, but my favorite section to look at was my “Thank You LORD for:” section. Looking back through those I remembered some of those harder times, yet I was remembering them through a lens of gratitude.

I am so in love with this sweet little daily planner folks!!! It’s concise, yet allows me the space to elaborate if I want to. It’ helps me plan and order my thoughts and my day, while at the same time giving me the space to keep track of my blessings too! I’ve been using this planner almost daily since March 25th and I love it more and more every day! Now you know me, I’m not usually one to sit here and try to sell you on one of my books, but this one… well, you NEED this book!!! It’s 365 identical pages spiral bound into a tight little package of keeping you organized and focused on God’s blessings and plan for your life. But on top of that, once the day is over it serves as a GREAT journal that logs your every move throughout the year.

Just taking the few minutes to sit here and flip back through it has made me so amazingly happy and I feel so much more blessed than I did just moments before. God has done so much for me! He has been there and blessed me with such an amazing family and great friends and I’m so grateful that He inspired me to create this simple book so that I could keep track of all those things in one place to keep for years and years to come. Who knows, maybe someday little Ella Mae will see that journal entry about the “fresh new baby girls blessing this world” and find out that it’s HER I was thanking God for – the baby we prayed and prayed and prayed for. The baby we feared might never come, except then she did, and she’s HERE! His word to me on that day in April was true. Thank You Jesus for being True to Your word and helping us hear it more clearly. Lord I pray with every fiber of my being that everyone reading this blog will pick up their Bibles at least once today and spend some time with YOU!!! Your Word is such a blessing and I want them to know how much of a blessing it really is! LORD, thank You for little Ella Mae, and I pray that she lives a long, happy, healthy life with You right by her side every step of the way. May she never know a day without Your guidance, wisdom, reassurance, blessing, favor and LOVE! In Jesus’ name! Amen!

Seriously, I really think you would like this Daily Planner, check it out.

Categories: 365 Life, Exodus, Season 3 | Leave a comment

What Are You Really Accomplishing Here?

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Tamar


Exodus 17:1-21:16

“What are you really accomplishing here? Why are you trying to do all this alone while everyone stands around you from morning till evening?” Exodus 18:14

The above verse is taken from the part of Moses’ story where the Israelites have been successfully whisked away from Pharaoh’s clutches and delivered safely to the opposite side of the Red Sea where they stood and watched their enemy’s ultimate doom – at the bottom of the sea. Many days of traveling and grumbling went by and then Moses’ father-in-law showed up with Moses’ wife and children. While he was in town, Jethro, the priest of Midian, made a very interesting observation. Moses’ daily practice of sitting and hearing every single case from the people was an ineffective one. He noticed that Moses was doing everything while there were plenty of fully capable people just sitting around doing nothing. Now, moms, is this sounding familiar to any of you?

How about this? Our scene opens up on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The family has praised and worshipped, Sunday Schooled and Bible studied and have returned home for lunch where mom stands in the kitchen and prepares the meal on a supposed to be Sabbath day of rest, while the family reclines at the entertainment center and waits for the dinner bell to ring.

Or how about this one? The frenzied church volunteer who has her hands busy with kids and church, work and no play being asked to do just one more little thing for the program. “It’s only an hour a month, no big commitment”. Except, it is.

You know what they say, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person because they’ll get it done”. But no one ever really finishes the statement do they? “The busy person will get it done, but it might not be done well because they were so busy!”

God gave me this verse today right smack next to, well one measly page away from, the fourth commandment; Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of… more work. NO!!!!! If you’re like me, if you’ve ever tried to take a Sabbath day you will know what ultimately happens, someone asks for your help. And, if you struggle with Insecurity the way I have in the past, then you usually cave in and agree to help them because it’s easier than standing up for yourself and your much needed (and well deserved) rest and alone time with God. Anything to make someone else happy – and you miserable.

So, as if these two verses smooshed together weren’t enough to convict me to grow a backbone and just say, “No”! This devotional that He literally emailed me (through a friend) sealed the message with a kiss of complete conviction. When I say “Yes” to something that isn’t meant for me, I’m not just hurting myself. I’m hurting the person who God has picked for that thing, the people who WOULD have benefitted from that person doing the thing that God had chosen them for, and the person who asked me in the first place. Sometimes God blesses us with opportunities that aren’t ours to take, but are ours to GIVE. By turning down a certain opportunity we are opening up that door to the intended receiver of that opportunity. We haven’t turned someone down, we’ve turned them around to look in a direction they hadn’t first thought to look in order to find that one person who can perfectly fit the bill – even if they weren’t a first draft pick for the job. Then there are other times in our lives when the right opportunity comes around at the right moment and we’re able to fully commit ourselves to the task at hand, all because we said “No” to the not-quite-right one.

It’s a complicated task this saying “no” thing, but it’s also one that the Holy Spirit is more than willing and able to help us with if we’re humble enough to ask for the help.

Even the strength to say, “No”. 😉

Categories: Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

Commitment

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Tamar


Exodus 13:1-16:36

“I have planned this in order to display my glory through Pharaoh and his whole army. After this the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD!” Exodus 14:4

I saved the pictures and story of Saturday night’s derby for today so that we could really sink our teeth into the message. This was our last derby of this season. We had hoped to possibly run in the State Fair Derby in August, but three derbies in three weeks wore us out and we’re done. After we had pulled in

and set everything up,

Sean went up for inspection and came back with nothing to do! Since we had two hours to fill we ended up playing some cards until my parents showed up and surprised the kids. They were thrilled. At one point in the evening my parents took the kids to watch the power wheels heat (where little kids go out and drive their little power wheels into each other until the time’s up), Sean and I hung back by the car. With our arms folded on the side of the truck bed we looked toward the stands and talked about the last three weeks. It had been hard. Like blood, sweat and tears – hard. Sean looked at me and told me how he’d been looking around the house and the yard, at the car and the truck and thinking about all the things around home that have gone neglected because he’s been working on the derby car. (This is very much how I’ve been feeling about the house now that I’ve been working away from it; so I can totally relate to how he feels.) I looked at those crowded stands and said, “Yeah. God has called us to be good stewards of the things He has blessed us with. But He’s also called us to go out into the world and make disciples. And I’m pretty sure He cares more about us making disciples than if the dryer needs fixed or if the lawn isn’t mowed for a week.” Putting those things aside is much harder than you would think. We’ve been brought up in a society, and live in a community, where a tidy lawn is a sign of a good Christian. We’ve heard the axiom for as long as we’ve been alive, “Cleanliness is next to godliness”. A phrase, I might add, that is NOT in the Bible anywhere. When forced to decide between doing another load of laundry and sitting down to write a post, I have to admit I waver in the decision. This life is filled with a lot of gray areas and I praise God for the GIFT of the Holy Spirit and His guidance in which way to go. Without that we all would be so lost!

Then yesterday as we sleepily staggered into church at 11 o’clock, for the first time all month, wouldn’t you know what the sermon was on. Discipleship!!! I about fell out of my seat. It’s a good thing I didn’t too because we were in the balcony and it would have ended badly. There was something in his message that really hit home for me yesterday. He leaned heavily on the passage in Luke where Jesus says: “If you want to be My disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison – your father, and mother, wife and children, brother and sisters – yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow Me, you can not be My disciple. But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’ Or what king would go to war against another king without first sending down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? And if he can’t he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away. So you cannot become My disciple without giving up everything you own. Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? Flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown away. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!” (14:26-35)

Executive Pastor Mark Crull said, “Being saved has to MEAN something”, we have to be willing to commit to the cause of Christ or we become flavorless salt that’s worth nothing. In Romans 12:1-2 Paul says, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” The New Testament is filled with stories of the Disciples literally putting their bodies on the line for the message of the gospel.

On Saturday night my husband got into a car

and drove around.

He drove around like a maniac on a mission from God to spread the good news of the gospel in that arena filled with spectators staring at the gospel boiled down into four characters, 7×70. We have been forgiven infinitely and all he really asks of us is to forgive infinitely as well. To forgive each other, and to forgive ourselves. He has performed the ultimate sacrifice of His body and His life on the cross for us. And Sean went out there this month, over and over and over again, and literally put his body on the line for Christ.

(and these are just the tip of the iceberg!)

Watching him move around the house Sunday was painful for me, so I can only imagine what it was like for HIM! It’s been a hard month for this Knochel family. But every second of it will have been worth it if even just ONE person was saved from our efforts out there.

Satan HATES the gospel. He HATES those who love it. But he especially HATES those who share it with others. There is a cost for following Christ – we have to put up with Satan’s shenanigans. But here’s the thing, while we will have trouble in this world, we can take heart, because Christ has overcome this world. And because we are in Him, we too can overcome this world and everything in it; including Satan’s shenanigans! Praise God!!!!

Categories: 365 Life, Exodus, Season 3 | Leave a comment

Sunday SHMILY

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Tamar

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Exodus 9:13-12:51
“The people of Israel had lived in Egypt for 430 years. In fact, it was on the last day of the 430th year that all the LORD’s forces left the land. On this night the LORD kept His promise to bring His people out of the land of Egypt.” Exodus 12:40-41

430 years TO THE DAY! He didn’t wait, He didn’t delay, not even one single day. He told Abraham that his descendants would be slaves for 430 years and they were. But not for one SINGLE day past that! No matter what you’re going through or waiting for, God is faithful and He WILL do it and He won’t delay even a single day! Praise God! Hallelujah!
And now back to your regularly scheduled SHMILY’S. 😀

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at the 4H rocket launch

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It’s hard to see but that’s a smiley face in mop water on the floor at work. It had bed a particularly stressful night with the card readers down and then eight 2 liters falling the cart when we brought it in for the night and literally exploding all over the front of the store. Seriously, one of them ended up all the way at the other end of the parking lot! Then when we locked the store up the alarm went off! It was a crazy night.

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Making blueberry jam for the first time.

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Hee hee! Blueberry heaven!

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Gabe and I didn’t waste any time digging into the first jar! Sooooo good!

Categories: Writing Through the Bible in a Year | Leave a comment

Family Finances Binder

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Tamar


Exodus 5:1-9:12

“Why have You brought all this trouble on Your own people, Lord? Why did You send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh as Your spokesman, he has been even more brutal to your people. And You have done nothing to rescue them!” Then the LORD told Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. When he feels the force of My strong hand, he will let the people go. In fact, he will force them to leave his land!” Exodus 5:22-6:1

This morning I felt like my life was spiraling out of control and I was desperately crying out to God for something solid to hold onto. I wanted routine and normalcy and order, so He pointed me to my office/library. Specifically, He pointed me to my desk/command center. And I have spent almost the entire day today working on getting it re-organized right along with my finances. My desk has always been the command center of our home, but for the last few months there’s been a huge fish tank sitting in front of my desk making it next to impossible to get to pretty much anything on the desk. I made do with my little “desk in a bag” but now that I have my desk back I’m ready to renovate! I started a Pinterest board that I’ll probably continue adding to as I find other ideas for our “Command Center“. A couple days ago I found a GREAT pin for a finance binder and normally I would have used it to inspire me in making pages of my own. However, God has really been pressing on me to keep it simple silly and stop re-inventing the wheel!!! So, I just printed off the beautiful PDFs I found at www.Dimplicity.com.

You can find them all here, there are TONS of them!

Well, of course after all that work today I want to show it all off to my friends!

You can download the cover here.*

I used some of the dividers that I already had and was using in another binder that I just cleaned out.

These are the calendar pages I made for the reading plan… that I never finished… so I used them for this binder and they’re PERFECT! 😀 You can download them here.*

I also added some clear plastic sleeves to the binder in order to slide bills and papers into them and then back out when they’ve been paid without having to punch holes into them first. I didn’t want to use my three-hole punch for EVERYTHING.

These two pages are for long term to do’s and wish lists. It’s a place to actually write down all those things that you walk around the yard with your husband day dreaming and planning for. I’ve read a lot recently that if you have those kinds of things written down somewhere you will much more likely to actually do them.

(In the clear plastic sleeve at the end of the section.)

A little more dreaming…

Well, once I got my binder done, I wanted to keep going! And I had found these super cute envelope templates on www.Dimplicity.com and I just had to make some of those to go in my wallet!

There’s nothing like getting all organized to get you pepped up and ready to do things right! Am I right? 😀

I’m hoping to tackle my menu planning supplies soon and turn them into a menu planning/recipe binder tomorrow in the truck on the way to the derby. I absolutely LOVE those templates I made and I use them constantly. They’re a great way to get a lot of information into a small space and done quickly. But right now all my favorite recipes and my templates are all shoved into the kitchen cabinet in file folders that don’t fit in the cabinet quite right. So they’re all curled up and difficult to sort through when I’m looking for something specific.

*So, I can’t seem to get my computer to send these files to the blog in order to make them available to you!!! Grrrr!!!! But I’m going to try again in the morning because they’re SUPER CUTE! And we girls are all about things looking pretty, am I right??? So check back to the blog again later and these links may be working at that time. Sorry for the delay!

 

Categories: 365 Life, Exodus, Season 3 | 2 Comments

Prayer Requests

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Tamar


Exodus 1:1-4:31

“When the princess saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it for her. When the princess opened it, she saw the baby. The little boy was crying, and she felt sorry for him.” Exodus 2:5-6

Friends, I have something written for today, but it’s just too personal to share at the moment. I could use your prayers for wisdom and guidance though. I’m feeling a change, perhaps some drastic changes, on the horizon and I want to be ready for them when they get here. Your support of my life and writing means the world to me, but more important to me is God’s will and my obedience to it. I’m sure you can understand and agree.

Also, if you’d like to begin praying for this week’s derby, we’ll be visiting the Tippecanoe county fair on Saturday night! 😀 Thank you for everything that you do for us. We appreciate it all so very much!

Categories: 365 Life, Exodus, Season 3 | 2 Comments

Trapped

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Tamar


Esther 5:1-10:3

“Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?” Esther 6:6

Have you ever just wanted to freeze a single moment in time and stay there, just a little bit longer than all the rest? If Haman had known what was coming up next in his own story I think this is the moment he would have chosen to freeze. In his mind at this point, he is the one that the king is preparing to honor and so he’s suggesting to the king how he himself should be glorified. You know, because who would the king wish to honor more than Haman? At this point in the story Haman hasn’t fully considered who exactly he’s dealing with, and he won’t fully come into that realization until it is far too late for him to back out of the trap he has set and it ends up springing on him.

And boy if that doesn’t remind me of Satan I don’t know what does! Satan sets traps all day every day and yet over and over they only end up springing on him in the end. Just look at the Son of David. From day one Satan was out to trap Jesus. From Herod trying to convince the wise men to come back and tell him where the child king was so that he too could “worship” him. To that night at the Last Supper when Judas fled from the room to meet up with the Jewish officials in order to capture Jesus away from the crowds. Mmmm, but that’s my favorite trap of all! That was the trap that Satan set fully expecting it to end Jesus and the Father’s plans for saving the Jews. I don’t think Satan had any clue what his actions would do. Unlike God, Satan is not omnipotent or omnipresent. He can’t know the future before it happens, nor can he be in all places at all times. I believe that he truly had no clue to the breadth of God’s actual plan for Jesus and His death on the cross. Satan set a plan into motion that He will regret for all of eternity.

Satan set a trap to kill Jesus, and he succeeded, but little did he know that his success was his ultimate undoing. It was through Jesus’ death that the rest of us can LIVE. It is through the blood that Jesus shed on that cross that we are eternally forgiven. It is because He died that He was given the opportunity to rise again from that sealed grave and to prove to one and all once and for all that He was, is and will always be Christ the Messiah! Satan sets traps every day. And while *some* go off and capture us in their teeth; ALL of them are his ultimate undoing! Every. Single. One of them.

Right now there is something that you’re feeling trapped in; a dead-end job, a financial situation you can’t seem to climb up out of, a marriage that just feels miserable, a child that has broken your heart with a rotten decision, whatever it is – give it to God. That trap may have sprung on you, but it doesn’t have to be YOUR undoing, make it Satan’s!!! Take that mess he’s made of your life and allow God to turn it into a message! I’ve made so many bad choices in my life; choices that affected me for a very long time and still do to this day. But that doesn’t mean that they have to be my prison. What if they are my key?!? And they can be if I let them. I can take those bad choices and decide that I’m not going to let them define me. Just because I burn one tray of toast doesn’t make me a bad cook. Just because I misspell a word doesn’t make me a bad writer. Just because I stumble doesn’t make me a bad dancer. It just means that something happened. And I can choose to allow that thing to drag me down or wake me up. Learning to walk isn’t about falling down, it’s about learning how to control those falls and more importantly how to get back up.

Sunflowers have a special place in my heart, mostly because once upon a time I had the privilege of meeting a very special one who taught me a very important lesson. Bloom where you’re planted – no matter what.

This sunflower was growing at the end of my neighbor’s driveway from a seed that he had spit out. As in this seed had been:

Harvested,

Seasoned,

Roasted,

Packaged,

Purchased,

Chewed up,

Spit out,

Still managed to SPROUT,

IN A DROUGHT,

Avoided being mown off,

And grew into a beautiful little sunflower right where it had been planted.

It had literally been through sunflower seed hell AND BACK and STILL managed to grow and bloom right where God had planted it. In a spot He knew I wouldn’t be able to miss it, or its story. 😉

You too may be feeling like you’re going through hell and perhaps even back, but I have Good News for you. Jesus died for YOU. Jesus loves you more than life itself and He would rather die than to live one more day without YOU by His side for all of eternity. No matter what you’re going through, no matter how trapped you feel right now, know this. Jesus loves YOU. He loves you and He is with you, no matter what. He has promised never to leave you or forsake you and He isn’t able to lie so He must have meant it when He said it. No matter what you’ve done, He will NEVER leave you. And really, believe it or not, there is nothing new under the sun that you could have done that He hasn’t seen before. I can guarantee it. On the cross Jesus made the choice to forgive you once and for all. Now you need to make the choice to forgive yourself.

Categories: 365 Life, Esther, Season 3 | 3 Comments

The Ring of Power

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Tamar


Esther 1:1-4:17

“The king agreed, confirming his decision by removing his signet ring from his finger and giving it to Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite the enemy of the Jews.” Esther 3:10

Over the last several weeks I have been training to be a manager at Dollar General. It started simply enough, I was allowed to watch the other managers perform the managerial tasks. I got to peek into their world and see what it was that they were doing. Next they started punching their numbers into the computer and then stepping aside to let me do the returns and exchanges while they stood directly behind me to guide me through the process. Then they started handing me their numbers written on slips of paper so that I could put their numbers into the computer myself and begin performing the tasks on my own. But then came the day when the store manager came to me and handed me his register key. I placed it on the top of the register, not feeling quite worthy to actually put his key into my pocket. He had just handed me his numbers and his key, as far as the system knew every time I used those things in the computers I was him. It was a big day.

In today’s reading the king has handed Haman his signet ring. Much like my Store Manager handing me his numbers and key, the king was handing Haman the power to sign onto the computer as the king. Anything Haman did, said, or wrote down and then sealed with that signet ring was backed by the full power of the king – as if the king had done it himself. Today I want to gaze at the inscription on that ring a little more. I want to dig a little deeper into the meaning of the ring itself and what that means to us as Children of God.

There is another instance in the Old Testament of a signet ring being passed on to someone; we can find it in Genesis chapter forty-one. Joseph has been through a very long and difficult journey, from his childhood home, to slavery in an Egyptian officials home to being a prisoner in Pharaoh’s jail. Then one day Pharaoh has a troublesome dream and Joseph is the only one in the kingdom who is able to interpret it. Pharaoh is so grateful to him for his wisdom and assistance that he “said to Joseph, ‘Since God has revealed the meaning of the dreams to you, clearly no one else is as intelligent or wise as you are. You will be in charge of my court, and all my people will take orders from you. Only I, sitting on my throne will have a rank higher than yours.’ Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I hereby put you in charge of the entire land of Egypt.’ Then Pharaoh removed his signet ring from his hand and placed it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in fine linen clothing and hung a gold chain around his neck. Then he had Joseph ride in the chariot reserved for his second-in-command. And wherever Joseph went, the command was shouted, ‘Kneel down!’ So Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of all Egypt. And Pharaoh said to him, ‘I am Pharaoh, but no one will lift a hand or foot in the entire land of Egypt without your approval.'” (Genesis 41:37-44)

There is another story of a king bestowing absolute power upon a man of great worth,

“The the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him – but some of them doubted! Jesus came and told his disciples. ‘I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'” (Matthew 28:16-20

Acts 7:55 says that “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand.”

Luke in chapter four of his book, tells us about a small portion of the power of Jesus’ authority:

“Once when He was in the synagogue, a man possessed by a demon – an evil spirit – began shouting at Jesus. “Go away! Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One sent from God!’

Jesus cut him short, ‘Be quiet! Come out of the man,’ He ordered. At that, the demon threw the man to the floor as the crowd watched; then it came out of him without hurting him further. Amazed, the people exclaimed, ‘What authority and power this man’s words possess! Even evil spirits obey Him, and they flee at His command!'” (verses 31-36)

The King’s authority is powerful indeed! In Luke chapter ten, Jesus chose seventy-two of His disciples and sent them ahead of Him in pairs to all the towns and places He planned to visit. He told them,

“‘Anyone who accepts your message is also accepting Me and anyone who rejects you is rejecting Me. And anyone who rejects me is rejecting God, who sent Me.’ When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to Him, ‘Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!’

‘Yes,’ He told them, ‘I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them .Nothing will injure you. But don’t rejoice because evil spirit obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.'”

There is another story of a signet ring in the New Testament, it can be found in Luke chapter fifteen. It’s the story of a son who completely humiliated his father by basically telling him that he wished his father was dead so that he could have his inheritance now rather than later. So this loving father divided his estate between his two sons and then watched his youngest son walk away from his home and his entire family. It broke the father’s heart. After much time had passed the son ran out of money and found himself starving, working on a pig farm, contemplating eating the pig’s food. He decided that even the servants in his father’s house were taken better care of than this! So he decided to humble himself before his father and return home in the hopes that perhaps his father would accept him back into his home as a servant. He had no hope of becoming his son again, he had rejected that right the day he asked for his inheritance early. As the son trudged down the road, head hung in utter shame, he heard the sound of rapidly approaching feet and looked up to see his father hurtling himself through the space between them. His SON had come home!!! As the son began his rehearsed speech asking for his father’s blessing to work in his home as a servant, the father cut him short, “Quick!” he said to the servants, “Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’

In that time, servants didn’t wear robes, they wore rags. They didn’t wear the finest sandals money could buy, they went bare footed about their chores. And they certainly didn’t wear a ring with the family symbol on it! My friend, each and every one of us is that son! We’ve all walked away from our Father at least once in our lives, if not over and over and over again. And yet each and every time we humble ourselves enough to pray, He hurtles Himself through space and time to embrace us with a longing that only He could possess for us. Through the blood of Jesus, YOU have been given all authority over the powers of darkness, YOU! You wear that signet ring of power on your finger because you are a member of the family, you’re a Child of the One True King!!!!! In Jesus’ name! Hallelujah!

 

* I apologize; I have not had time to edit this! Please forgive my typos or grammar mistakes if there are any!!!!!

Categories: 365 Life, Esther, Season 3 | Leave a comment

Throw Off Your Former Way of Life

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Tamar


Ephesians 2:11-6:24

“Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the Truth that comes from Him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and holy.” Ephesians 4:21-24

This verse stuck out to me today. When I read the words “throw off” I immediately had to start searching. I started in the original Greek. “Throw off” is the word “apothithemi” which is a compound word:

*apo: denotes any kind of separation of one thing from another by which the union or fellowship of the two is destroyed.

*tithemi: to lay off or aside, to wear or carry no longer.

I love the beauty of words and the way they work together to create something meaningful to the reader!!! What a fantastic picture that this one simple word creates! It starts with the picture of a complete and total separation from the old sinful nature and former way of life where you had fellowship with lust and union with deception. And yet here is Paul urging us to throw that off and lay it aside as though it were a coat and to wear it no longer. But to rather let the Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on us in order to renew our thoughts and attitudes. In this way the new nature is being put on like a coat and worn in order to better represent the image of God as we go forth and preach the good news with thanksgiving for our salvation.

In Mark 10 we read a perfect illustration of this very thing.

Then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and His Disciples left town, a large crowd followed Him. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road. When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

“Be quiet!” many of the people yelled at him. But he only shouted louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

When Jesus heard him, He stopped and said, “Tell him to come here.”

So they called the blind man. “Cheer up,” they said. “Come on, He’s calling you!”

Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked.

“My rabbi,” the blind man said, “I want to see!”

And Jesus said to him, “Go, for your faith has healed you.” Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road.

(Mark 10:46-52)

This healing of Bartimaeus is a perfect example for all of us. He was blind and wanted to see. He hadn’t SEEN Jesus, but rather had heard of Him and that He was near. And in that unseeing faith he called to the Jesus who heals blind men like him. He called and the people around him shushed him. Right now there is something that you may be blind to, an answer or a blessing that you know is there you just can’t quite see it yet. And in your blindness you’re calling out to the One who has the power to heal you, if only He would hear you. And in your calling there are voices, perhaps small voices that only you can hear. Perhaps louder voices that everyone can hear, who knows. Either way, inevitably there are voices that are telling you to, “give up” to “stop trying, it’s never going to happen”, or to “let it go”. But you’ve got to ignore those voices and keep raising yours above the din of the crowd in order to gain the audience with the King that you seek.

Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to Me and I will answer you; and tell you great and unsearchable things which you do not know.”

Jesus heard Bartimaeus and He hears you and I when we call. And what was it that He said to Bartimaeus when He heard him? “Come here”. Is that not the very same thing He tells us when we’re blind and in need of some divine vision and perspective into our situation? “Come. Allow Me to heal your wounds. Come. Allow Me to make you whole. Come. Let Me show you something you’ve never seen before. Come.”

And what was Bartimaeus’ reaction when Jesus said to “come”? He didn’t just come, he threw off his coat and jumped up away from it! Now there are two things you need to know about that coat. 1) The coat they are referring to is most likely a coat of a certain color that would have denoted someone who was crippled and allowed to beg at the gate to the city. So, it’s quite significant that he’s throwing off this coat that signifies that he is a cripple. At this point Jesus hasn’t even healed him yet, He has just called Bartimaeus to Himself. But already Bartimaeus knows that Jesus is going to do for him what He has done for countless others – He’s going to heal him. 2) The word used to describe the action with which Bartimaeus threw his coat was the Greek word “apoballo”. It too is a compound word in the Greek that begins with that same prefix “apo” as before. However, the suffix of the word is a little different. Where Paul tells us to lay aside our old self, or sinful nature, Bartimaeus isn’t just completely separating himself from his old crippled self, he is “ballo”ing his coat.

*ballo: to throw or let go of a thing without caring where it falls

Bartimaeus threw down that coat of shame with such force and vigor because he knew that he was NEVER going to need it ever again. He knew that the moment Jesus paused in His journey for HIM that his life would never be the same.

My dearest friend. You have been crying out to Jesus for something. It’s been a long time in the coming. Like Bartimaeus, you’ve heard about Jesus doing these things for others and you’ve been watching for Him to show up in your city so that maybe, just maybe, He’ll pass by on His way and notice YOU. Beloved, He is HERE with you right now. He has heard your cry and He has stopped right in front of where you are and called you to “Come”. Throw off that coat of your past life and RUN to Jesus. He holds your new coat in His Word. “GO, for your faith has healed you.”

Like a caterpillar emerging from its cocoon after much waiting, it too springs forth a new creation. No longer destined to crawl on the ground and eat leaves it’s new self is formed to fly on the slightest of breezes and feed from the sweet nectar of the heart of a flower. A butterfly holds no lasting love for its prison-like cocoon; it leaves it behind with little more than a flit of its newly formed wings. So too we must leave behind the things of our former self, and everything that that may mean. We’ve got to keep moving forward and press on toward the goal, never allowing anything to hinder us in our progress toward the awaiting arms of our Savior at the finish line; the One who has been waiting for us to come along.

Categories: 365 Life, Ephesians, Season 3 | Leave a comment

Sunday SHMILY

Posted on July 20, 2014 by Tamar


Ecclesiastes 8:1-12:14 & Ephesians 1:1-2:10

“God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this, it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done kama so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. ” Ephesians 2:8-10
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Mmmmmm…… fresh blueberries!
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Then I have to include pictures from last night’s derby!
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Hoppy the toad


“Hoppy” the toad.
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Adding some last minute touches…
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Ready to head out!
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Right before the heat, Anna just had to try those cartwheel things those other girls were doing.
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It was a quick run for us this week. He made two full track hits right off the bat. One of those hits ended shifting the gas tank forward knocking his fuel pump completely OFF! This caused fuel to begin siphoning out of the tank into the car floor! It took him a couple seconds to notice that there was anything wrong but once he did he unbuckled and jumped into the back seat where the fuel tank was. That’s when I realized something was seriously wrong. Not to mention that while he was unbuckled and in the back seat not paying attention to the arena, one of the cars that he had full tracked earlier was headed his way to full track him back!
Because God is so good and REALLY looks out for us (and I’m sure your prayers don’t hurt either) the officials noticed that something was wrong and stopped that other car in his tracks with a red flag just in time. They called the fire truck over to hose the fuel out of His car and then pushed him off the track.
So while he was the first one out and didn’t win any money or awards for the time that he was out on that track EVERY eye in that arena was on him and the 7×70 message!
It was EXCITING that was for sure!
It could have been SO MUCH WORSE than what it was and we thank God for that!
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All in all it was a good night. 😀

Categories: 365 Life, Ecclesiastes, Ephesians, Season 3 | Leave a comment

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