Posts Tagged With: Jesus

Day 3 of my Spiritual Stay-cation

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Tamar

Well folks, the time “off” has been helping. I can honestly say that I am doing better today. Yesterday afternoon when I went to go pick up Gabe from Good News Club at school I stopped by the grocery store to pick up another two dozen eggs to replace the ones that went missing. And hey! I was in luck and they had the 18 packs that I really wanted the day before. SCORE! So I bought two, because ya know, with Christmas baking and all I would need more right?

Then when we got back home I had the kids start picking up their toys and cleaning the house while I worked on the dishes in the kitchen and got the counters almost completely cleared back off again. Hallelujah! I had some broken Christmas tree ornaments drying on one counter so I went to hang them up on the tree and I didn’t even cry when the whole tree fell over!!! I *almost* lost it, but I didn’t! YAY! That’s a sure sign that my stress levels are going down! Time with God alone really does help! Amazing!

Gabe and I decided that we should just have egg sandwiches for dinner so that we would have more time to clean the house up, that and we had lots of eggs now! Then Sean called, he had stopped on his way home and bought two dozen eggs! I about fell on the floor laughing (for real)! Now we had FIVE dozen eggs! Thank You Lord… I think. Looks like I’ll be making a LOT of divinity this year for Christmas. šŸ™‚

Last night we decided to let the cat sleep on the end of the bed, big mistake! She scratched and scratched all night long until Sean finally kicked her out of our room, then Anna woke up at 4 AM! Why???? But you know what, it was OK, because I had taken several naps during the day while I was camped out on the couch writing so it didn’t bother me a bit and I was still able to get up at 5 bright and chipper and ready to praise the Lord. And I’ve been going strong ever since.

I have to admit that I haven’t really spent so much time in the word today as yesterday, but instead I’ve been working on getting a new blog site together. The original one at www.TamarMinistries.net wasn’t able to provide a “subscribe” feature and this new one does! I’ve been praying about that since MAY! Hallelujah! So all day today I’ve been working on moving things over and getting settled into my new home here at http://www.tamarknochel.wordpress.com

God has really been showing me a lot lately how He’s been setting all these things into place for me so that when His timing is right everything will line up and the promises He has made will come to fruition. In His timing and in His way. And I trust that. I don’t want anything that isn’t in His timing and His way, because then it’s at best still only second best. And I want His BEST for me and my family, I want His dream for us. I want His goal for us. I want His blessings and favor for us, no matter what they look like. I know that He loves me and I trust that any decision He makes will be made completely out of love for me. Period.

Have you been wondering what my Spiritual Stay-cation has looked like? Day 1 looked like shopping with my friend Kelly, Day 2 looked like sitting on the couch the whole time Gabe was at school, Day 3 has looked like sitting on the computer all day, all three days have been cutting out absolutely all things that don’t entail feeding my family (which I have made as minimalistic as possible). I called off Bible study today and Monday night, and volunteering at the school too. I have made myself and my stress-level a priority, if something starts to frustrate me I stop it and walk away. I have turned the ringer off of my phone, it’s still on and I’m checking it periodically, but it’s amazing to me how the lack of those message tones has been so amazingly peaceful! I’ve come to realize that they’re like little voices saying “Pay attention to ME! I need your immediate attention!” No, they DON’T need my immediate attention, my family and my God need my immediate attention everyone else will just have to wait until I get around to answering your messages! God bless a silent phone! Basically I have set these seven days aside as a Sabbath rest week. My own little vacation with God on the mountain of Shalom peace. Lord, thank You for strongly suggesting that I do this, I can’t thank You enough for the rest I have been finding in letting these things go by the wayside for a time! I pray that next Monday come slowly! I am really enjoying this private time with You!!! I LOVE YOU LORD!!!!

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True Success

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Tamar

My son is anxious right now. He has a test tomorrow in Math that he is just dreading. Itā€™s a time test on multiplying sevens. Blech! Now, you need to know that this little man is in the gifted program for both math AND reading so itā€™s not like he doesnā€™t know what heā€™s doing, because he does! And if you quiz him on his sevens facts orally, he does a great job. Hand him a piece of paper and a pen and do the same thing, again does a great job. Start a timer, anxiety shoots through the roof and EVERYTHING suddenly flies out the window! The poor kid, truly is anxious about nothingā€¦ but not in the good way.

As a parent, this has been absolutely infuriating to me. I tell ya, this year has been a serious learning experience for me as it has been for him. Maybe because itā€™s bringing hard memories back to me from my childhood of sitting with my mom for what seemed like HOURS going over flash cards to practice for my own dreaded time tests. I loathed those flash cards. But whatever the reason, it has certainly made me question God on what exactly Heā€™s trying to teach us all through this time testing period. Iā€™ve figured out that itā€™s something that He tried teaching me when I was younger and doing time tests and itā€™s something that Heā€™s trying to teach Gabe and I both together now.

You see, we all have a very high ability to succeed easily in what weā€™re good at. So when we struggle with something, it automatically frustrates us. The more we struggle, the more frustrated we get, the less we succeed (because weā€™re frustrated) until we just give up and stop trying all together. Obviously this is NOT the ideal outcome for us, with math facts or anything else in life. Since Gabe started Kindergarten, we have stressed that as long as he is doing his best and trying hard we are happy. I had come across a study where they tested two groups of students. One group was only praised for their achievement and success while the other group was only praised for their efforts toward success. After several months of this the testers noticed that in the group that was praised for success, when they were presented with an opportunity to choose to do something harder than their own ability, or to do an activity that was under their ability level, they would almost always choose the activity under their ability levelā€¦ because they knew they would succeed and receive praise for their success. However, the group that was praised for their efforts, almost one hundred percent of the time would choose the more difficult option. Why? Because they knew that as long as they tried their hardest they would receive praise. They pushed THEMSELVES harder to succeed, they didnā€™t need their teachers or parents to do it for them. They also, consequently received better marks because they werenā€™t giving up as often either.

This is the strategy our children have been raised with. We expect the BEST performance from them and they most generally meet those expectations. However, if they are not able to achieve those expectations immediately, because letā€™s face it no one is perfect, the last thing we do is tell them weā€™re disappointed or upset with them. Because we know what the result from that becomes. Discouragement and true failure, giving up.

The truth is, Gabe cares more about how he succeeds than any of us do, because itā€™s HIS success! Heā€™s always wanted to get straight Aā€™s and be the best, and honestly deep down, who doesnā€™t want to be the best or do their best in something? This is the first time in all his schooling that he has ever really struggled with achieving the success he desires and expects from himself. And by golly I am going to do everything in my power, from prayer to practice, to make sure that he doesnā€™t give up! Success doesnā€™t matter, only BEST EFFORT. However, I have found that my own best efforts generally produce success on their own. Not always of course, but usually.

A message from God to me about my own performance in life (which I too have been struggling and frustrated with lately), and I believe we all could hear this message! ā€œWhat I am asking is that you maintain your high achievement expectations (which I fully support and applaud you for!), but that you no longer call attention to your own lack of success in your own eyes. You have the ability to completely crush your own morale and cause yourself to give up altogether. Trust Me. I know that you want nothing more than to please Me, your Beloved teacher. I ask that you please be mindful of the words that you use with yourself concerning your test results. Words can be like bricks, you can throw them and maim or you can lay them down carefully and build with them. All we can ask and expect of you is to do your best. And then let ME do the restā€¦ and I will. I always do!ā€

And you know, He DOES! Just look at the paralyzed man on the mat in Matthew 9!

1 Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, ā€œTake heart, son; your sins are forgiven.ā€Ā  3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, ā€œThis fellow is blaspheming!ā€Ā  4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, ā€œWhy do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, ā€˜Your sins are forgiven,ā€™ or to say, ā€˜Get up and walkā€™? 6 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.ā€ So he said to the paralyzed man, ā€œGet up, take your mat and go home.ā€ 7 Then the man got up and went home. 8 When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.

Jesus asked that poor man to do the ONE thing he absolutely could not do! I mean you have to wonder if the thought crossed his mind, ā€œUmmmm, Jesus, thatā€™s why my friends brought me here, because I CANā€™T walk, Iā€™m paralyzed remember.ā€ But in spite of that very glaringly obvious fact, he still got up and walked! He put forth what little effort he could, and then Jesus did all the rest! And the man got up and went home. I read a church sign the other day that was perfect for this illustration. ā€œFailure isnā€™t falling down, itā€™s not getting back up again.ā€ True failure isnā€™t falling, true failure isnā€™t getting an ā€œFā€ on a test, true failure isnā€™t missing the goal, true failure is not putting forth your best effort to move towards that goal. And if thatā€™s really the Godā€™s honest truth, which is what I ALWAYS strive to bring you, then true success is putting forth your best effort irregardless of the end result that it brings.

OH HALLELUJAH!!!! PRAISE THE LORD! We donā€™t have toĀ  BE perfect!!!!! We just have to keep striving for the expectation of perfection in love through Christ.

Fun fact, check this out:

Matthew 17:20 ā€œTruly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ā€˜Move from here to there,ā€™ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.ā€

1 Corinthians 13:13 ā€œAnd now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.ā€

Now tell me this, if faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains, and make NOTHING impossible for usā€¦ and love is GREATER than faithā€¦ WHAT can love do?????

Love can make our best efforts equal success. Love can make our darkness into light. Love can change hearts and minds and attitudes. Love can make us patient, when weā€™re not. Love can make us humble, when weā€™re not. Love can lift us up when all we want is to stay down. Love can, when we canā€™t. Hallelujah! Can I get an AMEN!?!

Want to praise about this one? I do! Francesca Battistelli wrote ā€œFree to be Meā€ after she backed into a lawyers car in a parking lot.

It helped me realize that although weā€™ve got a couple dents in our fenders, a couple rips in our jeans. Weā€™re still trying to fit the pieces together, and PERFECTION IS OUR ENEMY. Because on our own weā€™re so clumsy, but on HIS shoulders, weā€™re FREE TO BE WHO WE ARE! Weā€™re free to be who HE made us to be, imperfect beings in a now imperfect world trying to do the best we can with what weā€™ve got until we get to go home.

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Trust the Truth

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Tamar

Some people like to think that Jesus was just a good teacher, maybe even a prophet, but not God or the Messiah. There’s a problem with that thought process though, the things that He taught and claimed about Himself weren’t on that same level. He was either absolutely and completely insane or He was Satan himself or He was actually telling the truth and is who He actually says He is. In fact many people accused Him of being demonic (in Matthew 12:22-37) but their accusations were silenced when he pointed out the error in their thinking. If Jesus is demonic then He wouldn’t be commanding the demons OUT of people but rather IN to them!

In Mark’s retelling of this same story of the teachers of the law thinking Jesus was “possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons He is driving out demons.” (3:22) Mark includes a little “behind the scenes” info for us. Before this fateful conversation with the teachers of the law, Jesus’ family came to “take charge of Him, for they said, He is out of His mind.'” (Mark 3:21) Again in John 10:20-21 “many of them said, ‘He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to Him?’ But others said, ‘These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

Would a demon open the eyes of the blind? I don’t think so. Considering that the goal of Satan is to keep as many people as possible spiritually blind, wandering around in complete and total darkness, unable to find God, it makes VERY little sense that Satan would even CONSIDER opening those closed minds and eyes. And since that is the most obvious conclusion I feel it is fairly safe to assume that Jesus was neither insane nor demonic which leaves but one logical conclusion, He is completely sane, telling and teaching the truth and therefore is who He claims to be! Sometimes the truth sounds the most insane because it is the truth. So seldom do we encounter pure unadulterated truth that it automatically resounds in our brains as a foreign invader and thusly insane because it is simply that radically different. Just like when someone donates a kidney to a friend. Even if they’re a perfect match the friend still has to take anti-rejection drugs to keep her body from rejecting the gift she has been given, we too need to take our own anti-rejection medicine in order to accept and keep God’s gift of salvation.

TRUST. Sometimes you just have to trust, even when nothing around you makes sense. Maybe none of it is making sense because it’s really the truth that has been injected into an environment that is simply unfamiliar with the truth. New truth, well, new-to-you truth can be hard to accept. But that doesn’t make it any less the truth, it just makes it less yours. You see, we can possess the truth and the Truth can possess us. Or a falsehood can possess us, as we continue to hold onto it because of its familiarity. But just because it’s our belief that we’re holding onto doesn’t make it any less false, it just makes it ours.

When we encounter a treasure in our path, if our hands are full of trash we’re unable to pick up the treasure. We come to a moment of decision 1) keep the trash and leave the treasure or 2) reject the trash and pick up the treasure.

Matthew tells us that “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”(13:44-46)In these two stories we meet two men who discover great treasure and are willing to give up everything they own in order to possess that tremendous treasure. At first glance it seems as though both stories are the same message told in two different manners. However, if you look closely at the grammar and the structure of the like statements you will find a subtle difference. In the first story the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. The kingdom of God and all its wisdom, power and truth are a priceless treasure worth our life-savings to acquire. (And I speak from personal experience and tell you that it is.) But look at the second like-statement in the second story! The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. In this story the kingdom isn’t the treasure, the kingdom is the one searching for the treasure! Now if God is the one searching for the pearl of great value, then what pray-tell, IS the pearl of great value? Now, I want you to think for a moment, what is the one thing in all of creation that God the Creator does not already possess? Keep in mind that He is GOD, EVERYTHING is His. Except, perhaps, for you. You my friend are that pearl of great value. You are the one that Jesus Himself is willing to set EVERYTHING aside for. EVERYTHING. All His power, all His majesty, all His life; He laid it ALL down at the foot of the cross like trash to pick up the treasure – YOU.

Don’t let the falsehood keep it’s hold on you any longer. Let go of the belief that Jesus was less than what He said He was, that He can’t do everything that He says He can. Because He is, He can and He will… but never without your permission. He is a gentleman after all.

So, how can we apply all this information to our marriages? By remembering that WE are a pearl of great value, worth selling everything else for. If you need help remembering, buy yourself some pearl jewelry and wear it! Then every time life throws you a dirty look, a sneer or snide remark you can look at your pearl – or touch them on your neck and say to yourself “I am worth dying for.” Then just smile back and say “God bless you!” as if they had only sneezed at you and nothing more.

When we place our trust and value in the hands of God it’s out of reach of the things of this world. They can’t touch them. If you feel like your husband isn’t valuing you like the pearl of great value – it doesn’t matter, because your worth doesn’t lie in his hands, but in God’s. However, you can’t just lie down and let your husband walk all over you like a door mat either. Stand up for yourself in prayer. Tell God how your husband is treating you and how you feel about it. Remember, it is not your job or place to change your husband, only God can change hearts. But it IS your job to PRAY FOR HIM!

So often we don’t feel like we’re doing anything when we pray. But nothing could be farther from the truth! I believe that if we could catch just a glimpse of what our prayers activate in the unseen spiritual realm we would never get up off our knees! Why else was that the one thing that ALL the gospel writers mentioned in their letters? If they went without food or water or clothes, or if they were in jail or shipwrecked they could manage, but go without being covered in the prayers of others? NEVER! Prayer IS doing something, it’s doing MORE than you could even imagine. Never stop praying for your husband, not ever!

When Jesus walked this dirtball, He was constantly under pressure and ridicule; even His family thought He was crazy at one point. They failed to believe in Him, failed to believe that He was telling the truth, failed to remember who the angel told them – before His birth – who He would be! Take a moment to do a mental inventory, have you been believing in your husband? Or have you joined in on the ridiculing and doubt? As his wife he needs for you to be his “safe person”. The one who he can always trust to be in his corner when things get rough and the Enemy starts to attack. He needs to know that no matter what is happening in his life you WILL be there to cheer him on and help him up. Can your husband count on you to be that person? Is he that person for you? He should be.

Do you doubt your husband’s ability to perform any of these tasks? Take those doubts to the cross. Ask God to take care of them, His ear is not too dull to hear nor is His arm to short to save. He is MORE than able to help you and your husband achieve greatness in your marriage. God is able to do abundantly more than all you can ask or imagine! So start imagining and asking for that great marriage you dream of, and then let God work His miracles. He is able and He is willing, you need only to ask, believe and then wait patiently on the LORD.

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Be Still

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Tamar

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

Do you have one of those friends who likes to talk? I mean REALLY likes to talk, as in, you can have an hour-long conversation and you talk maybe 5 minutes of that. Yeah, that’s me. I’ve been trying really hard not to be that friend, but I haven’t been doing a very good job of it. Especially with God. I’ve been doing all the talking lately and I’ve been really frustrated about a lot of things, why? Because I haven’t been giving God the opportunity to tell me His side of the story! I’ve been so self-focused that I’ve lost a lot of my God-focus on things. I’ve unbalanced our conversations, making them more about me and my friends than Him and His plans. I’ve forgotten how important it is for me to BE STILL and know the HE is God. Yes, it is possible to be still in your spirit while your body is moving… but it is much more difficult to stay that way.

Yesterday God pinned me in a corner (by sending me to bed) and said “Woman! Be still!” and it made me think, when was the last time I stopped moving and doing and just sat with the LORD? I couldn’t remember!!!!! Clue 1) Last night God used a dear friend and quite possibly my only blog-reader to call me out “You haven’t been writing!” Clue 2) This morning I scolded my son “the floor is not the proper place for the new coat God gave you.” To which my husband added “or any coat for that matter”. And it made me ask, “LORD, what things have I been throwing on the floor that don’t belong there?” Clue 3) Then after my son left for school and I was pulling laundry out of the dryer I came to a white linen tablecloth, something that most people, including myself, would normally save for special occasions only. But this one’s been on our table for the last few months gathering stains. Something that is deserving of a holy position and set aside as special has not been taken care of, let alone cherished. All those clues, pointed me to my time with God. For me, it’s when I write. I’m not writing whatever I want, I can only write what He leads me to write. I’ve tried to write things on my own and it just doesn’t work. Anyway, my writing is my way of talking with God, hearing from Him and then you get to read it too. My writing time is sacred and special and I should be setting myself apart to do it. My time with God is my covering and yet I’ve carelessly tossed it aside in my pursuit of other things instead of keeping it in its proper place in my life – a higher priority than the dishes. You know, it just occurred to me that there are three other people in this house that are FULLY capable of doing the dishes for me, but no one can spend time with God for me! Just like no one can go to the bathroom for someone else, they’ve got to do it on their own. No one can grow my relationship with God for me either. I have to do it myself. And I need to do it because I love Him and because He loves me and WANTS to spend time with me. He yearns to hear me speak and then for me to stop moving and talking long enough for Him to have a place in the conversation. God wants to be part of the conversation of our lives!

What is your special thing that you do with God? How do you communicate the best with Him? Has He been trying to get your attention lately? Has He been trying to get some lovin’ from you today? Some TLC? Please learn from my mistake and take some time today to be still and know that He is GOD. Meditate on the truth that God Almighty, the creator of the heavens and the earth wants to spend one-on-one time with YOU today! Hallelujah!

Moses answered the people, ā€œDo not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you, you need only to be still. Exodus 14:13-14

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret – it only leads to evil. … I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. Psalm 37:7-8 & 25

My soul finds rest in God alone my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken. Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him. Psalm 62:1-2 & 5

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Unquenchable love

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Tamar

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all thing. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13

As I laid wide awake in bed thinking last night I kept pondering about this relationship that I have with Christ and how often I call Him Daddy, but yet really think more of Him as a husband than a Father. So often in scripture God referred to Israel as His bride and wife and woman, and in the New Testament it even tells us that the Church is Christ’s bride. But how often do we think of ourselves as Christ’s bride? And I asked Him if I could write about being His bride. He said “Sure”. šŸ™‚ I love Him! So, as I sat down to actually start writing this morning, I checked my Facebook homepage first… avoiding the inevitable question, “What am I going to write about today???” The second post down was a link to a photo that instantly caught my attention and a story that captured my heart.

The picture was of two marines guarding a flag-draped casket standing at the front of a barely lit church sanctuary the night before 2nd Lieutenant James J. Cathey’s funeral. Now that image alone is stunning, but that’s not what first caught my attention in the photo. It was the deceased soldier’s pregnant wife Katherine on an air mattress in front of the coffin getting ready to sleep next to her husband for the very last time. Just typing that puts tears in my eyes. The thought of the last night I sleep with my husband, never knowing if it’s the last time. The dedicated wife barely left her husband’s side from the time his body returned stateside until it was buried in the ground. She refused to leave him until the loved ones around her convinced her to sleep.

Cathey’s comrades thought of him as invincible, and never expected him to be the one to not make it out. Which just reminds me of another man, thought to be invincible and prepared to rule the known world. But His story didn’t end the way his friends expected it to either. No, Jesus’ death caused quite a stir as well. No one was expecting it, even though He had warned them all plainly several times, they all paid no heed to His prophecies. They just didn’t get it. And Jesus, just like Cathey, had a woman who refused to leave His side as well. She was the last one to leave the cross, and the first one to return to the tomb at the first chance she got. Mary Magdalene. She was so torn by the grief of her loss that He chose to appear to her first, in the garden, to ease her mourning and reassure her that He was just fine, alive, and very well indeed.

These grave-side stories are especially touching on this Veteran’s Day as I sit typing this on my couch watching our American flag waving patriotically in the breeze on our front porch. But I’m forced to ask more. I’m drawn to dig deeper. What’s the point of it all? Why does love like this matter? Why should we care? Because it’s what God has called us to. God is love and He has called us to be like Him in every way. He has called us to love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Are you so desperately in love with the LORD that you’d refuse to leave His lifeless body just so you could lie next to Him just one more night? Do you love your spouse that much even? Love isn’t just a feeling, it’s a choice. One that we make every moment of every day. Love is an action, a verb, it’s a way of living. These days “love” has gotten so incredibly watered down that we’ll even say we “Love” that sign on the side of the road.

That’s not love. We’ve allowed our society to become too much a part of us, to warp us into thinking and saying that we love things that we don’t really love. As Christians, people should know that we follow Christ by the way that we treat them. By the way that we treat each other! Do you have an unquenchable love for the God you worship? How much are you willing to do for Him? How far will you follow Him? Step outside your comfort zone today, SHOW someone (maybe even your spouse) how much God loves them. Stop for that car on the side of the road, even though it might make you a few minutes late. Give the homeless person a couple bucks instead of ignoring them (leave the judgment of what they do with that money up to God, He just calls us to give). Feed the birds in the park. Smile at a stranger and say “God bless you!” or “Peace be with you today!” Pay for the person behind you in line at the drive through. Make a difference in one person’s life today by doing something seemingly small. But realize that small thing to you, is HUGE in their eyes. You never know, by doing that one small thing in the name of Jesus, it has the potential to change their entire lives. It may just change their perspective of Christians in general, and maybe even God in general. You don’t know what they’re going through, maybe this morning they prayed that God would send them a sign that He’s really listening to them. And maybe God has set it up so that YOU can be that sign for them today! How cool would that be??? When you bless, you are blessed as well. Because God loves you, go out and show someone else that very same love today, it may just save their soul, you never know.

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(The Cathey’s story has been told in a Pulitzer winning article by Jim Sheeler for the Rocky Mountain News and photographed by Second Place Newspaper Photographer of the Year Todd Heisler. Since I personally did not take the photos and therefore do not have ownership or permission (yet) to share them here I will only be including the links to them for you to see, but I strongly encourage you to click on them and view these extremely moving images and read all the captions under them.)

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Who’s Holding the Scissors?

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Tamar

Mommy: “Anna, your pants have been cut! Who cut them???”

Anna (4 yr old): “The scissors did.”

Mommy: “and who was holding the scissors……?”
Oh, how many times we would love to blame the scissors for the cuts in our lives! The pens for the misspelled words, the guns for the deaths, the paper for the cuts. But is it ever really the scissors’ fault? So often I’d really like to… no, I do, blame the Tempter for my sins. But was it really his fault? He didn’t make me sin, I chose to. He didn’t make me say those words, I chose to.

Lord, today, please help me choose to obey You and not give in to sin. Please deliver me from the evil that prowls around like a lion seeking whom he can devour. Lord, I thank You and praise You that he can not devour me! Though he may maul me, he can not devour me. Though I may be pressed I am never crushed. I may be persecuted but I am never abandoned, struck down but never destroyed. Because I am blessed beyond the curse, Your promises will endure and Your name will be my strength! You are my God in whom I trust, so whom shall I fear? Neither height nor depth nor the darkness of night can separate me from Your loving embrace and I praise You for that! Lord, thank You for being who You are! My God in whom I place my trust.

Lord, I praise that You have mercy on me, according to Your unfailing love and Your great compassion You have blotted out my transgressions. You have cleansed me from all my stain-filled sins and washed me as white as a newly cleaned carpet that once had a stubborn grape juice stain on it from a careless 4-year-old that brought an open cup into the living room.Ā  (Oh Lord, I digress! Focus girl!) Lord, thank You for creating in me a pure heart and renewing a steadfast spirit with in me.

Lord, I praise You that You have restored to me the joy of Your salvation and have granted me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Lord, KEEP ME FROM SIN! I can’t stand to be away from Your presence and light. The dark has become too dark for me. The shadows too dreary, the gloom too gloomy. I praise You for restoring my spirit by helping me see the folly of my ways and to realize I was heading off in the wrong direction like a toddler wandering off in the store in search of the toy aisle, not realizing that that is where You were headed to begin with! Lord thank You for calling my name and grabbing my hand to keep me from walking into the oncoming traffic of my foolish and rash choices. You are SO GOOD! I love You LORD, thank You for being who You are! My GOD in whom I place my trust and my life!

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God Help Me: Prayer of Jesus in John 17

Posted on September 17, 2011 by Tamar

Holy Father God Almighty, tonight I follow Jesus’ lead and look toward heaven as I pray; Father, the time has come. Glorify me, that I may glorify You. For you have granted me authority that I might share the message of eternal life to all those You have given me to share it with. Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in Your presence with the glory I had with You in Christ Jesus before the world began.

I am trying to reveal You to those whom You gave me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Jesus and they have obeyed Your word. Now they know that everything You have given me comes from You. For I gave them the words that You have given me and they accept them. They know with certainty that I came from You, and they believed that You sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those You have given me, for they are yours. All I have is Yours, and all You have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world in order to help those that You have called me to preach to. Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name – the name that You gave Jesus – so that we may be one as You are one. While Jesus was with the disciples, He protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave Him. None was lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. Father, Jesus spoke this prayer while He was still here so that we may have the full measure of His joy within us. He has given us Your word and the world hates us, for we are not of the world any more than He was of the world. Our prayer is not that you take us out of the world but that you protect us from the evil one. We are not of the world, even as He was not of it. Sanctify us by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Him into the world, He has sent us into the world. For us He sanctified Himself, that we too may be truly sanctified and we praise You for that!

Father, my prayer is not for myself alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Jesus through my message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in Jesus and He is in You. May we also be in You so that the world may believe that You have sent Jesus. He has given us the glory that You gave Him, that we may be one as You are one: Jesus in us and You in Jesus. May we be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Jesus and have loved us all even as You have loved Jesus. Father, Jesus wants those You have given Him to be with Him where He is, and to see His glory, the glory You have given Him because You loved Him before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, we know You, and they know that You have sent us. We have made You known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love You have for us may be in them and that Jesus Himself may be in them.

Lord I pray all these things in the name of Jesus the Messiah and my savior for Your glory and according to Your good and perfect will, Amen.

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Prayer for Guidance: Psalm 23

Posted on September 10, 2011 by Tamar

“Know ye that Jehovah, He is God: It is He that hath made us, and we are His; We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise: Give thanks unto Him, and bless His name. For Jehovah is good; His loving kindness endureth for ever, And His faithfulness unto all generations.” Psalm 100:3-5 American Standard Version

Today I have spent the whole day at Living Proof Live! It was wonderful being surrounded by the women that I love hearing the word of God spoken with Beth Moore’s beautiful Texas accent. Now I’m a worshiper, and my favorite part of the day were the praise and worship times when I had the opportunity to join with 180,000 women across the glove singing praises to the name of Jesus our Messiah! It was AWESOME! At one point my friend Cindy turned to me and with a big grin said “I bet it makes God so happy to hear this right now.” And I shared with her how this spring I was at a women’s retreat, The Walk to Emmaus, where we sang everything with only an acoustic guitar and barely any amplification. The sound of the women’s voices lifting up the LORD’S praises was simply too much for me to handle and I could rarely sing the first verse or two for the beauty of the sound! I could only listen and dwell in the smile of pleasure that warmed God’s heart as He was receiving our praises.

We were created to praise Him! His word says as much. He DELIGHTS in the praises that we lift up, either songs, poems, stories, tears, moanings, groanings, you name it I believe that He LOVES it! However, I also believe that it is the Enemy’s goal in life to steal those praises from our lips. To snatch them from our hearts. To ensnare them from getting to Jesus on the throne and in turn steal Jesus’ joy of hearing them. I want you to think about this for a minute. When you do something big for someone, and they say thank you, how much does it mean to you. I’m not talking about one of those passive, smile-and-nod “thanks”, I mean one of those heartfelt, from the bottom of their toes, THANK YOU’s. How great does that feel? And if it feels that good to us, then how GREAT must it make God feel when we say that to Him? Now just try to tell me that the Enemy wouldn’t want to take that away from God. I would not believe you if you tried! No, it’s Satan’s chief goal to steal God’s glory and His honor and His praise through every way that he abuses us, trying to get us to drop our arms, to stop our songs of praise, to keep us from writing our stories of triumph and victory over defeat, to stop our tears of joy from flowing to the altar. The Enemy wants them replaced with guilt and shame, fear and condemnation. As God shared this epiphany with me today, in that church as I stood singing at the top of my voice with my arms reaching out to the heavens in an attempt to touch the hem of His holy robe, do you know what I told Him? I told God that I would NOT let the Enemy win. That I refused to let the Enemy steal my joy, to steal my confidence in the grace under which I live. I will NOT allow him to convince me that my God, who DIED FOR ME, doesn’t love me. I will NOT allow him to shut my praises up inside of me for fear of the condemnation of people who simply don’t understand what living under the grace-filled-shadow of the hand of the Almighty looks like. It looks like a shattered heart that has been mended by loving hands that KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING! It looks like tears flowing, not from hurt, but from HEALING. No, living a grace-filled-life isn’t without pain, or battles; it’s loving and praising through them because we have the peace that passes all understanding. It’s KNOWING that God loves us, not because He showers us with gifts of THINGS or MONEY, but that He prunes us so that we may bear much fruit. Life is HARD, and it HURTS! But we choose the one of two places from which those hurts can come from; the hands of someone who HATES US with everything in him (the Enemy) or they can come from the hands of the one who LOVES US MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF! HE DIED TO SET YOU FREE! He died to show you He loves you. He died so that you could LIVE. But He doesn’t force us to accept that love. He doesn’t force us to accept that life. He merely lays it at our feet like a rose on the ground, and we choose to pick it up and cherish it like the gift that it was meant to be, or walk all over it like it’s worth nothing at all to us.

While Jesus was here, many people treated Him just that way; like a rose trampled on the ground. Like He was nothing, and we still do it today, nothing has changed but the way in which we shun Him. Often times, it’s with a church service that brings people together in His name and then never mentions it once in the service. It’s people coming and singing the pretty church songs, but their praises are a mere “thanks” and not a heart-felt THANK YOU JESUS! Going through the motions so that WE feel like we’ve been to church and done our weekly Christian duty. But those aren’t the praises that God seeks, that’s not what He desires. He desires our hearts, not our sacrifices. He desires our LOVE and ADORATION, not our empty praises. He desires a FRIENDSHIP, not just an acquaintance. God wants US, all of us, not just a part. He wants us to DIVE into the deep end of His love and splash around in His grace. To do a cannonball off the diving board, just because we can. But, HOW do we do that? How do we get there?

We ask.

We all have a different way to get to that point with God where we are confidently leaning on Him, so I can’t tell you that’s there’s one way and here’s how you do it. We are all made uniquely individual and we all come to Jesus in exactly that way. But I can tell you this, you CAN ask Him to take you there. You can ask Him HOW to get to that point. And when you call to Him for help, guidance, directions, He WILL answer you. It’s a promise.

Prayer for Guidance:Psalm 23: “Lord Jesus, I want to know You more. But I don’t know how. I want to lean on You in confidence that You won’t let me fall, but I don’t know what that looks like. God PLEASE, help me get there. Right now I am Your lost little sheep in need of a Shepherd to guide me, lead me to that place where You are. Please help me to lie down in green pastures, lead me beside those still waters, because I believe that You will restore my soul. Lord, guide me in paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake. I am walking through the valley of the shadow of death right now Lord, but I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Lord, I believe that You do prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. That when You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Lord, I do believe that SURELY Your Goodness and Mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and that I WILL dwell in the house of Yaweh FOREVER. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!”

You know what I’m really enjoying about these scripture based prayers, they start out asking for something, and end up DECLARING THE VICTORY! AMEN! I am including a video (below) of a praise song with the lyrics included on the screen. If you are able, and I pray that God will allow you to read this particular post at a time when you are able to play the video, stand or kneel if you feel called. Sing along, raise your arms in praise to His sacrifice and His grace, and praise Him with a deeply felt thankful heart that He is GOOD and WORTHY of praise! HALLELUJAH!

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Prayer for God’s Protection: Psalm 91

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Tamar

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:1-2

As children of the Living God our creator when we read through the Bible, His love letter to us, we find promises that He has made to us. Psalm 91 is one of those promises, a cherished one, and a very powerful one. This is a Psalm that the Jews often memorize and recite in times of trouble for themselves or loved ones. Right now, with everything that is going on in the world today, Fear is running rampant through the streets. But as true believers of Jesus we can STAND ON THESE PROMISES. When we are already in the arms of the LORD, we find ourselves dwelling in the shelter of the Most High and resting in the shadow of the Almighty. We can say “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”Ā  We do not need to be afraid. Period. Did you know that the message “don’t be afraid” or a variation of it is repeated 365 times in the Bible? That’s one for every day of our year! Fear is a powerful weapon in the Enemy’s arsenal, and he loves to wield it against us… because it works. Fear is a tremendous motivator, sometimes for good. But being afraid, is pointless. Fear causes us to make quick decisions and do foolish things. If we are afraid, then we are not trusting God for that thing. Thinking back on this I realize that I did that very thing not even hours ago! I was shopping in a hurry because I had taken my time on my earlier errands. I got to the store and like I usually do, I prayed that God would lead me in my shopping, that I wouldn’t spend more than His will for our family, that I would get all the things that I needed, and most importantly, that He would LEAD ME TO THE DEALS! šŸ™‚ Boy did He ever too! But anyway, I digress. The cart was packed to the gills and I kept looking at it thinking this is going to cost more than what I budgeted, this isn’t good, I am afraid of just HOW MUCH this is going to cost! I was doubting Him and His leading me… JUST like I had asked Him to! I was afraid that it would cost more than we could afford, right after I had asked Him to help me make sure that I wouldn’t do that! Sometimes I really disappoint myself. I wasn’t walking in the faith that God had heard and would answer my prayer for guidance. HELLO! Jeremiah 33:3 TAMAR! “Call to me and I will answer you...” Promise!

God doesn’t want us to be afraid of ANYTHING, because He’s taking care of EVERYTHING for us… when we dwell in the shelter of the Most High and rest in the shadow of the Almighty. When God is our refuge and fortress, when we trust in HIM, He takes care of everything! Now, I’d like to say that I came out of the store under MY budget, but I didn’t. I was however only $15 over AND I walked out of the store saving $30 and had a backseat FULL of groceries! There was barely room for my daughter to sit! Woohoo! Thanks for all the deals Daddy! Yes, I slipped a little in my faith that God would answer my call for help in the store… but HE is faithful, and irregardless of MY lack of faith, HE still held up His end of the deal. So, where did my fear and worry get me? Nowhere other than the foot of the cross asking for forgiveness once again. Little by little I’m getting better at trusting Him.

As for the Prayer for Protection from Psalm 91, I’ve been praying/declaring it over my friends the last couple of days. Praying it for their family by their family name, and praying it for our own family by name. I’m going to type it with specific words underlined, when praying this prayer for someone else, a family or an individual simply exchange their name with the underlined word(s). This particular prayer is interesting because it’s really more of a declaration of faith than it is a request. Which, honestly, I think is what makes it so effective. Because God doesn’t want us to just ask, no, He wants us to BELIEVE in what we are asking. The way that this Psalm is written, when you speak it over someone, it reads filled with belief and turns into a declaration of faith. I love how it works out that way. šŸ™‚ But my favorite part is the end, where God responds immediately to the prayer, make sure to read His answer out loud as well! Actually, make sure to read the whole prayer out loud, the angels surrounding you right now waiting to carry out your prayer can’t read your mind, only God can do that! So make sure to declare this one loud and proud for your loved one! Make sure ALL the heavenlies can hear your declaration of faith!

Prayer for Protection: Psalm 91: “Father God Almighty, I lift up the Knochel family to You right now. Lord, may they dwell in the shelter of the Most High and rest in the shadow of You the Almighty. May they say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom we trust.” Father,I believe that You will save them from the fowler’s (the Enemy) snare and from the deadly pestilence (sickness/ill-health). I believe that You will cover them with Your feathers, and that under Your wings they will find refuge; I believe that Your faithfulness will be their shield and rampart. They will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at their side, ten thousand at their right hand, but I believe that it will not come near them. They will only observe with their eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If they make You the Most High their dwelling – even the LORD, who is my refuge – then I believe that no harm will befall them, no disaster will come near their tent. Lord, I believe that You will command Your angels concerning them to guard them in all their ways; that the angels will lift the Knochel’s up in their hands, so that they will not strike their foot against a stone. Lord, I believe that the Knochel’s will tread upon the lion and the cobra; that they will trample the great lion and the serpent (all symbols of the Enemy). “Because they love Me” says the LORD, “I will rescue them; I will protect them, for they acknowledge My name. They will call upon Me, and I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will deliver them and honor them. With long life will I satisfy them and show them My salvation.”

Cool story I heard a while back, a man (I think an evangelist) was a FIRM believer in the promises of Psalm 91. So much so that he had some scientist test him on it. So armed with a microscope, they placed the BUBONIC PLAGUE on his skin…. and watched it die the instant it touched him. Now THAT’S what I call active faith! My aunt’s husband Tom had cancer, the doctors gave him the option of taking a medicine with a 50% chance of working, he chose not to take the medicine and take his chances believing that God would cure him. Today, Tom is 100% cancer free! Among many many many other people prayers, one of the things that they did was a group of people stood by Tom and spoke Psalm 91 over him every day. The Bible is FILLED with miracles, and those miracles ARE possible for TODAY! God is the same yesterday, today and forever, He doesn’t change. He’s the same miracle-working God today that He was back then. The ONLY difference is whether we’re willing to BELIEVE HIM for those miracles or not. It’s all up to us. For anything is possible for him who believes!!! Speak this prayer out in BELIEF that it is the TRUTH and it is the LIFE and it is the WAY! (I really wish you could hear my fingers pounding on they keys as I’m typing this, I may hurt my computer!) The prayers of a righteous man/woman avails much. You know what makes someone righteous in God’s sight? The fact that they believe that He has forgiven them and that they TRUST HIM to do what He says He will do! Believe that HIS WORD IS TRUE and it will hold more power for you, than you ever thought possible! God is trustworthy, TRUST HIM and He will NOT let you down! Hallelujah!

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Labor

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Tamar

“We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers – continually remembering before our God and Father you work of faith and and steadiness of hope in our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.” (1 Thessalonians 1:3 The Tree of Life Version)

OK, so I wanted to try my hand at writing to a theme today. Usually I just write whatever the LORD puts in my head, but yesterday, sitting in church, listening to the sermon on work, I felt the Holy Spirit tug me and tell me to stretch myself a little and start things from a different angle today. When we talked with the pastor after the sermon he mentioned that when he does a topical sermon he always starts with a word search through the bible to see what the scriptures say on the topic. So naturally, that’s where I started too. There are 115 individual scriptures in the New International Version of the Bible that have the word “labor” in them. I didn’t even get past the first 8 before I didn’t want to look at them any more! Almost every single one prefaced the word labor with the word “hard” or “harsh”, how depressing! So I decided, maybe I should look up the Webster’s definition of labor, maybe that might be a little more inspirational for a devotional blog… nope! According to my Webster’s New Basic dictionary and Thesaurus labor means: “(n) exertion of the body or mind; task; pains of childbirth, workmen collectively. (v) work hard; strive; maintain normal motion with difficulty; esp. of a ship, be tossed heavily.” I seriously thought to myself, THIS is what we’re supposed to be celebrating today??? Are we crazy??? And now that I’m thinking about it more, most of us celebrate Labor Day with a day OFF from laboring! Now, that doesn’t make sense either. So how do I write something inspirational and hopefully uplifting about a topic that is so depressing?

Maybe I should just start at the beginning. That’s what God did. If we look at the Garden of Eden and the very first thing that God gave Adam to do, He put him in the garden to “work it and take care of it” (Gen 2:15). But this job wasn’t labor, it wasn’t rife with toil or harshness. It was a labor of love! The ground had not been cursed yet, and was therefore easy to work. There wasn’t even sweat involved in the work. But then that serpent of old slithered in and ruined everything! He tempted, they ate, they were ashamed and hid, and then… in walks Daddy. Of course, like any good parent knows, He doesn’t really have to ask “what happened here”, because He already knows, He can see the evidence all over the ground, their faces, their fig leaves, but most of all… because He’s God. They offer Him their feeble excuses for what they’ve done and then their punishment is doled out:

“16 To the woman he said,ā€œI will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.ā€ 17 To Adam he said, ā€œBecause you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ā€˜You must not eat from it,ā€™ ā€œCursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.ā€ (Gen 3:16-19)

The very first appearance of the word labor in the NIV is in the curse for the woman and birthing children, it will be labor. Curious, I looked up the original Hebrew for this verse and found that it can also be translated as worrisomeness, labor, pain, toil or sorrow. Now please, moms out there, tell me, how many of you have birthed a child and NOT been plagued with worries, pain, toil and sorrows ever since your child was born? The physical pain of birthing that child may have concluded at its delivery, but all the rest of it certainly hasn’t stopped since! Just this week my four-year-old has shed blood 3 times in a four-day-span and the worry that I have been wrapped up in as to the cause of all this blood shed has eaten me up inside! Yet, I also don’t know a mother out there that wouldn’t say that all of this labor of mothering is anything other than a labor of love. It’s hard, totally not glamorous, but completely worth all of it!

I have to admit, in the last 2 years I have been laboring. I’ve studied hard, researched til my brain hurt and written until I thought my fingers were going to fall off, all for the sake of spreading the good news that Jesus saves! Not just our souls for eternal heavenly purposes, but for TODAY and the life that we were created to live! I can’t even begin to count how many hours I have spent at my desk pouring over the scriptures trying to find the understanding I felt I needed to be able to tell people in an informed manner what God can do for them. I filled an entire book with the knowledge and insight that I gained from the Holy Spirit. And I OFTEN referred to True Intimacy as a child or a baby. I labored, like many people would never understand, to birth that book. The concept in it and the rationales behind them. Many never written out, but simply there in the background of the page, written in red between the lines.Ā  When it became very obvious that it was not God’s plan to immediately publish True Intimacy in a 3D printed format, I have to admit, I was crushed, but obedient and went the direction that God led me; this website. Creating it, praying for it, learning (the hard way) how to put it together and work the programs, to even writing and posting daily, it’s all been hard labor. But every second of it has been worth it, my labor of love for my creator and for you. Through this entire process I have said “people need to know about this!” and that’s why I’ve been writing. Not for the money or the fame of being a “published author”, although that has certainly been part of the dream, but for the simple fact that God delivered my husband and I so completely from the bondage of past sins that all I wanted to do was tell the world that Jesus saves! That Jesus frees! That Jesus loves! That God cares… about YOU! And honestly, if I never see a penny from royalties to the things that I write in His name I’m perfectly fine with that as long as the good news is being spread and read! And really, I think that’s the whole point of labor. Laboring in love for the people around you who will benefit from your toil. Putting our selfishness aside and putting those people first. When we make a dinner for someone who is home bound, it’s still labor, but the labor isn’t as toilsome when done in love, don’t you think? Perhaps that is because our hearts are lighter and therefore our burden is lighter as well. I don’t know. I just know that when we’re laboring for someone else to benefit it seems a lot less like labor and a lot more like love. šŸ™‚

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