10
Nov '18
Control
10
Nov '18
Do you ever just want to take control of something that isn’t in your control? I sure do. I want people to know what I know and see things the way that I see them. If they would only agree with me, things would be so much better. But, thank goodness I’m not in control – that would be a complete disaster. GOD is in control. He has everything already worked out. He gave us free will, so we are never going to fully agree on anything. One thing is definite, His plan and His decisions prevail. We will muddle through our disagreements, and battle our spiritual warfare, but then we can rest easy because He’s already won the battle for us. So, when we are confused about why someone is making the choices they are making, we can always turn to God and know that Read more…
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03
Nov '18
Winds of Change
03
Nov '18
I’ve experienced it many times. Change. This change usually occurs when God wants to close a door – so what does He do? He closes the door. Have you been in this situation before? Where God just closes a door (and most likely it was a door you thought you wanted to walk through)? We all know how it feels to continue going through life comfortable. Or even if we’re not entirely “comfortable”, we will stay somewhere just because we’re not fond of change. We’ll settle for mediocrity, when God didn’t intend for us to “settle” for that. So, when that door closes, and a “shake-up” happens, we don’t know what to do. We sometimes become scared and upset and wonder why this is happening to us. Or – we thought we were relying on God during seasons of our lives, but looking back – we see that we just wanted to be in “control”. I fully believe that God intended hardships in my life to bring me closer to Him. I’m thankful that God may actually use my hardships Read more…
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03
Nov '18
My Dr. Phil Gift
03
Nov '18
God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to Him forever and ever! Amen. 1 Peter 4:10-11
Lately, my life has been inundated with a wave of sadness, tragedy, and heartbreak. The thing is none of it is directly relating to me. It is as if somehow God has given me this ‘Dr. Phil’ gift. Some of you know exactly what that means. People seemingly come to you because in their Read more…
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03
Nov '18
God Will Never Give You More than You can Handle (??)
03
Nov '18
Written by: Mark Culp
1 Corinthians 1:8-9 “We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.”
I have heard people voice various platitudes concerning various topics most of my life. Some are used to cover a variety of situations and others are more specific. One of the more popular slogans states that “God will never give you more than you can handle.” How could anyone doubt the “truth ” of this time honored saying? You may Read more…
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03
Nov '18
Under Pressure
03
Nov '18
Satan is on the move every day. He tries to weave circumstances into our daily routine to trap us, to throw us into the chaos of feeling annoyed, stressed, and under pressure. Satan likes to destroy our peace and make us feel unworthy of God’s forgiveness. He sets doubt in our minds and and tries to slowly destroy our confidence.
God is so much more powerful than satan. When we stand with God, satan crumbles. We live in a fallen world because of sin. Satan likes to believe he has the upper hand, but he’s no Read more…
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27
Oct '18
God Provides what We Need
27
Oct '18
Written by: Mark Culp
Exodus 16:4 recounts the story of when God introduced manna to the Israelites. It was during the time when He was leading them through the desert after He had miraculously delivered them from the bondage of Pharaoh. They were in the wilderness where God was leading them and forging a people for His own.
His seemingly simple instructions to His people were to gather only what they needed for the day with the exception of the sixth day of every week, where they would gather twice as much. These instructions were simple enough, at least on the surface, but to many, the instructions just did not make any sense. They were in a desert wilderness after all, and many decided to gather Read more…
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27
Oct '18
Security
27
Oct '18
Being secure in who I am has been a journey. Walking with Christ is amazing. He’s opened my eyes and given me strength I never knew I had. Naturally, I still have pitfalls and bad days. I know when I’ve messed up because I have the Holy Spirit who convicts me and sets my mind on the right path.
As long as I can remember, I have always trusted and believed in God. Even when I walked right into reckless situations, God always knew me better than I knew myself. He knew when I Read more…
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27
Oct '18
Filling the Gap
27
Oct '18
Be good to your servant,
that I may live and obey Your word.
Open my eyes to see
the wonderful truths in Your instructions.
I am only a foreigner in the land.
Don’t hide Your commands from me!
I am always overwhelmed
with a desire for Your regulations. Psalms 119: 17-20
that I may live and obey Your word.
Open my eyes to see
the wonderful truths in Your instructions.
I am only a foreigner in the land.
Don’t hide Your commands from me!
I am always overwhelmed
with a desire for Your regulations. Psalms 119: 17-20
One of the first things I tried to do when I became born again was give up something for lent. The funny thing was I was never successful. I would slip up somewhere along the line, and eat the chocolate cake, or I would have that night out where the cheesecake looked too good. Eventually, I would give in. Then one year, I put it all together and found success! There was so much joy in my heart that I enjoyed cheesecake that year much more! In retrospect, each passing year where I failed, I also learned something from my failures. I realized to avoid certain places, or had greater will power to never ‘give up.’ I was Read more…
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27
Oct '18
Shift Your Focus
27
Oct '18
A friend recently shared a post on social media that said “Worship gets you through the hardest times in your life because it shifts your focus from the problem to the Problem Solver”. This post showed up right after a different friend was inquiring about what I’ve been doing since some struggles in my life. I proceeded to tell him that after these struggles came along, I got myself very busy with Godly people doing Godly things. He then said he felt he may have isolated himself in the same situation. I’ll admit, I may have wanted to isolate myself, but God surely didn’t give me that option. God began moving in my life immediately and didn’t give me much of a chance at all to sulk or have pity party with myself (i.e. “poor me!”).
Nope, God grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me a few times, told me to take a few days to get things out of my system, and then we’re going to be on to the next thing. God knew exactly what needed to happen with me, so I didn’t question Him. I got involved more in church, started hitting the gym more, and started surrounding myself more with Godly people.
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20
Oct '18
Rear View Mirror
20
Oct '18
When a struggle in life comes at you out of the blue…. on an idle Saturday….. at 2pm….. like a freight train, you feel helpless. (Maybe you saw it coming.. but did you really?) You feel like your whole world is crashing down around you. You feel it fully and deeply and you feel like you can’t breathe. Here’s where we need to take a step back and just look at the whole forest (and see a different perspective).
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