Do you only have a few minutes for Bible Study today?

Or do you have a few extra minutes and want to feed your soul? Try one of our new i hear podcasts. Three minutes is all you need to receive  a little encouragement and refreshment from God’s word!

“Times are changing,” as the saying goes, but God does not change.

He is eternal and timeless. When the culture seems to shift like sand underneath our feet, God calls us to hold our ground. Commit today to stand on firm upon the Rock and affect the culture for Christ.

It’s time to stand firm.

Please leave a comment below on your experience.

Have a blessed day!

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Peter asked Jesus to help him do the impossible.

Peter had every reason to stay in the boat.

Any sane person would advise him to stay put. It didn’t make sense to get out of the boat.

It was night time.

He was tired.

He had already worked a full day.

Plus it was windy and wavy. Peter was a boat-rider and a fisherman not a water-walker. Water-walking was simply not his gifting—he didn’t have the skill set or the experience to be a water-walker. No one in his family was a water-walker for good reason, it was impossible. As a matter of fact, Peter didn’t know a single water-walker or anyone who had even attempted this before.

Peter, had every reason to stay in the boat accept one-Jesus called him out.

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I get Peter.

When I was about 7 or 8, my mother decided it was time for me to learn to swim. Encased in a bright pink hair-ripping rubber bathing cap  (thing of the past, thankfully) and one-piece swimsuit, I entered the guppy class at the local YMCA. Floating is easy the instructor assured me. (Note: due to my Irish heritage [the Hunger Years] I only weighed about 30 lbs wet with a pocket full of quarters. I had not a single fat cell on my entire body). This girl did not float. She sank. Always. Straight to the bottom. I NEVER passed the guppy class. For me, water-walking was impossible. I couldn’t even swim. I needed to stay in the boat.

I’ve prayed like Peter.

Longingly and sincerely, I have asked,  “Lord, use me greatly,” only to thrash and flail when He called me out of my boat. Walking turns to treading turns to sinking as I get my eyes off Jesus and onto the waves of opposition. Water-walking requires a greater level of faith than simple earth-walking. Walking by faith not by sight takes on a whole new meaning when on wavy water.

But God tells us all things are possible through Christ Jesus.

Even water-walking. What happened when Peter begins to sink? Jesus is right there with him reaching, lifting and saving. He will do the same for you.

Read the verses again. Did you notice when the wind quit? The Bible makes a point to tell us the wind ceased after Peter and Jesus got in the boat. Meditate on that for a moment.

Peter the water-walker went on to be Peter the church- builder.

And Jesus is calling you. Come, walk by faith. Water-walker. Bridge-builder. Giant-slayer. Business-starter. Church-planter. Bible-teacher. Website-blogger. College-enroller. He’s calling you. You have every reason to stay in the boat. People will tell you no one has done this before. It’s too risky, too late, too expensive, or too illogical. It’s outside of your gifting.

Cover it in prayer and fasting. And if Jesus is calling, get out of the boat. Walk by faith water-walker.

Action Points:

1. Pray like Peter. Faith stretching water-walking prayers. Ask God to give you His dream for your life.
2. Act like Peter. Get out of the boat. Take a step of faith—even if you sink. He’ll catch you. What do you need to do today to start walking out your faith and calling?
3. Cry like Peter. If you begin to drown in fear, call out to Jesus with all your heart. He is with you. He’ll help you and strengthen you.

Life is Sweet! Walk on water.

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He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.

Genesis 5:2

“How do you identify?” is the hot question of the day.

Everyone is talking about it. It’s trending everywhere. Our nation is embroiled in an identity crisis. Never has identity been more controversial than in the 21st century. Ironically, the question is as old as dirt.

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.

God formed man from dirt and breathed life into him. He created them male and female. Men and women. Not men or women. Created things have no choice as to what they were created to be.  The sun is not the moon, oranges aren’t apples, lions are not elephants. Men are not women. Straight up. To the point. No choice. Men and women were created. Not self-made, not man-made, but God-made. And Satan twisted God’s plan.

He attacked Eve’s identity.

“For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5

Satan cast doubt on the goodness of man’s identity. He tempted Eve to believe God held out on her and made her less then she could be. B-list creation.

Eve fell for it—and we’ve been falling for it ever since.

Sin entered the world and everything was skewed, even identity; we are left wondering whose we are and who we are. Not knowing our true identity,  we won’t become what we were created to be, or fulfill our calling in Christ. We will only accomplish all that God has planned for us when we are what He created us to be.

Satan also attacked Jesus’ identity.

Read his words:

Where can we learn the truth about our identity?

The world cannot be trusted. Friends often lead us astray. Our heart is deceitful above all things. Our identity is found only in Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life.

1. Children of God. John 1:12
2. Accepted in Christ. Romans 15:7
3. The image of God. Genesis 1:27
4. Known by God. Jeremiah 1:5
5. Chosen by God. 1 Peter 2:9
6. One in Christ. Galatians 3:28
7. A temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:19
8. Seated at the right hand of God and our life is hidden in Christ. Colossians 3:1-3
9. Redeemed from our sins. Ephesians 1:7
10. Restored, strengthened and established. 1 Peter 5:10

There is blessing in being who God created us to be. Through Him we learn the truth about our identity so we may walk, live, look, and act like Jesus.

Final Thoughts:

1. We do not create our identity but discover it. Pray and read God’s word. Take special note of any references to who we are in Christ.
2. The more we learn about God, the more we learn about who we were created to be. Since we are created in the image of God, we are to be like Him. we can learn more about God by attending a Bible-based church, by doing Bible studies, and by listening to sound Bible-based podcasts.
3. A picture is worth a thousand words. To see a diagram on how our identity in Christ is formed, click on this link: Identity In Christ

Resources:

If you are struggling with gender identification, there is help and hope! Please click on the link below for  information.

Focus on the Family: Transgenderism Series

For further Bible study information, please click on any of the following links:

To Do-ers List: Study

To Do-ers List: Word in Me

Walking With God

Life is sweet!

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“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;” 1 Timothy 2:1

Nora is my text friend.

You probably have a text friend. Text friends (a.k.a. virtual friends) are people with whom we share our lives, but due to conditions and circumstances we rarely see. When Nora and I lived in the same city, we were facefriends. Heart to heart friends. Lunches, Bible studies, prayers, conferences, family dinners, heartaches, victories—we shared a lot of life. Eventually, God called Nora and her family to Florida, Indiana and finally Texas. Thank goodness for technology!

I was catching up with Nora the other day. My dear friend asked about my family so I filled her in on the latest with my twenty-something sons and the status of my mother.

“My mom is quite ill,” I texted “Now, I have the privilege of being one of her primary prayer givers.”

Primary prayer giver.

I meant to text primary caregiver, but out came primary prayergiver.

God had my attention.

My mind began processing this new phrase I had inadvertently coined, primary prayergiver, and I drew meaning from original phrase. What do primary caregivers do? According to Wikipedia, “A primary caregiver is the person who takes primary responsibility for someone who cannot care fully for themselves. It may be a family member, a trained professional or another individual.”

What do primary prayergivers do?

A primary prayergiver is a person who stands in the gap and takes primary responsibility to pray for someone who cannot fully pray for themselves. Primary prayergivers don’t pray exclusively for the sick and elderly. They pray for anyone who cannot pray for themselves such as:

• the lost
• the unborn
• little ones
• those who have fallen away

Who is a primary prayergiver?

If you pray and you are a true Christ-follower, you are a primary prayergiver in at least three different spheres of influence:

1. Your family: the people who live under your roof
2. Your work/ministry: the people you serve and work with each day
3. Your world: the people you meet and see each day, people you pass on the street, people in your town, state and nation and elected officials

Prayer deeply affects the daily lives, health and destiny of individual people, families and nations. If we don’t pray for our families, our coworkers our nation, our world, who will? Prayer can be the difference between success and failure, strength and weakness, victory and defeat, and life and death. God has given us the responsibility, privilege and blessing of being primary prayergivers. We must pray continuously for those under our care.

Action Points:

1. Get a time: Consistent prayer usually won’t happen unless we plan for it. I like to pray while I’m driving and in the evening for 10-15 minutes.
2. Get a list: I used to keep prayer requests on little pieces of paper, which scattered across my vanity confetti! STRESS. Then I discovered Prayer Notebook, an inexpensive prayer app, which changed my life. You’ll love it too! You can download it at the link below.
3. Get praying: When someone has hurt you, be a prayergiver. When someone is hurting, be a prayer giver. When it seems there is no hope, and everything is lost, be a prayergiver. When someone is sick, lost their job or lost their child, be a prayergiver.

Prayer Notebook

Life is sweet. Be a prayergiver!

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For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

2 Timothy 1:12

“Just relax through the pain.”

“Relax through the pain?” I thought to myself, “what an oxymoron. Who can relax through pain?”

I was suffering from something called a frozen shoulder. It happened one day when I was at recess with my students. Why I thought I had to do a cartwheel at the young age of 50 was beyond me. But I did it, and I stuck the landing.

However, I paid the price.

Now I could barely put my arm behind my back, or lift it above a 30-degree angle. I had been to the doctor several times, but I was making very little progress.

During the course of this inconvenient injury, I was attending a conference at a posh hotel in South Carolina. That’s when I met Michael—an angel who disguises himself as a massage therapist. I scheduled a massage.

Michael greeted me for my appointment and as protocol dictates, asked me the usual pre-massage questions. I saw a spark of interest ignite in his eyes when I told him I was there not to relax, but to seek healing for my injured arm. This was not just a typical bored pampered housewife appointment—I needed real help.

There is no progress without pain.

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As he began to go deep into the injured arm, Michael said, “Just relax through the pain.” I turned over this comment over in my mind. Relax through the pain. How do these concepts mesh? Is it possible to hurt yet rest? How does a person relax in pain? Michael worked as I breathed in and out.

Mind wandering. Muscles releasing. Stress draining.

Suddenly, I realized to my astonishment, I was relaxing through the pain. Why? How? One word—trust. I trusted Michael. He knew when to stop. He knew how to probe the injury to a depth that brought healing not harm. I did not have to protect myself because he was protecting me. But he didn’t protect me out of my healing. I could relax and let him work because I trusted him.

Same thing with God.

He asks us to trust him through the pain; to give our wounds into His healing hands and let Him go deep. He knows when to stop, and when we’ve had enough. Left on our own, we would protect ourselves right out of our healing. But God knows how to heal, not harm. We can relax and let Him work because He is trustworthy. Healing wrapped in pain. A salve of wholeness and hurt. Buried pain exposed, cut away and removed.

Pain then healing. Hurt then wholeness.

We can relax through the pain of life because we are safe in His hands.

Trust in Him.

Action Points:

1. What are you holding back? Is there a painful situation you need to turn over to God? Take a step of trust and tell Him as best as you know how at this moment, you are giving this hurt to Him to heal.
2. Envision yourself completely healed. What would be different? What would you finally dare to do because you are completely healed?
3. Take the first step. What is your first step? A move? A career change? The end of a relationship? Letting go of decades old guilt or shame? The first step can be scary but also very freeing and empowering!
4. Seek the help you need. Counselor, pastor,  doctor, mentor— whatever it takes, do it!
5. Cover everything in prayer. Ask God to give you His best and open wide your arms to receive it.

Life is sweet! Trust and relax.

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i hear:
short podcasts to bring the sacred into your everyday

Do you only have a few minutes for prayer today? You’re in the right place! Try one of our new i pray podcasts. A few minutes is all you need to pray God’s word into any situation by interceding for friends, family, and yourself.

Complaining is a socially acceptable pastime that doesn’t really hurt anyone, right? Not according to God. Grumbling greatly affects our lives. It’s time to exchange our whining  for a little praising and praying.

It’s time to stop complaining.

To listen to today’s podcast Complaining, please click the start button below:

Commit today to change your words and and watch God change your attitude–even your life!

Please leave a comment below on your experience.

Have a blessed day!

Commit today to change your words and and watch God change your attitude–even your life!

Please leave a comment below on your experience.

Have a blessed day!

all rights reserved

copyright 2016