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Articles from May 2015

DISCERNING GOD’S VOICE TO FIND GOD’S VICTORY: I HATE FEAR

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“God thunders marvelously with His voice; 

He does great things which we cannot comprehend.”

JOB 37:5

Sometimes the best encouragement comes through a true story, especially one that shows the mighty hand of God to be at work among us. Instead of the usual format, I’d like to encourage you this week with a true story. Each day the Encouragement will continue as the story unfolds. You don’t want to miss a single day!

 

I HATE FEAR

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”

John 10:10

Story Continued from Monday…

TUESDAYLooking at the black widow spider, fear gripped my heart. Again.

“Tom!” I shouted. Breathing hard, and in a panic, I ran after him on the beach, shouting out words to describe what had just happened.

Instantly on alert, he turned and came toward me. “What’s wrong? What is it?” he shouted back.

Already on edge before getting to the beach, we were both tired and battle weary. We’d just returned from this year’s Nicaragua mission trip (April 7-14, 2015). The spiritual battle over this mission had been intense for a whole year. Though God continued to be mightily at work throughout 2014, so was the enemy.

I remember vividly the words whispered in my ear in February 2014, while we were still on the ground in Managua, when the 2015 mission was but a blur on the horizon. “This is the last time you’ll ever be here, you won’t come back again.” 

Whaaat? A sense of foreboding took root as I whispered, “But Lord, You are doing a mighty work here. You’re allowing us to be a part of it. Why? I don’t want it to end.” As I pondered that message over the next months, I wondered what horrible thing was going to happen to stop the work. Would I die? Would the world fall apart and make travel impossible? Was God through with me? Would I fall into some horrible sin that would bring defeat to the ministry?

Hindsight is 20/20. As the months went by, I pondered these worries. I sat on my sofa, mentally sucking my thumb, wondering at what I’d “heard.” As summer turned to fall, and fall to winter, I prayed and cried out to God to show me His plan. Nothing I read in Scripture lined up to the message whispered in my ear. As January 2015 approached, a faint hope broke through my reverie. “What if the voice I heard wasn’t God’s voice. What if it’s a threat from the enemy?  

“Well then,” I thought, ” if that’s the case, the Lord must have a mighty plan for Nicaragua! And the enemy is afraid for us to go back. Jesus did say the He comes to steal, kill, and destroy, so of course he’d want to stop God’s plan. But how can I be sure?” I mused.  

How could I tell the difference?  So, I began to pray and seek God’s voice and His confirmation. I turned to His Word because I knew the answer was there. And I knew His voice would never contradict His written Word.

Until tomorrow,

Your Traveling Partner,

Brenda

DISCERNING GOD’S VOICE TO FIND GOD’S VICTORY: It’s Break Time!

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“God thunders marvelously with His voice; 

He does great things which we cannot comprehend.”

JOB 37:5

Sometimes the best encouragement comes through a true story, especially one that shows the mighty hand of God to be at work among us. Instead of the usual format, I’d like to encourage you this week with a true story. Each day the Encouragement will continue as the story unfolds. You don’t want to miss a single day!

 

It’s Break Time! 

“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

John 10:9-10, NKJV

“I thought we’d never get here,” Tom said.

“Me either,” I replied. “I don’t remember when we had so many things go wrong in such a short amount of time! I mean, who ever heard tell of a tire blowing out in the middle of our driveway! But finally – we’re heeere!”

MONDAYWith the waves crashing on shore, and the warm spring sunshine on my face, I could feel the weight of busyness and stress begin to lift from my heart and mind. Our cold dreary winter had finally given way to the brilliant Carolina blue sky we look forward to every year. White puffy clouds floated swiftly overhead as salt air filled our nostrils. With sunscreen-slathered bodies, we looked like pack mules, loaded down with the umbrella, chairs, beach bag, and fishing gear. With our dog Sandy’s leash attached to the beach bag, we headed to the sand without a care in the world. Finally, it was sabbatical time! Now that the mission trip was over, the battle was over as well. There would be no more threats or enemy interference around every corner.

Reaching our sweet spot on the sand, I released the chair slung over my shoulder. Reaching to remove the chair from its encasing, I heard a Still Small Voice issue the warning…”watch out for black widow spiders.”

Instantly I was on guard, hesitant to touch the chair again. “I’m sure it’s just another threat from the enemy,” I thought. At the same instant, Tom and I reached out from opposite sides of the chair to extend its legs. As he turned to walk away, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. And there it was—a very large, shiny black spider, dangling in mid-air, on a string of web. And it was about to reach my leg. Jumping back, I looked closely to see it had turned upside down, with its back dangling toward the ground. A bright red spot flashed on its belly, shining bright as the noonday sun.

I’m so thankful I still had on my flip-flops because without thinking, I started stomping that spider for all I was worth. As it lay dormant on the sand, I peered over it, wondering if it was pretending to be dead. Realizing the only thing left was a black greasy spot, with long legs still attached, I should have been relieved. Instead, an ugly, dark wave of fear gripped my heart, stealing my peace, killing my joy, and stealing my rest …

But that’s not what Jesus promised in our verse today. Remember, these are words from today’s verses – from Jesus’ own lips to our ears:

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

Join me tomorrow as the story continues…

Your Traveling Partner,

Brenda

What Are These Stones?

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Those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. He said to the sons of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ then you shall inform your children, saying, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.’” 

Joshua 4:20-22, NASB

RockTraveling to Nicaragua in 2014 was an eye-opening, life-changing experience for me. Getting a front row seat to watch God work in ways that I had never imagined was beyond anything I had ever experienced. I knew I would never be the same.

Fast forward a few weeks and months. Life quickly resumed a pattern of normalcy. Meals had to be made and sibling squabbles needed a referee. The images of poverty and God stories, once in the forefront of my mind, had been replaced with meal planning and story time. Consumed with my own life, I had forgotten.

The nation of Israel struggled with memory loss as well. As a nation, they had witnessed miracle after miracle. They had seen manna fall from heaven, been guided by a pillar of cloud during the day and fire at night, and had walked through parted waters on dry land. Yet all too soon they would forget God’s provisions.

After crossing the Jordan, the Lord commanded a man from each of the twelve tribes to go back to the middle of the dry river bed and take a stone and build an altar, or memorial, to Israel forever. For generations, when asked what those stones meant, they would remember the Lord’s provision and the deliverance of their nation.

Like Israel, we are prone to forget God’s provisions in our lives, but the importance and purpose of remembering hasn’t changed.

God has delivered each and every one of us from something. If we have placed our faith in Christ, we have been delivered from eternal condemnation and separation from Him. Maybe you’ve been delivered from financial ruin, addiction, or a broken marriage?

Regardless of how He has worked in our lives, it’s important to remember and it’s important to share it with others for God’s glory. Through the remembrance and sharing of our God stories, others are pointed to Christ, a legacy of faith is left for our children, and our own faith is strengthened when our lives take unexpected twists and turns.

How can you remember today?

Remembering,

Traci