Encouraging Women Today

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

HE COULD HAVE WALKED AWAY, BUT CHOSE THE CROSS.
R U WALKING AWAY?

As I was remembering our Lord’s suffering, death on the cross and resurrection this week, some thoughts unfolded.

HAVE YOU LAID DOWN YOUR CROSS AND WALKED AWAY?
Each of us has a cross to bear on this earth. Because of Calvary, Christ will help us carry that cross all the way. If you have laid down your cross and walked away, be reminded at this Season of why “The Cross”! The Words of the song “The Cross” jumped out at me today as I was meditating.

There was a cross made for the Son of God at Calvary.
Two pieces of rough timber on a hill.
Through His hands and through His feet,
He took the nails for you and me.
Angels watched as He died for the lost.
THOUGH HE COULD HAVE WALKED AWAY HE CHOSE THE CROSS.

God imparted His love, compassion & mercy to the human race through the suffering and crucifixion of His Son, Jesus Christ. We celebrate the resurrection and that is what makes it all come together, but let’s not forget His Cross and Our Cross. TAKE UP YOUR CROSS and allow Christ to walk beside you all the way. He will walk before you, fight for you, carry you as a father carries his son all the way and show you the way to go. Deuteronomy 1:30-33

1. He took our punishment for our sins to free us from God’s punishment.
2. We are redeemed by the blood of the lamb.
3. He came to die that we might live.
4. He freed us from Satan’s hold.
5. He bridged the gap between God and man.
6. He took the stripes for our healing, protection and restoration.
7. Christ, who knew no sin was made sin for us.


I want to ask you a question today: “Are you receiving the fullness of the Cross & Resurrection”? It is there for you! Pick up your cross and follow Him.

ON A HILL FAR AWAY STOOD AN OLD RUGGED CROSS.
TO THAT OLD RUGGED CROSS-I WILL EVER BE TRUE.

Monday, March 29, 2010

If the truth were known, each of us want to be at a place where the path between God and "us" is clear. There is a tool which I spoke about a year ago and I want to share it with you as our hearts turn toward our Savior at this Season.

Saul was God’s tool to prepare David for the throne. In the book “Tale of Three Kings”, Edwards explains it this way:
1. Saul is in all of our bloodstreams.
2. David would have grown to become King Saul II, if not for God’s intervention.
3. God used an OUTER SAUL to make sure the INNER SAUL did not ruin David.
4. If David had not been broken (by God), the Saul inside him would have survived.

It took me years to recognize the tools that God used to try to mold my life into a life that could be used of God. There are many things that stand in the way of this procedure: PRIDE, ANGER, BITTERNESS, UNFORGIVENESS, MY WILL, MY WAYS, SIN, and I’m sure you can name a few that stand in your way. I finally realized that difficult situations, difficult people, disappointments, and difficult challenges were the tools God would use.

We make the CHOICE of becoming like Saul or like David. Only YOU know where you stand, and only I know where I stand in this choice. If I choose to take David’s way, I must take some steps to get there.

DAVID NEVER SPOKE IN ANGER
HE NEVER LIFTED A HAND AGAINST SAUL
HE HAD LESS NOW THEN WHEN HE WAS A SHEPHERD
HE SANG A LOT
HE PRAYED A LOT
HIS PERSONALITY CHANGED
HE TALKED LESS
HE LOVED GOD MORE
DAVID SAID: “BETTER HE KILL ME, THEN I LEARN HIS WAYS”

Father: Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. Search my heart, teach me and train me in recognizing the “tools” you are using to mold my life. May I go to your Word to find “Your ways” of going through this time in my life. May I be an example and encouragement to others on this journey. In Jesus Name, Amen

Sunday, March 07, 2010

I received the following story from a dear friend and I would like to share it with you for consideration. Pruning in our lives sometimes requires change, clearing away and/or confession.

This weekend I had the privilege of pruning some trees and large plants in my front yard; It has finally gotten warm enough to enjoy being outside again. I have missed being outside because Texas has had a very cold, gray, and longer than usual winter. Anyway, I pruned some out of control, but fantastic rose pushes. You know rose bushes have some mean thorns on them. While I was pruning those fantastic rose bushes I got hurt quite a bit. My clothes got stuck. My gloves got stuck. My hands and arms got pricked.
Then I got to shape some other trees by taking off straggler little branches to clean the trunks and shaping them. I had over 2 trash cans of limbs. I have more pruning to do, but it sure looks better out there.

I am sure you have heard this, but Do you know who prunes you? You may be getting pruned by Our Lord as you read this. Sometimes we are grateful as the pruning relieves pressure; Other times it just plain hurts. After pruning those rose bushes I started thinking about how the Lord feels when he prunes us. It never occurred to me that it would be painful for Him to prune us, but it must be.

Being pruned requires faith that our Lord is doing what is best for us- to strengthen us, grow us, make us more beautiful, more desirable. The United States of America is going through some pruning. We have let prayer be taken out of school, and allowed tolerance of things God would NEVER allow in HIS kingdom. The good part of the pruning is that Christians are realizing that we have a right to speak and a duty to speak and live our values. We have not been abandoned by God. We are seeing our conservative values be recognized again because we have decided that if we don't stand up and protect our rights, it won't happen. This takes faith, because any Christian growing in their walk with God, stands firm with faith, prayer and petitioning our Lord for help.

Beth Moore says,
"Believers who know what they want to believe and refuse to be challenged may have a stand
of faith, but they may not have a walk of faith."

1 Corinthians 5:7
We live by faith, not by sight.

Let me encourage you this week to recognize the challenge to your faith: Walk in faith, stand firm, voice your rights. If you don't understand this verse- to walk by faith not by sight, ask the Holy Spirit for help and understanding. Listen and Look for HIM to speak to you because you asked.










Go to Previous message | Go to Next message | Back to Messages
ASCII (ASCII)Greek (ISO-8859-7)Greek (Windows-1253)Latin-10 (ISO-8859-16)Latin-3 (ISO-8859-3)Latin-6 (ISO-8859-10)Latin-7 (ISO-8859-13)Latin-8 (ISO-8859-14)Latin-9 (ISO-8859-15)W. European (850)W. European (CP858)W. European (HPROMAN8)W. European (MACROMAN8)W. European (Windows-1252)Armenia (ARMSCII-8)Baltic Rim (ISO-8859-4)Baltic Rim (WINDOWS-1257)Cyrillic (866)Cyrillic (ISO-8859-5)Cyrillic (KOI8-R)Cyrillic (KOI8-RU)Cyrillic (KOI8-T)Cyrillic (KOI8-U)Cyrillic (WINDOWS-1251)Latin-2 (852)Latin-2 (ISO-8859-2)Latin-2 (WINDOWS-1250)Turkish (ISO-8859-9)Turkish (WINDOWS-1254)Arabic (ISO-8859-6, ASMO-708)Arabic (WINDOWS-1256)Hebrew (856)Hebrew (862)Hebrew (WINDOWS-1255)Chinese Simplified (GB-2312-80)Chinese Simplified (GB18030)Chinese Simplified (HZ-GB-2312)Chinese Simplified (ISO-2022-CN)Chinese Simplified (WINDOWS-936)Chinese Trad.-Hong Kong (BIG5-HKSCS)Chinese Traditional (BIG5)Chinese Traditional (EUC-TW)Japanese (SHIFT_JIS)Japanese (EUC-JP)Japanese (ISO-2022-JP)Korean (ISO-2022-KR)Korean (EUC-KR)Thai (TIS-620-2533)Thai (WINDOWS-874)Vietnamese (TCVN-5712)Vietnamese (VISCII)Vietnamese (WINDOWS-1258)Unicode (UTF-7)Unicode (UTF-8)Unicode (UTF-16)Unicode (UTF-32)
| Full Headers
Reply Reply All Forward Forward

Mail Search
Reply Reply All Forward Forward
WelcomeInboxNewFoldersMail Options