Month: May 2024

Run Your Race in Your Lane

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www.bible.com/reading-plans/9114/day/6

We have such a competitive spirit in our nation. We want to be the best at all that we do, and we are so busy striving for that number one position that we forget that one of our purposes is to encourage others. Instead, we have a tendency to tear others down and make them feel small so we can feel bigger. I like the concept that we are in a race, as described in the Bible. I also like that we each have lanes to be in and we are running an individual race, not a competition. We are all supposed to keep our eyes on Jesus, not on each other, especially the shortcomings of others. When we feel as though we just have to say something negative, we need to remember that the person to whom we are speaking those words is a special creation of God, He made them and He is working on them in their race just as He works on us in ours. Running life’s race can be challenging, so let’s offer each other a hand up instead of stomping our foot down on others. We are not here to compare ourselves to others and rejoice when we think we are better. We are here to help each other along the way and our only model of comparison is Jesus, our Lord.

Our Story Is Still Being Written

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www.bible.com/reading-plans/9114/day/5

My big takeaway from the devotional today is that God is not finished with me until I draw my last breath here on earth. He is still writing my story, and it will have a happy ending. Each day is a new page in the book of my life and I want the new pages to be filled with gratitude and experiences that glorify God. It doesn’t matter what others say about you or what happened in the past; each day is a new day to make a difference in your world for Him. I am not who the world says I am or even who they think I am. I am exactly who my Heavenly Father created me to be. Like the rest of His creation, I am convinced that God looked at me and said, “It is good.” All that He does is good and created for a purpose, and I am happy to report that I continue to have a reason to live and to serve God every day as He writes new pages in my story.

Jochabed and Moses

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www.bible.com/reading-plans/9114/day/4

Not only did Jochabed come up with a plan to save Moses from the evil intentions of the king, but she also got the opportunity to be his nurse for Pharoah’s daughter. I know that when I was feeding my infants, I did talk to them, pray for them and dream dreams with them of what their future would be like. It’s hard not to imagine that Jochabed did likewise, especially knowing that her time with her son was limited and would end when he was weaned. It’s amazing to me that Moses was put into the water, saved from the water by Pharoah’s daughter and then ended up leading the entire Israelite nation across water that God parted. What a big part that water played in his life! But his mother who had the God-inspired idea to save his life played the biggest role of all. Without Jochabed, there would have been no Moses, or at least not the one we know about from the Scriptures.

God uses His people to work out His plan but we have to be listening in order to hear what He is telling us to do. In our busy lives, we need to set aside time to just listen and be aware that God has a plan–for the world and for us individually, too. Sometimes we go with the plan and sometimes we fight it, but whatever we do, God still has a plan and we need to trust Him.

God Redeems

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www.bible.com/reading-plans/9114/day/3

As a child, I constantly felt rejected, by my mother and my friends. I felt rejected by my mother because she really didn’t like me and told me so constantly. She verbalized how ugly I was and how I needed to study hard because no man would ever be able to love me. I was rejected by my friends because I couldn’t run and play as they did, and they were not happy to just sit and play board games or jacks with me inside. So, in my loneliness, I turned to books. It sounds silly now, but I often went into what we called the “big bathroom” because it was the main bathroom with a tub and a shower, and I would sit on the toilet with a book and while silent tears rolled down my cheeks and sing “Jesus Loves Me.” A sweet and caring neighbor invited me to Sunday school and church and I had learned that song and its truth. I was probably around twelve years old when this was happening, so I really feel foolish now as I write these words, but that song gave me comfort for many years, long before I knew Jesus as my Savior.

I am absolutely amazed that Leah, the rejected one, is in the lineage of our Savior because she is the wife who gave birth to Judah. Jacob preferred Rachel, but God showed favor to Leah and seemed to make up to her the fact that Jacob obviously preferred Rachel. Judah’s name indicates that Leah had accepted Jacob’s rejection and was clinging to a relationship with God.

We have all been rejected in some way at some time by someone. We each have to come to the place where we realize we have been redeemed by a Savior who is bigger, better, more powerful and more loving than we could possibly ever imagine. I am who I am today because of some of the traumas of my childhood, but also mostly because God has redeemed me and given me a husband, children and grandchildren who accept and love me just the way I am. That’s the love that God has for me, too, a love that is hard to understand but so wonderful to know!

Making Choices

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www.bible.com/reading-plans/9114/day/2

Sometimes when I am praying for God to give me wisdom about a decision I have to make, I get impatient and instead of waiting for His answer, I knock down the door that I want to have opened for me. It doesn’t usually turn out well for me when I do that because I got ahead of God. That might have been the place He wanted me to be, but not the right time. I am thankful that God is faithful to help me make choices. Rebekah had a difficult choice, to leave her home and all that was familiar and to go to a strange land and marry a man whom she had never met. She was willing to go and became the wife to Isaac, Abraham’s son, and the father of the nation Israel. God must have been working in her heart and life for this to happen because I cannot imagine making the choice she did. Abraham’s servant had prayed a specific prayer for guidance and God answered Him with a specific answer. When I am floundering to make a wise choice, I pray that I will have the boldness to pray and the wisdom to then listen and accept His answer, even if it isn’t one that I want to hear.

Influence

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www.bible.com/reading-plans/9114/day/1

We are easily influenced by others, so we need to make sure that those whom we allow to influence us are following God as their source. In like manner, we can be influencers. As a book reviewer, one of the titles that the authors give us is “influencer.” We can persuade others to read a certain book because we recommend it. More importantly, we can influence others to follow the Lord because we are good examples of His working in our lives. Influence can be good or bad. Let’s strive to be good influencers in an evil world and to watch out for bad influencers in our lives!

Remaining Steadfast

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www.bible.com/reading-plans/44512/day/5

God doesn’t move or change and he is unshakeable. Good to know in a world that is constantly shifting its values and the people it esteems. God is the One who is always there, always steadying me and helping me to get through life’s surprises. Curve ball after curve ball has been thrown at me this last year, but each time, God is the catcher and has not allowed the unexpected pitches to throw me. I may have been down for a while, but I was never out of the game of life because God has been there for me. In a sea of whitewater everywhere, He has been my anchor and the person in my boat who calms me. The sea may be rolling all around me, threatening to tip my boat, but the Lord calms me so that I see Him and trust in Him instead of fearing the power of the overwhelming waves. I hope that you let God be your steady anchor in the storms of life. If you aren’t in a storm right now, then praise God for the calm, but be ready to face the storms when they come by choosing to trust the Lord no matter what comes your way.

Resist Sin and Pursue Obedience

On By vickleaIn Scripture2 Comments

www.bible.com/reading-plans/44512/day/4

What does resisting sin look like? To me, it means not putting myself into situations when I am tempted to sin. If I have a choice, I prefer not to get into the situation to begin with. But if I find myself in the middle of temptation, I know that for me resistance means to call on God for the strength to make the wise choices, even when they are not the popular ones. I have had many occasions to read books that are secular and do not represent my values. For a long time, I accepted the invitations because the author was one who was popular and I wanted to read the book. But once I started reading the woke garbage that was included in these books, I decided to walk away and not review them. Now, I am turning down more opportunities to read the popular books in favor of reading for the Christian publishing houses like Revell, Tyndale and Bethany House. One of the things that influenced my decision was the fact that I know if my eyes are seeing the page and my mind is taking in those words, the Spirit within me is also seeing them. Sometimes, it’s not the words that are so bad but the actions of the characters and the fact that they are doing things that mock God and His word. I really got bothered by the plots, the characters and sometimes the language, so I put them away. I am a voracious reader, but I don’t want to be tempted to sin by reading things that are unwholesome. A few years ago, maybe as many as five or ten, I could read the secular books and there wasn’t offensive material in them. Now, it seems that every secular author has to include a gay couple or a transgender person or something that indicates that they are going along with the culture of today. Since I am not, those books make me uncomfortable so I cannot enjoy them.

Instead of just resisting sin, I am also trying to pursue obedience. As a child, there wasn’t a lot that I could do to make my mother happy with me, but I surely tried. I did all that she asked of me and more, but she still found fault with my actions. According to my mom, I never measured up. As a new Christian, I thought God was like that…nothing I did was going to be good enough, but I tried to please Him anyway. After several years of waiting anxiously for the hammer to fall and for God to roar that He was displeased with me, I had a pastor tell me that there is nothing I can do to make God love me any less. He created me because He loved me before He even knew me. Revelation! Unlike my mom, God was pleased that I existed, whether I did things exactly right or not. That was a freeing moment for me, and since then, I have tried hard to obey God, not because of His wrath that might come but because of His unfailing love that is always there. I trust in His love and goodness and acceptance of me, and that has made a big difference in my life.

Resisting and pursuing go hand in hand. Is there something that you have to constantly resist? God is there to help you and to give you the wisdom to keep yourself pure and holy before Him.

Review of JUSTICE DELAYED by Sarah Hamaker

On By vickleaIn Book Review1 Comment

ABOUT THE BOOK

Publisher:Sarah Hamaker

Publication date:05/15/2024

Series:The Seeking Justice Series

My Thoughts

Melender Harman has had a rough life, with her grandmother who was taking care of her dying and then having to move to live with her Aunt Ruby and Uncle Quentin. She knew from the beginning that she wasn’t welcome in their home, but she had no other options so tried to make the best of a bad situation. When her baby cousin Jesse disappears, Melender is accused of kidnapping and killing him and her nightmarish life gets worse. Melender spends seventeen years in prison for the crime and now she has returned to town and is determined to discover what actually happened to baby Jesse because she knows that she did not harm him. Enlisting the support of reporter Brogan Gilmore, a man who is more than a little leery about her claims of innocence, Melender sets out to methodically discover the truth. This book is a fast-paced quest for truth and justice, with a lot of suspects along the way who threaten both Brogan and Melender. In addition to being a great suspense novel, it is also one with a heartfelt foundation of faith as Melender depends on the faith she learned from her grandmother Sudie to get her through her stint in prison and now through all the suspicion that she is facing in the town that she has returned to. The characters are dynamic and if they are not all lovable, they are all totally believable. My favorite character was Brogan, a man not afraid to champion the underdog. I did not like Melender’s cousins Jared at all, a smarmy druggie who not only doesn’t tell the truth, he doesn’t see any reason to do so. This book made it easy to pick favorite characters and those who were immediate suspects although I had to wait for the intricate threads to reveal what really happened and why. Masterfully crafted and totally mesmerizing, this is a story that would lend itself to a good book for a group discussion and it is definitely a thought-provoking novel with a theme of forgiveness and a forward look to the future.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16th CFR, Part 255, “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

This is Christian fiction and includes intense suspense. Rated PG.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarah Hamaker has been spinning stories since she was a child. While she’s had two traditionally published nonfiction books (Hired@Home and Ending Sibling Rivalry), her heart is writing romantic suspense. You can find a list of her books, listen to her podcast, “The Romantic Side of Suspense,” and connect with Sarah at sarahhamakerfiction.com.

Purchase Links:

• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Justice-Delayed-Seeking-Book-ebook/dp/B0D2VPS8YF/

• Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/justice-delayed-sarah-hamaker/1145518920?ean=2940179840572

• Apple books: https://books.apple.com/gb/book/justice-delayed/id6499559247

• Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/justice-delayed-8

Unity in the Body of Christ

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App2 Comments

www.bible.com/reading-plans/44512/day/2

I am so thankful for our church and all of the kind and loving people I have met there. It is a big church, with three services and over 1000 people attending each Sunday. Even so, I have met some awesome Christians there, through Sunday school, through just introducing myself to those around me and through our small group Bible study on Monday nights. In fact, when I was out sick for three weeks, someone from the group contacted me every other day just to see if Harry and I needed anything and how I was doing. I rejoiced when I got to return this past Sunday and I even went to Bible study last night. I was greeted with hugs and genuine joy that I was back and better. It’s good to have a support group, and when you know that each member of your group knows you and misses you when you aren’t there, that means everything.

Unity in the body is important because I think it’s the way we show others that we are different. We don’t just ask “How are you” and then not listen to the answer. We genuinely care because when one is missing, we feel the pain of their absence. God’s desire for each of us is to live in unity so that the world can see that people can get along and love each other without taking advantage of each other or expecting anything in return for kindness. In a world where everyone seems to be using the shoulders of others to boost themselves up, we are united in holding each other up, bearing each other’s burdens and fulfilling God’s law of loving each other first. Real unity can become a reality, even in a big church, if you just make sure you are an active participant and get to know others within a smaller group. God is good and He knows the best thing for us is to get together with other believers and discuss what is happening in our lives as we study His Word.