Think of someone who “says all the right things” but lives a very different life behind closed doors. We all know or know of someone like that. Or maybe more than one "someone's".
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n other words, extra notes are added to make the music feel fuller and more beautiful. Classical music is especially known for these “grace notes.” Some might hear them and think they’re mistakes — extra notes played before the “right” one. But they are not mistakes. They are planned, perfected, and placed at just the right time.
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Don’t let whatever you are holding on to take away your peace, your health, your friendships, your victory and take you farther away from the Father.
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In May of 2021 my husband, Jesse, was very sick and eventually was hospitalized. After many tears, much prayer and fasting, God’s will was for Jesse was to leave this world and enter Heaven on June 1, 2021. As the days went on after Jesse’s death I found myself getting angry with God because things did not go the way that I wanted.
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Have you ever bitten into a lemon expecting something sweet? The sour shock wakes up your taste buds! Lemons can be intense, but they are also refreshing, and full of nutrients.
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Recently, I was reminded of Philippians 4:8...again. It's not like I don't know what I'm supposed to think about and avoid thinking about, but here we are...again. I have a very active imagination and often find myself imagining in great detail negative scenarios that COULD become reality but have not.
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As a young girl I loved sour things. Rhubarb, green apples, dill pickles, gooseberries, black raspberries and cherries, but I especially loved to eat lemons. My parents had a fit claiming that I would get sick or get a belly ache from all of those sour things. Eating them in abundance never seemed to bother me, and no doubt they were more nutritious than the typical diet of today.
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Have you ever been disappointed when you volunteered for an event or production, and you imagined yourself playing a significant role, only to find out that you were assigned to help clean the toilets and take out the trash? It is so easy to build imaginations and expectations of how our lives will be, and the type of role we will play. Often, those thoughts include God using our lives in ways we view as important and valued by others in our circles.
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Obeying means doing what someone says. It’s about actions.
We teach kids to obey quickly, completely, and with a good attitude. But the focus is on the doing.
You can obey without honoring.
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One of the biggest reasons we miss His plan is simple: we move without prayer. Proverbs 3:5-6 urges us, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” But how often have we rushed into jobs, relationships,
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As we were traveling back from a Youth Conference in Tennessee, I looked out my window and saw a sign posted on a tree that said, “Don’t forget Jesus.” When I saw that sign, I thought to myself how many times do I forget about Jesus. Jeremiah 2:32 says, “Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?
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All around us is indecency, vulgarity, murder of innocent children, unrighteous living, etc. Jochebed must have faced some of the same issues that we are faced with. It is hard to imagine, but things will become even more corrupt before the Lord returns. Will we obey God, or man?
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“Make lemonade!” That’s cute… And a great go to saying.. but what if God doesn’t want lemonade? What if He wants lemon meringue pie?
Life isn’t always sweet. Sometimes it’s sour. And confusing.
As teens, you are constantly being asked:
“What’s your plan?”
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I have an old pair of walking shoes... That I REFUSE to get rid of.... Ladies, they may not be fancy, but they’ve walked through storms, climbed mountains, and made it this far. That’s the kind of faith walk I want.
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Have you ever planned to talk to someone and in your mind, you plan out how the whole conversation is going to go? I’m going to say this and then they’re going to say that, and then I’ll come back with the other thing and on it goes. Then you get into the conversation and the other person goes completely off-script and you can’t understand what happened! That was not the way it was supposed to go! The conversation didn’t meet your expectations.
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These people wore masks only when specifically asked to, didn’t pay any attention to the arrows in the grocery isles, hugged their friends and family without second thought, and will only get the vaccine over their dead bodies. They watched “other” news outlets, read “other” articles, and watched “other” videos that exposed the apparent lies and mis-information the mainstream media was spreading. They were miserable being in quarantine and believed they were having their constitutional rights ripped away from them quicker than anyone could ever imagine.
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Have you ever been overwhelmed? I think there are times we can all think of when life has seemed a little (or very) overwhelming. I can think of a few instances in my life where that has been the case. We’ve had hard ministry days, we’ve gone through unexpected moves
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WE are called to love as Christ loves, and this often means stepping outside our comfort zones. Luke 6:32 reminds us: “For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.” The true test of our faith is how we love those who may not love us back, who may challenge our patience, or who may even wrong us or may have already wronged us.
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I can’t even imagine how God feels about our normal. I imagine tears in His eyes and a broken heart when I think of Him seeing how we live. Sadly, we give God so little when He has given us so much!
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Did you sing this song yesterday? I am sure that you, like me, are still rejoicing in His resurrection following yesterday’s services, congregational singing, special music, and all the emphasis that was given to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. It is, after all, what the Gospel is all about!
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