-
Why Martha chose the Dishes.
If Jesus was sitting in front of you, what would you chose?
Would you choose duty? Would you choose purpose?
I guess it would just be what you have been habitually choosing.
Biblical Ground Work: Luke 10:38-42
Jesus is around the villages teaching, “The Kingdom of Heaven has come,” when He enters the house of Martha. He sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.
Martha comes to Jesus and complains about Mary not helping her do her work but Jesus tells her that she needs to choose something more important – sitting at the feet of Jesus.
Choosing that good part which will not be taken away is why we have been chosen.
Biblical Life Lesson: Consistently choosing Jesus after He chooses you is not as easy as it looks.
We are busy people, more so we think, than back in the day of Jesus. The times actually don’t make a difference – BUSY is BUSY. Your choices have to be made quickly, and if you don’t know what choice to make, Jesus wants you to choose that which will not be taken away.
The Lord’s women in the Bible have a lot to tell us about effective Christian Living. Join me in The Bible Gals Monday’s at 2pm EST for “His Women in Our World” LIVE Discussions. The study of how women can be effective in changing the world by simply choosing to live for Jesus.
-
Speaking the Thoughts of Satan
Has a thought come into your head and out of your mouth before you thought of where it comes from or even if you agree with it?
Join the club…
Our Biblical Ground Work: Job 1:11; Job 2:9
The story of Job is one that a lot of people would refer you to if you are going through a tough time. Job and his wife both voice their sadness. Satan goes after Job with God’s blessing and uses his wife as a tool to get him to curse the Lord.
To be fair, Job’s wife has seen her life go straight into a pit:
- she has lost 10 children and the spouses that I am sure she had grown to love.
- the family fortune disappeared with all it’s creature comforts
- her husband Job has a rather nasty disease and bad breath to boot
Ultimately Job’s reward for “seeing the Lord” (Job 42:5) becomes her reward for remaining with Job during this trying time in their life. He understood the reason for this time and so did his wife.
Our Biblical Life Lesson: Our thoughts do not have to become words.
You will read throughout Job, thought becoming word. You will read throughout the whole of the Bible, thought becoming word.
The Lord says that every one of His words will not come back void and it shall prosper in the thing in which He has sent it (Isaiah 55:11) because His words are righteous (Psalm 119:123). The thoughts of the Lord are for us to live in hope (Jeremiah 29:11).
Satan, on the other hand, is the father of all lies and speaks from his own resources (John 8:44). His main resource is pride (Isaiah 14:12-17) so every word he utters will result in the pride of life being protected. The thoughts of the Devil are for us to die in despair.
Join me in The Bible Gals Monday’s at 2pm EST for “His Women in Our World” Live Discussions.
-
Zeresh: One of Haman’s Herd Followers
Have you ever followed someone because they are popular regardless of how they lead?
Jeresh, Haman’s wife, is a great example of a woman who did just that.
Our Biblical Ground Work: Esther 5:14-10:3
Haman was of the a tribe of people (the Amalekites) who hated the Jews already but Mordecai stirred the hatred pot by not bowing down when Haman became second in command in the kingdom. Haman was told he was a Jew and the digging of his pit begins.
Zeresh comes onto the scene in Esther 5 when Haman needed to brag about all he has and tell of his hatred for Mordecai. The plot to kill the Jews was already hatched but the plot to kill Mordecai came from his wife and friends.
Haman is emboldened by his simple herd of followers to go to the king and ask to hang Mordecai but God is at work outside of Haman and his herd. The king sends Haman on a mission to immortalize Mordecai and his herd followers tell him of his downfall.
Our Biblical Life Lesson: Follow the Leader who creates a loyal follower.
Haman’s self serving actions caused great harm to himself, his family and the people of God. He himself was hung, his sons were hung and the rest of them just hung their heads. The weakness of their follow-ship makes us all shake our heads in shame because we have done this before. We have been followers who pamper our leader.
Simple followers think with the herd and follow the leader with a pampering mentality so as not to cause any opposition. They revere him for his popularity and feed his emotions. They are using him just as much as he is using them. They want what he has but are unwilling to do what he is doing.
Everyone follows leaders regardless of how they feel about being a follower. Following a leader whose intent is to hurt God’s people, whether through oppression or genocide, will cause God’s followers to come out of the woodwork. Esther is one of those followers.
Join me in The Bible Gals Monday’s at 2pm EST for His Women in Our World Live Discussions.
-
How to prepare yourself for Extraordinary Service to God.
Would you like to be used of God for something extraordinary? Huldah, the Prophetess, spent many years growing into her vision from God to prepare for this extraordinary event written in this Book forever.
Biblical Ground Work: 2 Kings 22:14-20; 2 Chronicles 34:22-28
Israel and Judah were under the wrath of God at this moment in time for their worship of false gods. Josiah was the king of Judah and he was known as having a zeal for the Law of God. He sought the word of the Lord multiple times in his reign over Judah.
The Book of the Law was found in Solomon’s temple during its repairs and brought to Josiah. He wanted to know God’s opinion about this find, so he sent the priest to find it. They went straight to Huldah the Prophetess.
How does one prepare for the kind of extraordinary works Huldah was known for?
Biblical Life Lesson: Everything you do, in obedience to God, will get you ready for the extraordinary service you are called to do.
Huldah was known to be a prophetess accustomed to speaking the word of God directly to high priests and royal officials.
- She told kings and nations of their fate.
- She had the authority to determine what was and was not the genuine Law.
- She spoke in a manner of stern command when acting as a prophetess.
No one gains this much respect and honour by sitting in her house ignoring the Law and call of God for her life. Huldah prepared for her extraordinary vision from God to be a prophetess by stepping out, one mundane task at a time, and doing what the Lord tells her to do with diligence.
Join us Monday’s at 2pm EST for a live discussion in The Bible Gals here for the Biblical Power Tools that will help you follow in the steps of Huldah.
-
Who do you think you are, the Queen of Sheba?
Have you ever been asked this before? What was your response? Why did they ask this question of you?
Biblical Groundwork – 1 Kings 10
Solomon is king of Israel and he asks for wisdom to rule God’s people. He gets it all and then some. The queen of Sheba (located in Ethiopia) hears about Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, so she came to test him with hard questions.
Once she was done testing him with all of her hard questions and saw the wisdom in which he operated, she looked at the rest. She saw his house, the food on his table, all the things he had and all the people who served him. She saw how prosperous he and his were, she said it was more than what she had heard.
She tells him how blessed he is and how blessed all of his people are to hear his wisdom all the day long. Then, she blesses the Lord for delighting in Solomon, setting him over Israel because, she says, the Lord has loved Israel forever.
She gave him many more gifts and left to go back to her country but not before Solomon gave her everything she desired. Her and her servants left and were never heard from again.
Our biblical lesson to live life to: Freely ask questions of the wise because that makes you wise.
If you have seen any of my Facebook LIVES you will discover that I am a questions asker. I ask tons of questions to clarify what I already know, and to understand, more clearly, what I don’t know. The queen of Sheba heard something that intrigued her. She wanted to find out if it was true. Turns out what she heard was less than what she saw for herself, and understood to be true.
Our eyes are not good judges of what is happening because there is so many factors involved in every situation. We tend to jump to a hyper focused vision of what is happening, but it is based on our history, and what we tend to look for with the people involved. We look at every situation in that same manner.
This is why you need to know more about Jesus before you go where you think He is leading you. From our larger vision (the mental image of God’s destination for you) from God, he will give us a hyper focused vision to learn more so we can move closer to that larger destination. The Lord will use His hyper focused vision for you to lead you to some personal works for Him.
Join us LIVE in The Bible Gals here Monday 2pm EST to discuss the Biblical Power Tools to give you a more hyper focused vision for Jesus and from Jesus.
For The 2F’s of Christian Living Show click here
Christian living is both frustrating and fascinating (the 2F’s) all at the same time. This show is going to take you from being frustrated about what is happening to you to being fascinated by what you are learning from it in just 4 weeks.
The current topic is Temptation. Who would have known that temptation can actually be fascinating? YOU CAN! Join us every Monday at 11am EST.
-
The Big Cover-Up that Revealed a Warrior Woman
Biblical Background – 2 Samuel 11:1-12:25
Nathan tells a story about a rich man and a poor man. The rich man, who has everything he needs, betrays the poor man who has only one thing. That one thing is the thing the rich man wanted, so he took it. David listened to this story, only to get angry at the rich man, and demand his death.
David creates a cover up that wasn’t hidden from the Lord. He might have been trying to cover it up from humans but he is unable to hide it from the Lord. Nathan was the Lord’s mouth to David to let him know his actions were not covered as well as he had hoped. The consequence will be family strife, and boy, was there ever family strife.
Approximately 20% of women today experience some sort of sexual harassment by a superior, but I expect it was much higher when David was king. David used his influence to do something despicable. Not just one thing, but two. He knew what he should do, and he knew what he should not do. He was a smart man.
He saw Bathsheba attending to her purification and asked for information about her. He knew well in advance who she was, the daughter of a warrior and the wife of one, but that didn’t stop his plan. She was with powerful men all day long and was used to them but was she used to what David was about to do, using his power and influence?
Bathsheba was in a precarious position. Called by the king. Sexually assaulted by the king. Pregnant by the king. Married to one of his mighty warriors. And plenty more that we just don’t know about but we can feel. The knot in her stomach that will not go away. The fear of being blamed for this whole event and being stoned. Can you feel the tension she is feeling?
A messenger has asked for her, on this day, the worst of them all but there was more to come. The knot, is not just a knot anymore, it is a baby. The kings baby. As she stands in front of the messenger numb, he tells her the message for a second time because her heart pounding in her ears has marred her hearing. He is sorry to inform her that her husband, Uriah, has died in battle. Sorrow and relief hit her at the same time.
Our Biblical Life Lesson: We already have the skills we need to become a warrior woman.
Bathsheba must have been born with, and mastered some character traits of the warriors attitude from her father and husband. In spite of what has happened to her from being used for sexual gratification by the king to that child dying. She would raise king Solomon who would build the most beautiful temple, for God, of all time. Obviously her life did not come to a standstill because of these events.
Not only did she raise the wisest king but she has had Psalm 31’s instructions for men, attributed to her.
Do you want to be more confident that Jesus can and will heal your heart so you can become a warrior women?
Join The Bible Gals Sisterhood here to enjoy the easiest pathways to becoming the fulfilled genuine woman of God you are, while going after your vision from God. Your vision from God is closer than you think.
-
Spiritual Strength
I have been going to church for 15 years. There have been times when I have not attended due to circumstances beyond my control but overall I have attended one church or another for that time frame. I have been teaching Bible Studies for at least 10 of those 15 years. I claim my blessing from God, for the great understanding of the Holy Bible, and the great zeal for applying it into my life, even when it hurts.
The application of the Bible is how we can gage our maturity in the words preached to us by the Holy Spirit and by the Book that is meant to teach us maturity. The Holy Bible is a circular book. It gives us information to apply into our life, then, to do it Biblically, we have to go back into the Bible to understand how to apply it. Do we see the people in our church doing it that way? Are our fellow pew warmers and example of that?
Let’s look at what kind of people are sitting in the pews next to us right now. As I see it there are three: those who love Jesus but don’t know Him, those who know Jesus but don’t love Him and those who love Jesus and know Him.
Those who love Jesus but don’t know Him are those who are sitting beside you because their mom sat beside you. They love Jesus because their mom loved Jesus. They love Him because people told them loving stories about Him. They may have seen His work or heard about His work in the lives of others but they know it not in their own life because they know Him not. It’s sad but very common. Is this you?
Or maybe this is you. Those who do not love Jesus but know Him are also sitting beside us in the pews. They are the ones who know Jesus but do not believe who He is. They have also been in the church for a long time based on their knowledge of Jesus. But the more they know Him the more they hate Him. Their hatred is not something they keep to themselves, they want us to hate Jesus too. They are the false prophets among us. They love Him not.
And then there are the people who love Jesus and know Jesus. These are the ones sitting beside you who worship Jesus with all their being. They want to know Jesus and they want to love Him more. They are addicted to the way they feel about Jesus. They have the spiritual strength we envy.
Guess what. You don’t have to envy it, you can have it too. You can know those who love Jesus for no reason of their own and those who hate Jesus because their knowledge is not perfected about Him. It is all about your knowledge.
We know that it takes time to learn. Knowledge lingering around in our heads without pondering its importance to our life causes our knowledge to be incomplete. No mystery is solved, no problem worked out, no advanced knowledge gained, no spiritual growth resulting in no spiritual strength.
A Christian without spiritual strength is a weak Christian. Someone who is swayed by a false prophet into hating Jesus. Someone who is lulled into thinking, the Jesus they love, is their Jesus and not their parents. We got out of the mud with our spiritual strength would it be a good thing to land back in there again. It would be tragic to say the very least.
Spiritual strength comes from loving Jesus and knowing Him or vise versa knowing Jesus and loving Him. Any other way will not give us the strength we need because we will not even know we have it. Do a search this week on strength in the Bible. Learn about the strength we have in us as a result of the Holy Spirit bringing it with Him. Then believe it so you can use it to ward off deception.
-
The mud
One of the questions I spent my life trying to answer was, why am I here? I felt so insignificant. It wasn’t just the family I was brought up in, but also the way I was living my life, too. I knew when I became an adult I was no long able to blame my family for my inactivity in my own life. Because I was not an active participant in my own life, I was buried in the lives of others, my friends, then my man and then my kids.
What I did not know, until I knew Jesus, was although I was wallowing in the mud, I am not an ameba in the mud. My life has purpose just as your life has purpose, otherwise we would not ask the question. We are here at this time in history for a reason despite what the evolutionist believes. Do not believe that we are the result of a destructive explosion the actually created life in some million year old mud puddle. We are not meant to dwell in the mud while waiting for death. We are meant to see and know the purpose of our life and move toward it.
I am pondering the future therefore I must ponder the past. I ponder it with amusement and amazement. I laugh at how invisible I thought I was and how invisible I must be in the future. My purpose has brought me full circle in my thinking. I believed that I was invisible in the past and it hurt me, but I know that I must be invisible in the future to glorify Christ which excites me. My past was painful, but my future is hopeful. How does one reconcile this phenomenon?
This very morning it came to me. In the past I was invisible because I was in mud. I believed that you looked at me, but you did not see me because of the mud (life’s mistakes, worldly views of beauty, you know that MUCK) I was covered in. I was sinking quick in this mud and had no way of pulling myself out. I knew one thing though, you could not pull me out because you were human too. At one point in my life I would love for you to join me in the mud but time in the mud made me empathetic toward everyone in the mud.
I needed spiritual strength to get out of the mud, eternal strength. Earthly strength was not going to do it, it couldn’t. Eternal strength was the power I needed to understand what chosen invisibility should look like. The eternal strength I have is Jesus. I am in Him (I am invisible) and He is the strength I need to do anything He has anointed me to do. I become invisible because I want you to see Him. My purpose was given to me by Him to glorify Him. When He is glorified, souls are saved. The most important part of being a Christian.
If you are in the mud today, know that you must come out. You are not meant to wallow in the mud but be invisible while you learn from your anointing. My time and effort as a Christian is to show you the way out. I am annointed to do that therefore I too learn from my anointing. That is why I live. Jesus will be found, and He will be glorified whether you follow His purpose or not BUT what wonders you will behold if you do. COME OUT OF THE MUD.
-
New Nanosecond, New Me
Have you heard the saying, new year new you? My son, Alex, said it the other day while referring to one of his friends. As I was reading the Bible this morning, in Hebrews, my mind was going nuts about the new information I was understanding. I am also reading another book called The Subtle Art of not giving a [bleep] by Mark Manson. This book is also adding new understanding to my repertoire. I will never get tired of knowing something new. I will never get tired of caring for the new me.
The most fascinating thing about “new” is that it replaces”old”. Don’t miss this. It REPLACES the old. Old is boring and [don’t mind my lack of diction] OLD. It is stale and unproductive. No matter what you believe, it is not right, it is wrong. I know you are thinking, “Hey, I like the old! It’s comfortable. It’s sustainable. It works for me. It’s EASY.” Well, despite you’re comfort level in the old, every nanosecond you are becoming new. Every nanosecond the world is becoming new and you are staying old.
Since I became a Christian, the Lord has been changing me. Sometimes, to be nakedly honest, I hated it. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord in February of 2003. In 2019, it will be 16 years of change, more change, and even more change. It has been filled with sorrow, pain and trials giving birth to this new me. Using the world’s standards, I see this new me as a failure. I have done nothing significant. I spend a significant amount of time changing my mind. From the outside [since no one can see my mind, except Jesus] it looks, to me and to you, as if I have done nothing and as a result gone nowhere. I fight the battle of the “failed life” every day. I spend a lot of time thinking about who I am NOT.
2019 will be my naked “who I am” year. I am throwing off the old black outfit. Don’t get me wrong, I have been nakedly honest all my life, but only about my negative experiences. I do not mind getting naked about my failures, but my successes are a whole new outfit. I care about my failures because they lead me straight into my success, but they are old, moth eaten and not a flattering colour for me. Every nanosecond I am made new by Jesus. Every nanosecond His mercy covers me. He created me to be clothed in white, but I am continually dressing myself in black. I am going to be a success, throwing off the black this year, and clothing myself every nanosecond in white.
I will remember the black pile of clothing on the floor behind me but will look upon the white I wear. I want you to see the white also, knowing that it came from stripping off the black, thread by thread. I break Jesus’ heart every time I sew black threads through my white garments. How am I going to combat this habitual sewing of blackness? I think I will end the day with a “Note to Self” answering the question, “What have you been successful doing today?” Since I hate not knowing the answer to any question, I will be sure to provide myself with an answer.
Happy New Year everyone. What were you successful doing today?
Kathleen is a Christian who has been improving her life skills since her life with Jesus began. In her own revolutionary style, she is using this knowledge to teach and to write novels that teach.
Happy is she, preparing for 2019. She is beginning the Hope Devoted Women’s Ministry this year to serve the women of Essex county with what she has learned from Jesus about living the abundant life through improving her own life skills. Her first book in the “Crown for Life” series entitled The White Picket Fence, Crown for Life Pursues Biblical Boundaries has been published and she is writing her second book The Path to Somewheresville, Crown for Life Pursues Biblical Planning in LaSalle, Ontario, Canada.
Kathleen has raised four children and is now spending time loving on her grandchildren. Each day she learns something new about Jesus and her relationships with her family and friends. She has a full life and is proud to be called a child of God.
-
Come Down
It is my goal alone to help you handle life better. Life can, and will, bring us to a breaking point. People will shatter your expectations of them and they will go beyond your expectations. In my personal Bible reading time today I came across a set of verses that knocked me to the grounded again.
I have been playing with who I am and what God wants me to do. I have deemed myself ineffective, unworthy and unequipped to perform my duties. I have tried to redefine myself multiple times, without success, because I am who He created me to be, regardless of how I feel. I must say, “He is so wonderful to allow me time to play and to learn.” I adore Him more for it.
In my wandering, I came to a see-through mountain that I could not climb, nor could I traverse it. I had to simple stand in front of it and look at what everyone else was doing on the other side. It made me sorrowful to have to watch others serve Jesus while I wait. It made me jealous to see women leading women while I learn. It made me want to prove I am capable, but am I?
Today, I discerned, that I am not. I still have much to learn about serving Jesus. Take a look at the verses that made me come down off my pedestal. Read with me 2 Corinthians 6:3-10. These verses scream from the other side of that mountain; invisibility. I have spent my whole life trying to prove myself, to many people. People who don’t know me at all, to people who have access but chose not to know me. I even get wrapped up in proving myself to me. I must continue learning, there is no one who knows me better than Jesus does. He consistently proves that to me.
There is no one who knows you better than Jesus either. The offense we feel when someone, who doesn’t know us and who doesn’t care to know us, causes us harm, belongs within these verses. No matter what our feelings, we are to give no offense, so our ministry is not blamed. I am still working this out. I need to learn “confident invisibility” knowing, that I am known by Jesus.
My ministry is to show you everything God has taught me, from the Bible, through my own tribulations, needs, distresses, imprisonments, tumults, labours and sleepless nights using patience, purity, knowledge, kindness, the Holy Spirit and sincere love. I stood before a Holy mountain therefore I removed my shoes. While my shoes are off, I will learn and when He makes my feet ready to spread the good news, I will be ready to go.
My story, is the story that will prove to you, that our God is the God of hope (Romans 15:13). He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). He shows us what perfect love looks like because He loves us perfectly (1 John 4:18). He calls us to love each other deeply, because that kind of love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).
I cannot tell you enough how getting through the hard times with Jesus, will help you reap the rewards in this life. I already have the hope of heaven instilled in me. Steadfastly remaining in the hope on earth is where I faulter. 2019 will be the year I learn to sustain hope on earth by using 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 as my guide.
I invite you to join me in the pursuit of hope on earth. There is nothing that can happen to me on this earth that will change my hope in heaven. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour. He will always be my Lord and I will always be His bondservant. Let me help you, in 2019, make this claim as well. Together, we can come down from our pedestals, and raise Jesus up instead.
