Early, Late or On-Time ~~ Three
“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven:” ~~ Ecclesiates 3:11God is never early and never late. He is always on time.Almost daily we write these Victory Calls to encourage you to live in visible victory before the face of God. We never, ever do that from a place of “arrival”. After all, we’re all in the process of change. The day we arrive is the day we leave our earth suits behind and arrive in Heaven, worshipping at the feet of Jesus.And, as we are in it together, we seek to share with you the variety of ways God by His Spirit challenges us to continue to grow in grace and truth according to who HE is and not according to any standard of living we might erect in our own lives.So, if you are a “time optimist,” seek God for how change needs to take place in your life. If you’re a “time pessimist,” seek God for how change needs to take place in your life. Which ever distinction you have, be it a “TO” or a “TP,” keep in mind that a prideful heart does not image the character of Christ in you. There is no honor in being set apart as someone who is always late and neither is there any honor in being a person who is prideful because they are never late.I’m almost fifty years old and, for me, it’s time to make a change. The primary reason I’m writing about the topic of lateness is I am no longer content with the same-old-same-old. God has not been silent all these years and a number of things have occurred that require me to wake up and pay attention. In addition, being late adds a level of stress to my life that I would like to eradicate. As I wrote earlier this month, the Word in me is prompting me to move forward in certain areas of my life, and in order to do that I have to pay attention to time. All of us are aware that time is passing quickly. What I used to accomplish in a day, now takes a day and a half because my pace is not as it once was.So, my faithful Father, through His Spirit, is instructing me in very real and tangible ways in how I can redeem the time. In a word, “FINISH.” This one word has had a significant impact on my life. I’ll share a little bit more on that tomorrow.”To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven:”(1)Stephanie

Early, Late or On-Time ~~ Two Okay, so what does the culture we live in have to say in answer to yesterday’s question, “why are some people always on time or early and others always late? Does it really matter?”Here are a few things that I discovered about the different ways people conceptualize time:1. One person described the chronically late as “Time Optimist.” I could immediately relate, because the time optimist will always plan to do in 5 minutes what it takes 20 minutes to do. Go figure that one! (1)2. Some “Time Optimists” don’t want to miss out on anything and are absolutely convinced they can somehow be here and there at the same time. “They always leave all their options open and squeeze the maximum out of living fully in the moment every minute they’ve got, THEN make the mad dash to arrive just in time” (2) (Which usually means they’re a little bit late). :)3. “It’s easy to conclude that the chronically late don’t value other people’s time as much as their own; however, it’s the opposite that’s actually a lot closer to the truth. (Or just as true). It’s their OWN time they don’t value…Being late always starts every meeting, or appointment off on the wrong foot. The late person begins with a handicap, and thus presents themselves as less than who they are. Backpedaling and apologies ensue, or they try and justify or defend their lateness. Shame, ineffectiveness, resentment etc. etc…”(3)4. Opposite of the “Time Optimist” is the “Time Pessimist” She is always on time because she assumes it will always take her longer to do what she has to do than it actually does. They never underestimate the amount of time it takes to do something because they figure it will take longer. They often value their time and the time of others to the extent that they are often early arrivers.I don’t want to linger here too long because I have bigger eggs to fry and I think you get the point, so I’ll move on. What’s the bottom line here? With the big picture in view, does being on time really matter? I absolutely think it does! The Lord established time and everything in time has a season, a place to be, to grow, etc. And there is an order to all of it. Nothing God does or did happened randomly, or accidentally. God has no “oops!” or “I forgot” or “Sorry I’m late, I got stuck in traffic moments.” There is purpose and meaning to everything we do and all the choices that we make. Until tomorrow…Stephanie Paul serves on our Addiction Recovery Ministry Team

1 http://thesocialage.com/blog/2008/01/16/why-are-some-people-always-late/2 http://www.steveshapiro.com/2007/04/03/how-to-always-be-on-time/3 http://thesocialage.com/blog/2008/01/16/why-are-some-people-always-late/

Early, Late or On-Time ~~ One,For me to write about the topic of time in any capacity is almost funny because, according to the people who are closest to me, I have no concept it. I wish I could say this is a new thing but…. For longer than I care to remember, I’ve always been running late or just barely on time. In fact, I was even born late at a whopping 9 pounds. Making it anywhere early is just not the norm.My husband says I try to pack more into a space of time than there is time for. My mom has always said, “I dance to the beat of a different drummer”…and keeping time hasn’t been a beat I ever learned to play well.Recently I was speaking with someone who shares this ‘late trait’ and it was really interesting to hear their logic about being early -interesting not because it was odd or strange, but because it actually made sense. In a nutshell, he saw arriving early as wasted time, because the time could be spent doing something, rather than waiting around for whatever.Another friend is also like me and has been for most of her years as well. I would never have guessed her to be so, because she’s so meticulously efficeint about everything. And herein is the crux of why I’m writing on this topic. The assumptions and judgements we make about people related to this one aspect of their personality or character. One way or another we all have judgements, and as a late arriver I know that most of those judgements about me or any other late arriver are not positive. What is often felt in the communication is there must be a lack in my character somewhere. Maybe.If I lined up all the people that I know and divided them up according to how they are prone to arrive anywhere they go in life, my guess is the line could be pretty evenly divided. But for the people closest to me the line would be much longer on the side of early and on-time, and most certainly, never, ever, ever late. These are the people you start to call and check on if they don’t show up where they’re supposed to be, because it simply isn’t in their character to be late. People don’t call me if I’m late because…well, they just don’t.So, here I am today, asking the question, “why are some people always on time or early and others always late…and does it really matter?” I used to jokingly say that I was always late simply because I was born late. The doctors had to induce labor in my mother to get me to come into the world. (I’m sure there is a psycholgy that someone could develop around that.:))Anyway, just because I am who I am, I had to google the question and I discovered some thoughts on this topic which I will share with you tommorow.But for today I leave you with this reminder, keep the main thing, the main thing. Jesus!”Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” Matthew 25:13Stephanie

To Change or to be changed: That is the question”…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12, 13)
Most of us have talked to people who are struggling in a particular area who tell us, “I’m working on that.” What that typically means is, “I’m still waiting for God to change me.”

If we were honest, we would have to admit we have areas in our lives that still need work. For some of us we can readily name major areas in which we desire change. For others, those areas are more subtle and difficult to identity. However, since our transformation into the image of Jesus Christ will not be complete until we see Him face to face, we know change is still necessary.

Many of us recognize the need for change in our lives and even pray fervently but to no avail. Why is that? Why isn’t God changing us in the dramatic ways we desire? Could it be that we are waiting for God to zap us with change so the new behavior or attitude won’t be so difficult? We want to BE changed, rather than to change.

The former is something done to us, the later is something we do.Who wouldn’t want to wake up one morning changed? Why doesn’t it work that way? God is doing a work in us through the process of change that would not be accomplished through instant change.

We are more interested in the end result while God is more interested in the process. Without our commitment and effort combined with the power of the Holy Spirit, change is unlikely.How do we do our part? We make one righteous choice at a time, until we have accumulated numerous righteous choices to have formed a new righteous habit. We are changed one victory at a time.Ephesians 4:22-24, “…that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” Diane Hunt is Director of Addiction Recovery Ministries at America’s KESWICK

Change Two

Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” ~~Nehemiah 8:10

Yesterday I began to write about change for the purpose of encouraging you to see the change or changes you may be going through as necessary and good. In order for us to grow and really change, we have to always keep the main thing in view, and the main thing is Jesus.

So, the main thing I want to leave you with is not so much the change itself, but the reason for the change. Simply put, change is taking place because of THE WORD itself and Himself.”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” ~~John 1:1-3
“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” ~~Hebrews 4:12

It is the sharpness, the exactness of the Word that woos us, calls us and therefore makes real change possible. So many of us are tired of wandering in the desert of the same old, same old. So, let’s choose today to lay aside every false way and get the understanding of His way that will lead us into and through changes toward transforming change on this side of heaven.

“Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgments.” ~~Psalm 119:104-106Selah…Stephanie Paul serves on our women’s addiction recovery ministry staff.

1 www.biblegateway.com2 www.biblegateway.com3 www.biblegateway.com4 www.biblegateway.com

Change One

Years ago my kids and I went to the Philadelphia Zoo where we learned a little rhyme during one of the shows the zoo schedules for its many visitors. The rhyme went like this:”Metamorphos is What it means is this. Animals go through different stages. It keeps changing as it ages.”Metamorphosis defined means, “A change in the form or function of a living organism, by a natural process of growth or development.”(1)

We are all in “form and function” living. So, we are all, therefore, in the natural process of “growth and development.”I know we are not animals, nor do any of us morph into being as the butterfly does. However, whether we want to or not, whether we like it or not, change is going to take place in our lives. And it doesn’t matter one bit if we bury our heads in the sand – trying not to see it- or resist it kicking and screaming. Change is going to happen. Change IS happening!!

All around us life is changing. Things happening in the world are having a huge impact on our lives and in the lives of practically everyone that we know – among them, the price of gas. Ouch!! The process of change can often be difficult…sometimes painful. Yet, Christ in us, the hope of glory, enables us to do the next thing, to stay the course, to FINISH!

With full confidence, I can tell you this because I am and have been in a process of specific change, and while no part of it is easy, I am learning, even more, to trust His heart and His hand.Many decisions are being made within my soul (prompted by the Spirit) which, though painful, are helping me metamorph from one stage of development or maturity to another. And IT’S ALL GOOD!

The Lord’s joy has been and IS my strength. This strength, with which He infuses me (us), frees us to do life, even when we are tempted to run, hoard or hide. We must remember, always and forever, God is sovereign and He, the Holy One of Israel, is our strength!” Then he said to them, ‘Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.'” ~~Nehemiah 8:10 Stephanie Paul serves on the team of our Women’s Addiction Recovery Program

1www.brainyquote.com/words/me/metamorphasis/189613.html 2 www.biblegateway.com

How quickly we forget

King Nebuchadnezzar summoned the wise men in his kingdom to reveal his troubling dream to him that gave him a fitful night.(1) Unwilling to reveal the dream, he insisted the wise men tell him what the dream was so he knew he could trust their interpretation of the dream.(2) None of those summoned were up to such a task. So the king declared an edict that all the wise men of Babylon were to be killed.(3) When Daniel became aware of the edict, he approached the king and asked for time to discern the dream. Time was granted and Daniel and his 3 friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah sought the face of God in that He might reveal the secret of the dream. Daniel received the secret in a vision.(4) He was able to tell the king his dream and the interpretation of it. In response, “…King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, prostrate before Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him. The king answered Daniel, and said, ‘Truly your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.'”(5)Sometime later, the king erected an image of gold that his subjects were to fall down and worship at the sound of all kinds of music, with the threat of death for failing to do so.(6) Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah did not bow down and were brought to King Nebuchadnezzar, “…if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?”(7)Wasn’t it just a short while prior that he was declaring Daniel’s God the God of gods and Lord of kings and the revealer of secrets? How then would he doubt that that same God would be unable to deliver His children out of the king’s hands? How soon he forgot. All too often we are no different. Why do we so soon forget the evidences of God’s grace and faithfulness in our lives when we face trials anew? Has He not carried us faithfully thus far? We fall into doubt, fearful that somehow THIS time He will cease to be good or faithful. We may not be courageous enough to actually admit it but often that is what lies behind our worry and fear. God is the same yesterday, today and forever.(8) He is the same in the Old Testament as in the New. He is the same in Daniel 2 and Daniel 3. Thank You Lord that You never change and are forever faithful, forever good, forever loving and forever present. Diane Hunt is Director of Addiction Recovery Ministries at America’s KESWICK

1 Daniel 2:22 Daniel 2:5-63 Daniel 2:124 Daniel 2:195 Daniel 2:46-476 Daniel 3:4-67 Daniel 3:158 Hebrews 13:8

“Don’t get angry. Don’t be upset; it only leads to trouble.” Psalm 37:8

Max Lucado writes, “Anger. It’s easy to define: the noise of the soul. Anger. The unseen irritant of the heart. Anger. The relentless invader of silence…”Have you ever been surprised by the anger that can well up in you and explode when you least expect it? Where does it come from? What can we do about it?

Circumstances can arouse our anger. When my son was killed by a drunk driver, I experienced more than anger. I experienced absolute rage…at a man who would drink and drive; at a justice system that never sentenced him to prison; at well-meaning, but ill-advised friends who told me I needed to “get over it!” But that anger was different. It was explainable. But what about anger that just seems to pop up at the strangest and totally unexplainable times?

Many years ago I heard a minister say when we experienced anger, we needed to face it; trace it; and erase it. Face the fact that you get angry and that’s wrong. Trace the anger back, perhaps even to childhood. What triggers the anger? Did something happen to you as a child that planted that seed of anger in you? Do you get angry when you feel out of control, victimized, or abused? Ask God to put His finger on the origin of your anger. Once we have identified the root of our anger then we can ask God to Erase it. I don’t mean that we should pretend the damage never happened. I mean we can ask God to remove the emotional reaction to our pain. God may show us forgiveness is needed, and we need to act on that immediately.Sometimes we may need professional help to lead us in unlocking the door to the root of our anger.

Counseling with another knowledgeable person can be extremely helpful in guiding us to the truth. Lucado continues, “Yesterday you can’t alter, but your reaction to yesterday you can. The past you cannot change, but your response to your past you can.”Listen as God speaks to your heart.”I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.” Ephesians 1:1

Marilyn Heavilin is a speaker, author, and counselor. She will be at America’s KESWICK during the months of July and August.

Even with GPS the Israelites would have wandered for 40 years.Recently, I was at a speaking engagement in South Jersey and I needed to go into Philadelphia to pick up a friend. The only thing I knew was that I needed to head north. My son had loaned me his GPS (Global Positioning System) and gave me a few quick lessons on how to use it. It seemed pretty simple. I got into the car turned on the GPS and got started. The first thing it told me to me was turn left out of the parking lot. WHAT? No way! That is south; I know I need to head north. So I ignored it and turned right. Within moments I heard, ‘recalculating’ which, by the way, was the first of several times I would hear that in the first 5 minutes of my trip. Since it didn’t make sense to me to head south, I ignored the instructions and headed in the general direction I ‘knew’ I needed to go. I found the GPS is only really effective if you actually follow its instructions. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the picture in my mind of Moses with a GPS. I could just hear it. Moses instructs the people that they needed to break camp and head north. The murmuring rippled through the camp, “not north, we need to head south, do you know where you are taking us?” Then I realized they had GPS – God Positioning System. “And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night.”(1) Even with GPS it took the Israelites 40 years to arrive at their destination, the Promised Land. Why? Because they wanted to ‘go their own way.’ They choose disobedience over obedience over and over and over again. “So the LORD’s anger was aroused against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was gone.”(2)On several occasions, God has shown me how very much like the Israelites I really am. Not only did I want to go my own way that Saturday afternoon, but far too often I want to go my own way in life. I want to choose my own direction but when I do, I find myself miserably lost. It seems I can always find my way back to my God Positioning System. He leads and guides me to the destination He already knows. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.”(3) Diane Hunt is the Director of Addiction Recovery Ministries

1 Exodus 13:212 Numbers 32:133 Psalm 32:8

Growing deeper
In 2000, a team of women began a project to write a Bible Study. When we began to write this study, it was our intention that it would be used here at America’s KESWICK for the women in the Women of Character program, but apparently that was not God’s intention.

We have received numerous requests to use it in women’s Bible studies and recovery support groups. To our knowledge it has been translated into Russian and Spanish. God has taken our meager ‘loaves and fishes’ offering and has multiplied it a thousand-fold. Definitely God!The light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter. We are putting the finishing touches on a Bible Study we wrote for wives of the men in the Colony of Mercy, preparing it for printing. We have been using this 14-chapter topical study for 4 or 5 years and are now ready to print and bind it.

In the process of rereading almost 200 pages of text for editing, proofing, and correction, I have found myself chuckling about ways I chose to say things when I wrote them 5 or 6 years ago. I made the comment to Steph, “I’m not even sure I agree with myself.” It’s not that what we wrote was wrong, but as evidence of God’s work of grace and sanctification in our lives, we have grown. We understand at a deeper, richer level the truths of which we wrote. I want to stand up and shout, “Hallelujah!”

My heart overflows with gratitude that, every day, God continues to groom us, teach us, change us, and mold us into the image of His Son (2 Corinthians 18; Romans 8:29). At the moment of our salvation, God began the work of sanctification in our lives which will not be complete until the day we see Him face-to-face. God used the process of editing the Bible Study to demonstrate that truth in our lives. We have and continue to grow up in Him.”As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” Colossians 2:6-7

Stay tuned for more information about how and when you can obtain your own copy of the Bible Study. When we know, we’ll let you know.

Diane Hunt is the Director of Addiction Recovery Ministries