On a whim, I recently decided to put my name into the computer search engine and see how often it appeared on the web. Would you believe, twenty-five pages popped up, filled with my name. At first I was so impressed with my apparent fame, but then I began to wonder what everyone said. Was it negative or positive? As I hurried through the pages, I was so relieved to see all of the comments were positive, but I also realized there certainly is no privacy on the internet.
I remember a friend said he wasn’t going to register for e-mail because he wanted to protect his privacy. Just to prove a point, I entered his name, and up popped his unlisted address and phone number with an offer on the screen to provide a map to his home! I admit the internet is certainly the “Tell all” of this generation.
Then my mind moved on to the heavenly realm. God is bigger than any computer. He KNOWS ALL. There are no secrets with Him. Scripture says there is a time when good and bad works will be displayed for all to see. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (Revelation 20:11). Wouldn’t you like to have a delete button that day? Let us live in such a way that we don’t have to worry about what will be revealed, no secrets, no pretense. Aren’t you glad the Lord promised when we confess our sins, He will remember them no more? “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).

Our delete button is this: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Marilyn Heavilin

“Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

A gift from my Father…

“I need a new car Lord and I have no money! By the way, could it have a sunroof… please?

Recently the Lord impressed upon me the need to really start praying about a new car. So…I emailed my pastor right away. (Stay with me this will all make perfect sense in a minute) You see about four years ago he called me and said a person in our church was getting a new car and would like to give me her old one. It had a lot less miles than the one I currently had and she had taken good care of it, so of course I gratefully accepted and have been driving it since then. Well, now it has about 250,000 miles on it and as you can imagine gets repairs regularly. I thought it was wiser to plan ahead than wait until it was beyond repair. So who else would come to mind except my favorite pastor, a.k.a. my car dealer. I emailed him and told him the details and his reply was “ok, you have my attention, let’s start to pray and we’ll wait and see what the Lord is going to do.” The very next night I received a call from a couple at church who had just bought a new car and wanted to give me their old one. They had just asked pastor if he knew of anyone who might need one!
The car is just great. Not only does it have less than half the mileage of my old car, but it’s in excellent condition, runs great and is really nice. The best part is it has a SUNROOF! When I saw it I thought; wow Lord you really do spoil your children sometimes! I was so excited, until they told me it hasn’t worked since last summer, and urged me not to open it! That was it…this would have to get fixed immediately, forget the oil change it needs…this would be top priority! One sunny day I gave in to the temptation to see if it worked and to my delight and amazement the sunroof works great!
God is soooo good…………………
(Matthew 7: 7-12)

Dina

Recently, Psalm 138:8 “The Lord will accomplish what concerns me”, became very real to me. I have it framed and hanging by my stove. It was early in the morning and as I read it I wondered what He had in store for me that day.
My husband and I were going locally to get a bite to eat and the car began to make a loud noise. I wondered, as did he, if we could make it back home safely. Both of us were praying and again the verse Psalm 138:8 came to my heart and peace came as well. We go across a very busy, busy, route and back to our own driveway. We stopped and thanked God for His protection and His promise of Psalm 138:8, “The Lord will accomplish what concerns me.”

Take your concerns to Him today, but above all claim His promise of this verse.

B. Shoppy

He Is…He Answers

When life throws you a fire engulfed curve ball, it’s a solid opportunity to stop everything and pay attention to something.
My life and that of my family has received such a thing about a month ago. It was like a hammer blow to my mind and heart. I wanted to scream. In fact, I think I did. My mind was instantly flooded with questions -all of which, (none of which) I could answer.

What are we to do then? What was I to do? Where do we run? Who do we talk to, cry to or cry on for that matter?

It really goes without saying, (but I’m gonna anyway) that we go to God who can, does and will answer every question. It may be with a ‘yes’, a ‘no’, a ‘wait’; or sometimes a simple ‘trust me’, but He always answers. He is, after all, LOVE.

I Corinthians 13 gives us all the words ever needed to define love. And so, God, being LOVE would never “dis” us and leave us without an answer…even if, His response is a gentle shush, the distraction of a glorious mountain vista, sunset on the bay, or rose scented wind kissing your sense of smell…He answers.

And yes, even in stillness – He answers. Any lack of discernable movement does not mean God isn’t around or that He isn’t aware. He is. He simply…Is!

If it were not true you wouldn’t be reading this Victory Call from me. By now, I’d have curled up in a fetal ball and given up. But being His child compels me to cry out to the God who alone is hope and by grace alone receive the ability to cope with everything…even this.

Romans 15:13 encourages us with these words:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

Thus, the something, (the Someone) that I am paying closer attention to is God. He is My Shepherd. Though I walk in this valley of uncertainty, I will fear nothing because He is with me.

Stephanie

“God never convicts us of sin to make sure we know how wretched we are, for he calls us the righteousness of God in Christ. Rather, God convicts us through His Holy Spirit because He is grieved when fellowship between us is broken. Learn to develop a thankfulness toward a keen conviction of sin and pray for it in the lives of your children. God’s heart cry is ‘Come Home.’ ” Beth Moore, A Woman’s Heart God’s Dwelling Place, Pg. 148.

Don’t flee the conviction of God. It is evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in your life. Is there an area of your life that God is putting His finger on that He wants to draw your attention to? Don’t recoil, receive. God brings conviction not for the purpose of condemnation but for freedom. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:1; “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1

Diane

Romans 12:9-11 gives us some commands for everyday Christian living……practical commands, yet sometimes these commands are difficult to apply and follow. It takes an act of our WILL and most of all dying to ourselves in obedience to what we know is His
will and not ours.

Verse 9, tells us “don’t love superficially, (be genuine, be honest) vs.10 “to be devoted to one another” ( don’t desire to always be in first place……practice playing second fiddle) verse 11 tells us “don’t lag behind in diligence” (don’t burn out, don’t quit in hard times).

Whether it be house work, our career, our ministry or our volunteer service we encounter opportunities to put these verses to practice.

The enemy (Satan) will subtly tempt you to engage in situations that will cause you to sin in not being obedient to these commands. I trust that today you may cry out to the Lord for His help in dying to self and getting victory.

B. Shoppy

Sitting in the other seat…..

Daniel 2:21 (New International Version)
“He changes times and seasons…”

I am learning lessons in life as I get older and life just is moving on. It is amazing when we are in the “Drivers” seat what we see and how we handle ourselves but ask us to move over and what happens? Well recently I have had to move over….yes my oldest is now driving and life has moved us to this point and moved me over. I see things from such a new perspective.

When I was in “control” and I was driving and making the choices I had a sense of confidence, control and peace. My life was under my control. Now I had to give this up and let my son take control (or at least a little), he needs to make the choices and my sense of confidence and peace is just not the same.

When you are in “control” you have a different vision of things also. I see certain signs, road blocks, situations on the road etc….and now that I am in the passenger seat I see more of the beauty of the road, a new store just put up or different signs that I didn’t realize that were even there before.

Being the only driver in our home for 20 years put me in the situation of having to take charge many times. Now this role is somewhat changing for me and I am not liking it very much.

While driving the other day my son was coming closer to a railing then I felt comfortable with….then I realized that he was driving correctly but it was just that I was sitting in a different seat and it made the railing seem closer.

Now where am I going with all this? The Lord puts us in many seats in our life time. There will be times that we are in the driver’s seat and need to be in charge, and then again other times in the passenger seat where we need to rely on someone else to take charge for a while.

As we walk or drive in our Christian life we need to be confident and at peace in both seats. The Lord moves us around for His purpose and He will give us the confidence, peace, wisdom to make the right choices etc….if we rely on Him and Him alone to fill these needs in our life.

When you are coming to close to the railing….just remember that maybe God has just moved you over for a while and that the railing is really in the same spot as before but your perspective is just different.

Ask God to move you over to the other seat from time to time. Change is a good thing and a new perspective is a good thing too.
Jeremiah 18:4 (New International Version)
“But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”
Lynn

In life we are often faced with unexpected turns. We have to learn to flex and adapt to the twists and turns. We know changes are part of life. But sometimes in life we see a road sign that says “Dead End,” “No Outlet.” So then what do we do? We can try to ignore the sign, but we can’t go very far, can we? At least when we get a “Dead End” sign, we don’t have to wonder what God wants us to do. We have little choice, we can’t move ahead on a familiar road, and we know it is fruitless to buck against the road sign. These are the times when God wants to provide us with a new road. It may not be the road we would choose, but God will direct us.
When our son Nathan was killed by a drunken driver, I felt like I had hit a dead end. I wanted to continue as Nathan’s mom. I wanted to watch him grow up, go to college, and hopefully marry and have lots of children. However, those options were closed to me. I didn’t like my options: live without Nathan, learn to understand grief, encourage others. But God gave me a verse I clung to. “He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be astounded. They will put their trust in the Lord” (Psalm 40:3 TNLB). God has kept His promise to me.
How about you? Are you facing a Dead End with no outlets? Perhaps God is waiting for you to look to Him to create a new path for you. It may not be the path you would choose, but He has promised He will give you a new song and others will be astounded. Trust Him. He loves you, and He has His best in store for you.

Marilyn Heavilin

I just finished reading a devotion and in it the author made reference to “being prepared”. After reading it I paused and asked myself the question he raised, “Are my documents in order?”
You know, just like one needs a passport to enter this country or some valid proof of citizenship, anyone seeking to entrance heaven will need the right documents.

As I sit here in the lobby of my hotel, watching shuttle after shuttle come and go, picking up passenger after passenger, my mind drew a picture.
Instead of an airport shuttle bus exclusively for this hotels guest, what if that bus was my way to heaven and to board I needed to show proof that I was a citizen. Would I have the right documents? In other words, would I be prepared?”

‘”Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father (God) except through me.”‘ –John 14:6

My proof of citizenship is Jesus. His Way! His Truth! His Life! I praise God that it is not dependent on me doing more good things than bad things; belonging to the right and best church; evangelizing a certain number of people; saying enough Hail Mary’s and Our Father’s; bowing before the sun or a wall a certain number of times a day or year; being happy, happy, happy all the time, or any other thing.

It’s His Way, His Truth, and His Life alone and I fervently praise God that it aint up to anyone or anything else.

Dear one, are you ready? Are you prepared? Is Jesus believed, accepted and known by you? Is your life marked by His Truth and no other truth?
If so, take the time to praise Him today with renewed passion and thanksgiving.
If not, incline your ear and listen for His call on your life, run into His outstretched arms and receive The Way.

Stephanie

Remember the word to Your servant, upon which you have caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has given me life. Psalm 119:49-50

Unless we have nurtured a delight in God’s word, it seems to be the last thing we want to do when we are troubled. Why is it our propensity to see the Word of God as a last resort rather than as our first resort?
I remember being a new believer going through suffering. I had a notebook with numerous Scriptures, yet as I looked at them, they brought me no comfort; they were as words on the page. I had little experience with believing God’s Word or knowing His faithfulness to me personally. Now many years later years of ups and downs, trials and peace, failures and victories, I have, to some degree, nurtured a love and passion for the Word of God. I still have far to go but I do resonate with the last sentence of our days verse. The Word is a comfort in my affliction, and His word has given me life.
What are you doing today to nurture a delight in His Word?

Diane