“…unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Mt. 5:20

The Pharisees were characterized as letter-of-the-law keepers—
…they put heavy burdens on others (Mt 23:4) “For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”

…tithe mint (Luke 11:42) “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God.”

…white-washed tombs— they looked good outwardly but corroding inwardly (Matthew 23:27) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”

How can our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees?

Fortunately, our righteousness is not our own. It is not based on our actions, because left to our own devices we would look no different than the scribes and Pharisees. But, we are NOT left to our own devices.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Romans 3:21-22 “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.”

We – who believe – have been given the righteousness of Jesus Christ- through faith. The very righteousness of Christ.

The only way our righteousness can exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

“You are as righteous as Jesus Christ.” I gasped when I heard these words, but as I thought about the truth, since Jesus’ righteousness is given to each child of God, it is a true statement. It doesn’t mean I ACT as righteous as Jesus Christ, but I am righteous because Jesus became sin for me, that I might become the righteousness of God in Him. You, too, if you know Christ personally.

Blessings,
Diane

Diane Hunt is a Biblical Counselor, Women’s conference and retreat speaker and author. She serves as the Director of Partner Care and Director of Women’s Ministries at America’s Keswick. She and her husband John have two married children and four grandchildren. She loves reveling in warm sunny climates and playing with her grandchildren.

Did you ever notice how we sometimes say “AMEN” to indicate our agreement with something someone says? For example, the Pastor during a sermon may say something that really strikes our heart and we agree with either an audible or silent AMEN!! By that we mean, “Yes”, “I agree”, “Let it be so.” But when service is over, we go home and forget all about it.

We just finished five weeks of Keswick summer conferences. We had wonderful speakers, challenging messages; children prayed to receive Christ, teen and adult life commitments and many, many AMENs over the weeks. But on Fridays everyone went home with hearts and heads full of their week’s experience. What difference will their time at Keswick make over the coming months and years?

I want to challenge us to start living the AMEN. What I mean by that is that we give more than lip service to the truths that we hear. It’s easy to agree, but how are we allowing those truths to change us, to make a difference, to draw us into greater obedience?

It’s easy to fall into habits that become less and less meaningful over time. Let our AMEN be more that a habit or an emotional response to truth. Let our AMEN be a true, enthusiastic agreement and embrace of the truth of God. When God’s Spirit prompts our spirit with a revelation of truth, let’s not allow it to be a momentary experience of agreement, but rather a life-changing experience of obedience.

My question to you today is, are you living the AMEN?

Diane

Diane Hunt is a Biblical Counselor, Women’s conference and retreat speaker and author. She serves as the Director of Partner Care and Director of Women’s Ministries at America’s Keswick. She and her husband John have two married children and four grandchildren. She loves reveling in warm sunny climates and playing with her grandchildren.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Romans 13:14

When the flesh asks — just say “no”.

When the flesh demands – just say “no”.

When the flesh screams – just scream “no”.

In dozens, if not hundreds, of ways every day, the flesh makes itself known – often subtle ways – an extra scoop of ice cream, an extra half hour of TV, a short temper, a lazy spirit, choosing my way over God’s way.

Just saying “no” can be simple when practiced often enough to train my flesh that it’s NOT Lord over me. But it will not always take “no” for an answer. Our flesh may start demanding its own way and even, sometimes, scream like an unruly child. Remain calm and scream back (silently) – “NO”

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Romans 13:14

Just say “NO”.

Blessings, Diane

Diane Hunt is a Biblical Counselor, Women’s conference and retreat speaker and author. She serves as the Director of Partner Care and Director of Women’s Ministries at America’s Keswick. She and her husband John have two married children and four grandchildren. She loves reveling in warm sunny climates and playing with her grandchildren.

“Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises.” Psalm 98:4

Life is full of calm and storms, of hills and valleys, of trials and peace. Sometimes it can feel like there isn’t calm, valleys or peace, just a very long season of storm.

We can become weary, discouraged, depressed, fearful, and plain worn out.

There is a Matt Redman song based on Psalm 98:4 with this phrase: “The greater the storm the louder our song.”

May our song of praise be consistent; may our heart break forth in song – whether we feel it or not. May our praise and worship to the ONE TRUE GOD be louder than the storm in our life.

As the storm rages, sing your heart out. “The greater the storm the louder our song.”

Blessings, Diane

Diane Hunt is a Biblical Counselor, Women’s conference and retreat speaker and author. She serves as the Director of Partner Care and Director of Women’s Ministries at America’s Keswick. She and her husband John have two married children and four grandchildren. She loves reveling in warm sunny climates and playing with her grandchildren.

i Written by Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman, Jason Ingram

3 John 1:3 For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth.

Having truth is great, vital and important but how we live out that truth is where the fruit of that truth in our lives is evident. It’s not just that we have truth; the power of truth to set us free comes through practicing and walking in that truth.

So the question of the day is this: How is Scripture informing your attitudes, actions and choices today? Not just in your head, how you THINK about truth but more importantly in your actions, how you ACT in the truth.

As women, generally speaking, we are prone to follow our emotions. Emotions can be very convincing BUT they have NO power to MAKE you do anything! Let me say that again. Your emotions have NO POWER TO MAKE YOU DO ANYTHING. Rather you make a choice to act in response to your emotions or to act in spite of your emotions. The power is NOT in the emotions or the feelings. The power is in the choice and the action.

How is Scripture informing your attitudes, actions and choices today?

Blessings,
Diane

Diane Hunt is a Biblical Counselor, Women’s conference and retreat speaker and author. She serves as the Director of Partner Care and Director of Women’s Ministries at America’s Keswick. She and her husband John have two married children and four grandchildren. She loves reveling in warm sunny climates and playing with her grandchildren.

This summer my husband Glenn and I had the blessing of traveling to California. We spent three days in Yosemite National Park. In three days we were able to feast our eyes on what I like to refer as “God’s cathedral”. Everywhere we looked we were able to behold His majesty, His creativity, along with His amazing detail and love for the smallest of creatures. We viewed rocks that were so massive you can’t even imagine. El Capitan (7,569 ft.), the North Dome (7,525 ft.), and of course Half Dome (8836 ft.)

How majestic is Your name in all the earth!! (Ps. 8:1)

We took a bus tour to Glacier Point. On the way we passed this very small but very beautiful flower. Our guide told us we were very fortunate to see that little flower. It only bloomed for two weeks every year and only appeared at the elevation we were at. It made me think of Matthew 6:28-29, 28 And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. (NASB)

We viewed waterfall after waterfall and an amazing area called Tuolumne Meadows. The hand of God clearly formed the meadows. No man cut down trees clearing the land. In the midst of thick forest appeared a huge meadow. Springs of water were bubbling up, while the smallest of creatures were leaping about. I found myself saying, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!” (Ps. 150:6)

Dear ones, the whole earth is full of His glory (Is. 6:3). O Lord how many are Thy works? In wisdom Thou hast made them all; The earth is full of Thy possessions. (Ps. 104:24) Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains! (Is. 49:13a)

Spend time thinking on Psalm 150:
Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty expanse.
Praise Him for His mighty deeds;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
Praise Him with trumpet sound;
Praise Him with harp and lyre.
Praise Him with timbrel and dancing;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe.
Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD! (NASB)

Blessings,

Patricia L. Wenzel
Woman of Character Graduate

Do you worry about the future of our nation? Our world? With all the craziness and evil that surrounds us, the future is unsure to be sure.

In light of recent Supreme Court rulings and revelations about Planned Parenthood, and the murder of people in a S.C. Church, and… the list goes on and on, it is easy to feel unsettled about what the future holds.

As soon as word came down about the Supreme Court ruling this verse immediately came to mind:
Arise O Lord! Let not men prevail; Let the nations be judged before You. Put them in fear O Lord! Let the nations know they are but men!

I do find hope and peace in knowing:
…that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:10-11

One day EVERY KNEE WILL BOW; EVERY TONGUE WILL CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD. It’s just a matter of time. Be encouraged.

Blessings,
Diane

Diane Hunt is a Biblical Counselor, Women’s conference and retreat speaker and author. She serves as the Director of Partner Care and Director of Women’s Ministries at America’s Keswick. She and her husband John have two married children and four grandchildren. She loves reveling in warm sunny climates and playing with her grandchildren.

When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”
And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”
Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.”

Do you ever find yourself waffling between faith and doubt? Between belief and unbelief? Oh, how often have you or I said, “I believe God is ABLE, I just don’t know if he WILL?”

I spotted these three verses and noticed something that really struck me. These two blind men were pleading with Jesus to restore their sight. Jesus asked the simple question, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

They professed that yes, they believed He was ABLE to heal them. Christ’s response was that “According to your faith let it be to you.” According to their faith that He was ABLE, Jesus healed them.

I couldn’t help but notice Jesus did not ask a second question, “Do you believe I WILL do this?” before He healed them.

I think we take the punch out of our faith, “I believe God is ABLE” by adding, “but I’m not sure He WILL.”

Of course we don’t know if He WILL but let’s stay in the hope-filled place of believing HE IS ABLE.

Blessings,
Diane

Diane Hunt is a Biblical Counselor, Women’s conference and retreat speaker and author. She serves as the Director of Partner Care and Director of Women’s Ministries at America’s Keswick. She and her husband John have two married children and four grandchildren. She loves reveling in warm sunny climates and playing with her grandchildren.

“And He said to them, go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
Matthew 16:15

In a recent article in an issue of “Voice of the Martyrs” I read the following words: “prepared to suffer for salvation.” That same evening I was sitting in a conference meeting listening to the speaker give a recap to a series of messages he’d taught from the Book of Esther and he made the following statement: “The Bible doesn’t talk about hundreds of different things. The Bible talks about one thing hundreds of different ways.” Then he said, “The Bible is about 2 things: “redemption and missions.”

To my shame, I sometimes check out when missions are spoken of because…I’m selfish and comfortable in my nice, cozy American life. And, after all, I work and do ministry at America’s Keswick. So, quite honestly, during some missionary updates my thoughts drift. Not that night! The Lord put a message in the speaker about missions that demanded my full attention.

His style of preaching kept me. and anyone else present, highly attentive and fully engaged in active listening. He spoke quickly and yet his words were clearly and concisely articulated to any heart hungry and in need of spiritual direction. The bottom line: in such a time as this, we need to be about our Father’s business.

I’ll say it again—in such a time as this, we need, we must, be about our Father’s business. A command has been issued to us in the American church and those of us who are called “Christian,” who are “Christ-followers,” “Christ-carriers,” sons and daughters of the Most High God, we must step up. We must rise up in any and all, small or big ways, wherever we are planted, to speak and live the true Gospel to some of the “2 billion people waiting to hear about Jesus for the first time.”

By the way, the speaker’s name is Dr. George Murray and the reminder he concluded with that evening was, “Jesus Christ, our King, has commanded us to take the law of life (The Gospel) to all people of the world who are living under the law of the sin of death.”

To many of us in the American church this can feel like, seem like, a scary venture. But the truth is, as I write these words from my comfortable office, at this exact moment, someone is being tortured for daring to have faith in the unseen God of our salvation, for daring to proclaim and profess with their mouths that JESUS IS LORD!

In many other places in the world, being a Christian is not comfortable. Being a Christian in those places is making a conscious choice, a decision to suffer for salvation.

So these are the questions I leave with you today:
Are you prepared to suffer for your salvation? Will you, right now, whatever neighborhood, workplace, etc…, wherever you are planted by God—will you verbally preach the Gospel?

Stephanie Dale

Stephanie D. Paul serves as part of the Addiction Recovery Team at America’s Keswick as Director of Women of Character. She has been married for over 30 years to Sesky Paul who is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy. They have two grown children. Her single focus in ministry at Keswick is to image Christ in grace and truth to wounded and hurting women, encouraging them to make Jesus the truest Lover of their soul and the One in whom all hope lies.

Ann Voskamp says:
“Joy is always a function of gratitude and gratefulness. And gratefulness and gratitude is always a function of perspective, of seeing. So in everything, can I have the perspective that God has? In our own flesh, in our own humanness, we really can’t. We have to wear the lens of the Word; we have to be that steeped in Scripture. Without the lens of the Word to perceive the world around us, the world twists it; it warps.

“If we can really root our day in the Word of God so that the incidents and events around us, we don’t perceive them and see them through our human eyes…the Scripture really forms our sight and our understanding of everything so that what we encounter during our day, we see that through God’s Truth and His Word and we say, “I can give thanks in this situation because I know God to be good.”

“’I can give thanks in this situation because I know that God takes my suffering and He is using that to conform my character; to make me more like Jesus.’

“Without God’s Truth, we can’t see correctly.

“So, yes, thanks is tied to sight but our sight always has to be tied to Scripture, otherwise, it’s not sight, it’s blindness.

“It will change your heart to give thanks.”

So, dear sisters, my encouragement for us today is two-fold:
1. Be in the Word so that as you encounter people, places and things, situations and circumstances we can do the next thing…
2. Reminder, not to forget, to give thanks to God simply because He is God and He is good.

Stephanie Dale

Stephanie D. Paul serves as part of the Addiction Recovery Team at America’s Keswick as Director of Women of Character. She has been married for over 30 years to Sesky Paul who is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy. They have two grown children. Her single focus in ministry at Keswick is to image Christ in grace and truth to wounded and hurting women, encouraging them to make Jesus the truest Lover of their soul and the One in whom all hope lies.