“…and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord.” Jer. 31:14

Are you satisfied? I mean really satisfied, deep down in your soul?

Here are things that would evidence that we are satisfied with God’s goodness. My list is by no means exhaustive.
1. We would not grumble or complain. Philippians 2:14
2. We would not be hurtful or critical. Ephesians 4:32
3. We would be able to sit still. We would not be so busy that we didn’t have time to sit still. Psalm 46:10
4. We would not look for love in all the wrong places. Jeremiah 31:3
5. We would be joyful. Psalm 63:5
6. We would be content. Hebrews 13:5
7. We would share the source of our satisfaction. 1 Peter 3:15
8. We would be grateful. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
9. We would meditate on “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8
10. We would know that He is enough in every situation and circumstance. Jeremiah 31:14

What else can you add to this list that would evidence in YOUR life that you are satisfied, really satisfied with the goodness of God?

“For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.” Jeremiah 31:25

Blessings,
Diane

Diane Hunt is part of the Development and Addiction Recovery teams at America’s Keswick. In addition to being a Biblical Counselor, she is a Women’s speaker for retreats, conferences and events. She is a regular writer for Victory Call and one of the authors of Crossing the Jordan Bible Study. She has been married to her husband John over 28 years. She has 2 adult children, 4 grandchildren, 3 adult step-children with 7 grandchildren making 10 in all. She delights reading and teaching, but mostly laughing at the funny things her grandchildren say and do.

Ever find yourself slipping into a pity party? Feeling sorry for yourself? Complaining in your spirit about this situation or another? Or this person or another? Basically believing life is not fair and you deserve better, more or different than what you have?

It is easy to do. Often you are well into your pity party before you are even aware you are doing it. The longer you spend at your party the more intentional you will need to be to leave your party of one and go to a celebration of praise to an audience of ONE.

When you think about it, self-pity is a subtle attitude that God is not doing right by you, that He is holding out on you. Sounds a little like the temptation in the garden.

“But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”” Genesis 3:4-5 in other words, “God is holding out on you.”
Self-pity is unattractive in all its forms. People tend to do one of two things – 1. Join your party and agree with your whining; or 2. Tell you all the reasons you are wrong offering false flattery to build you up so you will feel better and leave your party. Neither is particularly helpful to your soul. You may feel better but has your self-centered attitude been redeemed in any way?

What we need when we go to our pity party is TRUTH. The truth of the Gospel. We need to stop listening to ourselves and start talking to ourselves (C.J. Mahaney).

What filter do you use for your thoughts? How do you know you are heading down a dark ally of self-pity? How about this one?

“Finally,” brothers, sisters, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8

“I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment,” Romans 12:3

A pity party is one party no one wants to come to. It is not a God-honoring party. It does not glorify God. The only entertainment is provided by the king of darkness. STAND CLEAR, SISTER, STAND CLEAR.

Diane

Diane Hunt is part of the Development and Addiction Recovery teams at America’s Keswick. In addition to being a Biblical Counselor, she is a Women’s speaker for retreats, conferences and events. She is a regular writer for Victory Call and one of the authors of Crossing the Jordan Bible Study. She has been married to her husband John over 28 years. She has 2 adult children, 4 grandchildren, 3 adult step-children with 7 grandchildren making 10 in all. She delights reading and teaching, but mostly laughing at the funny things her grandchildren say and do.

A deep understanding and realizing of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to choose or act to consistently produce the optimum results with a minimum of time and energy. It is the ability to optimally (effectively and efficiently) apply perceptions and knowledge and so produce the desired results. Wisdom is also the comprehension of what is true or right coupled with optimum judgment as to action. Synonyms include: sagacity, discernment, or insight.

Wisdom often requires control of one’s emotional reactions (the “passions”) so that one’s principles, reason and knowledge prevail to determine one’s actions.

I wish I could take credit for what was well described above…but I can’t. I found this on a wet, dirty piece of paper outside the women’s ministry building a few years ago. I scanned it and have kept it for well, I guess, such a time as this. Be blessed…

Dina Seaton

In my grieving over the loss of my one and only daughter, what is it that I don’t have to do?
I don’t have to make stuff up!

This morning on the way to work I was listening to a broadcast featuring two creation-scientists. I don’t get to listen often but when I do I’m always amazed at the idiocy of evolution. As they speak about all the “stuff” that is being taught as truth, (even though there is evidence to the contrary) I am over and over again praising God for the clarity, simplicity and hope found in Scripture for all who will truly seek.

Jeremiah 29:12-14a says it best: “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord…”

Dear sisters, the down deep, anchored-in, foundational TRUTH that grounds my entire being is/are the truths in the Word of God, THE Living God. The One WHO was and IS and IS to come. My precious daughter has preceded me in death. She is absent from her body – her earth suit, if you will – and is PRESENT with Christ.

How do I know that I know this?

Scripture says, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

She’s not lingering around anywhere on earth, trapped between space and time, looking for some “medium” to channel her into a room of grieving people! She’s not an angel in heaven lying around on a cloud, peeping over the edge, checking us out or blowing us kisses!

She’s not embodied by thought word or deed in any thing constrained by earth!

Every molecular part of my being knows that she IS NOT HERE!

She would be extremely annoyed that anything but the Truth was guiding or informing the thoughts of those whom she loved.

She is embraced and remembered in all my thoughts and memories of her from A-Z; soup to nuts.

The solid rock truth in the Word of God will be all the comfort and peace that I have need of as I navigate the un-quantifiable moments of each day that I live and move and breathe.

There is healing for me and all who grieve in the passage of time, and while it’s happening I don’t have to make stuff up just so I can feel better. I’ll have the feelings that I have and life will be what it shall be. Period.

“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” ~I Corinthians 15:55

Stephanie 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.

1 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+29&version=ESV
2 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Corinthians+5&version=NKJV

Those who know me, know that I love to celebrate the Hebrew feasts. In celebrating the Hebrew feasts I have learned so much about the God we serve. In the Hebrew calendar there are many feasts, however there are three major feasts. The yearly cycle begins with Passover. In the third month is the feast of Pentecost and finally in the seventh month is the feast of Tabernacles.

Tabernacles is a cluster of feasts:

1. The first is the Feast of Trumpets, also called Rosh Hashanah. The trumpet or shofar is sounded marking a New Year. It is a time to celebrate God as King. This year the Feast of Trumpets begins at sundown on September 24th in our Roman calendar.

2. The Days of Awe, which is a ten-day period of time, set aside to seek God. The ten-day period begins with Rosh Hashanah and ends on Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement. (You may want to meditate upon Jeremiah 29:12-13; James 4:8)

3. The Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur is a time to repent and be restored. The Jews celebrate God’s forgiveness. It is the time to deal with anything that would hinder your fellowship with our God. Hebrews 12:1 is a perfect description of the Day of Atonement: “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” This year the Day of Atonement begins at sundown on Oct. 3rd.

4. Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot is a week of celebrating God’s glory living with His people. This year that week begins at sundown on October 8th. God dwelt with His people in the past, the Word of God became flesh and tabernacle with us, and He tabernacles with us. You may want to meditate upon the following scripture: Leviticus 23:34-43; Ex. 40:33-35; Ps. 63:2; John 1:14; Rev. 21:3-4; Acts 15:16-17.

Dear one, I encourage you to embrace this season. Seek the Lord your God, repent, get clean, and throw off all those things that hinder your walk with Him. Celebrate the joy of God’s glory and tabernacle with Him. Be blessed!!

Patricia L. Wenzel
WOC Graduate

Some material from:
1. The Messianic Church Arising by Dr. Robert Heidler, Glory of Zion Ministries, 2006
2. www. Chabad.org

“…when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer…” Jeremiah 7:13b

What is that “thing” or series of “things” that you persist in? Perhaps that attitude, behavior or choice you continue in over and over again. It’s that thing that comes to mind when you hear a message on besetting sin. What is it that you still do not have victory over? That thing you were wrestling with last year? Five years ago? Ten years ago? Perhaps you have stopped wrestling altogether and have just given in to it?

God not only desires our victory, He sent Jesus to secure it. It is ours – “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Cor. 15:57.

God pursues us. “…when I spoke to you persistently…when I called you…” He created us for relationship with Him and leads and guides us – yet we continue in our own way – not listening and not answering, not responding to His wooing.

Oh, we might make adjustments based on conviction from reading the Word or a message we hear, but oftentimes in subtle ways we protect with tenacity that “thing” we have not yet fully yielded. Oh, the glory, blessing and life we sacrifice in our failure to do so.

Are you listening?

Blessings, Diane

Diane Hunt is part of the Development and Addiction Recovery teams at America’s Keswick. In addition to being a Biblical Counselor, she is a Women’s speaker for retreats, conferences and events. She is a regular writer for Victory Call and one of the authors of Crossing the Jordan Bible Study. She has been married to her husband John over 28 years. She has 2 adult children, 4 grandchildren, 3 adult step-children with 7 grandchildren making 10 in all. She delights reading and teaching, but mostly laughing at the funny things her grandchildren say and do.

Nurture: “to care for the growth or development of; to help or encourage the development of; support, encourage, feed, and protect.”

Nurturing implies the idea of helping someone become the best that they can be, to develop to their full potential. Nurturing is not always easy or well received, especially when what is best for a child is for us to protect them from harm, such as a hot stove or a busy street. Children (of any age) can get the idea that they want what they want and your hindering them is not appreciated. We have all experienced the howls of a child in a store whose desires are thwarted. Those of us who have children in addiction have also experienced the anger, guilt trips, and verbal abuse of a son or daughter who wants us to do something for them that would lead to further harm to them and we have nurtured by refusing.

Enabling our child is deadly. Enabling is choosing to allow someone to continue in his or her addiction by not setting appropriate boundaries and by providing housing, food, and money so that the person does not reach their point of brokenness. When we allow our child to live with us, steal from us, pay their fines or bail them out, we are actually sending a message to them that their behavior is acceptable, no matter what our words may say. We are used to providing for our child (nurturing) but it is hard to see that our provision for them needs to stop the minute they cross the line into substance abuse/addiction.

When is it ok to help a child in addiction? When they come to the place of brokenness and want help getting to an appropriate treatment facility, it is nurturing to assist them to find a place that they can go, as long as it does not cause harm to us financially. They need to be the one to call the facility, fill out the application, and do as much as they can to get there on their own if possible. Otherwise, their desire to go somewhere can be in order to hide or to get off the streets for a while without truly wanting to change.

Nurturing is protection. Enabling is death.

John 10:10: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy: I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Cherri Freeman
facilitator of Love them to Life Support Group – Monday nights, 7-8:30 pm at America’s Keswick. For more information please call Guest Services 732.350.1187

When my heart is broken it is easy to forget that the Lord is near. Actually, it is easy to feel the distance. Even when I search for Him it seems, at times, that He can’t be found. I know it is so easy to turn away from Him ourselves. I move away, I create the distance. I have had those times more than I care to admit. I have always heard that when you can’t feel God’s hand, trust His heart. Greg Laurie, on a recent radio program, said, “When you can’t trust, know truth.” Psalm 34:18 says, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Maybe you are struggling, as I often do, to trust that Jesus is there listening, interceding, praying and groaning on your behalf. But when you and I can’t seem to step out in full faith and total trust we must go back to truth. The truth is that Jesus is right there, He has not left your side.

I don’t pray for you today to have a God sighting, to see His mighty hand working for you, or that you will even be removed from your situation. Today I pray that you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus keeps His promise to be near, even when you don’t see it or feel it. Simply trust that He has not left you but that He remains near to you right now.

Blessings,
Kathy

Kathy’s on staff at America’s Keswick in the Development Department. Kathy has been married to her husband Dave for 28 years. They have two adult children. Kathy is active in her local Church and has taught Sunday school and Bible studies for women. Her passion is to encourage women to deepen their walk with Jesus Christ by finding and living out the truths of God’s Word.

Whatever you ask in My name…

I have to admit I like to watch the Duck Dynasty. Each episode ends when the family is sitting around the dinner table and grace is being said. They always make it a point to close with, “This we pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen”. They have been criticized for this but continue to hold their ground and refuse to change their prayer in Jesus’ name.

Why is it so important that we pray in Jesus Name? There is one God and one mediator between God and man and that is Christ Jesus ( 1 Timothy 2:5). John15:16 and 16:23 Jesus tells us to ask the father in His Name.

John chapter 14 helps us understand that he writes this for our sake, so that we will not be “troubled.” When we pray in Jesus’ Name we declare the Lordship and Supremacy of Jesus. Jesus said in John chapter 14, “I am the way, the truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” Through Christ we are brought into covenant with God. Believing in God through Jesus Christ keeps trouble from our hearts. We have confidence that there is a God, and He is holy, wise, powerful and good; He is the governor of the world and that through Jesus Christ we have a Mediator to access His throne. I am not worthy to enter the holy place of prayer on my own, it is only through the redeeming work of Christ on the Cross can I enter that holy place. There is power in His name!

What are you troubled about today? Pray with confidence to a God who hears you because of your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ!

Matthew Henry’s Commentary of John 14

Joyce Hayes
Artist in residence/
Hostess women’s events
America’s Keswick

Happy are those who are strong in the Lord, who set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When they walk through the Valley of Weeping (Baca), it will become a place of refreshing springs, where pools of blessing collect after the rains! (Psalm 84: 5-6 NLT)

The ancient Israelites walked through difficult, dangerous, and dry land on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. We also walk through difficult, dangerous, and dry times in our lives, especially as the mother of someone trapped in bondage to addiction. Verse 6 of this Psalm talks about walking through the Valley of Baca. This name did not mean anything to me until I read that it could be translated “The Valley of Weeping.” I could certainly relate to that!

The image is that our salty tears are turned by God into springs of fresh, refreshing water that nourishes us and others around us. Tears of pain, hurt, rejection, and anger could become bitterness that poisons us and others, but God can make those tears become a fresh spring, a pool of blessing. How can that be?

1. Knowing who we are before God. We are pure and lovely in His sight. We are His princess, deeply loved. Zephaniah 3:17 says that He dances over us with joy. This world is full of pain but our story doesn’t end there. True joy comes from a love relationship with God who sacrificed His Son in order to have you be a part of His family. He loves you that much!

2. Knowing we can’t deal with life in our own strength. Verse 7 talks about going “from strength to strength.” God’s strength is the source of our strength. Joy comes when I surrender “my claim to my right to myself” (Oswald Chambers) and recognize that it has to be Christ living His life through me: I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20). We have the privilege of exchanging our fearful, frantic, fragile life for Jesus living His life in us. That is a great deal!

3. Knowing that we can trust God to work in our situation. We are incapable of controlling other people and the situations around us. When we finally come to the place of understanding that fact, we are free to accept and trust that God is working in our lives. Our pain and struggles can be used to refresh others as they see the beauty of Jesus in us.

For the Lord God is our light and protector. He gives us grace and glory. No good thing will the Lord withhold from those who do what is right (Psalm 84:11).

Cherri Freeman
facilitator of Love them to Life Support Group