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Choose God: Choose Kindness

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

The World’s Gone Crazy

We’ve gone crazy. America is unraveling faster with each passing day, and I pray the Lord’s mercy would allow His grace to be shed over our land all the while knowing we do not deserve to receive His goodness any longer for the sin of our nation is great.

I’ve Gone Crazy

This weekend, I found myself going a bit crazy. I chose to have an unkind concert with myself to the audience of just my husband, except it wasn’t just him–the Lord was there, too. I dare say, He wasn’t so pleased with how I handled my words and emotions. Oh, what I had to say and how I feel about the circumstances that are my reality anyone would reconcile as reasonable and maybe even be amazed at “how well” I’ve handled such things. However, the Holy Spirit is the one who has assured me that I was not kind.

It’s Hard to be Kind

It’s hard to be kind sometimes when the hurt builds to constant and/or ordinary. It’s hard to be kind when our voice is left echoing and without being heard. It’s hard to be kind when the same challenge resurfaces on repeat, but without effort of change. Sometimes, it’s just hard to be kind even when we don’t intend or try to be Unkind. Do you hear what I’m saying?

Kindness shows

Leaving the big picture of the world’s craziness aside and coming in closer to my own life, if you’re anything like me, you don’t have to look any further than your own flesh and blood to find unkindess. I mean, I *try* to be kind, happy and loving. I DO love am happy with so much, God’s goodness in my life is something I intentionally look to and acknowledge daily, and people even tell me how kind-even too kind-I am, often times. Yet, when I’m pressed with any of the aforementioned “hard to be kind” moments, I fail more than not.

My family knows it best

Mostly it’s my family who takes the hit of my unkindness, usually my husband but sometimes even ones of my own children. My family knows it best. That’s a real shame. If I can’t be kind to the ones I love most, what then? Does God expect me to be kind all the time? Of course He does, because He is kind.

God is kind

Psalm 86:5 For you, Lord, are kind and ready to forgive, abounding in faithful love to all who call on you.

Kindness matters

I am a child of God. Kindness isn’t something that I have in a plethora of characteristics to pick and choose from, but rather it’s the root of who God is in me when I am living and walking with the Lord instead of in my own flesh. Kindness matters to God.

Psalm 117:12 For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD.

Jonah 4:2 …Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

Isaiah 54:8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

Kindess is a verb

Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

2 Peter 1:7 And (add) to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

Colossians 3:12-13 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Flesh or Spirit

It’s true, God desires us to be kind and He instructs us to be kind, but we don’t do this on our own. When I react to or live in situations in my own flesh, that is to say without God’s Spirit and leaning into Him, I live for self and not for God. We know that flesh battles with spirit…my choice to yield to God or myself. BE kind. ADD kindness. PUT ON kindness, Tamara.

Kindness changes everything

How much does kindness matter? The most. Look at what we know of God’s kindness and the difference it made (and makes) in our lives.

Titus 3:3-5 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us —not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy — through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

Does Kindness have a parnter?

Look back up at a few of these verse where we learn about kindness. Do you see a recurring theme?

Eph 4:32 be ye kind, forgiving one another.

Col 3:12-13, put on kindness…forgiving one another as Christ has forgiven you.

Psalm 86:5 The Lord is kind and ready to forgive.

Yield to God’s Wisdom

I have to pause here and yield to God’s wisdom. Kindness and forgiveness are walking in tandem here in scripture. Why? Is it possible that it’s impractical, and maybe even impossible, to have a heart of genuine kindness if it’s clouded by unforgiveness? When I look at the times I’ve been unkind, is there a deeper issue that I haven’t looked at in my heart? Am I angry about something and has that some how taken root in the form of bitterness and unforgiveness? According to God’s Word the answer is pretty obvious and there’s a really good chance that I have some heart-searching to do if I truly desire to show God’s kindness in my life.

Courtesy Kindness vs Heart Kindness

Pleasantries of life among strangers can be a simple as what I call courtesy kindness: kind greetings, holding a door, please and thank you and the like. But, heart kindness shows up as an overflow of God in and through us to the most intimate relationships we have.

For God’s Glory

Another evidence of God’s kindness is the fact right here: He desires to teach us to be more like Him, He is kind and forgives us that we may forgive others and show His kindness to them, for His glory and our best. What a great God!

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Psalm 143:10 Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit isgood; lead me into the land of uprightness.

Why Running is Essential to Christian Women

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

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Are You Running?

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

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…and why you should be!

My girlfriend’s recent graduate was sitting shotgun as they drove through for free celebration donuts. Her always skinny husband was sitting in the backseat of the car appearing ready to handle any excess in the donut realm, and I said as much. I had to laugh as my friend replied, “He can’t eat them much, either. Funny how as we get older our bodies boss us around.”

Spending so much money on athletic shoes pushes itself higher on my priority list every year and always under duress, but my feet are cranky and picky and getting older. It’s certain I have a work to do as my body bosses me around and tries to rid me of any veto power I currently possess.

Are you running?

I’m not a runner. I’m barely a walker but I do enjoy walking. I feel frustrated when I don’t see results on the scale and tend to punish myself by stopping short even though I know it’s good for me, and it feels good to me. Mom used to say I have a habit of cutting off my nose to spite my face; I suppose this would fall under that category. I’m trying! I want to enjoy life and I can’t wait until it’s too late. So, I’ve got my running shoes on. God talks a bit about running through His Word, too.

Enjoying Life is God’s Desire for Believers

Solomon, the wisest man to live, walks through how vain and futile life’s work and toil are, and how it’s difficult to make much sense out of these times no matter how rich or wise we are. Start reading in Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and really listen to what he shares of life’s worth. I felt like we were sitting together today, and I was nodding my head and saying how much I agree with him. When I came to the verse that says a fool and a wise man both die the same, it wrapped up my thoughts, life is hard, sometimes God doesn’t give us all the details in and through life’s toil (our labor of life, or work: hardships thereof), and riches and wisdom are not deterrents to death. Are we here to work ourselves to death hating every moment? God forbid, but what? Heavy stuff. I’m glad I didn’t, and God didn’t, stop there. So let’s keep going.

Wisdom and Riches are no respecters of death

Then I saw these verses and I paused, re-read, searched more and let God lead my thoughts and my heart. Listen to what Solomon concludes:

Ecc 2:23-26a 24A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness…

Enjoy Life

I mean, here the wisest man alive is penning through God’s spirit the answer to a laborious life: find enjoyment in life, the rest if futile. Verse 26 says the person who pleases God receives wisdom, knowledge and happiness. Could we say then, our life’s work isn’t that which we pull a paycheck from, nor that which we run around accomplishing from each rising of the sun, but rather it’s pleasing God. I’d like to think the work God gives us to do matters, not because we have to toil through it, but because it comes from Him. In fact, Solomon agrees:

Enjoying Life is God’s Gift to us

Ecc 3:12-13 12I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.

I want to live a happy life, do you? I am not talking about name it, claim it mantra, that’s bunk. I’m talking about God’s Word right here: “Find satisfaction in their toil-this is the gift of God.”

About those Running Shoes

Are you realizing God’s satisfaction and enjoyment in your own life, or do you feel like you’re overtaken in the toil of today? There’s hope; you don’t have to stay there!

Run for Protection

Who doesn’t want to enjoy life and find happiness? If you’re my sister in Christ, He is yours and His gift of enjoying life belongs to you. How do you get to Him when you’re swamped over in fear, emotion, or dismay? You run.

Proverbs 18:10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous RUN to it and are safe.

As imperfect Christians, we spend too much time running AWAY from God: distractions come in every way you can think of and when we’re caught in the mix, we run, we try to do things ourselves, we avoid doing things ourselves, we run…but we’re not running to our strong tower. Don’t trip over the untied laces, or maybe you’ve got to go without shoes altogether, and that’s ok–but RUN, Sister. RUN to the Lord, Run to Him for Protection.

Run with a Plan

When we are safe, we’ll do anything. I love, love, love to be at the beach. I’ll stay there all day, any day…as long as I’m safe. Strong Florida sun light will burn up my skin in no time; give me a hat, an umbrella or some safe sunblock and I’m good. Show me lightning striking from the clouds, and I’m running back to my car. I have a plan both for safety and for purpose to enjoy my time.

I Cor 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Run with a Purpose

God tells us to run with a plan to receive His prize imperishable. It’s worth the race, Friends! (And, even the runner that I am not realizes running a marathon is riddled with pain and sacrifices.)

Run with Promise

One thing I can say for sure, if I was out there trying to get my walk going with out the promise of returning home and finding rest, I couldn’t make it past going out the door. I know, even in just walking, I will get tired and need the the promise of an end in sight, or I would surely quit.

Isaiah 40:29-31 29He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Toil is no deal breaker for God’s happiness in our life!

In life’s hard work, and we won’t always have God’s answers to why we go through what we do, but I want to realize and live God’s gift of enjoying the life He gives me, even when I’m laboring or suffering (toil) through.

Run to God, my friends. Let HIM wrap you up in safety, and when you’re ready to get back out there and run, run with the plan, purpose and promise He has for you. There’s one life here on earth we’re given to live.

Please God and be happy!

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I (Jesus) came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.

Faith: Divine Persuasion

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

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Listen HERE

HELP! I’VE HAD ENOUGH!

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

click here for the podcast

Is life supposed to feel this hard?

I’ve had enough

I’m over it. I’ve had enough. I’m over this pandemic & all the fear that comes with it. I’m over being at the receiving end of someone else’s sinful life choices as their selfishness and pride overflow hurtfully in my life. I’m over all the confusion of what is wise, true and required of me. I’m over trying to make sense by that which seems to threaten my ordinary thoughts and life with my family. I’m over the hard things in life.

The world will make you crazy

This is the internal fight I’m having with my head and heart. The world will make you crazy! Can you relate? My fingers want to go crazy on this keyboard describing all the things I’m frustrated with, but it’s no use. It doesn’t really matter. Let me tell you why that’s so.

I’ve been reading through Hebrews. We’re familiar with chapter 11, the Faith Chapter, but don’t miss chapter 10-promise to go back and read through this amazing part of scripture; you won’t be sorry! And here in the Fatih chapter we’ll plop ourselves for this moment, but probably you’ve never considered what’s on my heart and I want you to in the next few minutes.

Faith

Hebrews 11:1 tells us what Fatih is, and we’ve heard it -probaly know this verse by memory:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Greek to me

The Greek word is PISTIS that means FAITH. The root for PISTIS is PEITHO. Peitho: to persuade or be persuaded. So, we find the core meaning of FAITH in these this original language. FAITH: GOD’S DIVINE PERSUASION

FAITH is always FROM God

Believers can participate in faith but never create or being with it on our own. Faith must come from God. With that in mind, I went through Hebrew’s 11 and made some notes. What can and did God do in faith?

The Name and the outcome of FAITH

I’m going to take apart Hebrew’s 11 by the person named by God and what they did by FAITH. What action did divine persuasion precipitate in their life?

By Faith:

Able offered

Enoch was translated

Noah moved

Abraham obeyed

Sara received

Isaac blessed

Joseph made mention

Moses was hid, refused, chose, esteemed, forsook, kept and passed through

Rahab perished not

Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthae, Samuel, the Prophets…

…subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the sword’s edge, *made strong out of weakness,* waxed valiant, turned to flight armies of aliens…

What’s going on in your life?

I know I zoomed through this, and I hate to do that. Go read this in detail after I’m finished. But look, look what happened in every single instance of impossible: faith made a way when there was no way. In the mix of trouble in life, real trouble like what you and I feel this moment, God gave faith: divine persuasion.

Divine Persuasion and Faith

Nothing preceding “by faith” in the life of the person mentioned in these verses was good. Each time, life was looking really bad. But bad, trouble and impossible were not in God’s plan. His perspective was Faith: Divine persuasion.

What if it’s really FAITH?

What if all the trouble and impossible surrounding you and weighing you down emotionally, physically and spiritually is the same as our fellow brothers and sisters out of Hebrews 11? What if this is really God’s hand at work and it’s preceding BY FAITH in our very life this day? What if the turmoil in our country is really God answering the cries of His own? What if what we’re kicking against is the very work of Faith and everything we’re hoping for but have yet to see?

Hard things are part of life

I’ve had to stop and look at every hardship we know about in these verses. Sara got pregnant, friends. God’s promise to Abraham, more seed than the stars and more numerous than the sand was fulfilled in the impossible except by God’s divine interruption convinced only AFTER it came to be, but never less true when it was yet to be manifest. Sara received strength in her life when life tried to mock her, scare her silly and deem her crazy because old women don’t fall pregnant. Remember feeling the horror as Harambe, the gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo, dragged the little boy that ended up in his habitat? He was spared. Daniel met the mouths of vicious lions as he was plummeted into their domain. Seems impossible. No one was around to shoot the lions dead, except God’s divine persuasion was at work in Daniel’s hopeless circumstances. I can’t go through every one of these and the pattern of impossible & horrible will come out the same as God’s persuasion affirms His faith in our lives as we choose to trust Him.

Choose to trust Him

Friends, I get it. Life is unpredictable and in a lot of ways it feels like that more than ever before. If only you could be walking beside me this week. You’d see those impossibles. And, you’d see God, too, mostly in the way I’m asking you to find Him in your own life; by faith. I don’t know exactly what comes after the “by faith” in my own life’s story right now, but I”m feeling the crunch of the impossible that precedes it, yet chasing the FAITH God has for me. I know He’s at work, and I cannot wait to see this time what comes next.

Thanking the Lord for what He is doing!

Thank You, Lord. I know you’re writing the story of me and whatever is coming by faith, it’s worth trusting You in and resting in Your love. Thank you!