Category: Philippians

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Obedience & Boldness

This morning I will be sharing teachings with the ladies of Desert Christian Fellowship in Phoenix. Through the year I have been studying different women in the Bible who were world-changers because of their boldness.

The Lord has taught me that there is a link between boldness and obedience. The women whose stories I will be telling were not particularly gifted or talented but they were obedient to what God asked of them. Once they knew God had called them to a specific task and they were obedient in accepting that calling, they stepped out boldly.

Obedience and Boldness go hand-in-hand.

“Tell me,” Samuel said. “Does the Lord really want sacrifices and offerings? No! He doesn’t want your sacrifices. He wants you to obey him.” I Samuel 15:22 CEV

The Lord is more concerned about our heart’s attitude than our religious actions.

Once you do a word search on “obey” it doesn’t take long to find the names of Bible greats who obeyed God; there was Noah, Abraham, Moses, Aaron, David, Samuel, Gideon, Daniel and let’s not leave out ladies like Esther, Ruth, Miriam, Mary, Sarah, Rahab…These were ordinary people who boldly stepped forward in obedience when the Lord called on them.

“Today I am explaining his laws and teachings. And if you always obey them, you and your descendants will live long and be successful in the land the Lord is giving you.” Deuteronomy 4:40 CEV

Just like little children, we are to obey our heavenly Father and that obedience empowers us for the tasks we face. When we are obedient we can have boldness that He is leading us and providing for us each step of the way.

“Long ago I promised the ancestors of Israel that I would give this land to their descendants. So be strong and brave! Be careful to do everything my servant Moses taught you. Never stop reading The Book of the Law he gave you. Day and night you must think about what it says. If you obey it completely, you and Israel will be able to take this land. 9 I’ve commanded you to be strong and brave. Don’t ever be afraid or discouraged! I am the Lord your God, and I will be there to help you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:6-9 CEV

Obedience and Boldness walk hand-in-hand. We obey and God gives us the strength and the boldness. We are never alone when we walk obedient to His calling!

“God is working in you to make you willing and able to obey him.” Philippians 2:13 CEV

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Go to the Rock!

When we get bad news, where is the first place we go? Do we seek out a second opinion, head to the bar, talk to a close friend? Where do we turn?

The first place my heart turns is to my Rock! There is only one place I know to find wisdom, strength, hope and help.

“God, hear my cry for help.
    Listen to my prayer.
2 From a faraway land I call to you for help.
    I feel so weak and helpless!
Carry me to a high rock
    where no one can reach me.
3 You are my place of safety,
    a strong tower that protects me from my enemies.
4 I want to live in your tent forever.
    I want to hide where you can protect me. Selah” Psalm 61:1-4 ERV

Since April, Dave and I have seen some landscapes with massive rocks. This morning I could see all those places with my mind’s eye: City of Rocks, Gila Cliff Dwellings and the Catwalk. Each place I was looking up at the grandeur and the almost impenetrable fortress that these rocks provided.

These rocks became an object lesson for my faith. “When I feel weak and helpless, carry me to the Rock”.

When we are overwhelmed, the Apostle Paul tells us we are to guard our hearts.

“Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.

7 And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 AMP

Jesus told us that his word is the rock that we should build our lives on and when the storms of life blow in, trying to destroy our house, that if we are built on the rock we will withstand the storm.

“He is my God, the Rock I run to for protection. He is my shield; by his power I am saved. He is my hiding place, my place of safety, high in the hills. He is my savior, the one who rescues me from the cruel enemy.” II Samuel 22:3 ERV

Bad news, devastating storms, heart ache – what are you facing?

“They will not be afraid of bad news. They are confident because they trust in the Lord.
8 They remain confident and without fear, so they defeat their enemies.” Psalm 11:7-8 ERV

Go to the Rock!

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The Little Things

Last week, as I was trying to find a way to get the blog posted, I woke up discouraged. I couldn’t figure out why I was not being successful in my efforts to log in to my site.

I was talking with my Father, expressing my frustration and disappointment. I felt discouraged. I wasn’t being able to reach out to all of you.

Then I looked up to see the little portable heater sitting on the floor across from me. I stared at it for a moment and there I found encouragement.

No, I’m not crazy!

But I do find the Lord ministers to me in the simplest ways and that morning it came from focusing on my heater. The LED display most often gives a temperature reading but this morning the reading said “Hi”.

Hi? I know hi meant the opposite of the fan being on low but that little “hi” was a warm greeting to my heart.

Hi, being the shortened form of hello was just the morning greeting I needed.

It’s the little things that often touch our hearts and bring encouragement. A hug, the touch of a hand, a smile, a kind word (saying thank you), all of these can make a big difference in someone’s day.

“Christ encourages you, and his love comforts you. God’s Spirit unites you, and you are concerned for others. 2 Now make me completely happy! Live in harmony by showing love for each other. Be united in what you think, as if you were only one person. 3 Don’t be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves. 4 Care about them as much as you care about yourselves” Philippians 2:1-4 CEV

As Christ encourages us, we should also be encouraging others. Look for the little things you can do today to brighten someone’s outlook.

It may be something as simple as saying “hi”.

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More Peace

As I was praying this morning only one word kept coming to mind – peace.

I said “Lord, I’ve just finished several blogs on peace. Do you want me to continue?” The answer was clear. “Yes, continue teaching on peace as long as I tell you”.

“When I felt my feet slipping, you came with your love and kept me steady. And when I was burdened with worries, you comforted me and made me feel secure.” Psalm 94:18-19 CEV

We get very little news coverage in the mountains but we aren’t completely uninformed either. I’ve heard of the hurricanes, earthquakes, increase in COVID cases and the unrest in Afghanistan. It’s enough to make hearts sick and knees weakened.

That’s why we need God’s peace!

“5 Only God gives inward peace,
and I depend on him.
6 God alone is the mighty rock
that keeps me safe,
and he is the fortress
where I feel secure.” Psalm 62:5-6 CEV

Our Father wants us to be as confident in His power to protect and provide through the storm as we are when there is no storm.

“Jesus said to his disciples, “Don’t be worried! Have faith in God and have faith in me.” John 14:1 CEV

“Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. 7 Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel.” Philippians 4:6-7 CEV

I know some reading this have recently been through some near-death experiences, lost loved ones, have loved ones in dangerous circumstances and been through terrible storms. I have prayed that God’s peace would wrap around you like a warm blanket, controlling your thoughts so that you can be at rest in His care.

Keep your focus on the Father’s unbreakable promises and live in His peace!

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Something New

Each morning when I open the WordPress site and I click on the post tab I am offered several options; All Posts, Add New, Categories and Tags. And each morning I click on the “Add New” selection.

What appears on my screen is a blank page and at the top of the page it says “Add Title”. This morning when I read “add new”, my memory bank opened to the day I read Philippians 4:19 and really took it to heart.

“And my God will give you everything you need because of His great riches in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 NLV

I had memorized this verse as a second grader, in Sunday School class. But this was different. I was an adult, sitting with Dave at our kitchen table, in a house we were renting in Glendale, AZ. Our oldest daughter was 5 1/2 years old, our son was 4. We had been challenged the week before by a preacher at Cowboy Church to start our Bible reading with a prayer.

“Lord, make Your word come alive to me to day. Since these are Your words show me what you meant for me to learn when You had men write them down so long ago”. Amen.

Dave had been having a hard time finding work. Our electric bill was past due. Each week I made my grocery list, praying over the things I needed to purchase but only having $20 in our grocery budget. That day, at that table, those words jumped off the page and into my heart. There was no immediate change in our situation but our hearts filled with faith, knowing that God would give us everything we needed because Jesus had paid the debt for our sin and by His death we became joint heirs with Christ. We were as much God’s children as Jesus was.

Oh my goodness! We could hardly contain ourselves!! We couldn’t have been more excited if someone had come to the door and given us a check for a million dollars.

Add New!

Absolutely! What we added was a new knowledge of God’s word, a new depth of faith, a new confidence that when God makes a promise He keeps it. This was 45 years ago. I would love to say that we never faltered in trusting God’s promises but that wouldn’t be true. However, each time we have gone discouraged and fail to trust the Father with all the areas of our life He has remained faithful. He has never broken one of His promises and He never will! He’s never left us, although, at times we have walked away from Him.

I will leave you with my favorite verse in the Bible.

“God is no mere human! He doesn’t tell lies or change his mind. God always keeps his promises.” Numbers 23:19 CEV

Every promise in the Bible is from God. He gave them to us, His children, and He won’t change His mind or break His word.

I encourage you to do what that cowboy preacher instructed us to do. Pray before you read and ask the Father to make His words real to you. I know you will open the pages and find “something new”.

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When Things Don’t Go As Planned

Some things in life catch us off guard! Now what?!

This week some friends of ours definitely had an unexpected circumstance to deal with. Lightning struck a very large ponderosa pine tree near their 5th wheel trailer. The tree exploded! Pieces of wood were thrown through the air, some landing over 200 feet away from the damaged tree.

One piece, weighing several hundred pounds went through the front of their trailer. What do you do?

Thank God they weren’t home at the time and especially thankful that no one was injured. There were other trailers in the same area, along with a number of vehicles but none of those were damaged either.

What a mess!

“Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.” Psalm 23:4 NLT

As friends you give them a shoulder to cry on, offer your help in cleaning things up and then listen while they talk through what they need to do next. And you pray…

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 NLT

When we don’t have the answers, God always does. He can be trusted to make a way provision. In all of life’s unexpected circumstances place your trust in the Lord.

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Get the Right Focus

Several months ago I was able to purchase a new camera. It isn’t anywhere near top-of-the-line but it’s the best camera I have ever owned. I so appreciate a friend, Scott, who knows more about these things than I and he gave me some excellent recommendations.

I was determined to learn to use this camera to the best of my ability. I even sat down several afternoons and watched YouTube tutorials, with camera in hand. And then life happened.

Things got busy and we headed to the mountains for the summer. What I didn’t realize when we left is that our internet service would be as limited as it is and I wouldn’t be able to rely on that on-line instruction and training that I wanted to learn more about aperture, shutter speed, manual focus, etc.

I know having an understanding of these things will aid me immensely in creating better shots. However, I am lacking in knowledge and experience. I have found that the best camera setting for me at this time is “IA” mode, which means intelligent auto mode. Basically, with that setting the camera takes over for me and gets me the best shots available because of my limited knowledge. I am content with that.

It keeps me focused. Obviously the image I used this morning is one I took trying to use my own settings. It’s blurry!

Isn’t that the way it is with life?

There is so much that can distract us, lead us off course and blur our vision. More education, a newer house, a different job, retirement, more fulfilling relationships. Our mind’s eye dashes here and there trying to focus on what is most important and how to achieve it.  There is really no matter greater to trust with the  “intelligent auto” setting for our lives than the Lord.

“Your eyes are like a window for your body. When they are good, you have all the light you need. 23 But when your eyes are bad, everything is dark. If the light inside you is dark, you surely are in the dark.” Matthew 6:22 CEV

The Apostle Paul was very aware of this. He had so many things happening in his life he had to be reminded to stay focused.  He was responsible for the teaching and care of thousands of new Christians, he was being persecuted in nearly every town he preached in and finally he was imprisoned in Rome for the teachings of Christ. He was focused on the finish line.

“I keep running hard toward the finish line to get the prize that is mine because God has called me through Christ Jesus to life up there in heaven.” Philippians 3:14 ERV

When we walk with the Lord and learn to depend upon His word our skills will improve and we will be able to utiltize more of what the Lord has available for us. However, we never want to lose focus of what should be at the center of our lives.

“But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.” Matthew 6:33 CEV

Stay focused on what’s most important, everything else will fall into place.

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I Can’t

The last few days I have been reading about all the intricate details that were involved in building the Tent of Meeting which the Israelites used as their place of worship while traveling through the wilderness.

God had given Moses a specific blueprint for the project and his people were to follow every detailed instruction. Now these were men who had spent half a lifetime making bricks for Egypt’s Pharoah. They weren’t skilled in spinning fine linen, dying animals skins with purple, scarlet and blues.

What did they know about goldmithing? Hammering gold thin enough to be used for thread or sculpting it into intricate shapes of pomegrantes and bells, cheribum, candleholders and rings. Overlaying acacia wood with gold. They also needed to be experts in silversmithing and the casting of bronze.

When you’re given a task this emense, do you throw up your hands and say I can’t?

“The Lord has gifted Bezalel, Oholiab, and the other skilled craftsmen with wisdom and ability to perform any task involved in building the sanctuary. Let them construct and furnish the Tabernacle, just as the Lord has commanded.”

2 So Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and all the others who were specially gifted by the Lord and were eager to get to work. 3 Moses gave them the materials donated by the people of Israel as sacred offerings for the completion of the sanctuary. But the people continued to bring additional gifts each morning.” Exodus 36:1-3 NLT

These men knew they had been gifted by God. They simply followed His instructions and when they were finished the Bible says “The Israelites did all this work exactly as the Lord had commanded Moses. 43 Moses looked closely at all the work and saw that it was done exactly as the Lord had commanded. So Moses blessed them.” Exodus 39:42-43 ERV

What has the Lord called you to do? Do you face a task that you feel is just to big for you? Should someone else who is more qualified being doing it?

I can’t.

No one can be the kind of parent to your children that you can! God has lovingly placed them in your care. No one else will be able to touch the lives of your co-workers like you will. No one else can be the friend that you are. Will there be challenges? Surely. Will there be mistakes? Almost certainly. Then why go on?

Why not say “I can’t”?

God has a purpose and plan for your life. He has a design for you to fulfill. There was only one David who faced Goliath, only one Daniel who faced the lion’s den, only one Peter who stood up and preached on the day of Pentecost and there’s only one you!

However, you’ve never been asked to fulfill your destiny alone.

“Christ is the one who gives me the strength I need to do whatever I must do.” Philippians 4:13 ERV

With Christ we can do all things. I encourage you to expand upon our original statement. With Christ, I can’t fail!

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Do All Things

Dave and I subscribed to several full time rving YouTube channels. We travel vicariously through their adventures and we also have created a list of the sites we would most like to see in our 5th wheel. It’s so refreshing to see the beauty that God has created.

One of the channels is relatively new, Switch It Up. This couple has a real place in our hearts. Not only do they travel to some interesting places but they are open in sharing about their faith and trust in the Lord.

During each segment there will be a time when they said this: Do all the things. They mean Like, Subscribe, Share. In fact, they have a t-shirt with that slogan on it and I purchased one.

That phrase has a double meaning to me. There are a number of verses in the Bible that tell us to do all. I want to be a doer of all the things that the Lord has asked us to do. I’ll share some of those verses with you.

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” I Corinthians 10:31 NLT

“Be glad you can do the things you should be doing. Do all things without arguing and talking about how you wish you did not have to do them.” Philippians 2:14 NLV

“I can do all things because Christ gives me the strength.” Philippians 4:13 NLV

“Whatever you do, whether in speech or action, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus and give thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17 CEB

There you have it. Be a doer of all things!

God has called us to be a light to the world. In our case that involves RVing. Wherever God calls you, wherever He leads you He will equip you to do all things for His glory!

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Making the Bitter Sweet

The last two days I have shared some of the struggles the Israelites encountered as they left Egypt and ventured into the wilderness. There is so much we can learn from their story.

These were a people who had been in slavery and hard labor for a good four hundred years. The Lord had made a promise that He would bring them into their own land hundreds of years before. They had let their hope die.

Then Moses comes on the scene and says the Lord sent me to lead you out. Their basic comment was “don’t stir things up Moses”. But Moses obeyed the Lord and went to pharoah and asked him to let the people go out from Egypt three days journey to offer sacrifices and worship the Lord.

You know the story. Pharoah had a hardened heart to anything that had to do with the Lord and he refused. The plagues came – flies, locusts, frogs, water turning to blood, hail, thick darkness, boils, dead livestock and finally death.

Deliverance came.

They marched out of Egypt, only to be pursued by pharoah’s army. The Israelites complained, “you brought us out here to be killed, we should turn back”. The Lord brought them safely through the Red Sea and destroyed the Egyptian army.

Then came the party.

Singing, dancing, praising God for being so great and wonderful. These were a fickled people – faith filled one moment and faithless the next.

“Then she sang to them: “Sing praises to the Lord for his great victory! He has thrown the horses and their riders into the sea.”

22 After the Israelites left the Red Sea, Moses led them through the Shur Desert for three days, before finding water. 23 They did find water at Marah, but it was bitter, which is how that place got its name. 24 The people complained and said, “Moses, what are we going to drink?” 25 Moses asked the Lord for help, and the Lord told him to throw a piece of wood into the water. Moses did so, and the water became fit to drink. At Marah the Lord tested his people and also gave them some laws and teachings. ” Exodus 15:21-25 CEV

From singing and dancing to murmuring and complaining. How quickly they turned.

Let’s not be to harsh on them. We’ve done this too. God answers our prayers and we sing His praises and then the next hardship comes and we begin to ask “Lord, where are you?”.

Let’s learn from them and what the Lord did. The Lord loved these people. He had no evil intent toward them. He brought them out of Egypt to save them, not destroy them. Natural circumstances gave them bitter water, the Lord made it sweet.

Sounds like the old expression “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. Our Father is good, kind and loving. The Lord loves us too. Why is it so hard for us to trust Him?

“Yes, it is God who is working in you. He helps you want to do what pleases him, and he gives you the power to do it. 14 Do everything without complaining or arguing” Philippians 2:13-14 ERV

Are you in life’s desert right now? Do circumstances look bleek and bitter? Refrain from complaining and trust the Father.

He will make the bitter sweet.

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