Author: Guest Blogger

Written by Danielle King

Have you ever had your plans changed unexpectedly? Who hasn’t? Do you wish you could keep all your plans just the way you make them? Who wouldn’t? There’s nothing like a well-laid-out plan, along with a well-laid-out result, to help us feel the security of being in control. 

Like most of us, I definitely appreciate the security of being in control. I am a planner. Always have been. Plan for marriage. Plan for family. Plan for career. Plan for life. But what happens when the deep-rooted trunk holding the branches of this life is unexpectedly split. Stillness in marriage changed. Family’s emotions strained. Entirety of career ended. Direction of life completely and utterly changed. A UTV accident left me in the hospital for two weeks and without my dominant hand. The path I had thought was ahead of me was gone. Suddenly, my wants and desires I had through the years were shrouded by needs that I never thought I would have. I had never felt such a tremendous need for my husband, my family, my friends, and my God. The emotional and physical pain was almost too much to bear. The new path felt hopeless. I wanted to give up.

That path I have been on this last year and a half has definitely been bumpy. Not nearly as smooth as the one I thought I’d be traveling. I’ve had some smooth spots, to be sure, but these new needs and struggles have left my heart aching much more often than I had planned for. But along with all the new, emotionally draining frustrations I’ve been feeling, I’ve noticed something else. Well, I like to think I’ve been shown something else. These eighteen months have brought tears and pain, but also new relationships and bonds. I’ve turned to crying and anger, but also prayer and friends. I’ve needed doctors and family, but also strength and God.

We don’t all share the same kinds of struggles and pain. But we do share the same fallen world. And as His children, we share the same faithful and loving God, who wants to bring us closer to Him. And He is so loving, that He is willing to stir us up sometimes to get us there. And when we hit one or some of those rough spots on whichever path we happen to be on, God may be preparing you to be used to stir up and comfort someone else who is on a similar path you are on, just a bit behind you.

So I would like to encourage you, when you are enduring that unexpected path change, today or someday, to turn to God and prayer and family and friends and anyone else who is willing to hop in for the ride. Ask God to help you see some of the ways He is working through the struggle. To see how your new needs are bringing about new bonds and relationships; new reliances upon God’s provision and grace; new strength, character, and faith. God knows, as we often forget, that tribulation for His children is what ultimately brings us to Him, to clearer vision of His glory, and ultimately to true Christian strength and joy.

P.S.-Here’s a song that I’ve listened to, almost daily, that has given me comfort, reminding me of how good and faithful God is to carry me through those tough times. I pray it might remind you of how you are loved, and are being carried through both the good times and the bad, and how God is right now, and always, preparing you to receive His joy and to stand in the presence of His glory.

Goodness Of God (Lyrics) ~ Bethel Music

Written by Idella Zell

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.  He restores my soul.” Psalms 23:1-3

To restore means “to repair, renovate or return to a former condition.”

When I think about my soul, I think about the deepest part of my inner being.  I think that God wants me to go deeper with Him and give Him my all from the depths of my soul. I think about surrendering everything that would hinder me from a clear pathway to Him.  If my soul has wandered from Him, I pray that it will find its way back to Him. I pray that whatever damage has been done to it by the tragedies and trials of life will be repaired and restored to its original condition.  I desire to submit my heart and soul to God free and clear of any obstructions so that He can move in my life as He pleases!

As I reflect on His goodness, I am reminded of all the victories He has brought me through. One of my main sayings is that “can’t nobody do me like Jesus, can’t nobody do me like the Lord!” (this is actually part of a song) He always knows how to handle me and bring me in line with what He has planned.  If I get off track, He will bring me right back in line. My constant prayer is for His complete and perfect will to be done in every area of my life no matter what. I pray that He will not let anything happen in my life that He hasn’t planned.

This was the case when I attempted to go to trucking school years ago. I thought it was His will for me but discovered years later and a couple of thousand dollars later that this was not His will for me.  I was devastated and damaged! So today I would like to open my heart and soul completely to Him to restore me and bring me back to the center of His will. I pray that I will continue to submit to Him and not have a desire for things that are not a part of His plan and purpose for my life.

My challenge for you today is for you to submit your soul completely into His hands and allow Him to restore your soul from the damage that has occurred through hurt, abandonment, anger, unforgiveness, and anything else you have allowed into your spirit and soul.  He is the restorer of your soul.  He wants to give you back your life and bind up your wounds.  He wants to give you strength when you feel weak. He wants to heal your damaged emotions.  Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning (Ps. 30:5).  As the deer pants after the water, God wants our souls to pant after Him and Him only (Ps. 42:1)!  We can only do this through surrendering ourselves to Him and His word.  His word restores us so let us meditate, memorize, and speak it over our lives and our situations continuously.

Father God, we ask that You will give us a mind to surrender our souls to You. Forgive us for the times we tried to handle things on our own.  We surrender hurt, feelings of abandonment, anger, bitterness, and anything else that would keep us from total surrender. We release our emotions to You and ask that You will heal the damage from our pasts and from this moment forward by faith we receive your peace and restoration in our souls in Jesus’ Name!

Scriptures for further study:

**There are 432 verses with the word “soul” but these are just a few:

Psalm 25:1
Matthew 11:28-30
Psalm 31:7
Psalm 33:20
Psalm 34:2
Psalm 34:22
Psalm 35:9
Psalm 35:13

Written by Taylor Mendenhall

I feel like I have recently become a “baby Christian” again. 

Yes, I grew up in church. I knew how to “play the part” and I knew what mask you wear and when. I knew how to look like a good and healthy Christian, 

I feel like I never knew Jesus though…. Until recently. 

Now, this is no one’s fault but mine. I’m not here to blame my parents or the church I grew up in for this because it was my choice in the end. I’m the one that lied and said I was doing all the right things. I’m the one that played that part and wore the right masks. The truth is, church just became like school to me. I’d be going multiple times a week(as a deacon’s kid). I’d pray, listen, worship, take notes, see my “church friends” and make all of my usual social interactions, then go home and never apply or study what I learned or heard. And after a while, it became so normal that when I brought my school friends to church, they didn’t recognize me. And it had become so normal for me that I didn’t even notice how bad it was. 

But, that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about the true and real relationship with Jesus I have now, that I wish I’d had so long ago. 

For so long I believed that if I didn’t have some kind of emotional response, then I didn’t “get anything” from Jesus in a church service (Maybe that came from my Pentecostal background if you know you know). And it’s taken me YEARS to finally realize, that’s just NOT TRUE. Of course, sometimes we have emotional reactions to His presence and how He speaks to us. I just genuinely never heard of someone hearing from Jesus and not having an emotional and physical response. I never heard that until I was 20 years old and my now husband told me how he hears from Jesus. He is not an emotional man and is a very logical thinker, so Jesus speaks to him logically. I genuinely could not wrap my brain around that. He doesn’t cry and fall on his face every time he prays? But why?  This turned into some serious and interesting conversations with him where he quoted scripture and explained the facts to me. I was in genuine shock! I’d never even read these scriptures or heard these stories. I’d grown up hearing and memorizing all of the “buzz word” scriptures. But I never knew the scriptures around it or the context of anything I’d heard. 

So now, 8 years later, why do I feel like I’m a “baby Christian” again? Well, because I’m stubborn. I went through a lot in the last 8 years, and in 2020 I hit a LOW rock bottom (tbh, we all kind of did right?). I didn’t want to believe Jesus anymore to the point where if a Christian radio came on in the car, I just shut it off. I was angry at God and everything His followers stood for, and that’s a bad place to be for anyone. Then, in 2021, a dark reality hit me. I had an experience only a few people really know about, but it made me really afraid of what will happen when I die. 

It was almost instantly, that I began to pray like I’d never prayed before. And, because I was alone, I didn’t feel the need to put my mask back on and put on a show like I used to. I genuinely felt His presence that night and craved Him in my life FOR REAL this time. And that Sunday I got my family up and we went to church for the first time in about a year. We joined Journey Groups, and Discipleship Groups, made true and real friendships that will last a lifetime, and it lit a fire in me I haven’t felt before. I found something I had been wanting for the last 8 years and didn’t even know it. The real, and true spirit of Jesus came into our lives and flipped them upside down. 

I have so many things I’m still overcoming and working on in myself, but the hope and peace I have in so many situations are unmatched. The need to read my Bible and pray every day is beautiful, and I feel weird if I don’t get that time with Jesus. And I’m doing it for real, not to prove a point to anyone around me. I’ve found myself in Him and seen him through fresh eyes. It’s been a beautiful year and I’m finally feeling excited for what is to come! 

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die? But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:6-8‬ ‭NIV

Written by: Danielle King

John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Gas prices. Grocery totals. The rise in the risk of offending, and the fall in the value of an honest day’s work. Can you feel your joy being strained as you are reminded of just a few hot topics of the day? Each day and each headline tries to cast a shadow over the words “that your joy may be full”.

On days like these, how do we live out each one full of joy? As Christians, we know that God created roses. We know He made them fragrant. But how often do we stop to smell them? Do we ask God for the ability to rejoice in that fragrance? How often do we ponder the idea that He created all He created, does all that He does, is all that He is for His glory, first and foremost, but that the ability to share in His joy is the most fortunate by-product of His glory.

Is it sometimes a challenge to think of God as a happy God? Is it counterintuitive to believe God truly cares about our happiness here on Earth? Do you feel like caring about your own happiness is selfish, and that it is sinful to care about that when you’re called to “carry your cross”? You wouldn’t be alone. Many of us can become caught up in the race that we are justly instructed to run, but forget that our Heavenly Father has also inspired many verses in scripture that instructs us to have a smile on our faces as we run.

John Piper provides an analogy to help usher in the idea that it is not wrong to ask God for true joy in our hearts, but that He is honored and glorified when we seek our joy in Him. That running parallel to our lifelong duty to serve Him, it is also so good to ask God for joy without feeling guilty or unworthy because He is honored when we do so. I shall borrow and paraphrase his illustration:

Suppose my husband secretly rang our doorbell on our anniversary. I open the door and he is standing outside with flowers in hand. He says “I’m here for our date.” I smile and cheer “You are so sweet. Why do I deserve such a thing?” What if he responded with “I want to take you out because it is my duty. I am your husband, and I am supposed to serve you. I don’t want you to be angry with me for not doing enough for you, so let’s go.” I would be hard pressed to feel any kind of honor from my husband, and in fact, I would feel invaluable and inadequate for his happiness. Now suppose, instead, he replies “I want to take you out because I can’t think of anyone else I would rather be with tonight. Being with you brings me so much joy, that my commitment to you is the easiest and most pleasurable thing I could do in life.”

That would be the way he would honor me and our relationship. And I believe that is the way we can honor God as well. So ask the Lord to share His joy with you. Ask Him to give you, by His Spirit, the kind of joy that will seem out of place in this fallen world. Tell Him, daily, that you know He is the only one good and glorious enough to keep you smiling as you continue the good fight during your time here on Earth. Then His joy may be in you, your joy may be full, and you can give glory to God for it.

“But if from there you seek the Lord Your God, you will find Him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deut. 4:29

Seek the Lord – Seek His presence: To be before His face is to be in His presence. It is the conscious fixing or focusing of our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on God. 1 Chron. 22:19a: “Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God.” and Col. 3:1-2 we are reminded to “set our hearts and minds on things above.”

In Psalm 34:10, the scripture tells that “Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing” and Psalm 14:2 says that “The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.”

God is looking for us to seek Him. Are you ready to become a seeker today? In Jeremiah 29:13, ” …when you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord.”

Have you thought about seeking God’s face instead of His hand? Do you go to God with your list of things you need from Him? Maybe you are running low on groceries or need gas in your car? You might say these are necessities that I need and so it should be okay to ask God to provide these things, right? Matthew 6:33, states “Seek God first and all these things will be added unto you.”

Today, we want to focus on seeking God’s face. Are you seeking God’s face in whatever situation you are in? What is going on in your life today? Is this a situation where you feel like you need to seek God’s face or His hand? When you get on your knees or sit to pray, can you picture God’s face and being in His presence?

I would like to encourage you to start focusing on being in the presence of God and when you pray, all those things you have on your list will be taken care of as you dive into His presence.

In my last blog, I spoke about deliverance. I pray that you have been reading the deliverance scriptures and inserting your name in the place where it pertains to what God has promised you in His word. One of the scriptures was in Psalm 34:17. This scripture speaks about the righteous crying out to God. I believe this type of cry will be the one that puts you in the presence of God as it comes from deep in your heart and soul. I pray that in this time of crying out, you will feel the presence of God as He delivers you out of all your troubles.

If you want to become a seeker, this will take time and effort. You will need to set aside a specific time daily, preferably in the morning to intentionally spend time with God and allow Him to penetrate your mind and soul. Prov. 8:17 says “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.”

In Charles Stanley’s Devotion, he lists some ways you can began seeking God and it starts with scripture and prayer. He also lists a few more ways to seek God including spending time with Him, meditating on God’s word, listening for His voice, slowly digesting what you read, talking to the Lord, asking Him questions, and applying what you learn.

When you take a pause in your day to spend time seeking the Lord (Psalm 105:4), you will position yourself to be aligned with God and His will for your life daily. This will make you aware of His continuous presence (Psalm 34:1) and allow you to surrender control of your life to Him. You will begin to acquire a hunger for the Lord and pursue Him and the more you pursue Him, the greater your cravings will be.

May you have a desire to become a seeker and acquire a deeper understanding and knowledge of Him. Prov. 2:4-6

Simple Prayer: Make me aware of Your presence every day and never let me turn my eyes from You. Be the vision of my life.

Scriptures for study: Lam. 3:35; Amos 5:4; Hosea 10:12; Isa. 55:6; Prov. 28:5; Psalm 105:3

Written by Idella Zell

Jehovah Mephalti – The Lord my Deliverer!

Oh no! She screamed, how can this be? Her head started spinning as if she was out of control! She was shaking all over and it seemed there was no end to it.  She fell to her knees and the tears began to fall. As the tears began to fall, she started pleading… Jesus help me! She continued to call on the name of Jesus and eventually she began confessing the Word of God. The more she confessed, the more the Word became alive to her and she realized that she was becoming stronger. She was saying things such as “the joy of the Lord is my strength” and “greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world” and before she knew it, she was smiling victoriously with tears of joy streaming down her face, praising God in the midst of her trial and those tears of devastation were turned to tears of victory!

This scenario could be any one of us but this is just an example of a situation where the woman received bad news possibly related to the loss of a child, spouse, or any close relative.

Actually, I have lost eight brothers and with one of the losses, I remember crying uncontrollably while sitting at my desk.  This was not a good reaction but at the time, my walk with the Lord wasn’t as strong as it is today, nevertheless, I do recall composing myself enough to take a flight home to bury my brother. When I received news about my other brothers, I prayed for God to give me the strength to be there for my family and help get us through the funerals as best as possible.

Have you ever felt like you were dealing with a strong enemy?  That enemy could be oppression, depression, anger, unforgiveness, grief, or even problems with the flesh.  Whatever your enemy is, God can rescue you and deliver you.

I want to talk about deliverance and how God can deliver us from any situation we are in.  This subject is not mentioned often but I would like to highlight it because it is mentioned over 100 times in the Bible.  If you search your reference, you will find that there are many times that deliver/deliverance is mentioned and it is not confined to demons.  This is something we need in our everyday life.

The meaning of deliverance is the act of delivering someone or something: the state of being delivered especially: liberation, rescue. Psalm 18:17 reads “He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.”

Deliverance is mentioned in the NIV Bible 20 times and in the KJV around 15 times.  Deliver is mentioned 281 in the KJV and 106 times in the NIV.

Each time I have studied this term deliverance/deliver, I am reminded of how much God loves us and wants to deliver us from our enemies, troubles, oppressors, and more than the areas listed below.  These are just a few:

Psalm 71:4 – the hand of the enemy
Psalm 142:6 – my persecutors
Psalm 119:134 – oppression
Psalm 120:2 – lying lips and a deceitful tongue
Psalm 34:4 – all my fears
Psalm 54:7 – all my troubles
Psalm 107:6 – my distresses
Matthew 6:13 – from evil
Psalm 54:3 – oppressors

In Exodus 3:7-10, we see that God saw the affliction of His people, heard their cries, knew their sufferings, and came down to deliver them.

God sees our affliction today and he hears our cry as well and he will deliver us the same way as he delivered the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt.  You might say, but I am not in Egypt today Idella, I am in America and I am not sure if God can help me in my situation.  Well, let me suggest something you can do to start moving towards freedom in your everyday life.  This is just one way to make the word of God personal to you: insert your name in the scripture and repeat it aloud to yourself.  Do not simply read these scriptures but say them with a heartfelt prayer to God because he is your deliverer!  (Jeremiah 29:13) Here are some examples:

Psalm 50:15 “And Idella will call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver Idella, and Idella shall glorify me.”
Psalm 107:6 “Then Idella cried to the Lord in her trouble, and he delivered her from her distress.”
Psalm 34:17 “When Idella cries for help, the Lord hears and delivers Idella out of all her troubles.”

I would like to encourage you to search the scriptures for any area you are dealing with in your life personally and allow the Lord to reveal his word to you and speak to your heart.  This will not be easy but with the help of the Holy Spirit’s leading, it will become easier as you dive deeper into his word and apply it with an intention to your life. Be encouraged ladies and enjoy your study!

Written by Idella Zell