Finding Grace in His Strength"My grace is sufficient for you; for my strength is made perfect in your weakness" 2Cor 12:9a On my walk today, I thought about the lack of sleep I had last night. I had to go to post office to mail something and it only would have taken ten minutes all together--that is if I had sufficient funds with me. I didn't and it meant I had to take another ten minute trip. That's a mile in itself. While I didn't have sufficient funds, God had enough grace for me to make it there without wanting to fall asleep or collapse. Jesus said to Paul, "My grace (his unmerited favor) is sufficient (enough) for you." Jesus would endow Paul with his favor as he had a thorn in his flesh. What was that thorn? Some would say it was his eye sight. I would like to say God allowed him to have that thorn to keep him from getting big headed from his revelation. But Jesus didn't stop there. He went onto say, "For my strength is made perfect in your weakness." In Paul's case it was eye sight. God would be his eyes. He would give him is strength and that was God's favor to Paul. Paul wrote to the Philippians that he could do all things through Christ which strengthens him. I believe that is true for us today. We may not feel strong enough to accomplish what he has us to do, but he can give us his strength. He didn't leave us in our weakness. He strengthened us! Paul later wrote in the same letter to the Corinthians that, "when he is weak, that is when he is strong. I recently heard a sermon about God giving us supernatural ability in our weakness. The word strength is the Greek word dunamis which means miraculous power. When we lack strength (Lacking power), God empowers us. Power also means ability. When you say I can do all things, you are saying, "I have power to do..." Perhaps this is why Paul boasted in his weakness. 
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Have You Met Beth?The building itself intimidated her as Ann parked her red car in the parking lot of NorCal Gym. The tall two-story building spanned half a block. As they walked to the entrance, Beth cringed. The treadmills taunted her.  Like Beth, the thought of going to the gym seemed dauting and overwhelming, but what if you can't go to gym? Could you lose weight in other ways? Most people would tell you that diet and exercise are the keys to losing weight. But if you are like me, going to the gym is not likely to happen. Why is that? Because unlike Beth, who is old enough to go to the gym alone, I don't regular income to pay the monthly fee. So how do I lose weight without going to gym? In my personal weight loss journey, I started with cutting down on the foods I love to eat. I also cut down on carbs. Was it hard? You bet, but I couldn't do it without God's help and the support from my sister. I found that carbs and sugar causes me to gain inches on my waist, and as I did, little by little the inches came off. I'm not saying that I'm where I want to be, but I am closing to meeting that goal. I have gone from wearing size large to medium and from 14 to 10. I also found that walking to work and back helped me burn calories, Beth had the advantage of going to the gym with her mother. You would find in book two the reason she gained weight. "I binged to feel good." Many people are the same way and they may have a lot more weight to lose than me. My sister does. Walking is hard for her because of her asthma and now her arthritic knee, but she found that drinking green tea and cutting down on servings helped her lose weight. I too, drink green tea and I took up a new workout routine when I am not working because in process of losing weight, I gained some excess skin called flab. I will keep on doing what I am doing until I reach my goal. A Man for Beth is not a how to lose weight book. It's a Christian romance. each of the main character struggled with acceptance and had bad experience with past relationships. You can read a little more about Beth in this blog: valentines-day.html  Discerning the Times. Today, I started to read a new Christian fantasy called The Prayer Warrior by Traci Wooden Carlisle and D. Tina Batten. I could already tell its about the battle for the children by the book opening. In the beginning, the female character is in a dream where she declares the words on her sword, which is the word of God. The sword represents faith. It isn't just saving faith either. It's mountain moving faith, and today believers need it to fight the good fight of faith. Many people who aren't taught this, won't agree that what's going on in the world is more than about politics. The enemy of our souls have blinded them, but for the rest of us, the veil had lifted and we see it is not a fight for our country, but for the children. God opened my eyes when I watched a documentary about Q and the president. There is a secret group called Deep State and their goal is to destroy all what America stands for and turn it into a socialist nation. But what they do in the dark is much more sinister than establishing the New World Order as they desire. One reason why they are pro-abortion is what they do with the aborted babies is use their adrenochrome in an elixir and drink it--it's their fountain of youth. Planned Parenthood also sell baby parts. This has been going on for years, and a result, Christian Americans have been crying out and praying. They also prayed because when people learned that Hilary Rodham Clinton became the democratic candidate for the general election, Americans prayed for a man who would save America-a non political machine would not fall into the swampy mire of the deep state. His name is Donald J Trump. Many in the charismatic/evangelical circle claimed he is our modern day Cyrus. You can read about it in Lance Wallnau book, God's Chaos Code. Ever since Trump became president, the democrats schemed to remove him from office and when all their efforts had failed, they had helped from China to steal Trumps votes. We are still in a battle. With Biden in office, the blood of aborted children are crying out and more and more children are taken off the streets for human sex trafficking, but God heard our prayers and he is working on it. The problem is some Christians have given up because they have given God a timeline or deadline and when he didn't meet it, they thought God had handed us over to our enemies and given up on the prophets. In order to discern the times, you need to read about the gods in the Bible. Pagans and some Jews have given their sons to Molech by sacrificing in them in the fire. Believers should read about kings and queens in the Bible who weren't faithful and obedient to God like Ahab and Jezebel. Trump won fair and square, but social media will tell you otherwise. Some Christians will even disagree, but he had over 74 million supporters, way more than Biden. I'm calling on all believers not to lose hope and keep on praying. God will act in his perfect time and he has. The snow, the rain and the extreme winds are all sent from heaven, God is still on His throne. He will answer. If you like spiritual warfare in horror books, check out Purify My Heart. Click on picture below.  As she stepped out, heat radiated through her(Marge's) crippled leg. It wasn't warm outside, so it had to mean something. 
Yesterday, I wrote about healing in the Bible. There are many examples in the new testament that healing is not just for the Jews. In one instance, Jesus had to time traveled you might say and go to the cross for the Syrophoenician woman because at that time, healing was for the Jews. Let the children be filled first. For it's not good to take the bread from the children and throw it to the little dogs. By saying this, Jesus referred to any non-Jew as a dog, but it didn't offend the woman. She said okay, let me have a little healing for my daughter. Her fait amazed Jesus so much that he went to the cross in that short time so her daughter could be healed. Jesus wants to heal you just as healed that woman and how Marge received her healing. Many have no faith and went to the doctor. But what if you spent all your money on your doctor and you are still not healed like the woman with the bleeding disease in her body for 12 years? Some times it's caused by a demonic spirit like the woman with an infirmity. Whom Satan bound for 18 years.(Luke 13;16). I have a friend who wrote about divine healing and he is a paramedic. His book is here: www.amazon.com/Divine-Healing-Made-Simple-Kingdom-ebook/dp/B00HMN0ZQW. He goes into more detail about it than I can. I just know that God still heals today because he never changes. If you ask then how come it's not mention in the letters, it's because each letter addresses issues that concerns the church. Apparently except in James and first letter to the Corinthians, the other churches had no problems with healing. James told his readers that the elders should lay their hands on the sick and Paul reminded the Corinthians that healing is a gift. It should be enough to convince you that healing still exist today. I believe that God added those instances in the Bible to encourage us to have faith for Jesus said, "Your faith had made you whole." It takes a step of faith to receive healing. My sister and I stopped attending a church service for countless of reasons, but one of them for them being Pentecostal, there were no evidence of being healed in that church or the gift of healing being used. If you are in a church like that, and want healing, look for a place of worship that has a healing service.
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There are Christians today who will say that God doesn't heal anymore. Or others says there is no such thing as divine healing. Can I ask you a question? Do you believe that too? If God stopped healing people that Jesus is not the same yesterday, today and forever, but let God be proved true and every a man a liar. (Romans 3:4). I have noticed in the gospels that when people hear about Jesus coming to their town that they bring bring their sick. They have heard that Jesus the healer is coming! Can you imagine being sick or someone you know is sick and the one that heals is coming how that would excite you? Some churches hold a healing service and people would come in droves to get healed! And yes, people do get healed at these services. So I asked myself this: Why is healing so much mentioned in the Bible? Why do God wants us to see Jesus as the healer? The answer came as I watched this video below: fb.watch/4nhL8jjkvg/ from Lord of Host Church in NE Omaha. Id healing wasn't for today, then read James 5 where it asks, "Is there anyone sick among us?" And James, was the Lord's brother! He didn't believe in Jesus at first until after Jesus went to the cross. Another belief that some Christians believe is that Jesus only a spiritual healer. WRONG! Reread the gospel. You can find that every sickness and disease is a physical condition. Now, I don't know why someone you love or know never got healed, but I can say is healing requires faith. My father had fourth stage lung cancer, but he didn't have faith. My mother, sister and I did, but he needed faith to receive healing. He even told my sister that he couldn't lay his hand on his mother because he had "puny faith." God is the God that heals us because we live in a fallen world. If man had not sin, he would not send his son on the cross and he would not take our sickness and infirmities along with their sins. Jesus is God and He still heals.  "I pray that they will be one just as you and I are one--as you are in me, Father, and I am in you..." John 17:21 (NLT)  If there had never been a time for this verse to come alive, it is now. While the world has their own version of peace and unity, it is not the kind that Jesus wants for us. The liberals and democrats proclaim peace but their goal is division. They will go after anyone who doesn't agree with their socialistic agenda, the church mainly, but in the spiritual, it is not people from demonic forces. The scripture states that evil one likes to sow strife and discord. he would love nothing more to divide believers. He will sow ideas into people's minds that anyone who don't agree with their doctrine is a deceived brother and sister, but Paul wrote that we are not to judge one and other. We are to love one another, and that means to love them even if you disagree with them. There is an instance in the Bible where we are treat them as pagans and that's when the brother or sister had sinned and after taking them to the pastor and if they don't repent then, to treat them as a pagan, but that is the only time.
Jesus wants us all to be one with each other. Paul wrote that their is one body, faith and one baptism and one spirit. We all share Jesus's body, the Christian Faith, water baptism and the Holy Spirit. So just as their is one of these things, we should all be one. I had a dream one night that I was in a church building. The pastor said we should grabbed some ribbons and tie one around the church. The Lord showed me that we represent the ribbons and the church represent the body of Christ. As believers we need to unite together in prayer and in the spirit and fight against the demonic forces at work. We don't fight with carnal weapons, but with prayer and praise. I think ALL believers can do that. When we are divided, we can't stand. Jesus said that the house that is divided against itself will fall.(Matthew 12:22) In another blog, I wrote about the armor of God. Every part, is a revelation from a reformer: Methodists, Lutheran, Baptist, etc. Think about it. Read about it here: nonwritingthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/03/we-are-one.html Psalms35:27b "Let the Lord be magnified who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant," (NKJV) What is Prosperity? Is it a spiritual implication? Didn't John write that he wished Gaius would prosper as his soul would prosper? If God is a triune being, aren't we? We have a soul and we live in a body and we have a spirit. How does doing well in our spirit only make God happy? We are his children so shouldn't we prosper in our body and soul? Yet there are those, who will say we can advance his kingdom without finances? True, but I would think that if we should also give him our tithe as well as our time and talent. The Hebrew word for prosperity is shalom. In short nothing broken, nothing broken, ( 7966) It means complete. So if you are doing well spiritually great, but do you think he delights in sickness and in poverty? If that was the case, Jesus would not heal and people like Abraham would not have wealth. Before you harp on me and say that's an spiritual implication, remember that the event in the bible are real. The people are real, not fiction. The Bible is not allegory either The word of God is alive and powerful (Hebrews 4:12). I'm not saying that we don't give him pleasure by giving him our time and talents and if we don't have income. I'm saying it takes all three. If all you can is tithe, tithe. If you have no tithe, then give him what you have, but if you can give him all three, do it, but don't hold back. What I am saying is this: How would you feel if you had wealth yet your son or daughter seem to make it to paycheck to paycheck? Does it give you pleasure?
"That's the old testament," you say. It may very well be so, but Paul wrote that ALL scripture is profitable, We shouldn't dismiss it just because its not updated in the new testament or in the letters. "Well, it's for the Jews" Yes, but Jesus had quoted the old testament and so have Paul and if the old testament was only for that time and for teh Jews, it would have not been used after the law. Poverty and sickness is under the curse and Jesus had redeemed from the curse of the law. And because of the first Adam sinned, we live in a fallen world, but it doesn't mean we l have to accept sickness and poverty from the hand of God. God is not the author of poverty and sickness. That is the lie from hell. I know that some people like me can't help it. I would love to give God my time by serving in the ministry, but I am churchless, but I do give him of my talents (writing and cover designing) and because I have a job, I can tithe. So I'm not saying, we should have wealth only. My point is God wants completeness in us. He wants us to do well in all areas of our lives. He understands if you can't do all three Everything good comes from God and withholding the tenth that belongs to him is a sin. Did you know the tree in the garden of Eden was God's tenth from Adam? ) I will write about the garden and the tenth in another blog.) Adam sinned because he took what belonged to God. The people in the days of Jesus, were still under the law because Jesus had not died. Many believed it was because of sin that people were sick or poor. All believers are under grace., not the law, I am under grace, but it was the sin of my father that had impoverish me and I am still trying to break free from poverty. These are my thoughts and some will disagree and that is fine, but I can't let this go when God burns it on my heart to write.  Something didn't happen to me yesterday that reminded me of a story of the unforgiving debtor. Jesus illustrated that if we don't forgive others of their sins, God won't forgive us of our sins and we needed to reminded of this. In this parable, there was a debtor who owed a lot of money. When he was called to account the debtor asked for mercy and he got it. The master could have fired and not given him another chance, but he didn't. However the servant didn't show the same mercy his master extended to him when someone owed him money. God is like that merciful master. He doesn't hold our sins against us because He sent his son on the cross to take our sins from us. We just need to confess or agree with that we have sinned. The tax collector prayed, "God, have mercy me! I'm a sinner." He went away exalted. (Luke 18:14) When we confess, he cleanses us of our unrighteousness.
In Jesus' days, much of the religious leaders were like the unforgiving the debtor. The tac collector was compared to the Pharisee who didn't think he needed forgiveness. We should all be like the tax collector for Paul wrote that we all have sinned and fell short of the glory of God. I know I'm not perfect and when I make a mistake or realized I have sinned, I confess it. Scripture says that we are to follow God's example. Just as children model their parents, we should model God. Think of it this way: If you want people have mercy on you, shouldn't you show mercy to others? Isn't that what "Do onto others as you want done onto you." means? Paul also wrote that whatever we sow, we reap. What are your thoughts? Leave a comment.  I used to think that if sub for elementary school teachers, I would get my experience that I need to teach in Christian schools. I get experiences all right, but the curriculums are not the same. Public Instructions are set by the government, not the church. Another reason I'm giving up on this is the income. It's not income though. I work 3 and half to 7 hours a day depending if its a half or full day job. Substitutes gets paid for each day they sub. In other jobs, people are paid by the hour and work 5 to six days a week (hopefully not seven). This has been my experience.
Substituting is perfect for the retired and the married. In the county where I live, they get paid around $100 a day and although there is a shortage of subs, they don't get called everyday. It's an on called basis, and its a stressful job, I am unmarried and only one paying the bills so its hard. We don't get paid vacations, and holidays. The worst month is December and the summer. You might ask how in the world do I make it through the summer? By the grace of God. My experiences as a sub has taught me that I'm there as a light and blessing to the teachers and students. I do enjoying subbing to some extents, but it is not for me, I have to admire the teachers I sub for. They have more creativity then I can put together and I appreciate the lessons plans because I look at their curriculum and wonder how I can come up with a lesson plan. I am 20 years pass college graduation. The teachers are younger than me and they started at a younger age. I'm 53 at this writing. I realized now that my desire to teach in Christian schools should stay in Washington state and not go with me to Montana. I'm still waiting on that one. I much rather be a help mate to my future husband in Montana than have to teach at a late age. "The angels of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them" -Psalms 34:7 NKJV  You may have heard or read that "do not fear" is mentioned 365 times in the Bible. It is no coincidence as God is the author of the Bible. We should fear Him, not man, or anything a man could do to us, including a man made virus yet people fear the virus. They think it is deadly and they need to wear a mask. In the Bible, when people had a contagious disease, they had to stay outside the camp until the disease had run its course or forever as in the case of the leprosy. The authorities in those days didn't make the healthy protective covering. No, I'm not going to write on mask wearing, but this is an example. I know that there are Christians today who will say, "old testament is for the Jews", but the Hebrew writers wrote that the scriptures is alive and powerful.(Hebrews 4:12) and Paul wrote that is given by inspiration by God. (2Timothy 3:16) You want to read something inspiring? Read the Bible! It has many scriptures of healing, deliverance, salvation and impossible deeds! Leaving Willmar Times, Marge felt the familiar panic rise up again as she limped out into the cold, dark night. Last night, a silver sedan had sent chills up her spine when the driver slowed just inches from where she waited for the bus—then he or she had sped away. Would that same driver come back? And her leg added to her panic. This is just an example of healing but necessary about fear. Scripture says that fear brigs torment. If we are not deeply rooted in God's perfected love, it can't wash it out. Satan would love to remove God's love from us. All he would have to do is convince us that God doesn't love us.
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AuthorAuthor of the Second Chance Series and owner of Unique Pen Press. Archives
April 2021
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Photos used under Creative Commons from denisbin, Elvert Barnes, aenigmatēs, davedehetre, shixart1985, Free Public Domain Illustrations by rawpixel
