Archives for February 2017

Renew Your Dry Bones!

February 27, 2017

Sometimes life can be so depleting. Have you ever felt that way? This can happen in a couple of different ways. First, life sometimes throws so much your way AND all at once. So much so, that you feel it requires more than what you have mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically to deal with it all. Second, life sometimes has you in a particular battle that seems as if it will never end. You feel as if you can’t replenish your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical resources quickly enough; you are using them up faster than you can replenish them. Either way, you feel depleted, used up, reduced to nothing but a pile of dry bones. Well, there is hope! God can restore any pile of dry bones.

A Valley Of Dry Bones

So, it began around 597 B.C. Babylon attacks Judah. The Babylonians captured and exiled about 10,000 Jews. Ezekiel happened to be one of the Jews that was captured. While exiled, God called Ezekiel to be a prophet and preach to all the captured Jews. God used visions to speak to Ezekiel and give him the messages to preach to the Jews. Some of these messages focused on why the Jews were captured; it was God’s punishment for their sins. God was using this as a “wake up” call for Judah to help them turn from their sin and return to God. Ezekiel walked the streets of Babylon for 22 years as a prophet preaching and trying to convince the people to repent and return to God.

God brought me to a particular vision that Ezekiel had during his time as a prophet. Ezekiel 37 tells of a vision that begins with Ezekiel in the midst of a valley where he was surrounded by dry bones.

“⁴Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: ⁶And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel 37:4-6 KJV

These dry bones represented the Jewish exiles and the state of their spiritually dead condition. Fast forward to the end. The vision continues with the people being restored and the two kingdoms being reunited. This is not a one of the Bible stories that is typically talked about often. But, God had a message for me.

A New Word

God whispered a couple of messages to my heart with the dry bones vision. First, He will do whatever it takes in order to get you to repent of your sin and restore your relationship with Him. Even if it means you are taken captive and are a prisoner of war for years like the Jewish people were.

Second, life is hard and can be filled with so many different challenges. Sometimes we get taken over by these challenges and that’s when we can become depleted. When depleted it is easy to miss the bigger picture and what God is doing, like the Jews did. When depleted mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically we sometimes feel all used up like a pile of dry bones. Now, some would say that once you are a pile of dry bones – well, there is no coming back from that. Luckily, we serve a powerful God. He can restore and bring life back to an army of dry bones. Thank You Jesus! There is hope!

Next Question

The next question is: How do we keep from becoming a pile of dry bones in the first place? Well, is it even possible? Anything is possible with God! God never meant for us to carry the weight of all of life’s challenges on our own. Give them to Him, let Him guide you, and be restored!

“¹¹And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” Isaiah 58:11 KJV

So, can you envision this verse for yourself? God will guide you and satisfy your soul in it’s time of drought. He will make you like a spring of water whose waters never fail. Since your spring will not run dry, you will be like a watered garden full of new life and growth. Claim God’s promises for your life! Let God help carry your load and renew your dry bones.

Let’s Brew and be Renewed!

Please share if you were blessed!

You Are Being Prepared!

February 20, 2017

The Winds of Change

I feel the winds of change brewing in my life – only I’m not sure what yet. But, I can feel it coming; a change in course. The problem is, I am a thinker and a planner. I want to know what I’m planning for, so I know how to plan. All I can think is “God, don’t you know that I need a plan! I want to be prepared!” God has whispered, “I don’t want you to plan – I want you to trust!” POW – right in the gut!

Welcome to my Brewing Ground – letting go of the plan (or trying to create one prematurely) and letting Him take over. This will be a challenge! So, my new prayer

is that God will help me to take things one step at a time and trust that He will make each step clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, when it is time. I pray He will clam my planning mind to be patient and trust Him. Also, I pray that I will take action when necessary without second guessing His plans and listing all the pros and cons first. He knows what’s coming! God brought me to a story illustrating this very idea.

The Players

Let’s travel back in time to around 480 B.C. God began to lay the groundwork and get prepared for the precarious situation the Jewish people would find themselves in. Let’s take a look at how God prepared two individuals to save the whole Jewish nation.

King Ahasuerus was currently on the throne. The story begins with him giving his Queen an order which she refused; so, he banished her. This began the search for a new queen. The king sent out an order for all the beautiful young women to be brought to the royal court. There was one woman the king was quite taken with. He chose her to be queen; her name – Esther. The king loved Esther more than all the other women. Now, Esther’s parents passed away years before and her cousin, Mordecai, took her in as his own daughter and raised her. Mordecai also happened to be working with the king as a government official. Haman was the king’s second in command.

The Plot Thickens

Haman let his position go to his head. In fact, everyone was supposed to bow down to him. Mordecai was a Jew so his allegiance was to God; Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman. Well, that did it! Haman was enraged and prepared a plan to kill Mordecai and ALL the Jewish people in the land. He convinced the king that the Jewish people did not follow his laws and should all be destroyed. So, the king issued a decree condemning ALL Jews to death.

When everyone found out about the decree, Mordecai asked Esther if she would “play her card” and talk to the king. This whole time she had kept it a secret that she was Jewish and Mordecai was her family. But, Esther was concerned; and for good reason. There was a law that she could be put to death for just going to court to speak with the king without him first asking her to come. Talk about a steep penalty just to chat!

The Calling

Well, Mordecai responded to Esther’s concern about her possible death.

“¹³Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews. ¹⁴For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:13-14 KJV

Mordecai basically says, “You can’t think about saving yourself at a time like this! If you live but all the rest of your people don’t and you didn’t try to help – can you live with that!? Think of the greater good and about our positions here. If we don’t help our people, then who else can? God may have placed us here for this very reason. Seize the Day!!!” Quite the pep talk! So, Esther agreed and prepared; she put a plan together and took action quickly. The story continues to reveal God’s hand in making the plans work. Fast forward to the end. It was revealed that Haman was actually the one scheming against the king for personal gain. The king ended up hanging Haman and reversing the decree to kill all the Jews.

You Are Being Prepared

Don’t think for a minute that your Brewing Ground isn’t God’s prepared plan for you. Also, don’t think for a minute that your Brewing Ground isn’t preparing you for His plan. Sometimes things happen in our lives and we have no idea why. It doesn’t always make sense. Esther initially had no idea why God put her in the position of queen. But, God knew what was coming. Eventually, she knew why God made her queen and knew it was time to take action. Then she quickly made a plan and followed through. God orchestrates our lives in such a way as to set the stage and get us in the right place, at the right time, and get us prepared for what is to come. Will you seize your moment, as Ester did when the time comes?

Let’s Brew And Be Prepared!

If this has blessed you please share!

Seeds of Change!

February 13, 2017

Green Thumb?

Well, I am going to be completely honest with you for a moment. I do not think of myself as having a green thumb. I just don’t! I’m able to keep things alive for a while; but, eventually they all seem to face the same fate. It’s sad, but true. However, this fact does not keep me from plants. I WANT to plant seeds and have a green thumb. God made the plants for us to have food, beauty, and don’t forget the health benefits! Getting to connect with God’s creation is always a wonderful thing. I want to be able to plant seeds and grow some of my own food. If I had the time or space to have a garden, my lack of having a green thumb would make me think twice about starting the endeavor. But, I would still like to try. It would be nice if one day it would click and I’d just “get it”. You never know! Until then, I will have to focus on connecting with God’s creation in a different way – planting seeds in a human “garden”.

Seeds From Jesus

This week God led me to a parable told by Jesus during His time here on Earth. Here is what He said.

^“3And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; ⁴And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: ⁵Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: ⁶And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. ⁷And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: ⁸But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. ⁹Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Matthew 13:3-9 KJV

Seeds Explained

As the chapter continues Jesus explained the parable to His disciples.

“¹⁸Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. ¹⁹When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. ²⁰But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; ²¹Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. ²²He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. ²³But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” Matthew 13:18-23 KJV

Seeds For Our Soil

God whispered 2 different things to me about this parable. But, let’s backtrack a little first. WE are the soil. Now, just in case there is any doubt, the soil is referring to our heart attitude and condition. As we hear God’s message, we then have free will to decide for ourselves what we will do with the information in our lives. Our decisions put us into basically 4 types of soil categories. In essence, it boils down to whether or not our soil (or heart) is good for promoting spiritual growth. There is only 1 of the four soil types that actually promotes good, continued growth which allows the plant to bear fruit.

Let’s get back to the first message that God whispered to my heart. It was directed towards each individual person. He said, “Check your soil type. If you are claiming to be a child of God, what soil type group do you fall into? Can you hear and understand my word? Do My seeds grow and bear fruit in your life?” So, check yourself! Let the seeds of your Brewing Ground grow and bear fruit.

Seeds For Others Soil

On to the second message that God whispered to my heart. This message was directed towards us as “sowers”. If we are claiming to be God’s children, then our job is to also be “sowers” of His seed. This parable should encourage us as we are taking on this challenge. It’s not a matter of whether or not we have sown good seeds; we have. But, not every seed will grow. Our job is just to sow the seed. Next comes the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes that seed and speaks to the heart of the individual. Remember, God has given each person free will to decide for themselves whether or not they will have a relationship with Him. You can plant seeds and the Holy Spirit can talk until He is blue in the face; the reality is some seeds will never grow and bear fruit. It is up to that individual to choose for themselves. So, be encouraged! Keep sowing your seeds, pray and leave the rest up to God.

Let’s Brew in God’s Garden!

Thoughts or opinions? Comment below!

Will You Know?

February 6, 2017

Well, I Don’t Know

Grab some coffee or tea with me and let’s brew over God’s message. I was praying and talking with God about what He wanted me to write about this week. All of a sudden He brought a random verse to my mind. Actually it was a verse “address” – John 1:10. This also happened to be a verse I did not know. HMMM! I was intrigued. So, I pulled out my Bible and looked it up; this is what I found.

“¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” John 1:10 KJV

Well, I needed more information. I didn’t know yet what

God was trying to teach me and what He wanted me to share with you sweet friends. So, I went back to the beginning of the chapter to read the verse again in context. When I did this, God showed me that verses 10 AND 11 were the key verses for what He was trying to teach me.

“¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.¹¹He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” John 1:10-11 KJV

Let’s Set The Stage

John is the author of the book of John in the Bible. In Chapter 1 he begins by setting the stage for Jesus. John is making it clear to everyone that Jesus is not just a man; He is actually the son of God. He was here from the beginning when God created everything. Jesus has been here from before the beginning of creation. Eventually, Jesus came to earth as a man. You all know the story. While here, He taught, saved, healed, performed miracles, and eventually died to save us all.

Now, God had a special job for John. His job was to spread the word about Jesus and His light. He was to prepare the way for Jesus and plant “seeds” in people’s minds and hearts in preparation for Him; the eternal light that can save us all.

“⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. ⁸He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. ⁹That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” John 1:6-9 KJV

Now that we have set the stage, let’s get back to the message that God whispered to my heart. Let’s reread the key verses.

“¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.¹¹He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” John 1:10-11 KJV

Verse 10 makes it clear that Jesus was literally on earth; the earth that He created. Even though He created earth and everything on it, including the people, they did not know Him. Verse 11 continues by stating that even His people, the ones chosen by God to tell of the coming Messiah, also did not recognize Jesus and receive Him. Wow, His own people didn’t know Him. This is where God began to whisper.

Will You Know

In this day and age we “see” Jesus differently. We do not have the privilege of being able to have Him physically stand in front of us, in human form, to be able to see, touch, and talk to Him. However, we do get to see Him working in our lives. In essence, our Brewing Ground is our own individual world that God has created for each one of us. This is our life and everything that is in it. Our Brewing Ground is where we KNOW Him. We get to meet and see Him here – in the midst of the everyday, the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is where we talk with Jesus, learn, plan, prepare, attack, change, go through the fire, get refined, and emerge victorious. This is where we see and meet Jesus in our life – our Brewing Ground.

So, on your Brewing Ground will you know when you see Jesus? Are you alert and ready? Do you see Jesus in everything? Can you see His hand guiding you? Most importantly, do you KNOW that He is using EVERYTHING, even the bad, for your good? Will you see Him in the small things and know it’s Him? Can you meet Him when you have no words and know that the Holy Spirit will intercede for you? Will you know Jesus when you see Him working in your life; will you accept and receive Him? John went on in verse 14 to talk a little about what it was like to be in Jesus’ presence.

“¹⁴And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 KJV

So, when we meet Jesus on our Brewing Ground, in the midst of daily life, we get to behold His glory full of love, grace and truth. I am so thankful! Are you alert? Will you know when you meet Jesus throughout your day or will you miss it? So, let go and let Him work in your life. Be alert and don’t miss Him so you can shine His light? Thank You Jesus!

Let’s Brew in the midst of Jesus and know it!