Blog Archives – Page 4 of 4

Claim Your Promises!

September 12, 2016

Side Note Before We Begin:

God really laid this on my heart as I have friends, family, and myself in the midst of war. I hope this encourages and blesses you.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12 KJV

One day you are jolted by reality. You are still in the middle of your Brewing Ground fighting the longest war of your life. This is not just a battle; this is a war which is composed of multiple battles all revolving around the same situation. You wonder, “Will it ever end?”

You realize that you are exposed in the middle of enemy territory AND with no map. This has you at a huge disadvantage. The enemy knows the area like the back of their hand – you do not. You have no idea where you are. What you do know, is that you are days from civilization. Your adrenaline surges as you realize that your enemy is closing in on your location; you have no idea where you can even take cover. You have been fighting this war for soooo long and are so tired and weary. All you need is a place to take cover, regroup, think, replenish your supplies, rest. You start to panic as you are realizing there is no way out.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 KJV

Then, peace rushes over you as God reaches out to grab your hand to remind you that He is with you. He reminds you that He knows the way out. He made the terrain and knows your enemy. He knows your Brewing Ground; He knows where the enemy is and what their plans are. He knows where to find cover and regroup. God is your only way out. You must grab His hand, close your eyes, and just trust. This is your ONLY option for survival.

“10 For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. 11 Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins. 12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.” Psalm 66: 10-12 KJV

As God is leading you, He will take evasive measures in order to avoid and lose the enemy. You will go through fire (scorching desert or forest fire) and water (raging river). You may have to climb mountains, trudge through quick sand, or who knows what else. You may feel like you have been through the wringer; and you have – it’s God’s refining fire. As God is taking you through your Brewing Ground to avoid the enemy and survive your war, He is also refining you. Refining you by removing the impurities. God is heating you up to just the right temperature so that He can then transform you into His masterpiece. He is forming and creating; buffing and polishing. But, this takes a toll. During this time, you may grow weary and only God can offer the relief you need. Let Him lead you to His sanctuary for restoration. He will give you rest.

“23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. ²He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. ³He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” Psalm 23:1-3 KJV

God will make sure that you not only survive but thrive. He has so many promises that we can hold onto. I am currently in the midst of my own war that has been raging for years now. Through it all, He continues to lay on my heart a particular promise.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 KJV

Please, do not miss the important parts in this verse. He will work ALL things (not some but ALL) for good for those that love Him, His followers, that have a relationship with Him. War has casualties; people get hurt. God will take the terrible in our life and He will use it for good. But, in the middle of it all – you can’t always see that big picture. You have no way of knowing how God can use it all for good. Sometimes, it just doesn’t seem possible. That is why you have to trust Him. The ending of our war may not come when we want it to. It may not look like we think it should. It may not end the way we want. God is so creative! He has a way of weaving things together in our life in such a way that, once you can see it all, it is so amazing. However, it may look very different from what you thought it would. God is not just full of promises, but also surprises!

Has your war ended? Is it just beginning? Or, has it not started yet? The end to my war is not in sight just yet. Lately, I have found myself very weary and wondering if it will ever end. In response to these feeling God continues to remind me that whatever happens, He will use it all for good. In fact, God has recently been whispering a new promise to me.

“And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.” Hebrews 6:15 KJV

This verse is actually talking about Abraham and God’s promise to give him a son, Isaac. When I came across this verse God whispered something a little different to my heart. He reminded me to be patient and to keep on keeping on. There Is An End! He not only promises that there is an end, but, by continuing on I can claim, with confidence, all of His promises. Until my war ends, I claim the promise that He is with me always! I claim that He will lead me to still waters if I will trust Him; He will give me rest and help restore me when I am weary. I claim that there IS an end and it will be Glorious! Thank You Jesus! Claim Your Promises!

Let’s Brew!

How Will You Use Your Coals?

September 5, 2016

“Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” Romans 12:20 KJV

Who doesn’t love a good campfire! The fun, family, friends, songs, stories, and s’mores – what’s not to love! Did I mention s’mores? So, let’s talk about the fire; the most important part that makes it all possible. Think about the science of fire for a minute. First of all, the fire must be started; this is sometimes the hardest part. Once started, the fire burns. As it continues to burn, it develops coals. Coals are defined as “glowing, charred, or burned pieces of wood or other combustible substance”. If you have ever been to a campfire or seen a fire in a fire pit or fireplace, then you have witnessed the wonder of coals. The coals, these seemingly insignificant charred remains, are essentially

the heart of the fire. This is what produces the necessary heat to keep the fire going as new wood is added, while also cooking and providing warmth.

In a society of convenience and technology, we take for granted how vital fire was for survival long ago; this is still the case in parts of the world today. However, caution is advised! Fire Burns! If care is not taken when dealing with fire, it can cause serious damage to yourself or property. Fire can be devastatingly destructive. However, this damage does also carry with it some benefits. Take for instance forest fires. Naturally occurring forest fires are a part of nature. These fires can quickly destroy acres of land. But, what happens after the initial devastation is what we want to focus on. As the fire burns, it also destroys any disease or pests that are currently damaging the forest. These fires provide the soil with new nutrients. Where there used to be very thick brush and trees, now there is sunlight. These new nutrients and sunlight pave the way for new growth. This offers the forest the opportunity for renewal and a new start. Fire – vital to survival, can be devastating, offers opportunity for renewal and new life – Hmmm. Keeping this in mind let’s read the verse again.

“Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” Romans 12:20 KJV

When there is a heated situation between you and your enemy, without a doubt, there is a fire raging which is producing coals. How will you use those coals? When first reading this verse, we tend to want to quickly skip over give your enemy food and drink and go straight to heap coals of fire on their head. I hear it now, “Yes, revenge; someone is finally speaking my language!” (You know revenge has crossed your mind.) Don’t get too excited yet! This verse does NOT give permission to set your enemy on fire! (Now, I hear all your sad sighs.) This is not the route to take; even if we are talking about your arch enemy. I can hear your next response, “But she deserves it; you don’t know what she did to me!” No, no I don’t – but God does; and He knows how to handle it perfectly. In this verse God tells us to give our enemies food when they are hungry and a drink when they are thirsty. Regardless of what they have done, God is calling us to bless them. Let’s look at another verse to double check.

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;⁴⁵That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:44-45 KJV

Oh Man! Again with blessing our enemies! Well, why would Romans 12:20 talk about heaping coals of fire on our enemies head then? Look closely at the verses; we can find God’s true meaning. It is clear from these verses that God calls us to bless our enemies. If we are obedient, and do this as instructed, God will use our blessings to heap coals of fire on our enemies’. Our job is to bless; it’s God’s job to start the fire. He uses our blessings to set our enemies’ hearts on fire. This is His refining fire for them, so that He may brew something special in their lives. Don’t think for a second that He is not also using His refining fire on us too. Are you kidding – blessing your enemies! That is very easy to say and very hard to do. Especially if you are doing it with a happy heart. OH, I just said it – with a Happy Heart! If we serve our enemies their food and drink with hatefulness, anger, and disrespect – we just doused God’s refining fire with tons of water. Blessing our enemies with a happy heart has us right in the middle of God’s refining forest fire on our own brewing ground. So, how do we get to the point where we can bless our enemies with a happy heart you might ask? You may not be able to do this right away. Matthew 5:44 offers insight about what to do in these situations – Pray!!! Pray for them and keep praying for them! God will begin to brew heart change in you to get you to a place where you can bless with a happy heart. While praying, also ask Him to reveal how He wants you to bless them. Then, pray some more!!

Fire – vital to survival, can be devastating, offers opportunity for renewal and new life. How will you use your fire’s coals? They are vital to the survival of your current enemy situation. Will you throw them at your enemy in revenge and cause devastation? Or, will you give them to God to use for His good, to foster new life. God can and will use this fiery situation as His refining fire to brew something special in them…and you? You might even find that new life has been fostered and your enemy is now a friend. Next step, share s’mores!

Let’s Brew!

Rainbow Focus

August 29, 2016

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:” Ecclesiastes 3:1 KJV

Paper and Pencils and Crayons – Oh My! Paper and Pencils and Crayons – Oh My! Paper and Pencils and Crayons – Oh My! Oh – back to school! It’s that time of year here in West Texas, in my neck of the woods. There is just something about new school supplies. I guess it’s really more about what they represent than the actual items themselves. They represent the idea of a new, clean start. It’s the excitement of new friends, a new teacher, and new opportunities. School supplies are almost like the harvest of the back to school season – ripe with possibilities and adventures just waiting to be picked.

Since the new school year is ripe with possibilities and adventures, some people can’t wait for school to start back. Others have not always had a great school experience and dread it. For me it is bittersweet. As a parent, what a blessing it is to have the privilege of watching your own children grow and develop. It is exciting to watch them grow into the beautiful masterpiece that God created them to be. However, it goes so fast. You wonder how your children somehow got this old so quickly. Where does the time go? I have yet to answer this question!

Back to school time is also bittersweet for me in another way. I am a teacher. The start of the school year also holds the excitement of a new year with new possibilities. Watching all your students grow and develop is such a joy. There is something almost magical when a child’s lightbulb goes off and they finally “get” a concept. However, starting the school year also means the end of the summer with my girls. As the school year begins though, the list of things that a teacher has to get done in order to be prepared for the upcoming year is so, so long. In fact, in most all cases, the list is so long it actually requires more time to complete than what is actually available. I know that every teacher can so easily get overwhelmed which leads to frustration which is amplified by exhaustion. But, teachers willingly power through, working many extra hours, knowing that all their hard work will be so worth it once they see all those students’ beautiful smiling faces back in school. As a teacher, you have the special task and privilege of making a difference in not only children’s lives but also the future. What a beautiful thing it is – and so worth it.

As our first day of school rolled around, it was actually raining that morning. This is a bit of a rare occasion in our area; it doesn’t rain here very often. I know what people were thinking as the day began – “Really! It has to rain on the first day of school?! What terrible weather to begin a new school year!” In fact, I teach at an early elementary campus and could hear my fellow teachers thoughts. “It’s the first day back and we can’t even take the kids outside for recess. They will need to go outside!” All early elementary teachers know exactly what I am talking about. But as teachers (and in life), we have to be flexible. The unexpected will happen; it is inevitable. So, we have or will come up with a plan B; sometimes plan C and even D. And…we will still have a great day! And all the teachers said “Amen”! OK – I’m moving on. So, my girls and I got ready and loaded everything in our vehicle and began the drive to school; and there it was. We saw something marvelous! Amongst the rain and dark grey clouds – a RAINBOW! Not just a slight ting of one either; but a bright, clear full rainbow which you could clearly see both ends of. Not only that, but then we saw that there was also a second rainbow! WOW! This is very rare in our area, we hardly ever see rainbows.

The girls and I looked at and talked about the rainbow on the way to our first day of school. As I was driving, God was whispering to me. He laid on my heart that just like a new school year is a new season with great possibilities in our life, there may also be seasons of storms. These stormy seasons are the trials on our battleground in life. These are the seasons in which He is refining us with his fire, and brewing something special in us. For these seasons, there may be storms, rain, and dark grey clouds; but, in the midst of these storms are rainbows of beautiful, bright colors – His promises.

^“12And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³I do set my (rain)bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.” Genesis 9:12-13 KJV

God has so many promises that we can hold onto in the stormy seasons, or everyday for that matter. However, the one that He kept laying on my heart is that He will never leave us or forsake us. He is always there to help us.

^“5Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. ⁶So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” Hebrew 13:5-6 KJV

So, when we are in the midst of stormy seasons in our lives; and, sometimes it feels like our trials are winning the war – you have a choice. We can focus on the storm with the rain and dark clouds; OR, we can focus on the rainbow – God’s promises. Rainbow Focus will concentrate on the fact that He is with us always; He will use the stormy seasons for good as He is refining us and brewing something special in us. There are many more of God’s promises that we can also focus on; maybe He will whisper a certain promise to you for your situation. Either way, will you choose to focus on the rain or rainbow? I challenge you to choose Rainbow Focus with me.

Let’s Brew!

What Are You Missing?

August 17, 2016

^“18In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV

Everyone knows one of those people that everything just seems to work in their favor. It seems like no matter what they do, it goes smoothly. They fly through things with ease and everything just always works. You know the people I am talking about. I happen to NOT be one of those people. It seems that everything for me is always more complicated than it should be. It also seems to take 10 times longer than it should because nothing ever works like it is suppose to. What should be easy, somehow never actually is.

Case in point, painting the door frames. Now you are all thinking “Painting the door frames? What is so complicated about that?” This is my point exactly. There is nothing at all complicated about painting door frames. This should be a very easy job that should not require a lot. For most individuals, this is the case; but, not for me.

We were very blessed that God allowed us the opportunity to purchase a house about 2 years ago. This is actually the third house we have been blessed to purchase. Each has needed different degrees of work done to it. The third, and current, house we purchased was in pretty good shape, a pervious owner had done a few things to it, but it needed more work. It is not a big, fancy house; however, we are so grateful because God blessed us with the perfect house to meet the needs of our family. So for 2 years now we have been working on this house bit by bit.

There were some major things we tackled before we could move in. The whole inside needed to be painted and we had to redo both bathrooms, completely. Including new sheetrock, retiling the showers, new toilets, refinishing the cabinets, new counters and sinks, new mirrors, all new fixtures, and new doors. Whew!! But, this did not take care of everything that needed to be fixed. All the doors in the house needed to be replaced and we haven’t even gotten to the outside of the house which also needs some serious attention.

Now, the problem with all this work is there was not enough money to pay someone to do it all. This meant, we either do it ourselves or it doesn’t get done. Well, not doing the renovations was definitely not an option; so, it was up to us. Let me also take a minute to say that we are not in the business of redoing houses; but, we are somewhat handy. As I mentioned, one of the things that needed to be done was paint the entire inside of the house, which includes the door frames. At the beginning of our renovations, we spent time researching paint and deciding on which would be the best kind to get for great results that would work the best with the time we had. We decided to get the more expensive kind that also has primer built right in it. This way we could get good coverage and have to paint less which would save time since we were on a deadline. Well, can you guess how this worked out for us? Terribly! The paint, which also included primer, was not covering well at all. We ended up having to put about 3 coats of paint on everything!! Can you believe it – 3 coats! Not only did we have to paint everything a million times (only a slight exaggeration), we had to keep going back to buy more and more paint! Then we came to the door frames; this happened to pose it’s own set of problems.

The door frames in the house came in 2 different forms. In one part of the house they were painted and in the other part of the house they were stained wood. We began working with the painted frames by sanding them in order to prep them to paint. Well, do you think it would be that simple? That is normally all you should have to do; but not for us. The old paint was actually chipping and peeling off. Well, you can’t paint over it like that so we began to scrape the paint. We have spent hours scraping and scraping and scraping some more. (We are still not even finished with this part.) In an effort to try and actually make some progress we decided to move on to the stained frames; after all, there was no paint to deal with on them. In preparation for painting these frames, we sanded the frames so the paint would adhere to the wood. As we began painting these, we saw that the paint was NOT sticking. It was peeling off despite having sanded first. So, to fix this problem we would have to remove the multiple coats of new paint, remember we can’t just use one coat, paint the wood with Kilz and then repaint. We just recently have been working on this. Even though we put Kilz on the wood first we still had to put on an additional 2 coats of paint. AHHHH!! See, I am not kidding when I say that we have had to paint everything a million times. We have yet to tackle the painted door frames. At this point we are researching what the best choice will be to remove the old paint. Plus, we still have to paint the new doors; we’ll see how this works. I am thinking positive – smooth sailing ahead.

This seems to be how everything works for me. A simple job, turned complicated and taking 10 times longer than it should. You could all probably tell me a story like this from your life. In the midst of situations like this it is just so easy to get discouraged and focus on the negative. It is so easy to feel sorry for yourself and want to throw a pity party. It is so easy to want to give up. It is so easy to lose sight of God and what He is doing. We get frustrated and set the tone to focus on the negative. After a lifetime of trials on my battlefield; I do try and find the positive; I am glad I have door frames to paint – I could be homeless. But, I am sorry to say that there have been times in my life, I have asked why everything has to be so hard, complicated, and take so long. I sometimes even find myself envying those people that everything is so easy for. I mean who else is going to have so many problems with paint, really? You see, we get so focused on what is going wrong and the mounting irritations and frustrations that we miss seeing the big picture. What is God doing in this situation?

God recently reminded me that I would miss so much if everything came easy. If everything was easy I would miss the opportunity to be thankful. I would miss the opportunity to learn to persevere. I would miss the opportunity to problem solve and try things different ways. I would miss the thrill of FINALLY completing the job, which happens to be so much sweeter. I wouldn’t be able to appreciate what it’s like when something actually goes right. Through these trials on life’s battleground, God is using these situations to brew and refine us. He is creating something more substantial in us with more depth and layers. He is using them for His good. I challenge you, and myself, to view things differently when things are not working as we think they should – because maybe they actually are. Instead of focusing on the negative and missing the bigger more important picture, focus on what you might be missing if things went smoothly. Focus on what God is brewing in you; He is refining you into a beautiful masterpiece. Focus on giving thanks in everything, even frustrating situations, because you know that God is at work in your life and He is there with you? He never leaves you!

^“13For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.” Isaiah 41:13 KJV

Would you rather miss the frustration of things going wrong or miss seeing God moving in your life?

Let’s Brew!