Angels and Prayer

by Mary Southerland | | 2 comments

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From the smallest concern to the biggest problem in our lives, God cares. If it is big enough to concern you, it is big enough to concern Him.

Author, speaker Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom told of a remarkable experience at the horrific Nazi Ravensbruck prison camp.

Together we entered the terrifying building. At a table were women who took away all our possessions. Everyone had to undress completely and then go to a room where her hair was checked.

I asked a woman who was busy checking the new arrivals if I might use the bathroom. She pointed to a door, and I discovered that the convenience was nothing more than a hole in the shower room floor. Betsie stayed

Crushing Feelings of Worthlessness

by Gwen Smith | | 6 comments

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Debbie was a pastor’s wife who felt worthless for years. She was verbally abused and emotionally abandoned in her marriage from the very beginning. She had been a virgin when she met her husband, so she knew something was very wrong when, seven months into their marriage, her husband went out of state for a “business trip” and gave Debbie a severe pelvic inflammatory disease when he got home.

Her doctors explained that she had gotten a bacterial infection that can only be sexually contracted. Debbie was hospitalized for five days and placed on strong medications. The IV antibiotics she received unknowingly rendered her birth control pills ineffective, and a pregnancy with their first child resulted. So Debbie stayed

Do You Believe God Tells the Truth?

by Sharon Jaynes | | no comments

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God speaks to me in the comics. I know. That’s weird. But He does.

Pickles comic strip features an older couple named Earl and Pearl Pickles. One day Earl and Pearl were sitting on a porch swing and the following conversation ensued.

Frame one: Pearl, “Did you know the DNA of humans and chimpanzees is 98 percent the same?”

Frame two: Earl, “I know it but I don’t believe it.”

Frame three: Pearl, “You know it, but you don’t believe it?”

Frame four: Earl, Yes, “I don’t believe everything I know.”

And there you have it! In the wise words of Earl Pickles, our problem is that we don’t really believe everything we know. We go to Bible studies year after year, hear sermons

It’s Time To Make Up Your Mind!

by Mary Southerland | | 5 comments

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As I stood on the sideline of the football field where my then eighteen-year-old son was practicing for the South Florida All Star Football Game, I was not prepared for the hideous sounds and horrific sights that assaulted every protective sense I have as a mother. My baby – my six-foot, two hundred and thirty pound baby – was knocking padded giants left and right as he bulldozed his way toward the goal line.

Mixed emotions and foreign thoughts flooded my heart and mind. On one hand, I was so proud of Jered that I felt like shouting to the college scouts standing beside me, “That’s my boy!” On the other hand, I wanted to drag him off the

When You Wonder if God is Concerned About You

by Sharon Jaynes | | 3 comments

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Have you ever wondered if God really cares about you?

If God sees you?

If God is concerned about you?

I have. Many times. And I think Moses did too.

He was on the far side of the wilderness when God spoke to him through the burning bush. He had failed in Egypt and bailed to Midian. Yep, failed and bailed. He ran away to the wilderness where he stayed for the next forty years.

And friend, sometimes it is only on the far side of the wilderness where God can get our attention. Sometimes it is when we feel alone, abandoned, and forgotten that our ears are pricked to hear. Isolation is often God’s place of invitation.

Now that you know the backstory,

When You Feel God Has Called You to More Than You Can Handle

by Sharon Jaynes | | 6 comments

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In my last devotion, we looked at Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush in Midian. God began by saying:

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing

What Darkness Can Teach You About Light

by Gwen Smith | | 5 comments

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The hike up the mountain was a tough one. Flimsy patches of shade dangled from the trees but they were no match for the brutal Pennsylvania mid-summer heat. The rocky, three-mile vertical jaunt was only tamed by the fun being had along the way with the other camp counselors.

We talked. We sang. We laughed.

It was a week before the campers would arrive. All the counselors gathered for training that prepared us for the lessons and activities we would lead kids in all summer long. Caving was one of the optional camp activities so we went as a team of counselors to experience it before we led it.

When we finally reached the entrance of the cave and stepped down

God Is Able

by Susie Larson | | 23 comments

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A number of years ago, my friend and I sat face-to-face on the couch and talked about her journey through the wilderness. It’s been a slow and agonizing passage for her. She’s been weary in the waiting; she so wants a breakthrough; yet she’s so faithfully taken one obedient step at a time without any sense of when her breakthrough would come.

The thing is, she could take a few steps to the right and land herself on the fast highway to some kind of quick solution. But truth be told, that would be her way, not God’s way. She’d end up with a counterfeit version of God’s best desire for her life. And in the depths of

Closed for Renovations

by Arlene Pellicane | | 3 comments

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Have you ever driven to a store or restaurant only to find a sign on the door reading “Closed for Renovations”? What an inconvenience, right? But hopefully you were “wowed” at the grand re-opening when you saw the finished product and the improvements made.

Do you ever wish you could have a “Closed for Renovations” sign over your life?

Wouldn’t it be nice to take time out to renovate yourself without any interruptions? If only you could stop the texts and hit the pause button on your obligations. Sure it would be inconvenient, but wouldn’t it be worthwhile? Let’s just imagine you have a few days without any responsibilities except focusing on the areas in your personal life that

The Gift of Friendship

by Mary Southerland | | 7 comments

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Friendship is the springboard to every other love and the foundation for every healthy relationship. It is a proven fact that lonely people live shorter lives than those who have healthy friendships. Even Jesus needed friends when He walked this earth as a man. In fact, He placed great value on relationships. The Bible tells us Jesus spent much of His time deepening the relationships with a few – not the crowd.

God created us to need each other. That truth is never more evident than when we are in pain or struggling with some crisis in life. One of the main factors leading to a two-year battle with clinical depression in my life was the absence of replenishing