Beauty from Ashes - A Continual Process

gives us true hope. We don’t have to have life figured out. We can’t figure it out.  We can find comfort in just breathing the next breath as a gift.  And then the next... I’ve recently been learning to build strength in my body and manage fibromyalgia through yoga.  This practice reminds me of the truth God taught me a long time ago...live in this very moment, live in the presence of our amazing God - right now.   One way we can be present with Him is to soak in His love letter to us.  That's what I'm sharing today, His Words to our hearts. I'm not sharing my specifics of my story today, only enough to say, God does redeem all the hard...and will be redeeming the hard until heaven. I know that each of us have a story.  My hope is to encourage you today. He is faithful to turn many sorrows into many strengths, each time building our faith muscle.  The strength often comes slowly.  Just like the muscles we b...

We can FEEL a lot of different things all within a short span of time.  They can often be conflicting feelings.  Feelings are real.  Feelings are valid.  Feelings come from a variety of circumstances.  Feelings can tear us down or build us up.  But feelings do not have to have the power to define us or anyone else!  That is why putting on the "glasses of truth" is so important in sorting out our feelings! FREEDOM We need the Word of God in our hearts as the measure of truth.  So when conflicting thoughts rise up and battle for the win, we have assurance of the true win.  We can never be perfect, we can never earn our worth.  Our worth is Jesus.  We get to wear His righteous robes.  Isaiah 61:10 says, " I am overwhelmed with joy in the LORD my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness."   J esus won for us!  This gives us free...

The sun is shining in Kentucky this Labor Day weekend.  But it doesn't feel like it to some.  Do you see them?  Are you that person? "Do you know someone who needs encouraging in their faith today?"   The reply  of  the unknown reader was "yes, me."    I froze for a moment. I have been there, have you?  That place where you can't encourage your own heart?  You are too numb to think.  You pray to God, you read His Word, you listen to worship, and yet it's so dark.  You're screaming, but it's silent..., you feel no one would want to hear it. It's just not true.  We care, there is someone ready to listen.  We are meant to be here for each other, to help share the load, better yet, to shift the load to God's shoulders. "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.   But exhort one another every day, as long as it is...