tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58009123306310233762024-02-18T19:01:54.512-08:00Confessions of a Christian HousewifeNicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.comBlogger241125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-64840865059883290812013-04-24T07:04:00.000-07:002013-04-24T07:04:21.857-07:00Learning to Pray Instead of Say<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I haven't posted on this site in a while... but my Wordpress site is down again and I need to write...</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;"><b><i><span style="color: blue;">“And I will strengthen them in the Lord,</span></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">And in His name they will walk,” declares the Lord.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">(Zechariah 10:12)</span></div>
</span></i></b><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">Today if you have called upon the name of Jesus remember that He is your strength (<b><i>Philippians 4:13</i></b>) and do not be deceived by the voices of this world but remember that it is in His name and in His Light that you walk (<b><i>Ephesians 5:8-16</i></b>). We may pass through times of trial and distress, but we are not without a shepherd and we have a Shepherd (<b><i>John 10:14, 27-29</i></b>) that will never lead us astray or allow us to be snatched away.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">This was the mini-devo that I posted after reading through <i style="font-weight: bold;">Zechariah 10 </i>this morning. As I continued to ponder the Scripture verses in this chapter and in the verses that the Lord led me to as I typed out the mini-devo I could not let go of how grateful I am for the sovereignty of my God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">I think on the families that have had the opportunity to hold their </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 17.984375px;">precious newborn in their arms only hours before that new life breathes her last in their arms... </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 17.984375px;">I think on the friends who are single mothers of children under twelve who have just found out that the chemo made the cancer spread and grow instead of rendering it impotent... </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 17.984375px;">I think on the parents who tried all they knew to do to raise their children in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord, yet the children choose to live in the pleasures of sin and ignore the Lord and all that they have been taught... </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 17.984375px;">I think of the families who have children who have never been able to say they love them or tell them their tummy hurts because autism has stolen their voice...</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 17.984375px;">I think of those I see that can't seem to let go of bitterness and past hurts and they can't seem to step out in faith and trust that forgiveness always comes with healing and forgiveness doesn't mean what happened is okay it just means that you trust that God will repay and He will use what happened for good, somehow, someway...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 17.984375px;">I think of or world... our nation... our government... our churches... and I ponder.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 17.984375px;">How thankful I am for the sovereignty of God. If not for the reality of His sovereignty I think I would crumble. My husband and I were talking one night about how far our God had brought us in our marriage. We talked about the changes that growing in His grace and choosing to walk in and by faith had made in our hearts, our minds, our souls, our spirit... and as we talked and thanked God by giving Him all the glory for this work, knowing it was not us in or of ourselves, my husband said...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 17.984375px;">"</span><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17.984375px;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You just never know what it's like to live in someone else's body"</b></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 17.984375px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">And that is where we rest in His sovereignty and put grace into action. No, we don't know. All we know is how we <b>think </b>we would react or behave <b>if</b> we were them... but the fact is we are not. We do not know what it is like to live in their in their home, much less in their body..</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">but we have a God who does. </span></b></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">for God </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">sees</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> not as man </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">sees</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">, </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">for man looks at </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">the</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> outward appearance, </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">but </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">the</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="small-caps" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> looks at </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">the</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">heart</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1 Samuel 16:7</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;">We have a God who formed their spirit within them... </span></div>
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<b><i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Thus</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> declares the </span><span class="small-caps" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> who </span><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-23047A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">stretches out the heavens, </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-23047B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">lays the foundation of the earth, </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">and </span><sup class="crossreference" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.65em; vertical-align: top;" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-23047C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">forms the spirit of man within him </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Zechariah 12:1</span></i></b></div>
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So many times we are quick to judge. So many times we think we have all the answers. So many times we think if they would just do this... </div>
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I have found myself there as well. I have said my piece and made my assumptions and had my thoughts and concerns, but by the grace of God <u>I am learning to pray instead of say</u>.</div>
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The fact is all I can do is pull one moment of someone's life out of context and try to interpret it according to my minuscule knowledge with only my own life experiences to compare and contrast against... </div>
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So I am thankful for the sovereignty of God and for the hope that knowing He is sovereign gives... the fact that I know His Word is true and that He is who He says He is <b>HUGE! </b></div>
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<b>It is by faith that we accept His sovereignty. It is by grace and through faith that we begin to gain understanding of His sovereignty. The more we understand His sovereignty the better we are able to administer His grace... to others and to ourselves. </b></div>
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<br />Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-81969970745133107032012-11-21T06:40:00.003-08:002012-11-21T06:40:53.292-08:00Wait, There's More<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Yesterday we learned that the word <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">yada</span> is used in the Old Testament over 900 times… we talked about how it is the word that God uses when He tells us that Adam <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">lay <span style="border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">with Eve. It is also the same word that God uses to share that Rebekah was very beautiful and had never <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">lain <span style="border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">with man. It is the word that God used to share that Elkanah <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">lay</span> with Hannah and He remembered her and she conceived.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(Hearing the word “lay” in God’s spectrum makes our worldly term “<em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">get laid</em>” sound quite repulsive, doesn’t it?)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Well today we </span></span><span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> are going to talk about the relationship that God most uses the word <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">yada</span> to describe.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Day Twenty-Six</strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ready?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Trust me this is going to be good… </span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Be still and <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">yada</span> that I am God.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Psalm 46:10 </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So the LORD said to Moses,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I will also do this thing that you have spoken;</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">for you have found grace in My sight,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and I <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">yada</span> you by name,”</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Exodus 33:17</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Is your heart pounding yet?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Do you see now how Adam and Eve were in the garden with God and they were naked and they were not ashamed?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We see naked and we usually think nudity… and that’s it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But it was so much more than that. <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yada</span> <span style="border: 0px; color: purple; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">transcends the physical. It describes the whole knowing of a person… not just their body, but their hearts, their minds, and their souls.</span> It means no secrets and nothing is held back. Before sin entered the world Adam and Eve were naked in the garden before God. They had no secrets with each other and they were not trying to hide secrets from God…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This is the love life we are beckoned to in Christ. We can once again be in the garden with our God and be naked and not be ashamed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I want you to go back now and read <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Psalm 139 </strong></em><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </strong>again<em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, </strong></em>because now you can do so with the awareness that when you read the word “<em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">know</em>” you are reading <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“yada”<span style="border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">…</span></span></span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">O LORD, you have searched me and <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">known</span> me…</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Psalm 139:1</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: purple; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Just as a young romantic dreams of his or her future lover, God dreamed of you. Before you were born, His heart longed for you. God has “before love” for you. He <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">has</em> sought you, and He <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">is</em> seeking you. Those are facts. Let’s make every effort not to confuse our lack of feeling God’s presence with a lack of His presence. And beyond that, my friend, let me encourage you to step out of- or never step into- the same pit of Satan’s lies I once was drowning in when I believed that my past made me unworthy of God’s desire and love. It’s simply not true…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Precious one, never forget who you are in Him…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> and never forget where you were when He called you…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">He loved you then,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> He loved you before then,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> and He loved you still even after then… and He loves you now.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #ff6600; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Now, in this moment, you are the focus of the passionate and unconditional love of God. He loves you with His entire Being. You have all of His love as if you were the only human being in existence. And He loves you because you exist without reference to your behavior. Understand and live in that reality, and behavior will change in response to such infinte love that leaves us worshipping wonder. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #ff6600; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">~ Malcolm Smith </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: purple; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Get this: The ache in your heart to be known by and to truly know one man was placed in you to be a revelation of a much deeper love. When you are in intimate physical and emotional communion with your husband, it will be a mere picture of the passionate love of a God who has been seeking your heart since before you were born.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We live in a day of artificiality.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We have artificial sweetener, artificial nails, artificial hair, artificial colors…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We have fake food, fake diamonds, fake furs, fake money, fake lips, fake boobs, fake profiles, fake friends…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We have imitation purses, imitation art, imitation wood, imitation pearls…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We live in a day of cheap fake, artificial, imitations.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We live in a day of counterfeits… and love is no exception.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Honey, don’t settle for the imitiation when the Creator of the universe stands before you with open arms welcoming you into the REAL GENUINE TRUE thing. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Don’t be wooed away from the Lover of your soul by the seductions of the world and the lies of the one who rules here… you are worth more than that. You were worth dying for… more precious to God than His own glory. He laid it aside to come chasing after you… He wants to captivate and capture your heart and sweep you off your feet and carry off to His kingdom to be His pure and holy and undefiled bride.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Just spend tonight thinking about that and about Him…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span id="curate-us-tag" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://s.tt/192cj" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="11" src="http://1.rp-api.com/1450704/via.png" style="border: none; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: -12%;" width="12" />Proven Path Ministries</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/192cj" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">http://s.tt/192cj</a>)</span></span>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-10084837658880417632012-11-21T06:39:00.001-08:002012-11-21T06:39:07.201-08:00Dump the Cliches<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What are some of the cliches you have heard that are supposed to encourage you or at least shame you into saving yourself for the honeymoon?</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Why buy the cow when you are getting the milk for free?”</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“If you want it, you better put a ring on it”</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: purple; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We’ve all heard so many trite cliches through the years. <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“It’s a gift you can only unwrap once”</em> and “<em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You can become a recycled virgin”</em> come tomind. Something in me just doesn’t like the idea of comparing virginity to a milk carton. But all these repeated messages about ”protecting God’s gift of sex” still leave many wondering why? Why does God want it protected? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: purple; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">~ Dannah Gresh</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yeh, but why?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Day Twenty-Five</strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In the back of your head you hear the cliche and then you look over there and they are having sex and they are having sex and well they are having sex… and lightning has struck and God has struck them with a disease and they seem perfectly content. They are even excited that they just found out they are pregnant and they are not married, but everybody is hugging her and is excited for her???</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And your daughters and sons are wondering the very same thing?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So why?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Why should you, why should they, wait when it looks like absolutely no one else around you is? If you are single again after a marriage… does it even matter?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yes it does… and this is why:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">YADA!</span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Yes, that’s right <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">yada.</span></span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Adam <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">lay</span> with his wife Eve,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and she became pregnant </em></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Genesis 4:1</strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Okay… so yeh, as <span style="border: 0px; color: purple; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dannah</span> said <span style="border: 0px; color: purple; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">he was so not just layin’ there!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The word <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">lay </em></span>in the Hebrew is “<span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">yada.</span>“</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">This is the Hebrew word for sex. It means “<em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">to know, to be known, to be deeply respected.” </span></em><span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This is what God thinks about sex. It is designed to be something that causes us to be deeply known by another. It doesn’t have anything to do with the actual physical act of sex, it centered on the deep emotional connection and quenching that we yearn for…</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ladies think about it… is it really the physical touch you crave… or is it really a <span style="border: 0px; color: purple; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">deep emotional caress</span> that you are crying out for? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What really drives you over the edge and makes your head spin and your heart pound?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Is it when he touches you…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> or is it when he took the time to study you and to really get to know you…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">when he knew what color your eyes where, your favorite color, was it not when he remembered something you said? Or when he was able to but you that gift and you had never even mentioned wanting it out loud… he just knew you would want it… because he had taken the time and the effort to know you… just you?</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">YADA!</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Married ladies… when does your husband look at you in amazement? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Is it really when you strut out and blow him away with your sex kitten prowl… or is it when he knows that you know him, <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">really know him</span>, yet<span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"> still deeply respect</span> him and you show that deep respect in your willing submission to his leading of your family? Is it not when you show sincere interest and real respect for his work and the efforts he makes to provide for your family?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">YADA!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Based on the world’s view of sex knowing and respecting each other has nothing to do with sex… it’s just physical… <span style="border: 0px; color: purple; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">but an emotional knowing and deep respect are essential ingredients to an intimate, lifelong connection. Mingle the two- an emotional knowing and a deep respect- and you have</span> <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">yada</span></em>. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The word <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">yada</span> is used more than 900 times in the Old Testament.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dannah shares a story in her book about a guy names Wes and girl named Stephanie… let me share it with you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Trust me this one is a tear jerker!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wes first saw Stephanie at a Pure Freedom for teens. Wes said he loved her the moment her saw her. When he approached Stephanie to ask her out on a date she informed him that after a very bad relationship in 9th grade, her heart had been wooed by Jesus, and she was only dating Him through out the rest of high school… which was three more years. Three years. No guys. Just God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Well Wes went and had a little talk with God about this. You see Wes loved Jesus too. When Wes went and talked to Jesus about how he felt about Stephanie and God let Wes know that He was courting Stephanie and Wes needed to back off and give Him His courting time with Stephanie.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wes obliged.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But for the next three years Wes never stopped loving Stephanie. He stayed friends with her, would touch base every now and then. During this time he was asked out by other girls… but he said no… He was waiting on Stephanie, even though she had no clue that he was.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On May 24, 2008 Wes saw Stephanie again… she was about to graduate high school. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Then on June 1, 2008 <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">after</span> Stephanie had graduated high school Wes came to see Stephanie. And that’s when he brought them out… the gifts.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One for each Christmas that he’d loved her. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> One for each birthday that he’d loved her.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And a journal that expressed his emotional pursuit of her… three years of giving her over to God and giving himself over to God as he waited for God to give him permission to show his love to Stephanie. YES THIS IS A TRUE STORY!</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Who acts in behalf of the one who <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">waits for Him</span>.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Isaiah 64:4</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">but just as it is written,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“ THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">WHO LOVE HIM</span>.”</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Corinthians 2:9</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This is why sex is worth waiting for… it’s for <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">YADA.</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Let’s dump the cliches, let’s dump the lies, and let us walk in Truth.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Your challenge today:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> if you are married, are you still getting <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">to know</span> your spouse? Ladies, how is your respect toward your husband? Does he know that you respect him? Do you respect him? Is <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">yada</span> a part of your marriage? Maybe you need to make the first move in getting <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">to know</span> your husband all over again…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> if you are single… wait on Him. Are you willing to give the object of your heart over to God? Are you willing to date Jesus only, to let the Creator of the universe court you and then bring “the one” to you? Are you willing to say no to relationships that you know are not God’s will for you in order to wait for <span style="border: 0px; color: green; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">yada</span>? </span><span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span id="curate-us-tag" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://s.tt/192ck" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="11" src="http://1.rp-api.com/1450705/via.png" style="border: none; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: -12%;" width="12" />Proven Path Ministries</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/192ck" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">http://s.tt/192ck</a>)</span></span>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-84537354575217399582012-11-21T06:36:00.002-08:002012-11-21T06:36:45.162-08:00Getting Strong Enough<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: purple; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I am a biblical woman who loves God’s Word and feasts on it each day. I am a sinful woman who has been healed by the perfecting love of my Savior. I am a wife and mother who is honored to serve the Father in those roles. I am an author empowered by the Holy Spirit to write to write and live out Truth. I am a girl who occasionally watches The Ellen Show, and I think she’s sweet and funny and generous. And that’s where it starts to get complicated- when my private, God-loving self interacts with a real world that doesn’t acknowledge Him as God. Just like you, I am trying to live out my faith in a very crazy world.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: purple; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">~ Dannah Gresh</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Day Twenty-Four </strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">These last ten days I am going to begin pulling from <span style="border: 0px; color: purple; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dannah Gresh’s</span> book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Are-You-Waiting-Thing/dp/1601423314" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">What Are You Waiting For</a>. I wanted to start with <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Shannon Ethridge’s</span> book because it was geared more to married women, and I am a firm believer that God wants us to have amazing marriages. He wants us to experience a level of intimacy in our marriages that somehow helps us understand how up-close and intimate He intends to be with us. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I also believe with all my heart that God can take a marriage that is already hanging off the ledge of destruction and when even just one of the two is willing to let both hands go of the ledge and then grabs on to God’s hand and refuses to let go… then God can pull them both to safety… because after all you are united as one flesh. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I believe many marriages fall apart because we usually are not willing to see our own part in the mess. All we want to see is the part that will justify our choice to be done, to be free of the pain, the hurt, the hassle. It’s easier to see the other’s fault in the mess than our own, especially when we use the excuse that our actions are simply the results or effects of the other’s actions… the whole<em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “well if they then I wouldn’t have”</em> thing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">We usually want what we have decided is the greener grass because we didn’t have to do any of the work to make it green. Here’s the thing, God wants our grass to be just as green… but sometimes it takes a bunch of “crap” to get beautiful green grass. Sometimes it has to be set on fire and burnt almost to death in order for the beautiful new green to work its way up through the ashes. Sometimes it has to have poisons thrown out on it to destroy the weeds that keep creeping up in it and sometimes it has to babied… with extra seed and water and tended often… especially in a dry season. Green grass takes work… </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">So we started with <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Every Woman’s Battle</span> and we ended <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">yesterday </span>with our prayer for God to show us who we needed as an accountability partner. Ladies even if you are not struggling at this time with emotional or sexual integrity… you still need accountability. You need it in so many areas of your life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Maybe your struggle is staying in the Word, maybe it’s attending church, maybe it’s losing it with your kids, maybe it’s laziness at work, maybe it’s food, maybe it’s health maintenance, maybe it’s stepping out in obedience in a particular ministry. It doesn’t matter what we are struggling with, God built and designed His church that we might be accountable to one another and Him. You need women in your life who know they have the freedom to pull you aside and say…<em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Honey, I have noticed…”</em> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">However, the focus of this Thirty-three Day Challenge remains sexual and emotional integrity. As I watch our nation crumble in moral decay, and I see that decay alive and well and working in our churches, I am beyond saddened. A little piece of my heart breaks every time a marriage fails because of emotional and sexual compromise. A little piece of my heart breaks every time I hear of the youth group couple that is sexually active. A little piece of my heart breaks every time I hear of the youth group boy that has playboy’s under his bed and him and half the other youth group guys head off to Hooter’s for some wings. A little piece of my heart breaks when I hear what movies the girls in the church are watching or what music they are listening to or what books they are reading… </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I have to confess, that my own personal litmus as to whether or not I think you need Jesus is <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“where are you sexually?”</em> This is my plumb line. This is where I will begin my fruit inspection as to whether or not you are a genuine sincere believer, especially if you tell me you are called to the ministry or are already in the ministry. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">When I was first wholly surrendered I thought everyone was like me. If they claimed to be a Christian and yet had sex outside of marriage then I, with all my heart, thought they were as deceived as I was and really were not saved. Now I have learned to extend grace in this area and I now know that yes, someone can be a Christian, can be really saved, and struggling in this area. So I have learned to not doubt their salvation so easily, but here’s the thing… they still need Jesus or at least they still need more of Jesus, they still need TRUTH. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Which is why as much as it breaks my heart to see those who compromise their integrity… it breaks my heart even more and makes it fall with a thud to a floor, when I hear those who profess to be Christians call someone else a whore, a slut, a fag… just because they have decided that what “they” are doing is worse than what they are doing. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">All it takes is one walk down the halls to hear it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">All it takes is five minutes in the break room to hear it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">All it takes is one “prayer” meeting to hear it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">And as the targets of the judgments and gossip hear it… their invisible walls of self-protection get higher, thicker, and harder. God is heart-blocked by our gossip and harsh judgments. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Heart-blocking is Satan’s job… that is his work.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Who are you working for? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">So- as we who call ourselves Christians,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> we biblical women who are learning to feast on God’s Word daily,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> we sinful women who have fallen but are being restored and perfected by the love of our Savior,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">we women who want with all our hearts to do all we can to keep our daughters and the other young women in our lives from making the insane mistake of believing the lies of Satan instead of the truth of God… let us be real. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Let us not tell sister-so-and-so about Betty-Jo’s affair, let us go to Betty-Jo and pull Betty-Jo aside and offer her our sincere help in bringing her before the throne of grace. Let us not joke in the break room about how Floozy-Suzie wore those clothes into work yesterday, wonder who she went home with after the office party last night… let us instead go to Floozy-Suzie one-on-one and tell her about real Love. She may not know it exists. Let us not join in our daughters conversation of condemnation about the new lesbian couple in school, let us instead teach her how to share the gospel and love them without getting caught up in the sin themselves… </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Don’t get me wrong… I know Jezebel is out there.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel,</em></span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">who calls herself a prophetess,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I gave her time to repent,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and she does not want to repent of her immorality.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Revelation 2:20-21</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">…but I will let God take care of her, I will just offer everyone grace and mercy as freely as He offered it to me and at the same time I will be careful not to fall into temptation in the process…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass,</em></span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness;</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Galatians 6:1-2</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">That is our end goal of this challenge. To become women of emotional and sexual integrity who are strong enough by and through His grace to be used by Him in our own weaknesses to reach out to those that God has allowed to cross our path and show them the Way of Peace. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Are you still with me????</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span id="curate-us-tag" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://s.tt/192cl" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="11" src="http://1.rp-api.com/1450706/via.png" style="border: none; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: -12%;" width="12" />Proven Path Ministries</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/192cl" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">http://s.tt/192cl</a>)</span></span>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-45494947989894936762012-11-21T06:35:00.001-08:002012-11-21T06:35:19.322-08:00Accountability<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">We are one day away from the ten day stretch to finish the race of this thirty-three day challenges. We have spent the past three weeks weeding through deception. I hope that these past few weeks have been an opportunity to pull up some lies that had been growing and thriving inside of you by their root. I hope that it has been a time of blind eyes being opened and a time of oh’s, that’s why’s, and now I get it’s. I also hope it has been a time of training. A time of learning the right tools to keep you from falling into the snare of the enemy of our souls.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">If this has been a time like that, and you have experienced freedom and you want to stay free, but you are done lying to yourself and you know you can’t do this on your own, then what you need at the very least is an accountability partner. If you need more help… go get it. There are churches all over your area with Christian counselors who would love to be there for you and would love to be allowed to be used by God to help restore your soul. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In light of that, our focus today is accountability partners.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Day Twenty-Three</span></strong> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Do you want to be able to be able to say no to worldly passions?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">To live a self-controlled, upright and godly life?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">To be purified as God’s very own?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">To be eager to do what is good?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, </em></span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">zealous for good deeds.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Titus 2:11-14</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Well there you go…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The answer is GRACE <img alt=":-)" class="wp-smiley" src="http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">So many today think that grace is just the <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Oh that’s okay… I understand… I hate the sin… but I love the sinner.”</em> But the problem is… most of the time we really don’t <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">hate</strong> the sin. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Let me ask you?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Do you hate spiders?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">What would you want someone to do if they saw a spider crawling up your back and into your hair?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Let’s say that unknown to you a spider is crawling up you back. You are just walking along in the mall lost in your own little world and then out of no where some person jumps on you and grabs you by the hair and almost knocks you out trying to get to that spider and then after the dust is settled and you still are clueless about the spider and you are about ready to KILL the person for jumping on you and then… they turn around in desperation and show the dead brown lacrossse spider that was about to crawl in your ear and bite you. Would you hit them out of anger for hurting you in the process of trying to get to that spider or would you hug them and say<em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “oh! thank you! thank you!” ?</em></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Let me ask you again…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Do you hate sin? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Grace is the gateway to faith and faith is the way of salvation… Grace is power and strength and might, it is not weak and wishy-washy. Remember that it was the <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">grace</strong> of God that put Christ on that cross. He loved the sinner so much that He showed us how much He hated the sin by the stripes on His Son… this is what it took, but God never once stopped <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">loving </strong>His Son.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">So before you go to hating someone who has clearly pointed out sin in your life in a not so nice way or “Christian” way… first ask yourself and ask God… <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">are they right?</em></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Getting the poisonous spiders out of our hair by a stranger or friend who is not going to be one of those who just stands by and watches without helping or warning, may not be fun or comfortable it might be flat-out painful… but at least they didn’t choose to sit back and watch and then report to the news after your destruction<em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “well I knew it was coming, I sat rigt over and watched that spider crawl right up her britches leg and up her back and that sucker headed right to her ear and then wham it bit her… sure hate that it happened, but you know I ain’t one to get in someone else’s business…” </em></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Let me ask you again?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Do you hate sin? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">If the answer is yes, you need an accountability partner/partners. You need godly women in your life that you know are not afraid to get the spider out of your hair even if their methods end up shocking you or even hurting you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Perhaps it will be a friend or a sister, a teacher, a counselor, or a mentor. While you may be tempted to look for someone who can sympathize with you, you may have more long-term success with someone who isn’t struggling herself or who has already overcome such a struggle. Hitching two weak oxen together to plow a field is not nearly as effective as hitching a weak ox with a strong ox. ~ Shannon Ethridge</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When you are praying about an accountability partner you do not want someone who is in the same boat you are. Yes, it is fine to have those women,we need those women, but those ladies are your “support group” not your “accountability partners”. The support group is there to help you realize you are not alone, but if this is your only source of help, then you might just find yourself surrounded with people that only say,</span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Oh girl, I know, I am right there with you, no matter what I try I just keep on falling</em>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and never say</span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“NO girl, I KNOW, you don’t have to stay here, you are stronger than that and by all means Christ in you is stronger than that, now get up on your feet and let’s go” </em> </span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">See the difference?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When you have a mentor who can show you how to thrive on a diet of humility, you may discover a healing change in your appetite. Remember we can not sin and win. If there is sexual or emotional sin in your life, you must starve it to death. You can’t just “trim it down” or it will just grow right back, even larger than before. Sin must be cut out completely. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Your boasting is not good.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">just as you are in fact unleavened.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Corinthians 5:6-7</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So don’t boast about how you trimmed out some of the stuff that was causing you to fall and causing you to grieve the heart of God, when you have in full awareness chosen to hang on to the sins you “like” to much to stop…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Admit to God that you “like” this one… and get to work with that mentor, that accountability partner, get on your face before your God and ask Him to help you hate it.</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">He who tends the fig tree will eat its fruit,<br style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />And he who cares for his master will be honored.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Proverbs 27:18</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and found nothing on it except leaves only;</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.”</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And at once the fig tree withered.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“How did the fig tree wither all at once?” </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And Jesus answered and said to them,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you will not only do what was done to the fig tree,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">but even if you say to this mountain,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Matthew 21:20-22</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As they were passing by in the morning,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Being reminded, Peter said to Him,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.” </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mark 11:20-22</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Here’s the bottom line… if you tend to the fig tree (sin) then you will eat it’s fruit… but if you care for your master (Jesus) then you will be honored. When you stop tending to the fig tree it will stop bearing fruit and then you will realize this fig tree was worthless all along and you can curse it and then God will destroy it from the roots up… and as you walk by faith in your God and His Christ, it will never bear fruit in you again.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Who/what are you going to choose to care for?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">It’s up to you… as Jesus said… <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Have faith in God, </em>and whatever you curse will be cursed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Trust, me you can do this. Christ came that you might have life and victory.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">You were born for this! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span id="curate-us-tag" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://s.tt/1946B" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="11" src="http://1.rp-api.com/1455809/via.png" style="border: none; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: -12%;" width="12" />Proven Path Ministries</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/1946B" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">http://s.tt/1946B</a>)</span></span>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-27188813630879759342012-11-21T06:34:00.000-08:002012-11-21T06:34:00.369-08:00Fear Not<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Fear…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Today’s focus is fear.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">This is something that God has finally gotten through to me on… <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If fear is controlling me then His Spirit is not.</em></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I finally realized that at the root of most of my stupid choices, at the root of most of the sin in my life, as a lost woman and as a redeemed child of God, was fear. Fear of being left out, fear of being not wanted, fear of being hurt, fear of being afraid, fear of people knowing, fear of disappointing people, fear of letting people know I was afraid… crazy, stupid, fear.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Day Twenty-Two </strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As many times as God proclaimed “Fear not…” it is obvious that fear is a major hindrance to the Christian life. Why is it such a hindrance? Because fear is the opposite of faith. When we focus on our fear rather than having faith in God to deliver us from evil, we are much more likely to lose the battle for sexual and emotional integrity. How can we focus on what we know God will do when we think we are doomed? Such lack of faith says to God, “Even though you’ve carried me this far, you are probably going to fail me now, aren’t you?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">~ Shannon Ethridge</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Sometimes we can be in such hurt that the only escape we see is through sin… and that is because we are looking through our eyes and not God’s. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Sometimes we can be in such hurt that the only thing we can think about is relief, even if it is for only a moment, and well sin is usually easily available, quick to get to, and yes, sin’s relief will last for a moment… but only a moment… and then it comes crashing down and it brings an even heavier hurt… that you, once again, reach to sin to numb. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">We choose moments over eternity.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">God has offered us eternal freedom,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> but most often we instead choose the short leash of sin’s chains. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Because it is quick, it helps at the time, and we, in our eyes, either actually think it might work or see no other possibility.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">How many women compromise their integrity and do what they know in the depth of their being is against God and His truth because they fear “he” will leave them if they don’t. We do not see that we are choosing the approval of man over the approval of our Creator God?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">How many women cross the line, and then they draw a new line. Then they cross that line, so they draw still another line, then another line, and another… because they fear not being wanted or they fear the repercussions of standing firm on their “no”?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">How many women stay in an absolutely horrible relationship and fight to the death for it… and this person has not even loved them enough to make them his through the covenant of marriage… yet they fight to keep him… even though he destroys their confidence, destroys their strength, destroys their integrity, stomps on their heart, and is cruel to them (and possibly even their children), yet they stay because they “love” him. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">This is not love… this is fear.</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">because fear involves punishment,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and the one who fears is not perfected in love.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1 John 4:18</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">My seven year old daughter was riding with me the other day and it was just the two of us and she asked, “Momma, how will I know the man that God wants me to marry?” (Yes ladies at seven years old our daughters already are wondering about Mr Right… so define him to her now… before the Disney Channel and the little boys at school try to tell her who he is supposed to be) </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I shared with her that she would know the man that God had chosen for her by looking for three main things:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">1) He loved God more than he loved her</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">2) He was willing to give up his own life, his dreams, his toys, his pursuits, in order to make her his own, if that was what it took. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">3) He will meet your Daddy’s approval? She could trust her Daddy’s judgment on the man. If her daddy did not approve, then he knew this man would not love her and care for her the way he was supposed to.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I told her if she set this as her standard… then she would know “the one” when God brought him into her life and it was time for her to marry him. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Let me ask you… are you currently in a “dating relationship” that doesn’t meet the above standards?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">If so… why?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">If you do not have an earthly father…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> does your Heavenly Father approve of this relationship?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Is it one that honors Him?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Have you even asked Him about His thoughts on this relationship? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">My ten year old daughter asked me one day “Momma, how do I know when God is talking to me and answering me when I pray and ask Him a question?” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">(Yes, ladies, your ten year olds are seeking answers and direction from God, they have real hurts, real struggles, real issues, if we can teach them how to go before the throne of grace of now and seek help in their time of need… wow, that’s all I am going to say) </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I shared with her that when she was seeking God’s will, when she was seeking direction, she needed to talk to Him with her Bible open. Have a conversation with Him as she turned and scanned the pages… most often He will answer and give guidance through His Word. Sometimes God would also send another Christian to her to let her know what she needed to do. If she <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">was really</strong> looking for God to answer and <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">was going to do</strong> whatever He said… then she would know that it was Him. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Ladies, ask God to show you where fear is controlling you and not faith.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">He will.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I don’t know about you, but I hate being afraid. I don’t watch scary movies because I believe they are another tool of the enemy to numb our sensitivity to our fears and they glorify him and not my God. I don’t like the knot that fear put in my stomach or the pounding that it puts in my ears and the thoughts that come with it… I don’t like it at all. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">So many times we make bad choices because of our fear of the future. We don’t know what will happen or what we will do if we leave… if we walk away from this that we know… so we stay… even if all we experience is pain. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">We don’t know where this other way leads so we keep to this path that we know even though we always end up in the same place… </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">God has called us out… yet we stay… paralyzed by our fear that He just might not be for real… He just might fail us… after all <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“look at all I have done… how could He actually and really want me and have good planned out for me… how could God actually use me?” </em></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus opened your prison door. It’s up to you to walk out! How do you do this? By forgiving every person who has ever brought you pain, including yourself. If God does not despise you for the ways you have tried to fill the void in your heart, neither should you despise yourself.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">~ Shannon Ethridge</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sometimes fear causes us to run away when we need to stay and fight.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In marriages… how many times do we walk away because we don’t see how God could ever fix the mess? How many times do we abandon the hope of healing because we fear one more day of living in our current circumstances and we, with our eyes, can not see any possible hope of change? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Please I beg you; I implore you, do not walk away unless you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God is releasing you. Yes if abuse is involved you most likely need a time of separation for healing to take place, sometimes leaving is what is needed for a wake-up call, but give your marriage time to heal before you call it quits. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Give your spouse time and opportunity for God’s redemptive work to take place in their life. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Don’t let fear make you stay, and don’t let fear make you go, be still and know that He is God and trust and obey Him not fear.</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">He said, “ I heard the sound of You in the garden,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and I was afraid because I was naked;</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">so I hid myself.”</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Genesis 3:10</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">We have to decide that we won’t let fear control us any longer. We have to decide that we had rather be controlled by the Spirit of God. Then we have to obey His Word… and trust Him with the consequences. We have to not hide ourselves from Him, we have to come out and trust in His love. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">The best place to start is admitting that you are afraid.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Ask God to show you exactly what you are afraid of, then confess this to God and ask Him to forgive you for letting fear lead you instead of Him. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">You have to confess fear, it is sin, and there is only One who has the power to give us victory over sin…</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">…Christ in you, the hope of glory</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Colossians 1:27</strong> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">It is confession that cleanses and heals and restores the soul.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">It is laying our hearts open and bare before the Lord. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">It is trusting in the character and name of our God and not in our circumstances that brings us victory.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">It is in surrender to His will and His way and walking in obedience to His Word that we find peace… real, lasting, eternal peace.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Today your challenge is to raise your white flag of surrender because…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> …the white flag you will be waving as you surrender your past pain, present pride, and future fear is not a symbol of defeat. It is a symbol of victory, for it represents purity. You will be washed clean of all compromise as you allow God to transform you- heart and mind- into a woman who forgives her debtors, walks in humility, and faces the future with confidence in her Creator and Sustainer. White is your color, girlfriend! Post it proudly and enjoy the peacefulness and fulfillment of sweet surrender to the Savior.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">~ Shannon Ethridge</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Oh precious one, choose to surrender to, and to exalt your God… not your fear.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span id="curate-us-tag" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://s.tt/18VEu" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="11" src="http://1.rp-api.com/1431773/via.png" style="border: none; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: -12%;" width="12" />Proven Path Ministries</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/18VEu" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">http://s.tt/18VEu</a>)</span></span>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-24138254407459660802012-11-21T06:32:00.002-08:002012-11-21T06:32:28.525-08:00Surrendering<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Are your hands up in the air yet?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Are you beginning to surrender to Him and His oh so great love for you? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">We are going deep again today… get ready.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Day Twenty-One </strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In the book <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Every Womans Battle</span>, Shannon shares a story about a woman who was going through a struggle. The woman shared that she was no longer acting out sexually but was still struggling. She shared how she couldn’t get along with her roommates and how she hated the way she looked in the mirror, how she couldn’t sleep. How she was anxious, stressed, and angry but didn’t know why. She shared how she had been sick for months with one thing or another but the doctors could not find anything wrong… and now she was having suicidal thoughts again.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Shannon spoke with her and asked her to dig deep to see if there was anyone she was harboring unforgiveness toward but the woman was sure she had forgiven everyone who had ever hurt her. Then Shannon said it hit her. She asked the woman if she had ever forgiven herself… to which the woman burst into tears and cried<em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “No, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to.” </em></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Regardless of its source, we must surrender the pain from our past in order to stand strong in the battle for sexual and emotional integrity. </span><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">~ Shannon Ethridge</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">That surrender also includes the pain that comes from realizing our own choices have hurt us and no one else… Are you going through what this young woman was going through? Are you walking in self-unforgiveness? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">These are some facts that Shannon shares concerning unforgiveness. <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">According to the January 1999 issue of <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Prevention</em> magazine unforgiveness causes negative feelings about people in general, failure to recognize and enjoy potentially good relationships, and the following psychological and physical problems:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*chronic anxiety</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*serious depression</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*general mistrust</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*poor self-esteem</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*anger and hatred</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*resentment</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*rush of horomones exhilarate heart rate</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*limits or shuts down immune system</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*chances of heart attack increase by 500 percent</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*risk of high blood pressure and cholosterol</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*enhances risk of blood clots and cancer</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*a host of other chronic issues</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Shannonshares how she herself eventually found God’s grace for every person who had ever left her, let her down, or offended her. But forgiving herself for her own poor choices seemed to require more grace than she could muster. She shared how when she would reflect on her past choices she would <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">think “How stupid I’ve been!” “I should have known better!”, “No one could possibly love me if they knew all that I have done”</em> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I know what she is talking about… I have been there with those same very thoughts. These thoughts leave you with a constant need of approval. You need someone else to tell you that they love you, to affirm your very reason for taking up oxygen on this earth. Because you hate yourself so much you are almost shocked when someone notices you… and you become an easy target for those who would take advantage of your weakness… you become a weak woman.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For among them are those who enter into households</em></span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and captivate weak women weighed down with sins,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">led on by various impulses, </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 2 Timothy 3:6-7</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">You keep learning and learning but you never come to the truth. To the truth that God has forgiven you… so you are forgiven. God loves you… so you are loved. God says you are beautiful… so you are beautiful. God’s grace is sufficient for you. So you fall prey into the hands of those who will destroy households and the cycle continues… </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Ladies, listen closely… </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">When you believe that you are unable to forgive yourself then you are saying what Jesus did was not enough. You are calling the blood of your Christ insufficient. You also are saying that your own forgiveness of you is more important than God’s and requires more grace than what God is able to give. </span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">much more those who receive the abundance of grace</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. </em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Romans 5:17</em> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Satan uses unforgiveness as a tool to bring about our destruction. Forgiveness foils Satan’s plots to stunt our spiritual growth.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> Now today’s challenge is to look deep into your own heart and see if you need to begin the process of forgiveness… either toward yourself… or someone else. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I had student once say that she knew she needed to forgive. She knew she was supposed to, but no one has told her how. She wanted to be obedient. She wanted to forgive, but she did not know how to do it… so here are some steps in case you have this same question. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Acknowledge your anger and hurt. It is very real and God knows it is there.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Realize that holding on to this pain only holds you back</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Consciously let go of any need for revenge</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Consider the source of your pain: Hurting people hurt other people. Put yourself in there shoes.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Pray earnestly for those who hurt you, asking God to heal the wounds that cause them to wound others.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Pray that your wounds do not cause you to do the same to others.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">As you walk through these steps of surrendering your unforgiveness so that you might be healed of your past emotional pain… you must also work on surrendering your pride. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pride assumes several things:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*I deserve what I deserve</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*My needs should be met at any cost</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Life is all about me and my pleasure</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*The rules apply to everyone else but not me</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*I’m above the consequences</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Here’s the thing about pride… you could take that above list and use it as your excuses to commit sin or you could also take that list and use it as excuses to NOT accept the forgiveness of Christ for your past committed sins or His grace in your struggles in your new redeemed life. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">We must surrender our unforgiveness and our pride if we are to be free from our past emotional pain. If we are to be able to walk into our future with the freedom that is ours in Christ then we must let go of all this junk that wrapping us up around our ankles. </span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> which so easily entangles us,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">who for the joy set before Him endured the cross,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. </em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hebrews 12:1-2</em> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Honey, you are loved!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">You are forgiven.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">You are accepted.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">You are secure.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">You are significant.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Trust me… His grace is enough.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">His blood is enough… it is sufficient for your forgiveness and for your ability to forgive others. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span id="curate-us-tag" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://s.tt/1946C" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="11" src="http://1.rp-api.com/1455810/via.png" style="border: none; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: -12%;" width="12" />Proven Path Ministries</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/1946C" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">http://s.tt/1946C</a>)</span></span>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-51956631733252819192012-11-21T06:30:00.003-08:002012-11-21T06:30:49.054-08:00Open The Eyes of My Heart<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">We were created for relationships. We are relational beings. We were created for fellowship and intimacy with each other and with our God…</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Then the LORD God said,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“It is not good for the man to be alone…”</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Genesis 2:18</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Then sin entered the picture…</span></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and the man and his wife hid themselves</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. </strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Then the LORD God called to the man,</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and said to him, “Where are you?”</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Genesis 3:8-9</strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Sin came and made a separation in the One relationship that was designed to meet our every need for intimacy because He is the core for our desire to even be intimate. Deep down we are trying to meet a need for intimacy with each other that can only be met through intimacy with our Creator God… the Lover of our soul, the Creator of our soul, the only One who can truly see our hearts.</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> …for God sees not as man sees,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">for man looks at the outward appearance,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">but the LORD looks at the heart. </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Samuel 16:7</em></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Day Twenty</span></strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Today let us get focused on seeking intimacy from the One whose relationship matters most…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In her book</span> Shannon Ethridge <span style="border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">shares</span>, In our quest for relational intimacy, remember there is Someone we can whisper our heart’s desires to and get our boosts from who isn’t going to jeopardize our integrity but will strengthen it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If you are thinking, No way will talking to God ever excite me like talking to a man, then you haven’t allowed yourself to be courted by our Creator. The same God whose words possessed the power to form the entire universe longs to whisper into your hungry heart words that have the power to thrill you, heal you, and draw you into a deeper love relationship than you ever imagined possible.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A guy may tell you look fine, but God’s says,</span></span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Then the King will desire your beauty…</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Psalm 45:11</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A man may tell you, “Of course I love you,” but God’s says,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">…“I have loved you with an everlasting love; </em><br style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.</em></span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jeremiah 31:3</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Even your husband may tell you “I’m committed to you until death,” but God says,</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">…for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,”</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hebrews 13:5</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Make time to retreat to a quiet place with the Lover of your soul. Speak whatever is on your heart, and then listen as God speaks straight from His heart directly to yours. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Jesus came to bridge that relational divide that occurred that day in the garden. He came to restore us to fellowship with our Creator and God. Remember precious one, the veil was torn, the dividing wall has been torn down, you can go boldly into His throne of grace…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Remember that you are accepted in Christ, you are secure in Christ, and you are significant in Christ… God so desired to be in a relationship with you… He so desires that you know Him as He know you</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">because it does not see Him or know Him,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">but you know Him because He abides with you</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and will be in you.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">John 14:17</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">but if anyone loves God,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">he is known by Him.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1 Corinthians 8:3 </em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">He came all the way from glory to rescue you… </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Trust me, Lady Gaga knows nothing about being on the edge of glory… but Jesus does… He willingly jumped off the edge of glory to rescue you because He wants you to see His glory and to share in it with Him… </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: red; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: red; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: red; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">~ Jesus <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(John 17:22-26)</span></strong></em></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Today you challenge is to listen to Jesus. Today is the day to seek that quiet place and retreat with the Lover of your soul… don’t put Him off. This is how much He loves you…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">And sweet sister know…</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">may give to you a spirit of wisdom</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ephesians 1:17</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Ask Him to open the eyes of your heart… He will!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span id="curate-us-tag" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://s.tt/1946D" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="11" src="http://1.rp-api.com/1455811/via.png" style="border: none; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: -12%;" width="12" />Proven Path Ministries</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/1946D" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">http://s.tt/1946D</a>)</span></span>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-4557714499606696642012-11-21T06:27:00.002-08:002012-11-21T06:27:16.213-08:00Communication Boundaries<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Yesterday we talked about the danger of flirting and how “just talking” is dangerous. Today I am going to share some of the communication boundaries that Shannon recommends </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Day Nineteen</strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">While many women flirt with men intentionally others don’t realize that their amorous comments are inappropriate. We hear this kind of language so often in the media that flirting can be a natural or automatic response. Some women are too naive to recognize the impact that their words and mannerisms have on the opposite sex. Other women are well aware, but are so hungry for affirmation that they continue to jeopardize their integrity in order to fish for compliments anyway.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Remember ladies, we will give an account for every word… we must always ask our self what is my motive in saying what I am saying… my real motive.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">While kind words and compliments can be appropriate, we must be honest about our motives and recognize when they border on becoming manipulative or flirtatious. Even when we learn to discern whether we are flirting or not, there are other forms of communication that can also lead to sexual and emotional compromise.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We are going to look at some boundaries now. This first set of boundaries is huge!! If you don’t put any other boundary to action please put this one…</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Complaining About The Complaining</span></span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ladies, please do not complain about your husband to another man.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I won’t go so far as to say that women never have a right to complain about their husbands, but such behavior with someone of the opposite sex can backfire in a hurry.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Shannon shares about woman named Beth whose husband was emotionally and verbally abusive to her. he complained about everything she did and she was hurt by him. So she complained about him one day to a male co-worker… who also chose to complain about his complaining wife to her… this continued and developed into an affair. This complaining did neither one of them any good… and it did nothing to heal their marriage or bring them closer to their spouse.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In hindsight, Beth realizes that two wrongs certainly didn’t make a right. While her husband had no right to treat her so poorly, she only made the situation worse by complaining to another man about her husband.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If you are experienceing an issue in your marriage and you need to talk about it, this is where the <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">godly</strong> female friendships are so very needed. You need godly friendships with women who will teach you how to love your husband. Who will help you get a right perspective on the situation instead of just looking at it through the eyes of your hurt and disappointment.</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">teaching what is good, </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">so that they may encourage the young women</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">t</em><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">o love their husbands, to love their children, </em></span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Titus 2:3-4 </em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">When Not To Help</span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Women can be far to nurturing in situations, even when red flags begin to surface we often think, <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But he needs me… I’m just trying to be a friend… How can I possibly not help? That would not be very Christlike!</em></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I had a mentor warn me of this as she shared with me about ministering. She worked in the office at our church and a man came in needing financial help. As he shared his story, she was listening intently and with compassion, and he then did something that sent a red flag up in her spirit, she realized that he was being insincere and was trying to draw her into an uncomfortable situation and was taking advantage of her compassion and attention. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">You need ladies like this in your life to teach these things to you… as women in our desire to help we can miss the red flags. (We will talk about this more next week as we discuss accountability partners) </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Stick To Business At Hand</span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It has been said that men use conversation as a means of communicating information, but women use conversation as a means of bonding… And yes, the more we communicate with a person, the more we bond, so we would do well to take a lesson from the men in this area and learn to stick to business a little better. We can learn to communicate with men in friendly but to-the-point ways that will not jeopardize our emotional integrity.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Voice to voice:</span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*set a timer when communicating</span> with a male co-worker or business venture… allot time for how much the business will take and the timer will go off to help you not move from business to personal conversation when the business talk is over</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*use the speakerphone</span> and <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">pretend you are also on a speakerphone</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*screen calls</span> if you are receiving calls from a co-worker that is “pushing-it” or that you are tempted by and don’t answer until you are collected and able to stand</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*avoid late night conversations</span> with any male who is not your husband (whether single or married)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Face to face:</span></span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white;">*when in a conversation alone with a person of the opposite sex that is not your spouse, <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">stick to the business at hand</span>. Keep you motives in check and guard the conversation. <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Make sure you don’t have a hidden agenda in the conversation</span>. <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Do not use him as a sounding board and do not try and test his personal resolve, and do not use him to get your own ego stroked</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*if a man tries to act flirtatious with you and draw you into a flirtatious conversation</span>… find a distraction and get out of that conversation altogether, you can do this politely without causing any weirdness… and when you do not feed the conversation with flirting in return, the attempts at flirtatious conversations usually will stop coming from this person.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">*when a male coworker or friend <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">shows up unexpected and you are home alone</span> have a go-to-girl, someone who you can call to “show up” as well, so that you will not be alone. If a friend is not available… keep the man out side the home if possible, and keep the conversation minimal and quick.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*at work</span>, if in a meeting alone with someone with the opposite sex, <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">keep the door propped open</span>, one supervisor Shannon knows had a glass door installed in her office so that at all times someone could see what was going on <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">so there would never be a question about what was going on behind closed doors</span>… (is this a step you could take?)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*try never to be alone in the car</span> with someone of the opposite sex… it might be better to turn down that business trip rather than put yourself in that position and jeopardize your marriage and integrity </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">*I realize that we all must email and receive emails from people of the opposite sex, but once again <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">keep it quick and to the point and only business</span>, as women we tend use to many words in the email… making it sometimes a little too personal…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*if a man from your past</span>, a previous relationship, attempts to contact you… <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you do not have to respond</span>, and if you do keep it short, and let them know not to contact you again, especially if you got “excited” when you saw the message</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*avoid personal email accounts</span> that your spouse doesn’t have a password too, you should be able to keep each other accountable, simply by knowing that your spouse could be logged on at any time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*if a man tries to invade your personal space</span> through instant messaging and chat… once again <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you do not have to respond</span>. (I actually keep my facebook chat off… if it is important enough they will message me… but it’s too easy to just type “hi” and get sucked into a chat that you do not need to be in and another boundary my husband and I put in place is no “friending” of past relationships, leave the past in the past) </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">*this goes for texting as well. Keep it short and to the point. If it is someone you know is pushing the boundaries with you, the great thing about texting is that you don’t have to respond.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: lime; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*********************************************************************************</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; color: lime; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Okay so there were come some recommended boundaries… as you read did see any you had already implemented in your life and marriage? Did you see some that might be a good idea to implement from now on.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: lime; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">My husband and I have always used one big boundary. When we got married we put one big rule in place:<strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “Don’t Put Yourself In The Situation”</strong>. This one rule has been a guard and a guide through our past almost thirteen years of marriage… and it works.</span><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You can’t make a wrong choice and a false rumor cannot get started if you are not in the situation for it to happen.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Another gage I personally use is, <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Is this something I would want my husband reading, seeing, saying, doing, with or about another woman?”</em> If I would get ticked off or be hurt by this word or action in reverse then it means I don’t do it and I don’t say it.</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Luke 6:31</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s as simple as that.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Let the Word of God speak…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JTY-UKgLlXs" style="border-width: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="420"></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span id="curate-us-tag" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://s.tt/1946E" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="11" src="http://1.rp-api.com/1455812/via.png" style="border: none; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: -12%;" width="12" />Proven Path Ministries</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/1946E" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">http://s.tt/1946E</a>)</span></span>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-34574967218576372562012-11-21T06:24:00.001-08:002012-11-21T06:24:11.518-08:00Flirting With Danger<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Ladies… those that are still with me… you have made it past the halfway point in the challenge. I do hope that the past seventeen days have been a time of quiet reflection and heart examination and most importantly a time of weeding out deception.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">My sister in Christ, I hope you understand how I desire to see you walk in victory, how I desire that you know who you are in Him, how I desire that you know that He can indeed meet your every need, how I desire that you live a life worthy of your calling, how I desire to see the glorious name of Christ magnified through you as you live a life that testifies of His grace and mercy and love and power over the evil one and even over your own heart…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Let us put to death the deeds of the flesh and let us live and walk by the Spirit of our God. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">DAY EIGHTEEN</span></strong> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Today we are going to begin talking about the power of our words…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What is a four-letter word f</span><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">or a woman’s favorite foreplay activity?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">T-A-L-K!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Think about it. What affair has ever taken place without intimate words exchanged? Women often tell me, “I’ve not been unfaithful to my husband. All this man and I have done is talk.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">~ Shannon Ethridge</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Ladies, have you heard that one as well?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Have you used that one as well?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Or maybe as a single woman you used this referring to someone else’s husband… with your back straight and your head high maybe you’ve said, <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Well I can’t believe his wife is so jealous, I mean good grief, we are just friends, all we have ever done is talk!”</em></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Or as a single girl to a single guy friend you have no intentions of pursuing romantically, <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I don’t know why he thought I was in to him, all I ever did was talk with him</em>” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Let me ask you… as you talked, what did you talk about? How did you smile? What was your body language like? Where did your hands go while you talked? The longer you talked how deep into their eyes did you look? What would you have done, how would you have felt if their spouse, or your spouse, walked in at that exact moment? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">As you asked yourself these questions did you start making excuses? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">You can betray with words long before you betray with your body. Be very careful… there is a very thin line between being “a cut-up” and “flirting”. Make sure you do not cross it…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Men and women and different, you may not be doing or saying anything that you wouldn’t do or say if it was another female you were talking to… but this is not another female this is a male. So be careful. If you are paying attention you will know the moment that you or they have crossed the line.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">We must remember what we have already learned…an affair begins long before sexual intercourse ever takes place. It begins in your mind and in your heart. Your words prove it. Then your body acts on it. </span></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good;</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. </strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But I tell you that every careless word that people speak,</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For by your words you will be justified,</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and by your words you will be condemned.”</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Matthew 12:34-37</strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Regardless of her marital status, should a woman stir up a man (emotionally or physically) when she has no intention of pursuing a relationship with him? Is it loving to tease someone with your attentions and affections if you have no desire to fulfill any hopes you may arouse? In my opinion, showing a sincere love and respect for others allows no room for flirting or teasing.</span><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In my opinion, it is never appropriate for a married woman to behave amorously with anyone other than her husband. If we go back to one of our definitions of a woman of integrity, you’ll remember that she lives a life that lines up with her lips, and vice versa. If we are going to be loyal to our marriage partner, we must demonstrate our faithfulness not just in our actions, but also in our communication with other people.</span><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Even if you do not have serious intent when you begin batting compliments or overly friendly exchanges with a man, the excitement of those ego strokes can pull you down the road toward sexual compromise, usually slowly, but sometimes at lightning speed.</span> </span></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But immorality or any impurity or greed</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting,</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Ephesians 5:3-4</strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Married ladies here’s the trap I think we fall into… our home becomes the place of business and then the office, the school, the ball field, and yes even church… becomes the playground. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">At home you and your spouse discuss the business at hand. What bills need paid, what appointments need met, what chores need done, who needs ran where at what time, etc. Then you go on and take care of business, possibly never even touching each other or even looking each other in the eyes. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">But at work, school, church, wherever… it doesn’t matter… there is that person that smiles at you. There is that person who compliments you. There is that person that notices your hard work. There is that person that light-heartedly makes all the comments and winks at you as they say them. They actually looks at you when they talks to you. They noticed your new hair-do; they noticed that shirt brought out your eyes. They never once mentioned something you forgot, something you broke, or something you just didn’t do just right… so you are giddy… and Satan is getting you ready. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Ladies, let me ask you, when was the last time you “noticed” your husband? When was the last time you complimented him? When was the last time you used your words to just “play” with him? When was the last time you “flirted” with your man? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Today’s challenge, I want you to focus on flipping the playground if just by chance you are caught in the mundane marriage trap. It most certainly does not have to be that way… your home can be the playground… it should be the playground. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">You know that shirt that is in the closet that you realized is little too low cut to wear out… well; wear it at home for your husband. Make a point to lean into him so that he notices… but not so obvious (don’t act like you don’t how to do this <img alt=";-)" class="wp-smiley" src="http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Make sure you touch him when he walks by you… if you haven’t done this in a while… he is already going to be wondering what is going on. You can just start out with a touch on his arm or placing your hand on his hip as you pass each other in the bathroom or kitchen. You can start out slow and start seducing your husband… He will LOVE it and so will you. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Do not get discouraged if he doesn’t respond for a while, just keep it up. Don’t expect him to do the same to you… this isn’t about you. This is about you honoring your God, and honoring your marriage and honoring your husband and giving any attention that you have been giving away to others back to him. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">If you have been just business and routine at home for a while… this is going to blow his mind. Start flirting with your husband. Make a point to look in his eyes and give him “that look”. My husband knows my looks… he can see my heart through my eyes. I bet yours can too, even if he hasn’t looked in a while. It just might be becasue he didn’t see himself there anymore… </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Make little sexual innuendoes towards him. Ladies, here is the fun of marriage! Your home is where the playground should be. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I remember watching a comedian once, I don’t remember who he was, I am sure he wasn’t a Christian comedian… because it was before I was walking with the Lord… but he was sharing about being out on the road as his comedian act demanded… and of course any man on a “stage” has women after him. He shared how some woman came up to him to seduce him to have sex with her and she said something like <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I will do things for you your wife would never do…”</em>He said he just laughed at her and said <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“You don’t know my wife!” </em><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </em></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">You see ladies, that’s the way I want my husband to be able to respond to any seductress! Yes I want him to honor our marriage out of His obedience and love for God, but I also want him to just flat out enjoy me. So often as Christian women we are uncomfortable with sex because the world has done a mighty fine job of distorting it and making it look “dirty” but sex in the confines of marriage between man and wife is not dirty at all, it is holy. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">So let us use our words to flirt and tease with the one that we can actually follow through with our bodies and maintain our emotional and sexual integrity.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Honey, are you willing to become “undignified” and throw all caution to the wind in order to blow your husband’s mind?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span id="curate-us-tag" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://s.tt/1946F" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="11" src="http://1.rp-api.com/1455813/via.png" style="border: none; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: -12%;" width="12" />Proven Path Ministries</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/1946F" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">http://s.tt/1946F</a>)</span></span>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-78375713400420252832012-11-21T06:21:00.003-08:002012-11-21T06:21:54.484-08:00Aroused, Attached, Addicted<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Okay ladies, I hope you took the time yesterday to truly examine your heart and your relationships. I hope that the questions helped you to do that… now for any of you who in this process of examination realized that they were indeed<strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">too</strong> emotionally connected to someone who was not their husband, or was someone else’s husband <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(even if you have not let that person know about your feelings, however if you have let them know and they reciprocate those feelings, then you <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">are</strong> involved in an emotional affair)</em>, or if you have allowed someone to get emotionally connected to you, just to feed your ego, when you have no intentions of ever reciprocating these emotions… then today we will discuss what to do now.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Day Seventeen</strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">What to do if you have realized that you have crossed the line of emotional integrity:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">First, <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ask God for forgiveness.</em> An emotional affair may not be as big a deal as a physical affair in the world’s eyes, but all sin is equal in God’s eyes. As you are praying for forgiveness, also ask God to reveal whether you should confess your sin to your spouse. As terrifying as this thought may be, don’t let fear convince you that keeping it secret is the best thing for your marriage.</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> If we confess our sins,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1 John 1:9</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Next, <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">pray for God’s divine protection</em>, not just over your body, but over your heart, mind, and mouth as well. …but make sure this</span> [other]<span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> person doesn’t become the focus of your prayers.</span></span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">O LORD, I call upon You; hasten to me!<br style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Give ear to my voice when I call to You! <br style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />May my prayer be counted as incense before You;<br style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering. <br style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;<br style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Keep watch over the door of my lips. <br style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,<br style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />To practice deeds of wickedness<br style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />With men who do iniquity;<br style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />And do not let me eat of their delicacies.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Psalm 141:1-4</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Third, <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">avoid any unnecessary contact with this person</em>. In the same way that you might have gone out of your way to cross this person’s path, now go out of your way to stay out of his path… Remember actions speak louder words. When you refuse to remain in the presence of temptation, it loses its hold on you.</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Rise up! Consecrate the people and say,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">for thus the LORD, the God of Israel, has said,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “There are things under the ban in your midst, O Israel.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You cannot stand before your enemies</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst.”</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Joshua 7:13</em></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">make</strong> <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">no</strong> <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">provision</strong> for the flesh in regard to its lusts.</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Romans 13:14</strong></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Finally,<em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> seek a trusted friend or counselor </em>to hold you accountable through this season of temptation. If you know you are going to have to answer to someone else- whether it is your husband, a friend, or a counselor- about your thoughts, words, and actions, you’ll try harder to limit them to things you wouldn’t be embarrassed to admit. Getting real and honest with yourself and with someone who can keep you from falling into the pit of compromise is the best lifeline available.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Therefore, confess your sins to one another,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and pray for one another so that you may be healed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">James 5:16</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">My experience has been that if you starve your desire to be emotionally intimate with a man, it eventually dies. The more you control your appetite for forbidden fruit, the more dignity and satisfaction you will feel about yourself and your ability to be a woman of sexual and emotional integrity.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Let us remember that emotional arousal and attachment is the red light.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Now I want to address those who might have already ran the red light. I want to address those who are in an emotional affair and might even be so far as to be addicted to emotional affairs. I understand that if you are here most likely it is because here you have found some kind of balm for your pain. Maybe you are married to an abusive husband, whether that abuse is emotional, verbal, or physical, and you have used this emotional affair as an escape from your reality. Please know that this is not going to get you any where. It is only going to cause you greater hurt in the end. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Shannon</span> shares that<span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> rather than running to the Ultimate Healer for relief from our emotional wounds, women often make idols of relationships- worshiping a man instead of God. We begin submitting to a man’s and our own unholy desires rather than submitting to God’s desires for our holiness and purity, thus becoming a slave to our passions. When we peel back the layers of this issue, we can see the core problem: <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">doubt that God can truly satisfy our innermost needs</em>. </span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I’ve known many women who have journeyed to this depth of desperation, hoping to find something to fill the void in their hearts, only to discover that the pit was far deeper, darker, and more lonely than they could have imagined. I’m one of those women, but after many years of focusing my attentions and affections on my first love (Jesus Christ) and my second love (my husband), my life is a testimony to God’s changing grace. In His lavish love, God’s arm of mercy reaches further than we could ever fall. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ladies, let me assure you that God’s way is the best way. Do not let the enemy or the world or the greatness of your pain lead you down the path of destruction. There is grace and mercy and hope in Christ. Do not doubt the grace of God. Do not doubt His ability to meet your every need, to meet you where you are at. Do not doubt His ability to heal your heart and to heal your marriage. Don’t run to band-aids and ointments that only treat the symptoms and mask the cause. Get to the heart of the matter, go for the root, and trust God. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Now if you are still doubting that God can meet your needs… <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Shannon</span> has a challenge for you. So here’s your challenge for today… some more questions to ponder: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Have I really invested much time getting to know God personally and intimately?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Do I read the Bible searching for clues as to God’s character and plan for my life?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Have I given God as many chances as I have given other men? fantasy? Internet chat room?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Have I ever made the choice to pray or to dance to worship music or to go for a walk with God instead of picking up the phone to call a guy when I’m lonely?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Are there moments spent alone (masturbating, fantasizing, reading or looking at inappropriate materials, and so on) that I ignore God’s presence in an attempt to satisfy myself?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Do I believe God can satisfy every single need I have?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Am I willing to test this belief by letting go of all things, people, and thoughts that I use to medicate my pain, fear, lonliness, and becoming totally dependent upon God?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: lime; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">********************************************************************************</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[If during the course of this challenge you have realized that you have ran past the red light of emotional attachment and affairs and realize that you are in fact addicted to emotional connections and romantic affairs having realized as you examined your life and actions that you were no longer concerned about who got hurt, but was only concerned about having your own hurts covered and eased, then please seek help at</span> <a href="http://www.everywomansbattle.com/" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">www.everywomansbattle.com</a>. <span style="border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Your addiction is real. You are caught in the cycle of seeking relief for your pain in a way that causes more pain thus leading you to seek relief from that pain causing more pain... etc.</span> You don't have to suffer in silence. <span style="border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">] </span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span id="curate-us-tag" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://s.tt/1946J" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="11" src="http://1.rp-api.com/1455817/via.png" style="border: none; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: -12%;" width="12" />Proven Path Ministries</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/1946J" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">http://s.tt/1946J</a>)</span></span>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-5470031229039038622012-11-21T06:19:00.001-08:002012-11-21T06:19:07.118-08:00Thankful For the Mess<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">How easily we forget that our messes are our treasures.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I have finally finished listening to Lorrie Flem’s mp3 message</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DailyTreasures-Mp3.png" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1107" height="198" src="http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DailyTreasures-Mp3.png" style="border: none; display: block; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 5px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="DailyTreasures-Mp3" width="223" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> <a href="http://www.eternalencouragement.com/theshop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=868" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">Daily Treasures</a> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">It truly was a blessing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I sit here now writing this last minute review as a mother overwhelmed. I have been sick for a month, have been run ragged by my own commitments, and by helping my children to keep their commitments, as I play taxi and finder of everything lost. The laundry is behind, the sink is full of dirty dishes, the floors need mopped… again. I have been interrupted at least a dozen times this morning as I try to write this with phone calls from my husband and <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Momma, I can’t find it!”…</em> well I could go on, but I won’t.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Because these today are not my list of complaints.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Today these are reminders of my many blessings.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">So let me start over. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I sit here now writing this last minute review as a mother overwhelmed. Even though I have been sick for a month my sickness has not caused me to be unable to meet the needs of my family and ministry. I am thankful that I am run ragged because it means that somehow God has enabled me to not only keep my own commitments but has also enabled me to help my children to keep their commitments. I thank God that I have reliable transportation and gas money so that I can play taxi for my girls. I also am thankful that God has blessed me with my supermom x-ray vision and supersonic brain GPS internal tracking system so that I can be the finder of everything lost. I am thankful that my family has enough clothing to have so much laundry that I actually am able to get behind on it. I am thankful that we have a house full of food and are able to eat and fill the sink full of dirty dishes. I am thankful that the floors need mopped… again, because it means my loved ones, my treasures, have been close to me all week and their physical presence is in our home. I am so grateful to have been interrupted at least a dozen times this morning as I try to write this with phone calls from my husband because it means he thinks of me when he is gone and I am the one he wants to share all his news with first. I am thankful for the interruptions of <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Momma, I can’t find it!” </em>in the middle of the morning because it means my children are home with me and I still have the great and awesome privilege of homeschooling them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I am thankful for the mess. For the mess of motherhood. For the mess of family… because it is a blessing from my God. I am surrounded by treasures. Daily treasures… they call me Wife and they call me Momma. They are my priority before all else only coming behind my God… so I am thankful that this review is last minute because it means that this week I had my priorities in proper place.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I have spent the month making memories and recording my treasures as they were off to see the Wizard of Oz. My girls were in a play that required a lot of practice and they performed ten shows. I spent the month recording them in my mind and on my phone and with my camera. I spent the month texting the adorable things they said and did to my husband when he could not be there because he was at work providing for us. It didn’t matter that the laundry piled up, or the sink, or that there are a few spots in the floors that your sock might stick too… I made memories with my treasures.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I was reminded that I made the right choice as I listened to Daily Treasure by Lorrie Flem, like she said, one day they will not need a taxi, one day the dishes will only be for two, one day it will take longer for the laundry to actually pile up… and I almost cry now thinking about that day. So I think I am going to choose to enjoy today’s treasure now and be oh so very thankful for the mess.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span id="curate-us-tag" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://s.tt/19iEl" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="11" src="http://1.rp-api.com/1491306/via.png" style="border: none; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: -12%;" width="12" />Proven Path Ministries</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/19iEl" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">http://s.tt/19iEl</a>)</span></span>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-21778006435571607362012-11-20T22:07:00.002-08:002012-11-20T22:07:40.177-08:00Getting to the Heart of the Matter<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Obviously your heart needs to be a primary concern if you hope to be a woman of sexual and emotional integrity. It’s one thing to determine how far is too far physically in a premarital or extramarital relationship, but it’s another to answer how far is too far emotionally. What are the emotional boundaries?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">~Shannon Ethridge</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Okay ladies, today we are going to learn some tools to stand against the enemy and to guard our hearts. The best tools are knowledge and love. Love without knowledge is foolishness and knowledge without love is dangerous. We need both at the same time.</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">but grow in the grace and knowledge</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Peter 3:18</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Because lawlessness is increased,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> most people’s love will grow cold.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Matthew 24:12</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As the knowledge of the true Word of God slips away out of our society we see society’s love grow cold. When the Word of God is not renewing our own mind… we will find our love growing cold. Real love, sacrificial love, obedient love… will grow cold apart from the Word of God. As lawlessness increases in our day we see our society remove itself farther and farther from</span><span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> the truth</span><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </em><span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">of the Word.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If you take the time to think about a time that you chose to allow a certain sin in your life, a time of lawlessness, what was your love like? Was it sacrificial or selfish? Was it on fire for God or going through the motions? Did you hunger for the Word or did you not want It near you? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We must never stop growing in the grace and knowledge of our God because the moment we do our love begins to cool and it won’t be long before we are chilled to the bone. </span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">but speaking the truth in love,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">we are to grow up in all aspects into Him</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">who is the head, even Christ,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ephesians 4:15</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I used to have my list of sins that a “real” Christian could never commit, if they were indeed a “real” Christian. However, as I have grown in grace and knowledge and love of God in my own life… I have learned that a Christian is not an exception to humanity. Our condemnation just falls harder from the enemy because we “are supposed to know better”. But the truth is sometimes we just don’t know enough. Granted most of the time it’s because we have not taken the time to know more. We have become easily satisfied with whatever the preacher delivers us on Sunday morning instead of feeding ourselves daily.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Daniel was the man in Scripture who was called a man of high esteem, he had uncompromising integrity. You think that just might be because he prayed to our God three times a day? Morning, noon, and night he called on the Lord… let us be willing to give our God the same… to seek Him… to be in constant fellowship with Him. He is only a prayer away.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I hope that these past fifteen days have been a time of growth for you and also a time of amazing fellowship with your Creator as you have focused on getting the “other” things out of the way to make more room for Him in your heart.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Day Sixteen</strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I want to be a woman of sexual and emotional integrity. I lived a life so far from God and His Word and I blasphemed His name among the lost because I still called myself a Christian as I lived a life that in no way represented who I claimed to be… thank God that He is aware that I am but dust. He saw my ignorance and passed over my sin and chose even still to forgive me and to give me life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Today I am going to share the tools with you that <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Shannon</span> share’s in <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">her</span> book to help us walk in sexual and emotional integrity. Because the last thing I want to do is blaspheme His name among the lost again. The enemy of our souls knows how to bring us down and he knows the power of emotional manipulation and sexual temptation. Don’t think he won’t use it against us. Don’t think that he will not take the bond that is formed by believers in the unity of the Holy Spirit and try to pervert it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Shannon</span> share five stages of emotional connection and has them marked with a green light, a yellow light, and a red light to let us know when all is good, when we need to be careful, and when we need to stop and back the truck up.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Emotional connections:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(1) attention</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(2) attraction</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(3) affection</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(4) arousal and attachment</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(5) affairs and addiction</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Attention,</strong><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> this </span></span>is based on what we see, whereas attraction is based on what we hear.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">That’s why you may see someone, they have caught your attention and you may think,<em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “hmmmmm”</em> but then they open their mouth and you think </span><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“ughhhh, ewwwww”. </em>Or you see someone and go <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“ughhhh, ewwwww”</em> and then they open their mouth and you go <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“ohhhhhhh”.</em></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Now in <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">attraction</strong> <span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you become familiar enough with the person to know you are drawn to him, but you are not yet familiar enough to act affectionately toward that person</span>.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Both attention and attraction are not limited to men but include a wide variety of things: the kind of clothes we like, the style of house we prefer, and the type of food we crave.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When you go to church or business meetings, you probably are drawn to certain individuals but not to others. The woman who became your friend is probably someone you run to when you need a hug or have really good news to share.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Society has twisted our minds into thinking that if we are drawn to someone, we must want to have sex with them. But attraction isn’t necessarily sexual. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(Personally I believe this lie and twisting of attention and attraction and affection is one of the tools that the enemy has used to convince many that they must be homosexual or bisexual to feel the way they do. We will discuss this in more depth later in the challenge)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When we find ourselves attracted to someone we then begin to move into showing that person <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">affection. </strong>Here is where the green light goes to yellow. Here is where you, married or single, have to pay close attention to your motives and your actions. We show affection in many ways and to many individuals. We not only show our husband affection, but we also show our children affection through cards, hugs, helps, words, etc. We also show our friends affection in similar ways and we can safely do this with our male friends also if we watch our motives.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Married women, here are some questions you need to prayerfully ask yourself before you show any type of affection to a man who is not your husband. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">* What is my motive for making this expression of affection? Is it appropriate? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">* Am I trying to show genuine appreciation for this individual, or do I have a hidden agenda?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">* Am I using affection to draw this person into a deeper relationship?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">* Could this expression be misinterpreted in such a way that this man would be confused, tempted, or suspicious of my motives?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Is this expression of affection one that I wouldn’t mind my spouse knowing about?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Single women, here are some for you:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Is this person unattached? Does this person have a “significant other” in his life who would be concerned with how I express affection toward him?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Is my expression of affection in line with the current level of my relationship with this person?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Do I sense that this man has personal feelings for me that I do not reciprocate? If so, would signs of affection give him the impression that I am interested in more than friendship when, in fact, I am not?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Could this expression of affection be interpreted as seductive, or does it truly express godly character?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Now we are getting into the red light district, <strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Emotional Arousal and Attachment</strong>. Now if you are a single woman then this is still in the yellow light for you, that is if the man is also single, but if you are married and you at emotional arousal and attachment with a man that is not your husband, RED LIGHT!</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Emotional arousal occurs when we are stirred romantically by someone, and it usually precedes most sexual activity because our heart determines the direction of our mind and body. </span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How can you tell the difference between attraction or affection and emotional arousal and attachment toward a man? Here are some questions to ask…</span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">* Do you think of this man often (several times each day) even though he is not around?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">* Do you select your daily attire based on whether you will see this person?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">* Do you go out of your way to run into him, hoping he will notice you?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">*Do you look for excuses to call him so you can hear his voice?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">* Do you find reasons to email him, eagerly anticipating his response?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">* Do you wonder is he feels any attraction towards you?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">* Do you want to talk or spend time alone with this person, out of earshot or eyesight of anyone else?</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 14px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.25; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Your challenge today is to spend time examining your heart and your friendships, especially those with the opposite sex… Ask yourself these questions and see where you are at in your emotional and sexual integrity? Tomorrow we will look at what to do if you have found yourself caught up in an emotional affair or have even progressed into an addiction…</span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Precious one, there is forgiveness and there is hope</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span id="curate-us-tag" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://s.tt/1946H" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="11" src="http://1.rp-api.com/1455815/via.png" style="border: none; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: -12%;" width="12" />Proven Path Ministries</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/1946H" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">http://s.tt/1946H</a>)</span></span>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-23851264677999138812012-11-20T22:05:00.001-08:002012-11-20T22:05:09.069-08:00Jesus Loves Me<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Yesterday we talked about the importance of taking every thought captive as we guard our mind against the schemes of the enemy. We talked about how it’s not enough to just avoid trash intake… you must replace the trash with the Word of God. </span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">whatever is right, whatever is pure,</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">whatever is lovely, </em><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">whatever is of good repute,</em></span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">dwell on these things. </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Philippians 4:8</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">We must be very careful what we allow our minds to dwell on… because our thoughts will become our actions. We must not allow our minds to think or imagine things that go against the Word of God. We are not to fantasize about men that are not our husbands, whether we are single or married.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Now before we go any further let me assure you that if you are married… honey go right on ahead and fantasize about you and your man! That is, as long as no one else is included in the fantasy. We must remember that marriage is about becoming one, about becoming “known” (we’ll get deeper into the becoming known later in the challenge), it is about intimacy with your spouse and only your spouse. If your fantasy begins to include and extra participant take that thought captive… it is a perversion of what is true, honorable, right, pure, and lovely.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Today we are beginning a focus on guarding our hearts… never forget that as a woman you must guard your mind and your heart… your mind follows your heart. When you emotionally connect with a man (fictional or real) then your mind begins to fantasize about him and then you desire to make your fantasy a reality. However a man, fantasizes in his mind and then seeks to emotionally connect so that he can make the fantasy a reality. Remember men give love to get sex and women give sex to get love. </span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Day Fifteen </strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Ladies, we must guard our hearts and we must teach our daughters and any other young women in our lives how to do this as well… victory is possible and is imperative.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“While the need to love and to feel loved is a universal cry of the heart, the problem lies in where we look for this love. If we are not getting the love we need or want from a man- whether or not we have a husband- we may go searching for it. Some look in bars and others in business offices. Some look on college campuses and some look in churches. Some women look to male friends while others look to fantasy. When love eludes them, some women seek to medicate the pain of loneliness or rejection. Some take solace in food; others in sexual relationships with any willing partner. Some turn to soap operas; others to shopping; and still others to self-gratification.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If you have tried any of these avenues for long, you have likely come to a dead end. Your pursuit has left you longing for something greater, something deeper, something more.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: 0px; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">~ Shannon Ethridge</span> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Are you at that dead end? Honey I have seen it and it is not a pretty place to be… so if you are there or if you find yourself there one day… there is only one thing to do at a dead… turn around. </span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. </em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Therefore remember from where you have fallen,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and repent and do the deeds you did at first;</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Revelation 2:4-5</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong></em>Repent, turn around, head back to your first love… to Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I remember being a little girl and being so in love and in awe with my God. <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so…” </em>I loved Him, I did. I didn’t know Him… but I loved Him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Loving Christ but not knowing Him is kind of like that dream you have for that spouse, for that husband, you may not have met him yet but you love him… and even when you do marry him… you love him… but you still don’t really know him. Now the test comes when you have to choose to remember your “first love” for him as you get to know him… really know him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">As a little girl, I loved Him, I loved Jesus. Yet, I didn’t get to know Him. So my heart’s void was not filled with my love devotion to Him because I wasn’t seeking Him to fill that void… I forgot Him. I turned to other things to fill it. Things I could easily see and touch and feel… you know the things that didn’t require so much trust and work on my part.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I didn’t guard my heart and mind and save it for my Jesus… I gave it away… and my body followed. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I ended up at that dead end. However here’s the awesome and amazing thing about my Jesus, He can be found at the dead end. He doesn’t care how “lost” you are, He will get you turned around and headed in the right direction if you will just listen and fall into His arms. He will lift you up off your feet and carry you out of the muck of life better than any Richard Gere could his Debra Winger. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">My First Love… He took me back. He didn’t care how dirty I was… He didn’t care about all the times I chose to fill His place in my life with cheap worthless things… He still loved me. He never stopped loving me.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">If you are at that dead end… remember your First Love and turn around. When you fall back into His arms He will teach you how to guard your heart and to fill any void you have had with Him, the real lasting genuine deal. He will not reject you. He will not leave you lonely. He will not leave you empty. He beckons you to Him so that you can get to know Him… really know Him.</span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “I have loved you with an everlasting love;</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jeremiah 31:</em><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong><strong style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">3</strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">When you remember your First Love and return to Him and begin to fill your heart with His love, it is out of this love, <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">His love for you</span>, that you are now finally able to really love others… including your husband. If you are single it is out of this love,<span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"> His love</span>, that you are able to say “no” to anything that would perveror prevent love between you and your future husband.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">If we are ever to have the ability to guard our hearts and our minds against the lies of the enemy and the seductions of this world… we must start here. We must start with remembering our Jesus and making peace with our God. <em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so…”</em> </span></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And the <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">peace of God</span>, which surpasses all comprehension,</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">will</span> guard your <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">hearts</span> and your <span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">minds</span> in Christ Jesus.</em></div>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Philippians 4:7</em></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"> So today let us just examine our hearts.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Today focus on the oh so great love that Jesus has for you. Remember Him. Take the time today to write a love letter to Him. Tell Him about what you remember about that day you first fell in love with Him. Sing Him a love song. Take the opportunity today to get alone with your Love and dance with Him… Close your eyes and praise Him and use your mind and your heart to imagine His arms around… His voice whispering His Words of unfailing love in Your ears. Trust me, you will know He is there <img alt=":-)" class="wp-smiley" src="http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /> </span></div>
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<span id="curate-us-tag" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://s.tt/1946G" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><img height="11" src="http://1.rp-api.com/1455816/via.png" style="border: none; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: -12%;" width="12" />Proven Path Ministries</a> (<a href="http://s.tt/1946G" style="border: 0px; color: #9c0000; font: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">http://s.tt/1946G</a>)</span>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-67131698611507430612012-07-15T14:47:00.000-07:002012-07-15T14:50:09.030-07:00Free Your Mind<span style="color: purple;">Sow a thought, reap an action:</span><br />
<span style="color: purple;">Sow an action, reap a habit;</span><br />
<span style="color: purple;">Sow a habit, reap a character;</span><br />
<span style="color: purple;">Sow a character, reap a destiny.</span><br />
<span style="color: purple;">~ Samuel Smiles</span><br />
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<strong><span style="color: black;"><u>Day Thirteen (a post from the 33 Day Challenge </u></span></strong><span style="background-color: white;"><b><u>http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/?cat=9)</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">One of the first things I realized after I was wholly surrendered to my Christ was that my thought life had gotten me in A LOT of trouble. My thoughts ended up becoming my actions... every time. </span><br />
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I learned this playing ball.<br />
I had a coach that taught me to lay on may back and shoot my basket ball in the air and catch it and visualize it going in the stripping the net, I did... and when game time came it worked. If I wasn't practicing physically, I was mentally. I did the same in softball as a pitcher. I visualized where I wanted the ball to go then I pitched it. <br />
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I learned the power of my thoughts and mind as I read books. I honestly cannot to tell you half the time if a picture in my head, a story line memory, is from a book I read or a movie I saw. It gets all tangled up in the filing cabinet of my brain because when I read it is just as visual to me as a movie.<br />
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I didn't realize the danger of my thoughts until I began to grow in Christ. It had never really occured to me that my thought life really mattered. I used it for sports and for getting into a good book... but I had never connected the fact that my failure in sexual and emotional integrity had anything to do with my thought life...<br />
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<strong><em>As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, </em></strong></div>
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<strong><em>and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; </em></strong></div>
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<strong><em>for the LORD searches all hearts, </em></strong></div>
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<strong><em>and understands every intent of the thoughts. </em></strong></div>
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<strong><em>If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; </em></strong></div>
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<strong><em>but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever. </em></strong></div>
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<strong><em>1 Chronicles 28:9</em></strong></div>
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Then I looked back on my life.<br />
I realized that I had been playing out sexual immorality and impurity in my mind through the books I was reading and the songs I was listening to and the movies I was watching. So when you throw in a little alcohol with a mind full of trash... well I was powerless to fight. <br />
I was in fact decieved. <br />
I was defeated.<br />
I was in the process of being destroyed.<br />
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It was working... my inability to fight and my guilt and shame from being unable, plus the emotional and mental and spiritual damage that I was placing band-aid over band-aid over and self-medicating with alcohol, drugs, and illusion... My thoughts turned from visualizing sexual immorality to visualizing my suicide.<br />
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What would be the best way.<br />
How could I do it without hurting my family.<br />
It would have to look like an accident.<br />
I don't want my family blaming themselves becasue it's not there fault... <br />
I just can't live with <strong>me</strong> anymore.<br />
<br />
Have you been there?<br />
Are you there?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>Wretched man that I am! </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>Who will set me free from the body of this <sup class="xref" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28116AQ" title="See cross-reference AQ">AQ</a>)"></sup>death? </em></strong></div>
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<strong><em>Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>Romans 7:24-25</em></strong></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Praise God in Christ Jesus my Life and my Lord! Yes He can set you fee from the body of this death! This death of your soul that happens little by little through sin and fear and failure... your spirit is already dead without Christ... so Satan is after your soul... your hope that will cause you to cry out to your God for help, for salvation, for life. He wants to silence your voice. To keep you from confessing the truth and finding life... he wants you to believe his lies and die. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Oh honey, don't believe him.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Don't let him silence your voice and destroy your soul.</div>
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Cry out to Christ and let Him save your soul and give you His Spirit so that you will be complete in Him. Whole... mind, body, soul, and spirit. </div>
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<br /></div>
When I cried out to God for help and called on the name of Jesus to save me and wa wholly surrendered to Him I began to study words of truth like a mad woman. I was tired of studying lies. I needed more life in me... I was tired of death. <br />
<br />
The more I studied the Word, the more I realized how dangerous my thoughts could be to me, to my relationship with God, and to my relationship with others. I realized it began in my mind and the was acted out in my actions... then I read:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war <sup class="xref" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28975H" title="See cross-reference H">H</a>)"></sup>according to the flesh, </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>for the <sup class="xref" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28976I" title="See cross-reference I">I</a>)"></sup>weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>but divinely powerful <sup class="xref" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28976J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)"></sup>for the destruction of fortresses. </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>We are destroying speculations and every <sup class="xref" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28977K" title="See cross-reference K">K</a>)"></sup>lofty thing </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>raised up against the knowledge of God, </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>and we are taking every thought captive to the <sup class="xref" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28977L" title="See cross-reference L">L</a>)"></sup>obedience of Christ, </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>and we are ready to punish all disobedience, </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>whenever <sup class="xref" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28978M" title="See cross-reference M">M</a>)"></sup>your obedience is complete.</em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>2 Corinthians 10:3-6 </em></strong></div>
<br />
Take every thought captive. I read this and I thought and I said to God... how? How do I do it? How do I take every thought captive? What does that mean?<br />
<br />
Guess what he told me.<br />
And He taught me.<br />
He's a pretty good Father like that :-)<br />
<br />
The fist thing He taught me was that I needed to go on the offensive. I needed to stop filling my mind with the trash I had been feeding it. Then I needed to fill my mind with His Word. Cleaning out the cup does no good if you leave it empty... You have to fill it with a nutricous drink and actually put it to your mouth and drink... and swallow and allow it to become a part of you and infiltrate your system.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>Therefore <sup class="xref" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28247A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)"></sup>I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>to <sup class="xref" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28247B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)"></sup>present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>And do not <sup class="xref" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28248C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)"></sup>be conformed to <sup class="xref" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28248D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)"></sup>this world, </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>but be transformed by the <sup class="xref" value="(<a href="#cen-NASB-28248E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)"></sup>renewing of your mind, </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>so that you may prove what the will of God is, </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>that which is good and acceptable and perfect. </em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>Romans 12:1-2</em></strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
If I wanted my actions to be holy the first thing I had to do was get my thoughts holy... I needed a mind make-over. And ladies if you haven't picked up on it yet... that's what this challenge has been focused on thus far... a mind make-over. Thirty-three days to a new you... if you continue in what God is opening your eyes to as we go though this challenge.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Cause here's the thing, </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: blue;">"No matter how well you try to prevent tempting thoughts from entering through the gate of your mind, some will slip through. Life brings temptations. The day you stop experiencing temptation isn't the day you stop reading romance novels or watching R-rated movies or the day you put a wedding ring on your finger or the day you fast and pray for twelve hours straight. The day you stop experienceing temptation is the day you die. Temptation comes part and parcel with being human, and you are no exception to that rule."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: blue;">~ Shannon Ethridge </span></div>
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"></span><br />
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</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;">So your specific challenge until March 17th... take every thought captive.</span><span style="color: black;"> In your minds... when temptations invade. Take them captive. Rebuke them. Send them back to hell where they came from and then fill your mind with the Truth of God that refutes that sinful thought.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">And if you are single don't think on comitting acts of sexual immorality with<strong> that guy</strong>... think on how to say NO when that guy wants something that belongs to <strong>THE GUY.</strong></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;">Ladies practice this with the young ladies in your life. Teach them to rehearse saying no in their mind. I would go so far as to write out a script and rehearse a play by play. <em>If he says this you say that, and if he says this, then you can say that... </em><strong><em> </em></strong></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;">Free your mind!</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Your actions will follow...</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-48256134760066802292012-07-15T14:45:00.000-07:002012-07-15T14:45:01.148-07:00Moving...We are in the midst of a move... blogging will begin again once we get settled in our new home. Of course all recent posts and new posts will be found at www.nicolelhvaughn.com (Proven Path Ministries)Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-24341357699278347822012-02-28T19:27:00.000-08:002012-02-28T19:27:25.050-08:00Hardees Ads - Yes I Am Angry<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">My letter to Hardees:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: blue;">Your recent advertising commercials are appalling! How dare you display such vulgarity… and during prime time hours. I am sitting in my home watching the weather on my local news channel and I have your disgusting ad thrown in mine and my ten year old and seven year old daughters faces. I write a blog, have a facebook page and a twitter and you better believe that I will use whatever sphere of influence I have to discourage anyone from giving Hardees any business as long as this is the kind of trash you are going to choose to produce with our money. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black;">Yes I am angry.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">If you have seen these ads and you are angry too, then pass on my letter or better yet write your own.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Many blessings in Christ...</div>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-65234492204258261932012-02-26T04:59:00.001-08:002012-02-26T05:05:16.627-08:00Praise and WorshipLadies, I do hope that you are pressing on through this challenge... <br />
We are a little less than two weeks in... and for anyone reading this for the first time... feel free to join this challenge at any point. Or to go back to the beginning and begin it from Day One.<br />
<br />
We have covered a lot of ground in this Thirty-three day challenge, so today I want us to spend some time just soaking the stuff in...<br />
<br />
Today let's remember why we are doing this...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">See post at <a href="http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/?p=891">Proven Path Ministries</a></div>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-66360075995720258262012-02-25T06:41:00.001-08:002012-02-25T07:02:22.350-08:00Significant In Christ<span style="color: blue;">Sadly, most believers do not understand who they really are, who God made them to be, the authority He intended them to possess, or how Christ can meet their innermost desires for acceptance, security, and significance.</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">~ Shannon Ethridge</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">The last couple of days we have been studying up on how we are accepted in Christ and how we are secure in Christ and today we will be looking at how we are significant in Christ.</span><br />
<br />
First of all...what is significance? <br />
The word significant means to have meaning, to be important, to have influence or effect. There is a song that I absolutely love and one of the lyrics is <em>"When I don't measure up to much in this life, I'm a treasure in the eyes of Christ..." </em><br />
<br />
<strong><u>Day Twelve</u></strong><br />
<br />
See post at <a href="http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/?p=883">Proven Path Ministries</a>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-20214831541672118622012-02-24T21:56:00.001-08:002012-02-24T22:01:57.785-08:00Names of God: Jehovah-tsidkenuI love this name of God.<br />
This name of God is one that brings me peace and hope and relief...<br />
The name we will be looking at today is <strong>Jehovah-tsidkenu</strong>.<br />
<br />
We discover the meaning of <strong>Jehovah-tsidkenu</strong> in the book of <strong><em>Jeremiah.</em></strong> <br />
<br />
See post at <a href="http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/?p=873">Proven Path Ministries</a>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-86788302884650798092012-02-24T07:30:00.001-08:002012-02-24T07:38:45.502-08:00Secure In ChristI hate insecurity. <br />
I have seen it bring out the very worst in me and in others. <br />
It is crazy how we can be insecure about how we feel about ourselves or the way someone else feels about us and that insecurity will cause us to lash-out instead of love-out. <br />
<br />
Instead of showing an abundance of love to the ones we are insecure toward we put up a wall of defence and go into attack mode. Fight or flight kicks in every time. <br />
<br />
Insecurity. <br />
It's rooted in fear. <br />
It takes perfect love to cast out fear <strong><em>(1 John 4:18).</em></strong> <br />
I don't know about you but I don't have perfect love on my own. There is nothing perfect in or about me... That is at least until the day that perfect love accepted me and came to dwell in me and with me.<br />
<br />
See post at <a href="http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/?p=860">Proven Path Ministries</a>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-33738413437964164302012-02-22T21:07:00.001-08:002012-02-22T21:46:26.930-08:00Accepted In Christ<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRdYKeoM84D70pBdWPlOGFMd0lyPBNjOSTpce5KHsU2D1kMZ5KIgy5MyQzE-9HEZ-tk_WKI3GoTFMstsiYY1ekg-FLNg65rmA26AFAvYUmgXwTGzH1i1fsstnO8aJayC2YXz83aB4RH7Ro/s1600/confessions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" lda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRdYKeoM84D70pBdWPlOGFMd0lyPBNjOSTpce5KHsU2D1kMZ5KIgy5MyQzE-9HEZ-tk_WKI3GoTFMstsiYY1ekg-FLNg65rmA26AFAvYUmgXwTGzH1i1fsstnO8aJayC2YXz83aB4RH7Ro/s1600/confessions.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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The next few days we are going to focus on either discovering for the first time or reminding ourselves all over again who we are in Christ if we are indeed in Him... </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
I am convinced that so many of us struggle with what we struggle with simply because we have not realized who we are in Him. It just has not sunk in. We just have not figured out how we could be so intimately and intricately loved by an almighty God that we can not physically see or touch or even audibly hear.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I pray that as we continue this challenge that you will become ever more convinced of His lavished lovingkindness and delight and sheer giddiness over you.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><u>Day Ten</u></b><br />
Today our focus is to discover or remember that we are accepted in Christ. <br />
<br />
See post at <a href="http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/?p=848">Proven Path Ministries</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-82858426139087759822012-02-21T22:53:00.000-08:002012-02-21T23:07:43.083-08:00Power PlayToday's challenge just might be the hardest yet... <br />
It might be the most humbling, the most humiliating, the most harrying, but also the most helpful and most freeing... if you have the courage to face it. <br />
Are you willing?<br />
Are you ready? <br />
<br />
<strong><u>Day Nine</u></strong><br />
<br />
We are fixing to dig deep ladies... so very deep. We are going to take a walk through our past and quite possibly our present.<br />
<br />
Today your challenge is to some point and time between now and March 17th... I am not asking you to do this today because I know personally how hard this will be for some... so just some time between now and March 17th I want you to get physically alone with God. No one else around. No time limit. Just you and God and a sheet of paper... or a couple of sheets of paper. Get alone and undistracted and pray that God would lead you in this challenge. <br />
<br />
The challenge I am issuing you is the same challenge that Shannon was given as she sought healing. I will share the challenge in a bit, first let us go back to the garden.<br />
<br />
See post at <a href="http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/?p=824">Proven Path Ministries</a>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-18301480877579045262012-02-21T07:02:00.000-08:002012-02-21T07:10:53.166-08:00Woman to Woman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKbJvUHxvg95Fj5yIj4SsmfW4-6z8TxJzN0Lp486ywz_Jc_S4p7CXS45nvMQzrnOn3NTbh2ro-fz2r9n1jWTzdFJCCMdEtfzNeOSkd3wArIXEC-z1ZeFI4BWMDJHP8puEZMx2VKPJw_CAK/s1600/confessions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" lda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKbJvUHxvg95Fj5yIj4SsmfW4-6z8TxJzN0Lp486ywz_Jc_S4p7CXS45nvMQzrnOn3NTbh2ro-fz2r9n1jWTzdFJCCMdEtfzNeOSkd3wArIXEC-z1ZeFI4BWMDJHP8puEZMx2VKPJw_CAK/s1600/confessions.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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Compare and compromise and competition... we are going to continue today to look at comparisons and our emotional ties... but today we are focusing on us... woman to woman. <br />
<br />
<strong><u>Day Eight</u></strong><br />
<br />
See post at <a href="http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/?p=816">Proven Path Ministries</a>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5800912330631023376.post-53723867491548894512012-02-20T05:15:00.000-08:002012-02-20T05:25:48.904-08:00I Wish My Husband...<span style="color: black;">I received a comment on one of the Thirty-three day Challenge posts sharing that they were doing the challenge, but they felt like a failure... Ladies, God is honoring your efforts. Just as I shared with this woman I will share with you, don't feel like a failure, just persevere! Keep going. Our God is not a performance based judge. He judges according to the heart. </span><br />
<br />
<u><strong>Day Seven:</strong></u><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="color: black;">Today as we focus on becoming a woman of sexual and emotional integrity we will focus on our thoughts toward our husbands or future husbands....</span> </span><br />
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">See post at <a href="http://www.nicolelhvaughn.com/?p=803">Proven Path Ministries</a></div>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11378107699490998450noreply@blogger.com0