Divine Appointments – Christine Caine

Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.

There is something good waiting beyond disappointment for each of us. There are appointments that God has destined. There are good works for each of us to do. And isn’t it interesting that the word appointment comes from within the word disappointment?

I’ve often marveled at that because I’ve seen again and again how disappointments take something from us: a dream, a piece of our hearts—maybe whole chucks of it. But disappointment leaves something too: a gift, an opportunity, the possibility of creating change. This means we can move from the valley of the shadow of death to new horizons and bring others with us on that road.

The enemy would like us to feel such a depth of disappointment that we never find our way back to the plan God has for us. If he can convince us to stay stuck in our disappointment, we’ll miss many of our future God appointments. I realize that some disappointments seem so big that we can’t imagine ever being able to move beyond them. We ask deep questions and they go unanswered. For example, when someone dear to us dies, no explanation will satisfy the questions crying out inside. But even for these tragedies, God has made a way.

When a precious couple named Maria and Dimitri lost their fourteen-year-old-son, Peter, they had many unanswered questions. They struggled mightily but they didn’t try to answer them. Instead, they determined to walk down that road of disappointment and heartbreak with Jesus. On the day of Peter’s funeral, still burdened with pain, sorrow, and grief, their family made a decision. Even though they did not understand why this tragedy had occurred, they would continue to trust God. They would keep on believing his promises.

They proclaimed at the funeral: Today is a sad day, but it is not a bad day. The devil thinks he has the victory because our son has died. But our son is alive with his Jesus, and is partying in heaven. The devil has not won. We are not burying our child today, but we are sowing him as seed into the soil of this nation. We believe in a mighty harvest of young people to spring forth. Out of one death, there shall arise new life.

Their words said, this family bruised by grief but beautiful with belief stood silently. There is a road through disappointment. Disappointment is not an end but an opportunity for a divine appointment.

Point to Ponder

One disappointment, or even more than one, does not mean that all the good works God ordained for you long before you were born are now impossible. There are still many ahead of you, beyond the disappointment. You can choose to allow God to propel you into the next chapter of good works God has destined for you.

I Smile

I smile and laugh a lot, not because I don’t have trials or tribulations but because I have the joy of God in my heart. I understand that everything in my life is for a reason and I rejoice in all things, understanding that it is the will of God for me.

My smile was once my defense mechanism to fool the world into thinking I was alright, but today it’s my testimony that in spite of, God is still in control, and I can rely on his strength to see me through every situation.

I smile knowing that even though things aren’t perfect now, they will be sooner or later. So even in THIS, Lord Jesus‬ I give you praise!

Daily Dose – Pure Delight

Psalm 16:11 You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Rejoicing in God? Those who do not know Jesus cannot imagine it.

You have to know Jesus to delight in His presence, just as you cannot enjoy a friend until you come to know each other and enjoy companionship.

But knowing and loving God brings us, His children, joy in His presence and the prospect of undefined pleasures at His side.

Are you ready to share those joys with Jesus for eternity?

*Everyday Encouragement – Pamela L. Mcquade

Daily Dose – God’s Plan

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Have you ever planned something and seen it through to the very end? Do you remember the feeling of joy and accomplishment you got once you were finished?

Think now of what it would be like if you allowed God to fulfill his plan in your life.

God has a plan for each and every one of us and in order to fulfill that plan we need to allow him to take control of our lives.

Today, let us embrace the opportunity to have our heavenly father complete the plan he’s started in our lives by surrendering to his will and his word.

Atmosphere of Praise

Psalm 100 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.² Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.³ Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.⁴ Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.⁵ For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

The past couple of weeks every time I think about God I feel this joy deep down inside. It’s almost like a wave of happiness overtakes me and all I can do is smile as tears brim my eyes. I have come to realize that I serve a truly amazing God who is above and beyond anything I can ever imagine.

When I look back at my life and all the trials and struggles I have been through, I realize that God has been with me all the time. He cared for, loved and provided for my family and I in our times of need. Needless to say these were the days when I didn’t pay any attention to him and I certainly wasn’t trying to live according to his word. Imagine that! Even when I chose not to acknowledge God he chose to love me still.

I grew up in a very poor family, it was seven of us including my parents and it was very tough for my parents to make ends meet. I know what it’s like to wake up and have no food to eat. I’ve lived through days of watching my mother cry because she didn’t know how she was going to get books or money to send us to school. I didn’t know what it was like to have new clothes or shoes until I got my first job when I was sixteen.I remember jumping up and celebrating with my brothers and sisters one Christmas Eve night when a stranger dropped off a hamper for us;unknowing to him that hamper answered our prayers for food to cook on Christmas Day. Toys were a luxury we would get at Sunday School treats and being able to have a snack and not have to share was something that only happened in my imagination.

Life was hard, but looking back now I see that God was with us every single step of the way. He always met us at the point of our need. At those moments when it seemed there was no hope, something would happen or someone would come as the answer to our prayers. God is so full of love and grace and understanding that I can never go back to the days of not living for him. Just knowing that he has always had my best interest at hand has given me this desire to continue preaching his word and sharing the good news of his love. I wish only for more and more of sweet Jesus.

Today as I sit at my desk typing I feel grateful that God chose me. I’m happy that he’s a God of love and peace and understanding. My heart is full because I realize that he is not like man and his intentions for me are only good. I long only to be in his presence more and more and to praise him with every fiber of my being.

Today I say “Thank you God”. Not for anything you’ve given to me and not because of anything you intend to do for me, but simply because you are God and you died for me even while I was still a sinner.

Daily Dose – An Obedient Life

Psalm 119:1  Blessed are the undefiled in the way, Who walk in the law of the Lord!

Want to be blessed? Then don’t live a sin-filled life.

God can’t pour out blessings on anyone who consistently ignores His commands.

Blessings belong to those who hear God’s word and take it to heart, living it out in love.

Want to be blessed?

Obey the master,you’ll live blamelessly and joyfully.

*Everyday Encouragement – Pamela L. Mcquade

Clothe Yourself with Compassion

Colossians 3:12-17
As children of God there are some things we should put off and some things we should put on, in order to live a life pleasing to God. We can’t change what we don’t acknowledge and we can’t expect significant change if we continue doing the same old things. It must begin with a change of heart.
We should put off the old sinful man and his sinful deeds which includes anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, lying, works of darkness and the pattern of living in sin. However we should put on as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance and forgiveness. We must put on the whole armour of God, even the armour of light. This is the type of Spiritual garment we must wear which was also worn by Jesus Christ.

Col 3:14 says, “And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” Charity is love which is the thread that holds our spiritual garments together. Anything without charity (love) is nothing. It perfects us.

We must learn to forgive others just as Christ forgave us. Holding unforgiveness in our hearts will be burdensome and keep us down. Despite what we may face the peace of God should rule in our hearts having dominion over any feelings and emotions. Jesus Christ is the Prince of peace and is able to give us that peace that passeth all our understanding. We are to live peaceably with all men, even as we are called in one body, the body of Christ. Paul reminds us to be thankful in everything, this is the will of God.

Col 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
We should hide the Word of God in our hearts. This is our daily bread, our spiritual food by which we must live. This enables us to teach, admonish and encourage each other, with wisdom, being led by the Holy Spirit. Anything we do or say should be done with excellence, as unto the Lord and not unto men. God should be glorified in all that we say, do or even think.

*Excerpt taken from Soul Harvest’s Daily Devotion

Pornographic Breakthrough

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Everyone faces temptation in their life, both believers and unbelievers. As believers in Christ Jesus we have an understanding that it is common for us to face temptation and we also have a peace in the promise of God to never let us be tempted beyond our ability. We also have the reassurance through his word that he will always provide a way of escape so we may be able to endure our temptations.

Below is a powerful testimony by a young man who battled with pornography for years. I hope his testimony will bless  and encourage you in the same way it did me. You can read more about Ashton’s journey by clicking on the link below.

Ashton’s Testimony

I can’t remember the exact date, but about 6 years ago, I already knew the Lord, but far from intimately. So when I stumbled upon porn, it didn’t take much to sway me. The attractive and addictive nature of it all was greater than my love for Christ. So fast forward through some time, one thing leads to the next. Magazines turn into an online addiction. I am now captive to sin, captive to porn. I remember the delight I would find when Tuesday came, the day in the week where I had the entire afternoon and evening to myself. On top of this, every evening I could stay up late and did, to view porn, but Tuesday was my special day, as I didn’t have to keep a constant watch for if someone would come home or pop into the study and catch me.

So I was still attending church all this time, feeling guilty but unable to stop as much as I tried. Eventually the guilt started to ware off; my excuse, that God would rescue me if He really wanted me to stop (He has rescued me and He really did want me free, as does he want anyone captive to sin to be free.) So unfortunately this is the point where I have lost some of my story, not because it doesn’t exist, but because all memories were replaced by 100′s of thousands of images of porn. Porn literally cemented itself in my brain.

So we are now about 4 years down the line from the start of it all, still addicted to porn, a lot had happened, of which I cannot express here, due to the sensitivity of it all, in which I need to protect those close to me, whilst now actively trying to break the addiction through all sorts of methods. Methods such as wearing an elastic band around my wrist to pull on and hurt myself every time I thought of something lustful, to reading the bible when lust came up. You name it, I tried it. Nothing worked, I was still struggling to break the addiction to porn in my life, as I was still relying on my strength. Then, a trigger in a message at church got me thinking, and I went back to the words my pastor had said. “A father will never deny his son help,” God my heavenly Father would never deny me the help I asked of Him.

This was the start of something and I prayed and somehow managed to get free for a period of 6 months, (I would set calendar dates for when I would ‘break free’ only to reset them to other dates when I failed, another method of encouragement to break free that I tried.) The thing is though, I had not dealt with the issue, I had not dealt with what porn meant to me. Porn was my escape, my joy.

So when things got tough, I was back at it again. So now I was an addict, again, and I can’t deny it. YET God still loved me.

I then came across a Christian website after searching ways to break a porn addiction. I tried the course on the website, and it is brilliant, I have to say. The lessons I learned there eventually helped me to be the free man I am today. Unfortunately I did not manage to complete the entire course, as I missed one of the key lessons in the beginning that God would have me learn.

The lesson I still had to learn was to find my joy in the Lord and not elsewhere. I managed to move from seeking joy in porn, to finding it in my girlfriend, places where I shouldn’t have been finding it. It is only once my girlfriend broke up with me that I realized my desire and want to be wanted. I will forever be thankful to her for her obedience to Christ in breaking up with me, else I would not have learned this lesson.

Just over a year down the line, I can truly say God has taught me many a more lessons, of which, I think I will share in future posts. Lessons about Him, and lessons of how to break free from addictions, all of which I have had to learn.

Over the past year, I have grown spiritually like never before, all because I surrender myself to Christ. If I had to show you the person I was behind hidden doors a year ago, to the person I am now, even I would still be and am in awe of the greatness of our Savior. He works miracles like no other.

Every time I hear the statistics, that one in every 2 men and one in every 3 women in the church today are addicted to porn my heart sinks in sorrow. My heart sinks at the thought and knowledge of the pain they are going through. All I want to do is rescue them all, but I cannot do this, for it is only Christ who can truly rescue them. I can but only lead them to Christ.

A note for everyone out there, from someone who was an addict, every addict out there is a person, everyone needs to be loved by someone, don’t judge them, just love them, this is one of the lessons the Lord showed me. People fail, but our God loves them still, and we too are called to love everyone from where they are, leading them to Christ. I don’t condone porn, but I love those who view it no less than I love my family. I just pray that through this whole experience that people will be set free, not judged, but helped as they come to know the Lord.

Do you have a testimony of how God helped you break an addiction?  Please share it with us at – testifywithme@gmail.com or on Testimonies of his Goodness on facebook

 

There Is Fun In Sin………

 

Hebrews 11:²⁴ By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,²⁵ choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,

If you have had an experience with God that you believe would encourage someone else’s spirit, please share it with us at testifywithme@gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

God Bless You!

Protection On Holy Ground

Exodus 3:⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

A lot of us are familiar with the story of Moses and the burning bush in the book of Exodus. Recently I’ve been examining my relationship with God and the change in my attitude toward negative situations and I’ve come to realize that once I’m in the presence of God I need not worry about anything except doing his will. When Moses saw the burning bush he was up on a mountain and his feet would have been protected from elements such as sharp objects, insects and venomous creatures such as snakes by his sandals. When he entered into the presence of God, he was allowed the freedom to cast his care of protecting himself from all of those elements aside by removing his sandals.

I believe that as a believer in Christ Jesus we are allowed the freedom of not having to worry about the dangerous and negative elements of life which surround us because like Moses we are constantly dwelling in the presence of God. Once we recognize that we are in God’s presence then we will have a peace in knowing that he will protect and take care of us. We will understand that our purpose is to fulfill his desire in our lives and we need not focus on the things of the world but keep our eyes constantly upon him.

In the past I’ve always been a bit of a worrier. Not just a worrier but an aggressive worrier!! I know you’re probably wondering “What exactly is an “aggressive worrier?” Well allow me to elaborate.An aggressive worrier is someone who worries and complains while trying to fix a problem they have no control over, without ever considering that they can give the entire situation to God and he will sort it out. That was me. Loud mouthed, control freak, worrier.

Today I am thankful that I am no longer that person and my attitude has made a drastic turn around for the better. Last weekend Trinidad and Tobago celebrated Carnival. In our country the festival is celebrated by revelry, lewdness, drunkenness and acts of sexual immorality. Basically everything that Galatians 5:19-21

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

While I’m not judging anyone who partakes in carnival (especially since I myself participated in the years before I acknowledged Christ as my lord and savior), I made a conscious decision to devote my life and my body to the things of God. So instead of buying a costume and “playing mas” I went to camp with the youths of my church.

Firstly let me say that camp was AMAZING!! Believe me when I tell you that I would love to delve into the details of every aspect of camp but, I really need to share with you my experience of feeling unsurpassed peace in the midst of a depressing situation while in Tobago.

On my way to camp on Friday afternoon I lost my wallet on the boat. I noticed I didn’t have the wallet when I stopped to purchase food after arriving in Tobago. I was with a group of friends so I didn’t worry about finding it then because I knew my meal would be paid for. When I got to the camp site about an hour later I searched my bags I didn’t see the wallet in any of them. By this time I began to worry (not aggressively, but I was worried). I somehow convinced myself that I it might have been in the car and decided to look for it when I got up the next morning. As you can guess, the wallet was not in the car and after checking my bags all over again I realized that I might have lost it on the boat.

The boat could have had approximately 300 passengers traveling on it that evening. I had no control over who might have found the wallet and whether or not they would have left it with the relevant authorities. If you’re like me, losing your wallet means having to replace a lot of important documents. I remember speaking to God and telling him “Lord I really don’t care to get the money in the wallet back, I just don’t want to have to go through the hassle of replacing everything.” That morning I made my way to the port to find out if anyone found the wallet and turned it in. It was on that journey I began to understand my purpose in the kingdom. I started talking to God and I told him that while I wish I didn’t lose my wallet, if he had to make it that way in order to place me somewhere to do his will then so be it. I can’t begin to explain the peace that came over me immediately after I made that proclamation.

When I got to the port I was told that I’d have to come back later in the day to see if my wallet was on board the vessel. The old me would have become immediately despondent and melancholy however I did not harbor any of those feelings. Instead I was extremely happy and full of energy the entire day. I went back to the port at least two times after the initial visit and every time I went I was told to come back at a later time or another day. Still my attitude was one of joy and thanksgiving.

On the third day after I lost the wallet I finally got to go on board the vessel to check and see if anyone had found it. By this time I had already accepted that I might not receive it because God probably had a plan for my future and he needed to take the wallet away in order to fulfill that plan. As I made my way toward the vessel I remember asking God “Lord how is it that I’m this happy even in a situation like this where my situation is bleak and I don’t know what lies ahead?” In that moment I answered the question by acknowledging my feelings to be joy and not happiness. I smiled because it felt good to know that no matter my circumstances I would always be happy because I had the joy of the Lord. Little did I know then that God had an even deeper revelation for me regarding my question.

When I got on the boat the Captain returned my wallet to me with everything in it, including all of my money. I was so elated! When I got back to camp I couldn’t help but boast about the greatness of my God and the joy of being able to trust him in every situation. Now like I said before God revealed the answer to my question to me even after I thought I got my answer already. When I got back from camp and was reading the bible one night I was lead to read the book of Exodus from chapter two. That night chapter 3:5 stood out to me and when I got the revelation of that verse all I could do was cry and thank God.

God showed me that my desire to do his will and have a deeper relationship with him meant that I was constantly dwelling in his presence. Being in his presence allowed for me to cast all my cares and worries aside because wherever he is, is holy ground. And once I am on holy ground I can remove my sandals because he would protect me. I understand why I am able to accept the challenges of life with a smile and not worry about how things will work out because I know that once my eyes are fixed upon God and my desire is to allow him to have his way in my life then there is no need for me to worry about things I don’t have control over.

Just as Moses would not have had any control over any of the elements around him that could have caused injury to his feet, in the same way we do not have control over some of the circumstances in life which can cause us harm. However once we acknowledge that we are in God’s presence we are given the freedom to stop trying to protect ourselves and let our father in Heaven take care of us.

My encounters with Jesus are becoming more and more glorious each and every day. It’s an exciting feeling waiting on God to guide my steps and use me to fulfill a purpose for the kingdom of heaven. I pray that we can all reach to that place of being able to trust God to see us through every aspect of our lives while remaining humble and allow him to have his divine way in us.

If you have had an experience with God that you believe would encourage someone in their walk with God, please share your testimony with us at testifywithme@gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

God Bless You!