Own up to knowing Him…

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I am married to a wonderful man – a conservative man, but a truly lovely guy!
This is why the following story has had such an impact on my life because I know just how conservative he is!

I asked Steven if I could share his story and he graciously agreed. It occurred in September 2004 when he ‘owned up’ to knowing God.  At that time I asked him to write down what had transpired and this is what he wrote:

Whilst driving down Voortrekker Road in Maitland I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me as I passed the Teko Chemical Buildings.  This was originally the site for the Cape Organ builders.

I had often driven past these premises and thought what a good work site this would be for our company!

I felt God telling me to phone the number on the outside of the building.  I did not – I drove to Atlantis and carried on working.  On my return down Voortrekker Road and as I was nearing the Teko building I felt God once again saying to me, phone the number that is on the wall.  I picked up my cell phone and dialed the number and asked to speak to the manager.  I had no idea what I was going to say to him!

I was put through to a guy called Charles so I said to him, “I’m just phoning to inquire if the building is up for sale or maybe will be in the future”.  He told me that he believed the building had just been sold but would check to see whether the sale had gone through.

He took my name and number and said he would get back to me.

I drove back to our hired premises and told my office manageress that we had just missed the sale of excellent premises.  I had hardly finished telling her about it when my cell phone rang.  It was the other manager, Renier, phoning from Teko and he asked whether I would go in and see them the following day.

I arrived at the premises at nine the following morning.  I was introduced to the two partners.  I was in jeans and my steel toe cap boots and they were dressed in suits and ties!  They sat me across the table from them and Charles asked me how I had known that the building was for sale as nothing had been advertised.  I hesitated not knowing how I was going to tell them that I had heard a voice in my head the day before telling me to phone and inquire.  I heard the same voice again prompting me to tell them the truth, so I took a deep breath and told them that as I was driving past the building a voice in my head told me to phone the company number.  I proceeded to tell them that I was a believing Christian and I believed it had been God speaking to me.

They both looked at each other and started to laugh, and I thought “that’s it!  They think I am crazy. They are going to throw me out of here!” They then proceeded to tell me that they were also believing Christians and when I had phoned the day before they had been praying to God about their situation as the person who had agreed to buy the building, via a private sale, had just pulled out of the deal because he had not been able to obtain the finances.

I advised them that I had no money either and would have to contact the bank but that I really wanted the building!  The bank granted me a building loan and when I phoned to tell them they said that the man who had pulled out of the deal had walked into their offices half an hour after  I had left them, cash in hand, to buy the building.  He had managed to raise the finances after all.  They informed him that the building had already been sold.

If Steve had not said yes to God by phoning that number and by acknowledging, before strangers, that he had heard a voice in his head that he believed was God’s telling him to phone, even at the risk of sounding like he had just escaped from a mental asylum, he would not be in those premises today.

Steve could have just told them that he had phoned on the off chance it was for sale but would also have had to add that he had no money and no security to offer for a loan.

So when the gentleman walked into their offices, cash in hand, they would have sold it to him and Steve would have missed out on an incredible blessing from God.

Over the years he has told this story to encourage others to listen to and acknowledge God’s voice and it has been an incredible encouragement and witness to us of God’s care and interest in our lives.

If he had not said “yes” to God he would have no story to share and would also have missed out on the amazing business premises he now has.

In Isaiah God says to each one of us who believe in Him “I have chosen you and have not rejected you.  So do not fear, for I am with you, do not be discouraged for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you,  I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:9 & 10)

And then He goes on to say “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, I will take hold of your hand.  I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open the eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”

All we as believers have to do is to ‘own up’ to knowing Him.

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FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT?

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During a morning Bible Study a group of women were discussing how to have loving relationships with their husbands.  The group leader asked them ‘how many of you love your husbands?’. All the hands shot up. She then asked ‘when last did you tell your husband that you loved him?’ Some answered yesterday, some today and some couldn’t remember when last they had told their husbands that they loved them!

The Bible study leader than asked every women present to send their husbands a text message telling them that they loved them. After a few minutes the husbands started to reply and she asked the ladies to read the replies out loud.

The following was some of the replies:

  • Are you sick?
  • Have you damaged the car?
  • I don’t understand what you mean. What have you done?
  • Am I dreaming?
  • Who was this message meant for?
  • Your mother is coming to visit again, isn’t she?
  • You promised me you wouldn’t drink during the day!

{From Ouboet Johan Bronkhorst, Grap Blad vir Almal.}

The above may seem quite humorous but it is actually a sad indictment of what a lot of marriages are like nowadays. We don’t invest enough time and thought into the marriage and eventually we even forget to tell our spouses that we love them. And then, when we do tell them we love them, they immediately become suspicious and think we have an ulterior motive.

A good verse to memorize for your marriage is Ephesians 4:29 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” There is no better way to build your spouse up then by telling them you love them on a daily basis and for them to hear the actual words said aloud.

Why is it that some marriages embody the saying ‘familiarity breeds contempt’? The longer some couples stay together, the more irritated and impatient they become with one another. Mel Schwartz has the following to say about this:

When we honor one another we’re not likely to experience contempt. The disdain comes from not getting our needs met. It originates from a turning away from your partner and a relationship philosophy that more likely resembles a “me first” attitude. Contempt is the emotional reaction to not feeling cared for and perhaps disrespected. When we feel valued by our partners, our relationships are inclined to thrive. At the least, this feeling of being valued tends to limit hostility and scorn. When we devalue our partners, contempt becomes very prevalent.

Marriages develop problems when the husband and wife grow apart from each other instead of closer together and the beginning of this growing apart is when we stop telling our spouse that we love them and instead carry on with our own lives within the marriage.

This is not how God envisioned marriage! He stated at the beginning of time “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24)

God never stops telling us that He loves us. Every new sunrise, every rainbow, every cloud in the sky is God’s daily expression of His love for us. The Bible, His word to us, is full of His love for us. We need to show the same love to our spouses on a daily basis.

If you haven’t done so yet I would suggest that you read the book of Ruth in the Bible. This book has so much to teach us about faithfulness, love, obedience and commitment. Our attitude and commitment to our marriage should be the same as Ruth’s commitment to Naomi.

The following words spoken by Ruth should be the same words we speak to our spouses:

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.  Your people will be my people and your God my God.  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.  May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.  (Ruth 1:16 & 17)

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GOD CAN DO NO MORE

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“It is absolutely impossible for God to do any more than what He already has done”.

After hearing this statement my first thought was “that is quite blasphemous!”

The speaker, however, went on to point out this very poignant fact.  When God sent His son, Jesus Christ, to die for us on the cross He did everything He could ever do for us. There is nothing more He can do.  It is already done, it is finished.

Jesus last words on the cross were “It is finished” (John 19:30)
Pain, sickness, shame, guilt – it is finished.
Satan’s perceived power over us – it is finished.
Fear of the future, fear of death – it is finished.

Because of His death we have redemption in Jesus Christ. We live in His power and might, we live knowing that we have the Holy Spirit living in us ‘so that we may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault” as children of God “we shine like stars in the universe” (Philippians 2:15)

So why is it, that when God has done all He can do, when He has commanded and equipped us to “shine like stars in the universe” quite a few of us are dull, gloomy, apathetic and living in obscurity?

Is it because…

We don’t fully believe and trust God?
We question why there is so much pain, suffering and hurt in the world?
We pray for healing, pray for miracles, pray for relationships to heal – and nothing happens?
We don’t feel we are good enough?

If you are a Bible believing child of God none of the above questions matter.  We serve a Sovereign God but live in a fallen world.  God gave us freedom of choice because He wanted a relationship with us.

“That was in the world’s bright morning when the morning stars sang together and all creation leaped in joy, but the wild, wild desolation of sin, disobedience, pride, and selfish sinfulness entered and drove a great gulf between God’s children and Himself” (Oswald Chambers)

We live in a suffering world but God has given us His glorious promise that “after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you and establish you” (1 Peter 10).

Don’t those words just make you want to shout out WOW!

We have this mighty God on our side and the most powerful weapon in our arsenal – PRAYER

“Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.
The meaning of prayer is that we get hold of God, not of the answer.
Wherever the providence of God may dump us down, in a slum, in a shop, in the desert, we have to labour along the line of His direction. Never allow this thought—“I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not! Wherever He has engineered your circumstances, pray.
Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man’s disposition.”  (Oswald Chambers)

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HOW FALSE ARE YOU?

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If I were to answer that question I would have to say “I can be very false at times!”

It was brought back to me just how false I can be the other day whilst driving my youngest daughter to school.  My car had to go in for a service so I had borrowed one of the work’s bakkies (pickup) for the day.  The work name and telephone number are pasted all over the bakkie and I remarked to my daughter how differently I behave when driving this bakkie because I am so aware that everyone can see the work name and logo and telephone number and I don’t want to give work a bad reputation because of my driving! I let the cars slip in before me, I smile and nod my head at other drivers – I don’t mutter, complain or glare at drivers who are driving erratically or who cut me off as I usually would.

I think my daughter wishes we could drive in the work bakkie more often as it is just so much more peaceful!

What is scary is just how false I can be.  Nothing has changed – it is still the same route, the same traffic but because I am driving a vehicle that can be recognised, my personality and behaviour changes because I am no longer anonymous.  How sad is that?

It is the same for many Christians – myself included.  When we think no-one is looking we often behave and think differently as opposed to when we go to church or are amongst other Believers – we then make sure we are on our best behaviour.  Early on in our marriage if my husband and I had had a fight, we wouldn’t talk to each other on the way to church but as soon as we slammed the car doors behind us in the church parking lot we were all smiles and friendly – towards others and to each other.  We could have won an Academy Awards trophy for our acting!

There was another occasion in my life when I realised just how false some people can be and how the majority of us do ‘judge a book by its cover’.  I used to drive a little Nissan – it was in the lower range of motor vehicles.  My husband had always wanted a Land Rover and one day he bought himself a four year old, second hand Land Rover Discovery.  It is one of the older versions of Land Rovers but it is big and very impressive looking.

The first time I drove it was to pick our girls up from school.  As I parked, I noticed the other moms looking at me and then realised that the wealthier mothers who had never ever greeted me, never mind looked at me before – suddenly acknowledged me with smiles.  I was exactly the same person that they had been seeing for months driving a little white Nissan, but now, because the vehicle I was driving was more ‘upper class’ they noticed me.  It got me thinking about how often we judge others by their appearances and their material possessions.

The following is a true story about judging someone on their looks.  There is a farmer in the Northern Cape who is a multi millionaire. He, however, always wears old clothes and never wears shoes.  He drove into Cape Town one day in his farm bakkie and parked outside a Premium car dealership. As he walked into the showroom the salesman took one look at him and then ignored him.  The farmer walked towards him and asked him how much one of the vehicles would cost? The salesman barely glanced at him and basically intimated that there was no way he would be able to afford one.  The farmer walked out the door and went next door to another Premium car dealership. As he walked through the door the salesman rushed towards him, shook his hand and asked what he could do for him.  The farmer drove past the first dealership in his brand new vehicle and waved at the salesman who had just lost out on a major commission deal because he judged on outside appearances.

“Do not judge or you will be judged. For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  (Matthew 7:1,2)

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YOU’RE RIGHT ON TRACK!

Am so looking forward to seeing who God is going to introduce William too next!
Yesterday he got to meet Queen Mathilde of Belgium.

Noelene's avatarUNDER A JUNIPER TREE

Photo courtesy of William Carter Photo courtesy of William Carter

I have recently met a man who practices exactly what he preaches. A man who takes God at His word and who expects blessings to reign on his life because God said they would.

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.  And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field”.   Deuteronomy 28:1-3

This verse applies to each and every person who proclaims Jesus Christ as their Lord.  Why then do so few of us not actively claim this verse and apply it to our own…

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SOMETIMES OUR CHILDREN LIVE ON A DIFFERENT PLANET

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Saw this board whilst walking down the street a while back. It triggered a memory of an incident that occurred a few years ago with one of my children. I need to set the scene for you first though!
Ever since our oldest child started pre-school I have prayed, together with other mothers, at their respective schools. We have also always taught our children that lying and stealing is wrong and are, in fact, even mentioned in the ten commandments!
“You shall not steal”
“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor” (Exodus 20) – which basically means don’t lie.

Now about the incident.
I was just walking into a prayer meeting at the Junior school, feeling quite ‘holy’ when I checked my phone messages. Please note that subsequent to this, I no longer check any messages before going into a meeting.
There was a message there from my child in Senior school. What follows is a record of messages stemming from that one:

Child: “ Hey, mom. Is it ok if I forge your signature on my History test? If it’s not signed I get detention”
Me: “What planet have you been living on for the past fifteen years?? (now you can see why the message on the board above triggered this memory!) ” From the time you were born your dad and I have taught you that lying and stealing is wrong. By forging a signature you are effectively doing both!!!!”
Child: “I thought it would be ok cos you have already seen the paper and thought my mark was pretty good”.
I walked into the prayer meeting and told the ladies present “you will not believe what my daughter has just asked me!” and proceeded to tell them with great indignation.
One of the moms present responded “I think it is amazing that she asked you whether she could forge your signature and didn’t just sign it”.
This stopped me in my tracks and I messaged the child back:
“Meet me in the reception area at your school at first break and I will sign the test for you”.

When I arrived at the school I told the receptionist (who also happens to be a good friend of mine) why I was there. I was still feeling a bit indignant.
She replied “Noel, you should be so thankful that your child asked you. A large majority of the students here would just have forged the signature and not thought twice about it”.

That evening I recounted the story to my oldest daughter via skype as she was overseas at the time.
Her response was “That is so silly. Why would she even ask you something like that?”
I was just starting to pat myself on the back and think ‘well, at least I have got it right with one child’ when she stated “I would have just signed the test if you had already seen it!”
When you have children you just can’t win.

There is a lovely Irish saying “Shame the devil and tell the truth”

“The Lord detests lying lips, but He delights in men who are truthful” (Proverbs 12:22)
I have sometimes, in the past, told a ‘little white lie’ mainly when I have wanted to spare someone else’s feelings when the truth would have hurt them but a ‘little white lie’ is still a lie.
And in the long run our ‘little white lies’ add up and can be quite detrimental towards others.
If we are to teach our children honesty, we need to be honest in all things.

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COMMIT TO YOUR MARRIAGE BEFORE SAYING “I DO”

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Before you decide to get married think about getting divorced and all the ramifications that divorce brings.

Think about the enormous commitment you are making!

If you are already married and are contemplating divorce then take into consideration how God views divorce.  Don’t listen to what the ‘world’ has to say. Too many children are growing up in families that have been split in two. Too many adults are re-marrying because their first or second or third marriage didn’t ‘work’ out.

  • The world says –  Life is too short to spend it unhappily married
    God says – Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)
  • The world says – Love yourself, be happy
    God says – Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  (John 13:34)
  • The world says – Divorce is not such a big issue
    God says – I hate divorce.  (Malachi 2:16)

R.C. Sproul puts it like this:

“A married person does not live in isolation. He or she has made a promise, a pledge, a vow, to another person. Until that vow is fulfilled and the promise is kept, the individual is in debt to his marriage partner. That is what he owes. “You owe it to yourself” is not a valid excuse for breaking a marriage vow but a creed of selfishness.”

Too many Christian marriages today are ending in divorce because the ‘world’ says it is acceptable.  Not only is it acceptable, it is becoming more and more the norm for Christian marriages.

My parents got divorced in 1972.  In a school of over five hundred children, only two families were getting divorced that year – our family and one other.

We have three daughters, two of whom are finished with their school careers.  None of our three children have ever been in a school class where there has not been at least one child from a divorced family and sometimes there have been up to five children in a class of 30 who came from divorced families.  Quite a few of these families have been believing, church going Christians.  How is this possible?

Is it because we, as a church, are too quick to  judge and couples are scared to admit that they have major issues in their marriage?

Or because we, as a church, are too busy with our own lives that we do not have time to spend with couples who are struggling?

Maybe it is because we as a church are not teaching God’s word and His truth about Godly marriage.

And  maybe it is because we as the church do not commit to praying/interceding for marriages.

If you and your partner are believing followers of Christ, imprint this on your hearts and your minds –once married, divorce should not be an option.

“God intends and expects marriage to be a lifetime commitment between a man and a woman, based on the principles of biblical love. The relationship between Jesus Christ and His church is the supreme example of the committed love that a husband and wife are to follow in their relationship with each other.”  ~ John C. Broger

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ADDICTIONS ARE THE PITS…

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A friend of mine has had a drinking problem for many years.  She can go for weeks without having a drink or thinking about it, and then suddenly, the desire for alcohol overrides everything else in her life and she then drinks in secret.  This behavior pattern, even though she is really good at hiding it, is destructive to herself, her husband and her children. It is also destructive to her ministry  as she carries so much guilt about this ‘hidden’ aspect of her life.  The freedom and joy of Christ which should be manifest in her life is overshadowed by unforgiveness and feelings of shame and disgust.

A few weeks ago she went out for supper with a friend and the following morning her son asked her why she had lied to him the night before.  She couldn’t even remember speaking to her son when she got back from supper much less lying to him.  He had asked her the night before whether she had been drinking and she had said no – he said it was so obvious when she came home, that she had indulged in a couple of glasses of wine as her whole personality and demeanor changed.

She spent that morning in prayer, reading the Bible and just meditating.  As she prayed she had a picture of a long road.  The road of life that she was on.  There was a see through wall going from the ground up to heaven, separating the road in one place, and Jesus’s feet rested on the top of the wall.  The frame of the wall was made from steel, painted red, and the wall itself was made from bullet proof, shatter proof clear glass.  She could look back through the wall, even hammer on the wall but there was no way that she was going to be able to go through the wall and nothing on the other side of the wall could get through to her. The road itself was above the earth so she couldn’t walk around the wall either!  Her past and her future were solidly divided.

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God said to her:  “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”  (Isaiah 43:25)

She said to Him “yes Lord, but I am constantly seeking forgiveness for the same thing over and over again and there is just no healing or freedom from this addiction.  He replied “I have not given you a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7). “I also want you to know that you do not need to be afraid; you will not suffer shame.  Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.  You will forget the shame of your youth”. (Isaiah 54:4)

As she reflected on God’s words and the picture she had been given she realized that she had to start trusting God, had to take Him at His word and He would enable her to break the chains of addiction that she was imprisoned in.  That “once we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).

There is no way we can go back and undo what we have done but there is also no way that we can carry our pasts of shame and failure into our futures once God has forgiven us.  It is gone.  And, if there are consequences for what we have done, God will equip us to deal with them.  She said there was an incredible feeling of relief and her horror and shame about drinking and lying to her son became something she thanked God for. She was so thankful that her son had confronted her because it was the final nail in her coffin of lies and shame.  She has started to share her story of alcoholism with a few trusted people, is reading God’s word with a fresh understanding that she is a ‘new creation in God’, and her ministry has far more depth and thoughtfulness to it, she has become less judgmental of others and has gained a deeper understanding and empathy for  herself and others suffering from addictions.

She is learning to be compassionate and kind towards herself, to live every single moment to the fullest and to exercise an attitude of gratitude and thankfulness towards herself, God and those around her.  She is learning to look back through the glass wall without anger and shame and because of the blood shed on the cross for her, because Jesus was prepared to die for her, because she is a new creation she is positive about her today.

 “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”  (Ephesians 2:10)

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DAILY MIRACLES…

WOW! God is so good!

A year ago to the day I wrote the post below.  We have just had to put in an order for another 200 ‘All God’s Stones’ books to be printed.

“Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.…”
Psalm 37:4,5

Ten years ago my sister gave me the book The Serenity Prayer by Trevor Hudson for my birthday:
The following was inscribed inside:

DEAR NOEL, HAPPY 41ST BIRTHDAY. WRITE YOUR BOOK! LOTSA LUV M.A. THIS IS A BOOK FOR THOSE MOMENTS

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I never dreamt that ten years after receiving this book, my second book All God’s Stones would be published and that Trevor Hudson would write the foreword for it!!

Trevor Hudson has written many books. I have read the majority of them and have quite a few filed on my book shelves. The Serenity Prayer, however, stays on my desk within easy reach because I refer to it often. This book has brought a far greater understanding of God’s love and His power to restore broken lives, into my life. In the book Trevor Hudson states:

Each one of us has been created with and given certain gifts. These have been placed in us by our Creator God and they represent our unrepeatable uniqueness. God’s general will for our lives is intimately linked with this giftedness.
As a poster once proclaimed: “Who we are is God’s gift to us, who we become is our gift to God”

I was honored and humbled when Trevor Hudson agreed to read my book and to write a foreword. It was such an amazing gift from God (and Trevor) to me. In Isaiah 43:4 God says “…you are precious and honored in my sight, and I love you…”

In Isaiah 30:18 it says “the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!”

I am such a blessed child of God and my prayer is that I, in turn will be a blessing to others and to God. That God will use my books as he has used Trevor’s books to bring comfort and understanding into lives that long to be touched by HIM.

I am a child of God’s.
I am also a writer.
Mother Teresa once said “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world”.
My objective is to be one of God’s love letters to the world. I can only achieve this through His grace at work in my life.

Through His grace, God will help us to become the person He created us to be.
http://www.godspromise.co.za/

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Soaring

“Your perspective on life comes from the cage you were held captive in”. – S.L. Alder

I rejoice in the fact that the more I grow in my relationship with Christ the bars to my cage are no longer holding me captive, and in time, I will fly free – eventually soaring as I discover more of who I am in Christ and continue to embrace the good and the bad inside me, always developing the good and neglecting the bad.

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“but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”  (Isaiah 40:31)
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