One of the most painful issues a parent must deal with is watching and listening to their children misunderstand, fight and bicker among themselves. I believe it must be the same with our Heavenly Father. Hearing His children criticize, complain, and put down each other for their differences must be difficult for Him to bear. Reading John 17:20-23 brings home this point.

REAL Women - Issue 2 - Volume 12

Articles:   

"that they all may be one"
The time of refresing is here, don't miss it
The cry of those left behind
Anniversary Special

From time to time, I make a statement that becomes quotable. This
section is a growing list of those quotes gathered from sermons,
teachings, mediations on God's word, and conversations. It is my prayer
that they will be fuel for thought and inspiration, perhaps a
jump-start idea that will lead to other ideas. All of these quotes are from Darryl Rodman

I think we have some choices to make about how we are going to relate to bad news.  By now there is probably no one left in America, or the rest of the world for that matter, that hasn't at least heard some bad news recently.  But what do we do with all this bad news?  Do we have any good news that would help us with this bad news.  I believe we do. 

Recently I had a dream about reading Psalm 23.  I was standing in front of many people to read it, but couldn't find it in my Bible.  So I just spoke out a portion of the psalm.  "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."  It started a night long repeat of that portion of scripture.  Every dream, all my night thoughts and even when I awoke in the night were filled with saying, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want"  I finally got up and I was refreshed and encouraged in a soul restoring way.

This morning I was reading an article concerning Billy Graham.  A part of the article reported the following perspective. "He has had the ear of Presidents for five decades, but except for his public disavowal of racial segregation, Billy Graham, 86, has stuck to soul saving and left the political proselytizing to others. He explained his self-imposed separation of church and state in the language of a Gospel preacher: "It's not what I was called to do."

What a season to live in.  What an amazing time to serve the Lord.  Have you had your faith tested?  Has your love been stretched?  How about your hope?  1 Corinthians 13:13 reminds us that now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. No matter how difficult your roads, these three “graces” as they are sometimes referred to are eternal, which means they should be a part of our real life as well.  The word “abide” means to live or reside in a place.  Isn’t it fortunate that we, as believers, no matter our season or station in life can have these three amazing additions to our lives? 

Leaders are by the nature of their job description, question askers and question answerers.

Questions, Questions, Questions.  Questions can be good, useful tools or they can be tormenting weapons of doubt and unbelief that bring confusion and distress as we face life’s challenges. Swirling questions of “who are you?” “Why do you think you can do this?” are tormenting questions; these are not of God.   

REAL Women - Issue 1 - Volume 12

Articles:  

Asking the Right Questions
Leadership Encouragement:  Are You Questionphobic?
Building Together Across Generations: Living in Times Like These