Podcasts about my heavenly father

Speaker: Pastor Roger Acquah  

Sermon By: Pastor Roger Acquah  

Speakers: Pastor Roger Acquah and Pastor Prince Ahinakwah Wilson

Sermon By: Pastor Roger Acquah  

Speaker: Pastor Roger Acquah  

Today, I want to talk to you about a love story of a father finding a bride for the son that he loves dearly.  Actually, I want to talk about two love stories, with two Fathers, two Sons, two Servants, and two brides.   One is Abraham, who, as a father, sends his servant back to the land that Abraham came from to find a bride for Isaac.  This unnamed servant is following the leading of the God of his master, Abraham, when he comes upon the house of Bethuel, where Rebekah lives.  His mission is to find the bride that has been selected by God for his master's son, Isaac.   The story of Abraham's search gives us the type, or symbol, of a much greater, second, love story.  This second love story is the description of God the Father, determining from the foundations of time, that He would choose a bride for His Son, Jesus Christ.  Upon the completion of Jesus' work at Calvary, which was the finished salvation that He has provided for each of us, God the Father sends the Holy Spirit as His Servant to gather together the bride for Jesus.  This bride is the church of the body of Christ, which is made up of believers that have come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior during this age that we live in today.  It is called the Church Age.   Two tremendous love stories, two Fathers, two Bridegrooms, two Servants, and two brides.  Isaac loves Rebekah, but that is pale in comparison to the love of the Father, Son, and Spirit for the Bride of Christ.   Click on the link below to hear about the greatest love story that has ever been told.  God has commissioned to me today to ask you a question. Are you ready for it? My Heavenly Father has said to me, “Keith, go teach this lesson. Tell people about Jesus. I want them to be Jesus' bride. Tell them how wonderful Jesus is. And then, tell them that He who loves you is coming back for you one day.” My question to you is, will you receive Jesus as your Savior and seek to make His will yours?  God said, “Tell the people, Keith, that whosoever will may come.”  Don't be left out of this love story.  Accept Christ today and be with Him for all of eternity. This is a live recording of The Master's Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS. Amen.

This month, the leading is that we need to focus on our HEAVENLY FATHER the source of our all-round blessings. Let us focus on: •The Source than on the blessings. •The great Provider than the provision. •The Giver than the gift. I pray that every worshipper will individually connect to our HEAVENLY FATHER in a unique way, like we have never done before. I pray it will be a time of closer bonding with our HEAVENLY FATHER and assuming ownership of our relationship with the Father. This explains why “My Heavenly Father” is both the theme for the month and the title of our message this morning.

Speaker: Pastor Roger Acquah  

Speaker: Pastor Roger Acquah  

My heavenly Father loves me so much I know He loves me when I gone astray My heavenly Father loves me so much I know And He's beside me when I pary He takes my burden away from day to day I've got a brand new life to day Dear father, heavenly father, I will love you everyday Dear father, heavenly father, I will love you all the way https://cantonhymn.net/song/my-heavenly-father/ －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－ 聲明： 本詩歌集所收集的詩歌僅供參考，並非授權使用。 使用者若要使用， 敬請必須按照創作／出版者的版權和使用守則， 版權持有人有權追究法律責任。 Disclaimer: The original hymn compositions collected in "Songs De Above” (this collection) are for reference only and are not authorized for use. All rights belong to the owner. Please follow the copyright and usage guidelines of the music composer/publisher. The copyright holder has the right to pursue legal responsibility. －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

Speaker: Pastor Prince Ahinakwah Wilson  

"Remember all those miracles and the steps you had to take that you made it through to get where you are now? The same God who called me to Spain, called me home. My Heavenly Father knows me so much and so personally, He knew I wanted to go to Spain. He knew I needed to meet the people that I met. He has shown again and again throughout my life the truth that I am His daughter and that He knows me personally and that He loves me. That was this thought I held onto the most." https://www.plantwhys.com/free-1-week-meal-guide

youtube https://youtu.be/JsVzYgYEu7U https://tonnilea.com Host Healing Conferences/Motivational Speaker/TV Host TonniLea TV/Life Coach/Producer 12 Step Course I am Daughter of the Most High King. Cherished and loved by My Heavenly Father. Protected and adored by My Heavenly Husband. Yeshua. A mother of two amazing adult children, gramma of 6 beautiful grandchildren. A survivor of, and with a brain tumor, 4 year survivor of Breast Cancer. Love to attend Street Rod/Hot Rod shows. Love NASCAR and drag races.  My favorite thing to do is to be outdoors in my yard working and caring for the beautiful home God has given me to use to help others. The book “Prayers To A Heavenly Father”, came about during the journey that God has taken me on. Doing work through a recovery program after a divorce, I began writing prayers out through the 12 step program created by Dr. Doug Weiss. Thus, it led to writing them out into a book. My newest book “Honoring My Heavenly Father” God gave me the title before I even finished writing the first book. I love how the Holy Spirit works if we will just listen to Him. This book is now printed and that has been because God brought Daniel Gomez of Gomez Enterprises into my life through His leading. My Books books@tonnilea.com

Challenges no matter what big or small, significant or insignificant affects us all. But what challenges are you personally facing? Each day we face discouragement, problems from all sides from which we cannot hide, change, fear and failure are but amongst the few. However the challenges we face reminds us we are human and helps us face our weaknesses. Right now that Challenge could be a sore point, something you wish to avoid and who knows time might not be on your side however seek advice from a trusted friend. Seek God. And though at times you feel like throwing in the towel, give up, but then a word, a song, or advice from a trusted friend comes in. Ask Knock and Receive for at times others see another view of what God can do. So before you feel like quitting and giving up thank God for the challenges that draws your attention to things that needs great Spiritual effort which therefore tests your and my ability. Do you. Be you and Be Comfortable with You. So as I felt challenged this week, I thank God for His lead. When things look like there's no way out, in pops a song - and might I add one of my late dads favourite songs, 'I Trust In God I Know He Cares For Me On Mountain Bleak of on the Stormy Sea, though Billows roll, He keeps My Soul. My Heavenly Father watches Over Me. So on that Promised Note, don't Despair fof God Does take Care. Be Blessed. Be Encouraged by this word.

I am so excited to share this encouraging interview.   If you have ever been depressed or know someone who is suffering, this program is for you!Also I picked some songs about Purim, based on the book of Esther.  Here is a little background about Kim in her own words:"I grew up in a Jewish family celebrating all the holidays.  I had the ‘normal life' of partying with friends and going out to bars…searching for the right one to fall in love and live happily ever after…with no success.  One night I had an encounter with Jesus (Yeshua) in a dream and He told me to become “Born Again.” I fell in love with the written Word of God. Eventually God gave me the BEST husband, Mark & a beautiful son named Micah.  In January 2011-July 2016, I began to experience fear, anxiety, and depression to the point of suicide and had adopted many addictions.  There were emotions and past experiences that had caused pain that were lying dormant and not dealt with properly. Eventually, I could no longer function like a normal human being. I knew the written word backwards and forwards, but I DID NOT KNOW & FULLY EXPERIENCE THE LIVING WORD.  In August of 2016, the Holy Spirit began to do surgery on my heart and the Spirit became my PERSONAL Counselor! I began to hear His voice and He (the Spirit) brought up situations that had occurred in the past (as well as presently) on how to handle them.   My Heavenly Father, Jesus (Yeshua) & with the help of (my personal counselor) the Spirit, had set me free from EVERY addiction and I no longer live for his presence, but in it.  Like God told Abraham (Gen. 15:1) “I AM SHIELD AND GREAT REWARD” and now He has become mine!!!! And I am SO IN LOVE WITH MY LORD!  I am in the process of a rewriting a Bible Study to help others get free and experience this EXTRAVAGANT LOVE."

Faced with oppression, poverty, and life-threatening circumstances in the country of Burma years ago, our guest, Nita Tin, Buddist and lost with Jesus, fled her country.   Hear this victorious message of hope that only God could provide and how she found Jesus at a critical time. Hear what God is now doing with her incredible life story.   *****   Kimberly Hobbs   Welcome to empowering lives with purpose. And I'm your host, Kimberly Hobbs. I'm the founder of Women, world leaders. Today ladies, we have such an incredible story. And I am so excited to introduce our guest. And pray that through this time together, you are going to hear an amazing victory story full of hope. And it's going to be brought to us by Mrs. Nita.Tin. Hi, Nita. Nita Tin   Hi, Kimberly, it's so lovely to be here with you. Kimberly Hobbs   And we are so blessed to have you and, and ladies that have joined in return, ladies and women that are just maybe tuning in for the first time. We are here as a ministry to encourage you, and empower you to run after Jesus to see what your beautiful purpose and serving him might be. And through learning about some of these stories, and all of the different things that so many of our sisters go through around the world, that this can encourage and inspire you to walk after God to seek Him with all that in you and find that beautiful purpose that He has just for you because we believe wholeheartedly, that God has a purpose and a plan for your life, ladies. So God says in Ephesians 210, that we are God's masterpiece, we are created anew in Christ Jesus to do the very good things that he planned for us long ago. And as I'm going to share about a Anita or Anita I want to share in a little bit of length about who she is. Because this is all going to add to her story when you guys listen to how amazing God showed up in her life. And she has an incredible story. And actually, there's been a she's been writing a book and there's also a screenplay that's been written and she's going to talk more about that later. But it's it's just phenomenal what God has done with her life. So Anita is the co founder and Chief Chief Operations Officer for her husband's eye surgery practice in need to 10 Helton held the role of practice administrator for 40 plus years. She's a graduate of the University of Rangoon, Burma, and received her Bachelor of Arts degree Gulati with honors in the English language and literature. She's a former Buddhist. She is originally from Burma, currently known as my Inmar and trusted the Lord Jesus as her Savior after she arrived in Chattanooga nearly 50 years ago. She's a Christian motivational speaker, nationally and internationally. She's a leader and a Bible study teacher, and she has helped plant 1100 churches in Nepal. She's been on Moody Bible radio with Kay Arthur, and focus on the family. She has written, directed and acted as lead role in a dramatic, motivational, inspirational musical Easter drama that she's written. Anita wrote inductive Bible study guides, and her memoir heartbeat of a survivor love that could not let me go. And a film script, as I was telling you about has been written, and it was called it is called love beyond borders. Anita has a story of God's unending love to share and it describes herself as an empty broken vessel saved to tell the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Sonita Here we go. Let's talk today about your story of victory and being set free from the bondage in Burma where you began your life. Let's start there. Nita Tin   I'm passionate about sharing my journey because I was sick free from bondage, fear and tyranny to a life overflowing with freedom, joy and love to the valleys and hard trials in my life. I discovered that no, no matter what the circumstance of bondage, the pain, the heart ache, the loss or the sorrow. Change can be broken, and life can be abundant and meaningful. I grew up as a rich Burmese girl brought up in the Buddhist religion, in search of satisfying the longing in my heart and from a young child. I wanted to know God. Jeremiah 2913, says, You will seek me and find me when you search for me with your whole heart. And God, my loving pursuing father, in his infinite kindness, was drawing me to himself, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, have I drawn you this verse in Jeremiah 31 Three, in a nutshell, is what God has orchestrated in my life. Two weeks after my 16th birthday, he God has a sense of humor, doesn't he? I was seen and he brought a gentle physician and surgeon into my life, who by His very love for His Heavenly Father, and the life that he lived, was instrumental in bringing me to the feet of Jesus, my Savior. our married life was interwoven with sorrow and hardship, that threatened to break our spirits and steal our joy. But finally, through atrocious circumstances that made it impossible for us to remain in Burma, a brutal massacre, my father's imprisonment and torture, loss of freedom, the absolute control our ruthless military dictator who took over Burma, and the struggle and poverty which we fought through in the jungle where we had been sent to. This forced us to live, family, home, friends and country. After waiting too long years get back by the oppressive government. We willingly signed papers, stating that we were traitors to our country, we left all our possessions, treasured photographs, jewelry, including my wedding and engagement rings, and everything we owned, and boarded a British Airways jet plane bound for America, never looking back. And on November 3 1973, we flew into New York's Kennedy Airport, our life was marked with poverty, and sorrow, liberty and joy. And in all of this, God poured out His riches and his blessings, and gave us himself as God said to Abraham, via not, I am thy shield and I exceeding great reward. This is a faith journey of an ending marital romance, of God's story that is so rooted in a never ending spiritual hunger, and an ever growing experience of God's love. As God became my hiding place and fought my battles for me. Heartbeat of a survival will open the heart rending stories of battles, I could not fight where the Lord becomes my strength, my shield, my buckler, my strong tower, when there were times when all I could hear as he holds me up are his gentle, gently whispered sigma things, and my tearful, Broken Heart answers, dive face, oh, Lord, will I seek? Kimberly Hobbs   Oh, my goodness, Nita, my heart, my heart, because as you described, being back in Burma, and the the pain and the tragedy that you went through, even knowing your father was tortured, in prison, and all of the horrific things that you faced while you were there had to bring hardship to your heart. But God provided this amazing physician, this man that you grew to love, that also shared your faith. Like he, he shared faith with you, as a Buddhist, you started to learn things. So let's, let's talk right now like ladies, as you're listening to this, we can't even imagine, you know, being in another country and in going through poverty and no food and being tortured and all of the things that she that Anita had to endure. Maybe some of you have been through something like that in your life. You've faced poverty you've faced being without and you were hurting. But God says when your troubles seem to You big. He's there, ladies, he's there. What is impossible for people is possible with God. And, Anita, as you came to the United States, your love and your joy grew as your husband's faith became your own. So can you talk about those years of growing with your husband and learning more and more about his faith? Nita Tin   Well, we fell in love when I was 16. And in my first year in college, he was 19 years old and a third year medical student. And it was his gentleness and love for Jesus that drew me to him. If anyone had all the fruit of the Spirit my husband did through my teenage years, and our young adult married life. It was his gentle, unwavering, steadfast faith that brought me through the trauma of the mass student massacre, when the brutal government in Burma shot down the unarmed university students. And it was his unwavering love for God that held me as we struggled to live in the jungle, through floods, disease, poverty, and sickness. And when we finally left home, family, friends and country, through prosperity and loss, my love and joy grew, as my husband's faith became my own, as Kimberly said, and when it was time, God's time, through my husband's constant prayers. And through first John 513, to 15, God opened my eyes to His wonderful gift of mercy. And I accepted Jesus as my Savior, but says, and this is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son, He that has the Son has life, he then has not the Son of God has not learned these things have I written unto you, that you may know, and that you may believe in the Son of God. And so, you know, his his fate, through prosperity and loss, as I was saying, My love and faith grew, as my husband's faith became my own. And when it was time, God's time, that was what he did. A peace that passes, all understanding became mine. Kimberly Hobbs   Nita, I love that. And I heard the joy in your voice, as you shared about finding Jesus and, ladies, we, we just know if you know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you know, the joy and the freedom that comes into your life when you experience that, that acceptance of him for your sin that he paid the price he came in, and he freed you from all your bondage from all of your trials and tribulations. And that's what he did for Anita. And we thank the Lord, for Your husband's faith, Anita, and that he was able to lead you to Jesus, what a beautiful love story and a completion of that marriage. And, you know, ladies, we all we all have a God's story, because God's doing something in your life, your life is an amount for something, you have to believe that and God's story. You say, Anita, you say God's story is not it. It's his story in your life. And you want to share that story. So I just want to read a Scripture before Anita testifies of something else. But God says, All Glory to God who is able to keep you from falling away and we'll bring you great joy into his glorious presence. And we all heard that joy and Anita his voice as she found the presence of God in her life, and All Glory to Him Who alone is God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power and authority are his before all time and in the present, and beyond all time, amen. It's Jude 124 to 25. So now need to share about through all your trials and pain. You can testify of God's victorious love and what he has done for UNITA a love that could not let you go please talk and share about that right now. Nita Tin   I had to come to the end of myself. When it seemed as though I had reached the bottom of the pit. My Heavenly Father's love was deeper than my deepest pit and covered me in my pain and distress. As we're hanging on the side of a mountain, I could not time my gentle Shepherd lifted me up in his arms of love. When I could not bear the pain of cancer, my losses, my sorrow and my headache. My faithful God who sees me, and here's me, carried me. My victory came when I gave God, everything in my life was in total surrender, in coming to the realization that I could not do it. And then I had to let go, and let God take over that I was able to overcome. It was simply putting my trust in the sovereignty and power of God, to know that it was not my strength, but his that it was not my power, but his. I had to learn that he is the potter and I'm just the clay. But this blows my mind in all of that, he is the refiner. But he was also in the fire with me. Shouts of my victory cry up laced in the pages of these rich memoirs, as I hold on to the promises in Psalm 27. One the day of trouble, he will conceal me in His tabernacle, he will hide me in the secret place of his tent, he will lift me up on a rock, now in my head, be lifted up above my enemy's round about me, and I will offer sacrifices in his tent with shouts of joy, I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. I suffered extreme poverty, but he became my sufficiency. I suffered emptiness, but he became my friend, my companion, I suffered depression. But he became my joy, my hope, my light, it took away my empty, restless heart, and gave me a new heart. He took my empty religion and gave me new life. He took me from my family, and brought me into his family. He told me my empty religion and gave me new life. He took away my material possessions and gave me himself. In my weakness. He became my strength. Kimberly Hobbs   Wow, wow. So beautifully said, Anita. And I love what you said about you were in the fire. But he was right there with you. Yes, right there with you. And through seeking Him and searching in his word, he became alive to you in so many ways. And just like you said, he became your defender, he became your protector, your provider, everything that you could think of he was there and ladies, you may be in the fire right now. And Anita and I both want to encourage you that God is there. He's there, right there. Just reach out and talk to him. Ladies, there's answers all through his word. That's why he provides the Bible for us. Because what we need is just nestled in all of the pages of His Holy Word. And we encourage you to go there and just look and read and read and know that God has a plan for you reading His word. Anita, if you can right now, I would love you had such tremendous courage what you and your husband did to leave that country that was so persecuted and you were as well, you lost your family, you left them, you left everything you owned, to come here with nothing that took courage, courage. So right now, the woman that's listening, she needs that courage belt, she needs to be encouraged in the Lord. So can you speak to your sister right now the sister listener who can have victory and true hope in her life? Please just give her a word from your heart that will speak deeply and be planted that she can take away with today. Nita Tin   Throughout my story, there is one strong thread. It is the unending covenantal all consuming love of God. precious hearts. God's love is for you. As Jehovah Sharma He longs to hold you in his to his breasts as a mother would her child He longs to pour out his mercy, his grace, his peace upon you The Lord gave me victory in the darkest, deepest steps. And you Beloved child of God, you can have the same victory. The God who hides me in the depths of his seventh tabernacle, and fights, my battles for me, is the same God, who will hide you in the secret place of his tent, and fight your battles for you. God is writing his story. And we, we get to become a part of it, nothing is wasted. We have the wonderful opportunity of joining him where he is already working. Yes, you may sometimes feel that you are being pummeled. And at times, you may feel that you just can't go on. Don't give up becoming a trophy of His grace, His masterpiece, that is lighting up the dark, and drawing those who sit in darkness while waiting to hear his story of salvation through Amazing Grace. Are you disappointed with your life? Are you discouraged because things are not turning out the way you have planned? Do you feel trapped in your past? Are you going through more than you can bear Take heart, God can see around the corner where we cannot, we may not see the understand side of the tapestry. He is weaving in your life and mine. But he knows and sees the other side, which will finally have the beautiful patterns he has planned for you and me. God does Kay. He hears us when we call and speaks to us if we will listen. As CS Lewis wrote, he whispers to us in our pleasures, but shouts in our being, we will always walk with us in our trials and suffering. be comforted that he knows and fields have been because he has already gone before us. He loves us so much he died for us. So run into his outstretched and stretched arms. He is waiting for you. Kimberly Hobbs   That is amazing. encouragement, thank you so much. He is waiting for you ladies run into his arms run. There's no time like today, to run into the arms of Jesus and surrender your heart to Him. He's waiting for you ladies. He's waiting. He wants all of you, all of you. So I just pray and need to praise that you can surrender your heart to Him today and let him take you through the fires that you're going through right now. He is a loving God, He cares about you. And he's going to bring you through them for a purpose, which you are going to walk out in your life. You may not see it now. But know that God is there. And he is he has a plan for you just like that opening scripture. You are his masterpiece He created you knew in Christ Jesus, right. So he has things planned for you from very long ago, before you were even born. He had a plan for you run after him. And Anita, you are just so delightful. I love talking to you. You just bless my heart. I respect you for all that you know in love in our Lord Jesus Christ and teach to so many. I want to just ask you right now, you wrote a book, and there was a screenplay written about your life. Can you talk about that for just a minute? Nita Tin   Yeah, actually, I don't know if you can see it. But this is the cover of the book. And it says, heartbeat of a survival. And it's from Golden pagodas to land of liberty in search of something more. And, you know, this is a book that God impressed upon my heart to write, but somehow he brings into our life, a film director who's just listened to our story within two days, she said, I'm going to write your film script. And she called it was a love story and she called it love beyond borders. So we're waiting to see what God's gonna do. And I'm just you know, excited about what he will do in his own time and in his own way. Kimberly Hobbs   Oh, that's so beautiful Anita and ladies, will you please pray over love beyond borders and play it pray over neat as book which is going to be come published and and how do the ladies find you? Nita, if they want to reach out and email you or talk to you, do you want to share any way that they can reach out to you? Nita Tin   Yes, my, you can reach out to me to email. And it is my name, Anita Qin X L, like for extra large, or you could think of it as excellent. So it's needed in excel@yahoo.com. And you can also find me on Facebook. It's needed in and you know, you can send me messages through that, I will talk to you, or I will, you know, I will email you and let you know what the progress is, if you want to, Kimberly Hobbs   That's so beautiful. And so I encourage you ladies reach out to Anita, talk to her and ask her some questions about her life and, and get ready for this amazing book and movie and she can let you know when that is going to come out. And ladies, as we close up, there's a couple things that I just want to share with you, especially scripture. That is we were talking about being victorious in Jesus. God's Word says that God's way is perfect. All of the Lord's promises prove true. He is a shield for all who looked to him for protection, Psalm 1830. And as need to look to God for protection, and had that amazing covering over her life. That can be the same for you. His promises are true ladies. That's why please go to his word, search out his word, know that His promises are true. And you can be victorious and Jesus, God says, I hold you by your right hand, I the LORD your God. And I say to you, don't be afraid. I am here to help you. That Scripture gives me goosebumps because God is here to help each and every one of us. He's here to help us. He says that in His Word. And remember, he cannot go contrary to what he says. So those last words of that sentence, he says, I am here to help you. That's Isaiah 4113. Take that scripture carry it with you memorize it, hold on to it, when the doubts are coming in when the depressions coming in when the want to give up is setting in in your life. Don't you allow that, as Anita was talking about victory victory and Jesus, women were leaders put out a book called victories. And it's claiming freedom in Christ. And that's available on our website. There's so much help in this ladies. There are teachings in here there are stories from women around the world. But one of the things is that you can glean from these teachings having victory overcoming addictions, overcoming different challenges in your life. It's all in here. It's an amazing book. And since Nieto was talking about victories today, I thought I would share about that book with you. It's an Amazon number one best seller. It is a seven time best seller. You can get it on Amazon as well. But we would love it if you got it through women world leaders.com. And ladies, I just want to say thank you to you, Anita for sharing your heart today. You are delightful and a blessing. Nita Tin   Thank you for having me. It was so much joy. So much love. Kimberly Hobbs   Amen. Amen. And I am just so glad that you reached out to tell the ladies they can communicate with you and I pray that they will do that. I pray that they will do that. So as we close ladies, we again we are a team together right all working toward having a closer walk with Jesus. And so we just invite you to be part and from his heart to yours. We are women world leaders all content is copyrighted by women, more leaders and cannot be used without expressed written consent. God bless all of you and have a beautiful day.

Today we are fasting from the thought that says, "I don't feel loved." The number-one need in every human life is to be loved. Yet sadly, so few actually enjoy a life where they actually feel loved. GOD'S NOT MAD AT YOU, HE'S MAD ABOUT YOU Dispel the myth of an angry God. He poured out His wrath on Jesus while on the cross, so He could pour out His love on you forever. “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) OUR FEELINGS FOLLOW OUR THOUGHTS Flood your mind with the thought, “My Heavenly Father tenderly loves me!” (John 16:27 AMP) You and God are inseparable. Nothing can separate you from Him or His love. Believe this with every fiber in your being! RECOGNIZE YOUR VALUE The value of a piece of art is not determined by the cost to make it, but rather by how much someone would pay to have it. God paid for us with the blood of Jesus. That makes us as valuable to God, as Jesus Himself! You are priceless! YOU DON'T HAVE TO EARN SOMETHING GOD HAS ALREADY GIVEN YOU He loves you. That can't be earned. It is a gift from God (John 3:16). Accept it. Your value is not determined by what you've done or not done. Just be loved. REJECT THE VOICES OF REJECTION Look in the mirror and tell yourself that you are chosen by God, accepted, and outrageously loved by your Heavenly Father! KNOW YOUR CALLING By this, I'm not referring to your calling to serve in ministry or your profession. I'm talking about what God calls you. He calls you His beloved continually in the Bible. Do a word search. You are His beloved. So, be loved! THINK IT AND SAY IT God is not mad at me, He's mad about me! I am outrageously loved by Him! His love was shown on the cross and His love and favor are for a lifetime! My Heavenly Father tenderly loves me. Therefore, I will feel His love today! He continually calls me His beloved. Nothing can separate me from His love. I am valuable and priceless to Him. I am as valuable to God as Jesus is. I receive His love by faith, in Jesus' Name! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/felicia721/message

The God Who Loves Me. Part 1 – My Heavenly Father. There are times in our lives when we struggle, when we are full of anxiety, of fear, of hopelessness. What if there was someone in our life who was there, who cared for us, who had the power to give us genuine hope, even in the midst of all we go through? There is someone. The Bible identifies Him as the God of the universe, and He loves us deeply. He is our Heavenly Father, Who cares for us. He is the Son of God, Who took our place. He is the Holy Spirit, Who lives inside of us and is our daily Helper. All three are expressions of the One True God. Let's meet with this God exactly where we are and try to better know The God Who Loves Me.

The God Who Loves Me. Part 1 – My Heavenly Father. There are times in our lives when we struggle, when we are full of anxiety, of fear, of hopelessness. What if there was someone in our life who was there, who cared for us, who had the power to give us genuine hope, even in the midst of all we go through? There is someone. The Bible identifies Him as the God of the universe, and He loves us deeply. He is our Heavenly Father, Who cares for us. He is the Son of God, Who took our place. He is the Holy Spirit, Who lives inside of us and is our daily Helper. All three are expressions of the One True God. Let's meet with this God exactly where we are and try to better know The God Who Loves Me.

Resurrection Power For Today - Monday 25th July 2022

"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." Ephesians 4:32 As a believer, we believe in the power of forgiveness. Forgiveness frees you from the anger and resentment that can hold you back from achieving your goals. It allows you to move on and focus on what's important in life. When we forgive, we set ourselves free. Forgiving others doesn't mean that you condone their actions or pretend their behavior didn't hurt you. It means that instead of harboring resentment and bitterness, you try to understand why they did what they did and then let go. In Matthew 18:23-35, Jesus Christ said the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlements, a debtor was brought to him owing ten thousand talents. Since the man could not pay, the master ordered him to be sold to pay his debt, along with his wife and children and everything he owned. Then the servant fell to his knees before him. 'Have patience with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' His master had compassion for him, forgave his debt, and released him. Matthew 5:7 says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." However, when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed and began to choke him, saying, 'Pay back what you owe me.' So his fellow servant knee down and begged him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he had the man thrown into prison until he could pay his debt. When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and recounted all of this to their master. Then the master summoned him and declared, 'You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?' In anger, his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should repay all that he owed. That is how My Heavenly Father will treat you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." Brethren, forgiving your enemies is key to your freedom and peace of mind. In other words, when you forgive people, the greatest beneficiary is you. So now release! Let go and let God. Your anger cannot produce the righteousness of God's desire (James 1:20). Matthew 6:14 says, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." Prayer: God had forgiven me for what I have done; therefore, I am grateful in Christ Jesus. Lord, grant me the strength to forgive those who have wronged me. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pastor-divineo/support

This article is a part of a series called “Spiritual Waimai Voices” where we welcome our friends to share some spiritual food with us with us in their own voice. This Spiritual Waimai was written and recorded by our friend Noah. This message is a part of a series entitled “The Father's Heart” where Noah shares with us lessons he has learned about his Heavenly Father through his experiences raising his own two young children. Does your daddy enjoy it when you fight with your brothers or sister? My Heavenly Father doesn't.

Acts 18:9-10 My Heavenly Father's love commands my fear to leave. My Heavenly Father's Spirit within me empowers me when I'm weak. My Heavenly Father's future plans for me silence my current doubts. DAILY DEVOTIONAL WITH RON MOORE Get Ron's Daily Devotional to your inbox each morning; visit biblechapel.org/devo. LIVING GROUNDED Learn more about how you can grow deeper and embrace the foundational truths of the Christian faith with Living Grounded. Whether you're just starting out in faith or you've been a Christian for years, Living Grounded offers truth, wisdom, and encouragement for every stage. Contact gdevore@biblechapel.org to get connected. CAREGIVING Do you have a need we can pray for? Do you need someone to walk alongside you? Do you know of another person who needs care? Let us know at caregiving@biblechapel.org. CAMPUS FACEBOOK GROUPS You're invited to connect with The Bible Chapel family in your campus Facebook Group. Look for Facebook Groups at facebook.com/biblechapel and click on Groups on the left side. FIND AN ENCOURAGER TODAY! JOIN A SMALL GROUP Community Groups are our easiest on-ramp to community at The Bible Chapel; these groups use sermon-based questions to dive deeper into weekly messages. Visit biblechapel.org/smallgroups to learn more and sign up!

I am Daughter of the Most High King. Cherished and loved by My Heavenly Father. Protected and adored by My Heavenly Husband. Yeshua. Best-Seller on Amazon Published Author/Certified Inspirational/Motivational Speaker/Women's Group Leader/Ministry Healing Broken Women A mother of two amazing adult children, gramma of 6 beautiful grandchildren. A survivor of, and with a brain tumor,...

Today we are fasting from the thought that says, "I don't feel loved." The number-one need in every human life is to be loved. Yet sadly, so few actually enjoy a life where they actually feel loved. GOD'S NOT MAD AT YOU, HE'S MAD ABOUT YOU Dispel the myth of an angry God. He poured out His wrath on Jesus while on the cross, so He could pour out His love on you forever. "God is love." (1 John 4:8) OUR FEELINGS FOLLOW OUR THOUGHTS Flood your mind with the thought, "My Heavenly Father tenderly loves me!" (John 16:27 AMP) You and God are inseparable. Nothing can separate you from Him or His love. Believe this with every fiber in your being! RECOGNIZE YOUR VALUE The value of a piece of art is not determined by the cost to make it, but rather by how much someone would pay to have it. God paid for us with the blood of Jesus. That makes us as valuable to God, as Jesus Himself! You are priceless! YOU DON'T HAVE TO EARN SOMETHING GOD HAS ALREADY GIVEN YOU He loves you. That can't be earned. It is a gift from God (John 3:16). Accept it. Your value is not determined by what you've done or not done. Just be loved. REJECT THE VOICES OF REJECTION Look in the mirror and tell yourself that you are chosen by God, accepted, and outrageously loved by your Heavenly Father! KNOW YOUR CALLING By this, I'm not referring to your calling to serve in ministry or your profession. I'm talking about what God calls you. He calls you His beloved continually in the Bible. Do a word search. You are His beloved. So, be loved! Think It And Say It!!! God is not mad at me, He's mad about me! I am outrageously loved by Him! His love was shown on the cross and His love and favor are for a lifetime! My Heavenly Father tenderly loves me. Therefore, I will feel His love today! He continually calls me His beloved. Nothing can separate me from His love. I am valuable and priceless to Him. I am as valuable to God as Jesus is. I receive His love by faith, in Jesus' Name! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/felicia721/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/felicia721/support

Hi Friend! Let's be honest. We ALL go thru seasons where we don't "feel" close to God. I say "feel" because that's what it is. A feeling but not the truth. The truth is God NEVER leaves us. But honestly, my heart might know the truth but my feelings can kinda over powering that knowing. Did that make sense?? And although we KNOW God doesn't leave His children, I do believe there are things I allow to get in the way. Distractions, heart issues..... and even "good things" can make it feel like there's a wall between me and My Heavenly Father. So let's talk about it in this episode.  What MIGHT be in the way AND what we can do about it! My prayer, as always, is that this episode blesses and helps you in your daily walk with Christ. ~Christina Let's connect!! I want to hear from you! Your thoughts on the podcast or suggestions for episodes or even if you just need another social media friend, find me on these platforms! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Christinasmithmcculley (Make sure you're in my VIP COMMUNITY TOO) Here's that link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/121720581306925 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinasmithmcculley/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@christinasmithmcculley? email: Christina@ChristinaSmithMcCulley.com

My Heavenly Father has great loves, at least two—you and me. He went to great strides to show the world what He treasures most: a personal relationship with each child.  I want to do the same: to love what God loves, to treasure what the Creator treasures, and show it by how I live my life. The older I grow in Christ, the more I want make our treasures the same, and live like God's priorities are my priorities. I fail daily. But I'm learning that to succeed at all, I first need to fully embrace how much I am our great God's treasure HOW WE KNOW WE ARE GOD'S TREASURE AND WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE? Shortly before becoming engaged, I knew my husband was the one for me when he looked me in the eyes and said, “There's nothing more you can be or do to make me love you more.”  Granted, he was blinded by love. If we weren't all a little blinded, no one would ever get married. But his proclamation reminded me of Christ's love for us, except Jesus does know us. The Savior is not blinded to our weakness and folly, yet still treasures us. We are loved because God is love by showing it through the gift of Jesus in I Peter 3:18 (ESV) ”For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God...”  If I ever question I am God's treasure, I only must look at the cross and doubt no more. Once I know I'm God's treasure, it makes all the difference in how I live. Listen today to hear my list. Would love to know what else comes to your mind when you say: "I'm God's child, and so I live this way..." List in comments below. Here's my truest self — yours, too, if you follow Jesus: I am loved I am forgiven I am chosen I am sent I am called I am transformed I am His I am found I am unique I am free (to wear any color!)   What difference does it make? All and everything. I am loved unconditionally, so I must love others unconditionally I am forgiven, so I must forgive as God's forgiven me I am chosen, so I live strong I am sent, so I must go I am called, so I must not stew about my purpose I am transformed, so I must look like Jesus I am His, so I must rest in my belongingness I am found, so I must feel valued I am unique, so I must not compare I am free, so I must listen and obey to use my freedom for His kingdom ________________   Looking for a new summer Bible Study to do on your own or with a couple of friends? Check out: Hospitality, 101: Lessons From the Ultimate Host, a 12-Week Bible Study When we understand God's welcome, we can better pass it on to another. For a limited time, I'm offering Chapter One of my Bible Study: Hospitality, 101—Lessons From the Ultimate Host, a 12-Week Bible Study.   ________________   How to invest in what matters beyond ourselves. We have one life - let's make the most of it for God, others, and eternity. Subscribe: Choose one of these popular free listening services, and subscribe there:                                             

We have embarked upon the most significant journey of our lives: fasting from wrong thinking. And today's thought is probably the most important one any of us ever deal with at a deep level. Today we are fasting from the thought that says, "I don't feel loved." The number-one need in every human life is to be loved. Yet sadly, so few actually enjoy a life where they actually feel loved. GOD'S NOT MAD AT YOU, HE'S MAD ABOUT YOU Dispel the myth of an angry God. He poured out His wrath on Jesus while on the cross, so He could pour out His love on you forever. "God is love." (1 John 4:8) OUR FEELINGS FOLLOW OUR THOUGHTS Flood your mind with the thought, "My Heavenly Father tenderly loves me!" (John 16:27 AMP) You and God are inseparable. Nothing can separate you from Him or His love. Believe this with every fiber in your being! RECOGNIZE YOUR VALUE The value of a piece of art is not determined by the cost to make it, but rather by how much someone would pay to have it. God paid for us with the blood of Jesus. That makes us as valuable to God, as Jesus Himself! You are priceless! YOU DON'T HAVE TO EARN SOMETHING GOD HAS ALREADY GIVEN YOU He loves you. That can’t be earned. It is a gift from God (John 3:16). Accept it. Your value is not determined by what you’ve done or not done. Just be loved. REJECT THE VOICES OF REJECTION Look in the mirror and tell yourself that you are chosen by God, accepted, and outrageously loved by your Heavenly Father! KNOW YOUR CALLING By this, I’m not referring to your calling to serve in ministry or your profession. I’m talking about what God calls you. He calls you His beloved continually in the Bible. Do a word search. You are His beloved. So, be loved! THINK IT AND SAY IT!!!!! God is not mad at me, He’s mad about me! I am outrageously loved by Him! His love was shown on the cross and His love and favor are for a lifetime! My Heavenly Father tenderly loves me. Therefore, I will feel His love today! He continually calls me His beloved. Nothing can separate me from His love. I am valuable and priceless to Him. I am as valuable to God as Jesus is. I receive His love by faith, in Jesus’ Name! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/felicia721/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/felicia721/support

In this episode, we explore one of the ways that we can become better storytellers and better listeners through cultivating our holy curiosity. In honor of Black History Month, we revisit the faithful story of Isaac Thomas, a black Latter-day Saint who converted to the gospel in the 1970's despite the fact that he would be unable to hold the priesthood or participate fully in the restored gospel he loved. We'll also hear from Tamu Smith and Zandra Vranes, (aka the Sistas in Zion) who give us their tips for better ways to interact with one another across cultural divides.  SHOW NOTES:  If you're looking for ways to get curious about the lived experiences of our brothers and sisters of color in the gospel, you can find a list of resources (as promised!) at LDSLiving.com/thisisthegospel TRANSCRIPT  KaRyn  0:03  Welcome to "This Is the Gospel," an LDS Living podcast where we feature real stories from real people who are practicing and living their faith every day. I'm your host KaRyn Lay. If you've ever spent any time with a three year old, then you might not agree with the central tenet of our theme today, that curiosity is a gift. But listen, if we can get past the exhaustion that comes from answering those rapid fire questions of our tiny humans, we'll eventually come to that magical place where we admit that the ability to look into the wide world and ask a million times, "How does this work?" That's pretty awe inspiring. It's interesting, when we talk about the commandment to become as a little child, I think our minds often go straight to humility. But is there anything more humble than acknowledging that there's so much we don't know and so much that we want to know? Curiosity is a function of true discipleship. And when we tap into it, we open the door to so much beauty and possibility in our efforts to become a true child of Christ. Now, listen, I'm pretty sure that I am preaching to the choir when I say this, but I can't think of a business that is more suited to a cultivation of curiosity than the work of storytelling, and it's necessary companion act of listening. When we dive into a story and allow ourselves to feel something from someone else's experience, that's evidence of a curious heart. And that translates when we tell our own stories. Having the spiritual gift of curiosity about others will make us more introspective about ourselves, our motives, our fears, so that when we bear our own stories of faith, we'll convey the heart of the story instead of just the details. If curiosity can really do that, then I think it's something lovely, of good report and worth seeking after. I've also been thinking about how curiosity, storytelling, and listening can be tools for us as we try to accomplish what President Nelson has charged us with, when he said in the October 2020 General Conference, that Latter-day Saints and followers of Christ must, quote, "Lead out in abandoning attitudes and actions of prejudice." I firmly believe that offering a curious heart to one another and listening from the starting place of, "I don't understand and I want to understand," is the key to beginning that work. So as we celebrate Black History Month here in the U.S. in February, I figured maybe we could start there today. Start by practicing a holy curiosity about a part of our church history, that sometimes hard to hear. Today, we've got a story about faith, pain and hope from Isaac Thomas, an African American Latter-day Saint who converted to the gospel in the 1970's, despite the ban that precluded Black men like him from holding the priesthood. We first shared Isaac's story in season one of the podcast. So you may have heard it before. But even if that's the case, I'm a huge believer that with a little bit of a prayer in our heart, the spirit will show us new insights. Here's Isaac. ISAAC: I was born in Kansas City, Missouri. I've been a member of The Church for 46 years. I was part of the Civil Rights movement, I was involved in the marching and the sit-ins and those types of things, and campaigning and being a non-violent protester for rights not only for blacks but for everyone. That was what I was doing at the time when I first started college. It was 1967 to 1971. It taught me patience, if nothing else, and long-suffering because during the Civil Rights movement to sit in at a cafe, and to be hosed in those things, there's a lot of patience involved in that, and a lot of long-suffering.  I first came in contact with the church through a young man that was in my basic training unit when I was in the Air Force, and he gave me a Joseph Smith pamphlet for me to read. That was my initial contact with The Church. I actually didn't get a chance to read it all. I just got to the first paragraph, explaining who Joseph Smith was. And then my drill instructor took it out of my hand and told me that Mormons were racist and bigots. Oh, okay well, forget that. I don't need racists and bigots in my life. I almost ended it. After that, I went to my next duty station and again, there was another Mormon on base that asked me for, you know, said he’d give me a ride at the chow hall and he asked me to go to his church with him that night. I forgot to ask him what church I was even going to. It didn't occur to me that everybody in the jeep that I was in, leaving base, was white but me. And the church was on the road in Southwest Texas alone by itself, I’m squinting, going where’s the church, and I realize it's a Mormon church. Ahh, it's a Mormon church! It's a Klu Klux Klan meeting and I'm going to be the burnt offering. I was, I couldn't believe it. I said I'll get out of the Jeep. I'll stand here, They'll go in and I'll walk back to base. Nobody moved until I did. I'm walking into this church, I'm going, "Please let there be another person of color in here." There was not. They had a mahogany foyer and I was going, if I stand close enough I can blend in and they won't notice I'm here. I expected for the chapel doors will open I would enter and see the grand dragon with hood in sheet. I could not believe I had gotten myself into such a terrible, terrible situation. KARYN: What Isaac found that day was actually far from what he feared. The rumors were untrue. There was no grand wizard lurking in the chapel, and instead, he felt something sweet and meaningful. He agreed to take the missionary discussions that soon came across some difficult information that was hard to process. ISAAC: The first time I learned that I couldn't hold the Priesthood was when they gave me the last lesson which was added to the series of lessons that they were giving me and they explained it to me. They told me all the reasons, all the reasons that the time that they were told. And I listened. And then I said, "You'll have to tell me that again". And they repeated everything. And then something just said, "It's okay." And I said, "Fine. Fine, I'm okay." The thing that kept me anchored was I knew Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I knew that, got that witness,  can't deny that. I knew the Book of Mormon had been restored by the prophet of God, can't get rid of that one either. If those two are true, then The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Church of God. There was some dissonance because I didn't know what other blacks would think of me, how they would accept me. I wasn't sure how the rest of my family members would accept me which troubled me because we were very close family. And so I was wandering in this mist of darkness really, just feeling my way, but I could not deny what I know to be true. I actually joined the church December 15 in 1972 in an old chapel in San Angelo, Texas. I remember just fighting with myself in the restroom, going, "Should I leave? Should I stay? No, Get out of here, this is bad. No, you need to stay this is going to be good for you." But I indeed stayed and I was baptized  and it was glorious for me. Really, I’d never felt so good and all my days. I remember the feeling of being light and forgiven. My parents' reaction when I joined the Mormon Church, my father was not there when my mother asked me, "What church did you join?" And I said, "The Mormon Church," and she dropped the skillet. My cousin left cussing. My brother said, "You did what?" And I just kind of sat there silently. And then my grandparents, when they heard about it, they said, "Just leave him alone, it’s one of his passing things. It'll be okay." But after a while, when I stopped drinking, smoking, carousing, doping and all those things, my grandmother finally said, "I don't care what church it is, hallelujah to it." It got me to be the person that they wanted me to be. Because my grandmother, when I was younger, I was ill and she promised the Lord that if I was saved, or live, that I would dedicate my life to the Lord. And I have to admit, I found that out and I purposely tried not to be that person, but here I am. Well, I decided once I got out of the military that I wanted to go on a mission. That was 1976 or 77. And I knew I couldn't, so I wrote President Kimball a letter and said, "Dear President, I'd like to go on a mission. I don't care if I can't baptize people, somebody else can do all that. All I want to do is be able to get in there and to teach people, just to teach them the Gospel." I got a letter back and it said, "Dear Brother Thomas, we're sorry, you can't go on a mission because you don't have the priesthood." Then, I went, "Women go on missions!" So I wrote him another letter, "Women go on missions!" I got another letter back saying, but they had to go to the temple and take out their endowment. And for you to go on a mission, you'd have to take out your endowment. So you can't go." And I said, I'm going to mission one way or the other, okay? And then my mindset, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Okay, I'm going to go, I'll figure it out, then I'll let them know. That was my mindset. I had not given up, but I accepted what he said, I understood what he was saying and why it was being said. But I figured there was some other way for me to accomplish the thing that I wanted to do. Because after all, the Lord gives no commandment unto the children of men unless He provides a way to accomplish the things that he has commanded.  Well, I realize how to serve that mission. When the kids came home from school and they told me about this song and dance group at BYU that did missionary work, and all they did was sing and dance. And they said it’s Young Ambassadors. And I went, "I can do that!" So me and my friends jumped in his MG, drove up here inAugust of 1977 for me to audition for the Young Ambassadors for my mission. But I got there and I was intimidated by all the talent that was there. I mean, I hadn't had music lessons or dancing lessons so I didn't audition. But then I was getting ready to go do baptisms for the dead and the phone rang and it was the director of the Young Ambassador's asking me to come up and audition. The director of the Young Ambassadors was told to call me because when I was in Thailand, a group from BYU came over to entertain the troops. And I worked the lights for them and Randy Booth was playing the piano and I met him and I was doing USO shows. Apparently, somebody told him that I was there. And a dancer had dropped out of the Young Ambassadors so they had called me to see if I wanted to come up and audition. And so I went up, after I'd gone to the temple, sang and danced, sand and danced, and they said, "Yes, we want you to be part of our group.” We want you to know that you're going to be in a fishbowl, that everybody will be watching you that this won't be easy. There will be a lot of questions, a lot of pressure that you will be under. It was going to be pressure because I was a black member of The Church. And at that time, there were not a whole lot of us around, particularly in a performing group at BYU. And because we were going to be traveling all over, that there will be non-members and other people that would take me to task and take The Church to task on their stand about why blacks could not have the priesthood. And I said, "Well, that's their problem. This is my mission for two years. I don't have time for that." Done. That was one of the greatest learning experiences of my time being a member of the Young Ambassadors. I learned more about performing, I learned a whole, whole lot about brotherhood. When I say brotherhood, I include sisterhood as well. The love and care that they had for me was genuine and real. There would be some that would leave and go on missions and they would tell me, "Isaac, I'm gonna baptize this many people in your name." I was promised that I would have special friends and associates that would be for my good. And that was indeed quite true with that group. When something untoward happened, like a member or somebody would not let me stay in their home because I was black, some of the girls— they got very, very upset—and I didn't like that kind of thing. So I would have to stay in a hotel or something with the director. But they were always there. I never had to worry about my back. Ever. There were some challenges while I was on my mission with the Young Ambassadors, and there was a time where we were doing a number in Georgetown, Pennsylvania and a girl jumped about two inches off the floor, ripped her knee out, hobbled off stage. I was the only one off stage because I had a solo number after that one. And I carried her off and the director came back and said, "Isaac, go get someone that has the priesthood." And he might as well hit me upside the head with a wrecking ball, or taken a machete and just gutted me. I was devastated. He wasn't being mean, it was just a fact. And really, I think for the first time, I really did feel inferior in some way because of that. Like Man's Search for happiness, I just didn't know what was happening in my life because I had no question about the priesthood for six years. I'd been a member for six years, what's going on? And I was talking to Brad Smith, he was my roommate, and I just told him I felt like I was holding on to my testimony by the skin of my teeth at that point. But then, I realized, we have to trust in God because man will disappoint us every time, but God will not. He may not come when you want Him all the time, but He's always on time. So about June, end of May of 1978, we were in Toronto, Canada. And the missionaries brought this young lady to the show for me to talk to, she was black. And the director kept bugging me to talk to her. And I said, "Okay, fine." But when I jumped off the stage, there was a bunch of anti-Mormon people that came to the show. I was surrounded by all these people that are calling me a traitor to my race. That I was an Oreo, an Uncle Tom, and I just didn't need that my life. I finally talked to this young lady and I told her she’d do more for a family in the church and she ever could outside of it. And I left. We jumped on our bus, traveled to Kansas City, June 8, and we had lunch with my mom and we sang songs, we got back on the bus and we start going through Kansas. I went to sleep. Cause Kansa, it’s flat, there's nothing there and I'd seen it before. I went to sleep. They woke me up when we got to Salina, Kansas and told me to get off the bus. I got up, I got off the bus, didn't know what was going on. When I got back to our equipment van that had our costumes and instruments in it, Gary, our piano player was driving that when he said, "Isaac, we heard something on the radio. We don't know if it's true." I said, "Well, Gary, what did you hear?" He said, "Well, we want you to hear, we just don't know what to think." He kept going on and on and on. I recognized the station, it was WHB in Kansas City. I thought they had heard that my mom had been an accident. I said, "Gary, if you don't tell me what you've heard, I'm going to be all of you like stink on a monkey." He said, "They gave the blacks the Priesthood!" I said, "Don't, don't believe that, please. We're in the heartland of the reorganized church, the heartland of the reorganized church. They could be giving the cows the Priesthood for all we know out here. And don't tell anybody on that bus because I can't handle if it's not true. I can’t handle all that disappointment. No, don't want to deal with it. I got in the van, we drove to a mall, the director gets out runs in the mall. I figure we're going to go in, pass out some pamphlets about The Church get some contacts for the missionaries and sing some songs. Done it before, no big deal. Gets back on the bus. The bus pulls in front of the van and I see every, all 40 something people on one side of the bus hands and faces waving. At that point, I knew that they had told them about this fictitious rumor about this Priesthood thing. I went, "How could they do that to me?" and then on the CB radio, I hear, "Elder Thomas, it is true." My entire life passed before my eyes. And I went, wait a minute did I sleep through the Millennium? I was always told what happened in the Millennium. And then I went wait, well who's coming in these clouds? And I didn't know if I should look or not. It was like being in a dream. I get on the bus and they say "Bare your testimony!" I couldn't think of my name. I don't know what I said, I said something and I sat down by the director. At that point, people start singing songs, "The Spirit of God like a Fire is Burning," and then someone would bear their testimony. "I am a child of God." "I know that my Redeemer lives," all of those harmonies from all those talented talented people floated across Kansas. But everybody that I'd ever know from the Laotian border from Karamursel, Turkey, San Angelo, Texas, the family that got me in the church was trying to find me that day. For they had been there supporting me all this time. Praying along with me for this day to come, like many, many, many of the silent majority of the members of The Church, praying for this very, very special thing. It wasn't my letter, either one of them, it was a collective effort for those that wanted this to be done and for the Lord to hear the prayers of His children that were given in righteousness and in devotion unto Him.  After the revelation, our last show was in Loveland, Colorado. The bus pulled up and there was like, hordes of people there to welcome us and at that show that night, the audience was great. Several encores, several testimonies, but when we got back to BYU, it was a little different because there were people that would speak to me and thought I could walk on water because I didn't have the priesthood. Now that I could, they would not speak to me. There were also advertisements taken out the newspaper denying the priesthood revelation that made me feel bad. And it took me a while to understand that that was their choice if they were cheating themselves out of their own exaltation. That was hard, but for the more part, it was grand. I wanted to write someone black, the only black person I had, which was this young lady I met in Toronto, Canada. Well, she came down for General Conference because they were going to be you know, ratifying and talking about the Restoration of the Priesthood for conference. So she came down, stayed with her missionary's that converted her. I met her and we, you know, went to a couple of sessions together and then Sunday night, we were walking on Temple Square, and we were just talking and I asked her what she was going to be doing and told her what my plans were and we got up by the Christus, and all of a sudden I heard these words come out of my mouth, "Will you marry me?" And I was so startled by what came out of my mouth. I couldn't believe it. Because I promised I would never have a Mormon romance, you know what I mean? And she said, "I'll have to think about it." I'm going, it's a good thing somebody's thinking because  obviously I am not. She came back a couple days later and said, "Yes." And we talked about will we get married civilly first? Will we wait and get sealed? And we decided to wait to get sealed. And we got married June 15, 1979. We were the first black couple to be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. There were so many people at my sealing. I can't tell you who was there. All I know is there was standing room, people everywhere, halfway out the door. And when we walked out of the temple, there were all kinds of people taking pictures, it was in the Deseret News and I'm going, okay. But we were, we were so dizzy just from being nervous about being married. But really, it was another surreal experience in my life, but a great one. My testimony helps me when things aren't connected as far as race and understanding in the church. People can say and do anything, there will always be bigots, some knowingly being bigots, some unknowingly being bigots in every religion, they're there. No matter what the trial is, or what the circumstance is or what's been said to me or thrown at me, literally. The Lord is there. We sing a song in my grandmother's church, it went, "I trust in God, I know he cares for me. On the mountain tops, on the stormy sea. Though the billows may roll, he thrills my soul. My Heavenly Father watches over me." KaRyn  23:12   That was Isaac Thomas. I produced the video for LDS Living that first told this story in 2018. And it's amazing to me that I've heard Isaac's story literally dozens of times. And I still heard something new as I listened.  Maybe you found yourself like I did filled with gratitude and wonder at Isaac's faithfulness and his determination, that part about choosing to serve a mission even when he couldn't formally serve, I mean, that just gets me every single time. And maybe you, like me, heard those stories of pain and wounding from Isaac and wondered if maybe you'd inadvertently allowed a bias or lack of understanding to get in the way of another child of God feeling the full stature of their divinity.  If that's the case, well, then good. Good, good, good. That is the gift of curiosity, doing its beautiful job, reminding us that we're still alive here on this earth and that our time is not over yet, we still have some spiritual growth left in us. It can be painful, a real gut punch to be curious about ourselves in that way, to search out the moat in our own eye.  But our love for Isaac and all of our brothers and sisters of color demand that we do it. Our desire to be more like the Savior demands it as well. And I firmly believe that he will help us to push past the shame and the fear that that self examination can bring up if we let him.  In the spirit of practicing curiosity, I want to share one more quick little thing with you today. It's audio from a video series that LDS Living did a while ago called, "What and what not to say at church." We did the series to help us all navigate potentially awkward situations at church with a little bit more love and a little more self awareness.  And one of the topics that we tackled was talking to our Black brothers and sisters. I don't know about you, but I grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood and my interactions with Black culture were really limited until I was in college in Philadelphia. And I made a lot of mistakes. And I acted on a lot of assumptions. And I know I hurt people.  I really love that saying that is making the rounds lately, "When you know better, you do better." Admitting fault and vowing to do better is the very heart of our gospel practice. And that's true of navigating cultural differences. It's a holy work that requires God to help us complete. But bridging the gap is possible, and listening to others with a different life experience, really listening to them without defensiveness, that's the first step.  So here are Tamu Smith and Zandra Vranes, also known as the Sistas in Zion, with their tips for doing better at interacting with each other at church. And here's a funny thing. This video was done long before President Nelson asked us to stop calling ourselves "Mormons," so you're going to hear that in this audio, but just know that we know that we don't use that anymore. Here you go.   Tamu   Sometimes people will come up to you and grab you hair.   Zandra   If this has ever happened to you at church, you might be a Black Mormon.   Tamu   On a serious tip, at church, sometimes we say things like, "I don't see color," which is not true, but it is awkward. And we understand that. We're going to have some awkward moments, but we're just going to ride it through. And we're going to get through this because we are all brothers and sisters, and we're in this together.    Zandra   Absolutely, so we're going to give some tips.   Tamu   So what do you say to people who just come up to you and touch your hair?   Zandra   So we know you're curious, and that's okay. But we really shouldn't touch people without permission. So if you're interested in my hair, get to know me. Know my name, what are my interests, and once we're friends, maybe we'll get to hair.    When we serve admissions around people of color, we often like to share with them that we've connected culturally with an experience that might resonate with us.   Tamu   Basically, what you want us to know is that you love Black people, and we want you to know we love you back.   Zandra   But while we're seeking connections, there are some assumptions that can actually disconnect us.   Tamu   For example, I'm from California, not from Ghana, where you served your mission.    Zandra   And that sister from Ghana is not from the hood, where you served yours.    Tamu   People think I can sing because I'm Black, so they want me to be in the choir. I'm not a good singer. Also, I'm a convert to the church to the LDS faith. She is not.   Zandra   I am a convert, actually, everybody's a convert to the LDS faith, but I don't have a gangster to gospel story that you're looking for.    All Black people don't know each other. I cannot get Alex Boye to speak at your farewell.    Tamu   So sometimes people will come up to me and they'll say, you know, "Oh, my gosh, I served my mission in Chicago, Illinois. Do you know champagne?" And I'm like, "Yeah!". . . I don't.   Zandra   But the truth is, all Black Mormons kind of really do know each other.   Tamu   Don't speak slang to me if that's not your native language.    It's okay to ask me, "Are you Black? Or are you African American?" I'm both. And I'm also Tamu.   Zandra   When it comes to asking questions, motive matters. If your motive is the loving one, it'll shine through.   Tamu   Sometimes we have these conversations in the church, and sometimes race is a part of it. Don't skip over the race part. We want to be a part of that conversation.   Zandra   Tamu and I don't speak for all Black people, so the best rule of thumb is treat everybody like individuals, get to know them. And then you'll find out what they like, what they don't like. All are like unto God. But that doesn't mean that we are all alike. It means that we're striving to love each other, like God loves each of us.   Tamu   I'm excited to see you on Sunday.   Zandra   Catch me in the pew, how about that?   Tamu   How about that.   Zandra   And when we wear our wraps and hats to church, don't ask us to move to the back row because you can't see over them. Come on up and join us. The more the merrier on the pew.   KaRyn  29:20   That was Zandra Vranes and Tamu Smith. We'll have a link to that video in our show notes so you can see what you can't when you're just listening to the audio. Tamu and Zandra have never been shy about sharing what it feels like to be a woman of color in a church that sometimes doesn't reflect their experience.  And I for one, am grateful for their willingness to speak up with plainness and love and self respect. They brought up an interesting point in the video that I had honestly never thought of until just now. It's the difference between a holy curiosity and a nosy curiosity. And here's what I mean.  Holy curiosity respects people's boundaries. It's motivated by love and acknowledges the godliness and the divinity in every person, while also asking, "What's it like for you to be here?" But nosy curiosity is just the opposite. It's actually all about you, and meeting your needs to know, at the expense of another person's dignity.  It's doing what I know I have done before, touching someone's hair because you want to know what it feels like regardless of how that might make them feel. Or asking someone if you've hurt them, only to try to defend yourself.  I love what Zandra said, that our motives matter. And it's going to shine through as we press forward through awkward moments in our attempts to form genuine familial connection. I don't know what it's like for you, but my church life sometimes seems like it's all awkward moments. Ministering, teaching over zoom, accepting ministering, all of these great things require me to be slightly uncomfortable all the time.  So after listening to these tips again, I'm going to try to put this into practice. To ask myself if my curiosity is holy or nosy, to pause before talking and check myself to see if my curiosity is motivated by a desire to really know someone and understand their life on their terms, or if it serves only me.  I'm hopeful that as I do that, that my comfort and ease will grow as I do the work of discipleship. We can't leave this theme of curiosity without recognizing that ultimately, we seek this gift so that we can become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. Talk about a holy curiosity.  Despite the fact that he knew all and could perceive every single thing, Christ asked hundreds of questions during his ministry. And those are only the things that we have recorded in canonized scripture. I'm sure there was more. Christ loved curiosity. And in Matthew chapter seven, verse seven, he promised us that our sacred curiosity would be rewarded, he said, "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you."  So back to that charge from President Nelson to lead out in abandoning attitudes and actions of prejudice, I think it all starts with engaging with the gift of curiosity, asking Heavenly Father to show us what we don't know. And listening to stories from people who've lived it, like Isaac, and Tamu and Zandra, and others. Asking questions with a motivation of love and a commitment to do better, when we know better.  If you're feeling that desire right now, we will have a list of really great resources to feed your curiosity in our show notes, including some links that offer opportunities to hear directly from our brothers and sisters of color who go to church with us. I don't think we have to wait to be perfect to lead out. We just have to be like a little child willing to let people see us and our growth and our curiosity. And then we can truly call ourselves, all of us, the children of Christ. That's it for this episode of "This Is the Gospel." Thank you to our storyteller, Isaac Thomas, and our wonderful Sistas in Zion, Zandra and Tamu. We'll have more info from all of these storytellers in our show notes at LDS living.com/Thisisthegospel. That's also where you can find a transcript of each episode.  If you haven't already started to follow us on social media, go find us on Instagram or Facebook at @thisisthegospel_podcast, we work hard to make sure that it will add to your scrolling instead of taking away.  The stories in this episode are true and accurate as affirmed by our storytellers, we find lots of our stories through the pitch line. So if you have a story to share about a time in your life when you learn something new by practicing the gospel of Jesus Christ, we want to hear from you. The best pitches will be short and sweet and have a clear sense of the focus of your story. You'll have three minutes to pitch when you call, 515-519-6179.  If you want to help spread the word about "This Is the Gospel," we'd love for you to give personal recommendations to your friend. Find an episode you love, send it in a text message personal recommendations are the way to go. And you can also leave a review of the podcast on Apple, stitcher, or whatever platform you listen on. Reviews help this podcast to show up for more people in their search functions.  This episode was produced by me KaRyn Lay with additional story production from Davey Johnson and the producer director of that "What not to say" video, Skylar Brunner. It was scored, mixed and mastered by Mix at Six studios, our executive producer is ErinHallstrom. You can find past episodes of this podcast and other LDS Living podcasts at LDS living.com slash podcasts. Show Notes + Transcripts: http://ldsliving.com/thisisthegospel See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A child is innocent, and an adult knows right from wrong.. if you are still following a Bible that “used to” condone child marriage and pedophilia, YOU are the “morally filthy.” I gives a damn what version you have. There is no excuse: marrying children of twelve years (or upon menstruation)!! How dare you claim MY Heavenly Father wrote that filth? Even a mistranslation (“pedophile” was changed in 1946 to HOMOSEXUAL!), does not explain why grown men were permitted to wed & bed child virgins. You disgust me.. the “Christian,” who will actually try to justify the continued use of a box of lies that “at one time” permitted child sexual abuse.

Sorry folks! Monday began an intense week of training for both Francie and I.  We had a wonderful time on the radio together on Tuesday, but unfortunately yours truly uploaded the same file twice to Podbean. We are working on recovering PART 2 of this lesson.  If we are able to do so, we will put it up as soon as we can.  If we cannot please accept my sincere apology.  I am but dust.  My Heavenly Father understands this and I hope you will as well. Yours Truly, Janice Wolfe Francie Taylor joins Janice in the studio to talk about 5 ways to have better relationships. "It's totally normal to have the occasional strains in our relationships. We breathe, therefore we're capable of blowing it. The problem isn't the problem. Love God. Love people. Live the Word."  Also, featuring CW Today with Loretta Walker and with Cathy Sandiford. 

Learn how to be strong and courageous in Christ exactly as Deuteronomy‬ ‭31:6‬ teaches in scripture. Explore how God's word reveals His will for you and His work in you. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified, for the Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you.” – Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV. Have you ever felt weak and fearful? I have. Today's Biblical devotional for women is dedicated to exploring how to be strong and of good courage through Christ. From my personal experience with God, I've learned that being strong isn't possible in my own power. It's only possible when I abide in Christ. I've also learned on my faith journey that being courageous doesn't mean being fearless. It means that with my free will I intentionally mobilize and deploy my faith as an antidote to my fear. In this Biblical devotional for Christian women, I will share with you how to be strong and courageous by abiding in Christ. I will also pray for you if you stick around and allow me to lift you up to God through prayer. Deuteronomy‬ ‭31:6‬   Be strong and courageous Bible verse calls us out of our natural anxiety and doubt into God's supernatural divine power of protection, provision, and promotion. But we must believe. Faith over fear! That's the mindset we must adopt in order to be strong and courageous as Deuteronomy‬ ‭31:6‬ teaches us to be as Christian women. Let me tell you my story. It is a story of how scared and insecure I was when God asked me to step out of my own power and into His so that I could do the good work He prepared in advance for me to do. See, I knew what God said in Deuteronomy‬ ‭31:6, only now I had to actually do it. When we have to do God's word and not just hear or know it, things get very personal and scary. That's what happened to me. And that's why my entire Christian ministry Online Discipleship For Women is dedicated to helping you create a joyful life by embracing God's word. In fact, this ministry is exactly what my story of being strong and courageous is all about. Here's what happened to me and how God taught me to be strong and courageous as Deuteronomy‬ ‭31:6‬ teaches us to be as Christian women. I never could have imagined starting a ministry. Not only because I myself wasn't even a Christian for most of my life but also because something like this would be the last thing on my mind. The typical things I was excited about for most of my adult life were sex, alcohol, exotic travel, night clubs, hairdos, and shopping. I came to Christ in 2014, and God's been working in my heart ever since, drawing me closer to Jesus one day at a time. You can read my testimony here. In the beginning, I believed in a Santa Claus kind of God: I'll check the boxes for being nice, and God will give me a fairytale kind of perfect life. Well, that's not how things turned out for me… Instead of having a perfect life with God, I was attacked by Satan. The devil almost destroyed my faith and hope by intentionally manipulating me into suicide. You can read what happened to me in the blog post called “How Satan Came at Me Looking Saint” and “My Story of Narcissistic Marriage.” During the next few years, I learned that on my own, I am weak and scared, but with Christ, I am strong and courageous. God's will for me was to grow in faith. To grow my faith, He wanted me to study His word. To study His word, He needed me to choose Him using my free will. It happened when I signed up for Biblical counseling in 2016, after my husband of four months filed for divorce saying he wasn't interested in me anymore and wanted to be an IronMan instead. I shared the details of that story in an essay called “IronMan vs Marriage.” That was when I chose to focus on God's word. Once I wholeheartedly and intentionally focused on the word of God, my faith grew. God revealed His will to me, and I was called to step out of my fears and doubts and start a Christian ministry to encourage and empower women. I felt inadequate and unworthy but I did see the truth. Here was the truth… During that devastating marriage with the narcissist, God equipped and prepared me for His divine labor. He taught me how to be strong and courageous in the Lord, not in my own limited ability, intelligence, power, connections, finances, health, or discernment. Satan stripped me of everything, and that's when God stepped in, rebuilt me anew, and used my story for His glory. I discovered the depths of the Gospel listening to the teachings of Randy Pope at Perimeter Church and reading the book of Laura Story called “When God Doesn't Fix It.” Interestingly enough, the book was a gift for graduation from premarital counseling with the narcissist in 2016. And as I walked down the aisle a few months later, I was wondering why such a book was actually given to us as a wedding gift… My marriage – I was confident – was going to be God-glorifying and perfect since all the proper boxes were checked and I was marrying a good Christian man. See, I had a performance-based view of God. My Heavenly Father wanted me to be in an intimate relationship with Him and be completely dependent on Him for strength and courage. My fantasy ended as my new husband filed for divorce four months after our wedding and rejected me in every way, which is described in the essay called “My Story of Rejection.” When I ran out of my own strength and power, I read Laura Story's book called “When God Doesn't Fix It.” I read the Bible, too. In fact, I devoured the word of God. I was hungry for His truth. I dove deep into the Gospel and found hope and healing. I became strong and courageous in Christ instead of my own performance, intelligence, career, finances, health, power, knowledge, talent, discernment, and overall my own ability. Just a few months after my wedding, I was divorced and discovered that there's no Santa Claus God. I also discovered that I don't have any strength or power on my own. But I do have a sovereign, loving, kind, and understanding Heavenly Father who has a perfect plan for me, which I can't see since I'm too close to my life circumstances. I don't have His infinite intelligence and can't comprehend how divorce, depression, and other “troubles in the world” can possibly be used for His good. But… I trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own limited understanding. That's why I declare that God is good, that in my own weakness His strength is perfect, and that in Christ, I am strong and courageous. Mine is a story for God's glory!   The Source of Strength and Courage   God placed this ministry for Christian women in my heart. Online Discipleship For Women was born in 2017 right after my divorce from the narcissist. The desire to share the Gospel has been burning on the inside every day ever since. That year, I also launched my Christian podcast The Anna Szabo Show and started speaking openly about my story, giving God all the honor and glory. The feedback from those who were comforted by God through my ministry was so encouraging, that I decided to also publish Christian videos on YouTube, which I began doing in December of 2017. God uniquely equipped and prepared me to minister to women by ridding me of my own strength and performance-based faith and drawing me closer to Himself so that I could step into the power of Jesus and be strong and of good courage through Christ. Sharing my testimony and encouraging women has been hard because my life story is full of adversity, drama, trauma, and pain. I shared my entire life story in an essay called “Getting To Know Anna Szabo.” It takes courage to overcome my fears every time I speak on behalf of God. He called me to do this. He gave me this ministry. I am very scared somtimes because th kinds of things I share about myself as a part of my powerful testimony are very personal and intimate. Sometimes, I get bullied online by people. But I'm strong in the Lord. I minister to women through Christ.    Strong and Courageous My concept of life used to be totally wrong. In my own power, I was trying to be strong. God has taught me to lean on the Lord And grow in faith by devouring His word. In Christ, I am now strong and courageous. My faith is steadfast and contagious. To Jesus wholeheartedly I forever belong. My strength and courage are now lifelong. 1/2/2020 © Anna Szabo, JD, MBA   Be Strong and Courageous   It's very important that we do not misunderstand the Be strong and courageous verse as a call to disregard our humanness. We are not called b God to be happy all the time. We are humans. Even Jesus wept when overcome with grief and genuine human emotion. We aren't destined by God to be trapped in toxic positivity. On the contrary, God in the Bible calls us to cast our anxieties on Him because He cares. I have discussed this topic in great detail in a talk I delivered on September 19th, 2020 at TEDx Marietta Square about grief, sorrow, and mourning. My talk is called “The Healing Power of Self-Pity.” Being strong and courageous doesn't mean being dissociative, detached, and disconnected from reality. God calls us to be aware, alert, and fully alive. I cry often. I grieve my losses and cast my anxieties on my heavenly father God who genuinely cares. By processing my life, my weaknesses, my fears, my doubts, and my insecurities, I practice being strong and courageous in Christ. All that work allowed me to also help other women process their emotions, adversity, trauma, and pain by facing their reality, reaching out for God's help, and finding sacred peace, comfort, and joy in an intimate relationship with Jesus. As you can see, God had a good plan all the way. He comforted me when I was weak and scared so that now I can comfort other Christian women with the same comfort I myself received from God. Before I pray for you, let me answer the most commonly asked questions about Deuteronomy 31:6 and being strong and courageous.   What is the meaning of Deuteronomy 31:6? Deuteronomy 31:6 teaches Christians how to be strong and courageous in Christ by surrendering own natural power and ability and stepping into God's supernatural power and divine capability. It means abiding in the power of Jesus instead of living in your own power. How do you find strength in the Lord? To find strength in the Lord, you must surrender your own strength, trust God's good plan, seek His guidance, hear God's voice, and follow His will for your life, even when you're uncomfortable or scared. How do I stay strong in God? To stay strong in Christ, you need to pray without casing, read God's word so that your faith can grow, and also do what God asks you to do, even when you're weak and fearful in the natural. How do you pray for strength and courage? Dear God, I trust your promises. You promised to guide my path and make it straight, you promised to be with me wherever I go, you promised to protect me from all evil and to promote me, God. I believe in you. From the bottom of my heart, I am praying right now for your divine, supernatural strength and courage. In Jesus' name. Amen.   I hope this Biblical devotional really helped you understand Deuteronomy 31:6 and God's calling for you to be strong and courageous – not in your own power but in the power of Jesus Christ. Please share this devotion with other Christian women who really need to hear God's message right now. Let me pray for you.   Dear God, I am praying for the Christian woman reading this Biblical devotional right now. I want to lift her up and ask for your favor in her life. Whatever her situation, I know that, in her weakness, your strength is perfected. You gave her 3573 promises, God, including the promises of protection, prosperity, promotion. I pray that you bless her, Father. In Jesus' name. Anna Szabo  

Talking to My Heavenly Father

My name is Lee Liston. I am someone who loves life, puts everything into everything he does, and lives passionately. Whenever I participate in anything I make sure it's something that I can put my whole heart and soul into. My goal in life is to bring as much value to the world as I can in every capacity possible with the talents God has given me. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I will not deny that I have been very blessed in my life and I know that those blessings come from My Heavenly Father. That always keeps me grounded no matter how high success takes me or how low failure brings me down. I am working with all my might to be as successful in my acting career as I can. When I was young I would always lay on my couch and imagine scenes with characters that felt very real to me. I was the youngest in my family and was typically home for 4-5 hours a day until my parents got home. During that time I would get burned out of homework, video games, etc. When that happened I would go imagine I was in another world. Sometimes I would be in the middle of an adventure and my Dad would walk in on me. I would immediately pretend to be asleep as I was embarrassed to be caught doing something so silly. Later in life I asked my Dad why he never teased me about it or commented about watching me have imaginary superhero fights on the couch. He told me “Lee, you were fostering an imagination. Why would I want to ruin that?” leeliston.com https://www.instagram.com/lee_liston/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/leergliston/ If you would like to help Sprinkled with Hope to continue to produce great content with great guests and you feel inclined to help you can contribute here: https://anchor.fm/shane074/support --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/shane074/support

We have embarked upon the most significant journey of our lives: fasting from wrong thinking. And today's thought is probably the most important one any of us ever deal with at a deep level. Today we are fasting from the thought that says, "I don't feel loved." The number-one need in every human life is to be loved. Yet sadly, so few actually enjoy a life where they actually feel loved. THINK AND SAY IT whenever you are feel not loved say this to remind yourself that God loves you. God is not mad at me, He’s mad about me! I am outrageously loved by Him! His love was shown on the cross and His love and favor are for a lifetime! My Heavenly Father tenderly loves me. Therefore, I will feel His love today! He continually calls me His beloved. Nothing can separate me from His love. I am valuable and priceless to Him. I am as valuable to God as Jesus is. I receive His love by faith, in Jesus’ Name! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/felicia721/message

Let us pray:My Heavenly Father, provide me with your peace tonight. Cause me to rest because I trust in you.Enable me to see when fear is clouding the way, when I turn away from you to self-will, or when Iforget that you are sovereign and good. For I pray in the name of Jesus, the lover of my soul.Amen.

“Thou will supply my every need, on to the end whate’er befall. Through life, in death, eternally, Thou art my all.”—Third verse of “Thou Art My Life” (or “Jesus My Savior”) by Charlotte Elliot, who became an invalid around age 30, and remained so the rest of her life. About her physical condition, Elliott wrote: “My Heavenly Father knows, and He alone, what it is, day afer day, and hour afer hour, to fight against bodily feelings of almost overpowering weakness and languor and exhaustion, to resolve, as He enables me to do, not to yield to the slothfulness, the depression, the irritability, such as a body causes me to long to indulge, but to rise every morning determined on taking this for my motto, If any man will come afer me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.” John 7:37-39

Matthew 23:8-10 (KJV)8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.

Stories in this episode: A tragedy at Columbine High School hits close to home and creates chaos for Kelli on the same day as her first trip to the temple; April receives the gift of peace while learning to accept a detour in her life plan; Jacob and his family test out different ways to make their home more peaceful and rediscover the power of the Sabbath day. SHOW NOTES: Can you do us a quick favor? We are having such an awesome time bringing you the new stories in season 2 and we’ve heard from so many of you that you love it, too. We want more people to find the good stuff and one of the ways that can happen is through reviews. If you’ve had an experience with one of the stories in our podcast, will you share that with others by leaving a review here on the apple podcast app or the bookshelf app? Every review helps us show up for more people.  Thank you, Thank you!!! You can find pictures, links, and more info from this episode HERE. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: KaRyn Lay: Welcome to "This Is the Gospel," an LDS Living podcast where we feature real stories from real people who are practicing and living their faith every day. I'm your host, KaRyn Lay. I want to be honest about something. It has been hard for me to find the right words for this week's episode. I feel like I've been staring at a blank Word document for at least four days because I just didn't know what to say to kick off this beautiful episode about peace. In fact, I have felt downright unpeaceful about it, squirmy even. I think it's because the only authentic way to kick this thing off is to tell you that I rarely feel AT PEACE, in all capital letters. It's so rare for me, in fact, that when I do feel it, it's worthy of a long journal entry and a commemorative Instagram post. I am prone to chaos and the swirl of emotion that accompanies that. And I have been from the time I was young. So I keep busy. So, so, so busy. Busy enough that I don't have to notice or feel much of anything, but I especially don't have to feel that lack of peace. And that's a vicious cycle. All that business well, that leaves little room for quiet, stillness, and the sweet sense of settling that are the fruits of peace. At the end of the day, I feel like I'm left longing for some kind of a magical, cosmic, weighted blanket that can settle over all of my busy doing. I know I can't be alone in this, but actually, maybe I am. Maybe the rest of the world is filled with peaceful Zen masters who have it all figured out. But I'm actually feeling pretty confident that's not the case. For example, listen to the lyrics from the hymn, "Be Still, My Soul," which just so happens to be the inspiration for today's theme. “Be still my soul the Lord is on thy side Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain Leave to thy God to order and provide In every change He faithful will remain” Those words were written by Catarina von Schlegel, in the 18th century—over 200 years ago. Apparently, in disorder, change, tumult, grief, pain, disruption and chaos. We're all very much a part of that universal experience then. So, it feels like we're in pretty good company guys. Those of us who seek peace and have a harder time finding it, we're not alone. But the good news is, peace is possible, and it comes through our Savior Jesus Christ.  Today we've got three very different stories about seeking peace in tumultuous times from three storytellers whose experiences with stillness can hopefully teach me and you a little about leaving it to our God to order and provide. Our first story comes from Kelly, whose very first visit to the temple as a 12-year-old came at a time when her whole Colorado community was reeling from tragedy. If you're listening with young children, this story unavoidably talks about violence in a school setting and you might want to preview it before sharing it. Here's Kelly.   3:05 Kelly: I remember sitting in my classroom hearing the announcement come over the speakers, saying that we were on lockdown. April 20, 1999, was a very very scary day. But also, it was probably the most spiritually memorable day of my life. It was the day that the Columbine High school shootings happened. Columbine was the first mass school shooting in the history of the United States and 13 people lost their lives. I grew up in the same county as Columbine, so my own school was on lockdown. There was no real explanation really of why, so we just kind of went on with the rest of the day and breezed over the whole event. When I got home from school, my brother was there and he had just gotten home as well. He was in high school, so we were at different schools and I asked him, you know, "Was your school on lockdown today? What was the deal? Do you know anything?" And he said he knew a little bit but we went to the TV and we turned it on and started watching the news. There was heavy coverage, continuous, uninterrupted. And we just sat there and watch with our mouths absolutely dropped to the floor. I saw many images on that TV screen that I'll never forget. I saw lots of kids running as fast as they could away from the school. And there was a boy who was trying to get out of the second-story windows, these windows were all broken out. And there were some firefighters on top of an ambulance just under this window and they were trying to help him get out of those windows and get him to safety. I couldn't really understand or grasp what this whole event meant, you know, how could this happen? How was this real? Why would anyone do this to anybody in any setting, much less to school kids in their own school? There was all this chaos going on in the world around me and I was like, "Oh yeah, I'm going to the temple for the very first time today. Wow." When we got there, we went to the side door where the baptismal area was and I remember just kind of pausing and looking at this magnificent door. It wasn't even the main door, but it was still really, really magnificent. And I was so excited to partake in this ordinance and I was so ready to step into the temple for the first time. It was very literal. The very first step that I took into the temple. I literally felt the world get stripped away from me. I felt an incredible peace and I didn't think of anything going on outside the entire time I was in the temple. I felt very safe in there and that peace that I felt was so comforting in a time that was so chaotic, so confusing, so scary of a day. When it was time to go, I took my very first step outside of the temple. The only way I know how to explain it, it was like somebody was waiting out there with a bucket filled with water, and they were just getting ready to throw it on me. And the water in the bucket was everything awful in the world. And I was instantly saturated by the world again. It was like a literal wave of water hitting me. And I very physically felt the world come back to me. And I thought, "Oh, yeah, Columbine happened today. Wow. I completely forgot." And all those things came back immediately. This experience is such a huge part of my testimony of this church and this gospel. Because that day, it was proven to me that the world is not allowed in the Lord's house and the temple is truly his house. It made me realize how saturated we really do get, being among worldly things and out in the world. And that's why it's so important for us to go to the temple. That's why our leaders tell us to attend the temple as often as possible so that we can feel that peace, that peace that only our Father in heaven can give us. My Heavenly Father is real because I know He was there with me that day. And I got to go into His house and feel of His love and feel of His comfort and feel of His peace. And I will forever be grateful for that throughout my entire life.   9:58 KaRyn Lay: That was Kelly. We are so grateful for her willingness to share such a formative and special experience with us. While most of us might not be so physically close to such a traumatic event, we can all take something from that lesson she learned about the power of the temple to help us cut through the chaos of the world.  Our next story from April is a perfect example of the way that peace can come even when we're in the middle of our difficulty. Here's April.   10:26 April: Infertility isn't something that I ever thought would be one of my struggles in life. When my husband and I first started to have kids, we had two fairly fast that we're 20 months apart and didn't think that we would struggle if we decided to have any more children in the future. And I had known family members and friends who struggled with infertility and I always felt bad for them, and sorrow that they couldn't enjoy experiencing that, but I didn't know how how deep it went until we decided to try for our third baby. It started off with a miscarriage. I was not very gracious. I was mad I was so angry at Heavenly Father. How could you do this to me? I wanted this baby. And I had people reassure me that it's for the best, probably wasn't healthy, you can try again. And that's what we did. We kept trying and after about a year, nothing was happening. We went through different tests to see what was wrong, how we could fix it. And I spent my entire growing up learning and knowing that the harder I work at something, the luckier I get. If I want to achieve this accomplishment, I need to do step one, step two, step three. Through going through this journey of trying to get pregnant, that was just not the way it works. I had no control over it and it was very hard. People would say relax, you just need to relax and it will happen. And that was one of the worst things I could hear, I hated hearing that so and so got pregnant as soon as they relaxed. I'm like how do you relax when this is something that you want so bad? How do you just forget about it? How do you just move on and not worry about it? We entered doctors and started just try some infertility treatments. And during this time, emotionally, I was really struggling because a lot of my friends were having babies They were in this club of, "Hey, when are you due? Are you having a boy or a girl?" And I didn't want to hear about it. I really isolated myself, I was mad. I pretty much only had my husband to lean on because I didn't want anybody to know I was struggling. People would say, "When are you having another baby?" "Are you going to have another baby?" And I'd just be like, "Oh, not yet. We're not ready yet." But inside I wanted to die because we've been trying for one for a long time. And it was very hard. I felt ashamed like I was less than somebody because I couldn't get pregnant. Physically, it was very difficult with all the drugs that you need to take for your body to help you get pregnant and I was in pain from that, moody. So that was hard to be a mom because I didn't feel good. I was so busy going to doctors’ appointments and I started living my life every two weeks—in two-week cycles. Two weeks to work through treatments, to try to get pregnant and then two weeks of waiting. Two weeks that involve me mentally trying to convince my body that it was pregnant. And always, you know, do I feel nauseous? Am I sick, is this it? Then finding out that I wasn't pregnant, and then going through that all again the next month. And it was exhausting, it was very difficult. I would get after myself because I thought, I have two beautiful children here. What is my problem? Why am I given this desire and this want that's so intense when I have two beautiful children. And there are women who struggle for years with infertility and I am so ungrateful. It was very hard because I couldn't shake those feelings.  I heard somebody relate secondary infertility to having chocolate cake on your kitchen counter. And you get to walk by that chocolate cake every day, you get to see it, but you can't taste it. You can't have any part of it. You get to see your kids and be with them, but you don't get to have another and add to that. It was just a very difficult time in my life emotionally and physically. After our sixth time of going through a fertility treatment and finding out that it had failed, I found myself one night sobbing in my closet on the floor. The pain, emotionally and physically, was just too much, I was done. I needed to just be able to be happy and move on and I was praying to Heavenly Father, begging him to take those feelings away because I could not function feeling that way I wanted to move on. I wanted to be a better person and be okay with this challenge that was given to me. So I finished my prayer, cried a little more, crawled into bed, cried a little more and fell asleep.  The next morning I woke up and I have never felt so light, so full of hope, so full of joy. And I almost couldn't believe it because it was so distinctly different from what I had been feeling for months and months and months. It was like the sun had come out of these dark clouds. And it lasted for about a month. And I kept testing it going, "Is going to go away?" I feel good. I'm not worried about this, I'm happy, I want to go out with my friends. I want to be there with my kids, I'm not just stewing over if I'm going to get pregnant or not. My infertility problems were not solved right away. But I am so immensely grateful for that tender mercy of calming my soul and for Heavenly Father letting me know that He is completely aware of the situations that we go through. He knows how hard they are and that He has control over everything, that He can bless our lives if we let him. He can take that burden if we let him.  It came to my realization that, you know, this might not be anything that has to do with me, this trial might be mine to hold because it's just not right for a child that I'm wanting to have right now. I know that Heavenly Father loves me and that He hears my prayers and that when I go to Him in prayer, when things are hard, that He can lift that burden and He has an ultimate plan for us. And if I trust in His timing and in His grace and in His love, I can trust that everything is going to work out and be all right.   19:12 KaRyn Lay: That was April. I can relate to her pleading prayer for peace in her heart. We can't always control what's happening around us but we can sure work towards making our spirit an unshakable vessel for the Lord's peace. Sometimes, our lack of peace situational like it was for April through her struggle with infertility. And sometimes our lack of peace is clinical like it was for me when I was a missionary. During the first few months of my service in the mission field, it became pretty clear, pretty quickly that something was not quite working. I was tired and deeply emotional, which isn't really that unusual for a new missionary. But when you pair that with the constant stream of negative self-talk, confusion, and anxiety, well, there was a darkness and an emptiness that overtook my days, and I couldn't shake it with a prayer or with work. I'll always remember the day that my lack of peace hit an all-time low. I was crying through study time and wishing that I could just disappear, feeling like that would be better for everyone. I wrapped myself tightly in a thick blanket, like a sad, exhausted, desperate burrito. And then I rolled under my bed into the back corner against the wall so that the darkness could envelop me. I stayed there for a really long time, staring at nothing. I don't even know how long I was there, but it felt like days or months or maybe even years. However long it was, it was long enough to know that I needed more help than me to find and access the Lord's peace. And frankly, so did my long-suffering mission companion. We went to the doctor, and eventually the mission therapist. I was diagnosed with clinical depression and honestly, it was devastating at first. To think that I had a broken brain, well that was really hard for me because I've always been someone who prided myself on being a good thinker. And I definitely didn't want to live up to that damaging stereotype of the crazy sister missionary that's just not true. But thank goodness that my need to feel peace outweighed my perceived humiliation. And although it was so difficult to do my part to engage with myself and my father in heaven in humility and faith, eventually, through His grace, and a good therapist, and careful doctors, and necessary medicine, my body, and my brain were ready to feel the peace that the Savior was always offering. First, it came in a trickle, then a stream. And finally, on really good days, that peace flowed like the river that the Savior promised. He didn't see me as crazy, He saw me as His, always His. And even now, feeling peace can be a tricky thing. But I truly believe that if we're willing to do whatever it takes to prepare our spirit, even if that means admitting that we need help, our peace can become solid, strong and stalwart like an eye in the middle of our own personal storm. Maybe you are feeling the same way. Maybe peace is just so far away right now that you're not sure how to get it. If that's the case for you, I pray that the Lord will guide you to the people who can help you open your heart to that kind of peace.  Our final story today comes from Jacob and if you've ever wondered what it would be like to spend seven days in absolute silence, well, this story is for you. Jacob is a mental health professional who regularly participates in week-long silent retreats for work. And what happens when you come home to three little boys after seven days of silence? You're about to find out. Here's Jacob.   23:03 Jacob: So when you arrived for the first time, at a seven or 10 day silent retreat, it's kind of a panicky moment where you give up your cell phone and your schedule. And you finally send your last text to your family and say, "I'm going in." And there's a physiological kind of angst that sets in as you realize you're really doing this and you're going to be with yourself, by yourself, for 10 days without the thousand flavors of distraction we have.  So you wake up and instead of filling the day with all sorts of things to check and this and that, you go and sit, and sit in silence, and you do that for a couple of hours before breakfast. And then after breakfast, you do it for a couple of hours, until lunch. It's not entirely silent because you have a teacher there who is guiding you, leading you, helping you. You're silent, but the teacher is not. And then you practice for a couple of hours and then it's dinner. And then you practice for a couple of hours and it's bedtime. And it sounds boring, dreadfully boring, but that's actually the point. So I'm feeling the angst and the anxiety and the normal fears that come up. But then, I sat with them and I just experienced them and I said, "Well, I've committed to this, I'm going to try it." And as day two finished and we moved on to day three, things started to settle more, and get calmer and get quieter. And then as three went to four and day four went to five, there's a change that happens that's interesting, where I just started to feel more and more peace and deeper and deeper settling and calm. So by the time I got to the end, it really was deep insights coming up and clarity around things that I've been grappling with for a long time. And a sense of okay-ness and joy and impressions, spiritual impressions. And a sense of revelation on questions that have been on my mind. All this is coming up just naturally as the silence is going along. For me, in a typical day, there's so much to pay attention to and be distracted by that I don't often notice what I'm actually feeling or what's going on inside. So retreat, for me, is a chance to bring complete attention to that and really notice where my heart is and my mind and my body. So by the time we're ready to go home, all that initial craving for the schedule and the emails and the work, I felt a repulsion like, I don't want to go back to that. As I get home, I arrive in the driveway and my kids are there waiting for me and excited to see me and my ride drops me off with all my bags and my kids run and throw themselves on me and it was just like this beautiful moment I'll never forget. And not only are they beautiful, but I'm fully present and I'm this dad that's 100% there and nothing to do, no place to go but be with my kids. And then I look over at my wife, and it's very apparent that she's had a very different week.  At the time, we had three boys, all toddlers of different ages, full of energy and fighting every other minute, then forgiving each other, then fighting again, that sort of constant rolling chaos. And my wife had been steeped in that all week while I was off on a silent retreat, she had very much had a noise retreat. And she's exhausted and she's smiling because she's glad I'm home, but she's not refreshed. The dramatic contrast between my experience and my wife was a real powerful moment for us as a family. So one of the natural questions that came up for us as a family is number one, how can we hold on to some of this silence and space and stillness? Not just for me, but for my wife who was, at this point, wanting more of this and wishing that there was a way that we could experience this more as a family. So the last couple of years since the retreats, we have pondered and prayed about a lot of ways we as a family can bring more stillness and silence into our home. And we've experimented with simple things like three breaths before prayer. Before anyone starts to pray, just have three breaths. And three little boy breaths is not very long, but it gives us a chance to just settle our minds and kind of be still and calm before speaking. We also experimented with vacationing, in a way. Instead of going all these places with little kids, which is like a form of torture in some countries. We would go to one place with our kids that was contained and literally say we're going on vacation in a retreat-like way at a cabin, or to a hotel room. And so we've oriented our vacationing a little different. And we went through all these kind of crazy ideas like we considered having a day where my wife and I would be silent, but our kids wouldn't. And we just said, "Okay, this is our day when mommy and daddy get to just like, not talk." But pretty quickly we realized if our boys were sort of rolling chaos with us talking, it just sort of like overflowed when we went into silence so that that was sort of an eh okay moving on.  But the biggest difference for us as a family came when we realized that we may not need to do anything exceptionally Eastern or Buddhist as a family because we've got this thing called the Sabbath. That for us, as a family, has often been the more stressful day of the week. We have found the Sabbath sometimes, at the end of the day, feeling exhausted and anxious to get back to our schedule, right? So rather than a day of deep rest and reprieve like I found on the retreat, we had often experienced the Sabbath, quiet the opposite. Lots of screaming as the boys were corralled into getting their clothes on and their hair combed and getting up in time to make it to church and eating breakfast without spilling it on their clothes that they just put on, and drama. I mean, I only have boys but they can do drama as well as any little girls. And fighting and complaints and we're late for church again and all this. And then church itself is sometimes a production and who's going to be willing to go to class without crying? After church, we head off to some family dinner, which happened a lot. And we would get in the car and zip off and then get home, exhausted, go through the whole routine and put them to bed, and be exhausted as we start the week and end our Sabbath.  Something about that felt really wrong to us. Isn't this supposed to be a recharge of some kind? At the end of one of these painful Sabbath's, one of these exhausting Sabbath's, where we both felt like this isn't right, this isn't the way we want to do this. There's got to be a better way. There has to be a way to do and practice Sabbath that isn't exhausting. It just seems kind of contradictory. And on the heels of the mindfulness retreat, that taught me that, my goodness, if we can experience even a portion of that, if we can create some atmosphere that's more mindful, maybe we could end the Sabbath feeling a sense of recharge as a family, ready to reengage life in a different way. So we decided to try a number of things just to see if we could get closer to that goal, including, like lots of people try to lay aside their email and place their phone in different places so we're not just on the screens all day. That did work. Another thing that has worked is structuring the morning so that there's more space and we're not rushing to have to get everything ready. We'll set up things the day before, so clothes are all out so that our Sabbath morning is not so rushed. But the biggest experiment that we tried, and maybe the scariest, was letting our family know that we may not be showing up as often to these family dinners. We realized that if we went to a family dinner—and I love my family, and I love food, and there's nothing about like gathering with them that isn't enjoyable, except that the drive there and back, the kids, it adds a kind of hectic, chaotic sort of "going to an event" energy that made the rest of the day kind of follow suit. The first time I told one of my sisters that we weren't going to make dinner, there's like a what? Like, this is what we do. And that conversation was a little awkward, but it wasn't bad, because it opened up a conversation about what our experience had been. And it turns out that others also feel exhausted on the Sabbath. And so we're kind of giving them permission to try out things. So we experimented, we went to dinner, then we said, we're not going to go, we're going to just see what it's like to stay home and make more time for just being together. And yeah, eating simply, not putting on an elaborate meal. And we literally practiced sitting on our couch and opening up books, sometimes talking with the kids, but sometimes sending the kids downstairs to play and spending hours talking, reading, sometimes watching something or listening to something, but quiet time, the kind of like, kindergarten time, "Okay, it's quiet time." We, as a couple, found that even making time for an hour or two or three of this kind of time on the Sabbath meant an oversized impact on our refreshment. And I actually woke up Monday morning happy, like, so happy. And I'm like what just happened? It's like dramatically different than my typical like, end of Sunday, beginning Monday routine. And it hit me, I ended the Sabbath similar to how it ended the retreat. I was able to reengage life from a very different place on Monday morning because I had to actually stop. And that allowed me to start in a way that wasn't this frenetic, crazy energy. I have actually ended a Sabbath day I can say, many times, feeling like this. Instead of, "Ugh, I gotta get back to work." It's a miracle. And it seems to me like finding a way for us to make the Sabbath a refreshing day has been a miracle. Now, it's something that if we miss, if we actually have an event, we run to a dinner, we miss it. Even if it was a fun event, we're like, there's something we didn't get. In the past, I have sometimes tried to pursue more of a relationship with the Savior by doing more, like trying to serve a little bit more and make another call or read a little bit more, pray a little more. What the Sabbath has been teaching me is sometimes it's doing less and stopping all the doing, that I feel closer to the Lord. That's been the big revelation is that sometimes my mind's going so fast in so many directions that I just don't think there's a whole lot of space for the spirit to reach me. And if I just kind of push back a little bit, like I'm a terrible basketball player, but I can rebound. That's the only thing I know how to do in basketball. It kind of requires a little bit of elbowing back, pushing back a little bit. So there's space for the most important thing to happen. And of course, that is connecting with the Lord and feeling His presence and feeling His love. I think with the best of intentions, we sometimes fill our Sabbath day with so much stuff, so many activities that no wonder we end the day surprised that we're exhausted because we're doing so much good. But should we really be surprised if we don't actually rest? I think the Lord knows we're exhausted, I really do. I think He wishes we would see this day as like, not just a day to have to get a bunch of other stuff done. But actually a day where we can lay that aside and say, I just need to stop for my own sanity and my soul, and my family and my marriage and just be. I would just say to any other of my brothers or sisters out there, who are like asking these same questions, don't give up on the possibility that you could end this day not exhausted, and actually start the next day from a very different place. So make it an adventure, kind of an ongoing experiment where you try out different things, knowing that things can move in a better direction.   39:10 KaRyn Lay: That was Jacob Hess. Jacob is one of the authors of an upcoming book called, "The Power of Stillness: Mindful Living for Latter-day Saints," that I am so excited about. It's coming out at the end of this year from Deseret Book and I can't wait to learn more about using mindfulness to bring peace. In fact, I've already started by adding those three cleansing breaths before my prayers. So thanks for the top tip Jacob.  I was thinking about how Jacob's pursuit of peace on the Sabbath required that he and his family opt-out of some experiences that are generally good and worthwhile. And while peace is ultimately a gift of the Savior, our quest for that gift, I think sometimes requires that we lay something upon the altar too. Maybe it's a kind and gentle "no," or strong boundary where there needs to be one. Maybe it is a heartfelt prayer in a closet to a Lord that you're not sure is listening. And maybe it is laying down your pride and accepting with humility that you need help. When Christ was on the boat with his disciples resting, a terrible tempest arose. I've always loved James E. Talmage's description of the storm in "Jesus the Christ," which incidentally, I read as a missionary. “The storm increased in fury; the wind rendered the boat unmanageable; waves beat over the side; so much water was shipped that the vessel seemed about to founder. The disciples were terror-stricken; yet through it all Jesus rested peacefully. In their extremity of fear, the disciples awakened Him, crying out, according to the several independent accounts, ‘Master, Master, we perish’; ‘Lord, save us: we perish’; and, ‘Master, carest thou not that we perish?’ They were abjectly frightened, and at least partly forgetful that there was with them One whose voice even death had to obey. Their terrified appeal was not wholly devoid of hope nor barren of faith: ‘Lord, save us’ they cried. Calmly He replied to their piteous call, ‘Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?’ Then He arose; and out through the darkness of that fearsome night, into the roaring wind, over the storm-lashed sea, went the voice of the Lord as He ‘rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.’” Like those disciples, our faith may be little at times. I mean, big storms kind of have that effect on things don't they? They make everything around them feel and look just a little bit smaller, a little less significant. But if we take whatever amount of that little faith we have to reach out to our Savior, laying aside our pride, our people-pleasing, our avoidance, our fear of failure, our business and placing it on the altar, He can and He will calm our seas. And according to our sweet poet friend Catarina von Schlegel: "Then shalt thou better know His love His heart Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears Be still my soul the waves and winds shall know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below” That's it for this episode of "This Is the Gospel." Thanks for joining us today and thank you to Kelly, April and Jacob for sharing their stories and their faith. We'll have the transcript of this episode as well as pictures and links from the stories in our show notes at ldsliving.com/thisisthegospel. So go check it out. And if you're as anxious as I am to get your hands on Jacob's book, "The Power of Stillness," follow us on Instagram @thisisthegospel_podcast. We'll let you all know when the book is available at the end of the year.  All of our stories on this podcast are true and accurate as affirmed by our storytellers. If you have a great story about your experience living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we want to hear from you on our pitch line. Leave us a short three-minute story pitch at 515-519-6179. You can find out what themes we're working on right now by following us on Instagram or Facebook. If you love this podcast, please take the time to leave us a review on the Apple podcast app or on Bookshelf PLUS+ from Deseret Book. We love to hear your thoughts about certain episodes and we read every one. This episode was produced by me, KaRyn Lay, with story producing and editing from Katie Lambert and Kelly Campbell. It was scored, mixed and mastered by Derek Campbell at Mix At Six studios. Our executive producer is Erin Hallstrom. You can find past episodes of this podcast and the other LDS Living podcasts at ldsliving.com/podcasts. Have a peaceful week.  

Sometimes we may find ourselves taking on a scarcity mindset when it comes to our creativity. “Can I really sustain this for very long?” “Eventually, I'll run out of ideas.” “My art business will eventually dry up for lack of creative ideas.” The truth is that God is limitless in the creative idea department. Limitations with physical resources provide great opportunities for Kingdom resources to be poured out as we'll see in Matthew 14:13-21 where Jesus feeds the five-thousand. This episode's Godly affirmation: “My Heavenly Father has unlimited creativity and resources in his storehouse.” “They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers.” – Matthew 14:20 (NLT)   Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode: Free Lettering Resources: yourcreativeadventure.com/free Free Art of Prayer eBook: http://yourcreativeadventure.com/artofprayer/ Instrumental music used in the podcast is titled “My Loving Kindness” by Tammy Sorenson. Find out more about her music at http://tammysorenson.com   Want to Go Deeper? We love getting to know our listeners on a deeper level. Join our community of Christian artists in our free private Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yourcreativeadventure/ This is where you can share your artwork, get access to bonus training only available in the group, and share your prayer requests. Our team prays for each of your requests because we not only care about helping you make money as an artist, we truly do care about YOU! Click here to join our community. It's free! Also, we love to hear your takeaways from each episode. It encourages us to know how God is working in your lives. Take a screenshot of this episode or post a picture of your notes on social media and tag us @yourcreativeadventure and use the hashtag #yourcreativeadventurepodcast. This way we can share some of your takeaways in our Instagram stories as well.   Thank You, You're the Best! Thank you for listening to this episode of Your Creative Adventure where we believe it is possible to make money as an artist doing what you love while glorifying God through your art. Make sure to you don't miss any future episodes by subscribing on iTunes. And we have a gift for you! It means the world to us when you take a few moments to post a rating and review on iTunes. As a thank you, we'll send you our Plan It Day goal-setting worksheets, a $47 value, for free. Woot! Before you submit your review, take a screenshot and send it via email to support@yourcreativeadventure.com and we'll send you the worksheets.  We Believe in You We believe you have been given unique creative gifts and a specific role to play in the kingdom of heaven that will make an impact for eternity. Join us next time as we partner with God to help you take your creative adventure further than you ever imagined.

Sometimes we may find ourselves taking on a scarcity mindset when it comes to our creativity. “Can I really sustain this for very long?” “Eventually, I’ll run out of ideas.” “My art business will eventually dry up for lack of creative ideas.” The truth is that God is limitless in the creative idea department. Limitations with physical resources provide great opportunities for Kingdom resources to be poured out as we’ll see in Matthew 14:13-21 where Jesus feeds the five-thousand. This episode’s Godly affirmation: “My Heavenly Father has unlimited creativity and resources in his storehouse.” “They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers.” – Matthew 14:20 (NLT)   Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode: Free Lettering Resources: yourcreativeadventure.com/free Free Art of Prayer eBook: http://yourcreativeadventure.com/artofprayer/ Instrumental music used in the podcast is titled “My Loving Kindness” by Tammy Sorenson. Find out more about her music at http://tammysorenson.com   Want to Go Deeper? We love getting to know our listeners on a deeper level. Join our community of Christian artists in our free private Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yourcreativeadventure/ This is where you can share your artwork, get access to bonus training only available in the group, and share your prayer requests. Our team prays for each of your requests because we not only care about helping you make money as an artist, we truly do care about YOU! Click here to join our community. It’s free! Also, we love to hear your takeaways from each episode. It encourages us to know how God is working in your lives. Take a screenshot of this episode or post a picture of your notes on social media and tag us @yourcreativeadventure and use the hashtag #yourcreativeadventurepodcast. This way we can share some of your takeaways in our Instagram stories as well.   Thank You, You’re the Best! Thank you for listening to this episode of Your Creative Adventure where we believe it is possible to make money as an artist doing what you love while glorifying God through your art. Make sure to you don’t miss any future episodes by subscribing on iTunes. And we have a gift for you! It means the world to us when you take a few moments to post a rating and review on iTunes. As a thank you, we’ll send you our Plan It Day goal-setting worksheets, a $47 value, for free. Woot! Before you submit your review, take a screenshot and send it via email to support@yourcreativeadventure.com and we’ll send you the worksheets.  We Believe in You We believe you have been given unique creative gifts and a specific role to play in the kingdom of heaven that will make an impact for eternity. Join us next time as we partner with God to help you take your creative adventure further than you ever imagined.

Jesus Christ is coming. His Kingdom, the kingdom of God is coming. Those who are born-again SEE His kingdom. They HEAR His VOICE and they SERVE Him. They are the children of God, the sons of God. They are SONS and DAUGHTERS of the Kingdom of God. The Lord will spew the luke-warm church out of His mouth. He will destroy the worldly churches and their leadership will be plucked out. Jesus said:“Every plant that My Heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots.”Matthew15:13. This is what the Lord says:”Their churches will be taken from them. Their leadership will be exposed for the deceivers that they are. Many will be removed, they will be cut off, they will die. They did not warn the lost. Even though they knew the truth they did not speak it. They twisted the truth and lied to the people. They led them astray. They preached their own thoughts and spoke what the people wanted to hear. They have enriched themselves and did not fight for the oppressed, they did not fight for innocent babies being slaughtered in the mother's womb. They blessed those who make war and kill the innocent and they fought against those who speak the truth. They persecuted and slandered My servants whom I have appointed. They have desecrated My Name by their fornication with the world. They have profaned the Holy place. The time of their judgment has come. They will be stripped and cut off. Many will run around in desperation because their lying leaders are no more, those in whom they have trusted and chose to follow, because they loved lies. Many will die of heart failure. They will be fear struck because the false prophecies and lies of their leaders have not come true. They will curse Me, the living God, but they themselves chose lies above Me. They put their trust in themselves and in fallible men but they rejected Me. They will die in their sins because they followed the doctrines of men, rather than to obey My words.” “My kingdom will be established. Truth and righteousness will be established. I am coming to render to each one according to their deeds, good or bad. Many will be taken out. Wake up and seek Me, while you can. Turn from wickedness, repent and obey My words or you will perish.” That is what the Lord said to me. May Jesus bless you.

Partakers Friday Prayers! 27th October 2017   We pray together and when Christians pray together, including across the internet and from different times, different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! My Heavenly Father, I thank You, through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, that You kept me safe from all evil and danger last night. Save me, I pray, today as well, from every evil and sin, so that all I do and the way that I live will please you. I put myself in your care, body and soul and all that I have. Let Your holy Angels be with me, so that the evil enemy will not gain power over me. Amen   (A Morning Prayer of Martin Luther) Right mouse click to save this as a MP3 file.   You can now purchase our books! Please do click here to visit our Amazon site! Click on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

Partakers Friday Prayers! 1st September 2017   We pray together and when Christians pray together, including across the internet and from different times, different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! My Heavenly Father, I thank You, through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, that You kept me safe from all evil and danger last night. Save me, I pray, today as well, from every evil and sin, so that all I do and the way that I live will please you. I put myself in your care, body and soul and all that I have. Let Your holy Angels be with me, so that the evil enemy will not gain power over me. Amen   (A Morning Prayer of Martin Luther) Right mouse click to save this as a MP3 file.   You can now purchase our books! Please do click here to visit our Amazon site! Click on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

2 Kings 2:12 12 And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.

I wrote this mission statement for my life 15 years agoI wrote this mission statement for my life 15 years ago and in review, it has not changed.  My heart is turned strongly toward evangelism.  I want to use all my God-given gifts in music, drama, counseling and administration to evangelize a lost and dying world.   I know that God called me back to the east coast and that it is part of His plan for my life.  Through much suffering I have learned to be content in all things, to persevere, and to love through reaching out with much compassion to those that are hurting.  One of the greatest lessons learned is of God's faithfulness…He has never left me nor forsaken me in all my circumstances.  My journey of 26 years has led to service in different capacities within the church: Music Ministry:  psalmist, praise and worship member & leader, Deaconess Ministry, Helps Ministry, Outreach to Senior Citizens, Intercessory Prayer Ministry, Ministry of Creative Arts. I am extremely grateful that in the last several years, My Heavenly Father has restored the joy of my salvation through the revelation of His “Grace.”  

I wrote this mission statement for my life 15 years agoI wrote this mission statement for my life 15 years ago and in review, it has not changed.  My heart is turned strongly toward evangelism.  I want to use all my God-given gifts in music, drama, counseling and administration to evangelize a lost and dying world.   I know that God called me back to the east coast and that it is part of His plan for my life.  Through much suffering I have learned to be content in all things, to persevere, and to love through reaching out with much compassion to those that are hurting.  One of the greatest lessons learned is of God's faithfulness…He has never left me nor forsaken me in all my circumstances.  My journey of 26 years has led to service in different capacities within the church: Music Ministry:  psalmist, praise and worship member & leader, Deaconess Ministry, Helps Ministry, Outreach to Senior Citizens, Intercessory Prayer Ministry, Ministry of Creative Arts. I am extremely grateful that in the last several years, My Heavenly Father has restored the joy of my salvation through the revelation of His “Grace.”