Stand Firm

by FIONA L.
SHARING FROM "Streams in the Desert by L. B. Cowman"

Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.
Exodus 14:13

This verse contains God’s command to me as a believer for those times when I am confronted with dire circumstances and extraordinary difficulties. What am I to do when I cannot retreat or go forward and my way is blocked to the right and to the left?

The Master’s word to me is, “Stand firm.” And the best thing I can do at these times is to listen only to my Master’s word, for others will come to me with their suggestions and evil advice. Despair will come, whispering, “Give up - lie down and die.” But even in the worst of times, God would have me be cheerful and courageous, rejoicing in His love and faithfulness.

Cowardice will come and say, “You must retreat to the world’s ways of acting. It is too difficult for you to continue living the part of a Christian. Abandon your principles”. Yet no matter how much Satan may pressure me to follow his course, I cannot, for I am a child of God. The Lord’s divine decree has commanded me to go from “strength to strength” (Psalm 84:7). Therefore I will, and neither death nor hell will turn me from my course. And if for a season He calls me to “stand firm,” I will acknowledge it as time to renew my strength for greater strides in the future.

Impatience will come, crying, “Get up and do something! To ‘stand firm’ and wait is sheer idleness”. Why is it I think I must be doing something right now instead of looking to the Lord? He will not only do something - He will do everything.

Arrogance will come, boasting, “If the sea is blocking your way, march right into it and expect a miracle.” Yet true faith never listens to arrogance, impatience, cowardice. or despair but only hears God saying, “Stand firm.” And then it stands as immovable as a rock.

“Stand firm.” I must maintain the posture of one who stands, ready for action, expecting further orders, and cheerfully and patiently awaiting the Director’s voice. It will not be long until God will say to me, as distinctly as He told Moses to tell the children of Israel, “Move on” ( Exodus 14:15).

Charles H. Spurgeon


Be quiet! Why this anxious heed

About your tangled ways?

God knows them all. He gives you speed

And he allows delays.

It’s good for you to walk by faith

And not by sight.

Take it on trust a little while.

Soon will you read the mystery aright

In the full sunshine of His smile.


In times of uncertainty - wait. If you have any doubt - wait, never forcing yourself into action. If you sense any restraint in your spirit, do not go against it - wait until the way is clear.

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Please feel free to share your entry with us as Fiona did this week. To share what you have to say send us an e-mail to hopewriters@gmail.com for more information and details about writing your entry please visit the following link http://hopewriters.blogspot.com/2010/01/welcome-let-us-share-and-encourage-one.htmlv
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Honest Sharing

by Diego D.

Do you ever feel lost? Day after day with zero motivation? Doing just enough to get through your day? Although you are thankful for all that God has given you, and for the people He has placed in your life, you can admit that sometimes you step back and watch others live their lives, while yours seems to have lost its colors. Your faith in God is what keeps you going, along with those moments with your family. The rest just seems bland.

I pretty much know what I'm supposed to do in times like these. Still I can't say I have successfully climbed that mountain. I pray about it so often that some days I just keep it to myself (As if I can do it on my own). It works for a few days before I feel myself shutting down and running back to recharge. Hoping to restart but ending up in standby mode again...

Since this might not apply to you right now, you might be a little critical or just not getting the point. However, I'm sure that you will relate at some point in your life, or maybe you've already been there. We all know that sometimes in life, there are such seasons and there could be many reasons for God to allow them to take place. However, you can't quite put your finger on that reason, and wish you can just flick that switch to make your light shine again.

"For My yoke is easy and burden is light." Matt. 11:30

Praying that God will show this verse real to me.

Diego <><

This I Pray

by Diego D.

Praise be to God, the One who created me inside my mother's womb and knew me before my birth, The Lamb of God, The great I AM. Praise be to Him! He is my fortress and my strength, the Rock of my Salvation, the beginning and the end. He is and was and is to come. Only He can move the mountains, calm the seas, bring the dead to life! He is the Lord of all eternity! The Creator of the universe!

I lift this generation to You Lord. You who became sin, to erase all my sins even though You have never sinned. For You are holy Lord and You have made me holy. You Lord, are the One who goes before me, the One who takes away all my worries and straightens my path. I am so glad that I know You, but most importantly that You know me. Come and live in our home Lord, come live in our hearts! We believe and witness Your wonders each and everyday. Let us not fall into temptation, be our daily bread, forgive our sins. Take control of our lives and protect us by the power of Your name. Do not let us conform to this world for it is not our home; guard us from the evil one and from the wickedness of this world.

Thank you Lord for I was blind and now I see! Thank You for You have shown me your ways, which are more precious than silver and gold. You have sent the Holy Spirit to live inside of me and I can feel Your light calling me to shine brighter in this world. Let nothing come between me and Your plan for me! I pray that you bring me the fire and the desire to further your kingdom and honor your name each and everyday. Thank You for the gift that has come upon our lives, let this young child of God bear Your fruit and become an honorable son of God. Help him honor his father and mother so that it might please You, and bring glory to Your name. I also thank You Lord for the person you have chosen for me to share my life with. Bless the road ahead of us and help us to be in Your will. Lord I thank you for all these things and I pray in the name of Jesus. Let the blind see, let the deaf hear, let the mute talk so that the whole world might know of Your wonders! Let Your Word be like a blazing fire in our hearts. Let us not become invalid from our sin, for You have come to set us free.

Glory be to You Father God who takes away the sin of the world. To God be the glory; let Him be known throughout the continents!

Amen.

Your son who loves you,

Diego <><

Let The Waters Rise

by Lauren DeAssis

Mikes Chair
"Let The Waters Rise"


Don't know where to begin
Its like my world's caving in
And I try but I can't control my fear
Where do I go from here?

Sometimes its so hard to pray
When You feel so far away
But I am willing to go
Where you want me to
God, I trust You

There's a raging sea
Right in front of me
Wants to pull me in
Bring me to my knees
So let the waters rise
If You want them to
I will follow You
I will follow You
I will follow You

I will swim in the deep
'Cuz You'll be next to me
You're in the eye of the storm
And the calm of the sea
You'll never out of reach

God, You know where I've been
You were there with me then
You were faithful before
You'll be faithful again
I'm holding Your hand

There's a raging sea
Right in front of me
Wants to pull me in
Bring me to my knees
So let the waters rise
If You want them to
I will follow You
I will follow You
I will follow You

God Your love is enough
You will pull me through
I'm holding onto You
God Your love is enough
I will follow You
I will follow You


"Sometimes it's so hard to pray, when you feel so far away"
Wow. Have you ever felt that way? I know I have. This song pretty much embodies what I feel like during those times when I feel like God is not listening, He doesn't care, or He has forgotten about me. Of course we know that God is NEVER far away. It is us who put the distance between ourselves and Him, not the other way around.

I think what I love most about this song is that it basically says that even though I can't feel you God, can't hear you God, can't see you God, I know that "Your love is enough, it will pull me through." His love is ENOUGH. His. Love. Is. Enough. It really is. We know that He loves us, and we know that we can hold on to His promise that he WILL pull us through. "I will follow You....I will follow You..." No matter what, I will follow Him, and He (alone!) WILL pull me through.

Same goes for you. Put your trust in Him, no matter the raging seas that are in front of you, no matter how high the waters rise, you won't drown. He's holding your hand.

Holding His hand,
Lauren

Leading By Example

Growing up in Brazil my family always brought me to church. Sometimes by walking there, sometimes by driving me or by my ear. Like it or not I was there, and today I thank them for that. One verse I always used to hear from my grandmother was

Alegrei-me quando me disseram: Vamos à Casa do SENHOR! Salmos 122:1

I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD." Psalm 122:1

and that is a verse I will never forget. I wasn't always the best kid to my parents as a teenager. My grandparents were such an example to me growing up. If you knew them you could just see God's light in their lives. We (Dad, Mom n' Brother) lived in a house built above theirs for most of my childhood and when I was around 11 we left Rio de Janeiro and moved to NJ. Then I was without my grandfather calling me to the side and whipping out Bible verses on me whenever he heard me misbehave upstairs. I know that if he was with us in NJ he would let me know what the Bible had to say about what I was doing wrong. Without that, I definitely gave my parents a run for their parenthood. (whatever that means lol)

Like most teenagers there was a time of the usual rebellious behavior in my life. That is when God worked my grandfather back into our lives in NJ five thousand miles away from his home in Rio. Once again, when I needed it, he would always call me aside and tell me what the Bible had to say about a situation where I misbehaved and why it wasn't pleasing to God. I often didn't want to hear it, but I knew he was right so I always listened, sometimes for 30+ minutes. I didn't realize it then, but looking back I see that God had placed him in my life to guide me on the right path during the most crucial time of my teenage years.

Another lesson I learned from him was to pray about everything and be faithful to God at all times. I can still remember many nights where I would see him on his knees by his bed before I went to bed, during the night and when I got up. That would often be the picture of him throughout the day as well, reading and praying, seeking God for everything. His knees would often "shed" as they were calloused from praying so much. The Bible shows us that Jesus knelt in prayer to God in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:41), as did his disciples. It is a sign of humility and respect before God. Now it is very clear to me why my grandfather did so.

I hope that today you can recognize the person in your life that is an example to you, and I pray that God would help you hear what He's trying to say through them. My grandfather still influences me to this day, even though he went home to be with the Lord a few years ago. As Christians, we should always leave a godly impression in each other's lives, as my grandfather did in mine, and also be sure to listen to the advice given by God through others.

"KEEP LOOKING UP - JESUS IS COMING BACK!"- Sooner than you think!

God Bless!
Diego <><

Respect Honor Glory

Give to the LORD the glory due His name;
Bring an offering, and come before Him.
Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness!
1 Chronicles 16:29

One of the joys of being a christian is knowing that God has prepared a place for us (John 14:2) and that one day we will be in heaven with Him for all eternity long, which is an incomprehensible overwhelming amount of time to think about! But that should never be our only motivation when following Jesus. We should honor and obey Him for who He is, giving Him all the respect, honor and glory due to Him and not just because of his promises and benefits.

It is easy to forget the rules when mom and dad aren't home or when your boss is not around because as men most of us have the habit of not doing what we should be doing when an authority figure is not physically present. And when they are present we often do the right things motivated by selfish reasons - to impress them, be rewarded or maybe trying to be someone you're not to please them. That is exactly what we tend to do with God sometimes. Even though we can't see Him in person we have to be reminded that He is omnipresent and knows and sees all things. He knows who we really are behind closed doors, in our thoughts and in our hearts, there is no hiding from Him. As His children we should always give Him all the respect, honor and glory due to His name, look at what He says in this verse:

"A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the LORD Almighty..." Malachi 1:6


One more thing, so many times we find ourselves praying, singing, saying... "Give Him all the respect, honor and glory" that sometimes we forget what it really means. So instead of me telling you what it means because I often don't do these things myself, instead of you hearing someone telling you what it means why don't you really think about it and do the research, use your bible search for keywords, go before Him in prayer and ask Him to open your eyes so you can fully understand it and put it into practice.

He has equipped us with our bibles and the Holy Spirit though Him all things are possible, and yes there will be hard times, sometimes you won't fit in or be liked because of your faith. Be glad because you are doing it all for Him! The bible tells us in Romans 5:3 to rejoice in our sufferings - easy to say right? But He doesn't expect us to do it on our own He says to cast all your worries upon Him. If your life is hard and you are facing tribulations, persecution or whatever it might be while you are giving him all the respect, honor and glory don't be weakened! He told us this would happen and that is why we should cling to Him at all times, He sees us through it all He is God!

So again, ask yourselves this question:

What does it mean to give Him all the respect, honor and glory?

Let us know!
Comments and e-mails are much appreciated =)

God Bless!

Diego <><

Trusting

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who
sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over
from death to life." John 5:24

You have crossed over to life. Now what?

A big part of our lives as believers of God's word is trusting Him. In the bible God tells us numerous times to trust in Him and we see the outcome of that throughout the bible. As man (humans) it is our nature to try to take care of everything and do what we think is right before our own eyes at the moment. I would be the first to tell you that even though I know that I know that God takes care of everything if we just trust Him, I find myself struggling in this area.

"It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man."
Psalm 118:8

Trusting in "man" can also be applied as trusting yourself by trying to do it all on your own and trying to manipulate a situation based on your own understanding and not God's knowledge. "It's ok I got this." - Sometimes without knowing it that is what we are telling God.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5

Let this be a reminder to myself and you guys that whenever you are faced with a hard situation or decision just know that in the end you can be sure that God will work everything out. Trust Him.

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me"
John 14:1

I would appreciate any input or other verses that would encourage us on this topic =)

God Bless,

Diego <><

Welcome! Let's share and encourage one another =)

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:22-23

Hello guys, this is Diego writing the first blog to what I pray will be a place for us to draw near to God and each other with a true heart and share our faith as we live day by day in the Word. All this to encourage one another!

So, I was sitting on the computer last Saturday listening to worship music feeling so encouraged by it. Then I realized that most times while we're at church, a retreat or talking to another christian we have that feeling of "This is it! I will change my ways and I'll keep the fire going and read my bible everyday, follow God with all my heart and give Him my best, etc..." Only to be disappointed weeks or even a few days later after we go on with our lives facing daily challenges amongst other things realizing we didn't follow through.

On a good note to keep that fire going we always have our bibles for guidance, our Lord to trust and cast all our fears and troubles upon and one another to talk to. Now with another tool called technology we often spend quite some time online sharing e-mails and messages with each other but they don't really get posted to the public and often get forgotten about in our inbox. So here we have this blog, another tool to share our lives and testimonies with other believers through writing, commenting, reading, praying, and all of this will stay posted on the web for us and others to visit anytime.


How will it work?

To start I will probably be sharing some things with you guys blogging once or twice a week since we might not have a big audience in the beginning or maybe no audience at all, but lets be positive here lol. Jokes aside I do believe God has put this on my heart and I encourage you guys to share! And whenever you feel encouraged to write a blog post please send me an e-mail to hopewriters@gmail.com and I will make your e-mail a blog entry to be shared with others (the world wide web) - Maybe you don't have the time to write one - You can still share anything from prayer requests to praise request! EVERYONE IS WELCOME! LET US KNOW YOU ARE THERE!!! =)


Our official e-mail is hopewriters@gmail.com please shoot us an e-mail to join our mailing list so you can be notified about new posts and also if you feel encouraged to share anything, as I mentioned before.

You can also post your comment right here on the bottom of this post by clicking the comment link =) and if you have a Blogger account feel free to follow us.

Please pray that God will help this blog to grow and reach out to many lives. I am now waiting on you guys to send some entries, come on guys I know you're outhere don't leave me hanging let's get the fire going!

"But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Hebrews 3:13

God Bless!

Diego <><