Sunday Writings.......7/3/2016

This is a sad weekend. We are all feeling the pain about the terrorist activities in Bangladesh and Iraq. The world is full of treacherous groups who prey on victims without any prior warning. They can PREY. We must PRAY WITHOUT CEASING!

May God bless us all
Corinne


The Devotional component in the Sunday Writings of Women's Focus Ministries is titled, "SEEKING DELIVERANCE" and was written by Jan Andersen.  We enjoy many freedoms, yet we are still all slaves in some way.  All of us are slaves to sin.  But God provides our deliverance. Jan wrote. "We are delivered from God's wrath because our amazing Savior, Jesus Christ, was delivered up to die for us on the cross in our place so that we may have eternal life with Him in heaven!"  

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  Today's Devotional   

"SEEKING DELIVERANCE"

written by

Jan Andersen

This weekend many are celebrating the Fourth of July in the U.S., marking the signing of the Declaration of Independence that established the freedom of the colonies from British rule.  Our nation later adopted the Bill of Rights outlining freedoms to be protected by our constitution.  Our rights and freedoms in America are highly valued by most of us, even though only a few actually fought for those freedoms and provided deliverance for the rest of us. 

Deliverance is the action of being set free.  Prayers for deliverance have been spoken since biblical times.  Many Psalms ask the Lord to deliver us from our troubles.  We seek freedom from many different things.  Some people are still physically enslaved and seek emancipation from being owned, used or trafficked by someone.  It still goes on today and needs to be exposed and fought so that they can be delivered from slavery.  Others are caught up in addictions and are seeking deliverance from those obsessions and physical cravings.  It is nondiscriminatory and anyone can be caught up in various types of dependence from which they seek freedom.  All of us find ourselves slaves to sin, whether it be little thoughts or major offenses.  We all fall short of the glory of God and seek deliverance.  

When we pray to God for freedom from any of these things, we seek deliverance both from the problem itself as well as from its consequences.  Sometimes the difficulties we go through can become blessings, either to ourselves in what we learn or how we grow, or to others whom we then can help better having gone through these struggles.  Some of our earthly consequences still will have to be endured.  However, our greatest deliverance is that from the punishment for our sins.  We are delivered from God's wrath because our amazing Savior, Jesus Christ, was delivered up to die for us on the cross in our place so that we may have eternal life with him in heaven!  

Romans 4:25 (NIV)  "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification."

Dear Father in heaven, thank you for your blessings in this life, especially for the freedoms we enjoy.  Please continue to deliver me from evil and strengthen my faith through my struggles so that I can witness your love and forgiveness to others.  In Jesus' name, Amen.

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   Snippets of Spiritual Insights  from Beverley   

I know that this "happy" little post will meet some of us in a "not so happy" little place. But still- this day's going to count for something. Why not make it "count" for us. I mean "really" count. 

Perhaps you're in a situation that grieves you and you just can't seem to see a way out. Maybe today's the day to seek after God and ask Him how He wants to use you. Right where you are.

Or maybe you're in a relationship where your needs aren't getting met. Perhaps today you can ask God to show you how you can "meet the needs" of another. 

Or maybe you're in a place where all you can feel is "this just isn't fair." Perhaps it's time to ask the Lord to show you how He walked through those "not fair" times in His own life... and still overcame. 

It's so easy to allow minutes, hours, days, months and years... simply pass us by. 

I know that this "happy" little post will meet some of us in a "not so happy" little place. But still- this day's going to count for something. Why not make it "count" for us. I mean "really" count. 

Perhaps you're in a situation that greives you and you just can't seem to see a way out. Maybe today's the day to seek after God and ask Him how He wants to use you. Right where you are.

Or maybe you're in a relationship where your needs aren't getting met. Perhaps today you can ask God to show you how you can "meet the needs" of another. 

Or maybe you're in a place where all you can feel is "this just isn't fair." Perhaps it's time to ask the Lord to show you how He walked through those "not fair" times in His own life... and still overcame. 

It's so easy to allow minutes, hours, days, months and years... simply pass us by. 

written by Beverley A. Napier (c)    

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Jeremiah 25:11-12

"...This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt," declares the Lord, "and will make it desolate forever." 

In this passage of scripture, Jeremiah said that the Jews would suffer 70 years of Babylonian domination, and that after this was over, Babylon would be punished. Both parts of this prophecy were fulfilled! In 609 BC, Babylon captured the last Assyrian king and took over the holdings of the Assyrian empire, which included the land of Israel. Babylon then began to flex its muscles by taking many Jews as captives to Babylon and by destroying Jerusalem and the Temple. This domination of the Jews ended in 539 BC, when Cyrus, a leader of Persians and Medes, conquered Babylon, bringing an end to the empire. The prophecy also had another fulfillment: the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem's Temple in 586 BC, but the Jews rebuilt it and consecrated it 70 years later, in 516 BC. Restoring the Temple showed, in a very important way, that the effects of Babylonian domination had indeed come to an end.

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Prayers are lifted up daily for 

you by the Devotional Writers 

and the Monthly Writing Staff

of Women's Focus Ministries.