Fear is a terrible thing when it consumes your life. It can paralyze your walk with God and separate you from His blessings. The spirit of fear can enter someone whenever they have experienced danger or feel their security is challenged. Some people go to scary movies and think it is funny, yet they leave with fear in their spirit. Halloween haunted houses put fear in children and for some, certain memories of the haunted house remain for a lifetime because fear entered. 

Fear is like a magnet that attracts more problems. Once it enters our heart, it begins to bring anxiety, anger, rage, rejection, and all kinds of other emotions. It is a thief that erodes our faith, steals our joy, and wearies us.

Mothers of Nations, progress in our walk with God can be stunted because of fear. Often people refuse to press forward in the things of the Lord for fear of rejection or fear of making mistakes. Take for example these verses from Exodus 14: 1-19 where we see that the Israelites were afraid...

Mothers of Nations, I pray that you have both enjoyed and been challenged by our current discussion of “Doors of Opportunity.” This will be our final entry on this subject so please go back and read the first three entries if you have missed any of them.

As we finish our discussion, have you realized that opportunities can actually change our lives? In the book of Genesis we read about the life of Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. He had a God-given dream that actually led to an incredible door of opportunity and yet he went through many difficult situations to see the fullness of that opportunity become a reality.

• He was sold to a party of Ishmaelites / Midianites.
• At 17 years of age he became a slave.
• He ended up in Egypt for thirteen years.
• He served Potiphar and then was put in prison.
• Finally at age 30 he was released from prison and became an overseer of the land of Egypt.

As Joseph pursued his dream (and his God-given opportunity) he faced:

• The betrayal of h
...

Last week we began talking about missed opportunities that have come our way. We saw how Esau squandered the opportunity that was given to him and the loss that came to him because of this. Let’s now look at what Jesus had to say about missed opportunities in Matthew 25: 14-30 (NKJV) when he taught about the parable of the talents.

¹⁴ For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. ¹⁵ And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. ¹⁶ Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. ¹⁷ And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. ¹⁸ But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. ¹⁹ After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

²⁰ So he who had received five talents came and ...

Last week we started a series of blog entries concerning the theme “Doors of Opportunity.”  If you did not read through last week’s entry, I would encourage you to do that first before moving on with today’s comments.

Mothers of Nations, I pray that all of us would endeavor to make the most of every God-given opportunity that comes our way. Sometimes opportunities come that enhance our life and Scripture tells us why and how these doors of opportunity open to us.

Ephesians 5: 15-16 (AMP)  ¹⁵ Therefore see that you walk carefully [living life with honor, purpose, and courage; shunning those who tolerate and enable evil], not as the unwise, but as wise [sensible, intelligent, discerning people], ¹⁶ making the very most of your time [on earth, recognizing and taking advantage of each opportunity and using it with wisdom and diligence], because the days are [filled with] evil.

We see here that we are to:

•  Walk carefully.
•  Live purposely.
•  Live worthily.
•  Live accurately.
•  Live wi...

For the next four weeks we are going to be talking about "Doors of Opportunity."  We all know what an opportunity is, but have we realized that many opportunities that come our way are actually God-given?  I invite you to take this journey with me now and let's see what "open doors" might present themselves before us!

First of all, what is an opportunity?  Most simply it could be described as man’s set of circumstances that make things possible. Synonyms for the word opportunity include words such as chance, moment, or occasion.

Opportunities are times or moments offered to us where we can:

• Make the world a better place.
• Improve our skills and abilities.
• Do good for others.
• Share the gospel message. 

Acts 10:28 tells us that Jesus went about doing good. He had opportunities and He took advantage of them.

What types of opportunities does the Bible describe? We find in 1 Corinthians that Paul talks about “a wide door” of opportunity. Some translations say a “great door of opp...

As we conclude our study of the topic of forgiveness, we can find in God’s Word many examples of the power of forgiveness, as well as examples of the trouble that comes if forgiveness is not given to others. Last week we talked about examples from the lives of Moses and the brothers Cain and Abel. Today we will look at one of my favorite Bible characters, Joseph, and see how he was challenged in the area of forgiveness.

Let’s start by reading this passage from Genesis 37: 1-10 (NKJV).

Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. ² This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.

³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. ⁴ But when his brothers saw that their fat...

Today we begin our second entry on the topic of forgiveness. If you did not read through last week’s blog where we set some groundwork for our discussion, I would encourage you to go do that first before you continue with today’s conversation.

Why is forgiveness so important? Why do you think the Scriptures emphasize the necessity to walk in forgiveness as believers in Christ?

I believe that forgiveness is commanded because of the great POWER that comes to our lives through forgiving. The power of forgiveness is its ability to bring healing to all the “trespasses”  that come to us on our life’s journey.

As we read through God’s Word we can find many examples of the power of forgiveness, as well as the trouble that comes if forgiveness is not given to others. Why don’t we start by looking at an example from the life of Moses.

We know that Moses was “God’s man” and he was chosen to be the leader of all the Israelites as they came out of Egypt. But there came a time as they wandered t...

Mothers of Nations, the topic of forgiveness is one that is always beneficial for us as believers to revisit from time to time. As we move through our life’s journey, there are always situations that arise where we must make choices to forgive or not to forgive. These choices impact our lives bringing freedom or bondage. It is critical to understand and remember the power of forgiveness and how to walk in it daily. For the next few weeks, let’s share some thoughts about the topic of forgiveness and how it relates to the quality of our lives.

Jesus taught on forgiveness multiple times as He ministered here on earth. Let’s look at Matthew 6: 14-15 (NKJV) as we get started. ¹⁴ “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

We find in these Scriptures an “IF – THEN” situation. IF we forgive others of their trespasses, THEN our Father will also forgi...

Today we will complete our discussion of the topic of criticism, and particularly destructive criticism, by considering a few more ideas about the topic.

First of all we should all recognize that criticism will come our way during our life’s journey, and it will most likely come more than once! How we manage these attacks of critical words about us is what is most important.

Criticism can delay us, but it does not have to stop us.  Criticism has the ability to hurt us personally, but it does not have to wound us forever.  Sometimes criticism can just be part of the process of our endeavors to fulfill God-given vision.

When criticism comes our way, we should recognize it, learn what we need to learn quickly from it and then keep moving in a forward direction towards the things the Lord has placed on our hearts.

I don’t know if you have noticed but some people are always critical. Yes, that is true.

They are never happy or pleasant.  They expect disappointment. 

They look for somet...

As we continue with our study of criticism, and more specifically “destructive criticism” as exemplified in the book of Nehemiah, let’s look at what Nehemiah 4: 7 tells us. Here we see that when the words spoken by Sanballat and Tobiah didn’t stop the rebuilding of the walls, these accusers next plotted to create a greater, larger force to come against those working on the wall project.

Nehemiah 4: 7 (NKJV)

Now it happened, when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed, that they became very angry, ⁸ and all of them conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion. ⁹ Nevertheless we made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night.

The Ammonites were from the east and were descendants of Lot. The Ashodites were from the west and the Arabs were from the south. They conspired together with the end goal of sto...