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...

Mothers of Nations, let’s continue our discussion of criticism by looking into the book of Nehemiah. If you did not read last week’s blog entry where we introduced our current topic, I would urge you to do that first before moving on with today’s discussion. 

The book of Nehemiah is one that offers us as believers powerful principles about overcoming destructive criticism. Let’s get started and see what the Lord has to share with us today!

We soon discover as we read these scriptures about the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem that “vision robbers” came to stop Nehemiah’s passion for his assignment and offered much destructive criticism as their strategy.

When Sanballat heard about what Nehemiah was doing and the progress of the rebuilding vision, he became upset, angry and enraged about the whole situation. Mothers of Nations, isn’t it interesting that one person’s progress can actually upset people! This was true with Sanballat. He ridiculed and spoke negatively to others about...

For the next four weeks we are going to look at the topic of “criticism” and see how this “ism” challenges each of us in our daily walk as well as Christian testimony. I ask that all of us be open to what the Lord would want to say to us as we walk through this topic.

Mothers of Nations, our world today is full of “isms.”  I recently googled “isms” and found a list of 234 different “isms” listed! For our discussion here, let’s simply define an “ism” as a system, principle, ideology, or mindset. Some of these include socialism, fascism, globalism, nationalism, communism, materialism, feminism, humanism, legalism, idealism . . . and the list goes on and on.

But the “ism” I would like to focus on and talk about as it relates to us as believers and Christian leaders is one we all know about and are often challenged by and that “ism” is called CRITICISM.

Simply defined, criticism is described as:

• The expression of disapproval of someone or something based on perceived faults or mistak
...

Mothers of Nations, as we conclude our focus on the topic of the Potter and the clay, I believe the Lord is now asking questions like these of us.

• Would you join Me in My Potter's house?
• Are you willing to go to an unknown place with Me?
• Would you be willing to go to places I want to send you?
• Will you go to the place I created for you at this time?

Watching a potter work is interesting, isn’t it? Yet when we are that clay that has been thrown on the Potter’s wheel, the process is now not that interesting. Right?

In watching a potter work, I have noticed that the lump of clay gets thrown on the spinning wheel. Do you ever feel thrown around in life, spinning out of control? I know we all have been in that place. Interestingly the word used for “thrown” at times means “trust.”  Can we trust the Master Potter to keep us centered on the wheel of life?

As we are thrown on the wheel and begin to spin we soon see and feel the Potter's hand on us the clay. The pressure He applies e...