I must say i love and enjoy coffee, and this book need some caffine to keep a reader like me up. I appreciate the wirters point in encouraging her reader in journalling and the benefit of it. She express how we can find ourselves and convey emotions through writting down and asking questions. for instance interviewing anger , which is one of the chapters ,very therapeutic and honest of her sharing the deepest part of her life with her readers. she discusses great ways to deal with anger in a constructive way.
As the tittle , the writer tries to relate and express some of her journalling with coffee which was attracting to me at first but all i got was that she is a coffe lover and enjoys every process of it's making.
But she also writes about how journalling has been a way in communicating to God and has develop closer relationship through that.
I enjoy the writers view and appreciated some of the benefits she shared through journalling. She reminds me that writting is a means of communicating emotions and actually have a conversation with our selves.
This book was provided to me free of charge by booksneeze for my unbiased review
"Beginning is the most important part of the work" ....Let us watch well our beginnings, and the results will manage themselves.......
Oct 25, 2011
Sep 30, 2011
Lioness Arising
Awaken And change Your World!!
This is an interesting,encouraging and an eye opening book.I am very privilege to read a book as such.....Women wear many caps and has been succumbed by society to a certain standard.I appreciate this book been written to women to arise and not sit and cry but to realize theie lioness calling after their king.She talks about how women are empowered to raise productivity and they multiply and bring Goodness.
In the beginning chapters , i was provoked and charged, value of a strong woman and that God has placed us here for reasons.We should rise to the standard that God has placed us. If for a reason one can not find their place in the church,the rest of the world is out there waiting for your manifestation.
The middle chapters were dull for me , I enjoy some of the illustration and enlightment but am glad for the ending chapters.This book is not a how to book but a book that is meant to stir up that inner strength that has been given to us as a woman. Through prayer one can answer the call and rise above limitations.
If you think your gender is a barrier for you in fulfilling your destiny, I definitely recommend this book. You will be greatly charged.
I received this book for free from waterbrook multnomah pulishing for review, the opinion express are mine
This is an interesting,encouraging and an eye opening book.I am very privilege to read a book as such.....Women wear many caps and has been succumbed by society to a certain standard.I appreciate this book been written to women to arise and not sit and cry but to realize theie lioness calling after their king.She talks about how women are empowered to raise productivity and they multiply and bring Goodness.
In the beginning chapters , i was provoked and charged, value of a strong woman and that God has placed us here for reasons.We should rise to the standard that God has placed us. If for a reason one can not find their place in the church,the rest of the world is out there waiting for your manifestation.
The middle chapters were dull for me , I enjoy some of the illustration and enlightment but am glad for the ending chapters.This book is not a how to book but a book that is meant to stir up that inner strength that has been given to us as a woman. Through prayer one can answer the call and rise above limitations.
If you think your gender is a barrier for you in fulfilling your destiny, I definitely recommend this book. You will be greatly charged.
I received this book for free from waterbrook multnomah pulishing for review, the opinion express are mine
Forgiveness Ensures Freedom
But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6:15).
Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) was born in Amsterdam and raised in the Dutch Reformed Church. When the Nazis came to power in the late 1930s, Corrie and her family hid Jews behind a false wall in Corrie's bedroom. In 1944, Corrie's family was arrested and sent to Ravensbrück, one of the worst concentration camps in Nazi Germany. There, Corrie's entire family died. Corrie herself was scheduled for execution - but she was released shortly before the end of World War II because of a clerical error.
Corrie concluded that God had saved her for a purpose. She committed her life to preaching the good news of Jesus Christ, speaking in churches, tent meetings, and open-air rallies. At one meeting in Germany in 1947, she taught on God's forgiveness. Afterwards, a man came up to her and introduced himself as a former Ravensbrück guard - but Corrie needed no introduction. She remembered him well. He was notorious for his cruelty.
"I've become a Christian since the war," he said. "I know God has forgiven me for the horrible things I did, but I would like to hear it from you. Could you tell me that you've forgiven me, too?" He put out his hand.
Corrie stood there for what seemed an eternity, unable to think of anything but the horrors this man had committed. Then she remembered the words of Jesus that required her to forgive ANY sin. She silently prayed, "Jesus, help me!" ...then she took the man's hand and cried out, "I forgive you, brother!" She later recalled, "I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then."
That was the defining moment in Corrie's ministry. Over the years that followed, she took the Christian gospel to more than sixty countries around the world and changed hundreds of thousands of lives through her speaking, writing, and the motion picture The Hiding Place, based on her autobiography.
If we want to be used in a great way by God, we must be willing to forgive those who may be a great source a pain in our lives.
Is there someone who needs your forgiveness today?
Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) was born in Amsterdam and raised in the Dutch Reformed Church. When the Nazis came to power in the late 1930s, Corrie and her family hid Jews behind a false wall in Corrie's bedroom. In 1944, Corrie's family was arrested and sent to Ravensbrück, one of the worst concentration camps in Nazi Germany. There, Corrie's entire family died. Corrie herself was scheduled for execution - but she was released shortly before the end of World War II because of a clerical error.
Corrie concluded that God had saved her for a purpose. She committed her life to preaching the good news of Jesus Christ, speaking in churches, tent meetings, and open-air rallies. At one meeting in Germany in 1947, she taught on God's forgiveness. Afterwards, a man came up to her and introduced himself as a former Ravensbrück guard - but Corrie needed no introduction. She remembered him well. He was notorious for his cruelty.
"I've become a Christian since the war," he said. "I know God has forgiven me for the horrible things I did, but I would like to hear it from you. Could you tell me that you've forgiven me, too?" He put out his hand.
Corrie stood there for what seemed an eternity, unable to think of anything but the horrors this man had committed. Then she remembered the words of Jesus that required her to forgive ANY sin. She silently prayed, "Jesus, help me!" ...then she took the man's hand and cried out, "I forgive you, brother!" She later recalled, "I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then."
That was the defining moment in Corrie's ministry. Over the years that followed, she took the Christian gospel to more than sixty countries around the world and changed hundreds of thousands of lives through her speaking, writing, and the motion picture The Hiding Place, based on her autobiography.
If we want to be used in a great way by God, we must be willing to forgive those who may be a great source a pain in our lives.
Is there someone who needs your forgiveness today?
"You Have An Annointing"
"As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit - just as it has taught you, remain in him" (1 John 2:27).
Do you know your anointing? An anointing is a gift that functions easily when it is operating in you to benefit others and the Kingdom of God. If one has to "work it up" one has probably gone outside one's anointing.
One area that I have a God-given anointing is in networking. I have never sought to develop such an anointing. But I know a LOT of people. Despite being an introvert by nature, God has connected me with people all around the world. Many times people call me about something and my natural response is, "Oh, you need to contact so and so. He can help you with that." A mentor once said to me, "Your inheritance is in relationships." What he was saying is that my anointing is in relationships and networking.
Where do you move naturally in your life?
What do you do that you don't have to work at it? Chances are that is your anointing.
God wants you to walk in the anointing he has given to you
Do you know your anointing? An anointing is a gift that functions easily when it is operating in you to benefit others and the Kingdom of God. If one has to "work it up" one has probably gone outside one's anointing.
One area that I have a God-given anointing is in networking. I have never sought to develop such an anointing. But I know a LOT of people. Despite being an introvert by nature, God has connected me with people all around the world. Many times people call me about something and my natural response is, "Oh, you need to contact so and so. He can help you with that." A mentor once said to me, "Your inheritance is in relationships." What he was saying is that my anointing is in relationships and networking.
Where do you move naturally in your life?
What do you do that you don't have to work at it? Chances are that is your anointing.
God wants you to walk in the anointing he has given to you
Did You Marry The Wrong Person!!
A little while ago Stephen Altrogge wrote a small article he titled So You Think You’ve Married the Wrong Person and today I would like to add one thing to the discussion. Stephen’s article addresses an always-pertinent topic. It is a topic that is applicable to married folk who may one day wake up and wonder, Did I marry the wrong person? In fact, I think most married people wonder that at one time or another. It may not be a question filled with true angst and regret, but one that may persist at the back of their mind.
At such times you can find great comfort in this simple reality: I guarantee that you have married the wrong person. We all marry the wrong person. Perhaps I should say it like this: we all marry the “wrong” person. We all marry a person who sins against us, who sometimes exasperates us by helping us worship our idols and at other times irritates us by smashing them to pieces. We all marry a person who has stinky breath and physical blemishes and bad moods. We all marry a person who is apparently incompatible with us on all kinds of levels. To quote Stephen, “The husband is neat, the wife is messy. The wife is talkative, the husband is quiet. The husband is always on time, the wife lives more in the moment. The wife is social, the husband is a homebody.”
The differences can go far deeper than that. The differences may extend from the marriage bed to the church sanctuary, from the way we make love to the way we worship, and everywhere in between.
Stephen turns to Paul David Tripp who offers some valuable and biblical counsel:
But here is what we need to see: The wrongness of our spouse is one of the great formative influences on us. The wrongness and the apparent incompatibilities are the very things God uses to mold and shape us. A few years down the road you will look back on all of that wrongness, all you declared to be wrong about your husband or wife, and find that God was not wrong at all. He knew exactly what you needed.
What I have found is that often times, when someone fears that he has married the wrong person, or when he fears that he is about to marry the wrong person, he is looking at the differences between himself and this other person and lamenting that this other person is not more like him. He may describe her personality or preferences or passions, but what he is really doing is showing that he wants this woman, this potential wife, to be more like him. If only she was…me! Too many men, too many women, truly want to marry an image of themselves. And why not? You tend to like your preferences, to like your idols, to like your likes.
But ask any married person what his life would be like if he had married someone who was just like himself and you’ll see the folly of it. Her talkativeness was just the antidote to your quiet nature, drawing you out, filling your home with godly words. Your sexual freedom was just what she needed to release her fears and teach her how to express love in a whole new way. Her constant lateness taught you to be patient and showed you that she wasn’t late because she was selfish, but because she cared, just like Jesus when he showed up “too late” to save his friend Lazarus. In all these ways and so many more, God uses incompatibilities to produce godliness. These differences are truly glorious, the means by which God helps us put our own sin to death.
So did you marry the wrong person? Yes you did. Embrace it and thank God for it. Her wrongness is just right in God’s eyes.
(Note: Obviously there are some exceptions, such as marriages that are physically abusive. Such cases still fall within the sovereignty of God, of course, but require great care and great wisdom.)
At such times you can find great comfort in this simple reality: I guarantee that you have married the wrong person. We all marry the wrong person. Perhaps I should say it like this: we all marry the “wrong” person. We all marry a person who sins against us, who sometimes exasperates us by helping us worship our idols and at other times irritates us by smashing them to pieces. We all marry a person who has stinky breath and physical blemishes and bad moods. We all marry a person who is apparently incompatible with us on all kinds of levels. To quote Stephen, “The husband is neat, the wife is messy. The wife is talkative, the husband is quiet. The husband is always on time, the wife lives more in the moment. The wife is social, the husband is a homebody.”
Stephen turns to Paul David Tripp who offers some valuable and biblical counsel:
God is in control not only of the locations in which you live, but also of the influences that have shaped you as a person. He has not only written the story of you and your spouse and determined that your stories would intersect, but he has controlled all the things that have made you different from one another.This is comfort in the sovereignty of God, that God has ordered all things and that he means to work in and through you. Your marriage to this person at this time falls well within the scope of his sovereign plan. God simply won’t allow you to entertain thoughts of regret or of escape.
As you struggle, you must not view your marriage as bad luck, or poor planning, or a mess that you have made for yourself. No, God is right smack-dab in the middle of your of your struggle. He is not surprised by what you are facing today. He is up to something. (What Did You Expect?, pgs. 213-214)
But here is what we need to see: The wrongness of our spouse is one of the great formative influences on us. The wrongness and the apparent incompatibilities are the very things God uses to mold and shape us. A few years down the road you will look back on all of that wrongness, all you declared to be wrong about your husband or wife, and find that God was not wrong at all. He knew exactly what you needed.
What I have found is that often times, when someone fears that he has married the wrong person, or when he fears that he is about to marry the wrong person, he is looking at the differences between himself and this other person and lamenting that this other person is not more like him. He may describe her personality or preferences or passions, but what he is really doing is showing that he wants this woman, this potential wife, to be more like him. If only she was…me! Too many men, too many women, truly want to marry an image of themselves. And why not? You tend to like your preferences, to like your idols, to like your likes.
But ask any married person what his life would be like if he had married someone who was just like himself and you’ll see the folly of it. Her talkativeness was just the antidote to your quiet nature, drawing you out, filling your home with godly words. Your sexual freedom was just what she needed to release her fears and teach her how to express love in a whole new way. Her constant lateness taught you to be patient and showed you that she wasn’t late because she was selfish, but because she cared, just like Jesus when he showed up “too late” to save his friend Lazarus. In all these ways and so many more, God uses incompatibilities to produce godliness. These differences are truly glorious, the means by which God helps us put our own sin to death.
So did you marry the wrong person? Yes you did. Embrace it and thank God for it. Her wrongness is just right in God’s eyes.
(Note: Obviously there are some exceptions, such as marriages that are physically abusive. Such cases still fall within the sovereignty of God, of course, but require great care and great wisdom.)
Sep 1, 2011
Three Types of Friendship
A great mentor once told me I should strive to have three types of friendships: playmates, peers, and personal confidantes.
Playmates are those you just have fun with – the friends you get a pedicure with on a Saturday afternoon or laugh with on a girls’ night out.
Peers are coworkers, ministry partners, other moms, etc. with whom you can share the good, the bad, and the ugly; knowing they will understand because they are experiencing it too.
Personal confidantes are the hardest friends to find. These women are friends you can “throw up” on. They will not only clean up the mess, but they’ll never tell anyone you were sick. Make sure personal confidantes are trustworthy. Pray for discernment and direction in finding them.
How are you doing with your friendships – what types of friends are missing in your life? Pray that God will bring you the friendships you need right now and that you will be a friend someone else needs.
The Invisible Hand
Acts 12:3-10 (AMP), Matthew 16:19 (AMP), 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (AMP)
Once James had been murdered, Herod’s religious Jewish contingent was thrilled with his initiative and applauded him. Suddenly he saw an easy way to gain favor with a party that had always given him such opposition. Acts 12:3 amp says, “When he [Herod] saw that it was pleasing to the Jews, he proceeded further and arrested Peter also….”
This time things would be very different. The tragedy of James’ death had shaken the believers to the core and all potluck dinners were cancelled…it was time to pray. The Scripture is careful to preface the story of Peter’s deliverance with the following statement: “…[Fervent] prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him” (Acts 12:5). This statement is very significant, because the writer of Acts is trying to show us that the miraculous deliverance to follow would be a direct result of those fervent and persistent prayers that were offered up by the believers.
It was the last night of Passover week and Peter was chained between two menacing soldiers. This was to be his last night on earth, for in the morning he would be executed as James had been just a few days earlier. But the Bible says that “suddenly” a light from Heaven illuminated that gloomy prison house as an angel of the Lord appeared in his cell. He smacked Peter on the side and said, “Get up quickly!” An interesting fact is found in Acts 12:7. It tells us that Peter’s chains, “fell off from his hands!” Notice that it does not say that the angel broke the chains off Peter’s hands, but simply that they fell off.
The angel said to Peter, “Put your clothes on and follow me.” They walked past the first set of guards who didn’t notice him. They walked past the second set of guards who also seemed oblivious to his escape. Then they approached the most obstructive barrier of all – a huge iron gate that separated the prison from the street. This gate was designed to protect the outside world from the dangerous criminals it confined. It was an obstacle that seemed totally insurmountable, but Peter was not worried…he thought it was just a dream anyway.
You will notice that verse 10 says that when they reached the gate, it “opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street….” Only then did the angel vanish, and suddenly Peter realized that it was not a vision. He had actually been delivered!
Can you see the theme that is emerging here? In the story, every obstacle, every barrier, and every obstruction is completely impotent. The chains fell from Peter’s hands, the guards could not see him escaping, and finally the iron door opened and the most amazing part is that all of this seems to have happened almost by itself. Although a mighty angel is sent to escort Peter out of the prison, the angel does not touch the chains, the guards, or the doors…they seem to be impacted by an invisible hand.
We see very clearly from what is emphasized in verse 5 that it is because of the prayers of the saints that all this is happening. “…[Fervent] prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” The prayers of the believers were the power that loosed the chains, removed the obstructions,and opened even the most impenetrable doors.
It was Peter to whom Jesus said, “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19).
Oh, my friends, if we had any idea of the incredible power that is available to us through prayer, I think we would find it so easy to heed Paul’s prompting to “pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17).
Once James had been murdered, Herod’s religious Jewish contingent was thrilled with his initiative and applauded him. Suddenly he saw an easy way to gain favor with a party that had always given him such opposition. Acts 12:3 amp says, “When he [Herod] saw that it was pleasing to the Jews, he proceeded further and arrested Peter also….”
This time things would be very different. The tragedy of James’ death had shaken the believers to the core and all potluck dinners were cancelled…it was time to pray. The Scripture is careful to preface the story of Peter’s deliverance with the following statement: “…[Fervent] prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him” (Acts 12:5). This statement is very significant, because the writer of Acts is trying to show us that the miraculous deliverance to follow would be a direct result of those fervent and persistent prayers that were offered up by the believers.
It was the last night of Passover week and Peter was chained between two menacing soldiers. This was to be his last night on earth, for in the morning he would be executed as James had been just a few days earlier. But the Bible says that “suddenly” a light from Heaven illuminated that gloomy prison house as an angel of the Lord appeared in his cell. He smacked Peter on the side and said, “Get up quickly!” An interesting fact is found in Acts 12:7. It tells us that Peter’s chains, “fell off from his hands!” Notice that it does not say that the angel broke the chains off Peter’s hands, but simply that they fell off.
The angel said to Peter, “Put your clothes on and follow me.” They walked past the first set of guards who didn’t notice him. They walked past the second set of guards who also seemed oblivious to his escape. Then they approached the most obstructive barrier of all – a huge iron gate that separated the prison from the street. This gate was designed to protect the outside world from the dangerous criminals it confined. It was an obstacle that seemed totally insurmountable, but Peter was not worried…he thought it was just a dream anyway.
You will notice that verse 10 says that when they reached the gate, it “opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street….” Only then did the angel vanish, and suddenly Peter realized that it was not a vision. He had actually been delivered!
Can you see the theme that is emerging here? In the story, every obstacle, every barrier, and every obstruction is completely impotent. The chains fell from Peter’s hands, the guards could not see him escaping, and finally the iron door opened and the most amazing part is that all of this seems to have happened almost by itself. Although a mighty angel is sent to escort Peter out of the prison, the angel does not touch the chains, the guards, or the doors…they seem to be impacted by an invisible hand.
We see very clearly from what is emphasized in verse 5 that it is because of the prayers of the saints that all this is happening. “…[Fervent] prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” The prayers of the believers were the power that loosed the chains, removed the obstructions,and opened even the most impenetrable doors.
It was Peter to whom Jesus said, “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19).
Oh, my friends, if we had any idea of the incredible power that is available to us through prayer, I think we would find it so easy to heed Paul’s prompting to “pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17).
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