the battle

You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.

- 2 Chronicles 20:17 (NIV)

 

We are not alone.

Every struggle in our lives whether it is big or small, we don’t have to face it alone.

Song reference!

When all I see is the battle

You see my victory

When all I see is the mountain

You see a mountain moved

And as I walk through the shadow

Your love surrounds me

There’s nothing to fear now

For I am safe with You

So when I fight I’ll fight on my knees

With my hands lifted high

Oh God the battle belongs to You

And every fear I lay at Your feet

I’ll sing through the night

Oh God the battle belongs to You

And if You are for me

Who can be against me (yeah)

For Jesus there’s nothing

Impossible for You

When all I see are the ashes

You see the beauty (thank You God)

When all I see is a cross

God You see the empty tomb

So when I fight I’ll fight on my knees

With my hands lifted high

Oh God the battle belongs to You

And every fear I lay at Your feet

I’ll sing through the night

Oh God the battle belongs to You

Almighty Fortress You go before us

Nothing can stand against

The power of our God

You shine in the shadow

You win every battle

Nothing can stand against

The power of our God

So when I fight I’ll fight on my knees

With my hands lifted high

Oh God the battle belongs to You

And every fear I lay at Your feet

I’ll sing through the night

Oh God the battle belongs to You

WOW.

Nothing can stand against us!

So many of us are fighting with everything we have and we are exhausted!

All we have to do is give our battle to God, He has the power to see us through.

He can move mountains for us if we let Him.

 

#dailybreadbykitty

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take a break

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

- Exodus 20:9-11 (NKJV)

 

My dad was one of the hardest workers that I ever knew, working 12 hours a day Monday through Friday and half days on Saturdays. 

He was a diesel mechanic and a welder, so it was physical labor, not the sitting behind a desk work like I do. 

Daddy worked inside and outside in the scorching heat of summer and the frigid winds and snows of winter in Iowa, I can only remember one time that he missed work and it was because he had a stroke and the doctor made him take time off.

I believe that I got my work ethic from him, even though I have not done physical labor since the late 80’s/early 90’s, the work I do sitting at a computer sometimes 12-14 hours a day is still physically and emotionally draining.

We have to take a break.

I’ve seen quotes all over the place even on LinkedIn that say “Don’t kill yourself for a job that would replace you within 2 weeks if you dropped dead”. 

Even God took a break.

Even the Roman Emperor Constantine in A.D. 321 wanted to set aside Sunday as a day for rest.

In the 50’s and 60’s no shops were open on a Sunday (I found this on the internet, so I can’t really vouch for accuracy).  

Sundays used to be a day for God and for family, but things changed along the way.

I’ve known people that have worked their whole lives and died shortly before or right after retirement because they focused more on work than themselves. 

People that lose their families to divorce because they spend more time at the office then they do with their family. 

We need to stop.

Even God rested.

What good are we to our loved ones if we are dead?

God rested on the seventh day.

Your boss will replace you, your family can’t.

Take the day off, go to church, praise God and thank God and then spend a quite day with your family.

It’s worth it.

 

#dailybreadbykitty

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stand your ground

If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.

- Isaiah 7:9b (NIV)

 

I don’t miss having little kids around, I am thoroughly enjoying being an empty nester.

I do however miss having a reason to watch Veggie Tales!

The original Veggie Tales – not the “acceptable on television” Veggie Tales.

Rack, Shack and Benny was one of my all time favorites, I mean who doesn’t love a good story about chocolate?

But hey – the story was about standing up for what you believe, even when it’s not the most popular thing to do.

You know I have to throw in a song reference, and of course it’s Veggie Tales!

My Mummy always told me to do what's right;

To wash behind my ears and try to be polite.

She says she loves me so.

(That's beautiful.)

It's like she tells me what I need to know.

(I've got alot of respect for that woman.)

But sometimes when I'm playing with a buddy or two,

They're doing things you're not supposed to do.

(Do you go along - even though the things they do are wrong?)

I remember stand (Stand up, stand up)

For what you believe in, believe in,

Believe in God (He's the one to back you up)

We'll stand with you!

When everybody tells you that you have to be cool,

Remember what you learnt in church and Sunday school.

Just check it out - the Bible tells us what it's all about.

(Oh, you know that's right.)

So if you have a question, go ask your Dad,

And he can tell you if the thing is good or bad.

You'll make they're day,

If you remember what you're parents say (what they say.)

They told us stand (Stand up, stand up)

For what you believe in, believe in,

Believe in God (He's the one to back you up)

We'll stand with you!

Oh, stand (Stand up, stand up)

For what you believe in, believe in,

Believe in God (He's the one to back you up)

We'll stand with you!

He'll stand with you, oh yeah.

(extra points if you sang it!)  

See, just like Junior Asparagus was explaining to King Nezzar, we have to stand up for what we believe in, because if we don’t, well then we end up following the wrong people and doing the wrong things and then we aren’t standing at all. 

Like Rack, Shack and Benny, I am going to stand my ground where hope can be found (but that is another song).

Won’t you stand with me?

 

#dailybreadbykitty

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I hear you

And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard His voice? Wasn’t it the people Moses led out of Egypt?

- Hebrews 3:16 (NLT)

 

In reading the Old Testament of the Bible, we see over and over where God’s children would find themselves in a bad place and they would cry out for Him to take action.

Over and over we see God take action.

God led His people out of Egypt where they were slaves into freedom.

The people did not go directly to the promised land though, they wandered for forty years.

Why, if God is a gracious God, would he lead them through a desert where they could see no food or water or an end in sight instead of just delivering them to the land that was promised to them? 

Because these petulant children just would not listen.

Have you been around kid that pouts and throw a tantrum because they can’t have what they want?

I imagine that is what the Israelites might have looked like to God, He brought them out of Egypt, He protected them from the Pharaoh’s men by splitting the waters so they could walk through and put distance between the people and Egypt.

Then they complained about not having food and water.

God gave them food every day and fresh water out of dry rock, yet they built idols and worshipped them instead.

I have to wonder, if the people would have listened to God in the first place if that forty years would have been significantly shorter.

You see, hearing God’s voice isn’t the important thing, following God’s voice is.

We all hear Him.

We need to follow Him too.

 

#dailybreadbykitty

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you’ve got a friend

When they cried out for help, You saved them, and You did not let them down when they depended on You.

- Psalm 22:5 (CEV)

 

We all have times in our lives when we are crushed and we turn to our friends for help.

We might ask for advice, for prayers, for financial assistance, sometimes we ask for a ride or a meal.

Hopefully we all have friends that we can turn to when we are down on our luck with a flat tire or no food in the pantry that are willing to give us a ride, or bring us food.

There are other times though, when we are devastated and thing are so dark it feels like there is no end in sight.

It is these times that we need to turn to the best friend we have – yeah, that’s God.

Throughout history, God has been faithful to His people, He has rescued them from sin and slavery, from war and illness.

God will not let us down! 
As we struggle through our bad times, we have to keep in mind that God will help us – maybe not in the way that we think we need help, but He will answer, He will deliver and He will bless His people.

In our worst of nightmares we can be reminded that God hears our cry, that He is there to save us too.

Even you, even me, no matter what we are facing, God will save us.  

 

#dailybreadbykitty

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fully known

But whoever loves God is known by God.

- 1 Corinthians 8:3 (NIV)

 

Hey ya’all it is February, the month of hearts and love and gushy stuff!

Love is a funny thing, there are poems, TV shows, movies, cartoons and songs about love, happy love, sad love, unspoken love, unrequited love.

Immediately the Looney Tunes character Pepe LePew and his bewildered love interest Penelope Pussycat come to mind, I can see him professing his undying love as she struggles to get away. 

I wonder if God compares us to Pepe and Penelope?

God tries so hard to hold on to us, showing us His love, yet we often run away from Him.

Are we scared that He won’t love us, that we are not worthy?

Song reference!

It's so unusual, it's frightening

You see right through the mess inside me

And you call me out to pull me in

You tell me I can start again

And I don't need to keep on hiding

I'm fully known and loved by You

You won't let go no matter what I do

And it's not one or the other

It's hard truth and ridiculous grace

To be known fully known and loved by You

I'm fully known and loved by You

It's so like You to keep pursuing

It's so like me to go astray

But You guard my heart with Your truth

A kind of love that's bulletproof

And I surrender to Your kindness, ooh

I'm fully known and loved by You

You won't let go no matter what I do

And it's not one or the other

It's hard truth and ridiculous grace

To be known fully known and loved by You

I'm fully known and loved by You

How real, how wide

How rich, how high is Your heart

I cannot find the reasons why

You give me so much

How real, how wide

How rich, how high is Your heart

I cannot find the reasons why

You give me so much

I'm fully known and loved by You

You won't let go no matter what I do

And it's not one or the other

It's hard truth and ridiculous grace

To be known fully known and loved by You

I'm fully known and loved by You

It's so unusual, it's frightening

I'm fully known and loved by You

God see us on our good days and our bad days, and He loves us anyway.

He is with us when we try to run and hide, and He loves us anyway.  

Fully known, and still loved.

That is the kind of love we should all crave.

 

#dailybreadbykitty

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nothing to see here

Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is one who keeps the Law.

- Proverbs 29:18 (NASB)

 

“Back in my day…”

“When I was your age…”
“A long time ago…” 

When we hear these words, we know that we are going to be whisked back in time by the speaker to a place where life was different than what we see today.

It will be a story about harder times, or better times or even carefree times but one thing remains the same with all stories, things will never be the way they were.

Today we face difficulties that previous generations would have never dreamed of, we have to walk on eggshells everywhere – in public, on social media, at work and even in our homes so as not to offend some genre of people. 

Yet there are those that still loudly voice their opinions without a thought of the people they are harming with their venomous words.

Thing that were normal even twenty years ago are now considered hateful and can get folks in a lot of trouble.

People have lost their vision of God, they have been unrestrained in their actions to the point of the Law of God being broken in everyway imaginable.

We cannot be a nation of God if we are going to throw away everything that He has taught us.

We have to listen to what He is saying and we have to obey His word, no matter where we are and who we happen to be around.

I don’t want to tell my grandchildren or great grandchildren how much better things were in my youth, I want them to have a life and a world that is better than what I had.

 

#dailybreadbykitty

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