Daily Archives: December 16, 2011

Proven Path Ministries

>Fierce Beauty

>Only when we truly understand who our King is does our self-importance fade. Once freed from our pride, we can see how our purpose in this life is simple: to know Him. Our God is not passive in His care for us. He is a consuming fire. His love for each of us is both fierce and beautiful. Friend, God is calling you to …be beautiful, but not in the way the world demands. It was never His desire for you to focus on looking beautiful- He wants you to become beautiful. Contrary to this world’s declaration, you are far more than the sum of your exterior; you’re a vessel for the Living God. He’s calling you to take action, to become beautiful… to pick up your King’s sword of encouragement and fiercely defend those around you who are losing their battle for hope. By doing so, you become- in the eyes of the King- a fierce beauty.

~ Kim Meeder

So this is the beginning of my newest book that I am reading for review, Fierce Beauty by Kim Meeder. I cannot wait to get into it and read it!

This is a subject I am so very passionate about. The worth of a woman… oh how so many do not know their worth… settling for sinful lusts of eyes of the flesh… and throwing off their clothing of strength and dignity for the attentive momentary eyes of someone who is never willing to see past their exterior or really even cares to…

It breaks my heart.
It breaks my heart because I know what they are doing and why they are doing it and why even though they cry themselves to sleep most nights and regularly think of ending their lives over what they are doing and the choices they are making… they can’t find the strength to stop.

And all it takes is one phone call, one text, to set their hearts racing and emotions churning and heart wrenching…

It goes deeper than whether or not they had the perfect or worse childhood.
It goes deeper than whether or not they were, or were not, in church every time the doors opened.
It goes directly to the very core of their soul and to the very bottomless depths of their deceived and deceitful heart.

This is where we must reach them… our daughters, our sisters, our friends.

I don’t want them to get lost in the lie of the “perfect man” confusing butterflies and flowers with love. While the man of God who would adore her and build her up and love her with a commitment like Christ has for His church, stands over on the sidelines unnoticed because he is not willing or able to seduce her with lies…

So I hope to gain more insight and wisdom as I read this book… because I want nothing more than for my daughters to be fierce beauties, completely enraptured and captured by the gaze of their God and burning brilliantly in the consuming fire of His holiness.

 
Strength and dignity are her clothing…
Proverbs 31:25
 
 
Devotional Studies Through the Bible

>Exposed

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God has found out the iniquity of your servants.
Genesis 44:16
 
How many times have we thought we have “gotten away” with sin?
 
Judah and his brothers fall before Joseph and beg for the life of Benjamin.Judahproclaims that God has found out their iniquity. The guilt over what they had done to Joseph and what they had done to their father had never left them. They know now beyond the shadow of a doubt that God knows about their sin.
 
We may be successful in hiding our sin from others, but we cannot hide it from God. Numbers 32:23 says “And be sure your sin will find you out.” In Matthew 9:4 we learn that Jesus knows our thoughts, and in John 2:25 we learn that He knows what is inside of us. Nothing is hidden from the sight of our all-knowing God.
 
We cannot hide even what we think we have done in secret, for “God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:16). Sin will be dealt with; it will be judged. Sin cannot hide in the dark forever because the light will shine into all darkness and one day expose what it is trying to hide (John 3:20). In Psalm 51:3, David cried out, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”
 
Oh yes, God will find out the iniquity of all. He sees it before Him. He has every right to bring immediate judgment, but instead He offers opportunity to confess and be cleansed. “For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust” (Psalm 103:14). He knows our sin, and yet He loves us. He loves us so much that He makes the way for us to confess. He makes the way for us to be cleansed. He makes the way for us to be reunited into fellowship with Him. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
 
He has been making the way from the beginning, and He will continue to do so until the end of the age. Oh, precious one, I beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20).
 
Oh Father,
 
My sin was ever before me, and how often I transgressed Your law, but You did not leave me without hope. You did not leave me to die in my sins. You came in the form of man, as Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty of my sin upon the cross. You tell us in 1 Corinthians 11:31 that “if we judge ourselves rightly we would not be judged.” Oh Father, I looked at myself and I knew that You spoke the truth about me. I was a sinner. I was dead in my trespasses. I had broken Your law and was deserving of Your judgment, and then I heard the good news of Jesus Christ. I heard that He had already paid my penalty, and if I accepted His substitute death for mine I could be made alive in Him (Colossians 2:13–14). My Jesus, thank You for the cross, for I died with You and have been raised in You a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). As of now I am still in this flesh, and so I struggle; and at times I still fail and sin against You, yet Your faithfulness remains. The more I understand and study Your Word, I begin to get a grasp of the power that is mine in Christ; the power to live righteously and in accordance to Your will and in obedience to Your Word.
 
My Jesus, I love You so, and it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.