Daily Archives: January 4, 2012

Book Reviews, Proven Path Ministries

>Fierce Beauty Book Review

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>I have finished reading Fierce Beauty by Kim Meeder. There were so many moments in this book where my heart caught in my throat as I read words of strength and encouragement, words of confirmation, that this path that I am on is indeed the path that the Lord has set before me. (My ten year old daughter is currently reading it now.)

If you follow my FB page you would find quote after quote from this book. Kim shared stories of such courage and depth that I could not help but share a little from them along the way as I read through the book.

The book is centered on getting your focus off of you. We live in a day where outward beauty is worshiped and it doesn’t matter how ugly the inside is. All around us are young girls killing themselves to be beautiful before a fickle world and while they smile on the outside their insides are crumbling within them dying slowly and painfully. Then we older girls are so focused on maintaining our own youthful beauty that we completely miss the young girls around us following our lead into a pointless battle.

By God’s grace and mercy might we stop and look into the mirror of our God and judge our reflection by His eyes and not our own. Might we stop and look into the souls of the women around us and pull out the mirror of the Word and say look, Are you beautiful before your King because His opinion is the only one that matters?  

As you pour through the pages of Fierce Beauty you will gain renewed determination and purpose. If you are currently in a place of stumbling, a place of hopelessness, a place of frustration… if you will pick up this book and press on through it… I guarantee you that by the end you will have a face set like flint to get up and stand on the solid Rock of your God and take Him by His outstretched hand and walk on knowing that He is with you every step of the way. 

It is such a breathe of sweet air to me to know that my sufferings are never in vain. Kim shares her own times of suffering as well as the sufferings of others and she shows how God took these ashes and turned them into something beautiful and how in His hands our sorrow becomes gladness.

Kim shares toward the end of the book and says, “Friends, no matter how difficult this race of life gets and how lonely we might feel, we are not alone in our struggles.”

Here is what some others had to say about Fierce Beauty and you can also read an excerpt from the book to get a closer look inside the pages. I recommend this book for young ladies all the way up to not-so-young ladies. We all need reminded that true beauty begins on the inside and our focus should not be the condition of our outward appearance but the condition of our hearts.

Are we beautiful before our King?
Let us not fight a pointless battle, but let us fight the good fight of faith.
Let us never forget that our sufferings are not in vain nor are we alone in them.
May we all become fierce beauties.

FTC disclaimer: “I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review”

Confessions of a Christian Wife

>My Own Little World

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Yesterday was an “ick” day.
It was just one of those “Ugh” days.
This morning I wake up to realize it was because I got caught up in my own little world.
 
I know now that it was an attack.
You see it time for changes.
It’s time for new commitments.
So it’s time for the enemy of my soul to make me feel unworthy and unable.
 
It almost worked.
Doubts began to fill my head.
Discouragement was creeping up my back.
 
… “Get behind Me, Satan!
You are a stumbling block to Me;
for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
Matthew 16:23
 
How easy it is to find myself wrapped up and tripping all over me.
I so get in my way!
I so get in the way of what God is trying to do in and through me…
I have to remember daily to die daily.
So today I die and live to Him.
 
Today I say goodbye to my own little world…
I don’t like it here anyway. It always makes me frustrated and aggravated and hopeless and just plain old unlikable. I can’t even stand myself in my own little world… how on earth could anyone else stand me here. Today I choose to remember that I am of another world. His world. His kingdom. I like it much better in the BIG OF HIM than the little of me!   
 
 
Devotional Studies Through the Bible

>Trusting in Forgiveness

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When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him!”
Genesis 50:15
 
Are you still holding on to guilt from a sin that God has long since forgiven you? Joseph’s brothers, after all these years, still have not trusted in his forgiveness. They still live in fear of his wrath. They could not grasp the love and forgiveness of Joseph that was his because of the faith in God that he treasured in his heart.
 
We can only experience forgiveness when we trust the word of the forgiver.
 
Joseph’s brothers concoct a message for Joseph, claiming that Jacob sent word by them, asking him to forgive them. The brothers come and fall down again before the feet of a weeping Joseph. Joseph wept not from the pain of what his brothers had done to him, but from the realization that his brothers had not believed and trusted in his word of forgiveness.
 
Joseph replies, “Do not be afraid, for I am in God’s place. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive” (Genesis 50:19–20).
 
Joseph had an amazing walk with God. We have no record of him ever doubting the sovereignty of God. I believe Joseph was able to forgive his brothers because he knew the wickedness of his own heart. He knew that it was only by his faith in God and his respect of God that he was who he was.
 
Jesus looks at us, and he says, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me” (John 14:1). Believe in what He says; trust in all He promises. Adjust your life to His Word.
 
Joseph had given his brothers his word that he had forgiven them, but his brothers had not united that word with faith. God has given us His word that if we admit that we are a sinner, confess our sins, believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again so that we might have eternal life, He would save us. We have His Word; we now too must trust His Word and unite it with faith. “For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard” (Hebrews 4:2).
 
Oh, precious one, are you walking in what you know?
 
Faith is not just saying the truth and saying you believe. It is a surrender to those words; a surrender that produces action. My friend, are you wholly surrendered to Christ?
 
Oh Father,
 
Thank you for sending Christ. The enemy of my soul and the wickedness of my own heart nailed Christ to the cross. The cross was meant for evil, meant to destroy and to do away with, but you, my God, intended it for good, to bring about the present result, to preserve many people alive. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Oh, my Jesus, my Savior, my King, I praise You, for I know that Your suffering was not and never will be in vain. My Jesus, You endured the cross for the joy set before You (Hebrews 12:2). You endured the cross for me, not because I was worthy, not because You owed it to me; You endured it because You loved me. Oh Father, how great is Your love for me!
 
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.