Freedom…

  • January 13, 2010 11:08 am

Forgiveness & Freedom

 

Asking God for forgiveness is one thing, but asking forgiveness from others is something completely different.  While it can be difficult, forgiveness moves us to a new place of freedom.  Forgiveness is a release of peace. 
 
Ephesians 4:32 — Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  
                
Romans 12:19 — Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
Matthew 6:14-15 — For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.       

lori Enjoy your day!
Lori Greenwood, ThD 

www.lorigreenwood.org  

Inside Enemy

  • September 14, 2009 11:40 am

Betrayal happens.  Mistakes get made.  People get hurt.  Without forgiveness, betrayal turns to bitterness.  Bitterness is an inside enemy.  Refuse to replay the matter in your mind.  Put it in the hand of the Lord and forgive.
 
Proverbs 18:19 — A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle.
 
Ephesians 4:31 — Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

 

lori Enjoy your day!
Lori Greenwood

www.lorigreenwood.org

www.wotcc.org

Healing the Wounded Soul

  • August 11, 2009 8:51 pm

Life doesn’t always turn out as we planned.  Along the way, pain happens.  At times, we hold on to the pain as if it were a trophy.  Sometimes we fill the entire trophy case.  Erring on the side of caution, we believe we are using wisdom when we refuse to trust, refuse to heal, and (maybe) even refuse to forgive.  I pray that our healing Savior would free our minds from rewinding and replaying the memories that bring pain.  I pray that He would liberate our souls and move us toward the freedom that only forgiveness can bring to us. 

 
Jeremiah 8:22 — Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
 
James 4:7 — Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
 
Ephesians 1:7 — In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.
 

lori Enjoy your day!

Lori Greenwood, ThD

GET UP! Keep going!

  • July 30, 2009 9:14 am
Fasting Facts

 
 
Dear Friend,

Get Up!  Keep Going.
 
When the Prophet Nathan approached King David about his actions in the murder of Uriah and adultery with Bathsheeba (2 Samuel 12), he ended their discussion by imparting God’s forgiveness to David, but also telling him that the son born out of his act of adultery would die (2 Samuel 12:13-14).
 
Understanding the seriousness of this situation, David went before the Lord in prayer and fasting and tears, and lay prostrate on the ground for a full week. However, just as Nathan had said, the baby died.  Upon the child’s death, David immediately got up, pulled himself together and went to worship.  David also began to eat again.  When you read the bible account you get the feeling that this really puzzled the people around David, who thought he got things backwards.  Afterall, shouldn’t he cease from eating now that the child has died?
 
Here’s what David said: “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept, thinking, ‘Who knows, maybe the LORD will be gracious to me so the child may live.’ But now that he has died, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again?” (2 Samuel 12:22-23)
 
When you really think about these words of David, there is deep revelation in his statement. Sometimes, no matter how unfair it seems, things die.  We go to God in fasting and praying, hoping there will be mercy and miracles in the middle of whatever we “messed up.”  But, sometimes, God’s will is for that thing (the manifestation of our sin) to die. 
 
David was fasting and weeping out of love for the child that his sin had created. Somewhere in the middle of it all, I’m sure David had come to hate the choices that got him to that dark moment. He had mourned.  He had grieved.  He had felt the pain of what might have been, but he got up and went on.  He returned to his call to lead the nation of God’s chosen people. Furthermore, he brought comfort to Bathsheba who was also in pain.  For David, the season had shifted. The time for fasting had come to a close. The season for living and leading was at hand. 
 
For me, there is something very beautiful and supernatural about the way this story ends.  Once David had set his heart right with the Lord, God straightened everything out. (Luke 3:5b — The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.)  The Lord took a relationship that looked twisted to everyone else and made it straight.  From this new position of grace, David and Bathseeba had another child named Solomon.
 
What is it that you are facing today?  Has sin or wrong choices brought heart-break to you?  Take a lesson from David — get on the floor and fast before God.  Decompress.  Release your pain and frustration into the hand of God.  Then, no matter what it looks like, get up.  Move on with God.  Trust that God will turn things around and make all things new. 
 
Romans 8:28 — And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose.  
 

Are you thinking about fasting?  Read on —

How Scriptural is Fasting?

 

Lori GreenwoodThere are nearly 70 references to fasting in the Bible.  Each week, I’ll share a few verses with you.  Searching the bible will help you discover more about fasting for yourself. 

 

Last week we looked at 2 Samuel 11:11 and 2 Samuel 12:16-17. Here are a few more:

 

1 Kings 13:8-24 — The prophet who cried at the altar of Bethel


But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. For I was commanded by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’ ”So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel. Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king. Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” ”I am,” he replied. So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me and eat.”  The man of God said, “I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. I have been told by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’ ” The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (But he was lying to him.) So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house. While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back. He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers.’ ” When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was thrown down on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it.

 
 

Get more fasting information next week by subscribing to Fasting Facts!
 

Blessings,

  
 
Lori Greenwood
 

 

fasting  Interested in learning more about fasting?  www.lorigreenwood.org