Let’s Review: Loss of Appetite Spiritual Meal – Course #1: The Amuse Bouche Spiritual Meal-Course #2: The Soup Spiritual Meal-Course #3: The Entrée Spiritual Meal-Course #4: The Main Meal Spiritual Meal-Course #5: The Dessert Now that we have spoken about what our Spiritual Meal consists of, let’s not forget the Host of this incredible Feast…..God our Father! His hospitality is far greater and exceeds anything we can imagine. He sets the table with plenty; a variety of provisions and comforts for us. Satan is not able to destroy our comfort of this banquet because we are anointed with the Holy Spirit and drink of the cup of salvation! This Feast is done in the very presence of our enemi

We have reached the last course of our Spiritual Meal to satisfy and maintain our spiritual appetite, the Dessert…...Have your church family for support! Believers in Jesus Christ are our dinner guest at this Feast. In Acts 2:42, “They (believers) devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” How do we maintain our spiritual hunger and enjoy this feast together? We study God’s Word Together – The church family is called to grow spiritually together, spurring one another on. “All scripture is God- breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16 We Honor God Together Through

Is your Spiritual appetite increasing as you are feasting on this Spiritual Meal? Examine, take the time to pay attention to whether your craving is being fulfilled by the “right” meal. Remember, Satan is one who can duplicate quite well. We can have 2 plates, filled with the exact same items of food. They may look the same and smell the same. The difference………...one is ORGANIC, PURE, NO PRESERVATIVES, NOTHING ARTIFICIAL ADDED, AND HOLY!!! How can we know the difference? Taste. Psalm 34:8 Oh, TASTE and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. The Main Meal is “Getting into God’s Word Everyday”. I love this course! Talk about Supernatural leftovers! Are we tastin

The third course in our 5 course meal plan to maintain our “Spiritual appetite”, is the Entree course. The Entree is an entrance into the Main Meal. It is a number of small courses on one plate to start the dinner. There are expectations to this portion. The Entree is brought to the table, encouraging you to seek God first. On this plate are some answers to “How we make knowing God, our #1 goal.” We will refer to Psalm 63:1; Oh God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. This chapter causes me to reflect on the last sermon my husband, Matt, preached on, “Are you just Convienced or Committed at 70m

The second course in our 5 course meal plan to maintain our “Spiritual appetite”, is the Soup course. A good soup brings a new layer into the meal. The soup prepares the meal for the hot courses to come. The kitchen may tend to heat up now, as we reflect on a layer of our meal that requires slowing down to examine or “sip” on what we are filling up with daily. When we looked at why we would have a spiritual loss of appetite; one area addressed, was stop filling up on junk food! Do not starve on a full stomach! Isaiah 55:1-2 states, “Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk- it's all free! Why spend your money on food that does not g

In our previous devotion, we looked at a 5 course meal plan to maintain our “Spiritual appetite.” The first course in a 5 course meal is called the amuse bouche, or amuse. It sets the course and brings the “theme” to the diner. This course should excite and prepare us for the dinner to come. It should stimulate our appetite! The amuse is brought to the table....served ”To Remind Ourselves How much God Loves Us”. This part of our meal should excite and stimulate our craving. Let's take a bite and wake up our spiritual “taste buds” of how much God loves us! We looked at Ephesians 3:18-19 earlier, seeing where Paul prayed for the Ephesians; to have power, together with all the saints, to grasp

“Loss of appetite” can indicate something may not be right in your body. Same can be true spiritually. Examine yourself; do you have loss of “spiritual appetite”, are you hungry, are you thirsty? How do we satisfy and maintain a spiritual appetite? Remind Yourself How Much God Loves You- the more you understand how much He loves you, the more you are going to love Him. Ephesians 3:18-19 …..that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (NSAB) Stop Filling Up on Junk Food – if you are not hungry for God, could you be ful

1. Know that you were created by a loving Father God. Honor God daily. Mark 12:30 2. Know that you need to love someone. You were put on earth to love others. Mark 12:31 3. Know that you need to love yourself. Mark 12:31 4. Know that you have to reject and disarm passivity in your life daily. 5. Know to always do the right thing. James 4:17 6. Know to make your bed daily. 7. Know to have an attitude of gratitude. I Thessalonians 5:18 8. Know to do your very best always....especially when no one is around. Colossians 3:23 9. Know to be a "giver" daily.. Use your time,

The work of the (YAHWEH) Lord is perfect. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Proverbs 19:7 Few things, people or places on earth are perfect, but the Word of God as referred here is absolute and complete. The entire trustworthiness of the Holy Scriptures is truth and perfection. The Word of God is perfect and in it is dependability. Two terms are generally used to describe these features of God’s Word: Inerrant, meaning that in the original copies of each separate 66 books, written by different authors and throughout many years, there is nothing mistaken or tinged with error. Although there has been many attempts to destroy it over the centuries, we still have co

God gives us His Word. Psalms 119:105 "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." God gives us His Spirit. Acts 1:8 "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." John 16:13 "However, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own

Being all in means you take up your cross. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25 NASB We are the example of the Church. We are what people either want to be a part of or the very thing that they run from. Being a Christian is not going to church on Sunday and paying our tithes. Being a Christian is living a life after Jesus Christ. A life of devotion, a life of surrender. Daily laying down our lives taking up our cross and walking out our salvation. I have a rule for myself, every e

My husband Larry is a rock hound. He loves looking for rocks along the road side, the mountain trails, in the desert, anyplace he can. While living in Montana, he found several various colored and different shaped rocks and brought them to our house. The rocks decorated the flower beds and defined the fence line. We had a large, perfectly flat, red sandstone rock that we used for a stepping stone to the deck. It came from the desert. People could stand on it, kick it, and jump on it. The rock didn’t move. It remained reliable and useful. Larry also found other sandstone rocks in the desert that were soft. When one of those rocks was dropped, kicked or hit, it crumbled into many smaller piece

We recently returned from Youth Camp and the theme was My Epic Story. I started thinking about my Epic Story and The Lord reminded me of Psalms 139. I love this chapter of the Bible because it really is about our Epic Story. You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Psalms 139: 1-3 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalms 139: 13-14 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be

When Doug’s dad was getting ready to pass from this world, we took our RV and went to Fort Collins, Colorado. We found a good church to attend when we were visiting. We were even able to get the folks to go with us. One Sunday Doug’s mom accepted the Lord as her Savior! On our trip to see his dad, we went to church and I wound up crying through the whole service. The Pastor noticed and came to me afterwards. He took us to his office and and us asked what was wrong. I told him why we were there and we weren’t sure of his dad’s salvation because he was a very quiet man. The Pastor offered to come and talk to Doug’s dad. When he arrived, Doug and I went to our RV and got down on our knee

“What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish. Mathew 18:12-14 Every night before I turn the kid’s television off Jasmine and Gavin come running to me with arms open wide with the same spoken words every night. "Mommy, huggy, kissy pray!" There are days I'm tired, grumpy, or I think I have something else to do and yet every night the

Micah 6:8, 7:7 But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously— take God seriously. But me, I’m not giving up. I’m sticking around to see what God will do. I’m waiting for God to make things right. I’m counting on God to listen to me. Let not my soul forget the love of His grandeur! ... even when our mouth insists on spilling accusatory evil and there’s no loving kindness in “that” present midst... a wave a coming, like a gush of wind, reminding a new to change the course of errant thinking. For the

Another good example that reminds us God is our creator and that He know everything we think and do is found in Acts 5, the story of Ananias an Sapphira. Ananias and Sapphira were man and wife who decided to sell a possession and give the money to the apostles just like Barnabas did earlier. Ananias decides to keep back part of it and his wife was aware of it. He brings it and Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” We all know what happens to him and la

The other day I ate more candy than necessary and then I hid the box under trash in my waste basket. I didn’t want it in view to remind me how “stupid” I had been to eat it. Guess what? It didn’t help because I knew and God knew. As a Christian I tend to wonder why we do things like hiding our sins from an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God. Psalm 69:5 states, O God, you know my foolishness; and my sins are not hidden from you. Do we somehow forget that our Creator is God and He knows everything we think and do? And He even provides examples for us in His Word. Let’s start at the small city of Ai in the days of Joshua. They have come over the Jordon, defeated the great city Je

The reason why most us are ineffective in life is that we’ve never learned how to fight the battle of the mind. If we want to learn to manage our mind, we have to deliver it from destructive thoughts. That isn’t easy, because there are three enemies that strive to keep us from fulfilling all our good intentions of changing our life. 1. The first enemy is our old nature. Paul says in Romans 7:23, “There is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me." Do you ever find yourself doing things that you don’t really want to do? That’s the battle in your brain between your old, sinful nature and your good intentions. 2. The se

Throughout my life there have been times that I would get one word from the Lord. I didn’t always know what he was telling me but I would write them down. When I pray and then sit quietly before the Lord, occasionally a word would come. On one of those quiet moments he put persevere in prayer in my mind. This word was given a long time ago and I had forgotten this word except that I had written it down in one of my journals that I happened to glance through, and it was brought back to my attention. It was timely for that word from long ago was now brought to light during this time and this season. My husband has been fervently praying for a miracle in his relationship with a very close fami