Well, it has been a hard August so far, there has been a lot of transitioning going on in my life.  First, I sent my oldest daughter off to college this past weekend.  I am so happy for her and excited to see what God does in her life.  Her mother and I have been preparing our daughter for 18 years for this very time.  She has a lot of experiences to experience, she has new people to meet, new opportunities before her and a bright future with a clean slate and God is going to bless this young woman.  I ask you to pray for her.

The second transition is my resignation from at church where used to work.   This resignation came as a necessary surprise and was a health choice.  God is sovereign and I trust He will bring me to a place of health both spiritually and for work in the near future.  I pray that God used me in some way to help people grow in their faith and establish lifelong relationships in the three years I served there.

So, what now?  Good question.  I am convince now, more than ever, that God has a calling on my life for full-time ministry.  These transitions are not going to slow me down, in fact they have ignited a fire and passion to continue my calling.  Nobody can take my calling away and nothing, aside from God, is goint to stop me from pursuing His will in my life. 

Neddless to say I could certainly use prayer.  There will be days that I will be down in the dumps and other days that I will not.  I know I won't struggle with God because God is faithful, I will struggle mostly with myself... Getting anxious, worried, and impatient.  Pray that God will lead me to the right ministry in my hometown or close by.  I want to serve God with my whole being without drama.  I know this is a big request because where people are involved drama is involved, but there are many healthy churches out there and quite honestly I would like serve in one.

I am going to try my best to continue my Foundations 260 morning posts, but I may not be successful in posting every single day.  However, do know that if I don't post a devo that I am at least reading the passage for the day.  God's Word is alive and active and I will remain alive and active in His Word so I may continue to grow in this journey of faith.

Thank you everyone for your prayer and support.​

FOUNDATIONS WEEK 30, DAY 2
Highlight:  "And now entreat the favor of God, that He may be gracious to us.  With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you?  Says the Lord of hosts."  Malachi 1:9

I am asking God for His favor.  He has been gracious to me and my family and this is a beautiful gift from Him.  Will you join me in praying for favor from God today?

Scripture Read: Nehemiah 9
Title:  The People Confess and Repent

H.E.A.R. 
(H) Highlight verse: "And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers"  Nehemiah 9:2

(E) Explain:  On the twenty-fourth day of the month the Israelites read from the Book of the Law and they confessed and repented of their sins and they worshiped God.  They acknowledged the faithfulness and patience of God as they recalled Israel's unfaithfulness to Him.  They recounted how Gow has been with His people even when they turned their backs on Him and that his actions were indeed righteous.  They talked about the reason that the Israelites were in captivity was because of their idolatry and turning their backs on God.  

(A) Application:  Confession, submission and repentance are important aspects of a believer’s life especially when we desire to get right with God.  We must make it a point to confess often to God our short comings and sins.   I John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." James 5:16 says, "Therefor, confess your sins to one another and pray for each other. that you may be healed." and Psalm 51 is the prayer of confession from David after his sin was exposed by the prophet Nathan for his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and murder of her husband.

Submission is always the first act of repentance.  Submission is when a person resigns himself or is put into subjection to or yielding to someone.  We do well in acknowledging and believing that we are not in control, God is.  The sooner we are able to submit ourselves fully to God the sooner we will see that when we do, things are on the way to how they should be.  Submission is probably one of the more difficult things to do because we are giving the controls of our lives over to someone else and humans like to feel like they are in control. In repentance it is not enough to just say, “I am done sinning now let’s move one.”  Repentance means stop doing the sinful act you are doing and do the complete opposite.  

(R) Respond: Lord, may I be disciplined and reminded daily to confess and repent of my sins to you.

Scripture Read: Nehemiah 5 - 6 
Title:  A Conspiracy Against Nehemiah

H.E.A.R. 
(H) Highlight verse: "Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, 'Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.' But they intended me harm.  And I sent messages to them saying, "I am doing great work and I cannot come down.  Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?'"  Nehemiah 6:2, 3

(E) Explain:  As the work on the wall was about complete Sanballat, Tobias and the enemies of Nehemiah became more and more enraged.  They did not want to see the work completed and they certainly had it in for Nehemiah.  They came up with a story to try and frighten Nehemiah in hopes to him look like he was trying to rebel and to become the king of the Jews.  But Nehemiah saw through their made up story and did not meet with them.  The enemies also hired a man to trick Nehemiah into believing his life was at stake and he implored him to take refuge in the Temple thus making him look like a weak leader.  These were all diversion tactics to try and stop the work that God was doing through them people in Jerusalem.

(A) Application:  Satan is a master at diversion tactics.  God has called his people to do a great work for the Kingdom of God.  God is at work today in this world and in our lives and Satan does not want to see this work come to completion.  He knows that if he can cause us to take our eyes off of the goal of God and focus on fear, quarreling and worry that he can easily cause God's people to be thrown off track to fulfilling their calling.  

Although C.S. Lewis's THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is a work of fiction there is a lot of  truth interwoven throughout the story.  In the story a Demon named Screwtape writes to his young novice demon nephew, Wormwood in correspondance to how he is doing in tempting an ordinary young man to walk away from God.  Screwtape writes, "An important spiritual law is here involved.  I have explained that you can weaken his prayers by diverting his attention from the Enemy Himself to his own state of mind about the Enemy.  On the other hand fear becomes easier to master when the patients mind is diverted from the thing feared to the fear itself, considered as a present and undesirable state of his own mind; and when he regards the fear as his appointed cross he will inevitably think of it as a state of mind."(Pg. 26)  What Lewis was getting at was that evil wins when our minds are diverted from God and we instead focus on our worries, fears, anger etc. because when we do we become more succeptible to sin.  Philippians 4:7 says, "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  Let us remember this as we live our lives today for God's glory. 

(R) Respond: Lord, may I keep my eyes on you and your call in my life.  Do not let the distractions of life and the world divert me from fully following you every day.

Scripture Read: Nehemiah 3 - 4
Title:  Repair Begins, and Opposition Continues

H.E.A.R. 
(H) Highlight verse: "And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it.  And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night."  Nehemiah 4:8, 9

(E) Explain:  Chapter three contains the names of all the people who worked on rebuilding the wall.  It was truly a joint effort and one that they were all committed to and the opposition from Sanballet, Tobias, the Arabs, Amonites and Ashdodites continued.  The opposition goes from taunting and jeering to plotting violence against them.  The workers prayed and set guards up around the wall.  Nehemiah stationed men at the low parts of the wall with spears and bows and he had half the workers stand guard while the other half worked.  However, the workers had weapons in hand as they worked as well.

(A) Application:  When God unites his people to work together for His glory and honor, nothing can stop what He is doing.  There will always be opposition to God's work, sometimes it may be just taunting but other times it can turn to violence.  We can learn much from Nehemiah and the workers as theycould have easily been discouraged and walked away or caved in to the pressure, but they didn't.  They prayed and sought God from protection and guidance, but they didn't stop there they knew they had a part to play as well.  They needed to be proactive in continuing the work and in protecting the work they were committing to do.  They didn't just sit around and expect God to fix everything.  They took took action as well.

When God calls us to do His work it is important we be in continuual prayer, but it is also just as important to be involved in the work of God as well.  So many people are willing to commit to praying for God's work to be done,  but few are willing to actually engage in it.  When God calls us to kingdom work He doesn't just call us to pray, He calls us to pray AND do the work. ​

(R) Respond: Lord, I know prayer is important in seeing your work come to completion, but I also know you have called me to be a vessel you can use to accomplish your will.  May I always be a person who is actively and willingly doing your Kingdom work.