Complete Power, Absolute Faithfulness ~ Lent 2015

God’s Faithfulness ~ Our Everlasting Hope!

LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness

You have done wonderful things, things planned long ago. Isaiah 25:1 NIV

During this season of reflection and renewal, join me in exploring God’s Faithfulness. Do you find strength for every circumstance in God’s Faithfulness? God IS Faithful!  God’s Faithfulness is our everlasting Hope! ~ Donna Oswalt

photo:in Germany/T/McGirr

Then Job answered the LORD and said: “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. Job 42:1-6 NKJV

IF you can find time, read Job chapters 38-41 to fully grasp the magnitude of Almighty God. In these verses, God confronts Job’s arrogance with a series of questions that proclaim the complete power of God Almighty. God asks Job who and where and when did you create the world and all its glory? Have you and do you know and can you explain how all things work? These Scriptures expose the greatness of an all-powerful Creator. With great humility, Job responds that God’s power exceeds everything.

The story of Job invites us to witness human suffering up close. From great abundance to complete despair, Job struggles to understand his tragedies, but he misses the most important point. God is Sovereign! God asks us the same questions that He asks Job, and in reply, we must confess that God’s ways are higher, beyond our finite minds. Like Job, we should respond with awe and gratitude, “I've been talking about things far too wonderful for me!” 

Lord, I constantly talk about things I do not understand, worry about situations I cannot control, try to plan my future without even grasping my present life. Expose my pride and weariness, my doubt and anxiety, my self-righteousness. Great is Your faithfulness. –dho

Focus Point: God is Sovereign!

All rights reserved; copyright 2015 by Donna Oswalt/Co-Founder of Mangrove Ministries/Christian blogger and author Breathing Room For My Soul (blog) Follow on Twitter @soulchat

For more information about this ministry visit ~

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“May you be blessed by the Lord Who loves you best!”

Divine Protection ~ Lent 2015

God’s Faithfulness ~ Our Everlasting Hope!

LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness

You have done wonderful things, things planned long ago. Isaiah 25:1 NIV

During this season of reflection and renewal, join me in exploring God’s Faithfulness. Do you find strength for every circumstance in God’s Faithfulness? God IS Faithful!  God’s Faithfulness is our everlasting Hope! ~ Donna Oswalt

photo: in Germany/T.McGirr

He will shield you with His wings. He will shelter you with His feathers. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. Psalm 91:4 NLT

God’s faithfulness provides safe shelter for His own. Whether the metaphor refers to feathers of angels or eagles or hens (see Matthew 23:37), trusting in this living God becomes a shield for the fearful, the forgotten, the desperate, the dying, the wounded, the weary. The world reeks of danger and uncertainty, but we find our refuge, our safe place in the embrace of God Almighty.

Whether the context is Moses reminding the Israelites or Jesus grieving over Jerusalem or the world churning its chaos, God longs to sit in the inner sanctuary, to have communion and fellowship with those who seek Him. So come to a place of safety, a place of Divine Protection, a place of unfailing love. 

El Shaddai, You are my safe place, my port in life’s storms, my retreat from daily struggles, my shelter from Satan’s lies. Great is Your faithfulness; be my salvation. - dho

Focus Point: The world reeks of danger and uncertainty, but we find our refuge, our safe place in the embrace of God Almighty.

All rights reserved; copyright 2015 by Donna Oswalt/Co-Founder of Mangrove Ministries/Christian blogger and author Breathing Room For My Soul (blog) Follow on Twitter @soulchat

For more information about this ministry visit ~

MangroveMinistries.org

LIKE Mangrove Ministries on Facebook

“May you be blessed by the Lord Who loves you best!”

Faithful in Judgement ~ Lent 2015

God’s Faithfulness ~ Our Everlasting Hope!

LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness

You have done wonderful things, things planned long ago. Isaiah 25:1 NIV

During this season of reflection and renewal, join me in exploring God’s Faithfulness. Do you find strength for every circumstance in God’s Faithfulness? God IS Faithful!  God’s Faithfulness is our everlasting Hope! ~ Donna Oswalt

photo: in Germany/T.McGirr

All who believe in God’s Son have eternal life. Those who don’t believe the Son will never experience eternal life, but the wrath of God remains upon them. John 3:36 NLT

No one likes to talk about God’s judgment preferring to focus only on God’s love and goodness; yet, God cannot be compartmentalized into categories. Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, God remains unchanging, always faithful and true, full of mystery and majesty. His sovereignty and power span infinity. God’s faithfulness enters the world through Jesus Christ, His Son, not to judge the world, but to save the world. (John 3:17) God’s promise of Perfect Love brings life, real life, right now!

God’s most extravagant gift of love, His Son, brings new hope to old wounds, compassionate arms for old regrets, gentle smiles for the abused, tender hearts toward the outcasts, healing for the spiritually blind. God’s judgment reveals our true heart, our weakness, our shortsightedness, our stubbornness, our desire to walk on the edge. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more. (John 3:19) Choose Light!  

Holy One, my heart overflows to think of such Perfect Love. I do want to walk in the light but confess, sometimes, I find myself dangerously near the shadows. Open my heart and ears and eyes that I can see others as You see them. Great is Your faithfulness, immense in light and love. - dho

Focus Point: God’s faithfulness enters the world through Jesus Christ, His Son, not to judge the world, but to save the world.

All rights reserved; copyright 2015 by Donna Oswalt/Co-Founder of Mangrove Ministries/Christian blogger and author Breathing Room For My Soul (blog) Follow on Twitter @soulchat

For more information about this ministry visit ~

MangroveMinistries.org

LIKE Mangrove Ministries on Facebook

“May you be blessed by the Lord Who loves you best!”

Faithful to Forgive ~ Lent 2015

God’s Faithfulness ~ Our Everlasting Hope!

LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness

You have done wonderful things, things planned long ago. Isaiah 25:1 NIV

During this season of reflection and renewal, join me in exploring God’s Faithfulness. Do you find strength for every circumstance in God’s Faithfulness? God IS Faithful!  God’s Faithfulness is our everlasting Hope! ~ Donna Oswalt

photo: in Germany/T.McGirr

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 NASB

Multiple times in the Old Testament, passages describe God as “slow to anger and abounding in love”. A vast contrast exists between God, being in perfect righteousness, and mankind, struggling with persistent unrighteousness. In His patient, faithful goodness, God continues to reach for us, to shine His Light in the darkness of sin. In this place of longing, God waits. He waits for us.

Sadly, either ignorance or arrogance maintains the barrier between us and God, because even without confession God already knows. To confess our sins means we “agree” or “acknowledge” with God that we are imperfect, that we are unrighteous. God, faithful to forgive, is waiting. 

Lord, the world applauds wanting more, self-focused thinking, looking important. It is so easy to slip into the darkness. You are the faithful Light that constantly shines showing me the way back to You. Forgive me for listening more to the lies of the world than to You. Great is Your faithfulness. – dho

Focus Point: God, faithful to forgive, is waiting.

All rights reserved; copyright 2015 by Donna Oswalt/Co-Founder of Mangrove Ministries/Christian blogger and author Breathing Room For My Soul (blog) Follow on Twitter @soulchat

For more information about this ministry visit ~

MangroveMinistries.org

LIKE Mangrove Ministries on Facebook

“May you be blessed by the Lord Who loves you best!”

Sign of God's Faithfulness ~ Lent 2015

God’s Faithfulness ~ Our Everlasting Hope!

LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness

You have done wonderful things, things planned long ago. Isaiah 25:1 NIV

During this season of reflection and renewal, join me in exploring God’s Faithfulness. Do you find strength for every circumstance in God’s Faithfulness? God IS Faithful!  God’s Faithfulness is our everlasting Hope! ~ Donna Oswalt

photo: in Germany/T.McGirr

Therefore, the LORD Himself will give you a sign; Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14 NASB

Isaiah speaks this prophecy which foreshadows the Messiah some 700 years before Jesus is born. In the New Testament, Matthew1:18-23 recalls Joseph’s dream where an angel of the Lord confirms that the child growing in Mary’s womb is conceived by the Holy Spirit and will fulfill the prophecy in Isaiah. Immanuel, meaning God with us, fulfills God’s promise. Jesus enters the world, and God’s presence literally dwells alongside of humanity. Jesus, fully human and fully divine, becomes God in tangible form.

God gives the law (Ten Commandments) through Moses, but the sign of God’s unfailing love and faithfulness comes completely through Jesus Christ. While Moses speaks God’s law to the people, Jesus comes to personally fulfill the law. God yearns for an intimate relationship with us. 

Faithful Father, Promise Keeper,  grace comes through the ages with ancient revelations, comes on the lips of angels who sing of Your Glory, comes in the whispers of the Spirit; Grace comes with Immanuel, Grace comes for me. Great is Your faithfulness. -dho

Focus Point: Jesus enters the world, and God’s presence literally dwells alongside of humanity.

All rights reserved; copyright 2015 by Donna Oswalt/Co-Founder of Mangrove Ministries/Christian blogger and author Breathing Room For My Soul (blog) Follow on Twitter @soulchat

For more information about this ministry visit ~

MangroveMinistries.org

LIKE Mangrove Ministries on Facebook

“May you be blessed by the Lord Who loves you best!”

Mercy and Truth - Lent 2015

God’s Faithfulness ~ Our Everlasting Hope!

LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness

You have done wonderful things, things planned long ago. Isaiah 25:1 NIV

During this season of reflection and renewal, join me in exploring God’s Faithfulness. Do you find strength for every circumstance in God’s Faithfulness? God IS Faithful!  God’s Faithfulness is our everlasting Hope! ~ Donna Oswalt

photo: in Germany/T.McGirr

All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies. Psalm 25:10 NKJV

Mercy and truth can be translated “unfailing love” and “faithfulness”. In His Sovereignty, God reveals His promise, reveals the Truth, reveals the Messiah, reveals Jesus as The Way. The source of this promise comes from the LORD’s unfailing love, from His desire to unite our spirit with His Spirit. Even when disobedience interferes and distractions ignore the Spirit, God marks the path with mercy and truth.

The world comes at us full force with numerous options for personal entertainment, strong rhetoric within political parties, countless organizations to benefit humanity. Many loud voices seek to motivate, include, and sway our thoughts and commitments. While many of these opportunities can generate good, we must seek the paths of the LORD. Another Hebrew name for God, El Roi, the God who sees me, reminds us that God literally sees each person. El Roi meets us at every crossroad pointing the way of mercy and truth. 

Lord, You see my resentment, my indecision, my failure, my uncertainty. So many idols scream at me, demanding allegiance. Holy Father, great is Your faithfulness in showing me unfailing love, mercy undeserved. Help me walk Your paths daily. - dho

Focus Point: Even when disobedience interferes and distractions ignore the Spirit, God marks the path with mercy and truth.

All rights reserved; copyright 2015 by Donna Oswalt/Co-Founder of Mangrove Ministries/Christian blogger and author Breathing Room For My Soul (blog) Follow on Twitter @soulchat

For more information about this ministry visit ~

MangroveMinistries.org

LIKE Mangrove Ministries on Facebook

“May you be blessed by the Lord Who loves you best!”