Given Courage

I'm so glad you are here! I hope during your visit you get a glimpse of God's heart for we become what we are gazing at. I pray that God refreshes you and gives you readiness to persevere in what He has for you today.  

My desire is to be a blessing to you in helping you know God more and make Him known so I've made these Resources available to you and have the Missional Living blog tab for practical ideas of how to live on mission right where you are. And currently I am writing my way through Judges sharing glimpses of God's heart and character for a weekday devotional. To check out the entire series so far head on over the the Judges Devotional. And if you are a blogger, come on over on Friday's for a blog hop.

Given Courage

"Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. He went down to Ashkelon,struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of their belongings and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he went up to his father's house. And Samson's wife was given to the friend who had attended him at his wedding." Judges 14:19-20 

Ok get this! The Hebrew word came is tsaleach {tsaw-lay'-akh} and means to push forward, in various senses (literal or figurative, transitive or intransitive), cause to, make to, send prosper(-ity, -ous, - ously).  When the Holy Spirit moved Samson to be the means God used to show His wrath He basically gave him courage. Which reminds me of a few other things: When God "hardened" Pharoah's heart a word very similar to this one is used. Chazaq, it means to embolden. Motivate someone to do what's already in their heart. It also reminds me of how the Holy Spirit gives us courage to be witnesses from our circle of influence to the furthest parts of the earth and everywhere in between.

How incredibly comforting to know that God gives courage. I mean, really, He really does. But like grace, He doesn't give it before hand so we can store it up for later, He gives it right when we need it. So until we actually step out and do hard things by faith, we wont get to experience Him chazaq or tsaleach us. Let's do hard things for Jesus to make His name famous friends.

Check out the the Missional Living tab awesome stories of how God is changing lives (& to hear about what's happening on Thursday) and the Just Thinkin tab for a great post on Failure, Wisdom and the Glory of God.

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#407 Much needed outreach to students who struggle with same sex attraction happening on Tues.
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I'm linked up with the beautiful ladies at  A Holy Experience, The Beauty in His Grip, Nebraska Graceful, The Wellspring, The Better Mom, Homestead Revival, Pause on the Path