Category: encouragement

Posted in encouragement, theology

Gratitude in the Days of Chaos

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

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These times have become chaotic, disruptive, and perplexing. It helps to concentrate on Jesus in daily life. Intentionally concentrate. To do this, I find ways to purposely thank Him, this keeps His name and focus in front of my eyes like phylactery. Where Paul says he has “learned” to be content, for me, gratitude is one way I can learn to be content. I translate the day’s events into a lesson that includes gratitude (among other things), so as to propel my sanctification in cooperation with the Spirit.

I’m not writing this because I’m so super duper, or holier than thou. In fact, the opposite.  have to, must, work on ways to not let days slip by without a nod to the Shepherd of my Soul, and I easily can. I can get lazy, apathetic, and selfish in a heartbeat.
Continue reading “Gratitude in the Days of Chaos” →

Posted in encouragement, theology

Grace Community Church pushes back against Caesar’s encroachment

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Since March 14, 2020 here in America we have been under emergency orders of a National Emergency due to a pandemic. The President, under information from the Center for Disease Control and other medical organizations, shut down the country. We went into lockdown, stopping businesses, schools, commerce, international air travel- everything. The pandemic was from a virus that had come from China and swept across the world.

The predictions were for a situation akin to the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic, where millions of Americans died. This turned out not to be the case in 2020. About 97% of people who got this virus, recovered. It proved to be low risk for children, extremely few across the nation died from it. No child under the age of 17 in my state died from it in the last 5 months. Many people who supposedly had it, were asymptomatic. In others, their case was so mild they hardly needed treatment. Continue reading “Grace Community Church pushes back against Caesar’s encroachment” →

Posted in encouragement, theology

Wherever you are, Jesus hears you and knows you

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Did the pillar of cloud ever depart from the people? Did the pillar of fire ever forsake them? When the outcry rose from Sodom, did not God hear their cries?

Did the lone fleeing woman crying in the desert escape God’s attention? Did the prayer of an aged devout man to see the Messiah reach through the skies to heaven and God’s ears?

Was the prayer of a man under the sea in a fish’s belly heard? And answered? Was the desperate prophet crying in the desert alone, or was God with him? Continue reading “Wherever you are, Jesus hears you and knows you” →

Posted in encouragement, theology

Why are people acting like this?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Does anything matter? After I die, will I have a legacy, or will I be forgotten? Why are we here?

These are the eternal questions. These are the issues every man deals with in his heart. These questions represent the ever-present fear of death. 1 Corinthians 15:26 says that death is an enemy. Hebrews 2:15 says that fearing death keeps one in a lifelong slavery. The wages of sin is death, (Romans 6:23) and since every person knows he’s a sinner, they know their wages are ultimately death. They are in the grip of death all their lives, and experiencing its power even before bodily death arrives. This is the bondage of slavery meant in the Hebrews verse. Continue reading “Why are people acting like this?” →

Posted in encouragement

Dear Sisters : encouragement in scripture and poetry (by Kay Cude)

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

To all my sisters who have lost a loved one and are facing the first holiday/anniversary/birthday alone…

To all my sisters who have spoken up for the pure doctrine of Jesus Christ in Bible study or against a false teacher and have been kicked out because of it…

To all my sisters who have approached their pastor with concerns of false teaching and have been summarily dismissed…

To all my sisters who are struggling to be a good Christian wife with a non-believing husband…or an apathetic husband…

To all my sisters who have a spouse deployed overseas…

To all my sisters with a Prodigal child or grandchild…

To my lonely and hurting and grief-stricken and saddened sisters. You’re not alone.

Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

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Posted in encouragement, theology

God made me

Posted on by elizabethprata

Who else but mankind can say, “God made me”? A bird, as merrily as it chirps on the piney branch, cannot say that God made it. A butterfly, as exquisitely as it floats over a vibrant flower cannot say that God made it. A gazelle, as nimbly as it leaps over the embrowned savannah grass, cannot say “God made me.”

Apprehension of our creator is a gift God was pleased to bestow. All believers, no matter their sorry estate, no matter how lofty a lifestyle, no matter how wide and far they’re separated from loved ones, no matter how faithful or prodigal, can say “God made me.”

Even more, He made believers to become His own. “God made me”…to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. “God made me”, for this.

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Posted in encouragement, theology

When did God hurry?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I read one of Chapel Library’s free literature pieces,  AW Pink’s The Prodigal Son. Chapel Library is a ministry at Mt. Zion Bible Church in Florida, where you can download any of their hundreds of pieces of classic Christian Literature, for free. Or, you can request that the Library print it out in booklet form, and they will send it to you for free! You can order up to $20 per month in materials. (After that, you pay).

Anyway, it was a gem of a 32 page booklet filled with lots of insights I’d never thought of before. What a lot of truth Pink packed into 35 pages! He focused on the prodigal rather than the other son, though he did mention the other son at the end. If you bear with me to read of 2 nuggets I found fascinating: Continue reading “When did God hurry?” →

Posted in encouragement, theology

There was a THUNK on my windshield…

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I killed a baby bird. I didn’t mean to. I was actually an innocent bystander. It happened as I was driving up the road, on a divided highway at about 50 mph. The baby brown thrasher was flying low, and hit my windshield. He’d tried to veer at the last minute. He would have made it, too, but instead he hit the corner of my windshield a few inches too late.

For such a small bird his collision made a huge thunk. I glanced in my rear view mirror and he was tumbling wing over wing in the shoulder of the road. Continue reading “There was a THUNK on my windshield…” →

Posted in encouragement, theology

Complaining About the Manna

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

You know the story. Yahweh had delivered the Hebrews from slavery. He delivered them using 10 miracles (plagues). He delivered them via parting the Red Sea. He sustained them by giving them water. He sustained them by giving them food. Literally, bread from heaven. (Exodus 16:4, Nehemiah 9:15).

It tasted like “wafers made with honey” (Exodus 16:31) and “fresh oil.” (Numbers 11:8).

The manna (literal translation, “What is it?” Exodus 16:15) was nutritious, delicious, and since it was from heaven, didn’t have the curse of the ground upon it.

But they grumbled. They didn’t know what it was. They wanted meat. Continue reading “Complaining About the Manna” →

Posted in encouragement, theology

The word of God is living

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

To the Christian, the word of God is like a green lawn, undulating, rolling out blade after blade of perfectly manicured grass, thriving and living, each blade a perfect truth to be discovered, examined, applied, praised.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).

Underline is mine, it’s what I’m focusing on in this essay. Continue reading “The word of God is living” →