We purchased that place. A few years after that, we sold half of that property for more than we paid for the whole property. We ended up building a new house there. Be persistent. But let God do it His way. Learn to embrace where you are. Keep a song in your heart. Keep passion in your spirit. This is the day the Lord has made. Sometimes the closed doors and the disappointments are simply a test.
Pass the Trust Test This is what happened with Abraham. He and his wife, Sarah, had prayed, believed, stood in faith, and finally seen the promise come to pass.
They were so excited. You can imagine how Abraham must have felt many years later when God told him to take Isaac to the top of a mountain and sacrifice him. Isaac was what Abraham loved the most.
Isaac was the fulfillment of the promise God had given him. Now God was asking him to put his dream on the altar. But he was obedient. He passed the trust test. Now I can see you trust Me more than anything. You are putting your dream on the altar. While he was reading a used book, he noticed handwritten notes in the margin.
They were very thoughtful and heartwarming. He got hold of a New York City telephone book and found her address. He wrote her a letter, introducing himself and telling her how he was shipping out to Europe the next day. He invited her to respond, so they could talk about the book. Much to his surprise, he received a letter in return, and for the next thirteen months, they wrote back and forth again and again, getting closer and closer.
They were actually falling in love even though they had never seen each other. A year and a half later, he was coming back home through New York City. This was their big opportunity. They were going to meet for the first time and go out to dinner.
He stepped off the ship, and the big moment finally arrived. He saw a beautiful young lady walking toward him who took his breath away.
She was stunning—tall, gorgeous features, in great shape. She looked like a movie star. As she passed by, he finally came back down to earth. About that time, a lady in her forties walked up to him. Disappointed, but not showing it, he walked up to her with a smile. May—may I take you to dinner? That young lady in the green suit, who just went by, she asked me to wear this rose on my coat. Take the pressure off. God is in control. Pain is a part of life, and it often feels like a dark place.
But the fact is, it has a perfect place. He never said we would understand everything along the way. But He did promise that it would all work out for our good. The key is what you do in your times of pain. Pain will change us. I was changed. If you go through a divorce or a legal battle, or have a friend who betrays you, eventually the experience will pass and you will get through it, but you will be different.
How the pain changes you is up to you. You can come out bitter, or you can come out better. You can come out defeated, having given up on your dreams, or you can come out blessed with a new fire, looking for the new opportunities in front of you.
We all experience pain. That difficulty is an opportunity to get stronger, to develop character, to gain a greater trust in God. Satan had to ask for permission from God before he could test Job. The enemy may turn on the furnace, but the good news is that God has His hand on the thermostat. God controls how much heat, how much pain, how much adversity we will face. He knows what we can handle.
If it is going to harm us rather than help us, He dials it back. I know I can handle it. God knows exactly what you need and when you need it. Every struggle is making you stronger. Every difficulty is growing you up. You may not like it, but every painful time is developing something in you that can be developed only in the tough times.
In , researchers aboard the space shuttle Columbia did an experiment with honeybees. They took them up into space to study the effects of weightlessness on them.
Perhaps they thought, This is the life. This is the way we were created to live—no struggle, no hardship, no pain. But they all died. You might say that they enjoyed the ride, but they died. Difficulties will come, and pain is a part of life, so keep the right perspective.
In the tough dark times, God is getting you prepared. If it were too much, God would dial back the intensity. He has His hand on the thermostat. You are well able. You are full of can-do power. You are armed with strength for this battle. There Is a Lesson in the Pain There is purpose in your pain.
Let Me hit her with this sickness, and let Me cause him some heartache. Why did my loved one not make it? Why did my marriage not work? This is what faith is all about. But in order not to waste the pain, you have to learn the lesson.
I ignored the warnings, and I got involved with the wrong people. A man I know struggled with diabetes for years and ended up in the hospital for a month. I saw him in the lobby afterward and he looked better than ever. I exercise every day and feel like a new man. He learned the lesson. But before you let go of the negative event, you need to remember the lesson that you learned from the experience.
I talked to a man who was about to get married for the fourth time. All my wives have run around on me. Maybe the lesson he needs to learn is to be careful about the kind of women to whom he gravitates. Consider a guy who was driving his car, had an accident, and got out upset. The pain will stop if you learn the lesson and zip it up. The Birth of Something New Sometimes we experience pain that has nothing to do with our choices.
We are doing the right thing, and the wrong thing happens. At forty-eight years of age, my mother was raising five children and pastoring the church with my father, and life was good.
She was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Not only was that physically uncomfortable, it was emotionally painful, making her think about leaving her children, leaving her husband.
You said the number of my days You will fulfill. Today not only is she healthy and whole but, out of that difficulty, out of that painful time, God birthed something new in her. She started going around praying for other people who were sick.
The very thing that tried to destroy her was what God used to push her to a new level of her destiny. She goes up to the medical center every week and has healing services in the chapel. What the enemy means for your harm, God will use to your advantage. There are times when God will allow us to go through a painful season so He can birth something new on the inside.
God allowed this to happen because He trusts you. He knows He can count on you to take the same comfort, the same healing, the same encouragement that helped you overcome this trouble, and share it with others.
The pain was for a greater purpose. Why did those people mistreat me growing up? Why did I have this bad break? The forces of darkness wanted to take you out, but God had His hand on the thermostat.
I have an assignment for them. I know Job. Turn the Pain Around as a Force for Good In May , Candy Lightner received a phone call telling her that her thirteen-year-old daughter Cari had been hit by a car while walking to church.
Cari lost her life that day. But then she found out the man driving the car had been under the influence of alcohol and was a repeat offender. The enemy meant her experience for harm, but God used it for good.
Go out as she did and find somebody you can help. Healing comes when you get outside yourself and help others. You are uniquely qualified. You have something to give others. I know a lady who got a bad medical report. The doctors found what they thought was a cancerous tumor. We prayed and believed that the test would come back negative, but it confirmed that the tumor was indeed cancerous. Her attitude was, God, I trust You. She took the chemo for one year.
Now she goes back to the hospital as a volunteer and encourages other people fighting cancer. God brought me through it, and He can do it for you. Her test has become her testimony. God is counting on us to let our light shine through the dark places. Be on the lookout for others you can encourage. She went to the Olympics heavily favored to win the gold medal in the hundred-meter hurdles.
Nobody had even gotten close to her time. She lined up on the track, the starter fired the gun, and she took off running. Everything was going great, and she was out in front, just as expected. Eight hurdles down; two to go, and she wins the gold. But on the ninth hurdle, her timing was off, and against all odds, she hit the hurdle and slightly fell.
It was just enough of a stumble to allow the woman next to her to pass her. She had worked her whole life for that twelve-second race, and it ended with a huge disappointment.
Quit feeling sorry for yourself and go lift somebody else up. Everything that happens to us happens for a reason. Nothing is a coincidence. Some experiences help us grow, mature, and come up higher. Then there are times when God will allow us to go through a difficult time so later on we can be instrumental in helping others overcome. Can God trust you with pain? Can God trust you to be uncomfortable? What if God has allowed this difficulty so three years down the road you can help somebody else move forward?
Can He trust you? When I lost my father, that was painful. We all have something to give. For the Joy Set before You I saw a story on the news about a woman who had been perfectly healthy, but started feeling nauseated. Over the next few months her back started hurting, and her feet were swelling.
She went to the doctor early on, and the doctor thought it was some kind of virus that would pass. Month after month, different symptoms popped up. She was uncomfortable, swollen, gaining weight. One day she started having a sharp pain in her stomach area. She tried to endure it, hoping it would pass, but it got worse and worse. All those symptoms that she had been feeling—the pain, the discomfort, the nausea, not sleeping well— there had been a purpose to them.
A change had been taking place, and she was about to birth something new. All we feel is the pain. Why is this happening to me? Focus on the fact that a new level is coming. He and Samantha had two beautiful children, and she was expecting a third. Connor was diagnosed with autism. They were discouraged, but Craig and Samantha understand the principle. They knew they had been given Connor because God could trust them.
Craig talked to me about how there was no place for special needs children at our church. We can call it the Champions Club. We started the Champions Club, and within the first few months, three hundred new families joined the church!
Then other churches heard about it, and Craig helped them launch their own special needs ministries. Today there are over thirty Champions Clubs in seven different nations. Look for opportunities. As with Craig, God is counting on you to help others facing the same thing. He can show us favor, promote us, heal us.
Without Goliath, David would have never taken the throne. What may look like a setback is really a setup to get you to your throne. God could have used King Saul, who had the authority, to promote David. He can use your enemies, your critics, the people who are trying to push you down. After David defeated Goliath, you never read anything more about Goliath. Part of his destiny was to establish who David was. In the same way, God has lined up divine connections, people who will be good to you, encourage you, and push you forward.
There are Goliaths ordained to come across your path. When you overcome, not only will you step up to a new level of your destiny, but everyone around you will see the favor of God on your life. When Goliath Steps in Front of You In we received word that the Houston Rockets were moving out of the Compaq Center and the city leaders were thinking about selling it. We needed and had been looking for a larger auditorium.
When I heard this news, something came alive inside me. I knew that building was supposed to be ours. Word got out in the city that we were interested in it. There was a lot of talk about what should happen to this building.
A friend of mine was at a luncheon with some local high-powered business executives. One of the executives, a very influential man, found out that my friend attends Lakewood. This executive began to talk about the Compaq Center and how opposed he was to our buying it and what a terrible thing that would be for the city.
He said that it should remain a sports arena, and that by no means should the city allow a church there, and on and on. I thought, Thanks a lot for the good news! But the truth is, that discussion was ordained by the Creator. That executive was one of those Goliaths whom God strategically places in our path. When I heard how much he was against us, something rose up inside me. I had been determined before, but now there was a holy determination. I had a new fire, a new passion, a new resolve.
Sometimes God will put an enemy in your life to keep you stirred up. This is not because of spite or pride, but a holy determination. God uses the negative to keep us stirred up. He was one of the most instrumental people in our getting the Compaq Center. God used our enemy to bless us. I need to write some of my enemies a check. It was their opposition that pushed me forward. Many times your enemies will do more to catapult you to success than your friends.
Our building is on the second-busiest freeway in the nation. You may be up against a similar enemy right now—an enemy to your health, your finances, a relationship. In one sense God used Judas more than He used the other disciples. Judas was ordained to betray Jesus—that was his purpose, to try to stop Him.
We celebrate Mary, the mother of Jesus, giving birth in the manger; we celebrate John baptizing Jesus and the dove coming down from heaven, and we celebrate Peter, James, and John walking with Jesus and being His friends.
But at the same time, the man who betrayed Jesus, the one who sold Him out for thirty pieces of silver, was just as critical to His destiny, if not more so than the others. What am I saying? If they overlooked you, tried to push you down, and lied about you, it may not have been fair, but nothing happens by accident. If God allowed it, He knows how to use it for your good. How could You allow this man to betray Me? But the longer I live, the more I realize that nothing happens by accident.
If you keep the right attitude, God will even use the opposition to bless you. For over fifty years he had gone around the world doing so much good. Most people were very appreciative and received him well. But in his hometown, the editors of the local newspaper never liked him. They were constantly finding something bad to write.
This went on year after year. He had an interesting perspective. They wrote a big front-page article that celebrated everything he had done. It was as though God had waited on purpose. It kept him stirred up. That opposition is making you stronger. Those people who try to push you down, the betrayal, the disappointment—none of these can keep you from your destiny.
He strategically places the Goliaths, the Judases, the critics, the opposition in our lives. In the Scripture, four men carried a paralyzed man to see Jesus. When they arrived at the house, it was so crowded inside they had to take him up on the roof and let him down through the ceiling. Only God can do that. The man stood up, perfectly well. Jesus could have just forgiven his sins and moved on. But right in the midst of their murmuring, Jesus healed him. Let them talk. Just as with this man, God will use your enemies to bless you.
They put you in position for promotion. Without the murmuring, the paralyzed man might not have been healed; without Goliath, David might not have taken the throne; the betrayal of Judas eventually led to the resurrection of Jesus from the grave; without that executive who was against us, we might not have our building. A man told me his business had dwindled down to nothing.
To make matters even worse, one of its main competitors had gone on a radio show and talked about it in a very unfavorable light.
It looked as though that would be the final blow that put this business under. But it was just the opposite. When the competitor talked about it, he drew attention to the business, and things started turning around.
God has all kinds of ways to meet your needs. He can use your critics to promote you. Get any books you like and read everywhere you want. We cannot guarantee that every book is in the library!
Dark times are actually meant to be good for you. Best-selling author Joel Osteen talks all about God's plan in his new book. Sometimes we can't understand why bad things happen to us, we are so overwhelmed because of the tragic news that we ignore their final purpose. And it's completely understandable, bad situations tend to cloud your senses and make you feel distracted. In Blessed in the Darkness, Osteen breaks down the nature of unfortunate events and how to deal with them in order to grow stronger.
Note: This summary is wholly written and published by Abbey Beathan. It is not affiliated with the original author in any way "In the dark places, we prove to God what we're really made of. You have to be faithful when things aren't going your way. Staying in faith and keeping a good attitude is the first and the most important step to overcome the most ferocious hardships in your life. It's easier said than done, when things go south, we tend to lose faith and we start to think that is never going to get better.
But actually, if you follow the teachings in this book, it will get better! Better than ever. Don't let yourself be overwhelmed by darkness. Dark times are inevitable but they always give you room to improve.
Blessed in the Darkness is an outstanding book that will help you keep your faith intact during darker times. It was Albert Einstein who famously said that once you stop learning, you start dying. It was Bill Gates who said that he would want the ability to read faster if he could only have one superpower in this world.
Abbey Beathan's mission is to bring across amazing golden nuggets in amazing books through our summaries. Our vision is to make reading non-fiction fun, dynamic and captivating. Why Abbey Beathan's Summaries? The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of knowledge" - Abbey Beathan. Find comfort in dark times and grow your trust and faith in God with this inspiring and insightful guide from Lakewood Church pastor and 1 New York Times bestselling author Joel Osteen.
All of us will go through dark times that we don't understand: a difficulty with a friend, an unfair situation at work, a financial setback, an unexpected illness, a divorce, or the loss of a loved one.
Those types of experiences are part of the human journey. But when we find ourselves in such a place, it's important that we keep a positive perspective. Joel Osteen writes that if we stay in faith and keep a good attitude when we go through challenges, we will not only grow, but we will see how all things work together for our good.
Through practical applications and scriptural insight, Blessed in the Darkness focuses on how to draw closer to God and trust Him when life doesn't make sense. If we will go through the dark place in the valley trusting, believing, and knowing that God is still in control, we will come to the table that is already prepared for us, where our cup runs over. Download Blessed in the Darkness book written by S.
A prince in danger must decide who to trust. A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings. Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war. In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light.
Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. This edition uses deckle edges; the uneven paper edge is intentional. Life is the Darkness is a book of short stories, and a few pieces of poetry. Some content can be confronting. It ranges from the innocuous, through to the inevitability of a barren earth, should humans continue to abuse her.
There are so many things available to us, other than the manufacturing materials we currently use, to save our planet, while we still maintain a continued enjoyment, doing the things, we have become accustomed to. I'd like to leave my grandchildren a better world than the one we're leaving for our children today. Genly Ai is an ethnologist observing the people of the planet Gethen, a world perpetually in winter.
The people there are androgynous, normally neuter, but they can become male ot female at the peak of their sexual cycle. They seem to Genly Ai alien, unsophisticated and confusing.
But he is drawn into the complex politics of the planet and, during a long, tortuous journey across the ice with a politician who has fallen from favour and has been outcast, he loses his professional detachment and reaches a painful understanding of the true nature of Gethenians and, in a moving and memorable sequence, even finds love Can two words give you the power to change your life?
Yes, they can! In his new book, Joel Osteen shares a profound principle based on one simple truth: Whatever follows the words "I am" will always come looking for you. His insights and encouragement are illustrated with amazing stories of people who turned their lives around by focusing on the positive power of this principle.
Readers can choose to rise to a new level and invite God's goodness by focusing on I AM. Take hold of life by taking hold of God's promises and seeing the blessings of God overtake your life. Have you ever wanted more blessings in your life? Have you ever looked at your life and wondered if or when you'll ever be blessed?
This book is for you. Blessed looks at the verses in the Bible that begin with the words, "Blessed is the one who. It walks us through these blessings that we see in the Bible, what their origins are and how they will change our lives.
This book will teach developing as well as ministering Christians the importance of making a more conscious effort to bless and help others.
The goal is also to create a sense of urgency and inspire believers to help and serve others with greater enthusiasm - like never before.
The Church sees Mary as the "earthside of the Incarnation. It begins with a discussion of her obedience as the pivotal point in our salvation. It continues with an examination of five aspects of her maternity - giving birth, nurturing, relinquishing, sorrow and joy.
Our own lives parallel these stages in our conversion giving birth , spiritual growth nurturing , surrender to God relinquishing , bearing our cross sorrow and the new life through the Resurrection joy.
Thus Mary can become our guide as we make our journey toward Christ. Further, by a focus on the humanity of Mary, we not only come closer to the mystery of the Incarnation but begin to grasp how the Church declared May to be the "Mother of God. This reverence receives strong emphasis in Orthodox Christianity.
Torn between the future that her mother, sister, and younger self planned for her, Lou sets out to finish the list, and in a stroke of destiny or fate, Sam decides to tag along. Still trying to stay afloat amid the grief of losing his father, Sam himself is staring down a future that feels all too close, and is coming far too fast. But with the bucket list to guide them, Sam and Lou might just be able to find a way through the future, and also a way back to each other.
With no one to help her learn to control her magic, the life debt that she owes stretches eternally over her head, with no way to repay it. Single mother April Parker has lived in Willow Creek for twelve years with a wall around her heart.
On the verge of being an empty nester, she's decided to move on from her quaint little town, and asks her friend Mitch for his help with some home improvement projects to get her house ready to sell. While he agrees to help April, he needs a favor too: she'll pretend to be his girlfriend at an upcoming family dinner, so that he can avoid the lectures about settling down and having a more "serious" career than high school coach and gym teacher.
April reluctantly agrees, but when dinner turns into a weekend trip, it becomes hard to tell what's real and what's been just for show. But when the weekend ends, so must their fake relationship. As summer begins, Faire returns to Willow Creek, and April volunteers for the first time. When Mitch's family shows up unexpectedly, April pretends to be Mitch's girlfriend again Despite their obvious connection, April insists they've just been putting on an act. An accidentally in-love rom-com filled with Renaissance Faire flower crowns, kilts, corsets, and sword fights.
Post a Comment. Fallon Ryder posting yang ditempel. Could you please help find "Highland Games" by Evie Alexander? Thank you!
0コメント