El Shaddai God Almighty




“And God is faithful, he will not let you be

tempted beyond what you can bear. But when

you are tempted, he will provide a way out so

that you can stand up under it.” (I Corinthians 10:13)



When children of God have family issues in their lives, the first thing most of them do is ‘run to God’. They request prayer for the need. One lady I know asks us to pray for them and the one who has initially caused the problem.

We all know of several people who are faced with family or personal health issues or relational problems. Our church’s prayer list is a full two sided 8 ½ by 11 sheet of paper. One of the church secretaries updates it for each Wednesday night service and, again, for each Sunday service. There are new needs brought to the church’s attention between the time of the updates and the services. The need of prayer for a family, an individual, or ministry group is always present in our lives.

How do we address El Shaddai, the almighty God? We call Him Father, seek His guidance with humility, wait in expectation, listen attentively, and receive with thanksgiving.

I can hardly take in the idea that El Shaddai, God Almighty, King of Kings and Lord of Lords is concerned about my puny issues when I hear of people in major life threatening crises but He is. He also wants to hear from us about our needs.

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Update on my sister-in-law, she had emergency neurosurgery yesterday afternoon. Overnight she had an issue they couldn't completely resolve. A CT scan showed the damage was more extensive than anyone first thought. She has not had oxygen to a part of her brain, she is in danger of losing that area's function. Please pray for whatever is best for her.

We thank you. QS

Faith as a Relationship

“. . .and without faith it is impossible to please God,

because anyone who comes to him must first believe

that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly

seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6



I read a statement in my devotional reading that made me think. The author, Ernest Boyer Jr., says that to some people having faith is just like having an opinion. This type of opinion is whether God exists. He further states that in living the presence of God, the opinion becomes a relationship.

When we feel comfortable when we call upon God at any time and under any circumstance for any reason, we find our faith becomes stronger. We feel His presence as we walk through the trials and tribulations of this life.

We can actually feel the prayers of others as we go through the ordeal of saying our farewells to loved ones those who have died.

We remain composed as we watch a family member try to recover from a medical crisis. We put it all into God’s hands. We stay in contact with Him as we travel, as we try to rest, as we sit by the hospital bed. We relinquish control to The One Who Heals.

Whatever the outcome, we will be able to praise God for His presence, guidance, and help during the time of extreme uncertainty.

Feeling His Presence

“You have made know to me the paths of life;

You fill me with joy in Your presence.” Acts 2:28



Have you ever felt God’s presence as you performed a task or read a book or even your Sunday School lesson? How did it make you feel?

This past week, I received four blessings. The first was a note in a book I had won in a blog drawing. The lady who wrote the note how she felt getting to know me through this blog was a blessing to her. I was touched.

The next day, I received an e mail from another of my blogging friends. I was aware of the fact she was going through a prolonged tough time last month. I had sent her an encouragement card. The e mail was her way of thanking me.

I went to the grocery store and heard some say hello to me. It was a dear lady who I had met when I stared going to our former church. We talked about her cousin’s wife, a very close friend of mine. The cousin died right before Christmas last year. The cousin’s wife is now having an unusual health issue. My friend reminded me she would soon be 90 years old. This lady’s daughter was principal of the high school that is closing. The daughter will be principal at the one remaining high school in town. My friend’ house sits between two vacant houses and she expressed concern about the value of her house dropping a real concern given the economy.

Then, Friday night I started to read my Sunday School lesson. I haven’t started reading my lessons before late Saturday night in several years. We are starting a new quarterly. I spent time reading the Editor’s thoughts, the writer’s bio, and the first lesson.

I felt as if the words of Paul were aimed directly at me(1 Thessalonians 1).

Oh, a friend and her husband and son are going through a rough time right now. She also is possibly going to receive an appointment to a church as senior pastor. I found myself sending her and her husband a note of encouragement on Thursday, I saw her on Saturday at a meeting. After the meeting, we were talking and she thanked me for the card.

We don’t know how we might affect another person when we yield to God’s leading. He could bless us with His presence over and over and over.

Trials of Life

“Ask and it will be given to you,

seek and you shall find, knock and

the door will be opened to you.”

(Matthew 7:7)



When we hear of people going through times of trouble. Our human nature is to pray for God to remove that trial from their lives or take them out of the situation.

Sometimes, God allows these tribulations into the lives of people because they need to learn something about themselves or maybe about God. He knows what He is doing and, most of the time, we don’t.

We can ask God to strengthen them. Maybe we can plead with Him to send someone to them to help them through, or a friend to listen.

God blesses us with answers to our prayers when we pray correctly. Its when we don’t pray as we should that he chooses not to answer as we would like. How many times have we prayed for something and not received the answer we desired, could we have prayed wrongly? (James 4:12)

When we approach God and leave the circumstance and its particulars with Him, we might be surprised at how God answers our prayers. He might allow the remedy of our plight to come from a source we might not have expected. It all comes down to our trusting the Lord.

“If we can not believe God when circumstances appear against us, we do not believe in Him at all.

Charles Spurgeon
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  This past Sunday, hubby's sister fell and sustained a concussion to the back of her head. She is bleeding inside her skull. She takes blood thinning medication. She is in a neuro-critical care unit in Indianapolis. There has been no positive change as of Tuesday afternoon. She may have to go through surgery. Please pray.

God In Our World

“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue,

but with actions and in truth. Then this is how we know

that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at

rest in His presence.” (1John 3:19)



There are people who believe God created the world and stepped back from His work. I am not one of them.

For me, God has his hand on the shoulders of each believer who works for the Kingdom the laity as well as the clergy and the missionaries We see marvelous signs of His presence around us each day.

He blesses us with His love, shows us answers to our questions, showers us with His mercy. We see God’s hands in the maturing of each of the crops grown for our enjoyment.

Last year, I noticed the late spring summer season contained smaller seasons when locally grown fresh fruits were available. Again this year, we enjoy God’s bounty of strawberries. At this writing, I just had breakfast a slice of angel food cake topped off with fresh berries, slathered in whipped cream. We will enjoy Bing cherries, watermelon and cantaloupe (if they mature well),and closely followed by sweet corn, let’s not forget the plums and peaches.

I see people growing in their faith, people wanting to learn more of God. I witness family members growing close to each other as they grow close to the Lord. Ministries work to restore families as well as individual lives. Other groups work to assist those hurt by decisions made by other family members.

Also present in our world is the presence of Jesus’ adversary. We have the account of Job being pestered by this enemy to the point that he lost every thing but his faith. The story of Job has a good ending.

Job himself speaks of having hear of God before but of seeing Him as a result of what he has endured (Job 42:5).

Even the hard times of our lives fall under the watchfulness of God. He allows them for His purposes we have a lesson to learn and the only way we will learn it is by going through the tough times.

Now, if sometimes we don’t hear the message God wants us have. Be assured that we will have a ‘remedial course’ another trial or tough time to wade through. I’m sorry to say that some of us don’t learn the lesson the second or the third time. The good news is when we finally begin to listen to Him, we grow in our faith. We eventually learn to listen to God early on and continue to become closer to Him.

God’s Focus or Our Focus

For the Lord will not cast off for ever:

But though he cause grief, yet will he have

compassion according to the multitude of

his mercies. Lam. 3:31-32





There are times in our lives where we experience events that don’t turn out as we believe they should. When these happen, we can be devastated. We didn’t get the promotion or the job we thought we deserved. We wanted something nicer than what we received for our birthday. A friend has a burden that he or she doesn’t deserve.

We tell someone about the bad feeling we have. “I should have gotten that. . . because. . . .” What we don’t always realize is that God may have other plans for us. Maybe that promotion could bring more stress into our lives. That job you want might not be what He has in mind for you. Your friend may grow in his or her faith because of the circumstance he or she is in.

We might even argue with God. “But, God. . . I would be perfect for that position.” “God. . . I could do that job better than the one who’s doing it now.” “God, why did you let my friend go through this?” When we debate with God we show selfish pride. We also disrespect God.

Those around us suffer physical or emotional hurts and we react. We say things purely from our point of view. Like the friends of Job, we open more wounds for the victims. They become more confused due to our misguiding them. There again, we are operating from what we want to say.

But when we follow the Lord, we belong to Him. We view all events and happenings through His eyes. He becomes our guide in how to think. We learn to react to stimulus as He desires.

The process of changing our focus is a part of sanctification. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, sets us apart from our past habits and points of view to allow us to reflect



Him. It is our job to yield to the workings of the Holy Spirit. It is His to change us into who we are to become.

On Being Accountable

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily,

as to the Lord, and not unto men; Col 3:23 (KJV)



When we begin our walk with the Lord, we have to learn several new terms and a new way to live. We need to learn about commitment and accountability.

Commitment, the ability to follow through with our actions on what we say, carries a great deal of weight in who we are. God’s work can succeed only when we have commitment as a part of our spiritual make-up.

Accountability, according to Roget’s Thesaurus, is related to being responsible and answerable to another person. Being accountable as a Christian means that someone holds us responsible for our actions, attitudes and behavior that we display. We need to be accountable to one another as well as to God.

Our accountability to our brothers and sisters in Christ makes our accountability before God easier than it would be without our earthly partners. We are accountable to God for who we are and for how we relate to him. We are accountable for our sins.

The sins we call “little Christian sins” are just as important to God as the big sins of murder and stealing.

Our accountability to an earthly friend is a way that we are able to “walk the walk as well as talk the talk”. Without a brother or sister in Christ coming alongside and walking with us, we don’t always see God in our lives or our circumstances.

But when we yield to God and become accountable on the vertical as well as the horizontal plane of our lives we grow more like Christ.