[null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ni1ik8OCs80/WNfXw3-eQdI/AAAAAAAAEbQ/ZKxjaxWwwEMS5yRJi0Oa_bUSSgPoRvjEgCLcB/s1600/judge.jpg", "src": "https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ni1ik8OCs80/WNfXw3-eQdI/AAAAAAAAEbQ/ZKxjaxWwwEMS5yRJi0Oa_bUSSgPoRvjEgCLcB/s1600/judge.jpg", "formatted_filename": "judge"}, null, null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://cdn6.dissolve.com/p/D956_137_067/D956_137_067_0004_600.jpg", "src": "http://cdn6.dissolve.com/p/D956_137_067/D956_137_067_0004_600.jpg", "alt_text": "Image result for photo of man's feet in sand", "rendered_width": 320, "rendered_height": 180}, null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/db/11/8d/db118d0cbea34630bb88ffcd72b45e5e.jpg", "src": "https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/db/11/8d/db118d0cbea34630bb88ffcd72b45e5e.jpg", "formatted_filename": "db d cbea bb ffcd b e e", "alt_text": "Image result for photo of sarah and isaac"}, null, null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cEIFB-MjFjg/WM_30cXZrMI/AAAAAAAAEas/6BrjjK4Wm-gTFPbLult-KqnKmQRs9xNLgCLcB/s320/BibleStudyGroup-e1415745672839-777x399.jpg", "src": "https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cEIFB-MjFjg/WM_30cXZrMI/AAAAAAAAEas/6BrjjK4Wm-gTFPbLult-KqnKmQRs9xNLgCLcB/s320/BibleStudyGroup-e1415745672839-777x399.jpg", "formatted_filename": "BibleStudyGroup e", "rendered_width": 320, "rendered_height": 164}, null, null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ye4EtZn2n9Y/WLsWyoLOETI/AAAAAAAAEZ8/LsONrUdLpEEQ52Da0lfNVo_sl-MkfstVgCLcB/s320/Please-Help-400x250.jpg", "src": "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ye4EtZn2n9Y/WLsWyoLOETI/AAAAAAAAEZ8/LsONrUdLpEEQ52Da0lfNVo_sl-MkfstVgCLcB/s320/Please-Help-400x250.jpg", "formatted_filename": "Please Help", "rendered_width": 320, "rendered_height": 200}, null, null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S82F6L93gbs/WLsV2vJQv5I/AAAAAAAAEZs/w77RnpKpczc7MDNRLTcBWme4Wichv0JLACLcB/s1600/men.jpg", "src": "https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S82F6L93gbs/WLsV2vJQv5I/AAAAAAAAEZs/w77RnpKpczc7MDNRLTcBWme4Wichv0JLACLcB/s1600/men.jpg", "formatted_filename": "men"}, null, null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IScRVP1osTA/WLsOI7Db_cI/AAAAAAAAEZY/iIke_PRi1YgxbBSasQ7_4F64a_BRT486wCLcB/s1600/heart.jpg", "src": "https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IScRVP1osTA/WLsOI7Db_cI/AAAAAAAAEZY/iIke_PRi1YgxbBSasQ7_4F64a_BRT486wCLcB/s1600/heart.jpg", "formatted_filename": "heart"}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5icHfmZqOEI/WE15ImL_xMI/AAAAAAAAENs/wFZ-FW7g6gkODW8V6euwXB-KuToqT5vGgCK4B/s1600/Book%2BCover.png", "src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5icHfmZqOEI/WE15ImL_xMI/AAAAAAAAENs/wFZ-FW7g6gkODW8V6euwXB-KuToqT5vGgCK4B/s1600/Book%2BCover.png", "formatted_filename": "Book BCover", "alt_text": "New Devotional Book!", "rendered_width": 269, "rendered_height": 428}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_yzdHMTz1-mY/S2eEB_TMMfI/AAAAAAAAB-g/cjhnb-2WUTU/S269/Saving+Susie%5B1%5D.jpg", "src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_yzdHMTz1-mY/S2eEB_TMMfI/AAAAAAAAB-g/cjhnb-2WUTU/S269/Saving+Susie%5B1%5D.jpg", "formatted_filename": "Saving Susie  B   D", "alt_text": "When 11-year-old Susie hit heads with her brother in the swimming pool, our lives changed.", "rendered_width": 182, "rendered_height": 269}, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N3rbXyaEUWw/TrQAQ_mB81I/AAAAAAAAC2M/SWAzYbeFXY0/s269/argument.jpg", "src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N3rbXyaEUWw/TrQAQ_mB81I/AAAAAAAAC2M/SWAzYbeFXY0/s269/argument.jpg", "formatted_filename": "argument", "alt_text": "Harmony Mediation Services", "rendered_width": 269, "rendered_height": 202}, null, null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_yzdHMTz1-mY/S2dALxShb-I/AAAAAAAAB9I/3OLB80lJaq4/S269/sunrise%5B1%5D.jpg", "src": "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_yzdHMTz1-mY/S2dALxShb-I/AAAAAAAAB9I/3OLB80lJaq4/S269/sunrise%5B1%5D.jpg", "formatted_filename": "sunrise  B   D", "alt_text": "Need a Little Taste of Heaven?", "rendered_width": 220, "rendered_height": 220}, null, null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yzdHMTz1-mY/S2dCsv3EbCI/AAAAAAAAB9Y/WkCO0DCUINE/S269/question_marks.jpg", "src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yzdHMTz1-mY/S2dCsv3EbCI/AAAAAAAAB9Y/WkCO0DCUINE/S269/question_marks.jpg", "formatted_filename": "question marks", "alt_text": "Do You Know Where You're Going?", "rendered_width": 190, "rendered_height": 200}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_yzdHMTz1-mY/SH-T6N07S_I/AAAAAAAAAEA/pQLeFYsH8Dw/S269/Yankee.jpg", "src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_yzdHMTz1-mY/SH-T6N07S_I/AAAAAAAAAEA/pQLeFYsH8Dw/S269/Yankee.jpg", "formatted_filename": "Yankee", "alt_text": "Yankee Rules with an Iron Paw", "rendered_width": 269, "rendered_height": 207}, null, {"document_url": "http://leaannsgarden.blogspot.com/2017_03_01_archive.html", "unformatted_src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yzdHMTz1-mY/SkYVR8cQUOI/AAAAAAAABZ0/YUtdNxyG4Qo/S269/Babe.jpg", "src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yzdHMTz1-mY/SkYVR8cQUOI/AAAAAAAABZ0/YUtdNxyG4Qo/S269/Babe.jpg", "formatted_filename": "Babe", "alt_text": "Assistant Blogger, Babe Ruth", "rendered_width": 180, "rendered_height": 269}, null]

Be Persistent Labels: prayer

A Summons from the Most High “Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh.
You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”  Exodus 3:10

Moses shifted his bare feet on the hot sand as the words hit him. Pharaoh? Egypt? He’d left them behind years ago. Maybe the Lord didn’t realize that. Moses jabbed a toe into the sand and scolded himself. Of course the Lord realized it. The basket in the reeds. The palace. His destiny had been ingrained in him since birth, and this burning bush had ignited that old yearning. How he’d wanted to belong, but his enslaved kinsmen had only offered fearful bows to his royal garments. He had ached to free the grandpas and uncles who suffered while he dined in the king’s courts. But all that was behind him. He’d blown it. He thought he’d forever cancelled any chance of redeeming himself. But this burning bush. The voice of God. He approached the flaming bush as a shepherd; he walked away as the leader of his people. He had answered a summons from the Most High.

Moses is not the only recipient of such a summons. Thousands have heard that Voice and bowed before Him. Maybe you’ve heard it too, but like Moses, you came up with excuses. You ran. You blew it. You thought you’d forever cancelled any chance of redeeming yourself. But there it came again: “I have a job for you.” Prayer is the way we bow before that burning bush, and when our lives are positioned to obey, He speaks. We are invited to take off our shoes and put on our purpose. We may approach Him filled with excuses; we walk away a chosen vessel whenever we answer a summons from the Most High. Labels: God's plan, obedience, prayer
 
The Prayers God Doesn't Want

 Labels: prayer, repentance, unconfessed sin

Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord? 

Her husband is an atheist. His daughter is a lesbian. Your best friends are considering becoming Muslim. These situations and a thousand more dot our lives like stickers in the lawn. They’re painful, and we pick our way around them trying to hang on to joy. We may continue to pray about them, but in reality, we often write “The End” over seemingly impossible situations.

That’s what Sarah had done with the idea of ever becoming a mother. Even when God got in her face and said, “If I said it, I will do it,” she laughed. It wasn’t a happy laugh. It was a “Yeah, right,” laugh and God did not appreciate it. He doesn’t appreciate our snarky attitudes either. When we confine the Lord God Almighty to our teensy understanding, we make a big mistake.

God is in the miracle business, but when He doesn’t perform on our schedule, we get cynical like Sarah. We secretly answer this Bible question with, “Yes, some things may be too hard for the Lord.”  When we hit a concrete wall, we assume God has too.
But the truth is, atheists can be born again. Ask Lee Strobel.
Lesbians can repent and live purely. Ask Rosaria Butterfield.
Muslims can have their eyes opened to the truth of Jesus. Ask Nabeel Quereshi.

If God can put a baby inside the uterus of a 90-year-old woman, and from that baby, create a nation that still exists today, then He can handle your problem.

What concrete wall in your life looks too hard for the Lord?
Is it harder than what He did for Sarah?
 Labels: faith, prayer, trust

Where Are the Bereans? 
The Question:

Me neither. Let's become Bereans!

 Labels: false religion, heresies

How To Love God 101 
I Love God But I Hate You! Labels: love, prejudice

Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength The MIND is where our battles take place. Satan is at war with God, and the human mind is his battlefield. If Satan can introduce doubt, heresy, or blasphemies, he can control the information the mind sends to the heart and soul. We are commanded to renew our minds (Rom. 12:1-2) and to destroy every lofty idea raised up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:5). When we love God with all our minds, we bow our intellect to His often-unfathomable ways and desire His truth, not our ideas, to prevail.

And STRENGTH is the daily determination to follow and obey no matter what is coming against us. Instead, of using up our physical and emotional energy with guilt, envy, or judgement, we actively engage in serving Him with passion. Every moment is weighed in light of eternity and we use everything at our disposal to please and honor Him with all our might.

Do you love the LORD with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?
Which of the four do you withhold?
 Labels: heart, love
 Labels: freedom, repentance, unconfessed sin

Suffering Is Temporary 

If you’re struggling over the hardships you’ve faced, keep clinging to the One who restores to life again. Labels: depression, hope

Everyone Can Do Something

Do not neglect the gift you have… 1 Timothy 4:14 Shelly rolled from beneath the pickup and sat up with a smile on her grease-streaked face. “There! All fixed, Mr. Bellows. Just needed a couple of adjustments.” As she brushed the dust from her jeans, her elderly neighbor leaned on his cane and beamed at her. “I don’t know what I’d do if you didn’t live next door, sweetie,” he said. “You’re such a help to this old man.” Shelly frowned. “Ah, it’s nothing. Just a couple of truck repairs and lawn mowings. Since I don’t have any real gifts I can serve God with, I just help people, but I really wish I had gifts of teaching or prophesying, or…you know, one of those cool ones.”

Have you ever felt like Shelly does? You hear gifted speakers, admire talented musicians, and learn from dedicated teachers who are clearly using their spiritual gifts. And then there’s you. Compared to them, what can you do? Oh sure, you love taking care of other people’s babies, or you’re always bringing stray people home. Sure, they call you when the lights don’t work or the door breaks and you’re the first in line to give or to volunteer, but you want a REAL gift. A spiritual-looking gift. The truth is, you have it and you don’t know it. If you belong to Jesus, then He has equipped you to serve Him in such natural ways that you don’t realize you are gifted to do it. It just feels like YOU. It’s who you are. You were made for this. Whether it’s fixing your neighbor’s engine or leading a revival, God wants to see big returns on His investments. Don’t neglect your gift.

What gifts are you neglecting because you either think they’re not important, or you’re scared to try?

 Labels: gifts, serving God
