Days to Pray for in November

By Barbara Latta

Cheing Jie was a young mother, pastor’s wife and kindergarten director when she was

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church is November 6.

arrested in 2014 for “illegal business operations” due to her use of religious curriculum in the school where she worked in China. After being released two years later, she was reunited with her young sons whom she had not seen during her imprisonment, even though she had been allowed visits from her husband. Despite the hardships of prison, Cheing Jie said she was able to minister to the other women incarcerated with her and the letters she received from those who support ministries who help persecuted Christians kept her strong. The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church is November 6. This story is only one among many to show how important it is for us to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted for their faith.

Why Do We Compare Ourselves With Others?

by Barbara Latta

We tend to look at others through rose colored glasses.

Why do we compare ourselves with others?

Because we are looking at another person’s accomplishments through rose colored glasses, but we use a magnifying glass to look at what we think are our deficiencies.

Recently, I had the opportunity to listen to a successful author making a presentation to a group of instruction-hungry writers.

While this beautiful, humble, and talented woman has had her own struggles in life and in her writing journey, I was still envious.

Why?

How Is Your Spirit Like the Universe?

by Barbara Latta

Astronomers tell us the universe is expanding. Scientists at NASA using the Hubble theory

The universe is expanding.

can project the universe’s expansion rate up to one billion light years. These facts surpass our ability to comprehend.

This tells me the universe is infinite; that this expansion could go on eternally. I like to think of these cosmic pieces drifting through space and forming new galaxies as leftovers from the creation. I can visualize God saying, “Light be!” and light came out of Him into an explosion of power from which He created the rest of the world. (My version, of course!)

If you are a believer, He did the same thing inside you when you became born again. Your dead spirit left and God put His Spirit inside you. Because God is infinite and eternal, the seed He placed inside each of us will continue to expand and grow as we nourish and water that creation with His Word.

I think when we get to heaven we will still be learning and growing because we can never contain everything about God. We will be expanding eternally in our glorified bodies and one billion light years from now we will contain more of the eternal Father than we had before, but we will have billions more light years to absorb. We will never get to the end because there is no end. Like the universe, we will be ever expanding.

How marvelous is that? Share your thoughts.

Tweetable

How is your spirit like the universe? (click to tweet)

Do You Know The End of the Story of Your Life?

by Barbara Latta

Nothing interfered with listening to Paul Harvey.

From the 50's to the beginning of the 21st century, the smooth, cultured voice of a mid-western radio broadcaster would reverberate across the airwaves with the tales of victory over defeat, triumph over despair and winners persevering to the end. He would recount events in the lives of famous people by using their first name or a nickname to keep the listener in suspense until he said… “and that my friend is the rest of the story.”

Paul Harvey became a radio icon with this famous line and the stories he told held audiences captivated to find out unknown details about the beginnings of a celebrity’s life or the obstacles overcome by a successful athlete or politician; facts utterly unknown until revealed through the broadcast of this popular host.