By Sharon Norris Elliott – June 15, 2020 #1: Black People are Human like Everyone Else [Click the link to watch the movie Human.] All kinds of lies have been perpetuated over the years defining Black people. The original lie grew from a perception within one man that he was better than another. Simply […]
Let’s Discuss Books!
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me… Oh, wait, that leads to something else entirely! Still, I am inviting you with any sayings I can think of:
Come one, come all – Be my guest – You’re welcome once, you’re welcome twice, you’re welcome in the name of Christ.
Just know that I want to see you and your comments and questions on Facebook Live at 5pm (PST) for “Let’s Discuss Books!” I will be talking about my writing journey through the stories of my 12 books. We will be discussing the books, how I came to write them, why I believe they are vital for the marketplace, and what was going on in my life and with my writing growth at the time of each book’s release.
We’ll do this together for 14 weeks and culminate with the exciting launch of the newest book, A Woman God Can Bless, along with the simultaneous launch of the “Woman God Can Revolution!” You won’t want to miss a week (but if you must, you can catch the show again – it will be recorded for replay on Facebook at your convenience). And if you missed week 1, here’s the link!
See you soon!
Sharon
FREE SHIPPING UNTIL MAY 31ST, 2020!
Hi Family, Friends, Followers and the Faithful!
With all the kids at home, now’s the perfect time for parents to read some encouraging words about Raising Boys to be Like Jesus. Then get ready for the near future with Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children, because you’ll be ready for them to go once we’re no longer on lockdown!
Judson Press, the publisher of my parenting books, is offering free shipping on all orders that enter code “FREESHIP20” in the promotion code box during checkout.
Go to my website: www.LifeThatMatters.net, click the “Books” tab, and surf to the books you want to order. Thanks for your support, and enjoy your parenting!
Ablaze,
Sharon
©2020 Dr. Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.
Links you won’t want to miss:
Watch Sharon in two shows on The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network:
from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv and on HSBN’s You Tube channel.
(Stream current show or view past episodes anytime!)
The flagship 12-hour seminar has been abbreviated for you while we get through this lockdown. Let’s make the most of the hours and get that book ready to be published!
Only $50 for both days!
Go to LifeThatMatters.net, click the AuthorizeMe button, and fill out the simple registration form. Once your payment is received, I will acknowledge receipt of your payment and by Thursday, May 14, I will send you the Zoom invitation. Please share this information with everyone you know who wants to write a book, but only paid registrants will receive the invitation and will be allowed to enter the seminar.
Positive Work; Good Times! REGISTER TODAY!
I enjoy meeting new people and making new friends. Two of my newest friends are the coolest people ever. One lady and I crossed paths when we were both speakers at a women’s retreat. We connected so immediately that we sat up in the lobby of the hotel for half the night talking, sharing life stories, and being amazed about what God was doing in our lives. The other lady has a daughter my age who lives out of town, but we’ve connected as friends rather than as a substitute mother/daughter duo. If I could introduce you to these women, I’d do so with excitement because they are special to me already and I’m learning wonderful things about them each day our relationship grows.
With the same enthusiasm, I’m excited to introduce you to my God. After all the years I’ve known Him, I thought I understood Him pretty well; however, the realization hit me that there is always more to be learned about God since He’s infinite. So, may I introduce you to God in the way He introduces Himself in the first verses of His book, the Bible. Genesis 1:1-5 says:
Did you get His introduction? Let me help you see the eight characteristics by which God introduces Himself here.
So it’s my pleasure to introduce you to God: the Uncaused Cause, the Creator, Examiner, Speaker, Observer, Judge, Divider, and Designator. Worship Him today for being all He is just here in the first five verses of the Bible.
The Ark of the Covenant represented the presence of God to both the Israelite people and their enemies. In I Samuel chapters 4 and 5, we read of a time when the Philistines captured the Ark, probably figuring having it would give them special powers to defeat their foes. After all, they had heard how the God of Israel had wrecked Egypt and many other nations. What the Philistines did not know was that it takes more than possession of the Ark to experience the protective presence of the God of the Ark. The presence of the Ark in that unholy place brought on God’s wrath and troubles to the Philistines.
We may own Bibles, wear cross jewelry, fly Easter and Christmas manners on our homes, and have our names on the church role, but all of that exhibits merely the trappings of Christianity. Without a relationship with God, one that makes a difference in our lives, sooner of later the trappings will trap us and show us up to be fakes. Troubles, not blessings, will come our way if we insist upon trying to represent God through unholy vessels. The trappings don’t make us related to Him.
©2018 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.
Links you won’t want to miss:
Watch Sharon in two shows on The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network:
Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott, and
A View from the Upper Room
from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv and on HSBN’s You Tube channel.
(Stream current show or view past episodes anytime!)
Join the movement! Closer Walk 2018(c) https://closerwalk2018.wordpress.com
366 Glimpses of God: Getting to Know the God Who Knows You.
Start every day of your new year with one of these thoughtful devotional readings that will focus your attention on our amazing heavenly Father.
Pick up copies of Sharon’s books for yourself and as gifts for your family members and friends!
Why I Get Into Trouble: Order through Sharon’s website: www.LifeThatMatters.net
Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),
Boomerangs Videolink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk
Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)
Sharon’s other books still available:
Here in America, we don’t often hear stories about demon possession or oppression unless we’re watching a Hollywood production. We have relegated demons to the silver screen. Actually, we somewhat enjoy being spooked for an hour and a half as the actors think it’s a good idea to spend the night in a deserted house in the middle of a forest on a moonless night. We allow the shadowy images to invade our psyches and are relieved when at least one hero or heroine emerges unscathed in the end. We exit the theaters leaving both our popcorn boxes and our fear of demons behind.
The demons might not care so much about the popcorn box, but they are certainly glad we left our attention to them behind. The principalities and powers of darkness want nothing more than for us to think they are no danger, and better yet, that they don’t really exist. They know that we neither fear nor respect that which we deem nonexistent; we are not on our guard against it either.
Jesus did not wonder about the existence of the demonic and neither did the people of his day. When demon-possessed people were brought to Him, Jesus didn’t say, “Oh my friend, you are misguided in your diagnosis. This man is merely troubled.” No, Jesus cast the demons out. In order to cast demons out, He had to recognize they were real.
Christians cannot be possessed by demons because the Holy Spirit has taken up residence within us. However, demons do their best to oppress believers. They will counterfeit within us some of the same troubles they bring upon the possessed. I believe two of their main weapons are blinders and muzzles.
Matthew 12:22 reads, “Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw” (NKJ). Just as this man was blind and mute because of demon-possession, some of us Christians don’t see what we should see or say what we should say because we’re allowing the forces from hell to cover our eyes and shut our mouths. We refuse to recognize sin as sin and speak out about it.
It is our job to bring light, to be light, and to sound forth as the voice of deliverance in our world. Stop letting demons oppress you. Remove the blinders and muzzles. “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden” Matthew 5:14 (NKJ).
Receive your sight. Receive your voice.
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©2019 Dr. Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.
Links you won’t want to miss:
from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv and on HSBN’s You Tube channel.
(Stream current show or view past episodes anytime!)
Boomerangs Videolink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk
Sharon’s other books still available:
We may not like to admit it, but we will make mistakes. Being wrong sometimes is part of the human condition. Being new creatures in Christ does not free us from making mistakes, but it should give us a new way to approach them when they are made.
The first man in Scripture to make a mistake was Cain, and it happened before he murdered his brother. (Adam and Eve’s misstep was blatant, intentional disobedience; that’s different from a mistake.) Cain and Abel decided to give God offerings. Since Cain was a farmer, his offering was of the fruit of the ground. Abel was a shepherd, so he brought “of the firstborn of his flock.” When God saw the two offerings, we’re told, “…The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast” Genesis 4:4-5 (NIV).
Cain’s first response to his mistake was anger and dejection. I imagine he could have been feeling that he worked just as hard at farming as Abel did at shepherding, so his offering should have been accepted too. Perhaps he felt jealous at being outdone by his younger brother. Whatever he was thinking, God immediately gave him some instruction concerning how to handle his mistake. “Then the LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it’” Genesis 4:6-7 (NIV).
Notice several things about God’s response. First, there is no indication that God is angry at Cain. Mistakes are unintentional, yet they are still mistakes and need to be corrected so they won’t be repeated. Second, God points out that only doing right equals acceptance. There are no brownie points for good intentions. Third, allowing a mistake to stand uncorrected leaves an open door for sin to invade our lives and take us down. The mistake is not the problem; our response to correction could be. If we respond by correcting the mistake – doing right – we master the sin that is lurking (crouching) in the shadows ready to devour us. That sin will not win. If we refuse correction, the sin that “desires to have” us will take over and our corresponding actions will bear that out.
Cain refused to correct his mistake. Before God could give him any further instruction about why his offering was not accepted, he allowed sin to fly through the open door flung so by his anger and he murdered Abel.
The next time we make a mistake, let’s refuse to make excuses, heed God’s correction, adjust our attitude, and make the necessary changes. In so doing, we will overpower the sin that desires to overtake us.
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Remember to read through your Bible this year: OneYearBibleOnline.com
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Dr. Sharon Norris Elliott
Teacher, Preacher, Author, Editor, Writing Coach, Literary Agent
