Righteously Redeemed

Follower of Christ Friday  November 11, 2020 Ever been looking for a specific themed video on YouTube, instead find something totally unrelated but something you still needed to see? That was me a few years ago when I stumbled upon Author and Speaker, Christine Caine telling some of her testimony.  (warning this may be a lot of parphrase)  She was talking about when she was in seminary how one of her preaching professors pretty much told her that she did terrible, and that she should never teach / preach to an audience again!!  I expected to next hear how it made her mad, and how she vowed to him that she would "show him."   I mean she is Christine Caine, this great motivating woman who currently speaks internationally to thousands of people.  She overcame it somehow.  However, what I wasn't expecting was to to hear what really happened.  She said it absolutely DEFEATED her.  She felt shame!  She questioned her worth! She didn't want to ...

 A Follower of Christ Friday Blog Post  As I write this, I find myself in the midst of a storm, one concerning my health with my back.  A dear friend of mine was taking me to my appointment with a Physical Therapist yesterday when I expressed concerns I had about several areas regarding treatments.  Who should I choose as a doctor? What medicines, if any should I take?  How to pay for these services etc?  You know the typical stuff you think about when you are dealing with health stuff.  She then pulls out the verse that I have quoted numerous times while ministering to others.   And my God  shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19  How many times do we remind ourselves or others of this truth when we are in need of something?   It's definitely a favorite verse of mine, but when she quoted it to me right in the midst of my thought process it flicked a light on in my brain. ...

August 28, 2020 Getting a glow stick when I was younger was a rare treat.  There wasn't a dollar tree around the corner.    Amazon and the internet didn't yet exist either.  The only place that I can remember they were readily available was at concert type events or at the local skating rink.   I loved them!  To open the package and know you are about to see it miraculously glow a neon green, pink or blue, was such fun anticipation.   I think everyone knows how to use them, but just in case. You open up the package, break it in 1-2 places and then you shake it up!  It's at this moment, and ONLY then will it light up. Brightly, the light shines and can be seen from across the room.   Y'all, We are glow sticks!  I know that sounds crazy, but it's true.   We, like a glow stick, have great potential to shine our light to the world by reflecting the light of Jesus.  What we don't always or even want to realize is that in order to do...

Hello, McFly?   Where are you? Have you ever had anyone ask you that that was in the same room with you, and maybe even sitting right next to you.  You seem “distracted" I’ve been there, and I’m sure at some point you have too.  Question? Why is it a measure of success to be able to do three or four things at once? I’ll even go further to ask, Why, is it that it’s almost criminal to only be thinking about what you’re doing right then and NOT on what is coming next ?   Who told us that, that’s what is “normal?”  Well I can’t get it all done if I don’t Brandi? My boss is making me do four or  five things at once.  It’s what is expected of me. It’s what I have to do.  I get the pressures and busyness of life  and the need to add more and more to our already full plate. Is it beneficial though?  Here’s a confession that led me to God’s word for the year: Intentionality.  To be deliberate.   I seriously loathe having...

Follower of Christ Friday  by: Brandi M. Bell  Have you ever went hiking?  When you approached the bottom of a big hill or mountain did you stop  to prepare for it before beginning?  You know what's coming because you just came down the back side of the previous mountain!  Man, that climb!!... you have to start out by first making up your mind to do it!  You start on the trek up with one set of muscles engaged, you get hot, sweaty even.  However, you keep going, not looking back, just continuing to climb.  Higher and higher until eventually you get there.   AH Victory!  You've done it!  You are exhausted, your muscles burn in agony, but you are at the top!   You take a moment to celebrate the view for a few minutes, maybe even seconds, before going down to continue on to the next ascension.   What I want to highlight here without trying to sound too much like a Miley Cyrus song, is we don't appreciate the actual climb...

Follower of Christ Friday  by Brandi Bell  Have you ever said something and then went "Ohh, wait, why did I just say that out loud?" Then you know you regretted it! Or perhaps you've thought something, almost said it, but had been able to catch yourself before you said it.  Either way the tongue was trying to flap.  Sometimes it seems like it is easier than controlling the wind, right? Did you know that The Word of God even alludes to tongue taming being a difficult task in James where it says "if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way." James 3:17.  Wow!  If we can control our tongue we could control ourselves in  every . other . way.    That's pretty powerful if you stop and think about it!   I encourage you to read on in Chapter 3 of James as he describes just how powerful the tongue is. Everything from being like a rudder on a ship, or a tiny spark that makes a fire... go...

I AM NOT ALONE  Follower of Christ Friday  by Brandi Bell  Yesterday as I was driving around with one of my sons we noticed that to the west of us were some dark clouds. Naturally we then noticed to the east of us it was still beautiful blue skies with cumulus clouds litering the sky.  My son was even aware "Mom, isn’t that crazy on one side of us is darkness and on the other side it’s still beautiful and pretty."   Well as we turn the corner, and head into another direction it turns out we were now going towards the storm. While only a short time ago we had been moving away from it.  Me, seeing the moment for teaching for myself and my son I explain to him that at a moments notice we could be heading into a storm.   I said, "Look, right now we’re coming out of the storm, and now that we have turned 'what are we doing?"  He replied,  "We’re heading into the storm."   I continued, "Right, and if this car represents God where is God in all...

Follower of Christ Friday  Sun, Sand, Surf..... I just returned from a family beach vacation, and while there I noticed the waves would come further inland during the evening, and then return out again in the morning.   When you walk on the beach in the morning after the water has receded you can see the sand in an uninterrupted state.  The ocean waves have become a nature eraser that has removed the evidence of yesterday's disturbances.  Yesterday's footprints and sandcastles are gone.   Today's sand hasn't been walked on, sat on, or dug into, it's "new."   God's love is just like this...His mercies are new everyday.   Lamentations 3:22-23 NLT 22  The faithful love of the  Lord  never ends!      His mercies never cease. 23  Great is his faithfulness;      his mercies begin afresh each morning. Just like the sand on the beach, we get a clean untainted slate every single day.  We don't wak...

Romans 12:2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.   I often think of a butterfly when I think of transforming, or even those transformer toys from my childhood.  Honestly, I prefer the butterfly because once it has changed from a caterpillar to a butterfly it is forever changed.  A transformer toy goes back and forth from one form to another, so in that sense its really only conforming and not truly transforming. For starts, when we conform we try to change our behavior depending on who we are around and the specific circumstances we may need to assume, therefore copying others. We don't actually change, we just temporarily shift or conform based on how we need to in order to fit in to those around us. Transforming means to go through a process of metamorphosis.  To leave be...

HOLD MY HAND   At first, I didn't really know what to write for today's blog. Most weeks God has given me the opportunity to watch things happening around me which in turn allow me to "SEE" God in the midst of it.   While there wasn't any one specific thing that I was seeing this week, there  WAS one  common theme that seemed to be echoing all around me. . . Uncertainty, with maybe a little combination of fear.  Although we are certain that tomorrow the sun will rise.   We aren't certain about what challenges this life will bring when it does. Likewise, even though we have been reminded many times by others that there are 365 occurrences in The Word to "not fear,"  if we are honest, we can admit sometimes that's easy to read and not so easy to walk.  I may not know what your current world looks like. . . what your circumstances, your trials, or through what valley the Lord may be allowing you to walk. And while, e...

Grateful Like Jarvis  Would you consider yourself grateful ?  More than others ? Less than others ?  How about “grateful like Jarvis?”  “What’s that?” you might ask.  I would encourage you, as you are reading this, to take a few moments to grade how grateful you are of a person?Ask yourself how often do I give acknowledgement of the things or people for which I am thankful? I know I don’t do it as much as I should.  This blog post topic is brought on by watching one of my sons.   Jarvis, my youngest is 4.  He has the most thankful spirit.  It doesn’t matter if I bring him a simple bag of MnM’s from the store, or if he gets the birthday gift for which he asked, he appreciates it.  How do I know?   He tells us.  Then he tells us again  And yet again In fact if its a non consumable item, almost everytime he touches it, he reminds us how much he loves it, and thanks us for getting it for him. Sometim...

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me.” Many of us are familiar with the passage of Psalm 23 from learning it in church, or maybe even from a funeral scene in a movie.   I wonder, though, how many of us have really explored a specific word in it? “...though I walk THROUGH the darkest valley.   (Some versions say “Through the Shadow of Death.”) Through, used as a preposition in this sentence, means 2 things.                           1) moving in one side and out of the other side of a location,                           2) continuing in time toward completion of a process or period.   Zero in with me on ‘ moving and continuing .’   Did you notice these words have nothing to do with staying still?    They a...

Going into a storm, currently In a storm, or just coming out of a storm.   Doesn’t it seem like at all times in our lives we fall into one of these categories?   I know it does for me.   I bring up storms today because of a conversation I was recently having with my husband, Doug.   Perhaps it was because he kept hearing me say things like “the enemy was attacking, the enemy did this, the enemy was lying etc.”  As if everything that had happened was to the credit of satan.  Don’t misunderstand me, now, because I know satan is here to steal, kill, and destroy.  That’s all he is here to do.  I want you to be reminded or enlightened to the fact that God is in the midst of this… for a reason.   Being the smart guy he is, Doug said something along the lines of “…don’t forget that God may be allowing you to have these ‘attacks’.”  Awwww man, that’s right… I had completely forgot about that part.   Why did he ha...