Second Stage Ministries

I wanted to end this series of posts with a brief story about a time that I heard the voice of God speak into my life. Now remember this wasn't an audible voice that I heard - it was more of a feeling followed by a verse. I was lying in bed one night trying to understand a situation that had happened in my life. It was a time of betrayal and hurt that I never thought I would be experiencing. I can remember lying there and just feeling alone and tired from fighting the battle. I heard God say: "Hey, let me fight. Just be calm." [1] Then a feeling of peace came over me in that moment and I just took a deep breath. Ever since that moment I have attached to those verses in Exodus 14 as a strong reminder to just leave the situation in God's mighty hand. I can't do anything about the situation that I am in and only God can fix it. So I realized that I needed to let God fight this one and just be still. We all have battles to fight, but sometimes I believe w

I wanted to start this post off with a story. At church a couple of weeks ago I was teaching the 4th and 5th grade students and we were talking about how to hear God's voice. Sound familiar? One of the small group leaders called me over and told me something that was really cool to think about. The group he was with was talking about how dogs understand us and how they don't really understand everything we say to them, but they can recognize our tone. They can tell if we are happy with them or upset with them. So what does that have to do with hearing God's voice?? It's all in the tone! Many people believe that God is the all-powerful being that shouts from the heavens at people and in some cases in the Old Testament that is what He did. But God doesn't shout from the heavens - in fact we can see the tone of voice that God does use in 1 Kings 19 when God talks with Elijah. “The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord

Sometimes when I talk to someone about a decision that I need to make they often say some form of "Did you pray about it?" While that is great advice it's also, if we are honest, frustrating because sometimes we feel like God isn't listening or His inbox is full. But in reality we could just not be listening for a response or even looking for a response. God can answer in any way, shape or form. But God doesn't talk to us the way that He used to talk to people. We see many places in the Bible where God used an audible voice to speak to people. This is why it can be very hard to hear Him. THEN In the book of Genesis, God actually walks and talk with Adam and Eve – daily [1]. God speaks to Moses from a burning bush. At the end of Genesis, we see everyone has come to Egypt because of a famine and Egypt had plenty of food because Joseph was there to help them be ready. (After all the Joseph went through, God had him right where he was supposed to be a

Decisions. Anyone ever have to make a decision? They are not always easy to make. But some decisions are made easily. The cereal you want to buy. The ice cream you want to buy. The sub you get from Jimmy John's. The decisions that can be made easier than others usually involve our favorite things - no questions asked. For me, it's Golden Oreos, Cinnamon Life, Meatlovers Pizza and cookie dough ice cream (preferably Ben & Jerry's Tonight's Dough). These would be my choices with little or no thought. But what about the decisions that are hard. For example - should I date this person? Should I let this person into my life? Does this relationship help my walk with God? Should I listen to what God says in the situation or what people say? Should I stay in this relationship? Should I stay with my husband or wife? Should I get that car or house? Should I keep this job that I don't like? What do we do with those? We can ask a friend what we should do