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Weekly Wisdom Winnows

    by Lisa Mendenhall

December 20, 2009

Don't tell someone you care about them and then let contrary actions speak louder than your words....Don't deceive your own self by not recognizing ulterior motives for everything you do. People can see your shallowness whether you choose to believe it or not...They can see how fake your sympathy, compassion and pretend caring is...you cannot hide it....so next time you want people to believe that you really care....you might want to check your heart to see if you really do care! If not, ask yourself, "Why?" Then, get honest with yourself; quit pretending at work, church,…  ( Click for more )

November 1, 2009

Compare your prayer life, now, to what it used to be; do you detect an improvement in quality? in quantity? What about confidence in your prayers, do you have assurance? Or, do you observe a 'falling away' from what you once believed and practiced? Why is it that most of us would have to answer, "falling away"? What causes us to lay down our prayer lives? What is it that makes us give up on praying for our family, our nation, other people?

It could be the lack of seeing the answers to our prayers. Perhaps in the past, some of us prayed over something to change or…  ( Click for more )

October 18, 2009

What if there was a reality TV show called, "Heaven or Hell"? A show that allowed participants to experience 'virtual reality' of both places? What would it be like? How would it feel? I think it would go something like this:

Slowly, I start to descend. I go downward, farther downward, into the belly of the earth. It grows darker, darker, until total blackness surrounds me, pitch-black darkness. I can’t even see my hand when I place it right in front of my face. 'Scary' has new meaning; fear grips my heart as the darkness literally takes my breath away. My…  ( Click for more )

August 23, 2009

Father, TODAY is the 1st day of the rest of my life. TODAY, this morning, Your mercies were NEW! TODAY, right now, I have been forgiven for every sin, every failure, and every iniquity. TODAY You have forgiven and chosen to forget every single area of my life that was not pleasing to you. Colossians 3:3 tells me that I died with Jesus and my present tense life is hidden with Christ IN You. Galatians 2:20 tells me "...it is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself…  ( Click for more )

August 16, 2009

One day as I was praying the Lord showed me that I had withdrawn from the body of Christ to a great degree. Even though I was still functioning and taking care of my Christian duties, [studying, praying, teaching, ministering], I had built a shell of protection around my heart to keep people from entering in and getting too close. He begin to deal with me about hurts that I had received from different ones in the body of Christ, (you know sometimes we don't need the enemy - we do a good job of seriously wounding our own). The sad thing was I didn't know what to do about it. All I…  ( Click for more )

August 2, 2009

So in today’s world, how do you distinguish if a person truly loves you or just knows how to say the words? Is it by their actions? By the sincerity of their speech? When someone tells you whether it be a spouse, a friend, a mother or father, or even a brother or sister, “I love you”, How do you know its true? We throw the word, 'love', around so loosely these days that it truly has no real meaning anymore. If I were to ask most people, “What does it mean for God to love you? or say to them, "Tell me in your own words HOW MUCH God really loves you"…  ( Click for more )

July 26, 2009

What is a shallow person? What does the word shallow mean? What does the Bible say about shallow people? Lets define the word shallow: Shallow means not very deep. Used metaphorically, it is a derogative term used to describe people who are perceived to be superficial or without "depth". People that are labeled shallow are often superficial, petty and materialistic. They are often ones that lack depth of character. So that means it goes back to your character.

There are a lot of people that are skin-deep so to speak. They think only on the things that they can see touch…  ( Click for more )

July 19, 2009

I want to tinker with your thinker. I want to debate the way you meditate. I want to rack your brain about what you entertain. I want to show you how to choose what you use. I want you to measure the depth of your treasure. I want you to grow and learn, in how you discern. What am I talking about? Well lets dig in and find out!

Do you know how to meditate? Do you know the difference between meditation and studying the word of God? Do you believe there is a difference? Let me show you...

When you study in any area, whether it is the word of God or school work, you are gathering…  ( Click for more )

July 12, 2009

Have you ever wondered how you could say something to someone and they just didn't seem to get? Or they just brushed you off and did not take you seriously? And then someone else came along to the same person and said the same thing and they GOT IT! Why is this? Why were they able to receive and understand from that person and not you?

Again, why is this? I believe that alot of the time, (may be not all the time) it is the way we say it and the attitude we say it.

In the New Testament have you ever noticed the word "beloved"? It is mentioned 61 times in the New Testament.…  ( Click for more )

June 3, 2009

Do you know the promises of God that are written in His Word? Seek them out. What has God promised you, personally? Ask Holy Spirit to "bring them to your remembrance". Do you have secret desires hidden in your heart? Talk to Abba-Father; let him know how grateful you are; praise Him for Who He is! Give thanks for His blessings, those you have had, have now, and those to come! Notice this Word: "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger." -Psalm 8:2

What a powerful statement…  ( Click for more )

May 27, 2009

Dr. Martin Luther King said, “Everyone has the power of greatness; not for fame, but greatness. Because greatness is determined by service.”

I wish I had this quote when I was typing up the note on ‘Meekness’ the other day! Sounds like some of what Jesus said, huh? Let's look at Matthew 18:1-4 : "At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And calling to ...a child, he put him in the midst of them, and said, Truly, I say to you, unless you can become like children, you will never enter the kingdom…  ( Click for more )

May 20, 2009

"Nothing is as strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength." -unknown

"...but be peaceable, gentle, showing complete courtesy to all people." - Titus 3:2

Solomon stated, "all is vanity"; the more 'mature' we become "In Christ" the more we realize just how wise Solomon was concerning the vanity of gaining wisdom for the soul purpose to become 'wise'. Scripture teaches that we become "skillful in Righteousness by reason of use". This is assuredly true of developing His character IN us. Producing fruit for…  ( Click for more )

May 4, 2009

How do you know when your car is going to run out of gas? You know right before it dies and you coast to a stop? It starts to sputter and spit and slowly loses power until it comes to a total stop. It ain't going no further! Not unless you want to get out and push that car down the road!

How do we know when we spiritually run out of gas? We start to spit and sputter and slowly we lose power until our motor dies and we coast to a stop. The only difference between us and that car is that when we stop spiritually we go in reverse! We start eating up the miles going backwards.…  ( Click for more )

April 27, 2009

Have you had a heart attack lately? You know one of those attacks on your heart-the place your deep emotions live? The place where your commitment lives? The place where your motives (why you do what you do?) takes up residence? The place that inspires you on what you do in your everyday life?

When you have an attack on your heart it calls into question your very character and integrity. I had such an attack the other day. I was cruising along minding my own business when all of the sudden I had this thought, WHY am I studying the Word? My motives were coming into question. So…  ( Click for more )

April 20, 2009

Are you committed to the cause? You say, "Lisa, what are you talking about?" Okay, let me rephrase the question. What causes are you committed too? All of us are committed to something. Some of us are committed to not being committed! Some of us work really hard to avoid the responsibility of commitment to the Lord.

Now I am not talking about salvation here. I am talking about the level of commitment you have to doing the will of the Lord for your life. We have people ridicule us all the time because we are in church every time the doors are opened. We are committed!…  ( Click for more )

April 12, 2009

Have you ever been in the place where you were so excited about something God has shown you or where He was leading you or maybe even a new revelation of the Word ? What's the next thing you did? Probably the same thing I do, think about who I want to share it with or who I can tell what God has done or what God has shown me. Right? Then you are all excited talking to them about this great thing and they cut you off in the middle of a sentence? Or they start correcting everything you are trying to say. Have you ever been there? Usually these are the people that we look up too, respect,…  ( Click for more )

April 5, 2009

Have you ever got up one morning and looked around and wondered, WHAT HAPPENED? HOW DID I GET HERE? Ya know when you come to yourself and look around and think, this is not what I had planned, this was not how it was suppose to be? When you started off so good and with the right intentions and you wanted to do something for God so much, and your heart was right and you was on fire for God and then boom! You wake up one day and you are so far off the path you have no hope of getting back? And honestly some of you have given up on God and really believes He has given up on you. You…  ( Click for more )

March 29, 2009

Abiding or sliding, which one are you doing? Abiding in Jesus is NOT something that comes automatically for the believer. Your lifestyle (habits and everyday routines) has to have discipline and effort. We have to choose to give ourselves and our attention to Him constantly. It is an every minute of every hour of everyday lifestyle. It is not something you can do once or twice a week and then forget about it. (Like doing your grocery shopping or going to church.) I am talking about constantly abiding in Jesus.

What exactly does the word "abide" mean? It means to stand…  ( Click for more )

March 22, 2009

In the last few days, God has really been dealing with me about being more merciful. So I have to be obedient to what I believe is the Holy Spirit's leading in sharing what He has put on my heart. I know that in today's society enough is not taught on God's holiness and on His judgment. And that is a real issue that needs to be addressed more often. On future articles that is my plan.

But for today lets focus in on God's way of being merciful and how He wants me to be full of mercy. I have been thinking a lot about the way things have come down in my life lately.…  ( Click for more )

March 15, 2009

In this life it is a rare thing to find a person who has died and then come back to life. It IS the exception and not the rule. Yes, it does happen. No, not to every person and no not to a lot of people. Just a few. I can't explain the whys and why-nots but I do know that it has happened and it will again. BUT don't bank on it happening to you! The odds are it ain't gonna happen. So….

When you die- you die! There are no second chances. We always here people say, "well, you only live once!" I am here to tell you, you only die once! A very wise man of…  ( Click for more )

March 8, 2009

Have you ever been at the place in your life where you literally lost ALL hope? Now I am not talking about losing hope of finding a good sale. Or you lost hope of the weather ever changing. I am talking about LOSING ALL HOPE of a life changing situation. Something along the lines of a failing marriage, a dying loved one, losing a child, finding a job, being delivered from an addiction, I mean something really serious.

I don't think you can go through this life with out experiencing this feeling of emotional wreckage at least once and for some of us numerous times in our life…  ( Click for more )

March 1, 2009

DO YOU READ FOR REAL?

Have you ever wondered how a person could get saved, go to church regularly, read their Bible daily, read other books about the Bible, and still live a "lifestyle" of sin? Now I am not talking about missing the mark or falling into sin, I am talking about leading a double life, where one is the church go-er and the other is the world know-er.

How does this happen? One reason, I believe, is that the Bible is not "REAL" to them. They have grown up on a daily diet of television where life "isn't real". That's not real blood…  ( Click for more )

February 22, 2009

Do you realize that you DO NOT belong to yourself? That you are the property, (spirit, mind, will, emotions, body and everything else) of God. You do not have the right to tell God what you will and won't do. The Word says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 The Message Translation Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works.…  ( Click for more )

February 15, 2009

Have you ever heard the saying, "I tooks and I tooks until I can'ts takes no more! Ya know when you feel like you have come to the end of your rope, like you cannot go one more step with out a breakthrough, or a miracle or something! When you feel like if I don't see something positive, a glimmer of hope, a smidgen of relief on the horizion? Have you ever been there? Where it seems like every care of your family, your church, your job, your money, your EVERYTHING has fallen on your shoulders and you can't get them off?

What do you do then? How do you get the pressure off?…  ( Click for more )

February 8, 2009

I have this friend, who has this saying "I ain't skeert!" That is South Arkansas, Joey Jones, Hillbilly, Redneck for "I am not afraid". Not everyone can talk like he can. I guess if you don't know him it would be kinda hard to understand his lingo. Oh yeah he can make these weird sounds that make me skeert too! I can be going along doing something and these strange sounds come from the vicinity of my friend Joey. After my heart skips a beat or two I realize (after everyone else I might add) that it is just Joey, sounding like an ambulance or a wild animal or any…  ( Click for more )

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