Looking in the Past and Looking to the future
It may seem like nothing is going is changing on FWNL because the front page has not changed. However, there is a lot going on in the “PAST”. We are uploading posts from previous issues and dating them to corrispond with the time they were published. So if you take a little time to research the “PAST” you will find a host of new posts. May you be blessed and encouraged by these articles rather you are reading them again or for the first time. We have also created a new page titled “UP and COMING” that tells what we have planned for the FUTURE, Lord willing. You can find upcoming themes and article submission dates as well as some other areas in which you could be a part of FWNL. Please check it out. May you all have
Read MoreAttached to the Body (The Cage Series – Part 4 of 4)
Hello Sister! Now that you are walking in the light free from your cage, it is easy to often feel we have to do it all on our own. But God knows that we need encouragement, instruction, and companionship in order to be faithful Christians. From the beginning God has longed for mankind to love him. He has wanted them to separate themselves from the world and honor him. He started by creating a separate group, the Israelites, but they failed him often turning to idols and evil ways. Through Christ, however, God created a new gathering of His people, the body of Christ. And we have the choice of being a part of it or not being a part of it. By going through the “water gate” of baptism, you are choosing to enter His body. (1 Cor. 12:13) Christ has freely...
Read MoreTo The Chosen Lady
“The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth.” 2 John 1 Do you realize that the book of 2 John is addressed to a lady? I didn’t realize this until just recently. I want you to read through the whole book (don’t worry it is only 12 verses) imagining that it is addressed personally to you. John obviously knew the recipients of this letter very well and wanted to encourage them. How does reading this book in this way encourage you? Some scholars think that the “lady” might be a reference to a church and the “children” a reference to the members of that congregation. Read through the book again. How does this change your perspective? On the following page is a short 3 day study...
Read More3 Day Study of 2 John
“And now I ask you, Lady, not as writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments…” 2 John 5-6 Day 1 John wanted to encourage this lady by reminding her of the basic commandment to love one another. I don’t think that she had stopped doing this…John just wanted her to continue loving and to love even more. Now how is it that we do this? By walking according to God’s commandments. God knows what is best for us and what is best for others. So if we follow God’s commands, we will be giving others the best of ourselves and the best of God. To do this, you must love with your whole self (Luke 10:27) and sincerely (1 Cor. 13). Let us...
Read MorePrepare Me Oh Lord!
Sunday – The Lord’s Day O God, I have prepared my house for you. Please come into my heart so I may spend the rest of this week and the rest of my life in your presence. Revelation 3:20 – Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with me. Monday – Wash Day Lord, help me wash away all my selfishness and vanity, so I may serve you with perfect humility throughout the rest of this week. Psalm 51:2 – Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Tuesday – Ironing Day Dear Lord, help me iron out all the wrinkles of prejudice I have collected through the years so that I may see the beauty in others. Mark 12:31 – Thou...
Read MoreA Promise Kept
How many promises have you made? Well, probably a lot in your life, but here is another question to consider. How many promises have you kept? In the Bible, there is a lady named Hannah, who made a promise to God. Hannah could not give birth to children (1 Samuel 1:5). This made her terribly unhappy. Weeping, she went to the temple and asked the Lord to give her a son. Then she made her promise. She told the Lord that she would give her son to Eli, who was the priest, to work in the temple (1 Samuel 1:11). When the Lord heard her prayer, he gave her a baby boy. She called him Samuel “…because I have asked him of the Lord,” (1 Samuel 1:20). She kept her promise and gave Samuel to Eli the priest when she had weened him (1 Samuel 1:23-24). I think it was...
Read MoreHannah
In 1 Samuel 1:11, Hannah prayed for a baby. The Lord had closed her womb. So she prayed that the Lord grant her a baby. She made a promise that she would give him to the Lord. So God remembered her and gave her a baby boy. Hannah remembered the promise that she made and gave the boy to the Lord. See we as Christian women need to be like Hannah and keep the Lord first. Ok, maybe we have some kids in sports, but what comes first God or sports? GOD! So we always need to put the Lord first and keep our promises to Him. It’s ok if you miss a few services. But don’t hold back and just stop going completely! Come back and get the Lord back in your life! So remember if you make a promise to the Lord, keep it! Do you know what JOY stand for? Jesus, Others, Yourself! I...
Read MoreA Very Nice Lady
One of my goals in life is to be a Christian lady. We can learn from some people in the Bible how to be a Christian. Part of being a Christian is being unselfish. One of those people is Dorcus (Tabitha.) Acts 9:36-41 tells us about her. This Christian did many good works and gave to the poor (vs 36). One day Tabitha got sick and died (vs. 37). When Peter went to Dorcus’ house, there were widows holding coats and garments that Tabitha had made them. (vs 39). The widows were very sad that Tabitha was dead, because she had helped them so much. Peter had the widows leave the room and he prayed and said “Tabitha arise” (vs 40). Then she opened her eyes and sat up. In verse 41, it says that he presented her alive. We know she was a special type of person because...
Read MoreDorcus
Dorcus, Dorcus, Dorcus…What do you think of when you hear her name? A kind woman? A dressmaker? A lady who followed God? What? I think of a thoughtful woman who cared for others. It even says so in the Bible! In Acts 9:36, it describes Dorcus as a woman who was abounding in “deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did.” Abounding means doing a lot of. Kindness is actions of being gentle and friendly. Charity is helping the poor and needy. And continually means doing something over and over. All of those definitions put together are a summary of Acts 9:36. My summary of Dorcas is someone who was gentle and friendly and who was helping the poor and needy over and over again. Emily E. age 11
Read MoreGod’s Plans for Me
As women in this world we have many different roles that pull us in many different directions. We are wife, mother, daughter, sister, granddaughter, friend, teacher, role model, worker and so much more, no wonder we are so tired at the end of the day! Sometimes God calls us to be used in areas we never even imagined or wanted to imagine. God always has a plan for us. Sometimes His plan has nothing to do with our plans. Things happen and we later understand why and the purpose or we might never but we always have to remember God is in control. I am not big on changes but almost 8 years ago we moved to a new town. My husband graduated college, got a new job, our son was 3 months old and I had never been this far from my family. We struggled finding a church home...
Read MoreLiving in The Light (The Cage Series – Part 3 of 4)
You have just come through the water gate of baptism. I run to you and wrap my arms around you, hugging you tight. “Welcome Friend! I am so thrilled that you have chosen to come live in the Lord’s light. God has rescued you from the domain of darkness, and transferred you to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:13) You are now a part of “ A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light ; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD ; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.” 1 Peter 2: 9-10 Friend, You are...
Read MoreSpringing Into Action For the Souls of Our Children
Satan’s vicious attacks on the family unit and the souls of our children can be described as anything but discreet. Virtually gone are the days when one could hope to turn on the television and find family-friendly, wholesome programming. Instead, Hollywood tries to convince us that there’s a “new” type of family, that ALL teenagers are having sex, and that only prudes avoid the use of profanity. It’s not out of the ordinary to be driving down the highway and see billboards glamorizing alcohol and sexualizing women, or to be standing in the checkout aisle at the grocery store covering your young child’s eyes so they don’t see the blatant vulgarity plastered on the cover of many magazines. In fact, all a mom has to do these days to catch a glimpse of...
Read MoreLost and Found
One day when I was in Wal-Mart I heard from the loud speaker a “code Adam.” This is an announcement used by many stores to alert their workers that a child has been separated from his or her parent and they should stop everything they are doing and immediately start searching for the child. Losing your child is a parent’s worst nightmare and it is precisely what happened to Reve Walsh on July 27, 1981, when her 6-year-old son, Adam, was abducted from a Florida department store. The mother searched frantically throughout the store but her son was nowhere to be found. The police were called but it was too late. Adam was gone and no one knew where he was. Sixteen days after his disappearance his body was found. To this day the one responsible for the abduction...
Read MoreA Change of Shoes
“So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16) As a child, upon hearing this verse, I would immediately imagine some giant, see through, Ghost-like figure vomiting my friends out of His mouth. But now that I understand the meaning and principle of this passage, the words have such a deeper effect on my thoughts. Will God literally vomit a lukewarm “Christian” out of His mouth? Well, to do so would require first eating the person, so I highly doubt this context is speaking on literal terms. But, I do know that when we try to balance between living of the world and of God, such an unbalanced lifestyle makes Him sick. He wants nothing to do with those who are riding safely in the middle, for to Him,...
Read MoreWalking through the Door (The Cage Series – Part 2 of 4)
Hello Friend! I see that you are still trapped in your cage. I am sad to see that you are locked inside, away from the beauty of the light, trapped by your sin… What’s that you say?…You want to come live in the light, but you don’t know how to open the Door?…Let me tell you The Way.” First, you have to accept the fact that Jesus is truly the way out of your cage. Many claim to be the savior of the world, but only through Jesus can you be saved. (Acts 4:12) You have to believe and trust that God will do as he has promised. In John 14:1, Jesus tells us ““Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.” Jesus goes on in John 14 to tell us of the heavenly home he is preparing for us. But we cannot go to that...
Read MoreRed Like Crimson to White as Snow
The other night my granddaughter, Jayme, and I were studying together. She was studying her spelling words and I was studying for this article. We took a break to sing a song. I fully intended doing this so that I could ask her what she thought the song meant. In her 10 year old mind she understood the song to say that people will sin. She understood that God doesn’t want them to sin and she said, “If they do what God says then He will save them from their sins. He also won’t remember what they did in the first place.” BINGO! She got it! The song we sang went like this: Verse #1- Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool. Verse #2-Hear the voice that entreats you O return ye unto...
Read MoreMemories
Just recently, I was going through some old pictures and found one, in particular, that warmed my heart. I was about 3 or 4 months old and my grandpa was holding me. We were on the front porch gazing at the fresh, beautiful, white blanket of snow that covered the ground. This was the first time it had snowed since I had been born. When I remember that photo, I think of the purity of a first snow, untouched by human footprints. I like to compare the purity of fresh snow to the purity of a newborn baby. Babies are pure, without sin, and white as snow. As we grow into adults we learn what is wrong and what is right. We are blessed if we have Christian parents to teach us how we should act as Christians and how we can become a part of God’s family. “And, ye...
Read MoreThe Lamb of God
One of my favorite songs has always been “Lamb of God” though to be perfectly honest, as a child I did not fully understand this title. It was not until later on in my life that I fully understood the great significance of this description of our Lord. When John the baptizer saw Jesus coming his way he proclaimed, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). We cannot possibly understand what this means until we have an understanding of the Old Testament sacrificial system. Under the old law people would bring an unblemished lamb to the high priest as a sin offering. The priest would sacrifice the lamb so that God would forgive the sins of the one offering it (Leviticus 4:32:34). Fast forward now to the New Testament. We now...
Read MoreI AM
Two little words to the average reader, yet these tiny words, when describing our Jesus, should bring us to our knees and even cause us to fall down on our faces in worship of our Awesome God! We first find the title, or name, “I Am” given by the Lord Himself in Exodus chapter 3. You will remember Moses has given up his place of honor as a son of Pharaoh’s daughter with the life of leisure and authority that came with that position after witnessing an Egyptian beating one of his fellow kinsmen, a Hebrew. After striking the Egyptian down and killing him, he consequently learns that his sin was known throughout the camp. Moses fled from Pharaoh, knowing that Pharaoh intended to kill him and settled in the land of Midian. Moses took a wife from the daughters of...
Read MoreThe Cage and The Door (The Cage Series – Part 1 of 4)
Imagine for a moment that you are locked away in a dark cage with no door or gate and no hope of escape. Through small windows you can see how beautiful life is outside. You try to make your cage homey and tell yourself that living in a cage is “Just fine.” But you deep down you know that it is not fine. That living in a cage is miserable. And while you try to ignore it, you know there is a hopelessness that lives inside you. Now imagine that I have come to your window. “I know the way out.” I whisper. “He is called ‘The Door’.” Would you listen to what I have to say? I would tell you of The Door, and why I love Him so… His name is Jesus Christ. I love Jesus Christ because He can sympathize with us. He was born as a man, lived...
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