Tag: Devotionals

When Does God Ever Make Sense?

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God doesnt make sense

Yesterday sitting in church the Pastor preached about the future, and the message was directed right at me.

A few years ago my husband and I went to the infertility doctor hoping to have a baby. A week later the doctor called me and said, I am sorry I can’t help you. Talk about being devastated. I was so devastated that I could not look at a pregnant woman or even be around a new born baby I would turn my head the other way it was heart breaking.

A little over a year ago I felt led to go to the local pregnancy resource center close to the church that my husband and I attend. I had gone in there only to see what our church could do to help them. Talking with the director that day I began to feel much compassion for what they do at the center. I filled out the paperwork to see what I could do to help them, and they called me back in August of last year to see when I could start coming in for training at the center. It has been a long year, and I am just now getting finished with my training.

The miracle in this is that I can now look at a pregnant woman and it brings me much joy when I see a newborn baby. God has taken what was so devastating to me and is turning it around for his glory.

If you are just reading one of my articles for the first time, I would like to share with you the short version of my story. I am an adult adoptee. I grew up knowing that I was adopted. When I was 35 years old, I found my birth mother through a social worker in the state that I was born, and that is when I found out the truth of my conception. I found out that I was conceived from rape, saved from an illegal abortion at a planned parenthood clinic, and placed for adoption. My biological great aunt tried to coerce my birth mother into having an illegal abortion at a planned parenthood clinic, but my birth mother stood her ground and knew that there was life growing inside her womb. She did not want to destroy the plans that God had for my life. For that, I am so grateful.

Not that long ago the director of the pregnancy resource center came to me with a situation and asked me what day I could come in to start counseling women who are in a crisis. I am an extra emotional person, to begin with, and over the last few days, my emotions have been going all over the place. I will admit I am scared, nervous, got fear staring me right in the face. And I have been questioning God can I do this? My husband and I don’t have children, and I never had an abortion.

Going back to this past Sunday at church on the way to church in the evening I started thinking about people in the Bible who God used, and at the time it didn’t make any sense. Abraham is one of them. God told him he would be the father of many nations, and his wife was barren, but God gave them a son 25 years later. God also told Abraham to get up and go, and God didn’t tell him where to go just to go, and God would tell him on the way where to go. Noah is another one. God told Noah to build an Ark. The Bible doesn’t say how many years it took for Noah to build the Ark, but many Bible Scholars say about 120 years it took to build before the flood. So many stories in the Bible where things didn’t make sense to man, but it made sense to God. They had to trust God. In the evening service, I heard to other messages that were for me. After listening to all three sermons if I had a title for all three sermons it would be titled, “When does God ever make sense?”  I know God is going to use me at the center to be a light to many people, but since I do not have any children and never had an abortion does it make sense to me. While it’s not making any sense to me, it makes sense to God, and I just have to trust him, and I know he is with me and will help me.

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Sherry Hensley is a Pro-Life Speaker in Maryland-Conceived in Rape, saved from an illegal abortion. She is married to Fred Hensley. Sherry enjoys inspiring others and sharing her faith. Fred and Sherry attend Bethel Christian Center in Havre de Grace, Maryland.

I Choose To Forgive

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Forgiveness by Matthew West

I Choose To Forgive

Luke 23:34  Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

This evening while my husband was working late I decided to watch a Christian film on Pureflix and the title of the film is called Maggies Passage and I did not know what I was in for, but this movie has done something to me. It is a story about a young lady who is adopted into a Christian home and after her father had passed away she felt the need to go and look for her birth mother. She did find her birth mother who was unloving and did not want her. Maggie, destroyed the hotel room that she called home and came to a breaking point in her life. She was able to escape from the hotel room that was destroyed and she found some new friends. A couple of Maggie’s new friends that I remember was Grace who encouraged her to call home and Max who became a father figure to Maggie and fixed airplanes. The part of the film that stuck with me was when Max had to do something and Maggie was washing her hands all of a sudden someone grabbed Maggie and 1 of the two men that were there to take Maggie away was Maggie’s birth father. Max had come back and told the two men that they were not taking Maggie anywhere.

The next thing that I saw was Maggie looking her birth father in the eyes and said, I forgive you. While I never will know who my birth father is when I saw Maggie looking in her birth father’s eyes and telling him I forgive you it was as if I was looking at my birth father in the eyes and saying I forgive you. After I finished watching the film I wanted to find a quote on I forgive you and I could not find one that I was looking for. Then I wanted to find a woman in deep thought and I could not find what I was looking for so I decided to make my own and I wrote a letter to my birth father letting him know I choose to forgive. By me writing the letter tonight I feel a little bit of relief. I still have a ways to go but this is a start.

To my biological father1

When we choose to forgive others God will give us the peace that we need to continue with the healing process. There are times where we have to forgive over and over again. Knowing I was conceived from rape I will most likely have to forgive again. The last few weeks I have been so torn up to where I have been sick physically. Tonight I am beginning the healing process once again.

Sherry Hensley Conceived in Rape

Sherry Hensley is a Pro-Life Speaker in Maryland-Conceived in Rape, saved from an illegal abortion. She is married to Fred Hensley. Sherry enjoys inspiring others and sharing her faith. Fred and Sherry attend Bethel Christian Center in Havre de Grace, Maryland.

 

Someone Else

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Did someone else pay1

I know we all have heard the phrase “Someone Else did it or I didn’t do it.” Especially from Children.

As Easter approaches and we remember the price that Christ paid for us on Calvary let us all remember the Resurrection. The Resurrection is about New Life. Life is a precious gift and each time there is life brought into the world it is new and fresh. There is also the celebration when New Life comes into our lives.

Growing up I always felt extra loved, and extra special when Easter would fall on my birthday. I did not understand at the time why I felt that way. I do now. Since finding out that I was conceived from rape I have a much greater appreciation for the term “Life.”

Society will tell you that those conceived in rape should be dead. That truly does not make any sense at all. They would love to have us dead because they do not want us speaking the truth.

Babies Conceived from Rape have an automatic death sentence. The sentence is for paying the price for a crime that they did not commit. That has left an impact on me as I could have paid that very same price. I am so grateful for a mother who was not going to let her daughter pay the punishment for a crime she did not commit, but saw her daughter as a gift, and allowed the precious New Life to be a gift to a couple who could not have children.

As I continued to think about it I could have paid for the crime, but I was given life instead. As I continued to think about all of this I thought about someone else in the picture. While I did not commit the crime, I am far from being perfect. I have done wrong, made mistakes, but guess what Someone else who is innocent paid the price for my wrongs, and he paid the price for the man who did the crime. I didn’t have to pay that price.

The someone else is this story is Jesus Christ while yet innocent he paid the price for all of our wrongs. He didn’t let the price that he paid keep him down, but on the 3rd day he arose from the grave and the resurrection of New Life began.

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Sherry Hensley and her Husband Fred reside in Baltimore, MD. Sherry is a Pro-Life Speaker in Maryland-Conceived in Rape, saved from an illegal abortion. She enjoys inspiring others and sharing her faith.

Morning Manna

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Manna for Morning

Numbers 11:4-9

 And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:  But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.  And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium. And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.  And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.

Not that long ago I had gotten up early because I couldn’t sleep and I was just sitting on the couch, and it was so quiet and peaceful. It was like a refreshing time. I then got to thinking No wonder people read and pray early in the morning. It is so peaceful and quiet; there is no stress of the day yet. The Early Morning hour can be our refreshing time.

While talking with my sister in law last night on the phone, I was sharing with her the Devotional about the Potter’s Wheel, and I told her I said, Bernice, I am stumped. I don’t have a thought to write down for tomorrow. She said something that was very profound to me. She said the Israelites the Lord made sure they had enough food to make it through the Day. The Lord rained down Manna from Heaven, and they would pick it up in the morning. She told me you were trying to get the Manna tonight. You want it now. You have to wait until Morning. That spoke to me.

There are times where we want God to do things now, and we get so stressed when he doesn’t do things now. Let’s wait on God. God will give us just enough strength to make it through anything. It’s not too little or too much it’s just right. Like the Israelites, The Lord made sure they had enough for that day.

So my Idea if you all want to join in with me. Let’s all get up a little extra early every morning and spend some quiet and peaceful time with our Heavenly Father. It will make our Days less stressed because we will have gotten our food in early and we have enough strength to make it through the Day.

The early morning hours can be refreshing.

 

Incense

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AARON-WITH-INCENSE-ALTAR

While trying to go to sleep tonight I said to my Husband I feel like writing. I want to write. I have many ideas on what to write but I need to write down the topics and do some research. Well as I was thinking I thought about Incense.

Incense according to Webster’s Dictionary is a material used to produce a fragrant odor when burned

Exodus 30:34  says God spoke to Moses: “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha, galbanum—and add pure frankincense. Mix the spices in equal proportions to make an aromatic incense, the art of a perfumer, salted and pure—holy. Now crush some of it into powder and place some of it before The Testimony in the Tent of Meeting where I will meet with you; it will be for you the holiest of holy places. When you make this incense, you are not to copy the mixture for your own use. It’s holy to God; keep it that way. Whoever copies it for personal use will be excommunicated

As we look at this passage of scripture we see that God is having a conversation with Moses. The Lord is telling Moses how to make the incense with the ingredients listed, but he told Moses not to copy it for personal use. It is Holy to God, keep it that way.

I think about incense in our walk with God. In order for there to be a sweet smelling fragrance we need to have the Proper ingredients in our lives. The Proper ingredients are Daily Bible Reading, Prayer, Sometimes fasting, being around positive people, being accountable to another person.

We need to keep these ingredients because they are Pleasing to God we need to keep it that way.

We need to get rid of all the ungodly ingredients that are in our lives because they are not Holy to God and we need to be a sweet smelling fragrance to the Lord that is Holy to God.

 

Today’s Prayer: Lord Jesus please help us get rid of everything that is ungodly in our lives. We want to be a sweet smelling fragrance that is Holy and expectable to you.