Women and the Church

04/20/2016

This is Madison again, Bj's daughter. As many of you might have known if you read my last post, my mom had actually finished writing a book right before she passed away, and it has finally been published. The book is called When God Holds Your Heart and it can be found on Amazon: http://amzn.to/23X2YVX
Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/1Thlrrb and the publishers website: http://bit.ly/22LdOMv in either paperback or ebook. My mom put all of her love for God's word and his people into this book, and wanted this devotional to bless and encourage everyone of you. I hope that this book will honor her memory, and remind people of how much God loves you. Here is the book summary:
"Take Another Step …
Our answers often require a higher perspective. So take another step with me. I am weary too. Lift your right foot, then your left foot, and then your right foot again. The view is not only beautiful at the top, it is magnificent. JESUS overcame this world, John 16:33. He took back all that was lost. We sit at the majesty of the right hand of God, in Christ JESUS. Sometimes I don’t feel like it either, but feelings are part of the flesh, as are the memories of wounds that rise up, trying to pull us back down to “what” we were before, and “where” we were before. Don’t let them. You are a new creation in Christ. Born from above, no longer of this world. You now wear the signet ring, and we are in union with the creator of the Heavens and the Earth. You are accepted in the Beloved, Ephesians 1:6.
If the view wasn’t beautiful and magnificent at the top, the devil wouldn’t fight so hard to pull us down. And if God our Father didn’t have good things in store for us, the enemy wouldn’t try so hard to talk us out of our victory. We have a victory to look forward to for all of eternity, but Paul wrote in Romans 5:17, “We were made to reign in [this] life through the one, JESUS Christ.” This verse also says we were given an abundance of Grace. This is not a future reality, but a very present help right here on Earth.
Paul often wrote, “encourage one another, build each other up.” Let someone in your life know how wonderful they are, and how much you appreciate what they are doing. Stop and celebrate your own accomplishments. God has not abandoned the dreams He has placed in your heart and the calling He has placed on your life. You still have mighty purpose in Him. He has not abandoned your children, your spouse, or those closest to you that He called you to love and to live life with...Take another step, and another, and another. Keep going, and know that the Lord is helping at every turn. With His help, it gets easier, and the view more glorious with every step.
When God Holds Your Heart By BJ Hostetter©2015
A devotional from Womenandthechurch.com"

01/02/2016

My name Is Madison Hostetter, BJ Hostetter's daughter (the author of the Women and the Church blogs). Many of you might have been wondering why she has not been posting on here as often as she usually does. She did not post a lot of personal information on her blog, but for the past two months she had been battling with cancer, and sadly last Saturday she passed away. My mom's passion was always to write, and when she started this blog, she knew that it was what she had been called to do. She loved pouring her heart out in her writing, to share God's word of grace and love. She actually had just finished writing her first book before she passed, and to honor her memory we will still be publishing it. Thank you all for supporting my mom, she loved to read the comments and see how much her writing impacted people and drew them to God and his son. I will be posting on here about the book so that anyone who is interested can purchase a copy. Thank you.

12/10/2015

The miracle was in His hands. It was not within the realm of the disciples thinking to plan for the supernatural, and it was definitely beyond the natural to even imagine that five loaves and 2 fish could feed a multitude that large. All the natural rules of mathematics would have to be tossed to the wayside, abandoned. For 2+2 no longer equaled 4, and 2 x 2 could now yield tens of thousands. Natural laws were abated and what was false became true. What was unreasonable became plausible, and what had been impossible happened right before their very eyes. Heaven invaded earth and the truth of that realm overcame every fact in this one.

Mark 6:42 says, "they all ate and were satisfied." Can we say the same when we see hunger today? Or people without jobs? Or suffering from sickness? Can we look into the face of facts and see truth from another place, where no one is hungry, sick or without work? The miracle was in JESUS' hands then and it still is today. And yet we are so hesitant to leave our needs in those capable hands and to run back as often as our baskets need filled. His disciples, those who had been with Him in His earthly ministry, knew enough to go back often. They knew the master would supply their need.

I think we forget these truths when our hunger surfaces. When we don't get the job, the healing, or the provision in the category we want it in, especially when it doesn't come quickly. Do we sit down, rest, in JESUS' presence, or do we frantically move about the cabin, opening drawers and cabinets, in search of the items that will meet our need? Forgetting all the while, that the miracle is in His hands...God isn't in the human possibilities, He is Lord of the impossibilities. He rules over the circumstances we can't get through on our own...

And He isn't looking to be our last resort, bailing us out when we have reached the end of our rope. I often think He wants me to toss my rope out altogether, and stake every hope I have in Him and His ability to bring it to pass.

The miracle is in His hands...

Read entire blog @ http://www.womenandthechurch.com/2015/05/the-miracle-is-in-his-hands.html.
Blog by Women and The Church©2015

12/08/2015

God wants you to know that you, who are born again of His spirit are joined to Him by a cord that cannot be severed, and separated out from this world by a double edged sword. A blade powerful enough to divide soul and spirit. You, who are new in Christ, underwent a spiritual circumcision that separated your new heart, the new inner man, from all that was flesh. What you were before you received the new birth is no longer who you are now, a new creation in Christ. Although you live in a weak earthen vessel you are so much more than that. You are bought with a price, His undying love for you. A Love that reached out from beyond the grave, and resurrected our Lord. That same love resurrected us and enables us to live a spirit led life. We were dead, yet shall we live, the recorded the words of JESUS in John 11:25. "We have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer we that live, but Christ that lives in us, by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself up for us," Galatians 2:20.

God is no longer looking for good behavior or demanding obedience. If the mercy of God were based on good behavior no one would receive it, not even Mother Teresa or the Apostle Paul who wrote, "there is no good thing that dwells in me," Romans 7:18. Paul made peace with the fact that there is no condemnation in Christ JESUS. As long as we bear about in these bodies of flesh we are going to sin. Does that make sin okay? Absolutely not. Sin is a tormentor, but JESUS delivered us from torment. Sin has already been condemned in Christ. He set us free.

The compassion JESUS had on the Judeans and others when He walked among them, performing signs, wonders and miracles is the same compassion He has for you and I today. John wrote most about God's love toward us and our love toward others. I can't do this without God. I can't perform enough, work hard enough, or look enough like Him, if it isn't Him. But I can follow the apostles example, I can follow closely at my rabbi's heels...I can reach out for His coattails any time I need to and He reminds me I no longer have an issue of blood. Shhh. Can you that? Lean in closer. Rest. Don't make a sound. Can you hear His heartbeat? The heartbeat of a most compassionate God pouring out His love to you and to me.

Read entire blog and prayer @ http://www.womenandthechurch.com/2015/05/moved-with-compassion.html. Blog by Women and The Church©2015

12/07/2015

Temptation brings doubt which leads to fear and distrust. We choose to trust God above what our five senses reveal. We choose to call on the name of the Lord when we are in trouble. That is the resisting and the submitting of which James wrote in James 4:7. Flee means to take flight or vanish away. The enemy of our soul will vanish, He cannot stand in the presence of an almighty God. Look at Mark 4:39, "And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm." NASB. Even the fearsome wind, of which the Old Testament writers expounded, died down and became perfectly calm in the presence of our Lord. In verse 41 of the same chapter the text says the disciple became very much afraid and said one to another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

I don't know what wind you are fighting, the devil continues to bring temptation in an effort to separate us from God. Don't Let Him! Once you believe in Christ as your Savior you are a new creation in Him. The light of life now lives inside of you, removing every darkness and rebuking every storm, for even the wind and the sea obey Him. He loves you and He will not fail you. Evey good and perfect gift is from Him, James 1:17, and no good thing will He withhold from a child of God who walks in the uprightness of JESUS our Savior, Psalm 84:11. We too can say as David did, "He brought me forth also into a broad place;
He rescued me, because He delighted in me."

Hold fast your confession for all that satan can do is try to talk you out of it with lying signs and wonders. Resist, submit by trusting in God and fixing your eyes on Christ your Savior. The enemy will flee and like David, in Psalm 18, the Lord will bring you through to every victory and to stand as a testimony among the saints here on earth. In JESUS name I pray, "Let it be done according to God's will which is for us to prosper and to be in health in JESUS mighty name, Amen." God bless.

Read entire blog @ http://www.womenandthechurch.com/2015/12/even-wind-and-sea-obey-him.html. Blog by BJ Hostetter©2015, www.womenandthechurch.com.

12/06/2015

Even The Wind and the Sea Obey Him: I am sitting out on my lanai this morning. I can hear the water lapping up against the filters in the pool and the intermittent rustling of the leaves as the wind passes through them. I can't see the pool filters working, I only know from the manufacturer's specs that they do, and the result: clear rippling water in the pool. I can't see the wind, but I can see the branches on the trees sway and dance in the sunlight as leaves fall to the ground. I can also feel the soft breeze against my skin. I know the wind is real from the manufacturer's specs as well. In 2 Samuel 22:11 and again in Psalms 18:10, David wrote, "He rode upon a cherub and flew; And He sped upon the wings of the wind." NASB.

Most of the references to the wind in the Bible are not encouraging. The droughts, the famines, and the disasters are often attributed to the wind, from which many of the Old Testament writers sought shelter in God. Yet here in Psalms 18 we see God helping His beloved, David, riding upon a cherub and flying speedily upon the wings of the wind to bring deliverance. In verse 14 it says, He sent out His arrows, and scattered them, And lightning flashes in abundance, and routed them. That is how He scatters our enemies before us. And in verses 16-17, David said, "He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me."

We have a God in whom we can have much confidence, for when our enemies are too mighty for us, they are never too mighty for God who is ALMIGHTY. For who can stand against the power of our God? David's name means, "beloved" but we have a far greater covenant than David had. Sealed in the blood of our Savior, the Lord JESUS, we have an assurance that the strongest power in the universe has already said "yes" to our healing, our provision and our eternity. There is nothing, no good thing that the Lord will ever withhold from you and I. We need to get that deep on the inside of us and trust in His goodness, His mercy, and His grace.

Read entire blog @ http://www.womenandthechurch.com/2015/12/even-wind-and-sea-obey-him.html. Blog by BJ Hostetter©2015, www.womenandthechurch.com.

12/05/2015

That word heart refers to the seat of our personal life, our thoughts, our minds. When we accepted Jesus' sacrifice, His finished work at the cross, and we are born again, we no longer have the same nature that we had before. We have been given a new nature and a new bloodline. We are part of a new spiritual family and we are no longer who we were before. We have been made new. This is not an outward show, like the pharisees Jesus confronted, but rather an inward change. We are new in our heart, which the New Testament writers refer to as the inner man. Yet, there is a problem. We have a new heart, born from above but our mind, which filters every thing we receive naturally and supernaturally is still part of our flesh, our earthly body. It is our mind that we renew, change, so that we can prove that that good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Paul wrote in Romans 6:11, "Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

It is that reckoning, that renewing, that changing our mind, which is repenting, that proves - brings to pass God's good, acceptable and perfect will in our lives. To repent is a willful decision to put the Word of God on in our minds so that we can think the way our heavenly Father thinks. So that we can line up our logic with His logic and make decisions based on His Word and His revelation knowledge in us. It is saying, "Mind, stop thinking that and think this..." It is doing what Paul said to do in Philippians 4:8 and 9. "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you."

We're not robots, God gives us free will choice. He loved us first, and in choosing to believe, we were born from above and given a new heart. Renewing our minds, repenting or changing our thinking, takes conscious effort on our part, putting on the new man and reckoning the old one dead. It's isn't always what our minds, full of passions, emotions, and memories, really want to do. Yet it is exactly what our new heart wants, our true inner man, born from above. Our new heart beats to a drum so distant that we can't always see from our limited earthly perspective that we truly are seated in the heavenly places, a new creation in Christ as old things are passing away.

Read entire blog @ http://www.womenandthechurch.com/2015/05/thinking-thoughts-of-god-after-him.html. Blog by Women and The Church©2014

12/04/2015

I am as the wind, and you that are born again are too...In John 3:3 JESUS says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus' heartfelt desire is to understand this man JESUS. Who He is, where He is from, and how He performs these mighty works. JESUS states the subject of this entire chapter in verse 3, 'that we be born again.' Our Lord tells Nicodemus that unless He is born again, born from above, from a place outside of our earthly realm, he cannot see the kingdom of God, and he will not be able to figure it out through his own understanding... These leaders sought to understand what they couldn't see, and to see what they were still blind to.

“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit,” John 3:8, Huh? Nicodemus replies, “How can these things be?” in John 3:9,

We can't see the wind or which direction it is blowing, and yet we do not doubt that it blows. We hear the sound, we see the leaves shake on the branch, or debris fall to the ground. We see objects rise and fall on the wind and we know the wind is real. JESUS tells Nicodemus, "It is the same with everyone who is born of the Spirit." We cannot see with natural eyes that they are any different from those who are born only of flesh and blood, but sometimes we can feel it. We can sense it. We can hear it, and we know there is something different about the one who is born from above. We see the effect, perhaps it is in a word of wisdom, an uncanny assurance that something will come to pass. A prayer that affects healing in the life of another, or the firm foundation on which they stand. It is from another place, not earthly, not at all ordinary. It is made of a completely different substance, yet no less real in its effect.

It is as the wind...

You are as the wind....

And I am as the wind...

Read entire blog @ http://www.womenandthechurch.com/2015/05/i-am-as-wind.html. Blog by BJ Hostetter©2015, wwwwomenandthechurch.com.

12/04/2015

At my worst He tells me I am beautiful. At my lowest He tells me I am safe. When I see only my faults He says I am perfect. And He is saying that to you too! Would someone loving me instead of condemning me cause me to want to mess up more or do something awful? Or would it lift me back up to where I am already seated in the heavenlies with Him, far above all principality and powers. Accepted in the beloved, and blessed to be a daughter of the most high God. That's true restoration they way He restored Peter in the final chapter of the Gospel of John. Paul wrote it this way, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," Romans 8:1

God said His grace was sufficient for us, 2 Corinthians 12:9, that we didn't need more of anything because we already have everything in Christ. He said we could cast our cares on Him, 1 Peter 5:7, that His yoke was easy and His burden light, Matthew 11:30. He said that we could pray for one another and that whatever we asked for, believing we already had it, it would be ours, Mark 11:24, even if mountains had to move, Mark 11:23.

He left us in these weak earthen vessels, these chipped cups and dented frames. We can all remember when we were hurt or broken in a particular area, some of us still hurt. That very pain can give us an opportunity to turn around and connect with someone who may be struggling right now. There is beauty in brokenness when we don't hide, but love right through it...The most valuable thing I learn from being a mess, is that God can use the messiest of us to speak light into the lives of others. And somehow in the using, He fixes what was broken or He arranges the pieces so they don't hurt anymore. Hope doesn't spring from having it all figured out, hope springs from Him. We live inside these weak earthen vessels, yet the light that shines through them is divine.

Read entire blog @ http://www.womenandthechurch.com/2015/05/accepting-my-personal-worst.html. Blog by Women and The Church©2015

12/02/2015

What if we came with empty hands and just sat in His presence, like Mary did? What if we ignored all our Marthas and stared into the face of JESUS. Knowing that nothing we are or have done is hidden in His sight, but that we are accepted in Him through believing on Him. What if we just claimed JESUS as the solution to everything that is amiss in our lives, no matter the mess we have made of them? What if we accepted that He loved us anyway? And paid a price we never could. What if we just sat down in His light and let it wash over our wounded souls, reminding us of who we are in Him?

I listened to the beginning of a teaching today by a man who talked about transparency. No fig leaves, false personas, images or fake smiles. What if we were real? And what if no one liked us? But we were willing to be real anyway? What if God's good opinion of us was the only one we had, and the only one that mattered? Paul wrote in Romans 8:35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? What if we were separated from everything else, and all that remained was Christ? We who are born from above, believers in the name of JESUS cannot be separated from Christ. He is in us, He is with us, and He is for us. He requires nothing of us, but to let Him love us. So when it feels like it is all falling apart, stripped away, rusted, tarnished and raw, don't hide. Come to Him with empty hands and sit at His feet.

God helps those who can't help themselves, and it is His joy to give us every good thing. Have you ever seen a small child worry about their next meal? The rent money? Their health? Do they expect to hurt when they fall down, or stay broken? Sometimes they cry out for food, and they continue to cry out until they get what they want. They are tenacious in their persistence. And we feed them, don't we? A child doesn't convince you that he is hungry or promise you anything in return for his food. A child comes with empty hands and full assurance that he will be fed. No fig leaves, no coverings, no pretense, no excuses... With empty hands and full assurance.

Read entire blog @ http://www.womenandthechurch.com/2015/05/with-empty-hands-and-full-assurance.html. Blog by Women and The Church©2015. Photo is Empty...but Alive, by crossrhythm

I am a Princess because my Father is a King. Like us on Facebook at Womenandthechurch1. Email us at [email protected].

12/01/2015

How Darius must have prayed for Daniel, for the next verse says he passed the night fasting. The King did not sleep that night. In fact the King broke his own decree, for surely he sought petition of one other than himself on behalf of Daniel. The stone that was laid at the mouth of the den speaks of the Law. That which is set in stone, irrefutable, not to be challenged. The text reads that the King sealed it with his own signet. Only a greater King could remove the stone that sealed Daniel's fate. And only a greater lion could stop the mouths of those lions. A King of Kings and a Lord of Lords...The Lion of all Lions. It was the Lion of the tribe of Judah that shut the mouths of those lions. For only God Himself could remove the stone, the sentence of death that was laid upon Daniel.

Daniel possessed a righteousness that pointed to what Christ accomplished for us at the cross. Thousands of years later another stone was rolled against the mouth of a cave, sealing the body of our Lord and signifying his death and burial. Death, with teeth as a lion, whose mouth could not be shut, never satisfied as its sentence reigned over man since the fall. Yet the Lion of the tribe of Judah satisfied the requirements of the Law of sin and death. The stone that sealed the tomb, along with all our sins was rolled away, and we were set free as Daniel was that morning in a Lion's den. No longer would sin and death reign over man.

Now this treasure could live in weak earthen vessels without confinement or restriction. Now the power of God and the kingdom of heaven could walk the earth inside every one of us who believe on the name of JESUS. He did it! The Lion of Judah triumphed over all the other lions, and He set us free!

Read entire blog @ http://www.womenandthechurch.com/2015/05/the-lion-that-shut-lions-mouths.html.
Blog by Women and The Church©2015

11/30/2015

When The eyes of forgiveness looked on the woman caught in the sin of adultery, Jesus said in John 8:7, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” He went on to say in verses 10 and 11 of that same chapter, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” followed by “I do not condemn you, either.” There was more to be done, JESUS had not yet gone to the cross and Israel, of whom this woman was a part, was still under a Law which had to be fulfilled; righteousness had to be earned by law keeping. So JESUS said to the woman, “From now on sin no more.”

When JESUS met the Samaritan woman at the well he knew everything about her, that she had been married five time and that the man she lived with now was not her husband. The eyes of grace looked on her and offered love and acceptance rather than the shame she had borne among the townspeople. In John 4:26 JESUS revealed Himself to the woman, “I who speak to you am He.” In verse 39 of that same chapter we read, From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” Does that sound like the testimony of a woman still hiding in shame? JESUS restored her and sent her out, Beautiful in His eyes.

In Acts when Peter went to Cornelius' house and the first gentiles believed, and when the Philippian jailer trembled with fear, and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” in Acts 16:30, Paul responded in Acts 16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” I can find no record where JESUS said confess all your sins, which would be translated in the old testament as uncover your shame and nakedness, to anyone who sought His help.

The Syrophoenician woman, the lunatik's father, the centurion, the woman with the issue of blood, what did they all have in common? They sought JESUS out. But even that cannot be a requirement to receive from the Lord for the Samaritan woman did not come to the Lord, rather He came to her. As He comes to so many today. As He came to me. We all believe in something. Even believing in nothing is believing in something. I believed in the God of Israel, some believe in pagan gods, some believe they are as god and need no one. None of this keeps JESUS from looking on us with eyes of forgiveness. He paid our debt and the door is open. All we must do is believe on Him and receive.

Read blog @ http://www.womenandthechurch.com/2015/05/the-eyes-of-forgiveness.html. Blog by BJ Hostetter©2015,www.womenandthechurch.com