The winner of Ellechor’s Valentine’s Day Giveaway drawing is Blissful Elegance Wedding and Event Planning! The owner will receive a FREE Signature “Chosen Woman” Tee along with her purchase of our soon to be released “The Boaz Factor: When You’re Ready for the Right One”.
Voted into the Finals by friends and fans during Ellechor’s Open Voting period on Facebook, “Acsah” sailed through the finish line as our Editor’s Top Pick and Award Winner! “Acsah” takes an incredible story from the Bible and brings it to life.
The Bible is full of wonderful depictions of True Love, and author Janice Rice reveals another that has gone virtually unnoticed! In our modern world that lacks morality, courage and honor, we can look back in Scripture to the story of two young people, Othniel and Acsah, who encompass these attributes. Amidst the turmoil of work and war, Othniel and Acsah grow older, sharing a close friendship. Soon, however, the struggles of family, war and cultural norms threaten the love developing between them.
Join them on their tumultuous journey as they battle forces that threaten to tear them apart. “Acsah” will be published in March 2012 with Exclusive Pre-Sales in the months leading up to its official release.
Written by: Jude Urbanski
Scripture Reading: Matt 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-17; Matt 11:1-19; Luke 7:18-35; Matt 11:20-30; Luke 7:36-50
These scriptures deal with profound events and questions. The centurion’s faith astonished even Jesus. John the Baptist asked if Jesus was the one they were expecting. Jesus heals, raises the dead and forgives the sinful woman who bathed his feet in tears and perfume.
I loved Jesus’ raising from the dead the only son of the widow of Nain. The young man sat upright and started to talk. Wouldn’t you like to know what he said? And then it says Jesus gave him back to his mother. Probably only truly understood and appreciated by someone having lost a child. Jesus cared for the mother’s plight.
The passage that sang to me though was Matt11:28-30. The one that starts with those beautiful words-’Come unto me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.’
These words are truly beloved by so many. Whenever we are tired, weary and burned out, Jesus helps us recover our lives and gives us rest. We feel the unhurried natural rhythm of God’s love. Jesus is gentle and humble in heart. His yoke is easy and his burden light.
What a sweet release to turn our burdens over to Jesus. How could an offer get better?
Written by: Jude Urbanksi
Scripture Readings: Matt 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-17; Matt 11:1-19; Luke 7:18-35; Matt 11:20-30; Luke 7:36-50
These scriptures deal with profound events and questions. The centurion’s faith astonished even Jesus. John the Baptist asked if Jesus was the one they were expecting. Jesus heals, raises the dead and forgives the sinful woman who bathed his feet in tears and perfume.
I loved Jesus’ raising from the dead the only son of the widow of Nain. The young man sat upright and started to talk. Wouldn’t you like to know what he said? And then it says Jesus gave him back to his mother. Probably only truly understood and appreciated by someone having lost a child. Jesus cared for the mother’s plight.
The passage that sang to me though was Matt11:28-30. The one that starts with those beautiful words-’Come unto me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.’
These words are truly beloved by so many. Whenever we are tired, weary and burned out, Jesus helps us recover our lives and gives us rest. We feel the unhurried natural rhythm of God’s love. Jesus is gentle and humble in heart. His yoke is easy and his burden light.
What a sweet release to turn our burdens over to Jesus. How could an offer get better?
Written by: Derek Jackson
Mark 1:29-31, 34 (NKJV) – “Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once. So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them. Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.”
My Scripture passage for this week is especially relevant, considering I suffered a light touch of the flu over this past weekend, and I’m still feeling some slight effects from it. So reading in the Word where Jesus simply took Simon’s mother-in-law by the hand and immediately healed her greatly encouraged my spirit. (As well as my physical body!) I immediately began confessing that Jesus was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed!
This is not to say that a born-again believers’ body will never get sick. But when sickness comes to our bodies, we should see it as another opportunity to strengthen our faith that Jesus is our Healer, that nothing is too hard for our God, and that God can deliver us from anything causing our bodies dis-ease.
I can acutely visualize Simon’s mother-in-law laying in bed, distressed and in pain with a fever. I can also envision Jesus reaching His hand toward her, and at the moment He touched her, all of her body’s cells having to line up with how they were originally created. Do you recall God’s very first act after He created mankind in His likeness and image? In Genesis 1:28, it says God BLESSED man. Though sickness entered the world through Adam’s sin, mankind was always originally blessed and furthermore we now we have life and peace in Christ (Romans 5:18). I thank God for doctors and for medicine (even though I don’t always like taking it), but mostly I thank Him that He is my Healer!
Written by: Jude Urbanski
“You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:15)
Jesus taught His companions. His disciples and maybe the huge following crowds. What he taught on that mountaintop is still relevant. Wisely, Jesus gave instruction in the Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes in how to live for Him.
No other scriptures speak so effectively in how to live the Christian life. Jesus gave comfort, hope and encouragement in these lessons. Reverend Eugene Peterson in his Message Bible translates the first beatitude like this: ”You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.”
What a provoking thought. We are blessed at every low point in our lives because that is when God shines? The answer is yes. We’re to shine in the same way as Jesus tells us to do a few verses later. ”You’re here to be light, bring out the God-colors in the world.”
Am I? Are you? Bringing out the God-colors in our worlds? I’m aware I don’t always appropriate this advice, but intend to keep trying. I encourage you to do likewise.
Let us believe God is always there when we’re at our lowest and that He still believes enough in us to proclaim we are Salt and Light to the world.
Written by: Mandy Woodhouse
Scripture Reading: LUKE 9:7-9, 10-17; MARK 6:14-29, 30-44, 45-52, 53-56; MATTHEW 14:1-21, 22-33, 34-36; JOHN 6:1-15, 16-21
In John 6:1–13, Jesus found Himself surrounded by thousands of hungry people. Unfortunately, this large crowd had a serious lack of food. According to one of the disciples, the only food for miles was held by a child who had five loaves of bread and two small fish. The disciples overlooked the child because of such a small amount of food, but Jesus knew that where there is lack, there is a superabundant supply from His Father’s kingdom to overcome that lack.
When the disciples questioned, “…how far will they go among so many?” (John 6:9, NIV), Jesus simply responded that He wanted the crowd to sit down. Then in verse 12, He was almost sarcastic when He asked them to “…let nothing be wasted” (NIV).
The disciples saw only the problem, the lack. But Jesus saw an opportunity to bring Heaven to earth. He took the little that they had, lifted it up and gave thanks to His Father, whose supply is so much greater than we can ever ask for or even imagine. Jesus performed a miracle that day, and the people were well fed. As long as there was need, there was supernatural supply—so much supply that there were 12 baskets of leftovers! God always supplies when He sees need.
Let us believe together that God’s superabundant supply will come and multiply the little that we may have. God is able!
Written by: Derek Jackson
Luke 4:20-21 (NKJV) “Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘This day this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
What a monumental moment in Jesus’ earthly ministry! After being led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil in the wilderness for forty days, He returns to Nazareth and immediately fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy in announcing – to anyone having ears to hear – His purpose and passion.
I particularly love how He sat down and waited for a moment after He finished reading from the scroll. Can you picture that moment in time? With every eye in the room fixed on Jesus, He declares, “THIS DAY is the scripture fulfilled in your hearing.” (emphasis mine).
What promises are you believing God for? If you’re like me, you may have several specific promises from God’s Word that have not yet manifested in your life. In reading over this passage from Luke’s gospel, I’m reminded of all the men and women of God of the Bible who prayed, waited for, and eagerly anticipated the Messiah’s coming. And while God is a God of timing (Ecclesiastes 3:1), the Bible also makes it clear that faith and expectancy create an atmosphere whereby miracles happen and promises are fulfilled.
With that in mind, I wonder what might then happen if I woke up tomorrow believing that THIS DAY one of the Scriptures I’m confessing would be fulfilled in my hearing and in my life. That THIS DAY I would see a manifestation of God’s promises in my life. That THIS DAY God opens the door for that promotion, that new job opportunity, and everything else I’m praying for. Since faith is the substance of things hoped for, I’m encouraged that for everything I’m believing and hoping in God for, THIS is the DAY the Lord has made, and so my blessing can manifest today!
Written by: Derek Jackson
John 3:4 (NKJV) – “Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
As a child, I remember being first introduced to this Scripture passage during a Sunday School class. I was six or seven years old, and I had not yet accepted Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. I remember thinking Nicodemus’ question was a valid one, as I’d recently learned the answer to that most puzzling question most children ask at some point in their young lives – “Mom, where do babies come from?” So what did it mean, I thought, for someone to be born again? Nicodemus was right, I recall thinking. It’s impossible to enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born again!
I later learned what it meant to accept Christ, though, and what it meant to be born again in the spirit. In the sixth verse of this same chapter, Jesus says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” To be born again, spiritually, is to become translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, and it is the most amazing experience we can have. We were created in the image and likeness of God (spirit) and when we accept Christ as our Savior, our spirits become reborn. And just as in a natural birth, everything is at first new and somewhat unfamiliar, but as we grow from babies to children to adult Christians, by feeding on God’s Word, praying, and being planted in a local church, we become more and more conformed to the image of Christ.
Today, as I remember and meditate on my personal new birth experience, I’m so thankful for God’s precious gift – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Written by: Jude Urbanski
“At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyre.” Nehemiah 12:27
Nehemiah ranks high on my radar! He was man of strength and obedience. He made the choice to return home from Babylon to expressly rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He chose to not run from a difficult task, but rather listened to God and poured himself into the work of building up the walls.
I’m reminded of church members who, when church politics get hot, become cold and leave the battle. I personally recall very poignantly the sense of abandonment by my errant pastor. I didn’t want to be Nehemiah, I wanted to leave.
Thanks goodness God helped me and others stay and work to mend broken pieces. Broken walls. Today we remain a vibrant community.
The joy in this passage is so infectious. Think how all the disillusioned temple singers and artists felt when they received summons to return for the big celebration. Can’t you just visualize their smiles?
Let that joy permeate us as we continue to build up walls in our lives.
