Daughter of the King

I thought that I would share what happened Friday night in my life. I am usually on time as a rule. Well, I had ordered pizza and I was to pick it up in "30 minutes." I was running late by about ten minutes. I went in to pick up my order and I saw a few people that I knew including one mom and her three sons. We said our goodbyes and she left. I was signing my credit slip and I heard my friend yell my name with "HELP! He's choking!" I threw my pen and paper and ran over to her son who was not breathing. I prayed and did the Heimlich maneuver on him and whatever was blocking his passages did not dislodge. I did it again (while the Pizza Hut lady was yelling should I call the ambulance?) and out came a peppermint candy and he could breathe! Praise the Lord! We were so relieved...I am so thankful that God's timing is perfect. If I had been on time I would have picked up my pizza and been gone before the candy incident happened. Now God is big enough to have don...

8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen disputing with Stephen. 10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. 11 Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council. 13 They also set up false witnesses who said, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; 14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” 15 And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel. Acts 6:8-15 NKJV Verse 8 says a lot about Stephen! He was full of faith and power. did great wonders and signs among the ...

38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” Act 2:38-39 I love this because "Peter said" these things to them. Remember he was the disciple who had cut off the guard's ear, he denied knowing Jesus three times and he ran to the tomb to see for himself that Jesus rose from the dead and was so excited! Peter loved Jesus, he was friends with Jesus and he was discipled by Jesus. He saw first hand of the many miracles Jesus did! Was Peter perfect? No but he loved his Lord. And Peter knew this: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as ma...

8 And they remembered His words. 9 Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. 11 And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves; and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened. Luke 24:8-12 How excited the women must have been. They went to take care of Jesus' body and He was alive! They went and told the disciples. Can you imagine the excitement? I can just hear the guys telling them to "Calm down! Slow down...tell us what happened." This news couldn't be true! But the next part is what I love...Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb! He went to investigate for himself...he found the linen cloths where they had been left behind...and then he left, ...

50 Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. 51 He had not consented to their decision and deed. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God. 52 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before. 54 That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near. Luke 23:50-54 NKJ This paragraph stood out to me this time when I read this passage. The man was named Joseph. The next part was what stood out to me...he was a council member, a good and just man and he had not consented to their decision and deed. Wow...such huge information in two sentences. He was there and he did not consent with the majority! He was on the council and didn't go along with the popular vote! He did what was right. This good and just man was not a yes man...and then there is yet more ...

47 And while He was still speaking, behold, a multitude; and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him. 48 But Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” 49 When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” 50 And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. 51 But Jesus answered and said, “Permit even this.” And He touched his ear and healed him. Luke 22:47-51 NKJV When I read this passage a few stand out to me. First of all how must of Jesus felt when Judas betrayed Him with a kiss? Normally an act of affection or greeting of endearment used as a betrayal? Someone who was in His inner circle of friends. Judas sold him out for thirty pieces of silver. It had to be done but still yet it had to be heart wrenching. The second thing that I notice was in verse 48 when Jesus asked Judas if He was betraying the Son of...

1 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, 2 and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. 3 So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; 4 for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.” Luke 21:1-4 You are never too poor to give. This poor widow gave so very much even though it might of appeared small to the others. She gave with sacrifice. Let me tell you an amazing example of giving that I witnessed. When we did mission work in Mexico we had the privilege working along side a woman named Pastor Ruth. Pastor Ruth lives in a very poor neighborhood in TJ Mexico. She ministers to anyone and everyone. I was with her when she would go to a dirt road filled with shacks made out of wood pallets. She then called out to the neighborhood for everyone to come out. She would sing a song while pounding a a tambourine . She woul...

'Thus you shall say to Joseph: "I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you." ' Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, "Behold, we [are] your servants."Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for [am] I in the place of God?But as for you, you meant evil against me; [but] God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as [it is] this day, to save many people alive.Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones." And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Gen 50:17-21 Joseph wept because he had truly forgiven his brothers and they didn't believe his sincerity. Joseph was content in knowing that his family was restored and issues resolved and then he found out that even though he had forgiven his brothers...

1 Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him,[ a ] and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6 So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. 7 But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.”8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; 10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and ...

15 Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. 17 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” Luke 18:15-17 Have you ever had a child pray for you? If you are sick, go get a kid to pray for you! Because I am here to say, they can pray! I have had the privilege to teach our kids at church to pray. I tell them it is just "talking to God." We pray for everything! From sick bunnies to people with cancer it doesn't matter! Nothing is too big or small for God and kids understand that! When they pray God listens...when they pray they are sincere and believe! I am sure it does nothing more to please God than when his little ones pray. I might not understand everything they are saying (especially when they...

29 Then he lifted his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, “Is this your younger brother of whom you spoke to me?” And he said, “God be gracious to you, my son.” 30 Now his heart yearned for his brother; so Joseph made haste and sought somewhere to weep. And he went into his chamber and wept there. 31 Then he washed his face and came out; and he restrained himself, and said, “Serve the bread.” Gen. 43:29-31 NKJ It wasn't that Joseph didn't have "feelings" because he did. It says that he went somewhere to weep. He had a job to do. I love it because he didn't deny his feelings and that he needed to cry but he didn't let it control him. He left the room, cried, washed his face and then restrained himself. He regained his posture and went back in and functioned! God gives us a spirit of self-control so we need to use it. That takes practice! It doesn't deny that we have feelings but that we can be in control of ourselves. There are ti...

So it was, when his master heard the words which his wife spoke to him, saying, “Your servant did to me after this manner,” that his anger was aroused. 20 Then Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were confined. And he was there in the prison. 21 But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. 23 The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper. Gen 39:19-23 NKJ How devastating to be falsely accused. Joseph seemed to have one thing after another strike him. First his brothers sold him to slavery and then he had gained favor with His master and was in charge of everything. It says that LORD made all he did to prospe...

I have been reading in Genesis for part of my devotions. Today we read chapters 29-30 in Genesis. It is about the story of Jacob and Rachel. I have always felt bad for Jacob for being conned by Laban into marrying Leah when he worked for seven years for Rachel, the love of his life and I felt really bad for Leah. Leah had the "weak" eyes while Rachel was always described as beautiful etc. Basically if I was Leah, I would feel like the ugly sister that they had to get someone drunk and con them into marrying me. How awful. It says when she became pregnant she was happy to have a boy because now her husband would love her....man, that is rough! I looked at that whole passage a little differently today. I recognised the history or heritage of manipulation throughout Jacob's family. Rebekah manipulated her husband and Jacob participated too then Laban, who was Rebekah's family, totally manipulated Jacob. It doesn't stop there because then the two sisters that Jacob ma...

I love the song How Great Is Our God....it goes like this: The splendor of the King, clothed in majesty, let all the earth rejoice, let all the earth rejoice. He wraps Himself in Light and darkness tries to hide, it trembles at His voice, it trembles at His voice. How great is our God, sing with me, how great is our God and all will see how great, how great is our God. I love the part where the darkness tries to hide, it trembles at His voice! You know this is so true. If only we would grasp this to the fullest. He has given us His authority. If your dad was a millionaire you wouldn't have a problem what so ever to sign a bill or a check and I am betting you would dare to say, "Do you know who my dad is?" So I am here to say, "Do you know who my Father is? He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is God Almighty!" I am His daughter! I get to go before Him anytime I want! He LOVES ME! He loves it when I talk to Him about anything. He loves it when I spe...

18 And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Matthew 4:18-20 NKJ I was mulling these three verses over in my head and I thought....hmm... Peter and Andrew were already fishermen. God created them to be fisher of men. They had the fishing part in their “blood or dna”. They then took what they knew when they met Jesus and used it for Him! When I look at so many different people who don’t know Jesus but they have a gift/talent that God created in them. They are just using it without knowing it was placed in them to bring Him glory. But if you talk to most of those people they will tell you that “something is missing” in their life. I know what that something is! You see God gave me this incredible desire to sing from the time I was tiny. I have sung ...

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. 9 So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. Gen. 12:7-9 NKJ Abram was obediant. Even bigger Abram was obediant out of his comfort zone. He left everything he knew as home. That is pretty big but bigger still in verse 7 is when the Lord told Abram, " To your descendants I will give this land." You see Abram's wife, Sarai, was barren. Yet God told Abram that He would give the land to Abram's descendants. That had to be even more foreign than the land itself. Has the Lord every spoken a promise to your heart and it is just so foreign or distant that you had trouble believing it? Or maybe you were refreshed or excite...

And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you. Phil 4:8-9 NLT Every have trouble sleeping? This is a wonderful solution. So picture this: I am laying in bed wide awake, my mind is running a hundred miles an hour, when this happens I quote this scripture to myself and then start thinking on everything that is true (God's Word is always true), pure, lovely, honorable and right. Then I will pray, now pay close attention because if you aren't careful you will start to fret again but take that thought captive and go back to fixing your mind on the above things. (II Cor. 10:4-5) I am here to tell you that you will fall to sleep when you practice t...

Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Phil 4:6 NLT I love this translation of this scripture. Instead of worrying, pray about everything! Talk to God about everything! He knows it anyway. I think that the next part is really important... and thank Him for all He has done. Wow if we really did that I think that it would do two things. I think that it would build our faith and remind us of the things that we are quick to forget. We're human so we tend to remember the negative things and not the positive, so by doing this it would remind us at how faithful God is on a daily basis even when we are not faithful to Him. The second thing that I think it would accomplish would be change our perspective, because when we are thanking/praising the living God it takes our focus off of us and places it on Him, where it belongs! I challenge you to do this for one of your new year's resolution...it will hav...

I was thinking about two moms that shared the same son. The first mom was the birth mom. Her hearts’ desire and prayer was that her son’s life be spared from the mandate of death by Pharaoh. Her prayer was answered when Pharaoh’s daughter had him rescued from the reed basket that held him safely floating in the Nile River. The Pharaoh’s daughter sent the baby’s sister (who had been watching him from a distance) to find a wet nurse to care for the baby until he was big enough to live in the palace. How wonderful for the birth mom’s prayer to be answered. She got to nurse her own son and he would be allowed to live. How heart wrenching it must have been when she had to send him to live in the palace to be raised as an Egyptian. The very people who enslaved the Israelites and with the very same family who ordered the murders of the baby boys. Pharaoh’s daughter must have fallen in love with the small boy. She raised him in the luxury of the palace and taught him all of her customs. The Ph...

Hi! My name is Shanin and I am so blessed! I am very happily married to the man of my dreams. I am blessed to be called mom by my kids. Most importantly of all, I am a daughter of the King. I am hoping to share bits and pieces of my life and some of the fringe benefits of being royalty and living in the courts of the King. You too can be grafted into the King's family. He loves a big family and He has lots and lots of room. Excited to get to know you soon! Shanin