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Reflections on Teaching the Abounding Faith Class During Such a Time as This and an Announcement

“This class has uplifted my faith.” – Abounding Faith Online Class Student, NYSB

“The class gave me the opportunity to explore how God is faithful in every area and aspect of life.” – Abounding Faith Online Class Student, NYSB

What a delight and honor it’s been to teach the Abounding Faith: Choosing Faith Over Fear online class during this historic and unprecedented time in our nation and world!

We prayed for the students who would sign up for the class. God assembled a lovely group of people in New York, North Carolina and even Taiwan. The class included Sunday school teachers, an outreach leader and a deacon. God is Good!

What an honor to get to teach my second class at the New York School of the Bible! And what a blessing to get to teach a class based on one of my books! The Abounding Faith devotional is dear to my heart. I’m grateful I get to encourage, empower and inspire people in their faith in God.

As the pandemic, protests and other drama was raging, our class faithfully met online and dug into God’s Word and found the hope, inspiration, instruction and fellowship that was so needed at this time.

“Your book is really encouraging.” – Abounding Faith Online Class Student, NYSB

If you couldn’t join us for this class, you can get the uplifting and challenging Abounding Faith devotional in print or on Kindle on Amazon. It’s perfect to read on your own or with your online small group or book club.

And please mark your calendars. I’m thrilled to announce that I have been invited back to teach another online class for the NYSB next June. I will have the honor of teaching from my book Crossing Your Jordan River: How to Posses and Prosper in Your Promised Land. You won’t want to miss it.

Blessings to you as you continue walking by abounding faith, hope and love and live your God-given dreams.

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Book 5 Update

“You did a stellar job with uplifting, encouraging, and inspiring the reader.” – Book 5 Editor

I’m thrilled to share that Book 5 has entered the editing phase. The quote above is just part of the lovely feedback my editor recently sent me.

God is Good!

I’m so looking forward to sharing more details with you about my upcoming book.

God willing, Book 5 will be released in the fall. Please stay tuned!

And please pray as Book 5 goes through the editing and production phases. Even now, please pray for all the readers who will be touched and encouraged by Book 5.

If you’ve been blessed by any of Abounding Faith’s books, I’d love to know. Please feel free to leave a short and kind review on Amazon or to email me at info@aboundingfaith.com.

If you haven’t had the chance to read any of Abounding Faith’s books, now is a great time to pick up copies of Waiting on God Well, Abounding Faith, Crossing Your Jordan River and By Faith for you and your friends. The books are available in print and on Kindle on Amazon.

Abounding Faith’s uplifting books will encourage, inspire and empower you as you walk by faith, hope and love and live your God-given dreams. Blessings!

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Want to know what’s happening at Abounding Faith? Join the mailing list and get updates about Abounding Faith’s books, online training, podcast and more. As a thank you, you’ll get access to the free “7 Journal Writing Prompts to Fuel Your Faith” PDF.

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7 Bible Verses to Help You Abound in Love

During these trying times and days of civil unrest, let’s continue to look to the Bible for direction and guidance on how to treat each other. The Bible, God’s love letter to us,  admonishes us over and over again to love one another.

God is the epitome of love. And love is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

This passage from 1 John 4:7-12 spells things out so clearly and so profoundly:  

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

God’s love for us is Miraculous and Lovely. May we allow God’s love and grace to flow through us.

Here are 7 Bible verses to help you as you grow and abound in God’s love for others:

  1. Love is the mark of a true disciple – “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
  2. Love means caring for others – “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’” (Matthew 22:37-40)
  3. Love brings unity  – “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  (John 17:20-21)
  4. Love is crucial among God’s children – “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29)
  5. Love is to be shared generously  – “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” (Romans 13:8)
  6. Love should extend even to your enemies – “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)
  7. Loving God means loving others – “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” (1 John 4:20)

If all this loving others seems hard and overwhelming, fret not. Ask God to fill you with His love, grace, mercy and compassion for others. 

If you’re grieved and appalled by all the sin and injustice going on, remember that we live in a fallen world where hate and violence and sin run rampant. But where sin abounds, grace much more abounds (Romans 5:20).

We’re called to love one another and overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). 

Blessings to you as you walk in abounding faith, hope and love!

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

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Want to know what’s happening at Abounding Faith? Join the mailing list and get updates about Abounding Faith’s books, online training, podcast and more. As a thank you, you’ll get access to the free “7 Journal Writing Prompts to Fuel Your Faith” PDF.

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5 Bible Verses to Help You Move Forward By Faith During the Pandemic

As we slowly navigate through this “new normal” and carefully enter different phases of reopening during the pandemic, it’s natural to feel worried, afraid and a mix of other emotions about these uncertain times.

But God doesn’t want you to stay frozen with fear.

God can help you move from fear to faith, worry to worship and panic to praise.

This transition time, that includes the civil unrest and protests going on nationwide, can be an opportunity to  drawer closer to and trust God in a deeper way.

This new season can be a fresh start for you.

May you move forward by faith! And may you be filled with God’s love, joy, peace and boldness.

God is speaking during these trying times. May you take the time to really listen to what He is saying and draw strength and hope from Him.

It’s so important to continue reading the Bible and to keep praying and praising.

May you take courage knowing that as a believer:

1. God’s Holy Spirit Empowers You  – “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7 KJV)

2. God Can Handle All Your Burdens – “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 NIV)

3. God is Working things out for Your Good – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NIV)

4. God Will Provide for You Day by Day – “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33-34 NIV)

5. God is in Control from Beginning to End – “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

The road may be rocky now, but it won’t stay that way forever. May you take heart and keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith (Hebrews 12:2 NIV).

Stay well. Stay Encouraged. Choose Faith Over Fear and Move Forward By Faith. Blessings!

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

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Want to know what’s happening at Abounding Faith? Join the mailing list and get updates about Abounding Faith’s books, online training, podcast and more. As a thank you, you’ll get access to the free “7 Journal Writing Prompts to Fuel Your Faith” PDF.

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Blessed Start to the Abounding Faith: Choosing Faith Over Fear Online Class

“I love the class.” – Abounding Faith Online Class NYSB Student

“I am so excited to join class, and thanks for your instruction to the class.”  – Abounding Faith Online Class NYSB Student

My classroom may look different from the one I used last June (pictured above), but what joy it is to teach the Abounding Faith: Choosing Faith Over Fear online class through the New York School of the Bible during this unique time in history!

We had a blessed start to the empowering class last Monday, as you can tell by the two students quoted above.

I’m thrilled that we had a student in Taiwan join us. She’s my first truly international student and most likely my first reader in Taiwan. God is Good! We also had a student in North Carolina join us.

Within the first half of the class, one student shared that her faith was already being strengthened. Praise God!

A few students burst out in song after the closing prayer. Beautiful!

Amid the fear and unrest and waves of other emotions sparked by the ongoing pandemic and recent protests, it’s an incredible time to be encouraging students in their faith in God!

These are such trying and turbulent times we’re living in, but God is in Control and He is Greater than anything we will ever face.

I’m so grateful that in these dark days, this class is a ray of sunshine.

Thank You to all who are praying. It’s such an honor to help empower people in their faith! Please continue to pray that God will continue to use me to reach students near and far and that He would continue to meet us in special ways.

Amazingly, my class roster continues to grow.

If you can’t join us for class but would like to bolster your faith, be sure to read your Bible and you can get a copy of the challenging Abounding Faith: 30 Bible Heroes Who Will Inspire You to Believe God for the Impossible in print or on Kindle on Amazon. This powerful devotional is great to read on your own or with a group.

Stay Well. Stay Encouraged. Move Forward By Faith!

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Want to know what’s happening at Abounding Faith? Join the mailing list and get updates about Abounding Faith’s books, events, podcast and more. As a thank you, you’ll get access to the free “7 Journal Writing Prompts to Fuel Your Faith” PDF.

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