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Showing posts from 2013

Adventures From Lack to Abundance

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell "...Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." ~ James 4:7-8 ~ Rarely wanting to be home, even as a young girl - she continually longed to 'drift' away into another adventure.  This young girl, filled with romantic, starry dreams longed to embark on new exploits to meet  people she had not yet met along the way. Along the journey of many irresponsible adventures - she met her beloved husband - a great man - but more of a 'loner' - a free spirit in a '180 degree' way.   Although a wanderer, a nomad of sorts - he was okay with just a few in his life. Nothing against people - but he just loved to be with those he closely invested in.  In 2000, when this couple had their beautiful baby girl, the 'free spirit' that moved this young woman to meet new people in this journey called life - the reality of someone else being dependent on them scared h...

Lesson of Repentance

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell (Written January 18, 2012 - repost) "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?" ~ Romans 2:4 ~ Slipping back into time, it was 1988; my eighth grade year. My parents experienced grueling frustration as they were continuously receiving reports from my teachers of me carrying on in class, not taking my classes seriously and consistently getting into trouble for being one of the 'class clowns'. In hind sight, as a parent myself, the acting out wasn't their greatest frustration; it was my overall attitude of not caring, which to say the least, my grades mercilessly reflected. Meanwhile, during this time, I still remember my wonderful dad. I shake my head in awe as my dad continuously believed in me. He would even say in the darkest times of my life, "...

God's Cleansing Power

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Teresa Criswell "But WHEN the Holy Spirit controls our lives, HE will PRODUCE this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control..." ~ Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT) ~ Today's Triumphant Victorious Reminder will allow you to breathe and violently shake off the daunting burdens that we were never meant to bear!  What burdens am I referring to?  The burdens of believing that we are to produce the things that God can only produce - let us remember that we don't produce anything that is of God -  however we are 'displayers' of what He produces - when we allow Him to - and that is the Fruit Of The Spirit - then we realize that it's by God's Holy Spirit that works in us and through us to reveal Who The Father God is - as Landon Schott says, "Making Jesus Famous" through the powerful display of The Holy Spirit's power ...

Like a Perfectly Layered Cake Or A Lasagna

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell "Commit your works to The Lord, and He will make your ways successful." ~ Proverbs 16:3 ~  "Lord!  Are you sure?  Homeschool?!?"  Is this me or is this me being led by what my friends are doing?  "Wait! This can't be, I'm not meant to homeschool!"  And in that confession, I realized that I was correct. For I am not meant to do anything He has called me to on my own.  Yet when I rely on the strength of God, daily committing my works to the Lord; moment by moment, The Lord reveals Himself in the midst of this class called 'life'.  And in this class called 'life', if we pay attention to The Holy Spirit Who is The Teacher of all teachers, He will prepare us with His instructions as revealed in The Word of God so that we do not fail. With that said, this morning before our Bible class started, my daughter was led to share what the Holy S...

Who Will It Be?

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell Photograph found via Google Images "Look," they told him (Samuel), "you are now old, and your sons are not like you.  Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have." ~ I Samuel 8:5 ~ The bantering mantra of 'We want a king' after reading I Samuel 8 has caused awareness to arise.  I have some amazing friends who are doing a study on I Samuel and to hear their insight from The Lord provoked me to want to study even more. This morning as I read and studied, it was endearing to see the good man that Saul truly was. Saul's respect for authority was definitely to be marveled. Interestingly enough, what Saul was sent out to look for - looking for donkeys, also known as stubborn animals - would be what he would soon rule as king over - stubborn people who had been wanting a mortal man to be king versus The Immortal God. With all of that, I had to...

Flattery or Encouragement?

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell Mother Teresa who echoed the beauty of our God! "If you set a trap for others, you will get caught in it yourself.  If you roll a boulder down on others, it will roll back and crush you.  A lying tongue hates its victims, and flattery causes ruin." ~ Proverbs 26:27-28 ~ "If you are a thief, stop stealing.  Begin using your hands for honest work, and then give generously to others in need.  Don't use foul or abusive language.  Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them." ~ Ephesians 4:28-29 (NLT) ~ Have you been given a word of encouragement and you tend to receive it like you're picking up a dirty rag from the floor?  Do you tend to say, "What do they want now?" No matter who gives you the encouragement, do you tend to err on the side of disbelief? Many years ago I was so entan...

Are You Asking, "Why?"

Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by The Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell "Jesus said to the people, "I Am the light of the world.  If you follow me, you won't be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." ~ John 8:12 ~ God is Here! Make yourself aware to His presence that is already here. Most of us reading this have recently asked God, "Why Lord?" And frustratingly enough you haven't got the answer. However, as you notice the "Why question" toward God doesn't provide solutions?  We realize instead it attempts to accuse and cast judgement and plays the blame game on Almighty God. When we ask God, "Why?" or "How could YOU let this happen?" We unintentionally say, "The enemy has the final word."  In the midst of our unintended declaration, this is causing awareness that we don't really know Who God truly is and we walk into the trap of anot...

Revised...The power of God revealed through Intimacy

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell Photograph from Google Images But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against the se things! ~ Galatians 5:22-23 ~ This season of my life has been filled with opportunities to learn like never before from the greatest TEACHER of all teachers and that is by the Spirit of God through His Word. 'Opportunities' to utilize His Word through situations that would attempt to knock us out cold!  I have come to this amazing revelation that Satan does not have the power to steal our joy - however, he does have the ability to deceive us.  How does he deceive us?  By convincing us that God's joy, God's peace, God's love is gone because he stole it from us and all the while he takes us off course as we believe his lies and as a result no ...

The power of God - released through intimacy with Him!

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell Photograph from Google Images But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against the se things! ~ Galatians 5:22-23 ~ This season of my life has been filled with opportunities to learn like never before from the greatest TEACHER of all teachers and that is by the Spirit of God through His Word. 'Opportunities' to utilize His Word through situations that would attempt to knock us out cold!  I have come to this amazing revelation that Satan does not have the power to steal our joy - however, he does have the ability to deceive us.  How does he deceive us?  By convincing us that God's joy, God's peace, God's love is gone because he stole it from us and all the while he takes us off course as we believe his lies and as a result no longer walk ...

Seasons and Change

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell "There is a time for everything..." ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 ~ Rags to riches; riches to rags. Pain to comfort; comfort to pain. Tragedy to triumph; triumph to tragedy. Roller coaster living. Have you experienced this?  In this life, seasons of change are inevitable and unavoidable.  Of course in the midst of it we can do everything in our power to resist by kicking and screaming, but in the end no matter how much we attempt to fight the subtle or suddenly moments of change, by default it occurs.  Change faithfully does just that...it changes.  However the comfort I have found in the midst of these facts is TRUTH that overrides and supersedes the seasons of sadness and pain - The Truth being found in the PERSON Jesus Christ revealing the Father God so powerfully by the Holy Spirit. Whatever season you are experiencing in this very moment, the point of the season is ...

Squirrel!

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell II Timothy 3:16-17 Photograph by Google Images Furry, cute and springing to action; he leaps from the ground onto the horizontal fence posts.  The adorable little critter and his sudden moves to his sudden moments of playing 'freeze'; it's truly a reminder of those moments when I feel like him - this squirrel. Do you ever have those 'squirrely' moments? You're accomplishing something with this adrenaline like rush. As you brace yourself to do the task at hand, suddenly you pause and say, "Wait!  What was I doing?" We can get like this with the things of God and even the Lord; at least I know I can. I'm 'gun-ho' on wanting to have that intimate time with Him and then suddenly those thoughts interrupt: "Did I shut the stove off?" "Those dishes are piling up..." "If I don't do the laundry now, ...

God's Royalty Revealed In the Midst of A Verbal Slap

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell  "Love your enemies.  Do good to those who hate you.  Bless those who persecute you and pray for those who spitefully use you..." ~ Luke 6:27-38 ~ True story... So how's this one for revealing God's royalty in the midst of a verbal slap? The setting of this story is on a college campus involving one of the girls I get to encourage whose name is Rebecca and another young lady whom she did not know, who had some mean, choice words. "I need to talk to you! Take your sunglasses off because when I talk to you I want to see your eyes." Rebecca shocked, took her sunglasses off, thinking to herself, "I think she has the wrong person." "You're a fake 'B with an ITCH' and I see you walking on campus all the time so happy and I see you're full of sh*%. There's no way someone could be THAT happy all the time". Rebe...

A $1 Necklace?

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written By: Teresa Criswell "Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful." ~ I Corinthians 1:27 ~ It was about a year and half ago.  Ann had a great, pressing thought, "Go into the store and you will find some great deals." She warred with her thoughts, thinking, "Yeah right", yet she walked in anyway; and as though she had a shopping epiphany - there her thoughts were confirmed - right before her were 'deals galore'! She found three beautiful necklaces; $1 each - yes - $1 each! The price and the necklace were a beautiful contradiction, to say the least. Ann thought, "Wow! I know if I received these necklaces as a gift, I would really like them. These will make great gifts!" After making her gorgeous, yet, more t...

I get to call him, "Dad"!

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell   Do you know who I speak of? This person I write about is quiet and bold; A man of few words, yet his actions speak louder than any given shout. Brave and courageous; gentle yet stearn. He says what he means and he means what he says. Integrity and noble character is in his DNA, He is witty yet observant, clearly faithful without dismay. Compassionate and merciful and has no qualms when telling the truth. This person I speak of is a man you may or may not know, he is my dad a man of little reproof. Today is his birthday and I get to be called 'daughter', yes this is so. Daddy, as I write these words I cannot help but see, the imagery of Jesus Christ unfolding upon your life as you live out that you have been set free. Dad, I remember all those years ago the twirls, the laughter, the fair discipline and more! I remember how you helped me write and do my homework patien...

God's Seed, jesus christus

Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell The earth opened up and received God's amazing SEED. God's seed would produce a plant called, Abundant Life - jesus christus Exclusive - This miraculous, unique plant's thick, long, vibrant petals of colors are a standout in any garden. However you will find that it cannot be planted with any other seed, for the vibrant life of this plant causes the other plants to die.  Sweet flavor yet bold, strong yet never overbearing. Thrives in heat and the colorful petals have names never heard of or seen before. The names of these majestically, vibrant colors? MENDED HEARTS LIBERTY EYES OPEN MOUTHS TO SPEAK WHOLENESS DELIVERANCE ABUNDANT LIFE The rare fragrance? AMAZING, RELENTLESS ETERNAL, PASSIONATE LOVE Medicinal purposes are produced by the colors within the petals: MEND BROKEN HEARTS SET LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES BLIND EYES OPEN MUTE TO SPEAK WHOLENESS IN SOUL RESUR...

Set the record straight...

Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell "Do you think you deserve credit merely for loving those who love you?  Even the sinners do that!  And if you do good only to those who do good to you, is that so wonderful?  Even sinners do that!  And if you do good only to those who do good to you, is that so wonderful?  Even sinners do that much..." ~ Luke 6:27-38 ~ Many fists flail in the air as they make sure the 'sinners' know what they are AGAINST.   Even sinners do that.  Or how about that moment when I walk in to a store and am treated poorly by an employee.  Indignation rises up and in my heart I say, "I'll show them!  I'll go elsewhere!"  But wait!  Even sinners do that.  In that moment, perhaps God is making me aware, "This is your mission field.  GO and display what they lack...take hold of MY GRACE."  We may not be able to love them with our own love within ...

God Who Is Love Covers

Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins." ~ I Peter 4:8 ~ "For a prosperous man is generous. He who refreshes others, will himself be refreshed." ~ Proverbs 11:25 ~ Betrayal. Infidelity. Adultery. Anger. Hopelessness. "Lord, what is his password? I need to know. God, what is it?" "Where is he?" "Is he with her tonight?" She finds receipts of purchases for this woman and her child. The boiling hate of betrayal rises up out of her and towards him. When she sees him, it is as though he can feel the weapons of every kind shoot like bullets from her eyes with disgust and shame. Angry words stir up even more dissension. The atmosphere filled with hate and anger. Respect evaporates in an instant based on what he has done many times over. Love evaporates in an instant based on the justified, condemni...

Focus on The Refiner

Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell "When trouble comes your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." ~ James 1:2-4 ~ "Noooo.  Please noooo."  The sweet little boy winced and cried as he was incredibly frightened of the shot the doctor was about to administer into his little arm. As panic could be seen rising up in his little face, suddenly it was as though I could hear the most calming voice say, "Tommy, look at mommy.  I'm right here.  You are okay sweetie. Don't look at anything else. Tommy look at me honey."  As he allowed his mom to coax and calm him, his focus on mom remained constant as the shot was administered.  Although he experienced the stinging pain, it was immediately interrupted...

Compassion leads us to see...

Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit By: Teresa Criswell "The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all His creation." ~ Psalm 145:9 ~ It's morning rush hour traffic. Her mind is racing; consisting of a checklist of the deadlines that must be met. A few cars ahead, a young marketer sits in his car as he rehearses in his mind the presentation he will be presenting in just a few hours while he drives to the airport. He feels the pressure of needing to "land this account." He hopes he will be effective. His hands sweat as he begins to feel the anxiety take over, meanwhile his stomach turns in nervousness. In the meantime there is a car next to him with a man that is wondering helplessly, "How am I going to pay the bills this month?" He feels utter hopelessness. He is still in shock as he remembers just a month ago he was working. He worked at the company for years and then just like that, he was rel...

Love isn't Love Until it's What???

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Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit Written by: Teresa Criswell Image from Google.com I saw these words in my mind the other day as though it were a three-dimensional sign, "Love isn't truly love until it's challenged." "Do WHAT Lord?"  It was as though I could hear the adorable character from 'Different Strokes' say, "Whatcha talkin' about Willis?" Hmmmmm... Love isn't truly love until it's challenged ? I was thinking, "Now come on!" But at the same time I thought, "To love the loveable is incredibly easy." Of course it's easy to love great people, they are like beautiful flowers; I could smell and adore them all day long.  But what about those who are like a prickly cactus?  It's quite interesting to see both sides of this.  We often think in judgement over those who rub us the wrong way...but what about us? Have we considered the possibility that we could be...

"Hem Your Day With Prayer..."

Triumphant Victorious Reminders Inspired by the Holy Spirit By: Teresa Criswell "Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the oak tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash had been threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, "Mighty man of valor, the Lord is with you!" ~ Judges 6:11 & 12 ~ I specifically remember that moment several years ago as I walked into the kitchen. The beautiful picturesque window beheld such beauty as the golf course was surrounded by beautiful trees; leading down a hill as if I could see for miles. Something caught my attention as the rays of the sun peered through the large windows. The light of the sun reflecting none other than photographs on the breakfast table. Curiosity led me closer as I realized that the faces in the photographs were family; my sisters and their families, my family,...