The Encouragement Blog

Inmate Family Encouragement

Cover image for “God Love You!”

God Love You!

Many of us believe that because of the sinful we have done, God could never love us. The devil whispers to us, “God could never love YOU. You’ve had an abortion!” Or, he spits, “You’re a drug user, c’mon, get real, dude, you’ve blown it…God has thrown you aside” As usual, the devil’s got it wrong! One of the amazing
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Oct 26 2015
Cover image for “Growing the Fruit of the Spirit: Part 2: Cultivation”

Growing the Fruit of the Spirit: Part 2: Cultivation

In Part 1, we discussed crating the right Climate for the Fruit of the Spirit to take root and grow successfully. We talked about how we must avoid the super-storms of pornography, greed, anger, lust and other besetting sins from sending a “killer frost” over our tender Fruit of the Spirit vines and killing them. Today we discuss the long
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Oct 19 2015
Cover image for “Growing the Fruit of the Spirit: Part 1: Climate”

Growing the Fruit of the Spirit: Part 1: Climate

The Fruit of the Spirit, i.e., Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness (Generosity), Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control are things we all hope, trust and pray become apart of our everyday lives. Yet, so many of us are at a loss to figure out how to get the Fruit of the Spirit to grow in our lives. Let’s look at two
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Oct 12 2015
Cover image for “The S-L-O-W Lane”

The S-L-O-W Lane

We will all find ourselves in the S-L-O-W lane of life at some point. Whether it is being in-between jobs, staying home with the young children (not always so slow there!!) or when we are taken ill or find ourselves being care-givers to someone else, maybe our elderly parents, for example. When God has us in the far-right lane of
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Oct 05 2015
Cover image for “Gospel Missiles”

Gospel Missiles

DHT has a donor who wishes to donate $50,000 to publish and distribute copies of our daily devotional, entitled “Doing HIS Time; Meditations and Prayers for Men and Women in Prison” But, before we get the donation, the donor is requesting that DHT match the $50,000 to produce a pool of $100,000. With the $100,000, DHT would place 83,350 copies
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Sep 28 2015
Cover image for “The Prayer We Should Always Pray”

The Prayer We Should Always Pray

We wonder sometime why things happen in our lives and if God is really listening or paying attention. Why am I not married? Why doesn’t God answer my prayers in this vein? How come I am stuck in this dead end job? Why can’t I get that promotion? I need more money. Our health is not so good. My marriage
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Sep 22 2015
Cover image for “God’s Gold Refinery”

God’s Gold Refinery

Most of us do not look forward to times of pain and sorrow or discomfort. We try to avoid all of these things by living careful lives and praying steadily for God’s blessings on all that we try to do and say. We pray for our businesses and our children. We pray for safety for our grandchildren. We offer “traveling
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Sep 14 2015
Cover image for “What’s Your Ladder Leaning Against?”

What’s Your Ladder Leaning Against?

To paraphrase author Stephen Covey, “Nothing is worse than climbing the ladder of success, only at the top to find it is leaning against the wrong building.” What this aphorism means is that many of us go through life trying to amass the biggest piles of sand in hope of finding our identity and significance through stuff! This is a
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Sep 09 2015
Cover image for “Save a Life for $1.20?”

Save a Life for $1.20?

Oskar Schindler (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) is the only Nazi buried on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. This honor was bestowed on him because he saved thousands of Jewish lives during WW II when the Nazi’s were exterminating them. Many of you remember Steven Spielberg’s movie, Schindler’s List which tells the story in brutal, but eloquent terms. In
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Sep 03 2015
Cover image for “Not Sure God Will Get It Right!”

Not Sure God Will Get It Right!

Why do we feel anxious about the future? Why are we waking up at 3:30 A.M. worrying about the kids, the job, the bills, our marriage or the fact that we are not married? We obsess about the future and fret about things we cannot control. And, we do these things in the face of Paul’s assurances that God has
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Aug 31 2015