Quote Of The Day

                                                                                                                           Biography

Kim Burke is a wife, mother, grandmother, Pastor’s wife and mentor. She currently co-pastors Living Water Worship Center (LWWC) in Spring Valley Ohio with her husband of 28 years, Pastor Jeff Burke. Kim has three grown children; Dustin (Jessica), Heather (Trey) and Candice as well as three grandchildren; Tyler, Madison and Dylan – and one on the way! 

Kim’s passion is to know God more each day so that she may love Him and obey Him completely.  She is the founder and leader of “Women Of Worth,” a ladies ministry operating out of LWWC.  She is a woman of many gifts, but her gift of teaching and taking deep spiritual truths and making them relevant and applicable through real-life situations and illustrations set her apart from others.  Her deepest desire is to see women walk in truth, grow in their relationship with the Lord and to become all that the Father has designed them to become. 

__________________________________________________

June 9, 2008

Story of the day:  God is forever faithful (Kim’s Collections)

    I am very excited to have this opportunity to share what God teaches me through His word and life experiences. So much of what He reveals to me is the result of my morning devotions. I may not at the time of sitting, reading and praying receive any life changing revelation, but as I meditate upon His word or just go about my day, He seems to speak to me and give me examples of a truth or principle that I had been reading about that morning.

    In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon writes, “There is nothing new under the sun.”. I remember the day that this portion of scripture encouraged me greatly. I was trying to come up with something to share with our ladies at a morning “Coffee Share Time.” I remember praying and telling God that I was having a hard time coming up with something different, something that the ladies had not heard. God isn’t persuaded by our current predicament, but He is forever faithful to hear and answer our prayer in His time. I got up from my quiet time with a sense of frustration and disappointment because I had not been able to write down anything to share. As I continued throughout my morning (actually in the shower), He spoke to me in my spirit and told me that I can never exhaust His words. I may teach from the same passage or speak about a topic that may have been heard and God can take the truth from a particular passage and give us a deeper understanding or a new application for the truth.

   So my challenge for myself and to you is to remain teachable. This will enable you to receive new revelation of an eternal truth. The writer of the book of Hebrews writes, “The word of God is living and powerful.” I know that I am not yet perfected, and if my guess is correct, neither are you. So as long as I am in the process of being perfected, God’s word will continue to bring fresh insight, new revelation and often painful “piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit” because “it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

Quote of the day:  Warren Wiersbe

 “Wise people listen to wise instruction, especially from the Word of God.”

 Bible verse of the day:  Ecclesiastes 1:9

“That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Today I pray that we will continue to stay open and teachable to all that You have to teach us. Help and teach us to be quiet before You and then listen to You. Help us to recognize Your still, small voice. Help us discern what is from You and what we should take captive. Reveal to us today something that will enable us to become more like You. Thank you for hearing my prayer and answering it according to Your will.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

________________________________________________

June 10, 2008

Story of the day:  An act of surrender (Kim’s Collections)

   As I wrote yesterday about the continual revelation of God’s word, I believe that surrender is also a continual response. There may be a place and date that you remember when God spoke and you answered and surrendered to His voice. The place of surrender can be a reminder to us of a decision that we made, but we must continually engage our will to remain obedient in our act of surrender.

    One day as I was seeking to understand a lack of peace I was having in an area of service, I was reading through the story in Exodus of when God told Moses that he was going to be the one to lead His chosen people out of bondage. I must admit, I have more than once thought of how awesome it would be to have God speak to me through a burning bush or writing on a wall. But thankfully God still speaks and enables us to recognize His voice and receive direction from Him still today. As I read the passage where God asked Moses, “What’s that in your hand?”, God spoke to me through this passage and told me that I already have in my hand the tool and the ability to carry out the call on my life. Moses had in his hand a rod that he used in his every day job of shepherding. He was already familiar with this rod and this rod was going to be what God used to display His miracles through Moses. God showed me that I already possessed in my hand what He was going to empower and use to bring freedom to His people. I just had to pick up my “rod” and allow God to work His power through me. Now the revelation alone is not what will bring change. It is the continual surrender to the revelation, the continual taking up of the “rod” and allowing God to work His power through it, the continual, conscience decision to see the value in the familiar.

   Your “rod“ may be a talent or an ability that your have possessed for a long time and you just haven‘t seen the eternal value in it. Ask God to show you what you have in your hand that He can empower to help others walk in their freedom..

Quote of the day:  Zig Ziglar

“He climbs higest who helps another up”

Bible verse of the day:  Exodus 4:17

“And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”

Prayer:

 I pray that today we will see the eternal value in the talents and abilities that we already possess. Breathe fresh life and fresh power on the familiar. Help us to see that the abilities we have are not achieved without your enabling grace. Reveal to us the “rod” and the potential we have in using this God-given “rod” to bring freedom to your chosen ones.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen

______________________________________

June 11, 2008

Story of the day:  Stepping out by faith (Kim’s Collections)

Sometimes I am embarrassed of how quickly I can accept a worldly idea and see it as good. Just the other day as my husband and I were listening to the news on the car radio, it said something that for a moment sounded like a great idea and I made the comment, “That’s ingenious!” But as I continued to listen (to the newsman and to God), I began to see how evil this idea really was. God’s word talks about two kinds of wisdoms: Worldly wisdom and spiritual wisdom. 1 Corinthians 3:19 says, “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” Unless we know what God’s word says, we may find ourselves easily adopting the ideas of this world.

In the book of Ephesians, Paul prays unceasingly for the people to be given this spirit of wisdom. But this wisdom is received, according to Ephesians 1:17, in the knowledge of God through His words. I’ve heard before that in order to be able to recognize counterfeit bills, one must familiarize themselves with the real thing. God never wants us to follow after the ideas of this world, but often the worldly ideas can make more sense to us if we are filtering things through worldly wisdom and not allowing God’s spirit to give us His understanding.

A few years ago, My husband and I were at a crossroad and needing to make a decision about his resigning from his job of 20 years to pastor full time. I made the comment that there was a fine line between faith and stupidity. According to worldly wisdom, him walking away from a well-paid position to a financially challenged, small church was foolish. But since we committed to operate in godly wisdom through knowing the truth of His promise of provision the decision was easy and the reward was great! Just as the world’s wisdom is foolish to God, the wisdom of God is foolishness to those who don’t believe (1 Corinthians 1:18). But when God is the one leading and we are following Him, His “Peace that passes all understanding will guard our hearts and minds” and give us the faith to step out into the unknown confidently. We so often evaluate the ‘walk of faith’ by the degree of difficulty it is for the ‘step of faith’. The decision will be easy, but the step needs to be difficult so that we will be sure it is the walk that God has called us to.

Quote of the day:  Samuel Rutherford

“You shall find it such a burden as sails are to a ship or wings to a bird. I find that my Lord hath over gilded that black tree, and hath perfumed it, and oiled it with joy and gladness”.

Bible verse of the day:  Ephesians 1:17

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.”

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,

I pray that the eyes of my heart may be enlightened in order that I may know the hope to which You have called me, the riches of Your glorious inheritance in the saints, and Your incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of Your mighty strength, which You exerted in Christ when You raised Him from the dead and seated Him at Your right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. (Ephesians 1:18-21) 

In Jesus Name I pray,

Amen

_______________________________________

June 12, 2008

Story of the day:  God always makes a way (Kim’s Collections)

As our children were growing up we loved to go hiking in the woods. I remember one particular hike that we took on a cold, icy winter day. I remember falling once and coming close to it many other times. It wouldn’t have been as difficult if the ground were level, but there were many steep climbs that we had to make. Thankfully the paths were clearly marked and easy to see, but the icy conditions made staying afoot a challenge. I remember the verse coming to my mind where we are admonished to, “Walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise” (Eph. 5:15). Although the path was clear we still had to consider each step that we took and then step carefully.

That is the way it is in our Christian journey. God will always make a way for us to follow after Him, but He wants us to seek Him all along the way and make steady and sure steps ordered by Him.

I have been right in the middle of a great work for the Lord and realized that I was focusing more on the completion of the task instead of my relationship with the One who equipped me for the work. That’s when I must repent and refocus and then continue in His work.

Bible verse of the day:  Psalm 17:5

“Uphold my steps in Your paths, that my footsteps may not slip.” This verse tells me that it is possible to be on the very path that God has called and led me to and still slip if I’m not allowing Him to teach me and lead me along the way.

Just a thought: Kim Burke

The closer that I stay to my Guide, the better I can lean on Him for comfort, and hear His directions to lead me to His desired destination.

Prayer:

Dear Father,

I pray that The eyes of our understanding will be open to anything that we are pursuing in our own strength. Lord, I know that You are faithful to shine Your light to show us where You are leading, But please help us to recognize it and then give us the courage to step. Teach up to wait on You and follow after Your peace.

In Jesus’ name

Amen.

___________________________