Come again to the place of safety, all you prisoners, for there is yet hope!
I promise right now, I will repay you two mercies for each of your woes!
Zechariah 9:12 (NLT)

What are Woes?

Well, they are those circumstances that come up and attack you just when you think you've finally gotten everything together. Well, even when you don't think you've gotten everything together! Woes are simply...Wounds ofExistence - bad things that happen to you as you travel through this thing we call life on planet earth...the place God designed for us to live until He allows us to come to our permanent dwelling place...got it?

Putting it simply, (if it can be put simply) we know that life's problems can be perplexing when you are alone — but it doesn't have to be that way. There is hope in Him! Thank you for dropping in to visit. We are Roger and Sharon Sanderson, and we trust that you will be encouraged by your visit here and that you will find the path to hope in Him necessary for your journey. Together, we will heal one hurt at a time.

If you read many articles throughout the website you will discover me saying it over and over again — we aren't a cut of the mill ministry - we are real people, with real problems, trusting a real Savior to bring us through in real time. The following quote by Henry Nouwen is bascially where we are in our lives - we haven't yet arrived, but we are definitely on the road and in the process of our journey we want to help others as much as we can.

"Nobody escapes being wounded. We all are wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The main question is not 'How can we hide our wounds?' so we don't have to be embarrassed, but 'How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?' When our wounds cease to be a source of shame, and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers.

Jesus is God's wounded healer: through his wounds we are healed. Jesus' suffering and death brought joy and life. His humiliation brought glory; his rejection brought a community of love. As followers of Jesus we can also allow our wounds to bring healing to others."

Henry Nouwen - Bread For The Journey

One of the things that ministers to me, Sharon, is writing the daily devotions...I hope they will minister to you as well. I only post them once a week, so they are fairly fresh. Unfortunately, lately I've been sick and they aren't getting posted until the morning of...and sometimes later...please forgiveme...don't give up...come back...please!
This year I opted to go back and use some older devotionals I wrote and just update them. They are from 2000.

May 2008
Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

To Receive the Devotional Through Email Click Here

4/30/08

Thank you so much for what you do. You will never know (well not on this Earth) the beautiful benefits of how your ministry serves the Lord and His children.
Love,
Barbara

4/1/08

Sharon,
Today’s lesson really hit home for Phyllis and me. We jumped into a business opportunity without consulting God first and now we are wondering if we will succeed or not. I have been taught over the years that God will forgive those with a repentant heart. Both Phyllis and I both will never do something like that again. We borrowed a pretty significant amount of money to get this thing started and we really need to succeed or we will be filing bankruptcy again. We did that about 28 years ago. Not fun. That was after doing something without going to God first, but we didn’t know how wrong that was at that time. Do you feel God will forgive us if we are repentant and promise never to do this again?
Love from both of us,
Jerry

3/23/08

Dear Sister Sharon
Maybe you thought this was a mistake, sending it on the wrong day and all... but you were Holy Ghost led after all. As I sat in church today, the Lord was helping me to be able to forgive my sister, my mom, and my dad for rejecting me. They are all believers, but because of the fears that come against my sister (who is also in leadership), she controls my mom and dad to the point that it's hard to be able to even visit them any more. She verbally abuses them and tells them what to do. I try to take up for them and offer my help, but my parents refuse help. They just tell me they want peace and to keep praying. I've been praying about whether to bring it to the attention of one of the elders, but don't know how without making my sister look bad. (my sister is 44 and i'm 42)
Please keep us in prayer, and know that this devotional ministered to me.
May the Lord bless you, Sharon
Michelle

3/23/08

I wonder how to be more of Jesus and less of me when I have to set boundaries as a parent and a supervisor--I wish Jesus had given us more in-the body examples of how to correct with love, and what the difference between good and too harsh correction LOOKS like---sometimes setting limits, or protecting what needs to be protected looks cold and unforgiving---and judgemental---I wish God had given us more in the New Testament ( with Jesus as the teacher) about how to do this the right way--the Old Testament seems to be full how how people did it the wrong way.... I am so tired of hearing so many conflicting human (despite the fact that they are spirtually supposed to be SOMEONE) perspectives......
Love, Laughter, Blessings and God's Peace
Patti

Comments From Our Readers

If you surf around the website very long, you will soon very likely discover that I am quite passionate about helping victims of sexual abuse. There is an entire section for these victims. Now, I don't just single out these folks, there are many other subjects in the "Hope Connection," but my focus is on victims of sexual abuse because I am a survivor - well, let's say I am a victor through the blood of Jesus! I hope you will take time to visit that section if you have been there or know someone who has been there!

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Site last updated May 9, 2008

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Deceased - White

Hope you were encouraged.
Please come back anytime.

All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us.

He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.

When others are troubled,

we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NLT