The Path Through Life's Challenges to Victory: Part Two Fresh Manna by Pastor Tim Burt

A Note from Tim Tim here. I'm so glad you're part of this journey. Below, you'll find today's Fresh Manna Devotional. I pray it speaks to you! Explore more on my website → “The Path Through Life's Challenges to Victory: Part Two” July 9, 2025 by Timothy Burt In Part One, we saw how God left enemies in the Promised Land to test His people in battle. Joshua and Caleb trained them to be warriors, but the test wasn’t just about their ability to fight and win, it was also about their ability to remain faithful devoted  to Him. Judges 3:5-6 (NLT) says, “So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and they intermarried with them. Israelite sons married their daughters, and Israelite daughters were given in marriage to their sons. And they served their gods.” God had commanded them not to intermarry with these nations because He knew it would lead them into idol worship. Instead of standing firm in their devotion, they compromised. They won battles but lost their way. Their strength as warriors meant nothing if their hearts weren’t fully devoted to God. "Because of this, they fell into a devastating cycle: turning from God, being conquered by their enemies, crying out for help, and then being rescued by a judge whom God raised up. This pattern, known as 'The Cycle of Sin,' repeated itself seven times over the 330-year period recorded in Judges. Judges 2:18-19 (NLT) says, “Whenever the Lord raised up a judge over Israel, he was with that judge and rescued the people from their enemies throughout the judge’s lifetime. For the Lord took pity on His people, who were burdened by oppression and suffering. But when the judge died, the people returned to their corrupt ways, behaving worse than those who had lived before them.” This Cycle of Sin has repeated itself numerous times since then! The problem wasn’t that God's people lacked physical strength—it was that they lacked faithfulness to God and His instructions of righteousness. Their victories on the battlefield could not compensate for their defeats in faithfulness. They had been trained to fight, but they had not trained their hearts to remain true to God and His ways. King David’s men became warriors, winning all their battles, yet they were greatly lacking in following God's instructions on how to live for Him.  David tried to teach them both. He taught them how to honor God and they'd hear it in His songs! Psalm 119:9-11 (NIV) – “How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Those are the exact words we should pray to God today! We might see success in accomplishments but allow pride, distraction, or temptation to pull us away from God. Satan will use temptations and compromise to draw us off all our life, yet God desires us to be unwavering warriors not just in winning at what we put our hand to, but also at keeping our hearts pure and living righteously before the watching world, so that they might see Christ in us. Matthew 5:16 (NKJV) says, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." And Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) says, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."  Obstacles and temptations are in our world  so we must learn and practice living an unwavering righteous life before God and man—skipping the cycle of Sin! God does not want us to waver back and forth as His people did at times. Strength without moral clarity and obedience leads to destruction, but moral strength combined with faithfulness to God's ways leads to lasting victory.  So on that note, choose today not just to fight well but to live fully devoted to Him. How do we stay faithful? We guard our hearts. We stay and live in God’s Word. We understand that prayer is our lifeline for God's help and grace and so we become people of prayer that have the spiritual strength to refuse to compromise even in the small things. We choose obedience over convenience, and devotion over distraction. We don’t just train for battle—we train to remain faithful to God's Word in all areas of morality, appropriateness in life. In closing, be faithful in prayer, asking for God’s help. If you don’t know what to pray, pray this: “Lord, help me to learn and love your word. Help me to remember the words of Jesus, "Without me you can do nothing."  Help me praise you for every good thing you teach me that improves and blesses my life, but help me to be faithful in moral instruction and clarity, being faithful to you always. Keep my heart anchored in obedience, in purity, in your ways, and let my victories be marked not just by success, but by devotion to You. If there is any compromise in my life, show me, and help me turn back to You.” In Jesus name I pray!  Proverbs 4:23 (NIV) – “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” In His Love, Pastor Tim Burt Support This Work © 2025 Tim Burt Ministries. All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend | Unsubscribe You’re receiving this email because you opted in at timburt.org.

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The Path Through Life's Challenges to Victory: Part One Fresh Manna by Pastor Tim Burt

Newsletter Headline Here...   A Note from Tim Tim here. I'm so glad you're part of this journey. Below, you'll find today's Fresh Manna Devotional. I pray it speaks to you! Explore more on my website → “The Path Through Life's Challenges to Victory: Part One” July 7, 2025 by Timothy Burt Michael had spent years training for his moment. As a young firefighter in training, he had learned everything in the academy—how to handle a hose, climb ladders, break through doors, and rescue people from burning buildings. His instructors drilled him relentlessly, testing his endurance, teaching him strategy, and preparing him for what was to come. But no amount of training could replace the moment when he would stand face-to-face with fire for the first time. The day finally came when he was called into action. A house was engulfed in flames, and he had to enter. His training told him what to do, but now it was real. The heat, the smoke, the weight of his gear—it all pressed in. And yet, something incredible happened. His training kicked in, his instincts were sharp, and he realized—I am ready for this. God’s people went through the same experience when they entered the Promised Land. For forty years under Joshua and Caleb, they had been trained for battle. These two mighty warriors had led them, taught them strategy, and prepared them for war. But for years, they had only known the wilderness. They had never lived in the land of promise, never yet fought to take hold of what God had given them. Then the time came for them to move from training to real battle. ‍Judges 3:1-2 (NLT) says, “These are the nations that the Lord left in the land to test those Israelites who had not experienced the wars of Canaan. He did this to teach warfare to generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle.” ‍God left enemies in the land—not to harm His people, but to confirm that they were warriors. He had already promised them the victory, but they needed to step into it. Their training had been decades long, their preparation thorough, but now was the time to engage. The obstacles before them were not signs of God’s absence; they were proof of His faith in them. He had made them into warriors—now they needed to see it in themselves. How often do we pray for an easy path? We ask God to remove every obstacle and make our lives smooth and trouble-free. And yet, God knows that our challenges will reveal what He has already placed within us. It’s where whatever is inside us—our words, our faith, and our character—spills out. The time we spend as young Christians growing in Christ and seeking the Holy Spirit to transform our faith in God as well as our heart and mind is our fire training. It’s what prepares us, shapes us, and strengthens us for all of Satan’s attacks upon our lives. When we encounter opposition, it is not to break us but to prove that He has equipped us with His wisdom and courage to see us to victory. Judges 3:4 (NLT) continues, “These people were left to test the Israelites—to see whether they would obey the commands the Lord had given to their ancestors through Moses.” ‍Their battle wasn’t just about military strength—it was about obedience. Would they trust that God had already given them the victory? Would they stay faithful to Him when surrounded by enemies and temptation? Would they be lured into false gods and immoralities incompatible with God's ways? The real battle wasn’t just fought with swords but with faithful, wholehearted devotion to God and His ways. You may be facing obstacles today that feel overwhelming. You may wonder why God hasn’t removed the struggle and why the challenges before you still stand. But what if, instead of asking for them to be removed, you asked God to show you what He has already placed inside of you? What if you saw these battles not as setbacks but as the moment where your training meets your calling as you enter the fire? Pray this: “Lord, I know You have been preparing me for this moment. I trust that what I face today is not meant to defeat me but to show me that I am ready. Please lead me by Your Spirit, strengthen my faith, help me to stand, and remind me that You have already equipped me for victory.” Just like the Israelites, you are more prepared than you think. God hasn’t left you to struggle—He has positioned you to conquer. Step forward in unwavering faith, knowing you are a warrior—shaped by His Word, strengthened through prayer, and prepared for victory! ‍Colossians 1:10 (ESV) "… walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." More next time with Part 2 on how and why God prepares us for a blessing as we walk through life’s challenges to victory ‍ In His love, Pastor Tim Burt Support This Work © 2025 Tim Burt Ministries. All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend | Change email address/ You’re receiving this email because you opted in at timburt.org.

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thru Catharsis

͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­

	Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Become thru Catharsis Hazel Archer-Ginsberg Jul 8   READ IN APP   A Birthday message to myself : “Selflessness Becomes Catharsis” - This is the Cosmic Communiqué for the Zodiac sign of Cancer (21 June 21 to 21 July) The fullness of the resplendent Summer with its lush, colorful gardens & flowering meadows, undulating like heat waves in a dream over the Earth, embraced in a mantle of warmth. I give myself up to the fullness of the motherly Sun, in order to Become, a sun mySelf. My soul a flaming glow blazing full of yearning for the open stillness of the wide starry sky. Today as I prepare to leave for Mettabee Farm in Hilldale NY to be part of the ‘Lifecycles Course: Living the Cosmic Mysteries’ - & to be with my AAP cohort 5 friends - to celebrate my natal return - & to meet my logos-soul-brother Bill Trusiewicz - these words sound out to me from those heavenly heights: “Lose yourself to find yourself”. But how, after striving to bring our Higher ‘I’ in, can we lose ourselves - in order to find ourselves again in the ‘I’ of the World? Perhaps it’s by yielding our ego driven intellectual knowledge - This is the secret of the ‘Summer Mysteries: The transformation of our intellect, into the all encompassing warmth-bearing substance of Divine Will! Seen from the aspect of Biography, this turning point, is mirrored after the middle of life, where the downward curve sets in – understood in July’s glyph of the crab, symbol of the constellation Cancer. (Here is an amazing video for this constellation in Eurythmy) We are called to give up the armoring of materialism, which is a danger that lucks in the Summer feeling. Only when the crab reveals its spiritual secret can it bestow its wisdom to us. This secret is transformation. The old & worn out reaches its completion, which is expressed in the involving spiral of the shell. – This narrowing passage of the spiral leads to an end, from which there is no escape – But - then we see that the new beginning of the evolving spiral is separated from the involving spiral by an abyss. How can we cross this abyss? Only by a courageous leap over the void! This archetypal motif always appears when what is old & exhausted reaches its end, & the new approaches, which can only be achieved thru new soul forces. Christopher Clark Today too this turning point, not only in the wheel of the year, but in the current world events spiraling out before us - This stream of the past, that carries the pit of death within it – This stream of materialistic understanding in formation of time, armored within a rigid structure, can only be overcome by a courageous leap. For from that rigid structure no new seeds of the future can emerge. These seeds must be developed by a completely new set of soul forces, into which streams the light of true spiritual knowledge. The time of Summer is especially appropriate for cultivating, with warmth, these new concept-seeds of thought, in order to shape new imaginations with which we can approach the metamorphic processes of our human nture. Thinking in pictures means following intuitively the Cosmic transformational processes in Nature - for Nature Herself - the great World Mother - is woven out of Cosmic Imaginations - & we are meant to add our human imaginations to these. Thru this - we form in our souls what we see in Nature especially right now - the ripening fruits - the fruitification of evolution - in order to bear the seeds of Summer into the Autumn & Winter. This turning point of the year can stand before us a guiding motif: “Take into your soul, in Selfless-Devotion, the rich pictorial language of outer nature, & through it, try to solve the riddle of the world pictures of cosmic happenings. Through this you walk the path of alchemical transformation which leads to catharsis (purification). For catharsis means to be ready to humbly lay aside the proud thinking which has hardened & encrusted itself in modern intellectuality, in order to sacrifice it on the altar of the world spirit, so that it can transform itself into warming forces of will & imaginative world pictures. In doing this, we accomplish the demand of our age, which requires this sacrifice of us. And at the same time we accomplish the inner purification of our souls, which only in breaking through the rigid armour of intellectual thought can experience resurrection in the realm of creative world thoughts!” We can cultivate thinking & make it mature thru developing qualities which seem not to be related at all to thinking – through devotion & insight – not so much thru logic - but when we observe this & that, & use processes in Nature to penetrate into its hidden mysteries. It is thru devotion - Devotion to questions of Nature - Devotion to our fellows in our attempt to understand complicated people, & thru an intensification of our attention to the beauty in the details, that we make our thinking astute. Little cultivation of insight & devotion makes us grumpy hypochondriacs. What is so very necessary for thinking does not at all depend on thinking. All self-centered-will, all self-seeking, has a destructive effect on thinking… Devotion, willingness for sacrifice with respect to the most insignificant objects & occurrences, has a favorable effect on one’s thinking & one’s mood.” ~Rudolf Steiner GA 130, lecture 2 ~Umbra Perchiazzi ~I walk the circuitous path of the unseen - from no-thing - I come to thought - to birth a becoming... ~hag Share RUDOLF STEINER'S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler SAINT JOHNSTIDE III The Chalice Of The Senses - v14 Surrendered to the senses' revelation I lost my own impulse; Thought's dream seemed, numbing me, To rob me of myself, But waking now there comes In all the senses' glory cosmic thought. Share If you want to support the Biodynamic Farming done on Zinniker Farm, you are invited to become a paid subscriber, with all donations going directly to the farm Upgrade to paid The Cognitive Ritual is a Free Will Offering to All worlds. Please Share freely Share ~hag Greetings Friend, you currently a free subscriber to Cognitive Ritual. Thank you for receiving my workings freely offered. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. ALL donations go to support Zinniker Farm - The oldest Biodynamic Farm in America! Together we can spiritualize the Universe. XOX ~hag Upgrade to paid   Like Comment Restack