Liz Hinzie, Christian Speaker, Author, Minister, Women’s Christian Conference Speaker, Iowa

WHEN THE LIGHT SEEMS TO DISAPPEAR

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 10:25:48 -0700

WHEN THE LIGHT SEEMS TO DISAPPEAR

GOOD MORNING. I AM MS LIZ AND I AM THE AUTHOR OF FROM THE FRONT PORCH DEVOTIONALS. Here you will find real life, real faith, real stories, and ME, just keeping it real. Where you find encouragement for today and hope for tomorrow.

Well, since we just had a Lunar Eclipse last night, I would like to talk about WHEN THE LIGHT SEEMS TO DISAPPEAR, and what that could mean to us believers. There is a beautiful spiritual illustration in a lunar eclipse, though. The Moon does not produce its own light: it reflects the light of the Sun. During a lunar eclipse, the earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, temporarily darkening the Moon. Spiritually, that makes me think of our relationship with Christ.

We don’t generate His Light – we reflect His light. JESUS said: “I Am the Light of the world.” In John 8:12 And He told His followers: “You are the light of the world.” – Matthew 5:14.

The beautiful teaching here:

The Moon hasn’t lost the Sun Just because it has temporarily gone dark. The Sun is still shining.

The Moon is still there – still reflecting the light of the Sun.

The darkness is temporary.

When the obstruction passes, the light becomes visible again. There are seasons when circumstances seem to come between what we know about God and what we can presently see of God. 
Grief can do it.
Rejection can do it.
Disappointment can do it.
Waiting can do it.

KNOW THIS:  An Eclipse of the light is not the extinction of light.

God hasn’t disappeared simply because we’re walking through a dark season in which we cannot see Him clearly.

 And there’s another fascination piece:

KEY STATEMENT:

You Were Never Meant to Carry It All

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 08:21:33 -0700

You Were Never Meant to Carry It All

Good morning, everybody. I’m Ms. Liz, author of From the Front Porch Devotionals, where you’ll find real life, real stories, real faith—and me just keeping it real. My hope is to give you encouragement for today and hope for tomorrow.

So grab your Bible, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and let’s spend a few moments together right here from the front porch as we discover what Jesus can do with a surrendered heart and learn what’s on the Father’s heart today.

A Quick Note About the Eye of the Needle

First, I want to thank all of you who commented and reached out after yesterday’s message about the eye of the needle and the things we carry as heavy burdens that we need to lay down before the Father.

I heard from so many people who could relate to carrying all that “stuff.” Yes, we like our stuff! I have my own stories about stuff, and many of you shared yours with me, too. Thank you for your comments, messages, and feedback. I love hearing from you.

I do want to clarify something from that message. The story of an “eye of the needle” gate in Jerusalem is generally used as an analogy; there is not established historical evidence of an actual gate by that name in Jerusalem.

But I do appreciate the picture the analogy gives us: coming humbly before the Lord, confessing our sins, and unloading our burdens at the foot of the cross.

Jesus tells us that He is the gate. The things we cling to—our wealth, possessions, and all our “stuff”—have no eternal value. We don’t need to fill our hearts with things that cannot follow us into eternity.

We can lay them down at the foot of the cross and enter into salvation through Jesus Christ.

Before I ever knew Christ, my life was a stark contrast to what it is now. I grew up feeling utterly
unloved, unseen, and unworthy. My mother, the one person who was supposed to nurture me,
made it clear that I was nothing more than an inconvenience. Every look of disappointment,
every sharp word of rejection, solidified the belief that I was unlovable. My father? He didn’t
cherish me—he abused me for his own inappropriate pleasures. Fear was my constant
companion, and I lived under the weight of shame, desperately trying to survive in a world that
felt hopeless.
Fast forward to today, after finding Christ, and everything has changed. Where my mother
rejected me, Christ accepted me fully. Where my father shattered me, my Heavenly Father
restored me. I no longer question my worth, because He has declared me valuable. I no longer
live in fear, because He has given me a peace that surpasses all understanding.
THE WOUNDS THAT SHAPED ME
In high school, my mother left my father for a month, and in that time, he began crossing lines no
father should ever cross. I was trapped in a house with a predator, paralyzed by fear, knowing
that any moment could bring another violation. I would hold my breath when I heard his
footsteps in the hallway, my heart pounding so loudly I thought he could hear it. My room, which
should have been my sanctuary, became...Read More

Winds of Adversity and Opposition Can Work for You. Part Two

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 05:26:04 -0800

Our hearts were convinced that the Way of Faith was greater than anything the world had to offer. We shared our moments of gladness and we walked the broken road side by side, and we faced our fears and shared our tears, all by God’s sovereign grace. Some are still here, and some have gone home, but now I am in great company.

God has blessed the Broken Road, for He too has been this way. Just think of it, Jesus walked those cobbled stones, of jagged edges, and across shattered chards of broken hearts, for that was the reason he came; to nail our broken lives to the cross, so the world would be saved.

Many of us have landed at the threshold of brokenness unprepared, because life didn’t turn out the way we planned. For we planned our future, we had dreams of hope and prosperity, we dreamed of happy...Read More

Winds of Adversity & Opposition Can Work For You– part one

Sun, 18 Feb 2024 08:55:45 -0800

Did you know that the CENTER VERSE of the Bible is Psm. 118: 8 which says, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man”. This is NOT a coincidence that this is the center verse of the entire bible. All thru the Psm., King David is constantly telling the Lord, just how much he trusts God in everything.
I have been studying scriptures and reading a couple books these last couple months, as the Holy Spirit has led me to do, SO THAT, I will be taught of HIM. He led me to read King David’s words in, Psm. 86:11 where King David cries out to God and says, “Teach me your ways, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, so that I may fear your name.” These scriptures have become my own motto for days now. “Lord, please teach me YOUR WAYS!” And David goes on to say, in vs. 7, “In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou will answer me.” These are words of confidence in the Lord. For King David’s life was always in the winds of adversity.
From the book, Love like you’ve never been hurt, by Jentezen Franklin, I have come to understand how God will use our adversities and oppositions, to our advantage. In his book, he gives this illustration of “Winds of Adversity” as follows: