Encouragement Notes Mission Statement

Thank you so much to those who have supported me and Encouragement Notes for the past two years. I believe that my purpose in life is to help people be the person that God created them to be.  I 1000% believe that this was given to me as a ministry to show people that you can live a full life and still follow Jesus Christ.  Being a follower of Christ does not mean that you have to live a dull life. 

Marie Nicole Zimmerle

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Crosswords: The word of trust

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. Luke 23:44‭-‬46 NIV

“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your religious festivals into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.
Amos 8:9‭-‬10 NIV

That day will be a day of wrath— a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness—
Zephaniah 1:15 NIV

Memory Verse

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

What is so Good about Friday

1. God’s love was the catalyst for the cross

2. God’s longing to be with his beloved compelled him to remove any barriers.

When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Luke 3:21‭-‬22 NIV

The Bottom Line: The message of the cross is one we have been commissioned to share

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:18‭-‬20 NIV

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Crosswords:The word of Abandonment

Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is jesus, the king of the jews. Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him. From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

Matthew 27:37‭-‬46

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:12 NIV

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8‭-‬9 NIV

What to remember when we don’t understand:

1.  God is good

Only God is truly good

Mark 10:18

2.  God is for me

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Romans 8:31‭-‬32 NIV

3.  God is with me

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5 NIV

The Better I know God:

1.  The less I ask why.

2.  The more I ask What

Memory verse

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

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Developing a heart for God:How can I become unoffendable

People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—
2 Timothy 3:2‭-‬4

1. Lower your expectations of others

  • Everyone has a story
  • We don’t know everyone’s story

2. Choose to get rid of anger quickly

“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
Ephesians 4:26‭-‬27

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:31‭-‬32

Being offended is inevitable; living offended is a choice

Memory Verse

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.
James 1:19‭-‬20

3. Raise your gratitude for God’s grace.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8‭-‬9 NIV

When I understand how much I’ve been forgiven, I’ll have the capacity to forgive others.


A prayer for the offended

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalms 139:23‭-‬24

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How can I Forgive others

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Matthew 18:21‭-‬33‭, ‬35

  • Forgiveness is not forgetting everything or pretending that nothing happened.
  • Forgiveness is a generous release of a genuine debt
  • Forgiveness is a process and a journey, not an event

Steps to forgiveness

  • Look in the mirror
  • Stop telling the story
  • Pray for the one who hurt you
  • Ask for. Accountability

I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20

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Celebrating the first anniversary of Encouragement Notes

Ten things I’ve learned this year

  • Know that God creates you, and you only have one purpose, to glorify God. The things we do are the tool we use to serve.
  • It’s ok to take baby steps, just start moving toward something
  • Do not label yourself or anyone else in a negative way.
  • Speak your mind but do it tactfully
  • Dress up in small ways every day
  • Education and schooling are two different things. Education is always needed. Schooling is not.
  • Change will only stick if YOU want it to.
  • Sometimes you have to go backward in order to go forward in life.
  • Choose the opinions you take seriously carefully
  • Don’t be afraid be a late bloomer, at least you’re growing.

First anniversary