Evergreen Life: Flourish In Every Circumstance

by Jonathan Brenneman

The abundant life Jesus gives us remains constant in every season and is not moved by outside circumstances. Pressure quickly reveals if we really are believing what Jesus accomplished for us!

Scripture compares those who trust in God to evergreen trees, which never lose their leaves regardless of the season. In fact, many pine cones only release their seeds after passing through fire or freezing cold. The trial reveals life. Likewise, God has planted the seed of his word in each Christian, and sometimes it’s through hard times that the seed germinates and God’s life becomes really evident in our lives.

Jonathan Brenneman wrote these twenty-three devotionals while living in Rio de Janeiro Brazil and facing a lot of pressure! During this time, he and his wife escaped armed robbery multiple times. Their car was wrecked twice in the same year due to highway robberies, and his wife escaped a kidnapper. Their bank account was emptied a few different times due to crime and a broken legal system. They faced a death threat against their family and a kidnapping threat against their daughter. Around the same time, friends living on the same street lost a little girl who was kidnapped and killed. These trials came on top of rocky relationships, cross-cultural challenges, a busy schedule without much sleep, facing corruption and fraud, flying bullets, and more!

Jonathan’s writing is extremely encouraging and overflows with hope and joy. These writings also contain a few testimonies of physical healing. Are you facing financial loss, injustice, or other stressful circumstances? Or maybe you know somebody who is? The truths found here have the potential to fill your heart with hope and produce an overflowing joy and stability in the middle of craziness!

147 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2019

About the author

I was born in Rochester, NY and grew up in Pennsylvania. As I child, I suffered mental torment and was unsure if God existed.

I became convinced of God's existence when he healed my back. I was about nine years old. My mom laid hands on me and said "In Jesus' name, back be healed." Although I didn't expect anything to happen, I felt something like a ball of energy start rolling up and down inside my back until the pain was gone. I later told my friends "I felt God's hand in my back!"

I had a "born-again" experience when I was eleven years old, and got involved in missions as a young teenager. My first trip was to Mexico. I began studying Spanish, then Polish, Portuguese, and Russian.

When I was about 20 years old, I felt very frustrated with myself and the church. I knew that God was real, but I wondered why he felt so far away and why I never saw the miracles that I heard about happening in other countries and for other people.

Then the Holy Spirit spoke to me through the Bible and the speakers at a Christian conference. God dealt with traditions of men that were causing me to feel so frustrated, revealing Jesus to me in a greater way than I had ever seen before. I began to see many people healed when I prayed for them. It was the beginning of a life of miracles.

After taking many short-term mission trips to various countries, I moved to Brazil in 2012. I now live in Rio de Janeiro with my wife and daughter.