Calebs Giants

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-25T04:10:00.000-05:00

Thank you, Lord, my Father God, for these first 50 of my many countless blessings:

Giving Your Son to pay for my sins;

Loving me first;

Planning good things for my life;

My husband;

My children;

My cats;

My parents;

My in-laws;

Signed, Sealed, and Delivered

2005-11-21T04:31:00.000-05:00

Rewind and Fast Forward: In Romans Chapter 2 we saw that God is going to judge each one of us according to the way we lived our lives...did we pursue the things of God, or were we self-seeking and disobedient? We also discovered that as a matter of spiritual fact there is none who will escape this judgement, and then (Hallelujah!!) because of His longsuffering and goodness, God Himself leads us to repentance!

Chapter 3 could be called the great equalizer! Just in case you were thinking, OK, so everyone will be judged by God according to his own deeds...I am a Jew holder of the oracles of God...Paul explains that the law is the knowledge of sin given to those who are under the law, and therefore there is none righteous, no not one...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God! Praise God that He is God of all of us, and that we are justified not by what we do, but by faith in the one who justifies, therefore we establish the law!

Now, in Romans Chapter 4 we are privileged to squarely face the simple fact that our justification is a matter of grace through faith. This thought is a very common theme in Paul's writing, and a very comforting truth of our salvation experience. The fact that we are saved by grace through faith is established by Paul's examination of the evidence of Abraham's faith. There is no such thing as grace being given as a payment for good works...by definition, if that were the case, it could no longer be called grace...it would be called debt, and it is a fact that God does not owe anybody anything! It seems evident, however, that if you want to be paid now for the work that you do, God will not withhold your wages from you, but in so demanding of God, you have cut off your opportunity for Him to pour His grace into your life.

Why was the sign of the circumcision given? The Bible says it was a seal...a mark that let everyone know I am an heir to the promise...I belong to God! The sign was a seal of the faith that Abraham held before the sign was given. We have been given the Holy Spirit as our seal...identifying us as one of God's own...however, in order to receive this seal, we had to have faith before the seal was given that God was God and that whatever God said He would do would be done. Therefore, by faith, Abraham is the father of us all! Signed and sealed...

So, what exactly is this promise that we are able to trust God to bring to fruition? Verse 13 says it is that Abraham would be heir of the world, and the faith that he had in God's promise did not waver due to unbelief because Abraham was fully convinced that God would deliver on His promise!

Awesome, but it gets better still - I have really good news for you and me! This promise has been imputed to us who believe that Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses and raised up from the dead because of our justification! We are truly saved by grace through faith! Thanks to the incredible work of Christ, we have been signed, sealed, and delivered!

Here Comes the Judge...

2005-10-26T06:31:00.000-04:00

There is something to be said here about reading and studying the Bible. It is always necessary to bear in mind that the chapter and verse delineations are extraneous to the text of the scripture. These divisions have been added for the purpose of study and cross-reference, so even though we are looking at Chapter 2 this week, it is impossible to understand Chapter 2 without taking Chapters 1 and 3 into account also.

Chapter 1 gave a detailed description of a variety of acts of unrighteousness...sin. Chapter 2 continues this discussion of sin and the judging of sin by warning the readers not to get too excited at the end of Chapter 1 because they will be held to the same standard by which they would judge another, particularly judging those actions in which they also are active participants. Chapter 3 expands this theme even further to make it abundantly clear to the reader that there is none righteous, and that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

What I want to make sure we understand in all of this, however, is not necessarily who we are...sinners all the way around...but who God is, and what all this business of righteousness and circumcision has to do with who He is and why He alone is qualified to be the Judge.

He is a God who painted His heart into the creation that He established for our enjoyment and sustenance...Jew and Gentile alike. He is a God who wove His heart into the hearts and minds of man...Jew and Gentile alike. He is a God who provided a means of escape for all those who would believe in His Son...Jew and Gentile alike. He is a God who had it all planned out and all worked out from the foundations of the world...for the Jew and Gentile alike. There are no surprises with God.

Paul is setting us up for some very good news, but if we are not careful, we can get lost in these first two chapters and come away feeling very separated from God and a total stranger to righteousness. However, the same admonitions that were given for judging others still apply when it comes to judging ourselves: God is our Judge and He will judge each one according to his own deeds.

I think the very first deed that God is going to consider is this: "What did you do with my Son?" This is where we can confidently judge ourselves. Beyond this we need to beware for the Bible says that my thoughts are not your thoughts and My ways are not your ways. Our righteousness hinges on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and our primary responsibility is to receive Him as our Savior and then tell others the good news!

Hebrews Chapter 2 reminds us to not neglect our salvation, and therefore we must acknowledge that it is difficult to judge even ourselves by a true and righteous standard. Best to leave the judgments to the Judge!

Who Am I to Judge?

2005-10-25T06:53:00.000-04:00

One of the things that I wish I did better is memorizing scripture. I can memorize the words, but I have some kind of handicap when it comes to learning the references. I compensate for this short-coming by trying to learn "chunks" of the Bible, so when it comes to Romans Chapter 2, I know that as the "Do Not Judge" chapter.

I think it is pretty safe to say that we all understand the challenge that Paul issues us: As much as we judge others, we condemn ourselves, because there is none righteous...no, not one, except God who will judge each of us according to our own deeds. I guess it comes down to the simple analogy that if you point a finger at somebody else, there are three fingers pointing back at you!

But what about this? God is so amazing, so righteous, so holy, so PERFECT that He really does leave us with no excuses for our behavior. He demonstrates His glory in Creation. He weaves His righteousness into our instincts and our consciences. How much more are we responsible for doing good when we have the blood of Jesus, the Bible and the freedom to read and study, and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, than someone who does good just because it is good to do good? He knows us so well...He thought of every excuse we would concoct, and eliminated them before we could even attempt to use them!

All of you who know me know that I have no problem saying the things that I know are true. In fact, I am often accused of being too harsh or beating people over the head with the Truth. I just want to point out that at the end of this chapter, Paul is anything but sweet when he writes that the circumcision without the law is worse than not ever having been circumcised, particularly if the uncircumcised person is living as righteously as he or she can and bringing glory and honor to God. Ouch, now that had to be harsh if you used to belong to God via the old covenant! Praise be to God for giving us a new covenant, and bringing us all into His family through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, our Lord, Jesus!!

Why I Need a Savior...

2005-10-24T03:58:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday we read and discussed Romans Chapter 1. I began by commenting that there is a certain amount of pain and discomfort that comes simply by reading the last several verses and I was loathe to stop reading because I didn't want to end on such a somber note.

Then, amazingly, someone pointed out that this isn't necessarily depressing...it is merely a reminder of exactly how holy our God is! In fact, previously we had learned that the gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes...for in it (the gospel of Christ) the righteousness of God is revealed. And not only that...we also discovered that He has revealed Himself to us also through His creation so that even if we happen to go through this life never hearing mention of the name Jesus, we still are left without excuse before this one, true, HOLY God! Praise God for loving us so much and allowing us the privilege of working out our salvation with fear and trembling.

There is one thing that terrifies me. It is the fact that my will had chosen to depart from God's ways and pursue all manner of evil in His sight and He could have let me go in my own ways and left me with a hard heart and a reprobate mind - not because He wanted to exclude me from His salvation plan, but because of the way my own actions and attitudes made it impossible for Him to include me!

The sins that are named in this passage are terrifying. For example, I find it exceedingly interesting that murder and sexual immorality are on the same list as disobeying your parents and being unmerciful. I believe that Paul is demonstrating here that only God is holy. It is true that every time we sin, our hearts get a little bit harder. I pray for immediate consequences to my sins simply because I know that if I perceive that nothing bad happened to me (like lightning striking me or something) I am likely to repeat that sin until my heart becomes rock-hard and I have damaged my life and the lives of all those around me.

It is impossible to read this chapter without coming face to face with the knowledge that homosexuality is a very dangerous game to play. In fact, it is no game at all. It is not a right of an individual...it is an abomination to the Lord, and you will suffer if you indulge these lusts of the flesh. These are not the words of intolerant Christian-folk. These are the words of God.

I believe that God moves us through these lists to remind us how depraved and wicked we are, but even more so to remind us how glorious, marvelous, magnificent, beautiful, and holy He is...maybe compared to you I am not so bad...maybe if I consider this as a checklist, I come out with a 70% or better sin avoidance factor...however, every time, in every circumstance, next to God, I am a worm! Psalm 130 says that if You count our sins against us, who could stand?

So, I am terrified of my sin and I am terrified of the bondage of a reprobate mind and I am terrified by the prospect of being left to myself and I am terrified by the punishment that is required for such violations. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, though, because it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes! I believe Jesus died to save me...a sinner!

To You, From God!

2005-10-21T04:21:00.000-04:00

When Paul offers an introduction and a greeting in each of his letters, he always takes a moment to describe himself and his God, normally in an exquisitely triune manner, and then, as in Romans 1:7, he says something along these lines: "Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Wow! I love it when the LORD simply takes my breath away!

Grace to you and peace from God...grace and peace to you from God...to you, from God...grace and peace...to you, from God...

Take a few moments to slow down and really concentrate on hearing the words of God delivered through Paul's greeting. What does it take to really deliver that word to someone else? Do I have it in me to greet someone, even one of my own family, with such a greeting?

Grace and peace are an awesome package to carry. Remember in Pet Detective when Jim Carey was working for the delivery company and kicked, tossed, bounced, rolled and dropped his package repeatedly before the delivery was actually made? Even if you haven't seen the movie, you can imagine the condition of the item being delivered. Whatever it had been, it was now broken into a thousand tiny pieces!

Grace and peace...to you, from God...

Can you imagine what would have happened if Paul had taken this Grace and Peace that God asked him to deliver to the believers in Rome, and simply put it on his own shelf in his own house? Sure, he would have enjoyed it every day. Certainly as people dropped in for a visit they too would take in the beauty of this Grace and Peace. However, eventually it would become just another interesting conversation piece, and it would lose its power and its ability to impact the world for Christ!

Can you imagine being Paul and being trusted with Grace and Peace from God for the express purpose of delivering it to someone else? Paul never says, "I bring you peace," or, "I offer you peace," or, "I want to give you some of the grace I have received." Paul, in all humility and with tremendous awe and respect for the Christ who saved him from eternal damnation, delivers Grace and Peace from God to the Christians in Rome. Grace and Peace were not given for Paul...they were given for Paul to deliver.

Lord, help us to always be willing to be used by You. Thank you for giving us your Grace and Peace. Thank you for giving us a model in Paul for what to do with such an awesome gift! We stand in awe that you would trust us with what is yours...precious and cherished...and we ask that you would continually strengthen us so we can deliver what is yours to those for whom it has been given.

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST!!

2005-10-21T03:01:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Caleb's Giants!

You are welcome to stop in to read, to add your insights and impressions, and even to ask or answer any questions that may be posted. We are going to have an incredible adventure diving deep into the Word of God and allowing Him to develop in us the discipline of reading and meditating on the scriptures while He stirs up an unsatiable hunger and unquenchable thirst for even more of this same Word!

We will meet on Thursday evenings and touch on the highlights of the prior week's studying, but this is to be a deliberate, proactive effort on each of our parts. Thursday evening will be a time to plan our next move in ministry, bring our praise and petitions to our King, and enjoy fellowship with one another.

So, let's get started. As we discussed where we wanted to begin opening the Word, one thought was toward practical application and one thought was toward the teachings of Jesus. Praise God for anticipating this and giving Paul the Book of Romans! Since Paul was writing this letter to believers, we can apply his teaching to our situations today with relative ease. Since he had never seen these people (nor has he seen us), he took the time to skillfully and masterfully reveal our Christ to us by outlining His life and ministry as well as His death and Resurrection. The thing I love about this Book, however, is the way Paul ices the cake for us by delineating exactly what this faith in this Savior looks like in our everyday lives.

One thing I love to consider when I read the epistles, especially Paul's writing, is what our Christianity would be like if we didn't have this recorded account of how people applied all that they had seen and experienced while Jesus was ministering to His people on the earth.

Praise the Lord for His loving kindness in giving us the Bible and the ability to read and study it in relationships with other believers!!!

No Weapons Shall Prosper

2005-10-09T03:44:00.000-04:00

Isaiah 54:17

...No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is from Me, " says the LORD.

Many years ago a friend of mine named Sandy told me that Satan doesn't need to hang out at the bars with drunks and prostitutes; his commitment is to stop those who are attempting to make changes for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Every day I seem to become more fully engaged in my Christian walk. Every day I seem to be more delighted at my ever-increasing dependence on my Savior God. Every day I seem to be an increasingly visible target for the powers and principalities that would seek to destroy my life and separate me from my God. Thus my claim on the promises from Isaiah 54 has become my constant prayer.

Early this morning I realized with exceeding joy that this prayer has been answered faithfully, as my Father always hears the cries of His children. Let me try to brief you as to what God has done, and how I have had the great privilege of learning from the Holy Spirit and being a witness to my Lord using my life to bring glory to Himself! No weapons formed against us have prospered. Not one of them has prospered, and there has been a continuous onslaught directed toward me, my husband, our children, and our home.

My heart broke for my children this week as my boys faced their own sinful natures. However, in spite of their sin, God protected them from many of the potential consequences of their sin, and provided a clear way out of the temptation into which they had fallen. As the Bible tells us, While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us! All I can say about that is Hallelujah!!!

Where two or three are gathered...

2005-09-30T06:21:00.000-04:00

"Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." Matthew 18:19-20

Prayer and forgiveness and accountability and relationships are all covered in these two verses of Scripture, spoken directly by Jesus to His disciples and recorded for our benefit and understanding.

I want to take this opportunity to praise Our heavenly Father for the relationships that He provides for our enjoyment and our edification. Several years ago I was at work on a Monday morning and had mentioned something that had occurred at church the day before to one of my managers. Before I could even complete my thought, he exclaimed, "You go to CHURCH!?!?!?!" Ouch! That wound was so profound that even as I am typing I can hear his disbelief and the chuckle in his voice! Praise God for the relationships He provides, because it was at that moment that I vowed I would not allow another person to wonder where I stood with my Lord...my life would somehow be a testimony, and I was catapulted to a new depth of repentance, obedience, and intimacy with my Savior!

This month our church leaders issued a call to our congregation to gather to pray for our church family and the various aspects of our ministry and our impact on the world around us. I could hardly wait...I was so excited about the prospect of gathering with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and getting on our knees before the throne of God and fellowshipping with Him in a vastly magnificent way! Well, I fought two weeks of spiritual warfare characterized by a cold that was just bad enough combined with life issues that became obstacles at precisely the right time to prevent my attending one of these prayer meetings. When I finally got there, I found the pastor and his wife and our prayer leader and one other church member. I was discouraged because all this time I thought I was missing something that everyone else was in on and nobody was there, but we prayed and I tried not to let my disappointment dissuade me from the reason I had chosen to be there.

I attended two more sessions and found the same scant turnout. A friend of mine had an opportunity to attend a 12-hour prayer meeting, and I couldn't wait to hear about it! I listened to him describe his remarkable experience and I shared with him how it seems like no one cares enough to pray at our church. He immediately encouraged me with the fact that if 60-100 people show up to pray, it is much more difficult to achieve the unity that can enter a group of two or three. He went on to remind me that when there is unity a lot of progress can be made by a few faithful warriors battling in one accord with Christ in the midst of them. Praise God for the relationships He provides...that bit of encouragement was exactly the renewing that I needed to get back on my knees and be deliberately obedient about what God has called me to do, without worrying about what others are not doing!

I love the opportunity to enter into God's presence whether it be on Sunday morning in a corporate worship setting, during the week in a small prayer group, or even as I go throughout my day and pray with my husband or my children or a friend who happens to call! I will continue to pray that others will find the immense soul satisfaction that ignites a Christmas-morning enthusiasm in me whenever anyone says "Let's pray!" Praise God for the relationships that He provides...it is a beautiful thing to be part of the family of God!

What's love got to do with it?

2005-09-27T01:07:00.000-04:00

Well, because of the love I have been given for my family, I am compelled to do things for them in order to demonstrate the love I have for them. I serve them, and that keeps my heart from exploding because it allows the love that builds up inside me to have an outlet and then it comes back again, and I am able to serve them even more.

I was thinking that God's commandment that we should love our neighbors as ourselves is not so much a burden as it is a blessing. When we take all the love that He gave us by saving us from our sins and adopting us into His family, and combine that with the love that He puts in our hearts for our families, if we didn't have such an outlet as loving our neighbors, we might all have heart attacks because our hearts would get too full of love. In fact, it is the main characteristic of the Christian life that we are known by our love one for another.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

I would venture to say that we have been commanded to love even our enemies as a result of the mercy God has for us. It would seem that as we are in relationship with the families that He has entrusted to our care, the people of God in our churches, and the world in which we live and interact, we end up risking a bottleneck of love. There has to be somewhere for it to go, and since everyone else is all loved up, we'd better pass it on to our enemies! One thing for sure is that we cannot afford to hold onto love, if we expect it to continuously characterize our lives.

Love is something if you give it away and you end up having more!

How much love?

2005-09-25T03:02:00.000-04:00

Here's a story that I tell my children: One day my son was born. I wasn't sure how I would be able to tell the difference between him and any other baby, and I was a little nervous about how I would be able to love someone I barely even knew. The thing that still amazes me, almost 9 years later, is how the entire hospital was transformed by his birth. They told me there were 10 other babies born that day...I only saw one! The one I saw was the most incredible person I had ever seen in my whole entire life, and I couldn't take my eyes off him! There is a reason they call it the miracle of life!

Well, 20 months later I was in a very similar situation, and although I had learned more than I ever expected about what it is to truly love, I went into the hospital that day expecting that because I had so much love for the first, there would be plenty of love left over to spill into the life of the next. My heart was so big and full of love that day! The thing that still amazes me, over 7 years later, is the way my whole world changed with her birth. How much God must love me to trust me with a daughter to raise! Then, on top of all that, I discovered that the love He placed in my heart for her was her very own! Suddenly, I had more love than I could bear for my son, and now my heart had expanded beyond all reason and was filled beyond capacity with more love than I could bear for my daughter. When I take into account the fact that I have loved each of them more and more every day of their lives, I cannot explain to you why my heart has not literally exploded inside my chest cavity!

And now, I have been blessed again with an even greater amount of love for my step-son, whom I thought, despite the above testimony, I would love as a result of the love I had for his father. Once again, God has increased the limits of my heart and given me love for him that is his own...none of my children compete for my love, God has supplied me with enough love for each one of them, personally and individually.

This is incredibly profound to me because it makes me think of how God loves His children, of which I am one. It is supremely amazing to me that if I was the only person on the planet when Christ went to the cross, He still would have died for me. The same is true for you. When the Bible tells us that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life, he is talking about a love for the world that increases itself on a per capita basis. He loved the world personally and individually. How much love is that? I can hardly contain and manage the love I have for my children and my husband and the rest of my family members. I cannot imagine having enough love for the entire world!

Amazing love...how can it be...? Only because as God has told us in His word: He is love! Amazing!!!!

How long is Longsuffering?

2005-09-24T23:25:00.000-04:00

I really love thinking about God and His tremendously great love for me. I think of the analogy of the Potter and the Clay and I think how longsuffering longsuffering must really be. He sits at the wheel, spinning and spinning, molding and shaping, and all of a sudden, I, as the clay, collapse one side because I think it would be better if it weren't quite so round, and suddenly His hands are pounding down the entire lump and He begins again, spinning and spinning, molding and shaping. Again, I decide that if anyone knows about making things out of clay, surely it is me...the clay! So, I poke a finger through and put a hole in the side of the pot. Ever so gently His hands seal the rift. Over and over we repeat this dance until finally, the inevitable occurs: the clay realizes that it is an expert on clay, but the Potter is an expert on making pots...the clay submits to the Master's hand, and a beautiful vessel is thrown.

How much spinning and how much molding and how much shaping do we put ourselves through in our efforts to make a go of this life on our own? Consider this: Peter and Judas Iscariot. Presumably they both loved the Lord, and they both were called into His service. They both betrayed the love He had shown them, but in the final analysis, there is an eternal difference in their responses to their own hearts. Peter was told by Jesus that he would deny even knowing Him three times before the rooster crowed. Judas was told by Jesus that he would betray the Son of Man, and he was told to go and do it quickly. Even with this bit of insight, both men carried out the betrayal that was in their hearts. They both thought they could find their own way through the moments that lay ahead of them.

I finesse the circumstances in my own mind, and I tell myself that I would have taken that information and said, "No! Lord, save me from this body of death that I might not sin against You!" But would I...really? I think the best I can hope for based on what I know about myself, is that after I get myself jammed up, I can cry out like Peter did, and with the anguish of true repentance turn my face back to my Lord knowing there is nowhere else for me to turn!

How inconceivable is it, however, that I would take the path chosen by Judas Iscariot? Could it be that the distinction between the responses of these two men is as simple as Judas not yet reaching the end of his own way - he still had the rope! In one final display of his own power, he hung himself and died in his sin outside of the love given so freely by the Savior. The Bible says there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end result is death. How sure am I that I wouldn't put myself on a similar path of destruction rather than repentance? Praise God that it is no longer I that lives, but Christ who lives in me! The gate really is narrow and few are those who enter by it, but praise God that He waits, and waits, and waits!! Praise God that His desire truly is that none should perish!!! Praise God that He has covered my sin through the sacrifice of His One and Only Son, and now my eternity is sure!!!!

Zealot, Fanatic, or a Sinner Saved by Grace?

2005-09-16T06:52:00.000-04:00

Here is a situation with which I am not unfamiliar. Perhaps my Karmic Wheel is turning, and I have been lucky enough to have received multiple chance on making this right...or perhaps I serve a long-suffering Redeemer who died in my stead and longs to be with me for eternity rather than to watch my fall into Hell.

Jr. High School...Zealous for the Lord. I never went anywhere without my Bible. I read and read as much as I could read, I talked about the Lord. I absolutely loved Youth Club on Thursdays. I really required the friendship that Christ offered me, and I embraced Him whole-heartedly. Then along came a boy, and the zealousness waned.

1988 baptized by immersion...fanatical about what I knew the Lord could do! I had felt His touch on my life and I had seen the miracle of my own re-birth! I knew He was all powerful and yet I tried to test Him over and over again! I praise Him now that He is long-suffering and that His will truly is that none should persih. I praise Him that He had written my name in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundations of the earth, and in hind-sight, it is abundantly evident how His hand shaped the circumstances in which I repeatedly found myself. However, my fanaticism was directed outward...at your sin (which was invariably more than my own) and at His offer of forgiveness. I spouted and spewed, but I really hadn't internalized, and therefore couldn't fully appreciat, that from which my Savior had saved me. Oh, but how I loved Him and how I stood in awe of his awesome power. Something I clearly lacked in my own life!

I let out a sigh of relief when I realize that I have moved through these phases to become simply a sinner saved by grace! I see my God, the Creator of the Universe, the Lion of Judah, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world, and I tremble. I have goosebumps from the soles of my feet to the crown of my head. He causes a joy to bubble out of me from the very pit of my stomach. I cannot do anyhting but love the Lord, My God, with all my heart mind soul and stength, and since He loved me first, I cannot do anything but love my neighbor as myself. Zealous, you bet! Fanatical, I hope so! Saved by Grace, it's a guarantee!

Our Only Hope

2005-09-03T05:54:00.000-04:00

I have become absolutely convinced of one thing: the only real blessing, the only blessing that really means anything, is the blood of my Savior rescuing me from this valley of death.

I have been thinking a lot about blessings lately. I feel tremendously blessed as far as material possessions, the love of my family, the country, city and state where I live, the income I generate to help my husband, the general healthiness of my body and the bodies of those I love, etc. I couldn't ask for more. It is really all good when you get right down to it. Maybe somewhere along the line I asked, and so I have. After all, the Bible says you have not because you ask not, right?

Am I really any better off than my Christian brothers and sisters in the Mississippi Delta or a work camp in North Korea? Do I become convinced of my blessings when I compare myself with another's apparent lack of blessing? Do I have more hope than any other member of the Body of Christ? No, I don't think so. The great equalizer is knowing where and to whom we belong.

When it comes to blessings...to receiving God's best and using what He gives us to further His kingdom and bring His people back into fellowship with Him...there are people who are missing the blessing. There are people dying without a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and the price He paid for their redemption.

Yes, I am more blessed than they are because I have heard my Shepherd's voice. When it comes to blessing, can we please begin to look at how we can bless and not spend so much time reaching for the blessing? Of course we want the "whole ham", but maybe, just maybe, the ham is being stored for us with the rest of our treasure, and for now the blessing we receive is another day full of opportunity to feed His sheep, and bring the ultimate blessing - Christ Himself, the Hope of Glory - to another dying, hopeless lamb along the way.

Tribbles

2005-09-02T06:23:00.000-04:00

The trouble with tribbles...remember when James T. Kirk picked up a cute little fuzzy and it ended up threatening to destroy the Enterprise?

Is that what's happening here? All the healings, all the children's tongues, all the blessings, these are great...they are tremendous fuzzies and we all feel really, really good when God hands one to us, as we should. I would suggest, however, that the enemy of our souls knows our propensity to mistake fuzz for power, ie. look what our prayers can do...see what happens when we pray...feel the power of God here with us today...fuzzy, fuzzy, wuzzy!

Praise God for the healings! Praise God for the blessings! He is an awesome God! There is certainly no god like our God!

I wonder though, what do we do when the blessing that God hands us is not so fuzzy? Perhaps the blessing is that after receiving 39 lashes you find yourself alive to worship another day and to possibly tell someone about the Jesus you love so much!

He promises. He promises. He says if we ask. He tells us to agree. He promises. He promises. If you who are evil give good gifts to your children, how much more then will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to you?

He promises to come back and to judge and to rule and to reign. He never promises fuzzies, this side of eternity. Careless claims of fuzz and fluff turn into nothing more than magic, and I do not want to be the one who reduces my God to the designs and whims of a magician. I do not want to conjure up and then show-off the tricks my God can do.

Sorry to the people I love, but if we are going to go into battle, I want to know that I am fighting next to a soldier of the cross, not a peace-loving, fuzzy-throwing, spiritual baby! Hip, hip hooray for our fuzzies, but people are dying all around us.

What about that lost sheep? Who will go search for those who wander off? What about that prodigal at the end of the road? Who will welcome him home? What about that Samaritan who got beat up by vagrants? Who will tend to his wounds?

Watch out, because while we are celebrating and showing our fuzzies to each other, they are dying without knowing the Lord.

I don't want to explain that when I stand in the throne room of my King.

Institutionalized Hopelessness

2005-09-01T04:22:00.000-04:00

Tuesday evening my husband and I went to the school my stepson attends and we had the opportunity to meet the teachers, hear from them their philosophy of educating our children, and see how they intend to work with the students to prepare them for the next step in their growth toward adulthood.

This was truly an eye-opening experience for me. Until now, our children have all been in elementary school. Yes, there is a pervasive philosophy in our school district based on the idea that it takes a community to raise up a child. When they are smaller, though, this attitude appears more covert as there are certain developmental tasks that cannot be escaped or excused.

It is subtle, but it permeates all aspects of life at school. First, we are going to build a new school in our community. The architects, designers, and decision-makers consulted with our kids to see what they want their new school to include. Second, the teachers work within a team framework that allows the students and teachers to plan out the course of study within the guidelines provided by the State of Ohio curriculum. Each student is encouraged to work where they are, so there is no disgrace for not being at the same level as another student. Third, one teacher actually said that by the end of the year each student should be a better writer than he or she was when they started writing this year, and their grade will reflect this self-improvement. Finally, the Science Fair is not a requirement, as they don't want to discourage students by placing them in a competitive situation in which they may not be comfortable participating.

The worst part, though, is the attitude that destines our children to failure. The now overt message is that there is no room for success. Failure is the expectation and the teachers are there to guide you through your mistakes and short-comings with warm fuzzies for your effort, and a barrage of canned excuses for mediocrity.

I have listened to the music he wants to hear. I have listened to him talk to his friends. I have seen his apathy in almost all areas of his life. I thought it was growing pains. I now realize it is institutionalized hopelessness. Thank God that we have Jesus Christ, the Hope of Glory, living in us and working through us. There is a large disparity between the worldview that says success is just out of reach, and a worldview that stands firm on the promises of God who says that with Christ all things are possible.

Please be sure to pray for our students and the people in our nation who are facing a new level of hopelessness. Pray that they all will find the only source of true hope - our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In, Out, and Out Again

2005-08-24T05:28:00.000-04:00

There is no sense in a salvation that ends with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This must be the beginning, as the Spirit of the Living God falls afresh on me and you, we then reflect that glory out to those near us, who in turn refract even more of the light onto those near them, and therefore, the motion is in, out, and out again.

It is impossible to have a private Christianity. Certainly it is necessary to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but we were never intended to keep that relationship private.

However, there are people who will have no reservations when they tell you that their religion is a private matter of the heart, or something to that effect. There are people who will actually not speak to me anymore because they don't feel comfortable talking about religion or politics. I suppose that I can't blame them since rule number one of good manners is to leave your faith and your politics at the door. My problem is, though, that when I was in the darkness, I lived my life in such a disjointed way that I simply cannot maintain these internal separations now that I live and walk in the light!

Please explain to me how the Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth, who sent His Son to die for our sins, and came to indwell each one who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, can be a private matter that anyone is able to keep to themselves! I have the Holy Spirit living in me!!! I have the Holy Spirit living in me!!!! I have the Holy Spirit living in me!!!

Don and I went to a Christian rock concert at the Community of Christ Church in Akron. While we were worshipping with a crowd of strangers, it occurred to me: We are the Body of Christ, and as His bride, what else is there to sing about besides our God and His great unfailing love? There is nothing else that matters as much as Jesus. It is all about Jesus - every minute, every day, every challenge, every blessing...He is our God who died to save His people from their sins. There is nothing else to say, and saying it just isn't enough anymore. I must shout my praises to my God and my King!

So, I praise God for my salvation. But, I must allow that encounter to color the relationships I have inside the walls of my own home, and then enable those relationships to reach into my church home, and finally empower all of my loved ones to engage their world in a supernatural battle for people's very lives!

This is life and death stuff. We are playing God's game on His field, by His rules. This is not sissy stuff or feel-good religion or emotional fluff. This is fire and brimstone, blood and guts, heart breaking and soul ripping spiritual warfare, and the stakes are the eternal lives of those with whom we or someone we know has contact each and every day.

We need to seek Him on our knees and shout to Him from the depths of our souls! Mercy, grace, and peace to you! Mercy, grace, and peace to you!

Life and the Light

2005-08-17T06:44:00.000-04:00

Proverbs 31 has some of the loudest shouting that God asks His people to do. In verses 8 & 9 He tells His own people to open their mouth on behalf of those who are about to die. To open their mouths for those who cannot defend themselves.

The bottom line is that it all comes down to life. One way or another, the question everyone asks, and the cry from every heart, and the implanted Shout that the Lord has etched into each soul, comes down to what is the nature and meaning of the life we live...here or there, now or then, good or bad.

The Lord has assured us that He came to give us life and to give us life, in fact, more abundantly. The Bible also guarantees us that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Reincarnation, Kaballah, Buddhism, Paganism, witchcraft and sorcery, Muslim, Islam, whatever it is, people are concerned with life...most definitely they are concerned with their own life and once in a while someone takes an interest in another's. Regardless, it all comes down to life...how am I going to live today, and what am I going to do if I find myself living tomorrow.

In the darkness, the answers to this question were secondary to surviving in the darkness. There was very little room for contemplation or deep meaningful thought in the darkness. When you cannot see anyone else, and you are barely aware of your own existence, it is difficult to worry about someone else's life. In fact, if you do not even know that there is light to be found, there is no motivation to look for any such thing. In the darkness, it is very very dark.

But we have been called out of the darkness of our own self-centered existence, for one thing: to proclaim the praises of Him who called us out. In the light, it is possible to see and identify the needs of other people...those in the darkness as well as those who have come into the light. See, the light doesn't make you rich or healthy or happy. It simply makes you able to see.

As we strive to fulfill the commandments (Love the Lord your God with all your heart mind soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself) we find that we must open our mouths on behalf of others...we must shout for freedom, for justice, and for mercy. We MUST use what God has given us to do the tasks that He has laid out before us. In the darkness, none of this makes sense. In the light, it cannot be any other way.

An Ordinary Everyday Miracle

2005-08-10T05:05:00.000-04:00

Let me tell you what happened to us on Thursday! Actually, I would be more accurate to say what didn't happen to us on Thursday.

I was very tired because I work nights, and Thursdays this summer have been a fun day for my kids and my mother-in-law. They had gotten up, gotten dressed, gotten their bicycles packed into the van, and then turned their efforts toward getting me up to take them to their grandma's house.

Finally, I got up figuring that the sooner I get them there, the sooner I will be home, and the more hours of uninterrupted sleep I will get before I need to go get them, wash a load of laundry, make dinner, and get ready to go back to work. However, I was sleepy. I was driving down the road, slightly faster than 35 mph (but not quite 40 mph) with my head propped up on my left hand and my 8-yr-old riding shot-gun because the bicycles required the third row seat to be folded down.

Suddenly, the passenger door opened. I turned my head, but in my foggy state, the situation really didn't register with me...until 1.5 seconds passed, that is, and suddenly I was snapped back to full attention! During that 1.5 seconds, my son had inadvertently opened the door while the vehicle was moving. He opened it with his left hand, which required a forward-leaning, body-crossing motion to even reach the handle. And, to top it all off, he was not wearing a seatbelt (a fact I definitely would have noticed had I been better rested)! I looked in my rear-view mirror and there was a car following not too far behind me. He was going to fall out of the van and get hit by the car behind us, and there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop this from happening!

But...as this was happening, here is what was simultaneously happening:

I raised my head off my left hand, and grabbed the steering wheel with my left hand and reached over with my right hand (a much slower reaction than the situation required) to grab him, and he was flat against the back of the seat, sitting straight up. Just as my eyes moved from his body to the door, the door closed and fully latched. During the 1.5 seconds in which this entire scenario elapsed, he was supernaturally pushed back into his seat and it was as though a hand had reached out of the air and pushed the door closed while I helplessly watched and grasped at the air.

Immediately I praised God and told the kids we all need to praise God for protecting Jeff and allowing us to be a part of this miracle which should have been a disaster. My oldest, who is generally skeptical, was not so sure that we had experienced a miracle, and so I began to offer my evidence to prove to him that we had just encountered Almighty God Himself! As I began explaining the angles and the directions of force and gravity, combined with the sequence of events as they took place, I became even more keenly aware of the protection we had been given!

Then I began to praise God all the more, because it occurred to me that there are probably countless things throughout each day that could happen but don't happen because He has given His angels charge over us. Our God truly is an awesome God!

Why I am still Shout!-ing

2005-08-03T03:01:00.000-04:00

I noticed that this blog during the month of July had been a little more personal than I had ever intended this site to be. Of course, I was instantly reminded that I never intended this site to be...the very fact that I am writing at all is due to His intentions for me to write this blog, and as I follow and submit to His will, He has already taken me through many things.

Freedom for me, freedom for you, freedom for us...all of that begins with Him. Shouting begins with Him and ends with Him.

This is what I know...I need to shout. I have such a passion for the words and the Word that I cannot believe how quiet God’s people all around me actually are. The only explanation that I can find is that they don’t shout because they don’t know how magnificent the Word is. Oh, how I want them to know this beautiful, essential Word!

The word of God is living and active. It does not apologize, and it does not tolerate. It does not bow to political pressure. It creates political pressure. It divides marrow from the bone. It separates families. It saves people from an eternity in Hell permanently separated from the loving Father Creator God who made them and sent His Son to die for them.

I will shout because I can see dead people walking about unaware of the dreadfulness of their condition. I will shout because I do not want to be on the only ark watching people drown all around me. I will shout because I have been called out of darkness and into His marvelous light, and so I no longer have a choice...I will Shout!

Empty Spaces

2005-07-19T06:25:00.000-04:00

Today I want to share something that the Lord revealed to me over the weekend.

Well, here’s something. In 1988 Jesus came to live in me…He came to truly indwell my body and my being…and that is when He also, out of necessity and by virtue of His promise, began to clean. It is crazy how much clutter can build up in just 20 years, and I praise God that He came to get me at that time rather than after 40 or 50 or 60 years! Well, as He began cleaning His new spiritual house, what He found was that I had been quite content with throwing a decorative blanket over a pile of crap. As long as I couldn’t see it and it wasn’t in my way, I could confidently say I had faced and dealt with that area.

So, in 1992 I quit drinking and quit using illegal drugs. I thought I was clean and sober. I made a lot of reparations and I tried to the best of my ability to let God be Lord of my life.

Many of you who know me know that I quit smoking 45 days ago. Actually, I was delivered from smoking, because if any of you know me then you know the struggle I have had with this and you know, as certainly as I know, that it is impossible for me to not smoke. That is true, but also true is the fact that with Christ all things are possible.

Now, I don’t smoke. I am an ex-smoker. It feels good in my body to have accomplished this after 9 years of determining I would quit. The problem, as He has been showing it to me, is still complacency. Sometimes I just want God to get off my back and leave me alone for one second! Why can’t I just take a break on my laurels and enjoy the scenery as it passes me by? No. No way. He is so good that He never lets up on me. Never. And this is why:

I have been very very free lately. I have realized that to a certain extent I had never allowed Christ to fully clean up my house, and suddenly I am facing a very clean house! In fact, I had even mentioned to my husband recently that I am so free that I barely know what to do! Uh-oh! It’s just like when my kids tell me that they are bored and I come up with an entire list of fun-filled things they can do to be busy!

What is that verse where Christ says that after the house had been cleaned the demons left and not having found anywhere comfortable, they came back? Only this time, since everything was clean and empty, they moved back in – they and seven times more of them!

I have to face myself. I have to deal with emotions in a whole new way. I have to interact with my children and my husband in a whole new way. I have to work and cook and clean in a whole new way. I need to make sure that I have a method for recognizing each one of these “new ways” as they come to be in order to be prepared and allow Jesus to do His work in maintaining my freedom and filling my empty spaces!

When there is nowhere else to go but to Christ, then He is really able to use you. For the moment, there is nowhere else for me to go, but I always have the option of disobedience. If I don’t begin to fill these empty places with the fruits of the Spirit and the various and sundry things of God, they are going to be refilled with the demons of my past.

Lord, I am so grateful for the repentance you gave me and totally changed my life! I am also so very grateful that you are so very good! Thank you for the heads up when it comes to my vulnerability. You are the greatest…it’s no wonder they call you Lord!!

Short Accounts

2005-07-15T15:39:00.000-04:00

All right, already!

Do you ever just want to SHOUT! about the goodness of God!

I have to tell you, without sounding trite, hopefully, just one of the ways that the Lord has pulled me out of darkness and into His marvelous light!

For a long time I would get all hung up about my lack of holiness, about my lack of righteousness, and about my huge propensity to continue sinning despite a 30 year relationship with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The more intimate our relationship would become, the more I have become aware of the amazing grace that was required to save a wretch like me. I am sure this experience is not unique to me.

How is it that as I have taken the very smallest step of faith (for the very reason that I only have a very little bit of faith) and dedicated the rest of my life with no more reservations to my God, that He immediately responded by pulling me out of darkness and placing me in the midst of His marvelous light? It is a fantastic mystery, and I am moved to SHOUT! because of it!

Here is my SHOUT! for today:

I described my sin of omission, my sin of not being willing to be myself, and my sin of not trusting my God at the training class on Tuesday. Praise the Lord for His immediacy in bringing this to my attention so that I can confess NOW and not have to suffer in my sin!

This morning I was taking advantage of a teaching moment with my boys because they were trying to scheme to find a way to get money out of me and their Dad. I chose my 8-yr-old to talk to because he is most sensitive toward the things of God, and I laid it out for him. I told him with no hesitation, that any money that he has or doesn’t have is because God chose to give it or not give it. Therefore, if he has any problems about the money that he has or doesn’t have, he needs to take his complaint up with the Lord, not with me, because first of all, I am going to get mad that he is asking me for more money, and second, I am going to send him right straight to prayer.

Approximately 3-4 hours passed and I found myself balancing my checkbook and then on the phone with my wonderful husband explaining in the nicest possible way (if there is a nice way to express fear, anger, anxiety, and as much blame as one can get away with to one’s husband), that we do not have enough money and how are we going to get more money?

Do you know what he said to me? He said, “Have you talked to God about it? We are going to trust God even though things are tighter now than they have ever been for us. It’s all His anyway, and I’m sure He will give us what we need, and even if He doesn’t He is still God and He is still good!” Wow, what a rebuke!

It occurred to me after that, that I am no longer required to suffer for years in my sin. I no longer have to endure consequences that are drawn out over decades. God has granted me the even more amazing grace of showing me my sin quickly, so I actually can keep a short account with Him and with those I may happen to hurt along the way.

Then shortly after that thought, it occurred to me that I could have saved myself so much grief had I just obeyed Him from the get-go. And then I praised Him again for taking what was meant for evil and using it for good, because now I can SHOUT! and warn others about the darkness, and proclaim His praises for pulling me into His marvelous light!

God is Good! God is Good! God is very, very GOOD!!!

My Confession

2005-07-12T17:12:00.000-04:00

Have you ever seen your own brain decide to work totally against everything for which you stand and believe? Today, I understood, a little more clearly, what the Apostle Paul was saying when he wrote Romans Chapter 7. This is almost too embarrassing to discuss in this forum, but I think it is important, so now you will know a little bit more about me.

I have been participating in a ministry training class at the Akron Pregnancy Services, and today we were to discuss any obstacles with which we find ourselves contending which would prevent us from volunteering at the center.

This was my chance to SHOUT!! …and I blew it!

You see, February was when I first received the Word to Shout, and it didn’t take long to realize that the Lord wanted me to shout according to 1 Peter 2:9-10 (you can read some of last months essays if you are interested in this). He wants me, and all of us, to proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of the darkness and into His marvelous light.

So, from that point in February, He gave me His Word, He opened the door for me to associate with APS as a liaison for our church, He provided an opportunity for me to speak my testimony at church, and He has provided me with 100% assurance that this is where He wants me to begin shouting.

Whatever obstacles may have existed prior to me coming here, He has already supernaturally removed, and He has given me a clear vision of what to do, and opened the doors as to how to do it. There are no more obstacles. They have all been removed.

OK. So much for the lead-in. When it was my turn, I actually heard myself saying, “Well, it may be hard to find the time.” Hard to find the time? After spending 6 months in preparation, including a total schedule change, I have nothing but time! I couldn’t believe myself, but I didn’t want to recant and look foolish, so I tried a quick alternative, because that excuse was too lame.

Watch out, this one is even worse: “I’m not sure about counseling…maybe teaching, but the counseling seems like too close of a relationship with someone I won’t really be able to help, and consequently will just feel bad. I have enough in my life to feel badly about.”

WHAT?!?!?! I could not believe what I was hearing myself say. First, I am currently in the process of paying off a $14,000 debt to Malone College for my masters coursework in community counseling. Except for a few technicalities and some really bad timing surrounding my children’s births, I am as close to a counselor as you can be without being one!

Second, what do I have to feel badly about in my life? I have been called out of darkness and into His marvelous light!

So, this is what I learned about myself. I am a sissy. I choked in the clutch because I thought to myself, “Oh, no. She wants to hear about obstacles, and I don’t have any. I’ve already overcome them.” I panicked because I knew everyone would start listing obstacles and I didn’t want to be different. I thwarted my whole mission for 30 seconds of “who really cares anyway comfort”, and I was silent when I could have shouted.

That’s my confession. According to 1 John 1:9…if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Praise you, Lord Jesus! I love the way You show me everyday how I really can do nothing without You, but I can fully depend on You! Please continue with me and keep me from denying Your hand on my life again.

Evil is still evil

2005-07-08T02:30:00.000-04:00

If there are any of you out there who do not see that the world in which we live is as upside down as it has ever been in terms of right vs. wrong, let’s look at what happened in London today, and try to once again bring some light into this darkness.

There is a mind-set of evil that permeates our world. It is evil that causes an individual to be ready when presented with an opportunity to hurt someone so that he can feel good about himself, at least for a moment. It is evil that has spurred the ancient development and the modern rise of the humanistic, liberal philosophy that says power is more valuable than freedom. It is evil that cultivates a world climate of violence in the name of Allah against all things decent and good and right. The enemy in this war our nation and our allies are fighting does not play by the rules.

The enemy of your souls does not play by the rules. He plays within the boundaries that were set for him at his defeat on Calvary, but he makes up the rules as he goes. He is constantly scouting, always on the look-out for those who will accept this bit of depravity here and this bit of debauchery there, and suddenly we are blind-sided by an event or circumstance that is utterly unthinkable against which we are utterly defenseless because we have allowed evil access into our lives.

This is a time when our grandchildren will ask us what were we doing during the war on terror. What will you say? Were you going to work, going to sleep, going to the store, going to church if you didn’t sleep in, or were you drawing a line in the sand – Shouting! from your knees to the only One who can save us that you will not be swayed and you will not allow this madness to invade your home, you family, your soul, your community, your country, your world, any longer!?!?!

Pray for those who are suffering wherever they are suffering, and allow the Prince of Peace to comfort each one, and ask Him to bring protection and ultimate victory to those who are physically engaged in this spiritual conflict.

A Gift

2005-07-07T14:09:00.000-04:00

I just want to take another moment to describe the culmination of weeks of the Lord working repentance in my heart. It is such a fantastic gift! It is such an awesome mystery to realize that the Creator God of the Universe…the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who led His people out of slavery in Egypt…this same God is so intimately and personally involved in the lives of each of His people that He would even take time out to sit with me while I work out my salvation with fear and trembling.

My Bible tells me that in the twinkling of an eye we will all be changed. I find it interesting that this twinkling change could be 30 years in the making, but it happens so completely that one can actually say the old has passed away, behold the new has come.

Yes, I know that I am taking these verses out of context, but I don’t know any other way to explain what happened to me, and I am sure happens to others.

Three weeks ago I was fully prepared to die for my Lord if it ever came down to this type of an extreme. I knew that I would not ever deny my Lord…out of duty and out of gratitude and out of love.

Today, if you were to ask me to deny my Lord or die, I would tell you that I don’t know anything about life without Christ, in fact it is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me.

This is a fine distinction, but it is really everything that really matters! Jesus is my All-in-All!

Repentance and Freedom

2005-07-05T07:55:00.000-04:00

It is hard to think of something about which to write each day. I imagine I am writing to all of you, but I am reasonably sure that all of you may not exist. However, I am committed to carrying out this task that I believe has come directly from the Lord.

I want to share with you a little bit more of what happened to me two weeks ago. I believe that every day is a training ground for the work the Lord intends for us to accomplish…He certainly faced a huge undertaking when He decided to call me out of darkness and into His marvelous light!

It seems that when I was young, my repentance was self-directed. It was clear to me what needed to be done, and it was equally clear how to do it. I could confess my sins readily because they stood in such blazingly obvious contrast to the standards of a holy God, and I could easily turn from them because there were so many other paths to choose.

When you are 20, the world seems like a blank slate waiting for you to make the first mark, and from there it is just a matter of seeing what the picture will look like in the end; in this respect, faith is a cake walk, and life is full of chocolate frosting. How exhilarating each step was as I became more aware of and more intentional with my relationship to my beloved Redeemer, Savior, and Friend!

Now I am on the downward side of 35...somehow an entire decade has escaped me. Repentance is not so easy to come by these days. I have found that those things to which I am bound have actually come to be a tremendous source of comfort.

Confession does not so readily emerge through the pride in which I live. That which I do not know and the options which lie before me, suddenly have consequences attached which cannot be so easily remedied simply by the prospect of time.

Life is a serious matter and there are serious requirements and there are serious consequences. All of this requires serious faith, and what I have discovered as my Christian walk continues each day is that I have so very little faith!

Hallelujah! Here's the good news: My Lord has told me that if I have faith as small as a mustard seed I can command the mountains to throw themselves into the sea and they will be compelled to obey!

O, God! I have loved you for so long…I have sought after you with all my heart…I have done as much as I can do to serve you and to please you…I have repeatedly fallen so miserably short of the mark, and yet here is the wonder of it all: as soon as I fall, you pick me up and carry me the rest of the way!

My God has told me to Shout and to invite as many as will join me to Shout as well. I truly do not understand this mission, and I have yet to grasp the full scope of His intentions, but I trust that He will accomplish His purpose in this, and in the meantime I pray that He will continue to bless my efforts to glorify Him!

Celebrate Today

2005-07-04T20:37:00.000-04:00

I apologize in advance for the brevity and the hardness of tone of this message.

See, to me, the fact that I live in the most free nation that has ever existed since the ancient Israelites set out from Egypt into the wilderness, is nothing short of incredible to me!

Why wasn’t I born into the economic and spiritual poverty of modern day Bangladesh or under the dictatorship of Hitler's Germany? I do not believe it is because in His divine Providence our great God and King looked around and said, “Juli seems like a good candidate for a cushy ride, let’s land her in the 21st century USA so she can enjoy all the privileges and benefits and opportunities that will come her way simply as a result of the timing and location of her birth!”

It cannot be that way. It isn’t that way. Freedom is a precious gift. Freedom is ordained by God in order to preserve His people unto Himself, so they will have no allegiances that supercede their allegiance to their God.

Freedom is actually the number one fear of those who would strip this country of its faith-based value system, and the reason is that there cannot be government control over a nation of free people…the two are completely incompatible. Still, in line with our historical tradition, our government sends our soldiers out to fight for freedom here and around the world.

Why? It is a worthy pursuit, but freedom cannot be maintained without a fight - it almost seems definitional. However, at the end of the battle is the victory, and there is no more glorious victory than freedom, as anyone who has been liberated by the blood of Christ can attest.

Enjoy your families and celebrate your freedom today. Tomorrow we are back in the battle again!

Praise Him

2005-07-03T13:42:00.000-04:00

Take some time today to praise God for coming to set the captives free!

The Sunday of the 4th of July weekend is one of my very favorite Sundays, and I nearly missed my opportunity to gather with the body of Christ to proclaim our freedom given as only Christ can give it! I was late but I made it!

Enjoy your holiday and celebrate each moment of freedom with the people with whom you most enjoy celebrating!

Free from Bondage

2005-07-02T13:37:00.000-04:00

Freedom…I wanted to talk with you about freedom today.

A profound thing happened to me last Sunday. It would seem that a process whereby God started working repentance into my heart finally came to a head culminating in a new freedom within my spirit that I had not even imagined until now.

As an aside: I love the way that the LORD gives us glimpses of eternity, but allows us to experience just a taste right now…a little bit to keep us going. What I mean is that He promises that Heaven is beyond all of our hopes dreams and imaginings. What is it that the Bible says: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)? I cannot wait to be blown away by what He gives me in Heaven, even more so because I am constantly blown away by what He gives to me while it is still called Today.

That brings me back to the thought I had today. I have been, up until last Sunday, very afraid of even the thought of losing my freedom. Then I discovered through this gift of divine repentance, that I had really not been free at all. I had been in bondage to my fear and to my sin; I had really been in bondage. As the Blood of Christ proceeded to wash me whiter than snow, an amazing transformation occurred in my heart. No longer did I feel inadequate or unworthy or overly concerned about any of the things of this world. At once I was given a renewed understanding of my position as a child of God…a member of His family…one of His own special people who once had not obtained mercy but now had obtained mercy…who once were not a people but who now are the people of God…finally, I was given something to shout about that was not just babbling from the deep well of my own foolish and limited opinions.

Secondly it occurred to me that people who are not moving do not even recognize their own bondage. It is only as we try to move that we discover our feet are shackled and our hands are bound. The passion in my soul to hear God’s people shout was renewed, revived, and rekindled. We need to SHOUT about His great love, but first we need to make people aware of their bondage. This complacency sometimes feels like it is so widespread and deeply ingrained into people’s lives that there is no sense in struggling against it.

Praise the Lord God Almighty! Praise Him for giving me a two-layered message: first, a new awareness of my own freedom; and second, a keen understanding that the battle for freedom in which we are engaged is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Be encouraged as you SHOUT, though! "Not by power or by might, but by my Spirit," says the Lord (Zechariah 4:6). The battle belongs to the Lord and He never loses!

Here is the important part: Freedom is not ultimately a function of government, it is a gift of God and it is available to everyone who will bring his burden to the cross and allow the penalty Jesus paid to set him free.

This does not mean that we don’t have to SHOUT…on the contrary, this requires a SHOUT the likes of which have never been heard.

Have mercy on us, O Lord, and forgive our complacency, our contentment, and our self-righteousness. Forgive us, O Lord! Forgive us! Forgive us! Forgive us!

Free Indeed?

2005-07-01T07:47:00.000-04:00

Here we go. I just know in my heart that this Blog is one of the ways that God has provided for me to get out the message that He has provided for me to give: He wants His people to Shout!

There are so many issues, there are so many causes, there are so many concerns, there are so many hurts, there are so many heartaches, there is so much persecution, there is so much injustice, there is so much pride, but there is only One God, and He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow! All the rest only serves to demonstrate how weak we are and how much we need His strength.

It seems that each time God gives me a task, He also shakes me up to make sure I am a useful vessel. Praise God that He cares enough about me to shape me into the vessel He needs to carry out His purpose in my life and in His world! Praise God that He loves me so much that He has set me free, and if the Lord has set you free then you are free indeed.

This weekend we will talk about freedom, and we will see where the Lord wants us to go from there, because,frankly, without the comfort of knowing that this is My Father's world, I would have no peace, and soon I would know very little about what it was like it be free.

I want to fight for my freedom as often and for as long, as we have to!

Reflect and Refract

2005-06-29T22:24:00.000-04:00

It has taken me over two weeks to really sit down and write this essay. I think that is the case for two reasons: 1. It is too important and I didn’t want to mess it up, and 2. It is too important and the enemy did want to mess it up. Do you ever find that to be true? I am going to talk about that sometime, but not right now.

Right now we are here to discuss how we reflect the light of Christ…I am the light of the world; and how we refract the light of Christ...you are the light of the world.

Did you know that a rainbow is a full circle, an unbroken ring of colorful, refracted light? That is probably also a topic for another time.

Why would Christ say that He is the Light of the world and then we are the light of the world?

Once I read a book about Zen Buddhism because I went through a period where I wanted to find enlightenment. This author was discussing how everything is part of the cosmic whole, therefore everything can be reduced to the same energy. That is the very same energy that set in motion the stars in the sky, which, if it makes you happy, can be God himself. Therefore, the Zen Buddhists conclude that since we all can be traced back to this original energy, we can all be traced back to God, therefore, we are all God, or at least we all have the capacity within us to discover and utilize this energy which is our God nature…made in His image and all that jazz. I read i this book, or one of these books, that Jesus said of himself, “I am the Way the Truth and the Light.” I was suddenly struck with an uncomfortable feeling. I had a lot of uncomfortable feelings back then, however, so I didn’t worry too much about it. I contemplated this idea.

Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Light. Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmm. I called my mom. I really didn’t tell her that I was exploring a better way. I just had an uncomfortable feeling so I asked her if she knew when Jesus said that. She said, "He said, 'I am the Way the Truth and the Life.'”

I get so tired of the way Satan always puts just a little spin on something and makes the most beautiful truth into the ugliest lie. His tactics are so obvious, and at the same time so effective. I wonder why? Again, a subject for another day.

I love the way the Lord is the Truth and always sets us straight!

The Sun lights the moon (reflects). The moon lights the night (refracts). It is all so because Christ spoke. It not only is. It is very good.

We are the light of the world. Our light, however, must come from Christ because there is clearly nothing but darkness in us. The beauty of this assignment is that when Christ lights us up, then we are charged to shine that light into the darkness of our world! The light that we have to offer people is the light of Christ...it is Christ himself. Therefore, as we shout, we shout only one message: CHRIST!

We have been pulled from darkness and into His marvelous light for the express purpose of proclaiming the praises of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. It is simply beautiful how beautifully simple it is!

There is still more to say...I hope I am able to communicate all of this to you. Do you see why it has been slow going up until now?

The Happy Dance

2005-06-12T20:27:00.000-04:00

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." John 8:12

"You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16

I was not going to write this essay yet because it is slightly out of order, but as I was cleaning up after dinner, the Lord placed this on my heart for today, so I was compelled to sit down and attempt to describe to you what He has been showing me.

Peter spoke the above words to brand new Christians in the face of potentially horrifying
persecution, and as I have already discussed, he gave them an identity which distinguished them from every other people group in the world and simultaneously aligned them with the ancient Israelites, now known as the Jews...the people who are the people of God!

I cannot get Noah out of my mind. For the past several weeks, I have been pondering what it must have been like to be Noah. God's chosen guy! The one and only one that God trusted with His plans for the restoration of the Creation.

We always hear about how people must have thought Noah was crazy to build a boat in the desert, especially so in light of the fact that it had NEVER RAINED before, ever! We picture his neighbors walking past and ridiculing him, and I think we tend to see Noah quietly biding his time and tending to the Lord's work, all the while thinking, almost smugly, to himself, "Ha! Just wait until you see what God has in store for you!"

I think we have a tendency to see Noah and his family on the boat with all the animals, living in the middle of the Greatest Show on Earth up until that time. They were living (and experiencing "real-time" knowledge that they were living) out a miracle that is second only to the Birth, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord Himself!

I think we see them on the boat doing the Happy Dance...they were chosen and they were safe and God was in total control of their lives and their future, and they could not fail in this task!

I think this vision is not entirely accurate. I think that Noah had to feel his heart ripped from his body in an anguish that we cannot even imagine. Additionally, I think that Noah had to watch the hearts of the people he loved most also breaking over and over and over and over again. All around him were the cries of death. Everywhere he looked was evidence of the destruction His God had wreaked on the earth. Judgement was total and complete. Noah had to experience an awful terror, and I believe when we talk of the fear of the Lord, Noah's is the attitude that a Holy God expects from His people.

Now, you know that I believe with all my heart that as the people of God, we are commanded to SHOUT! The Lord has shown me over the last several weeks that this shouting...proclaiming the praises of Him who pulled us out of the darkness and into His marvelous light...is given to us with a WAILING that we have totally overlooked!

We are Your people O God! We want to serve you! We love you! We are so blessed by you! We cannot ask for any more because You are the One who knows our needs and You are the Only One who satisfies!

We have been safe on the boat doing our own little Happy Dance! We have been singing with each other for so long and so loudly that our praise of who God is and what He has done for us drowns out the gut-wrenching shrieks, the terrified wails, and the hurting sobs of those who are literally perishing all around us!

We need to go all the way through Noah's story to the Rainbow. This miraculous symbol composed of billions and billions of particles reflecting and refracting light was given as a covenant that God would never again destroy the earth with water. It was given to remind Noah that he and his family had been pulled out of darkness and now were living in His marvelous light. This rainbow stretched across the whole sky and covered the entire earth with its light and its promise. I am going to talk more about reflecting and refracting soon.

Father God, we confess our pride and we beg you to have mercy on us...your chosen people!

His Marvelous Light

2005-06-10T07:08:00.000-04:00

I wanted to share a vision that I believe God gave me regarding this light that is mentioned here in 1 Peter 2:9.

When I was dead in my sins it was as though I was in a coffin where everything was dark and there was not a lot of space to allow for any movement. This dark crowded space was no problem, however, because I was dead! Because I was dead, I was not even aware of how dark and crowded it was in my coffin. I had no awareness of my condition, just as someone who is physically dead has no awareness of their condition.

Then suddenly and apparently out of nowhere, a tiny hole was made in my coffin, and the smallest bit of light shone through. It doesn't take a lot of light to make someone aware of how dark and crowded are their living conditions. I believe this tiny bit of light is the quickening of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible for the natural man to see his sinful condition unless he is first made alive by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Next, and rather quickly comes the desire for more light. The eyes start to adjust to this new condition, and instantly there is the feeling that I must have more light, but to see what...the walls of the coffin in which I live? Suddenly my depravity and hopelessness surface to the very front of my awareness, and I find myself crying out for a Savior, for someone to let me out of this dark prison in which I have been living. Again, enter the Holy Spirit and His continual reference to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the One True God who has conquered sin and death!

The cries come from the very core of our being, right from the pit of our stomachs, and we are desparate to be free! Jesus, Jesus, what amazing love! What an awesome King! How can it be that you, my God, would die for me? We swear an allegiance to the King of kings because for the first time ever in our lives we understand what took place on the cross at Calvary. We understand that our sin, mine and yours, needed to be dealt with, and since the wages of sin is death, Jesus chose to die in our stead so that we could live forever with Him in Heaven! We are all alone inside our coffin of sin and death, but we SHOUT to our King, because we have discovered that He is the only one who can save us and set us free!

We take our first free breath and we nearly choke because of its purity. We shield our eyes from the glaring brightness of a sun we have never seen. We stretch our arms and bend down and touch our toes. The breeze tickles our face. We can't help but giggle! Everything is the same, but everything is so very different!

We have been called out of darkness and into His marvelous light! We are instructed in this verse to proclaim the praises of Him who accomplished this feat on our behalf, but we hardly need to be instructed! Again, from the pit of our stomachs, indescribable joy is bursting forth that cannot be contained by our bodies...the most natural thing for us to do now is to SHOUT! Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God!

The Light

2005-06-08T21:13:00.000-04:00

What's all the SHOUTing about?

2005-06-07T22:36:00.000-04:00

This is going to be a quick entry tonight...I just want to tell you that I am getting really pumped up for tomorrow when we press the next part of these verses to their natural limits!

What is all the SHOUTing about?

We are a holy nation, a royal priesthood, the people of God, who once had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy!

Please read the previous entries if you want to learn more about who YOU are as one who has been saved by grace through faith in the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Why has He called us to all of this? What are we supposed to do with theknowledge of who we are in relation to Him?

We are supposed to SHOUT! Just like the verses say, He gave us all of this so that we may proclaim the praises of Him who pulled us out of the darkness and into His marvelous light!

We are supposed to SHOUT! Tomorrow I am going to Shout about the Light, and we will see exactly what there is for us to say about this remarkable happening!

Until then, please re-read I Peter Chapter 2, and have a blessed night in the Lord!

Before and After Part II

2005-06-03T09:42:00.000-04:00

Who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Wow! I was thinking about something today. A lot of my unsaved friends really don't have the problem of not believing in God. It is more like they have the problem of believing that God, who is so big and so busy being God, would have any reason to be concerned about them personally and individually.

But these verses tell us that BEFORE we were each just walking around doing our own thing, and AFTER this personal encounter with God we became "The People of God". What happened to make us The People of God? Mercy. Mercy is what happened!

We had a personal individual encounter with the one true God, the living, self-existing Creator of the Cosmos, the King of Kings who left all his glory behind to die a gruesome death for each one of us, and we didn't die!

Not only did we not die, but His mercy saved us and made us The People of God". Now, here's the really amazing part:

We couldn't have asked for this mercy, because we couldn't have desired it. We couldn't have desired mercy, because we were unable to understand what it would do for us. Also, we didn't want to be God's people. We were, after all, doing just fine on our own. We didn't think God needed people, and we were sure that He didn't need us. So, here's what happened:

God looked around, and he saw you and me and He sent us the Holy Spirit to make us alive. Once we were alive, the Holy Spirit introduced us to our Heavenly Father, and just when we thought we were going to die, beause getting this close to God was too much, enter Jesus - full of mercy and grace - who says, "No, I have already died for her, and him, and her. Those are my own...they belong to me!"

Doesn't anyone feel like shouting yet?

Before and After

2005-06-01T06:23:00.000-04:00

The next section of this verse in 1 Peter 2:9-10 begins a before and after scenario.

You who once were not a people but now are the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

I don't know about you, but I love to look at the before and after pictures of almost anything. What comes after is nearly always an improvement, and most of the time it is a dramatic improvement, if not a total and complete re-do.

By the time the final transformation is complete there is often only the essence of the original left...the old has passed and the new has come. This is one of the most exciting things about being a spokesman for God on this earth!

We get the Extreme Makeover! This is why we need to SHOUT! This is why we want to SHOUT! This is why we are compelled to SHOUT! Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God!

Can you hear the echos of those who shouted before us? Our God lives in eternity, so we are able to add our voices to those who have gone before us!

I want us to be excited! I want us to be bold! I want us to be loud! I want us to SHOUT!

NOW WE ARE THE PEOPLE OF GOD!!!!!!

A Holy Nation

2005-05-24T15:19:00.000-04:00

Today I am very glad that I am part of a holy nation that is not of this earth.

Today I realized that the faith I had in the leaders of this great nation in which we live is a faith that cannot be. Instead, my faith, and all of our faith, needs to be in the one true God, our father in Heaven, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I believe that God gave His people here in the United States a tremendous opportunity for repentance and change as a nation, but the fact is that this opportunity is being squandered by the very people who we elected to enact change. It was my naivety, I suppose, that allowed me to believe that the winners would act like winners...that this huge outpouring of blessing from Heaven would give our leaders the confidence they need to stand against the giants and say "No more!", but that is not the case.

It is like our Republican leaders in Washington have vision like a horse...horses are HUGE. They are powerful and strong. But our Creator, in His infinite wisdom, created this beast of burden with eyes that see small things as big...therefore, since a horse sees it's master as a giant, he learns to comply and thus is useful to the farm and able to accomplish the task at hand. For some reason, the majority leaders in our Senate look at a handful of boisterous, out-spoken liberals, and see a huge obstacle that cannot be overcome. This is ridiculous, and very frustrating, to those of us who can't be Senators, but take the time to vote and campaign for those who promised to do the job in our stead.

Praise God that He has designated His people as a holy nation...a people set aside for a sacred purpose. Holy means separate...set apart without spot or blemish, without sin or stain. Nation means a people inhabiting a certain territory and united by common political institutions and language. Our authority is given us by our King, and our salvation is promised us by our King, and our future is sealed by our King. We worship in the language of Praise for our King, the sovereign Creator God who holds the whole world in His hand, and will accomplish His purposes. We do not need to be so caught up in the political climate of this world, that we cease to remember that we ARE a holy nation.

Praise God all day today that He has made this to be the case for us! What a marvelous God we serve!

A Royal Priesthood

2005-05-19T21:31:00.000-04:00

Continuing with our key verse in 1 Peter 2:9, Peter further describes his "chosen" audience, a scattered group of new Christians in the midst of imminent persecution, as a "Royal Priesthood."

I wanted to find make sure that I knew exactly what royal means. My assumptions were correct: Royal is a word that is used only in reference to the Sovereign King and His family. To be called Royal means that you belong in an exclusive relationship to the King.

The next word in this phrase is priesthood. When I think of this word, I think first of the Old Testament system where God ordained some to be priests. The job of these people from the family of Aaron (Moses' brother who helped him speak before Pharoah) was to serve the Israelites as mediators between them and God, by offering the appropriate prayers and sacrifices so the nation could receive atonement for their sins, both individually and collectively. However, their service to God and to the nation of Israel was practical, as well as spiritual. Among their various and sundry duties, was the routine maintenance of the Tabernacle, providing medical diagnoses and remedies, overseeing the gathering and storing of food, and basically making sure that everything and everyone was either kept clean or made clean. These were people who were called to extreme service by their God and for their God to care for the needs of His people, but the radical bonus for performing this service was that they were able to enter into the very presence of God.

So, in his reference to his fellow believers as a royal priesthood, Peter was essentially designating them as the extreme servants of the King, Jesus Christ, and Him alone. The New Testament believers were in a position that we are not very familiar with in this country. Their service included the constant threat of torture and death. However, the security we discussed last time in having been chosen by God for this service, combined with the exclusivity of being part of the royal family of Christ, augmented by the fact that as members of the priesthood, they had unlimited access to God, surely offered strength and motivation to carry on amidst all the political dissension surrounding them.

If nothing else, the designation Royal Priesthood must have been exceedingly encouraging! As this letter made its way from house to house, I can only imagine how incredible it must have been for the Christians to hear. Considering the times in which they were living, it had to be almost impossible for them to believe!

Even more incredulous than the story of these new believers' faith and courage, is the fact that so many of us simply choose not to accept this designation as part of our faith. On this basis alone, it is easy to understand why Christians in America are always on the defense. We hide behind a quiet, private faith that never gets in anyone's way rather than accepting, on the basis of the very faith we claim, that we are a royal priesthood!

We are part of a royal family with the responsibility of serving our God and King, and our community. We are the offense! We have been given the game plan, the power to carry this plan to fruition, and in the United States, a clear field on which to play! Why do we sit on the sidelines and let the field become overrun with weeds? We do not need to expound a defense when it comes to setting the moral standard for our nation. We are a royal priesthood - we are the moral standard!

A Chosen Generation

2005-05-13T08:57:00.000-04:00

A chosen generation...We all know that when God created the heavens and the earth, he created man in His own image for the purpose of glorifying Himself through this remarkable creation. Then came the whole apple thing and the fall of man, and here we are today. However, the Bible shows us over and over again, that He has never given up on His creation. He made a promise to Abraham that he would have as many descendants as the stars in the sky. The children of that promise were the ancient Israelites. Time after time, God reminded His children that they were His own chosen people. There were plenty of other nations and people, but God had chosen the Israelites. Then came Christ and a new covenant was established. From this point on, salvation was not only for the Jews, but for all who would call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. Praise be to God for His mercy and love! Now we can all be included as children of the promise!

I have found that this whole idea of being chosen by God is touchy for many Christians, and I have been thinking about why that may be the case. One reason, I think, is that we haven't fully surrendered our lives to Him. It is a lot more comfortable to believe that free-will led us to make this profound decision to follow after Christ. It leaves us with a good feeling knowing that we made the right choice - that God has always been with us and we simply had to choose whether or not to accept what He offers.

The only problem with this line of reasoning is that over and over in the Bible, we are told that we have been chosen by God. Romans 8:28-29 tells us that those he predestined he also called and those he called he also justified and those he justified he also sanctified, etc. The Psalms tell us that He knew us before we were formed. The Revelation tells us that if He does not find our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life, we will not enter into the New Jerusalem. It also tells us that this Book was written before the foundations of the earth. The text we are examining in 1 Peter 2:8-9 states that we are a chosen generation.

How do we reconcile these and many other evidences in the Scripture with our desire to choose our own destiny?

A few years ago I was studying some of the sermons of Charles Spurgeon. I realized through these readings exactly how great our God is and exactly how depraved I am in my sinful state. The Bible also tells us that the flesh is at war agaist the Spirit. Even in our salvation, we experience this daily, and not even the apostle Paul and all his victories was immune from this battle. How then could we independently choose the things of God - the things of the Spirit? It would be impossible! That is why we praise Him and thank Him continuously for His marvelous goodness toward us. We have nothing to bring to the table but our sin. Christ fills in the gap, and He must fill in the gap.

Personally, after having the Holy Spirit educate me about the condition of my being chosen by God, I felt a tremendous relief. The reality was that as long as I was responsible for my eternity, I was also responsible for my present condition, and I had a very shaky sense of assurance of my salvation.

Being chosen means being free!

From I to WE

2005-05-03T21:44:00.000-04:00

1 Peter 2:9-10

9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

This passage tells us so much about who WE are in Christ. I think it is important to realize that these words are encouraging to us individually, but when they were written they were addressed to the "pilgrims of the Dispersion" which referred to the Christian Jews as well as converted Gentiles who had been scattered throughout the Roman Empire due to an increase in government-sanctioned persecution. So, while I "may proclaim the praises of Him who called me out of darkness and into His marvelous light", I need to bear in mind that these words were written to a group of people. Therefore, this could be better interpreted to mean that I "may proclaim the praises of Him who called me out of darkness and into His marvelous light" to the extent that I am part of "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation...the people of God".

But yet another, even better interpretation is that I "may proclaim the praises of Him who called me out of darkness and into His marvelous light" in conjunction with every other believer who aggregately comprise "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people...the people of God". Here, suddenly, I am best understood as WE.

I want to look at each of these characteristics separately this week. I think it is vitally important for us to realize who WE really are, and I think it is virtually impossible for us to experience the magnitude of what God has in store for us without this corporate understanding. Here is where the rubber meets the road in terms of the Christian experience. Here is where we find the motivation to put our lives on the line for our faith. Here is where we find the power to assume the responsibility of being an ambassador for His kingdom. Here is where we find the strength to press on for the sake of His glory.

This is so HUGE that I need to break it down over several days. Please stay with me, as we discover our destiny through His word to us.

Getting Ready

2005-05-01T13:36:00.000-04:00

Wow! Again, Wow!

What a fantastic time of worship we had this morning at church! I really feel like God is waiting to do something BIG in our church and in this part of Northeast Ohio. The impression He gave me this morning was two-fold: 1.) He is OUR God and WE are His people...I cannot be we, and neither can you. We need to stand with each other and be willing to return to Him - He promises that when we do, He will return to us; and 2.) We know who He is, but what we really need, even more than revival throughout our land, is to understand who WE are as His people. We don't worship as WE should because we don't know who WE are.

This week I hope you will join me as we uncover some vital truths that will lead us directly into the throne room of grace.

Praise Him! Praise Him all you little children for He is Love!

Ambassadors for His Kingdom

2005-04-29T21:21:00.000-04:00

My intention in starting this blog was to provide a forum for God's people to exercise their voices individually, in order that collectively, we may be loud enough to burst into the throne room of Heaven and see how He will change our world.

The Bible tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and that Today is the day of the Lord. The God we worship and the Christ we serve and the Spirit that guides us and empowers us in this place is the King of kings and Lord of lords. As we consider our roles as ambassadors from that Kingdom to this earthly place, we must do so in light of who it is that we serve. What would the King of kings have us do today? Is His purpose to actually take over the world? Should we be pursuing such an aim?

The use of the filibuster to prevent judicial nominees from ever receiving an up or down vote in the Senate has generated a huge amount of concern by those of us who believe that the Constitution of the United States was, and continues to be, a binding covenant with the American people and as such, should be strictly adhered to, particularly in the case of the balance of powers in our co-equal branches of government.

The discussion of this conundrum created in the Senate by a minority of liberal representatives seeking to protect the power they imagine themselves to hold has evolved into an emotionally super-charged debacle, with accusations and insults flying all around Washington DC and the rest of the nation. The resolution of this matter is as important to the freedom we enjoy in these great United States as the election that took place in 2004. We are living at a critical time in history, and there will be historical accounts written to chronicle how we handled ourselves during these times. What will the record say?

I believe that the liberal agenda is barely an agenda at all. I believe that we are facing off against people who do not make sense in their rhetoric and have a hard time putting together a logical, cohesive argument for their position, which seems to stem from a lack of substance in the position itself. In the case of the filibusters, the object of the game they are playing with our liberty is to disable the process of the President nominating qualified judges to serve our nation on the bench of the federal courts, and these nominees being subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, followed by a confirmation by a simple majority vote of the full Senate. They have effectively disrupted this process for the last two years. Unfortunately, the long-term outcome of their game is to abdicate our freedoms to a small group of appointed officials, thereby quieting not only the conservative voice they so despise, but ultimately silencing even their own voices. We must continue in this battle for everyone's sake, not simply to advance one agenda over another. Another great link to learn more about this issue is found at which is a division of Focus on the Family.

Going back to the questions posed above...I believe that our King would have us use our voices in the defense of freedom everywhere. In terms of treaty negotiation and international relations, it is our responsibility to continue to emphasize the Christian world-view when it comes to the political arena. The worst case scenario when pursuing a world-view that honors life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all men who are created equal under God would be freedom to live and strive for the accomplishment of our individual goals. The blanket of freedom that our Constitution provides to each citizen individually comes to us through the blood of men who were willing to give their lives for the establishment of "one nation, under God". It is impossible to understand the history of our nation without understanding that fact.

As far as the second question: Is His purpose to actually take over the world? The question itself is in error, because this is His world. Those who would have you believe that Christians just want to force their religious ideals onto everyone, are simply those who do not understand whose world this is. We do not have to win this world for Him...He made it, He sustains it, and He will judge it. The question that should motivate all of His ambassadors is how can we mobilize the resources at our disposal to provide a foundation or a springboard from which we can let people know about the life-changing power and salvation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

The Kingdom of God is advanced one heart at a time, and it is important to remember that even though we have a job to do in this world, our hope is in the home we are returning to one day. Clearly, we would want to take as many with us as will come!

Called to be Ambassadors for Christ

2005-04-27T17:58:00.000-04:00

We are called to be Christ's ambassadors while we are living on this earth. I checked my American Heritage Dictionary today because I wanted to make sure that I had an accurate understanding of the word ambassador. It actually means "a diplomatic official of the highest rank appointed and accredited as representatiive in residence by one government to another." Another definition is "any authorized messenger or representative." The word diplomat means one who is "skilled or working in the art or practice of conducting international relations, as in negotiating alliances, treaties, and agreements." More generally, a diplomat is someone who has tact in dealing with people.

One of my co-workers told me yesterday that she can't tell if I'm more driven toward Christian ideas or political ideas. I told her that I think my calling is more like that of an ambassador and that is why I am so concerned about the things that affect the world in which we live on both the Christian and the political front. Abraham lived his life as a stranger in a strange land. The apostle Paul said that we are Christ's ambassadors. What does that mean?

I suppose it means that we are officials of the highest rank appointed and accredited by Christ himself as representatives in residence by His kingdom to the world in which we live. We are authorized messengers of the Kingdom of God, and we have been charged with the practice of conducting international relations and dealing with people with the same tact that would be representative of the way Christ dealt with people. OK, so what does THAT mean?

To me, this means we could have been appointed to serve as His representatives in Bangladesh or Sri Lanka or North Korea or Chad or Canada or even France, and our jobs would vary according to the place we serve. We are privileged to live in the greatest free nation of the world, and we are His highest ranking officials here. What a fantastic opportunity that is, since as His representatives to the United States, we have built into our residency freedoms which give us the power and the ability to mobilize resources, enact policy, and advance the Kingdom of God here and in the rest of the world!

We could approach this assignment the way many people approach a cushy government job...we can sit back and take a nice ride on somebody else's dollar. This is what I'm afraid many of us have done in the last 50 years. Slowly our lunch breaks have gotten longer and our productivity has decreased. Over time there is really nobody getting anything done because everything is in a committee somewhere being discussed, reviewed and considered. Over time we have forgotten which government we are actually serving, and we have attached ourselves to this world to the detriment of the Kingdom of God.

Or we can take advantage of all the resources that are at our disposal and the freedom we have to express ourselves and His purpose in every creative avenue our minds can conceive, and we can make some tremendous advances for Our True Kingdom here on this earth. We have been placed in a situation where our voices make a difference and our government officials are hired to listen to our voices. Our job is actually to negotiate here for those things that will benefit the Kingdom we are representing. Our charge is to bring the messages of God to this nation and conduct affairs between our homeland and our residence tactfully, but never forgetting that this is not our home.

The messages that come from our King are words of LIFE and LIBERTY and JUSTICE and MERCY. We have been given a voice. We need to share these words. We need to always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in us, and therefore be prepared to lead others to a saving knowledge of Christ. We also need to be prepared to defend the advancement of our Kingdom against those that may not be allies of our King.

Right now, there is a very serious threat to the freedom that the citizens and residents of the United States are facing...there is a very real threat from a minority of Senators who think that keeping our President and the Senate at large from doing their jobs will maintain the power that the liberal voice has gained in this country over the past several decades. These people feel threatened and are willing to go to any lengths to block the process of a life-affirming voice having any place in our government, even if it ultimately means sacrificing their own liberty.

We are obligated to step in and use our voices to ensure life and liberty for everyone in this country, particularly in light of our assignment as ambassadors. Judicial filibustering blocks qualified nominees to our court system from getting the constitutionally required vote from the Senate simply because they are people who have a firmly held religious belief: they would perform their duties, if approved, as Christ's ambassadors to this country.

There is a lot more information on judical filibustering at Focus on the Family, . Please link to their site and make your voice heard on this issue. If we have the job of ambassadors in Christ's Kingdom, then let's do the best job we possibly can do.

Filibuster Busting

2005-04-26T09:31:00.000-04:00

I was thinking again about the question, "Why does any of this matter?" There are two things that really get me excited - religion and politics. The only trouble with this passion is that those are the two subjects that are not in vogue when it comes to daily conversation with family and friends. We can talk about the weather, talk about our children, talk about our jobs, but we cannot talk about the State of the Union or the saving power of our Lord. I think this is another big win for the enemy. As a matter of form, he has made us silent on the two things that really matter most in terms of our freedom, our purpose, and our eternity.

Last week I opened up the floor to encourage you to consider your position on the question of abortion and to use your voice, which in this country is your power, to influence those around you to choose life. This week I am going to take this life-affirming message a little bit further and introduce you to the constitutional crisis that is happening right now and has been on-going since President Bush began his presidency in 2000.

There is a Senate rule that is called "filibustering" which is basically an endless debate used to disrupt the voting process when it comes to legislation that may be vehemently opposed by one party or another. There are liberals in the US Senate who have employed this rule when it comes to voting on the President's nominees to the Federal Courts, in spite of the fact that the Constitution of the United States clearly outlines both the President's and the Senate's responsibilities when it comes to judicial nominations. The President has the responsibility of appointing judges who are qualified and will uphold the Constitution. The Senate then is required to give a simple majority vote, either Yes or No, on each nominee. This maintains the balance of powers between the co-equal branches of government, because each President may select the judges he favors, and he must be checked by the Senate vote.

As the presidency moves from one party to another over time, there will be a balance of philosophy in the Judicial Branch that will allow these judges to exercise their power with prudence. Thomas Jefferson had warned early on in our country's history of the danger of having a one-sided judicial branch of government. He had warned that soon laws would be made in the Judicial Branch, rather than the Legislative Branch, and there would be no checks or balances if the power they hold is misused. There are countless cases where it has become painfully evident that we are now living under judicial tyranny, and unless something is done about this, we will become a fullblown oligarchy, which is the word Mr. Jefferson used to describe government by a few, self-appointed elitists.

I think you would have to agree with me that this ploy of filibustering nominees has prevented our President and our Senators from doing the job we hired them to do. Regardless of your party affiliation or your particular world-view, if this practice is allowed to continue, you are essentially handing your freedom over to these judicial tyrants on a silver platter. Judges don't have any constituents. Maybe today you agree with the more liberal-minded decisions that have come out of our courts. What will you do tomorrow when you disagree and find it is too late to regain the power you surrendered?

This is going to be an interesting week as I take the next four days to pull this all together for you. If you are already convinced that this is just another of Caleb's Giants, please do not wait another day to call your Senators and tell them you want them to pursue the Constitutional Option for voting "Yes" or "No" on the President's judicial nominees.

If you would like to find out more about the impact these filibustering tactics are having on our Constitution, visit the American Center for Law and Justice at http://www.aclj.org

Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow

2005-04-24T21:38:00.000-04:00

Today I had the amazing privilege to join with other believers and worship our King, give a personal testimony before my congregation about the Akron Pregnancy Services ministry, and hear an awesomely powerful, God-inspired message from our pastor regarding being true worshippers!

I hope your day was as blessed as mine!

A Word of Truth: Psalm 139 (NKJV)

2005-04-22T17:05:00.000-04:00

O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
3 You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.
5 You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me,"
Even the night shall be light about me;
12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

13 For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother's womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they were all written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

17 How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.

19 Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
20 For they speak against You wickedly;
Your enemies take Your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

What more do I need to say when He has already spoken so eloquently?

Have a remarkable day in the Lord!

Can you say, "BABY"?

2005-04-21T23:55:00.000-04:00

All right. We have spent this week thinking about one of the giants our nation is facing. We have named it abortion on demand, and we have taken a look at our role in creating this monster. Still, I can hear many people, if they bother to speak at all, saying "What business is it of mine? Why shouldn't people be allowed to make their own choices? I wouldn't want someone telling me what to do, especially the government."

So what, then? Why does it matter? It matters because truth matters. It matters because it's not a level playing field. It matters because there are people making billions of dollars at the expense of our daughters and sisters and mothers and wives by giving them a "choice" at a time in their lives when they are more scared, more vulnerable, more emotional, and more confused than they have ever been before.

Don't be confused by the rhetoric of liars. The Enemy is the father of lies and all forms of deception flow from him. In a brilliant marketing ploy, the abortion industry realized there is a lot of money to be made by teaching young women that it is OK to use their bodies as someone's sexual object. I can just see them scheming in a board room somewhere: As young women buy into this idea they will spend money buying birth control products from us, and if they do become sick or pregnant, we can then provide the STD treatment or the abortion.

My brother told me once to never take advice from my opponent. In order to keep people's brothers quiet, the abortion industry added the notion of privacy to the notion of choice.

There is no money to made when women realize that they are daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers. There is no money to be made in a world where women are allowed to develop enough respect for themselves as the beautiful people God created them to be. There is no money to be made in a world where women stand up and refuse to be exploited by anyone, especially men who only see them as objects or by an industry that cannot even call a baby what it is - a baby.

This is not a choice. Abortion on demand is not a private matter. No one would have to tell anyone what to do if people are told the truth. When people have an honest shot at gathering the information they need, people will make the right decisions. There is no mother anywhere that would stand in a circle of even 1-day old babies and start shooting them: "OK baby your time is up!" That is ridiculous. That is insane, but that same baby 16 weeks ago would have been a legitimate target.

I found a very informative web-site that has all the info you could possibly want on how real people are using their voices to Shout to God and allow Him to give them life-affirming words to Shout in their communities and back to Him. They are called the American Life League, http://www.all.org , and they have a lot to say on this topic. One of their projects is called STOPP and it has to do with a systematic way to stop the influence of the Planned Parenthood organization on our children and young adults. They can be found at the above link, but you can go directly to a description of the STOPP strategy by clicking http://www.all.org/hp5.htmg .

Sacrifice vs. Sovereignty

2005-04-20T12:00:00.000-04:00

Today I want to tell you about the Akron Pregnancy Services. This is the non-profit organization for which we as a family are working to gather donations, sponsors and walkers to participate in the Walk for Life that they are holding on May 14th. If you would like to know more about their ministry, you can go to http://www.akronpregnancyservices.org and check out their website. These are people who truly have a heart for women and share the love of Jesus with them and their families.

I also want to tell you something I thought about the other night. In the days of ancient Israel, the Israelites were instructed to utterly destroy everyone and everything that was in the cities as they moved into the Promised Land. Why were they told to take such extreme measures? The reason was that the people in the land were offering their children to the god Malech. This was a terrible afront to the Lord our God.

My pastor recently told me how they would make these sacrifices. Apparently there was a golden statue of a god with his arms extended in front of him and his belly was hollow. There they would build a fire and the parents would place the baby in the god's arms and it would roll down into the fire. I don't know what they thought this would accomplish, but it struck me that they were at least offering the babies as a sacrifice, misguided as it may have been.

Today we are slaughtering children by the hundreds and thousands everyday simply because an unplanned pregnancy is considered to be an inconvenience.

Today women are told repeatedly until they are brainwashed into believing that they have absolute sovereignty over their personal reproductive systems. They are allowed to have sex with anyone they choose. They are allowed to subject themselves to all sorts of lewdness. Then, in the event that they become pregnant, they are allowed to kill the child growing inside of them, just because they want to and can afford to have the procedure done. After all, they reason, it's my body and I can do with it what I want.

Oh, that they would realize that their bodies are not their own - that they have been bought with a price!

The Apostle Paul said that sexual immorality is a sin that requires people to run away as fast as they can if they have any hope of escaping its snare. He said that all other sins take place outside of the body, but sexual sin takes place within the body. How much more is this true when a murder occurs inside the body of a woman who has exercised her sovereign rights over her body.

Let's make sure that women hear the truth about reproductive sovereignty. Sexual purity demands the highest level of sovereignty over this very personal area of a woman's life. Shouting "NO!" in the face of sexual temptation because you have a higher expectation for yourself, as a woman, as someone's future wife, and maybe even as someone's mother someday, is a right and a freedom and a power that you and only you can exercise.

Today, use your voice. Find out when and where and who is hosting the Walk for Life in your community and make a difference by volunteering your time or resources to support those who are giving a voice to those innocentones who otherwise may never be heard.

If the Truth Be Told

2005-04-20T02:55:00.000-04:00

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When it comes to abortion on demand it is hard not to see the church with the blood of millions of babies on its hands. How are we going to explain this? What are we going to tell our daughters when they finally come to terms with the great lies we have bought into over the last 30 years?

It is time for the church to repent and tell our children that we have been very very wrong to allow this to happen in our society. In an age of enlightenment how is it possible that an entire segment of our population has been singled out as disposable? Even more, how is it possible that the designation disposable comes merely in accordance with the whims of those who by nature have within their power the ability to cherish or destroy these innocent, defenseless lives.

Why have we sat so quietly as those who have nothing but greed, deception and death in their hearts have systematically imposed a mind-set on our nation that allows such an abomination to take place?

Do we even know the lies that are being told to countless women every day in this country?

While it is true that we cannot hold the world to the same standard of righteousness that God expects from His people, the fact is that in many ways we don't know what truth these women need to hear, and we don't know when to tell them.

Here's one starting place:

There is a battle taking place for your soul. There is an enemy, his name is Satan, and he will do whatever it takes to prevent you from discovering the truth about the world you live in. He is a liar, a thief, and a murderer.

There is a Savior, and He has already gone the distance and laid down His life for the sake of your eternity. He is the Creator of the Universe. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and He is waiting to welcome all who will receive Him as His own.

Even without knowing Jesus and claiming the salvation that only He can offer, as the Giver of Life, he has built into our very being certain truths about life and death, and right and wrong. When the laws of nature are violated in such a violent and obscene way as a woman having an abortion, it is impossible for that woman not to suffer consequences physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

The truth is that women have to go to great lengths to protect and sustain themselves after they have participated in an abortion.

First, there is the matter of physical healing. Because this procedure is not as simple as having your tonsils taken out when you have a persistent recurring sore throat, it takes time for your body to recover, and often there are complications. The truth is that this recovery process actually serves as a constant, painful reminder that the life that was within you is no longer there.

Second, there is the matter of conscience and a woman's mental health. Women are designed by our Creator to be the vehicle through which new life is born into our dying world. It's easy for someone to say you have the right to choose what you want to do with this pregnancy, but those people are nowhere to be found when the question "What do I do now?" is raised. The truth is that a woman is forced to do a lot of mental gymnastics to justify the choice that she was told she had every right to make. It's either figure out a way to minimize or deny what has happened, or lose your mind in the midst of the insanity of what has happened.

Third is the emotional element. Women are ordained by God to bear children inside their own bodies in order that they might bond with them and develop a connection that is designed to protect, sustain, and nurture them as they grow strong enough to survive outside the womb. This connection is strong enough to create a life-long relationship between two individuals. The truth is that taking the life of their unborn child violates everything that they were created to be as women. There are going to be tremendous feelings of loss. Women, because of their very nature as emotional beings, ultimately shut themselves down in such a way as to not allow themselves to feel any emotions, just in case the pain of this violation should escape and completely overwhelm them.

Finally, there is the spiritual element. Guilt and shame are Satan favorite tools to keep people from finding the forgiveness of our Lord Jesus Christ. As a woman begins to believe that no one could love a mother who would willing execute her child, she is drawn further away from the Savior that she so desperately needs. The truth is that there is no relief from this type of hopelessness outside of Jesus, but they never mention this at the abortion clinic.

That's a starting point. When we tell the truth the lies cannot stand. May God have mercy on all of us.

Spiritual Laryngitis

2005-04-18T09:34:00.000-04:00

I will be the first to admit that I don't always know how things come about and I don't have an explanation for everything that happens, but I am going to tell you what I think.

I think that the church has been suffering from spiritual laryngitis for the last 5 decades. Somehow people stopped talking about truth, became lacsidaisical about righteousness, and as a result, became subject to those that were willing to make enough noise to enact public policy regardless of the validity of their fight. As the saying goes, those who stand for nothing will fall for anything. We are now living in the fallout.

For whatever reason, our predecessors in the faith have left a legacy of silence that has buried the cause of Christ and the truth of the gospel so far underground that we who are willing to face the giants now have the humiliating burden of defending our faith, our values, our principles, our children's futures, and our nation against the ridiculous claims of the God-hating, self-proclaimed elite.

The passion that our God has ignited in me is this: I want to hear the church so loudly that His people simply drown out the on and on and on dronings of these people. When truth is boldly proclaimed, and light enters darkness, lies quickly evaporate.

The Lord told the people of Israel to SHOUT, and when they obeyed the walls of Jericho fell down. We are not attempting to take something that belongs to someone else. President George Washington proclaimed in his Inaugural Address : "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency." Have we really become so willing to give up on the freedoms that God has so freely given us? I don't believe that we are. Now is the time for God's people to SHOUT and let the walls fall down.

This week I am going to talk about the Walk for Life that my family is supporting with our time and our money. We are going to join with as many as are willing from among the body of Christ to make some noise and proclaim that Life matters to God and Life matters to His people. The people at the Akron Pregnancy Services provide love and care to women who are very vulnerable to the lies of those who would say that women need to have total reproductive sovereignty in the name of women's rights. In actuality this lie is perpetrated by people who disdain women and seek to destroy their position in society as the givers of life, love, and on-going nurturing and support.

I love the Walk for Life because it is not a protest. We are not walking against anything. We are walking, talking and shouting for Life. This is an opportunity to openly praise God for all he has given us - our mothers and our children - our Lives!

Come, Worship the King!

2005-04-17T16:15:00.000-04:00

Good Morning!

I just want to say that I hope you had an opportunity to join your voice with others as the body of Christ gathered together this morning to lift our voices to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, with songs of worship, shouts of praise, and offerings of thanksgiving!

Have a glorious day celebrating the magnificence of our King!

Shout!

2005-04-15T23:03:00.000-04:00

I have been praying for an avenue in which to express my strong opinions about the direction some people in our country wish to lead us. There is a way that seems right to a man, but that way leads to destruction. I believe it is time for the voice of truth to be heard...First, Loud, and Bold.

I am tired of Christian people answering outrageous claims or defending their rights...I want to be First!

I am dumbfounded by the fact that we have been called to worship the Creator God of the Universe, and people have to really listen to hear any of us...I want to be Loud!

I believe that as the Bride of Christ, the church has a dominion mandate, as my husband always says. We have the answers to problems that people don't even know they have...I want to be Bold!

So, I thought I'd try blogging, although I admit that I know nothing about it...I just heard the word for the first time on Wednesday night, but here goes!