TRUTH or CONSEQUENCES

To suffer...to experience pain, illness, or injury; : to experience something unpleasant (such as defeat, loss, or damage) : to become worse because of being badly affected by something This is not a word that any of us would like to be a regular part of our vocabulary!  As a Christian, I want to walk in the VICTORY of the cross and be enabled to overcome everything, in every way.  I don't want to accept pain, illness or injury, because I know the word says... "BY HIS STRIPES I AM HEALED."  I totally believe that Jesus healed ALL who came to Him.  I believe that God is a good, good Father and He cares totally about my well being.  He does not put sickness on me or cause me to be injured because He loves me! God is good!  The devil is bad! So when I experience something unpleasant it is from my own choices or the enemy trying to discourage or defeat me.  The scripture does say that he prowls around like a roa...

I read this question this morning in a book I am reading, "What can I accomplish on His behalf now that I have permission to live as though I'd never sinned?"  What a great thing our Father has gifted us with!  He now looks at me, and treats me, as if I've never sinned.  A clean slate!  Does that mean that I now can live anyway I want and keep on sinning?  Absolutely not!  What it should say to me is I have received the greatest gift in the world and I need to treat it as the most precious thing in the world.  When you love someone, you treat them with love and respect, offering them your best foot forward.  So how much more should I want to please Father God, who has given so much for me. If I continue to deliberately live in sin, keep embracing it and do what I want to do, I need to question if I really stepped into a life changing encounter with God?  My relationship with Him should move me to become like Him, look like Him, ...

Have you heard the song "How He Loves"?  I love the imagery painted in the first verse... "He is jealous for me;  Love's like a hurricane, and I am a tree ;  Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy;  When all of a sudden,  I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory;  And I realize just how beautiful you are and how great your affections are for me.   And oh  How He loves us oh Oh how He loves us  how He loves us oh. I have been through a few hurricanes now, living in Florida. There is tremendous wind that touches everything in its path.  It is swirling and twirling so it gets into every crevice.  This song describes God's love for us as a hurricane, touching every place in my soul, heart, mind and spirit.  That His love completely touches every part of my life.  I love the verse in 1 John 4:16..." And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love. Whoever liv...

Guess what day today is? It is my 42nd Birthday!  My born again Birthday.  It was March 8, 1974 at 3AM that I finally bent my knees and asked Jesus to begin a relationship with me.  I was a freshman in college, University of Maine at Presque Isle, and only 19 years old.  I lived in Emerson Hall on the third floor.  At the top of the stairs there were at least 4 rooms that were occupied by "Jesus freaks" (as we called them).  They were all upper classmen.  A lot of us freshmen were on this floor and they had strategically asked for those rooms to have influence in our lives!  Freshmen tend to sow their wild oats, away from parental controls, flapping their new found wings of freedom.  After the first semester three quarters of my class were failing their courses, as they were more interested in partying then studying.  I was sowing my oats too, but school had always been easy for me, so my grades were good.  But I too had settled ...

I have been questioning my walk with God lately...in a good way.  I know that I am devoted to God and have disciplined my self to do what I should do each and every day.  Devoted means that I am loyal to Him, faithful to follow His ways, committed to be a Christian with no turning back and constant in reading His word.  I have disciplines in my life, to spend the first hour, or more,  of each day reading His word, some worship, some prayer.  I know HOW to be a Christian and am walking forward to be conformed into His image. And yet, something is still lacking.  Even in my devotion and disciplines I can get into a rut.  Doing the right things, but no passion.  Passion is defined as having strong and barely controllable emotions; feelings of unusual excitement and enthusiasm.  I have moments during a worship service, at times, where I have a somewhat passionate encounter.  But I am seeing, that daily passion to follow Jesus, is...

I was reading in the Old Testament this morning, in Zephaniah, and this verse jumped out at me (1:6) ... " And I will destroy those who used to worship me but now no longer do.  They no longer ask for the  LORD’s guidance or seek my blessings.”  I immediately wrote in my journal...Lord remind me to ask for your guidance every day and seek your blessings!  I want to be one who always gives my worship to my God.  And I understand that part of my worship is being dependent on my Father in Heaven.  That He wants me to ASK of Him...he wants me to seek His blessings in my life. Jesus reminded us of this in the New Testament too.  In Matthew 7: 7-11 he told his followers... “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. “You parents—if your c...

Here is thought for you...God is always speaking, how much of what He says do I hear? I remember when I was on the mission field and organizing a nation wide outreach.  I was traveling around the nation, with my translator Agnes, visiting pastors to see if they would host a group from abroad.  One young Pastor named Pavel, listened to my request and then said he needed to go upstairs and talk with God.  About 10 minutes later he came back and said God had said yes they were to participate.  Agnes and I joked that Pavel must have had a direct phone line to God upstairs to hear and respond so quickly. In actuality, all of us have a direct phone line!  We have His ear anytime we want to talk to Him.  He is looking throughout the earth for anyone who is seeking Him.  He always wants to spend time with us, the question is how much of my time and my heart lean toward wanting to be with Him and listen to Him? My prayer this week has been... "Help me Lor...