Walk Boldly With Jesus

Be Imitators of GodEphesians 5:1-2 "Be imitators of God in everything you do, for then you will represent your father as his beloved sons and daughters. And continue to walk surrendered to the extravagant love of Christ, for he surrendered his life as a sacrifice for us. His great love for us was pleasing to God like an aroma of adoration – a sweet, healing fragrance.”I was looking back over Ephesians this morning. I reviewed Chapters 5 & 6 and decided I couldn’t move on yet as there are several things I want to talk about. I may have talked about them before; I am unsure, but even if I did, they are worth repeating. Every time in the past, I have repeated a scripture because the Holy Spirit revealed something new about it, so hopefully, these next few days will be the same.I love today’s verse because it reminds us to be imitators of God in all that we do. It reminds us that because everyone knows that we are Christians, then they will be watching what we do to see how “Christians” act. We essentially represent Christians to those we know—especially those who are not Christians. Our actions matter, and so do our attitudes and words. I had a friend who stayed away from attending church for a long time because she didn’t like how those at her church acted. She said on Sunday, they would come to the service and praise the Lord, then sit around and talk about the latest gossip. This did not give her a good picture of what we should do as Christians.She is not alone, and neither are the people sitting around gossiping. We all fall short of the call to live a holy life. That doesn’t mean we can stop trying, though. This verse is a good reminder of our call. We should be trying to imitate God in all we do. What is the best way to imitate God? What is the simplest way to imitate God? To love our neighbors as we love Him. I think we can all agree that we love God. Now, we just have to figure out how to love those around us and those we meet, and we will be all set.Loving our neighbor is not easy. People are difficult. They aren’t always nice, and they are sometimes downright mean for no reason. Jesus encountered these people, too. He had people that hated Him for no good reason. They hated Him for who He was and what He stood for. It wasn’t anything He did; they didn’t like who He was. We can’t change who we are, and God wouldn’t want us to. You will encounter people who don’t like you simply because of who you are, which is ok. You don’t have to try to be friends with this person, yet we are called to love them. Can you show love in your interactions with them?When I wrote that, I got this overwhelming feeling in my stomach that we all need to hear that today. There may be people that we don’t like. There may be people who drive us crazy, like we talked about the other day—those who get under our skin like no other. I really feel like the Lord is calling us to love them more today.I feel like He is asking us how we could interact with them more lovingly. He is asking us to stop venting about them to others. Stop complaining about them. Stop focusing on how much they annoy us or make our lives harder. I feel as though the Lord is calling us to bring that to Him instead of to others. He is asking us to think about how we can love them more. How can we be an imitation of Christ to them? Think about this, you may be the only interaction with Christ they ever have.I was praying with someone the other day, and she asked what prayer requests I had. I told her I prayed that my boys would each have an intimate encounter with Jesus. She said she used to pray this for her children, too, and the Holy Spirit told her one day that she was that encounter with Jesus for her kids. They are encountering Jesus through her. I thought this was a beautiful reminder to pay attention to our actions as they may be the only encounter those we meet have with Jesus. Are we being good representations of Jesus? How could we work on this so we can do better? How can we spread love to all we meet and interact with?The verse says, “And continue to walk surrendered to the extravagant love of Christ, for he surrendered his life as a sacrifice for us. His great love for us was pleasing to God like an aroma of adoration – a sweet, healing fragrance.” This is great because it reminds us of how much Jesus loved us. He loved us so much that He gave his life for us. God is not asking us to give our lives to those we meet. He is not asking for that kind of sacrifice, but he is asking for sacrificial love. A love that cost us something. Maybe that something is getting over what we want to be there for someone else. Maybe that means we need to forgive someone for something. Maybe that means we need to stop getting so defensive when those who irritate us talk to us. Maybe we need to stop taking offense so easily. I think God was talking to me for those last two. I have been defensive and taking offense a lot lately, and that is not what God wants. What about

Humility & Quiet PatienceEphesians 4:2 “With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience.”This is a profound reminder of the challenging path we are called to walk. We are summoned to be gentle and generous towards others, a task that is far from easy. People can be difficult, and they can test our patience. St. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, was well aware of this. Hence, he emphasized, “Especially those who may try your patience.” St. Paul's intention was to underscore that our love should not be limited to those who are easy to love or reciprocate. We are called to love everyone and treat everyone with gentleness, a challenge that requires our utmost dedication.If we take a minute to think about those who try our patience, I am sure we will all have several people who come to mind. Now, let’s take a minute to think about how we interact with those who try our patience. When we are annoyed, we tend to be short with people. It is not easy to demonstrate gentleness when we feel people are annoying us. I think the key to being gentle and loving with people who try our patience is what it mentions in the beginning of this verse.We need tender humility and quiet patience if we want to demonstrate love and gentleness to one another. Why humility? Humility allows us to get past ourselves, think of others more, and avoid offending too easily. Humility is not easy. It is something that we need to pursue actively. What does humility even mean? When you look in the dictionary, humility means a modest or low view of one's own importance. However, I like what Rick Warren said about humility. “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.” I think we need to be careful when we read the dictionary definition is we may read it and think that humility means we are supposed to have a low view of ourselves. I don’t think God would want us to have a low view of ourselves especially since we are made in His likeness and image. But what the definition is actually saying is that we have a modest or low view of our importance.This is why I resonate with Rick Warren's perspective on humility. It's not about thinking less of yourself but about thinking of yourself less. This challenges the misconception that humility means having a low opinion of oneself. Instead, it suggests that true humility is about shifting our focus away from ourselves and toward others. It conveys that genuine humility involves selflessness, empathy, and an orientation towards serving and caring for others. It inspires us to transcend self-centeredness and egocentric thinking and cultivate a mindset of humility that prioritizes the well-being of others. It's a powerful transformation that can reshape our hearts and lives.C. S. Lewis also talks about humility. According to Lewis, the first step in pursuing humility is recognizing and admitting how proud and conceited you are. A solid second step would be to confess this to God and ask God for help. The third would be to cultivate the practice of praying for other people. Don’t pray for others like you’re reading over a laundry list to God, but offer deep, imaginative, caring, and concerned prayers like you are holding someone else’s life, their existence, their well-being in your hand and holding that person up to God. Pray for others like you pray for yourself or your children and see what God does in your heart.That last line is powerful. “See what God does in your heart.” I think we would all be amazed at what God will do in our hearts when we start trying to be more humble, when we try to put the needs of others before our comfort. I am not saying to never think about your needs but often we put the needs of others behind our wants and desires. For instance, someone asks us if we can help them with something important on Thursday night, but that is when our team plays an important game. They need us, and we don’t need to see the game; we could watch the replay, but we want to see it.We often talk about the importance of self-care, and rightly so. If we don’t take care of ourselves, we can’t take care of others. However, we can’t be solely focused on ourselves and ignore the needs of others either. I believe God created us to look out for one another. He wants us to care for the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, and so on because He tells us so in the scriptures. When we shift our focus away from ourselves and towards those in need, we can grow in humility.The verse says, “With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience.” If you are struggling with this, as I think we all are, it's okay. God doesn’t expect us to be perfect or to get it all right. However, now that we know what we are called to do, we also can’t keep going on like we were without changing an

The Supernatural Fruit of His Light: Goodness, Righteousness, and TruthEphesians 5:8-10 “Once your life was full of sin’s darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because of your union with him. Your mission is to live as children flooded with his revelation-light! And the supernatural fruits of his light will be seen in you-goodness, righteousness, and truth. Then you will learn to choose what is beautiful to our Lord.”Have I told you recently how much I enjoy reading through Ephesians, especially in the passion translation? Everyday I find myself underlining almost the whole section. Yes, I am aware that if I underline all of it, then there is not much point to it because nothing will stand out. Yet, I can’t help myself. There is so much wisdom in this book. I am sure they are all probably like that. I am pretty sure I said the same thing while reading Philippians.There were many things that stood out to me today while reading Chapter 5. It was hard to choose one thing to talk about today, so I may stay in Chapter 5 for tomorrow’s episode to. We will see. I chose this verse for today for a few reasons. First, I love how it begins. “Once your life was full of sin’s darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because of your union with him.” This is a great reminder that we are not who we were.Yes, we might have sinned in the past and been filled with the darkness of sin, but that is in the past now. That is no longer who we are. The verse says that because of our union with the Lord, we have His very light shining through us. How amazing is that? God’s light shines through you. His light shines through me, too—not because we are special but because we chose to be in union with him.Sometimes, we can get caught up in our past and be tempted to live there. We can take on our sins and that darkness as our identity. We can forget that God has already set us free from that darkness. No matter how bad we think our past is, not matter how bad of a person we think we are, God is bigger than all of it. If you have accepted God, if you have repented for yours sins, then God has already forgotten about them, so why do we hold onto them? I know it is hard to believe that God can forget our sins, but it says so right in the Bible. Actually it says it more thank once in the Bible. Isaiah 43:25 says, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” And Hebrews 8:12 says, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”Scripture is truth. You can hang your hat, as some would say, on anything you find in scripture. You can stand firm on scripture. When scripture says that God does not remember our sins, then you can believe it. I know you don’t think you are worthy, none of us do. However, that is what the cross is for. By holding onto our sins, we are basically telling Jesus that we don’t believe His sacrifice was big enough to cover our sins. Is this how we feel? Do we feel Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross was enough? Was it enough to cover all of our sins? What it enough to cover other’s sins, but just not yours? What will it take for us to believe we are forgiven and that God has already forgotten all that stuff we are carrying around with us?The next line says, “Your mission is to live as children flooded with his revelation-light!” I love the idea of living as children. Children are so carefree and full of energy, and they are also full of God's light. Kids tend to shine so much brighter than adults do. I know some kids have had a pretty hard life, and you might not see the light shining as brightly in them because this world has tried to snuff that light out. However, kids can hope and believe in a way that is different than adults. They can believe with an innocence that is hard for us a adults.Children can believe with wonder and awe. They can look at the world and see all the good things, they can see the beauty, the can see the potential. As adults, our view of the world is filtered through the lens of all of our experiences over the years. I think in this verse, God is calling us to come back to Him as little Children. I think he calls us to live in His light and let his light shine into all the dark parts of our lives. The verse tells us that our mission is to be flooded with this light, His light.The final line in this scripture says, “And the supernatural fruits of his light will be seen in you-goodness, righteousness, and truth. Then you will learn to choose what is beautiful to our Lord.”God is not just telling us to live as children but He is explaining what will happen if we obey. If we live like children and allow ourselves to be filled with the light, then the fruit of that light will be seen in us. The supernatural fruit of God’s light is goodness, righteousness, and truth. Who couldn’t use more of those in our lives? Do you long to see goodness, righte

Witness Wednesday #122 More PopWe Stories (Anxiety/Depression)Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose three testimonies from the Anxiety/Depression Category. I know so many people who are struggling with anxiety and depression right now. Suicide seems like it is increasing as well. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your anxiety and depression, He can help.Jenna: I grew up in a Christian family. We went to church every Sunday and Wednesday and were a part of almost everything; Awana, Elevate teen group, and even school there. Two and a half years ago, I lost someone who I was close to because she felt the need to commit suicide. I was heartbroken and I felt like I lost everything. 2022 was a challenging year for me. I had daily panic attacks and felt like I was worthless. My eating habits went down significantly, and I was stressed all the time. As exams neared, I was super stressed and ended up passing out.Months passed and I still felt worthless. I planned to commit suicide when I got a text from a friend, and it was like a text from God. She said she heard I was going to camp and hoped to see me there. I thought if I waited til after camp, and then committed suicide it would be okay. So I went to camp and it changed my life. I met so many new people and was able to share my hurt with my church and they told me that I was not alone. Camp was my blue couch moment as I sat there in service Thursday night, I realized that I needed God in my life more than ever. I had already been saved, but I realized I hadn’t been living like Christ wanted me to.Around late February early March, my friend introduced me to someone…we immediately hit it off and became great friends. A month or two later, it was revealed that he liked me. We started dating in June and have been together ever since. I tell you that little story because sometimes when you need it most, God has someone in mind who will help you grow in faith and support you through it all. They can also help you overcome the hardships in your life.I still deal with anxiety and eating habits, but they have gotten so much better since camp and I am so thankful for all that my church has done for me. Also, I have my three closest friends with me right by my side and the Lord has blessed me with an amazing boyfriend who I love and who has helped me through a lot.GOD’S NOT DONE WITH YOU OR YOUR STORY! HE STILL CARES A LOT AND WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU. YOU HAVE A PURPOSE – TURN TO GOD TO FIND THAT PURPOSE AND YOU WILL BE FOUND.Brianna: From the age of 10, I was stuck with the label “child prodigy,” winning piano competitions, featured in local newspapers, and recognized as a passionate, fiery recitalist. Yet, even as a youth, I was severely depressed. I was insecure, seeking affection, and perpetually in pursuit of attaining “good enough.” Right before my 16th birthday, my world suddenly turned upside down. In an unexpected turn of events, I faced a close encounter with death, had my innocence taken, and watched helplessly as my mother’s health began to rapidly fail. Too ashamed to ask for help and blaming myself for the situation, I despairingly turned to self-harm, eating disorders, and eventually, planned my own suicide. One day, I heard the song ‘Broken Pieces’, and I found something onto which I could cling to – Truth, even when I could not feel it and it failed to make sense.Through involvement with an organization called Csehy Summer School of Music, I came to personally know Christ. For the first time in my life, I experienced peace, hope, and true joy. Dedicating my life to God, I went back home with a different perspective. My life was still intense – balancing high school and conservatory studies, living between home and the hospital, while being a full-time caretaker for my undiagnosed mother. By the grace of God, I managed to graduate as Salutatorian and get accepted into music school. However, shortly before college began, my mother passed away.I started my B.A. in piano at Charleston Southern University, using every spare moment to pour my heart out into the keys as a wordless prayer. Yet, a lingering pain in my right hand soon became constant. A few months after my mother’s funeral, I was diagnosed with severe damage in my right hand, incited by the physical strain

Let’s Build Each Other Up Instead!Ephesians 4:29 “And never let ugly or hateful words come from your mouth, but instead let your words become beautiful gifts that encourage; do this by speaking words of grace to help them.”I love this version of this verse because so much of what I hear coming from people’s mouths these days is ugly or hateful. The NRSVCE says, “Let no evil talk come out of your mouth.” That is pretty accurate, too. Why is there so much hate in the world right now? I am sure there always was hate. All you need to do is look back at all the awful things that happened over the years, and you will see that hate. However, right now, I feel like there is so much more.It seems as though it is ok to say whatever is on our minds, even if it is ugly or hateful. I think most people had a filter once upon a time. They may have thought ugly or hateful thoughts, but they didn’t share them with everyone. They didn’t just blurt them out. However, now I feel as though people feel they can say whatever they want and do whatever they like. I don’t know what has changed, but it is still not ok to treat people badly just because you don’t agree with them.I am not a fan of politics. I don’t like the division it causes, and I don’t like how it tends to bring out the worst in people. The last two elections especially. I am glad that people really like the candidate they are voting for, and yet that doesn’t give the license to say ugly or hateful things about the other candidate. I have seen some of the worst signs, shirts, and hats about some of the candidates. I wonder if people even care about the example they are setting. There is a house that I used to pass by a lot when I was running more. They have two signed up. I can’t remember them both but I do remember they are both very unkind. One of them says F*** Biden.I get it; you don’t like Biden. You are entitled to your opinion. You may not like him as a person, or you may not like what he is doing in his presidency, and that is your right. You can like or not like whoever you want. However, when you post a sign like that out in your yard for all to see that is just wrong. You might think you are just expressing your opinion, but you are also being a terrible example to all who pass by and see your signs. You are showing others that it is ok to say whatever we want, even if it is ugly or hateful. You are showing everyone that we don’t have to have self-control over our emotions. It’s ok to say whatever we think.President Biden, Former President Trump, Kamila Harris, and J. D. Vance are all just people like you and me. Yes, they chose politics and that means they are in the limelight. That doesn’t mean that it is open season for us to say or do whatever we want. They deserve respect whether we like them or not. With social media the way it is today, one little mess up can be turned into a meme for all to see. One misstep, and you are mocked endlessly. I think we tend to forget that politicians are real people with real feelings. When dealing with all people, politicians or not, the words in this verse are great words to live by. “And never let ugly or hateful words come from your mouth, but instead let your words become beautiful gifts that encourage; do this by speaking words of grace to help them.”Let’s discuss the second half of this verse. Instead of saying ugly or hateful words about others, what if we let our speech be filled with words that bless others? Let our words be gifts that encourage others, not tear them down. I saw a beautiful post on facebook yesterday. My friend had reposted something from the page Shower Arguments with Emily Solberg. Let me read it to you now.Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles literally bowed down to Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade on the podium as she claimed first place in the gymnastics floor final.Apparently Simone said that Jordan asked Simone, "Should we bow to her?" And Simone replied, “Absolutely." “It was just the right thing to do.”Can you just imagine?Can you just imagine if women ALWAYS cheered for each other so enthusiastically, so boldly, so unapologetically, so joyfully, so selflessly? Can you just imagine if women didn’t feel threatened by each other’s successes and used them instead as motivation?Can you just imagine if women supported other women, simply because “it was just the right thing to do?”This. Is. Everything. And this is why I love the Olympics—because we don’t look to them just as an example of what we could be as athletes, we look to them as an example of what we could be as humans.Isn’t this a great post? I thought it went perfectly with today’s verse. I think we can apply it to all people, not just women. Can you imagine what the world would be like if we didn’t have jealousy? Can you imagine what the world would be like if we had healthy competition where everyone was respected? Imagine how different politics would be if we did what it said in this verse and did not let evil come out of our mout

15 Promises to those who say the rosary.Today’s episode is a bit different. Today there is not a scripture verse. Instead I am going to explain about what the rosary is and then list the 15 promises given to those who pray it regularly. There is a lot that is going on in the world right now. In our country and all around the world. Our country is pretty divided. We are kicking God out of this country one decision at a time. During this truly difficult time, I look to strengthen my faith and lean into God’s grace, strength, and protection. Who couldn’t use a little more grace and strength right now?I have found a number of structured prayers that have really helped strengthen my faith. The first of these is the rosary. When I moved to New Jersey, one of the wives in Tony’s squadron had started a home rosary group. I did not know what that even meant, but I had just moved to a new place and I did not anyone. I thought it would be nice to get out of the house and meet some new people. I also knew I needed something more, as I had a new born baby and was just learning how to be a mom. A home rosary group is a group of people that gather at someone’s home and say the rosary together. One person leads either the whole rosary, or you can switch leaders each decade, whichever you prefer. Whoever is leading the rosary says the first half of the prayer and then everyone else says the second half of the prayer. It was so nice to be gathered with a group of women that all wanted to say the rosary each week. The rosary is a group of prayers that you say, usually using a set of rosary beads. I knew there were many benefits to saying the rosary. I have read them before. There was a time, probably after I first read these promises, that I was saying it every day. However, the enemy has a way of putting things in the way so that you are suddenly “too busy” to say the rosary, or he convinces you that if you can’t do it perfect, then you shouldn’t bother. Remember that the enemy is a master at half truths and lies. He does not want us saying the rosary because he knows how powerful it can be. As soon as you begin to say the rosary faithfully you will notice that things will begin to come up during the time you set aside for rosary, or you will find yourself forgetting about the commitment. I decided to talk with you about the Rosary today because I came upon the promises that Mary gave to us and I remembered why I was saying the rosary every day. I know the rosary is a longer prayer than most of us might be use to, but it is only 20-30 minutes out of your day. If you get a full 8 hours of sleep at night, that means you are still awake for 16 hours. That is 960 minutes in your day. The rosary takes 20-30 of them.The Blessed Virgin Mary promised to Saint Dominic and to all who follow that “Whatever you ask in the Rosary will be granted.” She left for all Christians Fifteen Promises to those who recite the Holy Rosary. They were imparted to Saint Dominic and Blessed Alan.1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces.2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4. The Rosary will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means. 5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish. 6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church. 8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenititude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise. 9. I shall deliver from Purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven. 11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities. 13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14. All who recite the Rosary are my sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters of my only Son Jesus Christ. 15. Devotion of my Rosary

God Will Exceed Your Wildest Imagination!Ephesians 3:20 “Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.”Wow, I think this is something we should all put on a sticky note and put it on our bathroom mirror. Actually, put it on several sticky notes and place them all around your house. It is such good advice. “Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this.” This is something we do often, or at least I do often. I doubt God can work in me. I don’t doubt it because I doubt God’s mighty power. I doubt it because I know I am broken. I know I sin. I know I am not worthy. I know I am not enough, and all the other things we tell ourselves when we hear that God wants to use us.What just came to me is that when we think like this, our focus is on ourselves. Listen to what I said above again and try to count how many times I say I. “I doubt God can work in me. I don’t doubt it because I doubt God’s mighty power. I doubt it because I know I am broken. I know I sin. I know I am not worthy. I know I am not enough, and all the other things we tell ourselves when we hear that God wants to use us.” I used the word “I” 12 times within those six sentences. Yes, when our focus is on us, or when our focus is on the task we are being asked to do, we will always fall short in our minds. We won’t believe it can be done because we know our limitations.However, if we focus on God and how powerful He is, it is easier to believe He can use us because He is God, and He can do anything. There was a woman at the Encounter Summer Intensive yesterday and she had a problem with her leg. She hurt it in a skiing accident when she was younger, and the doctors glued it all back together. However, it started hurting again. She is now 83 years old. The doctor told her the fix they did when she was younger was all disintegrating, and there was nothing they could do. I reminded her that although there might not be anything that the doctors could do, there is always something God can do.This verse is a great verse for anyone who has a great ambition to do something great someday. Maybe you want to be an extraordinary painter, or maybe you want to start a non-prophet to help people. Maybe you want to climb mountains all over the world. Maybe you want to be the best mom, dad, grandma, or grandpa you can be. Whatever it is that you would like to do, it is important to know that God can work in you and through you. It is important we don’t doubt this because God is powerful, and He can do anything!The next line in the verse is just amazing. It says, “He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination!” Can you believe that? This gives us permission to dream big, to ask for big things from God, and to let Him help us accomplish our dreams. This verse shows us what a good, good father God is. He doesn’t just give you the bare minimum. He doesn’t just give you what you need to survive. He is not stingy with His mercy and His blessings. He lavishes them upon His children.The last sentence is great, too. It says, “He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.” This is definitely something we forget, or maybe we never knew it in the first place. God’s miraculous power constantly energizes you. Did you know that? Did you also know you can pray for supernatural energy when you don’t feel like you have any? I prayed this with my friend of mine, and she said she felt so much more energized for the rest of the day.We need to stop putting God into a little box. We need to stop telling Him what He can and can’t do. We tell Him He can’t use us because of this reason or that. We tell Him we can’t do this or that because we lack energy. We give up on our dreams because we figure they are not going to come true. We don’t doubt God’s power, but we doubt our ability to be a part of His plan; however, by doubting that, we are also doubting God’s power. We are putting a limitation on that power. We say, “Yes, you are all-powerful, and you can do all things, but you can’t use me.” Do you see how that is a contradiction? Either God is all-powerful, or He is not. Either He can do everything, including using you, or He can’t do any of it. We don’t get to pick and choose what God can and can’t do.God tells us so often in my Charismatic Prayer Group that we have to stop doubting Him. He constantly says, “If I tell you that you can do something, believe that you can do it.” If he says this each week, then you would think we would listen. However, our pull to not believe in ourselves is great. If we want to change this, we must shift our focus away from us. We need to focus more on the power of God and less on our own feelings of unwort

God’s Endless LoveEphesians 3:18-19 “Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences – the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is his love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding – this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!”Man, I am truly in love with the passion translation right now. It helps me understand the Word of God in a deeper way. Last night, I was talking to Deacon Joe, the director of the Boston campus of Encounter’s School of Ministry, and I told him that I feel like my mission is to bring God’s love to others. I want every person in the entire world to know and understand how incredibly loved they are by their heavenly Father.Love is lacking in this world. It is absent in so many areas. The love that we do have is nothing like the love of our Heavenly Father. People are desperate for love these days. Maybe we always were; I’m not sure. I do know that people feel unloved and unwelcome right now. Most people don’t feel comfortable in their own skin. They wish they were different in many ways.With social media and how easy it is to see what everyone else is doing, it is easy to compare yourself to what they look like, what material possessions they have, what vacations they take, and how many friends they have. When we start to compare ourselves to others then we start to be unhappy with who we are and what we have. Yet, who we are is who God created us to be. He gave each one of us unique strengths and weaknesses. How many of us can only see our weaknesses?Matthew 22:36-40 says, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” I think we all know this first one and find the first one of these two commandments the easiest. It is easier to love God than it is to love others, at least most of the time. If you are going through a really hard season then you might be angry at God, but for the most part, we can get on board with loving God the Father with all that we have.However, the second commandment listed here is one that many people struggle with. First, loving our neighbor doesn’t just mean loving the person next door. It means loving everyone we meet. It means loving our enemies or those who have wronged us. There seem to be a lot of unlovable people in the world—people who are angry or unkind. How are we supposed to love people who treat us badly? How are we supposed to love people that we don’t even really know? How are we supposed to love people who know exactly what to say to get under our skin?In order to understand how to love others, let’s take a closer look at how the Lord loves us. The verse above starts with, “Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences- the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions.” When I looked up the word astonishing, it said, “causing a feeling of great surprise or wonder.” That is the Lord’s love for us. It is full of surprises and wonder. Have you ever been surprised by God’s love?I spoke with a young woman last night at an Encounter event who was blown away by God’s love. She had been suffering from concussions and a condition where her feet couldn’t sweat. She had gone to a healing service a while back and did not see a lot of relief from her symptoms. Then, after a day and a half or so later, she was completely healed of both conditions. She just couldn’t believe the love of her Heavenly Father. She couldn’t believe that He healed her of not just one condition but of both of them at the same time. She definitely felt the astonishing love of God that evening.Next, the verse says, “How deeply intimate and far-reaching is his love! Wow, this is incredible, too. God’s love is far-reaching. I have seen this far-reaching love in my life. My husband and I had been struggling for a long time in our marriage. It got to the point where I felt like we needed to get a divorce. I do not believe in divorce but us living in the same house just wasn’t working. We have three boys, and the constant fighting was not good for anyone. Although there was no doubt in my mind that we needed a divorce or at least a separation, I still didn’t want it. I went to God often, and I asked Him to fix our marriage. I asked Him to change our hearts. I asked Him to keep our family together. This was for sure a far reach as we were pretty broken. Yet, God fixed us. He changed our hearts and helped fix not just our marriage but our family, too. There is no questioning God’s love for you when you can see Him work so powerfully i

Witness Wednesday #121 More PopWe Stories (Marriage/Family)Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose three testimonies from the Marriage/Family Category. Satan is attacking our families and I think it can help us to see that God is looking out for us. Satan wants to destroy families but God wants to preserve them. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation also. I pray you know that God wants is there with you and if you invite Him into your family issues He can help.Zachary: 2016 started out as one of the most exciting years for me and my wife, Amanda. We were living in Calcutta, India; working at Calcutta School of Music and starting our own company to support local artists and musicians in the city. Amanda was expecting our first baby, Chloe West Ray, and she was due to arrive at the beginning of December. Amanda was in her third trimester when she became very sick one night. We admitted her into the hospital in Calcutta, India on a Monday night. Tuesday morning Amanda was feeling better and Chloe seemed to be doing ok too. Wednesday morning, before we were about to leave the hospital, we went in for one more ultra sound. I can still hear the doctor say, “We can’t find a heart beat” as if it was today. We found ourselves sitting in that hospital room broken and confused, with no idea of what the next steps would be.There were very few words of comfort that helped. Although people were praying and offering their words of comfort, it felt like a season of being abandoned by God. The dreams of holding our little girl were stolen and shattered. Grief is a funny thing. The initial sting and pain becomes dull over time, but the memories and dull ache continues. I don’t think our hearts are created for this world to overcome “grief” from tragedies or loss of loved ones; it becomes a part of our story, our life. We become a different person. The beautiful thing is that God stays the same and meets us where we are. I can honestly say God tangibly became my refuge in one of the darkest times in my life. He brought a healing into my soul like no earthly person could. We may never be the way we were before, but He shapes us into a new and often stronger person. I don’t think we get over grief until we leave this world.We found out the following year that we were expecting another baby. Due to the loss of Chloe, it was difficult to not allow our fear and worry to overwhelm our joy. We simultaneously jumped for joy, and breathed a sigh of relief when our son was born.Pam: My husband and I had 7 kids – he had 3 and I had 2. Then we got custody of our 2 nephews. Less than a month after we received custody papers, our nephews’ dad passed away. Their mom lived nearby, but didn’t have much to do with the children. That has always caused its own set of problems.When we were going to get the boys out of foster care, we had no idea how we’d provide for 2 more, except for the fact that God had always provided for the 7 of us! We were fully trusting in Him to provide for all 9 of us. He did just that! We always attended church with the kids. We served in the church and paid our tithes. God never let us down.Recently, we had been praying for a job that would allow us more time together and get a lot of debt off of us. Biblically, we felt this was right. God is answering our prayers through a job we now have. We can work closer together and prayerfully begin to make more money and to pay off our debt.Even though life with a triple blended family was tough, and there were times we wanted to give up, we didn’t. God saw us through. He is faithful and trustworthy. We hope and pray that our kids will remember that we gave and served, and that God was faithful. We are thankful!Most of our kids are grown now and one is in the service. We pray they will always remember that their relationship with God is most important!Theresa: In my past relationship, I walked on eggshells, was hyper-vigilant, and lived in fight or flight mode every day. His behavior was a constant up and down. He would ignore me, then act nice to make me think everything was okay, then abruptly follow it with rage. He would manipulate and gaslight me, keep me exhausted, and criticize me frequently. He’d make excuses for his behavior, never took accountability, and blamed me for everything. Nothing I did ever seemed right, and I slowly lost confidence in myself.

Even God Gets AngryExodus 4:14-15 “Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “What of your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do.”In mentoring this month I have been teaching about our emotions and how our emotions aren’t universally good or bad. This is something that is easy to say and hard to believe. There are definitely some emotions we think are good, and some we think are bad. For instance, we don’t think it is “Christian-like” to be angry. When we are angry, we are probably not going to share that with our Christian friends because being angry isn’t what God wants from us. It isn’t just anger, either. There are a whole host of emotions that we struggle to reconcile with our faith.We might think, how can I be disappointed in this situation when God has given me so much? How can I be angry when God has blessed me and my family? How can I be impatient when I know God’s timing is best? How can I be sad and grieve the loss of a loved one when I know they are in a better place now? Do you get the idea? We struggle to understand how we can feel what we are feeling. We also tend to feel guilty for some of our feelings, and then, on top of our original feelings, we now add guilt and shame to them.Emotions can be tricky. I am not trying to say they are easy. I do believe we should let ourselves feel all of our emotions. Emotions are our body’s way of warning us of something. They bring something to our attention so we can deal with it. However, if it is an emotion we don’t like or that makes us feel uncomfortable, instead of exploring it to see what it is trying to tell us, we ignore it, stuff it down, and pretend it is not there. Stuffing our emotions down can be bad for a few reasons. One of them is that when we stuff our emotions down over time, they build up, kind of like the pressure in a volcano. Then, one day, they explode all over someone, and usually, it is not the person who gave you those unwanted feelings. It is usually some innocent bystander who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and said the wrong things. Unfortunately, I think we have all been in that situation at one time or another and we have all regretted it.Another reason stuffing down our emotions can be bad is that if we ignore them, we can’t hear what they are trying to tell us. Our emotions might be telling us we need to get out of a situation, that something needs to change, or any number of other things, and yet if we ignore them, we are not getting any of their messages.This can be avoided in part by not stuffing down our emotions. We can give ourselves permission to feel whatever feeling comes up. We can examine our feelings and see what they are trying to tell us. We can bring our feelings to the Lord and ask Him to help us understand our feelings. Our feelings are not bad. It is ok to feel all the different ranges of feelings. God felt a wide range of feelings, and so did Jesus. God is only good. If he felt angry, then how could anger be bad?It says in the verse above that “the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses.” Just before this verse, God was telling Moses that He wanted Moses to go to Egypt and free the Jewish people. Moses, like many of us, had lots of reasons why he was not qualified to do the job God asked him to do. What if they didn’t listen to him? What if they didn’t believe God had sent him? God gave Moses all sorts of answers to these questions. Every excuse Moses gave him, God responded with an answer. Then Moses continued to ask God to send someone else, and God got angry.I love this because I can relate to God’s anger in this situation. It makes me think of my kids when I ask them to do something, and they have a million excuses for why they can’t. It doesn’t matter if you shoot down 1 million excuses; they will always have just one more. It is so frustrating, and I can imagine it would be even more frustrating for the Lord. I mean, He is God. He knows everything. If He says you can do something, you can do it. So, I can see why He would be angry that Moses didn’t trust him.In verses 10 & 11, it says, “But Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” The Lord is telling Moses, I know you, I made you. I know what you can and can’t do. However, I am the Lord, and I can do all things. If God can make the deaf hear or the blind see, then don’t you think He could give you whatever you need to do whatever He is calling you to do? That is a lesson for another day,

We Are Saved By God’s GraceEphesians 2:3-5 “The corruption that was in us from birth was expressed through the deeds and desires of our self-life. We lived by whatever natural cravings and thoughts our minds dictated, living as rebellious children subject to God’s wrath like everyone else. But God still loved us with such great love. He is so rich in compassion and mercy. Even when we were dead and doomed in our many sins, he united us into the very life of Christ and saved us by his wonderful grace!”I love verses like this because when the Bible points out the things I am doing wrong, I know I am not the only one doing them. If I were the only one, or if only a few of us were living by whatever natural cravings and thoughts our minds dictated, then God wouldn’t put it in the Bible. The verse starts by saying, “The corruption that was in us from birth was expressed through the deeds and desires of our self-life.” We were all born with original sin. Adam and Eve were born into a perfect world. There was no sin; there was only love, and they got to stroll through the garden at night with the Lord. Their heavenly Father would come to visit them and talk with them.However, they were tricked by the serpent and ate the fruit from the tree of good and evil. I don’t know if they were misled or just enticed. The devil was laying out a pretty good picture of how God was trying to control them by telling them not to eat that fruit. The serpent told them they would be like God if they ate the fruit. Who wouldn’t want to be like God, right? So they ate the fruit. The interesting thing is that they were already like God. God made us in His likeness and image. They were already like God. However, once they ate that fruit, sin entered the world, and it didn’t want to leave.This is the corruption from birth that the verse is talking about. We are all born with original sin, and that is why Catholics believe you should be baptized as soon as you are born. Once you are baptized with the Holy Spirit, sin can’t say, it must leave. However, because we are human, our choices can allow sin to creep back into our lives. This sin that creeps back into our lives is expressed through our deeds and desires of our self-life. When sin creeps back in, we tend to live for ourselves instead of for God.I was listening to an Encounter Ministry talk yesterday, and the teacher talked about how she had a niece or a friend’s child whom she spoke to often. When the girl was little, my teacher would say things like, “How did you get to be so beautiful?” or “How did you get to be so nice?” and the little girl would say, “That’s just the way God made me.” There is such an innocence in this response. However, once we get a bit older and the world corrupts our thinking, and our sin crowds our minds, then we forget that this is how God made us and that He made each one of us just as we are for a reason.Once we allow sin to creep back in with our deeds and desires, our thoughts get distorted. We start to hate who we are, what we look like, what we sound like, and everything else about us. I was at a women’s conference once, and the speaker said that she asked everyone in the audience who hated their body to stand up, and 90% of the women stood up. She didn’t ask, who would change something about their body if they could? She didn’t ask, who dislikes something about their body? She asked who hated their body, and 90% of them stood up. This is the work of the enemy. We are not born hating our bodies. We are born with so much love, and then this broken world pollutes our minds and bodies.The line in the verse says, “ We lived by whatever natural cravings and thoughts our minds dictated, living as rebellious children subject to God’s wrath like everyone else.” This pretty much sums up my struggle. I have so many cravings and thoughts in my life that seem to dictate my life. Some things seem like they are not really a big deal, but when we really examine them, we see that they are not good for us. Do you have any cravings that take your focus away from God? You have thoughts that take up all your focus and that you are thinking about all the time. If you have ever had an addiction, you know exactly what I am talking about. I am lucky in that the addictions I have had have not been life-threatening, like drugs or alcohol. I am lucky that my addictions have not affected my life in ways like losing my family or losing my job. However, that doesn’t mean they were damaging.When I was addicted to TV, while I still am, but now I manage my addiction, I would watch TV all day long. I would not get anything done while the kids were at school, and I wouldn’t do anything after they went to bed, either. I would watch hours of TV a day. I can only imagine how different my life would be if I had spent that time growing closer to the Lord, growing my spiritual life, reading books to further my knowledge, or really anything else that would have been productive. The enemy kept

Be An Advertisement of God’s Immense PowerEphesians 1:19-22 “I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God's power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm!”I love this verse and the translation. I am really enjoying reading the passion translation. There is so much passion in what is said. I try not to use the same verse more than once as I think there are over 31,000 verses in the Bible, so it will take us a long time to get through them all. However, when I read this translation of this verse, I felt called to use it. This verse might just be my life verse. It is definitely one I will write down on a sticky note and look at often. This verse sums up the goal of this podcast and my life. I want my life to be an advertisement of God’s immense power. I want everyone in the world to know and understand what it means to have the Holy Spirit living inside of them.Can you even imagine if just 10% of the people in the world knew the power they had living inside them? If just 10% of the world’s population knew the power they had living inside of them, that would be 790 million people. Can you imagine that? Now imagine every Christian in the world knew the power they had living inside them. That would be over 2.4 billion people. Can you imagine how much change could happen if we had 2.4 billion people walking around experiencing the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available through their faith?But we don’t need to start with 2.4 billion people. Let’s start with you. Do you truly understand the power you have residing within you? Do you comprehend that the Holy Spirit dwells within you? The verse states, this is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm. If you have been baptized in any Christian denomination, then you have the Holy Spirit within you. If you have doubts, you can read all about it in Acts 2:1-13. When Jesus was preparing to ascend to his Father, He promised to send us a guide.I don’t know if you know this or not because I didn’t know it for the first 40 years or so of my life, but the Holy Spirit that Jesus asked the Father to send to us is the same Holy Spirit that Jesus had inside of Him when He walked the earth. It is the same Holy Spirit that helped Jesus heal all those people. It is the same Holy Spirit that helped Jesus multiply all that food. It is the same Holy Spirit that helped Jesus perform all the miracles He performed. It is also the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. This verse reminds us of that. It says, “This is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead.”Can you believe that? I don’t know about you, but when I first heard that, my brain kept repeating it as I tried to wrap my head around this idea. I found it so hard to believe that I had the same Holy Spirit that Christ had flowing through my body. The same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of me and it lives inside of you too! How amazing is that? The next thing that came to mind is a question I want to invite you all to ask yourself. What am I doing with that power? How am I using the Holy Spirit? Or, I should say, how am I allowing the Holy Spirit to use me? It's a personal responsibility we all have, to utilize this incredible power within us.Have I given the Holy Spirit permission to work in my life? Have I invited the Holy Spirit into my life? Have I asked the Holy Spirit to guide my thoughts and my words? Have I asked Him to guide my actions? God believes so strongly in free will that He won’t push His way into our lives. He waits to be invited, and He comes where He is welcomed. Some of the things we may be blaming God for may be things that happened because we didn’t invite God in. Some things may happen because we thought we could do it all on our own. Or, maybe you didn’t know you needed to invite God in. Either way, I want you to know now so you can ask Him from now on.I said earlier that my goal for my life is to be an advertisement of the immense power of God as it works through me in my life. For me, this means being used by God to heal people, to be His instrument to restore the blind and open deaf ears. To be His instrument to heal cancer, MS, fibromyalgia, and all sorts of diseases, for there is no cure. I pray the Lord uses me for creative miracles such as growing arms and legs. I pray the Holy Spirit works through me to multiply food, resources, and any other way the power of the Holy Spirit wants to work through me. I pray the Holy Spirit tells me what to do, and I do it.However, this doesn’t have to be everyone’s goal. You can have the

I Am The Least Of All The SaintsEphesians 3:7-13 “Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confidence of access through our faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.”It was tough to pick a verse this morning. I have been reading Ephesians, and there are so many good verses in there. I kept reading and re-reading chapters 1 and 2, and so many things were jumping out at me, but I didn’t feel like any of those verses were the ones I was supposed to talk about today. Then I went on to chapter 3, and this verse jumped out at me. I felt the Lord wanted me to speak to you about evangelization today. If you are like me, that word might scare you a bit.When I hear that word, I want to look around and see who else the Lord might be talking to. When I hear that word, I instantly feel inadequate. Why is this? I know several Gospel stories and parables, so it is not as if I don’t know what’s in the Gospel. I know that God is love, which is the most important word to get out there. I know it is essential that people discover the love God has for them. I know these things, so why do I feel so afraid when I hear someone say that we are all called to share the good news with everyone we meet?St. Paul was an extraordinary man and a great evangelizer. He is credited with writing about half of the books in the New Testament. Yet, in this opening verse, it says, “Of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, to preach to the Gentiles.” St. Paul knew he was called to be an evangelist as well. He knew his calling was to spread the word of the Gospel to all he met, but he really didn’t feel qualified.I take comfort in this. I take comfort in knowing I am not the only one who gets nervous when I look at the call the Lord has placed on my life. I also hate to be the bearer of bad news, but God has also put this call on your lives. We are all called to bring the Gospel to all we meet. Does your stomach feel funny when I say that? Do you get nervous when you realize God calls you to spread His word? If you do, you are not alone. I don’t know anyone who is only excited to go out and share the Gospel. Don’t get me wrong, I know people who are excited to share the Gospel with others; however, they are nervous about doing it and feel inadequate to do it. I don’t know anyone who sets out to evangelize, thinking they know everything and that it will be easy.This is why the next line is so important. It says, “This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confidence of access through our faith in him.” This verse says we have boldness and confidence of access through our faith in him. Jesus can give us the boldness we need. Let me read you this part in the message translation. “I have been made a messenger of this wonderful news by the gift of grace that works through me. Even though I am the least significant of all his holy believers, this grace gift was imparted when the manifestation of His power came upon me. Grace alone empowers me so that I can boldly preach this wonderful message to non-Jewish people, sharing with them the unfading, inexhaustible riches of Christ, which are beyond comprehension.”I love that this translation says, “by the gift of grace that works through me.” Grace is a gift from God. Grace can help us do things we could never do on our own. The verse also says, “Grace alone empowers me so that I can boldly preach this wonderful message.” God is calling us all to share the Gospel with all we meet. This means that He will equip us with all the grace we need to do so. If you feel inadequate to share the Gospel, join the club; we all feel inadequate. However, that doesn’t mean we get to excuse ourselves from doing it. How we feel doesn’t stop us from fulfilling our calling.There is a podcast I used to listen to called “Do It Scared.” This is what we are called to do. We are called to step out in faith even when we don’t think we are the best person for the job. Who are we to question God’s judgment? We are called to step out in faith even when we are scared. We are called to trust that God’s grace is enough to empower us to do what He has called us. We are called to step out with a holy boldness. Sometimes

Witness Wednesday #120 More PopWe StoriesToday’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose two testimonies from the Healing Category. I know so many people who are looking for a healing right now and I think these stories will offer some hope and encouragement. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles and healing can happen in your situation also.Allison: At the age of 23, I looked back at my life and I couldn’t think of a time when I felt healthy. I had struggled with chronic illness ever since I could remember, and I still didn’t have a name for all the symptoms that I was experiencing. It was years of trying to explain what I was feeling but not getting any answers. I felt alone and misunderstood.At times, I wondered if God even cared about me at all. The summer before I turned 23, things took a turn for the worse. I got into a car accident which left me feeling overwhelmed with guilt as it was my fault. On top of that, my symptoms were getting worse. Fatigue, aching joints, nausea, anxiety, depression, memory loss…the list goes on and on. I didn’t think I was going to make it. In fact, I asked God to just take me home because I didn’t want to endure the pain any longer.I met with one of my pastors for prayer about the car accident a few weeks later, (at least that’s what I intended on discussing.) But God. He had different plans. Somehow the whole meeting ended up being about my health. Towards the end of the meeting, my pastor looked at me and said “Allison, I think you have chronic Lyme Disease.” I would be lying if I said I wasn’t annoyed. I spent years of my life trying to get to the root of my health problems and no doctor could even give me a diagnosis, so how would a pastor know anything about my health? The next day I cried out to God. I asked Him to show me if it was true, and if it was, to lead me to the right doctor.He answered. Loud and clear. Multiple times over the following weeks He confirmed it. Through a stranger, I was given the name of a doctor in my town who specializes in treating Lyme. I had an appointment with him, and it turns out my pastor was right. After years and years of waiting, I had an answer. Today, 6 years later, I am healed. I ended up getting treated by that doctor, and God used him to save my life. I know I wouldn’t be here today if God hadn’t intervened.Through this journey, God has shown me His faithfulness. I know now that He heard me every time I cried out to Him. He is the God that sees me. He sees you, too!Emily: Hello, I’m Emily. I’m a 10 time Breast Cancer Survivor. Yes, you read that right, ….TEN.It all began with a stomach ache in 2008. As I went to my doctor for a routine exam, she found the Cancer! Of course, I had to go through an ultrasound and mammogram first, but my doctor had saved my life by detecting this early, I thought.I was 33, had 3 kids, (ages 6, 2, and 8 months) and a full-time job teaching 1st graders at a public school. Cancer? Who has time for Cancer? I was told it is an aggressive form and difficult to treat, because doctors don’t know much about it. I have Triple Negative Breast Cancer. I fought with everything I had through chemo, radiation and a lumpectomy.God and I spent a lot of time talking about how I was going to win this battle and with His help, I did, for 4 1/2 years.The Demon itself returned in March of 2012, just before my 5 year clear mark. I was devastated, scared, angry, frustrated and MAD at God. Why was this happening to me again? Why do I have to go through this again? This isn’t fair! God carried me through the second battle, just as He did the first with just as much grace and comfort.Fast-forward to 2022. I’ve now had TWO double mastectomies, a lumpectomy, ten biopsies, a DIEP flap reconstruction surgery, 3 more rounds of chemo (78 total treatments), 3 different types of radiation (67 total treatments), and Proton therapy (35 treatments) to try and kill this cancer. It has reared its ugly head 10 times and this is going to be the last!!!Just a month and a half ago, I learned about a new drug that people were having success rates with. It was a Godsend and true miracle. An email delivered to my inbox revealed something we’ve been waiting for for 15 years!!!! The product is working and I will have another scan in February to hear that there is NED (No evidence of disease)!!! I am positive after reading the success stories!I tell my story to say

Treasures of RedemptionEphesians 1:7-8 “Since we are now joined to Christ, we have been given the treasures of redemption by his blood—the total cancellation of our sins—all because of the cascading riches of his grace. This superabundant grace is already powerfully working in us, releasing all forms of wisdom and practical understanding.”As soon as I read that verse this morning, I knew it was the one I needed to use, as this is something we all get stuck on. We all know and understand that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, but when we look at our sins, we think they are too bad for Jesus to forgive. I love that the verse says, “Since we are not joined to Christ, we have been given the treasures of redemption by his blood.” I love how it reminds us that redemption is a treasure. It is something of great value, and it wasn’t easy to give that to us. It is important to remember what Christ went through to provide us with our redemption. He had to die on the cross for us to have this treasure of redemption.Next, the verse says, “the total cancellation of our sins-all because of the cascading riches of his grace.” Let me read that last part again for those of us who get stuck here. It says the total cancellation of our sins. It does not say the partial cancellation of our sins. It doesn’t say the cancellation of the sins that aren’t too bad. It doesn’t say the cancellation of some of your sins. No, that is not what it says. It says the total cancellation of our sins. That means even that one sin that you feel like He could never forgive, He already has.When we decide that our sins are too big for God to forgive, we are telling Him that we don’t think Jesus’s sacrifice was big enough to cover our sins. Do you know what a slap in the face that is? Jesus went through agony to provide us with redemption, and we are essentially saying no thank you to that redemption. We are saying we appreciate what you did, but it just wasn’t enough for the gravity of my sins. When we do this, we are letting our pride get in the way of the love that the Lord has for us. Is this what we want?Trusting in the forgiveness of sins requires faith. It requires us to believe the Lord’s Words. It requires us to believe in the Lord’s love for us. Why else would He send His son to die on the cross for us? God’s unconditional love for us cannot be separated from what Jesus did on the cross. If God didn’t care about us so much, if He didn’t love us so much, then there wouldn’t have been a cross. He would have let us deal with the consequences of Adam and Eve. God did not create sin and He certainly didn’t create a world full of sin. God created us to live in Harmony with Him in the garden of Eden. Can you imagine what that would have been like? Eating anything we want except that one tree. Taking a stroll through the garden with God at night. That must have been paradise.I don’t want to forget to talk about the ending of this verse either. It says, “all because of the cascading riches of his grace. This superabundant grace is already powerfully working in us, releasing all forms of wisdom and practical understanding.” Did you know God gives us graces? I love that this translation says, “cascading riches of his grace.” I think this is a great illustration to show how generous our God is. He is not holding back His grace and rationing it out in case He runs out one day. He knows He will never run out and He pours His grace down on those who ask for it. Do you ever wonder why it seems like some people have more favor with the Lord, or some people receive more grace? I believe it is because they ask for it. When is the last time you asked God for some grace in your life? When is the last time you asked God for some favor?God is a good good Father and if we ask He will give it to us, unless we are asking for something that is not good for us. Don’t be afraid to ask the Lord for anything you need. I believe He loves it when we come to Him and make big requests becasue it shows him that we believe He can do it. Sort of like when we need to open a jar. We don’t ask someone to help us unless we think they are strong enough to help us. We ask them because we believe they can open that jar. The same is true with God. We are not going to ask Him to find a way to help us pay our mortgage if we don’t believe that he can do it. So, by asking Him for big things, we are actually showing Him how much we believe in Him and I think He loves that!Now, back to His Superabundant Grace. We all have this grace working powerfully in us. How do you think you do all the hard things that you are able to do. Through God’s grace. I love that it says in the verse that His grace is already releasing all forms of wisdom and practical understanding. I didn’t realize or know until fairly recently that God gave us wisdom or knowledge. I mean I might have read it in the Bible and I might have known it on some level, but I didn’t actually know we could ask God for wisdom and th

Unstained InnocenceEphesians 1:3-4 “Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts! And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with and unstained innocence.”When I read these two verses this morning, I thought they were so beautiful. They begin with “Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly father.” Isn’t that beautiful? Did you know that your heavenly Father is lavishing spiritual blessings on you? The word blessing in this verse is a translation of the Greek word eulogy, which means “to speak well of.” Since God is acting in this verse, we can say that God has spoken good things about us or pronounced good things for our benefit. The good things that God has decreed for us are probably beyond our ability to number.Can you imagine your heavenly Father showering you with blessings? Did you know that is what He is doing? I know sometimes it doesn’t feel like you are getting any blessings, but this might be because you are in the middle of a hard time. You might not be able to see the blessings because you are so focused on the hard thing that is happening. You might think there is no way God could be blessing you because of all you are going through.This isn’t true. God can bless us in the middle of a hard time. He can bless us whenever He wants to. You might be wondering what that may look like, what it would look like to have a blessing while in the middle of a hardship. That could look like someone you know checking on you to see if you need anything. It could look like your friends and family bringing you meals when they know you have no time to cook. It could look like you getting a job promotion right when you need it the most! Have any of these ever happened to you? What about when a stranger says something to you out of the blue and it is exactly what you needed to hear?God is not just blessing us, He is lavishing spiritual blessings upon us. This can go against our picture of God. We all have a picture of God in our head and for some of us, probably a lot of us, it is not a picture of a wonderful heavenly Father. Many of us picture the heavenly Father similar to our dad growing up. So if you had a loving Father growing up the idea that our heavenly Father is loving is easier to grasp. However, if our earthly Father was not outwardly loving and was hard on you, maybe expected a lot out of you, then this is how you might see our heavenly Father too. But God's love is beyond our earthly understanding, and He cherishes each and every one of us.I know a lot of people who picture the Lord as an old man with a white mustache and beard sitting up in heaven, looking down on us and judging us. They picture God as someone who is just waiting for them to screw up so He can punish them. They are sure they are disappointing Him all of the time. I think this is why I chose these verses and why I like these verses so much.The second verse for today dispels this myth that God is up in heaven just waiting for us to mess up. It says, “And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with and unstained innocence.” First, it says that God chose us before He laid the foundation of the Universe. God chose you. Let that sink in for a moment. God chose you before He even created the universe. Does that sound like the act of a Father that is sitting up in heaven waiting for you to screw up so He can punish you?Next it says, “Because of His great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with unstained innocence.” Listen to that last part again, “so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with unstained innocence.” God doesn’t look at us as if we are a wreck waiting to happen. In His eyes, we have an unstained innocence about us. God doesn’t want us to mess up. He doesn’t want us to sin or to fall away from Him. He loves us. He chose us. He wants us to be right there with Him for all eternity.God loves us. He looks down upon us as a loving Father would. Once we realize this our relationship with the Heavenly Father will become so much closer. If we haven’t really experienced true love in this world, then it might be hard to understand how much our heavenly Father loves us. One thing I am finding that can help with this is to read the scriptures. Read the Psalms, read the New Testament. Last week I read Philippians and this week I am reading Ephesians and they are just beautiful. The Bible is a living document. It is not just a book of words that the Lord told His people back in the day. The Bi

Be Christ-LikePhilippians 1:20 “No matter what, I will continue to hope and passionately cling to Christ so that he will be openly revealed through me before everyone’s eyes. So I will not be ashamed! In my life or in my death, Christ will be magnified in me.”I have really enjoyed reading through Philippians this week. There were so many good verses. I started at the end and worked my way forward. I am not sure why it worked out that way, but it did. I read this verse yesterday and it stuck with me so I wanted to share it with you today. This is something for which we can all aspire. We can all continue to have hope and passionately cling to Christ so that when others see us, they see Him.Paul says, “In life or in my death, Christ will be magnified in me.” How great is that? How great would it be to know that you have helped to bring others to Christ, not only in life but in death, too? This makes me wonder, what am I doing to magnify Christ? When people look at me and how I live my life, do they see Christ?I will always remember what Father Mike said on the podcast Catechism in a Year. He said, take a minute and imagine it is illegal to be Christian. Luckily, this is not the case in America, but pretend it is. He said to imagine now that you are on trial for being a Christian. Besides going to Mass or your church service on the weekend, would they have enough evidence to convict you? I don’t know why this has stuck with me over the past two years, but I think it is a compelling question.Many of us go to church on Sunday. We love God, and we think that is all we really need to do. However, we are all called to be Christlike. We are called to be Jesus's face to all we meet. Jesus said we need to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, mind, and soul, and then He also said we need to love our neighbor as ourselves. I think this is the part that we often forget. I think we all remember to try to love God, although I am unsure if we try to do it with our whole heart, mind and soul. I think we try to love God when it benefits us. We all remember God when times are hard; I hope we remember Him when times are good, too.We often forget to love our neighbors. This doesn’t just mean the person living next to us; it means every single person we interact with. If we had a private investigator following us for a week to look at our behavior and try to gather evidence that we were a Christian, would they find any evidence? Would they see you being compassionate to all those you interact with, whether you know them or not? Would they see you being patient and considerate when you are driving around? Would they see you being kind and helpful to the poor? Would they see you were a Christian when interacting with the various people you met throughout your day? How did you treat that one co-worker who always gets on your nerves? How did you treat that person that cut you off in traffic? How did you treat that person who cut you in line just as you finally reached the front? What about the homeless person who asked you for money?How we treat others matters. We can’t simply focus on our relationship with God and disregard the rest of the world. We can’t claim to love God and then treat others unkindly. Our actions towards others reflect our faith and our commitment to living a Christlike life. When others look at our lives, they should be able to see Christ in all that we do. Jesus addresses this in the Gospels. God would not have ensured this was in the Bible if it didn’t say something we should pay attention to. The following verse shows us how important it is to care for everyone we meet.Matthew 25:31-46 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,[f] you did it to me. “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked

First I just want to apologize. I totally forgot that yesterday was Wednesday so I gave you a regular episode instead of a witness Wednesday. However, I know many of you love to hear the testimonies, so I didn’t want to skip it this week. So today I am bringing you a witness Wednesday, just a day late on a Thursday. Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose two testimonies from the Relationship Category. Relationships are hard. I don’t think we are sailing through life full of perfect relationships. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their relationships, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles and healing can happen in your relationships also.Karina: When I think of my story, I think of pain, grief, overwhelming sadness, hurt, and betrayal. Then I think of hope, redemption, love, grace, miracles, and my salvation in Jesus.Five years ago, my entire world turned upside down. I experienced betrayal in my marriage after 12 years. I was in so much pain. My life seemed to have been one episode after the next of unfortunate events.I was so broken and so alone. I was in severe depression and taking depression and anxiety meds and using alcohol with it. I was doing anything I could to dull the pain I was in.I’m so thankful that God loved me so much that He pursued me in ways I’d never experienced before. I was blessed to become a part of a church. At a time when I was deeply hurting, I was shown the love of Christ over and over again. My pastor would say during his messages (and he still does) that I MATTERED to GOD. Honestly, I didn’t even know that I did. God never left my side and He revealed Himself and His love to me. I had never known love like this before and he poured it out on me in waves and waves. He walked with me through the trials and the storms and he saved me and restored me. Then God led me to become a part of a women’s group that has encouraged me, prayed with me and laughed with me. These women have become my sisters. We’ve shared a bond stronger than any blood relationship I’ve ever had. Words can’t describe the love in my heart that I have for each of them. God has healed me in ways I couldn’t see possible five years ago or even three years ago. He resurrected my dead marriage which is a miracle in a way because there was no way I could see this being restored or if reconciliation was even an option. That’s the God I serve. He is full of compassion, LOVE, mercy, and GRACE… He pursues us even when we turn our backs on Him. He loved me even when I didn’t love myself; He showed me I was His, that I was never forsaken; that I was chosen, a daughter of the One True King. He healed my heart, renewed my mind and made me brand new! The only way I can end this is by saying “Thank You, JESUS” ❤️Trent: Theme songs are an important part of our world. As individuals, I feel that we each have a personal theme song for our life. My name is Trent, and I am 19 years old. By no fault of my own, I was born into a family filled with extreme dysfunction. My earliest years were filled with domestic violence, extreme neglect, and extensive sexual abuse. I truly struggle to find the words to adequately describe the daily pain and suffering that I endured during my earliest years. I was hurt in every way imaginable. My theme song was one of fear.I feared for my safety. I feared that I would starve. I feared that I could not protect my younger brother. I feared that the pain would never end. I feared that I would never have anyone to love me.After a few traumatic years with those who gave birth to me, I was taken into the foster care system. I spent my early childhood traveling from one foster home to another. My theme song of fear amplified as I cried myself to sleep each night fearing that I would never have a family to call my own.I would like for you to think for just a moment about how difficult it is each time you experience a change in life. Now imagine that you are asked to gather your few pathetic belongings, place them in a trash bag, and get in a car to be taken to the home of a complete and total stranger. This happened to me not once, but 5 times over the course of my first 8 years. Fear was the theme that dominated my existence. Although my foster placements were not exactly ideal, I was introduced to God very early on and was able to cling to the hope that He had a plan for my life. I was young, but I kept hearing about this God who loved me no matter what. I was given a dog

We Are All On Our Own JourneyPhilippians 1:6: “I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began the gracious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!”I have always really liked the idea that if things aren’t good then God’s not done yet. I have heard this many places, yet I was surprised to see it in the Bible. I think this a great reminder that we are all on a spiritual journey. I was talking to someone last night who was saying we tend to compare ourselves to others often. We tend to look at someone else and want what they have. She was saying we do with our spirituality also and I hadn’t really thought of it like that. Now that I am thinking about it, I can see how that is true.We look at others around us in church and we compare ourselves to them. Whether we mean to do it or not. We look at the person saying the rosary before mass and we think he/she is so much holier than we are. We look at the person who is coming into mass late or leaving early and we think we are definitely holier than they are. However, we don’t know anyone’s story. That person in church saying the rosary, that might be their first time saying the rosary, or they may have just lost someone or are going through something really difficult and they know they needed something more. The person coming in late or leaving early my have a job nearby and are spending their lunch hour coming to church, but they only have an hour.We can’t compare our journey to someone else’s. We have all been through different things in our lives, and that helps to shape who we are. We have all had different upbringings in the faith, and so we may have different habits, but that doesn’t make one of us more holy than another. God is not calling us all onto the same path. If you look at the saints they all took different paths and yet they all arrived in the same place.Sometimes we can think, or at least I sometimes think, that if I get the formula right I will become a Saint. If I can figure out how many Our Father’s and Hail Mary’s I need to say then I will be set. God is forever telling me this is not the case. He is telling me there is no one way to get to heaven. There is not special formula or checklist of things that we need to do to get there. Jesus said we need to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, and mind and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Jesus said all the law of the prophets hang on these two commandments. Jesus did not tell us how we should love God, just that we should love God. If we want to show Him our love by praying all day, we can do that. If we want to show Him our love by working with the poor, we can do that. If we want to show Him our love by treating our family and loved ones with love, we can do that.Sometimes we can also compare our lives to others and think that people who aren’t struggling must be holier than we are. They must be close with God. In other words, we believe we are struggling because we are not faithful enough, or we don’t trust enough, or we don’t love God enough. This is not true. We don’t have to look any further than Job in the Bible to see this is not true. Job was the most faithful and righteous person on earth and yet Satan gave him a really hard time. Job was miserably sick and lost everything he cared about, except his wife. We don’t have to look further than job and yet the Lord didn’t stop with Job, he points out a few times in the Bible that we are not sick or going through a hard time because we are not faithful.If you look at anyone who is doing the will of God an proclaiming his word in a powerful way, they have all been through some tough times. One way that we build our faith and trust in God is by going through experiences where we have to have faith and trust in God. Faith can be like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it gets. God doesn’t allow things to happen to us because we aren’t holy enough, He allows things to happen to build us up and to prepare us for whatever He has in store for us.Comparing ourselves to others will not do anything good for us. It will steal our joy and make us feel “not good enough.” This is not what God wants for us. He wants us to remember that we are all on our own journey and that we have no idea what someone else’s journey has been. We can’t know just by looking at someone what they are going through. They may look fine, but their whole world might be falling apart. We just never know. I remind you of this so you can hopefully stop comparing yourself to others. I also tell you this so that when you see someone being unkind, or acting a way you don’t like, remember they could be going through something.I remember a story of a man on a subway. He had several kids and they were acting up and super hyper on the train. They were starting to annoy the people around them and the father wasn’t doing anything about it. The father just

Don’t Be SelfishPhilippians 2:4-5 “Abandon every display of selfishness. Possess a greater concern for what matters to others instead of your own interests. And consider the example that Jesus, the Anointed One, has set before us. Let his mindset become your motivation.”This week, I have been spending some time in the book of Philippians. I have just been reading one chapter a day, and it is only four chapters. I am not sure how I ended up in Philippians 4 last week, but then I decided to stay in this book and read a chapter a day. There is so much in there that I could probably read less than a chapter a day and then just sit and talk to the Lord about it.Today’s verse I chose has meaning as I feel the Holy Spirit lead me to this verse. This week, our youngest son really wanted to go to a concert, and it was on a day when I had mentoring, so I could not drive him. Tony checked his work schedule and did not have to be in the office. He said he would drive him, but he really didn’t want to. It would mean driving into Boston, sitting in a lot of traffic, dropping him off, and coming home again. Boston is about an hour from us without traffic, and you rarely get there without traffic. Tony would have been driving him right when everyone was trying to get home after work. This would be after Tony had worked a full day. It would not have been a great ending to his day. Instead of relaxing after a long day of work, he would have been sitting in traffic for at least two hours.However, at the time, I didn’t see the situation like this. I just saw that Ryan really wanted to go and that Tony didn’t want to take him. I felt like Tony was being selfish as it was something Ryan really wanted to do. It meant a lot to him, and as I said, I didn’t think about all it would cost Tony. I thought it was just driving him; it’s not a big deal. I wasn’t thinking about how tired Tony might be after working a full day and probably wanting to relax and not sit in traffic.When I went for a walk yesterday and I was listening to the Big Life mentoring Session for July. Pamela Crim was talking about we should enjoy this time we have during the summer. She talked about how she used to think that being too busy meant she was important. Then someone explained that is not the case. Being too busy has nothing to do with whether you are important or not. Being too busy means you have an imbalance somewhere. She told us not to be too busy to do things with our kids or with our spouse this summer. Our kids will be grown up and out of the house before we know it and then we would give anything to have them be little and ask us to play with them. Pamela gave an example of one of the people in Big Life mentoring who just lost her husband and they have young kids. The woman told the group that her husband invited her to do stuff all the time but she always said no. She was too busy cleaning the house, or taking care of the kids, or whatever it was. She told the group she would give anything to just get one more change to go watch her husband play golf.After hearing this mentoring session, the Holy Spirit got me thinking about my life and about the argument I had with Tony over Ryan going to the concert. I got to thinking about how Tony would regret not taking Ryan someday, and the Holy Spirit turned my attention to myself. He is so good at doing that, isn’t He? We want to condemn others and judge others, and the Holy Spirit takes out a mirror and shows us where we may need to change too. The Holy Spirit put on my heart that I needed to stop being busy and saying no because it is not something I want to do.Tony asks if I want to go to concerts with him and Noah pretty often. They tend to go to a lot of concerts. I usually say no because I am only really a fan of concerts if I know every song they are going to sing and can sing along. Otherwise, I find the concerts boring. I am sitting there, not knowing the music, and usually, I am tired. Did you see how many I’s in that statement? I am just thinking about what I want and how I feel. However, each time I said no, I was giving up a chance to hang out with Tony and Noah. Our boys are teens now; well, actually, Sam is already 20. They mostly do their own thing with very little interaction with us. This is somewhat normal teen behavior, but had I said yes to the concerts, I would have gotten to spend more time with Noah, which is especially important this year as he is going away to college in another country soon, and I won’t get to hug him each night before bed.The verse above says, “Abandon every display of selfishness. Possess a greater concern for what matters to others instead of your own interests. And consider the example that Jesus, the Anointed One, has set before us. Let his mindset become your motivation.” I feel as though the Holy Spirit was pointing out that I need to abandon my selfishness and pay more attention to what matters to others. If there is a concert that Tony really wants to go

Don’t Limit Your JoyPhilippians 3:1a “My beloved ones, don’t ever limit your joy or fail to rejoice in the wonderful experience of knowing our Lord Jesus!”I like this verse because it is a good reminder. Paul is writing this letter to his friends in Philippi. He wants them not to limit their joy or fail to rejoice in the beautiful experience of knowing Jesus. This can be easy, especially if we are surrounded by other people who don’t know how excellent Jesus is. When Paul wrote this, it was a dangerous time for Christians. You couldn’t freely talk about Jesus or preach the Gospel. It was in Philippi that Paul was arrested for preaching the Gospel. He was thrown into a prison cell and beaten. Paul knew the difficult times they were living in firsthand, yet he still told them not to limit their joy or fail to rejoice in the wonderful experience of our Lord Jesus.We live in a time when we are free to talk about Jesus. Well, at least in America, we are able to speak of Jesus, yet Jesus is not popular in today's culture. Today's culture is tolerant of everything except for Jesus. It can be hard to show our excitement for Jesus when those around us tell us He is not real or who He said he was. We have people who try to steal our joy. We need to be aware of this and fight against it.I know many people who live in homes or have family members who don’t believe the way they do. They are the only Christian in their family or in their friend circle. This can be hard. I believe that we are not meant to do life alone. This doesn’t mean you need to be married and have a bunch of kids. It means that we all need to live in a community with other Christians. This means that we shouldn’t live our lives by ourselves without others around us. We shouldn’t isolate ourselves.I know this can be tempting because the world can be a scary place, and there are some pretty awful people in it. People can be so cruel, and I know it feels easier sometimes to hide away. It feels easier not to share our joy of Jesus with others because we fear rejection. I feel this way, too. I feel prompted by the Holy Spirit to speak up to someone about Jesus, and yet I don’t do it because I am afraid they will be upset or they will reject me.However, what the Lord has been putting on my heart lately is that I should be more concerned about what He thinks of me than what the world thinks of me. I don’t always say what I want to say because I wonder what the person will think of me all the while I am not even thinking about what Jesus is thinking about me. It’s ok if the world rejects me, but it is not ok if Jesus does.Where do we want to spend eternity? Is it with Jesus or is it with the people we meet here on earth? Jesus can fill us with so much joy. Did you know Joy is a fruit of the Spirit? Galatians 5:22 states that these are the fruits of the Holy Spirit, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” So joy in the Lord is something the Holy Spirit can gift to us. However, even if we receive it, it is up to us to share it with others. To display it for all to see.It is our job to bring Christ to others. Do you think people are likely to want to follow Christ if we walk around with an angry look on our face or a sad look on our face. If we walk around all upset and angry they will look at us and think to themselves, “If that is what Christ gives us then no thank you.” People are always watching us, for good or bad, and how we react in situations matters.We are always a representation of Christ. We are called to be “Little Christs” in this world. If people see us gossiping they will think that is what all followers of Christ do. If people see that we are going through a hard time they are going to be watching to see if we have hope in the Lord, if we lean on the Lord, and if we trust in the Lord. Also when good things happen they will be watching to see if we are thankful to the Lord for all He has done. Our focus must always be on Christ.I love that Paul is reminding them and urging them not to ever limit their joy of fail to rejoice about knowing Jesus. It is our joy and our rejoicing that will bring others to Christ. It is our joy and rejoicing that will become contagious and people will want what we have. They will see how full of joy we are and they will want that joy. They will ask what is causing our joy and we will have an opportunity to share Jesus with them. We worry, or at least I do, about going up to strangers and talking to them about Jesus.However, if we walk around so full of joy, people will approach us and ask us what we are so happy about. Why are you smiling so much? How is it that you love so easily? People will come to us to find out what we have that makes us so full of joy. People will want whatever it is that we have. When people see us full of joy in a difficult situation, they will want to know why. When people see that we have hope when the world tells us we should feel hopeles

Psalm 104 The Lord’s Majesty (Part 9)Psalm 104:33-35 “I will sing my song to the Lord as long as I live! Every day, I will sing my praises to God. May you be pleased with every sweet thought I have about you, for you are the source of my joy and gladness. Now, let all the sinners be swept from the earth. But I will keep on praising you, my Lord, with all that is within me. My joyous, blissful shouts of “Hallelujah” are all because of you!We have spent the past eight episodes talking about the Lord’s majesty. We talked about all the parts of nature and how amazing God is to have created all of it. We talked about how powerful He is. Today, we are talking about praising the Lord. This is one of my favorite things to discuss and do. Praise is such an essential part of our relationship with the Lord. There have been many times when I have asked the Lord what has helped me grow so much closer to Him, and he always replies, praise, you praise me so often.If we want to grow closer to the Lord, it helps to let Him know how much we appreciate all He has done and continues to do for us. God loves it when we show our appreciation to Him. It is so easy to take Him for granted if we are not careful because there are so many things He does for us that we don’t even see. It is easy to be grateful to the Lord when He saves us from the dangers we know about, the ones we can see. However, what about all the dangers God has prevented from harming us before seeing them?The verse begins with, “I will sing my song to the Lord as long as I live! Every day, I will sing my praises to God.” I hope I can say the same. I hope every day I take time to sing praises to the Lord. He does so much for us. The Lord has protected my family from some pretty scary things. I have had two kids who overdosed on drugs, and yet both are still living with no lasting effects. Our family was falling apart, and the Lord put it back together. I can’t even count the number of times we needed something to work out, and God arranged the solution perfectly. God deserves my praise, and I hope I never forget that!Next, the verse says, “May you be pleased with every sweet thought I have about you, for you are the source of my joy and gladness.” This is expressing a sentiment I think we all have. We all want the Lord to be pleased with us. I also like how the verse reminds us that the Lord is the source of our joy and gladness. This means we can have joy no matter our circumstances. Happiness and joy are two different things. Happiness is usually based on our circumstances. If something good and fun is happening, we are generally happy. However, Joy is different. I love Rick Warren, the author of A Purpose Driven Life's definition of Joy. He says, “Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright, and the determined choice to praise God in every situation.”Let’s look at this definition a bit more closely. First, it says joy is the settled assurance that God controls all the details of my life. Can you see how we can have more joy when we realize God controls all the details? Everything is not up to me. I don’t have to be perfect. I don’t have to get it all right. God is in control, not me. Then, it says the quiet confidence that, ultimately, everything will be alright. Can you see how it would be possible to have joy in a difficult situation if you knew that everything would be alright in the end? Things might be crappy right now, but ultimately, eventually, things will be alright, and that makes the joy in the hard times possible. The last part of it ties right in with the verse of the day. It ends with the determined choice to praise God in every situation.Did you know you get to choose whether to praise the Lord? Praising the Lord doesn’t have to be based on your feelings. There may be times when you are in the middle of something really difficult and you don’t feel like praising the Lord, yet you can choose to praise Him anyway. You could be in a period of dryness with prayer or under spiritual attack, and you don’t want to praise the Lord. Yet this is a great time to praise the Lord because it can lift you out of both situations. Praising the Lord when you are under spiritual attack from the enemy is a great way to make the enemy flee. Evil spirits will not stick around when you are proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ. They hate that name. Praising the Lord can bring you joy when you least expect it.Today’s verse ends with, “Now, let all the sinners be swept from the earth. But I will keep on praising you, my Lord, with all that is within me. My joyous, blissful shouts of “Hallelujah” are all because of you!” The person who wrote this Psalm asks for all the sinners to be swept form the earth. This would be nice, except that we are all sinners. I am unsure who wrote this and if they had the extraordinary gift of not being a sinner, but I believe that rig

Psalm 104 The Lord’s Majesty (Part 8)Psalm 104:31-32 “May God’s glorious splendor endure forever! May the Lord take joy and pleasure in all that he has made. For the earth’s overseer has the power to make it tremble; just a touch of his finger and volcanoes erupt as the earth shakes and melts.Wow, this verse has a lot of powerful language that helps to visualize what the verse is saying. First, it says, “May God’s glorious splendor endure forever!” God’s splendor is displayed so often when we look at nature. When we slow down and take the time to admire nature, there is no way we can deny God’s splendor. Look at the beauty of the sunrise and sunset. Look at all the beautiful flowers and trees. Look at the birds and all the animals. Even if you don’t find some animals beautiful, you must admire how God created them to work together. Each one has its purpose and its place in the world and in the food chain. It is truly remarkable.Next, the verse says, “May the Lord take joy and pleasure in all that he has made.” I hope this is the case. I hope God looks down on the world and takes pleasure in it. I know we have messed many things up, and He probably is not a fan of all of that. However, I hope He can at least enjoy the parts He made that we have not messed up yet. There is still so much beauty and majesty in the world. I have a friend who is on a cruise right now, and the other day, she visited Iceland and said it was beautiful! There is so much to see in this world, it is impossible to see all of it.Then the verse says, “For the earth’s overseer has the power to make it tremble; just a touch of his finger and volcanoes erupt as the earth shakes and melts.” This part of the verse serves as a stark reminder of the power of our Lord. With just one touch of His finger, He could make volcanoes erupt, and the earth shake. Yet, we know God wouldn’t even have to touch it; He could make anything He wants with His voice. God spoke the whole world into existence. He can certainly speak other things into existence.We can look at this line in the verse in two ways. We can view it as something to worry about. We can read that verse and get scared that God could reach out and touch a volcano, and it would erupt. We could fear that God will get mad at us and do something like this. I mean, if we are honest with ourselves, we have been taking God out of more and more of our lives. We have done our best to take Him out of the school, the government, and most places. That can’t feel good to Him. I can’t imagine He is looking down upon us and thinking we are doing great things right now, especially in this country.It's important to remember that not everyone is turning away from God. Many good people are doing good things, and I am sure that pleases the Lord. There are people fighting to include God more in schools and the government. However, it's also true that many are doing terrible things, not just to God but to one another. Boston held a Satanic Conference this past year, and I doubt that made God happy. However, God promised after the flood with Noah that He would not do that again. This promise of mercy is a source of comfort and reassurance for us all.The second way we can look at this part of the verse is to recognize the power that God has and to apply that to our lives. If God has the power to reach out and touch a volcano, and it erupts, then what could He do in your circumstance? Could he make a way for you to pay your rent and car payments? Could He heal that cancer or that sore back? Could He take care of your tenant who is not paying rent or fix your car that needs to be fixed? We can look at this verse and realize that the power of God has no limits. He can do ANYTHING!Once we realize this, once we truly believe this in the depths of our hearts, then we start praying bigger prayers. Once we realize there is no limit to God’s power, we start to ask for the things we really need. We start to ask for our loved ones to be healed, even though the doctor said there isn’t a way. We ask for a car because ours just died and we need a car to get to work to pay our bills. We ask for supernatural provisions because we know that we do not have enough money in our account to pay our bills or enough food in our cabinets to feed our family.Sometimes, we look at the faith of those who live in other countries, and we are so envious. We wish we could have the faith they have. They trust the Lord so much, and we feel like we would give anything to trust the Lord that much. However, I have discovered that they trust the Lord that much because they truly need Him. They know they can’t feel their family on their own. They know they are powerless without Him. They can’t save their children. They don’t have the medicine we have here in the United States. Their trust in God is necessary because life would be much harder if they didn’t believe.I know my parents love the Lord, and listening to their stories in High School and meeting up

Witness Wednesday #118 More PopWe (Healing)Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today I chose four testimonies from the Healing Category. I know so many people who are praying for a miraculous healing right now. Oftentimes, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we hear others tell their story it helps us to see we are not alone. When we see that others were healed it gives us hope that if God could heal them then He can heal us too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that you and your loved ones could be healed too!Savannah: This story isn’t about me, but my brother. It was August of 2020 when he was admitted to the hospital with COVID. We were told right from the beginning that it didn’t look good. What followed was a long battle for his life. He needed a form of life-support that had extremely limited availability. He needed so much blood. His wife and children couldn’t come to see him. At one point, his heart stopped for 8.5 minutes. The only thing we could do was pray. It was nearly spring when he finally went home to his family. He’s alive, and nobody can deny that a miracle has taken place. We prayed without ceasing, and God has answered our prayers.Deborah: I grew up in an extremely dysfunctional family. I wasn’t allowed to listen to music, watch animated movies, or basically like any food or activities that my father did not like. I was often told that if I asked for help I was bothering people, that I was stupid, and that a “good guy” would never like me so I would have to settle for a “bad one.”I’ve gone to counseling for awhile and with God’s help, I have begun to heal in many ways. However, there was one thing that I had not been able to do and that was to let myself cry. Crying when I was young was dangerous and was always met with the words, “Jesus doesn’t love you if you cry.” Intellectually, I knew this wasn’t true and that it was okay to cry but it didn’t feel safe. I had taught myself not to cry for so long that I wasn’t sure if I could. It was as if the tears were broken.Last night, I was at the concert in Gadsden, AL, and I began to feel emotional as I listened to dad jokes and as Matthew West talked about being a girl dad. Memories of my childhood and the things I was told began to pop into my mind. Still I did not cry. I sat on the front row wondering if anyone could tell that I was fighting tears. Then something changed. John 3:16 was read and everyone was told to insert their own name. As I was fighting tears, I was saying the words “God loves me.”Suddenly I didn’t just know that intellectually it is okay to cry, I knew it in my heart. God loves me even when I cry. During the next song, I felt something on my face and I reached up and there was a tear. For the first time in probably thirty years I was letting myself cry and I felt safe while doing it. I am not who my family told me that I am. I am a child of God. I am safe in his arms and loved when I’m happy and smiling and even when I’m sad and crying.Kathleen: Not the healing I wanted…thank goodness, God knew better what I needed. In late 2016 and 2017 I was suffering from a crippling case of Bi-Polar disorder.My doctor prescribed me several different antidepressants, however, all of them left me with feelings of deep depression and high anxiety. By mid-January, my husband and I agreed to discontinue all medication and look for a more holistic treatment. I was on antidepressants for a total of SIX WEEKS when I began the withdrawal process. By mid-April, I was finally feeling free from the effects of the medication and 30 pounds lighter. My anxiety was greatly reduced and my depression was almost a non-issue. Then a week later, after a nice hot soak in the tub, I started experiencing weird “pins and needles” in my left leg, from the knee to my ankle. I tried rubbing, slapping it, walking around the house-nothing worked and I ended up going to bed hours later with the buzz still going strong.Within a month, the buzz had moved to my entire left side, from the neck down. Another month down the road and it was on my right side also. Trips to my doctor, the neurologist, MRI, CAT scan, EEG, EMG proved fruitless- except now I had a name. Spontaneous Paresthesia. You know when your foot falls asleep and in the “waking up” process you get the feeling of pins and needles? By the middle of June, paresthesia was affecting my entire body. One day, while working around the house with my husband, I became completely unglued when I started feeling my stomach, intestines, internal organs, all buzzing. Everywhere I have nerve endings I felt buzzing. By July, 2017, I felt like I had bugs crawling in my

Psalm 104 The Lord’s Majesty (Part 7)Psalm 104:27-30 “All the creatures wait expectantly for you to give them their food as you determine. You come near and they all gather around, feasting from your open hands, and each is satisfied from your abundant supply. But if you were to withhold from them and turn away, they all would panic. And when you choose to take away their breath, each one dies and returns to the dust When you release your Spirit-Wind, life is created, ready to replenish life upon the earth.”The Psalms are so beautiful. If you have always wanted to start reading the Bible but have no idea where to start, may I suggest the Psalms? In today’s verse, we hear about how the creatures wait expectantly for God to give them their food. It says they all gather around Him and feast from His open hand. Every one of them is satisfied with God’s abundant supply. There are a couple of things just in the first few sentences.First, it says all the creatures wait expectantly for God to give them their food. Are we included in this? I mean, it does say “all the creatures.” Yet, are we waiting expectantly? Do we know for sure that God will provide all that we need? I think sometimes we pray, and yet we don’t expect to see results because we aren’t really sure results are even possible. For instance, Yesterday I prayed over a woman who has breast cancer. She is starting chemo today. I wonder if she expected to be healed when we prayed over here. I wonder if she was expecting big things. I know with cancer it is hard to test out and see if you are healed. You usually won’t notice anything until you go to a doctor's when they do some test. I wonder if that makes it hard to have expectant faith.When I first started praying over people for physical healing, I thought I had expectant faith, yet I was afraid to ask people how they were feeling or if they were feeling any manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I was scared to ask because I wasn’t sure what to do if they said no. Since taking the Encounter Ministries class, I learned that often the miracle doesn’t take place until the person steps out in faith an tests to see if they still have pain or if they could do something now that they couldn’t do before. Like in the story of the man with the withered hand. This story can be found in 3 out of the 4 Gospels. I will read the account from Luke’s Gospel. This takes place in Luke 6:6-11.“ On another sabbath, he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath so that they might find an accusation against him. 8 Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” He got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?” After looking around at all of them, he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.”The man’s hand was restored after he stretched it out. He had to have expectant faith to stretch out his hand. Jesus had to have expectant faith to ask the man to stretch out his hand. We need to have expectant faith, too. It is not just about healing, although that is important, it’s about everything. We need to expect that God will provide for us just like He does the other creatures. We need to come to Him believing that He will answer our prayers and He will provide all we need.Next, it says, "They all gather around, feasting from your open hands, and each is satisfied from your abundant supply.” I like this sentence for two reasons. The first is because it says they were feasting from God’s open hand. Can you picture that? Can you picture being so close to the Lord that you are eating out of His open hands? That would be amazing!! I also love when it says that each is satisfied from your abundant supply. We tend to have a scarcity mindset. We think that there is not enough to go around. We worry there won’t be enough money to pay all the bills. We worry there won’t be enough food for all the people. We worry if we ask God for something small He won’t have anything left for something big when it comes along.However, this verse reminds us that God is one of abundance. He has more than enough of everything we need for each one of us. He has more than enough provisions, more than enough love, more than enough grace, more than enough mercy. God has more than enough. Don’t be afraid to come to Him with expectant faith and ask Him for whatever it is. The next part talks about how God has the power to take life away and the power to give life. The verse says that if God were to turn away from the creatures, they would panic. Is this us, too? Do we panic when we think God has turned away from us? God never leaves us. He doesn’t tu

Psalm 104 The Lord’s Majesty (Part 6)Psalm 104:24-26 “O Lord, what an amazing variety of all you have created! Wild and wonderful is this world you have made while wisdom was there at your side. This world is full of so many creatures, yet each belongs to you! And then there is the sea! So vast! So wide and deep—swarming with countless forms of sea life, both small and great. Trading ships glide through the high seas. And look! There are the massive whales bounding upon the waves.”It feels so good to be back! Please explain if you have been wondering where and why I have been doing replays. I tested positive for Covid two weeks ago. I woke up and completed a new episode, but I wasn’t feeling well. I took a COVID at-home test, and it was positive. I went back to bed and slept for most of the following week. After my 10-day quarantine in my room, I went on a family vacation with my parents and many siblings. It was a lot of fun, and I am so thankful to the Lord for getting me better in time to enjoy that! I am happy to be back writing new episodes. This week, we will finish up the series on Psalm 104.I like this verse because it praises the Lord for being so amazing. I believe the Lord loves it when we praise Him. Who doesn’t want a little acknowledgment? It begins with, “O Lord, what an amazing variety of all you have created!” Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever taken the time to slow down and look at all the nature around you? Have you ever really thought about the variety of things the Lord has created? He created humans, all the animals, all the vegetation, all the rock formations, the seas, the skies, the stars. When we take the time to think about it, the variety of things He has created really is amazing.There are 400,000 types of flowering plant species all around the world. Over 1.5 million living animal species have been described, of which around 1.05 million are insects, over 85,000 are molluscs, and around 65,000 are vertebrates. It has been estimated there are as many as 7.77 million animal species on Earth. There are around 1,097 different vegetables around the world. God didn’t need to give us all of that. We don’t need that much variety. Plants provide us with food, oxygen, and energy. However, we don’t need 400,000 different types of flowers. However, God wanted to give us variety. We also don’t need over a million different kinds of animals, but God gave them to us anyway. Let’s take a minute and appreciate all God did for us.The verse says, “Wild and wonderful is this world you have made while wisdom was at your side.” This verse reminds us that God did not accidentally create anything. He knew what He was doing, and each thing He made had a purpose. He thought about everything. He didn’t leave anything out. He made sure that every living thing had something to eat. This includes the plants, the insects, the animals, everything. Take a minute and imagine how much thought it would take to not only create all that God created but also to make sure they had the right environment to live in, the right resources, and the food they needed to survive. It really is remarkable.Next, it says, “This world is full of so many creatures, yet each belongs to you!” Each creature on this earth belongs to the Lord our God. The animals don’t have to worry about where their food will come from. They know they are creatures of God and that He will take care of them. We are also God’s creatures, and He will take care of us too! We don’t have to worry either. Worry is something that comes pretty naturally to most of us, and yet it is not necessary. This morning in Philippians 4:19, I read, “I am convinced that my God will fully satisfy every need you have, for I have seen the abundant riches of glory revealed to me through Jesus Christ. This was Paul talking to the Philippians, but He is speaking to us too! God will take care of all we need. He has abundant riches, and he wants to shower upon us. He has so much glory, grace, love, forgiveness, and mercy. We don’t have any reason to be anxious; God will take care of all of our worries!Next, it says, “And then there is the sea! So vast! So wide and deep—swarming with countless forms of sea life, both small and great.” This is just reiterating the vastness of the Lord’s creation. Think of how many different sea creatures there are. There are known to be more than 260,000 different species living in the seas, and we know that there are many yet to be discovered. Some scientists believe there are more than a million species in the seas. How amazing is that? Each one of them has everything they need to survive. I wonder if it would be helpful to remind ourselves of this when we get anxious. Hundreds of thousands of species live in the seas, including species of plants. There are millions of species of animals, and God provides for all of them. If he can provide for the plants and animals, how much more will he provide for us?The verse ends with, “Trading

An Unexpected HandstandJeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”This is a great scripture verse to memorize or to put up somewhere where you will see it often. Sometimes it does not feel like God is for us. Actually sometimes it can seem like He is against us. We can go through long periods of life where it feels like everything is against us. This is when it is good to have this scripture verse to look at to remind you that God is for you. Someone in my prayer group asked for prayers for a friend the other day. She said this couple is really struggling to see God’s plan in everything that is going on. The couple has been trying to have a baby for a long time. The wife has had several miscarriages and is really starting to wonder if she will ever have a baby. They turned their struggle over to God and they asked Him for help. They asked what they could do and for God to reveal anything that might be getting in the way of them having a baby. The other day they found out that she was pregnant and they are very much praying this is the time they get to carry their baby to term.When you are in one of these really difficult stretches of time, it can be really hard sometimes not to lose faith. You may ask yourself, what is even the point of continuing to believe when it seems like God has forgotten about you. I promise He is still with you, even in this hard time. If you continue reading after this passage in Jeremiah 29:12-14 it says, “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” The couple that was trying to have a baby, they continued to pray, even though they didn’t understand why this was all happening. They continued to seek where God was in all of this and they found Him.I know that depending on your situation and how long it has been going on, it may be difficult to pray. You may want to, but just aren’t sure what to say at this point. Or, maybe you feel like you have been praying for so long that God is not listening anymore. I assure you, He is still listening. He always listens to us and wants good for us. The Lord is always truthful and always keeps His promises. So, when He says that His plans for us are to prosper and not for harm, then He means it. If you are struggling to pray, reach out and ask a friend, co-worker, priest, minister, family member, anyone to pray for you, maybe even to pray with you. It says in Matthew 18:20 “ For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”There is power in praying with fellow believers. If you are praying for something and not seeing the results that you wanted to see, ask others to pray with you. I went to a healing service the other night and instead of having one or two people pray over those wanting healing, the priest had everyone sitting around that person put their hands on the one needing healing and pray for them. It was very powerful to see all the people that needed healing surrounded by fellow believers praying for them. God wants good things for you. He wants you to have a future and to have hope. So, why don’t we, what gets in our way of seeing this future that God wants us to have? There are several things that can get in the way. Sometimes, we get in our own way. Even though we know how God is calling us to live, we deviate from that because it is really hard or because it is not the norm in society today. Living the way Jesus wants us to live can go against what we are taught in society. We can look foolish when we follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever had a still small voice in your head that was telling you to do something that didn’t make sense at the time? Did you listen to it?The Holy Spirit is inside each of us and He tries to guide us to the right path. But sometimes we can’t see where He is leading us. Sometimes He asks us to do things and we don’t because they seem crazy or we don’t understand where it will get us. I heard a story in a book I read called “The Cross and the Switchblade” by David Wilkerson about a woman who had learned to listen to that voice inside her. One morning she was heading out to work when she felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to bring her fuzzy socks to work with her. She thought this was a very strange request, but since she had learned to listen, she went and grabbed her fuzzy socks and threw them in her purse. When she got to work, there was a prostitute on her front step and she was passed out. She brought her inside and warmed her up. They got to talking and this woman asked the prostitute if she could have anything, what would it be. Do you know what she said? Fuzzy socks. The woman was so surprised and gave her fuzzy socks to the prostitute. The prostitute was so happy and said, “They even match my outfit.” There is another story I heard from a person in a le

If You Only Knew The Power Living Inside Of You…Matthew 8: 16 “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.”I was talking with a friend last night and we got on the topic of the Holy Spirit. I love to talk about the Holy Spirit because I am still in awe over the whole thing. I am in awe that God gave us the Holy Spirit. I am in awe that we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. I wish each and every single baptized person on planet earth knew how powerful they were with the Holy Spirit living inside of them. The verse above says, “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed al the sick.” Jesus was able to chase away demons with a word. He was able to heal the sick just by saying be healed. Actually there are many different ways that Jesus healed people. If you read the many healing stories in the Bible you will see there wasn’t just one way that Jesus healed the sick. Sometimes he said “be healed” sometimes he just told them to do something like “take up your mat and go.” Other times he did a physical action like when he put mud on a blind mans eyes or put his fingers in a deaf man’s ears. I think there was so much variety so that Jesus could show us it is not what we do that heals people, it is who we ask. We come to God in faith and He does the healings. I was talking to my friend last night because we were doing an inner healing session. Part of the process I was using for inner healing was to renounce the lies that we tell ourselves. I was explaining that we can do that at anytime. She can do that on her own even when I am not on the phone with her. When she starts to get anxious she can sit down and ask Jesus to help her figure out what specific lies she is telling herself. For instance, my car will break down and I won’t be able to get to work. Something bad will happen to me if I go out on my own. My children might get hurt if I let them do what they want. I am not sure what it might be for you. We all have things we tell ourselves that are not true. Things like I am unworthy of love, I am unloved, I am stupid, I am a bad driver. Whatever it is that you are telling yourself, you can renounce that lie once you realize what that lie is. If you aren’t sure if you are telling yourself any lies, take a minute and think about what that inner voice is saying to you. Maybe take a minute and ask God to reveal any lies you are telling yourself. Once you have the lies it is easy to renounce them. It is a simple sentence, “In the name of Jesus I renounce the lie, and then you state the lie.” For instance, “In the name of Jesus I renounce the lie that I am not good enough, I am not pretty enough, I am not enough.” Ideally you would repeat the sentence for each lie. I just named a few so you would get the idea. Once you renounce the lie you can ask God to replace that lie with the truth. It is amazing what you will hear when you ask God what truth He wants to give you in place of that lie. You will see just how much God loves you. You will see a tenderness that you probably didn’t know was there. My friend was saying that although renouncing lies is so simple, she didn’t know she could do that. I explained that she was not alone! So many of us don’t know we can do that. I definitely didn’t before enrolling in the Encounter Ministries class I am taking. Another part of the inner healing session is to renounce any evil spirits. For instance, the spirit of anxiety, the spirit of depressions, the spirit of unworthiness. When Jesus sent the 12 apostles out to spread the word that the Kingdom of God was at hand He gave them the power to do signs and wonders. When He sent out the 72 He did the same. Jesus made us all, each one of us part of the great commission. He tasked us all with spreading the news of Him and all the things that happened in the Gospel. He wants us to make sure that every person on the planet has had a chance to hear about Him. To do this He gave us all the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit we have the power living inside of us to cast out demons in Jesus’ name. We have the power to heal the sick in Jesus’ name. Well, we are not healing the sick but God is healing the sick through us when we are brave enough to step our in faith and to ask. Did you know demons don’t have any power of you unless you give it to them? It’s true, you have to consent to them being there. Now, it’s not as if they ask you and you say yes or no. They find ways in through the sins we commit and often times we didn’t know that we opened a door or that we let them in. However, whether we knew we were doing it or not, if they find an open door they enter. However, they can’t stay once you tell them to leave. You, yes you, have the power to tell them to leave. If you notice you have a persistent feeling, such as anxiety, depression, worry, anger, irritability, l

Today’s witnesses come from the bethel.com/testimonies website. I found the first testimony because I have a friend who is struggling with Fibromyalgia. I believe that Jesus can heal even chronic diseases that have no human cure and, I know testimonies build faith. I searched specifically for a testimony about a miraculous healing of Fibromyalgia so my friend would know it is possible and hopefully she would keep asking and believing she can be healed too. On that same website I saw the second two witnesses, which are actually the same event just from two different people who were involved. The second witness is about curing of cerebral palsy. If you know anyone who needs a healing pass this witness Wednesday along to them and maybe it will give them the hope they need to believe that God can heal them too!Healing of FibromyalgiaJanuary 5, 2021A woman is healed of the pain and symptoms of fibromyalgia.When I was only 12, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I have heard that about 85 % of women with fibromyalgia have had some kind of severe childhood trauma, and that was the case with me.I had it for 17 years. I could hardly walk or stand. My pain level was ten. I was on 16 medications, 86 pills a day for six or seven years. I received very limited help. In those 17 years, I probably received prayer about 700 times. I had seen other healings. I believed in healing.On December 6, 2009, I was at a church service call for prayer, but I wasn’t going to go up. I told the Lord I knew He could heal me, but I didn’t have the energy to hope that He would.A friend said to me, “You are going up for prayer.”I said, “No, I’m not.”My friend added, “Either you are going up yourself, or I’m dragging you up there.”I went up, and they laid hands on me, and I knew 95% of the pain had already gone down. I don’t know if they got two or three words out of their mouth before all the pain left.Before that, I went back to my doctor, who was a Muslim and asked to be taken off all my medications. He was skeptical. I told him I believed in Jesus, and Jesus had healed me.On my medical chart, it says “spontaneous remission.” Those words don’t actually exist for fibromyalgia. Doctors are limited in what they can say because it doesn’t go away for them. There are pressure points for fibromyalgia, and they were not there anymore for me.Two first-year BSSM students experienced a miracle when one prayed for the other, and breakthrough from a lifelong affliction resulted.Karina’s StoryOn December 1, 2022, I went to our activation, Healing and Pastoral Care. The leader, Roy, was talking about The Chosen, a Season 3 episode in which a disciple spoke to Jesus and wanted healing, and Jesus said He wanted to heal him but it would glorify Him more if he stayed with his infirmity. That was uncomfortable for me because I really liked The Chosen and did not want to criticize it, but that scene was disturbing to me, too. As we discussed this in our class, we decided, “Let’s pray the actor gets healed!” He has cerebral palsy, and we thought that maybe they wrote that in the script because of that. We said we did not want to change our theology according to our experience, but to model our theology to fit who God is. We prayed for that actor to be healed so they would have to change the storyline.We came to worship afterward. I usually don’t go to the front, but Payton (my friend) always does. That day, I was in the front with her. I turned around and said to her, “Healing on your body!” Payton said, “Yeah!” She receives so easily. I thought, Maybe I can be a little more intentional. I turned to her and said, “Hey, we just talked about cerebral palsy this morning. And we prayed. Can I pray for you?” I had already prayed for her before because she had told me she had cerebral palsy.I just put my hand on her and prayed for realignment in her body and for every cell to vibrate to the frequency of heaven. I asked her to test it out. To be honest, I was expecting, but not expecting at the same time. She straightened and said, “Oh, my back just cracked.” She held her arms out and said, “Are my arms the same length?” Her right arm was about an inch shorter than her left arm before. She started crying because she realized they were the same length. I started crying, too.I asked her to try out her leg which would always hurt. I understood that her whole life, her foot would spasm every time she stretched it. It would hurt when she stood on it the whole day, and she would drag her foot a little behind her at the end of the day. She took her foot out of her slippers and stretched her leg out, but it did not spasm or hurt. She kept crying. I said, “You have to go up on stage and share!”The next day, I thought, Is she still healed? I was happy I experienced this, but I wanted it to be permanent. I texted her and asked if she was still healed, and she said yes.Her brain is now able to control her right side properly. I was so overwhelmed with joy and so honored to be th

Backseat DriverPhil 4:8 “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.”“Peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Peace that transcends all understanding. Have you ever had this? Have you ever felt at peace in a situation that was not peaceful? Have you ever had peace about something that you didn’t understand? There are so many things to be anxious about, especially in the world today. However, God can give us a peace that transcends all understanding if we ask him too. If we trust that he is in control. We don’t have to worry about everything because we are lucky and we have Him taking care of everything and working all things for our good. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” God is working for our good if we just let him work. If we just rely on him to come through for us. There are some situations that seem impossible. I get that. Some of you may be thinking that God offer’s peace to some, but not to others. Maybe you haven’t felt that peace before and you are wondering if God has forgotten about you. I assure you, he has not. God is offering his peace to all who want it. The thing is, we need to accept it. We need to step out in faith and hand our troubles, no matter how big or small they are, to God and let him take the wheel.There is a song by TobyMac called Backseat Driver. It is a really great illustration of how we tend to want to take control back from God. God wants to go through this life with us and He wants to be the driver. He wants us to rely on him to get us to where we are going. There is one part of this song that says: “I'm putting my trust in You, putting my trust in You. It’s a little bit overdue, but I'm putting my trust in You” Isn’t this so true! We put our trust in God, when we have no choice, when we tried everything we could to fix it on our own and nothing has worked. Then, finally, when all else has failed we put our trust in God. We finally realize that nothing we have done has fixed our situation and so we turn over control to God. What if we could begin to do this sooner? What if we did this at the first sign of trouble? Imagine how great it would be to save all that time that we usually spend trying to fix things ourselves and the countless hours we spend worrying about things? Imagine how nice it would be if we could turn everything over to God, before we waste that time. There is another part in the song that says, “Silly me, silly me, aye. Reverting back to my old ways. Them got to be in control days. Jump before I pray, Yo, I am heading out the doorway. But I want Your way, Yahweh.” Does this sound familiar? Have you ever found yourself stuck in a situation you didn’t want to be in? Have you ever found yourself wondering how you got there and promising that the next time you had a decision to make, you would pray about it first? And you did, at least for awhile, but then things were going good again. Everything seemed to be working out and you started spending less and less time in prayer? What if we consulted our heavenly Father before making any of our decisions? What if we took a few minutes at the beginning of our day and asked God what he wanted us to do that day? Reverting back to our old ways is something that we all do. I have heard a lot of my mentors say over the years that “it is not a knowing problem, it is a doing problem.” Usually when we revert back to our old ways it is not because we don’t know better. We usually know what is best for us and what produces the best results. However, we tend to slip back into doing what is easiest, or what comes most naturally instead of what is best. Letting God take the wheel and lead us is the best way to go through life. He knows what is best for us and can save us so much time and pain. Often times we think we know what we want in life and we are upset when we don’t get it. In times like these, as hard as it is, it will help to remember that God is the driver. His ways are greater than our ways. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” If a door that you wanted to open, didn’t open, its because your heavenly father has something much better in store for you. It is not always easy to see that and I know in the moment of disappointment it is hard to remember. Think about when you were little and you wanted to watch tv, or eat the candy, or do something else that would not have been great for you and

Jesus is bigger than the FactsLuke 8:50 “While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore. Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”Pastor Steven Furtick gave an excellent sermon on this passage a few weeks ago. If you want to listen to it you can check it our on the Elevation with Steven Furtick Podcast. The title of the Episode is The Facts aren’t Final. Steven Furtick explores this passage in a lot more detail then I can do in this short amount of time as his podcast is close to an hour long. However, I really liked his messages surrounding this verse. There are usually several messages in his sermons. They are really good. The main message for this episode is revealed in the title, Facts are not Final. This verse is about a man who went to see Jesus because his daughter was dying. He found Jesus and he fell down on his knees and asked Jesus to come to his house and to save his daughter. Then in Luke 8:50 it says, “While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore. Hearing this Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” Can you imagine being in this circumstance? Have you heard those words before, “Just believe and she, he, they will be healed?” This can be so hard. It can be so hard to believe on a good day, but when you are faced with facts that don’t give a lot of room for hope. This man just received news that his little girl died. Not that she was sick, but that she had died. Imagine how hard it was for this man to believe. It says that Jairus was a synagogue leader. They synagogue leaders at the time of Jesus did not know what to make of Jesus. Even in this passage they refer to him as the teacher, no the son of God, not the healer, not the resurrected Christ, the teacher. Jairus must have wondered if Jesus was a healer because he did go to Jesus and ask Him to save his daughter. I wonder if he believed that he could heal his daughter or if this was just what some may call a “Hail Mary” attempt. A “Hail Mary” in case you don’t know is when you try something that you are pretty sure will not work, but you don’t have any other chance so you give it one last shot anyway. Hail Mary is actually a great name for that type of circumstance because she is definitely someone that we can rely on when all else has failed. The facts of this case seemed bleak. Jairus wanted Jesus to save his daughter but according to the facts Jesus did not get there in time and his daughter died. Jesus was on his way to Jairus’ house when he got stopped by a large crowd of people. One of those people was the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years and no doctors could help her. She went up to Jesus in the crowd and touched his cloak and was immediately healed. Jesus stopped to acknowledge this and while He was still talking to this woman, who’s story is amazing and deserves a whole episode of her own, Jairus got new that his daughter had died. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I would be super angry at this point. I feel as the my grief would have over come me and I would have started to yell at Jesus. I would have told Him my daughters death was all His fault. If he hadn’t have stopped to talk to that lady, my daughter might still be alive. Can you picture the scene? It seems when we are angry and hurt we lash out. It makes us feel better, even if just for a moment, if we can blame someone else. This is a normal reaction, however, there is no mention of any such reaction from Jairus. Jesus hears the man from Jairus’ house tell Jairus that his daughter died and Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” The question is, “How do we believe when we are faced with facts that dispute that faith?” How does this man believe that his daughter will be ok when he was just told that she was dead? Do you have a circumstance in your life where the facts don’t leave room for much hope? Do you have a situation where the facts tell you that there is no way out? For instance, maybe you have too many bills and not enough money. Maybe you have a diagnosis and the doctors are saying there is no cure for. Maybe your child is facing a situation and you don’t see a way out of it for them. Maybe your marriage is in trouble and your spouse has said there is no way to fix it. In all of these circumstances, the facts say that your situation is beyond hope. The facts say that you can’t change they things. If a doctor says you have a terminal illness, that is a fact. You can’t dispute that fact on merit, as you do in fact have an illness that there is no human cure for. If your spouse has made up their mind that divorce is the only way, then it will take divine intervention to save that marriage. So, how do we have fai

I Have Heard Your Prayers And Seen Your TearsIsaiah 38:5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.”I thought I would take a minute at the beginning of this episode to explain how I get the scripture verses that I use at the beginning of each episode. Every Thursday I attend a Catholic Charismatic prayer group. During our meetings we begin with a 5-10 minute teaching, then we go into praise and worship. Then we go into speaking in tongues and quiet time where we are silent and listen for anything the Lord wants to share with us, often times that will include scripture verses. I use the scripture verses from these meetings as I figure if God is sharing them with us, they are probably good ones to share with you. This morning, however, I am leading prayer group and I did not want to use a scripture verse that had just been used at the meetings. So, I prayed this morning that God would give me a verse. Now I have been part of this group for 3-4 years now. Every week God shows up and shares with us. And yet, I am constantly surprised when he does. Or maybe I’m not surprised He shows up, but how He shows up. This morning I was not sure how I would know what scripture to use. I thought I would maybe just open the Bible and pick one, or maybe one from my scripture writing would jump out at me. I was unclear and if I am honest, I am not sure I fully believed that God would show me what scripture to use. Then, right before I finished my prayer time the words Isaiah 38:5 flashed in my mind. It was as if it was written in the air. I could see it plain as day. This has never happened to me before. God has spoken to me, but not that plainly.I share this story with you because I want you to know that God is there for you. He hears your prayers. Just as it says in Isaiah 38:5 “‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.” Sometimes we wonder if God is really listening. When I read this verse this morning my first thought was of a friend of mine. She is really struggling right now and I felt like God was talking to her when He said “I have heard your prayers and seen your tears.” Then I got to thinking and I actually have several friends that are struggling right now. Struggling with some really difficult issues. For all of you that are struggling right now, I want you to know that you are not alone. Life is difficult for so many people right now. On top of all that we went through over this past year, you have had added levels of difficulty. I am so sorry that life has been so hard. We have had many difficulties this past year as well. Remote learning was a challenge. The isolation from friends was really tough on our oldest son. It has been a crazy year. And yet, I can see God was with me through all of it. What if you can’t see that? What if you don’t know where God was in all of it? You can be someone who loves God, someone who has a close relationship with God, and also you can question where God is and what his plan is. King David was anointed, he had a very close relationship with God, and yet even He questioned God. In Psalm 13:1-3 “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” Have you had these thoughts before? Have you, or are you going through something, and you are wondering how long you have to endure the suffering before God will save you, before He will answer your prayers?If this is you first, I want to let you know that this is okay. Sometimes we can make our pain worse because on top of the pain of the situation, we feel guilty because we are questioning the Lord, or we are mad at the Lord. Sometimes our minds say things like, “If I were a good christian I would just trust God,” or “I’ve had a relationship with the Lord a long time, I shouldn’t be worried, or questioning.” God can handle our questioning and our anger. He is strong enough for anything you have for Him. He wants you to turn to Him in times of need. You are not the only person angry with God and questioning how long you will have to suffer. Trust me, there are many people in the same boat. Please let the guilt go. Please do not judge yourself for questioning. David questioned often, just read the psalms and you will see just how often, and yet God chose David’s lineage to bring forth the savior of the world. Second, I want you to know that this scripture verse is for you. God wants to talk directly to you right now when he says “I have heard your prayers, and seen your tears.” He is there with you, even when you can’t see Him or feel Him. He is there every moment of your life. I know it is a struggle sometimes, many times, to understand why you had to go thr

Where The Spirit Of The Lord Is, There Is Freedom2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”I saw this verse on Facebook today and thought it was a great one. I have been helping to lead a Life in the Spirit Seminar and each week we learn a little bit more about the Holy Spirit and about the beginning of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. There is a video teaching about different subjects and then one of our prayer group members gives a witness about how they have seen God working in their lives. I have really been learning a lot. Not just from the talks, but also from other people’s experience of how they have seen God in their life. The first week’s topic was God’s Love. The witness was about a woman who was told she couldn’t have children and yet had two healthy children. She was a woman who married the love of her life and even though the marriage ended, God was there with her through it all. He provided miracles all throughout her life small ones and big ones, like giving birth to her children when she was told she couldn’t have kids. This woman experienced a baptism of the Holy Spirit and she talks about how her life was changed after that. She had this love and closeness with the Lord that she never had before. She was filled with this sense of peace that although things weren’t always easy, she would be ok. God would be there with her through it all. The verse above says that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. This woman definitely experienced freedom for her worries.The second week the topic was salvation. The witness was about a woman who lost her father at a young age. He was only about 60 years old when he was hit be a teenager and killed. There was some speculation that the teen had been drinking but could not be proven. This woman could not forgive the teen. She was so angry that he took her father from his children and his grandchildren. She harbored this anger for 20 years. Forgiveness wasn’t even something she could think about. She went to grief counseling, and they recommended she write the teen a letter, but not send it. She couldn’t even think of doing this. Many years later a former coworker of hers lost her husband to a teen driving accident. My friend attended this wake and asked her former coworker how she was doing. The former coworker said she thought she was ready to write the teenage a letter of forgiveness, as it had been four months. My friend burst into tears and asked how she could forgive so soon as it had only been four months. My friend’s dad died 20 years ago and she still harbored feelings of unforgiveness. Her former coworker told her she needed to forgive him, for herself as much as for the boy. How could she expect God to forgive her if she didn’t forgive others. The Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways. If my friend hadn’t have ran into her former co-worker at this wake, who knows if she would have forgiven that young man. My friend didn’t even notice how much her unforgiveness had blocked her relationship with the lord. It took her another year to write the letter. When she read it out loud to her husband she felt so free. It was as if a huge weight she didn’t know she had been carrying had been lifted. It enabled her to have a closer and intimate relationship with God. She was finally free of the unforgiveness.Last night’s topic was New Life. It talked about how we have a new life when we accept the Holy Spirit into our lives and give Him permission to work in our lives. When we surrender to God, amazing things happen. For some, it is so hard to surrender everything. For others, it is easy to surrender everything to God, and yet, when things get tough they take it back and try to do it on their own. The witness for last night was about a member who was doing her best to be a good Catholic. She attended mass and her kids went to Catholic school. She talked about how her priorities once she got married were her husband, her kids and God. However, about 14 years ago her husband had heart trouble and was give 3-5 years to live. She was told his heart would just stop and it would be sudden death. She didn’t know what to do with this. He was her best friend and her whole world. How could she think about a future without him?She was upset with God and questioned what she did to deserve this. She allowed fear and anxiety to take over life. She begged God to save them from this medical prognosis. She cried out why have you forsaken me. There were many more years of hospital stays and ER visits. She felt as though God was waiting on her, but she didn’t know what to do. She started to go to daily mass and spent hours in the adoration chapel. One day she saw an advertisement for a Catholic Healing Service. She begged her husband to take her and he did. At this service she was taught about the power of the Holy Spirit and what can block us from the healing power of God and from hearing His voice. They w

IntroductionToday’s witness is from my new friend Bruce. Bruce found my podcast randomly, and when he heard the call for people to share their stories, he reached out to me through email and shared his story with me. I asked him if I could share it, and he said yes. Bruce has made a career for the past thirty years as a head scenic artist, art director, and designer in the professional theatre business. For the past five years, he has also had a studio on James St. N., where he produced his own artwork. He is known and loved by many in the community for his work teaching the PMC art class for over a decade, as well as a more recent class for seniors at the YWCA. This is his story of losing sight but finding a new depth of faith.BackstoryI’ve been a believing Christian since the age of ten, but at some point in the past few years, I began to notice a growing sense of spiritual restlessness. I felt like I never had the kind of spiritual life that you read and hear about. I always felt there could be a better experience. I wanted that closeness to God and that shower of blessings that the scriptures describe, but I always figured I was not worthy of it—or else I would have known it by now. A few years ago, pastor lane spoke about being “haunted by God.” This began happening to me. I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking someone was there. I was never afraid, even though it felt surreal or supernatural. It was as if someone was trying to tell me something, but no words were heard. Someone was there. It was the Holy Ghost haunting me. This was a good haunting. I was quite moved by this and began to pray for something to happen that would make me a better person and Christian. I asked myself what I would want from God as a spiritual blessing or gift if I had the chance. I decided that my greatest spiritual weakness was a lack of courage, so that is what I prayed for. I honestly believe that my answer came in the form of the trial I would soon go through. I learned that when you ask God to do something, you had better stand firm and be prepared. Spring 2016In the spring of 2016, I started to notice my eyesight slipping. It was harder to focus. I got new glasses prescribed, and by the time I picked them up, they failed to work for me. The doctor determined that I had low eye pressure. The doctor tried some treatments, but every treatment failed. Sometimes, my vision would return, only to fail again shortly afterward. I was coasting up and down with hopes and disappointment. Summer 2016In the summer of 2016, Pastor Lane was teaching a series of sermons from the Book of Job. This was never a favorite story of mine because I always looked at Job as someone with special favor from God. Each Sunday, I would take my seat on the balcony and listen to the woes of Job while at the same time in noticing that my sight was diminishing a little more each week. I’ve never been known to have a quick temper, but one night, lying in my bed, I felt a real anger at what was happening to me. I was never a person who got angry at God, but now I was asking God, “How could you let this happen to an artist?” I had just turned sixty-five. I was looking forward to launching into more painting, more teaching, and a rewarding time ahead. Instead, my retirement gift was blindness—received with some bitterness toward God. August 16, 2016Taking what I thought was the mature approach to my anger, I decided that anger was not the right path and that it would only lead to my own misery. As Christians, we are always taught to look for the good purpose in all things, including our troubles and trials. I struggled to see where there was any good in an artist losing his vision. I was at a dead end and could not imagine my life without sight or the ability to do my artwork. I was forced to challenge God. I prayed, “Lord, I know I can’t be angry at you about this. I don’t believe you would allow this to be cruel or to punish me. I do believe you must have some purpose in these awful circumstances you have placed me in. I am helpless and unable to understand any purpose for goodness here. Show me what you want me to know." August 17, 2016The next morning, as I was checking my email, I saw a message from a man I had worked with in previous years in the theatre business. I was a little surprised because I didn’t remember getting any messages from him before, so I was curious what he had to say. There was no text in the email, just an image of a stone tablet with the words “Psalm 73” carved into it. I had never known this man to talk about God or scripture, so this was a surprising message. At this time, my vision was poor but still good enough that I could read using a magnifying glass. I had a Bible in my studio, which Pastor Mike Mileski had given me. It was a special edition with beautiful abstract artwork and a very easy-to-read text. I read from it every day before I set to work on my painting. On this day, I decided to read Psalm 73, hopin

Honestly, I Think We Just Need Jesus!Acts 2:40 “And he testified with many other words and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”I chose this scripture verse today because where it says, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” There is a song that I have heard on the radio more and more recently, and these last few days, it is running repeat in my mind. I can’t seem to get it out of my head. I am not sure I want to get it out of my head as the words that are running through my head are Honestly, I think we need Jesus by Terrian. Since I can’t seem to shake this song, and then I read the verse above this morning, I think the Lord wants me to share it with you. I will place a link for the song in the show notes, as she does a much better job singing it than I do. I also love that she is young and yet can still see that we need more Jesus. I will go over the lyrics of the song with you today.The song starts with:I got a front-row seat to the madnessI pick up my phone every mornin' out of habitI've been fiendin' for the drama, yeah, I said itI'm addicted to the rush, need a medicHow many of us pick up our phones or turn on the news first thing when we wake up? How many of us want to know what is going on in the world before we even stop and spend our time with God? I use my phone for an alarm, so I would turn off my alarm, and then I would check my messages, emails, and Facebook before I would sit down with the Lord and spend time with Him. I have gotten better; now, I just check my messages, mostly to make sure my kids got home safely. Sometimes I still check my emails, but I am getting better and usually save that for later. I love how the songwriter points out that we usually pick up our phones out of habit. This isn’t just first thing in the morning. We do this all throughout the day. I bet we all spend more time than we would like on our phones. I also like how they bring our attention to the fact that we are “Fiendin’ for the drama” and “addicted to the rush.” It seems we are drawn to the conflict and the drama more than the good things that are happening. I don’t know if that is because we crave drama or because that is all the news tends to show us. Either way, there is good and bad going on in the world, and it is up to us to choose which we seek out and focus on.The song goes on to say:When I take a step back, I can see itAll the pain, all the fear we've been feelin'Losin' sight of the thing that we're needin'That we're needin’ This is a great reminder that sometimes we need to take a step back. When we do we see that we are focusing on all of our pain and fear that we are feeling instead of focusing on the one who can take all that pain and fear away. When we watch the news or listen to all that is going on in the world, we tend to get overwhelmed. We can also start to feel a sense of hopelessness. We can feel a sense that the world is going crazy, and there is nothing we can do about it. However, we are never hopeless because we are children of God, and we can always turn to Him, and He can save us. There is nothing too hard for God to handle. Next, the song says:Honestly, I think we just need JesusHonestly, I think we just need JesusHave we all gone mad? Have we lost our minds?What used to be wrong, we say that it's rightHonestly, I think we just need JesusThis is the part that gets stuck in my head. I can’t think of a truer statement. I can see how our country is falling apart because we keep removing God from more and more things. This country was founded with God. He was a part of the government; yes, Church and State were separate, and yet God and State weren’t. God was invited into the Constitution; he was invited into the Pledge of Allegiance. He was invited into our courtrooms. God was welcome everywhere. Now, it seems He is welcome nowhere. I also love how the song says, “Have we all gone mad? Have we lost our minds? What used to be wrong, we say that it’s right.” We have all thought this for a long time now and it is nice to hear it in a song so we know we aren’t the only ones who think it. This world does seem to have gone mad and it does seem like we are all losing our minds. Some of the things that seem to be ok in the world today still shock me. I think this song points out very real and honest questions. Have we all gone mad? Have we all lost our minds? Take a good long look in the mirrorSearch my heart and soul, make it clearerHelp me take your love, trade the bitterLeave it in the dust, help me leave it in the dust, Lord.I think it would be a great idea if we all stopped and took a good look in the mirror. What are we doing? Not what is the world doing, what are we doing? Are we staying true to God in this crazy world? Are we staying above all the drama and walking in the light of Christ? Are we being love and hope to everyone we meet? We are all called to be “little Christs” to all we meet. Are we doing so? Are we loving everyone, even those

Psalm 104 The Lord’s Majesty (Part 5)Psalm 104:19-23 “You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. You make darkness, and it is night when all the animals of the forest come creeping out. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they withdraw and lie down in their dens. People go out to their work and to their labor until the evening.”It just amazes me how perfectly everything in nature flows. Everything in the world doesn’t flow nicely because we have created many things that mess everything up. However, if we look at nature, we can’t help but be in awe of God’s majesty. Today’s verses start our talking about the moon and how we have seasons. What is even more incredible is that the seasons aren’t the same worldwide. There is a season for everyone. There are places you can go and leave the cold winters if you don’t like the cold. There are also places you can go to leave the heat if you are not a fan. Whatever type of weather you are looking for, there is somewhere on this planet called Earth that you can move to.Consider the sun, faithfully following its natural course. Each morning, it rises, and each evening, it sets as if it knows the perfect time. This, too, is a wonder. Each day brings a subtle change, a slight variation in the sun's stay. It's a testament to the ever-changing yet perfectly orchestrated nature of our world.Next, it says, “You make darkness, and it is night when all the animals for the forest come creeping out. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.” How great it is that the animals can hunt under the cover of night. They can come out while most humans are sleeping and get the whole night to themselves. Then, when humans are awake, they get to sleep and rest up. I like how the verse says, “The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.” It reminds us that God provides for all of us. God created this universe with everything we would need to survive. There is enough food for everyone.Right after I said that, I thought about all the people that are starving to death every day. I looked it up, and one website said 25,000 people die every day due to hunger and related causes. This is a scary number. My first thought is, why isn’t God providing for these people? Why isn’t he giving them what they need to survive? Then He reminds me that we live in a broken world. There are many man-made reasons why they don’t have food. Here is what the actionagainsthunger.org website says, "The planet produces enough food to feed everyone on Earth. Yet more than 3 billion people can’t afford to eat a healthy diet. Why? Interconnected issues of poverty, inequity, conflict, climate change, gender discrimination, and weak government and health systems all play a role in keeping nutritious food out of reach for millions of families around the world.”God has created enough food and resources for the world and all of the people he created to be in it, yet so many are still starving. This isn’t because God doesn’t care or is not generous. This is because we live in a broken world. We have people who take a lot more than they need and who use their power to prevent others from getting what they need. We have people who are selfish and keep the resources to themselves. All they care about is getting more and more power and wealth for themselves, and they don’t even care about what that means for others.This is not how God created us to be nor how He created the world to be. However, once sin entered the world, so did this corruption. That doesn’t mean all is lost. God has placed good people in the way of the corrupt people. Yes, there are a lot of people in the world who do despicable things. There are also a lot of good people who are fighting against those people. I know it can sometimes feel overwhelming, and we can start to wonder if the whole world will fall apart. What we must do is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. If we keep our eyes on the Lord, we will see that He is bigger than anyone and anything that we run into in this world. God is sending people all the time to help those in need. Yes, I am sure it breaks his heart any time one of his children dies for any reason. I am sure it is particularly sad if it is for a lack of resources when He has ensured plenty of resources for His children.This is why God sends missionaries and organizations who fight for the rights of people who are starving, who are being sold into slavery, who don’t have drinking water and anyone else who is in trouble. God sees all of His children. He sees their plight and He is sending people to help fix it. He didn’t create this mess, but you can bet He is not ignoring it. He sees it, and He is helping with it.Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for how amazing you are. We thank you for providing all you have given us. Lord, we are sorry that some people are hogging all the wealth and resources you have given

Psalm 104 The Lord’s Majesty (Part 4)Psalm 104:14-18 “You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart. The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. In them the birds build their nests; the stork has its home in the fir trees. The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the coneys.”Today, we are given a window into the flawless design of everything. This, I believe, is what we have been exploring in the previous three parts as well. God's goodness is truly astounding. It is wondrous how He has considered every aspect. Today’s verses not only demonstrate that God's interest is not limited to our necessities, But also that He takes into account our happiness and comfort. This is a powerful reminder of the role of religious texts in inspiring and comforting us, a source of reassurance and upliftment.The verse begins by talking about how the grass grows for the cattle and other plants grow for people to use to bring forth food from the earth. This is not a one-sided provision, but a comprehensive one. We need the plants to have food to eat, but we also need the cows. The cows provide milk, cheese, and meat for us to eat, and God is making sure we are both fed.Next, it says He gave us wine to gladden the human heart. I know many people who are happy that we have wine to gladden our hearts. I do think we need to be careful that we don’t turn to this wine to gladden our hearts more than we turn to the Lord. What can start out as a small glass of wine at night to wind down can turn into a few glasses every night just to deal with the stresses of our day-to-day lives. This is when it can become a problem. Do you need to have a glass of wine every night? What if you took a break and fasted from it for a week or even a month? Would you be able to do that? I know someone who gives us wine and all alcohol every Lent. This is a great chance for her to remind herself that although she really likes a glass of wine here and there, she doesn’t need it. She is ok without it.One reason it is good to take a look at your wine or alcohol consumption is that if you are regularly drinking more than a glass at night, then you might not be feeling your best in the mornings. I follow Rachel Hollis online, and I have read her books. She talked about how she used to have a glass of wine when she got home from work to help her unwind. However, the stresses of life increased, and one glass went to two glasses, and every now and then went to every single night. She said she noticed that every morning, she was waking up and starting her day out at a disadvantage because she wouldn’t feel great. She would feel crappy from the wine she had the night before. I don’t know about you, but if I start each day out feeling crappy, it doesn’t usually get better.Have you noticed that you feel crappy when you wake up in the mornings? Do you have a headache or a stomachache? Do you just feel drained and worn out? You don’t have to feel this way. God does not want us to feel crappy. Instead of turning to alcohol to help you unwind, maybe put on some praise and worship music and dance it out. Maybe sit and read scripture and talk to the Lord. He is there for you, and He will listen to you for as long as you want to talk. He can even help you in your situation and He can show you a way forward. Alcohol can’t do that. It may feel like it is helping you in the moment but it is not helping in the long run and could even be hurting you.I am not sure who needed to hear that this morning; that certainly wasn’t what I thought I would be talking about, but the Holy Spirit knew someone listening really needed to hear that. If you are listening to this episode and the Spirit makes you reconsider how much you are drinking, I encourage you to listen to a few episodes of my friend Catherine Cody’s podcast, “Meet Me At The Well.” Catherine is a recovering alcoholic and is real and honest about her struggle in her podcast. She gave her testimony on one of my first few Witness Wednesdays. If you want to hear her incredible story it is episode #236. She is so real and loving and she has a heart for anyone struggling with any addiction. If you need someone to talk to about where you are at please reach out to me, and I can put you in touch with Catherine. Or you can check out her podcast, and she probably has contact info there. If you question whether you drink too much, just listen to her podcast, Meet Me At The Well. What have you got to lose?Next, the verse says, “Oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart.” Can you believe that God even cares about our faces shining? He also gave us bread to strengthen the human heart. I don’t know about you, but I am more excited about the bread than I am about the wine. I love brea

Psalm 104 The Lord's Majesty (Part 3)Psalm 104:10-13 “You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills, giving drink to every wild animal; the wild asses quench their thirst. By the streams, the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches. From your lofty abode, you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.”Today, we are back with Psalm 104. If you missed Monday’s episode, I Have decided to stick with Psalm 104 and break it down into smaller sections. The reason I decided on Psalm 104 is because it shows us so many things we can be grateful for, and it shows us the many ways God provides and looks out for us. Psalm 104 also shows us His power and His majesty, and I think it is a good idea to stop and think about that often. Otherwise, it can be easy to take the Lord for granted because He is always there for us, and much of what He does for us goes unnoticed because we don’t really think about how much He is doing. We think it just happens.For instance, we take for granted the sun coming up and going down because it just happens each and every day. However, it wouldn’t happen if God didn’t make it happen. If He wouldn’t have created the earth to spin the way that it does. Today’s verse starts out talking about how God makes the springs gush for the in the valleys and how they flow between the hills, giving drink to every wild animal. Did you ever think about how great it is that there is water spread worldwide? There is water in the mountains, there are oceans of water, but then there are also streams and rivers. Then there is water under the ground that you can tap into with a well if necessary.It’s also interesting that where water is more scarce, the Lord created the things that live there to suit their environment. In a desert, plants like the cactus have water-storing characteristics. You also have camels in a desert, and they are extremely efficient with the amount of water they use daily. They can go for about a week without having to drink water. They can also drink a lot of water in a short amount of time. A typical camel can drink 53 gallons of water in three minutes. Isn’t it amazing how God thought of everything all the earth's creatures would need and then created us to meet those needs?Next, it says, “By the streams, the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches.” Water is important to birds, just like it is to all animals. Birds build their habitation in many different places depending on what the bird needs. Some build them on the ground, and yet they know this makes the nest more vulnerable, so they camouflage them well. Many others build them high off the ground so they won’t be so vulnerable. They make the nests out of various different materials. It depends on what they can find and what their needs are. Isn’t it amazing that God always provides for them exactly what they need?The verse ends with, “From your lofty abode, you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.” This part reminds us of how easy it is for God to provide for us. He doesn’t have to lift a finger. He just spoke the world into existence, and it was so perfectly made. He can sit up in heaven and command things to happen down here. I like how the verse says, “The earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.” The earth is satisfied with His work because He thought of everything when He created the world and all its creatures.When I think about how easily God created the world and how He thought of everything, even the smallest detail, and then made sure to provide for that detail, I feel better about the things I ask the Lord for. When I take the time to think about His marvelous creations and how he just spoke the words and the whole universe was created then it reminds me that when I ask the Lord for things, I am not asking for too much. This is something we often think. We don’t bring our little cares and worries to the Lord because we don’t want to bother Him. We don’t ask Him for healing for every ache and pain because we know how busy He is.The thing is, He is never too busy for anything you want to bring to Him. He is not busy because what would be impossible for us to do is easy for Him to do. He is not bound by the same worldly constraints as we are. God isn’t even bound by time. All things are happening at the same time for the Lord. That means it is ok if you did not say the prayer you wanted to say for someone before they left for travel. You can still say the prayer now and it will help them because God is seeing you say that pray at the same time they are going away. I know that is a lot to wrap your head around and we don't have to understand it perfectly. I don’t actually think it is possible to fully grasp or comprehend the majesty of God completely on this side of heaven. There is a lot that will remain a mystery and we may have many questions we want to ask God once w

Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose 2 testimonies from the Healing Category. I love healing testimonies because I don’t think we all believe God is still healing people today. We read about how God healed people through Jesus and the apostles, and we love it. Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we don’t believe God is still healing people through others in this day and age. I want you to know He is. I have seen it so many times at our Encounter healing services or even just when I am praying over people. God is good. He doesn’t want to see His people suffering. I pray when you hear this testimony, you can see not only how God has helped these two women in their lives but how He could help you in yours and in your loved ones’ lives, too. I pray you see the miracles in their lives and know miracles are possible in your situation, too!! There is always hope when you have the Lord.Cathy: I was raised in a house with a mother who was and is mentally ill. She was very abusive to me, physically and emotionally. At a young age, before I started school, my great uncle moved in with us and he molested me for as long as he stayed. I think it was only a few months. I received Christ into my life when I was 6. Because of the abuse and what my mother constantly told me about how worthless I was, how I caused her illness, the problems in my parents’ marriage, and her unhappiness with life in general I became convinced there was something terribly wrong with me deep inside that kept anyone, including God, from really loving me. I carried this conviction throughout my life and I let it ruin and end my marriage, also affecting my children. I never abused my children in any way, but I was often absent emotionally because I lived in deep depression from my preteen years.I’m 72 years old now and I’ve been divorced for 27 years. I thought my life was over and I was waiting to die. I was estranged from my sister, my mother is in a nursing home with dementia, I’m divorced, my daughter lives 400 miles away with my 2 grandsons and doesn’t need me for anything, and I lost my son to cancer under extremely difficult circumstances. I have PTSD from the childhood abuse and before my son died, that all came back and hit me so hard I was having panic attacks again from dealing with my daughter-in-law. That was when my son became ill and was placed in hospice care.A friend invited me to move to a small town where she lives and I moved as soon as my son passed. God brought me completely to the end of myself there. I had no more defenses, all the walls I had built emotionally to protect myself through the years failed and I was teetering on a mental breakdown. I hunted for 5 years in the small town where I lived for a church and couldn’t find what I felt like I needed. One day, as I was walking through my living room I was so frustrated that I threw my hands up in the air, looked to heaven and prayed, “God, there has to be a place in Wellington I can go to church to be a part of Your family, to serve You and to learn about You. Please show me where it is!! Later in the week I was talking to my cousin, who is a minister, about not being able to find a church and she told me about a couple she knew well who had just started pastoring a church where I lived and that I needed to go. I told her I had been twice and didn’t like it. She told me to go one more time, so I went the following Sunday.I walked in the door to the same very small crowd of about 10 or 12 people. I told God I didn’t like this. We sang old hymns, sitting down slowly and I reminded God I didn’t like this either. Then a woman got up to preach. Her sermon that morning was on holiness. Not 5 words into her message I began to have the most incredible experience of my life to that point. It felt like someone was above me pouring a pitcher of warmth, comfort, joy, peace and healing that started at the top of my head and slowly went down my whole body until it reached the tips of my toes! I don’t know how much time passed. I just know that was the most comforting feeling I had ever experienced. When the feeling reached my toes, I heard His voice over my right shoulder! I knew no one else had heard Him but I knew it was God speaking out loud to me. He said 5 words. “Here, Cathy. This is it.” I had cried out “show me where to go “ just a few days before and He answered my question directly, with 5 words!!! The creator of the entire universe, the One who placed the galaxies in the sky, hanging them in nothing, called me by name!!! “Here, Cathy. This is it.” My life changed in that moment.I’ve spent the next 12 or 15 months on an incredible journey of healing and restoration and it’

Psalm 104 The Lord's Majesty (Part 2)Psalm 104:5-9 “You fixed the earth on its foundation, so it can never be shaken. The deeps covered it like a garment; Above the mountains stood the waters. At your rebuke, they took flight; at the sound of your thunder, they fled. They rushed up the mountains, down the valleys to the place you had fixed for them. You set a limit they cannot pass; never again will they cover the earth.”Today we pick up where we left off with Psalm 104. The verse starts by reminding us that the Lord fixed the Earth. He created all things, and He created the Earth on its foundation so it can never be shaken. That can be pretty reassuring if we let it. If we really let that sink in, The Lord has fixed the earth on its foundation so it can never be shaken. Some days, the earth seems like it is falling apart. It is good to be reassured that God is in control and that He won’t allow the world to be shaken.Next, it says, “The deep covered it like a garment; Above the mountains stood the water. This sounds like it is talking about the flood. When Noah was living, the people of God had turned away from Him. Genesis 6:5-8 says, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.Next, it says, “At your rebuke, they took flight; at the sound of your thunder, they fled. They rushed up the mountains, down the valleys to the place you had fixed for them. This narrative of the Lord's control over the water can invoke a sense of awe in us, reminding us of His power and sovereignty. The Lord created the whole universe with his words. When we stop to think about that, it is amazing. The waters fled at the Lord’s rebuke. How many of us can say that we speak to nature, and it listens to us?Today’s verse ends with, “You set a limit they cannot pass; never again will they cover the earth.” Today’s verse shows us how powerful God is and that He controls all nature. God decides where the water will go and where it will not go. It is amazing how He made the oceans, rivers, and lakes. He contained the water in the places He wanted it. At one point, there was water everywhere. In Genesis 1:9-10 God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.”The last line of this verse also reminds us of God’s promise to us: “Never again will they cover the earth.” God made this covenant with us after He flooded the Earth. He promised He would not do that again, and He gave us a rainbow as a sign of that covenant. Rainbows are still a sign of that covenant. Sometimes, God will give us a rainbow when we are struggling to believe something will really happen. I remember I was in a car with some of my girlfriends once and we were talking about how one of my girlfriends really wanted to get married and have children and it had not happened yet. We talked about how it is hard to keep hoping for something when you have waited too long for it and still don’t see any signs of it on the horizon. All of a sudden, there was a beautifully full rainbow right ahead of us in the sky. We know that was God reassuring her that He knows her hopes and dreams and He will fulfill them. My friend is getting married in four days! God is so good!God can do the same for your hopes and dreams. I know hope is hard, especially if you have been waiting for something for a long time. I know it can feel like it is never going to happen. I can feel like He has forgotten about you. You can be tempted to give up, hoping for what you want, and figure it just wasn’t God’s plan for you. I want to encourage you not to give up. I want to encourage you to keep hoping, even when it is hard and even when you feel like there is no point.God rewards persistence. He tells us this through several stories in the Bible. God wants us to keep asking. I am not sure why some things take a long time, and others happen right away. I am not sure why it seems like God is ignoring us at times. I do know that is not true. God is never ignoring us. He is always right there by our side. His attention is always aimed directly at us. The problem is that His timing is not our timing, and that sucks! We feel we know what we want, and we even are pretty sure our timing is great. However, the Lord can see things we can’t see, and if we get what we want before we are ready, it won’t be as good.My friend waited on God’s timing and has now found the man of her dreams. God brought her a guy who gets her. T

Psalm 104 The Lord’s Majesty (Part 1)Psalm 104:1-4 "Everything I am will praise and bless the Lord! O Lord, my God, your greatness takes my breath away overwhelming me by your majesty, beauty, and splendor! You wrap yourself with a shimmering, glistening light. You wear sunshine like a garment of glory. You stretch out the starry skies like a tapestry. You build your balconies with light beams and ride as King in a chariot you made from clouds. You fly upon the wings of the wind. You make your messengers into winds of the Spirit, and all your ministers become flames of fire.”For the next few days, we are going to look at Psalm 104. Someone mentioned it at prayer group last week, and it is a beautiful Psalm that shows us how majestic the Lord is and all the amazing things He does in the world. Nature can be such a powerful place to see God’s work. Sometimes, He shows off in incredible ways, and this week, we are going to take a look at some of those ways. I pray that by examining this Psalm and the ways the Lord shows off for us in Nature, we will begin to notice the Lord more in all the amazing things we see around us.Today’s verse starts off by saying, “Everything I am will praise and bless the Lord! Is this how we are praising the Lord? With everything that we have? For me, I would say yes and no. There are definitely some songs that I sing, and when I am singing those songs, I sing with everything I am. I pour my heart and soul into singing that song. The reason for this is because I resonate with the words of the song. Whatever it is about certain songs, I sing them with my whole being. I love music, and I love songs like that.How about you? Is it music for you, too, or is it something else that helps you praise the Lord with your whole being? Maybe it is nature. When you see an amazing sunset or you watch the wildlife, you become overcome with praise for the Lord. Or, maybe it is your family. Whenever you spend time with them, you are overcome with gratitude for the Lord. It seems David often became overcome with Gratitude for the Lord. It seems like King David understood how amazing the Lord is and praised Him with His whole being.Next, it says, “O Lord, my God, your greatness takes my breath away, overwhelming me with your majesty, beauty, and splendor! Has this ever happened to you? The Lord has done something in your life, taking your breath away. It has definitely happened to me. There have been many moments in my life when my breath was taken away. When I got married and when I had my children, there were definitely times when the Lord took my breath away. I couldn’t imagine how lucky I was for the Lord to have blessed me with a husband who loved me so much and three handsome, healthy boys.Looking at God’s majesty, beauty, and splendor over my lifetime has been amazing, too! I am lucky enough to have seen not only many parts of the United States but many other countries as well. There have been so many wonderful things that we have gotten to see. One time, when we visited Scotland, we got to take a boat trip out and see The Corryvreckan Whirlpool, which is situated off the west coast of Scotland between the islands of Jura and Scarba. It is one of the largest permanent whirlpools on earth and one of the most dangerous stretches of water around the British Isles.I also lived in Turkey and visited many beautiful places there, especially Cappadocia. Cappadocia is known for its surreal landscape, sculpted over millennia by volcanic eruptions and erosion, and is a spectacle unlike any other. Towering rock formations, whimsically dubbed “fairy chimneys," dominate the horizon, creating an otherworldly atmosphere that captivates visitors. Other notable sites include Bronze Age homes carved into valley walls by troglodytes (cave dwellers) and later used as refuges by early Christians. The 100m-deep Ihlara Canyon houses and numerous rock-face churches. It was breathtaking.Next, the verse says, “You wrap yourself with a shimmering, glistening light. You wear sunshine like a garment of glory. You stretch out the starry skies like a tapestry.” I like this part of the verse because it reminds us that God is light. No matter what type of darkness you are going through, God’s light can shine through it. The verse says that God wraps himself in shimmering, glistening light and that He wears sunshine like a garment of Glory. Sunshine is pretty bright, wouldn’t you agree? When the sun comes up, it chases away all the dark of the night. God does the same in our lives. When we let the sunlight in, when we agree to have God work in our lives, His light comes in and chases away the darkness.I love how this verse also says, You stretch out the starry skies like a tapestry. To me, this reminds us that even when we are in the dark of night, there is still some light. God gave us the stars in the sky. This means even when we are going through a dark time, there are still some places of bright light in all that darkness. Ju

Today's Episode is about God's Love. In this episode my friend and prayer group leaders shares an excellent teaching on God's love and even has a call to action at the end. I know you will enjoy this as much as I did. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com CLICK HERE TO DONATE CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Today's episode is a bit different. My audiobook is going to be coming out on audible soon and so I today I will be reading the introduction to my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace so you can all hear what it is about. If you would like to purchase the book in paperback you can get it on Amazon.com or you can go to my website and order an autographed copy. I will let you know as soon as my audiobook is released. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com CLICK HERE TO DONATE CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose a testimony from the Salvation Category. This witness is from a teenager who felt life was not worth living anymore. Unfortunately, too many of our teens feel this way. The number of teen suicides is on the rise. If you know a teenager that has been struggling, maybe you can share this with them. Brooklyn was saved, and they can be, too. I pray when you hear this testimony, you can see not only how God has helped her in her life but how He could help you in yours and in your loved ones’ lives, too. I pray you see the miracles in her life and know miracles are possible in your situation, too!! There is always hope when you have the Lord.Brooklyn: This is kind of a long one, but it’s a God story and it’s worth hearing.My name is Brooklyn and I am 18 years old. This story took place over the course of my whole life (and is still in the process of being written).This testimony of how God saved me from death and took me to Heaven happened when I was 13 years old. I know this will help and encourage you! I love you, and so does God!!! Biggest lesson: If God saved me, what makes you think He can’t save anyone else? God is so good. I just wanted to remind you of that!! He saved me from death literally.When I was 13, I tried to kill myself with pills and medications. I woke up at midnight that night and just couldn’t stop praying to God, exclaiming, “I don’t want to die. I regret this. Please help me.” And that was the first time I prayed in years. I then saw myself out of my body. I was floating around in the room and saw my body lying lifeless and still on the bed. My dogs came over to lick me and check on me and all I could do was see this happening. I then saw a huge bright light and I was being pulled into it by an invisible force (which I know are angels). I couldn’t see anyone but I could hear people and their spirits and I was being brought up in like a wagon wheel. Suddenly, I was in front of these TALL golden gates (over 1,000,000 feet tall) and nothing like you’ve ever seen before. SO golden and radiant. On top of the golden gates were tens of thousands of people. All different ethnicities and looks but everyone being 30 years old (which is very significant for the fact that Jesus was in His 30’s when He was taken up to Heaven from the cross).I remember seeing this one lady specifically. She had Afro hair and was African American. Next to her was a man who was of Spanish descent. I remember them specifically. I hope I’m going to meet them one day when I get there. And all of the tens of thousands of people up there kept cheering me on as I kept getting closer and closer to the gates like I had just won the biggest soccer game in the whole universe. It was so cheerful and awesome! Then suddenly as I got closer, I felt a sense of consciousness that said, “this isn’t my time yet. I don’t want to be here.” And out of nowhere, this LOUD, booming deep voice spoke from above me and all around me and it said, “You will be ok.” I even saw those words in my spirit in black bold letters. Then suddenly I was back in my own bed with my dogs laid up next to me. My one dog, Angel, had tears in her eyes as she kept one eye on me and the rest of her face buried in herself. She did a double take when I woke up and started talking to her. And my other dog, Maverick, was jumping up and down excited that I was alive and next to him. I believe they knew I had died for a split second. Dogs sense everything and these dogs… are NOT cuddle dogs, yet somehow they were right then. I told my mother about what I had tried to do the night before and I was in the hospital for 12 days. The actual hospital for 5 and the mental hospital for the rest. I was supposed to be in the mental hospital for longer but I hated being in there so much that I manipulated my way out of it, which either way was God’s plan because if He wanted me in there longer, I would’ve been in there for longer. I got home and thought everything would be cured. But from May 2017-November 2017, it was still hell and I hated it, but I knew very well then to not try and kill myself again because I was scared. I went through some tough things during that time and one night after a blowout with one of my teachers, I cried and thought, “I’m done living like this.”I picked up the Bible I had since I was a 7 year old, and ever since then, I haven’t put it down. My walk with the Lord has not been perfect and hasn’t been the best every single waking second which is completely normal and fine because everyone’s walk is this way at one season or another. But ever since that moment when I gave up living my life on my own and started devoting

Be The Light They NeedMatthew 4:16 “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”Recently I decided to start at the beginning of the New Testament and read a little bit each day of the New Testament. My Encounter Ministries class was big on evangelization and spreading the good news of the Gospel. They taught us various ways to do this. However, it is hard to spread the good news of the Gospel if you don’t know the Gospel. I do know the Gospel. I have been through the whole Bible several times through different Bible studies and Bible reading plans.However, if we immerse ourselves in God's word, it will not only become a part of us, but it will transform us. The words, the stories, and the feelings will become ingrained in our very being, and we won’t be able to forget them. The central message of the Gospel is love. This love is not just a feeling, but a powerful force that can change lives and draw people closer to God. God's love for us, and our love for Him, is a concept that was revolutionary in its time. The Jewish people knew that God loved them because He had saved them time and time again and also because His Spirit was with them when they escaped Egypt.Many people who lived at the time of Jesus didn’t believe in our God. They believed in multiple Gods who did not love them. The gods they prayed to also required a lot from them. They had to perform human sacrifices in some cases. They thought their gods received their power from the worship and sacrifices. The more people who worshiped them, the more powerful they were. Their God’s expected love and allegiance from them.Then they discovered this God who loved them just as they were, and they didn’t need to do anything to earn that love, which was a game changer. This love is not a passive feeling but an active, unconditional, and sacrificial love. I believe this would be a game-changer for many of us if we truly believed it. If we truly understood that God loves us as His own adopted sons and daughters, we would live life differently. If we could truly grasp this concept that God loves us just as we are, then we could stop trying to earn that love; we could stop trying to live up to these impossible standards that we put on ourselves.God loves you just as you are. He doesn’t need you to live up to any standards. He doesn’t need you to do anything to earn that love. His love is there for you when you are at your best and when you are at your worst. God is always there for you. That is the first part of the message found in the Bible, and it is one we must not only believe but also trust in and live our lives accordingly by showing the same love to others, forgiving as we have been forgiven, and serving as we have been served.This brings us to one major message of the Gospel that we tend to overlook or ignore. That is, we are all called to love each other. This can be a challenging call a lot of the time. There are a lot of people in the world who are not very nice. Or at least they act in ways that are not loving. But we are still called to love them, just as God loves us. God is not calling us just to love our family or friends or those who are easy to love. He is calling us to love all those around us, even our enemies.The verse above says, “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned.” Jesus was a light to all who lived in the darkness. He brought this love that they had never seen before. God’s love is unconditional and unending, and Jesus shared this love with one and all. This love that Jesus shared was such a bright light in their darkness. Some of the people Jesus interacted with were people who were cast aside by society. They were outcasts, and they felt unloved.Imagine how it was to be a leper in that day and age. They had to live apart from their whole community, and if anyone did walk near them, they needed to shout “unclean, unclean” So that people wouldn’t get too close to them. Can you imagine Jesus coming up to you and giving you a hug after you haven’t had any human contact in years for fear of infecting them or because of the laws? Imagine that light that Jesus brought into that situation when He healed them or even when he wasn’t afraid to touch them. He gave them their dignity back when he was around them. That is a bright light.We can all agree that Jesus was a great light in the darkness. Do you know who is called to be that light now that Jesus is no longer walking around on this planet? You are, I am! We are all called to be “little Christs.” We are called to be a reflection of Christ to all those we meet. In John 13:35, says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” Do you want to be a disciple of Christ? If so, we need to love one another. We need to be that light in the darkness. This doesn’t tell us exactly how we

We Were So Utterly, Unbearably Crushed2 Corinthians 1:8-10 "We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him, we have set our hope that he will rescue us again.”I like this verse because it shows us that even when we feel we are crushed more than we can take, we can still have hope that God will rescue us. This is a letter written from Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, To the church of God that is in Corinth, including all the saints throughout Achaia.The verse starts out letting them know that they didn’t want them to be unaware of how they were treated in Asia. It states that they were so utterly, unbearably crushed that they were despaired of life itself. It is great that Paul and Timothy shared their afflictions with their fellow brothers in the church in Corinth. Too many times, we keep our afflictions or ourselves. We pretend that all is ok and that we are fine. We act like we have no troubles, and then people believe us. The problem is that they start to hide their afflictions, too, because they think they are the only ones having any afflictions.Can you see the damaging spiral this can cause? We all act like we are fine and that nothing is bothering us. We act like life is easy, or our jobs are easy. We act like the world is a wonderful place where nothing bad ever happens. This may make us feel better, but it doesn’t help those around us. We are not teaching those who look up to us for the answers how to deal with heartbreak, disappointment, or any other feelings associated with the afflictions we are hiding.I actually don’t think it even makes us feel better. We might not feel humiliated that others know the pain we are going through, yet we feel all alone and figure no one else is going through the same thing we are going through. When we don’t share our troubles, we rob our friends and family of the graces that come from comforting us in our time and need.The next part of the verse says, “ Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” This part has two interesting parts. The first one is that they felt they received this death sentence to teach them a lesson. This is something we all think more often than we would like to admit. When something bad happens to us, we wonder what we did to deserve it. We start to wonder why God is doing this to us. We question what lesson he wants us to get out of it.God is not the cause of the bad things that happen to us. Yes, it is true that nothing happens to us that has not passed through the hands of God. That means that although he is not the cause, he has allowed it to happen. This does not mean that everything that happens to you is because God is trying to teach you a lesson. It doesn’t mean everything that happens to you is your fault or that it is punishment for something you have done. Sometimes, some things just happen. If we trip and fall down a few stairs, it probably doesn’t have a deep spiritual meaning. If our child or loved one gets sick, it doesn’t mean we are being punished for something.This verse can comfort us by reminding us that we are not the only ones who feel this way. If the apostles Paul and Timothy felt their affliction was to teach them a lesson, then it is normal for us to think that, too. I also think sometimes this can be the case. However, not everything we go through is to teach us a lesson. However, God can use all things for our good, and sometimes, that comes as a lesson or wisdom gained when we make it through a really hard time.The second interesting thing about this part of the verse is when it reminds us that God is the one who raises the dead. I love this part because it reminds us that no matter how far down we are, God can always save us. There is no pit deep enough for us to be out of God’s reach. Jesus went all the way down to hell to lead the righteous home. If He can travel to Hell, he most certainly can travel to whatever pit we find ourselves in and lead us to home, too!Our affliction is hopefully not unbearable, crushing us. However, I do know several people who have loved ones who have cancer, and that may feel unbearable. I know some young adults who are suffering from anxiety, stress, and depression, and they feel that the weight of the world is crushing them. I know some young adults caught up in addiction, and the weight of that is crushing them as well. Whether your affliction is unbearable, crushing, an inconvenience, or somewhere in between, I want to pass this verse along to you to show you that God can still help you. No matter the level of affl

No Weapon Formed Against You Will Prosper1 Samuel 2:4 “The weapons of the strong are smashed to pieces, while the weak are infused with fresh strength.”I decided to read the story of Hannah this morning. This month in mentoring the theme is Surrender. One of the videos I watched talked about Hannah and how amazing it was that she prayed to the Lord and then surrendered the outcome to the Lord. She also surrendered the fruit of those prayers to the Lord. I kinda knew the story of Hannah. I knew she wanted a baby and yet didn’t have any children. I don’t know if I knew that her husband’s other wife taunted her often, but she did. One day, Hannah went to the temple and cried inconsolably. She cried out to the Lord, and she made a vow to Him that if He stopped neglecting her and gave her a son, she would give the son back to God unreservedly and completely.Hannah did conceive, and she had a baby boy. She named him Samuel, and when he was three, she brought him to the temple and gave her son to Eli to be dedicated to the Lord and to serve the Lord with Eli. After she gave her son over to the Lord, she prayed a beautiful prayer. Hannah was rejoicing in the Lord and celebrating his goodness. When I think about this, I wonder how she was able to be so happy.I understand being grateful to the Lord for conceiving a son, and yet she wasn’t going to get to raise that son. That seems so sad to me. In the past, whenever I would think about this, I would wonder why it was so important for her to have a baby if she was never really going to get to see the baby. This morning God just revealed to me something that I didn’t really think of before.In the age we are living in today, we know that there are many reasons why a woman might not be able to conceive. Back when Hannah lived, there was just one reason, and it was that God had kept you from conceiving. It doesn’t say in the Bible why Hannah wanted to have a baby. It does say that the Lord kept her from conceiving. In 1 Samuel 1:4-7a, it says, “On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; but to Hannah, he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her.”It was customary for all to believe that if you couldn’t conceive, it was because God didn’t favor you or He had forgotten you. This could have been why it was so important for Hannah to have a child. She wanted to show everyone that God did not forsake her. She might have wanted to prove to everyone that she was favored by the Lord as well. It might have been less about being a mom and more about proving to everyone she was not forgotten by the Lord. It also could have been that she was tired of getting tormented each year by her husband’s other wife.When we don’t understand something in our lives, we can surrender it to the Lord and ask for His help. Hannah was being tormented by someone for something she had no control over. She cried out to the Lord, and He helped her. He heard her cry and answered her prayers. He can do the same for you.The verse above says, “The weapons of the strong are smashed to pieces, while the weak are infused with fresh strength.” This is from the message translation. It is from the prayer that Hannah prayed to the Lord after she dedicated her son to the Lord. She is stating that the weapons of the strong can’t stand against the Lord. Her rival tormented her about being unable to conceive, and her words hurt Hannah very much. However, Hannah is a daughter of God, and so the weapons formed against her will not prosper. Instead, God gave Hannah the strength to keep going on day after day. He gave her the strength to go to the temple and pray that God take this burden from her.God can smash to pieces the weapons of your enemies, too. He can infuse you with a strength you didn’t even know you had. We need to go to Him and ask Him, though. We can’t just sit around in our misery and expect God to work. We need to ask Him, invite Him in and He will come in and help us. If you are struggling with something right now, if you need help right now, if you have prayers you really need answered, bring it to the Lord. You don’t have to make a vow like Hannah did. Just cry out to the Lord and tell Him all that is on your heart. Don’t hide anything from Him, as He already knows everything in your heart.When you cry out to Him, He hears your cries, and He will intervene. We are not alone in our battles. We are never alone in our battles. God is right there with us, fighting alongside us. Yet sometimes, we don’t ask Him into the battle with us. He is a gentleman, and He wants to be invited in. If you want to fight your battle alone, He will be right there next to you, but He will let you fight it alone. If you want

Can We Worship Through The Struggle?Job 1:20-21 “Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped. He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”I thought this was an interesting verse in Job. This verse came right after Satan’s first attack on Job. Job has just learned that all of his oxen and donkeys were taken away from him, and the people who took them struck down the servants with swords. Then he learned that his sheep and the servants who took care of them were burned to death. As if that wasn’t enough another servant came in and told them all his camels had been captured and his servants had been killed with a sword. And then, to top it all off, a servant came and told him that his sons and daughters were eating and drinking over the older brother’s house when a powerful wind swept in and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people, so they died.This is one of the amazing things about Job. He is so faithful. I am not sure about you but if I learned that I had lost everything, my first instinct would not be to worship. I do love to worship but I don’t feel like I would be able to worship immediately. He had just found out that not only did he lose all physical things, but he lost all of his children as well. I feel like I would need to go through a period of being angry at God. I would also be angry in general. I would be sad, which I am sure Job was sad.I don’t think my first thing to do would be to worship the Lord and say, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Can you believe Job was blessing the Lord just minutes after finding out that his children had died? I knew he never blamed God; that is why he got into this predicament in the first place. He was such a good servant and the enemy tried to tell God it was because God blessed him so much.I wonder if we would be this faithful. I wonder if we worship the Lord for all the blessings he gave us. Are we what some would call fair-weather friends with the Lord? We are there for Him when all is going well, and yet we blame Him at the first sign of trouble. Do we get angry and scream at Him when we lose our job or our car? What do we do when we lose our children?Job didn’t just lose one of his children to a deadly disease. He didn’t just lose one of his children to suicide or murder. He lost all his children at the same time. Job went from being the father of seven sons and three daughters to being childless. I can’t imagine the pain he must have been feeling, and yet the first thing he did was worship the Lord. Not only did he worship the Lord, but he also said, “What the Lord gave, the Lord can take away.” He is acknowledging that God is the almighty one and that everything Job had came from Him. He is acknowledging that all we have comes from the Lord.I just can’t get over Job’s faith. Satan did not stop here with this first attack. Satan came back and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Job was still worshiping the Lord. His wife told him he was a fool. She said to him, “Are you still holding onto your integrity? Curse God and die!” Job replied, “You speak as a foolish woman speaks. Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all that Job went through He did not sin once with what he said.This is remarkable. I can totally understand what Job is saying when he says that God gave us everything we have, and so He has a right to take it away. I also agree that if we accept the good from God, we must accept the bad, too. However, I agree with Him in the place I am at right now. I haven’t lost any children. I haven’t lost my home or all my belongings. I don’t know what I would do if I had to go through what Job had to go through.Job truly loved the Lord. He trusted the Lord fully. I love that the first thing he did was to worship the Lord. I have talked with you many times about how important praise is and I think this is such a good example of how praise and worship can help get us through anything. I don’t think that Job understood what was going on. I don’t think He knew God’s plan, and I don’t think He knew how blessed he would be afterward. It would have been easier for Job to go through all he went through if he knew there was an end in sight and that he would be so blessed afterward.However, God doesn’t always reveal His plan to us. He leaves us guessing and wondering, and this is where we can lose hope. We can lose hope, or we can praise Him and worship HIm and trust that even though we don’t know what His plan is, we trust He has one and that it is for our good. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope

Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today I chose two testimonies from the God Stories Category. The first story is of a woman who is in chronic pain and yet tends to say she is fine because that is just what we all seem to do. Her testimony is about how Matthew’s song “Truth Be Told” really spoke to her. The second one is about a woman who learned of a website that tries to help kids who live overseas and have severe medical problems get adopted. I pray when you hear these testimonies, you can see not only how God has helped them in their life but how He could help you in yours and in your loved ones’ lives, too. I pray you see the miracles in their lives and know miracles are possible in your situation too!!Diane: I wanted to share this story with Matthew that I wrote during a particularly difficult time with my health. It’s about how his song “Truth Be Told” spoke to me.“Lie number one you’re supposed to have it all together. And when they ask how you’re doing Just smile and tell them, “Never better.” Lie number two everybody’s life is perfect except yours. So keep your messes and your wounds and your secrets safe with you behind closed doors.” – From the song “Truth Be Told”I was zooming with a college friend yesterday and when she asked how I was doing, I almost fell into my cookie cutter response, “Oh, I’m fine.” Usually when I say I am fine, I’m actually not. Yesterday, the truth came tumbling out. I had a very serious nerve pain issue on Friday and couldn’t stand without my husband lifting me out of bed under ten level pain. I would have gone to the emergency room if I physically could have. My lovely, caring, listening friend heard it all. Her sincere responses made me know she was truly interested in my situation and that I didn’t need to put on my happy face with her. I do tend to pretend all is well, especially if someone asks. Who wants to hear all my woes? Generally speaking, I think it’s a healthy practice not to tell everyone how you really are.Those of us who suffer with chronic pain are never fine. And there’s not a lot of positive things that can come from dwelling on it. But there’s a fine line between being positive and stuffing your “I am not fine” feelings. I know “stuffing” to be lethal. The lightbulb moment came when she said, “You know saying we’re okay all the time is really a bunch of garbage.” I felt an immense sense of freedom hearing that. Like it was okay to shout, “I am really not okay right now!” When did I get to the place where I accepted the lie in Matthew West’s song that “I’m supposed to have it all together?” Or how about the rest of the telling lyrics……“I say I’m fine, yeah I’m fine oh I’m fine, hey I’m fine but I’m not I’m broken. And when it’s out of control I say it’s under control but it’s not, and you know it. I don’t know why it’s so hard to admit it When being honest is the only way to fix it.”Today, I’m getting honest. I am not fine. It’s all out of control. Sometimes things are just awfully bad. I for one am tired of holding it all together. And who says we have to? Sometimes, good things happen when we get real. Other people hear our struggles and don’t feel like they are alone in their pain. I’ve often given thanks for the courageous authors who have written books and songs about their pain and sufferings that have helped me feel less like I’m on an island of one.I’ve considered it might be a bit prideful for me to suffer in silence, thinking I couldn’t possibly help someone else by opening up. I remember the day I first heard Matthew’s song. I was driving home from physical therapy and heard it on the Christian radio channel, The Message on Sirius radio. When a song truly speaks to you, it moves you to tears. That’s what happened to me. Did you ever feel like someone wrote the exact words that were in your heart? It’s a “stand still, block everything out” kind of moment. What if he never sang it? What if I never heard it? It would have been a loss I would have never known I’d missed. I’ve loved the song for a long time. Last night, when I was getting ready for bed, the refrain played in my head, strolling around my mind like an old companion paying a visit. I’m just so happy my friend’s words helped remind me of it when I needed it most.“Truth be told, the truth is rarely told.” This may be my favorite line in the song. There can be great healing in the sharing of our truths if we are brave enough and strong enough to peel back the curtain and do it. I hope I’m one of the brave ones.When my son, Ari, was 4, I came across this blog while staying up late at night searching for anything to help him, who was severely developmentally delayed. It was a family asking for p

Our Actions MatterMatthew 3:7-10 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sad′ducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that befits repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now, the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”I was reading Matthew chapter 3 this morning, and this verse stood out to me. What stuck in my head is the part where John the Baptist says to the Pharisees and Sadducees, “And do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now, the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” What came to me when I read this was that we can’t just rest on the fact that we are children of God.The Pharisees and Sadducees were secure in their positions in life. They knew they were children of God, and so they thought everything they did was right. They held on so tightly to the laws that they forgot about the spirit of the laws and forgot to take care of God’s people. For many of them, it became more about being in control and having status than it was about helping everyone get into heaven.Being a child of God brings a certain level of comfort. We know that He will always love us and that He will never forsake us. I just looked up the word forsake because I know what it means, but I couldn’t tell someone else what it means, so I wanted to know what the dictionary says. Forsake means to abandon. God will never abandon us, and He will never stop loving us, and we find courage in those facts. However, what I felt God wanted us to hear today is not to just rest in those facts and forget about everything else.Yes, indeed, God is always with us, and nothing we can do will make Him love us any more or any less than he already does. However, that doesn’t mean we can just go through life doing whatever we want to do. God has a certain way that he wants us to live our lives, and He definitely cares how we treat people. Let me remind you what it says in Luke 13:22-30.“He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the householder has risen up and shut the door, you will begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us.’ He will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!’ There, you will weep and gnash your teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And men will come from east and west, and north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”This verse goes well with the verse above to remind us that we are not automatically going to heaven because we are a child of God. I know this is a controversial belief because it also says in the Bible that Jesus is the way to heaven, and if we believe in Jesus, we will go to heaven. I don’t think these two verses contradict each other. I think they help explain each other. Yes, we need to believe in Jesus and have to acknowledge that He is our savior. However, I think the verse for today and these other verses from Luke show us that our behavior also matters. We don’t have to earn our way into heaven, and yet we can lose heaven by the way we act here on earth.The people in this parable thought they were headed to heaven. They thought they were sitting at the table with Jesus, and yet He said, “I do not know where you come from; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!” If we couldn’t do something to lose heaven, why would Jesus put this in the Bible? Why would He share this parable?Romans 10:9-10 “ because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved.” I don’t think the verses above contradict this verse. I know that this verse is often used to confront Catholics. We are asked why we don’t know we are saved because Jesus says so in this verse. We are asked why we think we need to earn heaven. We don’t think we need to earn heaven. We do however believe that God gave us free will