Walk Boldly With Jesus

The Advocate!John 14:16-17 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it because it remains with you and will be in you.”Jesus is talking in this verse. He is telling us that when He goes to be with the Father, He will ask His Father, and God will send us another Advocate to be with us always. Jesus’ plan wasn’t to come and walk among us, teach us all about the new covenant, and then leave us alone to figure out what to do with all that we were taught. Jesus came to set us free from our sins. He came to sacrifice Himself so that we may live. However, when He left, He did not leave us alone.I love how He refers to the Holy Spirit as our Advocate. Here is the definition I got for an advocate, “one who pleads another's cause, who helps another by defending or comforting him.” Our advocate pleads our cause to the Heavenly Father. Romans 8:26 says, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” The Holy Spirit intercedes for us because we don’t even know what to ask for sometimes. I was talking to a woman in my Encounter Ministries class on Monday, and she was saying that she doesn’t even know what to pray for right now with her family situation. My friend is not the only one who doesn’t know what to pray for. I am sure there have been times in each of our lives when we have encountered a situation where we didn’t even know what we wanted or we didn’t see a way out, so we didn’t know exactly what to ask the Lord.When this happens, it is okay to ask the Holy Spirit to intercede on your behalf. The Holy Spirit knows what is deep down inside your heart, and He takes our deepest desires, even if we don’t know what they are, and He presents them to the Lord in the perfect way. This is why I love the gift of tongues. When you are speaking in tongues, you do not know what you are saying, but the Holy Spirit is speaking directly from your heart to the Lord’s heart/ears. It is a direct communication that no one can intercept. It is between the Holy Spirit and the Lord. Even the enemy doesn’t know what is said when we are speaking in tongues. If you do not have the gift of tongues, it is not too late to begin praying for that gift. If you want me to pray for you for the release of that gift, reach out, and I will definitely do that. If you would like me to pray over you for the release of that gift, reach out, and we will set up a time when I can either do it over the phone, via Zoom, or in person if you are somewhat local.Jesus calls the Advocate the Spirit of truth. This reminds us that the Holy Spirit speaks the truth. In John 14:26b, Jesus says, "—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you. The Holy Spirit not only speaks the truth, but He can teach us everything and remind us of all that Jesus told us. It is important that we realize that the Holy Spirit we have living inside of us isn’t just something that sounds nice and yet doesn't really mean anything. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit, the one living inside of you, is powerful, and it is capable of helping you do incredible things. This is why it is important to work with the Holy Spirit. It is important to consult the Holy Spirit and to invite the Holy Spirit into whatever you are doing. Did you ever wish you knew what God wanted you to do in a particular circumstance?Have you ever asked someone to pray for discernment for you because you really didn’t know what to do? I have too! When we are in this situation, we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us. One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is discernment. The Holy Spirit knows what we should do and can tell us if we make the time to ask and then listen for an answer. Sometimes there is not just one thing we can do. It is important to pray and ask the Lord what the best option is. However, sometimes the Lord doesn’t tell us because He is ok with either option. Sometimes there are multiple paths that would all lead to the same place. It is not necessarily which path we choose, it is more what we do on that path or with that path that matters.When I actually sit and think about how incredible it is that we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, it just boggles my mind. I am just in awe. I mean, we have the same Holy Spirit inside of us that Jesus had inside of Him. Can you even imagine that? I also struggle to understand how everyone is not blown away by this information. It says right in the verse above that the world cannot accept the advocate because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it because it remains with you and will be in you. I guess if you don’t really believe in Jesus, then it would be hard to believe in the Holy Spirit, especially since Jesus walked the Earth. There is defin

Where Does My Help Come From?Psalm 121:1-2 “I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”I heard this verse while I was listening to the Big Life Devotional by Pamela Crim yesterday, and I instantly thought of this song. The song is called Shoulders by for King and Country. I will place a link for the song in the show notes if you want to give it a listen. It is a really good song, so I do recommend checking it out. For King and Country is a great group of artists. They moved to this country from Australia in 1991 when their dad accepted a job here. I love this song because it reminds us where our help comes from. It also reminds us of various ways that God helps us. It also says the words from this verse. They both start the same way. I look up to the mountainsDoes my strength come from the mountains? No, my strength comes from GodWho made heaven and earth, and the mountainsWhen we are struggling and suffering, we look around for strength anywhere we can find it. We look to TV for distractions, we look to food for comfort, and we sometimes turn to alcohol or drugs to numb the pain. We look everywhere for something that will take away the pain or help us get through it in some way. As long as we keep searching everywhere but where God is, then we will never find what we are looking for. God is our strength. He is the one that can get us through the hard times. We just need to turn to Him and ask Him. We just need to seek Him out instead of all the other things that we turn to when we are struggling. When confusion's my companionAnd despair holds me for ransomI will feel no fearI know that You are nearThink about what it is we do when we are confused and the feelings of despair set in. Do we turn to the Lord, or do we turn away? Do we have hope that the Lord will bring us out of this despair? I love the line that says, and despair holds me for ransom. That is such an accurate visual of despair. You feel like you can’t do anything but sit in it. This verse ends with I will feel no fear. I know that You are near. My prayer is we can all say this. My prayer for each of us is that we can look to the Lord when we feel confused and full of despair. We can look to the Lord and not be afraid because we know that our strength comes from Him. The one who made the heavens and the earth. If He can create all of that out of nothing, think about what He can do in your current situation!When I'm caught deep in the valleyWith chaos for my companyI'll find my comfort here'Cause I know that You are nearHow many of us are in a deep valley right now? How many of us feel like we have been in this valley for a long time, and we see no end in sight? I love that it says with chaos for my company. Have you ever had chaos in your company? I am one of 11 children. Chaos and I are old friends. However, how often have we had comfort and chaos at the same time? This verse says I’ll find comfort here because I know You are near. When we find ourselves in a valley and we are surrounded by chaos, it helps to remember that the Lord is always near. We are never alone, even when it feels like we are.My help comes from YouYou're right here, pulling me throughYou carry my weakness, my sickness, my brokennessAll on Your shouldersYour shouldersOur help comes from the Lord. It can be easy to forget this because sometimes He uses human means to help us. For instance, we may think our help comes from the person giving us the things we need. For instance, help came from my neighbor when I was younger and my dad needed a car. Yes, the neighbor did help us out, and yet even he acknowledges the Lord led Him to do so. He had no way of knowing my dad needed a car, except that my dad prayed for a car, and God worked it out for him. I like the image of this verse. You’re right here, pulling me through. Have you ever felt like God was pulling you through? Like you for sure wouldn’t have made it if He wasn’t pulling you through. You didn’t have the energy or will to walk or even get out of bed, and yet you felt something pulling you out of bed and pushing you to keep going.The next line is great, too, because it reminds us that we are not carrying our load along. It says you carry my weakness, my sickness, my brokenness all on your shoulders. God has some pretty broad shoulders. He can handle our weakness, sickness, and brokenness. We don’t have to carry it on our own. That is just something the enemy tries to get us to believe. We can give these things to the Lord, and He will carry them for us. All we need to do is ask.My help comes from YouYou are my rest, my rescueI don't have to see to believe thatYou're lifting me up on Your shouldersYour shouldersThe Lord is our rest. We can just sit and rest in him. Whenever we want, whether we are weary and we need to rest, or whether we just want to rest in His love, mercy, and forgiveness. We can always rest in Him. He is also our rescu

Today’s witness is a recount of one that I heard yesterday on YouTube. I will put a link to this testimony video in the show notes. The testimony is about Lauren Daigle. Lauren talked about how when she was a teenager the Lord showed her what her future would look like. He showed her stages, He showed her exactly what her Lauren Daigle World Tour would look like. She didn’t know what he was showing her, but she could see crowds of people and tour buses and charts and awards and all the things, and she wasn’t even singing yet. She was a closet singer. No one knew she could sing. Her mom talked to the choir singer at their church and asked if he could put her in the choir, maybe in the back row. Anyway, she auditioned, and he gave her a song and asked her to lead the song in those two weeks. She said every decision she made in her career was based on these visions and dreams. Finally, she made it to the Lauren Daigle World Tour. It was exactly like what she had seen in her visions. She said at the beginning of the tour, God told her to “hold it loosely.” She had no idea what that meant, but she said, “OK.” She had 12 shows on her tour, and then COVID happened, and everything shut down. She was so heartbroken. She said it took her 6 months to get out of bed because she was so filled with disappointment. She was heartbroken because at 16, He showed her these visions and these dreams, and then it took her 12 years to be there to fulfill them. Then on the 12th show, it all fell apart, and the weight of disappointment was so heavy. The Lord is the restorer of broken dreams. She said she used to never talk about God at shows because she wanted it to be more inclusive. But she then thought, how can I talk about Love when I am not talking about Love itself? She talked to God during COVID and asked where everything went. He told her that she needed to go back to the beginning. Why did she start singing? She sings to worship, to love me, to show me you care. God said worship is the thing that proceeds a miracle. If you are desperate for a miracle and you begin to worship and worship and worship, your eyes will be so focused on the thing you are worshiping that you won’t have time to give fear, anxiety, and stress to the things of this world. He told her that she had forgotten the heart of worship. She is grateful for the time to herself during COVID because she was missing the heart of worship. She was just going through the motions, and now she is back to worshiping and not just singing. He took away her disappointment. He made her experience at her concerts so much better! As much as she can look back and be grateful for the shutdown now when she was in it, she was struggling. She was going at light speed before the show, and then all of a sudden, she was stopped. The whole world was stopped. She said it felt like she had whiplash because it all stopped so quickly. She struggled with a lot of anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. She was seeing a neurologist and going to therapy, just trying to figure out what was going on. She asked God to return to her the joy of my salvation. She didn’t just want to maintain, she wanted to have zeal and passion for life. When you allow God to come into the broken places, it is like this beautiful lens gets added to your eyes, and you are able to see through His eyes. It’s like you are looking through His “Glory filter.” You can even go through trials and tribulations with joy. She was finally understanding what Paul was saying when he could find contentment in all things. She started asking God for that wholeness. She wants to help people with loneliness. Someone asked her what she would like to leave behind as her legacy. She said she wants to be known as someone who helps to eradicate loneliness. Loneliness is such a terrible feeling. Lauren says it is the worst feeling. She said there are many people that don’t have friends and that is not ok. We all need to do something about this. She said there is an Old Testament command to love your neighbor, and we all need to be doing this better. She suggests different ways to do this. When you are in the checkout line at the store, look the cashier in the eyes and ask how they are, how their day is going, and what is going on. When you pass someone on the sidewalk, you can say hello. I hope you are having a good day. We need to stop being so busy and make time to love our neighbors. Let’s all talk to and interact with people more often!Click Here for First Video Lauren Daigle's Sincere Testimony Gave Me ChillsClick Here for Second Video Lauren Daigle Opens Up About Overcoming Loneliness & Finding Purpose Emotional Interview www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's

Why Share Words Of Prophecy?1 Corinthians 14:3 “He who prophesies speaks to men for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.”I have been talking more lately about hearing the Lord’s voice and how if we keep giving the Lord a chance to talk to us, then He will. Last night was a really exciting class at Encounter School of Ministry Boston Campus. Both year one and year two students were practicing receiving and sharing words of prophecy. It is always a lot of fun and also a bit intimidating because we always think when it is our turn to get a word, we won’t hear anything. As year two students, we have been learning to listen to the Lord’s voice for a year and a half now, and yet we still get nervous when it is time for us to get a word and share it.I say this to encourage you. If you have started making time to listen to the Lord and yet you feel you are not hearing anything, I want you to know you are in good company. If you have not started making time to listen to the Lord because you know you won’t hear anything, you are also in good company. Many of us think we won’t hear anything. I mean, who are we anyway? Why would the Lord our God want to talk to us when He has more important things to do and more important people to talk to? I get why you would feel this way. We all kinda feel this way at first. As I said, my classmates and I have been doing this for a year and a half at least, some of us for a lot longer than that, and we can still feel that way at times.However, God wants to talk to you. Yes, you! He is actually already talking to you. You just can’t hear Him because the noises of the world are so loud, and you probably aren’t spending the time to sit and listen. To answer the question, “Who am I that the Lord our God would want to talk to me?” You are a son or daughter of the one true king. You are His beloved child whom He made in His image and likeness. Yes, God is busy, and yet He is never too busy to sit and talk with you. God is not human. He does not have the same constraints we have. We each have his full attention at all times. He can be fully with us and whatever we are going through at the same time as He can be with everyone else. When we ask the Lord for something, we are not taking anything away from anyone else. I think this is a really hard concept to understand. We tend to shy away from asking God for things because we know He is busy, and we don’t want to bother Him with our problems. This is limiting God, it is putting Him in a box. God is bigger than this idea that He can only help so many people, so we better not burden Him with our problems. God wants us to come to Him with everything. Not just the really big stuff we can’t handle on our own but the little things too. The bad stuff and the good stuff. He wants us to bring it all to Him and invite Him into it. Ask Him to help us with the things we need help with, ask Him for advice on the things we can do ourselves, and share with Him the good things that are happening. Yes, of course, He already knows, but it is not the same as when you tell Him about it. God is our heavenly Father. Although He is not limited by our human constraints, such as time and our ability to be in only one place at one time, He does have feelings like we do. After all, we were made in His likeness and image, and Jesus was fully human. The difference between our emotions and the Lord’s emotions is that His emotions were not affected by the fall. God’s emotions are perfect. His love for us is a perfect love. He truly loves us unconditionally, which is a hard concept for us to understand as our love usually comes with conditions.The verse above talks about words or prophecy. I have talked a bit lately about how God is talking to each one of us, and if we listen, we will hear what He is saying. I have also talked about how important it is to not only listen to when God is talking to us but also to get familiar with what He is saying to us in the scriptures. I mentioned how important it is to be familiar with God and how He talks with us because then, when the enemy tries to whisper his stupid lies in our ears, we will know it is not the Lord. I gave the story of the bank teller and how if they want to spot a fake bill, they have to be intimately familiar with what the real thing looks like. The same is true with God. If we want to be able to spot a fake, we have to be intimately familiar with the One true God and the way that He talks to us. This is why I have started to end each episode with a word of prophecy from our prayer group. If you are hearing a word from the Lord each day, then you will start to get intimately familiar with how He talks to us. Then when you hear the enemy's lies, you will know it is not from the Lord because He never talks to us like that.The verse above explains why God shares words of prophecy with us. The verse says, “He who prophesies speaks to men for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” This vers

Our Father's Love (Part 13) Why Praise Is So ImportantPsalm 103:22 “I will bless and praise the Lord with my whole heart! Let all his works throughout the earth, wherever his dominion stretches—let everything bless the Lord!”This is the last episode in this series. I have really enjoyed taking a look at this psalm and breaking it down to examine it. I have not actually spent a lot of time in the Psalms, and it was beautiful to take the time to go through Psalm 103. Today’s topic is one of my favorites. I think my top 3 topics to talk about would be praise, forgiveness, and God’s love, not necessarily in that order. These are my favorites because I think they are some of the most important. God has really been showing me over the last few years how important praise is to Him. He often gives us a word of prophecy at our prayer group that talks about how much He loves that we come together to praise Him each week.He has also been telling me over the last few years that praise is a big part of the reason I have been able to grow in my faith so much and that I am able to trust so much. When I ask what I am doing differently, He tells me that I am praising more. I am praising God, not just when I feel like it and not just when all things are going my way. I am praising God every single day, whether it is a good day or a bad day. I actually praise Him more on a bad day sometimes because when I listen to praise music, it can help me change my mood.If you have not discovered any really good praise music, I recommend you go to Spotify and search through Christian music. My mentor, Pamela Crim, put together an awesome playlist called The Big Life Mornings playlist. It is a public playlist on Spotify, and if you type Big Life Mornings playlist into the search function, it will come up. It has a yellow background with someone walking in red shoes. Some of my favorite artists, in case you are not into playlists, are for King and Country, Lauren Daigle, Elevation Worship, Phil Wickham, TobyMac, Cory Asbury, and so many more of the artists that are on that playlist. There are several reasons that I recommend you find some great Christian music that you like.First, listening to Christian music has helped me learn even more how much God loves me. I have included some of my favorite songs in various episodes over the years. However, if you have not heard the song Reckless Love by Cory Asbury, you are really missing out. If you do not do Spotify, you can check out YouTube as well. There is actually a playlist on my channel, WalkBodlyWithJesus, on YouTube that is called Prayer Group, and that is a great list of praise songs. It would be a great place to start. Whether you are on Spotify or YouTube, you can save songs to a playlist, and then you can listen to that playlist whenever you need to.Another reason I recommend you find some good Christian music is because it can change your mood or your focus. Anytime we are anxious, angry, scared, mad, frustrated, or any other feeling, it is because of the story we are telling ourselves. If we are anxious, we are probably focusing on what may or may not happen. If we are angry or frustrated, we might be looking at a situation we can’t change. Listening to this music can help shift our focus from our problems, our worries, and our situation to our God. There is a saying that says that instead of looking at how big our problems are, we can focus on how big our God is. Music can help us do this. If you are listening to songs about how God is a miracle worker and a way-maker, it shifts your focus and helps you praise God in tough times.A third reason I recommend listening to praise music is because it fills your head with God. God will be on your mind more because the things you listen to are the thoughts that will be in your head. Have you ever noticed that when you hang around someone a lot, you start to talk like them? This is because you spend so much time with them, and you are constantly hearing how they talk, so your brain picks it up. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what they are saying. When I first learned this, I was a bit discouraged because the people in my house, with whom I spent the most time, were very negative and used very bad language. I did not want to start talking like they did. I needed to figure out a way to surround myself with different voices. This is when I started to listen to Christian podcasts and was able to find more Christian music. Imagine if you are listening to songs each day that talk about how much God loves us, how much He forgives us, and that talk about who God is. If you are hearing this over and over again, these will be the thoughts that fill your mind, and these will be the thoughts that come to your mind in times of trouble.I feel I could go on and on about why I love listening to praise music. However, I will end with this last point. Praising God helps us become more grateful people. I know sometimes it doesn’t feel l

Our Father’s Love (Part 13) The Heavenly AngelsPsalm 103:20-21 So bless the Lord, all his messengers of power, for you are his mighty heroes who listen intently to the voice of his word to do it. Bless and praise the Lord, you mighty warriors ministers who serve him well and fulfill his desires.These verses are talking about those who help the Lord. It is talking about the angels who listen intently to the Word of the Lord and then carry out their assignments. The Lord does not need anyone or anything. He created the entire universe out of nothing. He does not need us to help Him, He does not need the angels to help Him, and He doesn’t need the saints to help Him. Yet He allows us to help Him. He includes us in His great plan.I have talked of the angels before. However, I don’t talk about them often. This is mostly because I do not know a lot about the angels. I have learned about them over the years. There was a two-part class that I went to about angels at Theology on Tap. I find angels interesting. Each person has their very own guardian angel. This is an angel that is assigned to look out for you. This angel is bound to our free will. So it can not do something that we do not want it to do. All creatures, demons, and angels alike have to obey our free will.This is great news with demons and spirits because that means if we tell them to leave, they have to leave. If you are feeling depressed, angry, anxious, or any other feelings you don’t like, it could be a spirit causing that feeling. If so, you can say, “In the name of Jesus, I command the spirit of…(insert the feeling) to leave right now.” The spirit must leave. It can’t stay without permission. The problem is that sometimes we inadvertently give spirits permission to enter our minds or our thoughts. When we partake in occult activities, like having our futures told, tarot cards, and reiki, then we are opening a door to the enemy and inviting him in. Also, if we hear the enemy whispering words in our ears, and we partner with those lies, and we accept them as truth, then we are empowering the liar. This is giving the enemy power in our lives that we don’t want him to have.Another way we allow the enemy access to our lives is through hate. When we hate people, when we refuse to forgive people, we are inviting the enemy to live in that hate and that unforgiveness. We are giving the enemy power over us to keep us in that hateful state. Each time we think bad things about people, we talk about them, or we spread rumors about them, we partner with the enemy. Sin is not of the Lord; it breaks our relationship or at least damages our relationship with Him. When we do this, we are partnering with the enemy. When has partnering with the enemy ever worked out for our good?This is one reason why the angels and saints are so important. They can help us resist the enemy. They can protect us from bad things happening to us. I have heard some amazing stories of people who have been saved by angels. I mentioned we all have guardian angels. It is nice to acknowledge your angels and thank them for all they do for you. Of course, we don’t see most of what they do for us, but you can bet they are not just sitting back and relaxing. Another good thing to do is to tell your angel that you give it permission to act on your behalf and to do whatever it takes to protect you. Let your angel know you give it permission and that if it protects you, it will not be against your will. Accept your angel into your life.You can talk to your angel, although I don’t think they talk back like God does when you talk with Him. You can also send your angel on assignment. For instance, a friend told me your angel can be in more than one place at a time. So, when she sees an ambulance go by with its lights on or she sees an accident on the road, she will ask her angel to go and be with that person who is hurt. She will ask her angel to keep that person company and to provide them comfort and love, at least until their family gets there. I thought that was beautiful, and now I have started doing that.You can also ask your angel to talk to the angels of other people. Saint Padre Pio used to do this before any big or important meeting that he had. He would send his angel to the other people's angels and ask them to prepare the person's heart for what he was going to say. He found he had incredible results when he did this. This could be useful to all of us. We all have conversations we don’t look forward to. Whether it is our boss, certain family members, certain co-workers, or a stranger, we all have to have conversations that make us nervous. From now on, before we enter one of those conversations, we can send our angel ahead of us to prepare the way. This is also true when you have a certain outcome you would like, and you aren’t sure the other person will agree. Not that sending you an angel will guarantee that you get the answer you want, but it will certainly help prepare the other perso

Our Father’s Love (Part 12) Trust Enough To Ask For The Impossible Psalm 103: 19 “Yahweh has established his throne in heaven; his kingdom rules the entire universe.”God has established his throne in heaven. This doesn’t mean that is where He stays. His kingdom rules the entire universe. There is nothing that the Lord can’t reach. I think we forget this sometimes. We know God is all-powerful and all-sovereign, and then sometimes we are having trouble with something, and we don’t ask God for several reasons. We don’t ask Him because we think He is too busy to deal with our little problems, and we don’t want to bother Him. We don’t ask Him because this is a worldly problem, and what is He going to do about it anyway? We tend to put God in a box, and we think we know what He can do. We have an idea in our heads about what God can do for us, and we tend to keep our requests in alignment with those ideas.This may seem silly when you hear me say this. We all know that God is all-powerful and He can do all things. We don’t limit God. Think about the last few things you have prayed for. Have they been for the same type of things? Do you pray for God to help you with things even when you don’t see a way that He can help you? Are you taking all of your problems to God, or just some of them? I know a lot of people who seem to get annoyed with me because I often say, “Well, let's pray about that.” If something is bothering us, then God wants to help us. It doesn’t matter how big or how small it is. He cares about everything that we care about.The verse above says that His kingdom rules the entire universe. It does not say that it rules our health and our spiritual lives, but not our material lives. It does not place any restrictions on God. So, why do we? When was the last time you asked God to help you out of a bind that had nothing to do with health? We tend to pray to the Lord when we or someone we love needs healing, but not necessarily when we need material things. For instance, would you pray to the Lord if your car breaks down on the highway, or would you just call AAA? If you need money to pay your bills, do you think you should pray to the Lord for it? What if you ran out of food, would you pray to the Lord, or would you try to figure it out on your own? Do these sound like things the Lord can help with?One time my dad’s car broke down, and he really needed a car if he was going to get to work. Before he even had time to tell my mom his car had broken down, a neighbor was at the door giving my dad a car. My dad hadn’t even told him he needed one. The man just said he had this feeling he was supposed to give my dad his wife’s car as she no longer needed it. One of my friends was sitting in her car waiting for the dollar store to open so she could buy groceries. She made her grocery list and realized she didn’t have enough money for all she needed. She prayed to God and told Him that if she just had $50 more, she could buy all she needed that week. The next thing she knew, her daughter had jumped out of the car to chase something that had just flown by. It was a $50 bill. One time, my parents ran out of food, and they really didn’t know how they were going to feed us that night for dinner. They prayed to the Lord for help, and a neighbor came over with all this extra food he had. His dad had to move in with them all of a sudden, and they couldn’t fit all his groceries into their house, so they asked my parents if they wanted the extras. God is so good!These are all things where the people couldn’t imagine how God was going to answer their prayers, and yet they asked anyway. There is no way that my dad would have imagined a neighbor would just give him a car or bags full of groceries, yet it happened. There is no way my friend could have imagined that if she asked God for $50, she would randomly find a $50 bill in an empty parking lot. Nothing is beyond the reach of God. Nothing is impossible for God.I think it is really important to remember this when we are praying for healing as well. We might not see any way that it can happen, and yet we can still pray to the Lord, even if we can’t see a way. For instance, there was a woman at the healing service who said she had several heart issues and had a pacemaker but would need a transplant at some point in the future. When she was prayed over, she felt heat in her heart, which means the Holy Spirit was working on it. She asked how that works if she has a pacemaker already. She couldn’t see how the Lord could heal her heart when she had a pacemaker. The deacon said he didn’t know either, we would have to ask Jesus. Here’s the thing, we don’t have to know. We just have to trust enough to ask and then wait and see. If God can create the entire universe, he can certainly figure out how to heal a heart with a pacemaker in it.I don’t think we mean to place restrictions on God, I just think we aren’t accustomed to asking for big things. God tells us in our prayer group all

Today the witness will be about the recent Encounter School of Ministry Boston Campus Healing Service that I attended. We witnessed many miraculous healings. The Holy Spirit always shows up where He is invited, welcomed, and expected. We always expect Him to show up at the healing services, and He does not disappoint us. Today I will relay some of those miracles to you.There was one young lady who had several heart issues and was going to need a heart transplant in the future. She felt a warmth in her heart after she was prayed over. Warmth does not mean she was healed, but it does mean the Holy Spirit was working. This same young lady also received prayer for her ears/hearing. She said when they were praying over her, she could feel this warmth in her left ear. As soon as they stopped and asked her to test it, she had a warmth and this weird vibration in both ears.There was a man who had neuropathy in his feet, and the pain was about an 8. After he had a team pray over him, the pain went down somewhat. The team prayed over him again, and it was down to a 2. He was hopeful it would continue to go down to zero over the next few days. I told him about my aunt’s neuropathy healing and how that took a few days, and he was encouraged. Hopefully he will reach back out and let us know how he is doing?There was a woman who had pain starting at her neck and radiating down to her hip. After she had a team pray over her, the pain was gone, and she had a warmth radiating down instead. Praise God!There was a woman who had digestive trouble and food intolerability. She said she would have to eat a pizza to know for sure if she was healed of the food issue, but she was literally doubled over from the weight of God’s glory. She just felt his presence so powerfully. Thank you, Jesus!There was a team that prayed over my friend Catherine. She said that the doctors keep telling her she has a terminal disease and that she will die, and yet it has been nine years, and she is still standing. Catherine told me that they have started her on a medicine that is used to treat brain cancer, but they are testing it out on other kinds as well. Catherine’s cancer has been reacting well to it, and she is getting better. Her doctor told her she was the exception, and he didn’t know why it was working. She knows why, though. She knows God is healing her. She said the healing service was just what she needed that night.One of our students, Jim, has muscle pain in the middle of his back. It was about a 5 or 6 on the pain scale before he was prayed over, and then it went down to about a 2. Praise the Lord!There was one woman who had bursitis in her hip. Someone had a word of knowledge at the beginning that a hip would be healed. The woman tested it out and said the pain was less, but she could still feel it. When we switched to laying hands and praying over people in small groups, she was completely healed. She was so surprised and excited that she had no more pain. She ran around the church to test it out, and she praised Jesus.There was another woman who had neck surgery a while ago and is having complications from it. She has a limited range of motion because she has a huge knot there. She just had a shot for it the other day because of the pain. It had been bothering her all day, and she had been rubbing it all day. She could not turn her head all the way to the right and look over her shoulder. After receiving prayer, the knot is completely gone and her range of motion has been restored!One of the women praying over her for this healing also had a neck injury in 1990 and also had limited neck mobility. While she was praying over this woman for healing the Lord healed her also. Her neck mobility has been restored as well! Thank you, Jesus. God is so good. Even when you aren’t asking, He can heal you. Even when you are ministering to others, He can heal you.Another one of our students, Tammy, suffered from an injury from a car accident in 1995. She said her neck will go out, which causes her back to go out which causes pain, lack of sleep, and a lot of other things. Tammy also had these popcorn sounds when she would rotate her neck. She said it would sound like Rice Krispy cereal. However, after receiving prayer, these popcorn sounds are considerably better. She can barely hear them now.There was a lady who had surgery. She has arthritis in her fingers, and when she bends them, they make a clicking sound, and it is painful. After there was a work of knowledge about healing arthritis, and when she tested it out, she no longer had any pain. She can still hear the clicking, she can still feel the clicking, but now it is pain-free. She has had this pain for years, and now it is gone! God is so good!As you can see from all these testimonies, God showed up at this healing service, and we are so grateful He did! I don’t know why I am always so surprised when He does. He told us in the Bible, ask, and you shall receive. He is a God of promises, and

Our Father’s Love (Part 11) Endless Love, Unbroken and UnrelentingPsalm 103:17-18 “But Lord, your endless love stretches from one eternity to the other, unbroken and unrelenting toward those who fear you and those who bow facedown in awe before you. Your faithfulness to keep every gracious promise you’ve made passes from parents to children, to grandchildren, and beyond. You are faithful to all those who follow your ways and keep your word.”Today’s verse is uplifting, especially after yesterday’s verse which had us thinking about how short life is. Today we get to go back to thinking about how much God loves us. We could think about this all day, every day, and would still never really comprehend how vast His love for us is. The other day we talked about how God separates us from our sin as far as the sunset is from the sunrise. Today we are talking about how much He loves us. The verse says that His “endless love stretches from one eternity to the other, unbroken and unrelenting.”This world doesn’t seem to understand endless love. Love seems to end every day. The divorce rate in this country is so high. Actually, it is high all over the world. We live in a throw-away society where we want the newest and the best things, and we get rid of the old things. We don’t seem to want to work to keep the things we have. When things get difficult, when they get broken, we throw them away and start again instead of trying to fix them. This is not the same with God. His love is endless.Can you even imagine what that would look like? Endless love, love that doesn’t end. Does that mean He still loves us after we mess up and hurt Him? Yes! Does that mean He still loves us even after we keep doing the same stupid things over and over again? Yes! Surely He will stop loving us once He can see that we are unfixable and unredeemable? Nope! There will never be a time when God’s love will stop. He loves us when we can’t even love ourselves. He loves us even when we don’t deserve it. He loves us even when we don’t want Him too! He created us with this endless love that goes from one eternity to the other. I love the adjectives this translation uses. They are unbroken and unrelenting.I love unbroken because that is such a difference from our love. We live in a broken world, and so our love is broken. We struggle to love unconditionally. We struggle to love each other the way the Lord loves us. If I’m being honest, sometimes we struggle with just liking other people, never mind loving them. We love people when they do this or that. We love people who act like us, talk like us, look like us. Sometimes we love people because of what we can get from them, which is not actually loving them but using them. God’s love is not broken. He loves us unconditionally. He loves us for who we are, not what we do. We do not have to do anything to earn His love.I love unrelenting because it is such an active word. When I hear the word unrelenting, I don’t think about a God who sits up in heaven just waiting for us to come to Him. When I hear that word, I picture a God who will stop at nothing to save His children. I picture a God who chases after them and does not let anything get in the way of finding them. God loves us, He wants us to be with Him forever in paradise. He is unrelenting in that pursuit. Why do we fight it so much?The second part of this verse says, “Your faithfulness to keep every gracious promise you’ve made passes from parents to children, to grandchildren, and beyond. You are faithful to all those who follow your ways and keep your word.” There are two really important things in that first sentence to highlight. The first is that it reminds us that God is faithful and He keeps His promises. It doesn’t just say that God keeps promises, but it says that He is faithful to keep EVERY gracious promise He made every promise! This means when you read a promise in the Bible, you can be assured that God will keep that promise.The second important thing it says is that those promises are passed down from parents to children, to grandchildren, and beyond. This shows us that the promises made in the Bible aren’t just for those people who were living at the time they were made. They are for you and for me too. It can be easy for us to read through the Bible and think of it as a great story about something that happened a really long time ago. We can think it has nothing to do with us, especially if we are reading a translation that is hard to understand. There may be a lot of words for things, and we don’t know what they mean.The Bible is not just talking to those who lived back then. It is talking directly to each one of us, you and I. Before we sit down to read the Bible, we should ask the Lord to show us how what we are reading that day applies to our lives. I bet if we all did that before we read anything, we would be surprised at what we learned. The Lord wants to reveal the secrets in the Bible to us, we only need to ask Him. The Bible

Our Father’s Love (Part 10) What If This Time, Was The Last Time?Psalm 103:15-16 “Our days are so few, and our momentary beauty so swiftly fades away! Then all of a sudden, we’re gone, like grass clippings blown away in a gust of wind, taken away to our appointment with death, leaving nothing to show that we were here.”Wow, I was surprised to read that when I sat down to write this episode. It is something we all know, and yet we really don’t like to think about it. It is also strange that this is the verse for today because I just turned off the TV after watching an episode of The Closer. In this episode, a man helped get his son and daughter ready for school and then had to go to work. After he left, someone came in and shot his wife, mother-in-law, and two children. It turns out the person who shot them went to the wrong address. This man had a normal morning with his children and left to go to work, just like he always does, and yet his life will never be the same again. At the end of the show, they showed the chief detective at her house. The day before, she had left for work, and her cat was eating breakfast. When her husband came home at lunchtime, the cat had thrown up the breakfast, so her husband brought the cat to the vet. The cat was not doing well. She couldn’t understand how she had just seen the cat eating, and now she may never get to see the cat again.This seems like a strange way to begin a devotional, and yet I think it demonstrates an important fact that we really don’t like to think about. We never know when it will be the last time we get to do something. If we knew it was the last time we were going to get to do something, we would probably do it very differently than we did. For instance, if you knew it was the very last time you were going to breastfeed your baby, you probably wouldn’t have been in such a rush for them to finish so you could get on with your day. If you knew it was the last time you were going to talk to your loved one, you probably would have said very different things. If you knew it was the last time you were to get to eat pizza, you would have savored it more. Do you see where I am going with this?If we knew it was the last time, we would do it right. However, we rarely know it is going to be the last time. There are things we are blessed to get to know. For instance, if we get to be sitting with a loved one right before they pass on. At the end of the year, we know it is the child’s last day of whatever grade they just completed unless they get sick that last day. We don’t usually know when it’s the last time we will get to see our child crawl or the last time they will say that cute phrase they always say. We don’t know when it'll be the last time we will get to hug them or kiss them. Anything can happen at any time.There are a couple of important things this verse can bring to our attention. The first one is that life is short, and we need not to take it for granted. What if we started approaching every interaction we had with people as if it were our last? What if we stopped leaving things unsaid? What if we were deliberate with our interactions and stopped to think before we acted and definitely before we spoke? Imagine what it would be like to leave each interaction with others without any regrets. Imagine being so present every single time you were with your loved ones that if that were the last time you saw them, you would be proud of your interactions. What is one way you can take what this verse says and apply it to your life and/or your interactions with others?The second thing this verse shows us is how short this life is. The verse says, “Our days are so few, and our momentary beauty so swiftly fades away! Then all of a sudden, we’re gone, like grass clippings blown away in a gust of wind, taken away to our appointment with death, leaving nothing to show that we were here.” Our days here in this world are so few. We think we are here for a long time, so we do what we can to fit into this world. We focus on things that aren’t important, as this verse points out. Our momentary beauty so swiftly fades away. Yet that can be our main priority at times. Often our focus is on things of this world even though we are just here for a short amount of time. We spend a tiny amount of time in this world and, hopefully, eternity with our heavenly Father. So, why are we spending all of our time focusing on the things of this world when this is not where we will stay?We need to keep our eyes fixed on the one above. When we put God first in our lives, we not only please him but also improve our lives here on earth. When we make time to pray or add prayer to the things we are already doing, our lives are blessed beyond measure. Usually, when things start going sideways in our lives, we can see it’s because we stopped putting God first. For instance, we stopped asking God to lead the way, and we took over the driver’s seat. If we want to take the lead, God will let us.

Our Father’s Love (Part 9) Can We Be Angry With God?Psalm 103:13-14 “The same way a loving father feels toward his children—that’s but a sample of your tender feelings toward us, your beloved children, who live in awe of you. You know all about us, inside and out. You are mindful that we’re made from dust.”This verse probably means different things to different people. I can feel the love and tender feelings that our heavenly Father has for us because I know how loving fathers can be. I had an amazing example of a father. I always knew my dad loved me, and I knew of his tender feelings towards us. I wonder if this verse means as much to those who did not have a great father. What if you didn’t know your father loved you? What if he didn’t show you any tender feelings? Are you still able to feel the love coming from this verse?If you did not feel loved by your Father while you were growing up, I want you to know you were loved by your heavenly Father. He created you and loved you before you were even born. Before your parents even thought about having you, God knew everything about you. The verse above says, “You know all about us, inside and out.” This is something we forget sometimes. We try to hide things from the Lord as if He doesn’t already know. This is especially true when we are angry with the Lord. We don’t think it is okay to be angry with God, so we hide it from him. We actually try to hide it from ourselves as well. We pretend we are not mad, or we tell ourselves we are not angry. When we do this, our anger festers under the surface, and I believe it blocks some of the graces God wants to give us.When we are holding this anger in and just ignoring it, then we aren’t dealing with it, we aren’t processing it, and we certainly aren’t bringing it to God. These are the exact things we need to do to get rid of the anger or really any feeling that we are having. I understand why we don’t think we can be angry with God. I mean, He is God. He knows what He is doing, and He can prevent things from happening. Nothing happens that he didn’t allow to happen either with His perfect Will or His Permissive Will. We know God uses all things for our good, so how can we be mad at God when He will use whatever we are going through for our good? I understand where these feelings come from, and yet I don’t believe they are complete. Yes, God allows all things to happen, and yes He will use all things for good. That doesn’t mean you won’t have to go through some really hard times. That doesn’t mean that we won’t get ourselves into some pretty serious trouble.Just because God can use it for good doesn’t mean He wills it for us. It doesn’t mean it was His plan for our life. None of us listen to God perfectly. None of us follow His plan perfectly. Sometimes we will do things to mess things up, and God will allow the consequences of that for some reasons we can understand, like to help us learn and grow, and for some reasons, we will never know about this side of heaven. However, sometimes our painful situations are not a result of something we have done. Sometimes bad stuff just happens, and we have no idea why. No matter how we look at it, we can’t seem to make sense of it.The reason for this difficult time you are going through or have been through doesn't matter; it is still okay to be angry with God. If there is anyone who can handle our anger, it is the Lord. If you want to have a real relationship with Him, you have to be honest with Him. Think about the people in your life that you have the best relationships with. Why are you so close to them? What makes it a good relationship? The people I am closest to are the people with whom I can be completely honest. I don’t have to watch what I say, and I don't have to pretend to be ok when I am not. They are also the people who know me the best, and I know them the best as well.Do you have people in your life like that? Do you have someone in your life who can just take one look at you and know that you are not okay? They know you so well that when you say I am fine, they can tell just by the tone in your voice that you are not really fine. Do you have someone in your life who you can tell you you are angry with something they did, and yet you guys are still friends, and you still love each other? I know I do, and it is such a blessing in my life. If we can have friends and loved ones who are capable of loving us even when we are angry with them for something they have done, why do we think we can’t have the same thing with our Heavenly Father? If your friends can tell when you are upset, don’t you think God can tell too? The verse says that He knows all about us, inside and out. That means He knows your feelings too. He has intimate knowledge of every part of you, even more so than your friends or family members do.Here is the reason I believe it is okay to be angry with God. There were plenty of people in the Bible who cried out to the Lord. I also believe that anger is

Our Father’s Love (Part 8) Get Intimately Familiar With The Real One Psalm 103:12 “Farther than from a sunrise to a sunset, that's how far you've removed our guilt from us.”Today’s verse goes right along with the past few days, and yet it confirms it a bit stronger. For the last few days, I have been talking about God’s love and God’s mercy. We now know how much God loves us. We know He is not just sitting in heaven waiting for us to mess up so he can punish us. We know he does discipline us at times, but not never as much as we truly deserve. We also know from the previous episode that the Lord wants to talk to each and every one of us. When he talks to us, He is gentle and loving. We know He also has different ways of talking to us. If you did not know any of these things, or you struggle to believe any of these things, you can go back and listen to the last 2-3 episodes. However, if you have missed any in this series about the Father’s Love, then I would recommend going back and listening to them all, as I am really loving Psalm 103.Today’s verse says, “Farther than from a sunrise to a sunset, that's how far you've removed our guilt from us.” Do you understand what this verse is saying? Do you understand the magnitude of this verse? God is separating us as far away from our sins as the sunrise is from the sunset. These two things never touch. They are as far apart as they can be. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. Wherever you are in the world, take a moment and think about the most eastern point in the world you can think of. Then think of the most western point in the world you can think of. This is how separated you are from your sins.We tend to think our sins are part of us. Oftentimes we take those sins on as our identity. For instance, I am a liar, not someone who has lied before. I am an adulterer, not someone who had an affair. I am a cheater, not someone who cheated in a game. Do you see what I am talking about? What is the sin that you are claiming as your identity? This is so common. I used to do this when it came to my children. I would say he is a liar. He said x, y, or z. My counselor would always correct me. He might have lied about this thing, but that is not his identity. This is hard for us. We find it easier to claim the sin and make it part of us.I wonder if that is because when we do that, we also turn over our responsibility. If I am a liar, then it makes sense that I lied. I don’t have to take responsibility for it, and I don’t have to change it because it is just who I am. I have heard this a lot over the years. People justify the ugly things they say or do by saying, “That’s just who I am.” Or they justify their loved ones’ behaviors by saying, “That is just who they are.” Your sins and your behaviors are not who you are. They are not your identity. You are who God says you are. God says we are special (Eph 2:10), loved (Jer 31:3), redeemed (Gal 3:13), important (1 Peter 2:9), lovely (Dan 12:3), forgiven (Psalm 103:12), family (Eph 2:19), strong (Psalm 18:25), not alone (Matt 28:20), treasured (Deut 14:2), Protected (Psalm 121:3), created for a purpose (Jer 29:11), accepted (Rom 15:7), a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), chosen (John 15:16), a child of God (Rom 8:17), precious (1 Cor 6:20), empowered (Phil. 4:17), unique (Psalm 139:13), and cared for (Eph 3:17-19). The scripture references for each and every one of those words is listed in the show notes. Where is the scripture verse for the things you are taking on as your identity?We think the Lord sees us as a sum of all our sins because that is how we see us. However, our ways are not like His ways, and our thoughts are not like His thoughts. If you listened to the previous episodes in this series, you remember Father Mike said truth can’t contradict truth. We know what is in the Bible is truth. So, if your idea of who you are contradicts the above identity, it can’t be the truth. The verse above confirms that God does not identify us as our sins. It says He separates us from our sins. How great would it be if we could do the same?Why is it so hard to see ourselves through God’s eyes? I think part of it is because we don’t really know God. If we aren’t reading the scriptures, if we aren’t reading faith-filled books, and if we aren’t spending time with God, then how can we know Him? In the last episode of this series, we talked about hearing the Lord’s voice and listening to what He wants to say to us. If we aren’t doing this, if we don’t know how He talks to us, then how can we possibly know the difference between His voice and the enemy's voice?I heard a story the other day, and I think it is a great analogy/example for this. The woman speaking is a banker. She no longer works with physical money. However, she used to. She asked us if we knew how they teach bank tellers to spot fake bills. We had several ideas of the differences between real and fake, and she said yes, there are definitely ways to tell them apart. Howe

Today’s witness Wednesday will be a bit different than usual. Today I am going to read you two blog posts written by Father David Barnes. He was the Spiritual Director at St. John’s Seminary in Boston in 2014 when these posts were written. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston in 1997. The two blog posts were written about a Eucharist procession that took place in 2014 from MIT to Harvard. It was in response to a “black mass” which was to be held that same night and the administration at the college refused to intervene. There are a few reasons I wanted to talk with you about this today. First, there is a Eucharist Procession this weekend right here in Lowell, MA, for anyone who is listening to this and who lives locally. It is on November 26th at 11 am at St. Rita’s Parish. The other one is because I have heard this story at least twice over the last month, and I feel it is one that should be repeated. We tend to get scared watching the news. We feel as though evil is taking over, and we can sometimes feel helpless. This story shows us we are not helpless. It shows us good defeats evil. The Lord has already won the war of good vs. evil. He will always be victorious!The First Blog article is titled A Beautiful Night to be Catholic in the Archdiocese of Boston and was written by Father David Barnes on Tuesday, May 13, 2014. CLICK HERE to go to Father David Barnes' BlogIt’s a little after Midnight, and I am just getting in after participating in a magnificent evening. Hundreds of Catholics joined in a Eucharistic Procession down Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge from the MIT chapel to St. Paul's in Harvard Square. There, we spent a period of time in prayer. The purpose of the evening was to pray in reparation for a planned Satanic Mass on the campus of Harvard University. The procession, which passed MIT and Central Square, was a site to behold. People were coming out of restaurants--some kneeling on the sidewalks, others blessing themselves, and some just staring in bewilderment. Many of the servers who organized the procession were from Juventutem Boston. That is the Traditional Latin Mass Community of young people. They did an impressive job. It's not easy to keep us priests organized. The procession ended at St. Paul's in Harvard Square. When we arrived, the church--which I suppose holds about 1000 people--was already filled to capacity. So hundreds of those who walked in procession were left standing on the street outside of St. Paul's. As I looked out at the congregation, I saw many people from my previous assignment in Beverly. They traveled a good distance to be there. It makes me proud to have been in a parish of people who love the Eucharist so much that they would come to this event. In the procession, I saw many students from Boston University (where I serve as Chaplain). It was so inspiring to see their witness. The unsung hero of the event, in my opinion, was Fr. Richard Clancy, who is the Chaplain at MIT and who is the Director for Catholic Campus Ministry in the Archdiocese of Boston. He was the one who came up with the idea of a Eucharistic Procession. Although he doesn't look for accolades, he deserves some today. Tonight, I spent several hours with Catholics from all over the Archdiocese of Boston--young and old, students, married people, priests, seminarians, religious men and women, lay people--who all love the Eucharist. That's what being a Catholic is. I'm grateful to have experienced their powerful witness tonight.The second blog article is titled The Harvard Eucharistic Procession Was Beautiful . . . But Now What? This was written on Tuesday, May 13, 2014. CLICK HERE to go to Father David Barnes' BlogThe decision of a student group at Harvard University to host a "black mass" on its campus precipitated a massive response from Catholics around Boston, the United States, and even the world. I've heard of parishes all over the United States that held Holy Hours at the time of the scheduled event at Harvard. As I mentioned previously, I participated in a magnificent Eucharistic Procession from the campus of MIT to St. Paul's in Harvard Square. Hundreds of Catholics followed the Eucharistic Lord down the main street in Cambridge, where thousands of onlookers witnessed the flock following the Eucharistic Good Shepherd.I'm not always a huge fan of "big events" because I feel like those things can be used as a substitute for true faith. Sometimes, they feel as though the effort that goes into planning and executing them far outweighs the benefits. They sometimes feel designed as a publicity stunt or as a way of evoking a strong emotional reaction, but the effects seem short-lived. Last night's Eucharistic Procession had a different feel. As I looked about and saw the many young college students from area universities participating, I was touched by their love for the Eucharist and their sincere desire to follow Christ. During the past year, one thing that has really struck me

Our Father’s Love (Part 7) God’s Mercy Extends Higher Than The Highest HeavensPsalm 103:10-11 “You may discipline us for our many sins, but never as much as we really deserve. Nor do you get even with us for what we’ve done. Higher than the highest heavens – that's how high your tender mercy extends! Greater than the grandeur of heaven above is the greatness of your loyal love, towering over all who fear you and bow down before you!”Yesterday I talked about how much God loves us. I talked about how He gave His only son for us while we were still sinners. Today, we are talking about God’s mercy. We talked about how God is not just waiting up there for us to sin so that he can punish or hold that sin against us. Today’s verse confirms and reinforces this for us. It states that the Lord “will discipline us for our many sins, but never as much as we deserve.” We might hear this and worry because we all have different opinions of what we might deserve. We might look at all we have done and know we do not want the discipline we deserve. This is another time when it is important to remember that “God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts.”Just because we know that we deserve a severe punishment does not mean we will get one. God does not think like we think. Most of us are way harder on ourselves than God would ever be. We are harder on ourselves than we would be on other people. If you take a minute to think about something you are hard on yourself for and then ask yourself if your friend did that thing, would you be hard on them? For instance, when I talk with my friends, and they are complaining that they didn’t do something they should have done, I remind them that we are aiming for progress, not perfection. However, when I look back at all I haven’t done throughout the week, I can start to give myself a hard time.God is not looking at all that we have done wrong. He is looking at all that we do right. He is not looking for our downfalls. He is looking at all of our progress, growing closer to Him. God has told our prayer group many times that the littlest thing we do to praise Him or to spread His love or his Word to others makes Him so happy. Think about a child that you know and love. When they come to you with a picture they made, do you look at all the ways that picture falls short of what it was supposed to look like? Do you focus on all the places they went out of the line and all the ways you would have done it differently? I doubt it. We would look at that picture and see all the love they put into it. We would see how hard they worked at it. We would see how hard they tried to do something beautiful for us. This is how the Lord looks at us.Man, I wish each one of you could be in our prayer group meeting, even just for one day! I wish you could hear the way the Lord talks to us. By us, I mean you and me. When the Lord gives words of prophecy, they are meant to build up the community. They are not for one person. Even when the content is specifically for one person, the word builds up those who are giving it as well. When God is giving words to our prayer group, they are meant to be shared. Maybe I will start sharing one of his words at the end of each podcast. That way, you will begin to get used to hearing how the Lord talks to us. You will begin to see His mercy and His love.If you spend time listening, you can hear the Lord’s voice. He does not talk to our prayer group because we are special or because He likes us best. He talks to our prayer group because we invite Him in, and we listen to what He has to say. One of the speakers at our Life in the Spirit Seminar mentioned a quote by St. Bonaventure that I think speaks to this. St. Bonaventure said the “Holy Spirit comes where he is loved…Where He is invited… and where He is expected.” Do you love the Holy Spirit? Have you invited the Holy Spirit into your life? What about your day? Do you expect the Holy Spirit to show up every time you ask?This last one can be really difficult at times. I believe the Holy Spirit will show up. He has in so many instances that I can’t even count them all. I still question that he will show up sometimes. When someone asks me for a word of knowledge or when I need a scripture verse, I ask the Holy Spirit for it, and at the same time, my brain is telling me I won’t hear anything. After all the times I have heard from the Holy Spirit, I know this is ridiculous, yet it still happens. If you are having trouble listening to the Spirit, know you are not alone. Keep loving Him, keep inviting Him, keep trying to expect Him. When you invite Him in, take a few minutes of silence to see what He wants to tell you.I think it is hard at first because we don’t know what the Lord’s voice sounds like or what kinds of things He wants to tell us. First, God’s voice usually sounds like your voice. At least in all those I have talked to who hear a voice in their heart, it sounds like their voice. Also, it might n

God Is So Kind, Tenderhearted, and Patient!Psalm 103:8-9 “Lord, you’re so kind and tenderhearted and so patient with people who fail you! Your love is like a flooding river overflowing its banks with kindness. You don’t look at us only to find our faults just so that you can hold a grudge against us.”Today’s verses are ones I think we all need to hear over and over again. They speak such truths in them, yet they are often forgotten, or we simply don’t believe them. The first line says, “Lord, you’re so kind and tenderhearted and so patient with people who fail you!” God truly is patient with us. If you need evidence of this, look back at the Old Testament in the Bible. Look how many times God’s people turned away from Him. Look how many times he did miraculous things for them, and they repaid Him by worshiping idols. It wasn’t one or two times. It was often. Look at when He saved them from Egypt, where they were slaves, and then they complained because they didn’t have meat to eat. He gave them this miraculous substance called manna daily to eat, but they wanted more.The Lord often told them to do something, and they did the opposite. They had so many kings who wanted to rely on other nations to protect them instead of relying on the one true God to protect them. Ever since the fall, when Adam & Eve ate the apple, man has failed the Lord. You can see even in the New Testament where we failed the Lord. The worst is when we crucified the Son of God. However, the apostles failed to trust Jesus or understand what He was saying all along the way.God is still so kind and so patient with us. Even when you fail, and we all fail. Romans 2:23 says, “ For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Then the very next verse says, “and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Can you see how kind, tenderhearted, and patient He is with us? Even after all the times we turned away in the Old Testament, God still sent His only Son to be crucified for our sins. This also brings us to the next part of today’s verses: "Your love is like a flooding river overflowing its banks with kindness.”Take a moment, close your eyes, and imagine a river overflowing its banks. Imagine how much water there must be in that river. Image what it looks like for that overflowing water to cover the river's surrounding land. Can you picture water covering the grass, the rocks, the dirt, everything? This is what the Lord’s love is like. It covers us with kindness. His love covers our dirt, our sins, and all of our weaknesses. What I love about this imagery is that you can’t control the water overflowing from a river. It can’t be contained. There is just too much to stay contained it the river. It just overflows to everything around it. This is what God’s love does for us. It fills us up and then overflows to all those who surround us.The following line says, “You don’t look at us only to find our faults just so that you can hold a grudge against us.” This is a very common belief. I have talked to many people who admit that they think of God as a judge sitting up in heaven, looking down on us, and just waiting for us to screw up so He can punish us. I have known in my heart for a long time now that this is not true, and now I have a Bible verse to confirm it. It’s interesting that this line comes right after the line about God’s love overflowing with kindness. God doesn’t have to wait up in heaven, just waiting for us to mess up. He already knows what we will do before we do it. He knows when and where you will mess up. And guess what? He loves us anyway. He forgives us anyway.I think it is hard to picture God as a good and loving father if we don’t have a good and loving father. If our father was always waiting for us to screw up so he could punish us, then we can transfer that to God. Also, if we grew up with this image of God in our minds, it can be tough to switch our thinking. If we struggle to believe that our heavenly Father is loving and doesn’t just look at our faults, we don’t need to look any further than the cross. God sent Jesus to pay for our sins. Ellen Gould White said, “Christ was treated as we deserve that we may be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive His life. 'By His stripes, we are healed.”Does that sound like a Father who is just looking for our faults? Does it sound like someone looking for a reason to hold a grudge against us? If God wanted to hold a grudge against us, He wouldn't have to sit around waiting for us to sin; we sin daily. We turn away from God frequently. God has plenty of reasons to hold grudges, yet He doesn’t. Romans 5:8 is also reminds us of this, “ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God didn’t wait for us to sto

Our Father's Love (Part 5) "Giving Justice To The Defenseless"Psalm 103:6-7 “You're a God who makes things right, giving justice to the defenseless. You unveiled to Moses your plans and showed Israel's sons what you could do.”The Lord’s timing is always perfect, although it doesn’t always feel perfect. I read this verse yesterday, and that timing was perfect because I felt it confirmed a friend’s situation. I have a friend struggling with workers comp for over a year. It has been so stressful, and he wants it all done and over with. I texted him on Wednesday of this week because he was supposed to have a Zoom meeting, which was sort of like a hearing to see the next steps. Several people told him he should have a lawyer present so he didn’t get taken advantage of during this hearing. He didn’t have money for a lawyer, and he didn’t want a lawyer. He said the Holy Spirit would be his lawyer.I prayed over him on Monday that everything would work according to God’s plan. We prayed for God to give him the words to say. We prayed the truth would come up somehow. Then, on Wednesday morning, I sent him another prayer to fill him with peace about the situation. To give him courage and strength and again for the Holy Spirit to guide his words. He sent a text back saying the hearing was canceled, the insurance company dropped the suit, and no further actions needed to be done. That same day, I read the verse above, “You’re a God who makes things right, giving justice to the defenseless.” God is so good! He took care of everything for my friend. He answered our prayers.He will do the same for you. Sometimes, we limit the scope of what we think God can do. We will go to Him when someone needs healing or if we need strength. We go to God when we have family issues, or our marriage is in trouble. However, when it comes to some things, we don’t go to Him because we can’t see what He could do in this situation. For instance, if we are in a legal battle, we might pray for strength but not for God to fix the problem because we can’t see a solution. We can’t see how God could do anything to fix it. It is difficult for us to understand that God doesn’t not have the same constraints that we have. He is not bound by anything. There is nothing He can’t do. If He can create the entire universe, He can get you out of whatever situation you find yourself.I read this book called How To Be A Kings Kid. The author tells of a time when he was the president of a company. He put in a bid for a contract on a large government project. He was sure He knew all the details, so he didn’t read the fine print. After he signed the contract and committed the company to everything they owned, he saw that in the fine print, it required them to do something impossible for them to do. The out-of-town contractor sent them registered letters to inform them that the following communication they received would be the institution of a lawsuit for all they owned. The government was involved, the army engineers, seven contractors, hundreds of people—Top priority. Penalties on top of penalties—There was no way to undo what he had done.The author said he panicked and asked God what he should do now. He said it seemed like God said, “It’s a little bit late to ask that question. You didn’t ask Me before you signed the contract.” The author said although he messed up he knows that our Heavenly Father has provided all kinds of latitude for His kids to goof, and then what we do about it is what determines the outcome. What does God say to do? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The author prayed, “Lord, I have goofed. I have really made a boo-boo. How are You going to get us out of this mess? Hallelujah!”Next, instead of worrying about this problem, he headed to a retreat. The retreat started out by asking everyone to confess their faults to one another. So he stood up and told them what he had done. He said, “God’s kids never give up. Praise God. We don’t know how our God’s going to get us out of it, but He’s promised to do it. He said in Psalm 50: ‘Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most high and call on me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” Then he said, “Lord, I’ll be glad to give You the glory because no man can deliver me.”All of the people at the retreat gathered around him laid hands on him, and prayed in tongues over him. The interpretation of the prayer was beyond anything he would have had the nerve to pray: “Lord, make this whole transaction as though it had never existed.” It was a ridiculously impossible prayer, but it had been prayed. No way to call it back. And so he waited day after day for the lawsuit for his breach of contract to begin. Satan kept needling him daily, “It’ll come tomorrow.” But tomorrow, it didn’t; days passed, weeks, and finally, years without mentioning a lawsuit. During that time, he had to learn to praise Jesus

Our Father’s Love (Part 4) “You’ve Supercharged My Life”Psalm 103:5 “You satisfy my every desire with good things. You’ve supercharged my life so that I soar again like a flying eagle in the sky!”Last quarter, my Encounter Ministries class was all about intimacy with Christ, and I have to tell you, I am really feeling it. I can feel myself falling deeper and deeper in love with Christ, God, and the Holy Spirit. I have read the Psalms before and listened to the entire Bible three times now, yet things are hitting me differently this time. I am finding the words in the passion translation so easy to understand. I am being drawn into this relationship with the Lord in the most gentle way. It is not as if I have to spend time with Him. It is as if I can’t wait to spend time with Him.Now, that doesn’t mean I am doing this perfectly. I have found that I love to sit in the church when it is just me and the Tabernacle and spend time with God. I feel so close to Him. Yet, I am simply not making the time to do that. I say this because I want you to know I struggle to do the right thing, just as many of you are. We want to spend time with the Lord, say all the prayers, and have all the devotions, yet life keeps getting in the way.Guess what, my sisters, my brothers, life is not getting in the way. Life is the thing we were put here to do. Some people, very few people considering, are sent here to seclude themselves and spend almost all their time communing with God. God has called them to that task, and they have accepted. I always think that would be such a great way to live. Nothing getting in the way of my time with God. Then I remembered that if it were just me and God, I wouldn’t have my husband. I wouldn’t have my kids. I wouldn’t see my siblings or parents as much. They were called to that life and get to spend a lot of time with the Lord, but that doesn’t mean their life or their decision is easy. They are sacrificing a lot to live that life. I am so grateful to those who answered that call because we all benefit from their sacrifices, loyalty, devotion, and prayers.Most of us are called to live in the world but not be of the world. We are called to live out our lives in various professions. We are called to live and interact with people. We are not called to be alone. This, too, comes with its own set of challenges. We have to navigate having to be in the world and yet not of the world. We have to figure out how to be a reflection of Christ to those around us. This is not always easy to do. It is easy to get caught up in the world and our lives and forget to make time for the Lord. So many people I know feel frustrated with their lack of time and energy. Most people I know seem tired and feel like they have no more to give. They have used up all they have been given.We feel this way because we are not making time for the Lord. He is our strength. He is where our power and energy comes from. I love the part of the verse above that says, “You’ve supercharged my life so that I soar again like a flying eagle in the sky!” When we feel weak, worn out, and completely helpless, we can turn to the Lord, who can fill us back up again. I think I love this translation because it shows the power of the Lord. The power of the Holy Spirit, which we are blessed to have living inside of us. I remember hearing a testimony of a little girl about seven or so. She was laying hands on her aunt to pray for healing. She said she felt this heat and this electricity go through her hands just before she put them on her aunt. She said it felt like her arm was plugged into an electrical socket or something. That is the power of the Holy Spirit.The wording of this verse says, “You’ve supercharged my life so that I soar again like a flying eagle in the sky.” How many of us could use our lives to be supercharged? How many days at 3:00 in the afternoon do you wish the Holy Spirit would come and supercharge your life so you can be awake for the rest of the day? How many of us are just going through the motions day after day, and we need the Lord to come in and supercharge our lives? We need the Holy Spirit to jolt us awake to truly live our lives. So often, it takes a tragedy to help us wake up and see how vital and precious life is. Don’t wait for a tragedy. Wake up and see the beauty of each new day today.The first part of this verse says, “You satisfy my every desire with good things.” Did you know the Lord is the one who puts the desires down deep in your heart? Don’t you think He will help you achieve them if He gave you them? The hard part in all of this is waiting for them. We live in a world where we get instant gratification. Have you ever stopped to think about what it was like before all the modern inventions we have today? Have you ever thought about how long it must have taken to cook things back in the day? Today, we look for the next thing to make our lives easier. We want an Instapot because we don’t want to wait 40 minutes fo

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

Our Father's Love (Part 3) You've Rescued Me From Hell!Psalm 113:4 “You've rescued me from hell and saved my life. You've crowned me with love and mercy.”I think most of us can say that God has rescued us from hell at one point or another. Of course, this hell looks different for each one of us. Your hell might look like years of depression that seem overwhelming. Your hell might be years of anxiety too much to deal with. Your hell might be an abusive relationship that you can’t seem to leave. Your hell might be money troubles that keep getting worse and worse. We all have something we are dealing with. Mine was family trouble for a very long time. It was really difficult to parent my children, and my marriage was not going well. This went on for a very long time. Maybe yours has gone on for a long time, too.When our difficult times go on for a long time, it can be difficult to believe that God will rescue us from them. Understanding why God hasn’t rescued us from these difficult times can be challenging. However, He always does rescue us from them. Not only does he rescue us from them, but he walks with us while we are in them as well. God never leaves our side. He is right there with us each step of the way. In my Encounter Ministries class, they taught us an exercise to help heal wounded memories. The first step is to stop and ask Jesus, “Where were you when this occurred?” Did you know you could ask God questions like this? Did you know asking where He was when you were struggling was okay?Did you know that if you ask and truly listen, He will tell you where He was? That may seem strange to you if you are not used to listening to or hearing the Lord’s voice. Well, actually, it’s not usually the Lord’s voice you hear. It is usually more like you hear your own voice in your head or you get a thought in your head with no voice. But you will get an answer if you listen for one. I remember volunteering to do this exercise in front of the class so the teacher could demonstrate how it works. When I asked Jesus where He was during a specific experience with my boys, He explained that He was right there, giving me the strength to keep getting up each morning. He gave me strength and perseverance, so I never felt like giving up. He was with me through it all.He is doing the same with you. You might have had some truly terrible experiences. Know that Jesus was right by your side through them. I don’t know why He didn’t prevent them from happening. That is something for Him to answer. I know He was there with you; no matter how alone you felt, you were not alone. He was there, walking by your side. God is so good like that!The next part of the verse says, “You've crowned me with love and mercy.” These two things can be challenging for us to understand. We might be unable to believe that the Lord loves us for many reasons. If we have never been truly loved by anyone on earth, then it can be hard to believe anyone could love us, let alone someone as magnificent as the Lord. If we have had a hard life and done many things we are not proud of, then we struggle to believe someone could love us. The Lord’s love is unconditional. It is not dependent on what you do or say. It is not dependent on whether you love him back. You do not need to earn God’s love. It is freely given. This can be hard to understand, especially if we had to earn love as a child. We live in a broken world, so we don’t all love unconditionally.The second part of this line also says we are crowned with mercy. The definition of mercy is “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.” This is why we struggle to believe in God’s mercy. We know He has the power to punish us. We know we deserve that punishment, yet God wants to shower us with His mercy. That doesn’t make much sense to us because that is not how the world thinks. We live in a day and age where we seem to be back to an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It seems like if someone does something to you, you have to do something back to them.For instance, when we are on the highway, and someone cuts you off, you have to blare your horn at them. You have to show them they did something wrong. My question is, “Why?” Why do you have to let them know they did something wrong? Can’t we have mercy on them and let them go on their way? I was driving with one of my sons the other day, and he wanted to get into a lane, but the driver wouldn’t let him in. He passed him on the right, and then my son got into that lane. However, my son was so angry that this man passed on the right and didn’t let him in. Where is the mercy? Where is the forgiveness?People seem to get so angry at the slightest offense or at the slightest wrongdoing these days. This makes understanding how God can show us mercy when we have done some pretty big things more challenging. We are a flawed people, and we turn away from God often. So, how can he keep forgiving us when we don’t

You’ve Healed Me Inside and OutPsalm 113:3 “You kissed my heart with forgiveness, in spite of all I've done. You've healed me inside and out from every disease.”This week, we are continuing with the series exploring Psalm 113. I am using the Passion Translation in case I didn’t mention it on Friday. I feel it is so beautiful. Today, the verse starts off with, “You kissed my heart with forgiveness, in spite of all I have done.” This is probably one of the most challenging concepts for us to understand. We look at our lives, and we look at all we have done wrong, and we struggle to believe the Lord can forgive us. We struggle to believe that our sins can be forgiven. How could they be? We wonder if people say God has forgiven us because they don’t know how bad our actions were.Guess what? God knows, and He forgives them anyway. That was the point of Jesus dying on the cross. He takes each and every one of your sins with Him. This is why Catholics have the crucifix hanging in all of their churches. This is why they have the stations of the cross around the church. I had a friend once who said that he didn’t like being in a Catholic church because it was so depressing. It said he believes in the risen Lord. We do, too! However, we believe it is important to remember that Jesus died for our sins. He sacrificed His life so we could have eternal life. This is something to celebrate. This is something never to forget.It is hard for people to accept the Lord’s forgiveness if they don’t think about the cross. Even if we do, it is hard to believe that God loves us so much that He would let His only son die for us. It is incredible to think about the fact that Jesus also loved us so much He chose to die on the cross for us. The Father didn’t make Him. He chose it, He volunteered for us. He must love us a lot.I have talked with many people who think of God as a just judge sitting up in Heaven. He is watching us and waiting for us to mess up so that He can punish us. I wonder how it is possible to think this in light of the crucifixion. God laid out the rules very clearly to Adam and Eve. There was one tree they couldn’t eat from, yet they did. Then sin entered the world. It was not as if we did nothing wrong and the Lord punished us. He warned them, and they did it anyway. Yet, He still sent His son to save us. How often have we thought, “Well, they deserved it?” Imagine if the Lord had said this about us. He didn’t. He sent Jesus to take all of our sins to the cross. Yes, ALL of them, even that one that you don’t believe he wants to take to the cross. He already took it there.Next, it says, “You've healed me inside and out from every disease.” God is so good. He does this for each one of us in different ways. Sometimes, He works on the wounds we have on the inside first, and sometimes, He works on our outside wounds first. Some of you listening may be suffering from something big right now, and you are wondering where your healing is. If that is you, I want you to know that the Lord sees you. He knows you are suffering. He hears your prayers.The other night, I prayed with a listener and his wife. The man reached out because he lost his eyesight a few years ago and really wants it back. He wanted to tell me his story as he heard me mention on Witness Wednesdays that we all have a story, and it is essential to share our stories. Maybe I will share his story this Wednesday. I will check with him. However, what made me think of him today is the line in this verse that says, “You healed me inside and out from every disease.” The Lord is healing him. I know he is. He is growing closer to the Lord daily, which is fantastic. However, he has not been healed of whatever is causing him to lose his eyesight. He is positive, not angry at God, and yet sometimes gets sad that he has not regained his sight yet.If you are praying for healing and haven’t received it yet, I want you to know you are not alone. If you pray for healing and sometimes get discouraged because it hasn’t happened yet, know that you are not alone in that feeling either. I want you to know I am praying for you. If you want to reach out as Bruce did by emailing [email protected] or on social media, Catherine Duggan. I would happily pray for your healing over the phone with you. I could also add you to my daily prayers and the prayer lines I am a part of or know of. There are so many prayer warriors out there who could be praying into your specific circumstance.The words in the Bible are meant for all of us. They were not just spoken to the people who lived when it was written. They were meant for you and for me. This verse was meant for you and for me. The Lord is healing you inside and out. Maybe not in the order you would like, maybe not in the time that you would like. He is healing you, though. We know this because it says it right here in the Bible.This verse reminds me of the story of the paralyzed man in Mark 2:2-11. This was the story o

Our Father’s Love (Part 1)Psalm 103:1-2 “With my whole heart, with my whole life, and with my innermost being, I bow in wonder and love before you, the holy God! Yahweh, you are my soul’s celebration. How could I ever forget the miracles of kindness you’ve done for me?"Yesterday, in the prayer group the leader read Psalm 103 to us. I was trying to listen to the psalm and yet I was also distracted. She did her talk about a few parts of the Psalm, so I got to hear a few of the parts again. This morning I decided to read the whole Psalm and ask the Lord to highlight any parts he wanted me to talk about. Well, let me tell you, He highlighted almost the whole thing. I really got the sense that the Lord wanted me to go deeper into this Psalm. I got the feeling that He wanted me to do a series of episodes on this Psalm. This is actually confirmation of a question I got asked last Friday. I was talking with my friend Cynthia and she asked me if I ever do themes or series on the podcast. It’s funny how the Lord will use other people to get his point across. I hear you loud and clear, Lord. I will do a series on Psalm 103.Psalm 103 even has a beautiful title, “Our Father’s Love.” There is so much to our heavenly Father’s love. It is so vast and so all encompassing. In this psalm, His love is broken down into ways that we can understand better. Today’s verse starts with how we should love God. It begins with, “With my whole heart, with my whole life, and with my innermost being, I bow in wonder and love before you, the holy God!” This is definitely something to strive for. What does it mean to love God with our whole heart, our whole life, and with our innermost being?The first thing that comes to mind is that we don't have other things competing for our love that are anywhere close to the way we love God. This may sound easy, and yet it is really isn’t. We my think we love God with our who heart and yet there are so many things we love. What if you had to pick between the Lord and TV, would you pick the Lord? My first response is, “of course I would.” Then I think back to all the times when I had homework to do for Bible study, or I felt the Lord was calling me to pray and yet I decided to watch TV instead. If you had to choose between the Lord and sleep, which would you choose. Again, my first instinct would always be the Lord. I would choose him about all else. Yet, when it is early in the morning and I am planning to get up and spend time with the Lord, I choose to hit the snooze button instead. In that moment I am not choosing the Lord, I am choosing sleep.TV and sleep just happen to be the two things I tend to put above the Lord. Your’s might be something completely different. Maybe you put your phone or playing games on your phone above spending time with the Lord. Maybe you put housework or car work above spending time with the Lord. Wherever it is we are spending our time, that is where our affection is going. Think about a different relationship that you have. If you are married, think about your relationship with your spouse. You hopefully love your spouse with your whole heart. Yet, what happens when you don’t spend any time with that person. What happens when you are too busy doing other things?The verse says, “And with my innermost being, I bow in wonder and love before you, the holy God!” How often are we bowing in wonder and love before the Lord? I was talking with a friend yesterday and we were talking about how amazing God is. We had a really Spirit filled Encounter Ministries class on Monday night and we were just in awe of the way the Lord showed up. My friend said she doesn’t know why we are so in awe each time as He does it so frequently. I think it is good that we are still in awe each and every time. I pray I never take his awesomeness for granted. I pray I never get used to the miraculous way He shows up each time we ask Him to. I pray I continue to bow in wonder and love before the Lord.The next part of the verse goes along with this. It says, “Yahweh, you are my soul’s celebration. How could I ever forget the miracles of kindness you’ve done for me?” First, I love that beginning line. “Yahweh, you are my soul’s celebration.” How beautiful is that? Next, it reminds us to never forget the miracles of kindness He has done for us. I think today would be a great day to look back over your life, or even over this past week and recall to mind all the miracles of kindness that the Lord did for you. When we keep these miracles in the forefront of our mind it makes it easier to find joy. It makes it easier to make it through the hard times when we remember that Jesus helped us through the last hard time that we had.This verse isn’t just talking about God helping us through the hard times, It is also talking about the small miracles of kindness as well. Someone in my prayer group mentioned yesterday that she felt the Lord put upon her heart to start a devotion of the Holy Face at her Tuesday prayer gro

What Are We Waiting For?James 4:13-15 “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”This verse is so good because it reminds us that none of us know how much time we have. We wake up each day and take it for granted that we woke up. Most of us do not wake up grateful for a new day. If we are being honest, we probably wake up annoyed that our alarm is going off and wonder how it could possibly be time to get up already when we just laid our heads down a minute ago. I think the part of the verse that says, “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes,” demonstrates how brief our life actually is. We may seem like we are here on earth forever, yet it goes by in the blink of an eye.It sounds like the beginning of this verse is telling us we shouldn’t make plans because we don’t know if we will be around to carry out those plans. I don’t think that is what the verse is telling us. I think this verse is trying to get us to remember that tomorrow is not guaranteed. None of us know the day we will pass on. None of us know if we will wake up tomorrow. I think we need to continue to make plans and yet when we are making them we remember what the verse says, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”We have dear friends that we have not seen in a long time and yet think of often. We met this family when we were stationed in New Jersey. Tony worked with the husband, and since our family was 4 hours away, they adopted us into their family. Their daughter babysat our boys and we got together for dinner. Dave & Susan have this saying that I think is exactly what this verse is talking about. When you check in with them to confirm your plans, such as “Are we going to dinner tomorrow night?” They always say, “If The good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.” This might sound like a cute saying, yet it reminds us that we can and should make plans and yet we can only carry out those plans if the Lord wills them and if He grants us the gift of another day.This afternoon I heard this song that I haven’t heard in a while. The chorus of this song always gets me. The song's name is What Are We Waiting For by King and Country. The lyrics that always get me are: So what are we waiting for? What are we waiting for? Why are we wasting all the time like someone's making more? What are we praying for? What are we saving for? What if we could be the light that no one could ignore? What are we waiting for?I have two favorite lines in that chorus. The first one is, “Why are we wasting all the time like someone’s making more?” Does that hit you, too, or is it just me? I find myself wasting so much time throughout the day. While I was supposed to write this in the last hour, I got sidetracked with at least three different things. Sometimes, it is things that need to be done. Other times, it is checking my email, my Facebook, and my messages on my phone. Other times, it is watching TV or playing a game on my phone. Time goes by each and every day, whether we realize it or not, whether we are paying attention to it or not. Sometimes, we get so tired of doing things that we wish we could just be done and finished with. However, we don’t realize how important that thing may be.Recently, I have been saying that I want my kids to get their licenses because they are 18 & 19, and I spend a lot of time driving them in the car. Also, Sam does not get out until 9:30, and I would love to be in bed before 10. This week, the Holy Spirit put on my heart that if I am not driving them to work, I may not have much time to talk with them. Noah got his license a few weeks ago, and since he has started driving himself to work, I don’t see him nearly as much. We definitely don’t have that 30 minutes of time to be with each other and talk. When I drove him to work, we didn’t always talk, but we did tend to talk about music or a few other things. Now, I see him briefly before school and when I go in to say goodnight. However, if I am going to be earlier, I will probably be in bed when they get home from work, so I may not even get to hug them goodnight each night anymore. Do you see what I mean about wishing time away?The other line in the chorus that I love is when it says, “What if we could be the light that no one could ignore?” How great would it be if we could be the light that no one could ignore. What if we loved Christ so much, and we were so full of Him, that His light radiated out of us so brightly that those around us couldn’t ignore it? When I ask the Lord, how we do this, He tells me with love. We need to love others the way He loves others. I heard at Bible study this week that this couple was visiting w

The witness today is about Dr. Mary Neal. I saw her story on YouTube. Dr. Mary Neal is a board-certified orthopedic spine surgeon who drowned while kayaking on a South American river. She experienced life after death. She went to heaven and back, conversed with Jesus, and experienced God's encompassing love. She was returned to Earth with some specific instructions for work she still needed to do. Her life has been one filled with miracles and the intervention of God. Her story gives reason to live by faith and is a story of hope. I will retell the story that I heard on YouTube. I will also link the interview below so you can watch it yourself if you want to. CLICK HERE to watch the video. Neal and her husband are avid kayakers. They have friends who are professional boaters who run trips to Chile. One year, their children were old enough so the parents could go away on vacation without them. They went on one of these trips to Chile for her husband’s birthday. They paddled all these rivers and had a great time. On what was going to be their last day of paddling, they decided to paddle a river well known for its waterfalls or drops, not like Niagara Falls, but 10-15-foot drops. These would be exhilarating and challenging but certainly within their skill set.That day, her husband woke up for the first and only time in his life with back pain. Dr. Neal went on the river that day without her husband. She went on the river with her friends, who are professionals, and a few American clients. When they came to the first significant drop, one of the clients passed Dr. Neal and blocked the path to the channel they had selected to go over. This left her with one option: to go over the main part of the waterfall, which is what she did. As she got to the crest of the waterfall, she could see the bottom and the turbulence and flow. She knew it wouldn’t be pretty, but she figured she would hit the bottom, her boat would flip over, and she would have to get out of the boat, get tumbled around a bit, and then get spit out downstream. She said this is not a fun experience, but it is a part of boating occasionally, which is fine.What happened next was something she could not have dreamed up. At this point in her life, she had never lost anyone close to her, so she had never really thought about death or what happens when you die. She hit the bottom, and her boat got stuck under rocks. She is a spine surgeon and is very calm in high-stress situations. She didn’t panic. She set about trying to free herself or the boat, but the weight of the water was too great for her to do anything. She thought about her options, and she realized she was going to die. She made a very active choice that God’s will be done. She felt like she had a choice. She could choose God’s will or fight it. Either way, she was going to die. The minute she chose God’s will, she immediately felt comforted and held by Jesus and reassured that all would be okay. She knew her husband would be ok. It took her a while to admit that she was being held by Christ because she didn’t think she was worthy. She learned in that moment that we are all individually known and loved by God.She is very pragmatic and concrete thinking. God’s time is different. She could experience all of eternity in every moment. She thought she was hallucinating. She was still conscious of what was going on under the water. She could feel the weight of the water. She could feel the water pulling her out of the boat. She could feel her legs breaking but with no pain. At the same time, she was being held by Christ, taken through a life review, and then she felt her spirit leave her body. She said her spirit floated above the river, and when she was up in the sky, Jesus released her to the heavens. She was greeted by spirits. She knew they were people who had loved her during her entire existence. She knew they were tied to her story, but she didn’t recognize them because she didn’t know anyone who had died before. But it could have been like a great-grandparent who would know her, but she didn’t know them.The beautiful thing is when we are reunited with people up in heaven. It is with an absolute understanding of the back story and its purpose. You are reunited with a purity of love. There is just no room for any destructive emotions. She really believes that the destructive emotions we feel on earth are an absence of love. She said you do not hold onto those feelings when you are up in heaven.She would have claimed before this experience that she was a Christian. She said she was a cultural Christian. She went to church because she happened to grow up in the Midwest. That was about it. Now, her number one identity is that she is a beloved child of God, and everything else is secondary to that. She loves being a wife & mother. Those two jobs are critically important to her. However, the only thing that truly matters is that she is a beloved child of God. This experience changed her experience o

Persevere & Receive What He Has Promised!Hebrews 10:36 "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”This was one of the verses I typed for our August discernment notes for the Prayer Group. The message translation came up when I looked up the verse on biblegateway.com to check out different versions. I love the message translation because it puts it in our current terms. It takes what the Bible says and uses common everyday language to tell us what they are talking about. Another thing it does is group verses together. So, instead of having verse 36, it had verses 32-39 all lumped together. This way, you don’t take any verses out of context. I don’t always use this translation when writing the devotional, but I frequently look at it to ensure I understand what is being said. Today, I didn’t intend to look up the message translation; it just came up, and the verses blew me away. When I get a verse, I often read it before and after it. When I do this, I sometimes switch to those verses. This morning, the verses before this one give us much more context into what this verse means.Here is the message translation for Hebrews 10:32-36, “Remember those early days after you first saw the light? Those were the hard times! Kicked around in public, targets of every kind of abuse—some days it was you, other days your friends. If some friends went to prison, you stuck by them. If some enemies broke in and seized your goods, you let them go with a smile, knowing they couldn’t touch your real treasure. Nothing they did bothered you, nothing set you back. So don’t throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It’s still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the promised completion.”I loved these verses because it explains how hard it can be to stick with something. When we start something new, we are excited and go all in, or at least I do. I always want to do it because it is new and exciting. Even if it is hard work, it can still be exciting, and we can still be motivated. However, what about when it is not new or exciting anymore? Think about a hobby you started, and you were so excited about it, and you bought all the things to go with it and did it all the time. When I got married, my neighbor started selling Creative Memories scrapbooking supplies. To support her I started a scrapbook for Tony and me. Then, when I had kids, I got more into scrapbooking. I would stay up late doing it. My fellow moms and I would have scrapbooking nights going well into the mornings. I bought more and more stuff, and I loved it. Then as I had more kids and they got to ages where they were into more stuff, I slowly got away from scrapbooking. Now I have two bookshelves full of supplies, and I rarely ever scrapbook. I also got into running during COVID, and I was excited to go out and run. Not excited every day, but excited enough to get myself out there. I don’t think I ran much at all this past year. Our interests come and go. Our relationship with the Lord is something that should remain a constant in our lives.The letters to the various communities in the New Testament addressed the people of the early church. Jesus came here to set up a new kingdom in this world. This religion was new and exciting. It was familiar in some ways and radically different in other ways. People were excited, and they were all in at first. People were excited about this new religion, and yet it was not an easy life for those who believed in Christ. Nowadays, if you believe in Christ, you may have some persecution, but nothing like they received back at the beginning.Right after Christ died, there was a lot of persecution. Many could not openly worship and if they were caught they were put in jail or they were killed. Peter was crucified, Paul was beheaded, Andrew was also crucified, Thomas was pierced through with spears, Philipp was arrested and cruelly put to death, Matthew was stabbed to death, Bartholomew was a martyr for the Gospel, James was stoned and then clubbed to death, Simon, the zealot, was killed after refusing to sacrifice to the sun god, Matthias was burned to death, & John was the only one to die of natural causes. It was not easy to be a Christian when these letters were being written. This is why the early church father’s wrote letters to their people. They wanted to encourage them to keep believing.These verses do just that. “Remember those early days after you first saw the light? Those were the hard times! Kicked around in public, targets of every kind of abuse—some days it was you, other days your friends. If some friends went to prison, you stuck by them.” This is reminding them of how they felt when they first came to know Christ. They are reminding them that times were hard even from the beginning and yet they followed Christ anyway. They were kicked around, and they were abused in all sorts of ways, and yet

Forget Yourself Long Enough To Lend A Helping HandPhilippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”I had no idea this verse was in the Bible, yet it could be the answer to so many of our problems. Imagine what the world would be like if we did nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. Imagine if we all regarded one another as more important than ourselves. Imagine if we weren’t just looking out for our own best interests but those of others as well. I run into many people these days who clearly regard themselves as more important than those around them. You can tell in their voice when they talk to you that they are sure you do not know what you are talking about. You can tell by their actions they do not feel you are more important than they are.Here is the verse above in the Message translation. Philippians 2:3-4 “Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.” How many of us are living like this? How many of us put aside what we want to help others get ahead? I love where it says, forget about yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. I wish we could all lend a helping hand a bit more. What a better world we would live in if we did. I am not saying people aren’t doing this. I have seen people lending a helping hand. However, I have also seen far more people walk right by without stopping. I have seen people go out of their way to be mean to those less fortunate they are.I can see extremes in two different ways. First, the person who thinks they are more important than everyone else. They don’t understand why they have to wait in line. They don’t know why the cashier can’t be faster or more efficient. They don’t understand why everything can’t be done for them. Most of their actions are done from selfishness and empty conceit. They care about themselves and no one else. They are definitely looking out for their own interests.Then there is also the other extreme of those who never look out for their interests. The person who always puts others’ interests before his/her interests. This person has not been treated well and has been told they don’t matter. They have been taught that what they want isn’t as important as what those around them want. They have come to believe that what they want doesn’t matter. They think their worth is found in giving others what they want. They are not really choosing to put others first. They don’t know any other way.None of the scenarios listed above are good. Yes, it does say to regard one another as more important than yourselves, but it doesn’t tell you that you don’t matter. It says, do not MERELY look out for your own personal interests. What you want and think matters. We should look out for ourselves. We shouldn’t make that our first priority, though.We need to make sure we know who we are in God’s eyes. Even though we are called to regard others as more important than we are, we can’t forget that we were all made in God’s image and likeness. Jesus did now submit to others because He thought He was less than them. He didn’t humble himself to serve others because he had to. He did it because he wanted to. I feel this distinction is essential. This is shown in Philippians 2:5-6 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” Jesus knew He was God. He did not empty himself, humble himself because He had no other choice. He did this for us. He did this to show us what we should be doing. He is the “perfecter of faith.” He shows us how to love God perfectly.The verse above asks us to humble ourselves and to put others before us. Yes, we want to be accepted into the kingdom of heaven. However, this verse tells us we don’t have to prove to God how great we are. We don’t have to act better than everyone else so that God will see us and favor us. Jesus was willing to humble himself. He was willing to empty himself to be fully human with us. Because He did this and because He was willing to be obedient to the Father, the Father lifted Him up and honored Him. Jesus tells us whoever is first on earth will be last in heaven, and whoever is last on earth will be first in heaven. Don’t we want to be first in heaven? Why are we trying so hard to be the best here on earth when this life is so short compared to eternity? Let’s all take some time today to think about how we can help elevate others instead of ourselves. How can we love others enough to regard them as higher than ourselves?Dear Heavenly Father, I

A Way Through The WildernessIsaiah 35:1-10 “The wilderness and the desert will be glad, And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom; Like the crocus, It will blossom profusely And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, The majesty of our God. Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you.” Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah. The scorched land will become a pool And the thirsty ground springs of water. In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, Grass becomes reeds and rushes. A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it. No lion will be there, Nor will any vicious beast go up on it; These will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there, And the ransomed of the Lord will return And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.”This is much longer than I usually do. I typically pick a verse and go with it. I heard the last few verses of this chapter in Isaiah at prayer group yesterday, and I really liked them. Then, when I read the whole chapter, I would pick a few verses in the middle to share. However, there were a few places in the verses that I didn’t understand. I was going to just explain the ones I did understand, and then I remembered how every time I look up the meaning of the verses I don’t understand, I am so glad I did. Whenever I look up the importance of the verses I don’t understand, I learn something interesting. Today is no different. I decided to look up the meaning of Isaiah 35, and I am happy I did.I decided to use the middle verses because they talk about the eyes of the blind being opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. I know many people who need healing right now, so I thought these verses would be perfect. Yet, when I read the article about the meaning of Isaiah, it talked about that verse meaning our spiritual ears and eyes. It was remarkable all the things that were discussed in this article. I will place a link for it in the show notes, as it was a fantastic article to read. The article is called The Holy Way by Tony S. Everett. I will share with you the things that stood out to me.“In today's lesson, the people of God have been living as exiles in Babylon, approximately 500 miles from their homeland. The mighty Babylonian army, under King Nebuchadnezzar, had conquered Judah, shattered the city walls of Jerusalem, and left the Jerusalem temple in ruins. As was the custom in those days, conquering armies would relocate thousands of leading citizens in order to prevent any organized rebellion. The only way home was through this vast, frightening, and overwhelming wilderness. Perhaps even God had forgotten them. Their hands were weak, their knees had grown feeble, and their hearts had become fearful. There appeared to be no hope, no help, and no way to be restored and renewed.”We have all been in the wilderness at some point or another. A dark, scary place where we felt alone, scared, and forgotten. We feel overlooked by friends and family and sometimes even by God. Times when we thought we couldn’t go any further. The terrain was too challenging, and the hardships were too much. It was too dark to see where we were going. We lost all hope, we lost our way, and we just wanted to give up and hide under a blanket forever. Have you ever had a time like this? Maybe you are in a time like this right now.Today, God promises that way. It is God's holy way through the very wilderness space in our souls. "A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way ... it shall be for God's people: no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray" (Isaiah 35:8).I love what the author talks about next. He states that God did not promise to get rid of the wilderness. He did not promise we would never have to enter the wilderness again. He promised us a road right through the middle of the wilderness. He promised us a way of holy living in the midst of the wilderness. I love that! The author says, “The Lord is about to establish a new and faithful kingship in the world. Again, God will do this not by eliminating any and all wilderness space but by 1) changing the very wilderness itself, 2) changing the way God's people perceive the wilderness, and 3) transforming the way God's people behave in the wilderness.”“First, God changes the wilderness. "Waters and streams shall n

Guilty Enough To Go Into The Fiery Hell?Matthew 5:21-22 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”Yesterday, the Gospel at mass was the beatitudes found in Matthew 5:1-12. While listening at Mass, I felt I was supposed to teach on those today. However, while reading them this morning, I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me to read further in the chapter. As soon as I got to these verses, I was told I could stop. What struck me about these verses is the importance of what they say and how easy it is for us to do. How easy is it for us to get mad at someone? Frequently, I would say. Mostly, I would say I get angry with people most when I am driving. I am not an angry driver and am usually pretty calm when driving.Lately, I am still calm; however, I have noticed myself commenting on other drivers. It seems that people are driving worse and worse as the days go by. However, it could just be that I am getting old and less patient. I am not sure. However, I have noticed lately when I am driving, and someone cuts me off or drives in and out of the lanes, I think they are driving like an idiot. Sometimes, I might even say they are an idiot. This is exactly what I was thinking of this morning when I read this verse. The verse ends with, “And whoever says,‘You fool’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”Did you catch that? If we call someone a fool, we will be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. I was talking to my dad one time about heaven and hell. We were discussing how Jesus died for our sins. We were discussing how some religions believe you have to believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior and you get to go to heaven, and we were talking about how Catholics believe it is not just believing in Jesus, but it is your works as well. I have always believed that you will go to heaven if you are primarily a good person. My dad reminded me of what Mary told the little children of Fatima. She gave them a vision of all the suffering in hell, and she said to them that more people than we know are going there.This concerned me, and I have spent some time thinking about it. Then, when I went to an Unbound training, I heard the story of the priest whose heart stopped. He died for a few minutes, and instead of going to heaven like he thought he would, he went to hell. When he saw Jesus, he was told he went there because he had unforgiveness in his heart. He wished God would punish those who had hurt him. I know we hear often that we must forgive, but I am not sure we understand what is at stake if we don’t forgive. The stakes are pretty high. The Our Father prayer says that God will forgive us as we forgive those. I think many of us don’t realize what we are saying when we say that prayer.I believe God is highlighting these things for me because I am searching. I want to spend eternity with the Father, and God knows our thoughts. He knows our hearts. If we seek the truth, He will provide it for us. I don’t want to be writing about things on this podcast that might be leading you down the wrong path, or that might be false information. Before writing each episode, I pray that the words that come out are the Lord’s words for you, not mine. We will gain understanding if we seek to understand the Word of the Lord. The Lord said in Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”I often think of this phrase when I am asking for something. However, the Lord reminded me of its last part: seek and you will find. Let’s start seeking the truth. Let’s take our concerns to the Lord. Not just our prayer requests but also our concerns. Concerns such as, am I loving my neighbor? Do I love you, God, with my whole heart, mind and soul? Did you know you can ask the Lord to show you how you are falling short in your life, and He will? He won’t show you in a condemning way. He will guide you in a gentle yet convicting way. He also won’t show you a hundred things at one time. I believe the Lord will show you one or two things you can work on, and when you prove to be faithful in working on those, He will show you a few more ways.When we make a conscious effort to live the way God calls us to, I believe God rejoices in heaven. I think it makes Him so happy that we care enough about Him to stop and ask, will this bring me closer to the Lord or further away from Him? A few months ago, I was talking with my mother-in-law about whether we would go to heaven. She had a conversation with a friend, and they discus

This morning, I want to witness how God always provides. At prayer group last week, one of the members talked about a time when she truly understood what it was to believe without a doubt that God would do something. Her husband had died at a very young age. They had two very young kids. She remembered the mass she had said for her husband one year after he had passed. Her husband had a big family. His mom had about 5 siblings, and dad had about 5 siblings. I am unsure how many siblings her husband had; I think she had several. She had invited the families to the mass. However, most lived out of state, so she only expected the few nearby to come to the mass. After the Mass, she invited everyone to her house for dinner. She had made a big tray of American chop suey. When she got to mass, she found out that his parents had invited the entire family, and they all came! There were so many people, and they all headed to her house afterward for food. She drove home in the car with her mom and dad. They asked what she was going to do. They knew she didn’t have enough food for that many people. She told her mom it would be fine. She said she knew God would provide. He wouldn’t let her run out of food. The father-in-law stopped at the store to get some potato salad. So they had one pan of American chop suey and some potato salad for all those people. I imagine it was a lot when you consider spouses and children. Agnes said she did not doubt that there would be enough food. After everyone left, they still had a whole pan of American chop suey for leftovers. God is so good!I have also seen this abundance in my house growing up. My mom would make us grilled tuna melt sandwiches, and there would be so many of us kids, and yet my mom would use two cans of tuna, and it was as if it never ran out. I was always amazed at watching my mom cook when I was younger. I mean, imagine how much bread you must have to have to make enough French toast for 11 kids. I feel like we are always out of bread here, and I have three. Yet God always provided. We never went without food, even though my parents had little money. God definitely provided for my family.Another example was given at the Life in the Spirit seminar. Our sister Caroline was at a Conference where the worship leader had a screen she used to show the words to the songs. They were outside, and some people in the back said they could not see the screen. The worship leader said, “That’s ok, I’ll pray.” She said, “Heavenly Father, you have appointed me as worship leader here, and as your appointed worship leader, I am asking you to rearrange the clouds, move the sun, or do something so people can see. Thank you, and amen.” Caroline was amazed. She was wondering what was going on. She asked the Lord to rearrange the sky. And then the Lord did, and all could see! God is so good!One last one that I might have told you about before but is so good it bears repeating. My dad was on his way home from work, and our car died. There was no saving it. My dad didn’t know how to tell my mom because if he didn’t have a way to work, then he couldn’t make money, and without money, no bills get paid. He always gets home at dinner time, so he figured he would tell her when the kids left the table after dinner. During dinner, there was a knock on the door. When my dad opened the door, it was a neighbor. My dad and this particular neighbor had exchanged words before and they weren’t exactly friends.This is another reason why what happened next was such a miracle. The man handed my dad a set of car keys. My dad was so confused. He asked the man what this was for, and he said, you need a car. My dad said, yes, but how do you know I needed a car? I just got home, I didn’t tell anyone yet. The neighbor said he felt he was supposed to come over to the house and give my dad the car keys. His wife doesn’t need a car, so they don’t need two. The vehicle is a gift to my parents. If my dad got another car and wanted to return that one, he could, but they were not expecting it back. It wasn’t a loan. They were giving the car to them free and clear. My dad didn’t know what to say. God is so good. He ALWAYS provides.Where has God been providing in your life? What have you been attributing to good fortune that has really been the work of the Good Lord above? www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace